Mikel
Captain Mikel Vigsen rode at the head of the procession as the army marched through the forest. They were just about near the peak that would lead them down into the next valley where the entrance to Vanalf was. A few soldiers rode in front of him so that he could focus in on his connection with Serena, her sight allowing him to scout ahead as well.
From above, Serena could see signs of troll activity, but they were being discreet. A true idea of their numbers was actually difficult to ascertain, and the thick trees were probably hiding more than he cared to admit.
The Valtyra had braved a quick landing to get a view beneath the treeline, but Mikel didn’t want them getting ambushed. Depending on where they walked to, it could be difficult for them to take to the skies again. He couldn’t really direct them from this distance, but thankfully they didn’t stay on the ground long and were headed back to report.
Serena trailed behind them, eyes mostly on the forest below. They’d be back soon.
The Grimnir Guard was 450 strong, but trolls were extremely dangerous. Much more dangerous than a few draugr. This day likely wouldn’t go without casualty. Even as a Watcher, trolls were sometimes harder to detect. They were known to have good abilities with masking and camouflage, though some were admittedly much better at it than others. They wouldn’t be able to hide completely, and Mikel would want to clear this entire valley. Trolls would not be tolerated anywhere on Avskild.
Trolls were practically their sworn enemy. Their people had been at war with each other since the first Grimnirs emerged from Vanalf. This island used to have a whole settlement on the north end, and they’d been known for murdering, eating, and kidnapping people throughout all of human history. For sentient beings, they were malicious, vile monsters. If not eradicated, they would prey on the citizens of Avskild as long as they remained.
The downside of today’s battle was that none of them had fought against trolls before. The last time anybody had fought a troll was just over a hundred years ago. So everything they knew about them came from the songs and what little writings were kept on them in Castle Vrodr, but they were a mandatory topic of study during training to become a Grimnir.
As a warrior, Mikel had to recognize that studies only went so far. First hand experience was immeasurably more valuable.
The pass between the valleys was just ahead, the two totems to either side signaling their arrival. There was an odd comfort in seeing the artwork from their past, but it was a grim reminder at the same time. Humans forever at war with a host of monsters. Defeat was depicted on one pillar, victory on the other. Magic was the deciding factor. The integrity of Vanalf was critical to human survival. This was their most vital role. This was the cause Mikel had taken up when he’d first joined the students as a boy.
And the trolls wanted to take it from them.
The squad of Valtyra came up the other side of the peak, flying low. This area was quite barren of trees, so they landed to the side of the road near the top, waiting for Mikel to reach them before giving the report.
Marhen, the Valtyra squad leader, stood at the front of the group, her gray-white wings stretching behind her as she rolled her shoulders. She wielded her signature trident in one hand with a small buckler in the other. Her light brown hair was tied back in a thick braid, her skin bronzed and leathery by spending hours in the sun. She’d been tall and strong before going into Vanalf, but after emerging as a Valtyra, her strength was remarkable.
Mikel made a gesture to Marhen with his hand, indicating that he did not want to stop. She nodded and moved to walk beside him as he rode. “I am ashamed, captain,” she said, her expression a wrinkled, leathery frown.
“Report,” Mikel said, not sure what she meant.
“We could not get a good indication of their numbers and didn’t want to risk roaming through the trees too much.”
“That’s reasonable. I didn’t want you venturing too far into the brush anyway. Better to have us all fight together than to have you ambushed. But what can you tell me?”
Marhen nodded. “They have not erected any fortifications from what I can tell, though according to Lind’s report, they’ve expected us to come. There are a lot more than the four he’d left behind. We counted at least twenty, but we know there are plenty more we weren’t able to detect. Perhaps we should have brought a Watcher with us.”
“Aye,” Mikel said. They were so out of practice that he’d forgotten the simple tactic of having them carry a Watcher between two Valtyra. Those enhanced senses would have been quite valuable in a fly-over. Mikel could only discern so much through his connection with Serena. “You flew around the whole area though, did you not? What’s the scope of their penetration?”
