He walked a little farther behind them, the falling snow muting the sound of their steps.

  Alec could fight. He had good reflexes — he had seen that himself.

  His body sometimes moved on instinct, as if it had practiced certain motions from the life he couldn't remember.

  But these two were in completely different leagues.

  The more he thought about it, the more he understood something cold and simple.

  Fighting someone like Erik would be a death sentence. Not quick. Not clean. Just a straight path to a very painful end.

  Ulf was different.

  Erik was violence you could see coming. A storm you could prepare for — even if you knew it would still destroy your house.

  Ulf was quiet death.

  You wouldn’t see her. You wouldn’t hear her. You would just exhale — and realize you had already died.

  A chill crawled down his spine.

  Ulf raised her hand.

  The group immediately crouched behind a tree.

  A few meters in front of them, two groups of three warriors were clashing.

  Steel rang against steel. Snow exploded beneath their feet as bodies collided.

  They looked evenly matched at first — until the axe wielder from the first group decided he had had enough.

  With wild, heavy swings, he carved through the air. Snow burst upward with each strike as he caught two of his enemies at once, sending them crashing backward through the powder.

  But the last swordsman wasn’t backing down.

  He stood his ground against three opponents in a stubborn defense.

  "Let’s go,” Ulf said, turning her back to them.

  “We’re not fighting them?” Erik asked. His hand rested loosely on the hilt of his sword. “He looks strong.”

  “Stop acting like a child,” she replied without looking at him. “You can’t fight everything that looks strong. It would be a waste of time… and it would end too quickly to be fun.”

  “Brother?” Erik said, glancing at Alec.

  They had been avoiding confrontation for a while, but Alec understood what Ulf was doing. This wasn’t just avoidance. It was preparation.

  And preparation that long meant something else — every fight, every observation, every moment of hesitation was a resource he could use before he ever saw the bigger picture.

  “Well… a three against one isn’t exactly fair, is it?” Alec answered.

  “See? And our younger brother needs the experience,” Erik said with a grin.

  Ulf sighed. “Now I have two idiots to manage.”

  She stepped aside. “I won’t help.”

  Erik bolted forward.

  With unmatched speed, he crossed the distance in an instant, already reaching the other fighters before Alec could fully react.

  The axe wielder managed to block Erik’s strike.

  Erik quickly jumped back as Alec reached his side.

  "I trust you to handle these two," Erik said before going back for a second assault.

  The axe wielder was strong. Stronger than Alec had expected. He could barely followed Erik's rythm, but each block pushed Erik back by just a few centimeters — nothing dramatic.

  Just enough to show that this wasn’t going to be quick.

  Erik didn't like fights that ended quickly anyway.

  On Alec’s side, the two remaining warriors began circling him slowly, like sharks scenting blood in the water.

  The exhausted swordsman from before stepped up beside him.

  Up close, Alec realized he was about his age — no older than fourteen.

  “Let’s die in a blaze of glory,” the boy said, before rushing forward.

  “Yeah… maybe not,” Alec muttered.

  The man in front of him twitched.

  That was enough.

  Alec had already seen the opening.

  The warrior lunged.

  Alec stepped in and parried, steel scraping against steel with a sharp, grating scream. The vibration shot up his arm, but his grip didn’t falter.

  The man attacked again.

  This time Alec raised his shield. The impact thudded through wood and bone.

  He didn’t chase the kill.

  He pivoted instead, keeping his shield angled, sword poised, forcing the man to adjust.

  Another swing.

  Alec saw it before it fully began — the weight shift in the snow, the tightening shoulder, the breath drawn a fraction too early.

  He ducked.

  The blade cut through the air above his head, close enough that he felt the displaced wind brush his hair.

  And in that moment, something settled inside him.

  This wasn’t a threat.

  This was slower than Erik. Sloppier than Ulf.

  Predictable.

  It was time to try something.

  As he stepped back dodging another sword strike.

  Instead of focusing on the man, he focused inward.

