Bloodlines of the Ancient Pantheons

At those words, Gridd immediately turned to Reidar, who already had his eyes on her, confirming that he had heard every word, while the unsuspecting Karl continued to enjoy the fight and cheered for his friend. 

"Don't babble meaningless words, old man! This is not your call, it isn't up to you to make such a decision! We have no reason to doubt the boy, he put his life as that of his comrades at risk by fighting against our enemies, who have also become his. I'm sure Odin's wrath would fall on us if we didn't show him a modicum of gratitude!" replied Sander aloud, scolding Sivert's insolence, who lowered his head, his hands resting on his stick and walked backwards, returning to the inside of the temple.

Kjell, without ever looking away from the match, said: "don't be afraid, the old Sivert went crazy years ago, we've stopped listening to his words for a long time"

Gridd marveled that Kjell was addressing her, not explaining how he had figured that she was eavesdropping without even looking at her.

"I really hope so. As Master Sander has just said, facts matter more than words, and Dag has already shown you to hold on to your Clan and your principles, fighting till the end and proposing to be part of their alliance!" she replied, in a cold, detached tone, which made her interlocutor smile.

While in the ruins of the temple Dag's companions discussed Sivert's words with the other two Masters, the pace of the fight had remained constant all the time and he was continuing tirelessly to hit Ellen, whose body began to move slightly under the axe blows.

"Dodge my attack and hit me, then I'll do the same and you will fall to the ground!" said Dag in a low voice, trying not to be heard by anyone except Ellen.

"What?! Are you saying I have to lose the fight on purpose? Not a chance!" she replied, who after yet another blow, held her spear outwards and began to twirl, preventing Dag from continuing his endless series of attacks.

"I just want you to avoid making a bad impression in front of your citizens, who have great esteem for you..." Dag continued in a serious tone, making his opponent understand that he had no intention of mocking her.

"Don't think you have the victory in your pocket!" Ellen shouted, who, after several times turning on herself, raised her spear to the sky and tried to hit Dag with a vertical blow, which missed the target and hit the ground of the arena, shattering it.

"Whaaaat?! She managed to break through the ground using a wooden weapon?! Her physical strength is frightening!" said Karl aloud, who couldn't hold back his astonishment, which was also shared by his teammates.

"Believe me, boy... you can't even imagine how strong Ellen is. Being many years older than her, I remember well when she came here to Skjegg..." answered Sander, touching his long black beard and making Kjell smile, who had heard several times about that story. 

"She came here very young, she was about 14 years old... she sprang out of the forest and managed to enter Skjegg, tricking some guards and defeating others. She told us that her parents had died and that she had fled her village and did not know where to go. When I figured out the state my guards were reduced by a 14 years old girl, I realized that her destiny was to become a Shieldmaiden" he continued, smiling and watching her fight.

"There are many bears in the mountains east of Runar. Ellen, after only a few months of training, stopped fighting against the students of her own age... she used to head to the forests above those mountains and challenge those ferocious beasts with her bare hands, to really test her physical strength... she had just turned 15 when he brought back to Skjegg the carcass of a huge brown bear, as evidence of her inhuman strength. I was very young at the time, but I had never seen anything like it... I had always believed that a woman's body was necessarily less strong than that of a man... Ellen is the living proof that this is not true" Kjell interjected, trying to best express his memories of his colleague.

Gridd, Karl and Reidar, were fascinated by those tales and in the meantime continued to watch the fight, during which Ellen's incessant blows repeatedly hit the ground, after being dodged by Dag, who waited for the right moment to counterattack. 

"Go, now! Dodge my blow and hit me!" he said, pretending to hit her on the face with the axe and waving the weapon predictably towards her, who immediately dodged it and counterattacked Dag with the back of her fist.

Unlike what Dag expected, the punch was incredibly powerful, which made his feet to crawl backwards for more than 5 meters and caused him excruciating pain.

"Oh fuck, Dag! Daag!" yelled Freydis from the temple, looking at her boyfriend's condition.

The audience remained unresed and watched Dag fearful for his health, whispering to each other silently.

Dag dropped one of the two wooden axes on the ground, raising a moderate amount of dust and with the same hand touched his chin, while Ellen walked slowly towards him, with the tip of the spear pointed forward.

To his surprise, he noticed that his jaw had detached from the rest of his skull and had been left hanging from his face, causing him to lose litres of blood. 

In general silence and astonishment, the dark fluid came out of his chest and wrapped his neck, then entering his mouth and nostrils: slowly, with a soundly and quite unpleasant noise of bones, his jaw returned to its place, as well as the teeth he had lost in the impact and he was forced to squinch his eyes to hold back the pain.

Sander and Kjell could not believe their eyes, because unlike Gridd, Freydis, and the others, they had not witnessed the manifestation of Dag's regenerative power when he was hit by hundreds of arrows on Vaeren Island.