Chapter 297: Golden Chance

 

  Cordelia raised her arms. Two undead frost giants stepped out of the southern gate. Each one stood 9 ft tall and dragged a large ax behind them.

  Freya’s eyes widened at the sight. She had expected a few drows at best, but this? This was different. A cold feeling grew in the pit of her stomach. Memories of last year’s encounter with undead trolls flowed fresh in her mind.

  Freya smiled shakily, a wild glint of madness in her golden eyes, “The bigger they are…”

 

  “LET THE 8TH MATCH OF THE CHALLENGE OF SPELL & STEEL… BEGIN!!!” the Stemme heralds yelled in unison.

 

  “Rip her apart,” Cordelia said coldly.

  The frost giants groaned a deep guttural sound and charged straight at the golden-haired dwarf.

  Freya’s first instinct was to ignite the undead in a shower of flames, but she knew the giants had some resistance to flames, albeit less than the trolls she had faced last spring.

  But they’re still undead, which means! Freya dropped her shield and channeled white mana into her hand.

  The frost giants raised their axes above their heads and prepared to swing down with the force of a dozen men. Freya stuck her hand out and blasted the undead with a wave of brilliant light.

  The giants stumbled back, their pallid blue skin beginning to sizzle. Streams of shadows suddenly wrapped around them like armor and shielded them from the bright spell.

  “What the-!” Freya screamed in surprise.

  The giants slammed their feet back into the ground and swung the axes down with all their might.

  Freya gritted her teeth, channeled orange mana into her legs, and cast an agility spell. She jumped to the side and barely managed to dodge the attacks. The ground shook from the force of the blows, yet the giants quickly ripped out their axes from the sand and swung low.

  Freya cursed under her breath and jumped high, the agility magic lessened her weight to a mere fourth. She landed lightly on her feet ten paces away.

  Cordelia stood over thirty paces away, her hands swiveling through the air casting a shadow armor spell over the frost giants.

  Freya narrowed her eyes in thought. Shadow armor was usually used to hide and blend among the shadows. It provided little to no protection against a blade or an arrow. But against bright magic, it instantly became a powerful shield. 

  Cordelia knows that, she must have planned for it. She also knows my colors… She knew flame magic’s effectiveness would be halved against frost giants! This was all planned to beat me! But how? Cordelia had only had a single day to prepare before the duel was announced...

  Freya’s head snapped up in surprise. The frost giants were already upon her, their large axes swinging down with blinding speed. Freya dashed away, but the giants gave chase without a moment’s waste.

  The undead creatures had no agility spells running through their veins, but they were tall; each long-striding step they took was five steps for Freya. Worse, their bodies were fresh with almost no sign of decomposition. They had been killed recently or their bodies had been preserved incredibly well. Either way, their undead muscles had no problem chasing after Freya without a hint of exhaustion.

  Freya quickly found herself running circles around the arena, the undead giants always a mere few paces behind her. All the while Cordelia stood calmly at the center of the arena, her hands maintaining the shadow armor spell with ease.

  Freya’s stomach churned with anger at the sight of the Rotrusk dwarf and that small smirk on her lips. How easy it must be to maintain the shadow spell, after all, once an undead was raised there was no more casting involved, just the occasional recharging of mana and preservation work. 

  Cordelia didn’t need to be able to multicast, all she had to do was protect her undead while they hunted down her enemy.

  That’s right! Freya thought.

  Fighting the frost giants would be a waste of energy. Even if she managed to burn the undead to a crisp, she would be exhausted from the enormous exertion of mana.

  The frost giants don’t matter! she thought as she barely managed to dodge another ax. All that matters is taking down that stupid smirking dwarf!

  Freya sprinted towards Cordelia. The giants quickly ran and stood in her way. They would never let her through, they would always keep attacking, but Freya had counted on that.

  Instead of running away, Freya barreled right towards them and vaulted into the air. She landed on the shoulders of the first giant, shadows swirling around, obscuring its skin, but its skull was still a clear target. Freya roared and began pummeling its head in with her hammer. The skull cracked, but it did not shatter; the giant’s head caved in a mere inch.

  The second giant didn’t hesitate and swung its ax down. Freya looked up, a glint of triumph in her eyes. She jumped off the shoulders as the ax was buried six inches into the undead’s shoulder where she had been a second before.

  The first giant groaned as the second giant began pulling the ax out. But it would take time, 5, maybe 6 seconds. And that was all the time she needed. She flooded her body with orange mana and casted her most powerful agility spell, dedicated entirely to speed.

