I woke up where I had fallen, a battle ballista bolt still protruding from my ruined chest, and several other bodies lay around me. The ram had been pushed farther into the keep, and more bodies lay inside. The battle was over, or, at the very least, had moved away from me. There was no sound of steel on steel or the screams of pain and victory. Not to mention the stench from the bodies around me. Most were of the imperial army, at least at the gate where I was, but I saw many soldiers from the armies of the border barons armies as well.
I went to sit up, but a wave of pain tore through me as the movement moved the bolt still resting firmly in my rib cage. It felt like the kind of pain that was supposed to turn your brain off, and while the edges of my vision turned fuzzy, I somehow didn’t pass out. I shuddered at what I was about to do, but it had to be done. With more than a little cursing, I managed to get myself on my side. The bolt's massive barbed head wouldn’t let me pull it out, which just left one option to push it through. I took a deep breath, clenched my teeth, and then punched the end of the bolt with all of my strength. It flew forwards, and I felt the massive feather fletching tickle the inside of my torso as it passed through. Once again, I felt a wave of intense pain; I stayed conscious. It would seem that whatever had happened to me had made knocking me out harder, too, or maybe impossible, no way to tell at this point. Whether or not that was a good thing, I was sure there was probably a reason a person's brain tended to stop once it hit a certain threshold.
With the bolt out of my chest, I also realized something else. I was bleeding; it wasn’t the slow trickle of blood I would expect from the blood trapped in my veins by the bolt either; this was red arterial spray. That, more than anything else, drove home how different Chol’s boons had made me. I should have already been bled out from what seemed to be hours on the ground impaled. And even if I wasn't, I should have run out of blood already. As I thought it through, the flow did slow some. It went from a red spray to a steady flow. The other strange thing was that I didn’t feel nearly as much pain as I think that I should have from the gaping hole in my chest. I mean, it hurt, but more like I had been given a good hard punch, not taken an impaling blow. Maybe I was just getting used to it, or maybe increased pain tolerance was just another side benefit of being the champion of death. Gently I touched the wound with a grimy finger and scowled at the spike of pain, and then berated myself for touching an open wound with such unwashed hands. Even if I couldn't die, the last thing I wanted was to become a breeding ground for vile diseases.
Groaning, I brought myself up to my feet. It sucked. I was sore all over, and I felt weak like I was sick, but it was probably the lack of blood in my body. But I guess that was the price I paid for being alive with a wound through my torso. I shook my head once to clear it and looked around. I needed to move quickly if there hadn’t been a proper clean-up, which meant that the winning side had taken too many casualties and had to retreat away from the battle. Battlefields attracted all kinds of terrible monsters. From simple carrion-feeding beasts to trolls and other monstrous humanoids looking for both an easy meal and weapons from the dead soldiers and this close to the Black Ridge, both were pretty likely. I had lost my spear and shield, most likely taken from me after my death or trampled after falling. I drew my knife and went to make my way into the keep to see what I could from the walls. I hopefully would find something more substantial on the way. I hadn’t taken two steps before I heard a roar followed by screams.
I frowned, but I turned around and started to run through the mud and towards the sounds. As I exited the gateway, the battlefield opened up, and I could see the source of the noise. It was then that another of Chol’s boons showed itself; not only could I see the trio of people being assaulted by what looked to be a giant. But I could also see a strange-looking white flame flickering in each of their chests near the heart. Instinctually I knew that the little flames represented their lives, and in the case of the giant, it wasn’t little at all. I wasn't sure of the kind, but given its lack of armor or metal weapons, it was probably a hill giant from the edges of the Black Spires. They are big and tough, and while they tended to not be very smart, they were smart enough to use tools. The biggest problem was that they tended to think that anyone and anything smaller than them was fair game to harass, break, kill, and probably eat since they could eat almost anything.
At that moment, I took to examine the moment I saw a woman take a heavy hit from the giants club on her shield. While the blow had serious strength behind it, the woman was also very skilled as she angled her shield to allow the blow to slip to the side. Mud flew up from the club's impact in an impressive arc. Despite her skill, the blow had been strong enough to deform the shield and throw it out of the way allowing the giant's massive fist to connect with her unprotected side. She was knocked to the ground, and I saw the white flickering light inside dim and sputter for a moment. Then one of the two men behind her placed a hand on her, and it stabilized. It was still small, but it no longer spluttered. The other man raised his hands and shouted a word. The giant's next club swing struck what appeared to be solid air, and it stared at the space for a minute, trying to understand. At this point, I was already running, ignoring the pain in my body, leaving churned mud in my wake. I knew that that protective shield wouldn’t last long. After the first hit, I saw the strain in the man's poster. It would hold for one, maybe two more strikes.
