The Valkyrias, fallen to become spirits with their souls bound to this fortress and their armor, weakened to a pitiful degree.
However, even these decayed Valkyrias were truly formidable enemies for us now.
Even with a holy sword that was practically the natural enemy of spirits, we could barely defeat them by attacking two against one.
‘Certainly… there is some difficulty.’
In adventurer terms, it was a level where gold token adventurers, not even silver token ones, would need to form a party to challenge.
Perhaps thanks to the pursuit we’ve been through, my skills had reached the lowest tier of elite level… roughly equivalent to a kingdom knight or gold token adventurer.
Since all the pursuers were knights or silver token adventurers, my skills rapidly improved while facing them.
Nietzsche, the most famous unbeliever in history and patron saint of chuunibyou, once said: That which does not kill me makes me stronger.
Did it mean that to become a heavenly demon, one must first become a heavenly genius masochistic female?
Anyway, just as he said, after enduring being hit, stabbed, and cut while stubbornly persevering and surviving, I had somehow become as strong as a kingdom knight.
At least in terms of one-on-one combat, I had almost caught up to Brunhilde just before I possessed her.
To the extent that in a one-on-one fight without equipment advantages, I could win two or three times out of ten.
Come to think of it, I had just now stepped onto the starting line as a hero party member, but for me, it was truly remarkable progress.
However, even so, the reality was that I was still struggling to face a Valkyria’s spirit one-on-one.
“Miss Hilde! Behind you! Behind!”
“Two of them?!”
…Even if it was a struggle, it was also reality that we had to manage the situation.
* * *
“Hatursfull, Lifandi manneskju…!”
Hateful, living ones…!
The second Valkyria that ambushed us not long after we finished emergency treatment with potions and started heading towards the watchtower again.
It threw a spear with all its might at us from the roof of a half-collapsed two-story building.
An ambush I wouldn’t have noticed if not for Friede.
As Friede pushed me away and rolled on the ground before springing up to rush towards it, the creature created an ice spear and round shield, grasping them as it charged to meet Friede.
Not using flight to create distance or throwing a second spear, but charging head-on.
It seemed to be either an individual extremely confident in its close-range spear techniques, or a madman with greatly reduced intelligence that just rushes in at the sight of an enemy.
Well, either way was welcome for us. If it approached first, we wouldn’t have to struggle to tear its cloak to prevent it from flying.
“Hyaaaah!”
“Deyja…!”
The greatsword and spear blade intertwining, leaving afterimages in the air.
The second Valkyria deflected the holy sword’s slash with its ice shield and thrust out its right-hand ice spear like a beam of light, exchanging incredibly fierce blows.
Crackle!
The missed slash carved deep scars into the paving stones on the ground, and shattered ice fragments sparkled like snowflakes.
A rough and fierce collision of killing intent. The amber whirlwind and blue-white rain shattered each other, breaking and whirling again and again.
“Friede! Keep holding it there!”
I rushed towards the Valkyria’s back. In a two-on-one situation, you must always attack from behind. I intended to pincer attack it from front and back to cut off its breath.
“Miss Hilde! Don’t come! There’s more behind!”
If Friede hadn’t urgently warned me while glancing at me, I would have done just that.
“What?! Damn it…!”
Friede kicked up stone fragments from under her feet and sent them flying over my head to alert me of the third Valkyria’s ambush. I came to an abrupt stop while turning my body, swinging my sword towards the empty air.
Clang!
The blade swung diagonally downward was blocked by something invisible, making a clear metallic sound.
Then the stone Friede had thrown shattered with a crunch, and the empty air rippled greatly as a skeleton female knight covered in stone dust revealed itself.
“Ógeðslegur, svikari…!”
The Valkyria glared at me with resentful eyes, calling me a disgusting traitor.
The power contained in the spear blade thrust out as it charged made me feel like my waist would bend like a bow as I received it.
“If you have something to say, spout it in the common language…!”
I straightened my waist by tensing my abs and thighs as if squeezing them tightly, and pushed away its spear by adding strength to both arms.
The long spear bounced back with a whoosh.
Instead of engaging in a frontal contest of strength with me, it spun as if dancing to deflect the force, then aimed for my head with the end of the spear shaft containing all the rotational force.
“I saw that earlier!”
I turned my wrist to receive the end of the spear shaft with my sword hilt.
With a dull collision sound, the pommel of my sword and the end part of its spear shaft burst simultaneously. The broken pieces grazed my cheek, leaving a slight wound.
“Dauði svikaranum!”
Death to the traitor!
A kick followed. As I hurriedly bent my neck to dodge, this time the spear blade came down.
Could I block it with my pauldron? No, it would pierce through.
An intuition close to certainty. The combat experience I had accumulated warned me to dodge without any silly thoughts. I crouched down as if collapsing and rolled forward, barely avoiding its spear.
Baaang!
The missed spear tip pierced the ground and exploded. A power no different from a thrown spear. No, it was a thrown spear executed at point-blank range.
“No, what…”
I got up, breaking out in a cold sweat. My spine tingled. Using a long-range killing move at zero distance, what a sloppy method.
