Chapter 23

'Ai Blyat! ' exclaimed Nikolai as he dodged a punch that was aimed at his head. Summoning his round shield, he blocked a cross punch that left him wide-eyed as the punch absolutely destroyed his shield.

What the Blyat is with her punches! He was flabbergasted by the power behind the punches of the woman; how had she generated that much power?

Sigrun launched an underhook punch aimed directly at his ribs. Nikolai managed to deflect the attack away from his body, and it was then that he saw the source of her destructive power.

He saw a rune in front of her fist; he assumed it was the source of her destructive blows. He didn't know what the rune did, but he knew he had to avoid it at all costs.

Sigrun was pissed off by this undead, it was dodging her every attack and she was not landing a single punch on it. "This is a weird undead," she thought to herself. This was the first time she had seen an undead that could summon items; the shield was durable, she would not lie, but these shields were no match for her fists.

Sigrun stopped. "He is not an enemy," Rosseweisse cried out to her, but the brown-haired Valkyrie was too engrossed in the fight to catch the silver-haired Valkyrie's cries. "What?" Sigrun heard her voice, but she could not make out what she was saying.

" Reinforcements have arrived! " Four more Valkyries descended from the sky and headed straight for Nikolai.

Nikolai had to put all his efforts into defending himself against the onslaught of swords, spears, axes, and magic. Deflecting an axe that was too close to cleave his head, he jumped back, creating some distance between them.

' These women are too strong; I cannot fight them all without hurting them.' He knew that these young women were Roseweisse's comrades, and he should not hurt them. He really wanted to de-summon his armor and show them that he was not their enemy, but they would not even give him a chance to do that.

Summoning his chains, the Valkyrie took caution of the weapon he had summoned, but nonetheless, they had to press on the attack.

A Valkyrie with a spear charged in and thrust her weapon at him; he spun his body away from the attack while also swinging the chain around her torso. The chain wrapped around her, and Nikolai began his plan.

' CURSE MAGIC: GRIP! '

Another Valkyrie with a sword swung her weapon to decapitate his head, but he immediately summoned his shield and blocked the strike. The Valkyrie attempted to throw a punch at him, but Nikolai saw the attack from a mile away. He dodged the incoming fist by bending below it, yanking the chain he had used to pull the previous Valkyrie.

She caught her chained comrade, but in doing so, she had made the mistake of taking her eyes off of Nikolai; he promptly swung his chain and wrapped them both together.

' CURSE MAGIC: GRIP!'

Then came two more Valkyries, one with an axe and the other with a sword. The axe-wielder swung her weapon at him from his right, while the sword-wielder attacked from his left. He deflected the axe-wielder's attack with his shield and pushed her behind him. The sword-wielding Valkyrie brought her weapon down on his shoulder guard. He grabbed her hand and swung her towards her comrade, causing a collision between the two warriors that made them stagger.

Utilizing the precise timing he had acquired, he yanked the chain once more, pulling the previously chained Valkyries toward their stumbling allies, causing yet another collision and forcing them to the ground. Without wasting any valuable time, he quickly wrapped them in his chain as well.

' CURSE MAGIC: GRIP! '

The Valkyries tried their best to escape the grip of the black chains, but their efforts were in vain as his curse magic was not letting them go and kept them in place.

"Release them, bastard!" Sigrun roared as she threw her rune-enchanted fist towards him, only for him to raise his shield, which was easily shattered.

' This undead sure knows how to fight.' Sigrun had just watched as his monster had incapacitated all her comrades in just a few seconds. These young women were no pushovers, and the fact that he could do that made her shudder; she was just in time to save Rosseweisse from this monster.

' I'm glad I reached on time; who knows what this thing could do to Rosseweisse.' Though Rosseweisse was a strong Valkyrie, she knew very well that she was not that great at close-range combat and often relied too much on Nordic magic.

She saw the undead swing his chain at her. "It's cursed! I must not let that chain touch me!" Realizing that all her comrades had fallen victim to this chain, she remained on high alert.

Ducking under the approaching weapon, she saw that the side of the undead was left unprotected; so she took the opportunity and delivered a devastating low hook to its ribs.

CRACK!

The sound of cracking ribs was music to her ears, indicating that this undead was going down very soon. Creating another rune on her fist, she planned to end this undead's miserable existence with a punch to its face.

Nikolai was in a horrible position; the burning pain from his cracked ribs was making it difficult for him to maintain focus, so he had no choice but to use his most powerful spell.

' UNDEAD WILL ! '

With the pain gone, he could now face that Valkyrie brawler who was about to punch him in the face with her powerful punch.

He ducked down, and the attack went past his head. He went to her side and wrapped his arms around her. Lifting her off the ground, he slammed her back-first with a thud.

Sigrun grunted at her aching back, but quickly set her gaze towards the undead. The said creature was just standing there menacingly; the metal skull mask showed no emotion, but the way it stood in front of her, as if looking down on her, made Sigrun's blood boil.

" Come on! WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? FINISH ME! "

Nikolai on the other hand was utterly speechless, not understanding the foreign words that were coming out of her mouth. "I wish I could learn that translation magic," he thought to himself. "It would make things so much easier; I could tell her that I'm not her enemy." He turned to face Rosseweisse who was approaching them, but before he could say anything, Sigrun also saw her friend approaching them, and fear seized her.

" Rose! Get away from this thing he's dangerous! "

Nikolai stood there like an idiot, not knowing what to do next; the language barrier was proving to be a big problem here.

SWOSH!

With a sickening squelch, something struck his shoulder. It penetrated through his armor and went straight through his shoulder.

He looked down to see an arrow made of ice sticking through his shoulder. Though UNDEAD WILL could suppress pain, the sight of it was jarring.

He turned towards the direction of his attacker and looked up. Flying above the trees, he saw Rosewise and her companions' supervisor, Lady Eir. A Nordic rune was in front of her, which was creating an ice arrow.

" Die foul monster! "

SWOSH!

The frozen projectile was launched and it struck his other shoulder; its speed was far greater than the previous arrow as it went through a hole in his armor.

" Don't forget me bastard! "

The power was so great that it shattered his iron skull mask and sending him flying to a tree with a thud.

Nikolai turned to Sigrun, who delivered a devastating punch to his face, empowered by all the rage she had accumulated throughout their entire fight.

To both Rosseweisse and Sigrun's horror, what lay beneath the shattered skull mask was the bruised face of Nikolai, who had a busted lip that was bleeding profusely. To make matters worse, at that moment, his two sons emerged from the woods with a horrified look on their faces at the sight of the injured father.

" PAPA!!! "