Yeti Attack

"Hjerouhrdinn's hammer! We're finally free of the winter hall!" Bekhi was ecstatic about being back on the road again. It was roughly mid April if you went by Earth months and while the roads were barely passable due to the ravages of winter, they were no longer the rivers of mud that they had been when the snow had melted.

"I'll say. I really want to test the new arrows Kvalinn made for me, and if we had been forced to stay there any longer, then I would have used them on Peter." Richard twirled an arrow in his fingers while grinning playfully at Peter.

"You already 'tested' the rune of lightning on me enough that it ran out of magic and Kvalinn had to make another one. Kvalinn, are you sure you don't have something to block arrows or anti lightning?" Peter looked at me with pleading eyes but I could only shrug.

"The runes don't work like that. The most you can do is carry a wooden shield and block the arrows with it."

"Why a wooden shield? Wouldn't a steel shield work better to block arrows?"

I was tempted to explain the principles of electricity and that wood was an insulator, but since it would fly over their heads, I just told him it was anti lightning and that seemed to satisfy him. I heaved an internal sigh at the long road ahead of me to get this world up to 21st century tech. Maybe I should find an unoccupied part of Tochka and set up my own little territory that I could use to raise a new highly educated generation of humans that was protected from nobility and the monarchy, and could start the industrial revolution there.

"Steady, everyone. Somethings going on up ahead." Newman brought my attention back to the road. Up ahead there was a camp with several wagons and a few dozen soldiers. A lightly armored knight with a plumed helmet walked up to our wagon train.

"Greetings, I am Sir Potap. Are you the adventurer Newman?" Sir Potap had a hardened expression, and his eyes looked searchingly at us until they rested on me.

"Yes, is there something we can help you with, Sir Potap?" Newman cautiously approached the knight, his hand tensely remained by his sword handle in case things went south. As if to allay his fears, Sir Potap raised his right hand away from his weapon.

"I mean you no harm, Newman. I have been tasked by his majesty the Tzar to take this grain to Khirndarim as a gift for the Thunelduhr mountain kingdom, and I was hoping to accompany you since we are both going to the same destination."

This seemed to surprise Newman, and he looked searchingly at the knight for any sign of treachery or deception. But finding none in his eyes, he stuck out his hand for the knight to shake, which he did with a hearty grip.

"Thank you, Sir Potap. I look forward to a much easier trip with so many to split the night watch between. The yeti and wolves will hopefully avoid such a large party." Sir Potap then returned to his camp to get his party moving, while Newman came back to us with a relaxed look on his face.

"Hey, Newman. Are you sure we can trust these guys?" Richard asked as he eyed the broad back of Sir Potap suspiciously. "For all we know, they could slit our throats in our sleep."

"Agreed." Kat said with a glare at the knight. "He's a noble. Not trustworthy in the least."

"Settle down, you two." Newman held up his hands placatingly. "I've heard Sir Potap was known as Sir Potap the honest by the locals, and when I shook his hand, I could feel no trace of malice. There's probably an ulterior motive at play by the Tzar, but that's none of our business. We just need to play nice with the Tochkans and let them take most of the night shifts until we get to Khirndarim."

Richard and Kat didn't fully agree with Newman's strategy, but since they couldn't give any firm objections to the plan they just nodded and returned to their places next to the wagons. It took a few minutes, but eventually we were moving again. The wagons full of Tochkan grain were in front and behind our own wagons, with the Tochkan soldiers in the same positions.

"Newman, you mentioned that the yeti wouldn't attack a large party. Are they any fun to fight?" Bekhi asked while looking with hope at the patches of snow on the ground.

"For you? No. Yeti are basically a mix of trolls and bears, so unless someone knocked you out, stole all your weapons, and tied you up, they aren't a threat to you. For the rest of us though, they are a menace that requires careful teamwork to escape from the slavering beast unscathed. Although if we can manage to kill it, then the meat is well worth it."

"Meat?" Gerde poked her head out from her nest in my rucksack. She had learned a few words of Imperial over the winter, and her favorite one was meat.

