Highschool DxD: A New Opportunity - Chapter 48

Part 4

MC’s POV

Walking around a market in Asgard, I was taking the opportunity to refill my empty medical herbs and poisonous ones as well. I was making preparations for what was to come. The continuation of the competition tournament, one that they still planned to hold. I was not sure if the right thing is to cancel it or not, but I planned to use this chance to settle Rossweisse-san’s matter. After making concessions with a pair of goddesses, I could rest ȧssured for about 50%, the rest is up to me. I might be rating low what two goddesses can do but after knowing about the Canon I noticed how troublesome gods are. Having several limitations and underestimating the bad guys over and over until Trihexa got released. Besides, I doubt I offered something that valuable for them to move that much for my sake.

“…you sure are ok going around alone? You shouldn’t waste your money that easily, pocket money runs out eventually.” Nur-san warned.

My stalker- guide who decided to follow me to avoid losing me again was worriedly using a calculator to check my expenses so far.

“It is ok, I am bargaining to get better prices and I am being careful to only buy those who sell at the proper market price.” I muttered.

Raising a flask containing a poisonous plant, I tried to recall what it did after opening the lit.

“Ah! That can melt people’s lungs if it is used without care.”

The shopkeeper spoke after he saw me smelling the plant.

Oh, I remembered. I thought it was one that causes hallucinations but they look too similar. Seeing him sweat coldly after Nur-san got pale and started to chant an offensive spell, ready to attack him, I signaled her to calm down.

I tried to not smile smugly since my poison resistance training was working. I was not sure why this person had this here but I smelled something fishy.

“Call the guards or police, this man could’ve killed someone else if I had not found this.” I said.

Being made to look like a plant used for ‘recreation’ could only have a bad purpose. I wanted to test whether I would get affected by it but it is a shame that I cannot test it now.

“That’s a pretty big deal! Are you ok!?” Nur-san worriedly asked.

I shrugged my shoulders but froze when the tears gathered in her eyes.

“I am ok, cats do not get poisoned.” I patted her head.

“No, no, there is no way that is true.”

The idiotic shopkeeper retorted but I glared at him and he shuddered.

…

…

…

After running away from the matter what probably had a hidden story, I left everything for the security of the market to deal with. I don’t want to get dragged into a revenge business at this point.

Buying Nur-san some cotton candy to calm her down, we sat on a bench near the center of the market.

“Eh? You are rich?” Nur-san tilted her head.

“I did not say rich, I said I work and got some money saved so what I have been buying is not a big deal.” I corrected her.

“Thus, rich. I think Nora does not know very well about money.” Nur-san shook her head.

Really? Some of the plants I harvest and sell do not cost this much. There is one particular kind which is always on demand that takes a year to grow naturally that could’ve covered my whole expenses for the day just by selling a leaf of it. Now that I think about it, that whole pocket dimension is more valuable than I originally thought.

“Nur-san, are you sure you want to continue? I know that we need you on the team but Rossweisse-san and you went through a lot. Staying on the sidelines, you two can take it easy.” I spoke.

“I… I don’t know about Rose, but for me, I feel like if I start to hesitate about staying with you guys, I will be left behind.” Nur-san muttered. “I want to be friends with you guys forever.”

“Hmph, I don’t want to be friends with you… but rather something else.” I glanced suggestively at my conversation partner. “Something more important.”

Nur-san froze and began blushing.

“You are teasing me again.” Nur-san complained.

“I am not, I truly want to go beyond being mere friends with you.” I could hear her gulp loudly. “I want to be best friends.”

Smiling brightly, I leaned back slightly, avoiding the blow that almost landed on me, courtesy of the teary-eyed girl who was glaring at me fiercely.

“You are so dead.” Nur-san roared.

Swallowing the ice cream fiercely, she got stopped her movements due to brain freeze but still glared at me angrily.

Chuckling, I stood up and prepared to run. It would not be fun if I just disappear, right? I have to keep a certain distance so she follows me around.

“I can’t die until our relationship goes beyond what it is now.” I added.

Grinding her teeth, she slyly cast a spell with no chant to increase her physical abilities. How did I know? Because she almost caught me when her movements got faster all of sudden.

3rd Person POV

Several days after the incident where the missing students went missing, were found, many people continued to request the continuation of the tournament. No winner had been declared and many students depended on the results of the tournament to receive job offers and get a good reputation. It could all boost their careers so it was a unanimous agreement from the gods to continue.

However, they will not hold any other competitions outside Asgard anymore despite their previous arrangements. The Goddesses Skadi and Freya had shown their concerns for any possible incident occurring on someone else’s land so while some of the organizers complained, they could not directly throw complaints at the two goddesses who were known for their beautiful appearance but unkind personality when angered.

…

…

…

“Ladies and Gentlemen, not forgetting those who do not fit any of those two categories as well. Here we are, the tournament is back! This time we will have a competition in an open field where all participants will have to fight each other, showcasing their skills and abilities. However, it won’t be a simple Battle Royale, they will participate as teams and they will have to beat other teams, all to destroy a small token every participant will have been entrusted with. Breaking the token will result in immediate disqualification. Everyone should be aware that only that way would a contestant count as a loser. The token can be worn or hidden somewhere, however, the participants must be aware of a hidden function in the token. It can show other tokens’ locations for some time every ten minutes. That is a basic summary of the rules and the participants that will enter the field have been told the same thing already, as the commentator, my duty is to inform the public watching.”

A loud voice was heard around a large space similar to a coliseum where many seats were arranged, however, in the middle where you would usually see people performing activities, a large magic circle was drawn, as the commentator spoke, it activated and showed the scene of the field where the competitors will go. The spectators did not have to wait for long for everything to start since they could see as the participants were teleported in the field. Said field covered a large area where forests, lakes, and mountains were located, however, you could also find several defensive structures such as fortresses, towers surrounded by high walls along with small places such as cottages.

“For your information, they won’t be able to listen to my comments during the competition so there is no need to worry about my voice causing any disturbance, although we should be able to hear them loud and clear, that said, it is a small secret from them.”

Even while the soothing voice of the female commentator was heard, people’s attention was on the field.

“Oh, would you look at that? A small fortress has been found by one of the teams that are said to be the most likely to win. The team name is… Team Berserker! A muscular man who took his physical training very seriously is the leader and he wields a huge axe as you all can see, his name is Klaus. His team members consist of pair of Valkyries. However, they are not alone, a team of Einherjers is about to intercept them.”

Just like the voice said, a four-man team of Einherjers ambushed the Berserker Team. Carrying large tower shields made of iron, two of the team members stood side by side and stuck the shield together, forming a wall. Another team member raised his hand as he chant a spell that gave the shields a gray shine, a type of protective magic that was what the most knowledgeable people about magic concluded. After the spell was cast, they limited themselves to running at full speed to ram Klaus and his team members. Nonetheless, Klaus only snorted and raised his axe. His muscles bulged and he swung his hand down. The strike on the ground caused it to spilt, dirt and rocks flew away, an enormous crater was left imprinted on the ground thus the charge from the shield-bearing duo was stopped. That said, Klaus did not stop there, with an explosive jump, he arrived in front of the duo whom he sent flying with his axe. His actions caused them to scream in pain as their shields were split and they were cut along with them, but Klaus frowned when he could only see the person who chant the spell before. One person was missing and a scream behind him made him realize where that person might be. Standing in place without doing anything, his two teammates were still doing that, or rather, one of them had stood up from the ground in an absent-minded manner after being attacked by the missing member of the other team who looked flabbergasted from the reaction of the valkyrie.

“What the…? They received the blow without attacking me back..? They stood up like nothing was wrong? What the heck is wrong with this team?”

The man who recently attacked the Valkyrie had many questions but when he saw that he got Klaus’s attention, he muttered a few words and he turned invisible. Those who had more experience noticed his equipment before he disappeared and confirmed that it was thanks to the equipment he was able to do that.

“An impressive show of strength but ruthless as well, after leaving badly injured the two team members from the other team, Klaus saw that one who was missing attacking his team members but… what is that!? It looks like she stood up like nothing happened!? No, ladies and gentlemen, for some strange reason that team member seems to ignore her surroundings.”

