Chapter 6

Grudgingly, Ulgulf allowed Chad to make his employment offer to the other clans that inhabited the Mountains of the Moon. The chance for weapons, armour, land, and the favour of the Old Gods, was simply too enticing to pass up.

Even if Ulgulf personally wanted to kill Chad for his humiliation and near-death experience.

So, although he agreed to call a meeting of the clans to hear Chad's full offer, he didn't invite them back to his Clan's camp. Instead, he led the Northerners to the closest Weirwood Tree with the promise that he would return with any interested parties.

The parting threat of what the Clans would do to Chad if he didn't have proof by the time they arrived, didn't bother him at all. A Weirwood Tree was just as good as a Heart Tree to sell the illusion that Chad actually needed them to focus his powers given to him by the Gods.

Of course, guards were left behind to keep them from simply running away now that the majority of the raiders returned to their camp, but that only added to the number of possible future recruits. More people to witness his divine powers.

Chad had been undecided if he should let people watch him while he worked his magic but finally chose to just let them see him in action. It wasn't like they could replicate anything he did since they didn't have access to Potterverse magic.

It was more the fact that he would undoubtedly make mistakes or show a less than divine attitude while crafting artifacts. Then again, these were savage barbarian tribes, not smelling of sh*t could be considered having the favour of the gods...

The problem was that he didn't have any metal to create lasting artifacts with, anything he made now would have to be redone a couple of months later.

Still, the few feats he would perform for the locals should impress them enough to buy time until he obtains enough materials to fulfil his promises.

Since Chad was no longer holding back on his magical capabilities in order to attract some oath-bound knights, he created a full suit of plate armour for himself. He wanted maximum protection in a world that was notorious for betrayals.

Typically, a smith would have to put a lot of skill and manhours into creating top-quality plate armour that encompassed the whole body, but Chad was a cheating cheater.

His magic could transfigure the raw materials into whatever shape, size or thickness he needed. With a few cushioning charms for added protection against blunt impact damage, he would be invincible.

Even the joints of the full plate, which was the weakness of such armour, could be finely crafted with intricate overlapping plates instead of a bulky hinged joint and chainmail to cover the openings.

With magic able to closely fit the plates and cushion impact damage, all Chad needed was a form-fitting arming jacket to attach the armour to, and modernised buckles like those found on rollerblades to pull closed the overlapping plates.

This was usually done with leather straps and belt buckles, but it made things a lot more complicated. Instead, Chad made a full arm piece that hooked onto the arming jacket and had clips to pull the upper and lower arm closed. This allowed him to put his armour on by himself instead of needing help like you usually would.

Since he could mould metal like cloth thanks to his bullsh*t magic, a lot of the stiffness from wearing plate was reduced since he could overlap segmented metal plates like scale mail, granting more flexibility.

Anytime he ran into a design problem, it was as simple as flexing his mind to fix it instead of having to reforge it with hammer and anvil. By the time Chad had finished making every piece needed, all vulnerable areas were covered, and he became a walking tank.

Just to add a level of edge to his armour, Chad painted it black and filled his eye slit with tinted glass, charming it to be indestructible like the rest of the armour.

After overcoming their awe at the magic being used, everyone began laughing at him whenever he made mistakes creating his armour. But by the time he was finished, not so much.

Though his small size made it impossible for them to wear, the men from the Clans left behind as guards were drooling in envy, even the Stark men gave his new armour covetous glances.

With his protection finished, it was now time to once again work on creating his hammer 'Retribution'. It took five days for everyone interested in Chad's employment offer to show up, and during that time he spent it solely working on his hammer.

There were a few features that he had overlooked before, like stopping the real weight of the hammer from activating when he wasn't touching it. If he was riding a horse and failed to continue making contact with Retribution, the sudden weight of nine hundred kilos on a horse would be disastrous.

To counter this, he instead changed the Featherweight Charms to always be active and to only deactivate whenever the two faces of the Warhammer hit something, or someone other than him was touching it while not being wielded.

This way, every attack would transfer the full weight of the hammer into the target for a split second automatically instead of him having to manually do so before. It would also mean he could throw it without it immediately dropping to the ground after he let go of it.

The hard part was adding the total mass of Retribution into the force of the attack while keeping the original acceleration. Otherwise, it would be no better than a Wiffle bat that could suddenly become incredibly heavy.

Thankfully, Chad had all of Dumbledore's and Voldemort's knowledge on runes and magic to solve the problems of his Warhammer. It had also helped that magic spat on the rules of physics and was intent-based.

