The Northmen

Ray's first impression of the village was that it was totally undefendable, no walls, no towers and the guards looked as though they'd had no training, not to mention it's always cloudy. The layout didn't help either, the town was a row of docks beside them a row of merchant buildings then the living spaces the only thing it had going for it was that it was built on the empires northernmost fields which meant you could see an enemy coming for miles. Unlan may be arrogant but he was right, this was exactly what a raider would want and it could be made defendable.

Ray knew though this village was the exact opposite of the other village the Northman had destroyed with ease and that had all the right defenses. The first order of business was to build walls, they were wood so obviously not siege worthy walls but enough to defend from twenty or thirty enemies.The second was to replace the guards with his own men, next he had a curfew set for the town so that he could keep a panic from happening in case of an attack at night.

The villagers were fine with all of this in fact they welcomed the protection, the only thing the didn't let Ray do was put their sea trade on hold till the raiders had been stopped. Ray against his instinct let them continue their trading, now all that was left was to wait for an attack.

Standing on a roof that was tall enough to look over the makeshift walls he scanned the outlying fields. He had his men focus their attention to the fields, he didn't expect an attack by sea all he knew at the moment was that the raiders attacked coastal villages not that they came from the sea. In fact he was under the impression that creatures which resorted to raiding villages probably didn't even know how to handle a boat.

He looked back towards the sea and couldn't help but feel maybe they could come from there but he quickly quelled the idea and returned his attention to the land. Before to long he felt the need to eat and decided to go get something to eat, signaling for someone to take his place he waited for his replacement to get there.

Up the ladder came a bulky looking griffon, making eye contact Ray nodded and patted his shoulder,"Keep an eye out soldier."

"Yes sir." The griffon saluted and Ray made his way down the ladder satisfied with his replacements ability to keep an eye out. Making his way through the village he reached the town center where they'd set up a makeshift mess hall, it was a long tent with a couple of long tables underneath it. Walking to the table where they kept the food he grabbed a bowl, poured himself some beef stew and took a piece of smoked salmon.

He sat down at a table a couple of off duty soldiers sat and ate at as well. Ever since he'd joins the Empire's army hed learned to enjoy the few quiet moments you got and this was one of them, the soldiers weren't taking and the only sounds were that of the wind and clanking of spoons.

Grabbing his salmon he took a bite and mid chew one of the soldiers at the table turned to him,"Is it true?"

Turning to the soldier he cocked an eyebrow and gulped his food,"What?"

"The Raiders, I heard they killed all the soldiers up at that village near hear, you know uh I think its called... Battram." He snapped his claw as he remembered the name of the village.

Sighing Ray looked away,"Yes it's true they did," he looked back to the soldier with a stern face,"But there were only fifty of us then, now there's a hundred, so don't worry." He reassured the soldier.

The soldier looked down seemingly reassuring himself as well,"Alright if... If you say so Captain."

"Hey." He reached out and patted the soldier's back,"Don't worry I won't let anything happen to us."

The soldier nodded and smiled slightly. They both returned to their meals readying themselves for their next shifts, after finishing Ray stood up and made his way out to of the tent. He suddenly had a feeling that he should go check on the docks, walking slowly he eventually reached the docks, looking over the horizon he watched for any movement. Nothing. He chalked it off as stress and decided he would join his men watching the southern fields.

Walking eastward he reached a house on the border of the town and climbed up it, there was already a soldier up here. In fact there was a soldier on every house bordering the town and all of them had their eyes over the wall, he smiled looking over the wall himself. No one was going to sneak up on them.

(A Few Hours Later)

There'd been no signs of any activity all day, the only change was that the clouds had gotten seemingly darker, Ray couldn't tell what time it was but his best guess was late afternoon. That's when he heard it a yell then multiple yells then screams, shooting up Ray's wings lifted up and he took to the sky looking at the ground below he saw what was going on. He'd made a terrible mistake, boats the likes of which he'd never seen before and from them come the tallest creatures he'd ever seen.

Just like the girl Relia had said they wore armor covered in animal skins and had steel caps. Ray had seen yaks before and thought they were tall but these, these were taller and stronger than any yak could hope to be. Ray then noticed how many there were, at least a hundred maybe more.

His mind immediately went into action he saw most of his troops were already turned around and engaged in combat, flying down he landed in the midst of the battle. Already fires had claimed half of the merchant buildings, he knew if he wanted any chance to win this battle he'd have to get organized and quickly.

"Fall back then regroup at the front gates!" He yelled over the sound of swords clashing as he turned he saw one of his men have a spear thrust through his gut, the creature that had done it ripped the spear out with ease and turned his attention to Ray. It had long blond hair and a beard that ended in two rough braids, pulling out his sword he readied himself for the creatures onslaught. Running at him the Northman thrust forward.

Ray threw himself to the right and barely dodged the hulking creature, he brought his sword around and tried to slash his opponent. The Northman with surprising agility threw himself back and brought his spear around, the loud clash of their weapons almost stunned Ray and he looked up at his opponent trying to see what the creature would do next. To his surprise the creature smiled and yelled,"Nakkvarr grimmr einn!"

The warrior kicked at Ray's legs but Ray was quick and he moved in time for the kick to miss, taking advantage of the Northman's bad composure he slide his sword down the side of the spear till he hit the Warriors hand and severed all his fingers from his hand. The man howled in pain and dropped his spear to grab at his hand, this was his mistake for as soon as he did this Ray shoved his sword through the Warriors chest.

Looking down in disbelief the Northman gasped, then looked up to Ray and he smiled!

"At Valholl!" He shouted blood pouring out of his mouth, and then he fell dead in front of Ray.

Ray panted catching his breath, then remembered "I need to regroup with my men!" Bolting up he turned around only for the sudden burst of energy to leave him. All around him were Northmen warriors, his men were no where in sight every building in the village was on fire. He sighed and looked down for a moment then raised his sword and readied himself for whatever was going to happen next.

The Warriors didn't charge, they didn't yell, hell they sheathed their weapons. Confused Ray looked around at the men his brow raised, then a gap appeared in the line surrounding him and the tallest warrior yet stepped through. He had long unbraided red hair and a rough red beard, while he was the tallest he was also kind of skinny. His weapons consisted of a bloody sword and a round shield with a dragon painted on it.

He approached Ray and  stopped only ten feet or so away from him,"Yovarr nakkvarr bitr vigamaor." The other Northmen nodded with him, Ray watched as what he assumed was their leader reached out with his hand. Seeing a way to survive this he reached out as well lowering his sword and grabbed the man's massive hand. Before Ray could tell what was going on the Northman's other hand shot forward and then everything went black.