In this world, Magic is Everything. All people, all races, are granted with the power to perform mystical and magical feats via grimories, mystical tomes granted to each and every child on their 15th birthday. Those blessed by the mana can have their names written down in legend.
Shattered Grimoires is the work of the mind(s) of Ardere & Shattered Grimoire's staff. All characters and content are copyright their creators, and may not be replicated without their creators' permission. Black Clover is owned by Yuki Tabata and published by Viz Shonen Jump. All images belong to their original owners. The theme you are currently viewing was made by Eliza of ElizaCodes exclusively for Shattered Grimoires.
Rank & Element: Junior ¦ Wood Class & Type: Enchanted ¦ Trinket Magic Specializations: Physical Reinforcement Appearance & Lore: Due to the lunar year just passing, a craftsman in the town of Hage teaching a new class of apprentices decided to make it a class project. They were to make small trinkets out of oak that look like oxen as with all learners things didn't go as planned and they ended up making derpy looking oxen. The shopkeeper decided to buy everything as she found out that all the proceeds were going to help with the rebuilding of Kikka.
Type & Uses: Enchanted Rank & Specialization: Junior ¦ Physical Reinforcement Mana Cost: Not applicable Range & Speed: Not applicable Stats Affected: 25% junior buff to strength Description: The holder of this small trinket seems to hold the strength of an oxen allowing them to deal a bit more damage than is normal. Unlike normal items this item seems to grow in strength the stronger the bond it has with the owner much like a spirit or relic allowing this to be trained up to a grand ability.
It was the kind of thing anyone wanted to believe themselves capable of, though the sad reality of it was that out of all of the hundreds or maybe thousands of people that wished they were a prodigy, only one actually was. Because to be extremely gifted from a very young age and having the mental fortitude and physical stamina to see it all through truly required a prodigious level of skill and excellence. In the case of Gawain, these were the kinds of things that were being triggered at a very young age. At first starting when he had been abducted by raiders and sold into a life of slavery, after which he was used to drag corpses onto a cart and take them into the mire to be disposed of. Then, when he got a little bit older, his young age and small frame were utilized for the sake of murder.
As few ever truly suspected a roughly nine year old child of having killed a fully grown Villtsung raider, the truth of the matter was that when putting a knife into someone hands and getting said weapon at just the right angle, a kill was easily confirmed. This was especially true when dealing primarily with people who were either shitface drunk or fast asleep, as he had no real magical aptitude at the time and no real way of killing an adult male. But the knowledge of killing had been engraved in him at a very young young age, as for him, it was the only way in which he knew how to keep himself and his mother fed. In all honesty, he never really understood why he kept doing it after his mother died, as the man who made him do all of these things was the same that forced him to dump his mom’s cold body into the same mire where they ditched all of the others.
Maybe it was because it had become a habit for him to do so. Maybe killing people for his owner was a way for him to quietly get some form of revenge on the people that had brought him and his mother here after they had killed his grandparents and his dad. Or maybe it was just because it was the only way in which he knew how to survive, as it was the only reason why he was being fed and afforded at least six hours of sleep per night.
When he had finally returned to Clover, that was all left in the past as he hadn’t touched a weapon even once since he was roughly eleven. Instead, he spent a few months in an orphanage where he showed some aptitude for learning, though he did not possess the drive to really learn about the church nor did he want to pray. It wasn’t until he broke out of the orphanage and ran into Griswold that he began to learn in earnest. Learning how to survive out in the wilds, learning about the country and its social structures, as well as what the man considered to be important, Gawain was also taught a thing or two about magic and about his heritage. The fact that he possessed mixed blood and was apparently a cousin of Griswold meant that there was a greater deal of potential in him than the man had originally thought, as neither of them realized they were even related for the longest time.
And then, shortly after Gawain had turned fifteen and received a four-leaf grimoire, a short period was spent where he got to familiarize himself with some beginners spells before Griswold disappeared. Since that time, the boy had always used magic to blast himself out of any kind of nasty situation imaginable to the human mind. Ghoul? Beheading wind spell. Bandits? Wind bullet spell. Behemoth? Full body destruction spell.
While his list of spells was limited, there hadn’t yet been anything he hadn’t been able to shoot his way out of as he had a ridiculous amount of mana for someone his age, not to mention a very dense mana skin that kept him out of trouble most of the time. But ever since he had been getting faster to the point where most of his rank and even some beyond were no longer able to keep up with him, mixed with the fact that he was likely the youngest true Ki master on the continent, he felt that the time had come for him to properly learn the martial arts. For if his magic was truly as powerful as he believed, relying on it should honestly have come second. His first step when it came to dissuading enemies to fight him should have come from martial prowess, showing someone that he could beat them unarmed if he needed to, or blow them to bits if they still decided on being a problem for him and others.
And so he found himself in the training yard, practicing against a pretty specific piece of equipment. Due to the vast amount of wealth that went into the Silver Eagles, they were often given gifts from noble families, or funneled their own money into acquiring the proper equipment for the betterment of their people. But as expected, this particular thing hand not been given the chance to gather any dust due to the hard work of the groundskeeper, but it was entirely free of any damage or marking. Made out of a thick kind of wood, this training ‘dummy’ came in the form of a pole with various circular, rotating parts. It was an odd sight to see, a contraption he had never seen, but heard a thing or two about when it came to its uses from the groundskeeper. As it turned out, Gawain was more or less the first person ever to use it.
