"wallin' my ass in"
-Johnny_Vegas
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| Gunnar's Saga, Part III | | | Author: | | | IP: | resnet18XXXX | | Date: | 03/27/00 05:03 | | Game Type: | Warcraft 2 | | Labels: | none | | Report Rating: , # of Ratings: 1, Max: 9, Min: 9
Lifetime Rating for MRHD: 8.5455 |  | Gunnar's Saga, Part III
Before going on, if you have not yet read part one of this semi-fictional series, go here; if you have not yet read part two, go here. Now, on to part three!
Glum The King
The very day after the great battle between the forces of Glum, and the forces of Gunnar, in which Glum devastated the army of his brother, Glum was ordained as the new King of Lordaeron. Most of the people of the land were beginning to hate Gunnar with great passion, although there were still the few of Lordaeron, the low class peasants, and the poor farmer, who remembered what a great man Gunnar was, and still had their faith with him. But among the soldiers, the nobility, and even the great Paladins of Lordaeron, was only a blind loyalty to Glum now, as well as a desire to be the one to present the head of Gunnar to Glum, so their status among the ranks of the important and the elite in Lordaeron would increase to great heights.
It was late that afternoon, a few hours after Glum had given his impassioned speech, that Skarp of Stone entered the castle gates with his platoon, who had tied in ropes behind them a large number of men, all with the looks of bandits and villains, the type of people that pillaged the outskirts of the kingdom, and struck fear into the people who lived in those rural areas. As Skarp of Stone walked through the courtyard of the castle, with the trail of the captured behind him, a guard came up to him.
“My Lord, who are these men whom you bring bound up behind you?”
Skarp, who did not turn his head to look at the guard, or even stop walking, replied: “Take a look at the face of the lead man among them.” The guard did so, and was both shocked and pleased that he recognized the man: it was Gizur Stump-Foot, the outlaw boss who had aided in the assassination of King Terenas. His battle-marred face was red with anger, and as he passed by he said with a voice filled with rage; “You will be sorry for doing this to me, for I am a friend of the King, and he will surely be mad at you!” Skarp seemed not to notice, but pressed on towards the castle, and out of sight of the guard.
Upon coming to the steps of the castle door, Skarp gave word to his men to keep the prisoners there while he informed the King of his catch. Skarp then ascended the stairs, and went through the great castle doors, and made his way to the throne room of King Glum. Informing the two guards at the entrance to the King’s room about what had occurred, they immediately let him in. Glum was sitting on the elegant throne of Lordaeron, draped in a lavish robe, glittering with precious jewels at the cuffs and neck. Glum heard him enter and looked up; Skarp knelt before him.
“What brings you before me at this time?” Glum asked.
“My lord, while my men and I were on our continued search for Gunnar in the depths of the forest this morning, we came across Gizur Stump-Foot and his bandits. After a short fight, we managed to round them up, and tie them together with rope and chains.”
Glum’s eyes lit up at this news. “So, where are they now?”
“My men are holding them outside, my liege. We are awaiting your command on what to do with them.”
Glum sat back, and seemed to be in deep thought for a while, his brow crinkling ever so slightly. After a little time passed, he sat forward and looked Skarp straight in the eyes. “They are to be executed tonight, every last one of them.” Glum said in an excited voice. “Have messengers dispatched across all the area to tell the people that those who helped Gunnar murder our dear King have been found, and that the executions will take place in the town square, for all to see. I shall watch over the executions personally.”
Skarp of Stone stood up, and bowed once before Glum. “As my King requests.” He replied, and exited from the throne room. As Glum watched him out, he contemplated what he had just done: he had sent orders to execute the men of Gizur for following an order that he himself had given to them; at this thought, a broad grin passed over his face. I have bestowed upon me the power of life and death. Glum thought, his heart beginning to beat slightly faster than was usual. I need no reason. No one can disobey me. I am like a god now! As these thoughts poured through his mind, he was perhaps at the happiest he had ever been in his life: for now the fact that he was the King of Lordaeron was starting to truly sink in, and the thought that he had just stabbed his former allies in the back and was going to witness the rolling of their heads was even more thrilling. Life couldn’t get any better than this in the mind of Glum; at least not until Gunnar also became one of the dead.