“Still heavily concentrated around the entrance to Vanalf. If I had to guess, they knew our pattern for taking new students through the cave, and they may have been hoping to set up a bulwark before next month. Lind’s inspection must have come as a surprise.”
Mikel grunted. “I could see them attempting a stunt like that.” They had started the descent into the valley. Fresh rain during the night left an earthy smell in the air, and wisps of clouds rolled slowly across the sky. A good day to fight. “Let’s keep a couple Valtyra in the air for additional reconnaissance if we need, but the remainder should walk with us to maintain their strength. We’ll need it. Anything else?”
“That’s all I have, captain.”
He saw the grip on her trident tighten. He could practically smell her anxiety and anticipation. Humans were emotional beings, and his practice as a Watcher had made him sensitive to their shifts in feelings. He dismissed her with a wave of his hand.
They were practically going in blind. At least twenty was the best guess Marhen could give, but Mikel assumed there could be upwards of forty or fifty. Valtyra were strong, but trolls were stronger. They’d be able to hurl small boulders and trees. Even with Vitugr spells, there wasn’t much they could do to stop a tree from smashing them.
Grimnirs would die today.
And it made him angry. Perhaps this could have been avoidable if they’d maintained the regular patrols. He hated to admit it, but even he had grown more complacent over the years. King Knos had rubbed off on him.
He motioned for Irena to come ride beside him.
The Vitugr squad leader heeled her small horse forward until they were side-by-side. She peered up at him, awaiting orders.
“Let’s stick with earthen spells during this engagement,” Mikel said. “Avoid fire. I don’t want the whole valley in flames.”
Irena nodded. “We have an arsenal of conjurations in mind.”
“Good. And I suspect that we’ll want to start with wall formations, but the trolls are hiding, so we could anticipate surprises.”
“Ah, so patrol formations?”
“Exactly,” Mikel said. Patrol formation was where they’d make teams of six with two of each of the three surviving Grimnir classes. They’d stick together if things got dicey, and the combined skills would allow them to function more versitaly. It was a common unit formation—the same one used for island patrols. “Let’s get all the units together before we hit the treeline, then we’ll leave the militia with the horses and proceed on foot.”
Irena rushed to fulfill Mikel’s orders, going down the line and spreading the word. The Valtyra joined the procession, thinning out among the others as they all started getting paired up into their units.
Each passing second brought them closer to battle. Mikel thumbed the pommel of his sword and started mentally flipping through all their practiced battle tactics and which ones would be most effective against trolls.
Serena flew just over the edge of the forest, circling the area in case there was an early ambush set up, but she saw nothing. As they neared the edge of the forest, nothing smelled amiss, suggesting the trolls hadn’t ventured this far. They were waiting.
“Dismount,” Mikel ordered, hopping down from his own horse. “Militia will remain here. Grimnirs will proceed in formation.”
Most of the soldiers were not mounted, but those who were quickly dismounted and tied their reigns to smaller trees. The militia began setting up. They would need to defend the horses if any trolls got around and tried to attack from the rear. None of them wielded any magic, but, as those three students had recently proven at the beach, even humans without magic could still fight, even if their odds weren’t as good. He thought back again to the images on the pillars they’d passed just over an hour ago and shivered. Hopefully the trolls wouldn’t think to sneak around.
Serena flew down to Mikel’s shoulder. She gave him a small nod before snapping her beak and flying off into the trees. She’d stay close but provide a view from higher up in case they needed. Mikel took the lead, taking his round, wooden shield from off his horse, unsheathing his sword, and walking at the head of the army.
