章 42: Ch.42

(Matt Pov)

After staring at one another for a few seconds Baldr made the first move. Charging toward me and attempting to grab my pants at the waist. Though I was able to slip past him at the last second. Turning to meet him I rush toward him grabbing at his waist from behind, though he kicks me away from him. Stumbling back, he takes this opportunity to try to grapple me again. Successfully grabbing my waist, though I dig into the ground and grab his waist back. As we both are struggling to lift the other, each of us has equal strength it seems.

Getting annoyed by the struggle for a few seconds, I rear my head back, head butting his face and breaking his nose from the sound of it. Stunning him, which quickly gave me enough time to lift him up and slam him onto the ground. Though he was able to flip in my arms as I lifted him up and kick me in the face making me drop him and breaking my nose too.

"Guess we are playing dirty," Baldr says smirking at me with blood running down his face from his nose. Grunting in pain at my broken nose, we charge at one another again.

This time it turned into an MMA fighting match though. As reaching each other he is throwing punches my way trying to knock me out or stun me enough to slam me onto the ground. He has me on the defensive as he keeps aggressively throwing punch after punch. After dodging his punches for minutes, I decided to tank a few hits to get my own in. His punches landed on me, each hitting like a sledgehammer on my head, though I return the favor punching him in the face just as hard if not harder.

After another few minutes of us just wailing on one another, each of our noses broken and smashed into a mess. I have a sense of clarity, as the rage and battle lust took over my mind, remembering that Odin said that to beat them I have to use my mindscape. Now dodging his punches again, I try to think about how to use my mindscape to my advantage. Each of his punches became faster and harder to dodge giving me limited time to think. Just going with my instinct, I dodge his next few punches before lifting my hand causing a pillar of ice to punch out of the ground hitting him and sending him flying in the air.

Rushing to meet him as he falls, he expertly adjusts himself in the air as I meet him. Jumping into the air and grabbing his leg as he falls I use all my strength to slam him onto the ground. Slamming him on the ground he uses his hands to stop himself from hitting the ground and losing the fight, the groundbreaking slightly under the strength of the slam. Then once again kicks me in the face with his free leg sending me stumbling back a bit more and further damaging my broken and smashed nose.

"GOOD! THIS FIGHT IS THE BEST I'VE HAD IN A LONG WHILE!" Baldr shouts in a battle lust filled roar pushing himself off the ground with his hands facing me.

"I'M GOING TO FUCKING BREAK YOU!" I roar back the anger from not winning the fight taking over my rationality and the pain of my destroyed nose only increasing my anger.

With our battle roars, I shift into my werebear form and he too shifts into a werebear form matching my size but is a brown bear. With guttural growls, we slam into one another, our claws digging into one another making our blood drips from our bodies. Kicking him in the stomach I send him stumbling back a few feet, then I swipe at him with my claws cutting into his chest, sending fur and blood flying. Growling in pain and anger he ducks under my next few swipes and punches into my lower abdomen with his clawed hand, knocking the air out of my lungs and blood to come out of my mouth.

Taking this moment that stunned me from the lack of breath and pain, he grabs me with his other hand lifting me over him and quickly slamming me onto the ground. The fear of losing this fight pushed the irrational anger that took over my mind and I use my mindscape to send two pillars up. One to hit Baldr and send him away from me and the other to stop me from hitting the ground. Catching him off guard again the pillar hits him from below and sends him back a few feet while dropping me. As I fall the other pillar quickly comes up and I grab it with my hands sliding down to the ground on my feet.

Seeing Baldr charge me in his werebear form and seemly lost to the rage, I make the pillar of ice that knocked him away explode in his face. Stunning him once again, I grab the pillar that saved me from losing the fight. Using it like a hammer, I begin to beat Baldr with the giant ice pillar in my arms. Seeing the pillar coming down on him he brings his arms up to block it, though the strength of the pillar and myself is enough to break through his defenses. Hitting him on the head and stunning him, he stumbles back just in time for my next swing to miss him by a few millimeters. Jumping back away from my next swing, he grabs a nearby tree from the ground and swings it at me as I charge at him with my ice pillar in my arms.