  He drew the energy the way he had once felt it before — not from muscle, not from rage, but from somewhere colder.

  It spread through him like winter creeping under skin. Ice running through his veins. Numb, sharp.

  He guided it into his sword.

  The rune etched along the blade flared to life, shining with pale, biting light.

  The man hesitated.

  Just for a second.

  Long enough.

  Alec swung.

  The man twisted aside in time to avoid the steel —

  But the slash did not end with the blade.

  A wave of frost followed the arc of his strike, a thin crescent of ice tearing through the air.

  It struck the man’s chest.

  And where it passed, armor froze. Cloth stiffened. Skin cracked beneath spreading white.

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  Alec’s hand trembled.

  But the sensation was familiar.

  Almost… pleasant.

  So that was what it meant to be a demigod.

  It was terrifying.

  Taking a life should never be associated with relief.

  The other warrior struck.

  The blade grazed Alec’s cheek as he deflected it at the last second. Warm blood met freezing air.

  When their swords clashed, frost spread instantly along the man’s blade.

  “The tide turner,” he screamed, still in disbelief.

  The boy lunged.

  It was a simple strike.

  The warrior could have blocked it.

  But the moment steel met steel, his sword shattered into splinters of ice.

  The boy’s blade drove into his chest.

  The man fell down in the snow in silence.

  Alec turned to see Erik standing over a kneeling axe wielder.

  Cuts lined his arms. His side. His neck. The snow around him was red.

  The warrior's battle axe had been broken in half, and lay in front of him.

  Alec didn't know if he was dead or had lost the will to live.

  Erik on the other hand was smiling at Alec.

  Alec exhaled. At least that was done.

  "Powerful warrior, what's your name?" The boy asked as he got closer to Alec.

  "You don't need all of that, Just call me Alec." He answered.

  Erik patted Alec on the back.

  So hard that he nearly fell.

  "Unbelievable but true, the kid is actually getting dangerous." He said with the largest smile on his face.

  Sensations were slowly returning to Alec's hand.

  "I owe you my life great warriors." The boy spoke again.

  "And who might you be?" Erik asked.

  "My name is Magnus Thorsson." He confessed.

  Erik's smile vanished.

  The frost crawled back along Alec’s blade before he realized he had called it.

  The boy shivered.

  "Of course you're his son." Erik said as he unsheathed his sword.

  "I'm not your enemy," he threw his hands in the air. "How could I be your enemy when you are the reason I'm alive. "

  "Thor wants us dead. Why wouldn’t his son?" Erik kept going.

  Magnus threw his sword on the snow.

  "I owe you, on my honor as a demi-god I promise to never turn my sword against you."

  Erik stopped in his tracks before turning to Alec.

  "What do you think?"

  He could feel his sword pulsating in his hand, asking only to go.

  But this was a kid, just like him.

  If he killed him, how would he have been different from the monsters he was fighting.

  "I say that there's three of us, if he betray us he won't stand a chance."

  Erik didn't react.

  Alec exhaled deeply. "If he betray us, I will kill him."

  Erik smiled as he heard those words.

  "It's settled then,"Erik sheathed his sword.

  He patted Magnus on the shoulder

  "My brother has a good heart, pick your sword up and ready yourself, we're leaving."

  They started walking toward Ulf.

  "Another stray?" she said, glancing briefly at Magnus before turning her attention back to Erik.

  “Better,” Erik said as he reached her level. “Thor’s son.”

  "You must be out of your mind,” she nearly snapped at Alec.

  “Just hear me out,” Alec said, raising his hands slightly, palms open. “He hasn’t done anything except try to survive. We can’t condemn him for who his father is.”

  Ulf stared at him for a moment. Not angry. Calculating. Like she was measuring how expensive his idealism was going to be in future blood.

  “You are thinking like someone who's not trying to see the light tomorrow ” she said quietly. "What if you are wrong? Lineage is not something to play with."

  Erik didn’t speak. He was watching both of them like a man watching a duel.

