LIX. The Iron Spark

Magni squeezed the bone in his hand.

From the tip of his toes, his body began to turn into metal.

Within seconds, the transformation reached the chest, the back and finally covered the whole face.

The hand clutching Hjalmar's arm bone also became silver.

Hjalmar could no longer hold Magni off the ground: his weight had increased dramatically.

With an expression of toil, he lowered the arm with which he had managed to impale Magni.

He clasped his grip on the bone and slowly twisted his hand. He broke it again.

Hjalmar cried out in pain and stepped back, looking at Magni.

"Damn!" he said.

Magni grabbed the piece of bone that pierced him.

He slowly pulled it out of his body.

During the extraction, he heard the sound of his muscle fibers writhing and tearing as the sharp bone passed.

Soon after extracting it, his wound healed over immediately: the hole that

Hjalmar had caused in his stomach closed, becoming metal.

The crowd of warriors stood motionless to watch, their faces terrified.

Dag was astonished.

That ability looked like "Iron Skin", but greatly perfected and combined with other powers.

Magni was an exceptional warrior.

He was the best chieftain his clan could hope to have.

His body was entirely metallic and his eyes shone with a heavenly light.

Magni raised the bone high, pointing it at Hjalmar as if it was a javelin.

He threw it violently and the bone lodged in the leg of the King Of Bones, who was forced to kneel on it.

Magni began to walk towards him.

He held his arm towards the hammer, which flew into his hand.

Hjalmar grabbed the bone lodged in his leg, trying to extract it, but he had stabbed it completely and it was difficult to pull it away.

Magni kept walking, staring at Hjalmar, kneeling.

The King managed to extract the bone from his leg, which began to lose a lot of blood.

He got up, balancing on the other leg.

He looked at his weapon, still far from him.

Magni's hammer began to charge with energy.

"Don't think you're the only one with a secret weapon!" exclaimed Hjalmar, opening his arms and looking up at the sky that could be seen from the crack of the ceiling.

Magni, meanwhile, struck him with the hammer on his injured leg.

Hjalmar knelt again.

He hit him again, but on the other leg.

Hjalmar lost his balance and knelt on it too.

Once again, Magni hit him in the face with the back of the hammer, turning on himself.

Hjalmar flew away, impacting on some of his warriors and then on the wall, flattening the poor men under him.

Soon after, he fell to the ground.

"My King! Get up!"

"King Hjalmar, but how is this possible?!"

"Your Majesty!"

The men around him began to worry about their ruler, who was about to be defeated by Magni.

Some of them approached him, helping him to get up.

Hjalmar accepted the help, but soon after he dismissed them, without thanking them.

"Move..!" he said.

Magni stood still in his position, waiting for his opponent to return to the center of the room.

Hjalmar spread his arms again.

With his head turned up, he began to utter something in a low voice.

The other Renegades looked at him in astonishment, they had never seen him behave like that.

"Now that's enough. You're really me off, Magni said, beginning to swirl the hammer, creating a small tornado of electricity next to him.

Hjalmar stopped talking and lowered his head.

"Your Majesty... Is everything okay?!" said one warrior, approaching Hjalmar.

Hjalmar with his huge hand grabbed his face.

The Renegade began to agitate, unable to free himself from the grip. With his hands he tried to take Hjalmar's hand off, but it was all pointless.

"It's all...great" Hjalmar said, looking up at Magni.

His eyes were purple.

"No way! How the fuck can they connect with the Xis so easily?!" thought Dag.

Hjalmar continued to shake the poor warrior with his hand.

The veins of his arm swelled, becoming purple.

The trapped man began to scream, but the scream lasted only a few seconds.

Dag tried to look better: from the warrior's ears and mouth a black fluid poured out.

When Hjalmar let him go, the man stood still staring at the void.

In the confusion, while everyone was focused on watching the scene, Dag slowly approached the remains of Myr's corpse.

The man Hjalmar had just touched suddenly turned to the other warriors behind him.

With both hands, he grabbed two by the throat.

Meanwhile, Hjalmar did the same thing with two men on the other side.

Magni stopped the hammer.

"What the fuck is going on?!" he said.

Dag had never heard the voice of his master so worried.

Hjalmar was empowering his army! The men who were infected, in their turn, infected the warriors near them.

In no time, Hjalmar would be able to create an army of undead.

"Master! You have to stop it! If he will infect each of the warriors in the room, it goes south for us!" yelled Dag toward Magni.

Magni pointed the hammer at a group of warriors who had not yet been infected.

From his weapon he fired a burst of lightning bolts, which killed one by one all the Renegades in front of him.

On the other side, one of them came running towards Magni, who, being turned on the other side, did not notice the enemy advancing towards him.

The undead Renegade punched him in the face, but as soon as his hand crashed into the metal that covered Magni's face, the fingers of his hand shattered.

Magni didn't move an inch.

He gave a warhead to the forehead of the undead and then, waving the hammer, hit him violently on the side of his face, severing his head, which flew away.

Dag put his hand on the ground, near Myr's remains, touching the pool of magenta blood.