Chapter 45 - Ice Trolls on the Sight (Patreon)

Codex: Superpowers of the Known World of Azyr

In the current age, there are a few nations that could be called the true 'Superpowers' in this world that are able to influence even the far-reaching regions of the Known World, and even fewer are able to maintain their dominance on the global field.

Since the Resurgence of the Magic, this is even more apparent than ever, now that the Resurgence of the Magic has forced all of the nations that reached a certain degree of military and economic power to interact with each other.

Many scholars attribute this to the First Contact between the Westerosi and Lordraninas in the Year 10,280 of the Imperial Callendar, when the flagship of the Imperator of the Holy Arcadia Empire landed at the western shores of the Westeros in the Westerlands. 

Currently, there are only a few true superpowers in the world, and those are namely the Holy Arcadia Empire, the Orktarius Empire, the Skaven Under-Empire, the Celestial Empire of Grand Cathay, and the Kingdom of Quel'Thalas. Obviously, this ranking doesn't take into account the Warriors of the Chaos in the Northern Wastes of the Dark Lands, Undeath Scourge in the Lands of the Always Winter, or the Beastmen Hordes that are moving across the known world due to the lack of unity and strong factionalism.

Among these ones, the Holy Arcadia Empire and Orkatrius Empire are located exclusively in the Lands of the Ancient Lords, with the Holy Arcadia Empire is occupying the land known as the Old World. The Holy Arcadia Empire is already very famous among the readers in the Westeros and Essos, so let's take a look at the other nations.

Orkatrius Empire is located in the Orklands of the Lordran and was founded by the Warboss Ghazkull Urag Nag Thraka, who unified all of the Orkish Tribez, and Klans under one banner and waged war on all, including the Warriors of Chaos, Daemons, Beastmen, Imperium and nowadays, many of the Orkish raiding parties are attacking he 

Another of the most powerful nations in the Know World is certainly the Skaven Under-Empire that is spreading through the entire world. However, what is the most notable of this faction is the fact that they are the sole nation devout to worshipping of the Ruinous Powers and thus are considered the public enemy of all.

Celestial Empire of Grand Cathay is a rather young nation, old barely a few decades, and yet already one of the most powerful on the planet, mainly thanks to the presence of the Dragon Emperor Xen Yang and Moon Dragon Empress Quai Yin, who singlehandedly conquered the decaying Golden Empire of Yi Ti and rebuild it's power to heights of it's predecessor, the Empire of the Dawn.

Afterward, the Celestial Empire of Grand Cathay, with its huge armies and countless Professionals, conquered and annihilated Jogos Nhai and even spread its influence into the area of Thousand Islands, where they conquered a large amount of them. Not only that, but the Celestial Empire also attacked a few cities in the Bone Mountains that were remnants after the fallen kingdom of Hyrkoon and brought back to the fold the nations of Leng and Nippon.

And the last on the list is the Kingdom of the Quel'Thalas, a Kingdom of the High Elves. Truth to be told, the last subject is also the most interesting one because it is the successor to the Ten Kingdoms of the Ulthuan that fell in the Imperial Years of 10,281 to Imperial Year of 10,284 to the powers of Ruin, Orks, Deams, and Cultists. Only due to the timely intervention of the Holy Arcadia Empire were the High Elves able to clean out the Ulthuan, though a large part of the island continent remained tainted by the Chaos, and the High Elven population suffered the loss of around 70% of their population.

Since then, the entire political landscape of the Ulthuan underwent a tremendous shift, and the Kingdom of Quel'Thalas was created by the Anasterian Sunstrider of the Sunstrider Dynasty, who had unlimited support of the Holy Arcadia Empire. Initially, many speculated that the Holy Imperator aimed to bring the High Elves into the fold of the Empire, but these thoughts were discarded quickly.

