The Lost Valkyrie Ch. 08

Author's note: This fantasy story contains very little sex, and the sex it does have is more romance than erotica. There is no sex in this chapter!

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Damn. Did you know, demon cloaks of darkness STINK? Yeah, Rune didn't either, not til that very night.

She coughed and sputtered, trying to get the stench out of her nose and the taste out of her mouth as the villagers came out of their houses. It was smoky, too, and it made her eyes sting and water. And it seemed to CLING to her skin with an oily feel. Gross.

More importantly, HOW had the creature shrugged off a killing blow like that? She'd SKEWERED that demon, and it had run off into the night, bellowing its promises of revenge when it should have been DYING.

Rune replayed the evening's events in her mind. When Bjorn had FINALLY returned with the keys to release her from the cuffs, shortly before the demon arrived, Rune had had just enough time to plan her attack. And it had gone PERFECTLY. She honestly thought she'd be on her way back to Valhalla by now!

Noting the foul beast's overconfidence, she'd used it to good effect. Now she had to admit to herself that SHE had been overconfident, too. This mission was not over! And her quarry was much tougher than she was used to fighting!

At least she'd gotten some good intelligence out of the exchange. The demon had said it was going to slay the ruler of the kingdom! The fiend had a specific TARGET! Since when did demons have plans that involved? It was good to know, but it was also worrisome.

Rune frowned, considering what it meant, as the people surrounded her. So intently was she assessing her situation that it took her a moment to realize that the reaction of this crowd was decidedly mixed. Some were jubilant at her apparent victory in driving the demon off! A few wanted to know if she was OK. Others were scared because the demon had promised to kill them all for their betrayal.

"Who let the girl loose??? You've killed us all!!!"

"Did you see how she stuck that thing like a pig? It's dying out in the forest right now, you can bet on it!"

"Did that thing hurt you?" (that was Bjorn, looking like he was in love and noticing her still-barely-dressed body)

"Great hit! You saved us!"

"You DON'T know that, you fool! Didn't you hear how it raged? It promised us death! If being stabbed like that won't stop it, what WILL?"

"We should chain her back up and beg it to forgive us! Don't let her get out, this time!"

"Don't be silly, the shieldmaiden is our best chance of stopping this thing!"

But fear is contagious, especially when demons are involved. Rune saw their terror beginning to take hold.

She spoke to the whole village, her voice commanding and rising above the din of the crowd.

"NOBODY is getting chained up and sacrificed. ESPECIALLY ME." The villagers fell silent at her assertion as she casually waved her glittering blade around to emphasize her point. After seeing how she'd fought, they knew she wouldn't be easy to subdue a second time.

"Didn't you hear it? It was going to keep right on killing you all after it was done with me. You cannot trust the demon. Do you UNDERSTAND??? You have only two choices. Run and hide, or fight. I know what I will be doing. I'm going after the demon. Now."

As she spoke, the young Valkyrie stripped off her sheer white gown, standing there naked in front of them all, her pale skin glimmering in the night air as she started slipping back into her warrior gear. As you know, Valkyries are not given to being overly modest. But every villager, male and female alike, stood entranced at the sight of her.

Finally, the nubile girl realized they were all staring at her. "What is it," Rune asked, wondering if she was injured and hadn't noticed it, yet.

"What are you, maiden," a man finally asked in wonder. "Have you been sent to us by the Gods?"

This question drew Rune up short, her armored bodysuit only half on as she turned her gaze to the man. Some of the humans were guessing at the truth! If they continued, it wouldn't be long until someone put a name to what she was.

Rune knew this wasn't good. "Don't let them know you're a Valkyrie. They will be frightened of you," the warrior remembered being told before she'd left Valhalla.

Oddly, it still didn't often occur to the Valkyrie that people were also beguiled by her beauty.

"Of course not," she replied, resuming getting dressed as quickly as possible. Clothing shielded her body's glowing angelic aura, somewhat.

And she continued with a smile. "I'm a shieldmaiden. I've come to kill your demon for you!"

Much of the crowd now cheered her. Even if she were only a shieldmaiden, at least she looked like a badass shieldmaiden! And a lovely one!

