With roars that promised pain and death the sons of Jormag rushed onto the scene, before having hidden themselves in the shadows of the nearby buildings, possibly to fall upon lone stranglers that had lost themselves in the chaos of the night. Unfortunately or fortunately, depending on which side you were on, the sons of Jormag came upon a truly juicy prey and thus commenced their raid in gusto.
While the civilians screamed in terror and tried to run into every direction that promised them only the faintest chance at survival the mist guard, staying true to their vows, formed themselves into a shield wall to repel the enemies with their spears. Unfortunately they weren't enough in numbers to fill the whole width of the alley and so a few enemies managed to slip by at the side and rushed the mist guard from behind which resulted in them dissolving the shield wall until pure chaos reigned supreme in the small alley.
Alvar meanwhile stood there rooted in place, watching his people die and their blood beginning to soak the hard ground down below, until his befuddled mind registered another huge son of Jormag, clothed in dark grey fur and with an axe in his hand rushing into his direction, a manic expression plastered onto the man's light blue coloured face.
In the last second before the man reached his position Alvar managed to bring up his makeshift shield out of pure reflex, schooled through hours and hours on end of training with Sjorn, though once the man's axe impacted onto his wooden shield Alvar nearly collapsed under the powerful blow, bracing himself in the last second by burying his feet into the ground with grit teeth.
The man pulled his axe back once more and made to kick Alvar's shield aside that made up the only protection from certain death right at this very moment but was interrupted by another man, Alvar's grandfather as he came to realise a second later. The old man had thrown himself upon the enemy and wrestled the man to the ground where they furiously warred for the upper hand.
Suddenly, under Alvar's horrified gaze, the enemy managed to free one of his entangled arms and smashed his ironed fist into his grandfathers face, causing the old man's head to snap back under the power of the blow. Afterwards the son of Jormag grabbed his fallen war axe from the ground, his only goal apparent, to burry it in his grandfather's chest.
Before his mind managed to catch up with his body Alvar had already rushed forwards and smashed his wooden shield into the back of the enemy's head, who promptly toppled over, after which Alvar raised his blacksmith hammer up and brought it down on the man's head, again and again, each time bringing forth a new swath of blood until the man's form stilled in finality.
While Alvar still stood over the son of Jormag at his feet his grandfather, blood streaming down his face, had stood up and laid a calming hand upon Alvar's shoulder while the old man's breath was running ragged in exhaustion.
"Come Alvar, let's get out of here…" Alvar's grandfather spoke with a firm voice to which Alvar nodded in muted reply, causing both of them to turn around and leave the dead son of Jormag behind…
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Sjorn and his group of subordinates had managed to fortify the gates, the archers giving them cover from above the gates all the while, until the gates shut once again with groaning sounds accompanying the action.
"Gather around men and let's round up these fuckers once and for all!" Sjorn called onto the battlefield, receiving tired but still motivated rallying cries in reply, while more and more surviving soldiers joined their ranks, forming a battle line that rushed soon after upon the battlefield to pick up the last sons of Jormag that hadn't yet rushed into Hoelbrak to hunt down the civilians and corrupt a few.
Cleaving through their ranks with ferociousness Sjorn soon stood amongst his cheering comrades after they had taken down the last son of Jormag, the men and women raising their weapon's in the air in celebration.
Though Sjorn was not amongst those that celebrated as he knew their work hadn't ended yet while his eyes for the first time realised that the force that had attacked them had been small, very small in fact, and yet they had lost so many of their own only to repel these few enemies…!
With a frustrated grunt, shoving those demotivating thoughts to the back of his mind, Sjorn rallied his troops once more and marched swiftly into the alley's of Hoelbrak, soon catching cries of terror in the wind which signalled them where they had to go.
When the soldiers arrived at the scene they came upon the sight of the mist guard already reduced to a few members under the onslaught of the sons of Jormag and yet trying their best to keep the Havroune safe who were casting different spells into the ranks of the enemies, with varying success, often countered by the enemies own spellcasters.