The accurate description of the commentator made the public be confused, it was a strange behavior no matter how you looked at it.

Maybe he tried to cover up what happened with more violence or it was simply the way he was, but Klaus got into a frenzy and began hacking left and right, soon enough his blows landed on his hidden enemy. His scream was particularly loud since the axe sunk pretty deep in his flesh. The rest was dealt with in a matter of seconds, and when Klaus ordered it, his teammates began moving and they destroyed the tokens from the other team. It seemed that because they had just appeared they all carried them on their persona and did not have time to hide them, or maybe it was simply how they planned to act during the competition.

“Oh, the first team that got… No, ladies and gentlemen, take a look at the east area. We can see a team that is being teleported out already! The ones responsible are… Team White Rose!”

MC’s POV (Just after being teleported into the field)

Alrighty, things went well, I prepared as much as I could so I only need to confirm the rest of the suspicious Gondul-san had. Lightly moving my body to warm up before we get into a fight, I glance at my teammates and had to look away.

Odin, you bastard, what kind of eyes are you making me look at them with? Although I love the leotard idea, their little and bouncy behinds can distract me, in a few years I might fall in trance. No good, I need to chant Yasaka’s mantra and get my act together.

‘Yasaka’s tails are love, petting them is my everyday goal. Yasaka is the way; I am on Yasaka Team all the way!’

Repeating my mantra internally, I reached a pseudo-nirvana state… or so I would’ve loved. That goddamned land is at fault, since I came from that place my thought process is getting more ‘honest’.

“Nora-kun, are you sure you want to go with that strategy?” Rossweisse-san interrupted my internal struggle.

“It is not like I don’t trust you, but Nora, it can get dangerous. Besides, there is no guarantee you will find them every time.” Nur-san’s tone was filled with worry. “You might not be aware, but there is a spell that interferes with observation magic. No matter what kind, you won’t be able to keep an eye on who gets close to you from afar.”

Should I smugly tell her that I can cheat and get away with it? I feel like it will cause an internal fight within the group, in our outing, I teased the heck out of her.

“Believe in me, cats have good luck.” I reassured her.

“Nora-kun is a black cat though.” “Have you never seen yourself in a mirror? Black cat, you are one. People use an image of one to indicate bad luck.” Rossweisse-san and Nur-san retorted.

I think I have permission to sulk here. I am well aware of my crappy luck, but I was just trying to reassure them.

3rd Person POV

A small figure could be seen hastily digging on the ground and burring something, unaware of a pair of approaching figures that used the forest to stride forward undetected.

Wearing robes to camouflage and hide their figures with their surroundings, but failing to complete their curves with that piece of cloth, two Valkyries walked with light steps. The two figures warily stopped in place and surveyed their surroundings but failed to find anyone else close by. Step by step, they got closer to the small figure, although one of them seemed to hesitate, that however, made her step on a twig. That small sound caused the small figure cat ears’ to twitch and made him turn his head to see who caused the sound.

The small figure, Nora, put on a frightened expression, even trembling. His harmless stance caught the other figures, wearing a traditional (modified by Odin) valkyrie outfit, off guard. The Valkyries both had brown hair, but different eye colors, with the one in the front having blue eyes and the one in the back having green eyes.

“Can’t we just break the tokens and leave him alone?”

The green-eyed valkyrie muttered. Her tone of voice was low and she seemed to feel guilty for having them discovered from her mistake.

“…we discussed this before, we will knock anyone unconscious first to erase any variable possible. You never know whether they are waiting for us to lower our guard to attack.”

The blue-eyed Valkyrie spoke in a severe tone. Despite using a forceful tone, she did not blame her teammate. However, looking at the trembling figure in front of her, she had trouble believing her own words. The sad and pitiful stare the boy in front of her gave her tickled something inside of her, and the feeling he gave off seemed gentle and lacked the aggressivity from most males she had met.

“Can’t we make an exception? Look at him, he wouldn’t kill a fly… look at those hopeful eyes!”

The green-eyed Valkyrie had thrown caution out of the window already and was against using force on the boy.

Shaking her head, the blue-eyed Valkyrie had a small headache recalling her friend’s tastes, she had always felt that it would cause them trouble but liking younger guys did not seem that bad if they are like the boy in front of her, she thought.

“Come here, how could your teammates

abandon you? This big sister will not hurt you so let me take a look at those ears.”

Extending her hands, the green-eyed Valkyrie beckoned Nora to get closer, but he shook his head fearfully.

“I-I heard you before, y-you want to hurt me.” Nora fearfully pointed at the Valkyries. “Y-You also want the tokens from my team members, I can’t let you have them.”

Nora extended both hands to the sides and stood in front of the buried tokens like he wanted to protect them.

Sighing, the blue-eyed Valkyrie found it hard to harm the boy already. They sought to become Valkyries to protect the people and the boy in front of her is the representation of what she wants to protect.

“We won’t hurt and we won’t take your tokens, see? We meant no harm.”

The green-eyed Valkyrie spoke.

Glaring at her teammate, the blue-eyed Valkyrie did not say anything else.

“R-Really? You won’t? Y-You are not trying to deceive me, are you?” Nora asked with upturned eyes.

Feeling a type of danger that she could not describe, the blue-eyed valkyrie took a step back, but the hopeful and innocent eyes looking at her seemed to point the opposite so bit her lips and nodded at him. A strange feeling of a different nature was born inside the blue-eyed Valkyrie when the boy sighed in relief and gave her a bright smile.

“Thank goodness, I thought I got discovered by two beautiful and bad big sisters, but it turned out that it was just a pair of beautiful but kind big sisters.” Nora took a few steps closer. “T-Then, will you two become my friends? If you are not bad big sisters, you will become friends with me, right?”

Hesitating briefly, the two Valkyries looked at each other in the eyes. Inwardly chanting a spell, they established some mental communication.

[Should we be honest here?]

[Do you want to break his heart? No, we can’t.]

[You are aware that at some point we will have to break his token to win, right?]

[That will be a problem for the future us.]

[That is terrible advice.]

[Tell him that you will have to ruthlessly crush his dream to win then.]

[I hate you.]

In matters of seconds, they shared a great deal of information, and they were so into it that they failed to notice how Nora approached them until he was just a step away from them. It was then that they stopped talking and reflexively raised their guards but Nora’s harmless smile made them lower them again.

“Since we are friends, I want to invite you two to a small party I will make. I plan to invite all the Valkyries participating in this tournament that I can become friends with, along with some of the ones I befriended in college. Of course, I will invite some Einherjer too.” Nora looked alternatively between them as his tails moved their way.

They would’ve paid attention to the tails’ movements if they had not been puzzled by what he said. Like he noticed they were flabbergasted by his words, he beckoned them to get closer and they saw him looking left and right before lowering his tone of voice. Following his beckoning, one of the two seemed eager to get close to the boy while the other hesitated for a moment before letting her curiosity get the better of her.

“I heard that some Valkyries were having trouble to meet guys, so I thought I could help them. Of course, I know that a pair of beautiful big sisters like you two would never have that issue.” Nora flashed a smile.

The boy was simply smiling but the Valkyries felt like an arrow had pierced where it hurt the most and he was the one who shoot. They both sweated coldly and could not deny his words given that they were single.

“That said, I am worried about you. Even though I look harmless, you guys should’ve known that I am rather crafty, yet you have shown an opening this big. If I wanted I could’ve knocked you unconscious.” Nora’s innocent demure changed as he used each of his hands to lightly lift the Valkyries chins.

Slightly confused and dazed from his actions that seemed too natural for a boy of his age, they took a second longer to wake up from their stupor. Before they managed to strike at Nora, the boy had jumped backward.

“I could’ve hit you, but I decided against it. I have two reasons, but I guess one reason could be said that you were kind to me by not attacking me. That is why I will simply take these and retire you by breaking them.” Nora playfully smiled.

Moving his tail so the Valkyries could see them, a pair of familiar tokens were being wrapped by the tails before he grabbed one with each hand.

