Path to Chiefdom IV

{Apologies, child. It seems you are the Earth-Father's challenge despite not knowing it. My tribe just found it funny that Earth-Father would send a child to face the great Chief Wru. But it is not my place to question the will of the Earth-Father if it is a fight you seek. Then a fight you will get.} Chief Wru tells me as he sets down the head of his hammer on the ground, and the rest of the giants move backward towards their bonfires, eagerly awaiting the start of our fight.

"What's going on Blüdtoth? Why does the big one keep grunting at you?" Gringar asks, making me realize that the effect of Hircine's boon is most likely allowing me to understand the giants' language.

"I was right; he wants to fight with me... I'm going to do it." I tell Gringar, who looks at me with shock initially, but after looking into my battle-hungry eyes, he realizes it would be fruitless to protest further.

Gringar puts away his great axe before stepping back as the giants had done and watching what I do next.

"How do we begin?" I shout to Wru.

{First, place your weapon in the ground. Then, you pray to your gods for victory. When you are ready, draw your weapon from the earth. When both weapons are drawn, we begin... We end with the death or yield of our enemy... Are you sure this is how you want to die, child? There must be more for you to do?} Wru questions me for a final time as I come forward and stab my sword into the ground.

"My god asked for this place to be cleaned of you, and that hammer be taken as tribute. Seeing as how the coward given this task has fled, it now falls to me... And I am no child, I am Tarruk!" I declare as a name comes to mind before I bow my head and pray to every Deadra I've come across to give me the strength for this fight.

{Well, Tarruk, I pray you do not disappoint your god too much when you fail.} Wru comments before bowing his head in silent prayer as well.

It feels like an eternity passes as every observer collectively holds their breath in anticipation.

After calming my raging heart, I exhale for a final time as I finish my prayer to Sheogorath, Hircine, and even Malacath.

I lift my head to see a tiny ember of flame in the eyes of the giant shrine to Malacath before turning my attention to Chief Wru, who was standing with his war hammer at the ready.

He nods to me, and as I nod back, he charges at me like a rampaging herd of mammoths.

I barely have time to roll out of the way of his stampede before he barrels past me with the force of a landslide.

As soon as I pop back up, I begin pelting Wru with ice spikes, but he holds up his free arm as a shield, letting the spikes get embedded deep within his arm before taking his hammer to shatter them.

Charging once more, I roll out of the way, making Wru crash into a tree, which stuns him for a second as the tree tumbles to the ground in a heap of splinters.

I use the additional time to launch a charged ice spear at Wru, who uses his arm to block it again, but with its added power, it can pierce through his arm and pin it against his chest.

Wru bellows in a pained rage, and I can sense the crowd is shocked at how much of a fight I'm putting up.

Wru uses his hammer to break the ice once more before charging at me again.

I rolled to the side once more but didn't expect Wru to swing his hammer as he passed me, clipping my arm and probably cracking my bone as the minor impact sent me tumbling to the side.

I'm barely able to stow my sword and begin casting healing magic on my wounded arm before Wru prepares himself for another charge.

I swap to my long stride spell and sprint to the side to avoid this charge before I swap back to healing my arm, only stopping when I feel the muscles and bone snapping back into place.

I see Wru getting further angered by my constant dodging, and he begins grabbing small boulders and hurling them at me like baseballs.

Luckily, he's not well practiced at that as I'm able to easily dodge them after finding his pattern and exploiting its faults.

This seems to really piss him off as he begins to charge once more.

However, this time, I raise a wall of stone where I had been after I dodged, causing Wru to stun himself as he smashes head-first into it.

With Wru stunned, I quickly rush in behind him and begin slicing up his legs with my sword.

Though it does very little damage, allowing Wru time to deftly turn around, bringing his giant war hammer down with both hands as I dodge out of the way just before becoming part of the newly formed crater in the ground at Wru's feet.

With Wru's hammer embedded in the ground, I quickly hop back to my feet and bring my blade down on one of Wru's arms, finally leaving a deep gash on the giant.

Despite weakening Wru's grip on his hammer, he still is able to wrench it from the ground and swing it towards me with a wide left-handed strike.

I dive beneath the blow and launch myself into Wru's exposed chest with the force of my shockwave ability.

I use my sword as a lance as I charge into Wru's stomach before locking myself around his waist as I shout into his face point blank, "FUS!!!"

This is the last push Wru needed to finally be taken to the ground as he is deafened and knocked on his ass as I rip my blade from his stomach as I straddle him and start to carve into his circular chest wound.

(Author's Note- Sorry for missing last week's chapter, I'm in the middle of final exams and course assignments so had tofocus on that. I have one more 8 week course after this and then I'll be done for the summer. So here's two chapters as an apology and a hope for more in the future! Hope you enjoy!)

(P.S. Here's an update on the Silvantus Art Commission!)