Erik and five scouts brazenly approached the troll den in the afternoon of the next day. No sneaking or hiding since that would defeat their purpose. They were here to taunt the trolls into following them, allowing the Hunters to bring the prey to their chosen hunting ground.

There was fierce opposition from the Captains when Erik announced he would join with the taunting, saying it was beneath a Chief to do such tasks.

But Erik countered by saying that he probably had the best understanding of these dull beasts and would therefore be the most effective in bringing them over.

“Besides, who here can outrun me?” – Was another argument nobody could object to.

During the Winter Hunt Erik had been steadily gaining more Proficiency levels and small amounts of Favour trickled in too. Combined with the different boosts and abilities, Erik truly was by far the strongest, fastest, toughest and smartest among the Hunters.

When Erik’s small group approached the trolls, they had just finished feasting on some kind of carcass in a feeding frenzy.

Trolls were tall, reaching over 3,5m or 12 feet. The tallest in this pack was well over 4m tall and had obvious Chaos mutations in the form of spikes, horns and even more excessively protruding teeth.

Seeing the humans approach their camp this openly would have drawn any other creature’s attention instantly, but the dull trolls didn’t notice until Erik could almost poke them with his Halberd.

“You guys stand a bit further behind me and prepare to bolt to the clearing.” – He gave a useless order, but it was better to be safe than sorry.

Hearing the unfamiliar voice, the trolls finally noticed the group of Norscans at their side.

‘Gods, these ugly fucks really are stupid…’

Having been noticed, Erik immediately started the plan.

“Oi! You ugly motherfuckers! You hungry? Too bad you’re too slow and stupid to catch me, you big, slow dumb-dumbs!”

Okay, not the most creative but more eloquent insults would just confuse the trolls. So Erik simply continued to pester them by calling them slow, dumb and often mentioning hungry too.

The scouts also joined in, resulting in a chorus chanting:

“Big and slow and fat and HUNGRY. Dumb and dumber, dumbdumbdumb. Why are hungry trolls so fucking dumb? ‘Cus they’re dumb and slow stupid trolls!”

When it took more than 5 minutes for the trolls to understand them properly (yes, trolls are capable of speech but are just SO. INCREDIBLY. SLOOOOOOW!) Erik was starting to feel increasingly stupid as well for continuously singing dumb, slow, hungry at them…

But luckily the trolls finally reacted as they unleashed a deafening roar and started running at Erik’s group. While turning around and running away, Erik couldn’t help but comment internally:

‘Uuuuugh, they really are so, so, SOOOOO dumb… They didn’t even take their clubs with them…’

Sure, even without weapons the trolls would be a challenge and them forgetting about the clubs was a big help, but still…

And as they ran away, two additional roars could be heard coming from inside the cave as more trolls emerged from the darkness.

Having succeeded in taunting the trolls and now running in the direction of the trap, a game of cat and mouse began.

The trolls had to be kept close enough that they wouldn’t just give up the chase, but not so close that they could potentially grab the Hunters.

And when eventually one of the trolls got bored and started to turn around to go home, Erik had to resume insulting them.

A distance that took them half an hour to leisurely walk, took them the same time with intermittent running and catcalling.

Finally though, the bait and the prey ran into the prepared clearing in the forest.

Shallow ditches were dug all over the ground and filled with dry wood. And all around them, hidden in the forest, the rest of the Marauders lay in wait.

When Erik reached the middle of the open ground, he turned around and let the trolls catch up to him.

With a grand gesture, swinging his Halberd over his head before ending with the blade pointing at the front most Chaos Troll, Erik gave the order to attack.

A hail of javelins fell upon the trolls, some of which penetrated deeply into their target while others bounced off the tough trollhide.

Simultaneously the ditches were set on fire, separating the trolls from each other. Erik was now alone with the big troll. Two other trolls were similarly isolated while the two trolls that turned up later were caught within the writhing flames together.

Not expecting to be faced with their single biggest fear, fire, combined with the sting of the javelins, the troll seemingly froze in place.

“Continue throwing! Every bit of damage will drain them faster!”

“Vanguards! Move your arses and jump the flames! Grab on to your glory men!”

