Chapter 5, Wolf Foreign Affairs 2
Being the victim of attempted assassination, was something new. At least I should be, I had never been in a position where someone wanted me dead in my salaryman's life. Being murdered by a disgruntled employee didn't count, that was… an illogical emotional overreaction reaction. Assassinations were done for political expediency when you could not talk someone into your point of view. Which was a clear way of telling me that there would be no way to bring my pack and the enemy pack together peacefully and I doubted I would be able to pull that one-on-one trick again as well.
Someone who attempts to kill you while you're away from your forces tends to not play fair. Which meant I didn't need to play fair. If the wolf leader of the western pack wanted to play dirty... Then I need not play fair myself. I had the advantage of numbers, and if I was stupid I could rush in there and kill as much as I could 'till I won.
But I was not some primitive fool. My enemy was a pack of feral animals, if I attacked them like that they would be backed into a corner and my numbers would mean nothing. No, what I needed to do was to weaken the enemy pack. As I had done with the Yetis and the other wolf pack I began data collection. My experience with the former eastern pack helped with identifying roads the wolves took for their hunting parties, finding out numbers, and figuring out how they organized the tribe.
After a week of scouting, I had a better understanding of the situation and I had figured out the important parts. The wolves of the west had around 100 wolves under their command, a few more than I had known weeks before, which meant an attack on their camp would be even harder than I had suspected. At all times there were 20 wolves guarding their camp, which was a tunnel bored into the side of a mountain. When I say bored, I mean bored. From as close as I was able to get I could tell that the tunnel was not natural, machines had been used to make it. Why? I didn't know, but the black pit that those wolves came in and out of yawed open with a palpable feeling of foreboding.
Without being able to get inside there was no way to confirm my estimation. There were only 100 wolves visible, including, those 20 at the camp, at any given time but it could be double that. For all I knew the tunnel went all the way to the other side of the mountain range and there was a whole nation of millions on the other side. I doubted that greatly, the wolves I had at my disposal were ravenous creatures who ate too much for numbers of that size. But without information gathering in the tunnel, I would just have to hope my calculations were correct.
As for the 80 wolves that left the tunnel, three packs of 10 would go on hunting trips in their territory. I had thought maybe it was only two but Raven proved to be a quick and intelligent animal, and he had friends. If I was asked which animal was more intelligent I would probably say wolves, but Raven did give a good enough show that I was wondering about that.
I had come back from my scouting trip and used rocks in the show to make an estimate of the distribution of the enemy wolves. The raven saw what I was doing and somehow put together that pile of ten stock represented ten unit hunting parties. At the time I just assumed it was wondering what I was doing. The next day, when I came back from scouting, there was another pile of rock next to my two and three ravens hanging out, with the Raven being easy to spot out by my bandages still on his side.
The fact that there were more ravens was not surprising. If one exists there must be more, the fact that the bird could contact two others and get them to do what he wanted and confirm there was a third band I missed... That was a sign of organization and intel gathering capability I did not expect from a bird. But Raven was nearly three and a half feet big, I should have expected the animal to be more intelligent just from the bigger brain cavity. Of course, I went out and confirmed this information. Always best to double-check your sources, after all. And I did confirm the raven's intel, which was where those extra ten had come from. These were tactical advantages I didn't intend to let go to waste, having an eye in the sky allowed me to confirm other numbers and with Raven's help I did just that.
The last group of 50 were on patrol between my territory and their own, occasionally poking into mine to grab a quick snack. And their leader, I believed, moved with this group. The wolves were large enough that I could ride them, big enough already, but the wolf at the core of this group was much larger. It was a beast of a wolf, dark of fur, and its eye seemed to glow with an energy the others lacked. I wasn't sure what I was going to do about it.
Yes, I could attack the group with my 120 wolves. I had a chance of winning. I also had a chance of being bitten in half during the attack. Attacking a monster like that while it was at its strongest was exactly what it wanted. It had put a hit on my head and wanted me dead. What better way to give it what it wanted than to put myself in biting range.
I was not going to give it what it wanted. No, I was going to take from it everything it had. Breaking my wolves into groups of 30 myself, Cunning, Fierce, and Mother as the leaders, I planned to move out to hunt down the western wolves hunting packs. As such I would train those groups of 30 to work as a unit.
The plan was simple: the 50 on the border were looking for me, so I would put in an appearance along the northern stretch of the territory .to draw that wolf and his pack to me. As I did so my 3 other parties would cross the border and hunt down and kill the hunting packs. I had considered ordering an attack on the cave while the big beast was chasing me, but that would not serve my goals.
