Harkon marched across the battlefield slaying many elves as he did, the massive polar bear in it's heavy plate armor growled as it swatted an elf to the side, many in the elves golden legions tried to shoot him but his skin was thicker than that of an elephants hide, thick enough that the arrows and flimsy if not sharp blades the elves used were all but scratches, he smacked them with the side of his axe or cleaved them in two without even looking at them, he saw his target, a massive drake the size of a damn house, compared to that he felt more akin to fighting a hill of ants, he wanted it, he was certain that would fulfill the desire for war inside his very soul!

He ran forward wading through the elves like a river, after three steps he bellowed a warcry. "Fucking mooooooove! Avalanche!" He roared, and swung his massive battleaxe the runes glowing a frost blue and a tidal wave of ice crashed through the elven legion.

Hadrian Imperial legionnaires marched through the hole he made, and attacked.

Harkon rolled his shoulders, as his enchanted axes cold blades giant runes glowed he raised the axe and roared as he walked over the many frozen bodies in his path, the ice would probably melt, in a year or so. He saw the drake warden glaring at him, and the drake turned toward him, it roared and Harkon bellowed back with a laugh. Pado his polar bear walked up next to him and bore it's teeth, though it stayed well behind Harkon.

He ran up the sloping ice and leapt raising his battle axe as the drake leaned back dodging his attack that would have cleaved it's head in twine, it reared to it's back legs and spewed a shower of electricity down on him from it's mouth and the tips of it's wings, he growled as his muscles contracted but thankfully his rage was still active halving the damage, he roared back and started to grow to twice his height which was impressive given he was already eight feet tall, and slammed his massive axe axe which was enchanted to grow with him it's blunted end slammed straight into the side of the drakes head, he heard it's skull crack and it's long neck swung to the side it shrieked, looked back at him it's eye was scraped and electricity crackled all along it's blue scales. The warden on his back raised a hand and a bolt struck him in the chest, the drake leapt air and flapped it's massive wings, Harkon grabbed it's tail and with some effort swung it back to the ground, his bear grappled it's throat and held it down it swept it's claws across Harkon's chest drawing three massive cuts, Harkon grinned at the dragon as he raised his axe and brought it down on it's throat.

Harkon stood over the slain drake slowly shrinking back down to normal size, it's rider was stuck under it's massive blue body, he slammed the pommel of his battle axe down into the ground ice crept across the ground and he helped himself down to the ground as he sat in front of the elven drake warden. He grabbed his mead horn from his belt and took a swig from it before offering the mead horn to the man. "You and your drake fought well enough, at least worthy of a drink."

The elf looked at the old bulls horn, then up at Harkon, before taking it and took a swig and spat it in his face. He wiped the mead from his face and took another swig emptying out the entire horn and then grabbed the elf by the head wrenched him out from the drakes massive body, the elves leg bones were gravel, Harkon smacked the man around like a wet towel before throwing him him into the air where their body landed with a wet splat two hundred feet away. He grabbed the large drake by its neck and heaved, lifting the massive draconian over his shoulder and walked back to his side of the battlefield. Many of the elves were routing and retreating, He grabbed the Drakes body by the bleeding neck and dragged it's massive body over his shoulder.

He walked back to the command tent, the pair of guards who were standing before him, they hesitantly moved out of the way of the massive blood covered man, where the rest of his party was gathered around a command table with the emperor in his shiny enchanted mithril armor, sitting in his throne, Harkon sat down at the end of the table the chair there creaking under his weight.

Terisa, The rogue, looked at the blood covered barbarian. "Took you long enough, the rest of us cleared out our segments nearly fifteen minutes ago." She was a small woman with black leather armor with a short sword.

Joseph, the fighter, a broad chested blond man in his thirties who was clean shaven, he had apparently been summoned from a world called earth to assist the empire in this war against the elves, The fighter looked at the rogue. "Come on, you know how he is, he wants the biggest monsters to fight, he practically ignores anything short of an actual giant."

Gaerith, the wizard, an frail man like many mages, he needed a staff to walk, he scoffed at the barbarian. "Come on, did you have to drag the corpse of a drake all the way here and into the tent, before emperor fucking Hadrian himself?"

Harkon nodded, grunting. "Yeah, and?"

The mage looked like he was about to burst a blood vessel, Harkon sometimes enjoyed pissing Gaerith off by playing a moron. "Why you-"

The emperor raised a hand on his silencing the mage, the man was a muscular man with scars and blemishes and clearly not a sissy man who hides behind a wall while his men die. "The others have asked their boons, what boon would you Harkon Battlestar, ask of your emperor?"

