Chapter - 27 Styggs Vs Dhira.
Dhira glanced at the towering creature and casually pointed his wooden mace toward the statue behind him.
"If you destroy that statue, I'll be mad." The bipedal monster answered with a deafening screech. Its massive arm swept across the square. Thor's statue shattered. The wooden figure broke in half and crashed into the muddy ground.
Dhira's smile disappeared.
"Yeah." He rolled his shoulders, the motion revealing the faint tension still coiled in his muscles.
"Now I'm mad." The ground exploded beneath his feet. He shot forward and slammed his fist directly into the creature's face. The deer skull burst apart into mud and moss. For a brief moment the yellow eyes vanished. Then the pieces started flowing back together.
The creature's long arm snapped forward. It caught Dhira by the leg and slammed him into the ground. The impact dug a trench through the market square. Mud and water sprayed everywhere. Dhira skidded across the soaked earth before digging his free hand into the ground and stopping himself. His face was covered in mud. He looked up.
The creature was charging. Not standing. Running. On all fours. Its elongated limbs pounded against the earth while entire sections of the forest bent away from its path. Dhira rushed forward as well. The wooden mace collided with one of its outstretched arms. The limb exploded into sludge. Immediately it began reforming. Dhira had expected that.
The instant the arm burst apart, he planted a foot on the creature's shoulder, jumped, and twisted through the air. The mace came down on the back of its skull. The entire head shattered. He kept spinning. The momentum carried the strike through its neck, shoulders, and upper torso. Half the creature's body disintegrated. Dhira landed smoothly. Behind him the remains were already crawling back together.
Then the ground moved. Not shook. Moved. The earth itself twisted. Mud rose like living hands. Roots writhed beneath the surface.
Dhira jumped backward just as the ground snapped shut where he had been standing. From above he saw the creature looking directly at him. Its yellow eyes glowed brighter. It raised both arms. The entire jungle answered. Trees bent. Roots emerged. The swampy earth rippled in every direction. The whole forest looked alive. Hungry. And waiting for its prey.
Dhira couldn't stay in the air forever. He descended. The moment his feet touched the ground, he drove the wooden mace downward. The impact sent a shockwave through the swamp. Mud erupted like a tidal wave. The creature answered with one of its own. A torrent of murky water blasted toward him. Dhira swung. The stream exploded apart. Another followed. Then another. He destroyed them one after another while advancing relentlessly.
One rushing current was larger than the others. Instead of avoiding it, he stepped onto it. Riding the flow. Using its momentum. The creature's eyes widened slightly. Dhira closed the distance instantly. He threw the wooden mace. The creature tracked the weapon. Exactly as Dhira wanted. While its attention followed the spinning branch, Dhira ripped a tree from the ground. Roots and dirt flew everywhere. He swung the entire trunk like a club. The impact obliterated the creature's torso. Again. Mud scattered across the forest. Again. It began healing.
Dhira frowned, this creature can't always regenerate can't it? He questioned himself and then something clicked. His eyes followed the flowing mud. And he noticed something.
The regeneration wasn't random. It always began from the same place. The horns. The mud flowed downward from them like a river flowing from its source. River. Aatreya's words echoed in his mind.
"If you can't stop the river, let it flow. It will eventually stop/collapse in the ocean." Dhira looked closely. Norse runes covered the antlers. The answer. The source. He understood.
The wooden mace returned to his hand. Dhira charged. The creature tried to stop him. He smashed through roots. Dodged water. Destroyed obstacles without slowing. One strike shattered its knee. He climbed up its collapsing body. Jumped onto its back. And brought the mace down on one of the antlers. Crack. The horn broke.
For the first time the creature truly reacted. The human face embedded in its stomach screamed. Not with rage. With pain. The entire forest trembled. The swamp erupted. Mud and water wrapped around Dhira's leg. Then his waist. Then his chest. He was dragged downward. Pulled directly toward the creature. Face to face. The yellow eyes stared into his.
Dhira felt it immediately. His strength was leaving him. The creature was draining him. Draining the power Soma had restored. Draining everything. Dhira blinked. Then grinned.
"Draining my power?" The creature pulled harder. Dhira's grin widened.
"Then have enough." He stopped resisting. And gave it exactly what it wanted.
Power flooded outward. A blinding light erupted from his body. The forest vanished beneath white radiance. The creature's scream became distorted. Distant. Then disappeared entirely. The light swallowed everything. Mud. Water. Fog. Monster. Silence followed.
When the brightness finally faded, only Dhira remained. He stood alone in the ruined clearing. Breathing heavily. Sweat rolled down his skin. His chest rose and fell rapidly. His trousers were still covered in mud. Everything else was clean. The creature was gone. Completely. Not even a fragment remained.
