Sigrun was tired of being hung up in the middle of the yard. The frigging Dokkalfar had jumped her as soon as she appeared back in the Halls, it was all she could do to send William away to the edge of the forest.
Her ritual of the chosen used to be an instant kind of thing. This time it had taken hours, leaving her exhausted. She offered no resistance to the treacherous dark elves. Knowing that they would have killed her immediately otherwise.
She stood suspended by her wrists and ankles to a pair of columns in the middle of the yard, unable to regenerate her strength by the dark ritual sapping her energy below her. She knew her only option of escape was the young man she had brought over, not even her Arngrim, but his brother. He had no idea what was going on, no knowledge of the system, of their duty, and of how monumental their task was meant to be going forward.
She could hear the howling of wolves in the distance, as another system message appeared in her mind, one showing that she was now Aesir Level 6 and Valkyrja Level 8. Which meant that William had acquired another level. Not bad for ‘trash’ she thought.
She hoped against hope, hoped that William would at least have the good sense to stop the ritual that was the real reason she was being held. If somehow they could stop the ritual, both of them would have a better chance against the elves.
Even in her weakened state, she would still be able to handle at least 20 or more Dokkalfar before needing any help. The system had been implemented in Asgard the moment she appeared here along with William, so the Dokkalfar were still low-level, she had an inkling that William would be able to handle many of them on his own.
But she knew that he had no weapons and no armor, it was almost a miracle to know that he was acquiring levels, and at a faster rate than she could have ever predicted. She still planned to treat him like trash though, there was no better motivation than spite, that was the way she had been brought up by her sisters back in the day, and she had been the last one to fall.
If she ever escaped the dark elves, she would make William into a bulwark of Aesir legend. If she was not killed before they could even begin that was.
So she waited, hoping against hope. Hoping against fate.
******************************
William had been fighting for hours, but Balmung had never lost its edge, the blue hue still glimmering against the dark of night. The corpses of dozens of wolves laid out all around him.
— Odenwald Ulf, Grade-F, Level 10 —
This one seemed to be the alpha, the pack leader. Bear had brought him over here, only to not participate in any of the killings. He was clearly feeding him levels, while staying behind, watching, considering.
By now he understood that Bear was no mere beast, and way smarter than he looked. And that he was on his side, at least for the time being.
The wolf pack had ranged from level 6 to level 8 on average, with a couple of bigger ones at level 9, and this one, that William had called Greymane, because his mane was grey, duh.
Half as many wolves were waiting behind Greymane, watching them fight. It had gone swimmingly now that he had a weapon, and with Sigurd’s Legacy, also came knowledge on how to wield it. He still could feel that his technique was crude by today’s standards, but still, enough to defend himself from a pack of wolves.
William was very pleased with the cloak as well, proved to be incredibly sturdy, and not received a single scratch so far, and proved to work like armor for him.
Greymane came low and from my left, so I moved to my right luring him in, while ready to shift my weight to my left leg and pivot, to face the real charge, that was going to come from the right, and at my neck.
It all worked as expected, having seen this pattern many times before, used by the wolves that were already dead on the ground. Greymane took the bait, I shifted in place and got ready to spear Balmung through Greymane’s chest, as I had done with the others, everything was going according to plan.
Until it didn’t.
Greymane’s second charge didn't come… from the left, the crafty wolf had used the time when I was shifting in place to rapidly jump back and was now coming at me from my right, where I was unprepared.
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The wily wolf had baited me instead, hook, line, and sinker. I could only give him my left forearm for him to chew on, anything better than my neck, his massive weight, and the force of his run bringing me down, Greymane was trying to free my arm and bite at my neck but kept finding my arm instead. It hurt like hell, his powerful jaws making mince meat of my forearm, I was beginning to become afraid of actually losing it, that the bone might snap at any minute. So far I only had a horrible flesh wound.
I drove Balmung through his neck, using my right hand, in desperation. Warm blood fell over my face and neck. The time it took for the wolf to die was enough for the pain to increase tenfold and give me flashbacks to the night of my death. I never wanted to go through that again.
I’m starting to understand how pain works for me now. it seemed that only life or limb-threatening injuries caused pain, while minor injuries would pass unnoticed. Which meant that indeed my arm was at a breaking point by the time I got the kill notification.
The rest of the pack started howling, I scrambled back to my feet at that, and as more and more wolves appeared, they surrounded me now, right then I knew I had fucked up.
I had fucked up because Greymane was not the alpha, not even close. several more wolves at level 10 came close to me, stopping at around forty feet away from me.
