Bloodlines of the Ancient Pantheons

Chapter 276: CCLXXVI. The Overpowering Instinct

At the same moment, Karl, who was still busy with Freydis's wound, laid down one of the cloths he had used to clean it from the blood.

As soon as the white piece of cloth, which had turned completely red, touched the ground, Dag began to shake his head again.

His sense of smell had quadrupled compared to his normal condition, and the air around him was impregnated again with that bloody smell, coming from the dirty cloth.

Seized by the beastly instinct, while Kjell waited for an answer, Dag turned back to Freydis, grabbing Karl by the neck of the armor and lifting him, throwing him backward and causing him to fall to the ground.

He pounced again on Freydis, intent on taking another bite at that appetizing wound, which oozed warmblood, but once again, one of Kjell's chains stopped him, twisting around his arm.

Against his will, Dag looked at him, turning suddenly.

With a sudden movement of the chained arm, he managed to lift Kjell and project him in front of him, throwing him away like a rock tied to a rope.

The Crows Of Odin's Master Of Offense, while the adrenaline of the fight still flowed through his blood, managed to hook the other chain to Dag's leg, dragging him along.

Dag crawled with his knees to the ground and without breaking free from the metal grip of that weapon, tried again to reach Freydis's body, but he was dragged away by Karl and Gridd, who had realized they could not trust him at the time.

Kjell violently strangled his leg, causing no pain to Dag's body, which with his new physical abilities felt only a sense of discomfort to the calf.

After being pulled unnecessarily, he stood up and roared at Kjell, spreading his arms downwards and staring at him with his demonic eyes.

Kjell regained his breath and looked back, calling the two chains back to him.

"And now what? After saving the city from a ferocious monster, did you become the monster to defeat?!" he asked, trying to ironize and make fun of Dag, who despite his transformation, did not seem to intimidate him.

"Grraaagh!" roared Dag again, sprinting on all fours toward Kjell, jumping towards his neck, as he had done just before with Sander.

He tried to dodge his opponent's charge by moving sideways, but Dag intercepted him, grabbing him by the flap of the armor and pulling it, tearing it apart. 

Kjell writhed from the grip and, in a stinging gesture, tore the rest of the armor off his back, standing shirtless, intending to face Dag.

On the chest of the man with the red mohawk, a hundred different runes reached up to the lower part of the abdomen, while chains were tattooed around the pectoral muscles, continuing behind the shoulders.

Under the astonished gaze of Gridd and Reidar, terrified of seeing Dag losing control and attacking his new allies, Dag charged back to Kjell, who made both chains twirl from the bottom up.

Running on all fours and almost forgetting about his weapons, which hung from his belt, Dag snapped even faster, attempting to punch him, but the chain-warrior lowered himself and wrapped a chain around his wrist, deftly moving behind him and pulling violently, breaking it.

"Aaaagh! Grraaaagh!" 

Chilling verses rumbled across the walls, while Dag, with his wrist broken, once again attempted to hit his opponent, using his other arm.

Kjell dodged the first shot with ease, then also the second and third, slightly bending his torso backward, continuing to look at Dag with a serious and determined look.

One of his chains moved towards him as if he was a snake on the attack and firmly wrapped his arm with the broken wrist.

In a quick motion, continuing to dodge the blows of his beastly opponent, he managed within seconds to block both his arms with the two chains, which soon after crossed and crushed with one foot: with a game of levers, Dag's arms did the same thing and he found himself on his knees, arms immobilized and tied together.

"I think it's time to calm down" Kjell continued, trying to make contact with the real Dag, who was somewhere behind those scary eyes.

He lowered his head, progressively slowing his breathing and his heartbeat.

About a minute passed when Kjell took his foot off the chains and freed Dag, held in place like a ferocious beast.

Ellen and Sander continued to witness the scene, as did Gridd and Reidar who did not know how to behave in those circumstances.

Kjell called back the chains, which crawled slowly on the ground and walked towards him, but suddenly, Dag's hand moved quickly forward and grabbed them both.

He had taken advantage of those quiet moments waiting for his broken wrist to self-repair and it had happened. 

The other hand also clung to Kjell's chains, which he forcefully tried to pull at him, unnecessarily.

Dag stood up, looking up.

"Oh no... Dag, please..." Gridd thought out loud, losing hope and fearing for the health of her brother, but especially for that of Kjell, who did not know what he was going to face.

When he pulled both of Kjell's chains, they detached from his hands, leaving him speechless and unarmed.

His physical strength was impressive and none of the warriors present could keep up with him.

Before acting again without thinking, Dag stopped, letting go of the chains, which ended up on the ground.

Flashbacks came to his mind: he and Freydis were walking to the arena in Jernhest and trained together.

The vision was incredibly real, his subconscious was trying to get in touch with him, to free him from that primal and bloodthirsty state.

Dag shook his head again, touching his forehead and stepping back.

Then he grabbed Freydis's armband, still wrapped on his arm, and detached it, looking at it between his hands.

Struggling against himself, he dropped the silver object to the ground, while subtle tears fell from his eyes, during that vortex of conflicting emotions, in which a violent internal struggle involved even the deepest layers of his soul.

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