12 Gotta Get It On And The Battle Is On...

It had taken all three, of the witcher trainees and their escorts, nearly two whole days of hiking to reach their destinations. At the peak of a weathered mountain top, Geralt and Vesemir stood facing each other, with persistent icy winds billowing their clothes about.

     "Alright, Geralt, this is where we part ways. Take this medallion." Vesemir handed him a round black medallion with the head of a wolf engraved on its face. 

     "Once I and the others have returned to Kaer Morhen, the mages will activate the medallions. It is upon this activation that your month-long trial will begin. Remember that they'll be watching you and you'll be disqualified, if you leave the mountains before that month is over.

     "You have to survive in these mountains for an entire month and once that's been done you must make your way out alive."

      Vesemir pulled out another medallion, this one was silver and was fashioned as an artistic rendition of a wolf's head and was attached to a silver chain necklace.

     "You're already familiar with the functionality of our medallions and now..." He said, as he hung the necklace around Geralt's neck. "...this one is yours.

     "I've already warned you about trying to leave early. Before the month is up, the sorcerers will never let you leave the mountains, with that thing around your neck. It's true that from this day forward you're a full fledged witcher but that medallion is a cornerstone of our trade. If you want to keep it, you'll have to pass this final test.

      "Remember your training, keep your wits about you, never let your guard down and maybe I'll see you back at Kaer Morhen in a month."

     Having made this old familiar speech, Vesemir set off back towards the direction of the meet up point. He knew that these particular witchers were a cut above the other trainees but that didn't ease his concerns about their safety. Having experienced these treacherous mountains for himself, he knew exactly what they were up against. 

     During their hike over here, the sorcerers worked on maintaining several wards that kept the monsters that would ordinarily populate these mountains away from these paths and peaks. Once he and the other two returned to Kaer Morhen, the sorcerers would release their wards and these boys would be in for a nasty surprise.

     Geralt watched Vesemir's silhouette fading into distance, before walking around the area and getting a feel for the land here. There weren't too many occasions when trainees would be allowed outside the keep to simply explore and do as they please. So, while he knew this trial would be exceedingly dangerous, he was also quite excited at the prospect of finally being able to act on his own and fend for himself against the elements. He knew Troy and Jorgen wouldn't be taking it easy and so, although he had finally secured his place as the number one trainee, he had no intention of letting those two show him up, during this last trial.

     After spending several hours searching the immediate area for an appropriate place to set up camp, he finally got to work on building a temporary living area that would hopefully last a few days, before he decided to set out to explore this new land.

     Three days later, Troy, Jorgen, and Geralt had each received the signal, from their black medallions, and had instantly focused on their immediate surroundings.

     During their three day wait, they had all explored their immediate surroundings and had discovered the wards they had been told about. There at the wards edge, they could sometimes see various types of monsters attempting to cross over only to be stopped by an invisible force.

      Because of this, all three knew exactly what types of monsters they would be facing from the start. They also knew that trying to climb one of the shear walled mountains nearby would only lead them into more danger. They had already witnessed wyverns, griffons, cockatrices, and other draconids flying around those peaks. 

     Geralt stood up from his meditative kneeling position and looked in the direction of the faint but quickened footsteps he could hear in the distance. He focused his eyesight far out into the direction of those sounds. A few seconds later he could finally see them.

     'So the Wargs are finally here, huh? Bring it on ya ugly mutts! I'm ready!'

     Looking at the approaching Wargs, he could see their pink hairless skin stretched tightly over their muscular dog like forms. Unlike the original Wargs, these ones were not skinny starved looking creatures. They looked more like pit bull/wolf hybrids with hairless wolf heads and long purplish tongues that sometimes hung out of their mouths.

     There were five in total and they were fast. The Wargs, who had only just entered his line of sight, were now less than a hundred meters away and were closing in rapidly. 

     His superior witcher vision allowed him to spot threats sooner than normal but the Wargs clearly weren't intent on letting him enjoy that expanded window of threat awareness. 

     They had been unceremoniously kicked out of their territory by some unseen force but now they were coming back and ready to take out their rage on anything that happened to be there when they returned.

     The trees that grew on these smaller mountains that they had been taken to were thinly spaced out, in such a way as to make one wonder whether it should be called a forest or not. The line of sight here could be quite far or severely stunted, depending on where one stood.

     The Wargs were now only seconds away and Geralt quickly weaved a Quen sign and then waited for their first attack.

      The first Warg finally arrived and immediately lunged at Geralt, with his jaws wide open, clearly intent on making a meal out of Geralt's neck. Geralt swung his sword upwards and to the right, catching the Warg midair and allowing the force of its attack to empower his own.

     The slash caught the Warg on his underside, cutting off one of his forepaws and severely mangling the other. The blow also sent him flying backwards, while cutting a deep wound across its chest and looked as if it might've punctured a lung.

     Geralt immediately rolled forward after executing his slash, narrowly avoiding another lunge by one of the oncoming Wargs. With his roll forward, the Wargs who had been closing in to attack him were now behind him and so he spun around to face them.

     Quickly casting Igni towards the middle of the four Wargs, he sent out a heat wave that caught all four of them on fire. It was only for a brief second but it gave him all the time he needed to switch to Igni's alternative manifestation.

     Blasting a potent stream of flames into the nearest Warg's face, he wielded his sword with one hand and his flames in another. One of the Wargs attempted to rush in and bite at his ankles, after recovering from Geralt's last attack. Geralt maintained his flames on the Warg in from of him, while slashing downwards at the attacking Warg.

     At this point, three of the five Wargs were permanently out of commission. Switching, once more, to Igni's standard manifestation he sent out another scorching heat wave at the two remaining Wargs.

