The Minotaur’s were tall and broad, all well-armed and had various styles of iron armor.

Even a single individual would be enough to give a squad of human soldiers great problems, but the group of 8 of them would be a formidable force to even a platoon-sized group.

This was what had briefly caused Peter to hesitate before, but now, holding the axe high up on its neck, the time for hesitation was over.

With a shadowy crimson mist wafting over the area, the Shaman continued to chant in a language that Peter couldn’t understand as he rushed towards the first big bull.

While he moved forwards, the Minotaur themselves were not idle.

Ducking under a large cudgel, only a few of the Minotaur had elongated metal helmets, and so naturally Peter would save those for last.

Coming up with the tip of his axe, he slammed the blade into the lower underjaw of the first Beastman, and with a quick and decisive pull, he ripped sideways, tearing the fanged bovine mouth off to the side.

Despite having practically crippled the first Minotaur, there was no time to celebrate or to even think about anything besides battle.

These monsters were the heart of the warherd, and they would not be so foolish as to try and fight Peter 1 by 1.

They charged together, and he had to fall back or get buried under tons of meat.

Dancing around 7 charging bulls, Peter attacked when he saw an opening, but mostly was regulated to a kind of retaliatory defense.

After several minutes, although each Minotaur was cut or battered in some way, the area was thick with the crimson mist, and with a bellow that almost shocked Peter enough into taking a direct hit, mystic green runes appeared above the Shaman and almost immediately Peter felt something crawling up his legs.

‘Insects?!’

Pulling his last throwing axe off his belt, Peter hurled it at the goat Beastman, only for a Minotaur to sacrifice itself by standing in its way.

Back at the line of Marksmen, the formations of Voulge’s had held off the warherd remarkably well, though many had died, they were trading their lives at a 1 for 4 ratio – something unthinkable for the armies of men almost anywhere else.

Then the bugs came for them, too.

When fighting against the warherd, concentration was key.

It took multiple arrows or lethal stabs to kill a Beastman, but only 1 hit to cripple a human, so there was very little room for error. But suddenly attacked by all the crawling ants, spiders, and centipedes and swarmed by flies, bees, and wasps.

How could they concentrate?

In truth, the insects themselves did very little damage. After all, the Shaman could not create a swarm of insects out of thin air, it could only call and command insects from the surrounding area.

Yet, in a situation where the Marksmen were already fighting with their lives on the line, it only took a little bit for the scale to tilt.

By now the Warherd had lost thousands of individuals, and perhaps only 750 in total remained.

But the humans had lost many too, and from the 867 Marksmen that Peter had just an hour ago, now only 600 remained.

Then, the insects swarmed, and 50 more men were killed in mere seconds.

Any normal human army would have collapsed then, only due to the lack of consciousness by the newly [Recruited] did the Marksmen stay in line formations.

Back at the rear of the Warherd Peter had finished off 2 Beastmen and doing his best to not be hit, he held his Great Axe far back on the grip, chopped up and to the left, practically beheading a Minotaur with the swing.

Throughout this battle Peter had treated his weapon with care, but Beastmen had thick hides, and it was taking a toll on the axe which by now had become dull and rickety.

But now with 3 Minotaur dead, the pressure had lifted, and Peter pushed harder than before.

Killing 1 Minotaur with a chop in the stomach that tore its guts out, Peter then rolled away from a swing from two-handed hammer before using the axe like a spear and impaling the bull in the chest.

*CRACK!*

The weapon finally broke with his upward thrust, but not flustered by this, he used the broken handle and plunged it into the monsters neck.

With 5 dead, and only 3 to go, Peter scrambled away, picking up a crude weapon that would have been impossible for a normal man to wield.

The longer he fought, the thicker the crimson mist grew, and chanting another spell, the Shaman raised its staff and sword into the air.

Feeling a sense of dread that he hadn’t before, Peter held on to the chopper in his hands, and sprinted at full speed to the Shaman, who was nearly done.

Without the full team of Minotaur protecting it, Peter was able to finally get there in time, and just as a crimson rune began to light up behind the beast, he lopped off the arm holding the staff.

Hearing the sound of hooves just behind him, he still didn’t stop, and in a flash, held the chopper with 2 hands and beheaded the Shaman.

Jumping to the side, Peter dodged the Minotaur’s tackle, and as the crimson mist began to dissipate, he killed the 3 Beastmen.

It was only now that he could turn back and look at his army, decimated as they were, they were still holding the line.

And seeing this, Peter dropped the chopper and picked up a large hand axe – one 2 sizes too big for a man – and dashing he crashed into the back of the right side of the Warherd.

