Chapter Text
I wrote out the initial scene at 1 AM and snowballed it from there. My friends and I were playing on an SMP sooooo, here we are. Hope you at least got a chuckle out of this.
Bolts flew, axe heads were swung and swords flailed about in desperation.
“IVAN! Retreat-HRRK!”
In the snowy forests of Ursus’s wilderness, an Infected Patrol thought that they came upon easy pickings. A lone wooden hut in the middle of nowhere? For the five of them, it was almost comical to think about.
“PYOTR-”
“LEAVE HIM! WE CAN’T-” A crossbow bolt to the back of his head silenced him forever, leaving Ivan alone as the last man alive in his patrol.
What they thought was an easy kill…never materialised. Instead, half of their number was cut down, and the rest ran for their lives, though they didn’t get far.
FWOOSH
“AAAAA!” Ivan collapsed, a piercing pain coming from his right knee. A bolt had pierced right into his kneecaps, immobilising him as he fell onto the snowy ground. Ragged breaths accompanied him as he desperately tried to look for their assailant, though she was more like their predator than anything else. He remembered clearly how the two strongest members of his group were cut down in a near instant, by an auburn-haired girl with a blue, crystal axe.
“Oh man, you Pillagers never learn do ya? Hopefully you’ll drop a banner for me…”
A voice, speaking in Victorian, rang out behind him. Suddenly finding strength he never thought he had, he turned his body around a hundred and eighty degrees by only using his arms.
There. Right in front of him was the source of all of his fears, and the one responsible for the deaths of his comrades. Her gleaming axe shone brightly under the moonlight, revealing the splatters of blood dripping off its tip.
“You whore! Don’t you know who we are?! We are Ursus soldiers! When my superiors-”
“Shhhhhhhhhh. You don’t get it, do you?”
The girl crouched in front of him, axe hefted over her shoulder. A grin plastered all over her face as he saw her green eyes staring right into him.
“See, everywhere I go, even in new chunks like this snow biome I’m here right now, you Pillagers catch me at the most annoying times. I was just about to go to bed when your patrol found me. A newbie may have died to you, but unfortunately, I am not a newbie.”
“Pillagers!? I am a soldier of Ursus-”
“Different skin, same mob. Now, I’ve been told using an axe increases drop rates for heads, and I need one for my fireplace. So, do me a favour and… stay still. ”
The girl got up again, and her axe was held directly over his head. Ivan seized up, instantly realizing what was about to happen.
“WAIT! PLEASE! I DIDN’T WANT TO DO THIS, THEY FORCED ME TO RAID THOSE-”
The axe head fell, and the glint of the blue axe was the last thing he ever saw.
Snow.
Among the residents of Ursus’s large mobile cities, its arrival was something to be equally welcomed and feared. Snow heralded winter, and with winter came many things. Depending on where you were on a societal basis, it could mean fun days at the local park, building snowmen and having snowball fights. Or, it could mean another hard couple of months, with the threat of starvation and frostbite an ever-present threat.
For Alina, she was indifferent towards it. What use was there in cursing a natural phenomenon? It was like cursing the catastrophes, a sentiment many shared to be sure, but one ultimately futile. The Elafian co-leader of an Infected group trekked silently to her destination, a ‘friendly’ village that had traded with them before. Their camp had grown from just her and Talulah, all the way to a respectable size. Though with size, came more mouths to feed. The villagers of Ursus’s wilderness did not have much, and the cold lands often did not allow for agriculture in the same way that other nations such as Victoria did. She did not think that they had much food to trade with, let alone spare. But she still had to try, lest the children in their camp go hungry.
The snow beneath her boots sunk with every step she took. This year’s snowfall seemed to exceed the one from last year, causing her to be concerned about any spare food the village may have. Regardless, she made it this far, and she couldn’t stop now. Talulah wanted an escort to come with her, but the last time they were here Patriot unnerved most of the village, so she had to come alone instead. The villagers were not often trusting, but she wanted to believe in their kindness, just a bit…repressed by their situation. Yes, she had hope, and that was often more important than anything else.
Walking into the village, she noticed that there were a lot fewer people out and about than usual.
