Tina's Workshop Story: The Blacksmith Girl with Sake and War Hammer - A Foreign Samurai and a Burning Blacksmith's Soul

The Verna Forest before dawn was bitterly cold. The wind slipping through the trees brushed against Tina's exposed arms. The weight of the Donnergram resting on her shoulder felt strangely reassuring now. "...It's coming." Her small, four-white eyes caught the darkness. Her three disciples—Leon, Leena, and Milia—held their breath and braced themselves. *Rustle.* The bushes shook. At the same moment, from three directions, black-clad figures burst forth. A scouting party from the Garza Bandits. They closed in silently, daggers at the ready. Their movements were practiced, efficient. "Ee, eek!" Leon screamed, but still thrust his round shield forward. *Clang!* A dagger struck the shield. The impact jolted Leon's slender arms upward. "Leon! Get that shield further forward! Don't pull it back!" Tina's furious shout rang out. "Shut up! Just watch, dammit—!" Leena yelled back as she loosed an arrow. *Whizz.* The sound of it slicing through the air. But the arrow only grazed a scout's leg before embedding itself in the trunk of a large tree. "Dammit! It's too damn dark!" "I'll provide illumination—by the contract, second clause, 'Light'—" Milia raised her staff and calmly began her incantation. The tip of her staff glowed a pale blue—*Boom!* With a dry bursting sound, the earth exploded at the scouts' feet. "Huh?" That was not an illumination spell. It was the terrain-altering magic Milia specialized in—a failed casting. The blasted earth turned not the enemy's footing, but her ally Leon's, into a mire. "Whoa!?" Leon lost his balance and dropped to one knee. His round shield fell to the ground. In that opening, another scout moved to slash at Leon's back— "Like hell I'll let you!" Tina kicked off the ground. Her small, 138-centimeter frame shot forward like a bullet. She swung the war hammer gripped in both hands horizontally. The eighteen-kilogram mass of iron tore through the air—*CRASH!!* The scout's dagger shattered into pieces. Fragments of metal rained down onto Leon's brown, curly hair. "M-Master...!" "Get up! What kind of idiot sits on the ground in the middle of a fight!" Tina shouted, but her voice was tinged with pain. Her shoulder. After a fifteen-year blank, her right shoulder, which had swung the war hammer at full strength, burned with agony. Her tendons, her bones, were screaming. (*...Dammit. This isn't how it was supposed to go.*) She gritted her teeth. The scout whose dagger had been destroyed fled into the bushes in the moment of hesitation. Another followed. They had let them escape. "Wait, dammit!" As Tina moved to pursue, the last one—the man whose leg Leena's arrow had grazed—threw down his sword as if resigned and raised both hands. "...I surrender." They had a prisoner. But the two who escaped would certainly carry information back to their base. The advantage of a surprise attack was now gone. ―――― Dawn broke. Under the pale sky, gathered around a campfire, Tina glared at the captive. The man was gaunt, his face utterly exhausted. Perhaps originally just a farmer, or maybe a mercenary who'd been let go. "Where's your hideout?" "...Can't say. Boss Garza will kill me." "If you keep quiet here, I'll kill you." Tina's small, four-white eyes were fixed and steady. There was an intensity that said she wasn't joking. The man trembled and began to spill information bit by bit. The bandits' base was an abandoned village about half a day's journey south. It had once prospered from mining, but was deserted over a decade ago after a monster attack. Their numbers exceeded thirty, and their leader Garza was a former Iron-rank adventurer and archer—apparently quite skilled. "An abandoned village... Perfect place for an ambush." Tina readjusted her grip on the war hammer. According to the prisoner's information, Garza likely already knew their numbers and fighting strength. A pursuit squad would probably be coming soon. "—Hey, you idiot disciples." She turned back to face the three. "Do we turn back here? Or do we march straight into the enemy's base? Which is it gonna be?" Leon, pressing a hand towel against the wound on his shoulder, still stood up. "...I'll go. If it's an enemy I'll have to fight someday anyway, running won't help." Leena, counting the arrows in her quiver, flashed a grin. "Of course we're going! My arrow hit because Milia stopped the enemy, right? It was a failure but it worked!" "...Leena." Milia stared at Leena in surprise, amazed at how she could turn her own failure into a joke like that. Then she let out a small breath. "...I need to practice controlling my terrain magic a bit more. But interfering with Leon's shield by creating that mire was definitely my mistake. I'm sorry." "No, i-it's fine. Master protected me... And besides, I thought your judgment in trying to stop the enemy in that instant was really impressive." Leon scratched his head, looking embarrassed. "The fact that no one died makes it a success." Tina murmured. It wasn't her usual shout, but a voice laden with deep fatigue. "That was your limit, right now. So next time, surpass it. Failure is fertilizer for growth." She thrust the Donnergram into the ground with a thud and stood up. "Let's go! We're charging to the abandoned village. Let's dive right into the enemy's pocket!" ―――― The abandoned village was too quiet. Crumbling stone houses. Rusted mining equipment. Moss and ivy covered the places where life had once been. Tina and her group cautiously stepped into the village's central plaza. —That's when it happened. "Heh heh, walked right into it, didn't ya?" A hoarse voice fell from above the ruined buildings. Looking up, bandits armed with bows and swords appeared from rooftops and windows all around. Their numbers easily exceeded thirty. It was a complete encirclement. "Dammit... A trap!" "A former Gold-rank adventurer, and this is all you got? You think we didn't know you'd catch one or two scouts and make 'em spill the location? We've been waiting for