"I'LL KILL YOU BOTH!!" Says the mysterious muscular reindeer smashing the two from behind.

Don't you totally hate it when a piece from your own past comes in and bites you right in the ass? Santa finds out the hard way in the form of 2100 pounds of angry reindeer. Remember last year when Santa revealed himself to Launa as none other than the war god/king of the Norse pantheon Odin. Well, she is another piece of it. Meet Magnhildr and while not one of the original 8 reindeer Santa pulls his sleigh around the world. In the past, she was part of the first eight. With three females and five males. Magnhildr was the strongest female in Odin's horde in fact, she is known around Asgard and the Hallowed land as the "World's Strongest Reindeer". Bound by blood, honor and a good dose of heavy meelee, they fought many wars together.

She is also a veteran in a long ancient war (before Launa was born and interpreted as a "battle" by the Ancient Council) as the War of the Seasons where she fought alongside Odin against the largest army of Ice Giants the world has ever known for the battle of the world's weather. They were victorious in the end. However as the centuries moved on, and this day without reason, Odin makes the transition to be the gift giver without objection. Except Magnhildr. But bound by honor into never going against the decision of their master, he left them.

Magnhildr eventually decides to break that bond and trekked through the hallowed land fighting those who got in her way. Oh and before she left she was dragging seven of her fellow warriors for a thousand miles before having enough and beating them down (her patience can only go so far). Now in our world she is horrified with what Odin has become until she encountered an elf named Teague who has much of a beef with Santa as she is with Odin. Eventually the two did work together but Teague used his magic to disguise the mighty reindeer into one of them to prevent Santa from detecting her and learned much of what Santa has been going through. There hey take their plan into motion.

You see Teague has learned of Santa's rivary with the only woman who is strong enough to fight the man: the Warrior Trickster Launa. They been at each other for years but never to the point of killing each other. It was just pummels and squabbles for years. What could drive them into a rage-fueled battle to the death? Go after their loved ones. Santa loves her wife more than anything and Launa is often prone to irrational rage, especially from loved ones getting hurt. Ms. Claus gets a "roughing up" by Magnhildr while Azrealle gets the unfortunate luck of being poisoned my mistletoe. Not just any type of mistletoe but a special variant that can kill within days if there's no antidote given in time. The two managed to make it look convincing enough to see that Launa and Santa acted too far against their loved ones and well... led to this battle in the first place.

This and the last picture showed something that happened in their fighting and where in their powers end up destroying one of the houses that just happened to had Teague inside hurting him easily. Now also note that Teague and Magnhildr while working together do get "close" to the point she feels respected more than Odin. So when she sees Teague hurt, it was enough for her to break the spell that kept her elf form and decides to screw everything about not going against her master and charge at full speed at the two screaming that line.

And so you have it: A man avenging his wife, a woman in a beat-em-up race against time to save her friend and a reindeer warrior wanting the old man back and is about to really show why her name means "Strength".

...And so the saga continues... But the worst twist is yet to come.

Art (c) Toughset