  "You're Ulf Skadidóttir right? I heard of you, your mother is a giantess,” Magnus said suddenly. “Does that mean you eat babies and bathe in the blood of the men you slay?”

  Ulf’s eyes began to glow amber. Cold. Dangerous. Like fire waking up.

  “Maybe,” she said quietly.

  “Speak again and find out.”

  Magnus stepped back, slightly hiding behind Alec.

  "Come on girls, stop fighting."Erik finally intervene.

  "Erik explain to her..." Alec begun.

  "Erik explain to your little friend that this not a friend, this is a walking threat." Ulf interrupted him.

  "You let Thorgester get close knowing he would betray us," Alec protested. "Just give him the benefit of the doubt."

  "We all make choice, the boy just made one. Let him learn, learn him pay if he made a mistake." Erik finally said.

  She looked back as if he had betrayed her.

  "I should have known, a bunch of idiots." She sighted. "Then make yourself useful son of Thor, what can you tell us."

  "Be precise, she bite." Alec said.

  Magnus inhaled deeply.

  "Thor placed a bounty on you."

  "Obviously," she answered.

  "But do you know what he promised?" Magnus asked.

  Erik and Ulf leaned closer.

  "Go on," they both said.

  "He offered, glory, wealth and a quest for the mortal world. An occasion to go back out there, and live as a man for a time."

  The mortal world? That was Alec's world.

  He was right.

  If Thor had offered it meant that they had to be a way to leave Valhalla.

  A way for him to go back home.

  Ulf and Alec's eyes met.

  "What about the other warriors ?" Erik asked.

  "There isn't that many left, my brothers felt like it was better to eliminate distractions before focusing on you."

  "Your brothers?" Alec repeated.

  "And sisters." He completed. "Truth be told they are a lot more stronger than me."

  "I know." Ulf voice sliced the air.

  "How many are we talking?" Alec asked.

  "Svein, Edmund, Hilda and Gunhild."

  Four demi-gods.

  All sons of Thor, motivated by a bounty.

  What kind of nightmare was this.

  "I won't make you fight family," Erik said to magnus."

  "Why, i want to see him fight." Ulf protested.

  "Please don't." He asked

  She said nothing.

  "A three against four then, nothing we never saw." Erik said with the calmest expression.

  "We're talking about children of the literal god of thunder, how can you be so calm?" Alec asked.

  Erik put his arm around Ulf's shoulders.

  "Because i have the best huntress with me."

  Fire raised in the distance.

  An explosion, one of Ulf's trap.

  She had accessed a powerful threat before they got into the fight.

  "They're coming, get in positon." She said before leaping on top of a tree branch and dissapearing in the tree line.

  Alec knew what to do.

  He ran into a high bush and recovered himself with snow.

  He lay still, letting the snow swallow him.

  "Where do i go?" Magnus asked to Erik.

  "You stay right here Thorsson. You prove your loyalty to your oath." Erik said as he went into hiding.

  Something was approaching fast.

  Alec couldn't explain how he knew it, he could just feel vibrations in the ground.

  From the tree line emerged Ingrid.

  She look tired and worn out, she could barely catch her breath.

  "Ingrid ?" Magnus asked.

  He knew her?

  "Magnus," she said.

  And now she recognized him.

  "What happened to you?" He asked.

  He tried to move closer but she pulled out a knife.

  "Y'all said that it would be easy, and now they're dead." Her voice was breaking down.

  "Calm down, Ingrid. What are you talking about."

  "Thorstein, Sieg they're dead. The archer killed them."

  Ulf was the archer that had eliminated her friends.

  And Alec could imagine her on top of her branches, struggling to not shoot her for the ironie.

  "You really expected it to be that easy?" Magnus said.

  "Come on i tought you smarter than that." He made a pause to look around in the tree line.

  "If a single group could beat them, we would have done the work ourself."

  So the sons of Thor were the one that had sent Ingrid and her group behind Alec?

  Magnus was the reason he had almost got stab.

