Things were going just normally for the last weeks of the winter holiday for the giants, when the sleepy hassling was interrupted by a shout from a watchman. There were two shapes approaching from the sky, quickly recognised by some of the giants as the mounts elves flew on during the battle at flamewood.
Soon they had landed on the middle of the townsquare, amidst the few warily looking giants. Some were already reaching for their weapons, though the two were waving their hands for the traditional "We come in peace". They were an old human in robes, and a bird like humanoid being. As soon as landed, the bird like spoke.
"We are messengers from the south. We mean no harm."
He looks as he forgot something and continues:
"Uchiwakamaru, gift of god to men is here."
Before anyone can say anything, he further continues.
"Who is the one who claims leadership ?"
There is a murmur among the few giants in the town square, and some weapons are being slowly brandished. Soon one of the priests of Storm god steps out of the temple, the most prominent structure around. He addresses them. "Why do you want to meet him?"
"I am a prophet. 3 moons ago, I received a divine oracle concerning the war in this area, and I have come to send word to the hammer of the clouds"
The priest gives a lopsided grin to Uchiwakamaru.
"A war? Why yes, one such happened. But you could hardly call it war. It was more of a revenge trip. The foul elves killed one of our kin, while he was hunting." The priest homever didnt stop here. "Now, state your business with him, a few prophetic words are not enough"
Allthesame, a defiant expression stays on Uchiwakamarus face, and he even dares to speak out loud.
"I fear, my message is for his ears, and his only. Away, scroundrel, you are putting the life of your lord in danger by your impudence"
"Oh i see. Well, your highness, let me just see him if he is interested in your message" The priest murmures one word to the door guards, and goes inside. Soon enough, a shout comes from the inside and the door guards march onwards. "Hand us your weapons, and we will escort you inside"
Uchiwakamaru spreads out his arms.
"As you can see, I am completely weaponless"
The icecold expression of the guard doesnt change.
"I cant. Undress and drop out anything you might have in your pockets. You too old man."
Uchiwakamaru strips without hesitation, folds his clothes neatly, rams the flute into the soft ground, and hangs his hat..mask...thingy on it, the old man, apparently called Danalof, does the same. Allthesame, there seems to be no general laugh about their nakedness, though their pitiful muscles are being sneered at. The doorguard throws their clothes to a waiting templehandmaiden.
"Walk in"
With a haughty look and a high step, Uchiwakamaru points his upward nose towards the door and walks in like he owns the whole place. This earns him a few dark looks from the giants outside and the few priests busying inside. The insides of the temple surprise them by their general untempliness. There's a long row of tables and benches, with the remains of lastnights party on it. Spilled alcohol splashes under their feet. There's also general greasiness and smokyness in the air. At the very end of the building, they see a bloody stone altar and an elaborate wooden throne with a Platemail clad, Black bearded giant sitting on it.
Uchiwakamaru jumps unto the table and approaches Hrafn.
"You have let me waiting, young boy!"
Hrafn lifts his head and gives Uchi a bored look, homever noting that he's closing in to him over the table rather quickly, Hrafn grabs his hammer, and swings at the direction of Uchiwakamaru, sending him tumbling backwards of the magical blow. Straight into a half eaten boar carcass.
Uchiwakamaru seems surprised for a second, but quickly regains his composition. Hrafn chuckles and puts his hammer away.
"You know, there's a distance i wish to keep with *prophets*"
"My! Aren't you going to offer a guest a beer? What has this house come to?"
"Feel free to take some from the table, there's loads of it."
Uchiwakamaru takes a look at the beer. After sniffing it, he decides he'd....drink it later
"Anyway, young boy, I have business to do"
Before Hrafn can question his "Business" Uchiwakamaru continues.
"The voices of the sun, the earth and the sea combine. They are telling me to end this war. IN short, can't we just settle for a smile and a fond farewell ?"
That earned a little snort from Hrafn, who was now looking at Uchiwakamaru with more suspicion.
"We could... But why aren't you talking to your *friends* the elves?"
"When cleaning a wound, you remove the splinter, not the finger. There is someone who has called this place his home for hundreds of years, and someone who hasn't"
"Oh? I take it that someone is you, and the other one is me? Well, why cant there be newcomers? You dont seem to be the kind of being offended by such, judging by your friend here" Hrafn lets a small stare at Danalof.
"And this is, where the oracle comes in. How convenient!"
"You see, you will deffinetly lose, and all giants will be wiped of the planet."
Uchiwakamaru takes some bones of the boar and throws them at Hrafn.
"SEE?! The bones never lie!"
