Improvised voyage

Bruno was driving.

As a rosy-reddish light started to take over the sky, the lady beside him yawned and raised her arms to stretch. Influenced by her, his tired face also yawned, causing him to slow down to avoid hitting a tree.

He greeted her:"good morning, did you sleep well?"

Realising where she was, she instantly composed herself.

In embarrassment, she replied without even answering his question:"you sure are a morning type guy, the sun is barely visible and we are already marching, come to think of it, I never saw you again at the association, was it because you always came in the morning?"

He answered with a cold tone: " we never stopped, also, you are supposed to answer when someone asks you a question."

Her eyes widened, and she asked in surprise:"wait,if you never stopped, then were are we?"

"We just passed St.Petersburg, you fell asleep five hours ago, also you stil haven't answered my question, didn't your parents teach you to answer when someone asks you something"

The conversation continued for a bit, but died down as the radio started telling the news.

"As of today, 1st July 2028, the world is faced with both a crisis and a bereavement, caused by the deaths of three deities during the last two weeks, all the awakened above rank eighty five will be tested by the association for the positions to deities, the assessment will b…."

The metallic voice of the radio continued to speak, during the explanation, Andrei identity was revealed and Bruno was left speechless, how could it be, he wasn't able to sense his aura even staying a dozens of centimetres away from him.

The crazy lady beside him however, didn't seem shocked about it as if she already knew about it, she still almost shed some tears holding them only to keep her face in front of him, as if she lost a loved one.

Bruno began pondering about the reason a person as powerful as Andrei put all his time the last days of his life helping them, and why he didn't flee or call for help using his influence as a deity.

There was only one piece that could complete the puzzle, and it was standing right beside him.

The crazy lady, she must've been someone influential that he was trying to protect and hide from the eyes of someone or something really dangerous, if even he, one of the most powerful awakened couldn't face it head on.

With this alarming thought in mind, he watched her intensely while she was enjoying the view outside the car window.

He used the only skill that could've been useful in a situation like this, and sure enough, it was.

The window floating in front of his already exhausted face was saying:

[name: Elsa

Awakened bloodline: Freya

Awakening stage: 1

Fate: fated to refuse the hand of Odin in marriage and cause his wraith]

~f*ck! what have I gotten myself into this time!~

~ good, so now not only do I have both the most terrifying gods of Olympus trying to kill me, but I'm also a high interest target in the radar of the feared all-father of the Norse pantheon, what could possibly ever go wrong in this cursed life of mine.~

He was extremely tired, having driven for almost 16 hours, and the car was about to run out of fuel.

So he decided to take a break, he instructed Elsa to refill the car with fuel kept in the box of their pickup, and to make attention not to use the fuel for the boat, he didn't call her by her true name obviously, since she had yet to introduce herself.

He put his arms on the steering wheel, and dropped his head on his arms, falling asleep almost instantly.

He was woken by a loud noise,

"another five minutes, please I'm sleepy"

Another loud noise woke him up.

Infuriated, he slammed his hand on the car and screamed:" what is it?!".

His eyes started opening and between the blinding light he could see two figures moving in a strange way, he almost instantly realised what was happening.

He hurried out of the car, quickly unsheathing his dagger and heading towards the two figures, he dashed towards the biggest one and tried to stab it with his mana imbued dagger, the only thing his hands felt was a fluffy fur, not the usual blood.

His attack hadn't made it through the opponent skin, an attack came his way from beside, having no time to evade something so big, he tried to parry it and was sent flying, banging his whole body on the side of the car and leaving a mark on the structure.

All that pain had completely awoken him, and he could now see what was in front of him, standing on all fours facing his direction was a bear, However, it wasn't a normal one, it was wearing a bone mask on his snout and his back was covered in shrubs and grass.

It was an Otso.

In Finland ancients beliefs, the Otso was a sacred animal, and was the king of the forest, to this day, the animal representing the country of Finland was the bear.

As he was trying to recall everything he could of what else he had learned about the Otso, Elsa who was previously running from the bear and was now on sitting on the snow, after falling on her back, screamed:

"DUCK!"

He quickly followed her advice, and less than a tenth of a second later, a three clawed slash tore apart the black veil of the car and the tanks of oil underneath it, if he had reacted a second later, it wouldn't have been the abundant gas flowing down from his car, but his blood.

He rolled to his right, avoiding the other pawn of the beast.

He was now struggling to avoid his death, he could've tried to counterattack, but a normal stab wouldn't even make a dent on the monster sturdy fur, he needed a direct hit, possibly in monster's eyes, but he couldn't find an opening, at that moment a ball of light reached the Bear eyes and making him lose his vision for a few seconds, it came from Elsa, Bruno took the opportunity and activated his skill: superhuman motion , he then jumped.

Surrounding the beast's neck with his legs and standing on it's shoulders, he took out his second dagger and stabbed it's eyes with both his daggers, they penetrated trough his flesh and reached the brain, the colossus fell on its own chest lifeless.

Bruno opened the beast neck and extracted an almost fist sized mana stone, it was mainly orange and only had a hint of yellow near it's core, he then returned to the car, mounted on the passenger seat and posed his arms on the dashboard using them as a pillow, he then said with a tired and low voice:"could you please take care of the rest?"

He didn't speak really loud but in the now silent forest his world were clearly heard by Elsa, after seeing her nod, he fell asleep without any troubles.