Chapter 10: Rage, Here be Dragons
The claws dug into the flesh of the gods, as the scaly black dragon flew away from the collapsing structure towards an open snowy field. Biting winds and blowing frost and snow made it impossible for them to see further about them, but Kratos was certain more of the draconic creatures flew about them.
"Freya!" He shouted through clenched teeth, as he struggled against the sharp claws. "WINGS!"
His command was immediately understood by his companion, as sharp steel-tipped feather wings unfurled from the Valkyrie goddess' back, stabbing through the rotting flesh of the claws of the dragon that had them under its grip.
The dragon gave a loud pained screech as the grip came undone, and the gods began plummeting into the storm below them.
Finally free of the dragon, Freya wasted no time in making use of her wings in securing her hold on her friend and controlling their fall.
"Well, that's done with I guess," Mimir commented as they softly touched the ground, as Kratos and Freya untangled away from each other to catch their breath, but just as they assumed that they were away from the imminent danger, thunderous screeches sounded from all around them, and the snow storm became even more violent. "Well, I guess not."
Through the sharp icy winds, they could make the bat-like silhouettes of the monstrous creatures swiftly making their way toward them.
Kratos quickly ignited his blades of chaos, the primordial fire that coursed in them became even more tempered with the rage that he'd been holding back since he had met Athena. Freya readied herself as well as Mardöll and Thrungva rested in her hands.
"I did not expect fighting twelve dragons would be something we'd do in the middle of a snowstorm." Mimir tried to jape.
"We need to catch them off balance. Aim for their riders, they control the beasts." Kratos said as he spun the blades around them creating a fiery wall of cursed flames, constantly spinning in a vortex around them. "We cannot fight to kill all of them, not in the storm we are in. I will bring one down, Freya capture the beast. We will use it to make our escape."
They looked around and finally could see that seven dragons had landed around them outside the fiery barrier that Kratos had built, while the rest were circling around them in the air looking for a way to cross from above.
The seven fierce draconic creatures began to breathe ice-cold blue fire simultaneously on the fiery vortex, in an effort to subdue its power.
"The fire won't hold them back for long," Kratos said, as he readied his Draupnir spear in his right hand taking aim at the rider of the dragon closest to the wall.
Under the light of the cursed fire, they finally got a good look at the beasts. They were monstrous in size, each with sharp scales that covered their entire serpentine bodies. They were all shades of dark grey, with blueish edges to their pointed scales, and pincered tails. Their snarling maws showed dagger-like sets of teeth, and each of them had piercing blue eyes, like moonlight that threatened to tear the souls of any living being they gazed upon.
And on each of their backs, soothing the fiery heat of the dragons were chilling regal figures. The cool touch of death, almost melting into their beast's back, like they were one being, yet not. Their eyes like amber starlight, cold like glaciers, completely and utterly in control despite knowing that they faced gods. As if Death held no meaning to them.
"I am ready," Freya said, as she prepared her spell to capture whichever Dragon that Kratos manages to fell.
Taking a deep breath, Kratos readied his spear and took aim at one of the riders closest to the wall, "Be ready." He said and launched the spear through the cursed fiery wall. The cursed fire amplified the explosive wind of the spear, as it soared through the air, crackling toward the beast's maw.
The rider tried to command the dragon to dodge, but the spear proved too quick for the beast as it lodged under the jaw of the Black Dragon.
Steadying his breath, Kratos slammed the butt end of the spear into the rapidly melting snow under his feet, causing the piece wedged into the dragon's maw to explode, making it shriek and roar in agony, as it spewed unholy cold fire all around it.
"NOW!" Kratos called, and they did not waste time making a dash for the fallen creature, as the wall of cursed flame subsided around them as well.
"Víðarviðar vín, Móðir íss, verndi oss" Freya chanted, slamming her palm into the snowy ground, as walls of ice raised in front of the other six dragons who were still spewing flames at them, stopping them in their tracks.
Kratos quickly readied the leviathan axe in his hand, as he raced towards the downed dragon, its rider pinned beneath its massive size, as he aimed for the five dragons overhead that let out a thunderous screech as they raced towards him and Freya, intending to burn him asunder.
Frost quickly formed on the edges of the axe, as Kratos leaped into the air, twirling the axe around into a two-handed wield, as he shouted at his friend, "Freya! Wind!"
The Valkyrie goddess leaped behind him as well as her wings unfurled, letting her glide up above him, just as he threw the axe at the closest dragon, and she beat her steel-tipped wings with a mighty clap, charging the leviathan into a spinning trajectory aimed, mimicking Skadi's edge as the blade ricocheted between all five of its targets, with the strength of two gods behind it, catching all of the beasts of balance as the fires that they had built up inside their maws blew up sending them into a spiral towards the earth.
"They will not be down for long, brother!" Mimir cried as Kratos landed just a few feet away from the Black Dragon.
"Jarðar skógar Bindar!" Freya chanted, as dark vines erupted around the downed dragon, capturing it in its stunned place, as it gave pained whimpers.
Kratos wasted no time, in unsheathing his blades and setting the pinned rider underneath the beast on fire, as it let out an unholy screech, as it melted into nothing.
And just as it dissolved, the dragon's whimpers too subsided, as its soul slowly began releasing into eternal nothingness.
"That's not good," Mimir stated as he spied the dead creature as Freya's woods subsided as well. "Are you going to kill all twelve dragons to get out of here?"
Kratos took in a deep breath, as he observed the stunned creatures that littered the snow-field they were in. The snowstorm had subsided, just as the dragons had fallen out of the sky. Far in the distance, the temple had collapsed completely, leaving a pile of rubble atop which the greenish shimmering hue of the rift was still visible.
