XXXIV. The Jaw

"Who's there?!" yelled Dag.

He couldn't see and hear anything.

In front of him was only the pitch dark.

"Come on, whoever you are!" he continued, yelling Dag.

Still no answer, only the icy wind that crossed the trees and slammed on the rocks.

Dag focused.

Suddenly he heard the sound of a tightrope as if someone was pulling a cord.

In less than a second, he realized that someone was loading a bow to shoot an arrow!

From the darkness, an arrow made its way towards Dag, in mid-air.

Having sensed the direction, he was quick to dodge it and it hit the wooden door of the farm.

Thalos continued to growl madly.

"Calm Thalos, calm down. Wait," whispered Dag.

A noise of footsteps broke the silence.

Two shady figures came out of the darkness of the woods, walking towards Dag and Thalos.

They were two men with their faces covered.

One of them had a sword and a dagger.

The other carried a bow and after walking about ten meters, he charged another arrow and shot it always pointing at Dag.

Dag promptly dodged this too, which ended up shoved on the next door.

The man with the sword and the dagger charged towards them.

Dag prepared for impact.

Thalos noticed the danger and ran towards the man, trying to bite him on the leg, but he managed to fake a change of direction, dodging the wolf.

Soon after, he tried to hit Dag with the sword, but Dag deflected the blow, unbalancing his enemy, who made a half-twist in mid-air hit a second time with the dagger, causing a cut on Dag's leg.

Dag stepped back, without breaking down and keeping his guard.

"And who the fuck are you?! And what do you want?!"

The man lowered his hood.

His face was almost completely disfigured, with a missing eye and part of his face burned.

Dag tried to focus on his face.

Within seconds, he realized that his face was familiar to him.

"Don't you remember me, insolent kid?" said the man.

Dag remembered his voice: he was the leader of the bandits who tried to attack him and Magni on their journey from Jernhest to the Temple of Orn, the Renegades.

"You..." said Dag in a low voice.

"Because of you, your master almost killed me! Look at my face! Grrr... It's all your fault, you idiot!" growled the man, trying to blow himself at Dag.

He dodged the blow and crossed his arms, rehearsing an Earth Stomp, but his jumping enemy managed not to lose his balance and continued the attack.

Dag parried the sword blow, repelling his opponent.

He was strong.

Perhaps he was the strongest enemy he had ever faced. Or rather, the strongest enemy who wanted to kill him.

Yet Magni defeated him and 9 other Renegades with a single skill, without any

effort. He really was a formidable warrior.

Meanwhile, Thalos was struggling with the second man and seemed to get away with it rather well: Dag turned a moment to them and noticed that the wolf clutched the man's leg.

Shaking its head, it kept tearing it with his jaws and the Renegade screamed in pain, squirming on the ground.

Taking advantage of Dag's distraction, his enemy took a step forward and shoved his leg with the dagger, which was tucked inside his quadriceps.

Dag gasped in pain.

He made himself strong, and tore the dagger out of his flesh, bleeding.

He looked at the man, who giggled.

"Ihihih! Without your master, you're nothing! I'm going to impale your head in front of the farm, so he can figure out what happens to those who dare to challenge the Renegades! Ihihih!"

Dag was furious.

After taking a deep breath, he clenched his fists and in an instant, the volume of his arms and legs' muscles increased slightly. He felt his heartbeat pulsing and the blood pumping into his veins.

It was Call Of The Berserkr.

The wound on his leg stopped bleeding.

Dag began to see everything surrounded by a slight red shade as if he had blood in his eyes.

He charged at his opponent, who managed to dodge the first sword blow, but was punched in the face soon after, which knocked him to the ground.

Dag felt like a fury coming from inside his chest, but it wasn't the same sensation he felt before he was exiled from the arena: it was much more bodily than mental, as if his body spurred the mind to attack relentlessly up to kill, however, maintaining a certain self-control.

The stricken man rose from the ground with his mouth bleeding.

He wiped the blood from his face using his hand.

From the right, Thalos returned to Dag.

He had the head of one of the two attackers in his jaws. He stopped a few meters away: probably through his animal instinct he could feel the power and danger of Dag and was afraid of it.

"But look... even the kid has balls! Hihihi," the man said, chuckling, despite the blow to the face.

He stood up and crossed his arms resting his hands on his shoulders.

He vanished into thin air in a cloud of smoke.

Dag was surprised. The last time he witnessed such a technique was when long ago, the bandit killed Stein and tried to kill Asa. That bandit was a member of the Lies Of Loki Clan!

The technique that his enemy had just used must have belonged to the same Clan!

Dag turned immediately.

The man had just appeared behind him, in mid-air, and was trying to strike him at the height of his throat, as if he wanted to behead him.

Dag lowered himself, dodging the sabre.

He quickly got up and threw a powerful upright under the enemy's chin, before it touched the ground.

A violent sound of broken bones was heard. Dag had just broken the Renegade's jaw.

The man fell back to the ground and the blood leaking from his face increased.