That evening Glum rode to the nearby town on a splendid white horse, ordained in kingly armor, with a black cape flowing behind him. Behind him followed a procession of knights, including Skarp of Stone, who flanked on all sides the prisoners, who were bound in heavy chains. As they approached the outskirts of the town, Gizur shouted out from behind them; “Curses on you, vile Glum! You are the one who planned the murder of the King, and used me in the process!”
When he heard this, Glum pulled back the reigns of his horse so violently that a trickle of blood was drawn from the horses flesh; all the other stopped as well. Dismounting his horse, Gunnar slowly walked over to where Gizur was, drawing out a knife from his belt. “Hold him for me.” He instructed a guard, who immediately obeyed.
Placing his right hand around Gizur’s neck, he began to choke him slightly, just enough to off the color of his face somewhat. “Guard, pry open his mouth for me.” The guard did so. Glum released his grip on Gizur’s neck, and grabbed Gizur’s tongue, then yanked it as far forward as he could. Gizur let out a muffled squeal of surprise, which turned to incoherent sounds of terror as Glum placed the blade of the knife in Gizur’s mouth at the back of his tongue, and sliced it off, as if he were gathering himself a helping of butter. Glum held the tongue in his hand for a moment, blood dripping down his arm. “Now you shall eat your own filthy words.” Stated Glum in a cool, calculated voice, and shoved the severed tongue into Gizur’s already screaming mouth. Once it was inside, he motioned for the guard to let go, and then he put one hand on the top of Gizur’s head, and the other below his chin, and pressed Gizur’s jaw together, forcing it to bite down on the tongue, eased up the pressure again, and then repeated this several times.
“Chew.” Glum said, eyes full of fury. “Chew it. Chew your own bile and taste its wickedness.” The trickle of blood that had already started in the corner of Gizur’s mouth turned into a steady stream as Glum forced him to chew on his own amputated tongue. After this had gone on for a while, Glum, who was now beginning to smile quite wickedly, instructed: “Now swallow it.”
Gizur’s complexion, which had been sickly green, now turned ghostly white, and he made no attempt to do as Glum ordered. Glum became furious. “Swallow it, swallow it now you wretch!” Glum screamed, and then shoved the hilt of the knife into Gizur’s mouth, which pushed the mashed and bleeding tongue back into his throat, and then lodged itself there. Choking, Gizur began to stumble, and was about to fall over, until Glum grabbed him by his hair, and withdrawing his knife from Gizur’s mouth, slashed open his left eye with it. “Stand you dog!” he yelled with a horrid mixture of anger and pleasure. “Stand on your legs, now!” Gizur’s knees buckled and his face turned deathly white; Glum made sure to keep him up by his hair, and cut out his other eye. The corners of Gizur’s mouth began to bleed even more freely, as well as his eye sockets, covering his entire complexion with blood. Soon his body became limp; at last, he had died. Glum released his grip on the corpse, and kicked it hard once it had fallen to the ground.
The members of Glum’s entourage were all looking around nervously, shocked by the gruesome slaying. They did not seem to know what to make of it, until Skarp of Stone, who looked as if he were participating in an afternoon brunch, spoke to them. “Behold the nobleness of our king, whose righteous rage could not be contained against the man who helped murder his beloved father, a man who deserved a death a thousand times worse.” These words were met with murmurs of approval among the company.
Without another word, Glum remounted his horse, and began to ride off once again, and the rest of the convoy followed suite. The other prisoners stared helplessly at the fallen form of their leader as the passed, who had just a day ago promised them a better life once Glum became king, for Gizur had said that Glum was a man that they could trust, and would reward them handsomely.
They got their reward. Once they reached the town square, they were lined up single file behind a wooden platform, on top of which a hooded executioner stood, with axe in hand and wooden bloodied block in front. Each one took his turn placing their head on that wooden block, and had as their last sights the jeers of the citizens gathered there, and went through greater pains, as Glum had specifically picked an executioner who was notorious for “missing” on his first swing, taking two or three to get the job done. And the next morning all their heads were gathered together and put on spears, which were in turn placed on top of the castle gate; and the people said that Gunnar and his men would soon be joining them.
