RD 4 Ch 19

I managed to find the source of the fight easily enough. It wasn’t hard to follow the crashing and booming blows of whoever was fighting.

Chunks of buildings were falling to the ground as a demon that looked like an elephant with an octopus face was locked in battle with two humans. The demon was interesting, but my eyes quickly zeroed in on one human in particular.

"Oh, Hercules is here," Circe commented, settling down on the ground with the rest of our party. 

A second human, even bigger than Hercules, was also duking it out with the large demon.

I squinted through the rain, trying to place that person when I could barely make out their figure.

"Any idea who's with him? I don't recognize him from the clan," I asked. 

Circe's lips twisted to the side. "I don't either. Not any of Hercules' men," she continued speaking, but the rest of what she said was cut off by a deafening boom. 

Hercules turned entirely gold, smashing into the side of the demon that I assumed was the gate guardian and sending the demon plowing through several buildings.

The other human swept out a massive axe from his spatial ring as he jumped high in the sky, landing with what had to be a near-lethal blow to the demon.

The demon squirmed away, using its dozens of tentacles to rip several people from a nearby building, immediately turning those bodies into dried husks. It regenerated just as fast as it had drained the humans, including the massive gash along its neck. 

I paused, working to get an understanding of the situation, and not particularly wanting to get involved when somebody is already going all out. 

Hercules swelled, more golden shine coming off of him, before a gladius appeared in his hand. He stabbed down as a massive sword of light mimicked his motion ripped out of the sky above and crashed down on the demon. Ruining the demon's back and pinning it to the ground. 

The other figure launched a second, even more aggressive attack, spinning the axe overhead before throwing it. It was so blindingly fast it was a blur, chunking into the demon's neck.

The demon went slack between the two attacks before melting into the ground. 

The fight was over, but the two fighters didn’t relax at all. Instead, the man with the massive axe turned on Hercules. He leaped across the space as the axe flew through the air back into his hand.

Circe flinched forward, but I was faster.

I launched myself through the air with a powerful leap, landing and using a Bloodiron Blade to deflect most of the energy from his swing. The hit was heavy enough that my feet dug deep furrows through the cracked concrete. 

"No way to treat an ally after the fight's done," I scoffed at the big man in front of me. I didn't immediately recognize him, but based on his size, I knew before even using soul gaze, he was a Borrson.

[Name: Vidar Borrson

Level: 528

Class: Twilight Strider SS

Status: Enraged, Bloodthirsty, Calculating

Strength: 6232

Agility: 4548

Vitality: 9012

Intelligence: 2471

Spirit: 3827

…]

I inspected him, my eyes going wide as I saw his name. Although I hadn't recognized him immediately, I knew the name instantly. I felt him try to inspect me and brushed the inspect off with a scoff. 

"Why don't you put your axe down? Unless, of course, you think you can take all of us," I said, squaring up.

Circe and Merlin made themselves known as a giant gust of wind nearly stopped the rain from falling before pillars of ice shot up all around our impromptu meeting and giving us a little privacy at the same time. 

The man hesitated, his attention flicking over to Hercules, who was still very clearly a target. However, seeing Circe and Merlin caused him to take a small step back. He swung his axe around before smacking it onto his shoulder, looking at the rest of us with disdain. While his posture looked relaxed, I was experienced enough to know he was still on alert and ready to attack if he saw an opening.

"You can't blame us for being at least marginally upset watching you attack Hercules after he just fought by your side," Circe scoffed, "so much for Borrson honor." 

The man's eye twitched at her insult of his honor. "I wasn't aware that the heroes even knew that word.”

“When it comes to knowing words, it's the Borrsons that always shock me." Hercules was back on his feet, but the final attacks had clearly taken up much of his energy.

"Anything you say is simply overcompensation for your clan's clear inability to produce quality fighters. Are you some little secret they've been hiding?” Vidar looked over at me.

“You look down on me, cousin. Can it be that you don't even recognize me?" I chuckled at the flicker of surprise that crossed his face.

He tried to inspect me again, only for me to brush it off even more happily this time.

I recognized Vidar. He was the future leader of the Borrson clan and a downright aggressive asshole. Technically, he was my cousin, even if he was well over a hundred years older than me. My words earned me a death glare from the man. 

"And who the fuck are you?” He growled.

“What, you can't recognize Thorin's child? I'm a little disappointed." I enjoyed myself.

He tried to inspect me yet again, and I gave him a smug smile as it failed. His jaw tensed and a vein pulsed in his big square head. The man had to be nearly nine feet tall and must have trouble walking through doorways. However, he wasn’t all brawn and my words had confirmed enough for him.

"Bran Heroes," he said slowly, as if coming to terms with me existing.

I rolled my hand in a partial bow. "At your service. And that means yes, the one who just blocked your strike is a nineteen-year-old. Honestly, I'm a little disappointed at how weak you are. I was expecting better of the Borrson clan." 

Despite being a Borrson, Vidar was decently intelligent. Becoming the leader of the clan wasn’t something that came from brute strength, but a decent amount of manipulation as well. He watched me, his jaw clenching but he took the insult and did not lash out.

He was the type to play big and dumb only to stab you in the back.

