Warning: This chapter hasn't gone through a beta reader.
16. The Night Assaulting Chapter
...in which Denmark makes history
The sun set. The paired up nations on trenches chatted with their partners quietly, waiting for a new report. The scouts had been send out. The current nineteen members of the action group, four of the rear guard plus one sniper, who again had climbed down from his position for the night, and one messenger were now all lying in wait for something to happen.
The initial success of the sabotage mission had returned them to their starting point: waiting for the enemy to attack.
The time before their departure was steadily becoming less and less. One night. One night was all that remained. If they managed to protect the hut and Norway for one more night… they would win. They could leave. One set of dark hours was all it would take. But right now no one knew what those dark hours where hiding. Would their enemy still come back to increase their casualties? Would the will-o'-wisps reappear and claim a new person? Or could they sit here for the whole night, retreat in peace when the dawn came and leave quietly without anyone interrupting?
Remaining time to departure: 8 hours, 34 minutes, 45 seconds
.*** *** ***
After the disguised Korea had managed to hack into their enemy's computers, disabling all the initial programs, launching all electric alarms at the same time and opening the two computer operated gates, the base had been momentarily in chaos. While breaking the computers and the airplanes alone could have worked, the nations had decided not to take the risk of those getting replaced easier than expected and the bombing happening anyway. Besides there were way too many airplanes in the nation to sabotage.
"That will take too much time," their ally objected to the plans the nations had been quickly drafting up. "With this little time to plan this, everything can't go smoothly. And who will be the decoy? One of you? My men won't, okay. That's a death sentence. Even if I managed to get you inside, how can you assure me you will succeed at your end and all the while I won't be caught helping you and that everything will go so according to the plan so well, that we all get out?"
"Are you planning on winning without risking anything?" Netherlands said unexpectedly and gave their ally an unamused stare. "You have been irritating me for a while now with that attitude."
Japan coughed, catching their ally's attention. "With all due respect, miss, you misunderstand: you cannot win this game without risking something. Then again, if you won't play at all, you'll lose everything. I'm not sure how things are usually done in your dimension, but now that the odds have turned against us and we can no longer simply drag out the outcome, we are betting on a chance. Unfortunately, you're the only one who can answer the questions when and where, which makes you a key player. And if you are not going to play on that chance together with us, we will all lose."
"You cannot win without placing something as a price," Netherlands continued. "Why won't you decide already what you want to get: A possible war with that best friend of ours, or a nuclear explosion by your door step and a loss of your so precious information sources?"
"What will it be?" China asked looking at their ally. With the stick he had been drawing with, he tapped the quickly drafted mission guideline on the dirt beside the fire. "Do you have a better plan? Or will you bet on ours?"
Wanted Korea to admit it or not, the job had taken him longer than he had expected and as their ally had warned them, due to the level of technology the results had not been as wide as the nations had thought. But it had been enough. Within the chaos, Canada had been able to slip inside one of the command centres, found out the exact route to the hangar and stolen or acquired the needed keys and passwords to get in. That was where the first real problem of the plan aroused. Afterwards, they couldn't agree on who's fault it was.
"This is just great," Canada sighed quietly and adjusted himself between the jungle of power cords. "What now? And storming out guns blazing is NOT an option."
"I know," America huffed, but sounded slightly disappointed. "We need a distraction."
After someone had suspected unauthorized personnel lurking nearby, the duo had had to momentarily abort their mission and wait for the commotion to settle, hoping that it would be declared a false alarm. With the security tighter than expected and guards checking anyone with an unknown face, even Canada would have hard time to get around. At this point, they had no way of contacting the humans their ally had arranged to distract the enemy, or Mrs. Ally herself for help. The next full set of distractions in the plan was the one that should have been used to get them all out. That would be too late and they'd lose the time to disable the three bombs they knew their enemy had ready enough to drop within the time they'd still be in the dimension. Them knowing that was thanks to their male ally's intelligence about the matter and it wasn't 100 percent certain, but it was the best they had. The point of the plan wasn't necessarily preventing the bombing in itself, but buying them time and give their ally a chance to talk sense into their enemy's head.
