"What madness led you to come here alone?" Sandor asked, anger clear in his voice. He wasn't exactly as angry at the boy whose life he had saved as he was at himself.
What madness had led him to take this impulsive action to save the boy from those wildlings? He himself would like to know.
"I'm sorry." Bran could only put his head down and take out a clean cloth to bandage the Hound's wounds while he was protecting him, in silence.
"Forget it. Go back to Winterfell. Stay here—soon, your father's men are going to search this place. Just stay, and they'll find you." Sandor gritted his teeth, pain and irritation clear on his face.
"No, I can't do that. I... I..." Bran almost immediately protested, but seeing the Hound looking at him with eyes that promised a lot of pain, he lowered his voice.
"I have to go beyond the Wall," he said in a small voice.
Sandor had no curiosity about learning what went on inside the mind of a pampered and spoiled son of a Lord Paramount. This was not his problem, and thus, he didn't care to say anything more. He just let the boy do whatever he wished.
"You're going to the Wall, right? Could you... hmm... take me?" Bran, seeing the Hound didn't react, thought about asking. He no longer had his pony, and going back to Winterfell to get another was out of the question.
As for walking up to the Wall, that could take days. In that time, men from Winterfell would definitely catch up to him.
"NO." The Hound replied without delay and was ready to leave. Bran panicked, seeing this, and with a little hesitation, said,
"Think about it. We both left Winterfell at the same time. What do you think my brother or mother would think happened to me when I went missing the same day you left Winterfell?" Bran said as he gulped. Agitating this man could cost him his life, but he had no other option. Alone, he could really die or never reach the Wall at all.
Sandor narrowed his eyes, looking at Bran with a dangerous glint now.
"If you take me to the Wall and leave me there before my brother catches up to me... If you hand me over to the Wall, then they'll really believe you didn't kidnap me but found me here in the open and saved me." Bran said hesitantly.
"And what if I just kill you right here and be done with it?" Sandor didn't like how the boy was blackmailing him.
"Then they'll definitely think it was you. You're going there anyway. Just take me." Bran shrugged, trying not to show he was nervous.
Sandor, for a long time, didn't say anything, but he knew he'd be fucked either way.
"FUCK...."
---
Sansa watched her knight fighting three opponents at once, excitement bubbling inside her. Her mind was already coming up with scenarios where Thor won the fight and gave her the rose, declaring her his Queen of Love and Beauty.
Only thinking about this made her face flush with heat. His earlier comment about the Tourney of Harrenhal came to mind, and though it was an awful remark about the poor kingdom, she couldn't care less about it.
'What should I do if he does that? I'm already betrothed to Joffrey.' She muttered to herself in a serious tone.
'Will there be another rebellion for me? Will Thor fight Joffrey for my hand?' She tried hard, but the creeping blush on her face and the dangerous line of thought in her mind were impossible to subdue.
Arya, who was mostly avoiding her sister, also felt that something was wrong with Sansa. Instead of watching Thor fight, she was muttering something to herself with a serious face.
'I could never understand this proper lady.' Arya sighed and almost rolled her eyes at the anomaly of this world, which was her sister, before going back to cheering for Thor, who was fighting three knights alone.
Other lords and ladies were the same. Out of all the knights fighting, the one who attracted the most attention was Thor.
"Put another thousand gold dragons on the Mountain Crusher."
"Put my gold as well."
"Where did the Lord Hand get someone like him? Since when did the North start producing warriors this strong and handsome?" One of the ladies asked with dreamy eyes.
"Tch, don't you know? He's a foreigner. He went to the North by mistake. Servants are saying that he has good relations with even the king."
"Do you think he'll stay? Maybe he'd like my company at night as well."
Chattering grew among the audience as the fighting became more intense.
Clang, Clang, Clang.
Again and again, metal clashed, and the fight continued. Unlike the earlier thugs, these knights were miles better. Even after significantly surpassing them in both speed and power, they were holding their own—although barely—against me.
I commended their determination, but honestly speaking, they didn't stand a chance. The only reason I wasn't putting more force behind my strikes was that I was getting free experience with them.
Fighting multiple people in this controlled environment, where I knew they wouldn't directly go for a killing strike, was rare, and thus, I kept my hand steady, getting used to fighting multiple opponents at once.
However, soon it became quite tiring. Their skill level was average at best, so ultimately, I didn't learn too much while fighting them—a little disappointing, but what could you expect from mortals?
"Ready to give up yet? Don't be ashamed. You'll be losing to the best warrior of Asgard." I smiled, seeing all three of them huffing.
I too was a little tired—of holding back, that is—but no more. I didn't wish to continue this battle pointlessly.
Upon not getting any response from the three knights, who were desperately attacking me while I matched their attacks with equal ferocity, I made up my mind.
"Well then, it was nice fighting with you good sers. But I have a prize to win, so this is goodbye for now."
That said, I rushed at them quicker this time, taking them by surprise as I broke the earlier rhythm we had.
One of them went for a punch as I got a little too close to him, but I dodged with surprising agility and kicked him in the chest, sending him tumbling back before another was already swinging his sword at me.
Seeing where he was trying to hit, I didn't care. I had already seen that normal steel here wouldn't work against my armor, but I didn't want to rely on that, so before the sword arrived, I swung my hammer at the same time, matching the upcoming weapon.
Unlike before, when I was testing out Level 2 Mjolnir and getting used to fighting multiple opponents, I didn't hold back this time around.
Upon contact, the sword shattered into pieces, staggering the knight back. Normal steel in this world couldn't stand against something like Uru. Maybe Valyrian steel could, but again, there weren't many Valyrian steel weapons in this world.
Just destroying his weapon wasn't enough now—there were a lot of weapons lying around here; he could continue the fight. On the side, I noticed that the last knight was ready to deliver a quick jab to distract me.
I couldn't let the disarmed opponent grab a weapon again, so without delay, I threw my hammer at the charging knight. The throw wasn't that strong as I didn't get enough leverage to put more power into it.
Mjolnir hit the third knight in the chest; he only staggered slightly, the lack of power from that throw didn't even leave a good mark on his armor—but that gave me enough time to rush up to the disarmed knight and punch him right in the head to make him dizzy.
Then I grabbed him from his shoulder and waist and put all my muscles into action. With all my power, I lifted the man up like some WWE wrestler—actually, I stole the move from there—with his armor on, and then with all my strength, I threw the man at the other knight, making him unable to dodge or block as almost 200 kg of man and iron crashed onto him, earning gasps from the audience.
"By the Seven, is he even a man?"
"Can the mountain do that?" Chattering broke out once again as I made quick work of the three knights.
Huff... Okay, that one move really felt like a strain on this Level 1 body. Lifting a man with armor sideways is probably not the best idea.
I saw Sansa and Arya pointing at me...
Sighing, I was ready to go take my hammer before rejoining the battle when my senses screamed bloody murder at me.
NO!
Behind me...
xxx
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