Colossus By Choice: B1V8 Side Story - Hammer to Steel

[Book 1 Verse 8 – B1V8]
[Side Story]

“Hammer to Steel” – Recorded by Yun-Tao, Steel Crushers Forge-Wife

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Testing, testing.


(Geng-Tao): Is it working?


I think…. YES! Yes, it’s working!


(Geng-Tao): Perfect! Looks like tuning that Zinogre Skymerald to sync up with the frequencies of the Nanometal we found in the ruins beneath solved the recorder’s kinks. Alright, that damned City Scout is getting on my nerves with her demanding to know when my forge work will be done. I better attend to his whiny tail.


Okay, my love. I’ll get started on the recording for future use. Our future children will have their story told to them by machinery!

Let’s see, which tales shall I record with this device to preserve for who will definitely be a daughter first? Oh, I know! The origins of the Oxbul people! This one’s always a good one to tell the young calves.

=

It all began, as all things do, with Mothra and the clay of creation. Most of the other sapient races will argue that they came first in one way or another, but it’s an undeniable fact that the Oxbuls were the first beings to emerge from that primordial foundation following the birth of the Elder Dragons. Unlike the Draconi who evolved from Elder Dragons directly or the Radents that crawled out like a bunch of harvest-stealing vermin, we came about due to the direct intervention of the ancient Humans.

It’s true that Humanity was primarily involved in the initial alchemical mixing that ended up creating the clay which Mothra moulded into all the races. However, the Oxbul species pulled itself out from that soup earlier than expected. Because of this, we were relatively unformed and loose in structure. This simply wouldn’t stand for the creations of the True Titans. Gamera himself prepared to intervene and use his flames to give us proper form. Before he could douse us in the heat of the universe, though, the Humans proposed a different path.

They made a proposition to the Ruler of All Monsters herself, Godzilla, on our behalf. These wondrous mortal deities claimed that they could mould us into shapes even better than the gods themselves. Godzilla was naturally quite curious about this uncharacteristically heretical claim, and Gamera scoffed at this proposal.

After all, how could these lesser beings, despite being gods themselves, ever compare to the majesty and divine might of a True Titan that had slain many an Old God in the universal war for freedom? But the warrior empress was far too intrigued by this proposition to object to the heresy. She was so intrigued, in fact, that she decided to make a challenge out of this request. Gamera and the ancient Humans would face off in a competition to decide who could make the better sapient species.

And so, the contest began.

=

Gamera naturally took his half of the unformed proto Oxbuls and began lighting them ablaze with fires that could snuff out a thousand suns, making sure to not let them cool down too much so that they remained soft and malleable for him to mould with his fingertips. He shaped his half like glass, constantly setting us aflame and reforming us while we were still hot. It didn’t take him long to finish what he considered the perfection of our form.

The Guardian of the Universe ended up creating slender and nimble creatures that were almost as graceful as Mothra herself with magnificent horns of varying sizes, shapes, and patterns. These incarnations of our people also had a strong sense of companionship and found comfort in large numbers. He was rather proud of this work, as he felt that the Humans couldn’t match him at all.

=

Meanwhile, Humanity took a decidedly different and unexpected path. Rather than use their own furnaces, they instead turned to one of the earliest Elder Dragons to emerge from the clay of creation as a source of heat to smelt our primitive malformed state: Zorah Magdaros. The Scorching Mountain Dragons were almost as large as the Kaiju champions that slumber deep within the wells of the core worlds that the sapient species inhabit, and the volcanic shell atop their backs served as a better means of heating and deforming the Oxbuls’ early forms than even the Humans’ own instruments.

Although this magma runoff formed from the beasts’ processing of the natural Bioenergy of the environment wasn’t anywhere near as hot as the flames generated by the shelled god Gamera, it did have something the Guardian of the Universe never foresaw: a wealth of rare minerals that could only be made as a by-product of the unique diet and digestive system of Zorah Magdaros. When the half of our people’s ancestors that Humanity was given was heated in the forges made from its mounted shell, these minerals bonded to our forms and toughened us up, granting us the extremely hardened musculature and natural armour plating lining the tops of our heads and across the fronts of our upper bodies.

Once our time in the backs of the Scorching Mountain Dragons was complete, the Humans would hammer us into shape with both precision and forcefulness using their Nanometal tools, shaping us into a hardy species that was immensely strong and had an indomitable will.

=

With both competitors’ creations complete, it was up to Godzilla and Mothra to judge whose was better.

Mothra very much preferred Gamera’s version of us Oxbuls. She adored their beautiful and graceful forms and was particularly enamoured with their cooperative group-minded nature. She supported them as her choice for how our species should look and function. However, the Ruler of All Monsters felt differently, much preferring the rugged power and enduring mind of the Humans’ version of us Oxbuls. She felt that we were more likely to survive the rapidly changing nature of the universe.

Despite ruling over everything in existence, the warrior empress always deferred to the Queen of Peace and the Guardian of the Universe for counsel and advice. Because of this, she considered her opinion as only equal to theirs, leaving the competition in a stalemate. Neither competitor was particularly happy with this result, but they also couldn’t fight over it. Such is not the way forward. Instead, Gamera and Humanity agreed to a tie.

Both of their creations had merit, and so it was that Godzilla commanded Mothra to meld them together and combine their best traits. The Oxbul species would have the beautiful horns and group dynamics of Gamera’s forge work and the powerful body and mind of Humanity’s creativity. It was at this point that the Oxbuls were well and truly born, now a complete sapient species.

=

We never did forget our roots, though.

We were born in the forge, and in honour of our creation, we’ve dedicated our livelihoods around blacksmithing and smelting. We would continue to improve on our technique as we lived, striving to get closer and closer to the perfection of the art that our creators achieved. And thanks to the particular role of Zorah Magdaros in our species’ history, we continue to pay homage to the Scorching Mountain Dragons in our line of work and everyday lives. Life is both born and destroyed in the fires of Zorah Magdaros, and so to are the tools and equipment that we make.

Alright, ending recording.