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“You know, brother, it’s odd how you've decided to just go out of your way to explore this dungeon,” said Mimir. Currently, Kratos had taken a break from the attempted rebuilding efforts and found this entire dungeon, located just past some random crack on a completely unassuming stone formation.
“We have done this many times before,” said Kratos, referring to their adventures throughout Midgard and the other realms, from the moment Mimir began regularly hanging from his hip to now. There was a pause following the events of Ragnarok as Mimir had put his focus more on being a thinker and serving counsel to the recovering realms, but in the end those adventures were still deeply ingrained in Mimir’s mind.
“Oh that’s not the problem, brother,” Mimir replied. “It’s just the fact that I can’t really make out why you went down this dungeon. Usually when we were back with your boy it was to sate his sense of adventure, or sometimes it was because you were, as you said, looking for supplies, or perhaps helping Freya and the others with who-knows-what materials scattered across different areas and in different realms. But this? Well, none of those reasons fit at all.”
“I am doing as you said, looking for resources.”
“Like what? Precious gemstones? Bifrost keys? Ceremonial boar vessels that spring out a healthy dose of red orbs?”
“Hacksilver.”
“Hacksilver? What for? You’ve got the entire treasury with you, we’re in no shortage of hacksilver.”
“We are rebuilding the realms, we need more hacksilver. Though the other realms and the people therein respect us enough to be more charitable to our demands, they are not fools. We must still win them over. Freya has been talking with Sif and Hildisvini about making some bigger investments, I believe that large quantities of hacksilver are necessary to make things go smoothly.”
“Really now? That’s strange…” Mimir wiggled his eyebrows, though Kratos couldn’t see it on the account of Mimir dangling from his belt. Mimir decided to cut it for now, staying silent as Kratos dropped from one platform to another, and then another, and then another. The dungeon seemed infested with draugr, some fiery, some icy, and some toxic, and he would crush them all as he advanced further down the dungeon.
The dungeon actually housed some more interesting opponents Kratos did not normally see. There were two-headed wolves and fire-breathing serpents, and freakishly huge spiders that shot bifrost webs. The entire dungeon was a window of irregularity so similar yet jarringly different from the world outside. Kratos would eventually make it to the supposed end of the dungeon, where two statues then came to life, both of them being shaped in the form of enormous trolls.
The two troll statues resembled another troll Kratos had slain years before called The Death Eater, though these ones were even larger, bulkier, and were colored black and silver. They carried their war-totems, slamming them on the ground to form shockwaves as they blended the elements together, somehow wielding both fire and frost much like Kratos did.
Though formidable, these thoughtless warriors ultimately crumbled. Kratos would stagger both of them with Breath of Thamur before climbing one of them, forcing them to fall and crushing their head with their war-totem, then following it up by blasting the other troll statue’s head clean off with a Wrath of the Frost Ancient.
With the collapse of both troll statues however, the entire floor then crumbled, causing Kratos to fall. He would quickly reach for his blades of chaos, throwing them to a nearby wall in order to anchor himself, pulling himself to said wall and watching the entire drop. The drop led directly to a flowing underground river. Carefully, Kratos slid down using the blades and then jumped straight down into the aforementioned river.
Mimir spat out some water as Kratos emerged from the river, arriving on the grayish shores of this underground section. Walking through it, he would find geyser-like pools, but instead of blasting water upwards, they served as natural cauldrons that took in the water that poured into them in small waterfalls from the cracks above.
“Brother, look, hacksilver, just what you were looking for,” said Mimir, his eyes falling upon scattered piles of hacksilver.
“And armor, weapons, and the belongings of warriors before us,” was Kratos’ reply. While Mimir focused on all the silver, Kratos first noticed the actual gear and weapons. It was evident that something was hoarding all of these things, but what?
“Halt!” came a voice. Kratos turned to see a figure. Bulky, but incredibly small. A somewhat metallic skeleton as evident from the skull-like face, though the entity had fairly human eyes, and an actual consciousness it seemed. “Turn back now, adventurer! Lest you share the same fate as all those others before you! For you face… THE BUCKET KNIGHT!”
