Beneath the frozen mountain range, within the snowy tundra, a group of armed men- 8 to be precise -aggressively surrounded a single hardy man. The situation however would seem strange and almost funny to any immediate observer, because rather than the single man trembling in fear, his presences seemed to dominate and intimidate the surrounding men. The men surrounding him, though each carrying a long one handed axe and a thick wooden buckler, seemed to shiver with apprehension at the thought of facing off with the single man, flinching whenever the man turned to look at them. The man’s name was Vlad.
Another strange point was that while a blizzard was currently raging in the background of the fight, the men were all scantly clad, albeit with identical gear. Upon each of their chest, the same symbol was etched. A white mountain behind a vertical blazing double edged axe, the shaft covered by a round white buckler.
“Well, if you wimps won’t act, then I shall make the first move! HYAA!” Growing impatient of the inactivity, Vlad decided to pre-emptively attack his opponents. Raising his axe overhead, in an unexpected twist, he dropped his arm backwards, bringing the double bladed axe down with it. The man behind him, caught off guard, hastily raised his shield catching the lower curved edge on the top of his shield. The man trembling from the blow hastily dropped into a crouch as he supported his shield arm with his other arm.
As if waking up from a daze, the man situated opposite the victim moved in to attack, jabbing his axe forward like a spear. Vlad quickly raised his buckler towards the strike, accurately blocking with the centre of his shield. Using the impact, Vlad launched himself backwards crushing the opponent behind him into the ground before bouncing back on to his feet. Feeling the heavy weight of impact through his shield, the man on the ground groaned and keeled over before quickly fainting, the shock from hitting the ice with his head knocking him out. The rest of the men galvanised into action, enclosed Vlad again.
Sharing a nod, the two men on the left and right of Vlad charged in brandishing their axes. Taking a big swing, both attackers brought down their axes in powerful overhead blows. Seeing the attack, Vlad took a step to his left, stepping into the circle of the swing and tilting his shield, slanting it so that the axe deflected off the side. Not striking the expected resistance, the man stumbled forwards, receiving a sharp kick to the shin and an elbow to the gut as he passed Vlad. Simultaneously, Vlad brought his axe into a horizontal slam, slamming the other incoming axe sideways. Striking at the shoulder of the axe, he proceeded to push off the axe bringing the flat side of the axe to meet the poor man’s face. 1*
At this point an intelligent observer would notice an incongruity with the whole fight; that although the battle was intense, no one had been severely maimed, nor anyone killed. The three men that lay on the ground were still breathing, and had only been rendered incapable of further action; one had fainted with a bloody nose, another curled in a fetal position regurgitating breakfast and the last was lying on the snow groaning about a cracked rib. But to those who recognised all the men here, that was to be expected.
Wanting to capitalise on their fallen comrades efforts, the rest of the men attacked together. The three still standing in front of Vlad all swung at him from different angles, hoping to land at least one hit home. However, to their surprise, they all heard the dull sound of their axe striking deeply into the buckler, before losing their grip on the shaft as the axe was forcefully yanked out of their hand. The shield moved like a blur in their eyes, rapidly catching their axes. Seeing Vlad pivot, the man on the very right instinctively raised his shield as he felt a powerful impact striking his shield, launching him off his feet and into his two neighbours, turning them into a pile of tangled arms and legs in the snow. In the same moment that Vlad’s axe had struck the shield, his left arm went around flinging out and dislodging axes from the shield. The axes flying at a fast velocity struck the left attacker who had been sneaking up from behind, the butt of the axe hitting his head and rendering him unconscious.
The last attacker who had been sneaking up from the right had luckily dodged the shaft that had come flying at him. He had gone in to attack with the rest, but in the moment he saw Vlad lunge and swipe all three of the frontal attackers away, he had realised that something was amiss. Normally a lunge like that could be used to dodge his attack from behind, but the move had been performed way too early, something that a strong fighter wouldn’t do without reason. And this was Vlad we were talking about- there was no way he would make such a basic mistake. With so many conjectures flowing through his brain, he hesitated charging further in…and in this moment of hesitation, he noticed the shield, a blur to him, continuing to swing around. Remembering the first victim’s unfortunate fate, he leaped back. Being more alert and further away from the shield then his companion on his left, he felt a gust of wind flow by as an axe intended for him narrowly missed his skull, eventually landing in the white snow a stone’s throw away. However, without even a moment to relax or correct his poor posture, he felt a blow to his stomach sending him flying. Whilst he had been focused on dodging the axe, he had failed to notice Vlad leaping backwards, and gripping the axe close to the head, jabbing him in the stomach with the shaft.
