Calm Before the Storm

"BUHIHI! Solus! Come here and let me measure your fingers!" Roy elatedly screamed to Solus, who was currently playing with Inbellis.

Solus shot her head up and looked at Roy, before running over to him. Roy caught Solus mid jump and pat her head for a minute before taking her hand and roughly measuring it.

"Since you have a scratching skill, I'm thinking of making you a bladed gauntlet. Far better than that old sword, wouldn't you say?"

*Ruff!*

Solus replied with a loud and happy bark. Soon after measuring out both of her hands, Roy began to design the gauntlets into the dirt.

'I need to be careful not to restrict the finger movements on this. Should I make it in parts? But it won't be attached to my body so keeping everything bound properly might be annoying...'

As Roy was thinking the design out, it slowly came together in the dirt. "This, this looks amazing! My own creativity shocks even me!" Roy boisterously proclaimed.

He immediately began to form the design he made on top of his foot. Taking extra care to keep the sharpness and denseness of the blades as best he could.

...

Time passed and eventually Roy finished sawing off the bottom of the gauntlets. In his hands were Solus' new weapons that he had worked his hardest to create. He used his body like a 3D printer, forming the gauntlets and using support structures that were thin and easy to break to temporarily connect the moving parts.

As Roy was pulling out the support pieces, Solus was standing there with eyes sparkling. "Buhihi you have to wait a bit longer, I have to pull out all the support pieces. After that we can do the fitting." Roy calmly told her as he chuckled about her impatience.

'Feels like I'm giving a present to a family member on Christmas...' Roy thought, taking a quick glance at Solus. '...Mom, I think I finally found someone else I can call my family now. I hope you are proud of me, wherever you are...'

Wiping the trace of tears in his eyes, Roy took the completed gauntlets and handed them to Solus. Seeing the tears that were in his eyes, Solus slowly pat Roy's head. "Buhihi, thanks Solus I feel much better now." Roy told her, chuckling at her attempt to calm him.

Putting on the gauntlets, Roy examined them in detail. They were thick plated on the arm, coming down to a wrist guard that allowed full dexterity. The hand was made layered to allow it to move freely as well. The Finger tips had a curved knife, similar to a cat's claw. They were extremely sharp, and had a very good density. Hopefully protecting them from possible fractures. Coming out of her knuckles were long claws similar to a certain comic book character on earth. Unfortunately though, these were not retractable yet.

[Keratin Claw Gauntlets]

Notes:

Gauntlets made of keratin. They were made extremely detailed, allowing the user to retain full movement in their hands.

Made by Roy Palmer

High Quality

Defense: 15

Durability [45/45]

"Fantastic, they seem to fit you great!" Roy said, hands akimbo once again as he began boasting.

"Solus, try out your [Scratch] skill with the gauntlets on!" Roy instructed Solus, as he decided to begin practicing his [Pierce] skill as well.

Walking over to a nearby tree, Roy let Solus go first, watching her activate the skill and causing a small gash in the tree. "Wow, that was pretty powerful. That skill is going to be awesome once you level it up some more." Roy told her, as he pat her head. Solus smiled in satisfaction as Roy was next to walk up to the tree.

'[Pierce] is more suited to penetrating tough objects, while [Scratch] is more for soft ones. So I should be able to go decently deep if I use it.' Roy thought as he prepared his skill.

Taking his left hand back as far as he could, Roy got into a position that he thought would be best for thrusting and his hand shot forward. Soon enough, his hand penetrated the tree. "Woah, my entire finger tip went into the tree!" Roy excitedly screamed.

*Ugh*

Roy son realized he was stuck.

"Shit! Solus come help pull me out, please!" Roy asked for help, but after turning around he could see Solus chuckling while looking straight at him.

"Traitor!" Roy complained, before putting both feet on the tree and pushing as hard as he could to separate himself from his wooden foe.

*Plop* *Bang*

After a short struggle Roy finally got out of the tree, but due to both legs being on the trunk he fell to the ground rather comically.

"Ruahahaha!" Solus burst into laughter and fell to the ground in tears. Roy slowly stood up and looked at her with an emotionless gaze. 'Yup, definitely a little sister...' Roy watched her laugh, a smile forming on his face before he also began to chuckle.

There was a calm before the upcoming storm as the two siblings enjoyed their brief respite.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"Alright, time to take a rest." Nabik said, plopping down and relaxing under the shade of the trees.

"Finally!"

"Woo!"

Screamed some of the goblins, before they quickly shut up at the sight of Nabik's glare.

"We will explore the other side of the cave entrance after our rest, so be prepared. With the number of bodies we found, it's safe to assume that they're all dead." Nabik impassively said as he waved his hand towards his minions.

The mood quickly soured again as they remembered the bodies of the other goblins. Most of them didn't care for the lost lives, they simply didn't want it to happen to them as well.

"Four of you scout the cardinal directions, I don't care who. Wake me up if you spot the fuckers that killed my property!" Nabik ordered.

Closing his eyes after watching four goblin scamper away, Nabik took what he considered a well deserved nap.