     He then quickly closed the short distance between them, cut the head off of the one on the right, and then brought his sword down mightily into the middle of the left Warg's back, nearly slicing him in half.

     Standing up straight and surveying the carnage around him, Geralt smiled, as he wondered what sort of monsters his friends might be dealing with.

     'Well, whatever it is I'm sure Troy will be fine, with all of his fancy spells and whatnot. Jorgen, while not weak by any measure, is in the same boat as me. Swords and signs against any number and variety of monsters that could show up at any time. I hope he makes it. Hell, I hope we both make it.'

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     Jorgen had anxiously waited out those three days, after confirming the monsters in his starting area. He was actually surrounded by a dozen Harpies and he had no idea whether he was prepared to deal with all of them at the same time.

     'Damn, this isn't good! I don't know if I can deal with this many! I'm going to have to adopt a retreating strategy to make sure they don't surround me. Maybe I can hit one of them with Axii and turn it? Shit, here they come!'

     Jorgen quickly identified the direction with the least amount of Harpies and immediately began sprinting full speed towards them. He was running towards two Harpies that were flying small circles in the air.

     As soon as they spotted him running in their direction, they both swooped down towards him in order to prevent him from escaping their encirclement. Jorgen immediately prepared to cast his Aard sign and then released it right before the two Harpies reached him.

     The force emitted by his sign stopped the flying screechers mid flight and caused them both to fall to the ground. Jorgen took advantage of their vulnerable state and swiftly ran his silver sword across both of their necks, before resuming his retreat.

     The other Harpies hadn't missed his actions and had given chase the moment they realized which direction he was going. Because of the delay caused by his previous altercation, the other ten Harpies were now hot on his trail. They were repeatedly diving down at him requiring him to remain fully alert and dodge while continuing his retreat.

     As he continued to run, he looked up and behind him briefly and noticed that one harpy was beginning yet another attacking descent. Doing his best to accurately gauge the Harpy's trajectory, he ran for a few more steps, before simultaneously skidding to a halt and swinging his sword around.

     Luckily, his assessment had been on point and the descending Harpy was nearly sliced in half, by the blow. Realizing that the Harpy wasn't dead but wouldn't be flying again any time soon, he didn't hesitate to begin sprinting back in the direction he had come from, dodging the incoming Harpies along the way.

     Running back and forth in this manner, he managed to take out five more Harpies. Now, however, the remaining four were circling over his head and refusing to attack. He had never heard of Harpies making plans but his gut was telling him that they were up to something.

     Suddenly, the Harpies spaced themselves, out one in each direction, and then dove downwards in unison towards Jorgen.

      Jorgen quickly cast a Quen sign and then tried his best to keep all of the Harpies in his field of vision. He timed his next move in his head the best he could, quickly counting down. '...3...2...1'

     Just before the Harpies reached him, Jorgen cast Omnidirectional Aard, then immediately cast an Igni stream, and pointed at the Harpy closest to the center of his vision. Quickly moving the stream on to each of the Harpies, before they could recover, he continued working his way around the circle of Harpies. 

     Once he was sure all of them had their feathers burned off, he wielded his silver sword and dispatched them all, by severing their heads from their bodies.

     Jorgen then looked around and strained his senses to the utmost to ensure there were no more threats in his immediate vicinity. Once he was certain of his relative and temporary safety, he slumped down into a sitting position on the ground and took a well deserved break.

     'Well, that went about as well as I could have hoped. Although, I didn't really feel there was a proper opening to use Axii.

     'I hope Geralt and Troy are doing alright. Once we make it through this madness, we're going to have to go out for the biggest celebration ever. Although, that would require loads of money that we don't have. Guess we'll have to settle for dozens of celebratory contracts.'

     Jorgen thought with a grim smile, as he picked himself up and set out to find himself some food to replenish his diminishing rations.

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     Troy quickly rolled out of the way of the monstrous fist flying his way. Swinging his silver sword at the creature's upper arm, he managed to land a blow but it only left a scratch that only served to enrage the beast even further.

     The beast had only committed to a handful of these types of attacks and each time Troy would take what he could and then retreat. Normally, the creature would rush madly and blindly at him at which point he would dodge and open up a stream of Igni into his flank.

     This was only slightly more effective than the four or five slashes he had opened up on its limbs. It wasn't incredibly resistant to the flames being produced but it simply had such a fearsome constitution that there was only so much they could do to its resilient hide.

     The creature planted its massive hooves into the ground bringing it to a skidding stop. Using its two large fore claws, it maneuvered its bulky brown body covered in thick leathery skin around to face Troy.

     Its huge goat-like head, with black horns spiraling out from the sides, quickly locked onto Troy's position. Troy felt that his first monster of this trial was a bit overkill. He couldn't help wondering whether the others were facing off against such brutish creatures. 

     'It's not like I wasn't ready to face off against a Chort right off the bat but isn't this like really bad luck or something. Hmmm...I wondered if they control the first monsters we encounter? Shit!'

     Troy narrowly avoided the incoming Chort and missed his opportunity at a counterattack, because of his daydreaming. Quickly banishing any thoughts that weren't directly related to his current battle, Troy focused his mind and tried to think of how best to take this thing down. 

     'Axii isn't that effective. Aard works but only for an instant, the damn thing is just too heavy. Quen is almost always useful but doesn't deal any damage. Igni works but the damage is almost as minimal as my sword slashes. Yrden is almost useless here, although I haven't yet tried the tertiary manifestation that I worked out. Maybe I should give it a shot. It might prove somewhat helpful.'

     Dodging yet another reckless charge by the lumbering chort, Troy blasted him with a full force Aard and tried to put some distance between it and himself.