But for that to become reality, America and Canada had to first get out of this electrical closet they had stuffed themselves in, in a hurry. The closed, dark space was full of computer cords, levels and buttons all of which were somehow connected to the command plate on the back. What each of them did or where it was connected, was pretty much a mystery.
"We do this," America said and leant over the command board. "If we mess up their electronics by rearranging these, we can create a blackout and get out."
"I think this is a master switch, though," Canada offered and pointed at a huge lever beside his ear. "Couldn't we cause a blackout by just pulling this?"
"Tut tut, Canada, you're naïve," America said back clearly enjoying himself again. "That'd be too easy for our friends who come to check what's going on here. No, we have to do this real agent movie style and leave them a puzzle they'll go nuts with."
Canada sighed in defeat. "I hope you know what you're doing…"
"Of course I do!" America proclaimed way too loudly.
"Quiet down and do it then," Canada hissed and slapped a hand to his brother's mouth, glancing at the door nervously.
The humans their ally had arranged to help them, were actual environmental activists. Radical ones, to be exact. When they had decided that the nations couldn't do the big distraction by themselves, the role had been laid on their allied humans. While loudly objecting on using her own men, their ally had suddenly gone silent and in a span of next half an hour, she had exhausted her assistant magician with teleportation and with the travel sick China in tow, ran between her own country and the Home hut. In her own country, she had barged straight into a large police custody department, shoving aside anyone who tried to interrupt her with a talk about permissions or paperwork, and flung open cell doors, shocking guards and prisoners alike.
"Well then," the leader of the activists finally uttered as the initial shock of his country bursting the cell door open let go. "This is a surprise."
"Tell me about it!" the chief of police raged behind the nation.
Barely half a month before the nations had arrived to the dimension, she had had her own problems with the same people. The activists had arranged various minor strikes against her technological institutes, some of which were violent, as well as stormed inside a chemical factory in a middle of a normal day and caused a major press incident by literally just standing in the way of everything there. The group had been captured and charged for these incidents, but the trials were apparently still in queue after some hindrances their ally didn't explain. So the main suspects had still been in custody.
To this group of people, Mrs. Ally stroke a deal: all of those who had it in them to join their cause, she'd arrange weapons and freedom from all previous charges, in exchange of storming inside the nearby country's nuclear military base and helping to prevent a nuclear war. While some of the group were simply radically objecting citizens with little to no military experience, the rest were a part of larger organization that had arranged many armed conflicts within recent years. Mrs. Ally had not forced anyone to join the attempt, but surprisingly many had been ready. When given a permission one the captured leaders had even contacted his bosses and arranged more people to join. Because everything had a time limit and they were in a huge hurry, with the help of China things had been re-planned to fit the amount of people who were immediately or later available.
"It's nice to know that you care for our cause, mistress," the activist leader said, amused and bowed to his nation theatrically.
"I don't!" Mrs. Ally snapped back. "Personally I hate you, okay. Just how much trouble you think you caused?! But this is more important. More importantly, is what you just said a true offer or some form of revenge?"
The leader laughed. "It's the truth. I've talked with our organization's highest lead. This is a rare and a valuable opportunity and spares our members from the trials. The organization will take responsibility of the attack afterwards. Of course in turn we get to keep the weapons you share with us, right, mistress?"
Ms. Ally clicked her teeth and hissed at the man.
Mrs. Ally's boss had apparently loudly objected on not only helping but as far as arranging a terrorist attack, but she had bluntly told him to shut up and simply promised to explain herself later. She had then teleported thirty people to the country of their male ally, which was of course closer to the enemy base and from there further teleported the thirty to their enemy country. Now illegally. While it could have been possible to teleport people straight to the enemy country, moving so many people and a lot of equipment was a strain to the magicians and using a legal way to get half way through made it easier for them.
