The Heart of Vengeance

[TheAverageFan]

Some interesting drafts, and it piques my curiosity for what Ragnak's story in Valhalla would be (as those bits feel more like a teaser for a sequel!)

That final bit of art is really cool, though the eye and skin colors make him look like Squidward

~TAF, playing some catch up on reading

[TGRF]

Originally Posted by TheAverageFan

Some interesting drafts, and it piques my curiosity for what Ragnak's story in Valhalla would be (as those bits feel more like a teaser for a sequel!)

That final bit of art is really cool, though the eye and skin colors make him look like Squidward

~TAF, playing some catch up on reading

Well as to Ragnak's story in Valhalla, that is written - sort of. At least as much of it as I ever really had nailed down. It's in LBV. Obviously his character is way different, because HoV wasn't written yet. And he never made it through the battle, because I didn't know how to bring in his confrontation with Astia, nor exactly what it would be about.

It's there, but in case slogging through mountains of text in search of obscure passages doesn't appeal to you for some reason, here are the relevant bits:

Spoiler Alert!

Utgar crosses the Dragon's Head Sea. An orc is making too much noise with the oars:

Spoiler Alert!

Utgar turned again as the orc made another splash. He had no intention of killing the creature, nor did he have any chance to, for at that moment, a blade of bone, honed to a wicked degree of sharpness, was driven through the orc’s chest. The orc died without a sound, and was thrown out of the boat by the creature that had killed him.
The creature was an orc, or had at least been one at some time. His entire body was encased in bone, armor won from a generation of battles against giant foes. Only his head remained visible, along with the fingers of his hands, and these fleshly appearances were scarred until they were more black than blue. One red eye glowed evilly from under a thick brow, the only indication of an uncommonly brilliant mind sunk somewhere in its owner’s head. Its fingers were wrapped around two hilts, one for each hand, which were hewn out of bone as well. The two hafts had been sharpened into thick blades below, and fearsome axes above, and all four of the blades were encrusted with the blood and gore of thousands of battles. When Utgar had summoned this creature, that blood had been nearly all blue. Now, it was mostly red.
The wielder of these weapons was Ragnak, an orc chieftain of fearsome reputation. It seemed that he lived merely to slaughter his enemies, a characteristic that Utgar had found useful, especially after the deaths of Grimnak and Tornak. Ragnak was now the supreme leader of the orcs, and Utgar had charged him with one mission: to enter Artorus’s fortress, slaughter his way to Artorus, and fight him until he was sure that he was dead, never to return. Utgar doubted that Ragnak would fail.

Dan and Francois defend the gate to Artorus' castle. In this version, Dan's gloves can repulse metal, as well as various metal particles he carries with him, capable of inflicting various 'effects':

Spoiler Alert!

The gate cracked again and a line appeared from top to bottom, threatening to break the gate asunder.
“Try to avoid using fire,” Francois said to Dan as the last of the gate disintegrated and fell away. Dan nodded, and raised his hands.
The orcs came pouring in through the ruined gate, swords and axes flailing, and were surprised when they were sent back out again just as quickly. Driven on by their metal armor, they flew away from the gate until they dropped to the ground at least a hundred yards away, usually on a convenient jagged piece of ice.
Dan was surprised at how easy it was. No orc seemed to be able to survive his attack, and he took special relish in this fact, as every orc slain was another of Ana’s murderers dead. He refrained from using acid or fire however, as the use of either one would harm the air elementals behind the murder holes.
All was going well, except for the fact that the orcs kept on trying to come back, until a voice, ravaged by decades of bloody battle, yelled something far beyond Dan’s capability to understand, much less pronounce. The orcs surged forward all the harder, but this time they were accompanied by a formidable figure, an enemy that, try as he might, Dan could not repulse.
Ragnak smiled a smile of evil satisfaction as he saw the look of surprised horror on Dan’s face. He had a moment to register that look, to scrutinize every aspect of the Mariedian before him, before the air elementals attacked.
His bone armor, in addition to being impervious to Dan’s attack since it was not metal, protected him equally well from the blows of his near invisible assailants. Whirling his twin blades, he clove every attacker foolish enough to approach him, until every last elemental had disintegrated into a fine wisp. He then approached Dan, an evil glint in his eye.
“Charge!” yelled Francois. With a mighty roar, the knights surged forward, hacking and slicing at every bit of Ragnak that they could see. Ragnak, hardened by years of experience not even Einar could have claimed, dueled them all with ease, and soon the floor was littered with the corpses of dead and dying men, once proud knights. Then Francois, his heart hardened at the sight of his companions’ demise, drew his own sword, clamped his visor shut, and prepared to meet this new horror of Utgar’s.
Dan only had time to cast a stream of fire at Ragnak, which bounced harmlessly off of his armor, before Francois was upon him, cutting, slashing, and hacking.
Ragnak, surprised, but by no means overwhelmed by the ferocity of Francois’s attack, prudently took a step backwards. Then he lunged forward with such suddenness that he caught Francois off guard, and shoved him to the floor. Then, before he could get up, he swung his blade overhead and brought it down with a satisfying crunch, on Francois.
At that instant, a bullet sailed cleanly into Ragnak’s forehead, and the great orc leader slumped to the floor without a sound, as dead as any foe he had ever defeated.
Dan replaced his pistol in its holster and rushed to Francois.

That's all there is of Ragnak in LBV. The idea stuck though, eventually creating HoV.

~TGRF.
P.S. Apparently Ragnak also showed up in the second version of Valhalla Reborn. But he was killed even faster than he was here. This was all clearly before the demon heart idea entered my head.