Sjorn's gaze roamed over the battlefield quickly and only managed to catch a glimpse of a young lad bringing down a small hammer onto the head of a downed son of Jormag, ending the man's life in a swift blow, until Sjorn realised that he knew the lad, him being his teacher, and he was very glad at that moment that the boy had survived this horrific night.
"Form a wall and protect the survivors at all costs! The rest join me to crush these fuckers into smithereens!" Sjorn roared and while he charged with a few men at his side saw from the corner of his eyes the rest of his troops adhering to his orders to boot which made it a lot easier for the old warrior to focus on the battle at hand.
With a roar their group clashed upon the unprepared sons of Jormag and swiftly took advantage of their superior position.
Burying his one axe in the neck of one enemy Sjorn used his other still free axe to smash its head into the face of a spellcaster that was too close for Sjorn's taste at finishing a spell, abruptly ending the incantation after which Sjorn swiftly pulled his blood cover axe out of the dead man from before and with a twist of his body brought it down onto the downed enemy caster, whose eyes widened in realisation, and cleaved the man's skull in.
Not long after the scuttle had started it came to an end, with Sjorn's troops only having lost a single man in the battle but considering that they had already won the whole invasion still hurt somewhat, not to mention the man's family…
With his breath still running rather fast Sjorn checked upon the rest of his troops and after making sure they were fine ordered them to begin scouting the rest of the city so that they wouldn't miss a son of Jormag on accident.
While cleaning his trusty axes Sjorn walked over to the Havroune that were still being guarded by the remaining, ever vigilant, mist guard to check if they were alright and discuss on how they should proceed from there when he came upon his student that was taking in the scene before him with a solemn expression on his face but showed no sadness at the dead enemies at his feet, not much of a surprise considering what the lad had been through the last few weeks, even though it still saddened him somewhat that their youths had to go through such harsh lessons so early in life in the first place but knew he couldn't do anything about that and thus put those melancholic thoughts to rest with practised ease.
But no matter how hard Sjorn tried at shoving his thoughts, one particular memory remained behind at all times, and that was the low number of sons of Jormag, which left an uncomfortable tingle in his stomach.
Thus, while making his way over to the Havroune, that were already in deep discussions by the looks of it, Sjorn couldn't help but think: 'Where the hell are the rest of Jormag's troops?'
Tough to write but was fun none the less^^
hope you enjoyed the chapter :-)
The next day Alvar was sitting at a stone table at the side of the training grounds with a map of Hoelbrak and various books besides it, mulling over the previous night and how it could have come to the invasion in the first place.
Tracing a finger over the points on the map that had been ingulfed in the main battles Alvar's mind made the connection, he had already made last night, once again. The invasion per se was of a rather simple approach. Its figurehead was none other than Jormag himself that kept the biggest group of Norn that would pose a threat to his forces busy while his troops advanced towards the gates of Hoelbrak.
Once the sons of Jormag had reached a certain distance it would not matter how many arrows were let loose by the defenders as the number and equipment of the attackers guaranteed a breach of Hoelbrak.
In the end exactly that scenario had come to pass.Jormag's troops had breached their gates and streamed into Hoelbrak, one part of their forces staying to secure their point of entry while another ventured into Hoelbrak to hunt civilians who they would either look to turn to their side or kill them if they wouldn't join Jormag.
"Found anything interesting so far?" Sjorn asked Alvar as soon as he approached the studying lad who was promptly ripped out of his musings and nodded in response with a slightly frustrated expression.