Yet it is also to be noted that after the marriage of the Lyandra Sunstrider, sister of the Anasterian Sunstrider and Holy Imperator Karl Franz I. Holswig-Schliestein von Reikland de Anor, a large number of the High Elves migrated to the Lordran. While it is true that the High Elves lost around 70% of their population from the Fall of the Phoenix, only 50% of the High Elven population actually died, while the remaining 20% of the said 70% was rescued by the Imperial Expeditionary Forces and migrated to the Empire for prospects of the better and safer life.

- From the Book by Archmaester Perestos of the Cidatel Order, Powers of the Azyr after the Resurgence, Imperial Year 10,321.

***

1st POV

"So, what are we hunting for?"

I turned my head to her, noticing that she indeed looked especially beautiful in that armor now; it was a really breathtaking sight. Not only because the Runic Armor was exquisitely crafted by the best Forge Master in the entire Holy Arcadia Empire, but the armor itself was amplifying her beauty. 

When she was wearing something more proper than the combat outfit rags that she was wearing before, it was really hard to hide her natural beauty.

"Ice Trolls, according to the Wizards, there are some of them lurking around, so we are going to hunt them down. They wouldn't dare to attack our convoy, because they should be aware that the emblem of the Imperial House means that I am on the board of the Base, but at the same time, they would be scouting us for the whole time, so this could be a good opportunity to take some of them down."

Explaining the situation with the Ice Trolls that were lurking around us. Cirilla, after living in the Holy Arcadia Empire's capital, Anor Londo, for several weeks, had already increased her strength considerably from the training with Maria and some members of the Stormcast Eternals.

She also started tapping into the capabilities of her Elder Blood, which was one of their strongest cards. The Elder Blood was an immensely powerful thing, but because of its power, it was also very hard to control properly, and she still had a very long way to go before she could master it.

"Is there something that I should be careful?"

While she went through the Witcher training when she was young, they were trained to fight most not really intelligent monsters, not the sentient races that were hostile to the men.

"Druids could shapeshift, so if we found one, teleport behind them and cut them down as soon as possible. Shamans are like your regular Magic Users, but they could communicate with the Totem Spirits and cause them to descend, but due to the special status within their Twribe, they wouldn't be leaving the Tribe Headquarters at all. Just be careful about their First Magic and their assassins; due to the constantly being pushed back, they are speeding on the assassination and ambushes as they know that they cannot fight Empire head on."

I gave her some advice on the methods of dealing with the ice trolls and told her that she should be cautious about them. Seeing Ciri nod and process my information, we then started searching for the Ice Trolls, based on my detections spells that I was casting here and there after walking for some time. 

Soon enough, we managed to get some reaction and found our first Trolls. Or rather, it was just footsteps in the heavy snow on the nearby mountain pathway that still remained in the snow, meaning that we were very close.

Because this place was always heavily covered by snow, and it was almost always snowing, so they didn't even bother to cover their tracks because after a few minutes, probably around two to three minutes, would be enough to cover their tracks under another layer of snow.

Soon enough, they were on the trail of the Ice Trolls and managed to find a small group consisting of around thirty to forty Ice Trolls. The Ice Trolls looked like ordinary Trolls mostly, as there were no major differences between them and the rest of the Trollkind.

They were around 1,8 meters tall with lean-muscle build, though contrary to the average Trolls, they had ice blue skin and, like the other species of the Trollkind, they had very long pointy ears and tusks sprouting from their mouths.

Their equipment was a total mess: ramshackle pieces of armor and weapons, either made by the hand of the Trolls smiths or ones that were stored from the killed Imperial Legionaries, either from the native Legion or from the other units that were often sent on the Troll Suppression Operations.

"This seems like a standard raiding party of the Ice Trolls..."

The raiding parties among the Ice Troll Tribes were the most common methods how they attacked the holdings of the Empire. They primarily focused on trading caravans that were not using the Deep Roads Network and such. 

While they were not overly successful, they often managed to gather enough loot to survive somehow and also gather enough weapons for their continuous existence and endeavors for future attacks.

