The Playful Warrior
Ulfrik had barely recovered from Helga sending Hacon his way when Liman tried slipping a parachute recruit into his raid party. Truth be told, the proposal suited him just fine, but skill had to be proven first. So he met Liman’s youngest son, Lucas, right away. Luckily the boy wanted to join the same party—for one very specific reason.
“No, Father!! I told you I hate studying!!”
“You damn mule of a brat!!”
Lucas had never been cut out for books. As the son of the White Wolf chieftain he was expected to master rune magic, and the pressure had clearly become unbearable.
“So that’s why Liman’s youngest wants to come to our tribe,” Ulfrik muttered.
“Our people live for gi-hap clashes and sparring. It only makes sense,” someone replied.
Time to test Lucas’s strength. They headed for the training ground the city had prepared, and word spread so fast that spectators flooded in. Even the chieftains showed up before the Thing began.
“Hey there, Ragnar! Liman!”
“You two keeping all the fun to yourselves?”
“We’ll be watching too.”
“Kuh-kuh-kuh… Poor bastards who show up late.”
The rumor that two famous warriors were about to clash had drawn every idle chieftain to the arena.
“Father, did the scale of this suddenly get bigger, or is it just me?”
“You became too famous after that last battle. This was bound to happen.”
Fame really was a double-edged sword. Still, Lucas seemed to enjoy the attention.
“Finally, I get to fight a glorious battle!!”
“Hah… guess this is better than studying.”
Liman rubbed his forehead, clearly exhausted by his troublesome youngest son, and volunteered to referee. The other chieftains immediately protested.
“Boo! How dare a father judge his own son!”
“Liman, I’m disappointed in you!”
“Hahaha! Just let us referee instead!”
“Shut it, all of you!!”
The affectionate shouting match gave Ulfrik and Lucas plenty of time to prepare.
“It’s an honor that Lord Ulfrik will use my weapons…”
“I’ll return them in one piece.”
“Lucas, you sure you’re all right facing him?”
“Quit worrying, Mother.”
Ulfrik took up his twin axes as before. Lucas drew a pair of swords. They faced each other in the center of the arena while Liman called the start.
***
The duel began. Neither man charged immediately; they circled the arena instead.
“Kuh-kuh, you giving me time on purpose?”
“Think of it as a handicap.”
“Kya~ That’s why they call you Drengra!!”
Curious what Lucas would show, Ulfrik deliberately gave him time to prepare rune magic. Once the boy finished, they clashed.
In that instant the ground beneath Ulfrik’s feet suddenly erupted.
“Hah! Playing tricks already?!”
“Why wouldn’t I use something this good, ain’t it?!”
Thrown off balance, Ulfrik staggered for a moment. Lucas lunged with both blades, but Ulfrik had survived too many glorious battles to be caught so easily. He used the broken stance to spring into the air, deflected the attack, and shoved Lucas back.
The opening exchange was already high-level. The following exchanges grew even flashier, drawing cheers and applause from the chieftains and crowd alike.
Lucas proved he was Liman’s son by demonstrating true mastery of rune magic. He enchanted his weapons and hurled elemental blasts. Yet his real talent lay elsewhere.
Whoosh!!!
“Oh-ho, he knows how to wield illusions aggressively.”
“That’s one hell of an unorthodox trick.”
“Still Liman’s son, rotten or not.”
Lucas created afterimages, laid magical traps across the arena, and even swapped their positions outright. The sheer trickery of his rune magic made Ulfrik burst out laughing.
“I don’t get why Liman worries about you at all!”
“You’re no joke either, ain’t it!!”
Normally an opponent would be overwhelmed by such chaos, but Ulfrik’s wild gi-hap simply tore straight through every illusion. Lucas hesitated for a split second, then grinned.
“Hell yeah!! That’s exactly the kind of man I’ve been looking up to!!”
Clang-clang-clang!!!
Further interference magic was pointless now. Knowing his foe was a berserker, Lucas refused to waste energy on attrition and instead crossed his flame-wreathed swords. The blades scraped together and sent a massive wave of fire crashing toward Ulfrik. A wind-infused kick turned the wave into a roaring vortex.
Ulfrik now faced an endless storm of flame.
“Gi-hap!! Gi-hap alone surpasses everything!!!”