Now that Chad stood in front of the gathered thousands of savage clansmen, he hoped that his recruiting criteria were followed by Ulgulf. The importance of having his men loyally obey orders and remain semi-civilised, especially to allies, was crucial.

Even though he knew the Mountain Clans were savage and that he would have to give them a bit of leeway, he didn't want his new Knights to trash his reputation. Looking over the men before him, he suspected that Ulgulf didn't comply out of petty revenge.

But Chad could only sigh and work with what he had, beggars can't be choosers after all. He stood decked out in his armour with his hammer on the ground next to him, its handle pointing towards the sky.

He was currently on a small hill in the largest clearing near the Weirwood so everyone could see him, only a few trees populating the open space allowing the men to gather easily.

"Before we start, this Warhammer is named Retribution, and anyone that can wield it gets to keep it. It is a gift from the Old Gods for taking up their mission." Chad said, his voice magically travelling to everyone there.

After Chad's challenge, there was a great rush of people eager to try and become the magical hammer's new owner, so much so that he needed to shout orders for them to stop that it practically deafened them until they obeyed.

"Ulgulf should have informed you before you came, that only those that can follow orders will be accepted into my Knights Templar, the military arm of the Old Gods. If you wish to come with me to raid the Andals, then shut the f*ck up and do what I say. Otherwise, step up and lets fight to the death over who is in control!" Bellowed Chad furiously, his Cruel flaw activating.

It had yet to be sated with the screams and pain of a victim, and even though Chad was nine, the CYOA enforced penalty demanded to be satisfied. Challenging proud, arrogant, and brutal savages to a fight was also a great way to get someone to volunteer for the position of torture victim.

Tens of people shouted out insults and agreement, so Chad chose the ugliest, most belligerent looking one amongst them to go first. A child covered in metal and a giant steel hammer was too tempting a target for the dirt poor warriors.

Just melting it all down would be more metal than they had in one Clan!

Chad picked up his massive hammer and signalled for the man to step forward. What followed next was not a fight, it was just an excuse to publically torture someone and gain fear and respect while feeding the curse.

As the grinning clansman charged the nine-year-old child holding the impossibly large hammer, all it took was one swipe when the savage was within range of the weapon's two-metre reach to end the duel.

Chad aimed low on purpose, enough for his opponent to try and jump the swing that came at him faster than should be possible for a weapon that size.

And while the man managed to dodge most of the furious tree-face on the forty-centimetre wide and high hammer's head, it still slammed into his ankles.

Such was the power of the force from even a glancing blow, that it still made the fur-clad savage spin a complete cartwheel in the air before he crashed to the ground.

Seconds later, after the shock wore off from the concussed man, the pain from his ruined feet hit him, and the screaming began. Chad stepping on what was left of them might not have helped.

Usually, Chad took no pleasure from torturing people and preferred to kill his enemies quickly to limit the chance of retaliation. But that was before he obtained the Cruel trait.

After watching the screaming clansman for a full minute, he lifted Retribution once more and brought it down on the man's knees. The screams reached a new pitch, and the fear now coming from the man was like a drug.

Every thirty seconds or so, Chad would once again swing his hammer and pulp just a little bit more of the man's limbs, switching between the arms and legs each time. This continued until the man screamed himself to death, the injuries finally too much for the broken savage to survive.

As if a switch was flipped when his victim died, there was no desire left in him at all to continue torturing people. In fact, looking at the mashed human flesh on the ground, Chad felt a little sick at the thought.

It wasn't so much the scene of the tenderised clansman that was sickening, his experiments with thugs had desensitised him of that. It was more the fact that his mind was so heavily influenced by outside forces that his actions ceased to be his own. It was the same for when he heard his mother speak.

His background memories of this world used to find comfort when he heard her sweet voice, now he couldn't help but shudder in fear at the sound of it. Much like his newfound Ramsay Snow urges, not having control over yourself was terrifying.

But all he could do was manage his flaws so they would have as little effect on him as possible. Never going near his mother again, torturing bandits before the urges became overpowering and effected innocents, and shagging women that would not get pregnant.

He didn't need a Ramsay Snow of his own running around...

Shaking off that uncomfortable thought, Chad needed to continue the meeting. He couldn't show weakness in front of these warriors if he wished to be able to control them.

"Who's next?" Chad asked as he gazed around at the now wary mountain men.