Skidbladnir began its slow descent as it cut through the pale mist.
The clouds swirled around the ship, and the sound of battle grew louder like the crack of mountains splitting apart.
The moment they broke through the lowest layer of clouds, the scene unfolded below them.
A massive clearing stretched out for miles, ice and snow blasted into jagged spikes from the sheer force of the combat.
In the center of it all, two colossal figures clashed with earth-shaking force.
On one side, a Frost Giant, towering 35 feet tall, with red hair, and fur armor.
In her hands, she gripped a titanic axe of black steel with each swing leaving a trail of freezing mist in the air.
On the other, a dragon, its scales were a deep cobalt with its wings torn and bleeding from the fight, but its eyes blazed with primal fury.
Each movement of its tail flattened the pine forest around them, and with every roar, blue fire erupted from its maw.
Kyto's jaw dropped at the sight.
"Okay… not what I was expecting!"
Elizabeth leaned so far over the railing that Zarutha had to grab her collar with his talons.
"An actual dragon! Wow, I've never seen one until now!"
Fhiron let out a low whistle.
"A frost giant and an elder dragon? This is like a bard's fever dream."
The Frost Giant swung her axe in a wide arc, colliding with the dragon's side and sending it skidding across the snow with an ear-splitting screech.
Before the beast could recover, the giant stomped forward and punched it in the face.
Jean frowned, narrowing his eyes.
"That's not a random fight. Look at them, they're aiming to kill each other. There's definitely history there."
Grimhild's gaze was fixed and unreadable.
"Obsidia, bring us in closer, but keep us high. I want a clear view without inviting either of them to throw something at us."
"Acknowledged."
The ship descended another few hundred feet as the howling wind was now filled with the sounds of roars and battle cries.
The dragon, beaten back for a moment, suddenly lunged forward, biting down on the haft of the giant's axe.
Frost exploded in a burst around them as the two locked in a brutal tug-of-war, the sheer force of their struggle shattering mountains nearby.
Zarutha tilted his head.
"I don't think this is just about territory."
Elizabeth glanced at him.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean…" He fluffed his feathers, looking uneasy. "Frost giants don't fight dragons unless something's at stake. Something important."
Fhiron smirked.
"Or maybe they're just having a very enthusiastic argument."
Kyto gave him a flat look.
"Yeah, because casually battling to the death is so normal."
Grimhild didn't take her eye off the fight.
"Whatever it is, we'll know soon enough. This isn't the kind of battle that ends quickly."
Down below, the frost giant shouted something guttural and savage, wrenching the dragon backward.
The dragon responded with a deafening bellow as its wings fluttered wide as it unleashed a massive torrent of blue fire, engulfing the giant's chest in flame.
Even from up here, they could feel the heat.
It reached the temperature of exploding stars.
Elizabeth's eyes sparkled with excitement.
"What do you think a giant is doing here in Midgard?" She asked like a curious child.
Kyto crossed his arms in thought.
"Good question…"
"Perish!" The Frost Giant from down below raised her voice before erecting a magic circle, and launching a wave of frost.
The Dragon retaliated, spewing thick hot flames from its maw and colliding with the spell.
Reality seemed to distort as the breath of a dragon warped the laws of physics.
The Frost Giant was at a standstill.
"Hmm?" Grimhild lifted her brows.
All of a sudden, in a mighty burst of power, the giant's mana and strength shot through the roof.
"You will not defeat me wild beast! Victory is mine!" Yelled the giant.
"She's evolving in battle?" Muttered the witch.
Out of nowhere, the frost spell overcame the immense heat of the dragon's breath, consuming it whole and engulfing the dragon in its absolute zero temperatures.
"Rooooooaaarrr!"
The elder dragon yelled in pain, feeling its body, soul, and nucleus freeze solid until it was a block of ice.
"That's the frost of Jotunheim." Said Fhiron, crossing his arms. "It freezes one down to their nucleus with absolute zero temperatures. One hit by that, and you're toast."
The dragon's frozen body crashed to the ground with a shattering quake, sending icy shards the size of boulders skittering across the battlefield.
The Frost Giant stood over her prey with her axe resting against her shoulder.
Then her head tilted—ever so slightly.
Her eyes scanned the sky, and then they locked directly onto Skidbladnir.
"…She sees us!" Kyto said with a tight voice.
"I was hoping she wouldn't." Jean muttered.
