7 Totem of War

~~~~~~King's Landing~~~~~~

*CLANG*

A Golden goblet full of wine dropped on the ground. A fat man with a crown of stags stood up from his seat.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN NED IS DEAD!?"

The King bellowed loudly with fury. His cheeks were red from anger and he was quite tipsy.

"My sources in the North are telling me that Eddard went to find out what is happening not far from Wolfswood. He took fifty men, but he never returned, then the Castellan received a message that he requested backup."

"What happened next!?" The fat King demanded.

"Master of Arms mobilised another 200…they never returned as well." The Hand of the King said with a sad tone. He was frustrated and angry just as much as the King.

"...Ned…fuck this! We are going to the North!" The King slammed his hand into the table.

"Robert, you need to think about this before you do anything."

"Enough Jon! I haven't seen Ned for nearly 8 years! Now he is dead! We are going to mobilise an army and make sure the North is secured! This is the least I can do!" Robert Baratheon said with bloodshot eyes.

"As you wish, Your Grace."

Jon could only cave in, part of him wanted nothing to do with this but another part of him was burning furiously. He wants to know what happened to his ward. He dearly misses Ned. He has not seen him for years just as much as Robert. So now it hurts him to learn of this.

"Good! NOW BRING ME MY HAMMER! I need to train!" The King roared and his squire rushed to do just that.

"Fucking Lannister, they are everywhere!" the King said with a pissed-off tone as he left the chambers.

Jon could only shake his head. He needs to make preparations of his own as well.

To call a few banners and mobilise his house guard. He won't be leaving it purely to the Baratheon men.

~~~~~~Winterfell~~~~~~

"Mother let me go! I want to kill that wolf boy!" Robb Stark furiously said that but the Stark men were holding him back by the orders of Lady Stark.

"You can't just rush out Robb, we have summoned the Banners. Every single Lord in the North wants that boy captured." Catelyn Stark said with a heavy tone. She was extremely furious just like her son.

"Captured!? He killed Lord Father!!!"

"Yes, I know. But the King has sent his word that he wants to execute the boy himself."

"The…King!?"

"Yes, King Robert Baratheon is coming here. He is bringing an army of his own."

This has calmed down the Heir and Lord of Winterfell-to-be.

"Even so, even so…we can't just stay here and wait."

"True. I have already sent scouts to find anything we can about this…fog… the moment the boy leaves the fog we will know."

Robb slowly nodded and clenched his hand. It was turning a deep red. He is furious, but even so, he is going to listen to his mother.

While nearly half of Westeros has been mobilising because of one boy.

North particularly was on 'literal' fire. Furious Lords were gathering their men. Some were bringing their entire levies while others were just their best. The situation was strange so they didn't know how to properly respond to this.

Though one particular House was thinking in the opposite direction.

Roose Bolton, the descendant of House Bolton, the House which used to be called the Red Kings of the North. The second strongest house after Starks was thinking about profiting from this situation.

It was just a single boy which caused this madness. A single boy could easily adopt as his kid and replace the boy with someone else.

Telling that he, Roose Bolton, captured this boy. Giving away some smallfolk brat. He would be even awarded by that fat King.

"Prepare a small party for me, while the rest will go to Winterfell."

"As you wish, my Lord."

'It's time for the Boltons to rise once more. This pitiful Stark rule is coming to an end.'