Then I saw them, a pair of red eyes, shining in the dead of the forest, they were at least twice as big as the eyes of the biggest wolf I had seen so far. I concentrated on them trying to discern the level of the beast that was going to kill me. I knew it in my heart that I was dead, the beast only needed to will it so, and my life would be over.
— Odenwald Alpha, Grade-E, Level 25 —
I hurriedly ate some healing berries, when the wolf did the most logical thing a huge alpha wolf would do in a situation like this one, he went ahead and talked. In English!
“What folly has brought you to the domains of Freki?”
“Wait...what?... I… what?” I said, with great poise and magnanimity if I must say so myself. Not like a bumbling idiot still sitting on his arse, not at all.
It was then I noticed that Bear was standing next to me, bowing his head to the wolves.
“Ha, ha, ha, ha” laughed Freki, in a very slow, paused, inhuman way.
“So the nasty toad has fallen?” Freki continued.
“And you say this human was the one that knocked its mushroom from him?”
Bear was still silent, bowing his head, so I decided to stand up next to him since they appeared to know each other.
Bear started huffing again, as if laughing, and somehow, I knew that he was laughing at his retelling of my fall into Sigurd’s spring.
“Hey, I told Bear, it wasn’t that funny you know? Anyone can fall into a spring while running, especially when throwing berries at a bear.” I added for good measure, my honor was at stake.
“HA, HA, HA, HA, HA, HA, HA,” Freki laughed his same laugh, but this time it contained more merriment, sounded more real, still slow as heck and inhuman as fuck. Creepy let me tell you.
“He fed you berries and fell into the dragonslayer’s spring?” Freki said, and after a while added.
“He is not an Ulfhednar, I am sorry to say, friend. But if what you say is true, it means that what I felt earlier was correct. The shieldmaidens must be back, that is the only way a human could end up here, at the Odenwald. Time has also started moving again, I can feel the moon filling up once more after so long.” Freki added.
“I will not yet help him, until I have taken account of the maidens, or an Ulfhednar appears. But I will send these four cubs with you, friend, not with the human. If what you say, and this human is actually headed toward the Hall, and the shieldmaidens are there, my cubs will aid you, if not, they will eat him and bring me Balmung.” he finished. The wolves howled at the moon one more time, and I could not feel Freki’s presence any longer.
But I felt something else, a different pair of eyes, blue this time, right behind where Freki had been, just as regal and magnificent, just as deadly and dreadful. Another one, how was that possible? Wasn’t there supposed to be only one alpha per pack? And I had the feeling that in the whole of the forest, there was only one wolf pack and only one wolven king.
Bear gave me a small grunt, directing me not to look and to start moving back to the beacon. So I turned around, flanked by a pair of wolves, ulfs? wolves, one grumpy and the other lively. My custodians were ready to eat me where there were no maidens where we were going.
I finally had time to check my attributes after the recent level-up.
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Name: William ‘Evelyn’ Hagen
Human -Level 6
Class: Redacted -Level 8
Job: N/A
Grade F
HP: 370/740
Stamina: 292/680
----------------
Strength: 47 (+4)
Agility: 22 (+2)
Dexterity: 22 (+2)
Endurance: 34 (+4)
Vitality: 20 (+2)
Intellect: 19 (+2)
Class XP: 74/800 (+86)
Race XP: 37/600 (+43)
Job XP: N\A
FP: 12 (+2)
------------------------------------
That boost in strength by the cloak was really nice, overall, I was pleased with my progress, I’m sure even Maeve would agree.
His mind drifted away, to better times, to his family. His heart sank thinking about all the hurt he had left them in. The problems they would face, having that kind of craft in their literal backyard was not the kind of attention conducive to peaceful farming life.
He was now following Bear and the wolves at a trot.
The forest was starting to give way, and the canopy became more sparse by the minute, the two wolves that had gone further in front now returning, their jaws open, looking at Bear, who started walking away from me, not before signaling me with his head to go on.
And so I did, walking now, activating the enchantment on the cloak that would make me invisible.
As I stepped out of the forest, I was faced with a monumental construction, a wall as high as a skyscraper panning to both sides and a single corridor in the middle, maybe enough for thirty to forty people to walk across, shoulder to shoulder.
Huge statues at each side of the passage, depict a man with a wizard hat and an eyepatch, holding a great spear across his chest. It downed on me, I had been blind for so long.
The Odenwald name, the huge wall, the statues, I was about to enter the passage that led to the Halls of Odin, and this had been his forest, the Odinforest, the Odenwald. Everything there belonged to him, hence the names.
I was about to enter the fabled halls of Valhalla.