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Now, Rune left the small village, following the demon's path. She only had to cast her danger sense out and follow the most dangerous path she sensed. Even without her power, the Valkyrie could have followed without difficulty, as the foul demon had broken tree branches all along its way. And it was headed straight towards the main village of the kingdom!

"It seems to be on a mission, for sure," the girl thought, moving as fast as she could on the ground. "I better hurry to catch up!"

Rune was fast, but the demon was faster, it seemed, and she struggled to keep pace with it, her danger sense of its passage fading as the distance between them increased.

In growing frustration, the young woman finally took to the air, her big, bright wings unfurling and lifting her majestically atop great WHOOSHES of air. She'd been warned not to fly, again lest the humans recognize her as a Valkyrie and fear her, but she needed to make up time. Rune worried for the main village, knowing the demon would be there soon!

Soaring above the tree-tops along the path to the King's village, Rune knew at least she was closing the gap, as she started to feel the increased danger of a more recent passage by the demon. The forest cried out against the creature's very existence here. It wasn't hard to follow at all. Especially THIS demon.

As she slowly cut the distance between herself and the spawn of hell, the girl warrior pondered how the beast had shrugged off the impaling blow of her blade. "I should have blasted him, too," she thought. "If that's how he reacts to being run-through, I'd need to do that to him five times to seriously hurt him."

In contrast, demons seemed downright allergic to her heavenly fire. Presumably, this one was no different! Next time - hopefully very soon!

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It was only a few more minutes until Rune could see the clearing of the main village of Bollurgard coming into view. Considering how best to enter the place, the Valkyrie prepared to land and then enter the little town subtly. In a moment, however, she could hear screams of terror and the sounds of things being broken, and she knew the demon's attack was already underway! No need for stealth!

Landing right in the middle of their common area with her blade drawn, the young woman looked around. The bodies of villagers lay strewn about the place. It looked like they'd tried to mount a strong defense, but the demon had overcome them, anyway. At least not that many of them looked dead.

The demon wasn't in view, but It was easy to see where it had gone. Both the path of destruction and her danger sense pointed at the largest, most fortified house in the village. The King's house, with its strong front doors broken and leaning drunkenly, had two more guards laying on the ground in front of it. More noises of fighting and screaming came from inside.

As Rune prepared to enter, blade at the ready, she felt a palpable wave of fear that stopped her in her tracks. Whoa. Inside that house, pain awaited! And death! What was she thinking? Why was she here AT ALL? She should just return to Valhalla and report that she'd been too late. The demon had killed everyone and left. No one had to know the truth!

The Valkyrie was horrified as the image of the demon flashed through her head. The way it almost laughed off her killer blow! She couldn't do this! It was insane! A cold rush of adrenaline flowed through the girl's body in moments. She was terrified.

Rune stumbled back as if she'd run into an invisible barrier, almost falling. As she did, moving back from the door, her mind started clearing, the debilitating fear dissipating, and she shook her head.

"What was THAT?" she said aloud to no one. This demon was full of surprises. Every demon until now that she'd fought was all about talons and teeth. Maybe a sharp tail with a stinger. Vicious? Yes! Terrifying? Certainly! But... "magical?" No way.

This thing put out darkness and shadow. It somehow emitted a field of debilitating fear!

As Rune considered all this in wonder, it came to her. The demon was like HER. A demon with other uncommon abilities and powers!

The damn thing was a match for her. Was this why the Allfather had sent her? Did he KNOW?

"By the Gods, maybe a little warning, next time," the Valkyrie muttered, gathering her resolve. Not going in was not an option, and she took a few deep breaths... and plunged back through the doorway to the King's household.

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Walking through the hallway inside, Rune felt the darkness closing in around her immediately, like a living thing. The fear was stronger here, too, and the warrior had to work to keep herself calm.

Taking a moment, she looked inwards to the source of her power, and she willed it to pump up the glowing light coming out of her. As Rune got brighter, her angelic glow pushed out against the dark and fear. She could feel the effects receding, and she was able to move forward more confidently.

After only a few more steps, she saw an opening on her left with two more double doors broken and shattered like the ones at the entrance. They were stoutly made and had been barred, to no avail: the beast had broken them asunder.