Mikel made sure to breathe deeply as they walked. He found that it helped him tap into his enhanced senses. The magic of Watchers and Valtyras was different than Vitugrs or Voyagers. He didn’t have to cast spells or activate anything for the most part. It was more or less an enhancement of his senses. His connection with Serena was different, however. That was something he had to tap into. He did have at least two spells in his arsenal, and they were simple enough to cast, but enabled him to detect magic or life. He cast the spell for detecting magic, though it felt more like activating a muscle with the simplicity of blinking. It did require mental exertion to maintain the spell, similar to the act of counting in his head.
The problem in this case was that the forest outside Vanalf was ingrained with traces of magic. Nymphs, dryads, sprites, and other fairies were practically everywhere, and their entire beings were mostly magical. Even some of the trees were laced with spells, likely cast by the nymphs and dryads. This was sacred ground for them. He did not sense any trolls, though he did sense a few sprites looking down at them from high among the branches. Using the spell was like having a third eye, though he didn’t see things visually. It was really its own sense altogether.
They kept a steady pace through the forest. The last time he’d been through here, there had been a lot more wildlife and magical entities present, but now it seemed like there was only a fraction. That had been only four or five years ago. Could things really have changed so quickly? Perhaps the trolls had scared most things away except for the sprites and a few fairies. They were too curious to flee.
They made it a couple miles through the forest without any incident, but the next stretch was a little steeper as it drew close to Vanalf. It would not accommodate battle formations very easily as the trail was quite narrow and there were mild slopes to either side. If the trolls had a good understanding of the landscape after they’d arrived, they would have known this would be a good place to establish an ambush.
Mikel sent a mental message to Serena, and she flew out to one side.
Trolls were known for masking themselves quite effectively, both visually and to magical senses, but skilled Watchers from their histories had still been able to identify them. But Mikel had never sensed a troll before, nor had any of the Watchers in his army. How hard could it be?
He sensed the whooshing of air as a boulder rocketed toward his head before he ever sensed the troll. He dove to the ground and rolled back to his feet as the boulder crashed into the ground directly behind him. “On the ridge!” he bellowed. “Formations!”
Their presence was evident now. He could sense the trolls as muted blobs of essence, similar to the trees. Even squirrels had more presence to his detect life spell than the trolls, but he realized they’d been there for a while now, even before they’d started down this portion of the trail. They’d walked right into a trap.
Stolen story; please report.
The boulder behind him launched back into the air, reshaping into a jagged pillar as a Vitugr hurled it back at the assailant. It crashed into the troll’s shoulder, and the beast fell from its vantage and started rolling down the hill. There were at least a dozen of them up on the right side. They were large, ugly creatures, nearly twice as tall as a human and thrice as thick. Their large, saucer-like eyes glittered as a hail of hurled stones showered down toward the Grimnir Guard.
Mikel jumped ahead to avoid another boulder.
Other Grimnirs were not as fortunate. There were at least three screams behind him as some of the troops were struck.
The army burst into action. A volley of stones erupted back towards the trolls, and several Valtyras launched toward the trolls, the volley of stones flying right beneath their feet.
The stones from the Vitugrs pounded into the trolls just before the Valtyras drew near enough to stab down with their spears and tridents. Several of the trolls were impaled immediately. This portion of the battle would be over quickly.
But when he tapped into his detect life spell, he sensed several more trolls on the ridge, hiding behind the initial line. Before he could even shout a warning, a line of trolls stepped out of their cover, jabbing massive spears up at the Valtyras. Many of them were stabbed.
By the depths. He’d never expected such coordination from them, and the results were already staggering. This was no simple troll clan. These were warriors.
Several Watchers had formed a pseudo-line as they ran up the incline to assist the Valtyras. Mikel was about to join them when he sensed something else.
More trolls, but on the other side.
“Shield!” he yelled.
Their many drills had prepared the army for this command. Watchers raised their shields and the Vitugrs cast a sealing spell that would form a massive barricade over their heads. It was just in time to prevent another volley of devastating boulders from pulverizing them from the other side.