Odd, but she pressed on. A minute later, she reached the centre of the village, where any would-be vendors set up shop. Keeping her expectations low, the last time she was here they themselves had few wares to peddle, owing to their material reality. Being destitute that is.
“Huh…?”
To her surprise however, the vendors did not have near-empty carts or gloomy faces, but rather, they had ample wares stocked and ready to be sold; their faces cheerful and full of life. Vegetables of all kinds, bright yellow potatoes, vibrant carrots, golden bundles of wheat and even baskets of berries were being sold to the villagers in a vibrant town square. She guessed that the entire village was present, haggling and buying to their heart's content. What was going on? The harvest season was not for another few months, so how did all of this fresh produce get here?
Never mind that however, this was good for her, she could buy as many supplies as she could carry back with her, or better yet, secure some for now and come back with a cart! First things first, she needed to talk with a merchant…there, the one who had… melons for sale? At least, that was what she thought they were. Growing up in the Ursus countryside, the only melons she knew of were from books, most melons came from other nations whose climates were suitable for growing them. They did look somewhat blocky, however, but the merchant was also selling individual slices so it had to be legitimate.
Walking over to the old woman, Alina gave her a warm smile, and asked about these ‘melons’.
“Where I got them? Oh, you’re not from the village. It’s from our Hero of course!”
“Your…hero ?”
“Aye. She wandered in a week ago and beat back an attack from some infected creatures. Then she started trading with us! Everything you see here is from her, probably has some storage Arts or something, I saw her pull out these melons from thin air for me!”
Alina blinked at the old woman, trying to make sense of what she just heard. All of this produce…came from a single person? She initially thought a trading caravan had passed by, but this was harder to believe than the former. However, what the old woman said next made her even more confused.
“All I traded with her for this was a single Originium shard! Can you believe that?! I don’t know why she accepted the trade immediately, I actually feel guilty about it too…”
Alina glanced over at the large cart filled to the brim with melons next to her, and she wondered if the going rate for melons was that low, or that was simply how much Originium shards were worth. Either way, neither really made sense, but-
“She’s back! I see her coming in!”
A shout distracted Alina from her thoughts, and the village square exploded into activity. Excited murmurs broke out among those closest to her, and the old woman got her attention again.
“Ah, she’s back again now? Probably has more things to trade with us. Go on, best you go and see her as well. Never seen a person like her around these parts, probably a foreigner, but then again, aren’t we all foreigners?”
With the old woman giving her a smile of encouragement, Alina excused herself from her and wandered to where the commotion was loudest. Though the village square only had a couple dozen people present, all of them were concentrated into one spot, making it difficult for Alina to see what was going on. Height was not one of her strong suits, after all, so she had to take alternative means of finding the source of the commotion.
Looking around, she noticed a worn-out fountain close by and stepped on top of its aged stones. With a higher vantage point, she could finally see who this supposed ‘hero’ was, and in the very centre of the crowd, she saw her. Wearing a simple green tunic and brown pants, a young girl with auburn hair stood upright among the crowd. In her hands, she held bundles of wheat, eyes darting between various villagers with Originium shards in their hands. The girl in question then spoke loudly, everyone hearing what she had to say clearly.
“Alright! The least experienced farmers step forward! Gotta level you guys up somehow…”
A very strange request, but the villagers seemingly followed along. The youngest-looking stepped forward, and they began…trading? Massive bundles of wheat suddenly appeared seemingly in a blink of an eye, and the villagers gave her an Originium shard in trade. Alina watched as this process repeated itself with everything from the aforementioned wheat to potatoes and even beetroots. As the last farmer went away, the crowd seemed to begin dissipating as well. Did this happen regularly? How did they know when to dissipate?
Alina rubbed her eyes in disbelief, she clearly saw large amounts of produce appear from thin air right in front of her, judging by the farmers hauling it back to their stands and carts. Her eyes flickered back to the auburn-haired girl, who had a dissatisfied-looking face as she inspected an Originium shard-wait a minute, where were the dozens of shards she was given?! Where did they go?!
“Damn, just farmers again huh? It’s been a week, where the hell are all the other trades at?! Ah, screw it, I’m gonna go home…wonder why the Bad Omen thing hasn’t come up yet?”
