Please read the author's notes. (Examples and explanation of moves and appearance+ Monster Sources)
Discord: https://discord.gg/K7f8qGpvuk
pat.treon:/Keanu_Eugene
CHAPTER START---
As Ottar and Balor charge each other Yang looks over to Thalie, "so, care to explain why you've been killing people all over Orario?"
Thalie refuses to look over at Yang, keeping her focus on Ottar and Balor below them. As the man draws his weapon and rushes the monster they begin clashing. Ottar wastes no time in activating Stortus Ottar, pushing the limits of his body as his skin begins steaming and shifting to a red colour.
"I didn't kill anyone," she denies his accusation without batting an eye.
"Two hundred and fifteen people and you didn't even try to be discrete," Yang says.
He turns and leans against the wall of the cavern to watch the fight, glancing over at Thalie he sees her shifting uncomfortably in her spot.
Below them Ottar is slowly chipping away at Balor, his stoic demeanor never shifts as both combatants steadily get more cuts and bruises.
"Who told you?" Thalie asks in a bitter tone.
"So you're finally coming clean?"
"Ugh," she turns to look at him, leaning against the wall, and shakes her head, "yes, I did it. All of it, but not like you'd understand."
"Try me," Yang says as he continues to watch the fight.
"You have all the power in the world, but you lack presence."
"Presence?"
"Yes, presence. Look at him," she points down to Ottar who was currently wrestling Balor for power with their blades locked. "He walks into a room and everyone shuts up. Everyone falls in line. Nobody talks crap about him or even looks at him funny."
"Uh-huh, so. You want people to be afraid of me?"
"No, yes, maybe?" Yang gives her a concerned look as she continues, "they should just know better, I'm teaching them."
"By killing them?"
She narrows her eyes at him slightly, "by making examples. They should be dropping to their knees and kissing the ground you walk on! But instead they, they just think you're a joke!" she yells in frustration.
"Thalie," Yang's calming voice reaches out as he walks over to her. "You know what people think doesn't matter, only the results we get matter. They can't affect that."
Hearing his words she steps forward challengingly, "that's the problem with you! You always let people disrespect you and walk all over you just because it doesn't affect the big adventure plan! If you don't enforce the little things, the rumors and whispers, how do you expect anyone to treat you like their king?"
"I'm not their king, I'm just an adventurer," Yang points out.
Thalie shakes her head at him and walks to the edge, pointing down at Ottar. They both see the man struggling against Balor, red steam now leaving his mouth as his armor is completely shattered as well as his shirt. A massive gash across his chest, but for all his efforts Balor is missing its right arm, from all the way up to the shoulder.
"Look at him," Thalie growls out. "He's so pathetic, desperately trying to get Freya to love him by building accolades and reputation. He's trying so hard to get where you are, everyone is, even if they don't realize it. You have everything this world has to offer. All the money, power, women, everything, and still let people disrespect you. People would go to war to have you on their side, you could have a kingdom. At the drop of a hat if you decided we need to deal with Rakia it would be done within a week. But you just let people do whatever they want simply because it doesn't bother the main adventurer. That's no way for a king to live Yang."
"I'm not a king! My god, you sound just like Freya!" he huffs in frustration and begins pacing back and forth. "I'm not a king, I'm not a hero. I don't care about any of that shit I just want to get home, what's the point of being anything to anyone if you're just gonna leave anyway? And how the hell is people spreading rumors or talking shit in bars disrespectful in any real way, what they say doesn't matter. It's not like they're gonna say it to my face."
"How long you stay doesn't matter they should worship you just the same," she argues back. "They need to be taught to stay in line, you could do it but you wouldn't, I knew you wouldn't. So I did, kill a few thousand to keep a million sheep in line, it was necessary," she growls out.
"It's psychotic!" he turns to glare at her, "you're killing people for rumors and trash talk. These people had families and friends that cared about them."
"And now those families and friends won't repeat their mistakes."
"You can't just kill people for what they say like that, even if it's against us. Words are meaningless Thalie, only actions matter. You need to stop this, now," he commands.
