Tanya's head pounding as slid to a stop when she and Leo finally crashed against a stone structure. She'd been attacked, blindsided by something strong enough to send the mammoth-sized lion flying and harm her just the slightest bit while deep in his chest.
By the sunken chest wound on her feline protector, it was relatively small like an oversized fist or cannonball. She swiveled around the mana she was cocooned in searching for whoever attacked and also for Brand who she'd finally found if only for a moment.
After leaving the Hall, Tanya had a difficult time finding the dungeon. She’d never ventured into the city until now so finding her way took some time. After gaining directions from a city guardsman, she ran to the dungeon only to find it empty. Brand’s magic had already been sealed and he'd probably made his way for the closest city exit so that's where Tanya headed.
She desperately searched the Null Road even summoning Leo around herself to move faster. It was all for not.
Several minutes later, Tanya found nothing but terrified mundane people running from Leo's massive form. She was about to head back into Vellia thinking that Brand tried to sneak back into the Hall when a pillar of spell circles appeared on the other side of the city.
It was a spell of Brand’s making. He talked at length about how casting such a thing was possible if he only had the mana. Regardless of how he accomplished the feat, to cast such a spell, he'd have to be at the pillar’s base. Sadly, it was on the other side of Vellia.
By the time Tanya found the tower’s base, the spell had ended, and Brand was nowhere to be seen. What she could see was someone standing on top of a stone platform with thunder clouds gathering around it.
She ran into the fray finding Brand soaked in his own blood and a finely dressed noble that she would have killed if not for whatever blindsided her.
Leo ran forward with Tanya casting runes over his skin tough as chainmail and thick like an oversized shield. She looked to the dark clouds looming above feeling that something was amiss. There was no wind or rain just lighting dancing across the sky.
“Somethings not right,” she said to herself right before her eyes widened in fear. A localized thunderstorm could only herald Magni or. “The thunderers.”
A fur-covered tattooed man landed on Leo’s snout holding a war hammer over his head. “That's right beastie! Taste a thunderer’s hammer!”
The weapon came down, emitting a flash of lightning on impact. Like a statue, Leo shattered wrenching a painful scream from Tanya. She hit the ground with her back arched from the agony of having her mana run rampant.
When Mildrith cut Leo in half, the experience gave her a small taste of what might happen if her summoning was violently destroyed. But the event only helped her stay conscious instead of receding into the darkness of her mind to escape the torment.
The thunderer landed a few paces from Tanya along with several of his fellow cultists. She tried to overcome the backlash and rise to her feet, but only stumbled as death strode closer.
Speaking was also not possible, but what would she say if she could? The thunderers were just as mad as the god they worshipped. Every beast kin knew to gain their ire was certain death. They only answered to Magni and would even attack Vellian forces if it meant defeating what they thought to be a great evil.
“I didn’t think it would be this easy,” said a woman coming up behind the thunderer that shattered Leo in one blow. “I was hoping she’d summon a foreign god.”
Bountiful laughter resounded as their leader spoke. “Your youth shows.” He grasped the large two-hander hammer on his back that glowed with the same runes covering his body. “If you are ever honored to witness Magni take the field, you’d understand. Heathen or not, we’d stand no chance against a god.” A smile crested his lips as he throttled his mana. “So now is the best time to end the mutt.”
Tanya could only crawl as the thunderer surged at her with divine lighting in his eyes. He wanted her dead out of the fear she’d summoned a foreign god in the heart of Vellia. But Tanya knew of no other gods but the Aesir. She'd even summon one now but couldn’t utter its name to save her.
“You know calling my name is not necessary to summon me right. You just need to want to,” Bitarr said in a condescending tone from within Tanya’s mind.
A large chunk of her mana flew out of her body despite it not being under her control as a misty cloud formed in front of her. At the same time, the thunderer fell on his face as faintly glowing threads wrapped around his legs.
