The Ur-viles had all started with C tier Body stats! No wonder they were considered unkillable by the tribes of the steppe. Their Mind stats were all at E grade or above as well. These things really were monsters compared to normal humans. I’d forced them to enhance their Body to B grade and to spend the left over Souls on upgrading their basic spells. They would become exactly what I wanted them to be.

  “Don’t bloody start,” Jandak snapped at Kos as we moved north, our pet giants in tow.

  “What? I didn’t even say anything?” Kos replied in a voice that could have left a trail of slimy innocence behind him as he ran.

  “I saw the look!” Jandak answered.

  My new soulbound servants, all six of them, towered over us and trudged along on the flanks, three to either side. They had given us the location of their clan’s main camp along the river. The Ur-viles' long strides devoured the ground so we were jogging along while they moved at a fast walking pace.

  “Nuk, how fast can you run?” I asked. The biggest of my tamed monsters looked down at me and flashed a gap toothed smile. He began bounding forwards. The movements looked ponderous and clumsy but he left metre wide divots where his feet fell and he covered a dozen metres with each lunging step. I plucked on the thread linking me to his mind as he got about two hundred metres ahead and he stopped immediately, waiting for the rest of us to catch up.

  “That will put the wind up the shit-sitters,” chuckled Mune as we reached Nuk and the giant fell back into formation.

  “It put the wind up me! Mond, you’re sure they’re under control?” asked Kos quietly. I nodded and decided to reassure my doubting Thomas.

  “You!” I pointed at a mid-sized giant whose name I hadn't bothered to learn. They were disposable and I had no plans to get attached to the bastards. “Dance like a woman!” I snapped and the creature stopped and began swaying his hips back and forth with a furious scowl on his face. The other Ur-viles mocked him until I twitched their threads as well and mentally commanded them to do the same.

  “That’s what their women dance like? No wonder they're always so pissed off!” laughed Jandak.

  “Enough. Let’s move on,” I released the active control on them back to the basic “Don’t eat my people and obey me” level. I got some angry glares, especially from Nuk, but I was confident in my control over them and now at least the Fangs knew damn well the arrogant creatures couldn’t run wild.

  The tundra was similar to the steppe in many ways. Just colder and with much larger wildlife. There were predators skulking around but they didn’t dare approach us. Glimpse watched from above as a pack of giant cats with overgrown fangs circled behind us as we ran. They tracked us across their territory but didn’t try to come close. The Ur-viles smelled pretty bad and no doubt the big kitties knew to stay well clear of the big bastards.

  “Do your women really go into the hills when they enter heat?” Mune asked Nuk who glanced down and clamped his mouth shut. I twanged on our link and he glared at me before answering the question.

  “Of course not you fucking midget. Who ever heard of a human going into heat?” he snarled as he loped along.

  “Clearly you haven’t met Haylin! Maybe there’s hope for you yet Jandak!” barked Kos earning a thwack on his head for his trouble. Neither man broke stride as they ran, the advantages of boosted Body statistics, I supposed.

  “But you aren’t humans. We are. You’re Ur-viles,” Mune answered and I felt Nuk clamming up again.

  “Nuk, answer his questions honestly and in full,” I ordered harshly and the man, more than three times my own height, flinched like a beaten dog that sees his master is angry. This level of power of another person was too much. That social media influencer prick wouldn’t have any of my reservations about invading someone's mind and controlling them like this. Mortimer is the big problem now, I reminded myself. I could worry about the others later.

  “We are true humans. You were the base stock our creator used to make perfection. When Julius Narbo made us he turned you weaklings into real humans,” Nuk replied.

  Julius Narbo… I knew that name! It was the one in the carving’s I’d obsessed over in the mines at the Pass. So one of my predecessors had taken normal humans and turned them into these monsters? A whole new species! How high a level had that long dead Shikrakyn climbed to?

  “Tell me about Narbo,” I ordered, cutting into the conversation and reinforcing the order with a mental lash. Nuk grimaced and ducked his head as my control smacked into his mind.

