66 Strange Lights

The next morning we kept up our journey. The carriage was taking us west. This dark wood we are in is part of a greater forest and is called the Myrkviðr or literally dark murky forest.

The pines here are thicker than usual rarely allowing sunlight in hence the name Dark.

North of Asgard was another forest called Icy Glade and is predominately Oak woods and Fjords. There's a lot of glaciers in the north.

One of the rivers from that area leads through the Dusk Woods. Our goal is to make it to that river in the next two days.

Beyond that would be the exit of the forest which would take about another six days to reach and after that is a large plain simply known as the Great plain that will take us a month to traverse. Carriages are significantly slower than expected also horses need rest. It's the second largest plain in Lost woods (Jotunheim). After that is a large lake and our first Forest Giant Village called Amsvartnir.

And this is just a fourth of the journey. We will have to cross three different forests, a mountain range, high plateau forests and plains, atleast four rivers, small glades distributed through them, and finally the Greatest river that runs from the north through the largest Fjord and Canyon leading to Nifleheim and Vanaheim.

A lot of hiking for our little bodies.

[You and Nix are already trained like athletes. I can tell you though that immediate strength is different from endurance]

I know that, but I also have all this boy energy to spare so I might as well use the next few months of travel to train endurance. We will have to switch and hop onto different carriages along the way to speed up the journey. We will have to walk at some point since some of the terrain has no road.

[Ullr will be with you the whole time?]

He obviously cannot. He can't just spend half a year to a full year traveling with us. He brought a gate stone with him so that he can return back for regular meetings.

Currently Tyr is doing him the favor and handling his post as well when he's gone.

[how nice of him]

As if. Tyr is complicated to say the least. All he asked from Ullr was to switch positions with him half way through the journey.

He's taken a special interest.

[Thats a great deal. He's the second strongest Asgardian]

He's also the worlds most brutal trainer. Discipline, Honor, and Strength. If I had to use three words to describe him it would be those. He has no time for my sightseeing probably and will likely have me kill bears or die trying. He brutally trained Vili and my father.

[So that makes him your grandmaster]

Hardly, Vili never took after his style. In fact, Vili spited Tyr's aggressive approach and dedicated himself to indirect approaches.

[Which you took to the next level by coming up with a style that requires less fighting and more planning]

I may have grown up here but my roots are on earth. I am not what you would call a raging beast of war.

[Well your going to need to learn to be one soon]

?

Looking around our carriage I can only see darkness, it's quite eerie.

The only sound I hear is of our own wooden wheels turning.

I look over and see Ullr smiling.

I quickly grab Levaiteinn and stand up vigilantly. Nix notices and quickly grabs his bow.

Sif was in her corner, but positioned herself between us for her own protection. The carriage was wide enough for all of us to stand and smooth enough to keep balance.

"What is it?" Nix asked which I properly put a finger to my mouth.

"It's too quiet", I say while closing my eyes and using nature's language to sense for life forms.

I noticed a new void in the brush quickly moving along with the carriage.

Opening my eyes and looking in that direction and saw eerie blue lights.

Nix was the first to identify them.

"Wolves!"

[Roll perception!]

"Their not living", I pointed out.

"How do we get rid of undead wolves?", Sif asked her dad frightened.

He looked at her with a strict gaze, "You guys are led by Loki. This is his training. His job is to lead you all. I won't interfere unless to protect the coachman."

Thank god too. That really helped to calm down the old coachman.

[Yea poor coachmen, way more important than his daughter]

I looked at my two companions then the wolves.

I don't know much about the undead except that the life school is pretty much useless against them. They can endure the cold and are weak to burning and blunt weaponry therefore...

"Nix use heated arrows to hold them off. Sif help Nix make flaming arrow using some of the oil in this bag." I tossed her a three bottles of flammable grease.

Sif was quick and began to use alchemy to slowly burn the grease so the arrows can all be easily lit.

I on the other hand lifted Leviateinn in the air. Electricity was being gathered by it.

I looked like an Angel of Lightning because a halo of electricity began to appear around me.

This is my new Druid spell Lightning Autocannon.

I can only use it with Leviateinn constantly drawing energy for me and boosting my connection to nature. It's an advanced form of lightning bolt with a lot less mental multitasking on my part.