The trolls chose this time to shout a battle cry that vibrated the very ground. They all roared, which, with Mikel’s enhanced senses, felt like a horn blaring directly in his ears.
But the Vitugrs got to work. Large tangles of vines erupted over the trolls on the left while a combined formation of Valtyras and Watchers rushed up the hill.
Mikel needed to fight. He was already closer to the right side of the ridge, so he ran to catch up with the line of Watchers that would engage the trolls in moments. The Valtyras on this side had all moved back, several of them clutching new wounds. Three had fallen dead, and one was being strangled by a troll while using an axe to chop into its side. He’d help her if he could get there in time. He hurried to a sprint, rushing up the hill.
The Valtyra’s eyes bulged as the troll lifted her off the ground. It tried to shake the weapon from her grasp, but she hacked at its shoulder one more time before it slammed her into the ground and lifted a foot to stomp on her.
With a double-handed swing, Mikel jumped forward and hacked at the troll’s arm right at the elbow. Warm blood spurted up his arms, but he was unphased and hacked again, this time chopping into the troll’s head, cracking the bone beneath. He placed his foot against the troll’s shoulder and kicked it back so that it didn’t fall on the Valtyra.
The warrior gasped for air and clasped Mikel’s hand as he pulled her up. Her wings flicked, eyes still wide. He sensed an attack from the side, and the Valytra barely had time to scream before one of the massive spears took her straight through the gut.
Mikel roared and spun on the assailant, a hunched troll with grayed skin. Its mouth gaped open and sharp, yellowed teeth jutted irregularly. It tried withdrawing its spear to stab at Mikel, but the Valtyra held onto the shaft, keeping the weapon impaled in her stomach. Mikel rushed the troll. With one slash, he cut across the troll’s arm. It released its weapon, and instead of pulling back, it swung its other arm at him with a massive fist. Mikel ducked and spun forward, dodging the punch and slicing across the belly of the troll.
It kicked him, its bare foot smashing into his chest, big toe knocking into his chin, toenail cutting the skin. The downside to his enhanced senses was that he could sometimes detect an attack coming, but was often too slow to actually avoid it. This was such a scenario. His sword was halfway through its arc across the troll’s stomach when the kick started coming.
In anticipation, he’d had enough time to start moving back. He stumbled a couple steps backwards but didn’t fall. The troll held its injured hand to its stomach, probably holding its guts in as it charged forward, oblivious to its pain. One hand formed a large fist as it prepared to smash down at him. A spear stabbed it in the armpit, stopping it short. The Valtyra had removed the spear from herself, turned it around, and stabbed back. She’d probably die at any second. Blood practically poured from her gaping wound. This was her final act, face twisted in pain, drained of all color.
The troll bellowed as Mikel lunged forward, stabbing it in the knee. It dropped low enough for Mikel to stab again, this time puncturing it right through one of its plate-sized eyes.
Both the troll and the Valtyra fell to the ground.
He’d earned a second to breath and regain his bearings. The sounds of war echoed around him as people and trolls yelled and died.
A fleeting image from Serena caught his attention, and he whirled to face back down the hill. Charging up the path at an alarming speed were five dire wolves with collars on their necks.
Nature’s rays, this was no simple invasion. This was a calculated attack.
The Vitugrs were holding their position between the two hills while the Watchers and Valtyras had moved to the sides to attack the trolls. Those dire wolves would tear straight into the Vitugrs.
Mikel yelled warning down to them, but his voice disappeared among the din. He jumped down the hill, trying to run carefully enough not to trip and kill himself on his own sword. One of the Vitugrs noticed the approaching wolves, and a series of stone-crafted spears jutted from the ground. The first wolf was instantly impaled, but the next one jumped right over.