  “Your people have stories of their creation and first heroes too. Narbo is like that for us. He was a Harvester. He made us and in doing so made us better than you vermin. We fought in his wars, built his cities and we were his most loyal servants. He couldn’t change himself though.”

  “I’m not from this world. Narbo used some power, probably a combination of Life and Space to make you. He was pulled from my world and forced to fight in this one like I’ve been,” I explained as I ran along like a toddler next to a grown up. The other giants snorted but Nuk glanced at me with fear in his huge eyes.

  “How can you prove your words?” he demanded, his voice threaded with fear beneath the bluster.

  “I gave you magic, bloke.” I leapt up and slashed his arm lightly with my sword. Black blood dripped down but he didn’t flinch. “Heal that,” I ordered. The flesh crept closed and the blood stopped. “Use Haste and sprint ahead!” He flashed forward like a locomotive, unstoppable once in motion. “Hold!” I yelled and he stopped to let us catch up.

  “The tales speak of similar tricks,” grumbled Nuk as he fell in next to us again. “That doesn’t prove anything. You might have found an artifact that gave you this power!” he accused.

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  “I’m not stripping naked to prove my point. Did you find where your predecessor died?” I asked.

  “Blasted earth. Fire must have fallen from the sky,” he muttered grudgingly.

  “Well if your clan isn’t welcoming to us you’ll get to see just how I did that,” I replied with an evil smile. My grin wasn’t lost on him and his face became thoughtful before he wiped his face back to the blank, semi-snarling aggression that seemed to be the Ur-viles resting expression. The Fangs chuckled maliciously at the giant's discomfort.

  “You’re powerful, little one, and worthy of respect but comparing yourself to Narbo will not win over the Clan. You’ll have to be respectful,” Nuk said softly.

  “No. They will bend the knee or I’ll slaughter them. Then I’ll enslave the survivors and use them to subdue another clan. Your people have one shot at this, if they fuck it up I’ll dispose of them and find another group to work for me.” My voice was cold and hard and to my surprise all the giants started chuckling, booming laughter ringing out as they stomped along.

  “He is a bit like Narbo then!” laughed one of the smaller Ur-viles.

  “Just the fucking same!” boomed another next to Nuk, earning a swat that could have knocked down a hundred year old tree for his trouble.

  “We’ll feast in the north, making it our own, then head south to serve the Harvester of Souls!” another rumbled, safely far enough from their leader he wouldn’t get his head smacked.

  “Little mortal. Wait a moment, please,” Nuk said as he slowed and I came to stop staring up and fist sized eyes. “Do you know what our problem is?” he asked softly. He’d knelt down on one knee and rested a hand on it as he looked at me. His knee was as high as my chest. Now he was merely twice my height but he still loomed over me.

  I thought furiously. This felt like a delicate moment. These giants were already under my control but whatever I said next might shape the future in some way I couldn’t understand. A roll of Aresk’s aura washed over all of us and the giants glanced around in surprise.

  “You lack purpose.” I said it firmly but it was at best a guess.

  “Correct, lord. We were made for war and great projects! With no worthy goal we squabble and fight among ourselves. It takes fifty seasons for our young to mature and while we don’t grow frail in old age like you Gerihuskars, we don’t have many children either. Our numbers are dwindling as we fight with each other-” as a faint feeling of sympathy for the poor bastards came from my conscience another giant opened his mouth and Nuk moved too fast for me to track. His fist slammed into the other Ur-viles face and a moment later he was kneeling over me again. “-apologies, lord. We are not permitted to speak of such things to you little ones but I’m convinced you’re no ordinary dwarf.”

  “You’re dying out?” I hazarded a guess. “And you want me to do something about it.” The last was more confident.

  “Yes.” His voice was bitter. “We are failing and as we fail the Makers legacy will pass from this world. If you swear to do everything in your power to help us I will make sure the Clans bend to your will.”

  Well this was a pickle. I’d wanted terrifying, and most importantly disposable, shock troops. While enslaving cannibal monsters was fine by my code this was an irritating twist of fate. They were still horrifically cruel monsters, baby eaters and cannibals but damn. Could I enslave a few and wipe the rest out? It’s easy to plan to exterminate an enemy until they start talking to you about going extinct.

