Chapter 35

There was plenty of confusion on the beach, but, unfortunately, the Giants were still able to piece together a defense. A few had swords with them, and the remainder grabbed big rocks or large pieces of firewood from the bonfire. The Giants broke into groups to meet the threats. Six Giants went to meet Odin and Eiti head-on. Six Giants dove into the fjord. Seven Giants charged up the hill towards the Shield Maidens. Five Giants came warily out to meet Thor. The final Giant, a red-skinned Fire Giant, remained standing in front of the bonfire, chanting, and waving her arms.

Thor knew that charging directly into a large group of angry Giants was not a sound military strategy. But his goal was not to win this particular battle; he was only interested in winning the war. No matter what happened to him, the Shield Maidens had to make it to the longboat and slay the reborn Kraken.

He was disappointed that he had only attracted five Giants. He knew that in a straight-up fight he would probably loose fighting against five Giants at once, but he had hoped they would overreact and send more. He shouted and waved his arms and drove directly towards the bonfire, but nobody else came after him.

His hammer worked like a boomerang and returned to his hand after he threw it. When he was about thirty yards out, he threw his hammer at the Fire Giant in front of the bonfire. It deflected off some sort of force field around her but still returned to his hand. Next Thor threw the hammer at the lead Giant charging towards him. The hammer slammed into the middle of the Giant’s chest and returned to Thor’s hand before the Giant even hit the ground.

The four remaining Frost Giants were very close to him now. Their faces looked like a cross between a human and an arctic wolf, and black claws extended from their fingers. He darted his chariot between them, lashing out at the first one with his war hammer. The Giant blocked the blow with a wooden club, but the club burst into splinters and blinded the Giant in one eye.

The Giants fought like pack animals with a long history of hunting together. They each understood what the other was doing without the need for verbal communication. They began to cut off Thor’s movement, trying to force him out of his chariot, slowly pushing him back to the water where two Sea Giants waited.

Odin entered the battle carrying a sword and shield, and Eiti fought with a spear and a large hammer. They started off fighting side-by-side but had to change tactics to do battle against six foes. The Giants kept trying to surround them, which meant they had to find some place where their backs would be protected. They didn’t want to be pushed to the water’s edge, so they shifted to fighting back-to-back.

Odin quickly slew a Giant that was carrying a sword but, unfortunately, another Giant was able to pick it up. A raven flew down and pecked at that Giant’s face, distracting him enough that Odin was able to cut off the hand holding the sword. Purple energy blazed out of the Giant’s wounded arm, making him look as if he were waving around a flashlight.

Eiti was not used to fighting with another person at his back, and it made him uncomfortable. On several occasions, he had to block a swing instead of ducking because he didn’t want Odin to get clobbered in the back. He was much shorter and had shorter arms than the Giants he was fighting, so he didn’t try to hit them with his hammer, using it primarily for defense while he attacked with the spear.

About halfway down the hill Crystal saw they were getting cut off from the longboat by Giants running up the hill towards them. She called for the other Shield Maidens to stop and make the enemy come to them. She reasoned that running up the hill would make the Giants tired, and a tired enemy would be easier to defeat.

Pumpkin and Shorty dismounted and moved into the woods at the side of the path. Pumpkin climbed up a tree so she could shoot her arrows down on the Giants. Shorty hid in the underbrush so she could come out behind the Giants once they reached the other girls.

When the seven Giants finally reached the girls, it was the horses and dogs that did most of the fighting. Even Shorty’s and Pumpkin’s horses got into the fight. The Shield Maidens had not had time to practice using the weapons while mounted and spent most of their time hacking away at the giant hands that were reaching to pull them to the ground.

Pumpkin rained arrows down on the Giants. It took them a while to figure out what tree she was in, but then the largest Giant ran over and started shaking it. It was a strong tree with a big trunk, but he was still able to jiggle it enough to disrupt Pumpkin’s shooting. Shorty quietly came out of the underbrush, walked up behind him, took careful aim with her spear, and turned the Giant into a glowing neon light.

