Chapter Twenty-five.

~~~Third Person, Xandar~~~

~~~July 1942~~~

"Come before me, damn you!" shouted Gudmond, as he raised his shield to protect himself from the hail of arrows and bolts coming from several of the golems that were left behind and who began to provide cover from a distance.

The group of golems, formed by ten armored giants more than six meters high, were made to be guards in the Mines and thus safeguard the protection of robberies, as well as to watch that those sentenced to perpetual forced labor did not die or escape.

They were still a force to be reckoned with, with their incredible strength, enormous size, and the material they were made of, which made them a feared force throughout Xandar, being the reason why no escape from the prisons had been documented so far.

Of the seven Golems, four stayed in the rear as they fired enchanted arrows over two meters long, filled with enchantments ranging from poison, damage, fire, fire, cleave, and multi-shot. This caused Gudmond to be at a disadvantage at first, being overpowered several times, while being attacked from several points.

Thanks to the Multi-shot enchantment, the four Golems that shot arrows gave the sensation as if there were thirty instead of four, thus managing to fill the Asgardian with arrows without ceasing, oppressing him masterfully while his other three companions were getting closer and closer.

Gudmond reached a point where he was fed up with the whole situation, and a little tired by the fact that the burn wounds and the breakage had not yet healed in his right arm, he lowered his shield for a moment, which he had so far kept up to avoid the rain of arrows, then to take his bastard sword with his healthy arm and throw it with all his strength in the direction of the Golem that was leading the charge towards him. Knowing the fact that it could return to him at his call.

The Golem, instead of changing direction and thus evading the sword that was cutting the distance at every second, continued straight towards it without moving out of the way. Instead, being only ten meters away from the sword, which was cutting the air and moving at an astonishing speed, the Golem was running without a weapon in his possession. He lunged forward and fell on his back, spinning twice, thus slowing the momentum he was carrying, but gaining greater speed and strength in his body, which was what he wanted.

When the Golem made a second turn, he gained momentum and jumped hard, and taking advantage of the force of the movement, the Golem evaded just in time the blade of the sword, passing over the sword, and in the air, with a speed that surprised due to his enormous size, he grabbed the hilt of the sword that was in the air, gripped it tightly, and when it fell to the ground again, he lost no time and threw the sword in the direction of its owner, while the four Golems who had the enchanted bows. They fired four arrows larger than the ones they were launching earlier.

"Push!"

"Push!"

"Push!"

"Push!"

The four arrows shot out with a mowing speed, leaving trails of bright lights as a sign of their trajectory, which followed the same path as the sword the Golem had just launched.

When the sword was only four meters away from Gudmond, who was about to take back his sword, the four arrows reached the sword and hit it hard, destroying it instantly. At first, nothing happened, as if the sword had been strong enough to be unaffected by the four arrows the Golems launched.

But as soon as the sword came within two meters of Gudmond, the sky turned dark and four huge bolts of lightning filled with electricity burst out of it at full power, impacting the sword with thunderous force and causing it to turn a blue color and explode, sending shrapnel everywhere.

"AHHHH!" Gudmond's scream was not long in coming, being very close to the sword, he received the sword's shrapnel in full, which, being made of Uru, managed to break the defense of his armor, at the same time that the four rays that impacted the sword, also reached to wound him.

The fact is that the four arrows that the Golems had launched, were under the effects of a single enchantment, and that was the conductivity enchantment, which was used in the game so that when a trident hit a target, the latter would receive a lightning bolt when hit by the trident.

Instead, thanks to the research and advances that had been made in various fields of enchantment and magic, the enchantment could now be imposed on any object, not just a trident, and the object when thrown, would summon a lightning bolt to whatever the thrown object touched, destroying itself in the process.

Gudmond fell to the ground, his body mangled and mutilated by the fragments of the sword, which had pierced the Berserker's body. And the flesh burned and split open by the four lightning bolts that had struck them.

"One down, five to go, you two, stay and make sure to keep the prisoner stable, the rest of you, come with me," the Golem who had thrown the sword at Gudmond, spoke, showing some intelligence, leaving orders and preparing to go to where the other five Berserkers were. His mechanical, guttural voice was the last thing Gudmond heard before he was knocked unconscious as one of the Golems who would stay to guard him approached him and struck him on the head.

The lead Golem nodded and in the company of the other four Golems that would go with him, began to jump up and move towards where Filio was.

Filio, who was previously being distracted by the rain of arrows that the civilians had him under, found himself involved in a fight of potentates against what appeared to be soldiers of the city, these soldiers, although for the moment they were only fifteen, had the Berserker in a bad situation, the soldiers, fueled with potions of strength, speed, feather fall, swift stealth, and other enchantments on their weapons and armor, thus being on par with the Asgardian. So far, though, no combat had been presented.

"In the military, they teach and train us for several years, long years so they can call us 'jorrāelagon iā qantre,' which translated into their language... Anyone they speak would be known as Reapers of life, we are lifeless subjects in the service of our king, our God. And let me tell you that I have long wanted to be in his service because his call only delivers death."

With those words spoken, the fifteen jorrāelagon iā qantre stood ready, some drawing swords, others gripping spears tightly, while to others they pointed tridents against the Asgardian.

"Are you ready to die, invader?" asked Coscol, the jorrāelagon iā qantre leader, as a lifeless, but at the same time cruel smile appeared on his face.

--------

Fifteen kilometers from where Gudmond and his party had fallen, Birger and three other berserkers were in trouble due to the crossfire released by the witches in the sky, on the ground, Micaela had yet to engage in combat, only watching as the ghosts, in the company of the witches, using guerrilla strategies, the phantoms used the large and tall trees for protection, to then charge the surrounding Berserkers and lunge at the Asgardians, while at the same time seeking to emerge unscathed from the combat.

However, dead phantoms could still be seen scattered on the ground, clearly victims of the altercation, fortunately, the civilians had not participated in this combat, the location being outside the permitted area, which allowed the concentrated attack by the witches, the tattooed lizards and the phantoms, to go off without mishap. And, therefore, the victims of the altercation would all be active members of the military.

Asgard, as wonderful and glorious as it was, had a huge problem, called non-adaptation, in an era where victory was decided by swords and powers superior to the enemy, Asgard had the advantage, and that pride, along with Odin's stubbornness, had caused Asgard's army not to progress since the time of Hela and the Valkyries.

So, the well-known saying; don't bring a knife to a gunfight, became evident in this situation, the berserker, a formidable melee fighter, with great and legendary cold weapons like swords and spears, could not do much against the enchanted arrows and blasts of TNTs launched from the sky.

In the whole panorama, there were at least four dead tattooed lizards, three slain witches, and several vaporized phantoms, but the berserkers were not far behind, of the four, only three were in positions to continue fighting, while the fourth, had his right arm cut from the shoulder, and several arrows embedded in his head. With burn marks where the arm was cut off, clearly a victim of the witches' whips and arrows.

Birger, determined to fulfill the order issued by Odin, did not give in to the endless arrows but continued to resist with a shield, which was already severely damaged.

Just at that moment, roars from beyond the grave began to be heard all over the place, filling the air with a terrifying cold and oppressive atmosphere, at the same time that the three surviving Berserkers stopped receiving arrows from the Witches, as well as stopped being attacked by the phantoms and the tattooed lizards, who moved away, since they knew that they were no longer needed for the moment, not now that help had arrived.

The Asgardians, for their part, decided to take an attack position, knowing that the sound was just a war cry, of something dangerous and full of malice.

And they were right because fifty meters away, they could see a black tide sweeping everything in its path, with purple dots fluttering from time to time, which meant only one thing; the Enderman had arrived.