บท 3: War II
For those who know, please imagine a 'Battle of Azanulbizar '-like scene here. I am far too bad at writing something like this. I apologize.
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(Odin POV)
The Frozen Forest. A forest that should be dead, logically. but these trees are different from those you might find in Asgard or Alfheim. The darkness coupled with the trees, offered the Frost Giants a chance to surround us and attack. It was different from what I had experienced in my life. I might have the knowledge of the cycle of Ragnarök, but I don't have my battle experiences and muscle memories. A lot of what I remember is only theoretical. That's the reason, I had to relearn how to fight and all the other things. So I was in this as a newbie.
The battle was messy and brutal. The Frost Giants were powerful. They possess superhuman strength and resistance to physical injury. The flesh and bone of the giants of Jotunheim are about three times denser than similar human tissue, contributing to their superhuman strength and weight. But their chaotic tactics and the home advantage were what truly gave us trouble.
The Frost Giants came at us from all sides, which gave them a lot of space to swing their big weapons and do a lot of damage. Some of these Frost Giants were truly large, about as tall as trees and their wolves weren't any smaller as well. The first charge cost us a lot of men, but it also set the tone of this battle and the rest of the war.
Formations were very soon discarded and forgotten and giants were fighting amongst Asgardian soldiers. Everyone tried to hack and cut down the nearest enemy. There was some organisation amongst our forces but not nearly what we could have hoped for. The battle was not going our way. Something had to be done. I looked at my father and saw him cut down one Frost Giant after the other.
.
A Frost Giant stormed at me. He must have assumed me to be important, judging from my armour. Wielding a big iced club, he swung at me. I used my training and dodged the blow. My feet dug deep into the snow, unlike the Frost Giants ones. He seemed to be accustomed to this type of battlefield and it showed. I could see that he was neither as strong nor as fast as me, but he still displayed better movements than I did.
I was on the defensive. I put up my shield and tanked a hit from his club. The force of his blow surprised me and caused my shield to almost fall out of my hand. I used all of my strength not to lose it. That was not bad, but it cost me valuable time. And it was made obvious when the Giant attacked me again. His club once again hit my shield but this time even harder than before. I had to make a choice. Either I would leave the shield or keep it and go fully on the defensive.
I watched the Frost Giant pull his arm back, put his left foot forward and then bring his club down hard. I timed it perfectly. Letting go of my shield, I grabbed my sword with both hands and jumped forward instead of back. That was all the time I needed. I was now close to the Frost Giant and using my momentum, I pierced him in the chest and didn't stop moving forward. The Giant spit blood and fell to the ground, with me on top of him.
Taking the sword back, I stabbed him again and again, making sure that he was dead. I stood back up and looked at the dead Frost Giant ... It was the first kill of this life.
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I had no time to contemplate on this though as I felt an attack coming from the back. I ducked the swipe and turned around. Another giant stood there and was screaming his lungs out. Before he could attack again, I took the initiative and ran towards him. The giant swiped his spear at me again but I used a faint to dive low and cut one of his legs. Blood flowed out of his wound and he screamed in pain.
Not letting this chance get to waste, I attacked again. But this attack changed into a block when another giant club descended from the air and on me. I held my sword with both of my arms but the force was so powerful that I was imbedded into the deep snow and the ground below it.
*BOOOM*
My eyes shot open and tried to move my arms. I could tell that they were at least cracked if not broken. That wasn't something that I should have blocked. But it was either that or getting hit by it directly. I didn't let this stop me though and started to crawl out of the snow. This wasn't over ... not by a long shot. I had to get my battle awareness back. It was hard the first time you fought in such a messy fight.
Using my strength I finally managed to reach the top and was immediately attacked again. I dodged the attack barely and had to dodge more attacks before I finally managed to stand back up. Blocking another attack I moved out the way of another and then went on the offensive. I rushed towards the Frost Giant closest to me and swiped my sword across his torso. Immediately I dodged to the right and attacked the next Frost Giant.
I bobbed and weaved through the attacks and the longer I fought, the better I began to understand and feel the flow of the battle. It was coming to me. My instincts got sharper and more refined. And amidst this battle, something came to me. An idea that might sound too dangerous but maybe just what I needed right now.