Upon arriving, they had smuggled the three nations and the five person strike team inside the base, leaving the rest in wait nearby. In it's most simple form, the plan consisted of seven steps. America and Canada causing a commotion close to the nuclear hangar, then disappearing out of sight and let the strike team continue the commotion. With Korea's stunts, the base would momentarily lose its mobility and open the way for the activists outside to attack the base from the open gates. During the activist commotion, America and Canada would disable the bombs, find their way back to the closest magician they had brought with them and teleport away, while Mrs. Ally would arrange Korea out. Afterwards, the activists would take the blame of the attack. Although, to them it was rather an honour and a reason to be proud and boast about than a blame.
"Remember this," their ally said quietly and stopped the group as they were about to enter the same room as their activist companions. "These humans do not know who you are, okay. To them, you are some of my special agents or something similar. I wish to keep it at that."
Of course things didn't go as well as planned. The activists outside the area were noticed before they could attack the base. America and Canada had been able to get out of their quick hideout without being seen, causing more trouble for all the engineers and causing headache to their enemy nation when he had to seen all the bows America had tied from the cords. However, it had ended up in a fire fight for them one more time, which almost let to the failure of the mission. In the end, America had disabled all the bombs and they had gotten away, only to find no magician to help them out, since the other activists never got inside the base. Their fight near and in the hangar had also drawn the attention back to them.
Korea had already left the base, but Mrs. Ally had no way of helping America and Canada without ruining her position in the bargain. And since as long as she'd get most of the nations out, she'd win in her bargain, a couple lost wasn't enough for her to risk it. That was, however, the point in the plan when they received unexpected help.
"Who are you?" America asked pointing his gun at the man in front of him he didn't know. "Out of the way!"
"Please don't shoot!" the fifth foreign nation pleaded and kept his hands up to show he meant no harm. "You don't know me but... I know who you are. And I need you to trust me. I… I've understood the situation. So… as a thanks for… everything, really: please… let me help you get out."
.*** *** ***
At the end of the former left wing, Greece and Hungary were trying to pass time by carving little pieces of wood. Greece was of course trying to make a cat – a one that was curling its tail around itself while sleeping – but Hungary hadn't quite decided what she wanted to do. She simply ran the edge of the knife along the wood, slicing of thin and tiny pieces at the time, observantly listening to the darkening forest. It seemed like a normal quiet night. But she didn't like it.
A rustle from the nearby bush froze them both and as soon as a figure emerged from the darkness, they whirled around, pointing their knives at the unknown newcomer.
"Hey, I've–IIIIGEEEHH!" Romano's sentence turned into a shriek as he noticed the knives pointing at his nose.
Hungary and Greece withdrew their weapons.
"Keep it down," Greece said and returned to his work.
Romano protested that he had absolutely no fault in the matter, but Hungary soon interrupted his rant. "And? What is it?"
Romano grumbled. "I came to tell you the changes China made to the positions. Dammit… why do I have to do this…?"
"You just happened to be close by when things needed to be done, probably," Greece said. "We have positions but… in the end if everyone is not prepared to do anything if situation calls, we might end up doing all this for nothing. I'd rather just sleep too."
"You'll get plenty of sleep when we get home," Hungary smiled slightly. "Keep that as a goal. If you chase a goal, you'll be that much stronger."
"Right now no one seems dedicated," Romano mumbled, ill-tempered. "You guys were carving wood, Poland and Korea were competing which one of them had a cooler gun, Cuba and Egypt were trying to befriend a bird and last time I saw, Russia was driving China nuts in the centre by telling embarrassing stories and refusing to return to his post before someone was blushing so much he could see it in the dark. They didn't look at all like we'd still be in war…"
"To think I hear that from you," Hungary chuckled and then glanced at the quiet forest. "Everyone's stressed out. It can do weird things to people. I think everyone's just trying to make it through the night in their own ways and cope with the situation. We're all tired. But it's not long now: soon Norway will be ready. Then we'll all go home, have a good meal with everyone together and sleep. That's my goal."
At the other end of the line, near the end of the former right wing, Turkey turned his head to look at his pair who returned from the centre.
"Took you long enough," he said and picked up another sprig of a low plant that was growing on the ground nearby.
"We had such good discussion I simply couldn't leave," Russia smiled and sat down beside him. "Are you sure those are edible?" he asked then as Turkey picked the berries he had found from the sprig and put them into his mouth without hesitation.
