Lord Ulric, the Valiant

- Lord Ulric, the Valiant - by Loc0

Dawn, on a quiet south summer day, Ulric sets out from his domicile after gathering the supplies he needed to fulfill his quest. He had not been back in town long, arriving only mere hours after midnight. As he is leaving town, he is met by Issabella. "Where are you heading today, Ulric?" she asks. "North. I need to go North." grumbled Ulric, in a gravelly voice. His pace does not slow as he passes. She quickly felt perplexed as he had never acted this way before, but she watched as he marched out of town, wondering why he seemed so troubled, until he disappeared into the darkness that was the Wandering Woods.

Days have passed since he left town, but he keeps walking. Through the wandering woods, past the Leinsters, he keeps walking. He has made this trip numerous times before, usually with his Lord Father, Sir Godfrey of Asgard. They would stop in West Leinster, ramble into the Gnarled Leg Tavern and enjoy some ale, have a few laughs with the locals and listen to the Jester. It was the perfect spot to break up the long journey, but not on this trip. This trip was about something else.

He pushed past West Leinster up into Emerald Forest. Once he saw the rubble of what was left of Caer Fandry he thought to himself, "I'm not far now."

The forgotten town, way up North, had been ransacked by gargoyles. Two weeks prior, he was up here with his Lord Father hunting and gathering supplies when a horde of gargoyles, marched South from the Crystal Mountains and invaded Caer Fandry, slaughtering everyone. They did their best to assist in the defense of the town, but the vast numbers of the gargoyles made the difference. Sometime during the battle, Ulric had separated from his father and with his battle axe in hand, he pushed through the town to the East, severing a limb here and decapitating a gargoyle there. If only they had enough time to prepare for this attack, it may have turned out differently. No matter how many gargoyles he slayed, there were 5 to 6 humans or elves to go with it. Aside from some minor cuts and scrapes, Ulric survived the battle unscathed.

In the battle on the West side of the town, Sir Godfrey was mortally wounded. Even with blood spouting from his wounds, he kept pushing forward, out into Emerald Forest, taking down at least 6 more gargoyles in the process. With his energy depleting, along with his blood, he knelt on one knee and lowered his head to the hilt of his sword. Mere seconds after, a gargoyle came swooping in from above and with its long, sharp claws, impaled Sir Godfrey through his back.

When Ulric made it back to the other side of town, there was nothing but death that lay around him. Not one human, gargoyle or elf left breathing. He searched every corpse, looking for his father, following the trail of bodies and blood out into Emerald Forest. He found him lying face down, atop his blood-stained sword. He stopped. He did not go to him, nor shed a tear. His face became expressionless. It's as if nothing mattered anymore, like everything and everyone was gone, and he was alone in this world.

As Ulric passed the rubble, the bodies were still there starting to decay. Crows and vultures were perched in the surrounding trees as he walked past. The town of Caer Fandry, now, reek of death. Crystal Mountains is where he is going… his quest, to kill the Gargoyle King. An hour later and he arrives at the Northern Steppes, a vast open marshland mainly inhabited by basilisks. He peers out over the marsh looking for gargoyles, but they seem to have all withdrew back to the mountains. He then continues his trek.

Once through the marsh, he starts up the mountains, looking for any trace of the gargoyles. A short while later, he sees a cave entrance about 50 paces from him, off to his right. Before entering, he grasps his axe, aptly named "Wig Splitter" and unsheathes it. He treads lightly as he starts through the cave as to not lose the benefit of stealth. Around the first corner, a gargoyle stands on guard. Ulric spreads his feet to get his stance as to not lose balance and with one quick strike, his axe slices right through the gargoyles head under its eyes and lodges into the cave wall leaving the top half of the gargoyles head on the blade while it's body drops lifelessly to the floor. Continuing down the path lead him to an open area in the cave. As he looked around, there were only a small number of gargoyles here. "Only 3? Where are the rest?" he thought. The small group of gargoyles see Ulric and start to attack. The first arrives swiftly but Ulric evades his attack easily and as he flies by, he swings his axe and strikes it in its back. The other 2 take a more cautious approach as to surround Ulric. The first charges but Ulric front kicks him back and then gracefully transitions into swinging his axe at the other, landing the blade into its chest. He quickly resets and swings his axe overhead to strike down on the gargoyle now laying on the ground.

The Gargoyle King stands at the other end of the room and starts approaching Ulric. As he gets closer, it becomes clear that the King is almost double the size of a normal Gargoyle. He spreads his wings out as to intimidate Ulric. The King lunges, Ulric evades and swings his axe severing the Kings right leg clean off and while the King falls to the ground, he continues with his momentum swirling the axe until he brings the heavy, dual-bladed "Wig Splitter" deep down into the top of the Kings skull.

The End.

~Summer 2019 Writing Contest~