Dungeon of Niflheim

107 Chapter 107: Fighting Adam (4)

With Leo and Luna both down and disorientated only Frost was left to do battle with Adam. Before, he wasn’t a match alone but now with Adam’s injuries and hidden life saving majors being depleted Frost may triumph. However, Adam at the moment was quite mad, and a cornered foe is much more dangerous to deal with.

Frost was still kneeling there building up the strength to charge while shifting Leo behind him just in case. Adam wasn’t doing very well either, his forceful use of mana filled his body with immense pain as though he was burning from the inside out. He was in no condition to cast magic, any further spells may damage his organs or even make his veins explode, killing him almost instantly, no he’d need to rely on a mix of luck and well brute strength.

Afraid to cast another spell and well just afraid to make a dangerous decision Adam stared at Frost warily, not casting any more magic. He held his charred stump of an arm close and glanced side to side to find his weapons.

‘Fuck fuck fuck!’ He was internally screaming and panicking and wanted to do nothing but flee this fight but would Frost let him? Not a chance. Plus, unfortunately Frost was placed right in front of the path to his secret escape route. He’d have to push his way passed, open the hatch, and drop down all while having to deal with Frost. Fleeing wasn’t an option; he’d have to fight.

Adam was afraid, terrified even, he hadn’t been in a truly dangerous situation personally in....well never actually. He always had either guards when he was young and or life saving measures such as that necklace that saved him from his nephew’s slash but now, they were all gone. His weapons were splayed around the room out of reach, the staff being closest, but it had a deep cut groove along the centre from Frost’s glaive being forcibly yanked out of it. If he used that for a spell it could backfire making his already magic situation that much more treacherous. And the physical strength of the structure was compromised, it could split in two from a single well placed strike from Frost, not a safe option.

He could go for hand to hand combat, he really didn’t excel at that and well he’d be outmatched hand wise but what other choice did he have.

His severed hand not only contained his mana absorption ring but also his storage rings (probably not the wisest idea in hindsight) so he didn’t have much magic devices on hand that he could use in this situation.

His short swords were in pretty good condition still, one of them however was lying still gripped by his severed hand and that was lying at Frost’s feet so that’s out of the question. He looked around searching for his other short sword.

Meanwhile Frost was also eyeing his target, he couldn’t let Adam recharge or find an avenue to survive but he needed time himself, his strength was lacking at the moment.

.....

Suddenly his body was filled with warmth and his body was topped off only a slight amount given the fact that he received a healing spell not so long ago, but it was enough. He looked over at the woman who casted the spell.

Luna muttered quietly and send the last of her strength into a healing spell before passing out completely, she did what she could, the rest was up to him.

Feeling the weight of being relied upon filled him with another dose of strength one in which he used to rise to his feet, it was time to end this.

Adam had finally found a possible option but was startled by Frost’s movements.

‘Dammit’ in a panic he looked over towards his saving grace in full view of Frost, the closest weapon was not his but Leo’s. Leo’s sword that was sent bounding away thanks to his life necklace was less than ten metres away, lodged shallowly in the nearby wall at a reachable height, he needed that sword if wanted to survive.

In an instant the two men made their moves Adam clambered along to the sword whereas Frost charged, it was a race. If Adam reached and pulled out the weapon, they’d return to exchanging techniques which would benefit Adam, his skill was higher, his repertoire of moves greater and the longer he delayed the sooner he could use mana again. Frost couldn’t allow that.

They both moved with fervent determination with Frost being slightly quicker than Adam, but Adam had the shorter distance to travel.

Eventually however Adam reached the sword and began pulling with his one good arm as though his life depended on it, which it did. Frost was still a few metres away but that was too far, his glaive couldn’t reach, and he couldn’t risk throwing it, but he wasn’t out of options yet. Taking a deep breath, he pulled out something from his storage ring, something he looted from Shadow’s corpse, smoke bombs.

“Rahhhhhhhh!” Adam roared as he successfully pulled out Leo’s sword and turned to face down his aggressor but the moment he did.

Boommmm!

There was two flashes of light momentarily blinding him and then thick plumes of dark blue smoke obscured his vision and all around him. His eyes glanced around in desperation searching for Frost with bloodshot eyes and then he felt a horrible sensation on the back of his neck and without hesitation he swung behind cleaving apart the smoke, but he was met with nothing but air. The cold horrible sensation immediately grew worse, and his heart sunk.

“Fuck!”

“Too slow” with Frost’s whisper he appeared from the air, the moment the bombs went off he leaped upwards with all his strength and was now landing behind Adam and as he descended, he had a needle hidden within his fingers.

The moment his feet touched the ground he stabbed Adam in the neck before taking a step back to enjoy the coming sight and boy did it act quickly. With Adam’s injuries and his heart pumping a mile a minute the wyvern poison acted almost instantaneously.

“Ahhhhhh!” Adam screamed as his body started to convulse and he felt both hot and cold at the same time, his veins started to protrude and be dyed black, and he slumped to the floor, paralysed from the poison.

Frost smiled with joy before swinging his glaive in a wide side arc clearing the majority of the smoke. He peered down at Adam whose very skin was writhing and wriggling yet he was still conscious and able to feel every ounce of pain.

