This would be the last round; Damian could feel it. He slammed back his horn of moonshine and drained it in three seconds before smashing it back down on the table. The crowd cheered as Damian shook his head to clear some of the haze in his mind. He pointed right at Ulf and declared with a slight slur, “You’re a mangy mutt, with dandruff fur, yes you are quite the cur wolfman!”
The civilians who crowded into the bar to watch the competition with the alien, having had a few drinks themselves laughed along. Ulf clutched his hand to his chest in mock hurt, “My…*hic*…. fur is pris…. *hic*…...pristine I’ll have you know.”
Ulf raised his own horn, tilted his head back, and back, and back. The large wolfman started to fall, dropping his horn, which Damian barely managed to catch. It took ten rounds before the Ulf fell, more than Damian expected honestly. The horns they were drinking from were quite large, each one able to hold one and half 32oz mason jars worth of moonshine. If Damian didn’t have a decent tolerance to begin with, due to moonshine being his drink of choice for this past year, he doubted he would have been able to win. He thrust his fist in the air and drained the horn Ulf was supposed to, while the crowd cheered and Brynhildr declared his victory.
“The winner is Damian and as per our agreement the Einherjar of Valhalla will assist Earth in its defense.” Brynhildr declared with a smile as she picked up Ulf, “We will start deploying our forces to your strongholds within the next couple days.”
The crowd cheered harder, some crying and hugging their friends in joyous relief. Many rushed forward and began to profusely thank the Valkyrie as she carried her unconscious companion out. Brynhildr just gave each person a nod as she marched past. Once she left a party started, for the first time in two years they finally had a reason to celebrate. There was not a soul around that was able to resist the joy and palpable relief that radiated from everyone present. Some in the crowd ran out to spread the news across town screaming the good news to everyone they passed. A city-wide party lasted until the wee hours of the morning, and Damian barely remembered any of it due to all the toasts he was treated to that night.
The rest of the week went by in what seemed to be a flash to everyone. Damian, having completed his most pressing assignment, began to work on enchanting crossbows for the military and making practice slates to begin teaching. By the end of the first day, he had made ten practice slates and fifteen crossbows. On the second day he abducted ten people from the engineering corps and started teaching them rune crafting. As they only needed to help enchant the crossbows the military was making Damian only taught them the runic sequence necessary to complete the crossbows and how to make practice slates. By the third day they were averaging eighty runic crossbows a day between all of them on top of Damian’s fifteen. As the work days blurred by in a haze of busy work, the host of Einherjar arrived the day before the next wave.
A host of fifteen hundred warriors strolled down the streets, guided by various soldiers. The leader of the host was none other than Ulf, the large man taking in the readying defenses before his gaze locked onto Damian and approached.
The wolfman grinned down at him and slapped him on the shoulder in greeting. “My friend it is great to see you again!”
Damian couldn’t help but smile back at the man, “It’s good to see you to Ulf, we were starting to get worried you wouldn’t show up until after the next wave hit.”
“Bah! Like we would ever miss such a good fight! No, some of the men just wanted to make a dramatic entrance is all.” Ulf finished with a chuckle.
The Einherjar were divided into three groups and sent to reinforce the sectors of the city that housed the most civilians and critical infrastructure. Which left Damian and Big Lu assigned to the south sector where city hall was located. The civilians hunkered down and braced for the incoming wave, prepared as always to help keep the supply lines running to each front. The only difference this time was the returned spark of hope in each of their eyes. The presence of the Viking warriors giving them a sense of security and belief that no monsters would breach the defenses this time. Einherjar boasted and joked amongst each other and the soldiers at each defensive line. Their presence calmed the soldiers allowing the final checks to be completed smoothly. Damian and his team of army engineers managed to make a total of two hundred sixty enchanted crossbows that were distributed between each front. The soldiers that were handed the crossbows were the best marksman in their units, and were told to use the ammunition sparingly.
Damian was posted on top of a building just behind the first line of defense, his job was to target clusters of monsters and send a barrage of bolts into them to inflict maximum carnage. With him were two volunteers from the civilians who were responsible for reloading his drum mags when he ejected them. With only three he would need to ensure to choose his shots to give his helpers all the time they needed. As he was making his final checks and running a last practice drill with his helpers he noticed Ulf making his way toward the front and called out to him.
“Ulf! I thought you were with the eastern sector. What brings you over here?”
Ulf turned to him and brandished his war axe, “They have enough warriors over there! I have come to back up warrior Lu, seeing as he is the only front line fighter on this front!”
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
Damian gave the man an appreciative smile, “I’m sure he’ll appreciate the help, the gods know he will need it. The fool found some smiths that were free these past days and had them make him the biggest hammer they could! Thing is as tall as he his and the head is the same size as his gut!”
