Chapter 16

At first, an undead emerged from the dark forest, it wore rusted Viking armour and wielded an axe and a shield. Soon, more emerged forming a horde of fifty undead.

" Why are they all wearing the exact same type of armour and weapons? " That question came from Sigrun and many others shared the same sentiment. It was one thing to see an undead like a Draug but to see them all using the exact same equipment was a whole other thing.

" I have no clue of that myself. " Erik responded to their question, " All the Draug that have attacked this village looked exactly like them, even the Undead types have the same characteristics. "

With no warning, the Horde of undead started to sprint towards them to harm whatever they saw living. Erik ordered all the warriors in the clearing to get ready. They gripped their weapons and were ready for the onslaught that was to come.

Steel and magic came down onto the undead, a flurry of slashes cut through their rotten flesh and a barrage of elemental magic destroyed their ranks. The battle seemed easy for the young Valkyries, but oh how wrong they were.

" Just how many undead have we dealt with already? " Another Valkyrie asked, They have been fighting for almost an hour and the numbers of the undead didn't seem to dwindle, instead it was starting to increase. With every undead, they have slain ten more of them seemed to emerge from the dark forest.

With the arrival of the undead archers and the undead Orcs, they switched from ground combat to aerial combat with the help of flight magic. Swooping in like eagles and delivering slashes to their foes and pelting them with a barrage of elemental magic.

But even then, the undead's number didn't seem to go down at all... Their numbers were getting larger and larger as time went by.

Erik Ivarson, the Berserker was simply mowing down a group of undead every time he swung his large single-edged sword. With each swing, he cuts through any unfortunate victim that stood in his way.

' There seemed to be more undead than usual. ' Something was wrong, his guts were telling him that something was not right but he could not figure out what it was. The attacks of the undead were more relentless than it was ever before, their numbers were getting more and more larger with each passing minute as more and more undead came from the forest. ' Just what is going on tonight? "

On the battlefield, Rossweisse was engaged in a melee fight with an undead orc, as she deflected its attack, she fired a blast of ice magic on its chest freezing the upper body and with a swipe of her sword the frozen upper body shattered instantly killing it.

' My magic power reserves are getting low. ' She winced, this defence battle was going on for far too long than they had expected and her fellow Valkyries were already starting to tire out. But the undead did not seem to tire at all, the intensity of their attacks did not slow down, it remained constant from the start of the battle.

" Rose! Watch out for the" She heard Sigrun screaming from the distance but the warning did not help her as she was not fast enough to dodge a shoulder tackle that sent her to the ground.

She saw her attacker ready to bring down its axe on her, but a spear was impaled on its midsection and was lifted and slammed to the ground. Her saviour, Sigrun then beheaded the undead with the shard blade-like spear.

" You should be careful Rose. " She offered her hand and pulled her up to a standing position.

" Something is not right. " Sigrun grumbled as she impaled another undead by the head.

" What's not right? " Rossweisse inquired as she deflected an attack from a draug.

" Mr Erik said that these undead are more relentless than ever before as if they're trying to tire us. "

And at that moment they heard something from the sky.

ROAR!!!

From the canopy of the tall trees of the forest, emerged an undead dragon that was approaching the battleground. Everyone was stunned at the arrival of the legendary beast, it looked a whole lot small that its humongous kind, but it still was a dragon.

Luckily for them, they were not its targets... But the village is. It glided through the air and went over them heading straight to the unprotected village.

Despite them wanting to go head straight to the village to subdue the beast, the undead has increased the intensity of the attack, effectively forcing them to remain on the battlefield.

Erik cursed at the situation, he could not leave the battlefield as he could not just leave these young Valkyries to fend for themselves even if they are skilled enough.

It did not take that long for the Dragon to come back from the village, but there was someone that was in its grasp. It was the Oracle! and the dragon was heading back to the forest.

" HELP! " Aada screamed for help, some Valkyries to help but the undead kept them pinned with their even more relentless attacks.

Rossweisse deflect another attack from a berserk Orc, attacking them was getting more and more difficult as they have no other choice but to defend themselves from their relentless unending attacks. But on seeing that the Oracle was taken hostage by the dragon, she jumped on an orc's head using it as a foothold she leapt to the air and used Flight magic.

She chased the dragon to free the oracle, she knew it was a rash decision and will probably regret it later on, but the Oracle's life was important. Without the Oracle, they have no other means to return to Asgard and anointing a new one will take too long.

Luckily, she was not the only one going after the dragon. There were five there Valkyries just behind her and were steadily catching up.

