Receiving the news of a major Warherd that was relatively nearby, a piece of news that would absolutely horrify any other leader of men in the Old World, Peter jumped into action and started sending out scouts to call back the Marksmen which were still out in the wilderness.
Not including the Camp Defenders, he had just over 650 of the most dangerous archers that Calradia could produce, and with his current 746,380 Denars he could directly Recruit around 4,000 of the best trained infantry that the Vaegir could field, or roughly 3,500 Knights and Sword Sisters.
Though against the Beastmen Peter was much more partial to using infantry rather than calvary, the usefulness of calvary to patrolling the steppes was something he couldn’t ignore.
After all, he only planned to spend the Winter in these mountains since he believed that the destiny of his people lay on the steppe lands of Troll Country and then wider Kislev.
Getting his camp in action, Peter asked Lezalit if he could bring him to where they found the Warherd or if he needed to rest, and the man didn’t let him down when he said that he was ready to go.
Though it had only been 2 months since he Recruited the former noble, Lezalit had broken though the boundaries of ‘Peak Human’ and was now slightly superhuman thanks to the [Mount and Blade] system.
[Name: Lezalit
Level: 5 –> 18
STR: 9 –> 15
AGL: 8 –> 12
INT: 11 –> 12
CHA: 8 –> 10
HEALTH: 48 –> 54]
And his most notable Skills were: Power Strike 5, Weapon Master 4, Trainer 4, Riding 4, Leadership 4, Spotting 4, Pathfinding 3.
Different from Alayen, Peter’s goal was to use Lezalit as a General and not as a domestic Mayor.
This not only was more in line with Lezalit’s martial personality, but after experimenting with Alayen, Peter could now be pretty sure on how to use Attributes and Skill Points to bolster his Companions strengths, allowing them to do specific tasks better.
According to the [Mount and Blade] System, physical attributes of ‘10’ represented so-called [Peak] human abilities.
While the mental attributes were less certain to him, [Peak] Intelligence seemed to be ‘12’, and Charisma seemed to have a relation to how quickly a person could problem solve.
For certain, Peter knew Charisma did not make a person look any different. The only question he had about it now was how it meshed with Intelligence because they seemingly went hand-in-hand.
Skills were different from Attributes.
Some provided capabilities that could only be described as magic, but mostly they were down-to-Earth Skills that any professional would learn.
‘Well, up to about level 4 or 5’ Peter laughed when he thought about it. The [Mount and Blade] System wasn’t too exaggerated since it dealt with a normal setting, but like with Attributes, there was a point to where it would ‘boost’ a person beyond typical human capabilities.
Having learned all that he thought he could from his first two [Companions], he had decided that his next Companion would not be from Calradia.
But that would have to wait, because for now he and Lezalit were rushing through the forested mountains to see the Warherd.
Running through the untamed forest, Peter continued to think that there was a surprising number of prey animals.
Sure, there existed the predators – some monstrous wolves but mostly bears of one size or another – however the number of deer, elk, giant boar, rabbits, and turkeys were way higher than what he would expect.
Not that he had ever been an outdoorsman on Earth…
Of course, Peter knew he didn’t know the ecology of this new world, so he only kept it in the back of his mind as a point of interest.
Even knowing where they were going, covering 20 miles over forested hills still took several hours. Lezalit was incredibly fit, but he would tire out at more or less the same rate as a man would. At the end of the day, he wasn’t a Regenerator like Father Anderson, nor did he have the Super Soldier Serum like Peter did.
But still, they made their way much more quickly than any 2 hunters would.
Cresting over the forested hills, Peter eyed his surroundings as they made their way into a small open valley which had a dirty stream running through it.
“It’s not far, the fetid water was what tipped us off in the first place.”
Nodding his head, indicating that he understood, Peter followed behind Lezalit and together they ran off to the side and up another few hills before coming to a stop.
Crouching low, the former noble motioned for Peter to do the same, and inching forward they finally crested the final hill.
Holding his breath Peter saw a massive, mostly flat, valley surrounded on all sides by mountains.
It was hard to judge the exact size of the place as he scanned the geography, but he guessed it to be a few miles wide and several miles long. In terms of the land, this was far and away the best location for a settlement that he had seen in the past 2 months.
However, this idea clearly hadn’t been lost on the ‘locals’ because from his position, Peter saw thousands of Beastmen.
Looking down at them from an elevated position, the valley looked like a scene taken straight off the African Serengeti during a wildebeest migration.
Except that instead of 4 legged mammals grazing on a backdrop of grasslands under pristine sky, this place was covered by bipedal monstrosities, beasts that Peter had never seen before, and various bonfires which flickered with multicolored lights.
There was a smog that covered over and hid certain parts of the herd, but it wasn’t enough that Peter couldn’t see the absolutely jaw-dropping numbers.
“What do you say, 15,000 give or take?” he asked Lezalit quietly.
Shaking his head, Lezalit continued to survey the valley before saying grumpily: “There wasn’t that many yesterday afternoon.”
