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The same could not be said of the other magical attacks. While Clea was extremely powerful and experienced in direct magical conflict so that she could even fight Steven on an even footing, indirect combat was not her forte. Her timing to recognize the magical pattern of illusion-type spells was slower than Ororo, Steven or Harry's. The Shadows bore down on her, continually bamboozling her with small illusions and dealing with them took her attention away from backing up the Human Torch, let alone flinging her own attack spells around.
This kept her from noticing the attack spells following the first few waves of arrows up toward the youngest member of the FF. While magically infused or poisoned arrows simply burned up before they could get close to him, the spells weren't aimed directly at him but towards his general vicinity, creating a bubble around him.
The bubble followed Johnny as he zoomed around, holding in his shouts for assistance. Unlike the Custodes, Johnny hadn't been given a radio, not believing he needed one since the FF didn't have one as part of their usual combat gear. So he could not call for help and needed to get through this on his own.
Swiftly, Johnny had to cancel his fire. His feet hit the bubble's outer edge a second later, which burst. The next moment he had turned on his flame powers once more.
But it was too late for Fenrir was indeed there having been hiding his vast bulk under a nearby snowbank, watching. . The Shadows had been using a spell to enhance his scent all along since Garm had picked up the trail so that Hela's faithful guard had not been able to pick up the difference.
Now Fenrir burst out of the snow to one side of the ground-based portion of the battle. As he did, he smashed several dark elves aside, showing that he certainly was not working with the Shadow servants, before leaping high into the air, so fast and high that Johnny could not dodge.
Realizing this almost instantly, Johnny lashed out with a burst of fire, pouring his energy into the assault. "FLAME ON, doggie!"
Any normal animal, even one Fenrir's size, would have been incinerated by that attack, larger and hotter than any of the previous attacks Johnny had used. But Fenrir was not a normal beast. He was so magically enhanced that nearly no weapon, spell, attack, or anything else could get through his natural defenses. The flames seared his mouth dry and burnt his tongue and gums, causing him to yowl in pain, but the impact of the spell did not redirect his leap or force him to twitch away.
"ARGGH!" Johnny screamed as the monstrous wolf caught him in his jaws, intent on chopping Johnny in half. But luckily, while Johnny wasn't wearing a radio, he was wearing an emergency teleport array.
Even as his stomach, side and back were pierced by Fenrir's fangs and the crushing jaw began to close on ruined flesh and snaped bones, Johnny was teleported out of the giant wolf's mouth. He arrived safely back at the emergency base camp, where Stephen Strange was pulled from his work on the magical defenses to help stabilize him until Harry or Ororo could return. Johnny would live, but he was out of this campaign for now.
The arrival of the great wolf caused a massive shift in the battlefield. Clea attempted to attack him magically, and her spells, more raw magical blasts than the constructed spells Harry and Ororo favored, crashed into Fenrir. This made Fenrir snarl in fury and mess up his landing, but that was all. Fenrir was almost as magically resistant as Odin or some of the other more powerful Asgardians.
A second later, Clea was forced to shield Betsy from a group of dark elves who had snuck behind her under another Shadow illusion. "Curse it!" the other-dimensional half-demoness snarled before focusing all her attention on defending the area from further Shadow bastard illusions.
Fenrir snarled in annoyance as he rolled where he landed, but after a single baleful glance up at the magic-user flying above, Fenrir turned his attention to those on the ground, charging towards them with a howl made of equal measures of fury and hunger.
Seeing him coming, Garm hurled himself towards the younger wolf, going fang to fang with the other canine, the two of them tumbling over and over, clawing and biting. But as powerfully built and experienced as Garm was, Fenrir was at least three times his size.
This quickly began to tell, and after rolling over one another several times, Fenrir was able to gain the advantage. He tossed the older wolf to the side, tearing a chunk out of his side as he did, and blood began dripping from his maw as he made to finish the other wolf off quickly.
Then Betsy was there lashing out with a kick as Dani also attacked. An arrow flashed towards Fenrir's eye even as she shouted out, "Fenrir, stop! Don't you recognize Garm! Don't you recognize me? We met before. Hela vouched for me, your sister. She vouched for me! We're not your enemies!"
"I do not know you, little creature! And even if I did, I would not care. I hunger, and I must feed!" Fenrir nearly shrieked in his madness. With that, he charged towards Betsy and Garm snarled, pushed back to his feet and moved to meet Fenrir once more.