Sensing something was wrong, and without the Shaman’s crimson mist to bolster their madness, the herd finally began to give way, and then they finally broke.

“The battle is won! Grab your bows and don’t let them escape!” Peter hollered over the stampede of hoof beats.

The distance to the tree line made it impossible to completely wipe the warherd out but given a boost of energy when they saw the Beastmen feeling, each volley fired by the Marksmen killed their enemies by the score.

When it was finally over, out of the 867 Marksmen they had started with, barely 350 were left in fighting condition.

Though they started the battle with hardly 1/3rd the number of warriors that that enemy had, and so in some way the battle was a great victory, for almost any other force these kind of losses would have halted any near-future campaign.

But even if he didn’t like the losses, it wasn’t so for Peter.

Picking up a Voulge off the ground he gave the men an hour to rest, and headed back to the Shaman he picked up the staff the wicked creature had been using.

[Ding!]

[Congratulations User: Peter Ivankov on acquiring a magic weapon.]

[Magical Equipment can be sold for a premium!]

[Gu'nagh'ghyran Staff]

[Sell – 85,000 Denar y/n?]

Despite barely having 3000 Denar to his name, Peter was still not in a rush to sell, he first wanted to see how much he could sell off the Beastmen corpses for.

So, putting the magical staff inside his [Inventory], he went around picking up and selling 1 mundane item at a time as he walked towards the center of the Beastman camp.

The camp of the Beastmen was absolutely disgusting.

Bones and gore were everywhere, there were even some sacrifices that were strung up, making no noise, but the ones that had eyelids would blink from time to time.

Naturally, many of the sacrifices included flayed men and women from who-knew-where.

But impaled on wooden stakes and stripped of skin, Peter didn’t rush to help them, as they were, there was no chance that they could survive.

Using the Voulge as a walking stick, he rummaged through junk, selling cheaply whatever the [Mount and Blade] System recognized, until finally reaching the middle part of the camp.

It was a giant stone with green lights shining through it at regular intervals.

The lights made a pattern that hurt his eyes to look at, so, after saying a prayer, Peter looked around first and was surprised to find more Beastmen.

Or rather, Beastwomen.

Inside the only ‘structure’ in the camp, a large tent which was made from a kind of leather that made Peter shudder, there were 15 of them.

Looking like cows and large bipedal sheep, they were fully furred, and if not for having udders he wouldn’t have recognized them to be female.

They looked at him calmly and somehow, he saw their shyness, and that might had softened his heart if not for the fact that beside the 15 Beastwomen there were roughly 50 human women in various states of abuse.

He didn’t need to know the biology of Beastmen, or even inspect these women to know what had happened to them.

In that moment, he saw the complete cruelty of the Beastmen, and in a rage, moving like a hurricane, he slew the Beastwomen before they could even flee from the tent.

As Father Anderson had preached: ‘Suffer not the monster to live.’

And Peter would not.

If the men and women who were flayed outside on pikes were too far gone to save, the victims in the tent were not, and quickly leaving, he called over his men to move the women out of the camp.

Some followed along numbly, some had to be carried on stretchers made from whatever they could find, but a few seemed to actually be able to understand what was happening.

All the time searching the camp, the green lights from the stone seemed to dig into Peters head, and unable to put it off any longer, he approached.

The stone was tall, and even though he didn’t know what it was, he knew it was evil.

Thinking that he just had to tear it down he found some rope to wrap it with – he naturally wouldn’t touch it with his bare hands – and just as he began to do so, he received an unexpected prompt.

[Ding!]

[The Fate Casino detects Mid-Grade Chaos Relic!]

[Corrupted Waystone]

[Sell – 2,000,000 FC]

[Trade – 15 Spin to Win!]

[NOTE: The Fate Casino will only offer to Sell or Trade for 1 Chaos Relic of each Rank.]

Seeing this, Peter wiped his face and breathed heavily.

Though it had been several months since he was last offered a chance to gain FC, he often wondered if he should have chosen the [Spin to Win] option.

After all, even if he knew it was likely a trap, his luck had been beyond good when he had drawn [Alexander Anderson] and [Abraham Van Helsing].

And because of that, there had always been a ‘what if’ in the back of his mind.

Still, could be pass on the sure-fire thing with 2 million FC?

He understood clearly that the [Fate Casino] offered literally anything imaginable and he needed a weapon better than what he could get with the [Mount and Blade] System.

Standing there for a long moment, in the end, Peter went with his heart instead of his brain and selected [Trade – 15 Spin to Win!]