"Yes, Gerde. The meat from a yeti is like a leaner beef meat that somehow tastes much better. Especially with some sweet kubansky sauce." Newman scratched Gerde behind her ears and she laughed as her favorite word got repeated.

"Meat! Papa, meat!" Gerde's ears started twitching and she pointed off to the left.

"Good girl, Gerde!" Bekhi ran towards where Gerde was pointing with a grin and banged her shield a few times to attract whatever was there. From out of the bushes, a starving snow wolf pounced at Bekhi. Only to be decapitated with a single blow from a sword. "Hmph, not even worth getting excited about."

"Meat! Mama, meat!"

"Yes, good girl, Gerde." Bekhi gave her a small piece of jerky as a reward for sniffing out the wolf. Gerde then dove back into her nest with a happily wagging tail.

"Heh, the baby is starting to be more useful than Peter." Richard grinned at the friendly verbal jab.

"Hey! That's not fair, just because Bekhi kills everything before I can even see it doesn't mean I'm useless!"

"No. It just means that women are better fighters than you." Kat had just the hint of a smirk as she looked over at Peter. Since Peter had no rebuttal to that argument, he just dropped back in the line and tried making conversation with the Tochkans. Unfortunately he was doomed to failure since they only spoke Tochkan.

Later that night, after we had set camp and were drawing straws for the guard rotation, Sir Potap strode up to me. He was no longer wearing his armor, but was instead wearing thick clothes that were suitable to the chilly spring air.

"Good evening, Kvalinn. Might I have a word with you?"

"Sure, just don't get in the way of Gerde's ball." I was sitting on the ground playing fetch with Gerde as a way to tire her out before bed, so I gestured to a spot on the ground where he could sit. One of his servants brought over a small stool and he watched us play for a bit.

"I have a message for you from the Tzar." Sir Potap thought for a moment before speaking with closed eyes as he recited the message. "Kvalinn, I wish you fair weather and good fortune in your travels abroad. But if you ever find yourself wishing for more in life. I am willing to offer you a title and lands in exchange for the best weapons you can make for my country. Both myself and Princess Yulian await the day with eager hearts when you join us in Tatartorsk once more."

I nodded as Sir Potap opened his eyes again. It was good to know that I now had a back up plan available if the Thomboldahr proved to not be congenial for my work.

"Thank you, Sir Potap. It seems my work went over well at the court?" His eyes darkened considerably at my question, and he thought for a long time before answering in a quiet voice.

"I would say your weapons caused a great stir in the Tzar's court. The number of nobles who wish to engage your talents for themselves right now is immense, so your courage to continue with your quest for the adventurers guild is quite admirable to me. If not more than a little foolish."

"Why? What would you have done if you were in my place?" I was a little confused about why finishing a job would require courage. I had thought that once the nobility got a weapon each they would be satisfied for a bit. Or at least that's what Newman had advised.

"If I had your skills, Kvalinn, then I would immediately seek refuge under the Tzar's protection and accept his offer of a title." The answer came so suddenly that I almost dropped the ball Gerde had handed to me. Sir Potap continued in an earnest tone. "I unfortunately do not have the funds to purchase a weapon from you, but from what I have seen and heard from several of my colleagues they are immensely powerful. So much so that any noble force armed with them would be a serious threat to the Tzar, and he would be forced to assassinate you to keep his position secure."

"Ancestor's beard." I added several more big red X's to my mental map of Tochka. There was no way I'd settle down in a place where I needed to worry about assassins coming after me or my family. But just in case I was just getting the wrong impression, I asked for more information. "If I accepted the lands and title from the Tzar, would I be safe from assassins?"

Sir Potap slowly shook his head. "Some of the commoners know me as Sir Potap the honest, but even I need to have a taster to check my food for poison, and sleep in chainmail to prevent being stabbed in the back. Mother Tochka is a harsh land, and those who cannot handle her whims swiftly perish."

I immediately added so many red X's to Tochka that the entire country was now shaded out in red. There was no way an industrial revolution would ever take off here, at least not without a lot more bloodshed than I was comfortable with.