Surprised, the Valkyries checked their bodies and failed to find their tokens. It seemed that he had used the time when they shortened their distance to talk.

The blue-eyed valkyrie gritted her teeth angrily, she was angry at the boy for tricking them but her anger extended towards herself for falling for such a simple trick. The other valkyrie looked no different but with the addition of some disappointment.

“Sorry about that, playing with your feelings is far from what a man should do but right now I do not have the means to beat you without causing you pain, nor do I have the ability to fight honorably with you guys and walk away without getting hurt.” Nora spoke. “However, if you want to duel me some other day to get rid of your frustration, I would love to give it a go. A man should never turn down a date with a beautiful lady.”

Chuckling slightly, Nora directed his eyes to the west for a moment before his expression changed to a more serious one.

“…Why are you bothering to tell us all this? Are you bragging? Do you think we would believe the words of a liar? You are surely playing with us again.”

The blue-eyed Valkyrie harshly muttered.

“You got me there, but let me tell you that I only lied in being harmless, everything else was real. In particular, the party is real so I hope you participate, I will make sure to make it up to you with some good food.” Nora said and was about to break the tokens when-

“…you had two reasons for using this method, one for our kindness… what was the other?”

The blue-eyed Valkyrie inquired.

“Because your beautiful visage was too much for my poor heart.” Nora winked playfully before immediately breaking the tokens.

As soon as he did, a magic circle appeared below the Valkyries to teleport them out, but it was not fast enough because Nora caught sight of them blushing and-

“…if you lied about the party, prepare yourself to be hunted down and be forced to take responsibility.”

The blue-eyed Valkyrie muttered before she disappeared.

“…welp, I will foreign that I did not hear that suggestive message. Yup, the best choice.” Nora blankly stared at the area where the Valkyries were. “One down, the next Valkyries’ group is coming this way… oh, Rossweisse-san and Nur-san managed to take one team down as well. I need to work hard or I will be left behind.”

Stretching on the spot, he massaged his face for a moment, before a pitiful and scared expression hung on his face. Going back to bury the tokens, he calmly waited for the approaching team of Valkyries.

…

…

…

“…Unbelievable, Nora Shiki from Team White Rose is using some uncouth tactics to defeat team after team of Valkyries. He is not a normal child at all, there has not been a valkyrie he could not win over. Someone like that can only receive the nickname, Valkyrie Killer!”

The mood of the audience was rather mixed, despite his methods, there appeared to be a large number of female audience members who seemed to root for the boy while most of the members were in midst of rioting, asking to let the boy out so they cut beat him up. It appeared to be mostly from the fathers and brothers from the participants so their requests were ignored.

The most absurd thing is that none of the participants that were interviewed after losing had a grudge against the boy. While their claims about offering a party seemed to be one reason, there appeared to be a couple of underlying ones. Unfortunately, besides a venue liking they had for his personality as they claimed, the Valkyries only commented that they owed their lives to him. It was a piece of information that only brought back more questions but spoke a lot about the boy and reinforced everyone’s belief about his nickname.

“In the meantime, it seems like his two other teams members are not staying behind, they seem to target Einherjers while not showing any mercy. Different from the Valkyrie Killer, member Rossweisse is like moving artillery as she uses barrage and barrage of attacks to knock out the other teams, and her partner Nur is giving her great support by covering her back. She does not allow any attacks to bypass her barriers, not to mention the fact that she uses strange spells that cause strange things. Look at that, the spell she just chant caused that Einherjer to slip, and the other one dropped his shield, there is even a repetition of what happened, the strap he used to hold the shield fell off. What an amazing combination.”

Excitement could be heard from the commentator as she spoke about Team Rossweisse, almost like she had become a fan.

Gasps of surprise were heard coming from some spectator and that caused the commentator’s attention to shift somewhere else, another area where snowflakes were dancing non-stop as it enclosed a team in a sphere.

It robbed the team they were facing of their eyesight while a petite figure jumped in and out the sphere with nimble movements, the metallic clawed gauntlet she held was used to strike fear on the hearts of anyone who saw her, but it also stroke damage on the armors and weapons of her foes.

“Team Snow, like their name is using a tactic that ties down their foes enemies as well as wearing down their strength with snow while they chip away their resistance with continuous attacks that leave no chance for them to take a break.”

As fast as a machine gun were the comments from the speaking commentator. Thanks to a function within the spell that transmitted what was happening, the public was able to zoom in on events for a closer perspective along with pausing or slowing down events that were hard to follow with the nȧkėd eye.

…

…

…

“Rose, I think we should regroup with Nora. We have not seen any other teams in a while we moved this way and we need to recover a little. We have been using magic power non-stop.” Nur warned.

Walking with careful steps, she turned left and right to detect any movements. However, the real job was being done by a spell she was maintained that detected people using sound waves. Walking beside her with sword drawn and ready to fight was Rossweisse who had a serious expression.

“…Nora-kun took another team down.” Rossweisse muttered. “He reported to me just now, he did it by himself.”

Sighing, Nur could read the anxious mood from her friend’s tone.

“We are not competing against each other, I must admit that I had my doubts towards methods at first, and I will not deny that I thought we would do this at a faster pace than him, however, we are doing great. I think that the fact that we reached this far is praiseworthy.” Nur consoled.

Those were not empty words, Nur truly believed that they had done a great job to reach this far. To be honest, she was surprised at how much Rossweisse improved since she met Nora. The shy valkyrie who avoided getting involved in fights with colleagues due to the feeling that she lacked something had not disappeared completely, but her skills had gone up a few levels.

“Yet, he is beating teams much faster than us. He is amazing so I can’t stay behind.” Rossweisse exclaimed.

It was not like the petite Valkyrie could not understand what she meant. Her pride was a little hurt, but she recognized that even she would lose if that boy got serious. In their training, she had seen him use every dirty trick he could to win so she doubted she could out best him unless she was even more sly than him, which seemed almost impossible since she had never seen anyone that shameless before.

“Nur? You are blushing…” Rossweisse called out in concern.

Shaking her head, Nur got rid of certain memories before furrowing her eyebrows. Her magic spell had detected something, no, not only her magic, if she focused her hearing, she could faintly catch a fight breaking out in the distance, and as proof, her dear friend looked in a particular direction.

“It must be two teams fighting; we could use this chance to wipe out two teams at once.” Rossweisse said.

“That is reckless.” Nur retorted.

“We just need to keep our distance and wait until they have weakened enough, don’t worry, I am thinking clearly.” Rossweisse responded.

It did not seem like a bad idea if they did not join in until they had both been exhausted.

“We should go then.” Rossweisse led the way.

Following after friend, Nur could feel that something was not quite right despite a good idea.

…

…

…

When the two Valkyries arrived at the scene, what they found was a small fortress and many bloody marks spread on the ground, and despite having decided to keep their distance, a matter made them come out.

“It is a shame that I have a limited number of Geas I can use, otherwise, you two would’ve made a great addition. Unfortunately, I have not tasted these two yet so I don’t plan on releasing them and the last spot is sort of reserved…”

A familiar voice that both Valkyries felt immediate disgust towards was heard. It belonged to a certain Einherjer they had met before and left them with a terrible impression. It made Nur grit her teeth angrily and Rossweisse felt fear remembering what he did. Thanks to the situation with her grandmother she had forgotten to properly deal with that issue. Nonetheless, the two Valkyries did not act on impulse. A pair of figures that they recognized lay on the ground. One with short hair had her arms and legs bent in angles they should not be, Hilda whose gauntlets were half-destroyed beside her while she bleed dangerously, and another figure, Eira who was being stepped on by the Einherjer, Klaus. Eira looked no better than Hilda with a gruesome slash wound on her stomach and while she looked conscious, the way she was weakly coughing blood was an indicator that it might change soon.

Klaus was not alone, behind him, a pair of Valkyries stood with lost stares and did not react to the spectacle around them.

Actions were better than words, Rossweisse once heard the boy she began considering a special friend mutter such a thing and she could not agree more. She severely lacked information to understand how things developed to this point or how to resolve this perfectly, however, she knew that if she did not do something Eira and Hilda might die. For an instant, the Valkyrie thought of an idea and looked around but failed to find the tokens from the fallen Valkyries. Sending them out would be good considering that they would receive medical attention but if they were not in her sight, she could not destroy them.