Above them, Clea howled and lashed out with spell after spell. But given the new tactics of the Shadows, she was completely sidelined even as the telepathic assault had let up, allowing Betsy to concentrate on the physical world for now.
For her part, Dani had retreated for a second, and with her hands outstretched tried to use her empathic psi powers. First she just tried to reach Fenrir, but that didn't work and she was forced to cut out the attempt as several Dark elves appeared from the woods around her.
Meanwhile, Betsy's plasma rifle proved unable to harm Fenrir, although this didn't stop her from firing at Fenrir as fast as possible, trying to aim for his head. Gonna have to get close to the fucker and use my TK blades to do any real damage, blast it. "I thought we were supposed to bleedin' retreat instead of fighting the giant plonker!?"
"No plan survives contact with the enemy," Dani shot back, ducking under a sword blow and stabbing the dark elf who had attacked her with Sigyn's Gift, which had shifted into a dagger. "And watch out. There are still a few dark elves around."
The two brawling wolves had also crushed several dark elves. They had tried to get close, only to realize that Fenrir had no care for their lives and had gotten run over like a series of pygmies meeting two elephants.
Besides the choice of targeting Johnny first, the Shadows had given Fenrir his head, letting him attack however he wished. Given how feral he was, the hunger-madness and false memories was enough to goad him into violence, and they could not afford the attention needed to direct his actions.
As Dani and Betsy dealt with more of the dark elves, Clea too turned her attention to them, breaking through the continually renewing haze of illusions. But this proved too slow, as Garm found himself once more hurled through the air to crash into a nearby boulder, shattering the boulder.
With Garm down, Fenrir turned to the nearest human, and Dani was forced to dodge away from a back paw and then under a paw slashing at her. Dani's quick reflexes and hover boots allowed her to keep dodging for some time, as she concentrated once more on reaching Fenrir with her empathic powers.
This time, instead of reaching out to him directly, She tried to pull out a memory and project it around them. "Damn it Fenrir, will you listen! Look this is your sister when she came to get me! I was pulled into Utland from Earth by a dream-weaving, and, and for some reason, my spirit landed near you! We have a connection, you and I!"
But even as the psionic image appeared, Fenrir barreled through it, acting more like a boar than a wolf for a moment. "You think on this field of illusions I could not smell the true from the false! Little morsel just for that I will enjoy gulping you down!"
Despite his words, the wolf had felt something as he saw the image of his sister, Hela, affection perhaps? But thanks to the implanted memories and, more powerfully, the madness-creating hunger, the feelings could not remain in his head. Images alone would not work to get through to him.
Dodging wildly, Dani kicked up off a boulder using her hover boots to blast close, trying to get above and behind the giant wolf, grabbing at one of his ears. "Will you listen, blast it!"
"Grrr!" Fenrir twitched his head aside, taking his head out of her range while continual impacts, like stinging gnats, registered at last. Sending the oddly maneuverable human away with a forepaw, Fenrir whirled around and, in a move that showed he was no mere beast, smashed a nearby tree down before hurling it in the direction of the human with the enchanted fire staff.
At the same time, Fenrir's tail came up to smack into Dani as she tried to close again. As big as he was, the fluffy appendage still struck with all the force of a blow, hurling Dani sideways through the air.
Dani quickly righted herself, but found Fenrir launching himself towards her, fangs gaping. With no time to do anything else Dani dodged at the last instant, trying to think of how to make her psionic visions more real to the wolf without touching him. FUCK, I'm a human, what do I know about smell!? Maybe a different memory? Once from when he attacked me the first tiIII!"
Her thoughts broke off as she had do dodge backward again, before ducking under a paw strike only for Fenrir to lunge in, jaws gaping and no chance to dodge.
Then Garm barreled into the larger wolf's shoulder, redirecting his bite so that it clamped down just on Dani's arm. The armor she wore buckled, and Dani cried out as the limb underneath broke.
As the Cheyenne woman crashed to earth, Fenrir turned, snarling and clawing at Garm, who did the same. He tried to get in underneath the younger wolf, biting at the soft, comparatively unprotected underbelly. There, his brute strength finally allowed him to claw through Fenrir's fur, and blood began to spill from shallow cuts.
Even as his own blood dribbled down into the snow, Fenrir was undaunted, and his own fangs eventually closed down on Garm his shoulder and neck. Shifting his legs back, Fenrir pulled the older wolf off his feet, then shook his head from side to side.
