Bloodlines of the Ancient Pantheons

After hitting the first target, Freydis hit Sander with another shot from above.

The Master of Defense crossed his arms, trying to further strengthen the celestial barrier around him, but it shattered into a thousand pieces under the girl's obsidian claymore.

Sander fell to the ground, breathing hard with the last energies he had in his body.

Now was the time of Gridd, that snapped at her, attempting to block her advance, but when she saw her coming, she violently slapped her, causing her to crawl back to the spot she came from, near the temple ruins.

After witnessing the scene, Reidar, seeing Freydis approaching Sander with a menacing air, who could barely move, charged a single arrow, pledging not to activate the power of the Failnaught.

"I have to hit her in the lower leg, I can't risk hurting her to death, I would never forgive her!" the archer thought, looking at the aura that enveloped Dag, who was progressively decreasing in volume, letting him see his captain's hands on the ground.

When only a few yards separated Freydis from Sander, an arrow hit her in the lower calf, near her ankle.

She stopped, with annoyed air.

She raised his stricken leg and violently detached the arrow, throwing it away, feeling no pain, leaving Reidar astonished.

She was now very close to Sander, while Ellen and Gridd had been momentarily defeated.

Freydis stretched his legs and stood on him, at his chest, pointing the claymore at it.

"You will become a great Shieldmaiden, girl... I'm sure you'll soon snap out of it..." Sander whispered, looking at her with a calm and smiling expression, now resigned to the looming death.

She looked down at him: the purple of her pupils swayed in the dark black that enveloped her eyes, while the sharp tip of the obsidian claymore entered her Master's chest, piercing his armor and his flesh.

Reidar fired another arrow and hit Freydis on the shoulder, but she didn't move an inch.

"Captain! Hurry up! There's not much time!" he yelled at Dag, hoping he could hear those words and speed up the process.

Freydis continued to look Sander in the eye, which closed, as he emitted groans of pain.

More than just a kill, that practice had a sadistic background, as if at that moment that young red-haired girl was enjoying the pain that the man was feeling before her eyes, while life was about to gradually abandon his body, during that slow and painful ritual.

At one point, just as Sander seemed doomed and fainted from the fright, a chain wrapped Freydis' abdomen, making her loosen her grip on the sword.

The girl looked down when a second chain grabbed her at the same spot.

Moments later, an incredible strength pulled Freydis backward, causing her to extract the sword from the helpless body of Sander, who had exhausted his strength to fight.

The girl ended up with her back to the ground, but with an upside-down she immediately got up, looking over her shoulder, while the chains around her body gave up their grip.

Kjell was there, with the two weapons in his hands and his face covered in blood that had flowed from his forehead, which had finally stopped.

The chain-warrior had managed to recover in time, preventing the killing of Sander, who with a few seconds of delay, would have died.

Freydis stood still, pointing the claymore tip at him, studying his movements, not believing that the chains would be able to drag her away so easily.

Kjell restarted to twirl the chains around his arms, causing them to slam to the ground and preparing to strike.

With rapid blows, two cross-shaped shockwaves, similar to the one that had hit Sander's barrier just before, departed from Freydis' rocky sword.

With abnormal agility, Kjell, instead of dodging those incredibly fast shots sideways, snapped forward, jumping and spinning on himself, passing through them.

When the corner between the two shock waves closed behind him, leaving him unharmed, with a momentum of his arm he threw a chain's spiked ball towards Freydis, who was hit on the hip, slightly unbalancing backward.

Kjell returned with his feet to the ground and before he started running again, he swung the other chain too, which, in less than a second, wrapped the girl's ankle.

After a violent pull, Freydis was back to the ground.

Kjell continued to drag the girl's body forcefully towards him, imagining a way to trap her and possibly cut the rune out of her neck: as he had lost consciousness, he still had been able to summarily feel what happened around him and knew about Inguz and how to free the innocent girl from its power.

Freydis shoved the claymore blade to the ground and countered the movement of the chains, which stopped. 

She grabbed the one tied around his ankle, lifting her torso off the ground and pulling violently towards her, emitting a verse of effort, for the first time since she had begun to fight in that form. 

Kjell loosened his grip on that chain and pulled the other one, swinging it quickly and trying to hit Freydis again, who after pulling the first one, had fallen back to the ground.

"Noo!" Karl yelled, fearing that his sister's end had come, when she raised her arm and grabbed the nailed ball directly over her belly, blocking it.

Kjell stood still, not believing his eyes.

One of the spikes of his weapon had pierced the palm of Freydis's hand, but she still managed to parry the blow, which would have caused her extensive damage, making her easier to fight against.

With her other hand resting on the handle of his sword, Freydis rose from the ground, while wounds on her hip and legs regenerated.

Kjell grabbed the chain that had just dropped and pulled the other, but it did not move from the palm of the girl, who shook her bloodied hand.

He pulled again, but to no avail: Freydis's grip was incredibly strong and the wound had not helped to diminish her grip strength.