Mentally sending Nora a few words about their location and asking for support, Rossweisse immediately prepared a spell, the magic circle however became two and the three, the process repeated a few times until there was a dozen of them and she fired at Klaus an array of elemental magic. It flew in a straight line, but even after impacting… it caused no damage.

“Look what we have here, the Valkyrie who came back from the dead. You have no idea how happy I was to hear that you survived.” Klaus spoke.

His tone and words would sound perfectly normal in the ears of others who did not know what happened, but to the two who knew what kind of person he was, they only made them shudder in disgust.

Stepping forward, Rossweisse stood between Nur who had her head lowered, and muttered several words in an inaudible tone of voice.

“Speak, what happened to them?” Rossweisse asked.

Warily staring at the Valkyries who looked to not mind their surroundings, she wanted to avoid being caught off guard by a sneak attack.

“How cold of you, I am showing my concern here.” Klaus smiled deviously and some anger was contained in his tone. “Well, you make the strangest questions; they wanted to fight me so I defeated them. As the winner, it is my right to decide what to do with the, isn’t that right? You arrogantly thought you could defeat a warrior of my caliber and even refused my grace, this is what you deserve.”

Putting more strength on his foot, he caused Eira more pain as she weakly ġrȯȧnėd.

“R-Run.” Eira weakly said.

In the mind of the fallen Valkyrie, the strength of the man who left her in her current state replayed in her memories.

-Flashback Starts

Dozens of minutes earlier, two valkyrie similar hair color but different hair length, Eira and Hilda, were following the trail of an Einherjer who was escaping after his team tried to ambush the two. However, as they strode forward, they felt an out-of-place feeling.

“Can you feel that?” Eira asked.

Stopping in her tracks, she caught sight of large construction in the distance, a small fortress.

“…it is quiet.” Hilda spoke in a low tone of voice. “Too much, given the silence, we should be able to hear at least the sound of other teams fighting like in the area we were a while ago, but there is nothing of that sort here.”

Nodding at her friend’s words, Eira stared deeply at the fortress.

“That location is suspicious, shall we take a look?” Eira asked.

Nodding in response, Hilda checked her surroundings once more before walking forward, followed by Eira.

…

…

…

Once they arrived at the fortress, they found a gruesome sight. Einherjer and Valkyries lay on the ground bleeding and groaning from pain, some of them were on the verge of dying. In the middle of that chaos was an Einherjer with a twisted but satisfied smile who grinned widely when he saw them arrive. A pair of Valkyries that seemed to be his team members stood quietly a distance away from him, they did not react to their appearance.

“I know you… among the Valkyries; you have made a name for yourself, a promising seed… and a target to destroy before you bloom.” Klaus spoke. “That said, you two are quite the beauties, it would be a shame to kill you.”

With a regrettable expression, Klaus crossed his arms without caring for anything else. His axe was stuck on the ground beside him but he made no movements to reach for it.

Sharing a look with her friend, Eira took a step forward to engage in a conversation, although she heard what he said, she could not back down now that they were seen. The best she could do was to analyze her surroundings to come up with the optimal way to deal with her situation. First of all, as a fellow Valkyrie, she wanted to help her comrades and the way to do so-

“…you are ignoring me?” Klaus spoke in a dark tone.

He seems pissed at Eira, but she just calmly took her time before looking at him again. The man in front of her looked the type to give a lot of importance to his ego so the fact that he was so chatting was because he wanted to feed his ego by acting all mighty.

“…Is there a problem? You probably are going to say that you will not kill us if we forfeit or offer our bodies to you. It is beyond pathetic, have you really not considered other lines to use?” Eira mocked.

Attracting the agro to her, she used a tone that she only used when guys trying to pick her up on the streets annoyed her and it worked like a charm. Different from the spineless guys who ran away as soon as her voice got colder, the guy in front of her looked vividly pissed.

“You bitch…” Klaus spat out.

“You truly lack manners, is it that hard to speak without muttering obscenities? Anyways, state your business. You must have a reason, right?” Eira narrowed her eyes.

While Eira was busy distracting Klaus with her words, she kept inwardly chanting a few spells, she did it slowly to not raise any suspicion, not to mention, she was communicating with her friend in real-time.

“Why are you needlessly torturing your comrades?” Eira exclaimed. “Are you not afraid that your deeds will be punished?”

“Perhaps they will, perhaps they won’t. It does not matter, since I did not break any rules, there is no need for punishment.” Klaus shrugged his shoulders. “That said, you should be worrying about yourself first, you turned down my offer even before I made it after all so I will not have any mercy on you two… Hmm? Where is…?”

Noticing something strange, Klaus could only see Eira in front of him, someone was missing and before he could turn around to look, a crushing sound was heard. A second later, he could that the Einherjer and Valkyries he left half dead on the ground disappeared one by one.

“…You!” Klaus angrily glared at Eira.

Being glared like that made Eira felt pressured, it looked like he did not like that they sent away the defeated people but he soon calmed down.

“They were weaklings anyway so I can take of them later.” Klaus put on a confident front.

Not bothering to even turn around, he had his back directed to a certain someone who did not doubt to attack. Swinging down her clawed arms, Hilda widened her eyes when her attack bounced off.

Failing once made her back off in case a counter-attack came her way but nothing happened and she attacked again only for the same thing to occur again.

“Eira! My attacks are not working.” Hilda shouted.

Backing off again, she took a stance to react to any possible attacks.

Furrowing her eyebrows, Eira looked at Klaus with a more serious look. So far, she made a rough estimate of the abilities of this man, not only based on what she saw today but the other time on the sea as well. The physical prowess he showed before was dangerous but she has to measure the limit yet, his defense above all was the most troublesome thing. She had not seen anyone before that could pierce it and inflict injuries on him. Eira slightly underestimated the skills of the man; she hoped that her trusted friend who she was confident of would be able to deal with some wounds.

Completing the spell she was preparing, a cold wind began to blow around the area before snowflakes followed along.

Knowing that regular attacks would not work, she began trying different methods. When the snowflakes danced around until they covered the Einherjer’s vision.

“Hilda!” Eira called out.

“ON IT!” Hilda yelled back. “BLITZKRIEG ERWEITEN”

Immediately casting and spell on her, the petite valkyrie movements changed instantly. As she dashed to attack Klaus again, her movements were blurred due to her speed increase, leaving small craters where her feet were before attacking. However, not only her speed multiplied, but her strength as well. The first blow she delivered was a punch and the impact sounded loud, nonetheless, when she backed away, Hilda did not look pleased.

“Was it effective?” Eira asked despite knowing the answer.

“He deflected it, my fist landed on the ground, I tried to do it again but it felt strange… the impact was absorbed.” Hilda looked confused.

Biting her lips, Eira began to multitask, while she kept the snowy spell, she conjured icicles of the size of her arm, several of them.

“Concentrated fire!” Eira said.

Following her words, the icicles flew away one after another in a straight line. Just behind them, Hilda followed.

…

…

…

A complete failure that is how Eira would describe her strategy if things had simply gone wrong.

“Can you stand up?” Eira asked.

Nodding with some difficulty Hilda used Eira as support to stand up; her left arm was bent in the wrong direction so she was being held from the other side. Beside her arm, her leg was hurt. Eira was not looking that well either given the wound on her stomach.

“We underestimated his defenses, it seems hopeless… and escaping only left us like this. I doubt that there is anyone who can even beat him.” Eira bitterly muttered.

Covering her wound with her hand, she tried to stop the bleeding while recalling how Klaus stole their tokens and tormented them since they could not escape.

“…There is someone.” Hilda muttered weakly.

Even as they spoke, Klaus stared at them condescendingly and calmly waited for them to make a move. He had been doing that, expecting the mode to counter it. Eira noticed that his skill set was strange, he showed no signs of chanting spells nor did he use magic circles to manifest any phenomena. On several occasions she could see some of the tattoos visible despite the armor, shining.

Recalling the individuals she had heard or seen during her study time, Eira failed to think of such a person.

