Standing there, three valkyries overlooked him, their gazes frowning upon him.
Oi, oi. Already? Seriously? Isn't this a little too fast?
Name
HP
O.P
O.M.P
A.P
Class
???
35
112/341
67
⥈
Valkyrie lvl.22
Name
HP
O.P
O.M.P
A.P
Class
???
36
241/343
67
⥈
Valkyrie lvl.22
Name
HP
O.P
O.M.P
A.P
Class
???
35
281/347
67
⥈
Valkyrie lvl.22
How? How did they reach me that fast—no, that’s not that. How did these valkyries get awakened so fast in the first place? I doubt it’s been more than two months.
When he pulled out his stunt against the twins, and thus, by extension, the Odoe tree as a whole, he was made a promise by the twins. The promise was that they would send their valkyries after him. It was this promise that fueled his obsession with getting as far as possible from the Odoe capital while heading southward.
He knew the twins weren't kidding when they declared they would send their valkyries after him. Dream had no doubt about that, but somewhere he was expecting the process of rebirthing those valkyries would take a little more time. Enough time for him to get far away enough from them or at least enough time for him to get stronger. For them to be here, unless they arrived at lightspeed, they most likely had been awakened from their fusion with the Odoe tree a month ago.
Yet here they already were.
“Hey, Sis, is this really the one we're after?” one valkyrie asked, tilting her head to the side curiously. In addition to having long curved goat-like horns adorning her head as a crown, the valkyrie in question had golden silk-like strands coming out from somewhere near her elbow. The silk strands were braided into half a dozen rope-like extensions that she wrapped around her forearm, forming long, thick cuff-like and bandage-like ropes.
“Do you see someone else around here, or anyone else surviving this Shadowfen Forest?” the other replied. Another valkyrie had, much like Men'ma did, a long tail, but strangely thin, sprouting from her back. She had coiled the tail around her entire left leg, forming what looked like half of a pants.
“Oh. I guess you're right.”
Besides, those golden antlers pretty much give it away," the last valkyrie added. Unlike the other two, she had an entire-like heavy-looking gauntlet-like extension covering both of her arms entirely.
"Hahaha, my bad," the valkyrie smiled, scratching her head embarrassingly. In that moment, their focus returned back to Dream. "Now that you point it out, the crown doesn't look right on his head. I thought it was an elk-like monster or something," she said with a chuckle.
"As if! But I guess you're right, this looks weird," the other valkyrie agreed. “What’s your deal? Why do you, obviously an arbian, have a crown?”
“Who knows,” replied dismissively.
“Oh,” the first valkyrie marveled, “did you guys hear that, it talks.”
“We heard that.”
“So, what's the plan, Sis?” the first valkyrie asked, glancing at her companion. "We capture him and take him to the Odoe capital," she replied with determination. “That’s why we’re here, right?” They looked at each then exchanged a nod.
What's their deal? They look like quite the clueless bunch. I doubt anyone would be so clueless about me unless they've been given the vaguest of instructions before literally rushing here without asking any questions relating to those who might know one thing or two about him: Men'ma.
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Well, that wouldn't surprise me.
“Can I say something?” Dream asked.
“Hm?”
“From what I got from your little talk, you guys want to capture me, right?”
They looked at each other and once again exchanged a nod. "That's what we're gonna do. What of it?" one of them replied defiantly.
"What of it, huh? Well, what's telling you this is happening," Dream warned, collecting his gains from his battle against the moonhowlers.
Blessing of the Guardian Dragon: Synergy Initiated…
Blessing of the Guardian Dragon: Synergy Completed.
Blessing of the Guardian Dragon: Absorption Initiated…
Blessing of the Guardian Dragon: Absorption Completed.
Blessing of the Guardian Dragon: Integration Initiated…
Blessing of the Guardian Dragon: Integration Completed.
[ Nexus Alert]
Awakened Beasts Consumed
H.P▲
P.P▲
5.06
86.9
Name
H.P
P.P
O.P
O.M.P
A.P
Level
Dream
54▲/54▲
470▲/831▲
189▲/210▲
25.6▲
126▲
13
The Valkyries looked on in apprehension as the corpse of the monster around Dream vanished into nothingness. However, it failed to change any of their resolve, and they slid down the slope with their weapon-looking appendages at the ready.
“While we can't recall all her words exactly, the Matriarch warned us about you, saying that you were a very dangerous individual,” the first valkyrie declared.
“We don't doubt her words, but she sent us all for a reason,” the second valkyrie added.
