Chapter 63: Sigurd, Odin & Kong Zhen

The birds had fallen silent.

Sigurd noticed it while descending a wooded slope above Grauwald’s northern basin. The wind still moved through the pines, but the ordinary noises of the forest had vanished. Below him, a narrow valley opened between steep cliffs, its floor strewn with stone and trees.

He had come searching for the hunting ground Emil described, expecting several Common Rank Demonic Beasts. Instead, he found tracks crossing one another in the mud, dozens of them, and the smell of blood.

A crash sounded beyond the trees. Sigurd climbed onto a boulder and saw a young man with a spear standing in the valley’s center.

Golden lightning crawled along Odin’s weapon as he drove it through the throat of a tusked beast.

The creature collapsed, but another immediately charged from behind. Odin turned and struck its skull with the butt of his spear, sending it sprawling across the rocks.

Sigurd counted the shapes emerging from the northern passage. Wolves with plated hides, horned boars, and hulking ape-like creatures crowded into the basin. All were Demonic Beasts, far more than expected. Thirty would have been a conservative estimate.

Then someone laughed from the opposite cliff.

Kong Zhen slid down a steep bank with his staff across his shoulders, landed beside a wolf, and smashed its head into the ground. He spun the staff overhead, caught a leaping ape beneath the jaw, and sent it crashing into two boars. His grin widened when he spotted Sigurd above the valley.

"Sigurd! Excellent timing!" Kong shouted, waving one hand while narrowly avoiding a set of tusks. "I was wondering whether this place had enough beasts for everyone!"

Odin glanced upward, recognized Sigurd, and drove his spear through another charging wolf. "If you’re coming down, watch the eastern passage," he called. "They’re entering from both ends. Something has driven the entire pack into this basin."

Sigurd jumped from the boulder, landed beside Odin, and drew his sword. "How many have you killed?" he asked, examining the beasts converging on them.

"Seven," Odin replied, wrenching his spear free. "There were already bodies here when I arrived."

Kong vaulted over a boar and landed beside them. "I’ve got five! Unless the one that fell off the cliff counts. I haven’t checked whether it’s dead."

Sigurd looked toward the northern passage, where another wave was forcing its way between the rocks. "Then we should stop wasting time counting the living ones," he said.

A wolf lunged. Sigurd stepped aside and severed its neck in a single stroke, his blade moving so quickly that the beast continued forward before collapsing.

He shifted immediately into a second attack, slicing through the exposed joint of an ape’s arm and finishing it with a thrust through the throat. His sword returned smoothly to guard before either corpse struck the ground.

Odin met the next charge head-on. Lightning erupted around his spear as he drove its point into the chest of a horned boar.

The impact hurled the creature backward, smashing it into the beasts following behind. Odin advanced through the opening, each sweeping strike carrying enough force to shatter bone and scatter fragments of stone.

Kong attacked from wherever the beasts least expected him. He used a fallen trunk as a springboard, vaulted over a wolf, and cracked his staff against its spine.

When an ape swung at his head, he ducked beneath the blow, seized the creature’s wrist, and redirected its fist into another beast. Both staggered, and Kong finished them with two savage strikes.

The valley filled with roars and the sound of breaking bodies. Yet the beasts kept coming. Sigurd noticed that their movements were becoming increasingly frantic.

Several tried to escape through the southern passage, only to turn back when a fresh wave crowded in behind them. Whatever had disturbed the northern hunting grounds had compressed multiple territories into one narrow basin.

"There’s no room to keep fighting like this," Sigurd warned, deflecting a wolf’s claws. "We’ll be surrounded before we finish half of them." ℯℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

Odin slammed his spear into the ground, sending a burst of golden lightning through the approaching beasts. "Then open some room," he answered, driving forward as the stunned creatures recoiled.

Sigurd understood immediately. He extended his gravity authority across the stones beneath the nearest cluster, increasing the pressure around their legs. Four beasts stumbled as their footing suddenly failed. Odin’s spear swept through them with devastating force, breaking their formation and throwing two bodies against the cliff.

