TL: Tsubak
ED: Julsmul
People tend to not think about anything when they face a really bewildering scene.
And that was the same for the giants and evil spirits.
When the roar of the second dragon erupted, the giants lost their words. They just looked at the dragon dumbfoundedly.
The one that got a hold of himself the fastest was Hrumbak.
No matter what the situation, he was still a king. He opened his mouth reflexively and squeezed out his voice out of desperation. He put strength into his hands that he had lost unconsciously and yelled.
"It's a fake!"
He hadn't seen through the fake Nidhogg like the 'Eyes of the Dragon' Tae Ho had. It was the answer his instincts of a beast and battle experiences he had accumulated had given him.
All the eyes at the place fixed on to him, and at that moment, Hrumbak became certain of it. He thought of the proof that would validate his answer that he came up beyond logic.
The second dragon was a fake.
The first piece of evidence was that it had appeared without any signs of arriving above their heads.
If it was an existence that was a hundred meters long, it would always have a presence that couldn't be hid.
'That's why it's fake. It's magic. I will welcome it.'
Hrumbak spoke to himself and then immediately thought of the second answer.
'If it was real, there is no way it just stayed watching until now.'
In the first place, it would have been more effective for two dragons to appear at the same time and sweep up the battlefield.
'Fake magic. I welcome it!'
Hrumbak grew even more certain of it and then yelled once again by gathering all the air from his lungs.
"It's a fake! A trick! Don't get scared!"
Kwagang!
His voice got buried in the loud sound, and Hrumbak fell in shock on top of the shaking ground.
The second black dragon.
It was the sound the dragon, that Hrumbak was certain was fake, had made. The loud sound was made by rolling in the ground, just like the first dragon did.
"Uaaak!"
"It's real!"
"Real!"
Several voices were heard at the same time. The ones that were crushed by the second dragon became paste and died, and the ones that hadn't immediately perished screamed in agony.
It was real.
Not a fake.
It had a real body.
Hrumbak's head turned white, and the giants at his surroundings turned to look at him as if asking what was going on.
Bewilderment, resentment, and anger.
Gazes with several expressions mixed behind them.
The ground shook once again. The second dragon was still rolling on top of the battlefield.
And there was still the first dragon remaining.
Hrumbak raised his head. The giants also struggled to keep balance on top of the shaking ground and glared at the first black dragon that was in the sky.
Nidhogg grew excited once more at their gazes.
But Tae Ho calmed down the dragon and let out a long sigh. He quickly moved his hand on the keyboard and mumbled,
"Phase three."
The phase two had worked. That's why he would immediately proceed with the phase three. He wasn't thinking about waiting for the giants to grow accustomed to his phase two at all.
Tae Ho clicked his mouse, and Nidhogg buried her head on Tae Ho's neck and played affectionately.
"Right, right. Good girl."
Tae Ho removed his hands from his setup and patted Nidhogg's shoulders for a moment. It was to listen to her affectionate plays but also to proceed with the phase three.
The rune magic the King of Gods, Odin, and God of Magic had engraved.
As soon as he touched Nidhogg's right shoulder, the big rune that was engraved on the shoulder of the black dragon activated. And as he stroke her back, the several runes that were engraved on the back of the black dragon also activated in consecution and showed their power.
The black dragon roared as the sky opened. The ash colored sky was suddenly dyed in black!
A mass welcoming magic.
A black dragon with six pairs of wings appeared in a really high place of the sky.
A black dragon with two horns appeared a bit lower than that.
There was a bit of a difference with each dragon, but twelve dragons, that were all black and huge, pierced the clouds and appeared.
It was all a welcoming magic.
It was merely a virtual image that had no real body compared to the fake dragons made with the 'Warrior that had a Valkyrie Meet Him'.
But it wasn't appraised as such for the giants and evil spirits.
It was because they had already experienced the phase two, the black dragon that possess a true body.
Tae Ho touched Nidhogg's left shoulder. The black dragon roared once again, and at that moment, the twelve dragons that were in the sky roared at the same time.
Mass echo magic.
A simple trick that amplified a sound and made it ring in several places.
But the effect of it was absolute. The giants and the evil spirits couldn't think properly under the roar that seemed like it would split the skies. An image of fourteen dragons rolling in the ground was drawn in their heads.
"Phase four."
Tae Ho lightly swept through Nidhogg's neck. It was a silent and stealthy magic compared to the ones from before.
After a few seconds since the twelve black dragons appeared-
The giants and evil spirits tried to move their heads that'd been paralyzed even while the second dragon was rolling on the battlefield. The ones that had clashed against the dead army resumed their fight almost half-heartedly.
But someone among them said,
"Escape."
They couldn't win. There were fourteen black dragons.
"Flee."
Similar words popped up in other places.
It was fear.
And that fear spread really easily and quickly.
Words saying that they should escape.
There were evil spirits and giants in the battlefield.
And that was something that could come out from them. That was an emotion that everyone had in the battlefield.
That's why the act in concert to it was fast.
The ones saying that they should escape increased in numbers, and that flow increased explosively like a chain reaction across the battlefield. Mass panic had erupted.