“…The one who saved us back then.” Hilda added.

Widening her eyes, Eira finally recalled when that boy used some sort of spell to change into that handsome guy who attacked recklessly that monster. When Klaus failed to do anything, that boy gave that monster a good smack. If he repeated that again, he might be able to deal with the Einherjer.

“What is it? Is that all you can do? I honestly expected more from you. As a warrior, I seek a worthy fight, a battlefield where I show my worth… yet I am stuck here. A warrior like me needs to show his bravery, his strength!” Klaus lamented.

“He… ehehe…” Hilda chuckled out loud.

Eira was surprised at the actions of her usually taciturn friend, she was a good girl who had trouble talking to others but kept most of her thought inside her except for a few people.

“…What is so funny?” Klaus reacted with a frown on his face.

“Hehehe, nothing much. You speak like you are so special, but you only know how to bully those weaker than you. You are not a warrior, you are simply a coward.” Hilda glared at Klaus. “You know nothing about bravery.”

“What do you even know?” Klaus looked pissed.

With a sarcastic smile that left Eira dumbfounded, Hilda laughed.

“I know what kind of guy you are, I saw what you did when the Curruid appeared, not only did you sacrifice that girl, you even ran away, staying hidden until help arrived, you did not show yourself until there was no danger. Some ‘brave’ warrior you are. Oh, wait a minute, back them you spoke about how a warrior had to be fearless as well so you failed miserably at both. Look at you, you had enough strength to put up a fight for a few minutes at most, yet your first thoughts were about fleeing. It just shows that your strength is something you acquired by chance and not effort, your real cowardly self will show during critical times.” Hilda mocked.

Turning bright red from rage, Klaus looked ready to explode. Eira couldn’t remember the time she heard her friend speak this much, or even use this tone.

“You did nothing back then either.” Klaus retorted while gritting his teeth.

“You are right, I was afraid, the thought of dying froze my body. I admit that I should’ve lent a hand, but you see, someone stepped forward, and his actions were enough to motivate someone as pitiful as me. Different from you, he did crazy things to save his friend, if there is someone who fits the description of brave is him, not you!” Hilda spoke.

It was a vivid memory for both Valkyries as they often spoke about since that day, but it seemed that Hilda received an impact big enough to talk back to the person who can easily kill them. No, it was the same for Eira as well, the valkyrie could feel that a bothersome feeling that had been plaguing her since the man self importantly began talking. The voluptuous Valkyrie silently thought that they had unknowingly developed a good image of the boy without imagining.

“HE!? The cat who only wanted to stop fighting? You are saying he is a warrior and not me? He is a child! Look at me! My mighty figure could crush his puny one easily!” Klaus yelled. “You are favoring that child over me?”

“Heh!” Eira and Hilda both snickered at the same time.

Surprised at their synchronization, they stared at each other and understood how alike were their thoughts.

“If I had to choose, I would rather have him watch my back than have you doing it.” “If I had to choose for a partner, I would rather choose him.” Hilda and Eira muttered at the same time.

Their answers pushed Klaus’s anger to the limits and the veins on his neck and face could be clearly seen about to explode.

“I won’t kill you at once… I will pour all my rage towards you. Let’s see if you will still choose him the next time I ask.” Klaus darkly muttered.

-Flashback Ends

Gritting her teeth, Rossweisse stepped forward.

“This is a tournament where we prove our skills and compete against each other, there is no need to take it this far, they might die at this rate.” Rossweisse exclaimed.

Despite knowing what kind of individual this person was, she hoped that he would at least consider the lives of the injured ones.

“That is where you make a mistake.” Klaus grinned. “There are no rules that dictate that we should not ‘kill’ or that people can’t ‘die’. If you are a warrior, you must always be prepared to die. If you fight and lose, your life will be forfeited and belong to the winner… They lost so I can do as I please with them.”

Expecting a fierce fight, Rossweisse tightened the grip of her sword. A timely spell was cast on her and she felt her strength surge, her friend Nur was supporting her from the back, it was ok to do this.

With nimble movements, Rossweisse dashed after signaling Nur something with her eyes. Klaus did not meet her sword with his weapon despite the closeness that the blade was to his body, and when Rossweisse thought she had made a clean slashing wound, a dull sound was heard. The attack stopped before it touched his body. Panicking, Rossweisse did not expect her attack to be ineffective to this degree.

“It is useless, I am invincible. Whether it is magic or physical attacks, I am beyond any of you.” Klaus spoke.

Klaus reached for Rossweisse, but the precious Valkyrie evaded by jumping backward before swinging her blade a few times more. However, the result was no different than before She did not manage to inflict any sort of damage.

“This is getting monotonous, contrary to your belief, I get bored of useless struggle… and even I can learn to not forget about my surroundings.” Klaus turned his head in a certain direction.

Having picked up Hilda, Nur was dragging her away. The Einherjer responded by dashing that way, but he was forced to roll on the ground midway. Standing up a little confused, he directed his eyes to the responsible for his fall. A sword was stuck on the ground just a little further where he had stepped.

Rossweisse who had thrown her sword to help her friend sighed in relief when she noticed that it worked. His body would directly nullify or absorb the attacks, but he was still bound to move his body according to the environment.

As Klaus felt ashamed of his blunder, he saw Rossweisse running to pick up Eira and drag her away. Ignoring Nur, he picked up the axe he had let go of during his fall before leaping in the precious valkyrie’s way. Heavily landing, he used the blunt side of his axe to fling Rossweisse away along with Eira. During his actions, he noticed that Nur had dragged Hilda from his sight and was coming back. She looked scared and tears were coming out of her eyes, but she still valiantly marched his way.

Smirking, he thought that he would like to see her expression distort even further.

“HAAAAAAAAA!” Klaus yelled a beast-like howl.

Following his will, a spell activated and like the howl of a beast, it caused fear to spread in his surroundings, Nur’s leg could not handle her weight all of sudden and she fell shaking fearfully.

Snickering at that sight, he prepared to handle the fear-stricken Valkyrie when-

“Take this!” Rossweisse yelled.

On her feet, she had moved beside him and stuck her hand on his face. Activating a spell similar to a flashlight, it robbed him of his sight for a moment.

Instinctively, he covered his face. He momentarily wondered how she was able to move despite receiving that strong debuff spell but he made up his mind to focus only on his target, after he acquires what he seeks, he will deal with the rest.

Dragging Eira who lost consciousness, Rossweisse helped Nur to stand up.

“H-He has the tokens of Eira and Hilda, if we want to send them out, we need to break them.” Nur muttered. “Hilda woke up a second ago and told me… w-what should we do?”

Biting her lips, Rossweisse made up her mind. Gripping tightly the pendant that was shining in green, it responded to her will and shone brighter. It covered Nur and the Valkyrie stopped shaking.

“I will somehow get those, in the meantime; get them as far away as possible. When you meet Nora asking him to break the tokens, we are forfeiting.” Rossweisse exclaimed.

“I can’t leave you alone.” Nur stopped her friend.

Nonetheless, Rossweisse picked Eira and handed her to Nur.

“You cannot, if he uses that spell again, you will not be able to resist. I have my lucky charm so I will be ok.” Rossweisse said.

Biting her lips, Nur did not push it anymore.

She simply took Eira away.

…

…

…

“Aren’t you tenacious? The way you run around is annoying, but that is over.” Klaus spoke.

Lying on the ground was Rossweisse who was being stepped on by him, pieces of her armor were scattered around her and coughed blood. She had resisted, but in the end, Klaus had caught her.

“You will finally be mine.” Klaus laughed vulgarly. “But, first… the Geas.”

Extending his hand, he took off his gloves and several runes were tattooed on his hands. They shone bright red before the same glow covered Rossweisse, however, when he grinned victoriously, his smile froze. Like shattered glass, the red glow broke apart as a green glow covered her.

“*Cough* H-Hehe, too bad *cough* Nora-kun, is protecting me.” Rossweisse grinned defiantly.

Feeling his blood pressure rising, Klaus felt humiliated by that grin so he angrily grabbed her neck and put her at eye level.

