Bloodlines of the Ancient Pantheons

Dag pulled Aslan's bridle, braking and changing direction, in order to rescue Reidar, who had been the victim of that surprise attack.

In the meanwhile, he glanced the other way, noting that both Ellen and Kjell were in the middle of the village with other Clan soldiers and were trying to stop the advance of the enemies, who continued to grow in number.

"Groooooargh!" the colossal Jotunn yelled, moving his huge axe toward Dag, trying to hit him while he was distracted. 

Thanks to his survival instinct, he managed to wield the hammer and tried to parry the blow.

Being the weapon of the enemy even greater than his horse, Dag only managed to deflect the blow, which unbalanced Aslan, causing him to fall to the ground on his side, while the poor steed continued to neigh frightened and confused.

"Fuck!" Dag exclaimed, pulling out his leg, which, ending up under the side of his heavy horse, had twisted at the ankle, which remained sore after the blow.

The giant slowly moved the axe upwards, causing it to fall towards them.

Standing on one leg and also pulling out the Giantbane, Dag crossed his weapons and parried the violent blow, which if scored would probably have cut in half the body of the poor Aslan, who took advantage of the parry to get up from the ground and run away.

The Jotunn continued to force Dag, who, by raising both weapons, managed to stand up to him for a few seconds, during which he made sure that Gridd and Reidar were safe.

Fortunately, after Reidar was unhorsed, his sister immediately noticed it and distracted the second giant, who could not give him the death blow.

Holding his breath for the effort, Dag barely stretched his arms, repelling the large axe with superhuman force and stunning his enemy, who despite his bulk, seemed to be much faster than the giant he faced just before.

Before his opponent could counterattack, he hit him with the axe on his knee, causing him to roar in pain, while the sprained ankle fixed itself, crunching.

At that point, the Jotunn began to squirm at great speed, trying to grab Dag or simply hit him, getting even nervous as his shots were dodged with agility.

"You're a little bit slow, fatass!" Dag exclaimed, mocking him, who had already lost his lucidity and continued to deliver blind blows.

After yet another blow failed, the huge axe hit the ground, creating a large furrow of earth and getting stuck inside of the soil, allowing Dag to gain a few seconds to aim.

Before the giant could begin fighting again, he rotated on himself and hit with the axe the face of the enemy, who had crouched trying to extract his weapon from the ground.

The Giantbane's blade cut off the giant's cheek, penetrating into his mouth, burning the skin around it.

But immediately after the first blow, concluding the rotation, Magni's hammer violently hit the back of the axe, which further deepened the cut, completely getting through the face of the giant, severing both cheeks.

The Jotunn fell backward, sitting on the ground and uttering inhumane verses, expressing the excruciating pain he was feeling at the time.

His jaw was hanging from his neck, as was his tongue, which dangled in a sea of blood.

The enemy left his weapon and continued to crawl back on his arms, while his whole body was covered in blood, squirting everywhere around him.

Dag followed him, walking slowly and thinking of the bloodiest way to kill him, while images of the bodies of women and children brutally killed shook his mind, raising his level of anger.

The Jotunn pointed a hand at Dag, begging him to stop, while his body slowly diminished in size.

"He's coming back to his true form! The fear of death must have defused the process of metamorphosis!" he thought, turning his head to one side and the other, creaking the bones of his neck, getting ready to srike him.

As expected, the giant turned into a human being: he was a bald man, with a black line tattooed on his head, but the facial features hardly distinguishable, due to the enormous wound caused by Dag, who was now ready to give him the death blow.

The man stopped, raising his arm to cover his face and closing his eyes, aware that his end had come, but at that instant, something caught Dag's attention. 

A few meters away from him, the fight between his companions and the other Jotunn had stopped: that giant, after noticing that his ally had returned to his human form, had stopped attacking Gridd and Reidar.

Before she could hit him, the second giant snapped at Dag, who prepared to dodge the blow.

The giant's charge, however, was not directed at him.

Momentarily disinterested in Dag, the Jotunn lunged at his comrade's dying body, lifting him off the ground with ease.

The two allies looked at each other for a few seconds, as if they were communicating with their eyes, before giving rise to a chilling spectacle, which would leave Dag and everyone else stunned.

The smaller Jotunn grabbed his companion's head with one hand, holding him up with his back facing him: while the enemy warrior, with his jaw all broken, continued to look at Dag with a chilling look, his ally bit him violently in the back of the neck, sinking the two huge tusks into his flesh and then detached a piece of it, spitting it away.

Gridd and Reidar were immobilized at that scene, during which the Jotunn used that wound to suck up his comrade's entrails, emptying his body as if he was a gradually deflated balloon. 

The body of the enemy warrior, indeed, began to lose consistency, stiffening and decreasing its volume, while the blood that leaked copious from his mouth stopped.

Being the enemy bare-chested, it was possible to note in detail what was going on inside his rib cage during the process: his belly became thin as a sheet of paper and his chest lost its volume, thinning and bending inwards.