58 Dak's fight

"Hjerouhrdinn's hammer." Elder Thrikrondromm muttered to me. "These humans are acting like they've never seen a dark room before, let alone a well lit dwarven cave."

I couldn't help but agree. These imperial humans were clumsy in their movements underground, and after the harassment we had sustained at the hands of their summoned hero and their nobility, I would've been happy to let them wander blindly into a hell hounds maw. But since they were offering to help defend our ancestral home from the goblins, I grudgingly led them through the streets to the walls.

Ignoring the Elder's comment, I asked the big question of the day. "Are the weapons prepared?"

Elder Thrikrondromm nodded with a furrowed brow. "They are. I sent the weapons on the verge of self-destructing, the explosive runes, and any Runes of Love, to the grudge throwers. The grudge thrower crews were quite mystified when I gave them weapons to fling at the green scum, but I was able to convince them to use the damned things before the stones with the aid of a fellow rune smith. I just hope they don't bring the mountain down on us."

"I'm just glad we got them here without anything exploding." I said as I cricked my neck to get some of the tension out. "I'll tell ya, when I read Bekhi's letters about the havoc Kvalinn caused in school, I was a bit skeptical. But seeing some of those steel crates glow red hot, frost over, or start making weird noises, made me believe all of her stories."

"Let's just hope the magic hasn't run dry." Elder Thrikrondromm grumbled. "Or all my work to get Thane Throdhengrun to accede to your request will have been for nothing."

"I'm sure it'll be fine." I said casually. "The hard part will be surviving whatever weird runes Kvalinn made that were so dangerous that they had to be locked up."

That comment made the Elder grimace as if he had been handed a goblin head for dessert. Not that I could blame him, Kvalinn made some weird runes back in the day when he was in school, and from the few short conversations I'd had with my daughter on the trip, he was still up to his old tricks.

Eventually we made it to the walls, and the crates of weapons that contained the unstable runes were there waiting for us. Elder Thrikrondromm took a key from beneath his beard and began opening them, and carefully laying out their contents on a table.

"Alright, everyone." I got the attention of the dwarves I had led from Einangrad. "I've got some fun weapons here for you, courtesy of Kvalinn. I'm not gonna force you to use them, they could prove deadly to you as well as the goblins, but you'll take a whole bunch of them down with you. Now who's feeling brave?"

A surprising number of younger dwarves stepped forward, but before I could hand anything out, Elder Thalgruth from my town intercepted them. "How do we know those weapons weren't tainted by the damned elf your daughter was with?"

"These weapons have been locked away in the Thane's vault for nearly a decade." Elder Thrikrondromm growled without taking his eyes off the weapons he was laying out. "And the key to these boxes has not left my possession since the weapons were first made. No elf, man, or dwarf could have tampered with them."

"Happy with that answer?" I asked Elder Thalgruth. He responded with a grumbling shrug, while the younger dwarves stepped forward for experimental weapons.

Kvalinn's weapons were almost legendary in Vesturhildrun. I'd used them several times in the yearly tournaments and games of shieldwall, and they always outclassed every weapon and shield brought against them. However, the weapons I was handing out were his failed experiments. Weapons so unstable that his teacher had judged them unfit for use.

Since I wasn't a rune smith, I didn't know anything about their stability, but the oddness of the runes was without question. There was a Rune of Pirates, Rune of Fates, Rune of Conifers, Rune of Rocking and Rolling, and several more normal runes that sparked menacingly at the touch.

Kvalinn, if these things kill me or my people, I'll carry a grudge against you for at least a thousand years in the Halls of the Ancestors.

Finally, the last weapon was handed out. There were a lot left after every dwarf took one, so we just told the humans to take them. If they survived then they could keep them.

The humans quickly emptied the boxes, happy to receive legendary dwarven runed weapons for free. I just hoped that their weapons didn't end up killing them.

For myself, I took a hammer with the Rune of Blizzards, while Elder Thrikrondromm took an ax with the Rune of Cleaving. According to him it was just slightly too powerful to get a passing grade when Kvalinn first made it, but now it would serve his teacher well.

Now armed with weapons of uncertain safety and effectiveness, we took our places on the wall and looked into the dim lights of the caverns. The humans stationed on either side of our group appeared unable to see from how much squinting they were doing, but for me, a natural born dwarf, the light was more than enough to wield our hammers. But for a few seconds after ascending the stairs, I wished I shared the humans inability to see in the dark.

"Goblins grog." I swore under my beard. "That's a lot of goblins."