"Flee!"
The evil spirits turned around. They shook like an ebbing tide trying to get out of the battlefield.
There were also some disturbances among the giants, and finally, some of them also started to flee.
It was a mess. As deserters started to appear in a group that numbered a hundred thousand, many were trampled to death by their own allies.
Hrumbak yelled reflexively to stop, but it was meaningless. The fear that had spread like a wild fire had long ago passed his ability to command.
"Strike them! Rip them to tears!"
Hela yelled, and Galeon transmitted the order of the queen he served to the army of the dead.
The moment the most deaths occurred wasn't when the two sides clashed against each other. It was when one side lost their will to fight and attempted to escape.
They would slash their enemies when they showed their backs. They would massacre them one-sidedly.
The army of the dead started to swallow the army of evil spirits. The twelve dragons roared once again in the air and lit up the fire even more, and the second dragon was still rolling in the battlefield even now.
'Sly bastard.'
Cuchulainn smirked and said. He'd been amazed by Tae Ho's actions with pure feelings of admiration.
The evil spirits that had said they should escape weren't real. They were fakes created through Odin's magic.
Everything was as Tae Ho had planned.
Phase two. Introduce the fake dragon. Let them recognize that the second dragon has a real body and plant a prejudice within their ranks.
Phase three. Make twelve fake dragons. The ones that'd gotten influenced by phase two could only doubt that the twelve dragons also had real bodies.
Phase four. Incite the enemies that fell into chaos. It was the same principle as a domino effect. If one pushed the first piece, the remaining ones would fall by their own accord.
The black dragon was certainly huge. It was a strong monster.
But it was impossible to defeat a hundred thousand evil spirits and six hundred giants with his own strength.
That's why he would use a tactic. He would bring a terrible chaos to the battlefield.
The twelve dragons only fluttered their wings in the sky. One could only doubt that scene if they had a head, but there was almost no one that actually doubted it. No, in the first place, they didn't have the leisure to think.
The flow to escape has already grown too strong. It was impossible to stop the huge wave.
The army of the dead pushed back the evil spirits. It was an army that was twice as big as the evil spirits.
Finally, some deserters also appeared from the giants.
Hrumbak swung his axe and split the neck of the closest deserter. The smell of blood that spread anew made the giants at his surrounding concentrate on him, but it was only that. It was impossible to give a warning to the entire battlefield.
Hrumbak didn't get disappointed. In the first place he hadn't swung his axe for that. He had just killed a deserter.
"We will strike the black dragon."
He decided not to think in a complicated way. He would first achieve his first objective.
The dragons in the sky were fake.
He felt it would turn out well somehow if he just got rid of the black dragon that had appeared at first.
There was no logic behind it. His instincts as a warrior was yelling at him to do so, and Hrumbak decided to be loyal to his instincts.
He disturbed the flow. He ran in a straight line towards the black dragon. An overwhelming strength was put behind his huge axe.
Giant king.
His other name was Hrumbak the Striking King.
'He's coming!'
Cuchulainn warned. Tae Ho quickly moved his hands and controlled the black dragon.
It was a battle between a monster that was a hundred meters big and a giant that was twenty meters tall.
It was the opposite situation to the more unusual fights Tae Ho was used to, and because of that, Tae Ho knew what kind of attacks would be drawn.
Hrumbak would approach him. He would stick to the body of the black dragon and pour down attacks from its blind spot.
Tae Ho first increased his speed, but Hrumbak didn't let Tae Ho go that easily. He stepped on the shoulders of the giants to take a big leap and swung his axe!
It was a strike that destroyed the ground. The black dragon flew acrobatically to dodge the attack but couldn't completely dodge it because of its huge body. The attack hit its side, and at that moment, Nidhogg let out a scream.
"It hurts! Hurts!"
The strike split the scales of the dragon and gave a wound to its flesh even though it only grazed it. It was merely a scratch, but it was different for Nidhogg. She had almost no resistance towards pain at all.
At that moment, the black dragon escaped Tae Ho's control because of its pain, and Hrumbak didn't miss that moment. He also realized in an instant that the black dragon was weak towards pain.
"Nidhogg!"
Tae Ho embraced Nidhogg and moved his hands, and Nidhogg gritted her teeth and endured the pain. She tried her best to follow Tae Ho's orders.
The black dragon fluttered its wings. It split the sky with its huge body and fired out venom.
Hrumbak moved quickly. He didn't care about the giants and evil spirits that died because of the venom. He was now closer to a hunter rather than a king.
He would grab the tail and get on top of it somehow.
The underlings of Hrumbak also joined him in doing the same. They fired attacks or threw weapons and attacked the black dragon.
Most of the attacks couldn't pierce the scales, but there were some that gave it wounds.
Nidhogg bit her lips with a teary face. It was because she realized that she would make things difficult for Tae Ho if she struggled because of the pain. She tried her best to endure it somehow.
Tae Ho moved his hands hastily. He had to face the giants while minimizing the damages Nidhogg suffered, and so he needed movements that were frequently used in a shooting game.
The venom melted the giants.
The strike of Hrumbak tore up the scales of the dragon once more.