“Bucket Knight? Who in the Nine Realms gave you that name?” Mimir laughed. “Bucket Knight! D’ya hear him, Kratos?”
The Bucket Knight growled.
“Why do you dwell this place? Are you the reason behind these men’s undoings?”
“Why yes, I am,” The Bucket Knight then pulled out - you guessed it - a bucket full of water from behind one of the pools. “Many greedy and foolhardy adventurers come here in search of exceptional treasure, only to find me! I welcome everyone who dares come here so that I may face them in combat, and I’ve always prevailed, so much so that the little legend of the treasure ended up becoming true in the end.”
“Pssh… what’s your treasure in the first place? A bucket of gold?” Mimir mocked The Bucket Knight some more, earning an ireful growl from the diminutive brute.
“Hmph. So you have lured those who seek to reap fortune to their undoing,” Kratos said. He then turned around, “it is best I do not indulge you then. I will go. I will not indulge your desires.”
“Haha!” Mimir guffawed. “Look at him, Kratos! He’s shorter than the boy when I first met him! He’s like a wee little baby!”
The Bucket Knight growled as he then raised the bucket over his head. “Just add water…”
“Aww he’s holding up his precious bucket who’s the- uh… Kratos?”
Kratos turned around and within a split second activated his guardian shield, blocking a punch from a colossal fist which sent him flying into the river. Kratos got up immediately and there he saw The Bucket Knight who now towered over him. As large if not larger than those troll statues he’d just fought, The Bucket Knight beat his chest and let out a roar that shook the caverns, causing some stalactites to fall down.
“I sense that you are a great warrior, unleash your might and we shall do battle!”
Kratos let out a small sigh as he drew the leviathan axe. “I will not indulge your desires. If you attack me once more, I will defend myself.”
The Bucket Knight responded by swinging his arm back, a clenched fist ready to pummel Kratos. He had made his answer. Kratos would evade the incoming strike, and the realm would shift, slowing down time. Kratos charged the leviathan axe and started hacking into The Bucket Knight. This would be a recurring pattern as Kratos proved too dexterous thanks to his limited ability over time and outright superior speed.
“Brother, I think his body’s naturally armored, but I think I’m seeing he has notches on him, maybe you can pierce ‘em, break right through, soften him up.”
Kratos looked at The Bucket Knight’s body. Upon closer inspection, the gray-green goliath did appear to be like a living suit of armor, partially metallic. Amidst the spikes of the living armor were a number of rivets. He withdrew the leviathan axe and conjured the draupnir spear, his eyes focused on each rivet and started aiming.
The Bucket Knight would strike once more, and Kratos would dodge, slowing down time. Without hesitation, Kratos unleashed Artillery of the Ancients, firing the spear into the air and causing it to rain down several copies of itself, which littered The Bucket Knight in countless stakes, some of which piercing right through the rivets. The spear manifested once more in Kratos’ hand as time resumed as normal.
“Huh?” The Bucket Knight looked at himself, pierced all over. Nothing deep, save for the ones along his rivets. He looked at Kratos, who tapped the sauroter of the draupnir spear, causing all of the stakes that impaled The Bucket Knight to detonate, staggering him multiple times in quick succession and completely annihilating any sense of composure or posture. He fell onto one knee, and Kratos quickly darted towards him, attacking him while he was vulnerable.
Kratos struck The Bucket Knight with a Thrust of a Thousand Soldiers, a barrage of quick yet deep spear jabs which overwhelmed him. The gray-green colossus burst upwards and fell back. He would quickly head to one of the pools, having the waterfall wash all over him. He did not appear to grow, seemingly having reached maximum size, but it did seem to rejuvenate his wounds and regenerate the magical aspects of his living armor.
Quick to put a stop to this, Kratos pulled out the leviathan axe and threw it at The Knight, freezing him solid with the pool along with it. Kratos then revealed his blades of chaos, swinging one to charge it up with flame before smashing it down right onto his frozen opponent, vaporizing the ice and causing a burst that knocked the disoriented Bucket Knight down.
