Chapter 71: Stories

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Bilbo was horrified by the description of the Fellers, and took a couple of steps back as he looked around vigilantly. On the other hand, Edward looked down at the monster in fascination. Fantasy creatures were day to day occurrences for those people, but for him, who comes from Earth, this was simply… fantastic.

The fellers had some similarities to Gollum, their skin was of a pale, sickly white, and they barely had any meat between their bones and their skin. However, they had long claws instead of hands, and a long trail of hair going all the way down their spin.

Since everyone was already awakened and they didn't know whether more Fellers were waiting to attack them, the group decided to light a fire, which the fellers feared, and finish the broth from the night before.

Surprisingly, Thorin came Edward with a bowl and handed it over as he said, "You have already proved your worth, you should eat."

Edward smiled and said, "Thank you, I appreciate it. But as I said earlier, I was planning on not eating anyway. I know it sounds cryptic, but if I am right about my current situation then I will regain some of my strength."

Thorin nodded, he didn't really understand what Edward was doing, but since Edward had decided, then he wasn't going to force him. So he sat down and began eating. Then, Ori, the youngest of the dwarves, approached Edward curiously and asked, "I saw you throw something at the Fellers, what was that to bisect them? Do you have more of them?"

His question raised everyone's attention as they not so discreetly leaned toward Edward to listen to his response, which was to take out his sword and send a flying slash toward a wall.

The dwarves jumped back in fright as Bofur, with his fisher hat, exclaimed, "What is this sorcery!"

Nearby, Gandalf remarked with an interested voice, "I would never have guessed there existed a type of sword magic."

Edward looked at Gandalf quizzically and said, "This isn't magic, there isn't any cost to it."

Gandalf raised an eyebrow and continued, "Of course there is. Have you ever tried using this with a normal sword?"

Edward thought about it, and shook his head. Gandalf explained, "That was magic. The only difference with elemental magic for example is that it was your sword that paid the cost of using it, instead of you. My staff has the same effect for my magic."

Edward frowned at the explication though, and he opened his palm and made a flame appear, before asking, "What about this flame then? My body is not suffering from any backlash."

Gandalf got closer as he looked at his hand in fascination, and after a few seconds of studying it he exclaimed, "How interesting. You are bending the power of the world to your will, is that right?"

Edward nodded, that was the essence of the power behind the understanding of the world, which by the way he also decided to start call Concepts because it was quite a mouthful. So far, he had understood the Concepts of Sword, Space, Time, Fire, Water, Wind and Earth. For all of those Concepts, he had reached that unfathomable wall, but his level of mastery granted him basic abilities within each domain which he didn't have to bear any cost for.

Gandalf remained quiet for a few seconds, and eventually asked, "If I'm not wrong, you can't use anymore of this power. This is the most power you can exert without resorting to magic, right?"

Edward was instantly drawn in by his words, Gandalf sounded like he had an idea of the blockage he was facing.

Seeing Edward's interest, Gandalf explained, "With your current output, you indeed don't have to bear any cost because your influence on the world isn't big enough, and there is a reason for this. I don't understand how you managed to become able to influence the power of the world, but there has been few mortals able to do so, and the same limit has always been drawn. You can only influence the world to this extent because any more than that and there will be a drawback, so your body formed a natural limit. In a sense, you are blocking yourself for your own safety."

Once again, the dwarves and Biblo were completely clueless of what they were talking about, but Edward was feeling excited as he could finally see a path ahead for his Concepts. If what Gandalf was saying was true, then his Third Eye Chakra or Crown Chakra, one of the last two, could very possibly bring down the wall he was facing.

Excited, Edward asked, "What if this limit is passed? What would happen?"

Gandalf stroked his beard lightly before replying, "Well, it's more theory than facts, but I think the answer is rather obvious. The more one can influence the world, and the greater the power one can draw from it. At the same time, the greater the backlash will be. In essence, it would be very similar to magic, maybe a more extensive form of it?"

Edward grinned as he felt this trip was already worth it, even if he were to return right now. He had learned much more than he could hope with Gandalf, and it wasn't nearly over. His understanding of the Elemental Concepts had caped, but his knowledge over elemental magic had deepened, so by the time he got access back to his Chi he believed he should be able to use some elemental magic.

With everything he had heard from Gandalf, he made a theory of his own, and it was that although the Concepts, in their stronger forms, could be used on their own to achieve something similar to magic, it would be best used alongside magic.

But he was hypothesizing a bit too much, he should leave this for the future.

