Whumptober 2023 ~ Marvel Edition

'You'll Have to Go Through Me.' - Brodinsons

Day 28:

"We might not make it to the morning, so go on and tell me now."
Bloody Knife | Sacrifice | "You'll have to go through me."

~~~

As Loki's dagger sliced through the last remaining dark elf and its body collapsed onto the ground, Loki looked a hundred yards or so ahead of him and saw Thor on his back, being beaten bloody by the Kursed. Bending over, Loki picked up one of the elves' blades, gripped it tight, and teleported over to them so that he was behind Kurse.

When Kurse took a moment's break to wind up one of his punches, Loki planted the blade directly into the center of its back, no doubt sending the blade straight through to emerge on the other side. He knew it wouldn't kill the beast, but Loki wanted Kurse to go after him so that he could get close enough to the monster's belt to detonate one of his black hole grenades. Sure, he knew he would be risking himself in the process, but Loki's seiðr allowed him to heal from much, so he was fairly confident that even if Kurse had somehow managed to hurt him, that he would be alright in the end. Possibly in a lot of pain, but all right.

Kurse paused for a moment, and upon seeing that the beast was about to turn its attention unto Loki, Thor's eyes widened. His brother was standing far too close to the monster for this to possibly have a good turn out. He immediately used all of the strength he could muster to push past the aching protest his muscles and broken blood vessels put out in response to push himself up onto one knee and grab the monster's arm before it could turn its body too far, pulling as hard as his weakened state would allow.

Thankfully this seemed to be enough, because Kurse let out a short, low growl and turned his attention back towards Thor. The god of thunder pulled back his fist, ready to land a hopefully damaging, or at the very least disorientating, blow to the beast, but Kurse's movements were faster, and before he even knew what was happening, he felt the piercing pain of something entering the skin on his abdomen, followed by the wind being forced from his lungs at the impact of the Kursed's body against his own.

Loki's breath hitched in his throat and his eyes went wide. This wasn't supposed to happen. Kurse was supposed to go after him. That blade that had torn through Thor's abdomen had been meant for him. As Kurse began to pull back from Thor, Loki used that last moment of Kurse being focused on his brother to his advantage and stepped closer, reached down to the monster's belt, and detonated one of the grenades before stepping back once more. Thankfully, the Kursed didn't seem to notice, but there was still the issue of Thor having been impaled.

As Kurse pulled back from Thor, Loki noticed Thor's wide eyes, sheet white face, and the slight shake of his body as he no doubt was bleeding internally. Loki didn't have much time to sulk in the anguish he was feeling at the thought of losing his brother before he noticed Kurse began to attack Thor once more. Before the beast could make contact and cause any further damage, Loki clenched his jaw and yelled out to him.

"HEY!" Kurse stopped and turned around to face the trickster god, and the sight of Thor's blood lacing the blade still protruding from the monster's chest made Loki's stomach churn. "If you want Thor...you'll have to go through me."

That bomb was about to go off any second; if he could just get Kurse to move away from Thor...

Thankfully it seemed to take the bait, and Loki took steps backwards to keep the distance between himself and the monster as it tried to approach him. Just as Kurse got what Loki reasoned would be a safe distance from his brother, Loki watched as the grenade on Kurse's hip began to pulsate orange before it finally erupted and encompassed the Kursed in an orange energy that wrapped itself around the beast before slowly breaking it apart until there was nothing left and the energy field collapsed into itself.