"Thank you for the honest answer, Sir Potap. Perhaps when I have seen a bit more of the world, and my daughter can protect herself, I will take the Tzar up on his offer." There was no way I'd take him up on the offer though. Not unless every other nation and mountain in this world turned me down first. Even then, I would still hesitate to return to Tochka.

After a week or two of traveling, the mountains of Thomboldahr came into view. They were just foggy bumps on the horizon at this point, but even from this distance I could tell that they were immense.

"Imposing sight, aren't they?" Newman smiled as he noticed me squinting off into the distance. "Just wait until we get closer, then you'll really be impressed. It's said that when the first dwarf ever born, Barirdrolim Chaosshaper, first saw those mountains, he wept for joy. It's too bad the kingdom he created didn't last."

"What do you mean by that?" I asked curiously. During my days in school, the Elder's had only focused on teaching local geography so my knowledge of the world ended at the Eternal Forest. Newman took a deep breath, and then began a lesson in geography and politics that lasted for three whole days.

To summarize the past few thousand years. After Barirdrolim Chaosshaper set up a kingdom here and had things running smoothly, his father, the first dwarf, ascended to the halls of the ancestors and left him as the High King over both the northern and southern mountains. It took less than a hundred years after Hjerouhrdinn Godforged left this world for the elves to attack and take over the continent. With his kingdom severed, Barirdrolim left for the southern kingdoms since they were more developed and had greater manpower to fend off the invasion. But that left the Thomboldahr mountains leaderless in their time of need. A few hundred years of hard fighting against elves, man, monster and demon lord left the mountains scarred and distrusting. So each mountain set up their own king, even multiple kings if it was a big mountain, and began rebuilding.

In modern times, the kingdoms had come together in a loose alliance. Calling themselves 'The League of Thomboldahr', they now work together to repel monster and dragon attacks and support each other in time of need. However, they are still distrustful towards each other, and only the gravest of needs will cause them to send out their warriors to another mountain.

"Papa! Monster! Big Monster!" Gerde popped her head out from her nest and pointed towards where we could already hear a rumbling sound.

"Thank the ancestors." I muttered to myself. After three days of Newman's non stop lessons, I was more than ready to bash some skulls. Newman repeated Gerde's warning to Sir Potap.

"Sir Potap, Gerde smells monsters in the air, and judging by the vibrations in the ground, I'd say that there's at least a dozen yeti. Would you ask your troops to assemble?" The soldiers accompanying us would not have listened if Newman had given the orders, so he was forced to ask their leader. Fortunately for us, Sir Potap was an excellent commander and soon had his men formed up in their ranks for defense.

A few minutes later, we saw a large herd of yeti's appear over a ridge. Each one was around twelve feet tall, with white fur that was covered in mud and blood. When the beasts saw us, they charged towards our defensive line.

The Tochkans yelled out war cries in their language as the monsters crashed into their shields. Richard and Peter had been firing into their ranks the moment they had appeared so while their momentum was slightly slowed, the impact of several twelve foot tall yeti is nothing to sneeze at and several of the soldiers went flying.

Bekhi rushed at the charging yeti with a grin on her face and two axes in her hands. She dodged the swinging fists of the beasts and slashed their legs before killing them. "For the mountain of Einangrad!"

Kat followed her example, yelling out a war cry in her own language before hacking and slashing the beasts with her long sword. I had reworked the blade a little bit and sharpened it over the winter, but by her own request I hadn't added any runes to it. Apparently she didn't want to have to relearn how to use her favorite sword.

As for myself, I had Gerde in my rucksack so I couldn't attack the yeti with the same enthusiasm as the other two. Instead, I kept my back to one of the wagons, and took on any yeti who made it past them. I could hear Gerde whimpering softly from her nest since she was probably scared by all the monsters getting close to us.

"Fireball! Fireball! Fireball! Shit, there's too many!" Peter was beginning to panic at the sight of the towering monsters.

