Bloodlines of the Ancient Pantheons

Before Kjell or the others could intervene, Dag bent over his knees and took a forward dash, alternating rapid movements of arms and legs, which moving like those of a feline, allowed him to run almost twice the speed, taking advantage of all four limbs. 

Under the astonished gaze of his allies, this time he did not attack any of them, merely looking at them and running away.

Within seconds, he arrived near the walls of the arena, precisely where they had been partially destroyed and passed through, disappearing at the sight of his companions.

Once out of the Altar of the Raven's Square, he jumped onto the roof of a nearby house, clinging to the tiles and straw and kept on running on all fours until he reached the foot of the huge Skjegg's rocky walls.

Without stopping for a moment and trying not to be noticed by the people, he jumped towards the rocks of the mountain and clung to it, releasing a considerable amount of dark fluid, which took the usual arms-shape.

Helping himself with both of them, Dag began to climb above the Rocky Crown, intending to flee the city.

As the huge dark arms penetrated the rock and lifted their master, his allies, still stationary in the center of the arena, were able to see him clearly.

"Dag..." Gridd whispered, while under Karl's careful hands, Freydis's face began to resume its good complexion.

Reidar, beside them, looked toward the mountains, feeling deeply sorry, as if at that moment, he was sharing the pain that Dag was feeling, forced to move away from them so as not to risk losing control altogether.

In less than a minute he reached the top of the walls, arousing the gaze of some attentive citizen, which did not miss that 'unidentified' object capable of climbing a mountain that should have been unscalable.

A group of Crows Of Odin warriors was chatting about the most and least when one of Dag's dark arms reached the road that ran through the circumference of the Rocky Crown, piercing the ground and dragging him up.

The young warriors wielded their weapons in haste and fury, caught off guard.

When they saw Dag's face, with black skin and red runic symbols, they stopped looking at him, unable to move.

He gave them a look, which made them shudder further when they noticed that his eyes were different one from the other and seemed to express pure darkness.

Fortunately for them, although in the final minutes before Skjegg's escape Dag's primal instinct had taken over his consciousness, he merely overcame the great wall that separated him from the rest of Runar.

Moving like a giant spider, using his huge, fluid arms, Dag climbed also the long beam gate of which the outer surface of the Rocky Crown was surrounded.

The few warriors on the walls let him do it, in disbelief at what they were observing, while in the arena his companions wondered perplexed where Dag was heading, worrying about him.

"If you want, you can stay here with Freydis, surely she will need help. I'm going to look for the captain, I can't leave him alone out there" Reidar said in a firm tone, heading alone to the exit of the square, towards the tunnel leading out of Skjegg.

"Reidar! Wait, I'm coming with you" Gridd said, who was half-stunned, following him as Karl devoted himself to healing Kjell's wounds and Ellen took care of Sander, showing off her incredible healing skills, even superior to the offensive ones.

Meanwhile, Dag had left the city, intent on getting away from it as much as possible.

The Runar region, with its many forests and forests, would surely offer him shelter to hide temporarily, he just had to choose the exact spot.

Trying not to cross the main roads, like the one they had traveled a few days earlier to go to Gurn, he headed for the first group of oak trees he could see.

Because of the run and his new transformation, not comparable to those suffered in the past, his vision had clouded and a red halo surrounded the objects around him, confusing sometimes disorienting him.

In addition to the sight, the smell had also undergone profound changes: while before he was able to focus on only one target, trying to understand its distance, size, and essence, now his nose continued to sniff everything, amplifying all the smells that surrounded him, from that of plants and flowers to that of insects, rodents and other animals that populated those woods.

The dark arms re-entered his body, while he still felt the fatigue of the fight against Freydis and Kjell and during the run, his legs slowly began to give way.

Dag continued to advance through the dense vegetation, moving branches and shrubs with his mighty arms and breathing hard, progressively slowing the pace.

In his mind he felt a kind of blockage as if something prevented him from thinking freely, forcing him to put his attention on his stomach, which continued to grumble incessantly in search of food to satisfy his appetite.

The vegetation progressively grew thicker, when, after moving the umpteenth plant, he found himself in front of a baby deer, intent on burning the grass under its hooves.

As soon as Dag's gaze arose on that succulent little animal, without thinking twice, with a very quick gesture, he took a swipe at it, grabbing it by a back leg, while the poor fawn, realizing too late that he was in danger, tried to escape, shaking its body.

Dag's mind had completely blurred again.

Several minutes passed when he returned to himself, sitting on the ground, near large roots, and with his back resting on the trunk of an imposing tree.

Before he got his bearings, he could not fail to notice that his hands were completely bloodied and that blood covered his wrists, up to his forearms.

A few meters away from him, a cluster of small bones, made him guess that there was nothing left of the poor fawn.