"You see, this is the standard raiding party of the Ice Trolls, and it seems that we are in luck because there are no Druids or Shamans between them... with the latest offensive by the Imperial Legion stationed in the League of Khaz-Modan and Grand Province of Fenris has forced them to be conservative and protective of their Druids and Shamans..."

I knew that after the latest offensive on some strongholds of the Ice Trolls by the 2nd Imperial Legion of Khaz-Modn, 3rd Imperial Legion of Fenris, and private Armies of the Nobles there and some special units, the Ice Trolls were quelled quite a bit.

A lot of their strongest were killed during the initial attacks, and many of the important strongholds were destroyed over the course of the past three months, leading to a strong deficit of Shamans and Druids.

So it was highly possible that we wouldn't be encountering any of them, as they would be right now serving as the last line of defense for their settlements.

"We are dealing with them."

I said as I noticed that the ashen-haired lion cub of a princess looked rather unsure because, technically speaking, we were numerically outnumbered twenty to one. Which was a very steep difference, but I knew that neither of these Ice Trolls would be any problem.

An average adult Ice Troll Warrior or Hunter was physically as strong to be classified around Level 2. They were the elites of their Tribes, albeit they were not particularly strong, in my opinion though...

If I really wanted, I could kill all of them here with a single Spell and be done with it.

But killing the Ice Trolls with my Magic would ruin the fun, and I also needed to capture a few of the Ice Trolls alive for further interrogation. We needed to find the exact location of their camps, their Tribe, and their routes so we could root them out at a later date, especially the more problematic ones.

The dwarves of the Khaz-Modan would be certainly delighted that another bunch of the Ice Trolls were killed because the centuries of bad blood between them and the Ice Trolls caused the dwarves to have the mentality in a way that "Only good Ice Troll is a dead Ice Troll".

This was something pretty similar to what the people of the Stormwind had towards the Barbarian, as the Children of the Bul-Khatos were seen as the ultimate menace to the Kingdom of the Stormwind, another bonus reason for their complete and whole extermination.

Nobody really wanted to deal with the Ice Trolls aside from killing them, and I was aware that my idea of subjugating the Ice Troll Tribes, or rather at least some of them, would be for sure met with a very high degree of resistance and disapproval from the Dwarven Houses and the Fenrisian Nobles.

It was very highly possible that even the general population of these two Grand Provinces wouldn't agree with the proposal at all. It would be a pretty controversial topic and the last thing that I wanted because of their utmost importance.

In the end, they were producing the majority of the weapons and armaments for the Imperial War Machine and so. Not to mention, the Dwarves were one of the two basic species in the Holy Arcadia Empire.

"Okey... go directly for the Hunters and Warriors; they are the strongest out of the group, so we need to take them out as the first ones. Afterward, deal with the rest, but keep an eye on the one that seems to be a leader. We should attempt to catch that one alive if possible for the interrogation; he may have some valuable information for us."

I said because it would be prudent to take at least a few of the Ice Trolls as prisoners so we could extract information from them.

It was rare for them to be captured because they would be most often killed before they could be captured, and even when the soldiers from the army captured some Ice Trolls, in many cases, they would commit suicide to prevent them from divulging any sensitive information.

This time, I was using the Warhammer Ghal Maraz as my weapon of choice because using the Longinuslanze Testament would be too eye-catching and could possibly lure more of the Ice Trolls here.

The Longinuslanze Testament was a Divine Artifact that almost forced me to use my Bloodline Ability, Golden Light of the Holy Destruction, due to the very strong connection between the Longinuslanze Testament and the Golden Light of the Holy Destruction.

While the Ghal Maraz wasn't really the weapon that I was using for most of the time when I was fighting, I preferred to use the Longinuslanze Testament as that was stronger and was better for channeling the Golden Light of the Holy Destruction.

Still, the Ghal Maraz was one of the best weapons across the entire Imperium and was considered a top-notch artifact in the Lands of the Ancient Lords. Looking at Cirilla, who was wearing the Runic Armor and armed with the Rune Sword, I gave her a nod, as she teleported in the middle of the group of the Ice Trolls.