There was a distant, “I heard that!” as both Ulf and Damian began to laugh. Ulf chatted with Damian for a few minutes before moving on. It was another two hours before the forward scouts sprinted out from the tree cover, dodging pre-dug pits and landmines, waving a red flag to signal that the monster wave was imminent. Damian took a breath to steady his nerves and stepped up to the edge of the rooftop to get a better look at what they were in for. It took five minutes for the first monsters to charge out of the tree line. It was a bunch of Tennessee wild men, they roared ferociously, as they swarmed toward the perimeter in a tidal wave. Hundreds became thousands as the beasts charged recklessly forward heedless of their fellows who tripped into the staked pit traps the military dug to slow them down, even if just momentarily. The soldiers opened fire, the deafening staccato of gunfire filling the air.
Damian took aim at spots where the beasts seemed to bunch or group together and would release a short barrage each time. He wasn’t aiming for kills, but for maximum carnage, each bolt that hit caused parts of the monsters to necrotize and slough off, causing the beasts to fall and be trampled by their brethren as they pushed to reach the front. He noted that the soldiers with the enchanted crossbows were employing a similar strategy, but each of their shots would hit a knee or hip joint with expert precision. When the first monsters reached the front lines, they were met by a furious duo swinging axe and hammer launching the beasts back a good few feet. Ulf and Big Lu surged forward in a whirlwind of carnage, one leaving severed bodies in his wake and the other pulped and flattened flesh in his. They never ranged farther than fifteen feet from the front line making circuits up and down it giving the soldiers some reprieve whenever they could. At the two hour mark, wampus cats started to make their presence known as they blurred across battlefield to leap into groups of soldiers. Luckily with the wild men being held off the front lines the wampus cats were unable to employ their usual ambush tactics and the soldiers were able to focus them down in quick order.
Everything was going perfectly for once, there were few casualties so far and if this pattern held out the tide would end with no major disruptions. Damian had gone through seven reloads so far and just slotted in number eight, tossing the spent mag to his assistants, when he heard it. It sounded like the rhythmic beating of a war drum, loud and reverberating in his chest, and from the look on the volunteers’ face they heard it too. There was a deafening, terrifying screech of a bird of prey and a large hawk launched itself over the mountaintops. Its wings spanned twenty feet, and with how clearly he could see its body it was likely nine feet in length. Its plumage was a rich brown that gleamed with a metallic sheen and its tail feathers were shining crimson. Damian gave a curse as he recognized the bird, it was a Tlanuwa, the giant predatory birds of Cherokee myth that fought with the Uktena, fearsome horned, winged serpents. According to myth their feathers were as hard as metal.
Damian launched himself off the roof and ran towards an open location, free of soldiers and took aim at the big bastard. He waited for it to get closer before unloading on it. Damian dumped nearly the entire magazine at the large avian predator hoping to get its attention firmly focused on him. When he saw one of his arrows slip between two of its breast-feathers he knew he succeeded. The Tlanuwa gave an enraged screech as some of its feathers fell to the ground, impaling any beast unlucky enough to be underneath it, turned and dove towards Damian’s location. Damian cursed once more and dove out of the way as the beast screamed past, its talons destroying the concrete he was previously standing on. Coming up to a knee he snapped his crossbow to the creature as it circled back around. He activated Phantom Herd’s Call and waited for the beast to dive again.
He only had this one shot, and if he missed? Well, best case scenario it would be a quick and painless death. He rose to his feet and tracked the bird as it circled him from up high. He waited for what felt like hours but was at most a few minutes until the beast finally dove at him. Now it was time for the highest stakes game of chicken he had ever played. It screamed down towards him from high above to a few hundred feet in seconds. His face split into wide, near manic, grin, this made him feel truly alive. His arms didn’t waver, holding as steady as a rock, tracking just ahead of the giant avian as it drew near. One thousand feet, seven hundred, five hundred, two fifty. At one hundred its wings flared out and it slowed for the briefest second.
‘NOW!’ Damian’s instincts screamed at him and he pulled the trigger and dove to the side. The bolt struck the bird and seemed to flow into its body. The creature gave a surprised squawk and attempted to pull out of its dive but failed and slammed into the concrete as it seemed to be yanked to the ground by an invisible chain. From behind buildings came spectral deer with twisted gnarled antlers. They circled the downed bird snorting in derision at the beast as it tried to rise. Their emaciated bodies pressed in closer and closer to the Tlanuwa before one of them charged with its head down. Its antlers, looking like desperate grasping hands of the damned, passed through the avians body and as the deer reared back it produced a gruesome sight. On the tips of its antlers squirmed a small, spectral version of the Tlanuwa, it seemed to writhe in agony as it slowly started to mummify before Damian’s eyes. The other spectral deer charged in, claiming a portion of the creature’s soul for themselves. With each portion of soul claimed the Tlanuwa’s mummification increased in speed until not but five minutes later it was a dried-out husk laying on the ground. The spectral deer reared back and bellowed a victory cry and faded out of existence.
Damian’s grin didn’t waver as he charged back to his post, launching himself up the wall easily due to his enhanced physique, startling the two volunteers that stayed behind. They flinched at his abrupt arrival before slumping in relief. Damian clapped one of the men on the shoulder as he passed by and said, “Hang in there we still have a long day ahead of us.”
