Goddess Collector: Every Hole is a Goal

Title: Comes Death

Janet's actions instantly resulted in Hera mobilizing all her forces to extreme attention and with a wave of her hand, all the carcasses shot towards the small group of adventurers who were promised more than just a small assembly of the dead.

"Rrragh!" Jennifer growled. Unlike the hulk, in her current form, she retained her wits and instead of plainly smashing into the army, the woman shot forward, not giving the sword-wielding, rotten warrior any chance to attack by grabbing his head, clenching her butt as she rotated to smash the rotten body against the number of undead warriors, causing their body parts to fly away before shooting the remaining half of the undead clattering in her hand towards Hela.

Hela's gaze constricted. Jennifer was fast, vicious, and saw through the main weakness of the undead army in an instant— the Queen of the Dead. It wasn't that others didn't know about the weakness, but considering their situation, it was either Nik or Jennifer who could truly attack Hela the quickest and that's what Jennifer did!

With a piercing sound, the dead crashed into a quickly formed barrier of energy and behind the green, crackling dome of light, Hela gritted her teeth. Her pale face contorted with fury, her dignity wounded by a mere mortal was something that even not Loki would entertain much less the ruler of Hel.

Janet instantly took the chance to turn smaller than a human thumb and Morgan chuckled. Since her source of magic was none other than Nik, she wished to be more considerate in how she would drain him, and just using a string of mana connected to her was certainly not something she had in mind. Instead of summoning her own army of the dead, which had been collecting dust all this time, Morgan pressed her palm forward and sneakily caught one of the flying heads of the dead and laced her palm with berserk magical energy, effectively crushing the skull.

"Surturia," Morgan whispered and the ashes morphed into a dagger which she tosses towards Merlin. The undead, under Morgan's command, caught the dagger and allowed magic to burn his finger in a golden, molten state. Everything happened in a quick motion. Merlin drew a small rune on the dagger and clenched its handle tightly.

"Dodge!" Hela's eyelids twitched. She gazed at the undead's predetermined location of the attack and the moment Merlin threw the dagger, almost all the undead suddenly sidestepped, pushing against each other while the dagger pierced through the chest of one dwarf before piercing into the column of light.

*Boom*

The dagger exploded, causing the column to collapse and the fire to catch onto a few undeads.

*Grrooghhh*

"Wrong move!" Nik simply jumped aside. He might have called out the girls to technically protect him, but he wasn't planning on being a burden. In fact, a circular area was opened up by Jennifer while a little away, once again flanked by undeads was a Nik and the shrieking Poole.

"On your left!"

"I can see that!"

"On your left!"

"I can fucking see!" Nik spat as shoved Poole back into the pocket before dodging an arrow meant for his left knee.

Hela clearly did not see Nik as a threat and like Jennifer, who went a quick attack for Hela, the queen of the dead commanded her archers to attack Nik while she placed her focus on the three women.

"Where's the other one?" Hela raised her eyebrow. In such a ruckus, finding a figure as thin as a needle and possibly shorter in height was, as expected, a monumental task.

In the most basic gaming terms.

Jennifer is the warrior.

Morgan is the black magician.

And, Janet is an assassin.

Meanwhile, Nik?

He's the princess eyed by the villain that the heroes must protect from being captured and in the off-chance that Nik does get captured, they must strap a pair of thick mustache and run after his trail.

"Woah, can't catch me!"

"Too slow!"

"Too dumb!"

Nik's cackle echoed in the large hall. He would always move but what the small battalion of the undead couldn't feel was the sheer coldness that Nik exuded at the moment. It was an extremely controlled change in the temperature, but it would have been evident to those with the physical capabilities of sensing temperature.

Whenever he moved, Nik tried to think like he was one with water. An extremely basic manner of visualizing a concept to master it but that wasn't the end of it. Hidden behind the crude visual was the subsequent change in temperature. If Nik's moves were meant to resemble waves of the ocean, then slowly and steadily, the way his shoes slid across the surface began to resemble an ice skater going through a frozen sea with countless mounds of waves.

One body focused on preparing methods to use a sword as an attack. The other body only used the concept of ice and water to dodge enemies countless times and slide through the gaps to create more confusion among the already confused dead.

'I underestimated them by a considerable margin,' Hela thought simply and pressed her palm together. Soon, a strange magical energy radiated from her palms and as she slowly pulled her hands back, a dark handled sword with a cold, gleaming steel edge materialized.

Nik's eyes twitched for a moment.

Hela just became a little too dangerous for the girls.

It wasn't just because of the sword.

As the holder, user, and person who could probably think of perverted use of energy as noble as life, Nik could easily sense the screaming sensation of death that Hela's magical energy and being had formed into.

So, yes, it wouldn't be far off to consider her an actual danger. And if her capabilities are raised and Nik is without his weapons connected to his soul, then there is a very low chance of him succumbing to Hela's dominance.

"Try and avoid Hela physically. She seems a little more troublesome now," Morgan duly cautioned the rampaging Jennifer. The moment she destroyed the damn undeads, they would reform. But her stamina, too, was no longer logical. Her body would grow bulkier at times to increase the area and force of the damage before she would revert to her slim form to press through the gaps.