Before he could recover, a man wrapped in a dark cloak fell from the sky landing on his back with a sickening squelch as he stabbed something into the thunderer’s back. The dark figure released a spell through his weapon with a twist.
Instead of a scream, gallons of blood gushed from the thunderer’s mouth. Tanya didn't look away in time and her gut roiled. She saw chunks of flesh in the fountain of red. Organs, she realized, and shattered pieces of bone scattered throughout it all.
The thunderers recoiled, each shaken. Their weapons were held ready by long hours of training more than a few trembled at seeing the blood flesh mixing into the mud.
The dark figure stood, pulling his weapon free of the thunderer’s corpse with a leg planted disrespectfully on the dead man’s head. Tanya could now see the weapon in his hand to be a particularly long and thick wand with Damascus steel coating its tip. She also saw his garb which made her wonder if he was a friend or foe.
In easy-to-read script, were the runes of death drawn onto his back marking him as a follower of Hel and a necromancer.
The misty body of the divine beast came together taking the form of the dead man on the ground and smiled. “You just need to keep the girl safe,” Bitarr said as his eyes glowed with divine power that was not his own. “Just leave uncle Magni's zealots to me. I haven't killed any in far too long.”
****
Bitarr stretched his new body enjoying the pops and cracks found in every warrior’s bones. He then reached into his pants cupping his balls. He hadn't been a man in years and his last dalliance as Elbert Bryer was far too short to be enjoyed. Maybe this time he could enjoy a woman or two, there was certainly time. With Tanya opening her second gate in the last few years, Bitarr could remain summoned for hours.
When his attention drifted back to the thunderer, Bitarr realized they'd been shouting at him for some time. So was Dagfinn who was currently in disguise, but he was at least a bit more restrained. Looking into people’s minds instead of hearing what they said was a hard habit to kick.
Bitarr saw the striker's fear of all things snake-like and desire for some woman named Cora. She was a mid-ranked cultivator with a decent focus and was also a striker. If his current form was not up to the task, she was a decent option.
Bitarr looked to Tanya who was quickly recovering. He would have much rather assumed the form of Elbert Bryer again, but it was daytime and to his surprise, her fear had changed. It was now too abstract to be useful, more of a concept than anything physical. Bitarr couldn't tell. He could only gleam the literal. Her desire was also quite useless. It was some dark skin mundane human, but unless he was some kind of demigod, that form would be useless.
The form Bitarr ended up choosing was one gleaned from the mind of a thunderer. Seeing their leader and strongest member killed in front of them brought on a feeling of loss that overwhelmed anything else in their minds. He still rather have gleamed their fear, which for many of them was the very god they worshiped.
Bitarr finally listened to Dagfinn hearing his words. “Are you listening to me?”
“Yeah, yeah,” Bitarr said dismissively. “Just stand back and watch.”
“No,” Dagfinn argued. “I can at least hold them off unlike you.”
Bitarr banged his chest with a powerful fist. “Do you not see me wearing a high-quality meat suit.”
“That meat suit is not strong enough to fight all of its former friends.”
“Enough!” roared the woman Bitarr remembered through his current form's memories as Thora whose anger teetered on madness. “You desecrate our bodies with your filthy lies! This is why that beast has to die! The king too if he would let such a monster live amongst us.”
Thora moved faster than sound as a living bolt of lightning. She rematerialized in front of Bitarr and swung at his head with her hammer. Bitarr parried the blow with his own hammer creating a shock wave that forced Tanya and Dagfinn back several feet while gouging a crater into the earth. This form taught the girl everything she knew of battle allowing insight into her fighting style that could now be used against her.
Thora dashed around Bitarr trying to land a blow, but like in training, her teacher knew her mind better than she did. Even as she slowly throttled her mana faster with every heartbeat, Bitarr kept pace empowering himself as she did. Soon, a maelstrom of blue light surged around them growing brighter with the booming of their weapons.
