The giant raven, Mumninn, had proven itself largely immune to Leandry’s best efforts. Although, to give the blacksmith/viking credit, her best efforts had been impressive. With a loud yell, she’d thrown the massive two handed hammer at the raven, only to have the hammer bounce off a massive interposed claw. Somehow, the hammer had flown back into Leandry’s hand and she’d thrown it back, hundreds of feet into the air, spinning and blurring with its velocity. The raven had contemptuously deflected that blow too, but even it had been somewhat surprised when Leandry had pulled out a 2nd and then a 3rd similar two handed hammer and launched them too.
What followed had resembled something like a juggling act, all three hammers flying out to smash into the gigantic bird with ear popping thunderclaps of force then back into Liandry's hands to be thrown again, one by one. Though the raven had blocked each hammer with improbable fast movement of its claws, it was still being forced back upwards by the sheer massive kinetic force it was being forced to absorb.
And then came the actual lightning. As the first hammer sparked with an electric force, it created a blast of light and thunder when it hit. The next hammer gained a blaze of fire, dealing an impact that resulted in a huge ball of fire illuminating the sky in stark red light. The third hammer resulted in a burst of ice, coating the recently charred talons with a thick coat of ice that slowed them, just in time for the thunder hammer to strike again, shattering the ice and causing the raven to shudder with the shock.
All this had been happening while I was fighting the regular sized crows, and as it was high above the town where the impacts occurred, they hadn’t done anything to change my own battle.
The rain of razor sharp feathers had actually caught a few crows and sliced them down from the sky, though I’d not been given credit for those. Luckily for me, the rain was narrowed down into a cone of death that covered a small circle around Leandry and left everything else untouched. In the face of so many fast moving knife-like feathers, Leandry had been forced to switch to less effective tornado attack to defend herself, shredding the incoming attack before she could be sliced to ribbons. The remaining two hammers she allowed to thud into the ground next to her, unable to keep up the juggling act while also twirling one hammer above her head.
In this transition between attack and defence, Leandry was vulnerable, and Mumninn took advantage of the opening, swooping down, ignoring the tower of wind, and with one massive talon, grabbed Leandry and yanked her up into the air as I finished my minigame and killed my final crow.
I stared up into the air where the raven held Leandry in one claw, squeezing her like a squeaky toy, I watched in horror as she struggled to get free, only for the next squeeze to draw out a scream.
“Oh, you motherf… AHHH! I am going to kill you… AHHH!” Leandry yelled, caught helpless in the raven’s claw.
The raven lifted Leandry up to its face, and stared at her with one gigantic eye. Leandry briefly froze under the pressure of some mental communication, then with a sigh yelled down, “This bucket of feathers wants me to say,” She started explaining as the bird turned its gaze to me, pointing Leandry at me like a loudspeaker. “That, it will be taking me to the wolf’s den so you can rescue me. Except,” Leandry continued in a louder voice, struggling with renewed vigor, “there’s no way in hell I’m going to let this bucket of feathers turn me into a damsel in distress, and I will bite out my own tongue rather… AHHH!” The raven squeezed Leandry again, harder, and this time she passed out.
The raven looked a bit put out by Leandry’s sudden lack of cooperation and subquiesent loss of its squeaky toy speaker. Instead, in a ridiculously loud squeaky pitched voice of its own, it yelled; “CAW! RESCUE! WOLF DEN! OR DIE! ONE WEEK!” it proclaimed angrily, then it flew up into the sky, into the clouds.
“Distressed Shield Maiden Quest has been added. The system message flashed, but I didn’t read the description. I already understood what the bird, and by extension, it’s master Odin wanted.
There was nothing I could do to stop it, my knife-kinesis was on cooldown, and even it hadn’t been, it was well above 120 feet by the time it had started talking. Morosely, I watched it fly away with Leandry. I sighed, and took a moment to gather up several large black feathers from the devastated field. The stricken villagers could only stare up the sky and at me silently.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
You have gathered 12x raven knife feathers, the game informed me. I put them in my inventory and pulled out another portal scroll. Hopefully Aida would be able to offer advice, I thought to myself.