  "You weakling." She screamed

  "We just needed them exhausted, you were a diversion if you want." He kicked the snow under his foot.

  She lost her mind.

  Magnus looked shocked she was actually coming for him.

  Ran straight for Magnus trying to stab him.

  Magnus was unharmed, she would kill him.

  Was he supposed to move?

  Would saving him ruin Ulf plan?

  From somewhere above, he could almost feel Ulf watching.

  Erik would understand if he moved. He always did.

  But this wasn’t about understanding anymore.

  Magnus had known.

  Magnus and his family had sent people to their death, they had tried to kill him.

  If Alec did nothing, the problem would solve itself.

  The knife flashed.

  Snow crushed under Ingrid’s boots.

  Alec’s jaw tightened.

  He had sworn he wasn’t like them.

  So why was he still standing still?

  Then lightning struck.

  The air smelled like burnt snow.

  Lightning did not fall from the sky.

  It arrived horizontally, like a god had thrown a spear made of thunder itself.

  Ingrid’s body was thrown backward. She hit the tree with a cracking impact, slid down slowly, breath leaving her lungs in a ragged, wet gasp.

  Silence followed.

  Not peaceful silence.

  The kind that happens when everyone is suddenly very aware that something far worse just arrived.

  That was what Alec's was sensing.

  “You took your time,” Magnus exhaled. “She could have killed me.”

  ““nd you would have deserved it.”

  The voice came from the tree line.

  Deep. Calm. Heavy with the confidence of someone who had never once worried about being interrupted.

  Branches cracked as he walked forward.

  A tall young man stepped out of the shadows of the forest.

  Red long hair braided loosely against his scalp.

  No armor on his chest. he had pants, Two axes hanging from his belt and tattoo covering him.

  Lightning still crawling along the edges of his shoulders like it didn’t know where to go now that it had finished obeying him.

  Alec felt it immediately.

  Pressure.

  Not fear exactly. Something closer to standing at the bottom of a deep ocean and realizing the water was thinking about crushing you.

  "To be honest, i'm surprised you're still alive." He said as leaned against a tree.

  Not mocking. Just… observational. Like commenting on weather that refused to cooperate.

  Magnus didn’t answer immediately. He was still catching his breath, brushing snow from his coat.

  “You’re late, Svein,” Magnus said.

  Svein tilted his head slightly.

  “Am I?” he asked. “Or were you just early in proving you’re still the weakest of us?”

  The words didn’t sound cruel. Just factual. Like he was correcting an error in a report.

  Then Svein’s gaze shifted to Ingrid.

  “Pathetic,” he said softly. “You were supposed to keep them busy, not throw emotional tantrum like a cornered animal.”

  Ingrid tried to stand.

  Her legs failed her.

  The lightning strike had burned her skin.

  But Alec couldn't see it — but nerves were probably screaming inside her body.

  “Svein have you no honor? You lied to us,” she choked out. “You said it would be—”

  “I said it would be easy for us,” Svein interrupted calmly.

  He finally stepped away from the tree.

  Each step made the air feel heavier.

  "Look at you," he said. "Yet you dare call people weakling."

  This was not an adversary Alec could manage.

  Thank to the gods, he hadn't move.

  "Where are the others? " Magnus asked.

  "They're coming. That hunter is more cunning than they assumed, but those traps won't stop us."

  Another explosion in the distance.

  Another Ulf's traps.

  They were helping her to estimate the distance between her and the others groups.

  The pressure emaning from Svein was different than Thor's.

  Less choking, more agressive.

  Alec could sense the crackling lightning in the air around him.

  Yet he looked less untouchable. That was a demi-god, a real one.

  That didn't mean that Alec was delusional, he knew that stepping to that meant death.

  A brutal one.

  But could Erik step to him?

  "I met a demi-god." Magnus said calmly.

  "We're hunting demi-gods." He did not glance at him.

  He was still watching the distant explosions with mild interest, like someone listening to fireworks they had not ordered.

  "He was different," magnus started to walk toward him.