"AAAARRGH!" Garm howled in agony.
A second later Fenrir twisted and tossed him aside. There was a rending noise, and a large, bloody, chunk of Garm's upper shoulder was torn out as Garm flew through the air leaving a trail of blood behind.
Fenrir threw his head back, gulping the meat down as if he was truly starving, while Garm rolled around on the ground in agony. But to the surprise of Dani, who was on her feet once more, Garm slowly rose to his feet, bloody teeth bared at the younger wolf. "I'll not yield welp!"
"Hah!" Fenrir guffawed, only to yowl in surprised pain, twisting around to glare at Betsy, who had just cut into his back foot with her telekinetic blades. While the physical side of that attack failed, the telepathic side didn't, and Fenrir felt real pain for the first time in this fight.
But Betsy could retreat Fenrir had leaped forward, impossibly fast, clawing at her armor. The magical armor held, buckling instead of being torn apart, but Betsy gasped in agony as her ribs broke. The visor on her helmet also shattered, letting the slobber drip down onto Betsy's face as he tried to chew on her upper body, like an otter trying to open a clam.
This should have let in Jörmungandr's miasma, but by that point, Ororo had begun her attempt to boil the sea around the dread serpent, and her control of the weather had dragged much of the miasma up higher into the air. This meant that while the miasma was still in the air, it had lost the potency it once did.
Forgetting for a moment the emergency portkeys, Dani forwent her psionic abilities and charged forwards desperately. Her spear hammered into Fenrir's neck powered by all the impetus Dani could contrive with her hover boots. The servos of her armor whined as she pushed them to the limits trying to drive the spearpoint home. But when Fenrir shifted, the spear simply sliced a narrow trench into Fenrir's fur, doing nothing.
This move caused the momentum of Dani's thrust to take her along one side and Fenrir bit at her once more. But Dani was too quick, and ducked away, zooming backward, Sigyn's Gift flicking out across Fenrir's nose in whip form. "Fenrir, stop!"
The strike didn't even cause Fenrir to blink, and this time Dani was just a second too slow. The wolf's lunge caught her in his jaws, shaking her like a ragdoll.
"AHHH!" Dani's armor began to buckle as she was swung around, many of the systems shorting out from the waist upward, including many in her helmet. This wasn't only the servomotors and other electrical parts, though. Across her suit's surface, the runic arrays also fizzled out. Something in Fenrir's saliva acted deadly to the magic within, dissolving it.
The small electrical discharges going through his teeth startled the young wolf, and he hurled Dani to the side, pawing at his mouth with one massive paw.
Pushing herself to her knees, Dani tried to reach young Fenrir once more, her psionic powers reaching forward. "Fenrir, don't you remember me, you hunted me once before, and I made a deal with you. I helped you down a cougar when you were still getting used to your new size and didn't know how to hunt. It fed you for some time, didn't it?"
Dani tried to push her empathic powers out towards Garm, which went unnoticed by the Shadows. They would not have understood an emotion-based mental power like that, but they were also extremely busy keeping Clea under wraps.
Once more, images sprang up around them, but instead of being just of Hela showing up to talk to Dani, this was from Dani's perspective of how Fenrir had attempted to hunt her. This was a much stronger memory, fueled by Dani's confusion and fear, and that impacted how real it seemed to Fenrir, who stopped and gaped as an image of himself attacked and then was fought back, before hunting and sharing a meal of a cougar with Dani.
For just a second, the hunger-madness receded, and false memory and real fought in Fenrir's mind. "I… I remember being taught how to hunt, but it was not you, was it? No, no it was Tyr, the cursed bastard, who tried to cage me to chain me! But I will have my vengeance, come the final dawn! I will feast upon Odin!" Fenrir howled, the hunger-madness coming back and reinforcing the false memories, the manic expression on his face becoming even more so as he spoke and bared his fangs at the confusing little human. "I hunger, and I wonder how sweet your flesh will taste once I shuck you out of your armor!"
But then he suddenly turned away, moving toward Garm, who was slowly moving towards them. "But wait your turn. Though he is old and stringy, at least he is ready to eat."
Groaning in pain, Dani pushed herself to her feet. Betsy was gone by this point thankfully, teleported away by her emergency array. What that would mean if the Shadows attacked on the Astral Plane once more, Dani did not want to think about.