"Well I'm not dead yet," Turkey just replied, glancing at Russia before returning to inspect if the sprig had more berries available. "And I'm hungry."
"Aren't we all?" Russia noted, smiling and picked a sprig of his own. "Are they good?"
"Pretty tasteless," Turkey grunted and throwing away the old one he leant forward to pick a new sprig. "The first thing I do when we get back is eat. A large meal of everything good in it and with some beautiful company."
He raised the sprig to his mouth, using his lips to snatch the few berries in it. Russia was about to answer when a gunshot disrupted him. One single shot tore the quiet night horribly and made Russia drop down to cover and hide properly behind the mound before turning to check his partner. Turkey fell backwards to the ground, blood spilling out from a wound and staining his throat and shoulder. Beside him the sprig he had held fell to the ground, its little leaves covered in fresh blood.
The gunshot jerked all the nations from their thoughts and doings. In an instant they took their stances, pulled out the guns and were ready to engage whatever was coming at them.
"What was that?!" China demanded and send Belarus to check the right end of the line to find out.
Just as Belarus was about to leave, a string of explosions startled everyone and China turned to face the left end instead, where lights of little explosions and fires enlightened the forest for a second.
"The left blank traps…" China whispered more to himself. "The enemy is back!" he then shouted and pointed his gun to the forest, trying to pinpoint the enemy. "Protect the line!"
The order to take arms and fight again ran instantly to every nation present.
"There goes that quiet night…" Denmark said, gritting his teeth.
"Why?"
"What?" Denmark asked and looked at his current commanding officer and saw China biting his lip with a deep frown on his face.
"What about the scouts?" China asked and stared to the dark forest showing no enemies nor companions, worry crossing his face. "Why didn't we get any warning? What happened to our scouts?"
At his own part of the line, Japan was worrying as well. "Where is the enemy?" he asked and pointed the gun from bush to bush in search for movement. "Ukraine?" he asked his partner who shook her head and tried to release some tension the situation gave her by taking deep breaths.
Everyone in the line were wondering the same. Where was the enemy coming from? How did they get so close? And had that one gunshot hit someone?
"Who were the scouts right now?" China asked, his stressed mind drawing a blank on him. "Australia and–"
"Taiwan," Denmark confirmed the pair, taking a few steps left to see beyond some of the trees. "We need to go find them, China."
"No," China rejected and shook his head. "Before we know what's going on, we can't send anyone out there. We wait for them. They're alright. They'll come back. They have to."
"China!" Poland called, coming in sight to the centre in a hurry from the left. "Turkey has been like… shot!"
.*** *** ***
Russia had pulled Turkey to the safe behind the mounds and was now leaning over him to check the damage while Belarus was standing on guard, looking for an enemy.
"Are you dead?" Russia inquired nicely.
"Who the heck do you take me for!" Turkey barked back only to groan, wincing and slapped a hand up to the wound in the nape of his neck. "Oh fuck it, that hurt, those damn… ugh!"
"I'll kill someone for you," Russia promised sincerely. "So just shut up and concentrate on not dying. Deal?"
"Brother," Belarus talked and glanced down to them down. "There's no sight of the shooter."
"Not yet," Russia answered and stood up to stand beside Belarus. "But there will be. Sister, take Turkey to the rear guard and return to China. I'll take care of this post on my own."
"I'll stay and help you," Belarus said immediately, but Russia's expression left no room for argument.
"Turkey can't stay here and the rear guard has the medical supplies. And China needs both of his hands so that his head can function properly. You and Denmark are now his right and left hand. Go back to the commander, Belarus."
.*** *** ***
"China! It's me!" Taiwan shouted well before coming in sight. "Don't shoot!"
"Taiwan, you're alright," China said relieved and helped the other down to the trench. "What happened? Where's Australia?"
"Heading straight for our post in the line," the scout replied, trying to catch a breath. "China I'm so sorry! We didn't see them coming. But they didn't spot us either so we're good. Australia ran straight into a man in the dark but managed to take him out without having to shoot and give out our position."