“And the drill is over! Lower your weapons!” Vlad boomed away. It was a very loud shout, so loud that an echo could be heard in the distant mountains. Luckily, it was a regular occurrence and the local folks had already accepted it…. not that they had much of a choice.
Feeling the ringing in their ears, the men still conscious on the ground clasped their ears. Quite a few choked, and some even vomited again after hearing his command…after all, he was the only man still armed! Suddenly, a piercing clapping could be heard as a man approached the lot. He wore a furry oversized hooded cloak and had a very short stature, almost as if his growth had been stunted, with an equally skinny body. He could be easily mistaken as a nine-year-old kid.
“What’s up Tyler?” On the contrary, Vlad had a bear like physique, rough facial features, his beard a forest of prickly stems. He had dark brown curly hair that was matted down, filled with fallen snow, and was very tall even by the country’s standards; over double the height of his friend Tyler. He had a bulging barrel chest, and his arms were as thick as an anvil.
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“Nothing much, just the daily report and a little surprise-?”
“-You mean Hildr?” 4*
“No, of course not-wait WHAT?! How did you know?” A deep sigh could be heard from Vlad at his friend’s exclamation.
“You know, I’ve known you for a long time, and it’s undeniable that you are one of the smartest if not the smartest person in this country. So how is it that you still keep overlooking so many simple mistakes?!”
“-so could you please explain-“
“-What are we standing on?” “Uh, snow and ice. Sedimentary; clastic rock, earthen and magic minerals. The underground ralline, mine tunnels-“ *3
“Yes, yes, yes, we don’t need the full outline. I know you spend lots of time indoors and underground, but come on; you were born and raised here. As the head of research and internal defence, I expect better-“
“Ah!” Tyler had been looking down whilst thinking and had finally noticed his obvious mistake; a pair of tracks in the snow beside him. “However, how did you know it was Hildr?”
“Well, although the tracks look unsteady, the footprints clearly belong to Hildr. Besides, who else would trust you enough to be put in your invisibility experiment?” Vlad suddenly realised that he was still in the company of some of his men. “Oh crap, that was meant to be secret. Hey you lot, you’ll all forget about what I just said and keep your mouth sealed right?”
“YES SIR!” shouted the injured men.
Receiving the scary look, the group gave a loud uniform affirmation whilst vigorously nodding. Vlad used to crack his knuckles, but the men had already heard enough about his memory erasing abilities that just a verbal threat was enough for them to fear for their lives. None of them wanted to go through the same punishment again. A few of the men who had just woken up from the shout revealed the white of their eyes, pretending to be unconscious again.
“Hmm, seems the discipline is still decent. I guess there’s no need to smash some skulls around. So tell me, what did you guys learn today?” Vlad turned his eyes questioningly at a young man.
“Sorry sir, I shouldn’t have worn my uniform backwards.” The young man contritely responded. As if that was the signal, the rest of the men hastily called out their crimes.
“I shouldn’t have come late for morning roll call.” “I shouldn’t have eaten my room mate’s rations.”
“I shouldn’t have told my sister in law my brother’s embarrassing stories.”
“I shouldn’t have written a love letter to Hildr.”
An awkward silence filled the region halting the procession of repentances as everyone turned to look at the young man who had said that. Even the few who were playing dead sat up and stared at him. Feeling the gazes of everyone, he started becoming flustered. Deciding to send the poor kid a lifeboat, Vlad said “Well, I’m busy right now, so that will be it for training. The other fault no one mentioned is that you all should have been stronger, and that your weakness is a fault in itself. Dismissed. All of you scram and make sure to pick up your mates on your way out.”