Hrafn looks at the pitiful bones bouncing off his legplates. "Indeed, they never lie" With those words Hrafn suddenly rises up, and kicks the table, HARD, so that it flies upwards. Uchi with it. "GUARDS!"
Uchiwakameru just stays on the table without flinching until it lands on the ground again he then speaks on with an insolent smile.
"You see, the free people of the south are an amazing bunch. They are fragile, they are so endlessly mortal. They feel pain, and feel it a lot. But even if we are tortured, we will just fight on and survive. You should feel this pain, and come to understand. I am a messenger, and I will deliver you pain and understanding."
"Who is the strongest warrior inside this village? I seek to deliver him pain."
Hrafns mouth twists into an angry growl, and he curses his badluck with the table.
"I am, why else i would be sitting here, you birdbrained half-being, If you want to duel, then it will be so. Meet me outside at the townsquare."
Hrafn is about to walk outside and grabs his gear with him. Several guards burst in and are about to attack uchi and danalof before Hrafn shows them a handgesture.
"You must be joking." Uchiwaka picks up a bone and throws it at your armor. "The thickest armor is worn by the weakest men. Give me a real man, one without fear. Else, I have won already"
Hrafn turns and sneers at Uchi.
"Prophet, we giants believe that the greatest warrior is the one who wins. So quit whining and come if you so much want to kill yourself"
"My gear then, son of the clouds. I can't kill myself in this attire. What will the ones at my coffin think!"
Hrafn whistles and the same handmaiden looks into the room, vanishes, and comes back. She throws Uchiwakas things to his feet. But not Danalofs. Uchiwakamaru gets dressed, but he is taking an outragously long time to do that. When trying to get into his pants, he has problems, and stumbles against Danalof, while Hrafn isnt looking, rather addressing his guards to inform the town of a duel, he stealthily pockets one of Danalofs rings. After this, Uchi proceeds to walk out of the temple in to the townsquare.
The townsquare is by now crowded with giants, there is a ring of regular giants, but also a group of priests, making sure the fight is fought without the cooperation of a third party. The third party would quite get electrocuted. The townsquare itself is a rather large, more or less square area surrounded by the most important buildings of the town and a large brook running through it. It falls down a cliff into a pool.
Meanwhile Hrafn has already took his place at the cleared square, and is brandishing his hammer with an expectant, mocking grin on his face. Uchiwakamaru points his flute at Hrafn. A blade of green-yellowish light extends from it.
"come"
Hrafn raises his eyebrows. "Come where? Youd like to specify the area of the duel?". There is some murmur among the priests and they wathch Uchiwaka suspiciously.
"With me to hell"
Uchiwakamaru extended the blade of his flute into a long pike, swirled it around his head, and got ready for Hrafns assault.
At the sametime, Hrafn was giving something to watch for the crowd, and roared mightily, shaking his hammer and flexing, and then hitting the ground as hard as he could. The ground shook and cracked, crackles of electricity spreading from the point hit. Then, without warning, Hrafn takes a leap at Uchi, his hammer held high above his head. Ready as Uchi is, he prepares to stab at Hrafn, trying to impale him from air.
As Hrafn brings his hammer down, he just barely misses Uchiwakamaru trying to stab and dodge at the sametime, but the shockwave of the hit reachis him, felling him prone for a fraction of a second but doing little else.
In the moment of confusion as Hrafn is fumbling with his feet because Uchi is just about in the position to make a perfect stab at him from below him, Uchiwakamaru succesfully uses some magical item of his, to create two identical copies of himself in the battlefield.
Hrafn leaps backwards, doing a wide swipe with his hammer to knockback the multiple Uchiwakamarus, hitting one of them and transforming it into a cloud of bats. Obviously one of the illusions. As he is doing this, the other one of the Uchis remaining leaps towards the giants face, quite clearly intending to slice or stab it, but misses because of Hrafns quick dodge.
There are still two Uchis remaining, one on the front of Hrafn, and one on the left. Hrafn couldnt but grin, as he knew just the move for taking out both, whichever was the real one. He balances on one foot, crouches, and begins to turn around quicker and quicker, his hammer extended.
The hit destroys the remaining illusion, but by sheer luck of some freak accident, Uchiwakamaru himself manages to dodge the blow, like he was playing limbo. He tries to attack Hrafns foot, to tip him out of balance and fell him, but fails as the hammer comes swirling back again. He homever somehow manages to get between Hrafns legs, a perfect time for a very uncomfortable strike. He homever covers his eyes and releases a blinding flash from the ring he stole from Danalof earlier. It is homever rather badly timed since he is *between* Hrafns legs and goes largely unnoticed. Some of the crowd is blinded, but it isnt of much use.