The destruction grew worse as Thora and Bitarr abandoned their roots to the world instead anchoring themselves to the earth beneath their feet. The ground shook with the force of their attacks running great cracks through the area.
Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.
After a short while, Thora overextended allowing Bitarr’s hand to shoot out with a sword aura grabbing her throat in an embrace that could crush diamond. He forced his magic over her form forcing her to remain as flesh and blood.
Before Bitarr was able to crush her skull with a well-placed blow, he was forced into a spin avoiding another’s hammer. He wasn't fast enough the second time when another thunderer smashed his knee. No bones broke but the pain loosened his grip enough for Thora to free herself. A moment later, she bellowed a guttural chant in the forgotten Norse tongue.
“Gefmikr þinn megin Magni!” (Give me strength Magni!)
The runes across her skin glowed with a power that collected in her hammer. Pointing the weapon forward, she released an impossible beam of lightning.
By Magni’s will, the wild energy submitted, keeping its course without moving randomly as a straight line faster than the eye could see. Bitarr accepted the attack knowing the same divine nature that controlled it would protect him. But he didn't anticipate the explosive expansion of air the attack caused as it slammed into his chest.
The massive explosion sent dirt and rocks flying forcing Dagfinn to jump in front of Tanya with a mana shield just barely strong enough to protect him from the clashing titans. At the same time, Bitarr was swarmed by hammers. The pounding widened the crater he was in until with an explosion, Bitarr shouted a chant of his own; completely made up but as effective as any prayer.
“ek knáttnrýtatt sumr fylgjagð fǫðurbróðir!” (i could use some help uncle.)
A burst of lightning escaped Bitarr’s body forcing the thunderers back for only a moment, but they remained unharmed, the actual lightning having no effect on them.
Despite his body's superior strength, Bitarr was quickly being overwhelmed. He needed to be fast in order to fight so many at once, something faster and new erasing the wounds he was quickly accumulating. Before he was able to look in Dagfinn’s direction, the striker wrapped him in mana threads and pulled him free of the battle.
“You might have the strength of a warrior, but you certainly don't have one’s mind,” Dagfinn said chastising the god like a fool.
“Who do you think you’re talking to, I’m a god,” Bitarr said sarcastically through a busted lip. He spat out a wad of blood and laughed. “Ha, taste like coppers.”
“Well you're setting a very low bar,” Dagfinn said as he ran to meet the thunderers alone.
The thunderers pumped their weapons forward reciting a prayer of destruction. Before they finished, Dagfinn cast his mana threads out wrapping them around any sturdy structure nearby. With a thought, the threads constricted pulling the striker to the side then around decrepit buildings and large boulders the battle forced from the ground.
The thunderers fired their beams of lightning faster than any could hope to dodge but missed as their target slid behind cover and out of sight. The damage each shaft of light caused was literally staggering as more craters were punched into the landscape, but by the nature of their energy, none passed the flimsiest of wood or weakest of stone.
More threads of mana spread throughout the area, some attaching to thunderers who frantically pulled themselves free as if any contact meant instant death. Their fearless personas completely shattered as the dark figure jumped into the sky, all threads leading back to him.
Thora was the first to react, aiming her hammer with a prayer on her lips, and was soon followed by her comrades. They were abruptly cut off by a scream eerily similar to their former leader’s as Dagfinn burst from the ground stabbing his metal-tipped wand under a thunderer’s ribs and into his heart. The flying cloak he had soaring through the air on strings fell to the ground moments later, the distraction it caused no longer needed.
With a dim flash of a simple spell, the man burst into chunks showering everyone in blood. Without slowing for an instant, Dagfinn slid across the blood-drenched ground looking for his next kill. He found it in a man furiously wiping blood from his eyes and too distracted to defend himself in time.