  Cordelia barely had a moment to react before Freya was in front of her, hammer raised high for a skull-shattering strike. Cordelia’s brown eyes widened in fear. Wisps of dark smoke abruptly exploded from underneath Cordelia’s armor. The smoke twisted and pooled together in an instant, transforming into a familiar dreadful sight.

  Freya paled at the sight of the monstrous shade. She stumbled to a halt and simply stared, frozen in fear. She had seen too many times what a shade could do to a person if it touched them; flesh melting off the bone, organs shriveling to a husk, and bones crumbling to brittle shards.

  Cordelia’s own fear and shock turned into relief and then into a prideful smile. She pulled out a necklace from underneath her leather armor; a small glowing black magestone orb was attached to its silver links.

  “Ari doesn’t like it when people try to hurt me, do you, Ari?” Cordelia smirked. 

  The shade wailed a screeching sound and its mouth opened unnaturally wide. 

  “Ari,” Cordelia whispered, “Devour her.”

  The shade’s ghostly arms stretched out towards its master’s attacker. Freya flinched away and backpedaled as fast as she could, stumbling to the floor. She quickly scrambled to her feet and ran. But the frost giants were already behind her, axes at the ready.

  Freya turned around. The shade was flying at her, ghostly claws outstretched. She could see the faint silhouette of Cordelia’s grinning face through the shade’s vaporous form.

  That bitch.

  The world felt slow as death came for Freya as if time had slowed down if only for a moment. A crazy thought suddenly dropped in her mind and yet nothing else seemed so perfect.

  The shade was almost on her now, the frost giants’ axes were coming from the other side. She needed to run as far away as she could, but she stood her ground, her face alight with a smile of madness. Freya spread her feet apart and pulled back her arm. She had one chance, one perfect absolute single chance. 

  Freya Goldelm threw her hammer right at the wailing shade.

  The hammer flew straight through the shade’s smoke-like body and crashed into Cordelia a few paces behind it. The hammer’s steelhead smashed into the black orb hanging from Cordelia’s neck and the magestone shattered into a hundred slivers. The hammer’s force traveled farther and slammed into the dwarf’s chest with a sickening crunch. A hollow, raspy gasp slipped from Cordelia’s lips as her body flew backward and fell into the sand with a single solid thud.

  Ari jerked back and moaned with irritation. It dug its hands into its cheeks and screeched a terrible noise before it suddenly melted back into wisps of smoke and dissipated into the air.

  The frost giants stopped for a second, their bodies trembling. Then they suddenly raised their axes again and swung at Freya. She jumped away, but instead of running, she turned and faced them. Their shadow armor had fallen apart in tatters.

  Freya released her agility spell and poured white mana into her hands. She grinned wide, “Burn, you ugly fucks!”

  Searing white light exploded from her hands and scorched the frost giant’s bodies. They groaned and tried to reach Freya, but their charred muscles collapsed underneath them and they fell with a loud resounding thump, the sand floating up into the air all around them. 

  The crowds cheered in joy and excitement.

  Freya closed her eyes and soaked in the glory for a single long exhausted breath. She opened her eyes and made her way to her downed enemy. Cordelia lay on the floor, the hammer a few paces away. Her breathing was ragged and came out in shallow wheezes.

  Freya picked up the hammer and hefted it in her hand, testing its familiar weight. Cordelia looked up at her with panicked eyes, she opened her mouth to speak, but only a mere raspy sound came out.

  “I wasn’t sure it’d work, but here we are,” Freya muttered as she stared at her hammer. She turned to Cordelia and looked down at her with a cocky smirk, “Remember this moment, it's the moment you get to live only because I deigned it so. So go let your mommy know that The Golden Hammer of the North still lives and we are as strong as ever.”

  Cordelia bit her lip angrily, tears of frustration burning at the corners of her eyes, “...Y-you…Agh–!”

  Freya placed her foot on top of Cordelia’s face and posed for the crowds, her arm held high, hammer in hand.

  The crowd’s voices grew louder and hundreds of Undergrowthers and Hollow Shaders stood to their feet cheering.

 

  “CORDELIA ROTRUSK OF FROST RIM CAN NO LONGER FIGHT!” Mark yelled.

  “FREYA GOLDELM OF HOLLOW SHADE IS THE ~VICTOOOR~!!!” Jane screamed happily.