The moment Cirilla teleported into the middle of the Ice Troll group, all of the Ice Trolls that were present couldn't even react when she swung her sword and chopped off the head of the nearest Troll Warrior as she then moved to the next one and next one. 

I rather marveled at how fast she was dealing with the Ice Trolls.

It was clear that her previous combat training with the so-called Witchers was indeed superb, and the training she underwent at the Imperial Palace in the Anor Londo with the Stormcast Eternals only polished her combat skills to a new realm.

Coupled with the "Warping", as I called it, she was one terrific enemy to fight against because she combined very fast speed and agility together with the Warpiing, which was short-range teleportation at a fast speed, which made it extremely hard for the Ice Trolls to react to what was happening.

Yeah, if there were some more powerful Ice Trolls present, probably those at the Level 4 or Level 5, the situation may be different, but in the current setup... it was a totally one-sided battle, especially when I joined the fray and started attacking the Ice Trolls with his warhammer Ghal Maraz, the fight soon enough ended. 

***

3rd POV

With every swing of the Ghal Maraz, one of the Ice Trolls fell as his head was smashed apart and burst out like a watermelon. Karl Franz advanced through the Ice Trolls like an avatar of the War God, as he was swinging around with his warhammer, killing the Ice Trolls right and left.

In fact, Cirilla wasn't any worse in this aspect than him because she too was fighting like a deviless, warping around the entire battlefield and fighting several opponents at the same time with exact precision and cutting down the number of the Ice Trolls.

The Ice Trolls were not even well armed, because most of them were wearing ramshacled pieces of armor that were in pretty rough shape and were armed with various plethora of weapons, though none of their weapons were of rather good quality.

A rather common thing to see among the Ice Trolls.

After around ten minutes, only a few of the Ice Trolls remained in the place, those which were captured by Karl Franz and Cirilla. This time, they were rather lucky, as they managed to capture one of the head scouts, meaning these people were in charge of the scouting parties.

They were the ones who knew the local terrain the best, and most importantly, they were aware of all hidden pathways, tunnels, and secret passages used by their Tribe. Only the head scout of the raiding party was aware of all of this information, so Karl Franz was really surprised that they managed to capture one of them. 

Usually, they would escape immediately at the start of the conflict because they were aware that in the direct confrontation, they were no match against the Imperial Military and other Imperial Forces.

Or some of them chose to fight to the death, and some chose to commit suicide in order not to be captured. Immediately after Karl Franz realized that they captured the head scout, he cast several binding spells on the Ice Trolls that prevented him from moving even by one millimeter.

At the same time, he thoroughly searched through the Ice Trolls body and scanned his entire being for any failsafe spells or anything that could be used to kill the Ice Troll. The last thing that he wanted was for the dammed blue-skinned creature to die before they could extract all of the necessary information from the Ice Troll.

"You are really some lucky talisman, Ciri... we managed to capture one of their Head Scouts... this one Ice Troll has practical immense value to the Imperial Intelligence."

Yeah, this was rather a considerable achievement; this would also be a very suitable gift for the dwarven clans. Rarely did they catch the scouts, and the dwarves would be certainly pleased that they had obtained the opportunity to interrogate the scouts of the Ice Trolls.

"Are we going to continue hunting for the Ice Trolls or whatever?"

Cirilla asked as they were rounding up the Ice Trolls, because she wanted to explore the area of the Fenris a bit more. For her tastes, the fight against the Ice Trolls ended rather too fast, as she grew rather too powerful in the short time she was staying in the Lands of the Ancient Lords.

"Probably not... it is already rare that we managed to encounter one such raiding party, but if you wish, we can deliver the Ice Troll to the G-1 Mobile Base and then take a stroll through the mountains. If we are lucky, we may be able to encounter some powerful Ice-attributed Danger Beasts."

Karl Franz said because, in fact, he wasn't really opposed to strolling through the mountains some more time, even despite the frightening freezing winter that was turning everything around them to the block of ice.