"Hmph." Elder Thrikrondromm gave a terse grunt of agreement. "Almost as many there as the demon lord had under his banner over a thousand years ago. Although my father didn't mention all those other monsters. The gods have been busy." He then added a few swear words that were so potent that their foul nature crossed the boundaries of language and caused our human allies to sidle away in fear. I was tempted to join him in swearing, but the job of Thane meant I had to give a speech to hype everyone up.

Heaving an internal sigh, and running mental calculations on how soon I could leave the boring job to my son, I raised my voice to give a speech. "Dwarves of Einangrad. Together, we have come to the aid of our ancestral mountain. Together, we ignored the dishonorable calls of our king to wait to move out. Brave volunteers of the lone mountain, together, we shall fight and die with honor! Let our ancestors look down this day with pride! When we go to meet them, they will hold up their hammers in respect for our bravery, and shake our hands with reverence. Because we were the only ones who kept their graves from being desecrated by the green scum, and the other monsters." Banging my hammer against my shield to activate the rune, I held it up with the magic flowing from it. "For the ancestors!"

My men followed my example, activating the magic in their runed weapons and holding them aloft with a loud shout. "For the ancestors!"

A wide variety of magic came from the weapons, mine produced a fierce blizzard that seemed to whirl around the hammer like a mini snow storm. Other weapons sent out bolts of lightning, balls of fire singed our beards, streams of water soaked several unlucky dwarves, and disconcerting music was heard from a few of the runes. I had to wonder how Elder Thrikrondromm and the Thane of Nurnwuhr hadn't gone mad from sitting on all these bizarre runes.

"Hmph. It is fortunate that I did not have Kvalinn test these weapons at school." Elder Thrikrondromm remarked with a contemplative expression as our rallying cry echoed in the caves. "At least half of these runes would have killed a small dwarf near instantly in the small confines of the testing chamber."

"I just wish we didn't have to test them. If this hammer blows up in my hand, I'm gonna kill him for it later." I replied. Despite my dour thoughts though, I could feel a grin sneak onto my face. This was gonna be the fight of a lifetime, and I had one of a kind weapons to fight with. This was going to be epic! If this didn't get my name into song and legend, then I don't know what will.

A few minutes later, the goblins crashed against the walls. It was almost like what the traveling human traders described as the ocean. Unending, powerful, and all consuming.

"For the ancestor's will!" I cried out as I scored my first kill against a goblin that climbed the backs of its fellows to reach the summit of the walls. From there it was a non stop assault of goblins.

The monsters went down way too easy for my taste. If it wasn't for the stink, I would've thought I was in the fields harvesting wheat. But eventually, things started to get fun.

"Kill da shorties!" A muscular orc appeared in the chaos, leading a group of his fellows into battle. "Rip off da beards for da Beardeata!"

"Finally, a challe- Was that it?" The orks went down as blackened crisps before I could even get in a single blow.

"Sorry, Dak!" A younger dwarf said with a grin. "This lightning sword is just way too fun!"

BOOM! BOOM!

"How long until the grudge throwers run out of Kvalinn's cursed weapons?" I asked Elder Thrikrondromm, raising my voice so that he could hear me over the explosions they caused.

"It should be any minute now." Elder Thrikrondromm responded, his axe separating a large orc top and bottom halves with ease. Nodding, I got back to work killing monsters.

I was definitely happy that none of those explosive weapons ended up in our hands. That's not to say that none of Kvalin's weapons had been harmless to us. Several volunteers had been sent to the rear with broken bones and burns, along with the usual wounds from the monsters. But the dwarven kings had sent skilled medics from the Scholar Clan, so all but the most grievously wounded were sent back to the front lines to keep fighting.

The additional fighters were sorely needed before long.

More orcs assaulted our part of the walls, bigger and meaner ones. And not even our overpowered weapons could defeat them easily. After the orcs, small groups of trolls began showing up. I saw at least one dwarf, and multiple humans, get swallowed whole by those ever hungry creatures.

The casualties among the humans was immense, and unlike us, their medics weren't sending the wounded back to the front lines. Forcing us to cover a larger and larger section of the walls. So we found ourselves hard pressed when a pack of werewolves jumped forward with wailing howls.

"Gardick! Grouden!" I yelled out in grief and rage as the two dwarves were gutted by the werewolves. They were promising young dwarves from the Timber Clan that I had watched grow up. Dieing was always a part of battle, but decades of experience didn't make watching those under me die any easier.

"The grudges must be struck out!" Elder Thrikrondromm called out as he killed a werewolf with his ax. The longbeards and Elders echoed his cry, as they formed ranks and charged the pack. However, these were not pushovers like the goblins were.

