504 DIV. The Worst Of Surprises

On his head, he wore a wolf's fur coat, including its head, the teeth of which rested on his forehead, giving an even darker aura to his shimmering blood-red eyes, under thick black eyebrows.

A black, shaggy, short beard covered his lower face, under whose chin protruded a long goatee gathered in a thin braid.

The Chief of the Claws Of Fenrir looked much more threatening than all the other warriors Dag had encountered in his life, and the young Master, after a short time, felt the chills running behind his back.

When he finished studying the details of that imposing figure, his eyes fell down, next to the throne, on a large square metal cage, similar to the one used to capture ferocious beasts. 

Inside, a naked body covered in blood and wounds was lying face down, turned to the other way.

While his companions positioned themselves neatly in front of the Packmaster, Dag stood still for a few more seconds, noting that the one in the cage was a female body immersed in her own blood.

A metal collar was anchored to the poor victim's neck and with a chain was connected to the upper end of the cage, about 1 meter high, while the woman's black hair was completely immersed in the pool of blood.

"Greetings, Packmaster. We are a diplomatic delegation of the Giants Of Ymir and we came..." 

"You came here to propose something to me, I know, I know... the news flies faster than the wind" the enemy leader replied in a guttural and deep voice, almost superhuman, interrupting Kranus' words.

Dag, not minding the speech that had just begun, kept looking at that naked and wounded body, starting to breathe with difficulty.

"You must be Dag, don't you?" the Packmaster asked, turning his gaze towards him, who had been petrified shortly after the door with grainy eyes.

As soon as his name was pronounced, the woman in the cage moved slightly, resting her hand on the cold bloody base and trying to make an effort to turn around.

Dag's heart continued to beat louder and louder and his breath even more intense and intermittent, almost as if he was about to cry.

Kranus and the two Outposts warriors looked at him, not understanding what was happening to him and hoping that his reaction would not send their peaceful plan into smoke, while Freydis focused on looking at the same thing Dag was looking at, having never seen anything so raw.

With the liquid noise of blood gliding under her hands and legs, the girl raised her back from the base of the cage and struggled towards Dag, with all her black hair in front of her face and her mouth open to breathe as hard as possible. 

"D... Dag..." the girl whispered, moving her hair slowly from her face, on her last legs.

Dag stepped back and his back touched the front door of the room, as his heart beat wildly and his lungs compulsively expanded into his chest.

"Claire... Claire... is that you?" he asked, with a thread of a voice. 

The black-haired girl totally moved her blood-soaked hair from her face, showing it to everyone: the left side was completely covered in blood so thick that it turned black and her eye had been removed, leaving a huge and disgusting wound.

"Dag... Daaag..." Claire's broken and bloodied lips continued to move vibrating and her voice was full of despair and anguish, while tears came out of the only eye she had left.

As much as that harrowing cry came to Freydis's ears, who realized that that woman was the missing young girl who was kidnapped when they had just arrived in Krypstorm and of whom traces had been lost, she put both of her hands on her face and held back a scream, beginning to cry like a fountain.

Dag knelt, speechlessly, witnessing that macabre and unexpected spectacle.

"What's going on? Dag?! Dag?! Do you know that girl?!" Kranus asked impulsively, not knowing how to react.

The Packmaster of the Claws Of Fenrir stretched out his arm and slipped it between the bars of the cage, placing his hand on Claire's bare leg and making his sharp claws crawl over her skin, scratching her slightly.

"Your friend is not a big talker... her silence cost her an eye, but in the end, she told me what I wanted to hear! Ehehehe!" the man on the throne said, laughing sadistically.

Immediately, Freydis put his arms over Dag's shoulders, pulling him upwards and forcing him to rise from the ground. 

The young Master's expression was lost in the void and his carefree eyes were lost in the words of young Claire, who had been tortured by those evil men.

"Stay calm, my love... please stay calm! Remember the mission, remember the prophecy... don't blow it all up! Dag, don't condemn us all to death! Think! We're going to get her out of there!" Freydis whispered in his ears, knowing that if she didn't tell him anything, his feeling of anger would take over and there would be carnage.

"Sorry... forgive me, Dag..." Claire whispered again, squinting her right eye and gently resting her head on the ground, as she ran out of strength that she barely needed to breathe and stay alive.

"Your friend had been kidnapped by one of these dirty Jotunns, who would surely sexually abuse her and then kill her, but my men recovered her and brought her to me! Isn't that good news? Ehehehe! In this way, I was able to exploit all her knowledge, every piece of information in her little brain... and now... I know everything about you, Dag from Earth! Ehehehe! Welcome! Welcome to the Rock Prison! I am Thyrius, but everyone calls me Bloodfang!" the enemy chief chuckled again, rising from the throne and opening his arms outwards, full of himself.