Valkyrja Battle II

As they landed outside the temple with the grass being pushed down by the rotors spinning on the helibot, Jorge leapt out with a vibration felt throughout the area, his shield still up despite he wasn't going to be fighting. None of Bronze Team was going to be allowed to fight, only watch as Selene had to defend against a raid boss by herself. If the Valkyrja didn't know they were there before Jorge landing, they do now. The group entered down through the square entrance below and noticed the torches light up again, with the dev downing her buff potions as fast as she could. "So, you aren't a coward. Commendable, even if you come for your death." Sigrun spoke as the others looked at the steampunk team. "That hasn't been determined yet. I'd like to hold off resigning to my fate if it's all the same to you."

Sigrun smiled. "Acceptable. I can already tell your will is strong, if not your strength and ability. You have… improved since days past. I somehow wonder… maybe you do have a chance, if not a slim one, against Hrist."

Bitch, I'm going to fight my hardest against your sister. I'm not a normal mortal. I'm a fucking clockwork empress.

The Valkyrja motioned for them to enter through a dropping wall into another room with waiting benches and torches, a small fountain and a bonfire in the middle. "You may wait here until Hrist is ready in her preparation room. Do you have any questions?" Sigrun asked. "Are there any rules besides no companions helping me?" Selene asked. "None. Fight to the best of your ability, though I don't know if that will mean much against my sister. She has never been defeated. Anything else?" The dev looked between her team, wondering if they had any questions. None spoke up. "Very well, wait for the door to enter the arena to open." The leader left, with the wall closing back up. This was it, there was no going back or running.

"How are you feeling?" Jorge asked. "Well, I slept." She looked at Turnie. "Beyond that, I… I dunno. I'm hoping I don't have to bring that emergency plan to fruition. I don't even know if it will work" "It will work. It has to work because they've never fought someone like you, with your capabilities ma'am." Orlo floated near the wall. "Detect anything bud?" Ethan asked. "Nothing yet. My pulse only goes out to fifty meters, but I can tell from vibration tracking the design of the arena. There is plenty of room to maneuver, allowing a wide freedom of movement."

Orlo produced a holographic map on the ground with 3D imaging. It looked like the inside of a ziggurat, with a smaller ziggurat in the middle, probably for the other Valkyrja to observe the battle. An opening far above allowed light in, along with multiple pillars going up around five meters each, all equipped with torch sconces, so probably torch lit as well. "Small defensive points, places to flank, no real walls to hide behind for ambushes though. They plan for the fight to be straight and to the point."

"Except our empress can make walls of her own on the fly" Deacon chimed in. "Yes, that could be an advantage, but not enough to stop Hrist. At best it could allow her majesty to get away, potentially break LOS and attempt a counter" Turnie responded. "Which means her highness needs to go three dimensional" Ethan told them. Selene had practiced fighting not just on a level battleground but also moving around inside a room. There were magnetic and latch rappelling cords installed into her suit at multiple points, allowing her to move around like Spiderman in a lot of cases, but not even just with her hands shooting the lines. Her armor could launch a cord out and pull her away from an attempted strike, all she had to do was signal the armor to perform in that regard with her coms "talking" to it at the speed of thought. To top it off, she had anti-gravity fields installed into her boots to help not lose her balance when that happened, or to help if Hrist tried to open some sort of fissure in the ground to swallow her up in one instant kill.

"The door." Jorge pointed as the wall opened on a different facing. "It's time." Selene's heart was jumping into her throat as she tried to make sure she was breathing properly. "Good Luck, but I don't think you'll need it. You've got skill" Jorge told her quietly. "Knock her dead ma'am" Deacon told her. "You'll make it through this ma'am, we all know it." Ethan saluted her. "Chances of survival are low, for a human. Thankfully, you've been far beyond a human in capability for some time" Orlo quipped. "You can do this" Turnie softly said. She stepped outside the room and headed for the small ziggurat in the middle, with bars raising to block Bronze Team from her. The dev saw Hrist coming in from another room, with no bars raising, just another wall. As they both came to stand in front of the other Valkyrja, Sigrun put her hand up for them to stop.

