Prince Anton rode slowly through the streets of Lillehaven on horseback, flanked on either side by Hans and Verner on horses of their own. Outwardly, Anton appeared to be calmly reviewing the preparations of his troops and the work of the subjugated villagers, but in actuality, Anton was growing impatient as he waited for Queen Elsa's response to his ultimatum. He was eager to face her.
Hans, on the other hand, was dreading the fight he foresaw. He wanted no part of it, and if he had any say in the matter he never would have returned to Arendelle. He had seen what Elsa was capable of, and he could only assume she had gained confidence and control over her magic. He didn't want to be on the wrong side of her powers. Even if Anton did emerge victorious, Hans knew he wouldn't be allowed to share in the glory. His actions had made him a pariah everywhere, even at home, and he didn't see how any outcome in Arendelle could change that.
Seemingly out of nowhere, a soldier sprinted up to the three horsemen.
"Sir," the soldier addressed Anton as he gasped for breath, "enemy forces have been spotted."
The soldier pointed up to the crest of the road above Lillehaven. Just as the grouped turned to look up, the ground began to tremble as Arendelle's army, realizing their presence had been noticed, began their charge down the mountainside towards Lillehaven.
"Finally!" Anton exclaimed with excitement. He took out a collapsible spyglass from his pocket. Looking up to where his opponents had staged their attack, he saw the solitary figure on the icy chariot.
"Should we release..." Hans began before his brother abruptly cut him off.
"Not yet!" Anton snapped. "We have to draw her in. If the queen thinks she'll be able to stay up there above the fray, she's sorely mistaken." Anton returned the spyglass to his pocket. "Verner, take charge of the men."
"Yes, Sir," Verner replied. "And, you?"
"My brother and I are off to see the queen," Anton said with an ominous tone as he drew his sword.
Anton quickly rode off toward the attacking army and Hans reluctantly followed.
In short order, Verner had quickly organized Anton's forces and was leading them in a counterattack against Arendelle's army. As the soldiers clashed, Verner scanned the battlefield, searching for a suitable target for himself. Among the gray uniforms of the Southern Isles and the dull green of Arendelle, Verner spotted the burgundy coat of a Weselton palace guard. Verner smiled. He didn't know why a Weselton palace guard was fighting for Arendelle, and he didn't particularly care, but he was going to make the reindeer-riding outsider pay for getting himself involved.
Meanwhile, from the shore of the fjord, Elsa and Olaf peered at the enemy ships anchored in Lillehaven's harbor. They were nearly deserted, with most of their personnel having gone ashore to help with the invasion, leaving each with a skeleton crew aboard. The large flagship at the dock, on the other hand, still had a sizeable part of its crew milling about the deck, and Elsa presumed Anna and Kristoff were being held aboard. Elsa continued to watch, waiting for the right moment to make her move.
Eventually, Elsa noticed that there seemed to be a commotion in the village, and many of the crewmembers from the ship suddenly disembarked and ran up the dock into the town. Though she couldn't see from her vantage point, Elsa knew the battle must have begun. Only a few men were left behind on the deck of the ship. It was time. At Elsa's bidding, the temperature suddenly dropped and a front of low clouds and thick fog quickly rolled into the harbor, engulfing the ships and making them nearly invisible from the shore or to each other.
"Come on, Olaf," Elsa said.
The rugged shore of the fjord was rocky and steep, and normally it would have been almost impossible for someone to approach Lillehaven along it. Elsa jumped down from the rocks to the water as if the surface was solid, and it instantly froze under her feet. With Olaf following her, Elsa made a beeline for where the huge flagship sat hidden by the fog, and with each step the ice spread across the surface of the fjord, leaving all of the ships trapped while their crews were none the wiser.
Elsa could tell she was getting close to the flagship, even though she still couldn't see it through the fog. Suddenly, the massive dark hull emerged from the fog in front of her. The dock was on the other side of the ship, making the side Elsa had approached seem to rise out of the now frozen harbor like a looming wall. It seemed much larger than it had from a distance. Elsa looked up the side of the ship to where the deck was. With a wave of her hand, she produced a staircase of ice near the stern to climb up to the main deck.
Elsa and Olaf cautiously crept up the icy staircase. They paused to peek through the gap under the railing that allowed water to drain off the deck. There were still a number of crewmembers on the ship. They seemed surprised and confused by the sudden change in the weather but they didn't seem to be on the lookout for her. There were more of them than Elsa would have preferred. She knew she could probably handle them, but if Anna and Kristoff were under guard, she didn't want to start a commotion that would alert the guards.
"I could use a distraction," Elsa whispered softly, mainly to herself.
"Right," Olaf replied. "A distraction..."
Elsa barely heard Olaf's response and didn't notice as the little snowman wandered on up the staircase and onto the deck. She began to silently panic when she saw him walk up to the nearest crewman on the ship, who happened to have his back to them.
"Hi!" Olaf said with his usual cheerfullness.
The surprised sailor turned around and was taken aback by the sight of the talking snowman.
"I'm Olaf," the snowman continued.
Elsa watched in horror as the sailor suddenly drew his sword. Almost without thinking, she reached out her hand and her powers produced a spire of ice between the sword and the deck that held the sword in place and kept the sailor from being able to swing it. As the sailor struggled to free his sword from the ice, Elsa scrambled over the railing and onto the deck of the ship. The sailor spotted her and she froze his boots to the deck to keep him from coming after her. Elsa saw another crewman running toward them. She laid a sheet of ice directly in his path, causing him to slip and land hard on the deck, knocking him out.
The other crewmen on the deck of the ship were farther away near the bow, but they had now noticed what was going on and were coming to intervene. Elsa quickly created a barrier of icy spikes to keep them back. The men attacked the spikes with their swords, but the spikes were sturdy and didn't break easily.
"We did it!" Olaf exclaimed.
Elsa looked around and saw that for the moment, Olaf seemed to be right. All the threats on the deck had been taken care of. Elsa shrugged. It hadn't exactly gone how she had anticipated it would, but it had worked. Still, Elsa knew better than to settle into complacency. There was still more to do, and she knew they didn't have much time.
"We're not done yet," Elsa said to Olaf. "That won't hold them off for long. We have to hurry and find Anna and Kristoff."