Given Adam’s natural health as well as body strength it would probably take a while for the poison to finish him, unlike Frost he wasn’t sturdy enough or in any shape to survive but it would be a slow, painful, and very much enjoyable death at least in Frost’s eyes.

When Adam’s voice had finally grown hoarse from his perpetual screaming Frost started to speak.

“Hahhahha the great and mighty Baron Adam missing an arm, covered in blood, full of poison and writhing in agony oh how far you have fallen.” Adam could only glare with hatred at Frost unable to do much else.

It took all his strength to talk.

“...W...w..why?” He asked this question once again, even on his death bed he truly failed to understand Frost’s reasoning, from their battle he got the sense that he wasn’t what you would call a good person, someone who can’t watch and injustice when they can stop it no, he appeared very practical so why.

“Again, with that question... I believe I already gave you an answer Baron.” Frost looked down in contempt, already growing a little bored by the conversation.

“T...t...that...w..wasn’t...t..th...the whol...rea..son” Adam forced himself with great difficulty to mouth his response, he needed to know before he died otherwise it would haunt him in the next life.

“.....” Frost looked down at Adam blankly, unsure whether to speak or not, he owed him nothing and whether or not he would be haunted in the next life was not his problem. However, his eyes, Adam’s eyes were clear now, he’d already accepted his death. Frost appreciated those eyes and decided to reveal a little.

He looked back to make sure Luna and Leo were still out of commission before lowering himself down to Adam’s level.

“You’re right that wasn’t the whole reason, I won’t spill all my secrets, but I’ll tell you this. Your group of hired thugs and that knight Alex entered my territory so that was strike one and enough reason for me to kill them. Two, Luna and Leo were no threat and were quite likeable kids, so I opted to help them out since I was going to be killing those thugs anyway, killing two birds with one stone.” Adam smiled awkwardly able to finally understand some of Frost’s motives.

“Thirdly when I confronted Alex alone with his dying act, he struck me with one of those needles.” Adam suddenly had a knowing look dawn on his face in which Frost smiled back to in response.

“Yes, Leo surmised that he would have gotten the concoction from you and that it was probably meant to be used on him if Alex got the chance, from that he also gleamed that it was you that poisoned his father, Douglas.” Adam this time showed a slightly pained look at the mention of his brother.

“Hoh is that guilt I see in your eyes, must be a strange sensation for you hahaha.” Adam gritted his teeth in anger but was powerless to retort both physically and logically. He was the one that poisoned his own brother out of greed and ambition even when he’d been nothing but good to him over the years, even someone as callous and insidious as Adam had a few things he regretted, his brother’s condition being one of them. Ideally his brother was supposed to pass on quite quickly with not too much suffering however given the strength of his body and the multiple herbs that Cassandra forcibly funnelled into his system his death was delayed and even now after more than 2 years he still lived.

Adam forced himself to turn away from Frost, out of guilt or shame who knows.

“Hmph, fourthly it would be when I arrived in Furano, meeting with Douglas, Cassandra, Ryuu and Bastion I grew fairly attached to them, not exactly proud of that but I couldn’t help it they’re real genuinely nice people of which you are not. So, when they asked for my assistance in dealing with the man who caused these nice people so much pain as well as the originating cause of my quite painful episode of being poisoned who was I to turn them down. Hahaha the promise of reward was only icing on the cake.” Frost smiled widely moving his face to the side so Adam could see his grin.

“Does that answer your question now Baron Adam?”

“.....” Adam was silent for a moment as he took in Frost’s monologue.

“Y..y.ou’re...q...uit..e..pe..tty....ha..cou” Adam tried to chuckle but started coughing instead.

The smile vanished from Frost’s face, he couldn’t deny that he was rather petty and vindictive but in the same way you could call him reasonable. Adam was a threat who had caused him harm and would mostly like would do so again in the future so wasn’t he right to eliminate this threat. Frost didn’t care either way, he simply lived by his own principles, what did the notions of regular society mean to a dungeon core in the end....fuck all that’s what.

Frost was done with explaining and he’d already gotten his revenge, Adam was in pain, and he’d thoroughly defeated him, perhaps he should just end it here and now. His eyes gleamed as he thought over what to do.

He wouldn’t allow Leo or Luna to end him since he wanted the sweet, sweet DP, plus they already agreed that if he was above a certain level of strength, he would have to take care of him. Whether that meant dealing the final blow when he was pretty much incapacitated was debatable, but it wasn’t as though there was anyone to stop him.

As he grabbed hold of his glaive ready to bring it down upon Adam’s head, Adam spoke his last words if you will.

Accepting his death Adam wished to do one last thing with his final moments. He summoned the very last shred of his strength and resistance to speak clearly.

“My....Brother...his ...poison....cure....in...the room....behind....silver...vial....Furano...seal...” Adam reached his limit and promptly passed out.

Frost opened his eyes wide in surprise.

‘The last thing he did was to save his brother, even though he was the one who endangered him in the first place....strange.’ It didn’t change what Adam had done but perhaps it’d bring him some solace in the next life. Frost was fond of Douglas so much so that he requested Maya to help heal him and seeing that wasn’t an option he had her protect him from danger during their operation, so he was sure to retrieve it, it’d make Leo happy as well.