Prelude to Conflict
Five days later, Gunnar and his men were continuing to make their way south through the mountains of Lordaeron, in their efforts to reach the kingdom of Gilneas. Unknown to them, they were being followed by a group of warriors from Lordaeron under the command of Hrut, with the gap between them closing for Hrut was pushing on his platoon at a swift pace. On his back he had strapped the great axe “Blood-Lion”; those who inquired on why he carried the weapon that murdered Terenas were met with a curt reply about it being best to kill Gunnar with the weapon he used to murder his father, for it would be the most fitting form of vengeance. Some of the men of the company still had some doubts at this, but said nothing of it, for fear of being branded traitors to the kingdom of Lordaeron.
Up ahead of them, Gunnar, Sigmund, and their followers were getting out of the highest points of the mountains and descending down into the foothills. It was dark out now, and they were all weary, so they set up camp on the side of one of the hills near a stream. Gunnar and Sigmund sat around a campfire, eating from what meager supplies they were able to gather during the chaos of the past night. “It is good to rest after journeying on all night.” Remarked Gunnar as they ate.
“Indeed.” Replied Sigmund. He looked around at the landscape surrounding them for a moment. “I believe we are now in the lands of Dalaran. I can only hope we can pass through them without conflict.”
Gunnar shook his head slowly. “I doubt we shall be so lucky. We have been cursed with ill luck, and it has not run out its course yet.”
To this Sigmund sighed heavily, as if he had carried upon him the weight of the universe for an eon, and realized there was yet another eon to continue to do so. “You are right, Gunnar… what we have put behind us was difficult, but I fear it is nothing compared to what our future shall hold…” at this Sigmund trailed off, and both of them fell silent, soaking in the nature of all that had befallen them. Soon sleep tugged at their eyelids, and without further words, they turned in for a night of slumber in the open wilderness.
Hours passed, and it was the early hours of the morning, still dark, when the voice of Sigmund brought Gunnar up from sleep. “My Lord, wake up! We have been ambushed!”
Gunnar, alarmed, jumped hastily to his feet. “What his going on!?” he exclaimed.
“My lord, a detachment from Lordaeron has been spotted by one of our sentries. They are preparing for an attack upon us.”
Gunnar nodded; he was not too surprised. The path of their escape was not to be an easy one. “Tell our men to prepare for battle.” Ordered Gunnar. “We will pay them back the favor they bestowed upon us last night.”
During the afternoon, battle.net, especially for Warcraft 2, is pretty dead. There is usually only ten or so games up, so it does not help to be picky, but I was. I was looking for a human v. human game to fit into the storyline that was actually not completely one sided, but as all Warcraft 2 players know, the skilled player that is willing to select humans is very rare indeed. The night before I had had a great human v. human game on Taiga, but the problem was that it was a massive gryphon war, and no matter how badly I wanted to, I just could not see how I would fit those things into the storyline at this point. Not expecting much, I clicked on the join button.
As usual, the list was dominated by 2v2 games on either Garden of War (the lost temple of War2.) or BGH. Not being what I was looking for, I did see one FFA on Mud In Your Eye. Figuring I might be able to work with that, I joined the game, and to my joy, the creator Crasher327 had already selected humans, so I did as well. No sooner than I did, Crasher hit the start button without a word (he must’ve been impatient.), and although the game said ffa it was obvious that this was going to be a 1v1… even better. Maybe this would be the game.
Mud in your Eye is a 128x128 map, and is one of the new ones released with the battle.net version of Warcraft 2.  It has eight start locations; one in each corner, and one between each corner. It has a fairly large starting mine of 75,000. If it weren’t for the map on the side I would go into greater detail, but since I assume you can see (no offense to blind people but I don’t think they would be viewing my report.), I will end my description now. As you may have guessed, the setting are on high (no one seems to play anything else.). I spawned my noble humans at the nine o’clock start location, while Crasher327 started out as teal humans at the twelve o’clock start location. And so, let the bloodshed begin!