"Do you know how many we are fighting against?"
"No we don't. But it's not a big unit or then a larger group is still coming," Taiwan explained and looked China in the eyes as she hurriedly tried to make sense of her encounters herself. She was obviously confused and slightly afraid. "China, it's weird. It's like you don't hear them at all. They suddenly just appear and… I don't know how they do it!"
China frowned and, dismissing Taiwan to her post to join Australia again, with a thanks for the work and information they had brought, he send the acquired knowledge about the enemy through the line to all the nations and warned everyone to be in high alert for sneak attacks. They fired flash shells to the forest to light up the darkness momentarily. The enemy was closer than they had thought. In the light of the shells they noticed countless enemy soldiers hiding in the darkness around them and the discovered enemies immediately started the shooting.
A message soon arrived to the centre that Turkey had been removed from the line for injuries and Belarus was taking him to the rear guard to be treated. And as if in queue, more trouble sprouted as Cuba first noticed a will-o'-the-wisp floating around in the enemy territory.
China was cursing under his breath while trying to make out enemies from the shadows. "Can we really be this out of luck?" he wondered aloud from Denmark, who was shooting beside him.
"We're not all out of luck!" Denmark shouted back and duck down to take grenade from his belt, preparing to throw it. "The will-o'-the-wisps are on their territory and the enemy can see as little as us here."
"Unless they actually see more! I'm worried about the fact how little sound they make," China said. "So far there is only a little of them but it's like all the sounds they make are somehow dimmed. There could be many coming."
"Magic?" Denmark suggested, but before China could answer, a sound behind their trenches startled them as Sealand crawled down to the trench in a hurry, looking scared.
"Captain! Captain!" he shouted and grabbed China arm. "The rear guard was attacked! The enemy is behind us!"
"Shit…" Denmark swore, his eyes growing wide.
"We're surrounded," China concluded quickly, biting his lip. "Let's hope not too badly… They got past us. Probably after setting off the traps in the left. Denmark, you go help them."
"What? Are you sure?" Denmark answered, trying to listen to his commander while keeping the enemy at bay. "I'm your second-in-command and Belarus is gone as well."
"If they breech us from there it's all over," China replied in a hurry. "The rear guard was formed from the injured, only Switzerland is completely in shape for battle. When Belarus arrives there with Turkey, someone needs to treat him too while not letting anyone pass. I'll leave the rear guard to you two."
"What about you?" Denmark resisted, not convinced. "Are you going be here alone? How do you give out orders?"
"Sealand," China said to the micronation. "Go left along the trench to get Poland and then right to get Japan here. We're opening the centre to the old line formation instead of the pairs."
"What ever you say, cap…" Denmark said and throwing a hand grenade to cover himself, climbed out of the trench. "I'm going!"
"Thank you! Good luck!" China rose a bit up to defend his retreat.
Denmark stayed in the cover of the rocks behind the trench for a moment, waiting for Sealand to come back. When Poland and Japan appeared in sight, he immediately grabbed the little nation, helping him out of the trench.
"Come quick," Denmark ordered the boy and started the retreat towards the rear guard. Sealand ran first before him, but as soon as they were out of the reach of the immediate shooting, Denmark picked up pace trying to make it to Lithuania's unit as soon as possible, leaving Sealand a few steps behind.
They could hear the sounds of fighting now from both ahead and behind them. Denmark cursed their situation in his mind and hoped that the hut was safe. If the enemy had managed to get past them so easily, who said they couldn't be near the Home by now. They needed to escape this situation quickly and gain an upper hand in the battle as soon as possible to make certain no one interrupted the medics, the injured and most importantly Norway, who was their only ticket out. The will-o'-the-wisps were now starting to flow around their territory as well. Things couldn't have been much worse.
But only a little before they reached the rear guard, things suddenly got worse.
"Uncle!" Sealand screamed after him, stopping Denmark, who turned around in time to see the micronation fall down to the ground with a terrified shriek. For a second Denmark stood still trying to comprehend what was happening. In the dim light of the forest, mainly lit up by the few will-o'-the-wisps, he couldn't see anything behind Sealand. But something was dragging Sealand backwards, despite how much the young boy tried to fight back and grab things around him.