Not that we don't have enough problems as it is. Garm might be standing but he's in no shape to fight given his wounds. Fenrir's going to kill him, and my power isn't getting through to him. Dammit, what else can I do to heighten the impact of my empathic powers!? They had severely underestimated how powerful Fenrir had become and how manic the Shadows were willing to make him.
Suddenly Fenrir was blasted aside by a bolt of magic as Clea finally broke through the remaining illusions attempting to keep her contained and attacked with all the fury of the half-demoness she was, her words long, guttural, and in a language no human tongue should have ever been able to form. "%- Phantom spirits keep you contained! Let your body be chained to the very earth by my power! %-%"
Clea was more Sorceress than Witch as her magic was closer to Stephen's than Harry's. She used longer enchantments to create formed magical spells while also using unformed magic directed by her will for much of her offensive and defensive power. But she didn't call upon the magic deities that Stephen did. Instead, Clea shaped the magic with her words to a greater degree than the human-born Steven. Being the natural-born daughter of Umar and niece of Dormammu, she could hardly call upon opposing deities for their aid.
This was shown now as literal phantom beasts appeared around the massive wolf assaulting Dani, grabbing at Fenrir from every angle. Although they looked like ghosts, they were solid where they grabbed him, pulling him back away from the young Cheyenne. At the same time, chains of blue and silver magic rose all around him, shooting out of the air like harpoons crisscrossing over his body and slamming into the ground, pulling taut.
For just a moment, it seemed as if the mighty Fenrir couldn't fight magic like this. But then he bit through one of the phantasms, and it instantly dissipated. With that, he howled, lashing out every direction with paw and claw, and whenever he bit through the magic, be it a ghostlike monster or a chain, the magic dissipated instantly.
Meanwhile, the Shadows had summoned up more illusions while also sending two telepathic probes at Clea and Dani. From the far-away base camp, Jean blocked these, reporting on Johnny and Betsy, having taken over for Emma as she was busy defending Thor. "They'll be alright with some rest. Their wounds have been healed, but Betsy is being kept under observation due to a head injury, and Johnny is out of action until Ororo or Harry return. But Tony and E are nearly finished setting up the camp. Retreat and…"
"Can't!" Dani shot back, dashing forward, sliding under Fenrir's stomach, lashing out and upwards, Sigyn's Gift becoming a long whip with metal-coated endings. She targeted the wounds Garm had already sliced there, causing Fenrir some pain but not doing any further real damage. "We retreat, Fenrir will too, and we'll never find his trail until he shows up again fighting for the Shadows. If Clea can hit him with some kind of tracking spell, fine, but otherwise, we need to keep fighting to get through to the young fool!"
In reality, Dani might not have retreated even if Clea could take the time to craft such a spell and if it could then latch onto Fenrir. This was her mission, more than anyone else's, and she was not used to failing. More than that, her ability to feel the emotions of animals worked both ways, and she refused to let Fenrir continue to suffer if she could do anything about it.
"…Fine, but if you get hurt again, girl, I will order Clea to grab you and fly you both out of there," Jean barked mentally. She might have said more but was forced to break off as the telepathic pressure on the trio of telepaths guarding the base camp and the main army redoubled. Luckily, the assault on Clea and Dani had subsequently subsided.
But thanks to the Shadow's illusion-based attacks, Fenrir was able to break free. With that, he searched for Clea, seeing her in the air above him, magic flashing out from her in small, barely-discernable crescent-shaped bolts of magic as she disrupted the myriad tiny illusions trying to blind her to reality.
Seeing her flying above him like an over-large bird, Fenrir leaped up impossibly high, his maw open wide as he tried to do to Clea what he had previously done to the Human Torch.
But Clea saw him coming and simply flew out of the way. An unformed blast of magic caught Fenrir in the side, hurling him away to crash to the ground, shattering trees and stones alike as the impact created a furrow through the forest.
He then rolled, seemingly without injury, and Clea grimaced. "Well now, you are rather a tough one, are you not?" She laid into the beast, blast after magical blast crashing into him, hurling him sideways and then backward, creating crater after furrow as she batted him around the landscape. "But durability and brute strength alone is no match for the power arcane!"
"I will eat you whole, seidr-using bitch!" Fenrir howled. It was evident that whatever damage the magic was doing if the strikes were doing more than tossing him around, it wouldn't put him down quickly.