Lightning bolt was a spell that I could never use in combat because asking for so many detailed instructions from a mana network was time consuming and a headache.

This new spell takes advantage of Leviateinn's special properties and skills to make the spell easier and allow me to outfit it.

The weapon is mostly metal so all I do is magnetize it, have leviathan draw energy for me to charge the magnetic field and store more Lightning. Then I have the the weapon soul coordinate with my will to unleash the charge at any target I deem a threat.

The caveat to this is the the electricity will always return to the ring. Did you know that when lightning strikes the ground, a return bolt is always shot from the ground to the sky called a return stroke.

I use this to keep the charge running. Unfortunately I can't move because absorb only works while I'm not moving the hammer so I'm a stationary cannon now.

Seeing the lightning gather these wolves jumped out of the brush directly behind the coach.

They were black furred, snarling rotted teeth, and robot like. Some pieces of fur look to be missing revealing muscular tissue. It's quite a gruesome sight.

But they made a mistake giving Nix a clear shot.

I saw two arrows leave his bow hitting the lead wolf. That wolf was knocked back and began sizzling for a moment before catching flames.

"Holy!!", Nix was astounded. "Loki what did you put in this oil?"

"Nothing strong enough to cause that. These wolves must be flammable. Let's not look a gift horse in the mouth. Keep shooting and if they get too close switch to your spear. I'll need a minute to get ready."

Nix did as he was told and kept firing. I noticed more wolves coming up from the rear. There were at least twenty now. I could see Ullr concerned even though he was hiding it.

Sif was vigilant but I could tell she was terrified.

Our wagon kept going on the fire fight. Wolves kept bursting into flame as Nix began to sweat. I could see he was getting tired and his focus was draining. He missed a few shots because of that but he atleast managed to take care of about ten of them but another problem arose.

There were wolves coming from the front now. Looks like these guys are smart to flank us.

Sensing the incoming void with my vision I direct my Leviateinn to attack with me.

Slowly the sparking ring of plasma around me released strike after strike against the new enemy in front.

Like clock work one wolf went down after another. They never caught flame but I could see burns on impact. Some of the strikes even pierced through.

Some of those downed wolves tried to get back up, but couldn't. It seems electric current works against them.

As this is happening I see Nix switching to a spear. He must have given up on the bow. He had Sif apply the grease to the tip.

We have about six more to go split between front and back.

I kept my focus and kept trying to take care of my foes. I'm trusting my back to my companions so I was able to take care of the front in no time.

Nix even pierced a wolf that leaped toward the carriage in an attempt to get on.

As we were both finishing up, a sneaky wolf hopped over from the side onto the carriage. It eyes us then went for what it perceives to be the weakest of the group, Sif.

I can't turn around or we forfeit a chance to finish this fight. I'm leaving it to Nix.

As I watch what happens, Nix lost his concentration and a wolf jumped him. He used his spear to block against it and he was pinned to the floor.

As I was about to cancel my spell to react the other wolf was just inches away from Sif.

Looking at that sweet girl about to get mauled in slow motion I panicked. Moving out of my stance as fast as I could, I see Sif have a fierce look in her eye and use her dagger to pierce the wolf through the chin shutting it close.

The wolf was undead and it still moved but before it can attempt anything else the flat of my hammer who, in my rage, I had directly charged with my lightning halo, slammed into its body.

A thunder clap sounded and the remains of the beast was nocked clear of the carriage in one swing.

I left it in pieces.

I turned around and immediately used my axe side and stepped forward toward the wolf pinning Nix.

It was clearly shocked by the sound and looked around for its source only to see me coming at it at full speed.

As it came at me for a bite and I came at it about to slam my axe down, the wolf forgot something causing me to smile.

Nix is free to move again. He read my intentions when he saw my smile and while on the floor plunged his long spear forward to disrupt the wolf.

This gave the opening I needed to behead it in one swoop. Looking at the still squirming remains I kicked them off the back and paid attention to our current circumstances.

There was only one wolf left chasing but he was slowing down intending on retreating. I had already finished of the wolves intercepting us up front.

I squint at it trying to see what the line undead wolf would do. It's blue ghostly eyes yelped for a moment then he stopped and stared at our carriage as we drove off in the night.