"I refuse," she says. "I'm doing this for your own good. They need to be grateful, without you they'd already be dead from Kulve Taroth---"
"Which only appeared because of me."
"That's beside the point, it's here now and they can't handle it, but you could. I only have a few hundred more targets and the rumors will be silenced forever. Within another month anyone who has a bad thought about you will be having nightmares about their homes burning with them inside. They'll be taught to love you..."
Not sure how to respond to that Yang stares at her with wide eyes for a moment before turning back to the fight. Eyes looking down at Ottar brawling with Balor, seeing the man falling back to use an Elixir, but Yang isn't processing anything about the fight. His mind was very much occupied with the insanity Thalie has become.
"How many people?" he asks.
"Excuse me?"
Narrowing his eyes at her he raises his voice slightly, "you know exactly what I'm asking, how many?"
"Sigh, a little over five hundred," she says.
"My god, Thalie, it's only been like six weeks..."
"This is necessary Yang, we all have our roles remember. You take the lead on monsters, Welf handles all the gear. And I'm our enforcer when dealing with people, let me do my job," she pleads.
"How did you even find them," he says while facepalming, "five hundred, even for you. Tracking down anyone who says something bad about me, how?"
"Bounties and bars, I paid people to report anyone that wasn't your biggest fan, there have been a lot of people up-in-arms at the guild for the pardon so it wasn't that hard."
"All for nonsense back-alley talk, why? I just don't get it..."
"And you never will," she says bluntly, "you don't realize how great you are. You deserve worshipers not critics, I just want to teach the world that."
"But you must have known I wouldn't approve. If you thought otherwise you wouldn't have hidden it, you've gotta stop this Thalie. You can't just go out of your way to kill anyone who talks bad about me. We only need to focus on our adventure. I can't speak for anyone else but I don't want to completely mine by having unnecessary bloodshed, people in our way are fair game but not like this," Yang says with a tired sigh.
"I'm sorry Yang, but I won't stop. I don't want to," she says defiantly, staring right into his eyes as a fire blazes in hers.
"I thought you were done being a weapon? That's why I suggested you mentor Mikoto remember, what happened to that?"
"That's still true. I've enjoyed training Mikoto and she's been teaching me a lot about people, but this is necessary. It boils my blood to know people are disrespecting you, I can't just stand by and let them live!"
Looking into her eyes Yang sees unwavering will, "you're serious about this, aren't you?"
"If nobody in Orario respects you then I'll kill them all with my own hands," she says.
"Sigh, fine. Do whatever you want, but you can't do that with us," he knocks the wind out of her with a few simple words.
"What?! No! You can't!"
"I'm the only one who can, you're out of the team unless you can promise me you'll stop this nonsense," he says.
"They deserve it! It's a good cause."
"No, it's selfish and vain. We don't hurt people if it isn't for our adventure Thalie, either agree to the terms or you're out," he says sternly.
Thalie stares down at the floor as she genuinely considers it. Staying outside the team and making sure nobody would disrespect them, but the thought of not fighting beside them was too painful. "Fine," she relents, "I'll accept your terms. No more killing people for that," she says.
"Good, but I'll be keeping a closer eye on you for now obviously," Yang says as he turns to watch the end of the fight.
"I was doing it all for you, you know that right?" Thalie asks in a small voice.
"The new monsters, now you. All this killing and death just because I came to this world, all because of me, that's the worst part of it all Thalie," Yang mutters as the fight concludes.
As Thalie and Yang came to their conclusion Ottar and Balor reached theirs. In a mad dash both combatants swing their blades, with Beastification and Stortus Ottar pushed to their very limits Ottar's Supreme Black Blade shatters Balor's fire swords before he launches off the ground and cleaves the monsters in two.
From the right shoulder diagonally down to the hip, slashing into the crystal for the monster to disappear in a cloud of blue dust.
Feeling his adrenaline immediately crash Ottar faceplants onto the superheated stone floor, the skin on his face begins burning but he doesn't even have the energy to make a sound as his body shuts down.