"This rite has been around since time immemorable. Many Einherjar have met their end to it, with many more attaining glory and strength that rivaled all. Though you do not have another mortal to fight, my sister, Hrist, will be your adversary today. Do you have any last words before you start?" Sigrun asked. She activated every defense in her armor, rapidly cast off all her defensive spells and made sure her pistols and machineguns were ready to empty their magazines and drums as soon as the bell was rung, with throwing knives to knock her off balance and shotguns on her shoulders just like Jorge. "I don't."

"Hrist, my sister, do you have anything to say in this regard?" Hrist stood there and looked at Selene, barely coming up to her neck in height, but definitely looking a far cry stronger than the last time. "Such a small thing that wants to protect those dirt diggers down below. You show more courage than they did, if not the soundest choice to make. At least you're a warrior."

I'll show you whose small. I'm gonna knock you down a whole bunch of pegs.

(Recommended Song: Nick Phoenix – Future Guardian)

"Very well. Move to fifty paces, turn, wait for our signal." They both moved back to back, with Hrist heard chuckling a little. Selene took a deep breath as they walked away to fifty paces, then turned. Her armor's face plate dropped down and latched into place. It looked like a heavily reinforced goalie mask. She didn't need aesthetics; she needed raw power, speed and defense.

"Fight."

The Valkyrja threw her spear immediately, launching a very powerful projectile that might be able to pierce her defenses. She didn't want to test that theory as she dodged with the speed of a bullet, firing her machineguns installed into the forearm paneling to produce a hail of return fire; it met Hrist's shield, but it was creating ever so small dents with the high-end ammunition.

Hrist bolted for her, easily hitting the same speed Selene could. There was enough time to empty her pistols along with machineguns with Unload ability topped with Multi Shot before she reached her, a cord engaging and launching her away from the attack, the sword barely missing her as Hrist brought up her own shield to block the wall of bullets. Selene threw the guns away and cycled the reload of the drums in her forearm paneling, maybe using them in close combat while swinging her sword. The Valkyrja charged back after her as they went from fighting on the ground to in the air, leaping around like grasshoppers as she swapped to her sword and shield, activating Lightning Strike, Chink in the Armor, Parry Parry Thrust Thrust immediately. Hrist was attacking with everything she had, the force of her blows was bruising her forearm when her sword struck down on her shield, even with help from the exo frame installed into the suit. If she hadn't improved Carry Weight, her arm would have easily been broken. Her Biomimetic Barrier was taking hits and lowering even from blocks and parries, though it was confusing Hrist as to just how resilient the empress really was. Most mortals would have crumpled by now.

Holy shit! She hits like a Mack truck inside a Mack truck on top of a Mack truck! I can't even imagine fighting her without steampunk technology!

The empress dodged, getting in a strike of her own as Hrist was thrown on the defensive. She wasn't expecting the mortal to fight at her speed or see how fast she could move, let alone go on the offensive. The exo frame whined as it tried to help her drop as much Tonnage per Square Inch onto Hrist's shield, firing rounds from the machineguns where she could. Her strikes were actually carving into it, damaging the material, whatever it was. It was definitely not Tungsten Steel, she knew that much, probably fabled Adamantite or even stronger for a warrior such as herself. The fact she was doing any damage made Hrist back off ever so slightly and attempt flanking maneuvers, catching Selene barely off guard with a cord launching to get her away from the assault, leaving a grenade in her absence. One of the black armor pieces fell away as Hrist barely touched it with her sword. "Shit." The Valkyrja smirked as she put more damage into the dev's armor than she did to her. The black armor panel was absorbed into the ground.