Despite Mikel’s request to avoid using fire magic, another Vitugr shot a jet of flame at the wolf, but his reaction was too slow. The wolf pounced and gnashed down directly on another Vitugr’s head. The flames scorched across the wolf and burned another Vitugr. More rocks showered down from the left side as some of the trolls broke free from the vines. The Viturgrs erupted into chaos, spells blasting everywhere. They were all falling out of formation, fighting man-for-man.
No, no, no. They were out of practice. Drills had only prepared them so much. Only a few of them had kept with the patrol formation he had them set up before marching through the forest, but most of the Vitugrs remained at the center without backing up their smaller units.
The other direwolves were already over the spikes by the time Mikel arrived. The burned wolf fell to axes, but the other three were tearing through the Vitugrs. Mikel slammed into the side of one, ramming it with his shield and stabbing straight through it with his sword. Its massive body slumped down with a whimper. A Vitugr jammed a spike of ice straight through its skull to finish it off.
The remaining two wolves went down quickly once they were spotted. Their initial success had been due to their surprise attack. Something that would not have happened if a couple Watchers had remained with them.
Five of the Vitugrs had been taken down.
The casualties would have been completely preventable if he’d had the sense to remain with them. Even now, he had to resist the urge to dash off to either side and assist the battle, but the Vitugrs would need him here in case there were more big surprises.
And there was. A very, very big surprise.
A Valtyra fell from the sky, crashing to the ground just in front of Mikel, but he paid the dead man no mind. The trees further down the trail splintered and snapped, a massive head emerging from the branches as the trees were pushed aside like leaves.
No, there were two heads, joined together on the same body.
A giant. It was as ugly as the trolls, but its limbs were longer and thicker, and it stood over twice as tall as the trolls.
This required no warning.
The giant uprooted two trees with either arm. The fact that an entire giant had been able to crawl through Vanalf was sign enough that their magical defenses had completely eroded.
Behind him, he heard Irena’s familiar voice as she ordered the Vitugrs to launch a volley at the giant. A variation of spells exploded over Mikel’s head, from glowing arrows, to spears of ice and stone. The giant swung a tree, skillfully deflecting most of the projectiles, but a few of them pierced its hand, and one of the stone spears even jabbed it in the face, just below its eye.
“Fire at will,” Mikel bellowed in his loudest voice. They needed to take whatever opening they could get.
Even if they didn’t hear him, the Vitugrs seemed to understand what was necessary. A near-constant barrage of projectiles launched at the giant as it charged up toward them. It continued using one of the trees to bat them away, but then it hurled one of the trees at the Vitugrs.
Mikel, despite his better instinct, ran forward to meet the giant, the tree flying over his head. The tree crashed down with a chorus of screams. Someone launched a full fireball at the giant that pounded into its knee. Its hand was prickled with wounds, and it seemed fully intent on tearing through all the Vitugrs. Two Valtyras flew at the giant from either side, and it swatted one away like he was a fly. The other one stabbed down with her spear, puncturing the back of the giant’s neck, but it continued forward.
One of the heads glanced down at Mikel. He braced himself, stepping from one side of the trail to the other in a sort of zigzag pattern. The giant didn’t seem to want to delay reaching the Vitugrs, as they were the greatest nuisance to him, so he suspected it would merely swat or stomp at him as it continued, and he’d need to dodge it.
His suspicion was correct. The thing about giants was that their movements, though still quick, were more easily predictable. When it held back its arm to swipe at him with the tree, he knew what he’d have to do. From his observations, this was no fumbling oaf. The giant was keen and precise. It would likely calculate Mikel’s projection, so he had to throw that off.
As the arm swung, he stopped and jumped back, though one of his feet slipped against the moistened soil. He didn’t move back as far as he’d hoped. Although he dodged the trunk of the tree pulverizing him, a few of the branches whipped across his body, several pine needles slashing along his face.
He fell flat on his back, the sting shocking him into stark awareness. He rolled to one side to avoid the edge of the giant’s foot and sprang back to his feet. As anticipated, it wasn’t going to bother finishing him. It was set on rushing the Vitugr.