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Harkon hadn't thought about what he would ask of the emperor, a new axe? no his own is already of legendary status, armor? no... his skin was already thick enough to block even elves razor sharp blades. Maybe it's about time. "I want a plot of land, big, lots of woods, with a mountain, I'm retiring."

The party looked at him slightly shocked, Joseph slammed his fist on the table cracking it in two. "We talked about this Harkon! You said you weren't going to retire!"

Harkon looked at him. "I am done, I've not fought anything that's given me a challenge in months, I'm bored, I'm tired, I'm done."

Gaerith barked a laugh. "Finally."

Terisa smacked Gaerith on the back of the head. "Oh Shut it you bookworm, who's gonna tank damage for you?"

Gaerith shook his head. "I can always just summon a-"

Terisa smacked him again. "Shut, up, we need him you hunch backed book worm."

Joseph crossed the room a glare in his eyes. "Are you a fool? You're easily the strongest barbarian in the empire, we need you, the empire needs you Harkon."

Harkon looked at him, despite sitting down they were eye to eye, Pado snarled stood up to it's full twelve foot height it's head brushing the top of the roof. "I'm done." Harkon said. "it's been a fun journey, but I just want a home, a nice place away from people, maybe raise a family."

The emperor hadn't said a single word the entire time they were arguing, or rather the entire time Joseph had been yelling at Harkon while he sat there with a blank look on his face. after three minutes the emperor shouted for Joseph to shut up. "He has contributed much to our empire, if he finds it is time to retire then that's his decision, now sit down and you 'are' paying for a new war table."

Joseph looked at the expensive table who's wood was a dark red and black which came from the rare dragons blood tree, and he paled at the price that must it cost. "Yes emperor"

The emperor fixed his eyes on Harkon, standing as to not be looked down upon by the massive man. "I will write a will for your house to be in the northernmost border of our empire, it's a relatively peaceful place, only the occasional gang of bandits, giant monster or frost elementals will bother you, overall, it's a place that few would make a place to live much less nobles but it seems right up your alley. there's a small village in this land but they tend to be a rather shut in folk, you'll get a noble rank with this, I know it might not interest you but it's there regardless, you'll be known as Baron Battlestar from today forth, your former party has been given noble titles as well." He said, his voice despite the scars on his face sounded imperious and regal.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

1 month later.

Harkon rode on a sled to his new house Pado pulled the sled his massive pink tongue flapping from the side of his gaping maw as he ran, though a massive cloud of snow covered him as he moved, his white fur blending perfectly with the snow, for all anyone knew his wagon was pulling itself. They moved quickly through the snow, it was winter now and the massive drake hide and bones was hitched to the large wagon it was a heavy load but then again Pado wasn't just your average bear, he was a soulbound bear, he had a good fifty percent of Harkon's strength, Harkon smiled as he saw the silhouette of the large house in the distance, then frowned as ragged figures with weapons walked right into the path. Pado didn't slow an ounce and plowed the bandits aside without any effort, it was like a twig put in the path of a raging bull, the massive bear slowed only when they came to the front of the house, where Harkon saw his new house, it needed a bit of work, but it wasn't too bad all things considered. he walked over to Pado and gave him a large salmon and undid the harness that lashed him to the wagon. He walked over to the massive bundle of skin and bones that used to be a massive drake, he'd had it expertly tanned by the best monster taxidermy he knew, himself. He saw the bandits from earlier rushing across his yard toward them, the lead man who was now covered in snow and bruises ran up to him. "Hey! You didn't stop, that's a toll road!"

"Mhm." Harkon said, bending down and lifting the massive hide.

"That means you owe me money you big oaf!" The bandit said.

"Yup." Harkon said, carrying the hide to his doorway.

The lead bandit looked infuriated and drew his sword. "So give me your fucking money!"

Harkon grabbed the key from his pocket and opened his door set the massive roll of hide inside. he turned to the bandits. "Have a nice day." And shut the door in the lead highwayman's face though the door slammed with enough force that the frame shuddered.

the bandit pounded on his door with the pommel of his sword. "You bastard open up- oh god! who drives a cart with a bear!" The next thirty seconds was filled only with the roars of a massive bear and the screams of terrified dying men.

Meanwhile Harkon had taken some of the firewood stacked next to the fireplace and started to make a small fire in the hearth and sat down on the floor before it. "It's been a long time since I've been able to relax..." He said to himself. before getting up and letting Pado in and the two of them laid before the fire and fell asleep.