Seeing this, Clea paused above Fenrir and began to craft another enchantment. But then she blinked as the sun above was blotted out, and she found herself in deep shadow.
Gleeful at having almost swept the field in this skirmish and eager to complete their victory, the Shadows had decided to double down. Even as Clea had dealt with the various illusions still trying to cloud her perception, and the Shadows had launched a massive telepathic assault on the main camp, they had teleported Surtur into this battle.
While his work with the various stone jotun chieftains was important, Surtur and Malekith were the only tools that the Shadows had left who could fight a true magical battle. And even if Malekith had not been busy trying to figure out what was blocking their ability to teleport Odin away from Asgard, he lacked the raw power and durability to stand against the human magic users.
As Clea whirled around to see what had caused the shadow a massive fist came down towards her. Clea dodged to one side, and Surtur moved his arm after her, forcing Clea to fly higher and backward away from the limb. The next second she sent a bolt of magic towards the jotun's face. The assault crashed into his head, causing him to snarl in anger, but did not even stagger the now-hill-sized fire jotun king.
Surtur had previously been only a few feet larger than a human or Asgardian. But he had been gorging himself on stones since the Shadows had teleported him away from Sif and Hogun's pursuit and now he stood almost as tall as a large hill.
Still, Clea was undaunted, and her words barked out in her native tongue. "%- and tear, break and sear, cut raw my enemies!%-%" Cutting curses which made Sectumsempra seem like a spell to cut one's nails lashed out, pale green and yellow, slamming into Surtur. But they could not do more than sting even when they struck his face.
Surtur snarled in fury, his voice a bellow. "I will end you and all who stand with Asgard! Utgard will be mine!" Surtur stamped on the ground as he bellowed, thrusting his magic into the land beneath him.
There was no Magma here to contest with, and a second later, his magic inundated the ground all around the battlefield. Fissures opened, spewing up lava in every direction, and large spikes of earth shot upwards, heading towards not only Clea but Danielle, Fenrir and Garm.
As Garm rolled desperately causing himself even more pain, Danielle used her hover-skates to bounce around several while Fenrir simply ignored them. The lava struck and splattered away like so much rain, and the stone spikes doing absolutely nothing to harm the giant although they had cut him off from Garm for a moment, and Fenrir turned back towards Dani. "If I cannot eat one of those two, I will at least snack on you!"
Dani danced backwards, putting the spikes, lava fissures, and trees between them. At the same time, she switched from using Sigyn's Gift to her rifle, loading up a series of specialized rounds she had asked Jean to prepare for her for this mission. Blinding flashes, shocking jolts of released energy, and other things of that nature. She hadn't had time to load them before, but did so now.
None of them stopped the giant wolf, although the one designed to release a high-pitched noise like a dog whistle certainly slowed him down. Fenrir whined and clawed at his ears, rolling on the ground in some amount of pain. "Awesome, now I just need to do that oh, enough times to knock him out or… yeah, best not to think that will be enough," Dani mused, zooming away at an angle, forcing Fenrir to turn to follow the movement.
Above the two land-locked combatants, Clea dodged and ducked around the various attacks sent her way from Surtur. His advantage, durability and endurance. Mine, speed and adaptation. Look for an opening, find a weakness, exploit it. With that, she tried an unformed blast of magic, following it up with a spell launched at Surtur from behind.
Surtur bellowed in fury as the first attack crashed into his chest, the impact sending him staggering back slightly. But his armor held easily against that and the next strike, and from his mouth came several small fireballs. "BURN!"
These fireballs homed in on Clea, and she was forced to dodge the first few before defending herself from the next few. "%- waters of the world guard me!%-%" She shouted, and all around her, a sphere of water appeared. It burst outwards as she ordered it to, impacting the incoming fireballs with a loud, "FSSHSH!" noise.
The steam that occurred as the fireballs crashed into this odd defense covered Clea as she rose higher into the air, lashing down with a spell. "%- and constrict by my might!%-%"
Yellow and violet energy hoops appeared all around, but when they tried to constrict the fire jotun king, he simply flexed his arms to either side. The energy discs shattered into hundreds of tiny shards of magical energy.
But Clea now shifted to pure assault spells, spears of magical power, tentacles that grabbed, lightning spears, enchantments meant to assault Surtur's mind and innards. At the same time, Surtur struck back, more fireballs, more stone spears flashing up towards Clea, forcing her to zoom around, dodging the attacks as best she could. Only a few times was Clea forced to use her equivalent of a Protego, which dealt with fireball and stone spear easily enough.
