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Do you like Loki's creations, dangerous experiments, and willingness to challenge enemies that appear above his league? Then you will definitely like Thairon, the protagonist of my original story, Arrival : Ruptures. Comments, likes and reviews are appreciated. Here are the links for : AO3, Spacebattles, Royal Road and Webnovel.
—
Asgard
Odin tapped the ground with his spear. The gathered army fell silent instantly.
"Our ancient enemy, the Dark Elves, has returned. Malekith seeks to plunge the Nine Realms into darkness once more. My father, King Bor, thwarted this twisted plan long ago, and we shall do so again. For Asgard, and for every single life in the Nine Realms."
"For Asgard! For the Nine Realms!" The army roared back.
He smiled and charged through the Bifrost first. His wife and sons followed.
—
Svartalfheim
When Asgard's army arrived, the Dokkalfar were waiting. Using the tactical advantage the Bifrost provided, the army deployed to circle the Dark Elves.
The Einherjar charged, with the Allfather leading. The particle fire struck the energy shields first, dispelling harmlessly. The Dokkalfar lines had no choice but to meet the charge head-on.
They could not match the enhanced strength of the Aesir.
Odin, aided by his queen and sons, tore through the line in a show of seidr. Gungnir's energy beam, Mjolnir's lightning, and Loki and Frigga's plasma lines cut through the Dokkalfar with frightening ease.
The Crimson Hawks, at the lead of their liege, created a protective wall around the royal family. Lady Sif and the Warriors Three split up from the rear of the king, followed by Einherjar to push the split line further back.
Odin's purpose was to annihilate as much of the Dokkalfar as possible before locating Malekith.
Loki floated, raining plasma on the enemy behind the safety of his shield. The dangers of the enemy weaponry were eliminated by the seidr steel.
"The cursed soldiers!" his mother shouted, spinning between two Dark Elves. They fell, blood spurting out of the throats sliced open.
Two cursed Dokkalfar were charging forward. The shields of the Einherjar flickered before the onslaught. One went for Odin, while the other went for Thor.
His brother answered by holding Mjolnir tighter. The Uru head wavered like a mirage and flowed like liquid. When Thor swung his weapon, it wasn't a hammer anymore. The gleaming sword cut through the torso of the cursed soldier. The separated parts fell to the ground, dead. Mjolnir returned to its hammer shape, and the battlefield trembled with thunder.
His father had already cut through the other cursed Dark Elf with Gungnir.
Thor's lightning fried a group closing on him before he took to the skies. Aided by Loki's manipulation of gravity, he fell on the approaching enemy ship like a meteor. The vehicle, capable of spaceflight, was torn apart like tissue paper as Thor bored through it with blunt force.
Gathered in a loose circle, the family of four fought as one.
"Loki, where is Malekith? We should finish him off and retrieve the Aether."
"Beyond that hill," he said. He always kept an eye on the leader of the Dark Elves.
"Be ready to carry us," Odin ordered, turning to the captain of his Crimson Hawks. "Theoric, keep on the enemy."
Theoric acknowledged with a nod, sending out a crescent beam from his sword to cut a Dokkalfar down.
Under his careful ministrations, the gravity disappeared. The four of them shot up to the sky, leaving the rest of the battle to the Einherjar. An elite unit protected Malekith, and two transformed into cursed soldiers.
His father peeled away, going for Malekith. Loki reversed gravity on one of the cursed soldiers. It left the battlefield as good as dead.
Mjolnir transformed into a spear this time. Thor leaped, going over the sweeping arm, and brought the spear down. It went down the head, coming out of the groin.
Frigga created a storm of plasma daggers around the rest of the Dokkalfar unit. The daggers moved at once, piercing through multiple Dark Elves. Unfettered, they kept going for new targets.
Malekith brought his sword down. Odin's attack tore the sword out of his hand. The tip of his spear glowed golden and extended, carving the leader of the Dark Elves in half.
—
Asgard had superiority in almost every aspect. The strength of the warriors, both as individuals and as groups, enhanced by the seidr steel equipment, proved far superior to that of their ancestors who had fought the same battle long ago.
Even with Malekith dead and the Aether seized, the Dokkalfar army had refused to yield. They had been annihilated to the last man.
"You should have seen Malekith's face when Father disarmed him like he was fighting a child," Thor said with a laugh as he came out of the scanner.
Sif chuckled. "Was the battle too easy, or were we just too good?"
"Our new armor and weapons have no doubt played a great part in it," Hogun said. The losses on Asgard's side were extremely light because of it.