With the mightiest blow he could muster, he swung his sword at the back of the giant’s knee, hoping to sever a tendon. His blade slid across the exact place he’d been hoping, but he hadn’t anticipated the roughness of the giant’s skin. He’d broken through the skin, but the tendon beneath held firm, though clearly damaged.
The giant roared and stumbled, falling to its knee. It smashed down with the tree at the same time, completely crushing a Vitugr into the ground.
Mikel wasted no time and swung down, this time aiming for the back of the giant’s foot, hacking down like he was chopping wood. The first hack broke through with a fleshy thunk, and the second hack snapped through the tendon, though not completely. The giant whipped a hand back and smacked Mikel before he could get the third hack in. Mikel fell down the trail, tumbling through bushes. Pain lanced through his left shoulder, and his own shield smacked him in the jaw before getting loosed from his grip.
As soon as he stopped rolling, he launched back to his feet, though his left ankle burned terribly. He spat blood and limped his way back towards the battle. The giant had crawled into the Vitugrs, who had spread out to avoid its reach, but not before it claimed several of them. Two more Valtyras stabbed into the giant’s back as a flurry of spells exploded against its heads.
A few Grimnirs tumbled down the ridge to Mikel’s right as a wall of trolls barrelled down. There were perhaps twenty trolls in that formation. How many trolls had gotten through? Was this all a setup? It seemed too well planned. Perhaps they’d let Lind get away. Maybe they’d watched him the entire time, letting him think he was catching them early.
Dead Grimnirs filled the trail by the dozens, their bodies thrown back down the hill as the trolls took the ridges. The Watchers and Valtyras to either side had started to fall back. They needed to back out of the ridge and hold the top of the trail. He needed to rally them.
That was when something struck him on the side of the head, causing his vision to explode into stars. He felt the ground beneath him as he stared up at the sky. Serena soared above him, her voice cawing into the wind.
He blinked slowly. He’d lost feeling in one of his legs, and his ears rang as though Serena’s caw would never stop. Something had hit him pretty good. He moved his fingers, but he’d lost his sword. With a groan, he lifted his head to look at his right hand. It was covered in blood. His blood? It was all across the front of his clothes.
His left arm hung limply as he tried to sit up. A wet shiver trembled across his neck. When he went to wipe the sweat away from his face, his hand came away with more blood. Nature’s rays. Realization settled on him with a flush of horror. He was going to die.
He turned to look back up the hill where the battle still raged. Or so he thought. It was still. The giant was a crumpled heap. There were probably over a hundred dead trolls, and there wasn’t a living Grimnir in sight. The only movement was from Serena, flying in circles over Mikel, her incessant cawing the only sound.
But he was wrong. Something else was moving. A troll. It caught sight of him and started crawling over. It appeared severely injured as well. One of its arms was missing just above the elbow, and a long gash across its face left only one eye functional.
Mikel looked around frantically, though his vision spun. His sword was there, embedded in his own leg. He must have fallen on it. He gritted his teeth and wrenched the weapon free.
The troll laughed as it approached, a bubbling, grinding laughter as though it were drowning in a pile of rocks. “Too late, Grimnir,” it said, words barely comprehensible. “Avskild will fall.” Its feet shuffled across the ground as it struggled to make its way closer to him.
If Mikel had to guess, the creature was also on the verge of death. Its one remaining hand clutched what looked like a butcher’s knife.
Mikel placed his sword across his lap and glanced up at Serena. I’m sorry. He roared and lifted himself up using just his good leg. Agony tore through his body, from his head to his open wounds.
The troll only laughed more as it prepared to swing at him. Serena dove down, her beak piercing the troll’s remaining eye. It screamed in rage and thwacked her away. Mikel thrust his sword, piercing the troll straight through the chest. He fell forward with the movement, his vision going black.
When had it gotten so dark?
There was darkness everywhere, and he was so tired. So very tired.