Seeing this, Surtur snarled and was about to pull out Gungnir, but Clea realized her own attacks weren't doing anything to the fire giant first. She switched entirely to elemental spells, specifically, ice spells. "%- and snow, cold and chill, be frozen under my will!%-%"
From around Clea, man-sized cones of blue energy appeared, flashing forward to crash into Surtur. At first, these attacks acted almost like pinpricks, causing twinges of pain but not doing any real damage. Surtur simply ignored them, launching fireball after fireball. He also used his self-transformation powers to enlarge his fist, hurling it towards Clea while still using earth-based spells occasionally to send up spears of stone from below and behind Clea, trying to force her to split her attention.
For her part, Clea zoomed around the area, using her ability to fly as her chief defense so she could concentrate more on offense, continuing the ice-based assault for a few moments. Occasionally she used a water-based spell on one of Surtur's fireballs to create more steam to hide her decision. But Surtur caught on quickly to this trick and simply inundated the entire area around him with fireballs and stone spikes.
Soon, the cold spells began to deal telling damage, and one of them struck at his feet, causing a loud grinding noise of stone on stone. Seeing the attacks on his legs starting to form hoarfrost on Surtur's Skin, Clea zoomed in close, targeting the fire jotun's legs. "%- and chill, hands of raw winter!%-%"
From all around Surtur, hands of cold blue energy appeared, grabbing and, as the spell said, freezing. And since the blood within Surtur remained just as hot, the dichotomy between his now rapidly cooling outer shell and inner body caused Surtur to cry out in pure agony. "GRAAAAAHHH!"
Nearby Dani's luck had run out. A headbutt had caught her, slamming her into a stone, which shattered, but one of her legs was caught between bits of the stone. "Damn it!"
"Nowhere to run, little mouthful," Fenrir snarled, stalking forward.
Dani licked her lips inside her helmet, thinking quickly. Come on, girl, think! He has no physical weakness, but he's still a young creature, still arrogant. And he is also a demigod. All godlike beings are… arrogant and enjoy playing with their targets… fuck. I hope this works. Before she could try and talk herself out of it, she shouted, "I challenge you!"
A howl of pain from Surtur caused Garm to turn away momentarily watching the battle above. But even as he staggered from the agony that the ice spells were causing him, Surtur struck back. He slammed his hands together, creating a sonic boom that hammered into all three of the other combatants.
Now it was Fenrir's turn to howl in agony, sticking his head into a nearby snowdrift for a moment. This gave Danielle a breather, although even her head was ringing right now, and one of her hover boots was no longer responding.
Clea also screamed in pain, tumbling through the air momentarily out of control, not being prepared for the aural assault. She still dodged the next few spells sent her way, but her own attacks stopped for a moment.
And she didn't see Surtur pulling Gungnir from his belt. Holding it in his massive hand almost like a dagger, Surtur thrust it towards Clea instead of launching it as he had done against Balder. The spear siphoned off a portion of his magical reserves and turned it into a blast of power much like Clea had been trying on him, except more condensed and pure white in color.
Opening her eyes, Clea saw this attack coming and quickly enchanted, "%- me against all magic!%-%"
The shield, a series of consecutive magical shields set between her and the assault, shattered on impact, each ovoid creating tiny particles of energy flashing everywhere. This gave Clea enough time to dodge to one side, and the energy bolt only seared her arm from the shoulder down, turning it into a mass of blasted, ruined flesh.
"AGGHHH!" Now it was Clea who cried out in agony. But like Surtur, she struck back all the same. "%- the energy flow, let it become a hammer blow!%-%"
A ravening blast of energy appeared from out of the sky above Surtur, crashing down into him, sending his upper body slamming into the ground with bone punishing force. He groaned in pain as several teeth shattered, and he felt something in his upper back go *POP*, but even so, his body was able to take the strike. And his magic still inundated the ground below.
From the fissures all around, balls of magma shot out, then exploded in midair like flak rounds, causing Clea to defend herself with a magical shield once more. But she wasn't fast enough to do that and fly away from her former position. An instant later, another blast from the spear caught her, causing her to cry out in pain, although she was able to dodge more of this one's arc of energy.