"Hmm... we could go with that; I still want to see more of this place. Despite the monotony of the snow and frost, this place has some sort of indescribable charm."

Cirilla said her wish as Karl Franz decided to go with her suggestion, because he also found it a good one. He preferred to take a stroll through the Fenrisia Mountains than spend time in the G-1 Mobile Base. The journey was still rather long, and it would take them some time. 

So, if he had the opportunity to spend some time outside, he would take it.

In the end, they took the captured Ice Troll scout to the G-1 Mobile Base and gave it the custody of the Stormcast Eternals. Fortunately enough, the G-1 Mobile Base was big enough to imprison it before they arrived at the Khazad-dûm, where they would give the Ice Trolls to the dwarves to do as they saw fit with the creature.

Fortunately, right now, they returned to the G-1 Mobile Base rather quickly and without many problems as they passed the Ice Troll scout to the Stormcast Eternals that took the Ice Trolls to one of the holding cells within the G-1 Mobile Base. 

Originally, he thought that having something akin to a holding cell in the G-1 Mobile Base was redundant and useless because it would be just taking space; alas, now he was proven wrong, and it proved to be pretty useful, to his surprise.

Once they finished the task of transporting the Ice Troll, they were prepared to go out to the wilderness once more, this time, searching for the Ice-attributed Danger Beast. The Norsca Peninsula wasn't considered one of the most dangerous regions in the Lands of the Ancient Lords just because of the Ice Trolls and extremely harsh winters.

Without the Norsca Peninsula, some of the fiercest and most powerful Danger Beasts were calling this place as their home. And there was a really high number of them, and they were almost everywhere.

That was also why the locals were either mostly hunting them for food and materials or they were taming them and making them their Battle Companions. When they were prepared to leave the G-1 Mobile Base, both of them were stopped by a womanly figure wearing very similar yet distinctive armor that Karl Franz quickly recognized.

It was Cersei's armor that he had personally ordered to be forged for her.

It was golden armor with intricate lion-like designs, sleek and form-fitting, combining dark underlayers with golden metallic plates that provided an elegant yet imposing silhouette.

Her helmet had sharp, wing-like extensions on either side, and her long, flowing blonde hair cascaded down her back. These parts of the helmet were something that she designed herself, after the myths and legends of the Fenrisians that she heard from her friend at the Schola Progenia, the Valkyries.

The armor itself had attached a luxurious, crimson cape with gold accents billows behind her, enhancing her majestic presence. The overall design exudes strength, nobility, and authority, with an air of mythic power that really fits her style.

"I am coming with you, too..."

Karl Franz was really surprised when he saw that, because it wasn't every day that Cersei was that kind of active and she even watnd to venture out on her own. Normally she wasn't the type that would be spending all of her free time in luxury and fawned over by the servants. 

He didn't think that she would be voluntarily going to the wilderness of the Norsca Peninsula, but he wasn't really against it. If she already was here, it was rather welcomed surprise and they would have some time together. 

Karl Franz knew that lately, Cersei was a bit distressed mainly due to the communication with her father, due to the situation in the Westeros. He knew that the old Lannister must be rather distressed when he finally realized that he had fucked up bit too much.

Original, in the Tywin's vision he planned to obtain the support from the Holy Arcadia Empire and everything. In his initial plans, with the support from the Empire beyond the Sunset Seas, he planned to establish the dominance of the Westerlands in the Seven Kingdoms and in the future to crown himself the King of the Seven Kingdoms.

His ambitions were high, that was also the reason why he had decided to marry his daughter to the Imperator of the Holy Arcadia Empire at the very first moment he had to secure to support from the Empire. 

And that paid off... at least initially.

But according to the Office of the Imperial Military Intelligence that Karl Franz was getting, it was clear that the situation in there was getting out of the hand. The expansion of the Faith of the Great Ones and the Healing Church was almost unstoppable, and the influence of it was something that even Tywin Lannister couldn't stop.

