Rise of the Godking

Even with his fists in the air, he did not seem as if he had stopped growing.

Daneel was dazed not because of the way the man had grown ten times from what he had been, but because he felt a faint of a path that he had never thought he would find outside of Graiton.

Indeed… it was the path of Gluttony. He checked with the system to confirm it, and sure enough, it told him that the man had gained his strength through a manner that was definitely similar to what Daneel had learned.

Before he could do anything with that information, though…the two fists that had been brought together to make a hammer rose swiftly, crashing through the ceiling, before descending straight towards them, kicking up a gale of wind that shook everything in the room.

The air smelled of dust that had settled for years up there, coming down in such a violent fashion due to the man's actions. There were faint hints of mutton cooking coming from the kitchen to the right, too, which almost made Daneel's stomach grumble, but right now, the first priority was the attack, which he evaded by jumping forward.

The elf suited his own words and began to run in the direction of the door, looking as if he was set on ignoring this old grandpa, too. With a shout that he couldn't understand, Alex began to follow in his footsteps, and while shaking his head, Daneel obliged. A glance back told him that the booth they were sitting in was now completely destroyed. Only splinters of wood could be seen where it had once been, and sunlight filtered down through the dusty ceiling, highlighting some of the old man's muscled body as he raised his hands slowly and turned around, searching for his prey.

He seemed like a slow giant that couldn't move very quickly, though. By the time he managed to spot Daneel, who was at the tail end of the train they had made, the elf had successfully passed through his legs to get to the door. 

Daneel was able to do so, too, just as the old man chose to attack in the same manner, which failed because he wasn't quick enough once more. In the alley that held all the inns, people had already come out of the doors lying on both sides of the road, but between them all, the elf could clearly be seen due to his ponytail that ducked and weaved through the crowd, firmly making its way towards the town center.

Daneel had soon caught up with Alex. It was obvious that they would no longer be able to follow the original plan of planning their next step here, with food in their stomachs and comfortable beds under their backs. He recalled what Alex had said about the militia consisting of a single man; it didn't need to be explained that they had already fallen afoul of him, and behind them, as if he was summoned by Daneel's thoughts, the mad grandpa lurched out of the inn and screeched, "Out! You can't get away! Stop right there! There is no place for troublemakers in Athwarf! Get out of here!"

All around them, people were looking in their direction to see what the commotion was all about. As he exited the alley, the last thing he saw was the female innkeep cursing at the grandpa, and a moment later, he was near the fountain, running full tilt towards the wooden gates that he saw, to his alarm, were slowly closing.

Alex sped up beside him, grunting and heaving due to the exertion. The elf moved his legs faster, too, now not really inconvenienced by the people as the town square was large enough to hold them all and still give them space to move. He didn't seem out of breath, but his eyes held a tightness to them that Daneel hadn't seen before.

He was the first one out of the door, and the two of them were close behind. The two guards standing outside gawped at them, not understanding what was wrong, and as soon as Alex and Daneel reached him, the elf said, "We can't stop here! Come on!"

The sounds of buildings being crashed through and tiles being dug up from the ground due to the force of the grandpa's feet reached them before he appeared, himself, looming above the short gate. His shaved head glinted in the sun, his eyes were pools of fire that sought them out and burned brighter, realizing that they had found their target.

His hands reached forward, easily breaking through the wooden door, and right before they caught him, Daneel jumped forward and ran in the direction that Alex had set off in. The guards began to shout something that was lost in the din of the entire gate collapsing as the grandpa made his way through it, and once again, the chase was resumed as the three of them ran for their lives from the place that was supposed to be a 'haven'.

Daneel wasn't really worried about his life. After observing the speed of the grandpa, he was confident that he would be able to dodge whatever attacks the man tried to use before they did any real harm. He was more interested in how he had gained so much strength. If thought of in the measure of the dwarves, he would have had to absorb at least a thousand men and women to grow this powerful, so Daneel wanted to know just what source he had used that was capable of being obtained in a place like this.

It seemed that he would be leaving without any answers, though, as he glimpsed the top of a teleportation matrix peeking out of the ground a few hundred meters away from them. It seemed that they would reach it as soon as they topped to rise right in front…but as soon as they did so, they came upon 20 guards, all with weapons at the ready.

They were right in front of the matrix. Behind them, the grandpa's loud footsteps were growing louder, and for a moment, it looked like they were stuck between a rock and a hard place.

Daneel prepared himself for a fight. He had never been the type, even on Angaria, to seek them out for the thrill of hot blood pumping through his veins, but he would be lying if he said that he didn't like it all the same when a fight came to him. He especially loved stomping on those who thought that they could get the better of him, but because the people in front of him might be innocent, he decided that he would leave them with as few injuries as possible.

Only… the elf seemed to have other plans.

"Leave them to me! Come closer!"

Putting his hands inside his golden cloak, he took out an object that made both of them blink, then stare. It was the same item that the dwarf king had used to knock out everyone nearby; with haste and a mind filled with questions, Daneel hurried forward to the elf's side.

It was a silver globe, and when crushed, the familiar silvery shockwave spread out from it, knocking out everyone in a certain radius around him. Alex ran forward before the bodies even hit the ground; touching a crystal to the matrix, he flicked through a few colors and then settled onto one.

Both of them ran to his side. Just as they were about to touch it one by one and disappear, the giant appeared, but no matter what he wanted to do, he would be too late.

An old woman was also by his side. She looked at all of them reproachfully before shouting at the grandpa, and her words were the last thing they heard before the teleportation took them away.

A few moments later, Daneel got to his feet on dry, dusty land much like that of Graiton while Alex hastily shut down the matrix behind them.

What the old woman had said was still reverberating in his mind.

"Damn you, old fool! Why don't you just retire? Every time something happens, you collapse half the town before failing to catch the culprits if they're even the least bit competent! You could just let them go, but no…you had to go stomping through all the buildings on the way! When we get home, you're done for!"

As he looked to the other two, he saw in their eyes that they were thinking of the same thing. For a few seconds, they didn't say anything, and then… all three of them burst out laughing.