Another cold spell struck the ground, fighting against Surtur's control of it, while giant ghostly hands formed around him, grabbing and trying to crush him. These Surtur broke with some difficulty as Clea's shield, tilted this time, reflected much of Gungnir's next assault up into the sky.
The shield had held this time, but the bright flash of energy against it had completely blinded Clea for a second. And from the ground underneath her, a fist around the same size as her own shot out at the top of a long stone column. This stone fist slammed into Clea's lower leg, breaking it with a crack.
"Ghhh!" Clea instantly lost control of her flight spell, falling toward the ground. And the next second, Clea's view was eclipsed by Surtur's fist elongating and coming towards her, its shape transforming as it came, wider than her body now in every direction. A last-minute Protego, a quick spell she had learned from Harry, slowed the punch, but it still slammed her to the ground.
Surtur instantly took advantage of this even as Clea tried to roll to her feet. At his command, the ground all around Clea opened into a large fissure with magma bursting up towards her.
The touch of that magma on her back and side proved to be too much. Clea's emergency teleportation array activated, and an instant later, Clea disappeared, reappearing in the base camp during a lull in the flow of wounded. Amelia and Una instantly raced to her, kneeling down on either side of Clea's body as they went to work.
"Hahaha! At last, I have some measure of victory this day!" Surtur bellowed, shrinking down to his normal size for a moment, as he hefted the spear into the air, delighted.
He looked towards where the human girl was being threatened by Fenrir. The wolf had stuck his head into the nearby snow, but had now pulled it out and was licking his chops as he stalked the human, who was rapidly backing away.
At that sight, Surtur smirked, but he didn't have time to interfere further. An instant passed, and then Surtur was back where he had been originally, where he found the stone jotun clan chief he had been talking to waiting for him.
The Shadows were not interested in this battle any further. They had seemingly swept the board, and Harry Potter had just arrived at the outer edge of the defensive area they had set up around Asgard. Whatever the lone human did from now on, they had bigger concerns, as Malekith had yet to discover why they could not teleport Odin out of Asgard the city.
Back with Dani, the Cheyenne girl had realized she could not get away with only one boot. Now she paused, holding her arms in the air. Damn it, I will have to play this all the way through. "R, remember, I challenged you!"
Fenrir stalked forward, and Dani could see the hunger madness in Fenrir's gaze as he leaned towards her, his tongue lolling out. "You have already proven you have not the strength to fight me, and now you challenge me? Did I hit your head so hard you lost your senses? Is some madness upon your brain that you would think I would accept your challenge rather than shuck you out of that armor and taste your flesh at last?"
"Y, you are the son of the trickster, Loki! You are as much a god as any, and there are certain rules gods must follow. If they are challenged, they must answer!" Dani asserted, releasing all constraints on her empathic powers, trying to build an understanding between them as she had in their first meeting. Now was not the time to use a vision, but her empathy could still have an impact. "To do otherwise would not be justice, just as it was not just for Tyr to try and chain you!"
The whole challenge rule wasn't technically true. Only Thor and a few of the other, more combative or tricky gods like Loki followed that guideline. But the mention of Tyr and how it would not be just pricked Fenrir's anger, using some of the implanted memories against him.
"What do you know about justice, about right and wrong! For only the fact of my birth, I was reviled. I was hated. Is that justice, is that right!?" Fenrir bellowed, turning aside and howling to the world. "You hear me, Odin! I will have your flesh as my forfeit for how you and yours treated me!"
Dani waited until Fenrir looked back at her, her voice as steady and calm as possible. "No, it isn't. But two injustices do not make a right. I know I cannot fight you. That leaves only my words and my wits. Let me use them, and if I die, I will go to my death at least knowing I fought in as best I could in the manner available to me."
Fenrir growled the madness of his hunger and the madness of the Shadows warring with his understanding of the rules gods had to abide by, aided by Dani's empathic powers. You had to give humans a chance. Whatever else, they had to have a chance. You could stack the deck against them however you wished, but humans needed to be free to play as they will to a certain degree.
"Hrrr….very well, I agree. What is the game? And know that I will veto anything to do with thumbs or word games or anything similar," Fenrir growled.
That line gave Dani some hope that some portion of the original Fenrir she had met all those months ago was still in there somewhere. But to bring it out, it's going to take some doing. I've already tried anything but direct touch. Dani had long known that her empathy worked best through direct touch. Oh. I have just had a horrible, horrible, dangerous idea. But it might just work. "I challenge you to a game of riding."
