The rabble of Scandinavian Awakened stepped forward in front of Rasmus, blocking Eik's view of his father. Who the hell did they think they were to come between them? Eik was desperately trying to save his father, yet they would stop him from doing so?

His eyes took on an icy blue glow as he stared them down, Backflow baring its fangs again despite his injuries. A vial of Potion of Mighty Strength class 3 went down with nobody in the group recognizing the significance of letting him ingest the swirling liquid.

He marched resolutely back toward the people blocking the way to his father. The fist fighter who had rained down punch after powerful punch upon the A-ranked bird stood in the middle with blood from Eik's nose still on his knuckles.

He wore his blond hair long, the tangled and greasy mess falling to the middle of his back. It was tied into three uneven ponytails that made him look like some kind of failed experimental fashion experiment.

"Eik!" Olivia shouted as she came running back. A testament to the strength of the blow that sent her flying into the woods, her clothes and hair were caked with mud topped with fresh splinters of wood. "What's going on?"

"That fucker with the ugly hair punched me in the face when I tried to help my dad!" Eik snarled and made to push through the crowd of Awakened but a hand caught him in the chest and pushed him back.

"Step back, man. You're not getting a step closer to this man. He's with us," the bare-knuckle fighter said.

"No, he fucking isn't! He's my dad! Didn't you see him run to me during the fight?" Eik was pissed.

"I did see that, but I also happen to know that neither of Rasmus' sons are supposed to be anywhere close to here. They were both in North America when the monsters first appeared and became stranded there. I can see that you're a strong fighter but I don't think you can cross the Atlantic Ocean," the guy scoffed. "It's much more likely that you're someone with an ability that allows you take on the appearance of someone else."

Eik's eyes didn't move from his father's body. He held up a vial of the red healing potion and shook it in front of the man's face. "I'm going to heal him. Let me through. If dies because you're too busy judging my identity, I swear I'll kill you." Truthfully, Eik knew that the fighter who appeared to be B-rank had a valid point. He would also have been more than a little skeptical of some random guy showing up out of nowhere, even if Rasmus had claimed to recognize him in the middle of the battle. Unfortunately, there was simply no time to give a crap about that.

"Just back off," the long-haired B-ranker said. "I'm not going to let you come any clos—"

Blue suddenly jetted across Eik's skin once more, the glow of his eyes intensifying to a shine as he took a quick step forward and his entire arm whirled out of existence. With the echoing boom of a thunder strike, the B-ranker's head snapped to the side as Eik's supersonic left hook smashed into his face.

Like flipping off a switch, the man's knees buckled as he collapsed to the ground like a sack of potatoes. With a crushed nose and a split lip pouring blood into the soil, the man had gone out like a light. However scared and pissed he might be, Eik would never kill a man who was simply trying to protect his people.

The suspicion had been more than justified and while it had been an odd way of expressing it, Eik was actually appreciative of the length to which the man was willing to go to keep a perceived stranger away from Rasmus. He would make sure the man made a full recovery as well as offer a generous reward as a symbol of Eik's gratitude.

Not deigning to grant even a glance to the rest of the Awakened who had been flanking the B-ranker, Eik leaped across the now unconscious body to his father's side.

There were a few attempts to stop him in the form of symbolic cries of outrage but nobody actually went so far as to try to physically restrain him like the triple ponytail had done. While there were probably at least one or two other B-rankers among their number, the man with the ponytail must have been the leader.

Seeing him taken out with one blow by a guy whose friend was clearly also a high-ranker didn't leave them much confidence to approach.

Eik couldn't hold back a gasp of horror when he rolled over the man who had raised him and cared for him. Angry, red boils were already beginning to fill up with murky, yellow puss all over the front of Rasmus' body. His clothes were tattered and dirty and Eik could tell that not all of that was from the fight they had just finished.

Roughing it out here in the forest was not easy no matter how strong of an Awakened you might be. Your clothes would still become worn down, your stomach would still become hungry, and while you might be better suited to resist physical ailments and attacks as you rose through the ranks of power, discomfort was a universal that persisted despite it all.

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Being forced to sleep on an uneven surface or trudging through the woods in clothes still drenched from the previous night's rain still sucked at C-rank and, Eik suspected, at X-rank. Show him an X-ranker just hanging out on the couch in a wet t-shirt and a burning eau de poop scented candle under his nose and he would happily take back everything he had said.

Ever so gently, Eik shook his father by the shoulders as he called his name. Through tears, Olivia also whispered his name but the man didn't stir. A slight and almost imperceptible rise and fall of his chest told them that he was breathing, but it was faint and Eik could barely feel a pulse. None of them were experts in first aid but they knew that wasn't good, even with a supernatural body.

