"Alrigggghtttt then, if you're all ready, then we'll leave it to you, Vol!" Blackbeard shouted.
The men continued to snicker behind him. Blackbeard had made it obvious what they were to do. He'd even put coin on it. A silver to whoever won. Vol's task was merely to charge straight through the shield wall, and their task was to repel him.
The men were taking it seriously. Their feet were locked, and their knees were bent slightly, ready to take the force. They'd even formed their ranks into two rows, to make the wall extra solid. It meant there were two men in the bank, behind the front three, with three shields on the bottom and two of the two, making them even heavier and harder to move.
If there was a weapon the Yarmdon knew as much as the axe, it would be the shield. Every boy and his dog knew how to fight in a shield wall, at least to some degree.
Some of the townsfolk shouted remarks as well, as Vol readied himself. They joined in with the raiders quite readily. They were used to the rough sorts in their town.
Out of the corner of his eye, Vol caught sight of something familiar. Some of the children from yesterday, peeking out behind the wall of a longhouse. They watched him with round eyes. Vol did his best to cast those distractions away from him. But even as he focused his attention fully on what was in front of him, he saw that just beyond the shield wall, Nolan was perched on the snowy rough of one of the longhouses, idly watching the proceedings.
When he was sure he caught Vol's eye, he gave a wave. Even from as far away as he was, Vol was sure he could hear the man laughing.
"Damn it…" Vol cursed, suddenly feeling nervous. Why was it that he felt nervous now, when people were watching? Surely the stakes were so much lower than they'd been all those times before? Even if he failed his charge, he wouldn't die for it. Why would he care about failing in front of a crowd more than he'd care about death?
"It's the people that rate our glories, brother," he remembered Jok saying. An old memory, one he hadn't thought of in a long time, but with the pressure of a crowd on him, it came to his mind unbidden. "There's no measure of glory I can find better than the voice of the masses, and the Blessings of our Gods."
As always, Jok was wiser than he.
Vol realized, somewhat belatedly, why it was that he'd begun to feel uncomfortable with the murders that he'd committed. He didn't want to be an outsider. That wasn't his goal. He wanted to be strong, like his brother, and he wanted to achieve that glory.
Even all the way out here, by the Inland sea, Nolan had known Jok's name.
!! SYSTEM ANNOUNCEMENT!
YARMDON THRILL, ACTIVATED!
Vol hadn't even moved yet. Just the mere thought had spiked his adrenaline. Glory. Glory. GLORY!
He sprinted, suddenly back in battle. These were giant men that Blackbeard had put him up against. Some of the strongest in the whole crew, Vol didn't doubt. When he read their levels with the System, all of them were above level 12.
Vol bellowed a roar. He was tempted to draw his axe, but he knew that if he drew it from his sheath, he would likely kill them. There was an animal in him, one that he had only recently started to feet.
The men to the front of him returned his bellow, as they readied themselves. The sound of their voices combined – angry, violent voices, of vicious men – seemed as though they'd be powerful enough to push him back.
Vol's feet ate up the ground regardless, though. He was big, and heavy, just like them. He hadn't quite filled out entirely yet, but his strength more than made up for that.
With the Blessing of the System, he used his agility stat to its fullest improved state. He reached a top speed that even a smaller and lighter man would have been thrilled with.
He saw the shock in the men's eyes, and he hadn't even hit them yet. He ducked his shoulder before he made contact, as though to tackle them. Still running at full speed, he hit them with all the strength that he could muster.
It was reckless. Shoulder into wood, putting that much power in. It truly was like running into a wall. If the wall didn't give, with the amount of force that Vol put in, he could have easily broken his shoulder.
Instead, he easily broke them, surprising not only the crowd around him, but also himself.
They were heavy, it was true, but that was only initially. This was not just the sledgehammer of his strength that he was hitting them with, but his full weight and speed. He only needed to overcome the initial inertia, and the wall already lost what made it strong.
The two largest men, right at the back, they lost their balance, shifting back. By then, it was already over for the rest of them. Vol forced his way straight through the middle, casting them off to the sides.
Vol's ears rang from the excitement, as he came to a halt, past the collapsed men.
On the roof, a distance away, Nolan was sitting up considerably straighter, a frozen look on his face. Vol met his eye, the man raised an eyebrow, and slowly began to clap. He gave a strange salute, and Vol turned away from him, towards the noises that greeted his back.
Laughter. That's what that noise was. Laughter mixed with cheers, as men doubled over themselves to point in glee, as their comrades dragged them up out of the slushy snow. A few gave Vol venomous glances, and stalked away from him, embarrassed, but one of the backrank men bellowed out laughter just as loud as the others.
"Good!" He said, in a thick accident, putting a hand on Vol's shoulder, and shouting to Blackbeard. "Is Hammer? Good! With Hammer is all good!" Was that Yarmdon he was speaking? Vol glanced at him, noting his darker skin. No… A foreigner. He hadn't realized it until the man opened his mouth.