“Because she entrusted us with this task,” the third valkyrie chimed in, each of them expressing their determination to carry out their mission.
From their words, Dream understood one thing: further tergiversation was useless. He had no doubt they would not simply let him go, just as he had no doubt that he wouldn’t be able to outrun them, just like with the mindless monsters he had encountered thus far in that forest he had just learned was called Shadowfen. Confrontation was inevitable.
Thanks to the System, Dream could tell that they clearly would overpower him when it comes to Odo Potential, but he also was able to tell that he had the upper hand against them when it comes to Halo Potential and Prana Potential.
Gotta heavily capitalize on that advantage.
Seeing how the trio organized themselves in a triangle formation, with two stepping forward and leaving the one with the cuff-like rope behind, Dream came to a decision as to what would be his next course of action.
Should I open up with something big? No. Let’s play it safe, I’ve wasted almost half of my prana against the Moonwalker. It’ll be troubling if I run out of juice mid-battle.
[ Aero ]
Acolyte
Unrelenting Surge Lvl.1
46
With the two valkyries positioning themselves forward and stepping toward him, Dream called forth his Aero-elementalis and unleashed one of his most recently acquired mantras at them—a powerful gust that engulfed everything in its path, hurling almost all the nearby pebbles at them.
Naturally, one would expect that a gust and some pebbles thrown at them would be enough to take them down, but it was with disappointment that Dream noted how his unleashed attack barely inconvenienced his opponents. In fact, it seemed to have prompted them to become even more aggressive.
The valkyrie with the gauntleted arms lunged at him first, swinging her fist down with a leap. Her fist met the ground, forming a crater that would have splattered Dream's brain had he not backed off just in time. He barely had time to recover before trying to put some distance between himself and the barbaric woman.
As he tried to create some space, the other valkyrie with the thin-edged long tail walked past the first one, raising her legs for what felt like a delayed high kick. Initially, with the distance between them, Dream didn't feel threatened by her stance, but his perception changed when he saw her thin tail being shot forth like a lance, thrusting past his head, missing to impale him by just a couple of inches.
The said tail was then retracted to coil around her leg before being thrust forth like a spring back at him, just like the first time. Dream was not stupid enough to fall for the same trick again.
[ Aero ]
Acolyte
Wind Shield
46
Summoning a literal wall of Aero-elementalis, Dream protected himself from the thin-tailed valkyrie's repetitive and thrusting attacks. It was holding up just fine until the arrival of the gauntleted valkyrie, who came with just one punch that shattered Dream and the thin-tailed valkyrie's stalemate.
She came at him, throwing punches. He evaded the first swing, and then the second. As she swung for a third time, Dream saw an opportunity for an attack. Molding his left arm into a golden blade, he planned on striking her down. But just as he did, he felt something whistling through the air, ominously approaching him.
It was the first valkyrie's rope.
His instantaneous reflex was to protect his head with his left arm, which granted him the grace of having his left arm sliced off instead of his head. He had barely survived an attack that almost cost him his life when a punch from the gauntleted valkyrie came at him. With barely enough time to muster anything up, Dream summoned a shield of fortune for his right arm to protect himself. However, the shield was still being molded when the valkyrie's punch connected with it.
Dream groaned a "guh," as his body was sent rolling into the distance. He had just come to a stop, raising his eyes toward his assaillants when he saw the first valkyrie's rope once again whistling, whipping in his direction.
"Crap," he mustered, summoning his elementalis in a hurry, propelling himself upward, avoiding the rope that came crashing into a powerful burst onto the ground. "Inconceivable, just how powerful is that thing," he mumbled, before unleashing a rain of electro-elementalis attacks at the trio from midair. The effectiveness of his attack remained unknown because of the dust screen that enveloped the trio, but it granted Dream the chance to land safely.
Looking at his arm, which was trembling from having sustained the earlier attack, Dream looked in their direction and saw the first valkyrie dispelling the smokescreen with her rope, revealing all three of them to be completely unscathed.
If there was something he'd learned from his confrontation against the Eldest back then, the others, and then Menma, it was that fighting an Odoe was different from fighting a Raj or a mage. Having gone through the change himself, he knew that Odo was capable of bringing great changes in its wielder's body. In his case, not only was he stripped of the corruption of senescence, but he also acquired things such as heightened reflexes, greater pain resistance, and heightened strength. It was only when he came to confront a valkyrie of his own that he came to understand that these advantages, aside from actual immortality, weren't exclusive to him alone, but traits he shared with the valkyrie.
“Crap!”