“YES SIR!” The group hurriedly left, some hobbling away as fast a possible. No one wanted to be put into another ‘training session’ due to tardiness or for being slow on his or her feet.
“Ha-ha, another group of pitiful soldiers on punching bag duty, dogged in by their comrades. Not to mention that poor fellow at the end, he’ll be in for a hell of a night. What does that make him, the fiftieth soldier to fall for her.” Tyler muttered under his breath.
Shaking his head in disappointment, Vlad turned around to face Tyler again. “What were you muttering about? And what up’s with Hildr, why hasn’t she said anything?”
“Well you see, the thing is uh, you know how I was working on getting rid of the problems with conventional invisibility magic? Although varying amounts depending on the type, the magic normally blurs a bit when the user is moving around due to lag. Well I managed to solve that issue with this magic by bending the light around the user but… doing so created several other issues…”
“Like?” “Well…firstly, the magic must be cast by someone else, but more importantly, the magic… makes the person it is cast on blind, disorientated and senseless…” 2*
“So that’s why her foot prints are all over the place…so the magic is useless in most situations and only useful in say a kidnapping…”
A lady suddenly appeared next to Tyler. “Ha…ha….Finally…Tyler, how long were you planning to keep me like that. I was going to break out if you didn’t dispel the magic soo- BLURGH!” A colourful fountain of food came out. “I’m fine. Ha…..” She stood up to her full height again; just double the height of Tyler, shaking off the snow that had built up. “Shall we talk as we walk?”
“C’mon.” Vlad started walking back towards the distant mountain. Through the falling snow, one could faintly see the outlines of a giant castle situated near the peak of the mountains. The three of them stared at it silently as they approached it. Tyler suddenly broke the moment of silence with a question.
“Do you still remember what the elders used to say about our country’s emblem?”
“Aww…aren’t you a cutie, thinking about our childhood.” Hildr snickered.
“What, that I would be the mountain, you would be the shield and Hildr the axe?”
“Hey! Why did you mention me last?”
“Yeah, that and all the symbolism. Well, we’ve actually evolved into our rolls quite well if I say so myself. Although, I’m very worried about the next generation. Are you sure you don’t want to start the fight with them sooner?”
“Hey you two, stop ignoring me!” “Hildr, if you don’t want me to order Tyler to put you back in that invisibility, start behaving yourself.”
“…Fine, so we are talking about those dead operatives, Tyler’s subordinates? ”
“OI!” “Yes, we are. Our agents died too quickly back then. I would have gone and invaded Fei to save that tribe, but we only found out after they failed to turn up for their regular meeting. The shadow groups have been moving.”
“Damn, I still can’t forgive them for what they’ve done. First, it was Vlad’s mother and sister, and now this. Why don’t we just make our move?!”
“Hildr does have a point, the groups have been going around weakening and whittling away the strength of powerful countries and undermining relationships. We have unconfirmed estimates they’ve taken out twenty or so ancient tribes, a few of them had quite powerful bloodlines like the Terra tribe and the Yonko tribe.” Vlad smiled at seeing them agree on something for once.
“The Yonko tribe although more divided were a more powerful entity than us. Their bloodline is also stronger than ours.” Hildr added.
“Enough. The tribe in Fei had a really powerful bloodline, and would have been an excellent ally. They were living in seclusion there, but I really regret not meeting them earlier. Perhaps things would have turned out differently. They were peaceful, kind people and they never really changed their ancient ways, and they never deserved any of what happened to them.“ Vlad turned away his slightly misty eyes. The other two exchanged glances.
“Speaking of Fei, they’re currently about to be permanently destroyed, should we step in and intervene?” Hildr asked.
“No, we are currently not ready. I still remember what they did last time, and I will not fall for it again. This may sound selfish, but I don’t care. In five months, I will send my late wife’s twins to the International Academy of Excellence. That will be the safest place to be, and no harm will come to them whilst they are studying there. The rest of us will then go to war with Shadow Soul. If we lose the initial gamble, they can hide and escape and continue our line. And if we win it, then they will come out of that academy, ready to fight, as warriors.”