As if brought on by my thoughts, there was a scream and the sound of glass shattering; the caster that had created the shield was on his knees, and the giant had raised its club high in an attempt to crush all three of the little people at once. I thought about my knife. I’ll be honest, I am not very good at throwing knives, so while I did get lucky and it landed blade first. It landed in the thick skin and muscle of the giant's shoulder. I don’t think I hurt the big guy at all. He lowered the club and turned to look at who had dared throw something at him.
Thankfully, what I lacked in knife throwing skills I made up for was the ability to move fast when I wanted to. I was no long-distance runner. I had far too much mass for that, but I could eat up short distances with ease, and I had. So as the giant turned around, I finally got a good look at its face. With its nearly sideways nose, sunken eyes, and broken rotted teeth. I was already in the position to wrap my own massive arms around one of its thighs and push it to the ground with me. Now with the giant might have been well giant, I was pretty big myself. It was probably somewhere around thirteen feet tall and weighing nearly a thousand pounds, but I was seven and a half feet tall, weighing around five hundred pounds. So whenever I collided with his lower body, lifting one of his legs off the ground and forcing his weight backward, the big guy had no choice but to fall. Granted I went with him, but that was okay.
As we crashed to the ground, I took a moment of surprise the giant felt to clamber up onto its chest and started raining elbows down across the giant's cheeks and sunken eyes. The chain mail on my arms tore through the giant's skin and flesh. The giant roared in pain, so I grabbed onto his lower jaw and wrenched his head to the side to give me better access to the side of his head and his ear. After a few more quick elbows the ear was more of a ruined mess, and I felt a massive hand shove against my ruined chest. The pain was sudden and intense, my left hand clamped down on the lower jaw harder, and as I was pushed back, I felt a pop as it came out of its socket. The giant’s screams redoubled, and its hand stopped pushing me away and instead moved to the side of its ugly face.
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I felt a feral grin spread across my face as I latched my right hand on its lower jaw as well and wrenched myself backward. There was a moment where nothing happened I just pulled and then I heard the sound of tearing flesh and the snap of tendons. It was a gruesome sight as I sat on its chest holding its ruined jaw and its thick fingers grasped at the spot it used. Red blood flowed from where the jaw had been pulled away. I didn’t wait though I moved the jaw and slammed it to the giant's thick next to the point of the jaw bone piercing the much softer skin and muscle there and collapsing the monster's trachea. It let out some stuttering breaths, its eyes unfocusing as I saw the white flame and its chest start to splutter.
For some, I felt like I had gotten a second wind, so I brought up the jaw bone again, and this time I aimed for its right eye socket stamping the end of the jaw bone into the hole with all the force I could. There was a brief struggle then I felt a give and the giant went completely still. I felt a rush at the same moment the spell went out. It was also then that I saw the blood of the Giant hadn’t been spilling down into the mud below but rather was being drawn to the wound on my chest in thin snaking tendrils. When I looked down I could see the gaping hole in my chest was closing. I could also feel the rather uncomfortable sense of a few of my ribs being moved back to the proper position. I looked over my shoulder at the group of people I had, well I guess just saved. It was the first time I had really taken a good look at them, and well they were a weird group.
Closet to me was the caster. His hood had fallen back, and I could see that he was a tiefling or devil spawn. He had dark red skin, and his eyes were entirely black, with no white or iris. It looked like he had used to have horns, but they had been shorn off and instead capped with silver on the right and gold on the left. His clothes were simple but very well made, a dark cloak of deep blue and brown travel clothes. He was breathing hard, and it looked like he was having a hard time focusing on his eyes, but it was hard to tell.
Behind him leaning over the woman was a human man with bright blonde hair shorn on the side but left long and wavy on top. His eyes were a piercing blue as they looked at me as he kneeled over the bleary woman. His clothes were also nice but done in whites and gold, and on his chest was the golden symbol of Epri, goddess of fortune.
Then there was the woman. She appeared to be the warrior of the group, but she had no armor. Not even a gambeson, the shield was still attached to her arm, and a sword was on the ground beside her. Her hair was brown and cut in a short bob around her jaw. She had the face of someone important in the army who had taught me how to spot nobility. It usually lacked any kind of blemish on the face and nice clothing. I wasn’t sure, though, since she was out here and so poorly equipped. She looked around as if dazed but the fire in her chest was back to nearly full strength so the healer must be pretty good.
