"Awoo!"
The wolves' howls in the darkness reignited the morale of the surrounded warriors. No matter where these mutants had come from, one thing was certain: the wolves were their reinforcements.
"Hold fast, warriors of Russ! Our aid has arrived!"
Thengir swung his axe, cleaving an Kraken-spawn's neck clean through, his roar lifting the hearts of the men around him.
The wounded were dragged to the center for protection, but many were not so lucky, dragged screaming into the dark to be torn apart by the mutants. Their dying cries only deepened the fury of the Russ warriors.
But their numbers were dwindling fast. The line inevitably began to break.
A Kraken-spawn burst from the shadow of a crevice, its rotted claws slashing through the freezing air toward the back of Thengir's neck.
"Awoo!"
Fenrir leapt through the air, his fangs flashing like a guillotine as they bit deep into the creature's belly.
A single snap, and the mutant's deformed body exploded into a slurry of black blood and meat. Fenrir tossed the scraps aside, growling low in disgust.
He was a good boy; he didn't eat people.
Even if these mutants no longer counted as human, their flesh was foul, reeking, and unworthy of his jaws.
Geri and the other great wolves tore through the encirclement like a silver storm. Russ vaulted from Geri's back, landing in the dark as pale figures surged toward him like a living tide, and in the space of three heartbeats, every one of them fell to his axe, their skulls split open and blood bursting across his armor.
Three seconds, not because Russ had reached his limit, but because the enemies came too slowly.
Caelan rode atop Sylvia's back, psychic energy glowing blue-white like lightning in the dark.
With a flex of his hand, three Kraken-spawns attempting to ambush him from behind froze mid-lunge, and burst apart like crushed berries under an invisible giant's grip.
Within seconds, the hundred-odd Kraken-spawns surrounding Thengir's group were nothing more than piles of stinking remains.
Russ turned back. "Are you badly hurt?"
"Just a scratch," Thengir grunted, pressing a bleeding wound on his right side. "We circled this island and found no threat, but as soon as night fell, these things came. Lucky you arrived in time."
Only a third of Thengir's men could still stand, and almost all bore wounds. Few wounded lay on the ground, because most had been dragged into the dark before they could fall.
Caelan said, "We should return to the ships. They might come back."
Thengir nodded, wiping the black gore from his axe.
Russ hefted a wounded warrior over his shoulder. Others did the same, following the wolves back toward the shore.
By the time they reached the coast, the longships blazed with oil lamps, their light dancing on the waves.
The sound of battle filled the air, the clash of steel, the wet crack of axes cleaving bone. At least three hundred Kraken-spawns had attacked the fleet, engaging the warriors left to guard the shallows.
When the wolves and scouts returned, another few hundred mutant corpses lay strewn across the beach.
Thengir slammed his fist against the ship's railing, bone grinding against salt crystals. "How can a newborn island harbor so many monsters?"
Even he had never seen creatures like these before. Kraken-spawns, beings that dwelled in deep caves, rarely surfaced. Even the lowlanders of Asaheim barely knew of them.
Caelan replied, "They live underground. If there are this many here, then beneath this island lies a vast subterranean city. If we're to survive, we must either purge it completely... or leave."
"No!" Thengir shook his head. "We can't abandon it."
The seas of Fenris were just as deadly as its lands. Gigantic beasts roamed the waters, ancient, scaly leviathans as large as islands, capable of swallowing whole fleets. And then there were worse things, shapeless horrors with tentacles and cold black eyes that waited deep below for prey.
Compared to those, these creatures seemed like harmless kittens.
Even with Caelan among them, life adrift at sea would be suicide.
Thengir had scouted the island by day; it was solid, stable. By experience, it might last for many years before sinking.
They'd already spent too long here. Finding another island was unlikely, and if one existed, it might already belong to another tribe.
"Then we have to cleanse the island of Kraken-spawns," said Russ. "They come from below, so there must be tunnels. They don't walk under the sun; daylight is safe. We can send scouts to find their lairs, but no one must enter the dark caves."
Thengir agreed; they hadn't been attacked during the day, after all.
"We'll need sentries," he sighed. "If they return at night, we'll be short on men by day."
"Let the wolves take shifts," Russ said. "They can smell Kraken-spawns kilometers away."
Caelan stayed silent. He didn't want to rob Russ of the chance to grow into leadership.
One day, he would leave Fenris. Russ had to learn to lead alone.
"Awoo!"
Before dawn, Skoldi's howl tore through the darkness.
The warriors on watch tensed instantly. Fire arrows soaked in sea-beast oil arced into the air, hissing toward the shallows.
The flames revealed a horrific sight: countless Kraken-spawns crawling toward the beach.
Many Russ warriors saw the creatures clearly for the first time: hunchbacked figures with huge, cup-sized eyes dominating their faces, their pale skin marred by lesions and oozing sores.
"Will these monsters never end?!" Thengir barked a laugh of disbelief. It was the fifth wave that night.
The first four had only tested them; this time, they meant to kill.
Attacking before dawn, clever enough to strike when vigilance wavered, but stupid enough to have warned them earlier with four failed raids.
And with the wolves as sentries, the attack would fail.
"Why are they so intent on attacking us?" Russ frowned.
Last night's assault could be explained as a territorial instinct, predators defending their domain. But repeated coordinated attacks? The Kraken-spawns were no masters of naval warfare. Why target the fleet?