Not to mention, the North of the Seven Kingdoms was also benefitting from the relationship with the Holy Arcadia Empire, and right now, apparently, the Dorne has been into contact with the Empire and was trading with them.

It was more than evident that many of the Tywin's plans were useless already, but alas, there wasn't much he could do about it. Additionally, with the influence of the Healing Church among the commoners and even some Nobles in the Westerlands, one wrong move would turn the fanatized religious zealots against him.

So, the best thing he could do was to invest all of his hopes into his daughter, but that turned out to be probably the worst decision that he made in his life. Cersei tended to ignore his pleadings and did her own things, as she wasn't interested in helping her father even a bit.

She was still pissed off at the man for treating her like a tool, while at the same time, she didn't see any benefit of doings so. For her, seeing her father's ambitions to fail miserably was probably the best thing that could happen in time. 

Not to mention, she was also aware that her future husband aimed to completely disband the Seven Kingdoms of the Westeros. Obviously, as one of the future higher-ups of the Holy Arcadia Empire and the future Empress, she was putting the interests of her future husband before that of her father.

At least here in the Empire, she was appreciated for who she was, not for the fact that she was a woman who was to be married off to someone who would put the highest price on her hand.

"Then if you want to come, you should..."

Karl Franz stated as she grabbed her Rune Weapon, which was a Runic Golden Halberd, which was forged by the resident Forge Master at the Imperial Palace of the Holy Arcadia Empire. 

With another addition to their party, they started going back into the wilderness of the League of Khaz-Modan once again. This time, though, they were advancing at a bit slower rate because they were in the party of three.

The ultimate rule of moving through the most dangerous areas across the Lordran was to move in smaller parties. While it was true that the bigger parties of adventurers or mercenaries had the advantage of numbers, yet at the same time, it was also the fact that the smaller parties had a better chance of attracting attention.

"We are heading to the territories under the control of the Danger Beasts. Be careful and not attack unless you are attacked. Most of the Danger Beasts won't be really attacking anyone unless they are feeling threatened or if they are very hungry..."

Karl Franz gave them instructions because this time they were entering the exclusive territory of the Danger Beasts. Most of the roads and the areas close to the roads, were protected by the Imperial Legion and regularly cleaned from the Danger Beasts.

There were many of them who tended to hunt for their prey here or to attack the settlements for food. The Danger Beasts were very territorial, and in the Norsca Peninsula, there were actually conditions for the Danger Beasts to thrive and reproduce. 

"Also, once we encounter Special Class Danger Beast, don't do anything and just stand by while I take care of it. Most of the Special Class Danger Beasts are too powerful for you to handle, so when it comes to that, Ciri, you will take Cersei and warp out..."

He knew that finding again that Special Class Danger Beasts was something way out of their reach because Special Class Danger Beasts would give huge trouble even to most of the Level 5 Professionals. 

The Danger Beasts were powerful, even compared to the beings of the some Level... there was a reason why they were officially termed as the "Danger Beasts". If it came to fighting the Danger Beasts, Karl Franz wasn't taking any choices at all and ordered Cirilla to be in charge of escaping...

Due to the Elder Blood and the teleportation capabilities she had, she was a master of escaping from anyone and anything. Karl Franz trusted Cirilla that she would take Cersei from the fight as soon as possible, and with the warping she had, there were not many Danger Beasts that could match her speed.

The heightened control over her Elder Blood and higher mastery of her Magic allowed her to warp even on the long-distances rather easily. If she put everything in her warping, she could teleport to a distance of around 5 kilometers in one go...

"Now that everything is clear, we are going..."

Karl Franz stated as he led two women into the depths of the territory of the Danger Beast, with Ciri already beaming with the anticipation that she would see a new species and plethora of new things.

There were plenty of the Danger Beasts in the Norsca Peninsula and this region was one of the few in the Lordran that had active Omega Danger Beasts that were even stronger than the Level 7 Professionals. 

Even the concentration of the Super Danger Beasts was categorically higher than that of the other Grand Provinces of the Imperium.