Roose Bolton could only smile for a bit seeing all those wolves following his commands. This will be the asset he needs to make his house return to its peak. And maybe the peak of the whole of Westeros.

~~~~~~With Raynor~~~~~~

The Hunter looked at the mountain of corpses which he had collected.

Even with having two packs of hungry wolves. They could only put an average size dent into the number of human corpses he had on his turf.

He was pissed, to say the least. He would need an extra amount of rain to wash the blood and the smell from his lands.

It made him extremely annoyed that he can't just use them…

'Wait for a second…'

His eyes widened, sure he can't utilise the souls the same way as his shamanistic counterparts…

But… He can use it as ammo and fuel…

At that moment he felt something. He felt as if someone was pulling him by the collar. That second his eyes rolled back as he started to see images.

He saw himself waging this war, while successfully but the numbers were extremely against him. The sheer scale of it will explode into continental size conflict.

He would kill Robert but then Cersei would be the Regent and she would cause even more nonsense making the quiet life he wanted impossible as the bitch is simply too annoyingly persistent at throwing things at him.

In the end, he realised that this would simply drain him.

After seeing all that. Raynor walked back and forth wobbly trying to control his steps.

"Fuck…Greenseer… Now you decided to work!?… You are bitch! Less stable than Yandere." The hunter said while stroking his forehead. The vision is annoying to see the least.

At least his one is direct and not reduced to symbolism. Well, his blood is purest when it comes to visions; they are much more stable.

"Regardless, I know the possible events. I need to hunt down that blond bitch and her brood.

Then of course Robert, as that man is coming here with an fucking army."

Knowing what is coming is good. But he won't rely solely on this. Nah, regardless he will set traps for these fools.

No one, especially Fat King and a Bitch Queen will interrupt his hunt.

As he was messaging his forehead he remembered other things he saw. His right hand… he tattooed something on his hand.

Those symbols…

He doesn't know how he understands the symbolism of those… But they made sense.

Maybe it was because he was looking at his work, but he knew…

Those are war spoils…

"Of course, how is the best way to use human souls if not as war spoils for fuel and ammo."

He said that with a smirk and looked at the pile of wood he had.

"Boys! Collect all the weapons and put them into a single pile!"

Hearing the orders the wolves started to work as well. They are collecting weapons of war. And he needs those for the next totem he will craft.

He might be outmatched by absurd numbers, but he has something those people don't have.

And that is the very nature.

With a very specific idea in mind, he proceeded to roll out several blocks of wood and put them one on the other. It was extremely heavy for his small body but he did it. After all, he can't use other totem powers for this thing. So he needed to move all those kilos by himself.

Regardless, after it was done he started to carve.

He swiftly removed all the bark and then proceeded to carve the symbols on it. However, the difference from other totems is that he used the weapons he gathered.

Weapons which are spoils of war. To carve the meaning into a totem he needs to use specific items.

And this was a pain in the butt. It took him over a week to make it right.

Once it was done he stabbed swords all over the totem area.

The moment he was done the area around the totem turned into gravel-like sand. Gusts of winds from the mountain corpses rushed into the totem and it slowly started to get more red. It was as if all the blood rushed from the corpses and mould into the totem.

Eventually, the totem turned black with tribal markings of war all over its body turning red.

Starting to hum with power.

"The Totem of war is complete."

It has extreme power but at the same time it has an incredible drawback.

While he can collect the spoils of war. So can the enemy. After all, it's a war.

However the issue with all of this… That the other party has to get the blessing of war.

Which one gets by putting the dominant hand on the totem.

In other words, they have to come to his base and touch the totem. Even then they have to kill him to get his soul.

But it's something he is not worrying about because at this moment he has over 250 people's souls which he can use as ammo and fuel.

So he quickly returned to his work. Improving the Fog Totem, The Weather totem got improved by adding more weather combinations.

Like a Thunderstorm. The more metals the enemies wield the greater chance for them to get hit by the thunder.

Followed by a blizzard and scorching heatwave.

All these weather phenomena require power but he doesn't worry. Those 250 souls in the War totem are more than enough to sustain a siege.

For now, he worked on the Fog and actual boundary field.

It was not as hard as he thought. He made all projectiles bounce off or pass through to the other side. While people who come with bad intentions will utterly get lost in the fog.

By the time all the upgrades are done the glow on the totem has diminished but is still good enough to make something else.

And that is another Totem.

It's called Fire Totem.

Raynor was thinking for a while but he needs to make weapons of his own.

As the protection for his hut is finished he still needs more means to fight as he will go on offence.

And for that, he needs a forge of his own.

Well more like a refinery.

It's nothing impressive or unreal, a simple totem with a carving of forging at a natural fire. Next to it is a hole with fire inside of it.

A volcano would work far better, but the closest volcano is thousands of miles away.

Regardless, this simple symbolistic forge took another few days to finish. The weapon smithing surprisingly was easy since he used hunted animal bones.

Heating them in the fire which was extremely hot for a simple fire in a hole. Raynor used simple carving tools to turn boar tusks into throwing knives and other bones into arrowheads.

Following for the last he made his Claw Sword, a wooden sword that has claws and fangs for the blade and is refined in ritual flames. The fire in the hole reinforced the wood instead of burning it.

After all the preparations were done, the hunter boy walked towards the War Totem and put his right hand on it.

He could feel how his hand started to manifest spoils of war tattoos. From henceforth any human he kills with his right hand will be considered spoils of war and these souls can be stored items or sent to the totem.

After the carving was done Raynor removed his leather glove and inspected the markings. These were tribal wave-like symbols one would see on Barbarians or Native Americans.

It kinda looks primal and is created by nature.

'I still have around 30 or so souls… Let's make explosive arrows.'

With a grin, Raynor proceeded to spend a few more days making explosive arrows. He is going to rain hell on these fools.

~~~

"Gods… It looks like a wall of fog…" One of the Bolton men said with wide eyes.

Roose Bolton looked at the phenomenon in front of him. He was weary of what he saw. He is a man of reason but what he is seeing is not reasonable or normally explainable.

"Approach it slowly. It's possible that he already knows we are here." The Lord of Dreadford said with a heavy tone. As they were approaching their horses started to get unruly.