The ground shook. The tail the black dragon swung to crush the ground became an overwhelming hail and swept up the giants and evil spirits.
But Hrumbak didn't care at all. He rather siezed the opportunity when the black dragon used a big movement to close the distance. He tried to inflict a fatal blow while using the blind spot created by the difference in size.
Venom covered the battlefield once again. The black dragon flew up with its big wings, and Hrumbak surged up as if chasing it back. He finally managed to grab its tail.
'He's coming!'
Cuchulainn yelled. At that moment, the black dragon shook its tail rashly, but Hrumbak didn't let go of its tail. He rather swung the axe he was holding and stuck it in the tail of the dragon.
"Kyaak!"
Nidhogg couldn't endure it this time. She threw a tantrum while crying once again.
Hrumbak poured out magic power in his axe. He was planning on making the black dragon, that was weak towards pain, crash into the ground.
Tae Ho embraced Nidhogg strongly so that she could calm herself down. He activated the 'One that Controls Dragons' and forcefully blocked her pain. The dragon landed down like Hrumbak had wanted, and at the same time, it turned its body. It used all of its body to execute a strong tail sweep.
Hrumbak also couldn't endure it this time. He got thrown away along with his axe and rolled across the ground as a mess.
Corpses were now filling the ground, and it was colored in red because of the overwhelming amount of blood that had been shed.
Hrumbak smiled creepily even after having sustained injuries from his tumbling and rose up as Tae Ho manipulated the black dragon and glared at Hrumbak.
Tae Ho wasn't thinking of fleeing at all. It wasn't his pride as a warrior. If the black dragon escaped now, Hrumbak would move to massacre Hela and the members of Niflheim without a doubt. In addition, the escape of the black dragon would turn around the situation once more.
"I will endure it even if it hurts. I can do it. I won't obstruct you."
Nidhogg said while crying while squeezing out her voice, and Tae Ho embraced her once again. He made the black dragon charge at the same time as Hrumbak roared.
-
The battlefield that could hold a huge army numbering 300,000 was overwhelmingly large.
Hela looked at the battlefield on top of the ghost horse. There were several different battles occurring in the battlefield.
The evil spirits that were fleeing and the dead spirits that chased after them.
The black dragon rolling in the ground and the black dragons that were at the sky.
And another black dragon and the giant king that were fighting fiercely while making the ground and sky shake as if they were excluded from everyone.
Hela didn't know what or who the black dragon was, but she could only think of it as an ally by now.
She had to help the black dragon. They had to defeat the giant king together.
But Hela wasn't proficient in battle. It was meaningless even if she joined in the fight with her army.
Hela gulped dry saliva. She breathed roughly and placed her hand on her chest.
But it was at that moment-
There was something flying towards her. It melted in with the surroundings really well as if it was an accessory from the battlefield. It took a place on Hela's shoulder really naturally.
'Hela.'
Hela turned to look at her shoulder in shock. There was a crow perched upon it, and the voice it emitted certainly belonged to Odin.
"Odin!"
Hela yelled in joy unconsciously. It was obvious, as Odin, who was supposed to be dead, had returned.
Odin smiled bitterly at Hela welcoming his return. He erased the small doubt he had and said quickly.
'There's no time. We have to help Nidhogg.'
Hela opened her eyes widely at the word 'Nidhogg'.
The black dragon, Nidhogg.
Hela also knew of it. It was because of the stories the God of Fire and Lies, Loki, her father, had told her.
The black dragon living in the roots of the World Tree.
The evil existence that would one day fire venom that would destroy the world.
Hela gulped dry saliva. The intelligent Hela waited for Odin to keep speaking instead of asking what had happened. The black dragon had already sided with them and was currently fighting for them. As Odin had said that they should help Nidhogg, she erased all the useless doubts and had to first follow his orders.
Odin thought that Hela was really commendable for that. He spoke to her, who had all of the ambition of a girl, the patience of a woman, and the wisdom of an elder.
'Hela. You brought that, right?'
"It's in my embrace."
Hela answered immediately. Odin had said 'that', but it was really clear as to what he was talking about.
'That' was a cursed object.
A crystal of terrible evil that couldn't be stored in the holy Asgard at all and had to be hidden in the cold depths of Niflheim.
But they needed it right now. They couldn't not use the power of a curse that could even change the fates of Gods to stop the World Wolf and the Magician King.
The thing that Hela was holding.
The cursed weapon Odin had told her to protect himself.
Hela clenched her chest and then took out the item she was hiding inside her body.
Odin gulped the silence. The item that was dyed with the blood of Baldr and was planned to be passed down along with the seat of the King of Gods to his most loved son.
But it wasn't the moment to waste time. Odin whispered to Hela once again,
'Idun's warrior is inside the black dragon. Transmit that to him and defeat the giant king together.'
The mistletoe branch.
Mistilteinn, the God-killing spear.
Hela nodded. She gulped some saliva while looking at the clash between the giant king and the dragon but then threw away her hesitation. She threw her ghost horse into a full sprint.
< Episode 39 - Hela (5) > End
TL note: Thanks for reading~