Sely

Sely is the 18th hero that you will unlock at stage 2300.

## Story

A traveler passing through the lands of Gnomes will immediately notice that they are all small, friendly and clever. In fact, most thinking folk come to the realization, sooner or later, that they have never met an angry or unintelligent Gnome. Those fortunate enough to have fought with a Gnome by their side, swear by two things: that there is no problem that a Gnome cannot solve, and that a Gnome treats everything – even war – like a game. Of course, they are great engineers, battle mages and healers; they are quick to build or learn the use of tools and spells. However, even the most brain-sick gambler would never bet that stripped of magic, war machines and prayers, a Gnome could stand its ground in hand-to-hand combat. The birth of a strange little baby in the city of Cogwheel changed everything.

Sely was born, like all Gnomes, in a high-tech hospital under the supervision of expertly trained medical professionals. When the nurse pulled her out of her expecting mother, most of those professionals fainted. There was obviously something wrong; her body was horrible, disfigured. They were afraid to show her to her tired mother and her waiting father. At last, a trembling doctor picked her up, washed her with a pressurized can of sterile water, and presented her to her parents. Her father fainted by the unconscious nurses. Her mother, horrified, studied her poor daughter.

Sely’s body was covered with muscle. Rounded shoulders connected to lined forearms through powerful triceps and biceps. Her thick chest was underlined by the six small boulders that made up her infant abs. Her thighs reminded her of the legs of a horse. It was a small mercy that the child had a pretty face, and her father’s bright pink hair; but it was sure to have a hard life. “Why did it have to happen to my baby?” thought her mother. “Why couldn’t she be round and soft and chubby?” At last, when the shock was over, Sely’s disappointed parents took her home and her destiny slowly began to unfold.

Gnomes grow and learn quickly. By the age of two months, they can read and write. By 5, they master the basics of engineering and, to the frustration of their parents, can work gunpowder. Sely could do none of those things. For the first few years of her life, she was taunted for her simplicity and brutish features. She was not unintelligent; she simply had no interest in applying her mind. Instead, she learned that what other Gnomes could accomplish with brainpower, she could do with her body. In her school’s first race, where the others had built steam-powered karts and walker-engines, Sely won by leaping and running. When it was time to apply to the Academy of Crafts – where the entrance exam consisted of creating a device that could ferry sheep across a river – she simply tied a rope across her waist and swam, dragging a plain plank raft filled with confused and frightened animals. The other young Gnomes could only watch in confusion as their steamboats were left trailing behind. The Academic Council, which could find no rule that the submitted devices should be complicated or technologically advanced, had no choice but to allow her to study there.

At every opportunity, the professors and other students of the Academy would try to push her out. Sely however, was not only unnaturally strong in body, but also in mind; she paid no attention to the nay-sayers and focused on the one technical skill that could complement her natural abilities: blacksmithing. The working of metal, mostly the territory of dwarves, spoke to her on an almost spiritual level. It was a material powerful like she was, but could be moulded for a purpose by strength and intent. Curiously, the infusion of metal with magic – again, a skill mostly left to the expertise of races such as humans and elves – was a concept Sely was not familiar with, but with which she was naturally gifted. Hers was not regular magic, brought to life by incantations or rituals, but the raw magic of her unbending determination. By sheer force of will, and to the surprise of her tutors, metal smithed by Sely was stronger, more flexible and more stable than that produced by any other student. It was not until her final examination, four years into her studies, that the Academy – and Sely – would learn how special she was.

The final examination of the Academy is unique in all schools of the Realm. Simply put, each student creates a machine or set of weapons and spells and uses their creation in an all-out, non-lethal melee, under the ancient Technodome of the Academy grounds. Examiners closely watch the melee and judge the participants on the ingenuity of their creations, their use in practice, and of course the users’ problem solving abilities. It is not a necessity to emerge the sole victor, as is the case with Orcish ritual combat, but the last Gnome is considered a distinguished fellow of the Academy. It is not uncommon for young Gnomes to enter the Technodome fatigued, after several sleepless weeks of working on their inventions. After all, tiredness is not an issue; for every Gnome but Sely, weakness of body never had a bearing on how well one performs in the exam.

When Sely walked through the gates of the Technodome, laughter could be heard even above the roars of engines and the crackling of magic. She wore nothing but a set of metallic armor, its only offensive features a set of claws and an elbow spike. Some noticed that the spikes glowed a light blue, but dismissed this quickly as a latent effect of magically-enhanced metal. Such metals could be seen across the arena, in various colors. They would make quick work of her, they thought, as the starting gun fired. What are claws against the might of technology and magic?
The examiners found themselves lost for words as they watched. They almost felt sorry for the rest of the student body – and themselves. Brilliant engineering constructs were blown to bits by Sely’s merciless kicks and punches, their creators flinging out of their cockpits in desperate attempts to survive the mechanical carnage. Sely would pummel machine after machine, standing in triumph and defiance on their wrecks as spells bounced helplessly off her artisan armor. When she had grown tired of the helpless mages and priests’ weak fireworks, she would dash to them, slicing their robes into ribbons and their staffs into tinderwood. Terrified and naked, the humiliated Gnomes would dive for cover, thinking about how they had bullied this brilliant anomaly...and whether they would survive the exam. Her claws, infused with the primal power of her inner strength, cut through everything they threw at her like butter.

No more than 15 minutes after the starting gun had fired, Sely was pronounced a distinguished fellow of the Academy and was handed her degree. It came as a surprise to no-one when she took her diploma, tore it in half, and walked away, to put her skills to use beside heroes who could appreciate them.

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