“DO YOU THINK IT IS FUNNY? I JUST SENT MY SLAVES TO CHASE AND KILL YOUR FRIENDS, WHAT ARE YOU LAUGHING AT? HUH?” Klaus yelled. “NORA? YOU MEAN THAT LITTLE BOY? YOU ARE ALSO ON HIS SIDE? GUESS WHAT, THAT LITTLE SHIT CAN’T SAVE YOU, HE CAN’T PROTECT YOU.”

Speaking whatever came to his mind, he tried to break Rossweisse’s will. However, despite having difficulties breathing, she glared at him with a steady gaze.

“Heroes always come to rescue others, and if I had to call someone like that, it would be him *cough*. However, he would get angry if I called him that. Nora-kun is silly, but I know he will come.” Rossweisse smiled. “He is not someone you can hope to defeat, after all… you were powerless against that monster *cough* yet he jumped in to save me, so he is, without doubt, my hero.”

As the veins on his neck threatened to burst, Klaus noticed a certain something on Rossweisse’s neck. Narrowing his eyes, he tried to use the Geas again, but the result was the same as last time. However, he noticed how he failed this time.

“Keep talking; let’s see how much longer can you speak that nonsense.” Klaus grinned viciously.

Grabbing her pendant, he pulled it until the string that let hang on her neck was torn. Rossweisse showed signs of distress and tried to take it back only to fail.

“He- HE- hehehehe. See? Now he can’t protect you anymore. No, he never protected you in the first place. Be prepared to-” Klaus stopped his words midway.

Two things caused him to stop his words. The first one was the pendant on his hand who started to act wildly. Despite the magic resistance from the runes on his body, the green light coming from the pendant caused him a mind-breaking pain, it was like his soul was burning. He could’ve imagined it, but the pendant seemed to be getting revenge for hurting the woman he just threw away. In response, he threw the pendant as well. Nonetheless, the second reason for his actions was that a terrible pressure had suddenly materialized nearby and terrifying killing intent had targeted him. He bȧrėly grabbed his axe before he felt an impact that reverberated through his whole body despite the runes that absorbed shock doing their jobs. It was such a terrible blow that he did not see anything before he was flung away from his position, the momentum did not stop until several meters after rolling on the ground. Groggily raising his body, Klaus saw what hit him, a bastard sword with a strange shape. Like you had carved a triangular prism out of a lump of metal. However, this lump of metal had carvings on it.

Part 5

3rd Person POV

Appearing in a flash, a figure carefully caught the thrown Rossweisse. Holding her in his arms, the tall figure looked visibly sad with the state the Valkyrie was in.

“Ladies and Gentlemen, I have no words to express what I am seeing. When things looked grim and hope seemed lost, he appeared. I am so surprised that I do not know what to say. That young man, as you can see, came just in time to save participant Rossweisse. Nora Shiki, who went from a cute child to an exceedingly handsome young man has made an appearance.!”

The commentator seemed to have trouble speaking for a moment and her shy appearance was projected on the spell that allowed the audience to see her.

“No, I mean, why are you guys showing my appearance? This is, you see? I am still an unmarried maiden so I can still get moved by a man’s appearance when I found her to be in my strike zone so… Stop focusing on me, goddammit. I am not the only one, on the audience seats, there are plenty of women like me so stop harassing me!”

Yelling at the top of her lungs, the commentator pointed somewhere and the focus changed that way.

Many people in the audience snickered in amusement at the commentator antics and she received many pitiful stares along with understanding ones.

“Poor girl, well, I guess you are lucky to have married me already, huh, honey? She must be pretty innocent to fall for that young man just from seeing him… Sweetie, you wouldn’t fall for that guy, would you? Papa is the most handsome, right?”

A random man in the audience seats was chuckling and started to brag to his wife and daughter. His wife and he had been madly in love since they first met as a Valkyrie and Einherjers, and their daughter followed that example, in fact, she was in the tournament just now. He had been angry at the beginning in the way how she was sent away by that flirty cat, but he was now extremely thankful after looking at the terrible display of Klaus. Joking slightly, he did not get an instant reply so he was about to turn away from the spell showing the bashful commentator when it changed to the audience seats, it showed the appearance of two attractive women, one young and one older who would look like the sister of the first one by how young-looking she was, however, their expressions looked dazed with a blush on their faces. Beside them, a man whose mouth couldn’t be opened any further carried a surprised expression.

Yes, the man who was being broadcasted, and the man who was just speaking to his wife and daughter were the same.

“Sweetie, you were invited to a party by him… right?”

The older but still young-looking woman asked with a dazed expression.

Nodding slightly, the younger one did not part her eyes from the broadcast.

“He said that he would invite many Valkyries and Einherjers so they could meet and chat, he told me that someone like me wouldn’t have any trouble meeting a good man, but my fellow Valkyries had some troubles so he wanted to lend a hand.”

“…do you think I could go to the party as well?”

The words from the woman made the younger one finally look away from the screen.

“Mom!?”

“He said he would invite Valkyries, did he not, well, I am one and I can fill my outfit perfectly fine.”

“Mom!? What are you thinking!? What about Dad!?”

“Heh, daddy has been too busy looking at the young widow’s buŧŧock from next door lately so I think he has other things in mind other than his lovely and young wife, now it is time that we move on and finish this.”

“Honey!? It is not like that!”

Small fights like this one had begun around the whole area. The commentator shuddered thinking that it was all caused by the youth seen in the broadcast. However, all her thoughts about how devilish he was disappeared when she saw him gently rubbing the Valkyries face as she turned bright red.

“Ah~ how moving! Could this perhaps be a sign that the two of them share a special relationship? Oh, how jealous I am. Nonetheless, being number two does not sound so bad either…”

The clueless commentator began daydreaming carelessly speaking using the microphone. Unaware that her words stirred more chaos among the audience again.

…

…

…

“Nora-kun, release me, it is embarrassing…” Rossweisse squirmed.

Being embraced by the boy in the new form was bad for many reasons and her heart could not calm down, although she also had the feeling of not wanting this to end. A simple summary, a maiden heart’s is complicated, or so she thought. Nonetheless, she did not fight back too much since she was aware of what the boy, no, youth was up to. The glow on his hand was incredibly pleasant and she could feel the pain and the wounds on her body disappearing.

“It is ok, I am here now. I heard from Nur, let Nora take care of the rest. I will make him pay for hurting my beautiful fiance…” Nora spoke with a chilling tone of voice but a smile on his face.

Despite the cold tone, Rossweisse felt reassured and slightly excited. It was foolish of her to have these kinds of thoughts, but right now Nora looked like the man of her dreams, handsome and caring, however, she soon beat up her inner self who had those ideas. How perverted of her to think of Nora like that! Her restless mind was in so much chaos that she did not even react to the way he called her and it is up to debate whether she would’ve cared or not.

Standing a distance away from the two, Klaus had stood up and kept a guarded position in case a new attack came his way but Nora only had eyes for Rossweisse and the two seemed to be flirting and ignoring his presence completely.

Watching how they got along so well caused Klaus’s jealousy to flare up. How is that damned cat more popular than him? Not only the one in front, but the other two from before were the same. Even before he turned into what he is now by accepting that deal, Klaus had never enjoyed that privilege.

“…You! Damned Cat! How long will you stay like that!?” Klaus called out.

He made a mistake, his anger clouded his judgment, making him forget the terrifying killing intent that was directed at him before.

“Huh?” Nora raised his head and looked coldly at Klaus.

Gently placing Rossweisse on the ground, he kindly rubbed her cheeks to clean up a bit of blood that remained. When his hand parted, Rossweisse extended her hand slightly before blushing and covering her face. Giving her a last look, Nora turned to Klaus.

“Aport” Nora nonchalantly chanted.

In one second, the sword that was stuck on the ground far away returned to his hand.

“Finally getting into it? You came just to get beaten up, I will use this axe to cut your tails before I spit you into two.” Klaus spoke. “Oh, wait a moment, you won’t go asking me to stop fighting again, will you? This isn’t a damn game, we are warriors fighting, not some pathetic kindergarten kids in a brawl.”