Crystal and Rayna were the most effective fighters among the mounted Shield Maidens. Crystal swung an axe in each hand, littering the ground with Giant body parts that quickly faded to nothing. Rayna used her horn to good effect, stabbing and slashing at the Giants, making one of them disappear in a bright flash of purple light.

At one point, Crystal and Bubbles were forced together. While they were touching, Bubbles’ horse manifested a horn, just like Rayna’s. Evidently the horn had to be seen to be used, and only someone touching Crystal could see their horse’s horn. After that, Crystal reached out and touched the other girls as often as possible.

One of the dogs became severely injured, but Blondie was finally able to spear the Giant they were fighting. The monster fell to the earth and faded into nothingness, but not before lunging at Blondie’s horse and clawing a deep wound into its belly. The horse fell and rolled over Blondie, leaving her unconscious on the ground. Crystal could see the horse’s horn fade and then disappear as the animal stopped thrashing. Shorty came out of the woods and killed a Giant that was stalking towards Blondie, then stood over her to make sure no other Giants could finish her off.

More Giants sprinted up the hill to replace those that had fallen. The girls and their horses were all starting to get tired. Odin and Eiti were trapped, and Thor had been forced out of his chariot. Crystal began to worry that the battle was lost when she heard a strange squealing noise.

Just then the Giant in front of Crystal fell to its knees. When it hit the ground, Crystal saw Freckles riding Hildisvini, darting between the Giants at incredible speed. Freckles was too low to the ground to inflict a fatal wound, but she was doing an excellent job of disabling the monsters by slashing at their legs with her short sword.

“So, the pig is going to save the day. You’ve always had a twisted sense of humor,” Freyja said, looking at Loki.

“Yes, it was much too good to pass up,” he replied.

Freyja turned back to view the battle raging below them. “Does this mean that you’re on our side, today?”

“Well,” Loki said. “It always seems like I end up working for you, whether I want to or not. Besides, I think you’ve got a good chance of winning today if we can get the girls onto the boat. Speaking of which, shouldn’t we go down there and lend a hand?”

“Yes,” Freyja replied. “I was just waiting for you to show up so I could see if I had to kill you or not.”

With the addition of Freyja, Loki, and Freckles, the Shield Maidens were able to fight their way to the beach. Once they got there, the battlefield became strangely quiet. The Fire Giants were all dead, the surviving Frost Giants were running up the mountain, and all of the Sea Giants had disappeared.

Odin and Eiti ran up the hill to check on Blondie while Freyja and Loki checked the rest of the girls for injuries. Thor slowly came over to stand with them, leaking so much energy he looked like a flickering candle. Shorty ran over to him and began to tie bandages around his wounds.

“It looks like we won,” said Crystal.

“No,” said Loki. “You haven’t even gotten to the hard part yet. You need to get on the ship and face the real monster.”

Crystal looked up the hill and saw that Blondie was still down. Freckles had a bloody bandage wrapped around her head. Bubbles was limping badly. If the battle had been easy so far, she didn’t even want to consider what the rest of the day would be like.

Freckles came up and whispered into Crystal’s ear, “Gross, their boat smells like a swamp.” Crystal nodded politely but didn’t really care what the boat smelled like.

The girls joined the Viking ghosts aboard the longboat. They brought their weapons aboard but had to leave the dogs, horses, and pig behind. “Aren’t you coming with us?” Pumpkin asked the Gods.

“No, we can’t. We aren’t allowed on the boat. You girls have to do this on your own. None of us can help,” replied Freyja.

“Remember to sink the sword deep into the Kraken’s back,” said Loki. “You have to go all the way through the cuttlebone to destroy it.”

“Are we sure there is going to be a Kraken?” Shorty wanted to know.

Freyja sadly nodded her head. “I’m afraid there so. It looks like they hurried through the last part of the ceremony when they saw us.”

Crystal asked Freyja, “If I have to use a sword to kill the Kraken, why did Eiti train me with axes?”

“Different weapons serve different purposes, just like different warriors serve different purposes. Some were important in the past, and some will be important in the future. Don’t worry,” said Freyja, signaling the Vikings that it was time to take the boat out into the fjord. “You’ll do fine.”

Crystal wished that Freyja would learn how to give simple answers to simple questions.