Chapter 45 - the great dangerous north

---Iceshaft, Northern Ssargeni---

---Tiggy's perspective, present time---

A blizzard. And it's summer. I sighed as I watched ice falling from the sky. 

I was on guard duty today. Standing on the wall to the north in Iceshaft, the northernmost town in Ssargeni. Keeping watch out over the nomansland before me in between our wall and the mushroom, tree and stone spike filled forest edge in Nermoniax. We burned away and did controlled explosions to remove a bit of it, so we'd have more distance between us. That way we'd know quicker if a surprise attack were to happen. People would get to their posts in time. 

Inside the wall there was Barracks, we had at least 100 people along it at all times, ready to get going on short notice. There was another smaller wall as you'd enter, and watch towers along it on the inside where we'd stationed artillery magicians and sharpshooters. 

There were 4 barracks in total, filled with beds, cooking stations and all necessities needed to stay for a long time. Chefs hired as well to cook for the crew. Each could house 50, maybe 60 soldiers. Then we had a larger base a tiny bit further south into the town where the remaining troops on duty would be while not deployed. 

About 12 watch towers in total, no sorry, 13. 

In those worked the most skilled sharpshooters I've ever met, well, one guy, they call him happy. He's just above the rest of them skill wise. He's a bit of a maniac though. 

"Hey, Tiggy, what's up?" I heard happy yell from my right, he must've gotten bored so he's visiting me for a chat. Anaya isn't a fun company to be honest. She's amazing in battle and I want her to have my back but she's not the most fun to chat with. 

"Hey Happy! Well, I'm just standing gathering mold" I answered in a jokingly manner followed with a chuckle. As he closed in we closed our fists and bumped our knuckles together hard. Creating a sonic boom. 

"fuck sake!" 

"Damn, you scared me!" 

"Stop that"

We heard the other troops yelling annoyed. We laughed together and hugged with a smack on each other's backs. 

"Always fun!" he said. I nodded in a chuckle. "Indeed it is brother." We sighed and looked out at the nomansland. Nothing. Not even a damn fly. Well, we nuked the crap out of it once when there came a swarm of… Well, those creatures that inhabit the forest. 

(My name wasn't Tiggy for real. But a lot of people here go by a nickname. My real name is Shishiy, but Happy, which also is a nickname I came up with. As he's always Happy even mid-battle, he gave me the nickname. Not sure why, but I think it stuck because I was annoyed by it. Then I just leaned into it and accepted it. 

My Appearance: 177cm tall, 80cm waist. 132cm shoulder to shoulder. 39.40cm arms or biceps. And about 111cm chest. I have long hair, which pretty much all the time is in a braid behind me. Red color, same as happy. Its the vampire blood in us. No not that vampire, it's just a subspecies of humans that happen to be able to live off blood. But we can eat normally like anyone. We can be in the sun but have to use SPF 50 or we often burn bad after an hour. And I guess we're a bit weak to fire. My skin is pale, with a red shade to it.) 

"Have you eaten yet?" Happy asked me. I picked up a cup off the floor, we stood on the floor going along the Wall. Of course… and I took a sip and held it out to him. 

Happy, who's real name was Reazi, was also a vampire like me. Green hair and a green shade to his, also pale, skin. 

180cm tall, 60kg weight. Very slim built. Though insanely much stronger than he looked. 

60cm waist or so approximately. 

"Ah, on a diet or just lazy food?" he chuckled. He also took a sip of it. Blood. From a cow. It tastes quite good for some reason. Sort of like cow meat tastes, the blood to us has that same taste to it sort of. It's hard to explain! 

"Just came over it cheap and thought it'd be easier" I said and smiled at him as I held out a thumbs up toward him. He chuckled. "ah I thought so." he said as he handed back the cup. "Yeah an excess of cows for some reason!" I said, took the cup he handed back and put it down on the stone 'fence' on the wall. A parapet I think it's called. Well, you know on a wall, where you can stand on top, there's a smaller stone wall going along the edge. Then some pillars holding up the roof that protects us from possible projectile rain.

"wait, who's…" I mumbled as I squinted, looking out towards the forests border. An individual came out of there. But, it looked humanoid. 

Happy turned and took a look. 

A blue dressed lady with a weird mask was walking out of the forest edge calmly and towards the wall at a slow pace. "Hey, it's a good looking woman with a weird mask!" Happy exclaimed before leaping off the wall and spurting over. "Hey wa-" I sighed. I quickly picked up a black device, specially made for communication for our military. "Send out rescue team 12 now, quickly. Human spotted by the forest edge, Happy is also our there running for the human" I said clearly into the communication device. "Roger, team 12 deploying" a metallic response said. 

I Used a far sight spell to check properly. I mumbled the chant. 

Yeah, it's a human girl all right. Very long black and blue in different shades all over, hair. Well, dreads. Dreaded hair. And one of those disease masks. Happy was almost there. 