“Shut it, you piece of garbage. Do the world a favor and kill yourself, please spare other people the trouble of getting rid of the pathetic intent of man you are. Look at you, feeling happy because you are swinging that big axe to hurt people that badly in a friendly tournament? Judging by that size, I bet you are trying to compensate for ‘other things’, you pathetic worm.” Nora’s tone was cold and his face lacked any expression.

The way he talked would’ve, no, it left with her mouth opened a certain Valkyrie. It was the first time she had heard him talking like that and it seemed that he was so pissed that he didn’t care if he was heard by anyone else.

His words stunned Klaus as well, however, he got angry when she mentioned ‘other things’ since he had a complex after having his body turned into his current self.

“You are the worm, you and that whore, all of you, I will kill you all, the plan is damned. However, I will make that whore into my plaything first, judging by your looks, your mother must be a beauty so I will-” Klaus was unable to speak any longer.

Rossweisse in her place paled like she was a sheet of paper, not only did Klaus’s words make her uncomfortable enough to shudder but something else made her tremble. Nonetheless, soon she calmed down, the pressure that ȧssaulted her disappeared. Not long after, the pendant from Nora came flying beside her and jumped on her hand.

Around her, Rossweisse noticed strange phenomena, the trees around them seemed to grow at a rapid pace but their shapes looked distorted. One look at Klaus and he was sweating coldly in place, Nora had not moved from his place and that worried her, Scathach had worked with Nora to improve his technique by adding changes to it that only Nora knew, but she was certain it had a limited time. Klaus’s words probably struck a bad point on Nora so if he freezes, their opportunities to win will be gone.

“Die.” Nora mumbled in a low tone.

Putting a foot forward, he used to leap in a straight line at Klaus, however, the Einherjer only saw a blur before Nora raised his speed by stepping on the ground again.

Before he was able to understand what happened, he was stuck on the ċhėst by an unseen blow and sent flying away.

He was and greatly flustered, he thought that the attack from before was the strongest blow Nora could manage but things did not look that way.

Crashing into tree after tree, Klaus did not come to a stop easily, but when his speed had decreased, he was struck by an attack coming from the sky, or at least that is what it looked like since he saw a blur appear on the sky before he felt like his insides were crushed. Not only the runes tattooed on his body, but the several crests that were carved on his flesh failed to mitigate the pain and the damage. Nothing like this had happened before, and he was not sure how to deal with it.

When he crashed on the ground, a crater was formed. Yet, Klaus had no time to rest. Nora followed after him and with the blunt side of his sword, he struck him over and over at a speed that could not be seen.

The youth did not say anything, his face lacked any expression. He just raised his arms and struck down. Klaus was already close to fainting, a few ribs were the only thing that did not broke. His right arm tried to reach for stone beside him to throw it at Nora but he simply stomped that hand until a crushing sound was heard before he continued to hit him.

Klaus was about to reach his limit, the crests that protected him from physical attacks had long been consumed and would take too long before they worked again. He was bȧrėly resisting by using the meager magic power he had, but that soon will be over as well. Stopping for a moment, the muscles on Nora’s arm bulged slightly in preparation to hit Klaus one last time. The Einherjer prepared to meet his maker and pushed every defensive method he had to resist the strongest attack he might receive, just to live one second later but the attack never came. He felt that something was strange and when he looked at his ȧssailant; it was the boy he hated in his regular child form. He looked visibly tired and could bȧrėly raise the sword he had.

Not wasting the opportunity, Klaus used his most healthy arm to hot the boy, effectively sending him away.

“I don’t know what caused you to have such terrible luck, but to falter when you are about to deliver the finishing blow is pitiful.” Klaus chuckled.

As beaten up as he was, Klaus did not seem to be in a bad mood. The fact that he avoided dead was a joyous event for him. While the runes and magic crest that protected him were no longer usable, he had ones that could help him live even in his state.

Nonetheless, Klaus had to admit that it was a close one. He had underestimated a couple of things. One was the toughness of his body with the help of runes and the magic crest, while the other was Nora’s might. The crater he was trying to climb was deep. He was certain that even a High-Class warrior close to Ultimate-Class might die trying to endure such a rampage.

“My axe has been lost somewhere, but don’t think I cannot deal with an exhausted child without it.” Klaus muttered.

After leaving the hole, he saw Nora with eyes closed and trying to do something in a meditation pose. It immediately raised some alarms on him so he walked and pushed the half-destroyed crest that raised his physical might. During the fight, many of the runes and crest carved on his were broken, not only that. The tokens from those two Valkyries he has under control, and the two he left badly injured had been destroyed at some point too, if it wasn’t because his token was hidden in a ‘special’ location, he would’ve been sent away already. Although for the same reason he almost died.

Tightening his fist, he threw a punch but Nora opened his eyes and rolled on the ground, pulling a knife out of nowhere, the boy stabbed the Einherjer on the leg before getting away.

“Hah, is that best you can do?” Klaus pulled the knife and threw it away.

It bȧrėly pierced his skin so he did not give it a closer look, like the liquid it was covered with.

“It seems that after losing that for you became all bark no bite, ah, should I use a different example since you are a cat.” Klaus mocked.

Ignoring his words, Nora pulled more knives.

“You might have a better chance if you use that sword from before, although your puny figure might not be able to lift it.” Klaus muttered.

Grinning, he thought of a great idea, or so the Einherjers considered as such so he walked to where the sword was and tried to pull it, but his strength was not enough and it stayed glued to the ground.

“If it is about ‘lifting’, I guarantee that I have no problems in that area. Not sure about you, being packed with steroids is never good for the body, and given your complex… you might develop problems with ‘lifting’ things. Believe me, I am a doctor despite my looks, I got approved by the Supernatural Medical Association so I know what I am saying.” Nora mocked. “You can’t ‘lift’ it now, can’t you?”

Speaking with double meaning, Nora pointed at Klaus who failed to lift the sword. Klaus did not know why but he felt a large number of people laughing behind his back.

“You!” Klaus chased after Nora.

They repeated a situation where Klaus would attack Nora and he would just roll on the ground and stab Klaus with a knife. Unfortunate for Nora, Klaus learned his lesson and predicted where Nora would be so he kicked in advance at that position. Nora got kicked on the stomach by the metallic boots Klaus carried so he took some damage.

“*Cough* I think, that I underestimated you a little… I thought you had no brain cells, but you got one… what a blunder.” Nora smirked.

In his weakened state, he could not even use ki to strengthen himself since Klaus felt no resistance when the attack hit.

“You must be full of energy and lack a screw if you can speak so much nonsense. Don’t you see that you are meant to die? No one will save you, those two you saved already ran away. You have been abandoned here with me. That whore is probably in a safe place with a relieved expression now that she is safe while you are here about to get killed, do you think she will even spare you a thought? No, everyone is selfish and self-centered. You came here just to waste your life… just acting all coy and look how you are about to die because of her. You were used.” Klaus spoke.

Taking a step back, Klaus felt a frightening killing intent targeting him again. When he noticed where it came from, he gulped. Nora’s eyes looked ready to kill before they went back to normal. His hand was on the pouch tied to his waist before he took it out there. Klaus got the feeling that the boy still hid something else, something dark. It gave the same feeling that the man who granted him power before gave off.

“Call that girl like that one more time and I will rip that mouth off yours, don’t your thing I forgot about the things you said before either. You won’t live past today, I guarantee it.” Nora pulled out more knives.

Aiming at Klaus’s neck, Nora threw the knives but Klaus used the arm that had his hand broken to cover himself.

Without the need for words, they both engaged in a pit fight.

…

…

…

The difference in physical size show soon enough, with his Ki, Nora could not match the other party’s strength. his speed was fast but Klaus had been able to suddenly lift Nora’s sword and he was using it to corner the boy.

Using it to send him flying against a tree, Nora bounced off and fell to the ground coughing.

Klaus grinned and was about to smash his head when he raised the sword and-

“Now!” Nora yelled.

Standing up hastily, Klaus lost equilibrium since the sword in his hands gained life all of sudden, pulling him backward. Nora did not miss that chance and leaped at him with a knife in hand, one he used to stab Klaus in the eye.

