EV B2 Chapter 3:

As I chopped wood, I had more time than I wanted to think. The stack seemingly went on for hours, even though I powered through it at a superhuman rate that even a team of five ordinary men would have struggled to keep up with. I never ran out of work to do, and the sun slowly dipped beneath the horizon.

Haldor's daughter, who was young and beautiful, came out to greet me. She looked like some modern girl with a skincare routine and clearly ate well enough to grow to a full five-nine. She gave me the old furs that her father had offered. I was frankly surprised that he would let her out of his sight with a strange man on the property wielding an ax. But I figured this was maybe part of the test. I couldn't tell.

I simply put the furs on for a few moments, realized I was too warm, and continued chopping wood. Was this some test of patience? I couldn't decide.

As the sun dipped and touched the horizon, Haldor came out and looked at the mountain of cut and stacked wood I had created—nearly larger than his house. He simply nodded in satisfaction and offered me a place at his dinner table and a bed in the hayloft. At least it was sheltered and warm from the storm that was brewing on the horizon.

Baffled, I went along with the idea.

When eating dinner with his family, his youngest son said to me, "Miles, we haven't had a traveler in such a long time. Do you have any stories--"

His mother cut in, "Eric, we had one just last month. He stopped by and did a little bit of work for some food."

"Yeah, but that was ages ago," the boy, who couldn't have been more than ten, whined with a drawn-out complaint in his voice. So typical of children at that age. I couldn't help but smile, reminded of home in many ways.

I couldn't tell how this was part of the challenge. Was there supposed to be some sort of proof that I was a good person and didn't pillage, burn, or rape? I wasn't sure, but I had dinner in peace and took my new fur, rolling into a ball in the hayloft, and fell asleep—slightly exhausted from my long day of hard work.

Still, it couldn't have been more than a second when I found myself being woken. I wasn't exactly sure what it was—was it screams in the distance or a light? Or maybe the disturbance of the livestock in the pens nearby? Either way, I rubbed the sleep blearily from my eyes and walked outside to see what was going on in the harbor.

Lights bobbed on some vessels that had not been there earlier. They had been pulled up to the beach, and several large fires from the nearby town were engulfing straw huts. Now, outside, I could hear battle cries and screams of terror.

Haldor was only a second behind me, rushing out of his house. He looked at me nervously. I could see the caution in his eyes. A stranger who had arrived a day before the night raid? How suspicious was that? Was something planned? Was I a mole in the backline, some sort of trap to cut them off?

But I simply raised my hands, indicating the lack of a weapon. I didn't even have an ax with me. I imagine if I'd come to the trial armed, that might have been different, but… well.

The look of suspicion faded from his eyes, and he nodded at me. "We need to get the children away. I have a hidey-hole up in the mountains," he nodded. "The raiders will leave, and we'll come back down when they're gone. It's happened many times before. They'll take some women, livestock, and plunder, but they won't stay and conquer. Not with as few warriors. But we need to move now," he said.

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I frowned. Was that the test? Was I supposed to prevent this, not be a coward by running away with him and his family? Was I supposed to stay and fight? I looked down. Unless the warriors were also warriors of Valhalla, I had little doubt about my ability to single-handedly repel the invasion. Maybe if they all came at me at once on an open field, I wouldn't have a chance. But if they spread out to the houses, it was just a matter of hunting them down one by one. That would have been the case for almost any of the warriors of Valhalla.

But then, this was the first step of the trial. I suppose I didn't even know how much progress this had counted for. My chopping of wood hadn't even counted in the slightest towards progress, so the scenario clearly wasn't done.

I shook my head. "You take them. I want to defend the town."

Haldor looked at me like I was crazy, but eventually, he shrugged, turned, and disappeared into his house.

Going around the side, I found the ax that I'd been using to split wood and hefted it. Axes weren't my favorite. In fact, I didn't really know how to use them properly according to my skills, but that wasn't going to stop me. I had gotten pretty proficient with just swinging it at some wood, and that wasn't much different than chopping it into another person.

So, starting off at a jog, I ran toward the fight.

The first pair of fighting warriors I stopped at—I couldn't tell the difference. They looked very similar. Clearly, they weren't the same person, but which one was the Viking? Which one was the raider? Which one was the defender? They were both Viking warriors with tattoos and braids, bearing shields and swords. One belt bore a shield and a one-handed axe, the other a sword. They traded blows fiercely until one was cut down, but even then, the victor just ran down the street. Was he looking for another invader to kill, or was he looking for someplace to plunder? I had no idea.

Frowning, I dashed through the streets, seeing several other encounters but not quite sure who was the aggressor or not. Was this something that the warriors of Valhalla were supposed to fight? No. Was it the tattoos, the meaning, or something? The confusion and the fires spreading from house to house, the screaming innocents running and fleeing or hiding, and the warriors clashing in the streets—everything was chaos.

I cut down one man who was trying to light a torch on a roof made of hay. That clearly wasn't a defender of the town. Unfortunately, there was no one to see me do that—no one to come to my aid or challenge me to kill one of their invading comrades.

So I worked my way towards the beach, where I found three boats with dragon masts and wide square sails. I carried a torch with me that I'd picked up along the way, and as I was there, I went to the first boat, leaped on board, and killed the two men left on watch. I set fire to its sails. This prompted a reaction. Several men came running from the town. I stood in their way, holding my axe in a ready stance, crossing my body but otherwise relaxed on my toes, ready for combat.

The first man came at me, and I slipped to the side, bringing the axe blade trailing behind me—down and low, cutting into his upper thigh. He stumbled past me as I ducked under his blade and engaged the next opponent with a pair of strikes that also left him dead at my feet. I counter-charged and scythed through them like a blade through wheat.

Once I had a moment, I burned the other two ships. Standing on the beach, I looked at the dozen or so corpses around me, panting slightly, thinking how much easier this was with my proper stats rather than the limitations of my most recent life.

Time seemed to pass unnaturally. Once the last man fell, dawn broke. I could see the remains of the town smoldering and the ships burning behind me. I set off at a light jog back up to Haldor's place, wondering if they had managed to make it back.

But I found his house empty.

Frowning, I followed the small trail leading off to where Haldor had nodded. Perhaps they were still hiding, but with the way time had passed… something was different. By the time I got to the cave before I rounded the bend, I could already smell the iron tang of blood in the air.

I turned the corner and found, in a shallow cave, the bodies of everyone I had eaten dinner with. I didn't see any attackers or anything—just them, dead.

I stood there—hurt, confused, torn up inside. A weird jumble of emotions. Should I have stayed and protected them? But then the whole town would have burned. Was this a test about seeking glory or defense?

I just let my thoughts trail off as I stood there, absolutely bewildered. Then, a progress bar appeared before me: 1% complete of the first challenge.