But the man had played around with it for a bit, claiming that as one of the parts began to turn, another random part would begin spinning into the opposite direction. So when one of the wooden beams would get struck, another would start moving with the same speed as the amount of force applied by the initial punch. Feeling like giving this a try, the boy struck one of the beams. At the same time, he could feel that another beam on the low end of the contraption was moving towards his shin as another came towards his head. Instinctively stepping back the moment his body registered the threat, he watched as all of the parts of the contraption were moving rather quickly. Keeping a close eye on it until it stopped moving entirely, Gawain stepped back towards it. His instincts were sharp enough, his body moving aside quick enough, but that was not what this was about.
He needed to hone his senses to the point where he would not just instinctively dash away, but have his body respond more defensively. Knowing now that the impact of the strike determined the speed and strength by which the contraption effectively struck back, the boy hit it considerably softer this time around, giving him some time to respond to the ‘attacks’ coming in from above and below. Responding to the attack from below with a side kick and the attack from above with a backhand strike, it in turn caused the center rotary to come back around and strike at waist height. This one he could more or less push back against with an open handed palm strike, which was easy enough to do. In fact, this whole thing was relatively easy to do. Just as long as he restrained the strength of his punches, responding to the attacks he received back was essentially nothing more than a walk in the park.
But he hadn’t come here because he wanted to figure out how a contraption worked, and how him pushing hard against it caused it to push back just as hard. No, the goal here was to see how far he could push his body when it came to physical strength and melee combat. Because when it came to using a dagger, he had more blood on his hands than most, proving that he was at the very least proficient when it came to wielding one. But in a way, wielding a weapon that spoke to him and possessed strange and otherworldly powers was no different from just blasting someone to smithereens with a powerful spell of sorts. Gawain had to push this thing harder, and in the process push himself harder as it was in essence the same thing. He received back exactly as much as he put out, which was what made this training contraption so perfect for an overachiever like himself.
Beginning to strike the wooden limbs harder, the attacks made against him began coming in faster, forcing him to push his defenses up harder and faster in response. An annoying task to be sure, as the wooden extensions struck quite hard when the boy put up a half-assed block or struck it without fully forming a fist and spraining a finger or receiving a bruise. But this was a learning process as much as anything, as learning how to fight someone in close quarters while also being capable enough at protecting oneself from incoming blows was something that had quite the curve. The harder he hit, the faster he would need to respond and hit back, over and over again until he made a mistake and took a hit. When this happened, it just further increased his growing ire, resulting in him striking the thing back harder, only for it to eventually hit him with the same amount of strength and growing speed.
The more he struck, responded, defended and got struck, the more the boy began to realize the simple truth that had been eluding him since he had begun practicing with this tool: He was fighting himself.
Whenever he struck it softly, he was hit back softly and slowly in return. When he picked up the pace, the pace against him picked up all the same as it became more and more difficult to protect himself. And when he struck at it in anger for missing a beat and taking a hit, the contraption struck him back just as hard as he had done it. This was in itself a lesson, one regarding self-control and restraint on a level he hadn’t even realized at first, but was honestly highly philosophical. The harder he pushed at something, the harder it would push back. But if he decreased his push, the pushback he got back in turn was significantly reduced as a result. So as he slowly settled himself into a lower gear while still maintaining a high momentum, the blows he dished out and took no longer ran the risk of self-injury, which was already a step up from when he had first started this training.
For someone deemed a prodigy, one might have expected that he would have come to this realization sooner, which just went to prove that no matter what, there was always more to be learned and greater heights to be achieved. Keeping up his regiment of strikes, thrusts, kicks, blocks and parries, there eventually came a point where Gawain believed to fully understand what the device was capable of. As such, he put things to the test by gradually speeding up and increasing his striking power simultaneously. By building it up over time, he found out that it became like some sort of a choreographed dance, where every action was met with an instant and appropriate reaction. While he was doing this whole routine and pushing it to its limits, his ears could hear how the rotary system within the contraption was starting to squeak and screech as though reaching their utmost limits.
And since he had quite recently shown his ass to his fellow squad members, he knew that now would be the time to back off. With his goal of becoming vice captain drawing closer and closer, he couldn’t have another miss along the lines of destroying training equipment, whether it be accidental or otherwise. So, with a well timed hop, the boy dashed back from the contraption as it kept spinning and churning for the better part of ten minutes before eventually coming to a stop. By the time he finished, he realized that the grounds keeper had been watching his struggle against the device the entire time. Clapping by the time the boy finished, the man claimed that he himself had gone a few rounds against it once, but after hitting it too hard at some point, he had made it out with a black eye and a bruised shin. Claiming that the rate at which Gawain had seemingly mastered the ebb and flow of it had been miraculous, hearing so did wonders for the boy and his ego.
Thanking the man for his insights and apologizing for more or less straining the contraption as much as he had, the grounds keeper did not seem altogether bothered by it, claiming that nothing had been done to it that could not be fixed by a good helping of oil. Taking a quick bow before taking his leave, it seemed as though the grounds keeper hadn’t been used to the kind of treatment he had received from Gawain. Almost as if the man were a regular person just like everyone else, rather than just being some lower class civilian that had to look after things for a bunch of noblemen and women. And as he wandered away, Gawain thought about lower class civilians and people who were outright treated with disdain by some, and love by others. And that was when it hit him. Maybe someone within the Black Bulls might be able to help him out when it came to learning hand to hand skills or straight up martial arts!