Despite the Fellers' attack, that night was quite jolly as the dwarves were happy to have someone as powerful as Edward having joined them, while Edward himself was happy to have made his discoveries. If only the two sides knew how little their discovery was compared to the real thing…

The next morning, the group left the watchtower, a bit tired but they would rather sleep in the wild than under the threat of getting killed by Fellers.

As they travelled, the dwarves were naturally interested about Edward, his origin, and his power, but Edward decided it was wiser not to say too much. Now, the dwarves thought he was a foreigner, and his power had been sealed by a dark magician.

It wasn't much, but Edward also tried to entertain the company with some tales from Earth, some of which sounded mundane to them, and some others that sounded incredible.

The dwarves couldn't care less about a sleeping princess being saved by the kiss of the prince… well except Ori, he looked particularly interested, but for the majority, the Twelve Labours of Hercules or his fight against the army of Kronans were much more interesting.

"My home has always been reclusive, and we had never seen any foreigners, well not the majority of the people that is. So when we saw an army of foreigners invade our land and take over one of our cities, we were quite shocked."

Gloin asked, "What kind of foreigners? It wasn't elves was it?"

Edward shook his head and explained, "They were creatures like we've never seen before, they were completely made of stone."

As he said that, several of the dwarves cried out in frustration, and Balin laughed, "The giant are mere legends my friend."

"No, those weren't giants, they were only a few heads taller than me, and there were several thousands of them."

This re-sparkled the interest of the dwarves, so Edward continued, "Those foreigners were called Kronans, and their rock-skin was so strong only our strongest weapons could harm them. And the region that was invaded was severely outnumbered.

"My people have not faced war for decades, and our society has only existed for a few millenniums. Adding to that our short lifespan, many of our people haven't fought as soldiers even once, so we only have very few soldiers compared to other places."

Thorin looked particularly entranced as he asked, "You were both outnumbered and overpowered, so how did you win?"

Edward grinned at that, "Strategy. We had a secret weapon that could take care of the Kronans, but it took time to prepare, so we had to stall. At the same time, we had to protect the civilians from getting slaughtered by the Kronans."

Dwalin suddenly exclaimed in rage, "What kind of cowards are those Kronans, attacking civilians! I'll have them taste my hammer if I ever cross them!"

The surrounding dwarves laughed, and Bilbo asked, curious, "How did you stop them then?"

Edward patted his chest and boasted, "My power wasn't sealed then, and I was much stronger than a Kronan. So by myself I faced their entire army, while my countrymen fired at them from the distance."

Most of the dwarves and Bilbo looked at Edward with shining eyes, but Balin doubted, "Why would an army focus on a single person? They could have ignored you or simply move around you."

This doused the excitement of the others, but Edward quickly replied, "Several reasons. Kronans come a very cold place, even colder than the top of the Misty Mountains, and thus are weak to fire. As such, we used a special kind of oil to trap myself and the Kronans into fire, so they were blocked."

Balin laughed lightly and still asked, "It's not that I want to discredit you my friend, but wouldn't the fire douse out quickly?"

Edward shook his head and replied, "No offence taken. The oil was special as I said, but indeed it could only burn for the so long, and it brings us to the second reason for their defeat.

"The Kronans come from a strange region where they live in small tribes, and they never worked together. They were forced to attack my homeland because demons have been attacking their land, forcing them to relocate, and thus attack us. But they were no real army, and fought more instinctively than anything else. Also, they are very proud of their strength, and couldn't stand having me killing them in waves."

The dwarves looked at each other, wondering whether this was a mere story or the truth, but they were starting to believe the later. Bilbo then asked, "How did it end then?"

Edward scratched his chest and replied, "I almost died, twice. But our secret weapon arrived, and obliterated their entire army. It was quite the spectacle."

Bilbo nodded, and Edward looked at the dwarves, "What about you? Any interesting stories?"

The dwarves looked at each other, while Bilbo looked away. After a few seconds though, Balin smiled, "I do have one. It is not as much of a fairy tale as yours though. And that one, I assure you is true."

Edward smiled at his words, he didn't really mind them not believing him, he was simply entertaining them. The road was long, and not much happened. They were already twenty days into the journey and the only bit of action they went through was the fighting with the Fellers at the watchtower. Other than that, it was only travelling on their ponies and horses.

Balin stopped smiling and said, "I will tell you about our people, and Erebor, the Lonely Mountain."

Author's Note: Several things to say. First, for those who worry, no, I'm not going to make Balin explain the backstory already explained in the movie anymore, this chapter served to present the dwarves and give them some meaning to the story, however slight it may be. Second point, Naruto has influenced too many of you, the 8 Gates in Naruto aren't the same as the 7 Gates of Chakra I use here. They work in vastly different ways.