If I had tried to endure relying on my pauldron, my arm might have been blown off completely.
“Ertu…hræddur?”
Are you afraid?
The Valkyria landed, its torn cloak fluttering from the scattered fragments, and moved its lower jaw while looking at me. Along with blatant mockery that I simply couldn’t let slide.
Afraid? Scared? Don’t make me laugh.
Old legend or whatever, in the end it’s just a spirit not even as good as an ogre now. If I were to fear such a mere spirit, I wouldn’t have come here in the first place.
“How dare you provoke me. A spirit gone mad from being unable to die.”
Therefore, I spat back in a fierce tone while gripping my longsword. Saying I wasn’t afraid of the likes of you at all.
“Þá deyja!”
Then die. The Valkyria shouted in a grating metallic voice and flew at me like a shell.
* * *
A one-on-one struggle with the Valkyria I hadn’t wished for. It wasn’t a situation I hadn’t anticipated at all.
The Valkyrias weren’t fixed gun emplacements stuck in one place, but patrolling guards who wandered inside the fortress and attacked the moment they discovered an enemy.
Since the fortress was so large, there wouldn’t be three or four popping out at once, but two coming out was quite possible.
The possessor’s party in the original novel had already gained sufficient strength, so they could slaughter them immediately each time they encountered them without any problem… but we hadn’t reached that level yet.
As each battle dragged on, it was only natural in a way for reinforcements who had discovered us while patrolling or were drawn by the noise to appear.
Still, since my luck had been strangely good lately, I thought this situation might work out well too… but it seems that luck had run out here.
Seeing how the one that was bound to appear had appeared as expected.
Clang!
Idle thoughts end here. The metallic sound of clashing spear and sword focused my consciousness on the enemy before me. Saying this was no time for distractions.
“Haaaah!”
“Kyaaaak!”
Battle cries and screams intersect, and streams of light from spear and sword intertwine and scatter, spraying fragments.
Crackle!
The pauldron pierced by the ice spear is torn off completely, and the fist thrust out sacrificing the pauldron strikes the Valkyria’s face.
“Kahaak!”
The Valkyria, whose lower jaw had flown off completely, struck me with its shield while burning with blue eye-light. As I raised my arm to block, my tattered gauntlet froze and shattered.
My body slid along the torn-up ground, pushed back far.
“Looks good on you!”
I shouted mockingly at the Valkyria left with only its upper jaw as I kicked off the ground and charged at it again.
Thud!
The thrust I made while twisting my body to avoid the spear was blocked by the ice shield and deflected, and the frozen, semi-transparent spear tip burrowed into the gaps of my armor and cut.
“Ugh…!”
Blood spurted. I gritted my teeth and endured the pain and fatigue, and instead of retreating, I took one more step forward and swung my sword.
Not yet. I can still fight more.
This much is nothing.
While encouraging and spurring myself on like that.
“Still a long way to go-!”
A struggle with a superior strong enemy.
To win, I had to focus all my mind on the single spirit before me and fight with all my might.
Forgetting Friede and the second Valkyria. Erasing the possibility of a fourth one coming.
Just staring at the single enemy before me, using all my consciousness to search for ways to bring it down.
Like that, when my killing intent, fighting spirit, and desire reached their peak.
Thump.
For an instant, my heart beat fiercely, then froze like an ice crystal and exhaled a bitterly cold chill.
A frigid cold like a river in a snow field.
The essence of power dwelling in the fully awakened <Ice Heart> spread throughout my entire body through my blood vessels.
My vision darkened from the edges. The pain in my chest and wounds disappear as if washed away.
The breath I exhaled was surprisingly cold, while conversely, the inside of my head felt as if it was burning.
The sounds I heard strangely elongated, and the movements of the enemy charging at me became oddly slow.
A sensation as if the speed of my thoughts had become about five times faster than usual.
The brain inside my skull boiled, mobilizing all brain functions to draw out the answer for victory.
Momentary muscle strength is superior on my side.
The attack speed using that strength is also ahead on my side.
Yet I’m being pushed back due to the duration of Iron Arm, and the difference in skill.
The Valkyria’s combat experience gained through countless battlefields, and the systematically established and perfected Eisenstein spear techniques.
The skill gap from that was reversely overwhelming the physical ability difference.
Then.
The way for me to win is.
My brain, which had stopped all functions except for combat, provided the answer.
Combat experience can’t be caught up to. That’s purely in the realm of experience.
However, skills that aren’t experience.
It’s possible. I can catch up.
I must catch up.
Intuition affirms. Instinct commands.
See. Touch. Remember. Recall.
Predict. Analyze. Interpret.
And―
Embody.
Crackle!
The ice spear is ground down. From the spear tip through the blade to the entire shaft, head-on.
A perfectly identical posture. A clash unfolded at a perfectly identical timing.
Then, the one who wins is naturally—
“Haaaah!”
The one with the stronger power, isn’t it?
The longsword that shattered the ice spear tore through and destroyed the spirit’s right arm.