I needed that big bad wolf tied down, looking after its home. If it had no home, well it had nothing to lose. And something that has nothing to lose was a dangerous thing to fight. Or stand near train station tracks with.
I had considered ways to increases my, and my wolves, combat affinity, unfortunately the wolves were well-armed so there was nothing to add to them. The best I was able to come up with was to use all the spare leather and hides I gathered over the last few months to build a basic side and neck armor, increasing their survival rate for what was about to come was really the best I could do. For myself… Well hopefully I would not need anything, but I took a particularly long and sharp elk horn and put leather around the handles. It was an impromptu sword, which was better than nothing if I lost my spears. As for range, I devised a kind of spear thrower. I had been working on a way to increase my range with my weapons when that thought came to me, I believed that I remembered it from some national geographic magazine I read once. Then again, the fact I could figure out how to make something like this spoke heavily that knowledge I didn't fully grasp had been placed in this body before I had woken to it.
Spear throw had taken a few iterations to get it right, a full week of carving and prepping but did what I needed to do for the survival of my tribe.
Three weeks after the failed assassination, it was time to repay that crime.
Fighting a larger enemy force with a smaller force takes planning and preparations, fighting one who literally has a wolf the size of a small tank took a lot of planning. So, sitting on the back of one of my biggest wolves, I waited. this far north the tree line was barely a thing, more of the rocky slopes with dense brush and occasional pools of snow turned to water by geothermal warmth. The wolves were scattered about, resting themselves for the fight ahead.
There was no cover here for my 30 wolves, there was an only open field of snow, and there was no way the big bastard wouldn't see us up here and come running. Once he started chasing me, I had a plan. It was a bad plan but it was a plan. We were not too far from where I first camped when I woke on this world, not too far from the pool that was surrounded by bones. I hoped that my wolves, being smaller than that walking tank, would have a speed advantage and that we could get to the other side of the poisoned pool before it arrived. At that point, with any luck, it would be so incensed that it would charge us through it. The best outcome would be that it would fall to poison without me having to do much more. Worst outcome, it would just slow up. In that case we could run away again before leading it on a continued chase around the top of the valley, keeping it busy till I thought my other wolf groups had finished off its hunting parties.
It was a bad and simple plan, but the simpler it was the less likely something would go wrong. I just needed the back-furred tank to show up. As I pondered what was taking so long, Raven landed on my shoulder and poked the side of my head. Muttering a pained complaint, I looked up at Raven and saw it was looking down slowly. Following its gaze, I saw the movement of the trees and quickly confirmed that the wind was not in cause. No, these were the guests I had been waiting for. Muttering a few words to wake the wolves, they quickly got to their feet and started letting out howls which served to draw out the howls off the tree line below. Whatever surprise they hoped to have was gone now and there was no reason for them to attempt to skulk up on me.
With a rush the wolves came charging out of the tree line, coming up the slope at us. How I wished I had some kinda rifle at that moment, they were open targets and could have easily been taken out. But I didn't so I worked with what tools I had. Grabbing my spear thrower I took basic aim and launched one then two of my spears down, slowly, at the charging mass. I didn't bother to check to see if I hit, there were 50 wolves bearing down at me and I needed them chasing me. If they hit, they would be angry and charge harder, if not… Well, either way I needed to move. With a few words my wolves ran, heading east toward the pond.
Looking back I saw 50 wolves chasing without issues. Behind them, breaking some younger tree in its headlong charge, came to the leader of the western back. Its eye seemed to glow as it rushed after us, trampling some of its own wolves as it did.
Staying calm I pulled another spear, turned my body as much as possible, and threw another spear. This one I watched land, impaling itself in the big bastard's shoulder. The howl of pain was rather satisfying but then it seemed to pick up speed. I was hoping it would possibly slow down however it seemed that making it angry was not something I should aim for. Turning back to my wolves I held on tight. They knew what to do, it was all up to them now and I just had to hope that the pool was as poisonous as I believed.
It was a straight run from where I had been waiting to the pool and, at the speed we were going, we soon reached the pool. Carefully I ordered the wolves to go around the edges of the area I thought could be deadly by following the prepared sticks that I had put up in the last few days. The angle we came at also gave us a bit of a height advantage, as we came to stop on a cliffed hill that a pool of water flowed out of. I had a moment to take a breath of fresh air. The fastest route for the enemy was for the wolves to cut through the area covered in bones, and with luck they would not be thinking and do it.
