Arkaya: Combat References, Stories & Token

The canyon settlement had been surrounded by massive boulders for as long as anyone could remember, its soil barren and water scarce. Arkaya grew up amid these harsh conditions.

He was born with a physique far surpassing that of ordinary men. Boulders that took several grown men to budge, he could hoist alone without so much as a wobble; treacherous mountain paths blocked by rockslides, he could clear with a few swings of his hammer. That imposing muscle of his had been forged through countless battles against a merciless environment.

The villagers relied on him as much as they revered him, but Arkaya never once treated his gift as something to boast about. Watching his people struggle to survive in the canyon, he slowly came to understand that his broad shoulders were meant to carry more weight for the settlement.

Despite his towering, formidable appearance, Arkaya possessed remarkable gentleness and patience. The settlement's children always loved gathering around him, and he happily used his broad hands to build them miniature stone aqueduct models, describing a future where clear water flowed throughout the settlement.

But that peace was shattered by a sudden, violent earthquake. The mountainside collapsed, boulders raining down like hail, trapping several children inside a crumbling stone house. Amid the desperate cries of onlookers, Arkaya charged into the rubble without hesitation, using his own body to hold up the collapsing stone beam, carving out a safe zone within the wreckage with sheer will, and carrying the children to safety.

When the dust settled, people discovered in horror that the underground water veins sustaining the settlement had been completely severed. Staring at the dried-up wells and his panicked kin, Arkaya clenched his dust-covered fists and solemnly vowed: "I shall bring back a new source of water for everyone."

To keep the settlement alive, Arkaya hefted his heavy lance and took on the dangerous task of traveling beyond the canyon alone to fetch water.

On one return trip, a bone-chilling roar echoed from deep within the canyon—a frenzied Diablos burst forth from the rubble, its thick horns smashing everything in its path.

Seeing the colossal beast about to charge down the only mountain path leading to the settlement, Arkaya didn't flinch. He drove his lance deep into the ground, standing like an unbreakable iron wall directly in the Diablos's charging path. Facing countless brutal charges, he stood his ground. In the end, he summoned everything he had to wound the Diablos, driving the beast back—but collapsed from exhaustion himself.

When he dragged his battered body back to the settlement with the life-saving water, he looked at the well bottom sealed shut by solid bedrock, and once again made a vow to his silent kin: "I will bring back the skill to dig deep wells through solid rock. I will never let everyone leave our home."

After settling the affairs of the settlement, Arkaya set out as an adventurer, traveling far and wide in search of engineering techniques for digging wells in extreme terrain.

Yet faced with the complex rock strata created by that earthquake, countless seasoned craftsmen found themselves at a loss. In his moments of bewilderment and repeated failure, it was the children's innocent smiles that kept him from giving up.

His breakthrough came in the form of a batch of massive, intricate mechanical constructs. These machines, whose complexity far exceeded his understanding, displayed astonishing feats of engineering—said to have drifted in on ocean currents from some unknown sea. Perhaps the advanced technique needed to overcome his homeland's bedrock and restore its water veins lay hidden at the far end of that very sea.

Upon learning that the Crimson Crest Guild was about to set sail for that region, Arkaya requested to join without a moment's hesitation. From then on, the squad's front line gained an unbreakable shield. Wielding his boulder-shaking strength and unwavering resolve to protect others, he shielded his comrades from deadly threats time and again, drawing ever closer to the hope of saving his homeland.