My greatest hero

chapter 87

As the battle went on, both armies shrunk in size, the asgardian army was a little larger, but not enough to make a difference, they couldn't depended on numbers, they had to count on each man individually. Loki got separated from Eira, but could see the damage she was doing to the Jotun forces, Thor was taking them out left and right with mjölnir, but wasn't able to do as much as he could because it would also hurt the Asgardians. "Get down!" Eira heard someone scream at her, but before she had the chance to process what was happening, she felt someone shove her to the ground, she looked up where she was standing moments before and saw a jotun thrust an ice spear through the heart of a young man- probably in between her and Loki's age- who must've been the one who told her to watch out.
'That should've been me, he died for me' she thought. she knew people had died for her before, she's the princess, any time there's a battle or invasion and a person dies in defending asgard they technically died for her, but she'd never have someone stand in the way of an oncoming attack, to have someone directly think to die for her specifically. She got up off the ground and sent an arrow through the chest of the frost giant who killed the man, it didn't kill him, but as soon he turned his attention to her she sent one through his eye and he fell down dead. Loki was taking on several all at once and if he didn't have his illusions, he would've died long ago, he saw lightning gathering in the sky and knew Thor was about to make a mess.
"Get back! Get back! Eira where are you?!" He shouted, getting as far from Thor as possible, he saw Eira ripping an arrow out of a dead body and grabbed tightly onto her arm and pulled her along with him, he heard the electric shock sound of Thor's lightning, he turned around and saw Thor strike the ground, there was a wave of energy that knocked them to the ground, and loki knew that anyone who was close to Thor was now dead. Loki was laying on his back, completely out of breath from being knocked down, he wiped his eye, which had blood dripping into it from a Cut on his head,
he tried to see if Eira was alright.
"That would've killed Asgardians too" she said, looking at loki.
"He wouldn't have done it if he didn't have to" loki told her, there was a short moment for him to catch his breath before he got back up to continue fighting, he helped Eira to her feet.
"How are you doing?" She asked "you okay killing frost giants?" She added.
"I'm not one of them" was his only reply, but he wasn't telling the whole truth, he didn't care about them and he knew it was a war and he was doing the right thing, but it felt personal to him for some reason, he felt like he was somehow betraying them. at one point he shifted to his jotun form, he was able to avoid being killed, and even gain the trust of a few of the other jotuns before he killed them all, it was affective, but he never did it again, it made him feel worse.
=*****= The war had been going on for about a week before loki realized the only end was going to be when everyone was dead, or a compromise could be found. "You requested to speak with me" Odin said entering the conference room where loki was, it was between battles, and the Asgardians were thinking up strategies.
"Yes. Father, I don't think this war is going anywhere, our men are falling just as quickly as theirs" loki said.
"And what do you suggest, surrendering to them?" Odin asked, loki shook his head.
"No, never. But I do think there's a way to end it now" he said.
"And what would that be?" Odin asked.
"Compromise" loki said simply "we make a deal, tell them to leave asgard, tell them they can never come back, and they can't make war with us again. and in exchange, we offer them our protection, if another realm attacks them, they have our help, but aside from that, we stay out of each others way" he continued. Odin gave a look and loki knew he was not happy with the plan.
"Wait, just hear me out." Loki said before Odin had the chance to criticize. " If they know they have our help, and know we will leave them alone, then they have no reason to attack us again, and maybe this hatred between the two realms can come to an end for good. They leave asgard in exchange for our help, the two realms might never like each other, but at least we'll both be insured of the others cooperation" loki told him, Odin didn't say anything, it was a valid plan "you said you wanted to unite the kingdoms and bring about a permanent peace through me. Let me do what you always wanted Me to do" loki said, making perfect eye contact for the first time that day, a small smile appeared on odins face.
"You thought of this?" Odin asked, loki nodded.
"What do you think?" He asked.
"I think you should be the one to talk to the jotun leader" Odin told him, loki felt relived, and went to tell Eira and Thor.
"What if they refuse?" Eira asked, loki shrugged.
"I really don't know, I guess we'll just have to keep fighting, but a least now we have a chance" loki said to them both. "I'm going to be meeting with the jotun leader tomorrow. Thor, I wanted to know if you'd come with me" loki requested, Thor nodded.
"Of course" he said, all three of them went to get some sleep, but none of them knew if the plan would work and it was hard to fall asleep