The Battle of Northern Dalaran
I started with my normal build for a land map on high of farm on one, barracks on one, barracks on two, farm on three, blacksmith on four. Then, taking the chance that my opponent would not be of high enough skill to exploit momentary weakness, I journeyed south with my fifth peasant, and in the lower left corner I began a town hall near that gold mine, ensuring that I would be vastly outresourcing him as long as he wasn’t either doing the same, or deciding for an early assault. Once I had gotten out my first set of footmen, I decided it would be a good idea to see what Crasher327 was up to, so I sent one of them out to scout, first the upper left corner, where I found nothing, and then the upper middle start location, where I found my human opponent had up two barracks, two farms, a blacksmith, and of course a town hall. Three footmen of his own made short work of the lone scouting footman. This scouting information made me relax a little, since his main was at about the same stage as mine was, which meant that there would be no threatening massive footman assault coming any time soon. Gaining confidence at this, I put up a third barracks and begin upgrading as quickly as I can, readying for an attack of my own. By this time my other town hall is finished, and I have three peasants gathering gold there, while I have about eight mining gold at my main. I also put up a lumber mill and place five peasants on wood.
Once I gain a control group worth of footmen, I then send them north towards Crasher327’s base. They are now level four, so I feel pretty confident at my chances, and think that the game might even be over. When I reach his choke, I find that he has a fair number of footmen there, and also level four; however, I have maybe two more than him, so my forces prevail against those of Crasher327, although only three of them survive. Planning to go towards his peasant line and start merrily hacking away at the hapless and illiterate workers, I am intercepted by a pair of knights. Not what I wanted to see, because I haven’t even started on my Keep yet; I had been playing kind of sloppily and had let resources pile up in the bank. After watching the knights slaughter my footmen, I immediately started on the Keep upgrade, knowing that it would be devastating if I let my opponent get ahead of me in technology.
Gunnar led the assault against the position of Hrut and his men. He fought with a great rage, hacking, jabbing, and slashing to the ground no less that seven men single-handedly; one tried to sneak up behind him, but Gunnar’s heard his feet rustling in the grass stealthily, and immediately swung around, bringing his short sword in a downwards arc upon the man’s head, falling him to the ground to lay in a pool of his own blood. The skirmish was fierce, but soon it became apparent that Gunnar was gaining the upper hand, to the surprise of Hrut.
But Hrut was not worried, for with him he had two companies of knights, and an elite sect of Paladins as well. Calling a messenger over, Hrut gave out a simple command; “Send out the knights.”, which was immediately obeyed. Just as Gunnar’s remaining forces in his attack party were about to charge into the enemy camp, the clashing of a great war hammer onto the armor of a hapless footman was heard, and shocked, Gunnar turned to his left in time to see a Knight pull the hammer out of the fallen corpse of one of his men. Blooding dripping down the fearsome weapon, the horseback mounted warrior charged straight for Gunnar. Gunnar stood his ground as the horse raced towards him. Just as he was about to be both run over by the horse and have his head split open by the hammer which was being raised high by the knight, Gunnar rolled swiftly to the right, and quickly springing to his feet, jabbed the knight straight through the thigh as he passed, making him fall from his horse, which galloped madly away. Staggering, the knight got up from the ground, greatly favoring the unwounded leg, and swung his fierce war hammer towards the side of Gunnar’s head. As he ducked the blow, Gunnar then brought his sword up and through the neck of the Knight, and as blood poured down the sword and then down Gunnar’s arm, the knight fell to the ground, dead. Gunnar withdrew his sword from the corpses’ neck.
In the distance he saw more knights approaching. Realizing that the offensive had to be given up for the time being, Gunnar ordered a retreat back to camp, where he had left Sigmund to ready the rest of the troops for a defense in case of such a scenario. As they fled back to camp, they could hear the gallop of the great knight gaining ever so closer behind them, and soon an exhausted Gunnar reached Sigmund, who had been making sure that their defensive lines were secure and ready. Sigmund, upon seeing Gunnar, grew concerned.
“What has happened my Lord?” he asked, voice concerned.
“Knights.” Answered Gunnar, short of breath. “Knights are coming right this way.”
I was ill prepared for the attack of about half a dozen knights that came to counter my footmen. Since I was producing out of three barracks at the time, my fourth, fifth, and sixth footmen, all level five, popped out when the knights came charging in, and actually managed to kill three of them before being slaughtered themselves. Just as the knights finished up on these, the next set of footmen came out, and these managed to take down another knight and leave another critically wounded. By the next batch, I was finally able to subdue the knights, and with my Keep now done, I quickly set to work on a stable and a fourth barracks.