“Are you all okay?” I asked as I stood up off the body and turned around the streams of blood had nearly vanished, as had the wounds, but they were still there. Now just sinking into my skin near the bottom of the rib cage instead of into any wound.
It was the healer that spoke up first, “We’re fine, thanks to you. But if you don’t mind me asking, why is a divine champion here. I didn’t think any existed in the empire. Let alone all the way out here on the border of the spires,” the man's voice was smooth and controlled despite the recent conflict.
“I mean, I could ask you the same question: what are the three of you doing on an uncleared battlefield so poorly equipped.”
“I asked you first,” He said.
“And I’m the one that just killed a giant with its one jaw,” I said, pointing down at the creature I was standing on.
He smiled like he liked the joke and gave a little sigh. “Fair enough, we were looking to gather equipment from the dead. Not the noblest way; we were somewhat desperate at present. Now, will you answer my question?”
“I died in this battle and had a wonderful talk with Chol about some coming disaster; he made me his Champion, granted me a couple of boons. I woke up, heard screams, and then ran to your rescue. Also, actually how did you know I was a champion?” I asked.
He smiled again and reached into a pocket on his robes as he spoke. “Well, it will be easier to show you and then explain.” With that, he held up a little hand mirror in which I could see my face. My right eye had been replaced by a little ball of white fire, much like what rested in the chest of the people in front of me. And then there was a black handprint, its palm centered on the eye, its fingers reaching back into my hairline towards my ear, the thumb on my forehead. “That is the mark of Chol only given to his champions, and as a man of faith, I could sense the mark of the god on you.” He said.
“Alright, that makes sense, I guess,” I said before deciding that it wasn’t a big deal who knew I was a champion and who didn’t. What did matter was getting off this battlefield and starting on my quest to save the world or something? Goodness, one talk with a god and everything about my life had changed. “Why are you in such need of equipment, surely a cleric and caster and a knight would have no problem making coin at times like these?” I said, more than asked honestly, curious as to why they were there and whether or not they could help me.
At this point, the woman seemed to have gained her senses back and spoke before the blonde man could continue. “They are here because of me. We had to escape from Cantrice City after the lord there learned that I had learned that the real reason for this civil war is profits and pride. We had to flee the city with just the clothes on our backs, being chased by the lord's personal guards. I am a knight and a noble and knew that I needed armor to help fight effectively. So we came here to try to find some for me before going into the Spires.”
“Why are you going into the Spires? The place is a death trap?” I asked, getting off the giant's body to kneel on the ground in front of them.
“Well, we are still being hunted, and I was hoping to find protection amongst one of the tribes that call it home. I am a strong fighter, and many of them value such a trait. They also value people with magical talent, so we would all be welcome.,” She spoke confidently like she had everything figured out, but something behind her eyes showed a bit of fear at the prospect of entering the mountains.
I felt the start of an idea in my brain. It probably wasn’t a good idea, but hey, Chol had said he hadn’t picked me for my brains. He had picked me because I was more stubborn than anyone else, and once I was set to a task, It would be finished. “Question, is there a lot of tribes in the Spires?” I asked the woman.
“Hundreds it is a wildland, and the people that live in it are fierce, but many have a strong sense of honor. There are also many monsters and beasts. Some can be very smart and make excellent beasts of war; there are cruel and seek the destruction of all other life. The Black Spires are one of the few wildlands left on the borders of the empire.”
“Excellent, so you see, Chol was pretty clear that I needed an army if I wanted any chance to stop what's coming. And I’ll be honest with you I’m not a big fan of the empire. I’ve already died once for it, and as I see it, that fulfilled my duty to it. So it can tear itself apart for all I care. If there are people in those mountains, then I’ll unite them. I’ll make an army of monsters and stop what’s coming.
The Tiefling laughed. It was more a chuckle, but then he looked up and saw my one brown eye and the other a brilliant white flame. The chuckling stopped, and all three of them looked at me like I was crazy. I don’t know what I had expected, really. It did sound like a crazy plan. Hell, it barely sounded like a plan at all.
“Okay, I’ll put a pin in domination for now. But I would like to join you on your trip to the mountains. By the way, I'm Vott Fellgar.” I said, doing my best to look friendly despite them having just watched me kill a hill giant with its own jaw and then declare I was going to conquer one of the most dangerous places on the planet.
It was the tiefling that spoke this time. “I am Charles Jacobs, the man is Henry klept, and the Lady is Carra Debrix. And I agree, let's table the domination part, but I would love to have you on our little trip,” he said, speaking quickly. The other two just nodded.