Silver and Scales
Chapter Seven: The Battle of Jotunheim
The phrase "so close" had been one that had been muttered in the minds of the Warriors Three and Lady Sif, and it was practically there upon the lips of Vyperia whose eyes closed in sheltered dismay. A grand battle ensued.
Thor pulled Mjolnir in quick move; he swung it over his shoulder and knocked the Jotun clear across the opposite side of the plaza. The Asgardians reluctantly drew their weapons: Loki, his throwing knives; Vyperia, her bow and arrow—
Volstagg peered around at the angry, nasty Jotuns who approached them—their red eyes glowered at the lot of them in unmistakeable fury. It was an idiotic thing to assume that their lives were not in danger. Even as they held their weapons close to their bodies, Volstagg and Fandral hoped to extinguish the prodded fires with words,
"Silly hammer!" Volstagg cried out. "Has a mind of its own!"
Ice formed on the Jotuns' bodies. They were covered in a frozen armor around them, extended off the ends of their arms like swords. One giant did this directly in front of Fandral. Vyperia looked at him uneasily.
"I hope that is just decorative," Fandral muttered.
Thor left the circle of Asgardians as he swung at another Frost Giant. His comrades formed another circle around him from the Jotuns. While he was having an enjoyable time, a cocky grin planted on the heir of Asgard, Vyperia's face was scornful and disapproving. Her closeness beside Loki made it apparent that she was beginning to second guess her abilities in archery, feeling trapped and cornered by the Frost Giants who started to surround her.
Her eyes widened as the eight foot tall giants appeared before her, looming over her.
Loki looked at her, though anxious, to see her skin begin to shine. Lady Sif glanced uneasily at Vyperia, whose flawless body was replaced with a rough, dermal outer armor of glistening green scales. It was an unforgettable sight, though the appearance of such a live reptile was one that made her seem like a giant lizard.
The giants around her paused, astonished by such a sight.
Vyperia emitted a sound that made Loki's hair upon his neck stand on end. She shape-shifted beside him. A screeching hiss erupted from her mouth as she sunk to the ground slowly, as if pained by the transformation. Her lower abdomen formed together and diminished to a legless body. Vyperia's mouth opened; her tongue spiraled out and long fangs elongated from the roof of her mouth. Her light green eyes turned to slits. She became a very long snake hybrid; she still held a feminine prospect to her, enough to know that she was a goddess, but the human part of her that had remained beautiful was replaced with a stronger set of scales. Her body beneath her long torso coiled into a large body of a snake. Her fingers stretched into extremely sharp claws.
"Well," said Fandral, deeply disturbed, "looks like Scales has proven herself once again."
All at once, Thor, Loki, Fandral, Volstagg, Lady Sif, Hogun, and Vyperia flung themselves forward at the crowd of Frost Giants. Vyperia shot forward with a loud hiss. A Giant who had mistaken her to be a slow-moving python was taken aback when she flew forward like a jumping rattlesnake. He cried out in a low, distorted voice as Vyperia's body wrapped around him in tight constriction; her coils hugged him angrily and pulled him down to the ground within seconds.
The Giant's cries were eliminated when Vyperia's mouth opened widely and she drew her elastic jaws over his head—blood spattered on the ground grotesquely along her green scales.
Hell broke loose as the Asgardians and the Jotuns began to battle.
A Jotun backed Hogun the Grim up against a wall of ice; the Giant hurled an ice blade first at him. The Grim warrior swung his mace of his head, embedded it into the wall, and hoisted himself up to avoid the Giant's blow and leaped over him. Hogun took out a second approaching Frost Giant and spun back around; he pounded the Jotun with his mace, splattering the Giant's skull against the wall of ice.
Nearby, Sif expertly stabbed one Jotun after another with her double-bladed staff. One knocked her viciously to the ground.
"If you don't treat me like a lady, I won't act like a lady!"
She took him out, sliding her spear deep into the groin of the Giant who cried out in agony.
