Chapter 37

The Longboat slowly drifted to a stop about forty yards from the disturbance in the water. Seagulls circled overhead. Five ravens were screaming and diving at the water near the back of the boat, but all eyes were pointing forward, watching the surface of the fjord churn and bubble.

The Sea Giants were very well coordinated with their attack. All eight of them grabbed onto the stern of the longboat and flung themselves onboard at the same moment. The Vikings nearest to them let out a cry of alarm, causing Crystal and the two girls wearing her blood, Freckles and Pumpkin, to turn towards the threat. Shorty and Bubbles also turned, but only because they wanted to see what their friends were looking at. Crystal decided at that moment that she should rub blood on all her friends if they survived this assault.

Pumpkin began to launch arrows down on the Giants as quickly as she could. She had to be very accurate to avoid hitting the Vikings involved in the struggle, but she was confident in her abilities and that confidence paid off. Purple light shone brightly as Pumpkin rained death down on the Giants.

The Giants were carrying large, heavy clubs, which proved devastating when they struck a Viking ghost. However, the clubs were also awkward to swing, especially in the crowded boat.

Because of the crowded conditions, Crystal, Shorty, and Bubbles were unable to move forward to help. But tiny Freckles got down on her hands and knees and pushed her way through the forest of legs. Just as before, she was unable to land serious blows to the Giant’s bodies but still very effective when stabbing their legs and chopping their feet. She could not kill a Giant, but she was able to distract it and disable it so that a Viking warrior could finish it off.

After the longest five minutes in Crystal’s life, three Giants had been killed by Pumpkin’s arrows, three by the Viking warriors, and two had jumped overboard. Ten Viking ghosts were killed, and five more had much of their energy level drained.

Freckles nose had been broken when one of the Giants kicked her in the face. There were some tears, of course, but the girls thought she handled it bravely. They all agreed that the nose should probably be straightened right away, but none of them dared to touch it. When the Viking captain walked by, he reached down and casually pushed it back into position as if he had done it a hundred times—which he probably had.

“Hey, girls. I don’t mean to disturb you, but do you notice anything strange about the water?” called Pumpkin from the top of the mast.

The water was now smooth. Whatever was disturbing it before had either stopped moving, gone deep, or left the area. The Vikings spread out and stood at the edge of the boat, searching for danger in all directions.

They floated that way for five minutes. Then it was ten minutes. The girls were beginning to worry that they had lost the Kraken when the Longboat rose five feet out of the water, then crashed back to the surface. The ancient timbers groaned in protest. Pumpkin screamed and slid halfway down the mast. Crystal wondered what would become of the phantom boat if the wooden keel of the ancient longboat were snapped in two.

Giant black tentacles, slimy and smelling like rotten fish, rose up from the water and began to wrap themselves around the boat. Bubbles threw aside her hand axe and shield and picked up the large two-handed battle axe. She swung the blade above her head and brought it down on the closest tentacle. Light gushed from the wound as the Kraken began to thrash with the injured limb, trying to strike out at its tormentor. Unable to strike the moving target effectively with the heavy axe, Bubbles quickly moved on to the next tentacle.

Freckles’ sword had almost no effect against the Kraken. Her blade just seemed to bounce off the rubbery arms of the monster. Not knowing what else to do, she moved over to stand with Shorty and defend the mast.

Crystal had good luck with her hand axes. They must have been particularly sharp because they seemed to cut through the monster’s flesh with ease, no matter if the tentacle was wrapping around the boat or just swinging in the air. However, she noticed that no matter how much light spilled out when she struck, the wound quickly healed, and the tentacle began to regrow.

Shorty felt like the most useless member of the team. She had not engaged with the Sea Giants, and her spear was ineffective against the tentacles. However, when three Sea Giants climbed onboard during the battle, she knew why she had been sent with the others. The Giants must have realized how effective Pumpkin had been raining arrows down on them and were coming after her.

The first Giant charged towards the mast. Shorty took a glancing blow on her shield from the Giant’s club and felt something pop in her shoulder. She braced the shield at an angle between the mast and the bottom of the boat and began stabbing her spear at the Giant attacking her. As Eiti predicted, the Giant tried to grab the spear and yank it out of her hand. But, like Eiti suggested, she had smeared grease on the shaft near the point. Shorty pulled back hard, and the little knives embedded in the shaft cut into the Giant’s hand, causing him to loosen his grip. By the time the long narrow blade passed out of his grasp, his hand had lit up like a Christmas tree. While he was reacting to his hand, she stabbed him in the opposite shoulder, causing him to drop his club. With both of his arms disabled, Shorty knew that if the Giant didn’t run, she would quickly win. He didn’t run, and soon a new Giant had to step up to take his place.