The girl in question began walking, in the direction of where the town gate was. She hesitated, yes, this person somehow managed to trade enough food to feed an entire village multiple times over in one go, but was she suitable for their needs?
“...We do have some unique people already…” Those in the camp were anything but ordinary if Patriot was anything to go by. Reaffirming herself, the shortage of food back at her camp outweighed any other considerations right now, if this ‘Hero’ of the village could solve their food situation several times over, Alina needed to make a good relationship with her. And the first step, as they always say, was the hardest.
Walking up to her quickly, the girl noticed Alina first and turned around, face somewhat annoyed. “Another farmer? Didn’t get here fast enough the first time?”
She was taken aback by her at first but quickly recovered. She really didn’t act like anyone from Ursus…
“Oh! I believe you are mistaken. I am not a farmer, but rather a humble villager who needs supplies-”
“Sure, but what’s your job?”
“I’m…sorry?”
“Your profession, like, what do you do? I can’t tell from your clothes alone. Damn new skins …”
What did her profession have anything to do with trading? She traded with those farmers earlier without any difference, so why was she treated differently? Faced with such a question, she fell back on what she could do best, be honest.
“I…don’t have one…?”
Her face immediately scrunched up, and her eyes narrowed. “No job, no trades. Sorry, can’t help ya.” The girl swung on her heels again and began walking away, causing Alina to blink at what just happened. Seeing that she was about to lose her chance to fix her camp’s food supply for a long time, she blurted out the first thing that came to mind.
“I can sow!”
“Whadya say?”
“I can stitch, sow…and I guess patch up clothes really well?”
As far as professions go, she could claim to be a seamstress or tailor if desperate-
“Oh, so a leatherworker. Alright, we can trade.”
Alina breathed a sigh of relief, she began thinking about the various items this girl traded to the villagers. With that amount of wheat, they could mill it into flour, which could then get them enough bread to last them-
Wham
Jumping up into the air at the sudden object that appeared in front of her, Alina did her best to not react to what appeared to be a stack of animal hides around half her height right in from of her. It was just magically there all of a sudden, causing her no end of shock.
“A stack of leather right here. What’ll you give me? Please don’t give me one em’ for half a stack, I’ll be very cross if you do.”
Alina looked at the stack of animal hides with wide eyes, she wanted to trade these to her?! She needed food, and though the leather was useful, it wasn’t what she needed at this moment.
“I thought we were trading in produce…?”
“Hm? Yeah, I was . But you’re a leatherworker, so we trade in leather and other things. But you’re not high enough level yet so it’s just leather for now.”
“W-what?!” Needless to say, the Elafia had no idea what this girl was on about right now. She acted as if their interaction was perfectly natural, but all Alina said was that she knew how to sow, so what did that have to do with being a leatherworker?!
“I…don’t need leather. What I need is produce to trade-”
“You’re a leatherworker, we can’t trade in produce. Duh. So, what’ll you give me for a stack of these?”
“I can’t work with these materials, and-”
“You just said you knew how to sow and stitch, ergo, you make leather armour and saddles. Therefore, you are a leatherworker. Now, are we gonna trade or not?”
Alina rubbed her temple, there was clearly some misunderstanding going on. A bright idea suddenly came to her, and her ears perked up as she realised that there was something she could do…
“What…what if I buy leather and produce from you?”
“Huh?”
“Both, we trade both in exchange for these Originium shards.” Alina opened her small bag of raw Originium shards, it wasn’t much, but she was hoping to at least get enough to last another week or two for her camp.
“Villagers going into multi-job now? Damn, this new area is sweet. Guess they outdid themselves huh?”
“I’m sorry?”
“Nothin’. Alright, we can trade. Just let me count how much is in the bag.”
Breathing a sigh of relief, Alina gently handed over her small bag. Usually, when Originium shards were sold, the price that they fetched was counted by weight and how pure it was-
“Done. Here you go…” She could not have held the bag for more than two seconds, so how-
WHAM
In the blink of an eye, Alina was quite literally surrounded by small mounds of everything from crops to leather. Sacks of beetroot and potatoes quite literally overflowed around her, some of them plopping onto the cold ground.
“Fifteen shards, so that gets you a couple stacks of everything. See ya in a day or two.”