Of course, Jennifer's change in size was purely out of a shift in musculature, unlike Janet's physical ability to shift her very mass.

"I've fought worse!" Jennifer growled.

"I highly doubt that!" Morgan stated calmly as Merlin snapped his finger, causing a golden glow to cover Jennifer's body. On the other hand, Janet continued to buzz. She was looking for a prime opportunity to hurt where it stung the most but the opportunities weren't going to be when Hela was still in her prime condition with a sword at that.

"A magical barrier will not last long," Hela moved towards Jennifer with a casual speed. The undead waiting to charge forward, clearly held back by the mess in front of them, slowly picked the bodies of their fallen comrades once again and began retreating. This change was noted by Jennifer, who quickly snuck beside one particular skull that wasn't taken away. The smell was absolutely disgusting, but she held her nose and silently waited.

The floor started to clear out with most of the undead crawling towards the throne. The reduction in the size of the group allowed more gaps to form and this simply made Nik stop. He wouldn't earn anything in an easy battle. In fact, he had given himself a challenge to not be touched by the undead and he kept it! He would in fact place himself in a position where dodging an arrow would be beneficial to himself.

'Tch... and I was beginning to feel a little colder,' Nik sighed internally.

*Shiing*

Hela adjusted her blade but the simple act caused a sweet sound of the air being sliced apart. Nik could practically lick the sharpness from the sound.

'Nnngh! Bang her, too!' Lilith commanded instantly.

'Shut it,' Nik rolled his eyes. His most prominent ability— seduction— was once something that was still in the realms of logic and only required one to keep practicing lines and expressions in front of a mirror. But he had long surpassed the realms of logic in this matter.

After all, it wasn't logical that he had been able to satisfy all women in his harem irrespective of their orientation or kinks. Of course, he worked hard, getting to know each of them, and always trying to know more about them since life is the cause of change itself, but that didn't mean his bloodline didn't help.

Now, this bloodline came with its natural restrictions and the goddesses of Asgard touched the very weakest points of these restrictions. Nik had long felt the lack of his bloodline's quality but it was still effective against goddesses. After all, Angela and Loki were the first to have the slightest resistance to his charms.

But anyone with a stronger bloodline would prove difficult.

And in Nik's eyes, only Odin would be such a being.

'High time to be a straight guy... I wonder if Ray would have problems with Odin. Welp, he's in hell, too,' Nik snickered internally.

By now, Hela was in position and she waited silently for anyone to approach her. Her gaze remained calm and turned dignified while her body was crouched low.

"What's the matter?" Hela inquired as she gazed at the silent Jennifer and Morgan before she locked eyes with Nik. "You have the chance to impress me now, once again."

"Why does everything have to be done to impress you?"

Nik shrugged.

"Call me a betraying harlot, but I'm not facing a sword laced with death energy by a goddess if it's just for fun," Morgan spoke up while Jennifer only frowned.

"Well, I can't blame you for that," Nik smiled and looked towards Jennifer, "What about you? Care for a slash with a high chance of death?"

"When you put it this way..." Jennifer smirked, "Of course, not."

Nik sighed.

In reality, Jennifer could wreck Hela. She just didn't know it.

'I hope that she can get used to her powers though,' Nik thought internally. Jennifer surely kept her mental faculties in this form but unlike the Hulk, she was quite weak. It was because of the sense of morality and humanity that came with her thought process itself. Meanwhile, in Bruce's condition, Hulk was an entity different from his human self.

"Alright, let me have this honor," Nik stepped forward, pulled the two bundles of consciousnesses from his pockets, and handed them to Morgan.

"Hi," Poole smiled.

Morgan continued to watch Nik.

"Hellloooo!"

Morgan didn't reply.

"Did you know, from where I come, you were actually a big baddy's lover? Called himself Doctor Doom. Not much different here considering you fell for Dr. Boom."

Instantly, globes of magical energy covered Spider and Poole.

"Once again... I didn't do anything," Spider grumbled.

"Come on. We've got a good combo. Like Kumar and Harold! I'm the loveable goof who will enjoy and you'll suffer the consequences of my actions!" Poole snickered.

On the other hand, Nik thought against using Life energy. Since he had made up his mind to practice Ice and Water techniques to further his understanding of Eternal Ice, he created a small knife of ice as it glimmered in a soft green glow due to the lighting in the hall. Aside from a few marks and two obvious craters, the hall was pretty much intact.

"Can I ask you a question?" Nik inquired while waving the blue ice knife around.

"Go ahead."

"Would you have remained in the same position for days if we none of us volunteered?" Nik inquired.

"Sword isn't my only medium of attack. It is merely the more preferred one."

Nik nodded and stood a meter away from Hela.

"Ready when you are," Nik smiled.

The keen sound of Hela's sword resounded once again and she struck forward. The dark, revolting energy couldn't be more obvious as the beautiful blade came crashing forward. Flexing every muscle of his leg, Nik made sure not to dodge and simply lodge a spike through Hela's neck and parried with his knife.

No sound echoed, in fact, Hela and Nik did not move at all.

Since Nik wanted the chance to train only his energy, he strained his senses to quickly adjust to Hela's strength and he was absolutely surprised to find out that Hela's physique rivaled Thor, if not surpass him by a margin.

And then came the death.