If they were smart enough to think strategically, they'd use the caves to their advantage, wait for the Fenrisians to enter, then strike.
So why now?
"Could something aboard be attracting them?"
Russ glanced at Caelan, no, not him. These creatures weren't his creations.
There was nothing else aboard worth such obsession, unless the Kraken-spawns hungered for the flesh itself.
But if they'd lived underground for millennia, they must have their own food source, a sustainable one.
The previous attacks had already left hundreds of corpses. Now thousands swarmed the beach.
Even the mighty Russ tribe had only thirty thousand people in total. The numbers of these creatures were staggering. If this was just a fraction of their kind… the scale belowground was unimaginable.
Only a rich ecosystem could sustain such a horde.
Russ split open an Kraken-spawn's skull with his axe. As black blood spattered his arms, a grim realization dawned.
"If not for food… then it's killing for the sake of killing."
He grabbed another by the throat, studying its snarling face.
The mutant shrieked and clawed at his arm. Russ brought his axe down, severing joints and limbs one by one until it was a writhing stump of flesh.
In its final moments, the pale eyes flickered, and he saw it: fear.
Russ smiled.
They were intelligent, not beasts, but thinking foes.
Every man, woman, and child of the Russ tribe fought, wielding whatever weapon they could find.
The wolves leapt between longships, smashing skulls, tearing bodies apart with tooth and claw.
Though the Kraken-spawns attacked, the advantage lay clearly with the Fenrisians. Still, the creatures did not retreat.
The battle raged until dawn. As sunlight pierced the clouds, the Raiders screamed in agony. Those struck by daylight shriveled and burned; the rest fled toward the island's heart.
But before they could reach safety, psychic light flooded the shore, Caelan's power sweeping across like a blue tide.
The Kraken-spawns froze mid-flight, then-
Crack!
Thousands exploded at once. Black blood and shredded meat rained down, staining the sea crimson.
"Caelan!"
"Caelan!"
A thunderous cheer rose from the longships. Warriors raised their bloodied axes and spears high, sunlight glinting off rust-red stains.
They were proud, proud to have such a protector, yet prouder still that he let them fight and die with honor.
On Fenris, death in battle was no shame; it was glory.
If Caelan denied them that, they would curse him, not thank him. Only the weak begged for safety.
"We need to find their nest," Russ said. "We must know how many remain."
Thengir nodded wearily. They had won, but his heart was heavy.
Thousands of creatures had attacked in a single night. How many more lurked below?
Their mission was survival, not extermination. If too many died, victory would be hollow.
The wolves tracked the scent of the Kraken-spawns to a cave entrance leading into the mountains.
Russ peered into the blackness; the passage wound down like the throat of a beast.
Thengir left three hundred warriors to guard the entrance and led twenty inside himself.
The tunnels were narrow, too tight for the wolves to fight, so only Sylvia accompanied them, nose to the ground.
The deeper they went, the more artificial the tunnels became, rough stone giving way to walls of plasteel and carved rock. Despite the rot of ages, traces of ancient craftsmanship remained.
"Why did the ancients abandon the underworld?" Russ asked.
Thengir tilted his head, curious but unmoved. Fenrisians lived and died under open sky; only cowards hid below.
Caelan answered, "They say the depths were corrupted… or some forbidden weapon was used. Either way, anyone who lived here turned into Kraken-spawns. The ancestors of Fenrisians must've fled the underworld."
Thengir frowned. "Our tribe never told such tales."
"Then maybe they chose to forget," Russ said quietly. "If knowledge itself can corrupt, perhaps they feared even memory."
"What corruption?" Thengir asked.
Caelan's tone darkened. "You're better off not knowing."
Then, drip.
The faint plink of water made the scouts freeze. Sylvia halted, growling low, enemies ahead.
Russ slipped into the dark alone. Moments later, the sounds of cleaving flesh echoed back.
When the others entered, they found him standing over several corpses.
Before them stretched a vast underground lake, glowing faintly yellow-green, as if a trapped nebula shimmered beneath the slick black water.
Stalactites hung like fangs from the ceiling, droplets falling to ripple across the eerie surface, like the saliva of some ancient beast.
Russ used a bone spear to fish out a lump of dark fur.
"What's that?" Caelan asked.
"A beast's hide," Russ replied.
Thengir gripped his axe. "If they draw water here, then their den must be close."
Russ frowned. "If this island was once beneath the sea, how did the tunnels keep out the water?"
"Gates," said Caelan. "The entrances were sealed when it sank. When it rose again, the gates must've opened."
Russ's eyes narrowed. "Then who opened them?"
Caelan froze, realization dawning.
When the island was submerged, the gates had to have been closed. For them to open precisely when the island resurfaced...
That wasn't coincidence.
"Could someone still be down here?" Russ asked.
Caelan thought of Medea. "Maybe not someone, maybe something."
The Kraken-spawns were too mindless for this.
But in the Golden Age, humanity had woven AI into every aspect of life. Such a city could only have survived through machine management, and perhaps, even now, one still watched over the ruins.
Thengir asked, "Then tell me, Caelan, are we inside the gate already… or not yet?"
.....
If you enjoy the story, my p@treon is 30 chapters ahead.
[email protected]/DaoistJinzu