Page 58 of Alien Viking's Passion

The kraken's tentacle tightened more and threatened to lift Craxon off the deck.

Kofraks aimed low.

Craxon desperately tried to parry, knowing the draugr blade would hit his knee.

But the stroke never landed.

A small shape jumped up from the bottom of the ship and landed on the deck. Kofraks's blade clanged against another, much smaller one.

“Aretha!” Craxon exclaimed with horror. What was she doing there, in the most dangerous place on Gardr?

21

- Aretha -

The neural lace had given Aretha the power to jump straight up from the bottom of the ship and land on the deck above. And it had given her the speed to block Kofraks's blade before it sliced Craxon's leg off at the knee.

But now she was locked in a swordfight with the Draugr King, and he was good.

Again and again their swords clashed, shooting sparks and sending hard, painful jolts up Aretha's arm. She had to struggle to keep up. The draugr was a faster swordfighter than Craxon, which she intuitively knew should not be possible. But neither should it be possible for a mythical creature like a draugr to exist

“So you hadn't escaped,” Kofraks chuckled as he parried Aretha's strokes. “You were just in hiding. See, princeling? Here is your love! Do you now doubt my curse?”

Another bolt of lightning flashed in light blue, but there was no sound. It looked just like the magic lightning in the Ice Caves,the intense energy that Aretha had seen burn the Marks into Josie.

With an effort, she forced every thought out of her mind until she was focusing only on the fight. First caught off her guard by the ferocity and speed of Kofraks’s fighting, gradually she was able to catch up with his speed, and the neural lace adjusted to his aggressive style. The draugr had only force and speed, no finesse or real skill. His attacks were all the same, and she learned the small tells that signaled what he was planning with the next slash.

Slowly she was able to push the draugr king back and go on the offensive.

“You fight well, little female,” Kofraks said, his voice strained. “But you can’t win. Give up now, and I will spare you from my ultimate power. Throw down your sword and you may live a little bit longer, while I display you and the princeling to his people. They should know that he betrayed them. And that he betrayed them all for the sake of a small, hornless alien!”

Aretha saw no reason to reply. The draugr was reeling, backed all the way up to the dragon’s head in the bow of the ship.”

“I warn you!” Kofraks said, and the sky lit up with another soundless lightning bolt. “Stop it now!”

Aretha had time to look behind her. Craxon was fighting a half dozen tentacle arms, and behind him the battle was mostly over. Nearly all his crew had been caught in sticky tentacles from the krakens that surrounded the ship. Heaps of dead skrymtir lay all around.

The only movement was the old, blind woman, clad in dark red, who was carelessly walking towards them.

Aretha turned back, parried a clumsy stroke from the draugr, and then chopped at his sword hand before he could withdraw it. It caught a bone in the middle of his forearm, cutting partly through it.

Kofraks roared with fury. “You were warned, little bitch! But it suits me well. Now the Ragnhildroses will see that their prince has betrayed them for not only an alien, but an alien that’s been burned to a crisp!”

A bolt of lightning came out of the sky and hit the tip of Fjernstjerna. It turned blue from the immense energy.

Then Aretha felt it course up her arm, and the pain was beyond anything she’d ever thought could exist.

22

- Craxon -

The tentacle snapped, and he shook it off him.

Then the lightning descended and hit Aretha’s sword.

She didn’t even scream, but he saw the blue lightning coursing over her and he knew what he had to do. It would be the death of him. That lightning was of the same kind as in the Ice Caves, but more powerful.

“Leave her alone!” he roared furiously. “She has no part in this!”

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