Without hesitation, the Frost Giant raised her axe high.
A massive magic circle erupted in the sky above her, carved with runes that blazed white with killing frost.
Elizabeth's eyes widened.
"Uh, that's… aimed at us!"
The magic circle burst with mana, and an avalanche of absolute-zero ice burst forth, zooming through the air like the wrath of a frozen star.
"Brace for impact."
Obsidia said calmly, but Grimhild had already moved.
She stepped forward to the bow as her dark cape whipped violently in the oncoming gale.
"Ginnuvos Nulomon."
Her voice was calm, yet the moment she spoke, the space around Skidbladnir warped.
Invisible threads of geometry knitted themselves into a perfect transparent sphere around the shop.
The wave of frost struck the barrier, and its vector was seized and accelerated beyond infinity in finite time, as the frost had its direction reversed in less than a second with impossible return speed.
Kyto's jaw dropped.
"She's… bending the attack's speed?"
"Rewriting the very coordinates of force." Said Fhiron, smirking. "Grimhild and her spells never cease to surprise me."
The reflected wave of frost slammed back at the Frost Giant with infinite velocity as there was a brief, soundless flash.
But lo and behold, the Frost Giant was standing in the same spot with ice around her fur armor, and her axe planted firmly in the snow.
She was breathing heavily as frost spewed from her lips with her gaze fixed on the ship.
"That's insane!" Jean said. "She survived that head-on?"
"She coated her body with the ice of Jotunheim at the last second." Grimhild said, narrowing her eyes. "It's impossible to break the ice of Jotunheim unless one wielded Mjolnir."
Elizabeth swallowed hard.
"Mjolnir? Like, Thor's hammer? Oh great! So what now?"
"I'll go with a simple solution." Grimhild lifted her staff over the ship, fabricating a magic circle. "Altovenius." A bright flash of light blinded everyone for a fraction of a second until five familiar figures hovered in the sky.
"Huh? Wait, is that me??" Said Elizabeth, baffled by the sight.
There were five Elizabeths hovering in the sky, shocking everyone.
"W-What the hell?" Said Kyto.
"Such a spell exists?" Asked Jean.
"I created it." Said Grimhild. "Altovenius is a spell that can duplicate those I fully understand, down to their information archive. The duplicates have the same strength, speed, and skill, alongside intelligence, but the downside is they're limited for five minutes."
"And you can command them?" Asked Zarutha.
"Of course."
The five Elizabeth duplicates burst forward without hesitation as they descended upon the Frost Giant like a coordinated storm.
Each landed in a different position around her; front, back, flanks, and overhead, cutting off every escape route.
The Frost Giant swung her titanic axe, but the first Elizabeth deflected the blow with a spiraling kick infused with Antimana as the impact sent a shockwave across the snow.
The second Elizabeth darted in low, sweeping the giant's ankle with a brutal martial strike that made the colossal limb buckle for a moment.
The third leapt onto the axe's shaft, running along it with incredible balance before slamming a palm strike into the giant's face as Antimana surged from her hand in a disruptive burst.
"Aaaghnnn!" The Frost Giant yelled in pain, spinning her axe in a wide arc and forcing the Elizabeths to scatter in synchronized flips.
The fourth duplicate appeared behind her in midair, delivering a hammering elbow to the back of her skull, while the fifth dove from above, channeling Antimana into a focused heel drop aimed for the giant's shoulder.
Every movement was seamless; pure martial precision amplified by Grimhild's perfect replication of Elizabeth's skill and knowledge.
The giant's defenses shattered under the relentless barrage as their icy armor fractured from the Antimana disrupting its magical properties within.
Kyto gawked from the ship.
"They're mimicking Elizabeth's fighting style perfectly…"
Fhiron grinned.
"Five times the power, five times the violence. I like it."
The Frost Giant tried to bring her axe down for a crushing blow, but three Elizabeths intercepted; two catching the axe mid-swing despite it weighing more than entire mountains.
The third hammered a kick into the giant's wrist, causing the weapon to slip, burying its blade into the snow.
"Damn it!" Shouted the giant. "I'm outclassed!"
Seizing the moment, the first Elizabeth vaulted up the giant's arm and drove a spinning elbow into her temple.
"Gaaaahh!"
Without warning, the massive giant was knocked unconscious and fell straight on their back.
The battle was over in a flash.