Peering in, Rune couldn't see much past the small circle of light her glow created, but she didn't sense any IMMINENT danger. And she entered the room, which gave her the impression of being a large-ish hall, perhaps the main meeting room and throne room of the King.

Right inside the entrance, she found a guard down. He looked dead. Stepping around his body carefully, Rune heard soft, muffled weeping, and after a moment she could see a girl, huddling over another woman, holding her hand tightly. Both looked lightly injured, and of course, terrified, but the younger girl still held a sword defensively in her free hand.

The Valkyrie listened closely, also sending out her danger sense, probing for the demon. She could hear nothing, but her sense of danger immediately confirmed what the young girl whispered to her, now.

"It's still IN HERE," was all she said, her eyes wide with fright on her tear-streaked face. Somewhere in this room, hidden in the choking, oppressive darkness, was a demon as strong as Rune was. Perhaps stronger!

It was harder to probe for the danger here - the demon seemed to snuff out light - but Rune could feel the demon. Still, she couldn't SEE it. All she could see was smoke and shadow, a cloud which was growing, enveloping her, her angelic aura creating a small circle of light around her as she stood in her fighting pose, blade ready to strike the moment she knew where.

The demon's attacks came out of the dark at a speed she'd never seen before, even from a beast from hell. Razor-sharp talons at the end of scaly arms resisted her blade's cutting edge as she parried each attack.

The Valkyrie's sense of danger saved her over and over, granting her just fractions of a second to react before the next time the demon's talons came at her, and it was enough to let her defend, but that was all she could do: defend. And the demon seemed to have no end of energy for attacking.

What she WANTED to do was blast the nefarious creature with her heavenly fire, but that depended on knowing where to send her attack. The demon's attacks were too fast, her responses too slow, and she was unable to summon the fire in time.

Out of the deep shadows, the demon laughed at her.

"You can feel it now, can't you? You cannot win. You were a fool to follow me here, girl."

After taking two slashes, one to her arm and another to her leg, Rune needed an opening - to be able to seize the initiative. She couldn't keep this up forever! But the demon's cloud of choking darkness prevented it.

Her wounds were not too serious, but they were bleeding freely. Rune knew she was in trouble. And she could hear the beast gloating, now. "Give up, and I'll make your death fast. No suffering. Otherwise, you'll die slowly, girl."

While her foe taunted, the young warrior had an idea, and she willed more of her angelic energy to be directed towards fine-tuning her senses and making it possible to anticipate each attack sooner. That would let Rune take the battle TO the demon. If she could adjust, and quickly.

"No suffering? Do I have your promise on that," she asked, stalling for time. "Like you promised those villagers," she goaded the beast, trying to get it to keep talking.

It worked like a charm.

"Pfft," the demon went. "You and I aren't like those simple villagers, surely you know that by now. They know nothing of honor or real power. They don't deserve my promise any more than an ant deserves your promise not to crush it under your boot."

Its attacks continued as it talked, at a pace that was slightly more leisurely, and Rune continued adapting her danger sense, channeling power in little ways differently. She could see it like subtly changing the course of a stream. A few well-placed rocks here, a little deeper channel there. Bending it more to her will.

And to Rune, it felt like the light WANTED to help her! But could she do the work quickly enough?

"But you, my dear," the foul fucker went on, savoring its chance to talk at length. "You know. We're not so different, you and I. In another world, you and I might even have been friends."

The demon attacked again, this time furiously.

And Rune was ready, timing the attack perfectly to sidestep two talon swings and thrust her blade into the shadows where she knew the demon was. Rewarded by the demon's shriek of pain, she pressed forward to skewer the creature again, hoping to pin the thing to a wall.

But the demon wasn't through, and as the Valkyrie got close to its body, it BURST into flame, immediately burning the young woman and forcing her to fall backward with a cry.

Rune scrambled to her feet, trying to ignore the painful burn she'd gotten as the demon snarled at her in pain and rage. Not a moment too soon, either, as the wall of darkness parted, and the fiery form of her enemy came at her, attacking furiously. The warrior found herself on the defense again as the beast tried to overwhelm her.

The dark was dissipating now, at least. It seemed the demon was too angry to bother trying to fool her anymore, replacing guile with pure power.

"DIE! DIE! DIE!" it confirmed for her with bone-chilling malice as Rune tried to keep it at bay.