They bounced around the room dodging and striking at each other, with pillars being wiped out with missed attacks and kicks launched into abdomens, though the dev was finding it a miracle her armor was hanging in there despite the beating it was taking. Selene was launched across the room by one strike, recovered enough with a roll and landed on her feet for the bringer of the slain to attack again, and deflected with a shield bash while dodging, sending Hrist up without control of where she could land. That gave the empress a chance to launch herself up and strike back, activating Blitzkrieg for even faster movement of herself and got ready for something special. Her sword engaged its electrical capability, with Hrist trying to strike back but getting tazed a little by each stab or swing. The lightning was passing through her armor, hitting her body and making her realize this little mortal had more punch than she expected.

The battle maiden tried to make a full sword swing to slash the area followed by her own shield bash, but Selene had other plans, dodging left with the jump jets on the backpack and coming up from her side, grabbing her and throwing her with her special ability Throw Your Weight Around. She slammed her into the ground, creating a small crater from the impact. As she used her jump jets to launch herself down for another attack, Hrist rolled and lunged, knocking off another black armor panel and slicing at her left forearm. "Damn it!" she backed off firing mounted shotguns on her shoulders as the Valkyrja grunted in acceptance for the trade in blood, with a small amount of it dripping from the right side of her lip and her left thigh. Concussive damage did work if there was enough force in it, as well as armor piercing rifled slugs, pretty much short-range anti-material rounds. That gave her hope.

(Recommended Song: Thomas Bergersen – Pegasus)

"Time to stop playing around" Hrist grumbled as the black armor panel was again pulled into the ground by Selene, trying to reclaim them. The battle maiden pulled her spear from its nearby landing spot and threw it at her, having the dev dodge and use a cord to launch herself around a pillar, but Hrist was running nearby. She fired her machineguns to keep her at bay, with the bringer of the slain blocking with her shield, finally receiving cracks in the armor paneling the small wall provided. She was wearing the warrior's defenses down, slowly but surely. Unfortunately for her, the battle maiden used a burst of speed to get ahead of her and grabbed the cord she was using to zip around the arena.

Hrist grabbed the cord and pulled, launching Selene straight at her and punched as hard as she could, with the empress immediately activating Time for Heroes to help with defense, her abdomen armor cracking with her entire Biomimetic Barrier failing. Her fist slammed into her stomach, instantly breaking a rib and launching her into the air a good twenty feet. The dev's mouth was agape in her face mask as blood came out, her eyes wide. Her armor had taken an enormous amount of the force that she had just focused into the mortal's stomach, otherwise her hand would have probably come out her back. Another black armor panel popped off from the impact. "Seems your losing your armor. That's really terrible." Hrist pulled on the cord again, but Selene had already disconnected it and fired off her jump jets to get a little distance with some of her last few grenades dropped, if only for a moment. The battle maiden was pushed back by the blast waves as the empress pulled a handheld elephant shotgun and fired both barrels, launching buckshot in the maiden's direction, and having two little pellets actually connect, hitting her in the right shoulder. Blood could be seen escaping.

I've got to heal! I've got to heal!

She tried to cast off a Greater Heal… but it didn't work. "What the fuck?" she whispered to herself in shock. The Valkyrja was almost on top of her. "What, did you think this room wouldn't be enchanted against healing magic? This is a battle to the death, poor little stupid thing."

Healing magic doesn't work?! Then… healing potions don't work either! Shit! Not good!

She fast swapped to her spear to keep a little range and used her magic to distract with ranged offensive spells, rapidly striking as Hrist dodged each attack before barely being nicked in the leg, grunting, then backing off a little; Molecular Reformation was used to change the terrain, trying to throw the battle maiden off, with little effect. That hit should have caused an impressive amount of damage, but all it did was cut at her knee. The battle maiden rolled away and charged again, going for a leg sweep with Selene jumping into the air… and having the maiden stop the sweep to grapple her. As she flipped and twisted to get momentum, they landed with Selene's left arm held behind her head, a crunch and the sound of metal cracking was heard as her arm was broken, the exo frame whirring as it tried to regain control of the movement. A pained scream erupted from her mouth as she could see stars for a few seconds as Pain Tolerance kept her awake. She threw a throwing knife at Hrist's foot and hit it with her boot pierced, causing her to let go of her hand as she rolled, feeling even more pain from getting away. Hrist pulled the knife from her foot and continued.