Ignoring the aftermath of Backflow, Eik fished out vial after vial of red healing potion of the grade that suited his father and handed half to Olivia. She managed to get one down Rasmus' throat while Eik began to pour generous amounts over any injury or wound regardless of how minor it might be. They would have to be careful with the potions lest his father experienced adverse effects due to toxicity from and overdose. Eik just wasn't sure if the relative small amount they could safely administer would be enough to save him.

A quick look over his shoulder revealed the rest of the Scandinavian group looking on with a mix of expression ranging mainly from trepidation to fear. A man had appeared from the sky to fight alongside them against a monster, then knocked their leader out cold with a single, face-altering punch, and then run over to desperately try to save one of their guys.

"If any of you have healing abilities or knowledge of first aid, you better get over here and help right now!" he shouted, voice hard and commanding. "And the rest of you go and find survivors of your group in need of treatment and bring them here. We've got something that will give them a better chance of surviving their wounds. Now!"

A man and a woman ran over to assist, both of them immediately activating their respective healing abilities on Rasmus' most critical injuries. Seconds later, the man with the ponytail was the first other patient to be carried over and laid on his back.

Knowing that he would only get in the way of his father's treatment, Eik confirmed that the man was a B-ranker and emptied two vials of red healing potion onto his tongue while Olivia prepared for the next patient to arrive. To accompany the potions, Eik provided samples of his own healing mixture as well as painkillers to prepare for the pain when they woke up.

Where the hell were those fractures to deliver support? Wasn't the stone he had received from Andihar supposed to be for emergency use? Why was it taking so long then?

Another four people were laid down and given medicinal treatment before the first fracture ripped into existence ten meters above the ground.

Yelps and shouts of surprise and horror rang out as every single conscious Awakened with the exception of Eik and Olivia prepared abilities in anticipation of a wave of monsters. When Andihar's golden armored figure instead descended like a holy angel none of them really knew how to react. They immediately regained a good portion of their caution when a squadron of his personal soldiers, covered from head to toe in silvery armor, followed their master toward the ground.

"Gather up and prepare to fight!" someone yelled in Swedish. "We've got humanoid monsters incoming!"

"Gather up and sit down!" Eik shouted as Andihar approached, sheathing the weapon he had had drawn when he saw that the fight was already over. "They're with us."

None of the Scandinavians did, but as Andihar's intimidating aura radiated from every molecule of his being neither did they dare make the first move.

"Is Molanda with you?" Eik asked in the same moment that the woman appeared from the fracture. "My father is dying!" he pleaded when she practically teleported to land next to him. "We have other injured as well!"

After sending a quick pulse of energy through Rasmus' body Molanda moved on to the next patient with a glance at a distressed Eik. "Your father's life is not in danger. Critical, yes, but he won't die on my watch, I can promise you."

With a sigh of relief, Eik sat back on the forest floor and began to hand out healing potions left and right, people distributing them around as needed. Confused and with clear concern, the Scandinavians went along with it, following Molanda Dayarunar's steady instructions as they took care of their injured comrades.

Mikla and a small team of alliance troops came through a different fracture about a minute and a half later and immediately began assisting wherever they could. Within ten minutes they began carrying the injured back to camp as the entire motley group moved together as one.

Eik's father woke up thirty minutes later, certain that the reunion with Eik had been nothing but a fever dream. But when the sight of his son assured him that it was not so, he burst into tears and threw his arms around his boy.

For minutes they just sat in each other's embrace, Olivia pulled in as well when Rasmus saw that his daughter-in-law was also there. They cried. A lot.

"Where's Torbjørn?" he finally asked, but his face revealed that he already had his suspicions. "Did he…?"

At a nod from Eik, his demeanor of relief shifted toward grief. His worst fear had become a reality. For Eik it was tough to see his father sob as thick tears ran but they simply sat in it together, the three of them gripping each other's hands.

They spoke of the past ten years of their lives. Of their experiences. Of Torbjørn and of Eik's mother. None of them had lived ordinary lives, and now that the cult of Moon Shall Swallow had bared their teeth, they likely never would again.

Without even a second of hesitation, Rasmus agreed to join them in Forest, and once he went back to tell his friends about the settlement in the American wilderness, the hundreds of people who had been living in the Swedish forests soon came over as well.

With the insane amount of money he would hopefully earn from auctioning off Eik's Legendary Mystery Medicine as well as the additional personal power his own supply of them would stack onto his already meteoric rise through the ranks, Eik would be damned if he was going to let that fucking cult do whatever they wanted with Earth.

He would reduce them all to ashes.

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