A moment later Yang and Thalie land beside him, Yang casually picks him up and douses him with a potion, yet the man doesn't wake up.
"Probably mind down," Yang says as he checks for a pulse. Finding one he throws the man onto his shoulder as Thalie grabs the sword.
"Hmm," she gives the Supreme Black Blade a few test swings and shakes her head, "it's just a hunk of sharp metal, kinda lame honestly," she says.
"Well everyone doesn't have a Welf, let's just go. This guy is like three hundred pounds," Yang says as he jumps up a few hundred feet into the room entrance.
Landing beside him Thalie gives him a confused look, "I've seen you wrestle dragons, can you even feel his weight?"
"Honestly no, but it's the natural thing to say you know," Yang says as they make their way up to Folkvangr...
Hours later Yang and Thalie split up in Babel Plaza. While she goes to visit Mikoto he flies to Folkvangr with Ottar and the sword.
Landing in the middle of Freya's courtyard he interrupts the training adventurers.
They all stare at him with measured hate and jealousy, their hands restrained by knowing this wasn't a fight they can win.
At the top of the stairs stands Freya with Heith beside her. The healer immediately begins chanting and by the time Yang walks over to them a soft blue light heals Ottar completely. The woman closes her tired eyes and takes a deep breath as Yang rolls the man off his shoulder and drops him to the floor, leaving the greatsword beside him.
"What happened?" Freya asks, staring at Ottar with a dangerous glare.
"Let's talk in your office," Yang suggests. The woman nods and turns on her heel to lead him inside.
Entering her office Yang looks around to see it surprisingly barren. One wall in a complete bookshelf, a large desk and a comfortable chair with two other chairs for guests. A small fireplace and a few landscape paintings, not what he expected, but he should have expected as much considering Freya is always in her penthouse and Hedin does the day-to-day familia management.
Sitting at the edge of her desk Freya crosses her legs and gives him a sultry smile. "Mmm, you took down Ottar for me, not that I'm surprised. But it does make my blood a bit hot, come closer and get your---"
"I let him fight it," Yang says.
Her face contorts in a mix of disgust and disbelief before settling on a very controlled rage. "What?"
"I let him fight it," Yang says casually, "it was inevitable so might as well get it over with."
"That wasn't your decision to make," she hops off the desk and walks up to him, bending her neck to stare up at him as they're almost chest to chest. "He's mine, not yours, you don't get to make those choices," she growls out.
"He was gonna do it anyway Freya, you can't keep him safe and locked away forever just because you're scared of Loki overtaking you."
"Yes I can! We would have made a plan and dealt with it safely, he could have died. I don't like losing things and I don't like people touching my things!" she turns on her heel and takes a few steps away, leaving her back to him.
"Your things? So he's just a thing?"
"Everyone is a thing, they're all blinded by some form of obsession, it's... it's no way to live," she mutters quietly.
"Living with obsession or living surrounded by obsessed people, which one?" Yang asks.
"Both, but you still had no right making that kind of decision for me. I'm his goddess!"
"Then you should know he would have run off first chance he got. I'm going on an expedition tomorrow so maybe in a few days he'd pull this stunt again then there'd be no one to heal him after the fight," Yang says.
Not having a response for that Freya furrows her brows as her face goes red, as if her veins were about to burst. "Just get out! I've had enough selfish adventures for one day!"
Seeing her response Yang already knows she just needs time to clear her head, living with her for months has made him very wise to her ways. "Alright, see ya in a few weeks," he turns on his heel and walks toward the door.
As he grabs the handle and pulls it open she calls out to him, "stop!" Before he knows it a pair of arms are hugging him from behind, "good luck... I'm still mad at you, but don't die," Freya mutters quietly.
"Mhm, thanks Freya, I'll be fine."
"I love you, and come back before the gala," she says as she releases him.
"No promises," Yang says as he leaves the room, heading toward Babel to review the plan once more for their next big expedition...
END CHAPTER---
Yang and Ottar were having two different types of battles(Physical/Verbal) for completely opposite reasons :)