Before he could answer, however, the rift glowed a chilling deep green, as it emitted an aurora of lights into the darkness of the sky, the very snow around them started to glow softly with a sinister green shimmer, as pale hands of ice clawed out of the earth. Hundreds of the cold demons slowly pulled themselves out of the ground, as they rose all around them, blades of ice in hand.
"Oh, Hel!" Mimir cursed as he re-evaluated the situation.
"Move! Give me access to the corpse." Freya commanded as she kneeled by the maw of the downed dragon. "If I have enough time, I can bring it back to life temporarily, just like I did with the corpse of Thamur!"
Kratos grunted as he prepared to face the army of the Hel walkers as it began marching towards their position. The remaining eleven dark undead dragons slowly came out of their stupor as well, as they took to the skies, their riders now agitated by the destruction of one of their own.
"There is no time to face them, Kratos. Help me with boiling the ice around the dragon. Its soul has not traveled into the version of this world's afterlife yet. It may yet save us." She spoke. "I don't have access to Folkvangr, there is no afterlife for me to access."
Kratos nodded as he ignited his blades once again, and wedged them underneath the maw of the fallen dragon. He could see the broken jaw his spear had exploded into, as bits of its tooth had wedged into the jaw itself.
At Freya's nod, he channeled the primordial fire to burn as hot as it could, and instantly the snow underneath the dragon threatened to sublime to steam. Tempering the heat, the snow began to boil and Freya plunged the wound of the dragon into the boiling water.
"We may need to hurry, the dragons are returning, and they do not look happy," Mimir commented.
"Yes, yes. Don't make me hurry! We are lucky we are early as we are, and the dragon died just minutes ago. For some reason, the soul of the dragon was fading, instead of heading to its destined afterlife. We would have needed a live sacrifice to revive it otherwise, gathering the soul's energy as it fades into the very world around us. And even then, it would not be whole. Brok should be a clear enough example of that." Freya shouted, and then she calmly chanted "Sunnan Ϸoka!"
The dragon gave a shuddering cry, as its eyes gained a golden intelligent gleam. It gave out a pained whimper, as its jaw was set back into its place by Freya's magic, and its sharp teeth dislodged from their position in its maw as the flesh slowly reformed.
Freya cried softly, "I am sorry little one, this will hurt. Eittvérðr"
The dragon's eyes widened as it panicked, a white fog clouding its golden eyes and, ignoring any pain it may have felt, it quickly stood upright on its legs, letting Freya climb onto its back
"Quickly. We must leave." She said as the dragon spread its wings preparing to take flight.
"Hngh" Kratos grunted, as he too followed right behind her, unsheathing his blades and recalling his axe into his hands.
Freya quickly commanded the dragon to take flight, just as the Army began to converge on their position.
"Use your spear to defend us against the other dragons. I will get us back to the pass as quickly as I can." Freya commanded as she guided the dragon as it rose swiftly into the air, easily carrying the gods on its back.
The other dragons gave chase swiftly, as they spewed cold fire toward them, as Kratos retaliated with well-thrown explosive draupnir spears. The explosive wind arrows lacked the heat of the primordial flames and only managed to throw them off slightly, as their flames missed them by mere inches, as Freya dodged the flames with well-timed maneuvers.
From below the army of Helwalkers tried to skewer them using lances of ice, littering the skies with spears and bolts of cold ice that fell just short of their dragon as Freya led them further south, with eleven thundering angry dragons on their tail.
"What are we planning to do about them?!" Mimir asked, shouting into the wind. "They are gaining on us."
"They won't follow us further than the skirling pass." Kratos rumbled as he observed their pursuers with a critical eye. "They haven't done so before, despite having the capacity to do so. Something is preventing them from crossing. Till then, I will hold them back."
Saying so he deftly stood atop the back of the soaring black dragon, the chilling wind blowing in his face.
"Brother?" Mimir asked in trepidation at what he planned to do.
The eleven dragons were slowly gaining on them, the deathly green light coming from the rift that still painted the night sky, becoming smaller far in the distance in the heart of winter.
Brandishing the Draupnir spear in his right hand once again, Kratos channeled the winds underneath the wings of the dragon, using magic taught to him by Brok all those many years ago.
'The nature of the thing is more important than the form of the thing.' He had said, and Kratos captured the nature of the wind with the draupnir spear as he twirled it violently with his arms.
Lightning crackled around it, as black clouds danced around the Spear.
"Brother, whatever you're about to do, you better hurry up!" Mimir cried, "They're preparing their cold fires again, and this time there's no armies or storms to confuse them!"
With a mighty roar, Kratos spun around as the thunder danced around his spun and he used all his might to launch the spear towards the chasing dragons, unleashing a massive tornado of chilling gusts and lightning that rained down on their aerial assailants.
"Dwarven magic." Mimir muttered softly, "Even in death, Brok manages to aid us."
But the violent vortex proved too powerful, for while it easily downed the dragons that were giving them chase, it also caused Freya to lose control of her spell over the dragon they rode, as she fought against the pull of the vortex with all her might.
With a loud roar, she managed to stabilize the dragon just as it crashed into the peak of the Skirling Pass, as they tumbled into the valley behind it and she lost control of her spell as the dragon's soul finally faded away into the nature around them.
Just as she lost consciousness, she felt powerful arms wrap around her as she gazed into the rising sun far to the east, above the haunted forest visible in the distant horizon.
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A/N: I rewrote the last chapter, if you haven't read it, please check it. I hope to return to constant updates soon again, now that I have my issues settled.
Thank you for sticking around for so long.
Criticism will be appreciated.
All attacks that Kratos and Freya used here were used in the God of War games.
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