And they did not think. The wolves rushed onward toward us, some of them jumping into the water to swim directly towards me. They didn't seem to be dying off from poison so my plan looked to have gone to shit. I prepared to keep running when something massive roared, cutting through the chaos. Roaring, not howling. Looking over the edge of the cliff I sat on in confusion, I wondered what that was about until I saw something massive and white swim out of what I had thought was a small hole in the cliff into which the water of the pond spilled.
The creature that swam to the center of the pond before it stood up on its hind legs revealed that the small hole was not a water passage but a burrow and the whole pawn was not some poisoned graveyard. It was simply the lunch remnants of the creature in front of me.
Standing a good 12 feet tall a massive white bear looked down at the wolves near its paws... Then smacked one out of its water, sending it flying into a tree where it was impaled on a branch. The massive polar bear looked around then moved to smack another, and the chaos began. The western wolves in the water moved desperately to get away from the beast, the ones out of the water howled and bore their fangs at the bear, and the western leader barrelled through the pack and launched itself at the polar bear.
There were few things I expected would happen today… A kaiju fight was not on that list. But that is what I got as the bear and wolf tore at each other, ripping, clawing, trying to put each other down. The pond, which had been muddy brown, slowly turned red with the blood running into it.
I was a bit torn on what to do. On one hand, the bear was killing my enemy so the enemy of my enemy was my friend. But on the other, polar bears were known as man-eaters so helping it seemed like a bad idea. Frankly, in this situation, it was best to let my enemies fight each other to death and it would be better to flee Even if the bear and big wolf were killing each other, the western wolves still outnumbered me by ten wolves despite their losses.
Then Raven landed on my shoulder, tapped my shoulder, and pointed west. Looking that way I saw another raven coming my way, as far as I knew there was a raven with each of my wolf units. If that raven was part of one of my wolf packs and was heading here, that meant they had succeeded in their mission and were returning. 60 to 40 advantage in my favor.
I smiled, the numbers could be better but really with the western wolves preoccupied watching the kaiju fight… Well, they weren't paying attention to what we were doing. Not only that, they were broken up into two groups, 15 on the right of the pond and 25 on the left. If I attacked the flank it would take them a moment to recognize it, and with the other wolf unit coming from right behind them… My smile broadened till my fangs were bared, as I realized they could be encircled and destroyed. Pulling my last spear out of the side, I tapped the shoulder of the wolf I was riding and signaled to advance on the right flank. Quickly, not to draw attention, my wolves moved down the right slope, being as stealthy as they could be to not draw the western wolves' notices. They only started barking and charging as one of the western wolves turned it head and looked at us.
Like a wave of claws and teeth, My pack was on the flank ripping into the western wolves with murderous glee. From my position on a wolf's back, I had a better look at the battle than most, but I was too busy showing my remaining spear into enemy wolves that tried to go for me. No doubt the bigger wolf had offered some sorta reward for my head with how driven they were. One of them even got lucky, slashing its clawed paw down the left side of my face and leaving a deep cut. How bad it was I didn't know, I would have to deal with that later. But this worked in my favor as they wasted any chance to reorganize and fed themselves into the fight.
As the fight progressed and things became more organized I began to get a look at the situation Between stabbing of my spear in wolves that came for me. The black wolf and white bear were still fighting, too preoccupied with their own fight to care about what was happening around the body of water they stood in. The western wolves that my 30 had pounded on looked to be beaten or dead. I saw several severely wounded wolves limping away with many cuts and bits. Of my 30 they seemed to have taken wounds proportional. Five were down that I wasn't sure would be getting back up, with another 10 looking bloody from various wounds that looked like they would have been worse if I had not provided them with some basic armor.
As for those that had been on the other side of the pond they were now facing us down, 5 of them had charged in and been killed or wounded with the 15. This meant I had 15 fresh wolves to their 20, yes I had ten more wounded wolves but I rather they didn't have to fight and go from wounded to dead.
I considered calling a retreat as the other wolves had not arrived yet and it was better to take what gains I could than get myself killed when a raven, not the one marked by bandages landed on my shoulder. Smiling, I looked past the enemy wolves and saw Mother wolf and her band of 30 rushing out of the tree behind the 20 western wolves. They moved silently and without much noise, most likely planning to take the 20 wolves in front of me by surprise. This crazy impromptu plan was working, I just needed to keep the wolves looking my way so that Mother could grind them into dust.