He slammed his gi-hap-infused axe into the ground. The resulting shockwave snuffed out the fire in an instant—yet the entire combination had only been a feint to pin his feet. While Ulfrik was occupied, Lucas layered more rune magic onto his weapons until he manifested a pair of enormous mana greatswords.
“This is my strongest attack!!!”
“Bring it!!!”
The twin blades of pure mana crashed down from the sky like falling stars. Ulfrik met them head-on.
CRRRRRRRRRACK!!!
“““Waaaaaaaah!!!”””
The crowd roared as the clash between Ulfrik’s fighting spirit and Lucas’s rune magic began. Cracks spider-webbed across the mana blades.
“Is this the best you’ve got, Lucas?!”
“Course not!!”
Defeat seemed certain for Lucas—until something no one expected happened.
Shatter!!!
“I decide when it ends!!!”
Defeated in the clash, Lucas watched his greatswords shatter. Then dozens of different rune spells erupted from his body and detonated in a massive self-destruction blast aimed straight at Ulfrik.
***
Damn, he really is Liman’s son. I never thought he’d show me a self-destruct technique powered by gi-hap.
“So he didn’t lose to me—he knocked himself out with his own explosion?!”
“Kuh-kuh-kuh… Now I see why you’ve been having such a hard time, Liman.”
“He’s my kid, but he’s seriously insane…”
Liman, who had been refereeing, had apparently foreseen the self-destruct. He quickly interfered with Lucas’s rune magic to dampen the blast and wrapped the boy in protective barriers. Thanks to that, Lucas survived—only to end up unconscious on the ground.
“He’s really something else.”
“Thanks for going easy on him.”
“So, son, what do you think?”
“The brat… has gi-hap!”
That was more than enough to join the raid party.
“Of course, earning the warriors’ recognition is another matter.”
“Jeha ha ha! My youngest would probably prefer it that way anyway!”
“Then you’re sending him with us right away, Liman?”
“Naturally!”
Lucas could simply leave with them when they departed. The duel ended cleanly. Liman healed his battered son with rune magic.
Whoosh!!
“So rune magic has healing applications too.”
“It’d be weirder if it didn’t. Anyway, what now?”
“Well… who knows?”
The crowd, unable to contain themselves after the gi-hap-filled spectacle, began pouring into the arena. The chieftains were fired up as well.
“The victor of this fight will receive a reward!”
“Hahaha! I’ll put this up as the prize!”
“All right, who’s refereeing next?!”
“““Waaaaaaaah!!!”””
The chieftains turned the whole thing into an impromptu tournament, and a massive drinking party erupted right there in the arena.
“Son, plenty of people want to challenge you. How about giving it a go?”
“Of course I will!!”
“Leave this crazy bastard to us and go enjoy yourself!”
The moment Ulfrik announced his participation, the arena exploded with cheers. Before the Thing even began, the city had already launched into a grand festival.
***
Some time after Ulfrik’s duel with Lucas, endless sparring still continued throughout Valegard. Everyone had joined the joyful festival—except for a few who found the situation far from pleasant.
“Tsk… Those disgusting creatures are having the time of their lives.”
“Your Eminence, what shall we do?”
“The moment the chieftains leave their posts is our opportunity.”
Just as chaos had erupted in Velos, high-ranking followers of chaos had appeared even in the holy lands. When the Thing convened, the strongest chieftains and huskarls would be absent—turning the festival into a slaughterhouse.
────Ping!!!
Thud!!!
“Kuh?!”
“Krrkrrkrrk?!”
“There really are a lot of cowards these days.”
“Reydal, you’ve been working hard lately.”
“It’s nothing, Grand Shaman.”
Perched on the Frost Giant’s shoulder, the black raven began eliminating the hidden cowards within the city. His miraculous arrows pierced everything, assassinating every last follower of chaos.
Having just watched Ulfrik and Lucas’s duel, Helga turned to Reydal.
“Liman sent his son to our grandson… What do you think?”
“The ancestors speak highly of that young warrior. It would surely be a valuable experience for my son as well.”
“Then it’s decided.”
Reydal already held Ulfrik in high regard, yet he still wondered whether his quiet child would truly adapt to the gi-hap-filled Bear Claw tribe.
“Hol hol hol. You’ll get to see Hacon. If that clever disciple of mine is smiling, your boy will be fine too.”
“We’ll know once we send him.”
After Helga and Reydal finished cleaning up the outskirts of the city, the day of the Viking assembly finally arrived.