‘Thinner metal is easier to cut, and I should be able to shape it with just my hands and a hammer. But I need to make sure the measurements are perfect with each layer or the welding won’t be very strong.’
‘You seem to know what you’re doing.’
‘I have some experience, and... I, uh... I did some reading last night. But, um... even though I know what to do, I’m not sure how well it’ll turn out, honestly... If I screw up too badly with the hammer, it might not even fit around my head...’
‘So you need to concentrate, is what you’re saying.’
‘Uh... yeah...’
He began drafting. He measured the circumference of his head in five different places, then the distance from the far corner of one eye to the other. He reckoned that a single slit for both eyes together would save cutting time and hopefully provide better visibility. Ear holes wouldn’t be necessary, he decided, nor would holes for the mouth and nose, but there was one major problem: the jaw.
Shielding the area under his jaw was absolutely vital. His all-too-brief fight with Colt assured him of that point.
He decided to just cut off the bottom half of the face completely and then screw it back on so that it could swing freely over the top half. It would look like some kind of gigantic underbite, but it would protect below his chin while still allowing him to fit his head into the thing.
Lance ventured over after a while. “What’re you making?” he asked.
“...A, uh... a helmet. Or helm, I guess.”
“Oh, that’s awesome,” said Lance, eyeing the sketches. “It’s too bad you’re not allowed to make a sword to go with it. That’d be amazing.”
A dark serial novel. Set in a modern fantasy world called Eleg. Mature language. Updates every night at midnight PST by ~400 words.