They didn't just take our weapon swings, they dodged out of the way, and would bite our outstretched limbs, or tear out our throats if we weren't fast enough with the shields. In those ten minutes of fighting, I saw more of my people die to the werewolves than had fallen in the last several hours of fighting against the goblins.

"Hurry, brothers and sisters of the pack." An especially large werewolf growled out, his maw red with the blood of one of my second cousins. "These bearded ones are just the appetizer. Puny humans, with their fat and juicy animals, wait for us on the other side of these mountains. So don't spend too long snacking on these dwarves.

Snacking! These were my Elders! my friends! My family! My people! How dare they degrade their sacrifices as mere snacks!

Discarding my shield, I picked up a hammer that still blazed in the hands of its dead owner. This fight was going to call for speed over defense.

"Raah!" I charged at the werewolf leader, both weapons surging with magical might as the runes bent to my dwarven fury.

"Hmm?" A werewolf with gray streaks on its side didn't move out of the way fast enough and my duel hammer strokes broke its back. Leaving it helpless on the ground for another dwarf's ax to finish off.

"Candra!" Another werewolf cried out with the grief of one who's lost their mate. "Awooo!" He charged at me with a howl, but I dodged by a beard's length and gave the beast a hammer blow with the fire hammer that burnt off its hair before blackening the flesh beneath. That caught the attention of the werewolf leader.

"Keep up the attack, pack. I'll avenge our pack mates."

"You'll do no such thing, foul beast." I growled. "You will die so that those you sent to the Halls of the Ancestor's may rest easy."

A vicious fight then began between the two of us. The werewolf was tall, fast, and above all, smart. Much smarter than a monster had any right to be. He saw through all my feints, took the light blows, and dodged the heavy ones. If I hadn't been fighting to avenge my fallen people, then this would have been an awesome fight.

"Your fury is worthy of the pack, dwarf." The werewolf said after several minutes of back and forth blows. "I am Berald, when you go to your ancestor's halls, take pride that you were slain by me."

"I don't need to know your name to kill you, and I'm not going to the ancestors just yet!" I took another swing with the blizzard hammer in my right hand. It connected! But the beast just jumped back and the force of the blow was lost. "But now that I know your name, I know who to add to the Book of Grudges."

"They all said that. I've killed dozens of your kind, but none of them lived long enough to write anything. You won't be any different."

The beast then began attacking with even greater ferocity, as if he had only been playing with me before. I was now seriously rethinking my decision to ditch my shield. Kvalinn's weapons were somehow taking the blows and blocking them, but taking a strike on a weapon is a lot harder than blocking it with a shield.

There! Now!

Berald snapped with his fangs at my outstretched right arm, and I used the blizzard hammer in my left hand to bash him over the skull. It was a strike from my non-dominant arm, but the magic of the rune reinforced the blow, and caused the beast to stumble back.

"Gah, curse you and your magic weapons, dwarf." The werewolf swore as he shook himself like a dazed dog. "Give up. You and your people will just be food for the pack. Why struggle against fate?"

"Because I'm too stubborn to die with an unsettled grudge." I panted. I've been letting my victories in shieldwall get to my head, I need to double my training when I return home.

"Grr." Berald growled. "You stubborn dwarves always taste so leathery." He then resumed the swift attacks that I barely was able to dodge or block.

Was I about to die?

No. I could not die here. Not because I had unresolved grudges against these monsters. Not because I had a job to do back home. But because I had to live for my family. For my wife. For my children. And for my grandchildren, including the little beastkin girl Bekhi brought home. For all of them, I must live!

I began pressing my own attack on the monster. Bending the runes to my will, and increasing their power. Enveloping the two of us in a whirlwind of fire and snow as the two of us traded blows in a whirlwind of metal and claws.

After what felt like an eternity, I stood over the dead body of the werewolf leader. "May those you've slain today rest easy in their grudge being struck out." I then kicked the body off the wall and looked around.

It was a grim sight. The rest of the werewolves save one was dead, but the cost was high. Elders who had lived and fought for centuries lay slain by the beasts. Young dwarves who should have enjoyed centuries of beer were cruelly sent to the ancestors too early. The list of grudges against those monsters was growing long.

"For the ancestors!" I held up my hammers and rallied the remaining dwarves. There were still hordes of monsters still attacking and this was no time to mourn our fallen comrades.

"For the ancestors!" Elder Thrikrondromm repeated back to me.

"For the Ancestors!" Cried out every dwarf in range. We returned to sweeping down the masses of goblins and orcs. Striking out grudges with every dead monster.