  “I don’t have the powers of Narbo and I’m not sure I ever will. I can promise a cause that will stop your people fighting each other but not much more. I have enemies I have to fight and great works I want built. Roads and cities, maybe railways as well if we can manage them. Will that be enough for you?” I asked. The sense of being in a shieldwall, locking shields with the men next me, washed over us again.

  “Mars favours you, little one,” grinned Nuk.

  “We call him Aresk. Mars is a name he uses on my own world,” I growled as I pulled up my sleeve to reveal the god-mark. While my patrons' intercession was somewhat appreciated, it was also an irritating reminder that I was constantly being watched by the gods.

  “What the fuck is a railway?” muttered Kos. Mune and Jandak just shrugged at the unfamiliar word.

  “That will do. We’re moving too slowly, lord. Let us carry you and we can arrive at North Star in the morning,” Nuk rumbled as he rose to his feet and offered a hand to me. I blinked at the massive palm.

  “You will not harm us.” I didn’t pluck at the mental threads this time. I grabbed them and shook them to reinforce my order. All the giants winced and shook their heads.

  “There was no need for that. We had already been instructed not to hurt your kind anymore. Mastodon meat is bitter but we can live on it. Let us speed this journey up, lord.” I reached out and his hand ignored mine as it scooped me up like I was a baby. Startled yells rang out from the Fangs as they were grabbed as well.

  Once each of the merely normal humans were perched on a giant's shoulder the monsters took off at speed. No wonder I’d never caught that first giant approaching us. Despite the weight landing on each footfall there was no sound but the wind whistling past my ears as each stride devoured the remaining distance. Some gift Narbo had given them during their creation perhaps.

  The tundra flashed past in a blur as the Ur-viles made full use of their new powers, casting Enhance and Haste on themselves once an hour after they went through their initial mana reserves. Herds of mammoths shambled out of our way as we sped along. I kept a hand clamped onto the furs covering Nuk’s shoulder and the other was tangled in his shaggy hair. My legs bounced against his collar bone as we bounded along.

  The Fangs were grinning like loons, throwing insults at each other as they urged their own giant to run faster and take the lead. The monsters stoically ignored them and eventually the banter died down.

  Looking down from Glimpse our progress was terrifying. These beings outpaced our fastest cavalry and could maintain that speed for hours on end. As we rushed north I pondered how I could coordinate the capabilities of my new… troops? Dammit I’d wanted slavering monsters I could happily enslave and throw against the worst of whatever-the-hell Mortimer had planned for me. Now despite their monstrous nature I was… conflicted. I fought down the urge to slough off my code completely, it was the only thing that had come through from Earth with me and I couldn’t throw it aside for the sake of convenience.

  “You see it?” rumbled Nuk. The words were meant to be quiet but they still made my diaphragm bounce as the bass passed through me.

  “I’ve been watching it for some time. It’s not so different to our camps on the steppe,” I replied and I wasn’t lying.

  The camp was composed of a wide area enclosed with wooden stakes. They were an order of magnitude larger than the ones the tribes used for such purposes but the effect was the same. Within a number of mammoths milled about, tied to two foot wide stakes driven deep into the frozen ground.

  Perhaps a hundred massive yurts formed concentric rings around an open central area and at the heart of the camp rose a tent that would make any tribesman blush with envy. It was more of a marquee than a tent.

  As it finally came into my normal range of sight the effect was no less impressive. We’d passed through herds of giant mammoths as well as deer the size of family cars. The deer had taken flight as soon as we drew anywhere close to them but the ones we’d only passed by at a distance had continued cropping the frozen grass while one or two individuals with massive racks of horns glared in our direction.

  I couldn't remember much from when I was a kid but I had an uncanny sense of deja vu as the oversized camp got closer. It was like I was a child moving in an adult world, every table or chair jarring due to being overgrown for my needs.

  We slowed as we came within a kilometre of the camp and the “little ones” were carefully placed back on our own feet. The sun had risen and the light danced on the rushing river to the west of the giant's home.

  “Now, what were the names of those pricks who shit in the river when you wash again?” I asked Nuk.

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