Maya's shriek echoed throughout the entire forest.

And you couldn’t blame her.

No amount of fiction, no amount of reading, watching TV or games could have prepared her mind for the horrors of a real-life face of an undead.

The undead’s face was rotten. Its one remaining eye was glassy and unfocused, with ooze dripping out from the other socket.

Yellow teeth and a maggot-ridden tongue closed in on her ankle. She already had the creeps without the half-skeletal hand on her. Now she was beyond horrified.

“Maya!” Val cried out and ran towards her, but stopped on what happened next.

“PERISH, YOU SON OF A DRAUGR!” Maya was shouting at the top of her lungs, slamming the shield repeatedly against the zombie’s head. “Die! Die! DIE! AHHHHH!”

Maya ended the poor zombie’s afterlife by driving the shield’s round but sharp edge against its decaying skull.

Huffing audibly, with her chest rising up and down erratically, Maya gripped the shield hard in both hands. She slammed it into the zombie’s head one more time for good measure until it was mush.

“What in Hel’s name was that thing? A zombie? Please tell me this isn’t true.”

“Maya. Calm.” Val put up her hands placable and approached Maya slowly. “Breath. Slow. Draugr. Dead.”

“So it was a draugr? An undead Viking warrior?” Maya huffed again and looked once more at the undead. Its eye stared back at her, and she kicked it away. “Seriously!?”

“There are more.”

A dark whisper enveloped the forest. Green mist seeped out from the wet earth, falling over them like a blanket.

“I have a bad feeling about this—” Maya gasped as two more hands grabbed her ankles from either side. “I FJCKING KNEW IT! GET AWAY—”

Her screams were caught in her throat from the emergence of three more draugr.

Two of them wore full-blown but worn-out armour—which was more of a mishmash of leather and chain mail than anything else. However, swords, axes, and shields were also part of their equipment.

Albeit rusty, that was still too dangerous to deal with haphazardly.

“Grruuuuurrrr,” one groaned into Maya’s ear, holding her in place.

“The breath, though.” Maya gagged.

“Don’t. Move,” warned Val, eyeing the two draugr approaching her.

“Didn’t plan to, haha.” A laugh was all that Maya could manage.

“Calm. Undead. Dangerous.” Val took a small step to the side. The draugr followed her. “I’ll. Deal. With. Them. Do. Not. Worry.”

Call that a warrior’s confidence., but Val was not afraid in the slightest—unlike Maya, who was getting the hives from just the draugr’s touch.

“Maybe this will be over in a jiffy,” mused Maya hopefully, observing Val with high confidence. “After all, she’s a Valkyrie, and those are zombies. They stand no chance against her—”

Slash.

“What was that sound?” wondered Maya. “I didn’t like that.”

Maya stared at the blood dripping to the ground and then at the gash running down Val’s arm.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

The draugr moved inhumanly fast, barely leaving any room for Val to dodge or block the attacks properly.

They slashed at her, cutting at her pants and shirt. In one instance, they almost carved up her face like a pumpkin, sending strands of blond hair flying.

“Val! What’s going on?” shouted Maya, struggling against the draugr’s grasp. “Wasn’t she a Valkyrie? She should be stronger than some undead.”

“Sluggish,” Val gasped for air and dodged another sword strike. “Not. In. Form. Slow. Tired.”

“Sluggish? Not in form?” wondered Maya. She knew Valkyries were supposed to be powerful supernatural beings, close to demigods or stronger. “But why was Val struggling so much?”

Something wasn’t making sense.

“Slow.” Maya thought back to how she found Val.

Val was wounded, with nothing on her except her ragged clothes. Her speaking patterns were impeded, and Maya thought this was due to her never having lived in the modern world.

But then, Val was panting. Her movements were sluggish and sloppy. She was still agile on her feet and delivering solid hits to knock out teeth or an iron helmet, but that was it.

“Val won't last long. I need to help her!”

—☾—

“Hey, rotten skull-head, let go of me!”

“Hhung?” the draugr holding Maya made a confused grunting noise, wondering what the struggle was about. It then got Maya’s head rammed into its jaw, dislocating it.

But it held on to her, wrapping its arms under her chest and lifting her up.

“Lemme go, you damned warrior! Go back to your pile of rocks!” Maya struggled, screeching like a banshee to free herself. “And let me do something!”

“Maya. Stop. I. Can. Deal. With- Argh!”

“Val!”

An axe grazed Val’s collarbone, and she collapsed to her knees. The two draugr closed in on her. Val raised her head and spat blood at their feet.

They retaliated by giving her the boot.

“That’s enough!! Let go of me!” shouted Maya, squirming in the vice she was held in until she accidentally brushed with the shield against her captor’s skin.

To her surprise, it let go, and she used the opportunity to smack it with a loud metallic bang across the face.

It crumbled to its knees, holding its steaming face, and Maya stared wide-eyed at the wound and the shield. The draugr’s face was peeling off and disintegrating where she hit it.

“The shield, this is it!” Maya bonked it on the head one more time, incapacitating it for good. “Val, catch!”

Throwing the shield like an Olympian discus athlete, Maya failed since she was never good at sports.

It hit one draugr on the head and ricocheted against the other, knocking them out momentarily.

Maya grimaced. “That was not what I planned, I swear, but it worked, didn’t it?”

“Yes,” answered Val and touched the shield. It disappeared in a dazzling white light, only to reappear strapped around her arm. Val gave a smile. “Thank you, Maya.”

Maya blushed at the words. Hearing Val speaking more coherently and standing confidently with her shield made Maya crack a smile.

“Go get them!” she shouted encouragingly.

The draugr had recovered, but not enough to react against the Valkyrie’s attacks.

Val sent one of them flying with an uppercut from her shield and kicked the other against a tree, breaking its spine.

“That’s more like it! Woohoo!” Maya cheered for Val as she moved around gracefully in dives and jumps to avoid the attacks and struck the draugr.

Hitting the draugr repeatedly with her shield, they soon turned to nothing but ash and dust. Maya clapped with her hands. Val couldn’t help but puff out her chest in triumph, though it soon dropped.

Maya wondered what it was about and saw Val unstrapping her shield and hurling it in her direction.

“Hgnh,” groaned the draugr behind her and staggered, still reaching out with its claws at Maya as the shield stuck against its chest.

“Woah, stay back you, or—”

Maya was pulled back and into Val’s arms, who stomped her foot against her shield, pressing it against the draugr until it disintegrated for good.

“Finally. Hate draugr. Annoying bunch,” grumbled Val and turned her head to Maya, who remained frozen in the embrace. “Thank you. For your. Help. Are you. Alright?”

“Nope, I mean, I’m good, I’m Gucci,” mumbled Maya, turning red from embarrassment. “We might need to get you some new clothes, though. Not that I mind, but…”

Val looked down at her borrowed shirt and the new window it sported, revealing her cleavage.

Seeing how Maya was avoiding staring made Val laugh, hugging Maya tighter. “I agree. Though. I. Like it. The new. Look. And. Your reaction.”

“P-please, don’t squeeze me so much,” Maya mumbled, turning red from how close they were.

Val couldn’t help but draw her in closer and blow into Maya’s ear teasingly. “Can’t. Help it. You’re. Adorable.”

During their affectionate embrace, they were unable to notice a shadow disappearing behind the trees.

Biding its time to return.