" Attack the wings. " One of the Valkyries and they all did, they launched a barrage of ranged elemental attacks. Most of them hit the dragon but it did not stop, it even picked up more speed and was trying to escape from them.

They too followed suit and fly faster trying to catch up to the dragon. They were going further and further away from the village and it was proving to be very difficult to save the Oracle. Just as when they thought things were getting tough, things turned to the worst.

ROAR!

ROAR!

ROAR!

ROAR!

ROAR!

ROAR!

Six more undead Dragons launched themselves from the dark forest and made a metaphorically impenetrable wall inform of them.

There was no chance for them, no chance absolutely that will be even able to damage them whatsoever. The Dragon with the Oracle was already too far away from them and the six dragons were not going to allow to go any further.

Left with no choice, they grudgingly decided to retreat. " Fall back! everyone, we can't win! "

They say Valkyries are one of the bravest warriors in the supernatural world, but sometimes even the bravest warriors are forced to retreat. It was not wise to throw one's life away in a battle one knows is a losing battle. Retreat and Regroup and fight another time, with more preparation.

The Dragons saw the retreating Valkyries and decide to pursue them: Their master told them to leave no intruders alive.

CHING!

" What? " Rossweisse was stopped dead in her tracks, there was something metallic grabbing her foot. There was a chain wrapped tightly and no amount of force she exerted could free her from its grip. ' It's even draining my magic! '

Without any warning, she was yanked from the sky pulling her to the forest. She let out a scream and the other Valkyries heard. They turned back to see her falling into the forest, they wanted to go and help her but they were too far, the Dragons were also fast approaching.

They really wanted to help her, but the situation did not permit them and they had to make a big decision.

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They had no other choice but to retreat.

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Rossweisse landed on the ground with a thud, her back was in excruciating pain from such a fall and the blasted chain was still tightly gripping her foot.

And then she looked up and saw a giant Draug coming up to her. It was wielding that chain on its right and a gauntlet on its left, but what disturbed her the most was its maggots-infested face.

The giant Draug gripped the chain and pulled her with a yank. It then proceeded to lift her and slammed her to the ground again and again and again without mercy.

With one last slam, Rossweisse's consciousness was starting to fade from all the punishment she had taken and not to mention that the chain was draining her magic reserves and was at critical levels.

All hope seemed lost, there was way that she was going to make it out alive. She saw the giant Draug approaching her with its gauntlet hand clenched.

' Look like this is the end for me...' She thought to herself, ' Mom, Dad, Grandma... I'm so sorry. '

Her vision was getting blurry, the last thing she saw before going unconscious was the giant draug getting caught in what looked like a stream of fire, and the loud voice of a man.

" Otoydi ot neye, ublyudok! ( Get away from her you Bastard! "

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" Papa. " Artom asked, " Just what is she? "

" Well... " Nikolai Looked at the young woman in his arms as he carried her in bridal style. " She's a girl. "

" Papa, We know that. " Igor retorted, " But what is she? She's wearing weird clothes. "

" I have no idea. " he shrugged it off, he just met her half an hour ago, when he heard the sound of six fucking dragons flying in the sky. He also heard the sound of that giant maggot-infested undead slamming something to the ground repeatedly. When he investigated the sounds, he saw that the giant Undead was about to kill her, so like any good-natured man he did what he must do...

Sending a stream of fire towards the bastard with his skill, FIRE BREATH and proceed to bash its maggot-infested face with his sledgehammer.

The young woman was unconscious, probably injured and that bastard's chain still wrapped around her foot. The MAGIC DRAIN curse was active on it and so he removed it by simply letting the mist devour the chain.

[ DIGESTION TIME: 10 SECONDS ]

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[ ITEM DIGESTED ]

[ ITEM CAN NOT BE FURTHER IMPROVED ]

He then decided to carry her to the cabin for medical attention. The bridal style was the safest carrying style for unconscious people, he assumed that and proceed to do so.

Looking at her " battle gear " which consists of a white breastplate with gold and pale blue accents and matching, fingerless gauntlets, boots, hip guards, and wing-shaped hair clips. She also wore a black leotard underneath her breastplate, black thigh-high stockings, and a pale blue cloth wrapped underneath her hip guards, all of which are clad with pink lacing along with her hair clips. With all that information, he concluded that she was a warrior of some kind, an exhibitionist type one.

" We can ask her when she gets up," he concluded as they all agreed and continued their way back to their cabin.

" Well, I hope she likes meat and potato soup. "