I thought about something that I got from the other soul. It was something from a story he or she read. A certain technique that dealt with the use of the senses and allowed you to know where your opponents are and from where attacks are coming from. It was called Kenbunshoku Haki, also called Observation Haki. Haki was apparently the power of the spirit or the will of a person and I knew that I had a lot of that.
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My logical thinking won though and I didn't try it out just yet. But even without this Haki, I began to get better and better the longer the fight went on. I moved better across the battlefield and killed one Frost Giant after the other. But then I saw it. The biggest Frost Giant I had ever seen. This one was at least 20 or so meters tall and he wielded a giant spear. I saw it approach Father and started to run towards his position.
Bor dodged and blocked the attacks coming from the Frost Giant. But he was also being pressured by others who shot arrows at him and threw all kinds of stones at him. I ran towards him and cleaved through anyone that stood in my way.
When I arrived next to my father, I attacked those with bows and arrows. I dodged and swiped the arrows in the air. That was something I learned during training. It was useful now and I was thankful to Brandi for teaching me. I closed in on them and stabbed the first one through the chest. I kicked the one that stood next to him and was just about to attack me.
The sword was stuck. I didn't have any time, so I used all of my strength to swing the sword around anyway, with the Frost Giant still impaled. I used him as an improved club to tackle another Frost Giant and then another. One after the other fell to my improvised club and after a while, the mangled corpse of the impaled Frost Giant slid off my sword.
I turned around and saw Bor having trouble with the giant. His movements were controlled and calculated, but that didn't mean he didn't need any help. I ran towards the Frost Giant and aimed at his heels. That was the best way to cut him to our size, start at the bottom and work your way up.
I arrived next to the giant's food and attacked. I placed my right foot forward, pulled both of my arms back and struck as hard as I could. My sword sliced through that Achilles' heel like a hot knife through butter.
"AAARHHH!!", the giant screamed in pain but didn't fall. My father didn't let that opportunity go to waste and jumped high. He struck the giant but the latter managed to block it with his club, giving me enough time to do more damage.
I tried to infuse my sword with some of my magic and chanted a very quick sharpening spell. I jumped and started to cut up the calf of the Frost Giant until a lot of blood began to flow out.
"AAAAARRRHHHHH!!", the giant screamed harder than before and began to thrash all around him, hoping to hit either of us. But the only thing he did was shoot up snow and give both me and my father a chance to attack unnoticed.
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I let go of my sword and took my war axe which I hadn't used yet in this fight. I knew this was the perfect time to do so. I jumped again and this time cut deep into the giant's leg. Bor also attacked and managed to cut the giant's stomach. The Frost Giant tried to grab Bor, but the latter simply cut off the giant's fingers. From there it was a quick ending to this giant. Bor moved to his neck and cut it with a clean cut, giving the giant a rather slow ending.
Both my father and I look around the battlefield and see that the Frost Giants are pulling back. Overall this wasn't that bad of a result. We lost a lot of men, from the looks of it, but considering where we are, it could have gone much worse.
A hand fell on my shoulder and I saw Bor simply nodding to me. He was a boorish man, just as his name suggests, but he was not the worst father out there. He acknowledged effort, as long as it was connected to success.
.
The first battle had finished and left us with our first victory in this war. We could have lost this fight or lost more men, but we prevailed. The longer this war would go on, the more experience our army would amass and we would grow more and more formidable. Now that the fight was over, we had to take the time to clean things up. Being as smart as we were, Bor ordered us not to rest and instead leave the Frozen Forest. The chance that we would be attacked today wasn't that high, but it was still too high of a chance to risk staying here.
So we marched again. I could tell that every last drop of stamina had left the Asgardian soldiers when we finally began to build our quarters. I got fully involved in helping wherever I could. Endless stamina was not only a curse, especially in this situation. I helped set up the tents, created fire again with my magic, took care of the wounded all night and stood guard. This was a big confidence booster for the men, to know that their prince did this for them and I was glad that they looked better. The state of mind was one of the most important things in a war.
I also had a lot of wounds but using a bit of magic, I had mostly put things back into place, such as broken bones and the like and would soon be ready to go again. Even now, I can tell that I would be stronger in the future fights to come.
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