“Argh!” Klaus dropped the sword immediately and grabbed Nora before throwing him against the tree with all he had, he was about to kick him but he could not.

“Don’t touch him!” Rossweisse yelled and a barrage of magic attacks rained upon him. Yet, when he tried to evade them, he slipped. It was something strange given that there was nothing on the ground so he received the full brunt of the magic attack.

“Hehe, I love that spell.” Nur’s voice sounded proud.

Sighing exasperatedly, Nora stood up after glancing at Klaus who this time received damage from magic attacks.

“I told you to leave as soon as possible, I even handed you your tokens.” Nora spoke in a reproaching tone, but he looked visibly happy.

“Hmph, you certainly did but you did not leave yours, idiot.” Nur complained but soon got closer to Nora to inspect him.

“Kya! Where are you touching, you pervert!?” Nora backed away.

“I only touched your shoulder though!?” Nur exclaimed in a flustered tone.

Smiling at their antics, Rossweisse turned her head to Klaus. He was standing up again.

“You think you have won? Is that why you are so nonchalant?” Klaus spoke in an emotionless tone.

“Not at all, my apologies. They got angry when they saw their personal chef get hurt, but they won’t intrude into the fight again. I have yet to pay you back for all you said.” Nora walked forward to meet Klaus’s glare.

Before Rossweisse or Nur could say a word, he signaled them to back away.

“It is ok, trust me.” Nora winked playfully at then, then turned to look at Klaus again. “What? Don’t tell you planned to run away just like that? I am honestly pretty exhausted, one more hit is all I can manage. How about it? This is a rare chance you might not get again, a chance to kill me that is. You are not scared of a poor and weak child like me, are you?”

Signaling once more to the Valkyries that came to help him to stand back, Nora glared at Klaus with a mocking grin.

Feeling annoyed by that look, Klaus felt something wrong with his body, now that he was staying in place, he could feel that his movements were heavier than usual, however, his mind seemed to ignore that. He could only see Nora surrounded by the two Valkyries and their concerned gazes for the boy morphed into mocking grins at him. He had a hard time containing his rage, and he stopped considering escaping despite his low victory chances. He had even received a modified token to teleport himself far from the Norse Gods’ reach from a collaborator of the one who changed his body.

“Tsk, as expected you are just a chicken. Chickens get scared easily… oh wait since I am a cat… that means you are even more afraid of me.” Nora nodded with an understanding look.

Reasoning that yelled him to flee because something strange was happening to his body was thrown away as his emotions got the better of him, even faster than usual, but his reasoning was already out of the way to question that.

“Let’s do it.” Klaus spoke. “I will kill you…!”

Klaus got into position and immediately dashed forward, but his movements were a lot slower, yet he did not seem to notice.

Nora nonchalantly stayed in his position, slowly unwrapping a bandage he had on his body. He let it fall to the ground and waited.

“You see, cats hold grudges for a very long time. Rossweisse-san and Nur-san are my precious friends, and you hurt them. I am also acquaintances of the two you were tormenting before and Nur-san interrupted you. All you said you would do to them pissed me off and I wanted to ruin you, honestly, I am scared of my thought process. However, the point is that you hurt people I care about and planned to do unspeakable things… yet, you also mentioned my dear Kaa-san. You deserve capital punishment, however, I will only deliver part since there is someone who heard what you said about the precious Valkyrie and is not happy. Don’t worry though; my revenge will not disappoint you…” Nora spoke.

Using the bandage like a whip, he wrapped Klaus’s leg and pulled, making him fall. The Einherjer fell face first but soon turned his body around only to stop when Nora had a sadistic smile as he stood close to his feet.

“I admit, my Ki has hardly recovered, that technique has still many downsides, and recovering after it being slow is one of them. However, did you know? I am not only nekomata but a devil as well.” Nora stomped at Klaus’s legs and he opened them to avoid the hit. “Did you know? Devils have demonic power which can be used to strengthen the body as well, although I am not that used to it so I might just put more strength than usual.”

Standing between his opened legs, Nora raised his foot.

“Shiki Household, Ultimate Skill… Civilization’s End.” Nora muttered before stomping with all his strength.

You could see a blue glow covering his leg as it stomped on Klaus’s crotch, proof of his physical enhancement using demonic power.

Three crushing sounds were heard clearly.

“As expected, you hid it there you sicko.” Nora’s lips twitched. “Never mind, she will deal with you next.”

Klaus had many complaints, but the pain was so great he forgot to speak.

“Wash your neck, that granny is angry.” Nora muttered nonchalantly as Klaus faded away.

Being left alone, Nora extended his hand and his sword flew back to his hand.

“This one would’ve hurt more, but I don’t want to hand back Kasen-san’s sword bloodied by the nuts of someone.” Nora sighed.

Turning around, Rossweisse and Nur stood in their places with their mouths opened in surprise.

“What?” Nora inquired.

“Wasn’t that a bit extreme?” Nur muttered, although there was no pity on her voice.

“Listen, I won’t allow some guy who said and planned to do stuff I won’t mention to you guys to walk around freely. Anyone who plans to do so, I will deliver some divine punishment. Even those who have even the slightest thought of doing something wicked or ŀėwd to you two, I will ‘deal’ with them.” Nora’s gaze was directed at a certain area in the sky where the magic that broadcasted the tournament was set.

The boy grinned and he could almost feel the shudder that all the males watching them felt.

“How did you beat him that easily…? He was suddenly so slow…” Rossweisse asked.

Pulling from his pouch several knives, he showed them off.

“Poison.” Nora muttered a frightening thing with a smile on his face.

His words made the Valkyries shudder and decided not to ask any further.

“So, where are the rest of the competitors?” Nora looked left and right.

Sharing a look, the Valkyries smiled awkwardly.

“There is none.” Nur muttered.

“Eh?” Nora tilted his head.

“It is as Nur said, we are the last team.” Rossweisse spoke.

Chuckling at Nora’s surprised face, the Valkyries happily laughed.

…

…

…

“Damn it, damn it! This pain, this grudge, I will repay it a hundredfold.” Klaus yelled.

Holding his ‘wounded’ area with one hand, he moved through an unhabituated forest located deep into the mountains. He had been, like promised been sent far from Asgard’s reach, however, he failed to locate the person he was supposed to pick him up. His mission was to kidnap that Valkyrie for some guy who wanted her for her research about Trihexa, but he had failed and that made him nervous. Yet he had to at least meet the man who gave him power, he would surely be able to ‘fix’ him and he could attempt the mission again, this time without hiding. It should be easy when she goes to her hometown.

“I must really thank him for this opportunity, not only did he convince Skadi and Freya to help me interfere with the teleportation, but they also made everything public so I did not face any punishment for hunting down these people. With mentioning that it helped to get rid of some bugs that infiltrated Asgard. It would be a shame if Rose does not make him his husband… hmmm, maybe her cousin could make a good addition and they could both convince him.”

A carefree voice made Klaus freeze on the spot when he noticed; an older man in a trench coat was standing behind him.

“Who are you?” Klaus asked in a flustered tone when he faced the man.

Despite the kind smile the man had, the killing intent directed at him was immense.

“Haha, I just a humble old man walking on this unhabituated place, a place where the scream for help will never be heard. ” The older man grinned. “However, I guess that I could introduce myself differently to add more context about the person who will slowly kill you while you are interrogated. I am the person whose granddaughter you targeted, that girl was entrusted by her parents to me, and I made a vow to protect her at all cost… I am Gondul, her current guardian.”

Slowly, the man’s figure changed into one of an older woman covered in bandages.

“Don’t let appearances deceive you, even in a worse state; I was able to take down more than twenty guys like you…” Gondul commented.

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Author’s Notes

So the chapter was divided in two be aware.

A lot of stuff happened in this chapter. Some are settings for the future of the story while others are just setting things. I had a lot of issues while writing this chapter, I had way too many ideas about how to write and I kept writing and erasing, although my delay also came in form of work during last year and family reunions. Anyways sorry about that.

Have a nice day and I hope you enjoy the chapter.

Do gimme your impressions though…