Something has spooked them.

Before long they saw them.

In front of them was a large wolf, it was Ash Grey with yellow eyes staring at them as if they were lambs ready for slaughter.

It was quite a large specimen.

"I am Roose Bolton, Lord of Dreadfort, I wish to speak with the Hunter. I am certain that you are watching." The Pale man said with a heavy tone.

"The Flayed Man. I have heard about you."

A child-like voice said from all directions as slowly more and more wolves surrounded them. It looked as if they magically appeared from the fog itself.

Though very quickly the wolves moved to the sides allowing the boy to walk towards the human riders.

When Roose saw this. He was certain…this boy can use magic! The magic of the old! Something like this…is simply invaluable!

"I do hope you are better than that Wolf pretender. He was flying the wolf banner high but he could not bite." The Boy said while crossing his arms.

"Speak what you wish to say."

For a second Roose Bolton thought how to word it properly. He knows he is in quite a precarious situation. He didn't expect to get surrounded this quickly. There were wolves everywhere. Even the weather was on the boy's side as it got quite foggy when the Hunter Boy left that fog wall.

"I wish to adopt you. To solve the issue of you killing Lord Stark is quite easy, we could find a replacement and give that boy to King Robert. If you accept to take the name Bolton I would name you my Heir."

Roose was half right, here he didn't want to lie nor he wanted to tell the truth. He can't just name this boy his Heir. There are certain steps he needs to take before it could work.

Regardless of what he said was his end goal, he wants to add Magic to his family.

"And then…the leeches appear… Boys… You know what to do." The Hunter Boy said while turning around and starting to walk away.

Lord Bolton's eyes widened when he heard that! Before he could exclaim a black wolf was already lunging at him from the side.

"At least pretend to sound smart," Raynor said to himself while shaking his head. He was utterly disgusted by what he heard from Bolton.

~~~

"...Lord Bolton is late."

"Bah! Who needs that leech anyway!"

"All his levies are here. Oddly, he is late."

"Lord Manderly is right. It could be possible that he has been ambushed."

As the Lords were discussing how they were going to approach the fog wall. A rider messenger rushed into the camp. He looked terrified.

"M-My Lords! I have urgent news!"

"Speak up lad!" Big Burly man by the name of Greatjon Umber said with a loud voice.

"D-Dreadford is on fire! The whole Keep….is burning!!!"

"W-What?"

"Lord Bolton…Castle is on fire!?"

This has sent warning bells to everyone! How did this happen!? When did this happen!? Why did no one see this or stop…

"Send men to investigate!"

"At once!"

Men scrambled to a party to figure out what was going on. This was odd, far too strange. The only thing they could think of is that this has been done by the Wolf boy.

"...That boy… He is waging a war…"

"A war we don't know how to wage."

"Bah! Give me a good five hundred men and we could surround his little hut and lay waste to it. There is no escape when you are caged like this." Greatjon Umber said while slamming his hand on the map where the hut was.

"Your suggestion has some merits. We need to cut the boy out of the forest. It's his greatest advantage. The boy is a great hunter."

"Aye, he might be a hunter but he is not a warrior, We can split our forces into several armies and surround the hut, form a line here to keep him away from the forest. Once he is surrounded he won't be able to fight or escape."

And so the warriors of the North were plotting their war tactics not even realising that Raynor doesn't need to return to his hut.

Hell, they don't even realise that he is growing stronger the more he is running around in the wilds, hunting animals or people.

Either way, he is gaining ammunition while the Lords of the North talk tactics.

~~~

"There are quite a bit of them," Raynor said while observing all the banners billowing above the campsite.

These were all the Northern forces gathered in one place. Just outside Winterfell.

The Hunter boy had a feral smile on his lips as he removed his regular quiver of arrows and summoned his inventory and switched for another quiver.

He then pulled a single arrow. This arrow was different from the others as it has meticulous carving on them, and it was white and glowing.

This was an explosive arrow. The soul inside of it has been put to detonate, it only needs a hard impact.

"Let's show these arrogant nobles how Hunters wage war." As he said that he pulled the bowstring, and the bow glowed for a second as it had tribal markings as well.

Then he released the arrow. It travelled directly to where the command tent was.

The biggest one is where Lords are talking tactics, even if he is wrong it should have a large amount of soldiers.

Regardless, the white arrow flew and collided with the tent… Exploding into bright light.

***BOOM***

The booming blast completely erased the tent and forced everyone to get up and stop doodling.

"TOO ARMS!!!" Northerners screamed as horns were blown through the campsite.

Sure enough…chaos was unleashed as Raynor proceeded to shoot more arrows.

***BOOM***BOOM***

"Well boys, it's time to reveal ourselves." The Hunter said he saw people rushing out from the campsite. It's time to start slaughtering.

~~~

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