The Bucket Knight let out a mad roar, frustrated at how the fight had been going so far. He bolted as quickly as he could to one part of the battlefield, he faced Kratos as he raised up his mammoth arms and slammed them on the ground, sending waves of rock his way. Without missing a beat, Kratos responded by running towards The Bucket Knight. He would dodge the first rock wave, and then the next. This reminded him of his duel with Mattugr Helson, when he needed his heart to rescue Atreus from his illness all those years ago. Kratos does still think about him every now and again. He slew him to save his son, but he did not need to if he had told Atreus the truth in the first place.
Kratos pushed the thought away, he’s thought about that enough as is, it has no place in the duel he was partaking in now, and though this opponent of his reminded him of Mattugr, he had much less qualms about facing him in particular. He could see it in The Bucket Knight’s eyes, that lust for battle. It reminded him of himself. His old self. He would throw the axe around The Bucket Knight as he then pulled out his blades, he spun around and slashed both upwards, striking The Bucket Knight right in the eyes. He would then once more hack and slash away at The Knight, only for The Knight to actually succeed in grabbing him this time.
But not for long. As The Knight tried to squeeze him, Kratos held out his hand, and the axe came from behind The Knight’s leg, cutting him behind the knee, forcing him down on said knee. Now up close, Kratos would fire a Wrath of the Frost Ancient right into The Bucket Knight’s eyes, causing him to growl in pain and then throw Kratos away.
Kratos landed as gracefully as he could as he watched The Bucket Knight rip the ice from his eyes. He beat his chest once more.
“I will give you another chance!” Kratos yelled. “Leave us be! We will leave your temple alone.”
“No! I will win this fight! I will kill you!” The Bucket Knight ran to the nearest pool. Kratos raised the leviathan axe and unleashed the Breath of Thamur, freezing all of the pools. In a frustrated rage, The Bucket Knight ran straight towards Kratos before jumping, landing on his belly as he slid towards him with both fists forward. Kratos would cast one blade of chaos on a nearby ice pillar which was formerly a waterfall, and do the same with the other blade on another pillar opposite of the first. Once The Bucket Knight came close, Kratos pulled the pillars down, causing them to fall straight onto the colossus, stopping him right there.
His opponent staggered, Kratos unleashed Meteoric Slam. Flames fell upon The Bucket Knight, overwhelming him further. Kratos pulled out the draupnir spear once more, he threw the spear, one for each eye, piercing them before throwing a blade into The Bucket Knight’s nasal cavity. Kratos slammed his sauroter on the ground, detonating the stakes that dug into The Bucket Knight’s eyes before sending a surge of flame through the blade’s chain, causing it to burst right inside The Bucket Knight’s skull of a head, popping him both in front and the back.
With that detonation, a pause came. The Bucket Knight stopped moving and he crashed onto the ground, his collapse shook the ground as he fell.
“That was quite the masterclass, Kratos.”
“Do not taunt foes we can avoid fighting again, head. We are trying to walk down a new path.”
“Aye, sorry,” said Mimir. “So, with the guardian of all these gold now just an another shiny carcass. I guess you have all this hacksilver to yourself now hmm?”
“Yes.”
“But of course, this was never about the hacksilver at all, was it?” said Mimir. “You… I think it’s best you say it.”
Kratos let out a small grunt, then answered.
“I think about Atreus, sometimes. I like to think he is still here with me, summoning wolves as he shoots opponents down with his bow.”
“Aye. There it is. You miss your boy,” said Mimir. “He’s out there exploring the world now. I think it’s best if we keep building The Nine Realms into a better place so he can have a nice welcoming surprise when he comes back.”
Kratos nodded, and with that, he started making his exit. “I will inform the dwarves about the loot here. They will come collect. It will still be useful.”
“Aye. Who knows how many buckets we can buy with these!”
“Head!”
“Haha! Sorry!”