"What?" the wolf barked blinking in surprise. "I am not my brother Sleipnirr. How dare…"
"I challenge you to a riding!" Dani shouted, pushing herself to take two steps forward, despite her body crying out in pain. I've got a few broken ribs for sure and my arm is only useful thanks to the armor making for a decent splint.
In fact, Dani was surprised she hadn't been teleported away. She had no magical sense and thus no ability to see how the runes in her suit had been dissolved somehow by Fenrir's acid.
Fenrir had strangely backed away from Dani's approach, her sudden shout and show of strength surprising him and Dani capitalized on his surprise, pursuing her mad scheme. Direct touch, direct touch and time… "I challenge you to a riding. You will allow me on your back. Once there, and once I'm situated using this," she said, holding up Sigyn's Gift, which had transformed into a rope, "You can do anything you want to throw me off. Throw me off, and you win. I win if you cannot, or I can convince you not to."
Fenrir snorted. Staring at her thoughtfully. "That is a gross dishonor to me as a wolf, to have someone on my back! I am no beast of burden."
"And yet, I am but mortal. You demand my life from me, the greatest thing you can ask of one, to feed your hung…"
"I do not ask for your life!" Fenrir snarled, slathering Dani with his mucus. "I will just take it."
"And yet one so powerful as you will not bend to this one request? This one game. Are you so cowardly?" Dani shouted back, not giving an inch.
Fenrir howled but called out like that, there was little Fenrir could do. While simply eating the strange human in the iron suit would not cost him anything, in doing so, Fenrir would acknowledge that the mere mortal's idea game scared him. No god, whatever his or her shape, would be willing to put up with that concept. And Fenrir was no different.
"Very well," Fenrir growled. "For your courage, I will allow this indignity."
He glared at Garm, who had taken a few steps forward, his teeth bared, his eyes flashing maniacally. "Know old one that though gamy, your meat will serve fine, and you too will be bound by this one's vow. One ride to decide the fate of two. Now, hurry up! I hunger!"
Nodding, Dani asked for some time to speak to Garm. "Dani, girl, this is not…" Garm began as she moved close.
At the same time, Jean's voice roared into her head. "What the fuck are you up to, Dani!? Run, girl! Betsy, and Clea are already healed and Tony's ready to take to the air. Buy time and…"
"We can't call in help. None of the Custodes or our allies can get here fast enough," Dani murmured back, answering them at once. "And I can't get away, Jean. My hover boot's broken, and if the emergency portkey isn't working yet… well it might not be at all. And whatever else, Fenrir will be gone by the time they get here. But that's okay, Jean. I have a plan. And… and whatever else, this is my fight. So, as the Brits would say, bugger off and leave me to it."
As Jean sputtered in response, Dani turned her attention to Garm. "Neither of us is in any fit state to keep fighting, and power isn't getting through to him, not yet. But enhanced by my physical touch…" she shrugged. "It's possible. And regardless, it will be a ride for the ages."
Still linked to the younger woman, Jean shook her head, feeling the truth in her mind. Dani had never had any intention of retreating. Sigyn's Gift, her very soul hidden inside Dani's blood. The first time she met with Fenrir, the talk she'd had with him. There was a connection here, a debt perhaps, although that might not be the right word. Whatever the term was for what lay between them, Jean could feel Dani refused to let Fenrir under the Shadow's influence if she could do anything about it.
"Feh, well, you are right about that. One way or the other, it will make for a good tale," Garm grumbled, then shook his head. "I'll not wish you luck; instead, I will wish you skill on your test."
Grinning cheerily under her helmet, Dani nodded at him, moving over to where Fenrir was now lashing his tail impatiently, his ears flat to his skull. "Garm will not interfere and will await here as agreed," she said to Fenrir.
With that, she reached up to grab a handful of his fur, preparing to heft herself up onto his back. That would not be easy, given that most of her armor was now dead weight. Although the giant wolf hadn't been able to tear through the armor thanks to his attempts to do so being interrupted, her armor was now simply that, lacking much of its power.
"Take off the helmet," Fenrir growled. Dani hesitated, and he turned his head around to glare at her with one eye. "Take it off. Or are you the one that is now scared?"
"That's quite petty, considering I'm mortal, and you are a god killer. Still, if my helmet frightens you, I can take it off. Although I might have to have some kind of mouth and nose covering."