Soon after my stable was completed, I also put up a Gnomish Inventor, set on making sure that my opponent had not set up any expansions yet. I had mostly circled the map with my first flying machine, and was beginning to think that Crasher327 had yet to expand, when in the upper right corner I found a naked expansion, with a barracks being built. I did not waste any time in sending in a control group mixed with footmen and knights, which met no resistance upon their entrance to the expansion, and began tearing it down right away. As the flames in Crasher327’s expansion grew large, I began on my castle upgrade, and also sent my flying machine over the base of Crasher327, who I saw already had his castle up and running, and also was beginning construction on a church. I also noticed that his choke was packed with knights and backed up with towers, so I realized that I would need mages, so once my castle upgrade finished I immediately went to work on both a church and a Mage Tower.
I had my first two mages out, was researching Paladins, was starting a second expansion in the lower right hand corner, and was about ready to attack, when a fairly large force of Paladins, compliments of Crasher327, came crashing (no lame pun intended.) into my front line troops, which were mostly just my leftover footmen. The fighting seemed to be even at first, but then Crasher327 looked like he might be getting the upper hand in the skirmish. A little worried, I ordered up four more Paladins, and after a lot of bloodshed, with many valiant warriors, especially my footmen, losing their lives, my righteous and good Paladins put to death all the Paladins of the evil and malicious Crasher327.
As Hrut, watching from a safe distance as was usual for a coward like him, saw the order of Paladins start to devastate the forces of Gunnar, he began to smile broadly, knowing that victory was soon to be his. Master Glum shall reward me with great riches for this deed!he thought to himself, heart racing rapidly. I will be a hero, I will be honored, I will be….! The rambling thoughts of Hrut were cut short as he looked on with horror at what was now transpiring.
During their journey to find Gunnar, many of the Paladins in this group grew to distrust Hrut. The fact that he would be so uncaring to the hurt inflicted upon the lands of Lordaeron as to carry the now hated axe “Blood-Lion” at his side only made this distrust grow, until finally some of the Paladins began to meet in secret, and decided that if the opportunity presented itself that they would turn on Hrut. Their opportunity had now come, and in the spectacle before Hrut, half of the Paladins were now fighting the other half.
Gunnar was shocked as well. He and Sigmund had been fighting a losing battle side by side when suddenly one of the Paladins had screamed out “Now!”, and they began to fight amidst each other. A confused Gunnar, addressing Sigmund, asked; “What do you suppose is going on here?! Why have they turned against their own?”
Sigmund, now with a slight smile on his face, responded. “They are with us Gunnar. I know not why they have decided to betray their kingdom, and betray the order of the Paladins of Lordaeron, but they have. Let us stop gawking and lend them a hand.”
Gunnar nodded. He was about to storm into the thick of battle, but then stopped again. “But how are we to know which among them are with us?” he asked.
Sigmund, smiling and not saying a word, simply pointed to one of the Paladins. On his shoulder was wrapped tightly a scarf, and on the scarf was embedded the royal ensigna of not Glum, but of Terenas. The sight had a powerful effect on Gunnar. They realize that Glum is not the true successor to the throne! They realize that to fight for the honor of my father means to fight against my brother! Wasting no more time, Gunnar and Sigmund plunged into the melee, and with the combined forces of the remaining troops that Gunnar brought with him from Lordaeron, and the Paladins that had just sided with them, they drove back the remaining forces of Hrut, and followed their retreat back to their camp.
Hrut was laughing manically at this point, as he rode madly back to base. I’ll show them, I’ll show them they cannot take me lightly!he thought to himself, cackling loudly. As his tattered forces entered the base, he stopped his horse, and turned it around to face the incoming forces of Gunnar. With a huge smile on his face, he called over a guard, and gave him this order; “Release the Gryphons!” As Gunnar’s army stormed towards Hrut’s camp, they saw huge shadows soaring in the night sky, and at this they froze up.
“Gryphons.” Whispered Sigmund in a terrified voice. “He… he has gryphon riders!” Hammers charged with lightning began to rain down on them, and many were hit, with only a handful of charred pieces remaining after the impact of the hammers. All the archers that they had with them assembled, and were able to take down one of the gryphons, but the other killed them in their tracks. It looked as if the fate of Gunnar and his men was sealed.