Dodging a poorly timed attack, Dagfinn stabbed at the thunderer's thigh busting his leg like rotten fruit. Before toppling to the ground, the striker lashed out again puncturing a kidney and liquefying the man's organs with a burst of power. Just as he freed his weapon, he was forced into the air avoiding another thunderer’s attack that would have surely ended him.
Dagfinn once again released hundreds of threads from his body using a few to quickly pull him back to the ground. As he landed, bright flashes erupted around him as the elementals tried to attack with their dazzling speed. They only made it a few inches before rebounding off the threads scattered throughout the area. The others also tried attacking but were tangled within a few steps and completely restrained in a few more.
“I guess I have set the bar pretty low,” Bitarr admitted as he watched Dagfinn surrounded by those with stronger mana and bodies completely restrained with so little power.
Even the elementals were subdued. They sputtered between states of being but were held by the that bound them.
Bitarr couldn't help wondering if Dagfinnn was a prodigy. He could tell from his thoughts Dagfinn measured Cora his equal meaning strikers regularly were this deadly. They could be just who he was looking for.
Dagfinn took hold of his mana through his fingers making a fist as he spoke. “Striker’s Onslaught!”
The mana threads for the briefest moment, became unbreakable and sharp like a blade as they were pulled taut around the thunderous bodies. Several of the heavily enchanted hammers fell to pieces as cleanly cut pieces of metal. Any armor in the path of the threads was as paper to a sword giving way without resistance. When Dagfinn’s onslaught finally reached flesh, he was bathed in a fountain of blood but kept himself clean with a mana shield.
Bitarr's eyes widened at the gory scene. He’d killed plenty of thunderers in his time, but never had he seen them fall apart like a puzzle of rended flush. One even stayed hole for a long moment before falling apart like a blood-filled puzzle.
Only six thunderers remained alive, but none were unaffected. Two were resilient enough to survive but were entangled in threads that cut deep into their flesh. The last four were elementals, crackling with bright glowing lines across their dismembered bodies.
Dagfinn grasped his fist tightly, blending a spell into his mana threads. Flames spread from his fingertips and coalesce around the bound thunderers. Terrible screams shook everyone from their stupor when the blaze started in earnest. The dismembered elementals began floating back together as Dagfinn tried his best to finish the last of their number he was able to harm. When the scream abruptly ended, he knew his efforts were in vain.
Their skin turned a shadowy red accentuating the glowing runes across their skin. Bitarr and Dagfinn both knew what was coming. It was why no one dared to take the field with thunderers. They held a rage eclipsed only by the god they worshiped in the heat of battle. No pain could be felt, no fear could dull one's actions, and no allies could be seen when Magni's berserker rage overcame his flock.
Dagfinn sank himself into the earth while Bitarr tackled Tanya to the ground covering her with his body just in time to defend her against an explosion of lightning emitting from the enraged thunderers.
Their bonds broke as they charged forward, wounds forgotten and eyes void of everything but primal fury. One of their fellow worshipers whose body was quickly reforming was trampled into crackling white plasma for being in the path of the berserkers.
Bitarr cursed under his breath. There was no way he could fight berserkers without becoming one himself. But if he did, he'd kill Tanya for sure. Before he came up with a plan, Tanya shouted into his ear.
“Become Brand!”
Bitarr picked her up and ran trying to keep her out of the berserker’s storm of lightning by jumping across rooftops. “Why the hells would I do that? That dark bastard is mundane.”
Tanya kicked herself free landing on shaky legs. “You said we have to trust each other. Now is your turn.”
“What's his focus?”
“Just fucking do it!”
Bitarr screwed up his face like a child in protest. He might be more immoral than the average god monster but dying when he took on a mortal form was still very painful. “This better work kitten or I'll think of something nasty to do to you.”
Bitarr lost his form becoming an amorphous cloud of white mist. It briefly thought of becoming the striker in Dagfinn’s mind but finding him now would be too difficult, so it gathered itself in the form of a tall dark skin human with no mana pool.