Dhira looked around. Then spotted his wooden mace embedded in a patch of mud near the edge of the clearing. He walked over and pulled it free. The branch felt strange. Lighter. Weaker. He brushed away the mud and gave it a shake. A faint creaking sound came from inside the wood. The branch had endured far more than it was ever meant to. Dhira ignored it and rested it on his shoulder.
The fog was gone. Every trace of it. The forest stood revealed. And it was dead. Not damaged. Dead. No leaves moved. No insects chirped. No birds called. The trees stood black and lifeless around countless potholes filled with stagnant murky water. Even the wind seemed absent. The silence felt unnatural. Like an abandoned castle forgotten by time.
And like they say, silence is just the precursor of storms. The world had fallen silent just like that, and soon it was about to change. The ground slowly started to shake, which soon turned into a hailstorm, and water vapor—not fog- started to rise in the air. Wind picked up, gathering above the forest, clearing those Norse ruins again. A screeching sound more violent than before filled the forest. After that quiet, the screeching stopped and then a loud shout of "Mother" filled the forest. Water exploded into the sky.
Dhira covered his face and got covered in murky water. He wiped his face in annoyance and looked ahead. In front of him was that same bipedal monster. No, it was different, Dhira thought. Now it was on four legs, but unlike a normal four-legged creature where the head should be, was the torso of that said monster, much like a centaur but unlike a centaur, it wasn't like a horse, it was more like a giraffe. The front legs were big and strong, and the legs behind were shorter compared to the front legs. And like a centaur it had a human part, which here was the monster part that retained its older self. The human face now shifted, situated on top with horns, and those antlers had several small glowing Norse runes engraved on them. But most conspicuous was a huge purple rune in its forehead that represented Loki, which he immediately recognized, the center a tall white geometric sigil for Loki: a straight vertical staff crossed by a diamond shape in the upper half, with sharp diagonal and horizontal lines branching out to create an angular, thorny, intertwined look. Below the symbol, the word "LOKI" appeared in bold, stylized capital letters with a slightly runic font.
His face changed, and he looked at the monster more clearly this time. Its torso still had four human hands poking from it, while the huge monster hands remained there. And it looked even more hideous and monstrous. It spoke in broken human speech and said, "Death."
And the bipedal who was now a quadrupedal rushed forward, in all fours, his monstrous hands glowed green and Dhira felt a pressure focusing on him, like a prehistoric beast was rushing toward him. Dhira didn't have a sense of panic or something. He looked at it, and changed his stance, one hand idly adjusting his grip on the wooden mace.
They collided and both took a step back. The four-legged monster stumbled a little then grabbed a falling tree in the process which immediately made the dead tree even deader.
Dhira looked at it then at his mace which was turning gray, then he looked at his chest which was also touched by the monster and it was bleeding. He looked at it then ignored it and rushed again this time avoiding its claws and green beams that it released from time to time.
He changed his tactics, and this time when he got the chance to hit it, he used the same trick as those water spirits. He stopped an inch away from it. This trick worked and he waited for an opening, an opportunity that'll decide the outcome.
The monster itself was now stronger, and he used the elements and home ground advantage to the core. Dhira could feel the decay and effect of creatures' magic affecting him. He needed that opening and be needed that fast.
And soon it did.
There was a small opening. And Dhira took it..
Bamm.
The monster immediately was launched back into the forest. Dhira rushed, climbed the monster's back, and grabbed its horn. It stinged for some reason, and it was way tougher than before.
He persevered. The four-legged monster seeing himself in danger immediately took to the air, flying, using magic. Dhira almost stumbled, one of his grips loosened but with the other hand he managed to keep his footing. The monster tried grabbing him but due to the angle he couldn't, his arm waved helplessly. Dhira regained his grip, and grabbed both of the huge horns of the monster, ready to break it when the monster took a straight dive to the ground, crashed into it. Dhira immediately got separated from it, and crashed on a tree, and stopped rolling.
Dhira stumbled back, and sat by leaning on the tree, and panted heavily. His body was covered in weird energy slowly rotting him from inside, he could feel it. He looked ahead and saw the monster standing now coming slowly towards him. Dhira looked at it, and said one of his eyes closed, bleeding slightly, "You still have some strength left." The monster paused, seeming to process his words, when with a screeching loud noise, it exploded in mud. Dhira closed his eyes, and felt the mud hitting him. He wiped the mud from his face and looked at the two glowing horns in his hand.
Wammm. The creature just exploded in mud. Splashing all over the jungle.
" Great." Dhira muttered.