As Hrafn notices that Uchi has somehow gotten under him, he proceeds with the natural course of actions, jumping upwards, bringing his hammer over his head and tries to crush Uchi beneath his weight, but doing this he somehow fails to take speed, and has to slowly crouch and juuuumppp... slowly. Meanwhile, Uchiwakamaru has seen his time, and proceeds to climb on Hrafns back as he crouches, stabbing him all the time during the climb. Hrafn roars at the pain and humiliation, for a mistake like this should never come to pass. To let someone climb on you, that was widely recognised as the most common deadly mistake a giant could make during a fight.
A salvation dawned upon Hrafn homever, and he quickly threw himself forward and... did a barrel roll. It didnt go just as he planned homever, as he did it too long, colliding with two priests in the crowd, interrupting their chanting. The priests stumbled and fell, and some curses were heard, but nothing too much, expect for an occasional chuckle, which was quickly cut short by a deathly stare from the elites.
Meanwhile, Uchiwakamaru had jumped off Hrafns back and tried to do somekind of an attack while in air, but somehow failed to his dismay but didnt stop there, as soon as he realized he had failed whatever he had in mind, Uchi produced a glass orb from his sleewe while still in midair. He could see the unstable liquids rocking around inside the orb, and threw the thing off his hands. Unfortunately, the liquids had grown unstable during the speedy rocking of the fight, and couldnt take the velocity of the throw, and the orb blew midair, sending tiny glass shards like bullets in all directions, giving Uchiwakamaru some nasty but not very dangerous wounds.
At the sametime, Hrafn was cursing his badluck as he felt something small crawling in his back, he fleetingly thought about grabbing it and torturing it to death, but the thing was right now feeling too irrelevant to the fight to be noted. Seeing the small thing produced by Uchi, he immediatetly just knew he didnt want to get hit by it, and quickly rolled sideways. As he rolled, a *squeak* could be heard by those listening sharply, but by now Hrafn was too much into the battle to pay heed to such small things.
Unnoticed by Hrafn, and by everyone else, a small mouse leapt away and landed on Danalofs waiting hand. It was badly crushed, many of its small bones snapped and innards crushed. But it still lived. Tough for a goddamn mouse.
Meanwhile, Hrafn is being genunely puzzled by the feeling of exhaustion overwhelming him, the air leaving his lungs and breathing getting more difficult. Was he getting old? It cant be can it? He had lived for a respectable 500 hundred years now, but surely not yet? Dammmn... A feeling of desperation and sadness washes over Hrafn, but he bites it down for it is not approbriate for the king of the storm giants to show such feelings. At the same time, a crackling cage of electricity suddenly forms around the arena, and the background sound of the priests humming they had grown so used to suddenly stops.
As Hrafn clambers up, he hears a shout "Kashuko Ryuushin!"* he sees that Uchiwakamaru has already landed, and Hrafn is just in time to see when he turns his sword into three, menacing, nasty looking dragon heads. This makes Hrafn stop for awhile, but realizing that not only his life is at stage, but also his reputation, he shrugs and charges towards Uchi. As he reaches the distance of 5 meters between the two of them, Hrafn suddenly does a midair swipe, intending to knockback Uchi towards the walls of the cage, to electrocute him to death.
He realized only too late that he had done a grave mistake, one that probably would cost him his life. The dragons bolted forward to Hrafn as he charged, biting and chewing on him, stopping the momentum of his charge, ripping his flesh and tendons and causing some heavy bleeding.
Trying to use the last bits of his momentum, Hrafn tried to kick Uchiwakamaru, but only managed to shake the ground and fell Uchiwakamaru. Uchi homever performed better, as he managed to use the strange powers of his shoes to "Trip" Hrafn and throw him just inches away from the cage barrier. The next second, the barrier suddenly vanishes, and Hrafn throwed an angry look at the priests, who looked genuinely surprised.
Before Hrafn could get up to continue the fight, The dragons came on him again, too fast to be dodged, Hrafn desperately tried to fight them off, but before he knew it, two of them were nearly ripping apart his arms, effectively making him unable to fight, and one was tearing on his head, adding numerous new scars to the collection.
At the sametime, he feels an invisible whip curling around his foot, making allthings impossible.
As Hrafn falls on the ground, he feels a few feet shatter. The square is totally silent.
A few leafs fly past his eyes in a gust of wind, and he sees his contester approaching him, walking. And only one thought ringed in Hrafns head, again and again and again. Im beaten...