Soon after Crasher327 made his attack on my base, I decided it was time to counter attack, and so I formed about two control groups of Paladins, along with two archers, together. Sending my troops north, I met little resistance at first, because he only had a handful of Paladins now stationed at the choke, and my numbers were far superior. However, just as I was about to enter his base to finish him off, two gryphon riders appeared, about the last thing I expected to see from someone who had no expansions. My archers, who were only level one (since I didn’t actually expect to see gryphons.), managed to kill one of the mythical beasts, but the other one finished them off, and began to scatter my knights everywhere. Not to let a single, insignificant unit stay in the way of me and my destiny of slaughtering Crasher327, I rounded up a mage and another archer, and these easily splattered the gryphon, and I also managed to get a very bloody screenshot of the birds death for your viewing pleasure.
The gryphon rider pounded mercilessly on the helpless footmen and Paladins under the command of Gunnar. Bodies fell around Gunnar and Sigmund everywhere, and the forest around them began to set ablaze. I refuse to lose here! Gunnar thought with a tone of defiance Not after coming this far…As this poured through his mind, Gunnar, who had his eyes on the great beast in the heavens, saw, to his astonishment, bolts of lightning beginning to come up from the ground and strike the gryphon. Flustered, the bird frantically tried to locate its assailants, but to no avail, and soon the fierce animal had all of its life sapped out of it, and it crashed to the ground, causing a minor tremor upon impact with the earth.
Coming towards Sigmund and Gunnar was a group of mystical figures adorned in robes, decorated with astral symbols.
“Mages of Dalaran!” Sigmund exclaimed. Gunnar realized that that was indeed what these men whom had slain the beast were. In the lead was a man that caught Gunnar’s eye, for he was sure that he had seen him before, although he couldn’t remember where. His hair was grayed, and he carried himself with an air of importance and purpose. This man walked up towards Sigmund.
“It has been a long time, Sigmund.” The man said. A mixed look of shock and joy passed across Sigmund’s face.
“Lord Khadgar! Is it really you?!”
Khadgar nodded. “Your eyes do not deceive you Sigmund.” He replied.
Sigmund looked amazed. “But how….how did you know?”
“The conclave of Dalaran received information three days ago that Gunnar was moving south, and would most likely come through these parts. I was to follow you for as long as you were in our lands, and go unseen, simply making sure that you caused no trouble. And so I did for a time, but as my conviction that it was Glum who was the true culprit in the assassination at Lordaeron grew, I felt myself sorely restrained, and when you were in trouble with the gryphon, being able to contain my rage at Glum no longer, I gave the order to my company to attack.”
Sigmund was about to ask something else, but before he could, Gunnar interrupted him. “Let us save it for later. First, we should make sure that our enemy does not get away.” Sigmund, once again calmed down, nodded. “Of course, my liege.” And with that, Gunnar, Sigmund, and Khadgar led the attack into the camp of Hrut.
With the gryphon gone, I meet little resistance in entering Crusher327’s base. There are a few towers, but I easily deal with them thanks to the mighty powers of blizzard. Inside his base, I quickly target the aviary, ensuring that there would be no more gryphons to threaten my troops. There are a few Paladins inside as well, but these are quickly taken care of, and soon I have his base flooded with my forces.
I assume that all the events for this game are now over, and start to think that this game really wasn’t worth reporting, but then Crasher327 said something so inspirational, so awe inspiring, so enlightening, that it sealed the deal for this report;
Intriuged, I asked him why, expecting a sagely reply, that would humble me into submission. This is what he said:
As compelling as his argument was, and as much as I wanted to, I decided against it, because quite frankly, I kinda wanted to kill him off. Crasher327 makes one last attempt though:
You know what, I was about to listen. Really, I was about to surrender to the greater force that is Crasher327, and acknowledge his superiority by giving him the much deserved win, but before I could, this little screen flashed up:
Our poor hero Crasher327 seemed to have experienced technical difficulties sad to say, and I still regret not surrendering sooner. But hey, life goes on.