After selecting the option, the [Corrupted Waystone] directly vanished.

In the future, he hoped that he would develop enough of a relationship with the Norse Dwarfs in order to have them forge him a solid weapon, and in that way, he could save the million or so FC that he would have otherwise spent.

Still, losing on 2,000,000 FC was hard, and to soothe his heart, he decided to first settle out the battlefield before spinning the [Wheel of Fate].

Working for several hours, it was almost nightfall by the time they counted 3,216 dead Beastmen and set up a rough camp.

The corpses were in various states of damage, but on the average, the carcasses sold for 105 Denars each as [Trophies].

Though Peter didn’t think of it in terms of personal gains, he truly was only in the forest to see justice brought down on the monsters that slaughtered his oxen, had been a profitable day.

Aside from the [337,680 Denar] he received from the corpses, he had made [213,040 Denar] from selling the Warherds mundane weapons and armor.

And to top it off, he had come across 2 more magical pieces of equipment, one being the necklace which the Shaman wore, and the other being a sinister dreamcatcher like object that had been placed in the tent where the women were kept.

Selling the most expensive magic object brought Peter an addition [85,000 Denar], and then he traded the other 2 for an additional Companion slot.

Before choosing his next companion, Peter made his way to a campfire and sat down while looking over the [Mount and Blade] System screen.

[User – Peter Ivankov

Current Denars – 635,720 (-26,323/Wk)

Recruit – Vaegir, Mercenary

Active Forces – 861 (931)

Villages – 2

Castles – 0

Towns – 0

Caravans – 0

Inventory – 4/60 Slots

Ransom – 0 Prisoners

Sell Loot/Cargo

Recruit Companion – 1/2

Open Store – N/A]

The [Mount and Blade] System regarded Infantry much different from Calvary and the costs were reflected in that.

A Rank 5 Vaegir Marksmen was 25% cheaper to maintain than a Rank 4 Vaegir Horsemen, and the cost to maintain a Vaegir Knight was almost twice as much.

Of course, in some ways this could be understood since the System also provided the horses, but this difference in treatment made Peter think that instead of returning to Rivacheg for the Winter season, he may as well stay in the wilderness and hunt down as many monsters as he could.

‘It would be cost effective… and if I could just find 2 or 3 more of these camps then we could…’ Thinking along these lines, Peter started forming a plan.

After all, come Spring, they would start expanding down the river and if he had enough Denars then they would be able to set up small communities as they went.

These communities were not just for show, they were in essence the best way to tame the wild lands known as ‘Troll Country’ and bring civilization to a land that only knew barbarism.

Thinking along these lines, Peter asked himself if it was even possible to stay in the mountains over the Winter.

‘Even if I can buy tents and firewood, it probably wouldn’t be enough… and then there’s the arrows to think about.’

Even if he had gotten the 2m FC, it likely wouldn’t have been enough.

So, tapping his leg, Peter picked up a small rock before throwing it into the fire and thought: ‘Alright… first let’s see what we get.”

Opening the Fate Casino and tapping on the appropriate tab, the blue holographic screen lit up with all sorts of colors.

In the middle of the familiar screen was a stereotypical roulette wheel, with the only difference being that there seemed to be a literally infinite number of possible landings.

Inputting ‘15’ for the number of spins, Peter sat and watched.

[Ding! Recruit Levi Ackerman (Model, Attack on Titan) – Congratulations!]

[Ding! Small Movable Camp – Congratulations!]

…

[Ding! Blackguard Bow (Model, Middle-Earth: Shadow of War) – Congratulations!]

…

…

...

[Ding! Structure: Castle (Model, Malbork Castle) – Congratulations!]

…

…

...

[Ding! Leviathan Axe Lvl 5 (Model, God of War: Ragnarök) – Congratulations!]

…

[Ding! Structure: Castle (Model, Conwy Castle) – Congratulations!]

[Ding! Recruit Edward Kenway (Model, Assassin’s Creed Black Flag) – Congratulations!]

Seeing what he won, even though Peter didn’t recognize all the names, he knew 1 very well, and that reading name over and over he was silent for a long time.

‘Lvl 5 Leviathan Axe (Model, God of War: Ragnarök)’

UberNuber

I was really waffling if I wanted to add Levi to the character list, but in the end he'll fit well into this world. As for the Leviathan Axe, well, it's very strong (ice element and all) but it doesn't grant abilities it's wielder super abilities like say Excalibur would.

Leviathan Axe

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Here's a better picture of various polearms.

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