Loki backed away from an approaching Jotun; he glanced behind him nervously to see that he was nearing the edge of a deep crevasse. The Giant saw that he was vulnerable and swiped at him. However, to the Jotun's immense surprise, the Jotun's arm passed through him. Loki's illusion dissipated into nothing. The Giant turned, confused, only to find Loki's true form come out from behind a glacial structure. He stabbed the Giant just below a pectoral gland and slammed into him. The giant fell over the edge, crying out in shock before disappearing into the black void.
Two Jotuns came at him from either side; he let two daggers fly, felling both Giants at once.
Loki turned in the battle, searching—now—for the body of a snake hybrid that was the lucid image of Vyperia. He grinned to find her battling three Jotuns all at once. Vyperia's snake form, while an austere beauty in her own right, enhanced her powers to a deadly extreme—venom spat from her mouth as her prehensile tongue wrapped quickly around a Jotun's torso. Upon contact, the Jotun fell lifeless in her coiled trap. While she fought that one, her long body twisted and twirled around the Giants who raced toward her in attempt to slay her. Loki's eyes watched Vyperia's body wrap excellently around the attacking brutes. She constricted around them with a brave strength that overpowered them. They all fell to the ground, lifeless and strangled from the grip.
Vyperia leaned forward. With amazing velocity, she crawled on her hands toward a few Jotuns who were taking advantage of Lady Sif's short stature. Her tail slithered across the barren ice. The screeching hiss upon her voice was frightening, distilling terror into those who approached her. She was like a feminine basilisk.
Then an ice spike flung into the vulnerable underbelly of Vyperia's snake body—she uttered a deafening cry of pain. She recoiled as a snake would do when she was penetrated.
The latter stopped their war and retreated to Vyperia's desperate fury.
They circled around her protectively.
Vyperia's form returned instantly. She rose to her feet weakly. Blood oozed from the muscle of her abdomen.
Volstagg head-butted a Frost Giant who came forward to kill Vyperia; the Jotun's ice helmet shattered and dropped him to the ground. Winded, Volstagg took a seat upon the fallen Jotun bodies around him to catch his breath. As battle raged around him, Volstagg grimaced in pain and saw his skin blacken.
"Don't let them grab hold of you!"
Loki fell to Vyperia's side to help her.
"Are you all right?" he asked her calmly. His hand around her stomach became slick with her blood. Vyperia stopped him from touching her any further. Fury blazed in her eyes.
"I'm fine," she hissed furiously.
Before Loki could respond, a body flew past them. Fandral was thrown several feet; a giant stalagmite came out from the ground. As Fandral landed forward, Vyperia winced as it impaled Fandral through the chest, rendering him helpless. Loki and Vyperia picked up and raced toward the impaled Fandral. Loki reached the nearly unconscious warrior when the other Jotuns approached. Loki fought them off as Vyperia arrived at Fandral, searching for something to do to help him.
Volstagg hurried forward to his wounded comrade. He began to pull the bleeding Fandral off the ice stalagmite.
Loki plunged two daggers into the chest of one of the Frost Giants. Vyperia turned in surprise to see a stray fly forward, ready to avenge his fallen comrades after her attack on a strong group. Vyperia stepped back, suddenly mortified. She held up her hands in defense to stop the Frost Giant from harming her any other. Loki uttered a stunned gasp.
She opened her eyes to see that Loki had intervened in her assault.
The Giant grabbed hold of Loki's gloved wrists. Loki pulled his hands free of the gloves, which were still in the Giant's grasp, revealing Loki's skin beneath. The wounded Jotun sought his chance and grabbed hold of Loki's bare arm. Loki anticipated for the worst.
Instead of the blackness of necrotizing flesh, Loki's arm turned blue like the Frost Giant's own skin. The blueness spread painlessly up Loki's arm. He stared at it, confused. The Frost Giant was thrown off as well, distracted by the unexpected phenomenon. Loki took this advantage of the distraction and kicked the giant, immediately stabbing him roughly in the chest.
Loki glanced at his hand as it slowly returned to his pale skin.
A troubled gaze appeared on his face. Vyperia and he exchanged glances, though her expression was one of knowing conflict.
Thor continued to fight; his blood lust rose to incredible heights.
"Come on!" he roared as he hurled his hammer at a Jotun.