Kong spotted the opening and charged straight through it.

"Now that’s useful!" he shouted, springing onto a falling boar’s back.

He launched himself toward an ape perched on the rocks and struck its skull hard enough to send it tumbling into the beasts below.

Sigurd moved after him, his sword flashing between exposed throats and joints. Rather than meeting every attack directly, he adjusted the weight of his opponents at the moment they committed.

A wolf lunged too far when its body suddenly grew lighter. A boar’s front legs buckled beneath increased pressure, exposing the vulnerable underside of its neck. Each opening lasted only an instant, but Sigurd needed no longer than that.

A tremendous roar interrupted the fighting. From the northern passage emerged a massive ape with scarred shoulders and four muscular arms.

It seized a wounded boar, hurled it across the basin, and charged toward Odin. The spear wielder planted his feet, golden lightning gathering around his weapon.

"Move!" Odin shouted, his expression sharpening as the ape descended upon him.

Sigurd pulled sharply at the creature’s right side with gravity. Its charge veered just enough to expose its ribs. Odin drove his spear into the opening, releasing a violent discharge that tore through the ape’s chest. The beast staggered, but its remaining arms still swept toward him.

Kong appeared above its shoulder, having climbed the cliff during the exchange. "Keep that ugly head still!" he yelled, bringing his staff down with both hands.

The blow cracked the ape’s skull. Odin twisted his spear, and Sigurd’s sword flashed across its throat. The enormous creature collapsed between them, shaking the ground.

For a moment, the three stood amid the wreckage, breathing hard. Then another distant howl echoed through the passage.

Kong turned toward the sound and laughed. "More? This examination is finally getting interesting!"

Odin wiped blood from his cheek with the back of his hand. "Save your enthusiasm until we’ve collected the cores," he replied, surveying the bodies scattered around them.

Sigurd examined the remaining beasts. The survivors retreated toward the passages. He could have pursued them individually, but that would waste precious time and risk scattering the prizes across the mountains.

"Drive them toward the cliff," Sigurd said, pointing to the western wall. "The passage there is too narrow for them to escape together."

Odin advanced from the east, lightning flashing along his spear. Kong circled through the trees, striking the stragglers and forcing them toward the center.

Sigurd controlled the gaps between them, using brief shifts of gravity to prevent sudden charges and cutting down anything that broke formation. Within minutes, the remaining beasts were trapped against the cliff.

What followed was swift and merciless. Odin shattered their front line, Kong crushed those attempting to climb the rocks, and Sigurd finished the wounded before they could regroup. When the last beast fell, silence returned to the basin, broken only by the crackle of fading lightning.

Kong rested his staff against his shoulder and surveyed the carnage. "I think we might have overdone it," he admitted, though his grin suggested otherwise.

Odin looked at the scattered corpses. "We still have to extract the cores. That will take longer than killing them."

They worked through the carcasses methodically, cutting out cores and separating those each had personally claimed. Several beasts had been struck by more than one weapon, and they settled those kills without argument.

Sigurd had finished sixteen, Odin fourteen, and Kong eleven; the remaining bodies included beasts killed before their arrival or during the confusion at the entrances.

Forty-one extremely valuable fresh cores lay on a flat stone when they finished, an extraordinary haul. Sigurd’s share alone represented one hundred and sixty points, enough to overturn the standings if he registered them.

Kong whistled at the glittering pile. "If the instructors knew what happened here, they’d probably accuse us of stealing beasts from the rest of the mountain," he said, tossing a core into his pouch.

Odin secured his own share and inspected the northern passage.

"The tracks continue uphill," he observed. "Something frightened these creatures badly enough to abandon their territories. We should find out what it was before nightfall."

Sigurd followed his gaze toward the dark opening between the cliffs. The beasts had been dangerous, but their sudden, unnatural panic was much harder to explain.

Sigurd sheathed his sword and began counting the bodies. "Then we’d better start. We didn’t come all this way to leave our points lying in the dirt."