My eyes widening at seeing this, I throw my ice pillar at him and duck below the swing of the tree at the last second. Though a few branches are able to hit me and cut me up a bit from the strength behind the swing. My ice pillar was successful in hitting him as it slams into his face and knocked him back a few feet. It stunned him quite a bit as he falls to one knee, which is not enough to lose the fight according to our original rules, that is if they still matter. Not letting this chance slip by I rush towards him, and I send another ice pillar to hit him from behind. Seeing me charging him has struggled to shake the dizziness from his head and stand up, just as he stands the ice pillar I sent to hit him from behind strikes him. Making him stumble forward and knocking him off balance once again, giving me the opportunity to reach him. Using both hands clasped together, raising them over my head and strike him on the head with all my strength in a double axe handle strike. Hitting him successfully he falls to the ground and by the rules, lost the fight.

"You lost," I say in my guttural werebear voice while stepping on his back in case this turned into a death match.

"Aye, you won. I'll meet with that idiotic brother of mine, though I may be open to peace, I doubt he will be. First let us head back to my well of power," Baldr says to me as I step off him and shift back to my normal form and he does also. Holding my hand out to help him up, he smiles at me and grasps my arm as I help him onto his feet.

"That may not have been the original rules of the fight we set, but the fight was the most fun I had in a long while. You fight like a true Norse berserker, who taught you?" Baldr says to me as we stand up and make our way to the well he protects. As the ground and surrounding forest are somewhat destroyed from our fight.

"You are also the best fighter I fought, though my Aunt taught me how to fight. However, she could have been holding back when teaching me, but I don't think so considering I slowly started to beat her over time," I say thinking if maybe Eva is a better fighter than Baldr.

"She must be quiet the shieldmaiden," Baldr says rubbing his face from the soreness he feels. As we make our way to the well, the wounds we suffered from the fight are slowly healing.

"Anything I should know before facing your brother?" I ask him while nodding that Eva is a good fighter.

"He is not as honorable as me and will use any means necessary to win. He is also more crafty than me, using his brain to fight over strength," Baldr says rolling his shoulders as they unstiffen.

"I'm not sure he will agree to a fight as we did, but possibly something else. Like competition or game, so that way he has an advantage," Baldr says as we get closer to the well.

"My only advice is to use your powers as you did with me, as they give you an edge over us. We may be inhabiting this place, but you are the ultimate ruler of your own mind," Baldr says surprising me with his knowledge.

"What, thought I didn't know? We are gods Matt and have lived a very long time giving us the knowledge and experience you lack. To be honest, you couldn't win against us if this wasn't your mindscape," Baldr says to me smirking as we reach the well.

"I figured as much, that is what Odin told me too," I say sighing at the truth he told me.

"Aye, my father is considered the wisest of us for a reason," Baldr says nodding his head.

"Well, why are we at your well?" I say as we stand next to it.

"You have beaten me and therefore claim full ownership of this well. Claim the power and move it to your well in the center. Once you do that the power of your werebear form will become natural for you and no longer an as foreign feeling as it once gave you," Baldr says to me.

"The power you tap into is something we allow you and I allowed you to tap into it for our fight, my brother may not be as kind in that regard. Before it would take you time to transform and feel your body change, now the beast is truly part of you. Enabling you to change at a moment's notice and the rage that consumed you in that form will be extremely more manageable now," Baldr continues to say before I can ask any questions. I just nod to him as I think about what he told me.

Looking into the well I see the sun-like orb floating in the center. Turning back to Baldr he just motions for me to take it. Reaching down into the well, the orb floats up to my hand and I grasp it once close enough. The warmth of the orb invades my body and I feel like a chain inside me snapped. Like Baldr said I feel a new connection with my Werebear form as if it is just another side of me and not a set of clothes that it felt like before. Turning into my Werebear form, instead of taking time like usual, without even blinking I was in my form holding the ball of light. I see Baldr smiling at me nodding in approval.

"Let's go and put that ord into your well, then you just need to get my brother to submit. After that, we can try to make peace, but we'll see what happens," Baldr says with a shrug and walks to where the center empty well is. I shift back to my human form instantly following behind him.

The rest of the walk is in silence and we reach the empty well eventually. Looking at the empty well I walk over to it and hold the sun-like orb inside it, before releasing it from my grasp. As soon as I release it inside the well, it floats down a few feet before slowly rotating around the well in a circle. Standing straight, I turn to the freezing wasteland that Höðr is in and begin to walk to the next challenge.

"Good luck Matt!" I hear Baldr shout at me as I walk away. I turn and give him a quick nod before going returning to my journey.