Jorge took a step forward towards the bars out of programmed instinct to protect her, but Turnie stopped him. The bars weren't a barricade against any of their strength, but if they entered, the entire group of Valkyrja would engage them. Another black armor panel popped off, totaling four missing, eaten by the floor and disappearing from view. Selene threw her last grenades into the area, including an incendiary to block movement, but Hrist saw them easily and got away, although there were some fragments that clipped her armor, not doing very much damage. It did tell her that explosives and higher end projectiles were dangerous to her, however she couldn't tell if it was because she was wearing down her defenses or because the weapons actually did damage due to the speed of the fragments and rounds. Hrist had used her shield to protect against the pistols and machineguns, which might have meant they were a threat.

As Hrist continued her onslaught, a few attacks did directly connect to Selene's chest armor, but with so many improvements, they were working overtime. Her sword had carved a small divot into the metal as Selene tried to pull away, showing just how strong the defenses really were against a Valkyrja. Though it was probably lower quality tier metal, the tungsten steel was holding up very well considering the blows it was receiving along with all the features she shoved into helping it harden even further. The empress blocked one more strike, feeling her arm turning to jelly from the impact force, before losing her right shoulder pauldron, the straps being cut instead of the armor. She retaliated to get herself off the defensive, with Lightning Strike and the rest of the Melee Weapons special abilities now off cooldown, pushing Hrist back like a wounded animal fighting for an escape route. A few of the attacks hit, breaking off the maiden's left thigh armor surprisingly, along with an abdomen panel and cutting her small cloak off. Though the Valkyrja was wounded, the dev was the one looking worse for wear. Even her Health Regeneration stat wasn't in effect right now, which was scaring her.

The whole fight was now beyond ten minutes and special abilities had been used twice for the lower cooldowns, with Hrist seeming to be slowly winning now. The Valkyrja leapt into the air to come down at the empress, who parried the attack with her sword and did her best to back off, trying to damage her armor with her psionics using telekinesis and knocked her back with a psychic scream, dazing her ever so slightly as the bringer of the slain tried to figure out what the hell just hit her. Hrist looked down at her armor in confusion as she couldn't see how Selene was pulling at straps or trying to harm her from beyond arm's reach, attempting to rip her armor from her body. She zipped forward and kicked at the dev and sent her flying, smashing into a wall and creating cracks. Two more cracked ribs, light concussion, one of her shoulder blades was fractured. However, she finally undid Hrist's armor. "Is she trying to undress me? No one here is embarrassed little thing, I sure am not." Her under armor was still there, as the main armor was thrown across the room and absorbed by the ground, her impressive form and figure showing just under the clothing now. Selene grabbed at her last black armor piece and took it off intentionally, the pain kept away by her stats. She was lying on the ground, badly beaten, bleeding and finding it difficult to breathe. Blood was drooling from the side of her mouth with her mask half broken off, with her nose bleeding and a large cut on her forehead, probably from her mask breaking more than anything else.

Hrist walked up to her as she tried to drag herself backwards, nursing her left arm. She fired multiple fireballs at her, but they didn't do much, as she feared due to resistances. She then used Cryokinesis on the floor to make her slip, which seemed to work, allowing her to get up and try and escape to a better position. Unfortunately, Hrist grabbed at her cloak bolted to her backpack and threw her across the room, landing with a thump and roll, making her see stars everywhere, but some return machinegun fire as she flew caught her off guard and finally broke her shield, with the fragments cutting into the Valkyrie's armored gauntlet and damaging her fingers on her left hand. The wounded empress couldn't get herself up, even though her stamina hadn't worn out, her body was just having difficulty responding. The Valkyrja walked towards her and smiled at her genuinely for a moment, not doing much beyond that for that small amount of time. Selene threw one last knife at her, which she caught, and threw right back at her, piercing her right side, slamming through and hitting a kidney. She screamed as Hrist brought her sword up to her neck and lifted her chin.