The wounded Fandral looked relieved as Volstagg slung him over his shoulder. The warriors started to leave. Loki grabbed Vyperia's hand as the Warriors Three gathered, intending to leave before things would get out of control.
From his balcony, Laufey looked upon the battlefield.
He touched a wall of the palace. A strong energy wave swept from his touch, across the wall of palace, onto the ground below, and staggered to a still statue not too far from where the Asgardians stood. A foreboding crack of ice sounded beneath their feet.
"That can't be good," Loki muttered.
They looked down, all filled with dread when they saw shadowy figures moving in the ice—a dozen more Jotun warriors awoke beneath the surface, rousing to join the battle.
"Oh, my god..." Vyperia's voice whimpered, her eyes widened in dismay.
Loki turned around to call to his brother,
"Thor! We must go!"
Thor fought his Jotun foes mercilessly, consumed by irresistible blood lust. Loki saw the look on his brother's face—the savage thrill of the heat of battle.
"Then go!" he cried out from his point of war.
"There are too many of them!" Sif yelled.
"I can stop them!"
They hesitated. Vyperia held her stomach achingly; her wound was not healing any faster as the blustery winter wind embraced her blood in agonizing cold. Loki looked at her in swift consideration.
"Thor will not stop," Loki said quickly. "We must leave, or Fandral and Vyperia will bleed out before we reach safety!"
Volstagg accepted this. His boisterous voice erupted,
"RUN!"
Reluctantly, the group fled back toward the inner edge of the planet as the Giants broke through the ice and gave chance. Loki took Vyperia's hand, pulling her next to him as they ran through the icy tundra. They raced through the edge of the frozen wasteland; a shroud of mist clouded around them.
Thor met them at the edge of the planet.
"Loki, we have to see!" Thor cried out as their vision was impaired by the fog.
Loki raised his arms in concentration. The mists slowly dissipated. As they raised up from their line of sight, the Asgardians saw before them several faces of the Frost Giants. There were hundreds of them. Too many, even for the thunder god.
Volstagg chuckled nervously.
"Loki, could you bring those mists back please? Thank you."
"We're good as dead." Vyperia uttered quietly.
The Giants moved in for the kill.
Then they heard a deafening roar. A hole in the sky opened up; the Bifrost blasted down on the inner edge of the planet. Out of the maelstrom came the sound of thundering hooves; and, to the shock of all, tearing across the frozen wasteland came the All-father in his pride and glory—though not at all pleased to what he came to find.
He was astride his powerful, eight-legged steed, Sleipnir. He was clad in his battle armor, Gungnir held tightly in his hand. Odin All-Father was an imposing sight. Laufey slammed his fists into the ground; ice beneath his feet raised him towards Odin. T
The Asgardians started to react, thinking that it was an attack; but Odin just stood face-to-face with Odin. Vyperia watched the Asgardian and Jotun kings look upon the other uneasily. Laufey sized up Odin. While Odin was powerful, the years had taken their toll upon him; he was not the same foe as he had been many years ago.
"Laufey," said Odin. "End this."
"Your body sought this out."
"You're right," Odin replied. "These are the actions of a boy. Treat them as such. You and I can stop this before there is further bloodshed."
"We are beyond diplomacy now, All-Father. He'll get what he for—war and death."
"So be it," Odin answered, grim though determined.
Thor cried out in delight.
"Now, Father! We'll finish them together!"
Odin turned on his son in quiet fury,
"Silence!"
In the next second, they all were in the Observatory controls. Odin pulled Heimdall's sword from the control panel and threw it at him. Heimdall obediently stepped back.
"Why did you bring us back?" Thor ordered furiously.
"Do you realize what you've done? What you have started?"
"I was protecting my home!"
"You cannot protect your friends. How can you hope to protect a kingdom?"
Odin turned on the others, indicating Fandral.
"Get him to the healing room! Now!"
Odin turned to gaze at Vyperia carefully.
"You, Vyperia. You are wounded as well. Follow them. Now."
Loki nodded to her gently. She gave him a furtive look as she walked away from him.
Before she left to walk upon the Rainbow Bridge, she heard Loki and Odin exchange heated words of anger.
She hoped that Loki was spared such a furious argument.