Alina was speechless, this amount of food could last their entire camp for a month and a half if they were smart about it. Though that came with another issue, how was she going to carry all of it back? She came alone because she didn’t expect to get much in the way of supplies, but now that she had much more than she ever needed, the regret of not taking someone with her started to creep in.
“What? Got no space in your inventory?”
“Huh?”
“Got too much dirt or something? It’s just a couple of stacks, don’t have any space at all?”
“N-no…I need a cart, and people to help me move this back to my camp-how did you even carry all of this?”
“It’s…my inven? You don’t have one-”
“POGROM! POGROM! THEY ARE COMING!”
Alina froze, the shouting that came from further down the road immediately alerted her to potential danger. Some villages had lookouts and scouts positioned far away for exactly this purpose. Anyone who has ever lived in an Infected Village knew of the Pogroms. Her own village, the one she originally met Talulah was victim of one such attack long ago and met its end that way. Villages that harbour infected for example often had this fate delivered onto them, and the one she was in right now was no exception.
“What’s going on? Why’s everyone running?”
She stared at the girl in disbelief, she wandered this deep into Ursus territory yet didn’t know what the Pogroms were?!
“The Infected Patrols are coming. We need to leave, there’s a camp nearby with people that can help us-”
“Pffffftttt…leave? Leave a raid? You stay back here and watch this stuff, I’ll take care of it. About time the Bad Omen thing kicked in I swear…” A blue crystal axe suddenly appeared in the girl’s hands, as she walked in the opposite direction of where the streams of villagers were running away. Disbelief was evident on her face as she realised what the girl was about to do.
“You can’t fight them! They’re Ursus soldiers, they aren’t common bandits-”
“Those guys again? Guess they really are the Pillagers around these parts…Don’t worry, I took care of them before, they ain’t anything special. Trust in me and my Sharp five diamond axe. Now, how am I gonna build up that cobble wall? ”
The glint of the axe seemed to shine brighter as soon as she finished her sentence, and Alina could see some ‘glowing’ effects on it, a purple haze waving throughout the entire weapon. Without talking anymore, the girl walked off at a brisk pace, leaving the Elafia even more confused. She didn’t have time for her right now, all she could do was pray for her safety as she helped evacuate the villagers from the raid. Alina hoped that Talulah found out about the incoming patrol, as a village of this size was bound to have those who couldn’t flee. Unfortunately, this always meant that the Infected were left behind.
Alina was also about to go on her own path, but she realised that she didn’t even know the girl’s name yet. If she fell in battle, someone had to remember her, so she thought.
“Wait! What’s your name?”
The girl paused for a brief second, auburn hair swaying gently in the cold winter winds as she replied, back still facing her.
“Alex.”
Captain Igor was the leader of team number seven. It was not official of course, just an unofficial way to categorise all of the Ursus soldiers participating in the ‘cleansing’ operations. It was an open secret that these persecutions were conducted within Ursus, and indeed, perhaps even most of Terra knew about it if he guessed correctly.
Good. They were another way to ensure that other nations were made wary of their reputation. Since the Bloodpeak Campaigns their ‘image’ was damaged beyond what it originally was. Traitors lurked about in their great motherland, and the loss of Ursus’s prestige can be directly attributed to these Infected scum who backstabbed their efforts. For the good of Ursus, he led his men to cleanse the land of the Oripathy-induced filth on their lands. Those that survived their initial purges…could always go towards making up their quota. After all, the Originium mines always needed more warm bodies, and the Infected were already halfway to death, they could spend their remaining time in service of the Tsar.
The three dozen or so men he brought with him on this operation were less a military unit, and more like a disorganised mob. They weren’t fighting any soldiers, they were fighting Infected, so tactics like formations and scouts were entirely unnecessary. Besides, he wanted to get this over with already, as there was still the matter of patrols going missing in his sector that needed to be dealt with. Coming upon the front of the village, he and his men paused.
“...How?”
A three-metre tall wall made entirely of stone, cobbled stone if he was correct, surrounded the entire front section of the village. Did the village receive a warning of their arrival? Impossible, this wall required months, if a full year’s worth of preparations in order to be built, so it had to be recent. As the village was deep in a valley, their advance into the village was essentially blocked by the wall, resulting in him having no choice but to press on, despite the sense of unease filling up within him.