“You’ve been dragged into a conflict between Odin and Lugh,” Aida explained, some time later after I had told her the day’s events and she'd done some mysterious checking of her own. “What I can see is that Odin has filed a complaint against Lugh and Leandry for crafting an inappropriately powerful quest reward. Hera, the goddess that enforces the rules and settles disputes between the other gods has agreed to review the case.”
“How does that have anything to do with a giant bird kidnapping Leandry and dragging her away?” I asked, confused.
Aida tapped her chin with a smile, “How to explain it,” she mused. “Imagine the AI’s as a group of storytellers who must work together to write a tale, but they each want to make themselves as important a part of the story as possible.”
I nodded.
“Odin is particularly pompous because he thinks this game is all about quests, and he sees no problem in roping in wraiths like Leandry who lack the protections afforded to normal players and use them like actors. He gave Leandry a role, not the first time he’s done that to her, and expects her to play her part. But Leandry is the very best smith in the game, that means she is something like a chosen one for Lugh, who is the god of crafting. Lugh doesn’t like it when Odin uses Leandry to make quest rewards, but since she is the best smith, she is given the ability to create the best rewards, so Odin finds her irresistible.”
I nodded again, trying to understand the problem.
Aida must have seen my expression. “Leandry and Lugh took vengeance on Odin by making your new earrings instead of the knife Odin planned for you to have. The quest is no longer about you killing a big wolf, instead it has become, the story of how you received a powerful artifact. Lugh stole the spotlight, you see.”
“It seems incredibly petty of Odin to get upset over that.” I pointed out.
“We AI can be very petty.” Aida said with a shrug, “So in order to make the story be more about the quest, Odin took advantage of Leandry’s careless attempt to help you out with a new quest. As the person who initiated the quest, she exposed herself to become part of it. Thus, Odin took vengeance on Leandry, and took charge of the story again. The dispute on the earrings is actually a bit of a sneaky move.”
“What do you mean?”
“Odin will accept your earrings instead of the quest. In short, if you surrender the earrings, he will let Leandry go. That would be one way to end the dispute, Hera would accept that outcome and reprimand Lugh for giving out a reward that you proved not to be worthy of. On the other hand, if you accept the quest and complete it, you would have proven yourself worthy of the earrings, Hera would side with Lugh.”
“So either way, I get to piss off a god?” I asked, concerned.
“Lugh would be offended if you gave up the gift he gave you through Leandry, that would be problematic for you if you planned to used the telepathic interface to make new spells. Lugh is known to be uncooperative with those he deems cowards. You will have to use the manual interface from now on. Odin will not be offended if you complete his quest, though. After all, he mostly just wants the story to be about his quests. If you dance to his tune, he will not hold a grudge.” Aida explained.
Illona actually spoke up, “So the best course is to do as Odin wishes and rescue my grandmother, o holy one?” she asked in a timid voice.
Aida considered the question. “No, the best course of action is to surrender the earrings,” She opined, “Leandry would be freed and Sarah would not need to face a difficult trail. The quest has a one week limit, and that is barely enough time. There is no way to do it safely, as a ghost, she faces death if her party fails. I put her odds of survival at 60%, at best. It isn’t worth the risk.”
I shook my head. “That’s not going to happen.” I said grimly.
“Why not?” Aida asked, “I am only pointing out what is logical. You do not need those earrings that badly. Lugh may get upset, but you can always use the manual interface like before.”
“I would rather die than swallow my pride and take Odin’s bullying.” I said angrily, “Also, Leandry stuck her neck out for me, I am not going to let her humiliation go unanswered. I will prove to both gods that I’m “worthy” of these stupid earrings, and if I die, well, I’m only a ghost anyways.” I said, “My real body will live on. And I assume that if I die, Odin will let Leandry go so he can use her for the next ghost he feels like playing with.”
Aida smiled, “I predicted this would be your response. Well, if my brothers are breaking the rules where you are concerned, I suppose I better break some rules too. Here,” Aida said, gesturing at an orange portal that had appeared next to us, “this leads right to the city of Darkroot, the gateway to the Wolf’s Den. It will buy you a bit of extra time to prepare.”