LXXIII. Dargeon

He swallowed the power of the reptilian.

He felt the smoke thicken in his throat and slip into his stomach.

He looked up at his enemies and dashed towards them, to support his comrades.

One at a time, the enemy warriors died, hit by Dag's heavy hammer attacks.

The effect of Call Of The Berserkr had added to that of the reptilian's physical strength.

However, his senses were less developed than when he absorbed the vital energy of the undead, before killing Hjalmar.

As Dag killed all his opponents fighting with fury, his allies began to retreat, frightened by his power.

When his last opponent remained, he began to run away from Dag, who threw his hammer with force, striking the man and smashing his skull.

Then he ran towards him and detached the hammer from his head, with a jump.

The man's lifeless body fell to the ground.

The west wing of the Temple Of Orn was safe. Now the other areas had to be secured, as planned.

After he turned to his companions, Dag noticed that everyone was looking at him in a strange way.

Between them, Dargeon had just arrived.

"What?!" said Dag, still full of adrenaline.

"That power... Where does it come from?" asked Dargeon.

"I've had it in me since I was born, Master" Dag said, bending his head slightly toward his Master, out of respect.

"Magni... Magni knew..." Continued Dargeon.

Dag looked at the hammer with sadness.

"What happened to him? Did you kill him?!" said Dargeon, trying to figure out if Dag was telling the truth.

Before Dag could answer back, a huge explosion shook the walls.

"What was it?!"

"It was an explosion!"

"It came from the other side of the courtyard!"

All the warriors turned in the direction of the noise, frightened.

"... Egill" said Dargeon, who immediately ran to the library.

Dag followed him, without saying anything.

Behind him, all his companions.

Running, they noticed that the explosion came not from the library, but from the main entrance.

The huge reinforced iron door had been swept away.

The violent blow had left a crater in the walls around it.

Everyone turned to see.

Amidst the smoke and flames, another troop of soldiers, much larger than the previous one, was entering the Temple.

Dag recognized the two leaders.

"It's them!" he thought, realizing that his enemies, discovering that their other troop had been defeated, had managed to enter through the main entrance on their own.

One of the two men walked in front of everyone.

As soon as he crossed his gaze with the Hammers Of Thor, he nodded his hand, ordering his troop to stop at the edge of the crater.

He was a tall, stout man with long straight hair.

Although the smoke made the view poor, his green eyes gave off an uncommon glow.

"Who the fuck are you?! How dare you break into the sacred Temple Of Orn?!" shouted Dargeon.

Dag looked at him intently and then shifted his gaze to the enemy.

His Master's aura was of deep orange, less red than Magni's.

The man with long black hair was surrounded by a dark yellow aura.

"Everyone behind me!" continued Dargeon. All Allied warriors positioned themselves behind him, with shields and weapons pointed at enemies.

"Today I feel generous" the enemy said.

"Um?" Dag and all his companions could not understand the meaning of that statement.

"You managed to defeat my soldiers, including my 3 strongest ones. Since I feel generous, I will give you the opportunity to join us, direct descendants of Jormungandr, the true great Serpent God. Lower your weapons and we will take possession of your Temple, which like every other place on Skjold, is rightfully ours" he continued.

"The cosmically powerful demon called Jormungandr will rise from the waters during Ragnarok the end of all things" Dargeon said, as he pulled out his axe and shield.

"His wrath will fall upon the seas and the lands... blowing his poison will contaminate the whole world. Until Thor, during the battle, will defeat him with the power of lightning" Dargeon continued, slamming his axe on the shield, which emitted red sparks.

The warriors of the allied Clan began to foment after the words of their Master, including Dag, who squeezed Magni's hammer hard.

"However..." replied the man.

"He won't be able to survive more than nine steps after the victory and he will die, killed by the venom of the serpent God" he continued.

He nodded again with his hand, pointing to Dargeon and his warriors.

Immediately, the enemy troop charged towards them.

Dag began to fight: enemies mostly wore heavy armor and spears.

Easily he managed to kill some of them, without looking away from the man with black hair.

From behind him, the other general of the enemy troop, charged in his direction.

He wielded two swords and wore a helmet with two huge, straight up horns.

Only his eyes could be seen from the helmet.

As he ran, he was attacked by two allied warriors but he killed them both in a few seconds.

His fighting technique was advanced, his two swords moved sinuously and their movements were accompanied by streams of water, which gave the blades an additional sharp power, avoiding getting them dirty with the blood of his victims.

Before he could get in front of Dag, who was ready to face him, he was hit violently to one side, with a shield bash that knocked him to the ground.

He was Dargeon.

The enemy warrior shoved one of his swords to the ground and pushed himself to get up and jump toward Dargeon, who raised his shield, parrying the blow.

The warrior backtracked.

Dag observed his master's movements, trying to understand more of his technique: his fighting style was based on defense, after parrying the enemy's shot he would have a chance to attack him on the uncovered flank, but he did not.

The warrior attacked him again, but Dargeon parried again the blow, bouncing his opponent's sword to the shield and then counterattacking him with the axe.