So I took up my last remaining bloody spear and, not bothering to use the spear thrower, I tossed. The wooden stick tipped with elkhorn sailed true and smashed in the head of one of the wolves, killing it. This broke whatever order they had as the wolves charged my position, but the commotion of their charge covered the sound of mother and her wolves charging up behind them. Before they reached our position a fourth of their number was already taken down and the numbers looked worse for them by the moment. I drew the elk sword and pointed it toward the western wolves, signaling the charge to my pack.
Holding on for dear life as the wolves rushed each other, I couldn't really do much but wave my sword around. The wolves knew their business of fighting, I was just the tactician in this little fight. I now simply needed to trust my loyal subordinates to execute their duty without fail. And my trust was well placed as the western wolves were thoroughly overrun, a few ran for healing back in the direction of their home but most died or were left seriously injured at the edges of the battle where they would die. Or perhaps I could convince them to switch sides in exchange of aid? Something to investigate, but for now I was smiling. I had a great victory, not only had I accomplished my goals but the opportunity I found had been exploited to deal a crushing blow. Now the valley was as good as mine.
'The tiny furless Whelp thinks they won, have they?' accompanying a deep gravelly voice in my head, I felt a sharp spike of pain. Confused, I looked toward the pond and saw the black wolf standing on what was left of the polar bear. Blood was running down its sides and legs, a set of new scars running down its face on the right side, and one of its eyes was gone but seemed to have been replaced by that energy I had seen before from a distance, now swirling with miasma effect.
'You furless ones, always thinking you're better than us. Building your homes and killing our prey, and now you seek to enslave my kind to your whims again?' The wolf sneezed, giving me a death glare and never taking the eye off me. 'You Lowly creatures are nothing but livestock we should consume when the hard winter comes. To think, my kind would even let such disgusting creature ride its back. REMOVE THAT FILTH!'. The wolf I was riding tensed and seemed to be at war with itself, it began shaking horribly. I rolled off the side of the wolf and whatever the black wolf had done immediately seemed to lessen. I petted the wolf's side to calm it, noting all the other wolves around me were backing away from the black wolf.
Sighing, I cleared my throat and turned to look at the black wolf, "Apparently you have a problem with humans? I'm afraid I'm not particularly fond of overt speciesism, I had to send enough staff to sensitivity training over the years. Perhaps though we can come to some compromises? I only had to result in such base animalistic wars because I believed we could not come to an understanding. But if we can talk surely we can come to an understanding. There is enough place in the valley for two packs."
'What nonsense is that? Are you trying to keep me busy in hopes that more of your tamed pets arrive? They won't do you any good, I AM THE KING OF THIS VALLEY!' The wolves around me buckled to the ground but though I felt a headache it was minuscule enough that I ignored it. 'Once I have eaten you I will remove the taint you brought here, they will be fed to the next generation growing safely in my home.'
"You wish to eat and kill those who took me, in, My good king? You seem to be a cannibal, and I'm afraid I can not abide cannibals," I said, keeping the sword tight in my hand. There was no way I could run at this point with what the black wolf had done to mine to render them weakened. I had to assume though that there was a reason he did not use this ability before. y hope was that, whatever that was, along with its weakened state from injuries, would make whatever fight was about to happen go in my favor.
The black wolf began to move toward me, it was limping but, with its size, it was menacing nonetheless. 'I don't care what my food abides, I only care for where my food will come next'.
I rolled my eyes and shook my head, wiping some blood from my face, before pointing my sword at the approaching beast as I attempted to psych myself up for this fight., "And I only care that you seem to have some magic ability to enforce your will over MY PACK! If I knew how to undo that you would not be so sure in your declaration about my existence as your food, though I'm sure the raven would love your EYES for a meal."
The Black wolf stopped halfway to me, opening it remaining eye wide, 'What? How-'. Whatever it was about to say was interrupted by my raven dive-bombing from the sky and digging its pointed beak into the wolf's sole good eye. The Wolf shook its head, attempting to fling the raven off, leaving me to stare, stumped, at what just happened. Did the raven hear me say 'eye 'and get the idea to attack it with an eye? But how did it know what eye meant? This question was postponed by the mother wolf's head resting on my shoulder and licking my cheek. Surprised, I looked over and saw the wolves getting back up all around me, whatever spell had been cast upon them seemingly broken.
'Whelp! I AM THE KING OF THIS VALLEY! You will not take it from me while I live!'
Looking at the wolf, seeing its eyes were gone but the orbits were now filled by blood and that strange miasma, I could only shake my head. "Well then, it would seem that the economic forces that dictated the need for a king have run their course, I prefer an elective republic style of government anyways."