"You play a dangerous game, boy. Why don't you let the adults in the room have a conversation? Perhaps we can get you a cup of milk to tide you over, to keep you occupied.” He watched me.

"At least you have a moderate sense of hospitality," I shrugged, pulling a chair out of my spatial ring and taking a seat. I crossed my legs as if I was in charge, waiting for him to serve me.

"Bran," Circe hissed.

But I ignored her. I was genuinely enjoying antagonizing the man. I knew I couldn’t pick a fight with the Borrsons directly, but I was still very ready to find out who was responsible for my mother's poisoning. If they attacked me, I would be justified in getting my hands dirty.

I knew the face of the woman who had done the job, but I was going to unravel all who knew and stood by. They were just as responsible in my eyes.

But as I sat, ten other Borrsons descended behind Vidar. The big fighters put on a decently imposing front, each of them bigger than the next, one of them towering over 11 feet tall.

He was too big to operate in human society, that meant they’d brought their forces out of Antartica.

"Oh, I see you guys have taken a break from the cold. Don't tell me it was all getting too cold even for the mighty Borrsons," I continued to mock them in the hope that some were less intelligent than Vidar. And honestly, prodding the big brutes was just a little too much fun. I liked to take joy when opportunities were presented.

"He certainly talks like a Borrson," one of them guffawed, treating me the same way someone might a growling puppy. They all tried to inspect me and I pushed it away, but that didn't seem to affect their opinion on my strength.

There was one thing I had learned about Borrsons over the years; they were unfortunately the epitome of overconfidence. Personally, I thought it was the size. It is really easy to underestimate someone when they don’t even come up to your chest.

"Now Rhyne," he said to the big one who had spoken, "Even if he's a half-breed whelp, he at least has some blood of the clan." 

"He's an abomination," the big man said, glaring at me. "The Heros Clan getting ahold of our blood is a disgrace.” The big one grinned. "One that we can clean up right here today." His eyes glowed for a moment, but I was unconcerned. Despite his size, he was not the strongest one in the group. 

So when he flashed forward, I only smirked as no one moved to stop him. Their group wanted this attack to happen, and my group wasn't afraid in the slightest that I would lose.

I happily proved them correct, as I caught the giant's fist with a relaxed expression. "You could use a little practice," I said, suddenly gripping his fist as tightly as I could. His knuckles began cracking, his hand caving under my strength. 

"Enough," Vidar spat before I could break the giant’s hand.

Raising an eyebrow, I squeezed even harder as my opponent tried to pull away.

"I said enough," he growled again, this time stepping forward to physically stop me. 

However, before he reached me, I let go of the hand and stepped to the side, causing the large oaf to stagger back when suddenly, the strength of my grip disappeared.

"Don't worry, we were just playing around," I said, giving them a mirthless smile. The big guy was too stubborn to admit that he'd lost in a bout of strength.

"Yeah, it wasn't even that strong of a hit," he said, hiding his hand behind his back before it began to swell. 

Yeah, he's a big boy, I'm sure he could do worse. After all, you Borrsons pride yourself on your physical strength. It would be a shame if a Heros clan fighter could take that away from you so easily.” I stated

"Bran," Circe hissed again.

I resisted rolling my eyes, but at the same time, I couldn't help myself from egging on these assholes.

They'd come here and pick a fight, only to back off when someone stronger appeared. I hated bullies. They were part of what made us lose to the demons. We needed to band together, not pick each other off.

My eyes went back to their group, my eyes quickly locking on the red-headed woman who was smaller than many of the giants and had avoided my initial sweep of their group.

She moved behind the one with the injured hand, likely to inspect it and make sure he didn't need any attention.

My blood began to boil with rage and I couldn’t stop my anger from showing.

She was the woman that Persephone had shown me to be behind my mother's poisoning. 

My reaction was anything but subtle. Vidar, as well as those backing me, all noticed a quick flicker of anger from me before I was able to smother my expression.

"Have you two run into each other before?" Vidar asked, as if he was privy to some joke that the rest of us weren't.

I was fairly certain I knew exactly what humor had just ticked off in the back of his head. "No, she just has a very punchable face," I said. 

"Really now, she's considered one of the beauties of the younger generation," Vidar gestured for her to come closer. She stepped up in front of Vidar, tilting her chin up proudly. "Vethra, why don't you say hello to Bran Heroes? Bran, this is Vethra, my adopted daughter."

"Pleasure," I said dryly, burning her face into my mind's eye.

"So now, why don't we focus on splitting the loot rather than splitting our heads?" Hercules tried to make a joke.

However, the tension in the group remained palpable for several seconds before Vidar stepped back. "I'll have to apologize to you, Hercules. I just got a little overexcited about the loot and was drunk on the battle." Vidar shrugged as if it was no big deal and we should indeed just move past it.

Hercules gave an obviously fake laugh. "Happens to us all when the blood gets pumping a little too hard."

"Glad you understand," Vidar eyed us before turning back to his group. “Take the loot from the fight with the other demons, we’ll split this up.”

The whole situation stank to me, but if Circe and Hercules weren’t willing to start a fight, I couldn’t take all of them on my own.