"You fought well for someone who is mortal. To this day no one has ever drawn my blood, but you… are the first. I am… impressed. You have done what most have never been able to do, as well as fought with great courage and to the best of your ability. You withstood my attacks almost as well as any Valkyrja; I am… amazed. Perhaps the mortals of this world aren't as frail as we thought. You have opened my eyes involving that at least, though you will not live to see the future legends arise. Do you have any last words? Make your peace, empress. I would hope you would use them to request to become an Einherjar, I would be most happy with that indeed." The fact that Hrist was showing respect after everything that had happened might have meant Selene had done what almost no mortal has ever been able to do, maybe even Einherjar. She fought a Valkyrja and did her best to hold her own. The entire fight had lasted fifteen minutes, almost near the end of her potion limits. If the fight had continued any longer, her abilities would have only decreased.

The empress used Molecular Reformation on the ground, creating an odd pod that grew out of the ground in front of the maiden, looking like a sprouting plant curving in front of her. "One last line of defense? I am surprised you can even focus. You are very resilient indeed. A stone plant isn't going to save you though. I am the victor, no matter what you do." Hrist said as she stared down at Selene past the pod, her mask unlatching and dropping to the ground. Her face was bruised and cut at a few places. "Accept your fate, I'll make it clean if you do. I swear it on my honor, you will not feel pain empress." Selene looked up at her and smiled a crooked smile, her mouth slightly coated in blood.

"Go to hell." The pod slowly opened as Hrist brought her sword arm up to strike, revealing the five black armor pieces, all beeping with the red dots in the middle lighting up. The Valkyrja had a split second to wonder what those were before the dev activated Peace Through Superior Firepower, used all casting abilities and amplified the damage of the now known to be shaped charge explosives, focused the last bit of her Rage into those now known to be bombs. Universal Magic was used to add multiple elemental effects to the blast for maximum effectiveness. She had just enough time to build a crude dome around herself as they went off, half collapsing the barrier due to her rapidly casting repair spells on it and shredding her armor she had. No one could see through the smoke that they had caused until finally, both the group of Valkyrja and Bronze Team could see Selene lying on the ground, not moving, her armor in shambles and wiring sparking. "Come on ma'am, get up! Get up!" Ethan started saying as Turnie was fighting herself to rush out there and heal her. Jorge feared the worse.

Several seconds went by, then a minute, with no movement, just silence. Finally, Selene slowly moved her arm, her ears still ringing from blowing those things up so close. Her vision was blurry as she looked around, her sense of balance way off and dust making her cough… or something worse. She rolled to her side slowly and looked around. Hrist was blown backwards a good one hundred feet, she wasn't moving either, with what looked like fragments embedded all along her left arm and into part of her left side as she was lying on her right, limp. The dev got up and stumbled, nearly collapsing a second time as she tried to walk her way over to the maiden, picking up a sword carefully and wincing. As she reached Hrist and looked down at her, she slowly woke up and blinked, looking up at Selene standing there, fighting to stay alive. Both of their hp was draining from internal bleeding, but the dev was still standing, barely. This was a guarantee, The Valkyrja was defeated.

"Yield" Selene barely managed to say, her breathing raspy and difficult to draw in breath. She was getting light headed. "I'll… never… yield…" Hrist rasped back as she looked towards her sister. "You're a… fucking fool then… You all are."

Two Valkyrja took steps forward and down the ziggurat towards them. "Don't. Though she insults us, she has yet to make the killing blow." "Why… why do I have to kill her… Fucking yield… you stupid… idiot!" The dev coughed out as she fought for breath. "I die in… honor… of the rite… for… the gods…" "You die to leave your sisters… to… to live on… without you… hasn't there been… hasn't there been enough loss… for all of you? Your gods… they're never coming back… you're all that's left… don't make their efforts… to send you… here… be for nothing…" The empress stumbled a little, nearly falling. One of her lungs was probably punctured or collapsed. Hrist looked at Sigrun, who simply looked down at the ground, then nodded. Selene was almost gasping for breath.