But keeping the thing at bay was easier to say than to do! The creature's furious attacks were as much a match for the Valkyrie's fighting skills as its other abilities were. It took every bit of the girl's fighting skill to resist!

In the increased visibility, Rune saw the girl with the sword to her side, looking for an opportunity to join the fight!

"Wow," she had a moment to wonder at the girl's bravery. Most humans would be blubbering in fear by now, after the show the demon had put on.

"She's either very brave or very dumb. Or both. Or maybe she wishes for death," Rune thought to herself. Nevertheless, the warrior would take help when she needed it, and she wondered how she might use the assistance the Midgardian wanted to provide.

Taking a chance, the Valkyrie warrior pretended to stumble a little, seemingly allowing the demon to finish her.

"HA!" the demon snarled at her as it started to spring forward, talons extended.

It was the right maneuver: the human girl, still holding the sword she'd been using before Rune arrived on the scene, pressed forward, stabbing into the demon's unprotected side and sinking the metal into its body. It wasn't complete impalement, but it was damaging, and the beast whipped around to confront this new threat.

The warrior leaped forward, not having actually stumbled, willing her heavenly fire to come as she did it. Rune impaled the demon for a third time as it tried to finish the other girl off, and the Valkyrie prepared to follow that up with a blast of her fire.

But this time, the heavenly fire didn't come out as usual. As the demon struggled to pull free of Rune's sword, her blade suddenly lit up, the heavenly fire coming out of the Valkyrie THROUGH the sword itself.

Immediately the demon started burning from the inside where the blade was through its body. The creature's shrieks of agony before were nothing compared to how it sounded, now, and it twisted so hard it pulled the blade free from Rune's hand and out of its body, too as it lumbered off, bleeding heavily.

Too hurt to bluster or rage as it had before. The Power Demon was forced to flee, but as it went, a cloud of darkness came out of it, similar to what it had done before in the smaller village, but with a noxious smell. With thunderous noise, the thing crashed right through a wall in the house to get away.

"Maybe even dying," Rune thought as she waved her hand in front of her face distastefully, trying to clear the noxious feel of the demon's parting gift. "Though I didn't think it could survive our first encounter, either."

The demonic darkness now dissipating, the young woman turned to see who was there in the King's hall. First, she saw the girl approaching who'd helped her fight the demon.

"Is it gone? Really?"

A good question!

"At least for now," Rune confirmed. "And it might be mortally wounded. Let us pray it is!"

"Thank the Gods," the girl said, relaxing her grip on her blade for the first time.

"You were very brave," Rune replied. "Thank you, your attack distracted it enough to get a good stabbing in there."

The girl blushed. "I'm Thyra, the King's sis..." She paused, remembering suddenly. "Oh my Gods, is the King OK?"

And she rushed over to a part of the room that has been too dark to see before. A throne, and two men laying on the floor before it. Thyra knelt next to one of them as Rune moved a few steps closer.

"Brother," she called him, "Wake up!"

The man to whom the girl spoke didn't move, but the other man laying there awakened with a groan. "Are we still alive," he asked. He saw Rune standing there, then. "Or are we in Valhalla," he said, looking at the Valkyrie in wonder.

Rune saw he was a handsome man, with dark hair and complexion. As he got slowly to his feet, she saw he was a tall and strong warrior. As he gazed at her, she gazed back at him.

"Still alive, Captain," Thyra said grimly. "Call the Physician, the King needs him," she continued rather tersely as she cradled the other man's head in her lap.

"Please don't die, brother," the girl whispered to him urgently.

The man Thyra called "Captain" put his hand to his forehead, where he was bleeding, allowing his eyes to close.

"By the Gods, my head hurts," he complained.

"Captain!" Thyra looked annoyed at the delay, clearly concerned for the other man she'd said was the King. It sounded like she was his sister.

Now, the Captain looked annoyed. "He'll be fine!"

But he got moving, anyway, and went looking for the Physician.

The girl, Thyra, didn't look so sure. "If he'll be fine, why won't he wake up?"

"Sometimes being around a demon is almost poisonous," Rune offered. "And this demon is much more powerful than the average one. Hopefully, your Physician can help."