you bastards to come!" The leader Garza—a gaunt man standing on the roof of the largest ruined building in the center. A former Iron-rank archer. In his hand, he held an arrow coated with an eerie purple liquid. "First, we crush the clever little mage. Fire!" Arrows were loosed all at once. "Defensive barrier—'Shield'!!" A thin wall of light that Milia hastily deployed deflected some of the arrows. But—*whizz*—one arrow slipped past the edge of the barrier and pierced deep into Leon's shoulder. "Guh...!" "Leon! You bastard!" Leena fired back rapidly in anger, but her quiver was soon empty. The moment Milia tried to chant her next spell—*thud*—a heavy sound, and Garza's poisoned arrow grazed her slender leg. "...Ngh, ah... it burns..." The color drained from Milia's face in an instant. A high fever. She dropped her staff and collapsed on the spot. "Milia!" "Milia!" Leon and Leena's screams overlapped. So I'm the only one who can still move properly. Tina clenched her back teeth. Sweat trickled down her short orange hair, stinging her eyes. "...Fine by me." She gripped the Donnergram with both hands and took one step forward. As if shielding the three behind her. "Come at me, all of you. I'll turn you all into scrap metal!" To the three, that small back looked impossibly large. The bandits lunged all at once. Tina roared with her war hammer and met them head-on. One swing sent a bandit flying. A second swing. The hammer's head snapped another man's sword and struck his chest. The sickening sound of shattering bones echoed through the quiet abandoned village. But—there was no end to them. Even after felling three, four, new opponents kept appearing. The hand tremors from her alcohol abstinence rapidly sapped her stamina and accuracy. Her breath grew ragged. Her vision blurred. "Hahaha! Looks like you're swinging a log around, dwarf! Getting tired yet?" Garza's mockery rained down. As if to finish it, he nocked three poisoned arrows. Aimed at Tina's heart. (*...Is this as far as I go?*) The moment Tina gritted her teeth— A flash. A single gust of wind swept through the abandoned village. It was a lone girl. A long black ponytail, tied high at the back, streamed behind her. Sharp, narrow, jet-black eyes coldly surveyed the battlefield. On her back, a single katana rested in a scabbard engraved with patterns from a foreign land. "—I'm coming." The girl murmured quietly and leaped into the throng of bandits. In the next instant, the weapons of the bandits surrounding her—swords, spears, axes—were cleaved one after another as if they were paper crafts. There wasn't even the high-pitched clash of metal on metal; only the sound of wind slicing, *swish, swish*, echoed. Tina, with a blacksmith's instinct, opened her eyes wide. (*What... is that sharpness...*) It was impossible for an ordinary forged item. There was no trace of magical enchantment. The very 'material' of that katana was fundamentally different. In the blink of an eye, Tsubaki neutralized nearly ten bandits and landed before Tina. "I am called Tsubaki. A wandering swordswoman from the Land of Steel. You use quite an interesting weapon there." Her gaze was fixed on the Donnergram in Tina's hands. Jet-black eyes harboring a combative light. "...You here to help?" "I merely pursued that man. I failed to cut down a brigand from my homeland, and he fled as far as this land. However—" Tsubaki looked coldly at Garza on the rooftop, her lips curving slightly. "Your hammer is magnificent. I would very much like to request a one-on-one duel, but first, we should deal with that rabble." "Ha! You're an interesting kid. I like you! Can you fight?" "Of course." ―――― The tide of battle turned completely with Tsubaki's intervention. However—Garza's expression, watching this, twisted like a predator that had found its prey. "...Interesting. If you're that strong, I'll get serious too. It's been a while since I've had prey worth hunting." He leaped down from the ruined building's roof and skillfully hid himself in the shadows of the rubble. A former Iron-rank—he knew how to fight. He avoided direct confrontation, using narrow alleys and ruined buildings in a disruptive hit-and-run tactic to separate Tina and Tsubaki. "Over here, dwarf!" *Whizz!* A poisoned arrow grazed Tina's cheek. "Running around like a damn rat...!" Tina pursued, crushing rubble underfoot, but her stamina was near its limit. The tremors from abstinence were now affecting her legs too. Her knees were buckling. And finally, she was cornered in a dead end. "It's over, dwarf. Gold-rank or whatever, you're just a drunkard in the end." Garza nocked his bow. Three arrows. Aimed at the head, throat, and heart—a stance of absolute killing intent, impossible to miss. (*Move... Move, dammit, my body...!*) Her legs felt as heavy as stone. —That's when it happened. "Masterrrr!!" From afar, she heard the shouts of the three. The voices of Leon, Leena, and Milia, wounded and collapsed, desperately straining their voices. (*Ahh...*) The night of that campfire flickered back in Tina's mind. *'You're not fighting alone. You're fighting—together with them.'* That vow pushed her forward. "Daaaaaaaaaaah!!!" Tina mustered the last of her strength and slammed the Donnergram into the ground with her entire body. *DOOOOOOOM!!!* The war hammer's blow pulverized the stone paving and caved in the earth. A shockwave rippled out, and the rubble at Garza's feet crumbled away. "Wha, what...!?" Garza lost his balance, and the arrows he released flew off in completely wrong directions. Tsubaki did not miss that single instant of opening. "—Godspeed." She had closed the distance with an unearthly sword technique. In a fluid motion, she released the katana from its scabbard. Iaido. The jet-black blade traced a silver-white arc—and bisected Garza's bow cleanly in two. The bowstring snapped and f

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Episode 5

Name: Tina's Workshop Story: The Blacksmith Girl with Sake and War Hammer
Author: Novelia

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