It had taken the Marksmen about 7 hours of hiking, to cover the area that Peter and Lezalit did in about 3 hours.
Turning his head back to the valley, Peter didn’t reply, but Lezalit continued with a mixture of emotions: “And there are more fires now then there were.”
‘Could they be… gathering? … but what for?’
What Peter knew about the Beastmen was they hated all civilization, but first and foremost they hated human civilization.
Currently about 60 miles north of Rivacheg there were bound to be tribes of Norscans somewhere around, though they hadn’t come across human villages, he knew that was because they were sticking their search to the mountain sides.
‘Could there be any major Norscan settlements around… or…?’
The idea that this Warherd was gathered for either Rivacheg or Mazen first only crossed his mind for a split second before he tried to dismiss it.
Of course, Peter had no idea the significance of ‘destroying’ the Herdstone, he could only think that it was highly unlikely that these monsters would gather 60 miles away before marching on a warpath.
‘And a warpath to where?’ he asked himself, becoming more and more paranoid as he followed his own logic – not knowing that after destroying a Herdstone the Beastman war path would be launched in every direction.
‘Neither Rivacheg or Mazen has ever seen Beastmen and there wasn’t anything left behind from our earlier assault.’ He had sold or burned everything from the smaller warherd camp: ‘…perhaps there was arrows, but so what? Those Marksmen were newly Recruited.’
As he crouched there behind an evergreen tree, Peter couldn’t shake the notion that this herd was coming for them.
‘And even if it’s not specifically for us… can we avoid it?’
This was the question.
Of course, he had spent Winter in the mountains to gain Denars, and so far, it had been an outstanding success.
And though Denars gained from this many Beastmen would be enormous, the size of the herd in front of him was something that gave him pause.
This was due to the fact that whereas the tribe from before was mostly ‘Ungors’, he could see the Warherd here was nearly all the larger horned ‘Gors’ or some other horned varieties that he never saw before.
And that made him pause instead of rushing down, and making his mind up quickly, Peter turned to Lezalit and said: “Lets hurry back to the camp.”
Though the decision would ultimately fall to him, Peter knew that there were many carrier soldiers among his retinue of Marksmen.
Turning to head back, he offered to carry Lezalit, but the military man refused in his most polite ‘not a chance in hell’ sort of way – which for foul mouthed the military Instructor actually showed how much he respected Peter since he would have used much more colorful language for anyone else.
Laughing at the refusal, Peter just slapped him on the shoulder.
Trying to keep his mood up and not to brood, after running down the hill he suddenly stopped and held Lezalit from going forward.
Disregarding the man’s grunt, Peter kept his eyes forward before darting them side to side as he quickly grabbed the [Leviathan Axe] off his back.
There were 8 Gors and 4 Chaos Warhounds barely 50 yards away.
Seeing the 2 human men as soon as they left the tree line, the Beastmen and their ‘pets’ stopped as abruptly as Peter had done.
But while they were just as surprised, and more brutal, Peter was far quicker and rushing as quickly as he could, he launched the axe with enough force to split a waist-size tree in half.
A humanoid sized object which could move at 60mph at close range would be just a blur to most creatures – chaos born or not.
And so it was for Peter, who after throwing his axe had covered half the 50 yards when it mashed through one unfortunate Gor, and by the time he recalled it, he was reading himself for a wide swing which killed two of the warhounds.
With a weapon that he didn’t have to worry about breaking, Peter was a proverbial ‘bull’ in a China shop.
Gors were powerful, standing around 7ft tall and weighing around 350lbs, they could naturally overpower most men without difficulty.
But for Peter who could casually lift a couple tons, they were simply overwhelmed.
After smashing 2 of the mutated dogs, he rammed the butt of his axe sideways, crushing the sternum of another Gor, before bringing his axe around to finish it off.
Moving like a god of war, Peter crushed the larger yet weaker foes before they could bellow out.
By the time Lezalit dashed over barely 15 seconds had passed and Peter was giving the finishing blow to the last Gor, a particularly humanoid looking creature.
“By the 9 levels of hell!” he said, looking down at the monsters, but Peter quickly told him to be quiet.
With his brain working in overdrive, and in conjunction with his anxiety from before, Peter made a snap decision by directly putting the 12 corpses in his Inventory.
Then, without a word, he threw Lezalit over his shoulder with one arm and with his other hand holding on to the [Leviathan Axe], he ran for it.
Only making sure not to break any of the man’s ribs, Peter darted through the wilderness for almost 20 minutes before stopping.
He wasn’t scared, but he certainly didn’t want to be forced to start a battle when he wasn’t ready for it.
Dropping Lezalit down, Peter looked at him and asked: “You alright?” as he stood up.
Being glared at for a moment made Peter raise his eyebrows, but in the end the dark haired former noble replied: “Yeah, I’m fine. Let’s just hurry back.”
Nodding to this, Peter led the way, and the 2 superhumans made their way back to the camp just before nightfall.
“At Ease!” Peter yelled as they made their way into the camp, stopping the salutes before they started.
