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“What took you so long?”
Mist shook her head and pushed them into a sharp dive from above the jötunn’s head.
“All that matters is that we’re here now,” she yelled.
“Valkyries! Aim for the eyes, throat and ears! Take him down! Take him down!”
Nine other Valkyries on their flying steeds circled the giant like avenging angels, shooting a relentless barrage of spears and arrows at him.
At this point, the first line of the village militia arrived on horseback. They hurled the long spears that Eir had helped forge at the giant’s calves and ankles. These spears were designed for maximum impact through the shape of the metal head. Though the monster’s hide was thick and hairy, many spears still penetrated, sticking from his lower limbs like a porcupine’s quill.
The jötunn swung his arms and fists wildly, spinning with disorientation. Blood poured from his wounds. Down his face and the back of his head. Running in rivulets from his calves and feet.
To ward off his new foes, the giant commanded the blizzard to gust harder, wind whistling shrilly, like icy whips that lashed the Valkyries back from their target.
Horses neighed and whinnied; Eir’s sisters shouted, trying to coordinate with each other and maintain formation. To keep up the assault.
Below, Kai was huffing dragon smoke around the giant’s feet, until it covered the ground in a thick fog. It hid Kai’s and the militia’s location and burned the monster where it seeped into his skin, especially the many wounds they had collectively managed to inflict.
The jötunn shouted with pain and tried to stumble away, tried to run. But his now fully blinded eyes made him stagger off balance, and his weakened ankles and feet made it worse. Barely able to stay upright, he knocked into rock facings and tripped over jutting boulders.
Still, by dumb luck or sheer determination, he moved closer and closer to the village, the blizzard gathering force around him. As if nature reflected his black mood and desperation, great ice spikes rained from the sky.
The Valkyries had to pull back to dodge them. Kai extended his great shield-like wings over many of the human soldiers to protect them, but there were a few who didn’t duck for cover fast enough. A number of the militia were skewered by the bombardment, despite the camouflaging dragon smoke that hid their location.
“We have to bring him down before he gets to the village perimeter!” Eir shouted at Mist through the blizzard.
“He’s bringing the hail of spikes and snow with him. They will crush the village if he doesn’t do it himself.”
“The ropes,” was all Mist said.
Eir understood.
“Take me to Kai! I’ll coordinate on the ground.”
Mist hovered and circled until one of Kai’s back thorns could be seen through the fog. And then, she dropped Eir into the dragon smoke.
Executing a few aerial gymnastics, twisting and turning to slow her momentum and steer her descent, Eir landed directly onto Kai’s neck, between two of his scaly tusks.
He craned his head to look at her and bared his tightly-packed rows of teeth in a dragon grin.
He was wounded, she could see. The hard hide of his back and wings was riddled with cracks and divots. Several of his scales and thorns were broken. Blood seeped down his head.
Still, his eyes glittered with fire and determination.
“Let’s do this, dragon mine,” she urged.
She raised her face to the heavens and let out an echoing screech at the top of her lungs.
Her sisters heard and flew in formation, long metal ropes with sharp hooks attached at the ends swinging in their hands, wrapped around their arms in loops.
At Eir’s signal, they all let fly, ten ropes shooting out to dig into the giant’s throat and wrap around his neck.
At first, he simply brought up his hands to scratch at the hooks, trying to pull them out. Then, the Valkyries all flew in one direction, pulling tight on ten ropes at once, making the giant stagger off balance as he choked.
“Now!” she commanded Kai, squeezing his neck with her knees.
He reared back before jolting forward, thorned head tucked down, his longest spikes pointed toward the giant’s injured ankle.