Confrontation With Hrut
As Gunnar was fighting the dwindling and scattering forces of Hrut, he noticed something up ahead that made him pause for a moment, shocked. For above the chaos of the battle, he saw raised a great axe, that was brought down swiftly on some hapless soldier’s head. There was no doubt; the blade could only be “Blood-Lion”. Who dares weild that murderous device?!” Gunnar thought, making his way to where he had seen the axe. There he saw a brute of a man, holding the bloodied axe in front of him, corpses strewn to either side. Gunnar was once again shocked when he saw him, because, although his glimpse had been fleeting, this was a man he would never forget nor forgive for the rest of his life. It was the one who had slain Terenas.
“Prepare yourself, villain!” Gunnar screamed at the main, who looked up from his last kill, shocked. “For I have come to lop off your head!” Gunnar began to charge at the man. Hrut was very afraid now. I am no match for Gunnar! he thought in dismay. There must be something I can do…he thought, looking around, and spotted two of his Paladins.
“Quickly men!” he shouted at them. “Gunnar is trying to kill me, stop him dead and your rewards will be very handsome!” The Paladins rushed forward, and Hrut immediately started to run away. Gunnar attempted to chase after him, but his path was blocked by the Paladins, both simultaneously swinging their great hammers down at him from atop their steeds; Gunnar was able to sidestep the blows, but just barely, and while they were raising their hammers up again, Gunnar quickly slashed at one of their hands as they did so, severing it off, and both hand and hammer fell to the ground, and the Paladin, toppled from atop his horse, which in its panic then trampled him. As all of this was occurring, the other Paladin brought down its hammer again, which Gunnar leaped out of the way of at the last second, and although his back was grazed by the weapon slightly, it was a minor wound and of little concern. As he turned around to face the Paladin again, Gunnar, seeing no other choice to save himself, cut the horses’ throat with his sword, toppling both the beast and the Paladin. While the Paladin was still on the ground, Gunnar stood over him and, in one swift downward slash, cut off his head. All around him, the forces of Hrut were scattering; they had surely won the battle.
Soon all of Hrut’s forces had been vanquished, and Gunnar stood in the middle of the field, regaining his breath. Sigmund and Khadgar then came up to him.
“My Lord, we have won!” Sigmund exclaimed, exuberant. He then noticed the look of anger on Gunnar’s face, and asked inquired as to what was bothering his Lord.
“The man who killed my father is the very same man who was leading this assault.” Gunnar replied. Both Khadgar and Sigmund looked very surprised.
“Are you sure?” asked Sigmund.
“Yes, I am. I will never forget that man.”
Khadgar then spoke up. “The conclave was informed that the new retainer of Lordaeron, a man named Hrut, had been sent to capture Gunnar. That would mean…” at this Khadgar trailed off.
“There will be another chance for revenge, I am sure.” Sigmund said, breaking the silence. “In the meantime, we should see if we cannot get the aide of Dalaran. Maybe we will not have to journey as far as Gilneas afterall.”
Sighing, Khadgar shook his head. “I am afraid that will not be possible.” He responded. “You see, if I were in control of things, then we would most surely wage war against Glum, and place Gunnar on the throne which is rightfully his. However, I am but one member of the Kirin Tor conclave, and all the rest of the members have grown into cowards since the Orcish wars ended. They would go to any extent to prevent another war, even if it meant sacrificing their honor.”
To this Sigmund asked: “But you are a great hero of the wars with the Orcs. Surely your opinion would carry great weight among them?”
Khadgar sighed once more. “I am afraid not. You must remember that it was only recently that I became a member of the conclave, and before that I was an advisor to the King of Azeroth. Many of them still view me as an outsider, and do so with distrust. But don’t be low of spirits, for I will ensure you safe passage into Gilneas. I will also give you a sect of mages to accompany and serve you. Come, there is a town close by, let us rest there for the time being.”
“Thank you, Lord Khadgar.” Replied a grateful Gunnar. “Your kindess and faith in us will not be forgotten when Glum is vanquished from the throne of Lordaeron. And with that, the exhausted but victorious forces of Gunnar rounded up, and made their way towards the town, where for a few days they rested and tended to the wounded. Then, once they had fully recovered from the fatigue of combat, they departed, and as Khadgar had promised, no one tried to stop them, and also a group of mages was given to them to assist in their cause, also as promised. And so once again, Gunnar, Sigmund, and all those who still faithfully followed them made their way towards the mighty kingdom of Gilneas.
To Be Continued…
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