My wolves charged past me and pounced onto it, biting into the monster's legs and sides, attempting to pull it down. I noted their bites weren't having much effect, simply pulling the beast's fur and his hide seeming to block their teeth. The monster attempted to bite my wolves but, being blind and weakened, it was too slow to stop them as they pulled its struggling body into the water. They most likely realized the best way to deal with the beast was to drown it, effective but time-consuming with the way it was fighting.
Walking up I carefully dodged its head as it attempted to take a bite out of where it thought I was standing. It may be blind but could still smell me, most likely. Dodging another attack I aimed and shoved the elk blade deep into the open eye socket of the wolf's head. I let go and left the blade in its brain as I took a step back. The black wolf bit at the air a couple more times before the life force that animated the monster went out of it and the body collapsed into the water.
I can not abide cannibals, those wolves that remained alive were not something to keep around. Yes, I understood that animals should not be held to the same standard as humans. But these animals showed by their continued intelligence that they did not get that excuse, Without even getting into the freak of nature's strange abilities.
In consequence, though the enemy wolves represented a potential food source, I made sure to have them piled up before applying flammable materials to them. These creatures were tainted in some way, the way they acted was not natural and was not human. They hunted their own kind, attempted assassinations, and could speak through mental powers. No doubt that strange energy I saw in the wolf's eyes aligned with that foreboding I felt at their cave home. Whatever was in that cave needed to be burned out to prevent it from spreading, be it some microorganism or just a quirk of their genetics. Perhaps a form of rabies? Who knows.
After I set the wolves alight I would have done the same to the big monster as well but it was too heavy to lift out of the pond. Without much in the way of options, I took my knife and cut out a large segment of its fur coat. with proper cleaning and drying the material may be useful, it had stood up to the bites of my wolves after all. I did take my blade out of its skull, finding it had broken off halfway inside.
From there I took stock of the situation. The other units had made their way to the pond, their raven leading them here, and I was able to get my pack together. There was no way to know the remaining enemy numbers but, from the look of the somewhat beat-up armor on my wolves, it would guess they all been successful. This meant that at best, of each original 30 targets, most like 90% were dead. Meanwhile, of the 50 I had fought, I could confirm 40 bodies so my best estimate what that there was probably upward of 30 wolves left at the western cave. They were most likely severely wounded, besides the 20 who stayed at the cave guarding the "next generation". Well, I wasn't going to let that next generation happen, that taint needed to be removed from this valley if I ever wanted to have peace again. Out of my wolves, 80 were still combat-ready, the armor having done its job they were tired but willing. Thirty were wounded greatly and I directed them back home while I organized the best funeral I could for the last ten under the situation.
Then I packed the 80 wolves with as much wood and flammables that I could find, cleaning up a large swath of forest ground around the pond. I would burn this taint out before it spread.
King Thengir of Russ warmed his hand by the fire, looking out a window set into the old stone walls at the black night sky Helwinter was coming, in a few short months the cold in the mountain would drive the animals that lived there from their homes. Then raids would begin again.
He had been king for 50 years and lived 60, in that time things did not change much. War with other tribes over resources, wars for much of the year, war during the summer over the coastal bounties with the sea folk. And war during Helwinter over the game during the winter. It was a never-ending cycle that dated back to long before he was alive. The castle he lived in, a small stone affair, was a prime example of how long it had been going. There were no records of who had built it but it was clear that it had been built not out of some desire for splendor but to keep the people inside safe.
And as the ruler of this castle, he had done his best to extend that safety to his people as far as he could over the last 50 years. 50 long years of war, pain, and suffering. And mistakes. So many mistakes. The biggest one was himself, he never produced an heir. Oh, he had tried, how he tried, but things just never worked out. Though they did elect kings in the Russ, the current options to the throne were… warmongers, who would lead his people to destruction. He likely had only 20 years of life left, maybe more if things went well but he worried what would happen after his death. Who would lead the Russ after the day he passed on into legend? He could only hope the Allfather would send someone worthy to take his place before his time was up, someone he could mold into a good king.
Writers Note; I may have too much fun on this chapter and let creativity take the wheel. But on the other hand what is warhammer? It a sci-fi franchise that is about going overboard? Is it about taking things to the extreme? I don't know, let me know if I went too far.
Edited by: Pierre
review responses
skrapsynneh/Umodin/Madara95
here more, that for the review
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bristolian/T3ddy
yep pretty much that is at this, that was the main idea from start I play around with other ideas but that what i'lll be sticking with
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StoneTheLoner
your prediction appears to be wrong, but no worries you other idea may happen
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Imagery
aren't they?
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Suzuwuzu
even more then you know