"I… will…" she started to say. The empress was having real problems now, as she slowly wobbled. "…Yield." That did it with Hrist submitting; the empress toppled to the ground, landing on her side with the sword dropping from her grasp, as Bronze Team blasted through the bars and ran towards her. Things were getting a little blurry for her vision as she blinked, with noticing some rappelling lines appearing from the opening above the arena but couldn't tell if those were just vines. Something dropped behind the Valkyrja and started to glow, with each Valkyrja's eyes glowing as well. They all looked up as they started to slowly turn around, heading towards the objects in a shambling gait. Multiple men in black leather armor rappelled down and dropped in quickly with daggers unsheathed.

One of them walked up to Sigrun and stabbed forward with the blue dagger, piercing the armor straight to the heart in one strike as if the plating was nothing to the blade. Sigrun died almost instantly, the dagger disintegrating in the process. "No… no!" Hrist tried to yell as one by one, the others were slowly felled as they walked towards their impending death, completely unimpeded due to whatever those objects on the ground were. "Say… Save… save them…" Selene tried to mumble out as her speech slurred. Deacon rapid fired off multiple rounds, popping heads as Ethan leapt in and blocked one dagger from the nearest Valkyrja and pulling her away, bisecting the man from groin to head. Once she was dragged away to a certain range, she just collapsed unconscious in his arms, with another saved by Orlo shooting a tow cord around her and hauling her back. Deacon fired at the dagger from another man who had a split second to look in his direction before a bullet flew right into his forehead and blew it apart, but a second came up behind and stabbed at one of the last Valkyrja, killing her.

Jorge came up to another man trying to backstab the second Valkyrja that was still alive and launched him to the moon with a backhanded shield, his body exiting through the opening he had just come from. One of the men tried to jump on Jorge's back, but Orlo fired off a concussive blast launching a lot of them around, some crashing into the walls and crushing their chests. In total there were around two hundred of these attackers, but it soon turned into maybe fifteen frighteningly quickly as Bronze Team lit the place up. The bodies were being teleported out of the room with small odd crystals the remainder of men had, with one having a goatee with a white line down the middle, staring right at him in shock. They disappeared from view, with no other hostiles detected once the others followed suit.

(Recommended Song: Kerry Muzzey – Metastasis, Cure (With Choir))

The arena was almost empty, save Bronze Team, three Valkyrja now unconscious including Hrist, and their empress near death.

Turnie was heard trying to heal her, shoving poultices into cuts and spraying at her wounds, with no effect. "I can't stop the bleeding! It's not working! We've got to get her out of here before I can provide medical aide! This room is impeding it!" Selene was starting to lose hearing as Turnie seemed to be fading in and out. "Ma'am! Ma'am! Selene! Don't you die on us! Selene! Stay with us. We're going to get you out of here. Evac! Evac now everyone!" She tried to listen to them, but their voices were tuning out. "Jorge… your voice isn't so tough now… what's going on…" Her fingers were tingling, then her arms and legs, losing feeling in her extremities. Turnie wrapped a bandage around her waist as Jorge carefully picked her up, Deacon throwing both unconscious Valkyrja over his shoulders while Ethan grabbed Hrist.

Her eyes slowly closed halfway with a small grin on her face. It was ok. It was fine, everything was going to be fine. There wasn't much pain anymore. Death didn't feel so bad. Bronze Team would be ok without her. They'd protect the valley and keep the Artinian kingdom at bay, there wasn't any need to worry. She had done her part.

"Selene! Selene! Ma'am! Wake up! Wake up! She's not breathing! I need a medical helibot ready now! Get crash cart ready!" Her view slowly faded away from Turnie and Ethan looking down at her as if she was sinking in a pool. It was so calming, with nothing seeming to mean much. She barely saw the movement of the helibot dropping through the opening in the arena in the far distance.

"EMPRESS!" Blackness.