"Sealand!" Denmark called out and ran back, deciding quickly the situation needed acting and not thinking. Grabbing the little boy, Denmark could feel the pull but still didn't see anything that could have been holding him captive. "What's going on?" he asked in growing fury trying to free the panicking child.
"Help me, uncle!" Sealand screamed, utterly terrified. "Something grabbed my legs!"
Immediately Denmark moved his hands to free the legs from this unknown threat. His hands indeed hit something. Something that he noticed upon a better look he could indeed see leaving grabbing marks to the ankles and feet.
Something entirely invisible.
"Dammit," Denmark breathed and grabbed the invisible things circling around Sealand's legs, trying to pull him free. "What are these: vines?" Where did they come from? Is this what comes after the will-o'-the-wisps?
Cursing again, Denmark decided that what ever the things were, they wouldn't drag Sealand a metre further away from the rear guard. He grabbed his axe that he had hanging in his back, and lifted it up.
"Let go of him," he ordered the invisible vines, anger in his voice and brought his axe down in a swing, aiming the ground behind Sealand's feet. To his shock, the blade never reached the ground, but hit their invisible target without cutting anything, simply pushing them downwards to the moss. "What?" Denmark managed to utter as he felt something touch his left hand.
Before he could react, he could feel the vine like things circle around his arm, taking a tight grip of it and pulling him out of balance. At the same time Sealand kicked his legs free, the vine's grip loosened from Denmark's hit, scrambling away from them as the vines changed their target.
"Shit!" Denmark cursed out loud as the vines pulled him back, creeping further up his arm, now reaching over his elbow. Attempting to pull himself free he tried to hit the invisible vines with his axe again but quickly retreated it when he sensed something trying to grab his weapon as well.
"Uncle!" Sealand shouted, standing up after fleeing out of range on his knees.
"Don't come back!" Denmark ordered. "Dammit, what the hell are these things?!"
"It's useless to try and get free," said a new voice as a man stepped in sight from the darkness between the trees. "As amusing as this is, this is far as you go."
"Enemy?" Denmark gasped, grunting and looked for his gun, seeing it on the ground where the vines had first grabbed Sealand. Vaguely he remembered dropping it while trying to free the micronation. Now he had no long range weapon except for hand grenades. His axe was too short to reach the man, his gun was out of reach because of the vines that kept pulling him backwards and he was too close to the enemy to escape a hand grenade explosion himself. But he barely had time to make this deduction of his situation.
"Goodbye," the man said and raised a handgun to point at him.
A gunshot sounded through the forest and the enemy shouted in pain, holding his bleeding forearm and staggering a few steps backwards. His gun fell down to the underbrush.
Sealand held his handgun with shaking hands, still pointing it at the unknown man. "Don't… don't hurt him!" he shouted, voice breaking as the frightened feelings took over his train of thought.
Denmark couldn't help but sigh slightly in relief. Thanks, Fin… he silently thanked the other Nordic who had taught Sealand how to use a handgun earlier that week. Close range or not, it was impressive for an inexperienced shooter like Sealand to have hit the target in the dark.
"Damn brat!" the enemy man shouted, holding his bleeding hand. "Who gives guns to kids?!"
"That 'kid' right there is probably older than ye," Denmark said sourly and turned to look at Sealand. "Thanks, Sea. Now go report this."
"What?" Sealand said and hesitated, gripping his gun with both hands. "But…"
"Hurry up!" Denmark shouted, trying to shake the younger nation out of his stillness and get his legs moving again. Sealand jerked up in shock, nodding and turned around to run towards the rear guard.
"You're not telling anyone!" the man said loudly and grabbed his dropped handgun to his left hand, taking a few steps after Sealand to take better aim and pointing the gun after the running micronation.
"Sealand!" Denmark called after the other to warn him but not before the gun went off and Sealand shrieked.
Denmark could only watch in horror as the little nation fell down.