"No there's not, kid. Just keep shooting any who try to attack Bekhi or Kat from behind and there should be enough magic and arrows to go around." Richard managed to calm Peter down as he fired arrow after arrow into the beasts.

With the situation with our own party under control, I looked over to see how the soldiers were doing. In a word, poorly. Their coordination was lacking, their weapons were well maintained but only half decently made, as for their armor they were only equipped with heavy leather coats to stay warm and deflect swords. The yeti teeth and claws ripped and tore through the soldiers like a bloody whirlwind.

Sir Potap was holding his own against the towers of flesh and fur, and did his best to keep his men together. It was a difficult job, but he performed it admirably. Encouraging them, egging them on, bolstering their spirits. I couldn't understand a word he was saying, but it seemed to be effective with the soldiers.

After half an hour of ferocious fighting, Bekhi killed the last yeti just as it was about to chomp down on a helpless soldier.

"Finally! A good fight that I got to use multiple weapons for!" Bekhi was still grinning fiercely, even as she was covered in sweat and yeti blood. Sir Potap rushed over to where our adventuring party had gathered to recover our breath.

"Kvalinn, are you and your party uninjured?" Newman stepped up to answer him.

"No, we seem to be fortunate this time. What about your men? We have medical supplies in a wagon, let us help you save who we can."

"No, didn't you notice that the beasts were bloodied when they attacked us and that it was a very large herd? These beasts were released on us intentionally and there will be another attack soon either by man or beast. My men are in no state to repel them so I must ask that you take care of whoever or whatever it is." Sir Potap then turned on his heel and started barking orders at his men. They seemed to recover from the attack a bit, and began treating any who survived the skirmish.

"An intentional beast herd." Newman tugged at his beard in tension. "Kvalinn, did you somehow manage to upset a Tochkan noble while at the university?"

"Not that I know of. But they were all speaking in Tochkan so maybe one of them took offense that I didn't reply to something he said."

"We can worry about what Kvalinn did later." Bekhi cut in, pointing with her sword in the direction the yeti had come from. "Right now, we need to deal with them."

The five of us followed Bekhi's sword, and we saw the next wave of attackers. Based on their gear, there were around thirty mercenaries and over a hundred serfs. The mercenaries were wielding an assortment of steel weapons and wearing leather armor, while the serfs were just wielding their farm equipment and wearing their regular clothes. They stopped around a hundred paces away, just close enough for us to hear their conversation.

"Huh, I was expecting at least one of the adventurers to bite the dust from those yeti. I guess I get what I pay for though, next time I'll pay Borya the extra twenty silver." This was said by a man who appeared to be the leader of the mercenaries. He was speaking in Imperial so I was able to understand every word he said.

"What should we do, Boss? We were hired for mop up, not caravan raiding." The boss just shrugged.

"With so many of the count's serfs here we can't exactly retreat without doing anything. We'll just add the extra charge onto his bill later. Don't forget, take the dwarves alive. We don't get paid if they die. Now get to work!" After his very uninspiring battle speech was over, the mercenaries started rushing towards us.

"Richard, you still have that lightning arrow in reserve?" Newman asked.

"Shoot the boss for questioning, right? You got it, boss." With flawless precision, Richard took the specific arrow out of the secondary quiver he used for runed arrows, and shot the mercenary boss. Essentially tasing him, and causing him to fall like a house of cards.

"Kat, these guys are working for a noble, I'm pretty sure the rune of revenge I made for you should work against them." I offered a suggestion to Kat, but she turned me down.

"They're just slaves. The sickle is only for their cursed masters." She readied her sword, and rushed at the mercenaries.

"Kvalinn, anything special for me? With this many people not even the rune of sharpness will be enough." Bekhi held out her hand for one of my experimental weapons, I handed her a couple of throwing hammers and one ax.

"Throw these far away from you at the ground, they should explode. And this should give you your second wind." The hammers had the rune of explosion on them, while the axe had the rune of might. Both were very powerful and very dangerous.

"Thanks, Kvalinn!" Bekhi winked at me with a smile before throwing the first hammer and diving into the fray with a grin.