Fandral agreed, twirling his sword. "The Dokkalfar might as well be fighting with sticks."
"Eat up and rest; we still have the football match," Thor ordered, rolling the round, white-and-gold ball beneath his feet. Volstagg was already making his way to the table, and if they tarried any longer, there would be nothing left.
Once everyone was fed, it was time for the sports matches. The new brand of football was a sight to behold. Explosions and illusions illuminated the field in different colors.
There were no worries that someone might be wounded, and for that, everyone could play rougher. Outright attacking an opponent was still forbidden, but if you shouldered someone rather hard to get the ball, you were not penalized.
Thor could afford to hit the ball with all his strength. Each of his shots was like a cannon going off. Loki did not hesitate to manipulate gravity to his advantage, flowing through the field like a specter.
That was not all.
A hunt was prepared. The query was Fafnir, an ancient Nornheimer cursed to be a dragon. Story-wise, he had attacked and destroyed a town. Asgard's punitive force was tasked with slaying Fafnir.
Several teams would repeat the hunt. A randomly chosen group of warriors would grade the battle. The most successful three teams would be given a golden, silver, and steel trophy depicting Fafnir's head, with the overall score etched on it.
The favorite was the princess teaming up with Lady Sif and the Warriors Three. Already experienced warriors, the five of them as a team were deadly.
—
"How do we do this, Thor?" Sif asked. They had exactly ten minutes to come up with a plan. As the first to fight in the hunting part of the first-ever Asgard Championship, she wanted this battle to unfold without a mistake.
Thor glanced at Loki. He waved his hand, conjuring a dog-sized replica of Fafnir.
His brother pointed at the wings. "We need to clip its wings first. If it can't fly, it can't outmaneuver us."
The dragon's torso was large, as were its wings. Per the story, they only had what Heimdall provided with his vision in regard to the dragon's capabilities.
"Its scales are durable but do not extend to the membrane," Loki agreed, highlighting the membranes between the bones.
"We should go for the head." Hogun circled the head with his mace. "The eyes are another weak point. Reaching the brain would make this battle short."
Loki highlighted the relevant parts.
"But its head is relatively small, and Fafnir is not slow enough for that," Volstagg said. If it was as fast as Heimdall said, a surprise assault was their best choice.
The dragon's head and neck were relatively tiny compared to the rest of its body.
"Restraining it should be very doable between the six of us. Loki can increase the gravity; you loop chains around its neck, and we pull it down," Fandral added.
Loki clicked his tongue. "There is a point we are missing. Its flames are dangerous; our shields won't hold for long if we take it head-on."
"True," Sif said. The enemy might not be real, but they would be fighting as if it were. Facing the dragon's flames was not an option if they wanted to be victorious.
"We chain its maw shut then," his brother said.
"Sounds like a plan."
—
Once Thor announced his team was ready to proceed, the six of them were guided to the entrance.
Fafnir was inside a cave, sitting on a hoard of wealth he had collected. The setting was decided randomly so no team would have an advantage by repeating the plan conceived by another team.
The first task was to pull him out.
Loki stood at the entrance and sent in an emerald orb of seidr. It had one simple purpose: find Fafnir and get its attention. The obnoxious scream could be heard even from the outside.
Fafnir came roaring out after the orb. Thor, situated on the right side of the cave, acted first. He threw Mjolnir with a chain attached to the strap. Loki followed by detonating the orb to give Fafnir something to worry about.
The light and the noise distracted the cursed dragon long enough for Thor to loop the chain around its maw.
He tied the loose ends behind Fafnir's massive black horns with a clever bit of seidr application.
Lady Sif and the Warriors Three, waiting at the top of the entrance, leaped down with more chains. Sif and Fandral dropped to the left, while Hogun and Volstagg dropped to the right. The end of the chains switched hands, looping around Fafnir's neck.
"Loki, now!" Thor ordered. The dragon unfurled its massive wings, trying to take off. Sif and the Warriors Three were trying to pull it down, but it was not a contest they could win.
He was already gathering the densest, hottest plasma he could. He dipped his hand into the orb and pulled. The plasma took the shape of a whip, and he brought it down on the wing.
The scales protected the wing fingers, but the membrane was sliced in half. Fafnir groaned in pain, straining the chains around its maw. It fell on its wounded wing, thrashing around.
"Pull," Sif screamed, and the four of them finally managed to bring the dragon's head to the ground.
Thor was already coming down with Mjolnir transformed into a spear. He plunged it right through the eye, showing it as deep as it would go. Sif and the others dropped the chains, allowing the dragon to buck like mad, trying to throw Thor off.
