Netori: Stealing The Hero's Party!

Chapter 863: A Battle To Remember - Part 3

Determined to push themselves to their limits, Helga and Markus charged at each other yet again. Swinging her fist with enough force to shatter mountains, the valkyrie deflected the spirit knight’s great blade. The din of the clash rang like a church’s bell–loud and resounding–only deafened by Athenia’s powers, for otherwise, the impact would’ve blown everyone away.

Standing amidst agitated dust, the valkyrie grabbed the sword with the same hand she’d deflected it. Holding its sharp end firmly between her fingers, she smiled at Markus before spinning her right leg into a head kick. Just a specter slower than Helga, he sensed the blow before he saw it, and even then, right as it was about to crash into his head, the dark knight moved his hand and grabbed her leg.

With both of them grabbing something from the other, they pushed each other away. Not a second later, however, yet another clash was heard, and this time even Athenia’s magic couldn’t contain their strength to the stage. A strong gust of wind peeled a great number of the audience from their chairs–sending them stumbling and crashing. Some children even had to be held down so that they wouldn’t just fly away.

”Mel,” hitting Melicia’s arm with the back of his hand, Raven gave her a firm nod. ”Ground everyone, will you?”

”Sure.” Shrugging her shoulders, she closed her eyes and, through an immense outburst of power, conjured vines from under the seats. Wrapping around the audience’s body, they helped them stay grounded in their chairs, and to make things even safer, Erika decided to join in with a film of crimson mist to relocate the aftereffects of the blows to the hells.

Instead of taking the blows head-on, relocating it severed the need to take the brunt of the force. And although both Helga and Markus were refraining from using magic and skills, their strikes alone were faster than a blink and stronger than most in the hero’s party.

Watching the two keep the other on the tip of their toes, Raven and the others couldn’t help but wonder how well they would fare against the two. Helga’s fist striking them in the arm would most likely shatter it, but then again, not everyone relied on their physical strength. But if magic and skills could not be used, trying to put either of them down would be nearly impossible.

A body honed from battling gods themselves–of course, even the best couldn’t rival the two in certain aspects.

”Here’s a gift for ya!” Screaming her heart out as Helga finally managed to strike Markus’ head with the end of her spear–everyone watched it go through his flaming head. The dark knight tried to remove it like a thorn, but the moment his hand touched it, a shard of ice froze within his flaming head. ”Brainfreeze, do you feel it?”

Kicking him in the chest to back off, Helga got some distance between them before lifting her head. Staring at Markus with a smirk, she expected him to struggle for a moment.

”Gyaaa!!”

”What?!” To her surprise, however, the dark knight’s flames consumed the magic ice shard, and in a flash, he also sent the flag flying towards Helga’s chest.

Shifting her attention to the flag, she spun the spear’s handle and deflected it without any trouble.

”Should’ve brought sunscreen for the burns!” As the knight’s voice echoed in her ears, her distracted mind took a moment to catch up with what was going on. And when she did, her face had already erupted into flames.

”AGHH! D-DAMN IT!” Instead of trying to put it out, however, Helga used the chance to grab Markus’s hand. Gritting her teeth to show off her toothy grin, she stared into the knight’s eyes and whispered. ”Thanks for the rage fuel, ahaha!”

In a flash, Markus’s eyes widened, and his body was thrown towards a wall. Right before his body slammed against it, however, Helga appeared in front of the wall and kicked the knight like a ball. Sending him flying in the opposite direction, the valkyrie let go of her ice spear and punched her fists together.

”BRING IT ON!!” She screamed with passion, for once she was free to let it all out without the fear of killing the other person.

Planting his blade into the ground as he was flying away, Markus planted himself on his feet again. Standing tall, he dusted his shoulders and caught the flag that had yet to fall after being deflected by Helga. And in that moment, as time resumed, he drew one long breath to fuel his own flames.

As his eyes locked with hers again, he charged forward, but this time, the two had decided to play to their strengths. A knight meant to push the enemy back or at least not let them get past him, and a valkyrie meant to stand up again and again, no matter how many times she was struck; their battle had now turned into a test of their attrition.

The immovable knight Markus, standing tall and taking Helga’s blows to his body with near to no effect. Deflecting her strikes, sending her flying with his kicks–only for her to keep coming back with her gauntlets storing the enemy from his own attacks, now free for her to put into great use. Like a game of kickball between two players, there was a constant back and forth with no signs of stopping, not even halting or even taking a pause.

And though the audience was now shielded, the ground itself was sinking under the valkyrie and the knight. With each strike back from Markus, Helga’s body blew dirt and turned the ditch under the battleground more pronounced. As for Markus himself, taking her blows head-on, his feet were being pushed further and further in and often dragged a few inches back, making dragging craters.

Were they allowed to let loose and use magic, the ground would’ve shattered, and the many curses that Markus held within would’ve devoured the whole nation of Athenia. Helga’s strength was no different, but with the effects of the strikes being relocated, barely anything from her was felt by the public now. There was one thing, however, that she was still trying not to unmask–and that was her murderous behaviour–for a barbarian was only as strong as their emotions.

Had she unleashed all her hatred, the hells would’ve required some renovation. But as things calmed between the contestants, the fight came to an end, where only a minute had passed, and the barracks had to be rebuilt from scratch.

”That’s all you had?” Markus teased the valkyrie for once.

Smiling right back, she pointed her spear at him and declared.

”We will have many chances to show off our strength soon enough. I’ll be keeping count, and then we’ll see who scores higher in piling dead gods!”

And that the fight came to an end. The duo was far from exhausted, but if they continued any longer, the very plateau of Athenia might have sunk down in level with Elenaris. Besides, having noticed Raven a while ago, Helga wanted to say hi and get a few moments in private.