  "How?"

  "He looked brave. Not dumb and loud like you."

  The lightning arcs multiplied.

  "Dumb and loud huh?"

  "Yesss." Magnus said feinting muscles. "He was sharp, dodging and analyzing. Nothing you could ever do."

  Svein stood straight.

  "I mean you're strong, thanks to Dad." He shot at him. "Y'all have more of his blood, it makes you look all and mighty to the dumb warriors."

  Svein face darkened up with a smile.

  "You might be strong, but it's fluff. Without dad's blood, you would have never been half the warrior he is. You can't jump in a fight to save someone you don't know."

  It was official, Magnus was mad.

  The sky darkened up.

  Svein bursted out laughing.

  "I love you, i really do. You're the first prey that i've ever seen run his mouth that much. Pathetic excuse of a demi-god."

  He raised his hand, and lightning surrounded his arm like a chain.

  "Trust me little brother, just give me a reason, i will enjoy this." He said as started walking toward him.

  Magnus stopped walking.

  He was maybe ten steps away now.

  Svein stopped in his face.

  The man was towering in front of the boy.

  Close enough that Alec could see the tremor on Magnus shoulders — fear.

  The violent, shaking of someone who knew exactly how much danger they were standing in and had decided it was still worth speaking.

  “I don’t think I am clever,” Magnus said.

  “I just think that you used Ingrid and Thorgester, because you were scared to fight the tide turner one to one.”

  The lightning around his arm brightened once, like a heartbeat.

  "And will that tide turner come to save you?"

  "I pledged my life." Magnus opened his arms wide. " Touch me and see."

  “Good,” Svein said quietly, he smiled.

  Not cruelly.

  Like someone who had just found out how to break something beautiful.

  “You shouldn't be.”

  His hand moved.

  Slow at first.

  Then lightning exploded forward like a thrown spear, not at Magnus — but past him, striking the snow behind him in a violent thundercrack.

  Magnus didn’t move.

  He forced himself not to.

  Alec understood something in that moment.

  If he ran now, he was prey.

  If he stood still, he was a problem.

  Silence reigned for a second before Magnus finally stumbled back.

  Leg's shaking.

  Svein bursted out laughing. Holding his stomach.

  "If you're willing to die for your hero, the just do."

  His hand moved quicker this time, he didn't look at Magnus.

  He was for real.

  "Enough." Ulf voice arrived like a blade sliding quietly across bone.

  The forest went still.

  "Well,” svein said. "I tought the huntress would have been better at hiding. "

  "I don't have a reason to." She bited back.

  His hands raised, shot a blast of lightning in the trees, sending one down.

  "Wrong one," she said.

  Her voice echoed like coming from everywhere.

  Lightning flickered along Svein’s fingers again.

  “Careful,” he said. “You’re standing very close to something that can kill you.

  “That's the thing with the Aesir, always arrogant." She sighted.

  "I know exactly how close I am to death, do you?”

  The question hung in the air.

  Lightning crawled along his fingers, not yet striking, just searching — like a beast sniffing for blood through wind currents.

  “I don’t need to see you woman,” Svein said finally.

  “I just need to make the forest smaller,” he added.

  Then lightning struck the ground at his feet.

  The thunder didn’t explode immediately. It spread.

  The shockwave burst through the earth like a heartbeat forced too hard.

  Snow leapt into the air.

  Branches snapped under sudden pressure.

  Birds exploded from the canopy in panicked black spirals of wings and sound.

  Alec threw himself sideways.

  Ulf moved at the same time, she landed near him.

  Erik rolled behind a fallen trunk.

  They were side to side.

  And when the dust of snow and shattered bark settled—

  The forest had changed.

  What had once been dense cover was now an open clearing.

  Broken trunks lay like fallen soldiers.

  The battlefield had been simplified.

  Controlled.

  Svein smiled.

  “Would you look at that,” he said. “A vermin infestation.”

  Alec hoped that Ulf had planned for that because confrontation was inevitable.