Thanks to the storm expanding, I was still a few minutes away by car, so I tried running the rest of the way there.
It didn't work.
Just as quickly as I started I passed some threshold where the thunderstorm turned into a snowstorm. I could still hear the rain behind me, but up front, all I could see was a sea of white.
The snow had a much higher amount of divine power in it, working much better than the rain at holding me back from going at my full speed, especially considering how I've never even walked on snow before.
The best I managed was jogging to the town which, while probably faster than an Olympic sprinter, was nowhere near the highway speeds I was going in the car.
It didn't matter though, I could sense my destination easily enough and after a quick warming charm I had some decent comfort, so I kept on the path.
It took longer than I was comfortable to reach the town, and just like last time, there was a threshold that kept the snowstorm from going inside.
The entrance portal for Schroeder was made of concrete, but painted to make it look like a medieval German building.
There was a black bird atop the shingled rooftop, its silent staring only made more unnerving by the clear divinity it exuded.
I pointed my wand at it to strike it down when, with a flap of its wings, it flew away, too fast for me to track.
I moved on with a sigh, trying to remember everything I knew about Thor before our confrontation.
It wasn't much.
I knew he was the God of Thunder and that he used a hammer but beyond that I was clueless.
Giving up that line of thought, I approached what appeared to be the center of town, pushing my senses to their maximum in an attempt to locate the God, which was difficult in an area so drenched in divinity as this one was.
I suddenly felt a spike in intent and instantly jumped away, giving myself a few meters of distance to what was now a crater in the middle of the road, what I can only assume is a spear lodged in the ground at the center of it.
"So not Thor then," I said to myself.
"Ha! You saw a storm and could only come up with Thor as the reason?" A gravelly voice said from up ahead. "Did you believe a God with one of his domains being the Protection of Mankind would accept such sacrifice?" He said.
It was a thin old man, with a long white beard, a broad hat, and dressed in a simple robe that used to be gray, now almost completely covered in drying blood.
With a move from his hand, the spear flew back to it. It was deceptively simple, only a basic wooden shaft with a pointed head of sharpened metal at the tip.
"Odin then," I said with a nod, looking at the God's face and noticing an empty eyesocket.
"Better!" He screamed as he launched his spear at me again.
I dodged while sending a cutting curse with my wand his way, which he negligently batted away.
"Oh? A mage?" He said, pulling his spear back to his hand again. "Let's see if you're capable of something more than that parlor trick!"
Saying that he opened his arms wide and looked up at the sky, as if in prayer.
"I know that I hung on a windy tree
nine long nights,
wounded with a spear, dedicated to Odin,
myself to myself,
on that tree of which no man knows
from where its roots run.
No bread did they give me nor a drink from a horn,
downwards I peered;
I took up the runes, screaming I took them,
then I fell back from there."
As he chanted I used my wand to cast the spell I've been training the most since I arrived back home: Door conjuration.
By the time he finished, there were dozens of doors all throughout the area, which immediately came in hand as the first thing he did was surround me with Runes.
Stepping out of the door behind him I wandlessly cast a Reductor curse at his back and this time, his attempt at batting it away backfired on him, and with a scream, he was blown back a few dozen meters.
I conjured more doors as I approached him, taking care to space them out well enough without taking my main focus out of him.
"Ahahahahah! That's more like it!" Odin laughed as he got to his feet, throwing his spear at me again.
With a quick thought, I stepped out of a door a few meters away, just in time to see a rune appear where the spear landed and be violently thrown back by the explosion it caused.
Shaking my head to try and clear it, I opened my eyes to see that I was inside a bedroom, debris surrounding me and a big hole in the wall in front of me.
Getting up slowly, I moved toward the hole and saw that the room was on the third floor of a building distant enough from the explosion site I could barely see it.
Taking quick stock of my situation and figuring I received no major damage, I ignored the pain and stepped out of a door close enough for me to take stock but still far enough away that I could react to an attack.
Odin stood still, his spear casually held in one hand while the other sent runes throughout the area, but he instantly noticed me, and his spear was again headed straight for me.
I cast a wandless Eradication spell at his spear right before I stepped out of a door behind him and cast a wandless bombardment spell at his back.
This time, he wasn't knocked back but cratered on the ground with burn marks on his back. His spear was still where it landed close to the remains of my last door, but no rune materialized from it, indicating that my gambit with the Eradication spell worked and it eradicated whatever rune he set up in his spear.
Trying to keep the initiative, I wandlessly cast a Severing charm at his back and a Slowing charm at his spear, but a glowing rune stopped the first while a Raven stopped the latter.
Looking at the Raven in confusion I was not ready for another to claw me at the back of the head.
Turning my sight on it I tried to cast a severing charm at it only for the other one to disrupt my casting by doing a fly by scratch on my arm.
Putting my wand away and ignoring the blood flowing from the cut the Raven gave me, I prepared myself to overpower my next spell when I was thrown into the ground by a Wolf jumping on my back.
I tried to backhand it but it jumped away, giving me a second of reprieve while I tried to get back up.
On my hands and knees, getting my breath back, and doing my best to ignore the pain while keeping the wolf and the Ravens in my line of sight, I made to get up when a sharp pain in my leg made me stumble.