As Uchiwakamaru drew close, Hrafn could still feel the dragonheads gripping on his arms... It would not be possible to kill off the bastard with a one last swing.
Uchiwakamaru stands still, silent for a moment and then speaks.
"Give up, young boy. I am a prophet, a messenger of the gods, I have delivered you pain. Now I need to deliver understanding"
Many feelings Hrafn had forgotten washed over him, but one of the most prominent ones was the strongest, and lifted up his chin. Pride. He couldnt be beaten. Not him. The greatest of all storm giants ever to live, champion of the storm god and destroyer of worlds.
Hrafn coughes up blood. "*cough* Understanding of what? *cough* The fact that you have not bested me yet?"
As Uchiwakamaru didnt answer, Hrafn could only look at him, playing with his... flute. Flute? Hah... I've been beaten by a fucking flute... He felt as if there was a beast stithed inside of his stomach, tearing it away. In his mind, Hrafn called a silent prayer to Ukko, for a favor, to save him. Shameful though as it was. Allthesame, he spit out the broken teeth in his mouth and addressed Uchiwakamaru.
"Kill me if you will, but do not leave me humiliated"
"Your death will just spill blood I do not want on my hands"
At the sametime though, Hrafn could feel that something tightened around his neck, making it hard to breath, or even talk. Magics? Hah... A man of his word. Hrafn spit out some blood.
"Leave this land, and never come back. And when you meet your god, say him Uchiwakamari tells him to bugger off"
Somehow, Hrafn could feel that the grip of the dragons had loosened during the talk. Or maybe it was the willpower of his desperation. Or an act of gods. He didnt know.
Allthesame, he grabbed the chance with both hands and took hold of his hammer, swinging it!
"Fuck you."
And he missed... Hrafn felt utterly, and totally humiliated... He could feel a tear forming in his eye, but he fought it off.
And devoid of any emotion in his voice, Uchiwakamaru dispelled the dragons and pointed his flute on Hrafns head.
"Kneel."
Hrafn stands up, very, very difficultly and extends his hand. Without looking he says "Eiríkr, your sword." One of the giants throws his blade at him. Hrafn grabs it but makes no threatening move. Uchiwakamaru watches this, but again he says the word, this time in a harsher voice.
"KNEEL"
Up ahead, some stormclouds had formed above the town. Thunder rolls.
Hrafn looks at Uchiwakamaru, his face pale from the bloodloss, and epression like stone.
"I would rather kill myself."
With a grave move, Hrafn collects his strength and thrusts the two handed blade on the ground, hilt first.
Though without any visible emotion, Uchiwakamaru spoke.
"Do what you must. I will leave you your honor"
Hrafn gazed upwards and muttered:
"Ukko, it is now or never you old bastard, it's the moment of truth"
The thunderclouds above were now like some deepblack ink in the sky, swirling around, sending the occasional smaller bolt to fry some tree in the mouintain top or kill the occasional goat. Meanwhile Uchiwakamaru begins to play his flute. A warrior chant. It is like from an epic saga, touching the hearts of any true warrior, and bringing the tears to many in the square... Who were now holding their breaths and staring intently.
Hrafn thumps his fist on his chest, and takes a step forward, just about to fell himself on the looming sword... When a lightning strikes on the flute playing Uchiwaka, thunder rolling so mightily that it shatters the windows of most buildings.
The hit leaves Uchiwakamaru blinded, and horrible burn wounds are already forming on his skin, his feathers and hairs standing upright and small crackles of lightning going around him.
There is a general uproar in the square, as Hrafn roars mightily, leaps at Uchiwaka and tries to smash him into a pulp while he is still recovering his wits.
At the sametime from the chaos of the crowd, a flaming arrow launches, grazing Hrafns head and causing even heavier bleeding on top of the old wounds, making him feel dizzy and turning him chalk white. The pain and blood loss gets the better of Hrafn, and he misses Uchiwakamaru, hitting ground.
Seeing that his luck has changed, and already being near death by the lightning hit, Uchiwakamaru propels himself off the ground with his shoes, just barely dodging the swing from Hrafns hammer trying to blow him from midair. Allthesame, He gets up into the sky, just as under him the cage forms again.
Uchiwakamaru hovers for a moment, but as Hrafn looks up, he flies away.
With that, Hrafn crashes his hammer to the cobbling of the square, creating a small crater.
"We'll see again in abit... *prophet*"
-A big bad duel between Uchiwakamaru and Hrafn.
-Ukko is almost ready, and the big bang will be next turn.
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Topic: Battle of the Gods IV (Read 70264 times)