With over 600 Marksmen streaming in, and the additional 200 women, the Small Moveable Camp was a bees nest of activity.
“Gather the Lieutenants!” was the last thing Peter said to Lezalit, who was struggling mightily after running for hours on end but still did as commanded.
Walking to his tent, Peter briefly acknowledged Vara before sitting at his desk and grabbing a paper and crude pencil, wrote a message to be sent back to Rivacheg.
He wanted both Father Anderson and Alayen to head over with a few horses and to bring any soldiers not involved in either the Patrols or City Watch duties.
Of course, this would only amount to about 100 individuals, but the main thing was to bring the 2 leaders.
The capabilities of Anderson didn’t need to be explained, but even Alayen was in ‘Peak Human’ condition.
Not to mention, having Alayen would give Peter another valuable commander since if he was going to be forced to use all his Denars, there was little chance that he, Lezalit, and Father Anderson could effectively command an army of 4,500 give or take.
Even though Peter himself had never been in the United States military, simple logistics made the need for good commanders apparent.
After all, a Lieutenant would lead a platoon of 60 men, and a Captain’s ‘Company’ would include 2 Lieutenants plus his own platoon.
So, how many Captains were needed for an army of 4,500?
25!
25 Companies was nothing in terms of modern militaries, that many men could be under the command of a single Colonel, but for Peter and his people, that amount would redefine their military structure.
It was already the case that the Vaegir’s rarely ever had standing professional armies, like most of Calradia they were seasonal soldiers under most circumstances.
A Vaegir Knight was a Knight after all, not a mercenary cavalryman.
A Vaegir Marksmen was a professional hunter, who would be called on during campaigns but spent most of the year hunting and trapping.
Naturally there were ‘professional soldiers’ kept by the Vaegir Nobility, representing the most skilled of the infantry were the Guard and Archer respectively.
And while the Vaegir Guard was nothing to just dismiss, a Vaegir Guard could go toe-to-toe with a Huscarl, Peter didn’t heavily prize them for now while they were in the beginning of settling a new civilization.
And because he favored the Marksmen and Knights, he had to take their personalities into consideration.
But still doing what needed to be done, after writing 2 identical messages Peter signed them, and calling out to a group of 12 Marksmen gave them the task of bringing the letters to Profession Helsing.
“It’s the upmost importance, get your things together and leave tonight.”
Confused at first, the men nevertheless understood quickly, and giving a series of “yes sir’s” left right away.
By now, Lezalit had gathered the Lieutenant, a total of 10 were in the camp with 2 still being out, but this would have to do.
Bringing them into his tent, the 11 men stood in a rough semi-circle as Peter sat at his table and described the situation.
To put it mildly, the situation was bleak.
They had lost more than half their force of 800 Marksmen to about a herd of about 3,500 Ungors with only a few Gors mixed in, so how would 4,500 of them fair against a Warherd of at least 15,000 that was comprised mostly of Gors.
A Gor wasn’t twice the size of an Ungor, but it wasn’t far off.
Then there was the point of the Bray-Shaman, in the first Warherd there was only 1, but what if there were more?
As they spoke Peter noticed a small presence listening in, but after determining who it was due to her platinum hair, decided not to remove her.
They weren’t discussing anything ‘secret’ after all.
As they listed possibilities, they were settling on the idea of guerilla warfare when Peter suddenly thought about something.
Pulling the carcass of the Chaos Warhound out of his inventory, he dropped it on the ground and started describing how this Warherd seemed to have tamed ‘pets’.
“How would these affect our hit and run tactics?” he asked, but was suddenly interrupted when Sif burst in.
Looking down at the Warhound, and then at Peter, the Sarl woman ignored the glaring eyes of the Lieutenants.
She was startled, Peter could tell, but before he could wonder why he would use his Inventory in front of her, she spoke up: “My… my Jarl!
Forgive my… intrusion but I overheard the discussion, and this woman thinks she knows what you can do, if you would be so inclined to hear your woman’s suggestion?”
By now Peter knew enough Norscan to speak it, but her strange use of personal nouns threw him off, and not in the mood to discuss language he simply said: “What is it?”
Looking straight into his brown eyes, Sif answered.
“If it’s a Herd that’s grown too large let us turn the Greenskin against it.”
‘Greenskin?’ Peter thought, frowning slightly, but still intrigued asked: “Can that be done?”
Then answering with a smile, the small Norscan woman said: “It’s been done in the past, this (your) woman thinks it’s possible to do again.”
Norsca for example ranges from antarctic wastelands to something that looks more like Sweden. 1 edition shows it being covered in impenetrable mountains while another edition shows it having vast valleys criss-crossing the mountains where all sorts of monsters live.
There's also no good hard data on the sizes of the various kinds of Beastmen, so the measurements being used is my best guesses.
An idea of the terrain they're currently in
This is where they've spent about 2 months continuously hunting
This is the landscape that made Peter think would make a good place for a settlement
Chaos Warhound
Deux Vult!
Dropp3d?
gracias por el capitulo
Seems like.it