Unable to do much against the Giants with her short sword, Freckles once again dropped to the deck and tried to go after legs. This time the Giants were expecting her strategy and the first one she went up against lashed out with his foot. Freckles flew across the boat, banging her head sharply against the side and fell to the bottom of the boat, unconscious and barely breathing.

Bubbles came up behind one of the Giants. She didn’t much care for striking someone in the back but decide that when a twelve-year-old girl goes up against a Giant, and she is fighting for the survival of the world, she should take every advantage that she can get. Unfortunately, this Giant was wearing a breastplate, and it seemed at first that the axe did nothing more than put a deep dent into it.

Enraged, the Giant turned around swinging its club, but the club passed harmlessly over Bubbles’ head. He seemed a little unsteady on his feet and Bubbles saw purple light leaking brightly out around the edges of his breastplate. She swung her axe horizontally as if trying to chop down a tree and connected right below the breastplate. The Giant roared in pain, and then quickly faded away to nothing, the breastplate dropping straight down to the boat deck.

Pumpkin was trying to contribute to this battle, but the remaining Giant was almost directly under her. The steep angle combined with the Kraken rocking the boat made it unsafe for her to shoot her arrows. The line of fire was too crowded, and she was afraid that she would accidentally hit one of her friends.

Then Pumpkin saw that Shorty’s counterattack against the last Giant was pushing it away from the mast. Shorty’s shield was gone, and her left arm drooped uselessly by her side, but she kept moving forward, slashing and stabbing, causing the Giant to retreat. The Giant was glowing from a hundred small wounds, and blood was pouring down Shorty’s left arm. It was a toss-up who would survive. Pumpkin resolved the issue with a couple of well-placed arrows. The battle over, Shorty fell to her knees, looked up at Pumpkin and waved, and then collapsed to the bottom of the boat.

Crystal realized that this strategy, of wearing down the Kraken by chopping its tentacles, was not working. She needed to go on the attack, even if it meant losing the boat. Just then the boat was lifted out of the water again, the keel once more groaning in protest.

A raven flew straight at Pumpkin and dropped a large clump of wet seaweed on her hand. Suddenly she saw the mast begin to flicker in and out of existence, and every time it disappeared, she could feel herself start to fall. She wondered why the raven had betrayed her. “Crystal! Help! Your blood is washing off.”

When Crystal heard Pumpkin, she ran to the mast and began to climb. Once she reached Pumpkin, she remembered that she was afraid of heights and glanced down to see just how high up she was. What she saw made her totally forget about the time she fell out of the apple tree. From this height, she could see not only the tentacles but also the Kraken’s body. It was floating only a foot or two under the surface of the water.

The giant squid glowed as if it had multi-colored lights under its skin; lights that continually changed, creating beautiful, hypnotic patterns. Crystal hung onto the mast, unmoving, just staring at the beautiful creature below her. She decided that it was probably the most beautiful thing she had ever seen. Then she heard one of her friends scream, and the squid’s spell was broken. Blinking her eyes, she saw exactly where she should plant the Rune Sword.

Pulling out the sword, Crystal quickly slashed her thumb and smeared blood on Pumpkin’s foot. Her friend taken care of, she turned the point of the Rune Sword downward, grabbed the hilt with both hands, and jumped.

It only took a second or two for her to hit the water. She thought about her life before camp, and how much it had changed in the last week. She thought about her friends and her family and all the other things she might lose. She realized that the fate of the entire world was riding on her shoulders and that she had just bet everything on this one desperate act.

Hitting any water from that high up would be a jolt. Hitting icy fjord water from that high up was a thunderbolt. But Crystal knew what to expect and didn’t allow it to bother her. The moment she felt her feet touch the water she thrust the Rune Sword down with all her might.

The sea beast thrashed and spun in the water. It flailed its tentacles. It dove towards the bottom of the fjord. It tried to dislodge this puny creature that was causing it so much pain. But the more it struggled, the more pain it felt.

The light escaping from the sword wound was almost blinding, but Crystal didn’t know if she had sunk the sword in deep enough. She tried to pound it with her fist. She willed it to go deeper. She felt the squid rolling in the water, and she felt the water pressure building as they dived down, but even though her lungs were burning, she would not let go.

Finally, Crystal felt the flesh of the squid start to vanish. Soon there was nothing left but a cuttlebone pierced by an ancient Rune Sword and she knew that she had won.

Crystal could hold her breath a long time. She could swim under water further than anyone else in camp. She knew all about water safety. But she was out of air and didn’t know which way was up. She quickly removed her breastplate and attempted to do a Dead Man Float, but the cuttlebone held her down. She tried to scramble out from under it, but the water pressure forced the air from her lungs. Cold water filled her chest. It burned, but it felt icy at the same time. She felt very tired and very peaceful. At 12:47 in the afternoon, her heart stopped.