Bitarr’s now golden eyes widened as the entirety of Brand’s mind became his own. This form, this man, was obsessed with magic. He was a kind mortal that would do anything for a new set of runes like a dark lord in the making. It was commendable, it was dangerous, but for right now, it would say of Tanya's life.
Bitarr abruptly siphoned a portion of Tanya's mana using his connection as her summoning and waited for the berserkers without a hint of fear. As they neared, he was bombarded with lightning that should have turned him into a smoking pile of ash, but it never had a chance to touch the smiling god.
Using Brand’s fortress aura, he converted the lighting to mana, sending most of it Tanya’s way to replenish what she'd lost.
“Summon me again as soon as you have the chance!” Bitarr shouted as he cut his connection to Tanya and thrust his arms forward. “Arc Blast!”
Bitarr saw no flash of red light or devastating explosion. As soon as it activated the spell, the god found itself back in a gilded cage with a pregnant goddess lounging on a bed with a fist full of surgery snacks. It seemed the construct that was its body was burned away by the costly spell.
Aphrodite sat up as she felt Bitarr’s eyes on her. “That was quick.”
“It's not over yet. Thunderers are after her so I-”
Bitarr was cut off as it was summoned again. Meeting Tanya’s eyes he turned back into Brand and surveyed the area with his magic perception because there was too much dust in the air to see.
It was like standing in the aftermath of battling gods. All that was left of the nearby buildings was a crater. Even the elemental thunderers were gone, their bodies spread so far apart coming together would take days or weeks.
“The fight is not over,” Tanya said. She summoned Leo again without issue seeming to have recovered from her earlier trauma. “That spell killed one, but only sent the other flying.”
Bitarr suddenly felt the berserker enter his magic perception. He was missing his left arm, leg, and most of his skin, but still hobbled at a sprinting pace with a hammer in his mouth. It was clear death followed close behind, but the god still wanted to help the man along with a spear he conjured and threw.
It slammed into his chest quieting the storm of lightning around him. Just as he fell, Dagfinn burst from the ground stabbing his wand through the thunderer’s temple and exploded his head with a blast of mana.
The striker looked up at Bitarr with anger radiating from his eye slits in his mask. “You almost killed me!”
“You were underground,” Bitarr said with a shrug.
Dagfinn stomped forward. “The ground is fucking gone!”
“Then you should have killed the thunderers so I wouldn't have to. Or dig deeper.”
Dagfinn abruptly jumped to the side avoiding several blades that fell from the sky. Then something raced past the Tanya heading straight for him.
“Oh shit,” Bitarr thought. “They think he’s a necromancer.”
Before Dagfinn was tackled by the blurry figure, he spun to the side wrapping the charging woman in threads as she passed. With a mighty pull, he knocked her off her feet and bound her in several layers of his mana threads. Before he was attacked again, Dagfinn hid behind who he could now see was Alda halting Mildrith and Garland.
“Everyone, calm down, he’s on our side!” Bitarr yelled.
Mildrith landed in front of the concealed god. “You know a necromancer!”
“He’s a friend from back in the Nulls days.”
“They kill people!”
Bitarr shrugged“I try not to judge.”
Bitarr looked over to Dagfinn but he was already gone most likely tunneling through the ground once again. It was for the best. No one needed to know of the strikers yet. By the strength of one so young, their ranks must be filled with the kind of people he needed.
Mildrith ran up to Bitarr embracing him in a surprising hug with relief in her words. “I thought you were dead.”
Bitarr returned the embrace letting his hands wander to Mildrith’s backside giving it a firm squeeze. She jumped in surprise as her face turned beet red. She half-heartedly pulled away but froze as Bitarr brushed his lips against hers. He could see into her mind and knew what she truly wanted. Not messing with the girl would have been almost painful for the trickster.
“Bitarr, we don't have time for this!” Tanya shouted. She shoved Mildrith out of his arms and pulled him to her height by his collar. “Tell me where Brand is, now!”