Looking back, another Wolf was biting me with all its strength, and when I tried to cast something to send it away the Ravens again disrupted it while the other Wolf came from the front to bite my arm.
With a scream of rage and frustration, I focused hard on the bedroom I landed previously and apparated there.
Landing in the bedroom, the Wolf that had my leg cried out and let me go. Turning to look at it, I saw that one of its legs had splinched off during the apparition.
Not letting the opportunity go to waste, I jumped on it with my hands in its throat and used all of my strength to rip its head off.
Discarding the head to the side, I stumbled out of the room while searching my jacket's pockets, sighing in relief upon noticing my goal still intact I pulled out the vial full of the green liquid of the wiggenweld potion and drank it in one gulp, thankful that a Campione's immunity is mostly only skin deep.
Leaning on the wall of the living room of the apartment, I let myself slide down while the potion did its work in trying to heal me the best it could.
After a few moments, I pulled out another vial, this time with a red potion inside, and drank it greedily, the steam coming out of my ears and the second wind I felt coming over me let me push myself back up and take stock of the damage.
The cut on my arm had stopped bleeding, and the one on the back of my head had closed completely, but the bite on my leg was still a problem. I didn't know any healing spells and I only had one other wiggenweld potion.
Deciding to save the other potion in case I get hurt badly again, I circulated my magic inside my body to power up whatever was left of the potion in me and to speed up my general healing.
While I did that, I tried to come up with a strategy to deal with Odin. I didn't really know much about him, and what I did know wasn't helping me in the slightest.
He was smart, that was for certain, but I could still catch him by surprise. His Ravens and remaining Wolf would be a problem though, so they'd take priority.
After a couple of minutes and with a plan in mind, I stepped back into the bedroom and focused on a spot in the air right above where Odin was.
During that time I heard one of his Ravens cry out and felt more than seen his spear coming at me.
With a flex of my will and Authority, I apparated above Odin and used both of my hands to cast a Sakura Petal Rain spell, followed quickly by a Sharpening spell and a Descendo charm on the petals, all spells overpowered to the best of my abilities.
What was once a beautiful scene of fluttering petals turned into a rain of death as the glittering of the petals' edges sliced through anything and everything on their path to the ground.
As I fell, I focused on my target. Odin was looking directly at me, a bloody smile on his face as a rune on the tip of his spear protected him from the deadly rain.
But that was fine, as I heard the cry of his familiars I knew my plan worked and I couldn't help but viciously smile back at him as I pulled my arm back and cast a Descendo charm on myself with the other.
I fell on him like a comet, the shockwave of my fist hitting his rune clearing the entire area around us of everything and making a crater beneath his feet.
With my free hand, I cast an Eradication spell on his rune, but he was ready for it and parried my punch with his other arm, sending me back a few metres.
I didn't give him time to throw his spear again, kicking off the ground with all my strength while getting ready for another punch.
I instantly appeared in front of him, aiming my punch directly at his smiling face.
Of which he avoided completely with a slight tilt of his head.
But I didn't let up, getting close to him and punching and kicking for all I was worth.
It wasn't enough, he masterfully dodged all of my attacks, so I stole a page out of his handbook and started adding spells to my punches and kicks.
Still, not enough, the magic in my attacks is meaningless if I. Couldn't. HIT HIM!
I hesitated slightly at that thought, and that was enough for him to take the initiative and go on the attack.
I had never seen someone use the spear in battle, but I had to assume even immortal masters would look like amateurs close to him. All of his attacks hit, and none of my attempts to dodge or counterattack came even close to working. And throughout the time he was cutting me down, all I could do was wonder why was it taking so long.
His skill and power were undeniable, but all I was getting were shallow cuts, so much so that the panic of not being able to fight back receded, leaving me only with confusion.
With a quick thought, I stepped over to a door a good distance away, already circulating my power to close the cuts he gave me.
Looking down at him from my door on the balcony on the second floor of a building everything stopped.
I saw it before I felt it and I felt it before I heard it.
I saw Odin ready to throw his spear at me, a dozen runes lit up on its path.
I felt the spear piercing me in the chest, close to my left shoulder, and the walls my back broke through after that.
I heard the sound of thunder, the indication his spear had broken the sound barrier, but it had to be faster than that, as in a blink I was back in the snowstorm.
As I tried to get up, a foot, Odin's foot, pinned my chest to the ground.
Leaning down to look at me, his bloody smirk held a vicious edge, his eye shined bright with madness, and his empty socket had a spark of something inside it.
Grabbing his spear without breaking eye contact, he pulled it out and I blacked out.
A/N: And here it is, the first part of the fight against Odin!
And yes, this fight was always going to be Odin. As I said previously, I had the Authority he'll get from this chosen for a while, I just found it in character for Alex to see a storm related to the Norse and immediately think of Thor.
The rest of the explanation will be in the next chapter.
Also, before I forget: Odin's incantation is a translation of part of the poem Hávamál of the Poetic Edda, I just found it too perfect to not use it.
Like my writing? Want to be able to read a full two chapters ahead? Then check me out on P a treon . com (slash) NickKane.