"The enemies attack was very simple. Distract us while the troops charge our gates. What I noticed, even last night in all that chaos, is that we were sitting like a duck on a silver platter! Due to all the mountains surrounding Hoelbrak and only one entrance that leads in or out of the city we couldn't have escaped easily, even if we wanted to! It baffles me how our ancestors could choose such a dumb location for our capital, considering who our enemy is. I mean, it would make sense if we were fighting an even force of other Norn, Humans, Charr, Azura or Sylvari. But we aren't! We are fighting an ancient dragon who does not only have Norn under his command and I think we can consider ourselves lucky that he didn't send in those creatures last night… Which reminds me: Why didn't he?" Alvar let loose the tirade he had built up inside his mind ever since he started studying the invasion of last night though his narration lead him to a question that baffled him slightly.
After listening to Alvar rant without interrupting him Sjorn hummed to himself for a little bit. Of course the old veteran had noticed their precarious position long ago but it was one thing to see it before you and another to change it from one day to the next. At the very least they had been rather lucky in the last few years that Jormag hadn't reached out to them even once, thus granting them the opportunity to strengthen their forces. Unfortunately that time of semi peacefulness had come to an end at last. Over the years the Norn had grown and strengthened their forces, especially when it came to the magical professions in the believe that those professions could give them an edge over the ancient dragons. Ohh, how wrong they had been. Their arrogance nearly cost them everything. As they had found out last night all of their Havroune, the most powerful members in the mental arts when it came to their people, couldn't even push back Jormag's mind and Sjorn shuddered unconsciously when he began to imagine what would happen once the ancient dragon appeared before them with his body alongside his mind…
Returning his focus back to Alvar Sjorn spoke his mind with a clear voice, folding his muscled arms before his chest all the while.
"You are absolutely right, Alvar. I have had the same thoughts since I laid eyes on our location for the first time but thanks to a few unfortunate facts we are pretty much stuck to this place. Why do you think our people didn't venture out of the mountains in the first place but chose to settle here?"
"I don't know, honestly. Maybe our ancestors thought the mountains could protect us from Jormag somehow?" Alvar replied to Sjorn's question while whipping his face from top to bottom with his hand in an attempt to remove the frustration from his mind.
"You are thinking too strategically. Remember, when our ancestors came down from the far north in order to escape Jormag's reach the Norn were a lot more reclusive and ununited. What is located here that managed to attract all Norn and gave them the hope they needed to resist Jormag and form a capital as the last bastion against his forces?"
Sjorn's question caused Alvar to pause for a second. Maybe he had tried to understand the ancient Norn from the wrong perspective? After all the times were different now than they were back then. What could the ancient Norn possibly have in common? After mulling over those things for a second Alvar's mind came to an abrupt halt.
'I really am stupid sometimes. The patron spirits, of course!' Slapping himself on the forehead Alvar realised that back than only the believe in the spirits of the wild could have given the Norn the courage to stay and fight while uniting at the one point in the north where all four patron spirits had their shrines built.
"But you heard Jormag last night! What makes you think the patron spirits can protect us from Jormag's reach if their brethren are already under his control? I doubt our patron spirits are more powerful than the ones on Jormag's side!" Alvar spoke causing his teacher to frown in frustration this time.
"Yes, you are correct in your worry. I have had similar thoughts regarding our patron spirits. Maybe it is time for the Norn to look elsewhere for help…" Sjorn replied though his last words were barely audible but Alvar could guess well enough what his teacher had said. And yet he remained silent. After all it was never an easy thing to break with their oldest traditions and leave the patron spirits that had always been helpful and friendly towards the Norn to fend for themselves. But maybe that was the only way to ensure the survival of their race…
With a heavy sigh Alvar stood up and shoved those frustrating thoughts to the back of his mind before marching out onto the training grounds, all the while unsheathing his sword. If one thing had become very clear to him last night it was how unprepared he really was for a true battle but he had sworn to himself that the next time he entered one he would not be helpless anymore! Thus, student and teacher began to spar, both knowing that time was of the essence as their time of relative peace had come to an end without a single doubt in their minds…
Hope it came out somewhat alright. I've had a little difficulty to formulate my thoughts today. Leave a comment down below if you have questions concerning the chapter or the story in general
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