112 CXII. The Rocky Face

Dag looked at him angrily, puffing like a bull.

After the transformation, Kenneth nodded his hand at Dag, challenging him.

This time it was he who charged first: after loading the blow, he tried to hit the enemy in the face, but Kenneth grabbed the hammer's head with his stone hand, blocking the blow with extreme ease.

Then, with a quick gesture, he threw away Dag and his hammer, which flew for several meters.

"Dag!" yelled Karl, who had just witnessed the scene.

Dag rose from the ground, covered in small wounds.

"His body is now impenetrable. Not even a loaded blow from Magni's hammer could scratch him... I have to come up with something!" thought Dag, who began to fear his opponent.

Kenneth walked towards him. At every step of the way, the ground beneath his feet vibrated because of his weight.

"My power comes from these same mountains. You're never going to beat me here. Now I will slowly kill you, to avenge my men, killed by your allies" Kenneth said, his voice much deeper than his human voice.

Even his eyes had become stone, Dag could not even understand where he was looking, because his pupils were not visible.

After looking around, Dag saw a rock face not far from the farm and moved in that direction.

In the meantime, Kenneth could have picked up his sword from the ground, but he merely followed Dag, intending to kill him.

With the rocks behind him, Dag stopped to wait for his opponent, trying to study his weaknesses.

He had to be able to beat him, without drinking magenta blood, with his only powers.

With his arm stretched down, he opened his palm upwards.

The newly condensed fluid, instead of descending towards the hammer, rose toward his shoulders, covering his arms and chest in full.

His skin began to absorb the fluid, taking on an uneven grayish color, with streaks in the parts that had absorbed the most.

Dag felt his power increase further: the effects of Call Of The Berserkr had added to his dark powers.

Kenneth came before him and tried to punch him with a direct punch.

Being the shot slow, Dag quickly dodged by turning on himself and positioning behind him.

Soon after Kenneth turned to him, he violently struck him in the face with the hammer, causing him to back down.

Kenneth took a few more seconds to regain his balance, and in the meantime Dag hit him again in the face, causing his enemy's shoulders to touch the rock face.

He hit the wall with his back and shards of rock fell from the highest point of the wall.

The speed and power of Dag's shots had increased compared to a few seconds earlier, surprising his opponent's defense.

Dag loaded a hammer blow and violently struck Kenneth in the middle of the stone chest, sticking him against the wall.

After the blow, he left the hammerhead on the enemy's chest: putting pressure on that point, the black liquid leaked from the hammer's head, in greater quantities than usual.

Dag continued to push, screaming, and the fluid wrapped Kenneth's chest and arms, then entered the wall.

Within seconds, the Grey Mountain warrior was immobilized by the two black arms coming out of the hammer's head, which continued to put pressure on his chest.

Dag left his weapon, which remained stationary in that position.

"Grrr, leave me!" cried Kenneth, squirming.

The hammer stood still as if it were part of the rock face.

"Your incredible strength will not be enough to break the chemical bonds of the fluid that keeps you trapped. Give up" Dag said, looking down.

Kenneth screamed from the effort and Dag heard a strange noise coming from the fluid as if it was tearing itself apart.

He looked up at Kenneth: his right eye had turned purple, and the gray streaks on his body went up to his neck, coming under his chin.

Dag clenched his fists, which immediately turned full black. It was as if the fluid had strengthened his hands, which were now as hard as steel.

Caught in sudden anger, he violently punched Kenneth in the face: on impact, his head hit the wall, shattering his surface.

Dag continued to punch him in the face until he noticed that the rocky appearance of his opponent's skin was beginning to fade.

He was slowly running out of energy and had stopped squirming.

"I warned you!" yelled Dag, in his face.

Then he looked at his hands, still as black as obsidian.

He could have ripped the necklace from Kenneth's neck and earned the emblem.

But he felt that was not enough: he had to satisfy his desire for blood, an irrepressible desire for violence burned violently inside his chest.

He struck his helpless opponent again, who, having returned to his human form, spat blood.

He grabbed the handle of the hammer embedded in his chest and began to press against the rock face.

Kenneth spat more blood, then looked into Dag's eyes.

"You won... the emblem is yours" he whispered, breathless in his lungs.

Dag continued to push the hammer, hearing the sound of Kenneth's ribs slowly shattering.

"Aaagh! Aaagh!" he yelled, vomiting thick blood, probably coming from his internal organs.

"Don't... don't kill me... please!" he said to Dag, his eyes closed and an expression of pain on his face, covered by blood as his body.

Dag wanted to stop, but he felt his muscle strength increase again and his arm continued to push relentlessly.

Almost without realizing it, after a few seconds, the head of the hammer touched the rock, piercing Kenneth's chest.

His rib cage was shattered into a thousand pieces and his organs came out of the huge wound in the middle of his chest.

His head fell down, by force of gravity.

Dag's left eye began to tear.

The black fluid immediately returned to the hammer's head, releasing Kenneth's body, nailed to the wall.