No! he rejected in his mind, as everything that came out of his mouth was a roar of rage as he pulled against the vines that kept pulling him towards a big tree behind him. He reached out his axe towards the man, letting his hand slide along the helve until there was only barely space for him to hold on to it. With the few steps the enemy had taken to go after Sealand, he was now within his axe's reach.
With the way he had to hold the axe to make it reach, he lost his aim. But it was enough. While he had been intending to cut the man's arm, the axe instead hit the man's fingers and the gun. The gun fell to the moss once more along with a couple of fingers and the foreign man toppled over, holding his hand in pain.
But Denmark himself too lost his balance, falling on his knees. Immediately the vines pulled him back again, taking a tighter grip of his hand, reaching up towards his shoulder and trying to take hold of his left leg as well, which he barely prevented. Pulling the axe back to himself, Denmark huffed, trying to fight his way away from them again, but the invisible vines only gripped tighter and tighter around his arm, preventing blood from circulating to his fingertips.
"Sealand…" he whispered, digging his free hand's fingers to the ground trying to gain a hold strong enough to resist the pull. Sve... I'm so sorry… I'll save him now… Give me a moment…
"I'm going to kill you…" the enemy man mumbled, clutching his bleeding hands against his chest, covered in fresh running blood.
"With what?" Denmark challenged, trying to stand up to face the man. "Can you fire your gun with your hands like that?"
"What do you think is grabbing your hand?" the man said back. "They are my pets. And you can't cut them. They'll pull you closer and strangle the last breath out of you. You may think you can fight it off, but all I need to do is add some strength to the pull."
"So this is your doing…" Denmark growled, squinting. "I thought you weren't supposed to use magic here. And you guys weren't supposed to be good at it."
"So what?" the man snorted and leant into a tree, out of breath. "You already angered the land… This little won't bother it anymore. And we might not be good in global level, but this much a good magician can do. Like me. I'm better than you."
"We angered, huh?" Denmark said. "We did not start this fight. It was you guys."
The man laughed a little, his breath still unstable for the pain in his hands. "We're not the ones preparing a huge spell here."
Denmark's eyes grew wide. They know… they know about Norway. They could be attacking the hut right now. Denmark forced himself to stand up and took a better hold of his axe, gritting his teeth. I can't… not here… I have to protect them…
"What do you think you could do?" the enemy magician asked, mocking his struggle. "No one during the history of magic has broken free from that spell with brute force. And you can't use magic at all."
Denmark breathed heavily and bit his lip for a moment. I'll… protect them…
The enemy magician frowned, unsettled. "...What are you doing?"
"I'll…" Denmark started and raised up his axe up. "Make history."
With that statement, he slashed his axe down. The magician's eyes grew wide.
With a huge roar that mixed all his pain and anger Denmark charged forwards, swinging his axe one more time. With one hit he slashed a deep wound right through the enemy magician's chest, before the other could comprehend what happened and protect himself. Eyes still open, the foreign man fell to the ground, leaving Denmark to stand alone between the trees.
Breathing heavily, Denmark let his axe fall from his fingers and raised his hand to grip his left shoulder. Behind him, the vines that had held him captive dissolved as the magician's heart stopped, finally letting go of his left hand and it fell down to the ground behind him.
Denmark gripped the stub that remained of his arm as blood pooled down from wound to the ground.
He shouted. Letting out all the pain and frustration he felt, falling to his knees. Until the darkness of the forest closed in on him and he no longer felt pain.
A/N: This chapter is slightly longer, but I hope that's okay. Some people seemingly still managed to find and read this. I'm pleasently surprised: I expected people to have forgotten all about it. Thank you.
Originally I had all the little scenes Romano is describing written down, out of which especially Egypt and Cuba's shenenigans with the little bird I liked. But for length I had to edit them out, and they didn't quite fit in either way. The original plans of the story also had a whole chapter more dedicated to the sabotage plan which we gently poke here. For the flow of the story I felt it worked better this way. It also lessened the interactions with the foreign nations, of whom I've been avoiding to write much about, since while they do give some new edge to the story and I need them, they are very uninteresting to read about in the long run for a reader.
Also the vine scene. Was so hard. To explain.