His brother had plenty of leverage to hold on.
The sky darkened. Lightning bolts, large and strong enough to incinerate an Aesir on the spot, struck down, flowing straight into Fafnir's brain.
The dragon was extremely durable on the outside, but not on the inside.
Its body, comparable in size to a Dokkalfar ship, glowed white.
His brother leaped off as the dragon fell to the ground for the final time, dead. A hint of burnt meat accompanied his landing, and the announcement came.
"Team Thunder, three minutes sixteen seconds."
—
"We did it!" Thor cheered, squeezing Loki and Sif on the shoulders. The rest of the team was thankfully spared the pain.
"We still have to wait for the other teams to finish, but I believe our score will be more than sufficient to win," Hogun mused. So far, they have shown great success in all fields.
"Of course it will be," Fandral grinned. "Now, we just have to find a way to defeat Surtur."
That put a damper on their jubilation.
"Any plans on that front, Thor?" Sif asked. He and Loki were the only ones with any true chance of defeating Surtur.
No one would be ashamed to admit that fact.
"I am still thinking," Thor muttered. No matter what, Surtur was simply too strong for him to defeat. There was a reason his father had not taken any other warrior with him when he vanquished the demon.
They would get in the way.
"I don't believe Father intends us, or anyone else, to win here," Loki explained. As the king, his father had great say in determining the challenges. He racked his mind for days, trying to think why he would choose Surtur for the finals.
Unless he wanted to flex on everyone, there was one option left.
"Then what is the point?" Sif asked.
Hogun huffed. "That there are battles we can't win."
"I will not surrender," his brother said. Loki knew even the idea was incomprehensible to Thor.
"I know," he said, looking across the waiting area. "We do our best, but once it is clear that victory is not attainable, we retreat."
Thor scoffed. "Retreat?"
Loki rolled his eyes. "Or fight until we reach Valhalla, as it would be the case in real life."
"We have always been taught to fight to the end. Why give us a lesson on retreating now?" Sif wondered. To teach them a lesson in humility?
"Does he worry there will be an enemy we can't defeat?" Fandral contemplated. He couldn't think of a single enemy that could pose a threat to Asgard. Which meant if one existed, only the Allfather knew about it.
"The one with the answers to our questions is there." Loki tilted his head where his father was sitting. "Feel free to ask."
—
"Ah, the spawns of the Allfather, here with companions. Tell me, has he decided to punish you with death? With me as your executioner?" The great demon looked down at them, his skeletal face creased in amusement.
Had he been real, Loki might have felt fear.
"Nay, he just thought you would make a good warm-up for us," Thor shot back.
Surtur laughed, shaking the lava pouring out of the walls.
"Come then, little god," Surtur said, bringing his sword down.
As expected, the battle could not be won. Neither Thor nor Loki possessed the strength to take Surtur down at full power. They still gave an excellent fight, using every available advantage.
Loki brought down walls on the demon, Thor hammered him with thunderous blows, and Sif and the others set up the explosives he had prepared.
In the end, Surtur had enough. He stabbed his sword into the ground, and a towering wave of flames almost sent them back to the real world.
He was quick enough to fly his brother and companions out before signaling retreat.
The score was sixty out of a hundred. Team Thunder had come too close to dying before retreating, and it had cost dearly. Compared to the previous score of ninety-eight, it was almost a failure.
The remaining teams had better results, choosing more opportune times to retreat.
Two tournaments, one for team contests and the other for individual fights, followed as the final events. Team Thunder had come in second in the team contests. The opposing team, consisting of Angrboda, Amora, and several other seidr practitioners, had won by playing mind games on Thor and the others.
Loki had to choose between saving his teammates and defeating the entire enemy team.
He could do it, but it would give away too much. By the time his shades saved Thor and the others, Team Thunder's castle was taken.
The individual fights had different results. He defeated Angrboda, while Thor sent Amora out of the bounds with a single shockwave. Both brothers proceeded to the finals, fighting several more opponents, including their teammates.
In the finals, the sons of Odin were to fight for the glory.
—
In the next chapter:
It took a month for the craze over the championship to start settling down. Daily life in Asgard proceeded as it always had, but entertainment was moved to the Tenth Realm.
As had education.
The Allfather insisted on the creation of an activity. He and Thor would each create a settlement from scratch. Shelter, food, clean water, and every other amenity the Aesir would need for survival had to be provided.
It grated on both their nerves.
Thor was pacing like an agitated bilge snipe. He stopped, suddenly punching the wall. "He is preparing us for Ragnarok. There could be no other explanation."
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