"Come get some, you Vermogen parasites!" Richard yelled as one of his arrows incinerated a mercenary. "I hope your boss paid you well for your lives!" Another mercenary was frozen solid before shattering into pieces.

"Vermogen scum! Do you have no honor?" Sir Potap shouted as he attempted to defend his wounded and tired men.

Kat yelled her own swear words in the Zaihanian language. The only ones I recognized though were 'Vermogen.' Evidently these mercenaries were from the trade state of Vermogen to the west.

"For the ancestors!" Bekhi whooped out as she tossed one of the throwing hammers into a pack of serfs. The ground erupted beneath their feet, turning frozen clods of earth and rocks into shrapnel that killed a dozen serfs and wounded many more.

When we had killed a quarter of the mercenaries, and well over half the serfs, the first mercenary turned to flee. "This shit ain't worth it." Another one cried out. "I'm out of here, I can't spend money if I'm dead!" A third called upon the gods for strength just as Richard shot him between the eyes. That sealed the deal for the rest of the mercenaries, who fled like rabbits. The hapless serfs followed close behind, tripping over their own feet in fear and leaving their dead behind them.

"Sir Potap!" Looking over to where the soldiers had fought. I saw the Tochkan knight futilely chasing after the fleeing mercenaries. His armor was lighter than that of the Zaihanians, but it was still too heavy to give chase on foot. My call seemed to bring him back to his senses.

"My apologies, Kvalinn. I lost my head. The despicable serfs killed many of the men under my command, even those who were attempting to surrender or were wounded beyond being able to fight."

"How many of your men are left?" Newman asked. Sir Potap looked around the field before delivering the sobering reply.

"Three. I'm afraid we must rely on you now to protect us as we deliver the grain to Khirndarim."

"That won't be a problem." Newman said confidently. "Richard, collect your arrows and see if you can find the leader of the mercenaries. There's probably a bounty on his head somewhere. Even if there's not, I'm sure the Tzar would like to know who attacked his men. Everyone else, see if there are any living soldiers we can save."

Everyone then split off to their assigned tasks. I looked through the soldiers and checked for a pulse on anyone not too badly wounded. Unfortunately my search was in vain. The serfs had hacked at the soldiers with a reckless hatred that I couldn't understand, and left none alive that I could find.

"Hey, Newman, you might want to see this." Richard called out from the field. Thinking it may have been a wounded man, I jogged over to help.

"What is it, Richard?" Newman asked. Richard gestured at the ground, at our feet lay the corps of the mercenary leader.

"Didn't you use the lightning arrow with the blunted edge?" I asked. "How is he dead?"

"From this." Richard poked at the head of the body with the tip of his bow and revealed that the carotid artery on the mercenary leader's neck had been neatly sliced. "Can't say if one of the serfs did it, or one of his cronies, but any information he had on his backer is gone."

"Hopefully it won't matter." Newman muttered. "They said they were only paid for a cleanup job, so it's possible that the noble spearheading the operation doesn't have enough funds for anything more expensive. Those were also bottom of the barrel scum. If they had been any better, than one or more of us would be dead by now. So hopefully this will be the only ambush we will face."

"Should we take his head in case there's a bounty?" Newman wrinkled his nose at the thought, but not for the reason I assumed.

"If we were closer to our destination, then I'd say yes. But we still have several weeks of travel left and the smell would be unbearable by that time. So leave it behind."

We continued searching for any wounded that we could save, but due to the serfs lack of armor, and the mercenaries over cautious attitude leading them to either die outright or flee, there was no one we could help. With the assistance of the three remaining soldiers, we buried the fallen men at arms in a mass grave by the side of the road.

The next morning, we resumed our march towards the mountains, doing our best to guard the wagons with our much diminished forces. There were no more massed attacks like the one that had wiped out Sir Potap's forces, but there were numerous attacks by wolves, bears, snow wraiths, and a couple more yeti. These were all easily killed by Bekhi, who started grumbling for a decent fight. I just hoped we could finish the trip without losing any more men, I didn't want to have to bury any of the companions that we had spent so long traveling with.