What's up with the mask? Has she been exploring in those woods and snuck past our scouts? 

Yea I see no other reason too use… Wait, what's… a big arm rose up in the horizon from the woods, slinging away trees, pulled up from their roots, like they were tiny pebbles. Three huge trees were thrown over here and hit the wall. I staggered back a bit. 

"code x, incoming from the forest, everyone at battle stations, send out all teams, ALL!" 

The thing rose up. A leg emerged, it were as if it had always been buried there just waiting to jump out of the ground. 

Our forces quickly came up from the barracks, others had also called out the emergency with the communicators. 

Happy stopped for a second, then kept running toward the girl. Our team also kept rushing over. The girl herself seemed pretty calm… is she in a panicked state? something seem wrong here…

The giant rose up from the forest. All black, as if made with shards of black stone, crystal looking almost and shimmering in… purple I think… 

It just stood there though. The legs suddenly collapsed and crashed down, shattering stones and trees alike as it came crashing down, from the knees and downwards. But the giant kept levitating in the air and its remainder of what was its legs merged together into something, making it sort of look like one of those gienes in a bottle. Spirits with a tail of sorts where their legs should be. But an evil black and purple version with gigantic glass looking claws. 

And it looked as if something were in front of it… something way smaller levitating by its torso… 

The blue girl stopped as Happy reached her. The rescue team wasn't that far behind. My communicator made a noise to signal that someone was sending a transmission to me. 

"I've arrived at the girl" Happy's voice. I picked it up quick as fuck and held it towards my mouth, pressed down the button, 

"Get back here, quick!" I then yelled into my communicator. 

The girl seemed to agree to be carried on Happy's back. Okay, maybe she was in shock. They're on their way back. 

"What the fuck is that thing?!" Anaya exclaimed. Anaya stood beside me all of a sudden. 

Anaya "the iron druid" Black. 

A dark elf that sought after mastering becoming a druid. A druid of the battlefield that is… She is able to transform into a huge Pansar-Bear as she throws herself into a group of enemies in the fray. A Pansar-bear is a rare creature, three times the size of a normal bear and has a hide so thick that it's as hard to penetrate as a… Well, a tank or a fucking steel made wall. Hence the name, Pansar-bear.

She can also transform into an Steel wyvern, which looks like a small, horsesize dragon that's feathered. Though it's feathers aren't any normal feathers, it's all steel scales. And it's claws are also steel, like seven longswords on each hand. Or each paw? Anyhow, it's a damn deadly beast only found in the wilderness of the Northern parts in the mountains and in the forest up north inside the land of Nermoniax. For some reason that metallic beast can fly too, not that high up into the air but still. She says its partially magic. 

I've also seen her transform into an ironbone Jaguzard. Which is a cat creature that has a small agile body, super long sharp claws and long fangs to rip apart its prey. 

It looks like you'd mix in a bit of lizard in a cat. So it's the cat's body. But the head is sort of, like they slowly was morphing it into a lizard head but stopped when it was halfway done. Same with the tail. It can also regrow its tail and I've seen one throw it like a damn spear once. And as the name suggests, its bones are hard as steel, claws and fangs like steel too. Anaya uses the tail regrowth, to snap it off with a fast twitch and shoot it like a metal spear as well, Then regrowing it. As she was there and saw the one that did it at me, she practiced copying it. 

(190cm tall, slim build but can "pump up" her muscles with magic. Not pumped up measurements: Waist about 75cm, below boobs 83cm, chest with boobs about 112cm.) 

"Damn Anaya! Announce yourself!" I yelled and staggered a bit, then drew a deep breath. 

"What is that thing and why is it just staring at us?" she said as she scratched her chin slowly, looking as if in thought. 

"Well, I know as much as you…" I mumbled. "Anyway, Team 12 and Happy is out there, retrieving a girl that came out of the forest. She seems to be in shock." I explained to her. 

She nodded as she kept gazing out over the field. Team 12 had reached Happy and the girl and they were moving back rapidly. They sent out two scouts from team 12 by the looks of it as two members of the team spurted away towards the forest. 

The communicator made a noise. "Scouts deployed. We'll figure this out, don't worry. Team 12 returning with the girl and Happy." they reported. 

Several squads had now lined up on, behind and infront of the wall. All posts in towers and by weaponry were manned. We were ready for a battle. 

"Okay, they're almost back." I mumbled. I used far sight to check closer on the giant hovering in the sky above the forest. 

"What the fuck." I exclaimed. A black looking kid was hovering in front of the giant's torso, arms down on each side, just staring at us. It looked like shards of glass were sticking out a little here and there on the kid, as if they were part of the kid's body. Purple shards. Then some dust particles by the looks of it was soaring around the kid, like a tornado. The dust particles also looked like they were flying back and forth between the kid and the giant thing. Black and purple dust. 

The giants eyes lit up, a purple light shone out from the black head. 

"What is this thing?" I mumbled.