Everything went according to plan, even with the two additional trolls.

Now joined by his Elites, Erik prepared to face the Chaos Troll in earnest.

Realising it had been led into a trap, rage poured from the monsters many eyes as it breathed in heavily.

“Dodge! Its gonna hurl!” – Erik warned his men.

The extremely potent stomach acid would melt everything it hit into a puddle, muscle, skin, bone and steel weapons alike.

The bile missed everyone by a mile and as the Chaos Troll reeled from the effort, Erik and five others began their onslaught.

Erik raised his Halberd high overhead, the axe-head shining in the midday sun, before bringing it down with his full strength.

Erik had never stopped spending Favour on status points. And with most of his latest activities being hunting, killing and training to spill blood and bring death, he had been showered in the Favour of Khorne and Nurgle. Even Tzeentch had been quite generous due to Erik’s use of cunning plans and changing the way the Norscans were usually organised and fought. And with the status points he redeemed with this Favour he had gained ever stronger might.

Swinging down with his lethal weapon, Erik managed to amputate one of the Troll’s arms in one swing, cutting it clean off as the monster howled in pain.

But the regenerative power of trolls wasn’t infamous for nothing, as almost immediately the limb started regrowing. And as the other Elites bit their weapons into its flesh, the troll swung his remaining arm and tossed them aside like ragdolls.

When they got back up, the arm had almost been fully restored.

‘Damn these things are tanky…’ – Erik couldn’t help but comment.

The troll then picked up its limp arm and held it like a weapon, ready to flatten or crush anyone who approached.

Not letting up, Erik darted in close and stuck his Halberd’s spear part deep into its gut before ripping it out.

Smoke rose from the blade as a flood of acid poured from the trolls entrails before the regeneration sealed it back up. Quickly flicking his weapon, Erik realised he had made the very mistake he had warned against. He had let the corrosive acid touch his weapon by stabbing the troll’s guts.

Angered at the rookie mistake, Erik forgot to check the damage as he almost feverishly unleashed a barrage of strikes, actually forcing the Chaos Troll back.

Cheers went up from where another group of Elites had brought down one of the other trolls. They had forced it into the flaming ditches where the flames disabled its regeneration, allowing the Hunters to hack it to death with impunity.

In between the roars of trolls and men, the sickening squelching sound of Hunters getting crushed by the monsters could also be heard. Those men that didn’t dodge in time or were simply unlucky got grabbed and torn apart by the trolls while one unlucky individual was hit by a spurt of bile. Nothing remained of him except for a sizzling gooey puddle.

Reminded of the use of the flames surrounding them, Erik and his group also began to herd their prey towards the fiercest flames.

But this Chaos Troll was indeed different from its regular troll subordinates as it simply charged straight through the thin line of Hunters to create more space.

Sadly, a smart troll was still an irredeemable moronic beast. Erik used his high DEX to jump high into the air and brought his crumbling Halberd down on the Chaos Troll’s thick skull.

He didn’t quite split the head in half, but it was close. The Halberd, damaged from the acid, had shattered when it arrived at the unforgiving root of a bony spike.

Momentarily dazed from the shock of losing his best weapon, Erik nonetheless didn’t forget to have his men push the already regenerating Chaos Troll into the fire head first.

Seeing the regeneration stop, they didn’t tip in the entire massive body but instead began the tough job of cutting open its chest and burn the troll’s heart, killing it thoroughly without spoiling the trollhide.

Two trolls down, three more to go. Erik sullenly looked at his broken weapon before resolutely turning it around, prepared to use the butt of the weapon until it became completely useless.

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As Erik and the young Frost Wolves fought the trolls, another battle raged at the eastern Sarl camp.

A horde of enemies assaulted the fortifications while the Sarl defenders desperately fought them off, wave after wave after endless wave.

But for every enemy they slew, another jumped forward, eager for blood and manflesh.

Slowly it dawned on the defenders that it was only a matter of time before their defences were breached.

This did not discourage them however, but instead fuelled them with a fierce desire to take as many of their enemies with them to the afterlife as possible. If they were doomed to die on these snowy plains, they would go out in a blaze of eternal Honour and Glory!