The Alpha's Return

"What sort of history do they have? Is it going to be violent? It must be trivial considering the fact that Skrymir himself asked me to bring Fenrir." Loki said.

(Note - Skyrmir is another name for Utgard Loki. Many gods and mythology characters have multiple names which I will be referencing.)

Lucas shook his head. He then looked solemnly towards the castle that they were approaching. They passed two huge gates and entered a hall that was the size of a football field. This was no joke. The hall could be repurposed as a stadium, and it would still be one of the biggest in the world.

Lucas looked at this with wonder as he kept walking. There were crude sculptures everywhere, and the distinctive marks of chisels hitting stone were quite visible. It was clear that giants were not as excellent craftsmen as humans were. They had huge and bulky hands that just were not suited for delicate use.

But that was not what Lucas was looking at this whole time. His eyes were locked onto the other end of this huge hall. There was a throne the size of whole houses, and on top of them sat a giant. One of them was bare chested, and towered at a height of fifty meters while just sitting down. Surely, if he stood up, he would reach a height of a hundred meters, or even taller.

The look that Lucas had on his face was no longer wonder, but rather apprehension. He did not feel comfortable here any longer, and he was slowly standing himself on defense, as if expecting an attack from somewhere.

Soon, they came in front of this giant. He was clearly the king of this place, Utgard Loki, and all of the giants prostated in front of him.

"I can see that I have a long time friend over here. After so long, it seems that you have finally come and visited my place. Do you like it?" Utgard Loki thundered. Lucas felt as if his ear drums were about to break, and he was the only one there who felt this effect. All of this sound was directed towards him, making all the noise even more effective.

"Why wouldn't I be? This place is nice for a giant. Looking at all of these sculptures and the walls, it seems that you have put in a lot of effort in here. Must have been hard for a loaf like you." Fenrir spoke from within Lucas.

Loki suddenly interjected.

"I brought him here. Now that I have completed my end of the deal, let us proceed. Tell us what else you need to start the attack." Loki said.

"Calm down, Loki. There is a reason that I called him all the way here, and did not just confirm whether he was helping us or not. I want to make sure that he can do at least something in this mortal shell of his. So then, shall we put the body to its test?" Utgard Loki smiled.

Lucas felt shivers up his spine.

"You are going to test me? This is more than what I signed up for. I thought that I already showcased my strength by beating that giant, Gormund, or something? Don't take things too far. You will not like it." Lucas said coldly.

"That is what you needed to get the giants' respect. Loki here made a total of fifty giants walk all the way to the waypoint to receive you and your wolf friend. They needed to know that you were at least worth the effort. But that is not the same case with me. I am risking my brethren's lives for what Loki is about to ask me to do, and for me to do that, I must truly trust that you are capable of certain things." Utgard Loki said.

"Fine then. What do you want?" Lucas asked coldly.

"Let me take you to the classics. Logi, where are you?" Utgard called out.

Within a blink of an eye, a mysterious man with a burning flame on the top of his head, appeared in front of Utgard. He bowed towards the king of the giants.

"You shall start at either end of the table. Whoever reaches the middle of the table first will be the winner." Utgard said as he snapped his fingers. All of a sudden, out of nowhere, a long table with food filled to the brim, appeared in front of Lucas.

"This is one of the simplest challenges there is, and maybe it will even give you the energy to complete the next three," Utgard said.

Lucas nodded as he stepped in front of the table. Logi did the same, and Lucas took the first step to dive into this table. It was a long table. At about ten meters long, and a meter wide, there was a lot of food to eat before any of the two could win. Yet within seconds, the pile of bones on either side of the battle was reaching a staggering height.

They were both at around the half way point, and they were still going at an incredible pace. Lucas' arms were nowhere to be seen. They were moving so fast shoving food into his mouth that it was a surprise that he was not choking yet. But the same could not be said for Logi. The right word to describe what he was doing was that he was devouring. Food went in, and bones mysteriously appeared on the side.

Ping!

The both of them were at the middle of the table, and locked eyes with each other.

"A tie! Now that is a surprise. Logi, you are excused. It seems that you have some problems that you need to take care of." Utgard said with surprise. He then looked at Lucas with contemplating eyes.

"It seems that you have quite the appetite. For you to finish so much food in so little time." he said.

"Circumstance," Lucas said as he looked away. He wiped his mouth and coughed a little.

"That is wonderful. But time is of the essence. And my time is very valuable. We shall move on to the next trial." Utgard announced.

"What is this trial going to be?" Lucas asked.

"It is going to be one that you must be very, very confident about. It will be one of speed." Utgard smiled.

"This is going to be tricky, Lucas. But you must not fall for this at all. You must try your best and not think about anything at all. Or else, you will fail miserably. Just remember. Empty your mind as you go into the race. Empty it." Fenrir suddenly spoke into his ear.

Lucas nodded solemnly as he looked at who was going to be his next opponent.

Utgard summoned an ethereal looking giant, and he pointed towards the end of the hall.

"Hugi, you will be facing off this human. You must both race and get to the other end as fast as possible. Whoever gets there first will be the winner." Utgard declared.

Lucas nodded as he turned around and got ready to run. Fenrir's words flashed across his mind.

"Empty your mind. Empty it." the same words rang again and again.

Utgard gave a signal, and they both went packing. The both of them disappeared into thin air, and within a few seconds, Lucas reappeared at the other end. But his face was not looking good.

"How the hell did I lose? I went the fastest that I could. No one ever was able to catch up to me!" he exclaimed.

Indeed, Hugi was already in front of him, and he had finished running.

"I warned you. It looks like all that I did was make it worse. I will explain everything to you later, but all that you must remember is that you losing this one round is not your fault." Fenrir sighed.

"What are you talking about?" Lucas asked.

"I can see that you were unable to outrun Hugi. Although unsurprising, let us carry on to the next trials. Unlike all the other idiots out there who stop conducting the trials after seeing one loss, I am a more forgiving man. I shall see if you are actually as powerful as you think you are, and if your body is really capable of immense capacity." Utgard Loki thundered, interrupting Lucas' question.

"What next? There is no way that I can possibly lose the next trial." Lucas asked.

Utgard Loki snapped his fingers for a third time. Lucas felt a force drag him all the way across the hall in front of Utgard, and a giant drinking horn was placed in front of him. This was the size of Lucas himself, and it was obvious that it was one of the drinking horns of the giants.

"Any of my men will be able to drink from this horn within two gulps. But I am not that optimistic. As long as you are able to finish this, you will pass this trial." Utgard said.

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