As he walked ever closer to the main entrance, he remembered what his superiors warned him about, of guerillas against the Great Empire that operated in sectors close to this one. He expected an ambush to arrive at any moment, yet none ever came. At the front of his group, the assault crossbowmen stopped, causing him to frown under his mask.
“Why have you stopped? I will have you executed for cowardice if-” Captain Igor cut himself off, as he too noticed what gave his crossbowmen pause. At the front of the village entrance, there sat a lone girl on a wooden log, wearing a simple green tunic and brown pants. Her auburn hair flowed in the wind as she was seemingly unaffected by the icy winds whatsoever. Though he did also notice her axe, blue and shining as bright as the stars above him did.
“Captain? Orders?” His crossbowman asked, causing Igor to grunt in response.
“Tch. Approach her, she’s just one girl, why are you all stopping? Onwards!”
With his barked orders, the group got closer, and closer until they were roughly a dozen metres from the main entrance. At that point, the girl finally looked up at them, an annoyed expression on her face.
“Finally, you assholes decide to finally show. Alright, let’s get this whole thing over with, I still need to finish up on my trades for the day.” Victorian, and though he wasn’t fluent in the language, he knew enough to know that she was mocking them.
“You dare?! We will cut you down-”
“I’ve heard this before, mainly from this guy right here.”
He was cut off casually by the auburn-haired girl, who then took something from her back, and placed it down on the log next to her. He recognized what it was, it was the head of one of his patrol captains, gently laid down on the log. Some of his men were startled by the display and began drawing their weapons at the girl, who was still indifferent to them.
“Yeah, this guy…Ivan I think? He said something similar, lost all of his bravado once my axe lobbed his head clean off though. You fine Pillagers on the other hand, have heads and skins that I don’t recognise!”
The girl said the last part with so much glee that Igor thought it was similar to a child receiving a new present. Only that he was much more disturbed by what she was saying.
“So, in order to complete my collection of heads from all the new mobs…I’m gonna ask that you don’t move so much when I kill you. Guarantee you won’t die in pain if you do!”
Igor has heard enough, since she chose to stand between them, he would gladly show her the error of this foolish action. “Shoot her already.”
Credit to his crossbowmen, they followed his orders immediately, with a well aimed shot at her chest. Unfortunately, it didn’t strike true.
PLONK
A shield appeared on her left hand out of nowhere, and the bolt was stuck on her rectangular shield instead of her heart.
“Wow, kinda rude. Also, it's my turn now. ”
The axe disappeared, and her right hand was instead replaced by a wooden crossbow. Wood? Who even used wood these days? They were all mostly made of steel and other modern materials. As Igor was about to scoff at the archaic version of her crossbow, he noticed that there was no bolt loaded onto it, instead, there was a red and white cone attached to it.
FWOOM -BOOM
A whistling sound came first, followed by trails of smoke from the projectile. Then, as it struck the crossbowman directly in his chest, it exploded.
“AARGH!”
“MY LEG!”
“IT BURNS!”
The close proximity of his men to the blast meant that a number of them were also injured as well. In cold fury, he snapped his head to look back at the girl who just killed his crossbowman, only to see her downing…a glass bottle with yellowish liquid inside. After she finished consuming it, she threw the bottle away violently, and her axe reappeared on her hand once more.
“That hit the spot! Just for that, I’m gonna fight you all without armour, you don’t really deserve me taking it out anyways. Now then! Come at me you bear-lookin ass Pillagers! I need your heads… FOR MY FIREPLACE! ”
The girl charged, and carnage never before seen in these ancient tundras began with a violent battle cry.
AN:
I think I’m gonna end this here for now.
Be civil in the comments.
EDIT-13/10/2024
A few minor edits were made to bring it up to date with the newer chapters.
EDIT- 07/05/2025
I now have a Discord server! Where you can chat and discuss not only this story, but all of my other fanfics. If not, this is also a place where you can submit Omakes and discuss OCs if you really want to, or just come and hang out, I will be sharing some more behind the scenes things there if you want to know what my writing process is like.
Discord Link: https://discord.gg/9ah73nfATw