Dungeon of Niflheim

91 Chapter 91: Assaulting the compound (12)

“Bleerghhh,” the goon spat up a fountain of blood and viscera when the glaive rammed through his chest, eviscerating his heart, leaving him no chance for survival.

The goon looked up at his killer in anger, he grabbed onto the glaive with his remaining strength hoping to pin down Frost for a moment more. As long as he held Frost in place, his comrades could attack at once and avenge him. Like a loyal soldier he would complete his mission.

With the goon’s desperate grabbing of his glaive, Frost was filled with respect, but it didn’t prevent his next action.

Riiiiiiiiip!

He forcibly tore his glaive from its victim, generating a bone chilling sound as well as scream from the goon but still he held on, his eyes filled with determination. And his actions had paid off.

That extra millisecond of time it took Frost to pull out his glaive was enough for the second archer and the axe thrower to move.

The axe thrower was in mid swing opting to go for a close combat action whereas the archer was primed to launch her arrows, a fiercer look could be seen in her eyes, perhaps the death of the other archer affected her more than others, but it didn’t matter.

“Tsk” Frost clicked his tongue; he was surrounded on all sides and would struggle to block both the oncoming axe as well as the three arrows and then there was the middle line of goons who were now escaping their impromptu ice prisons.

‘Shit!’ Frost internally complained and lamented his recklessness before bringing up his glaive to defend himself from the axe swing, he’d work out what to do after blocking this attack first.

.....

Ptannnnng!

“[fire bolt]!” From out of Frost sight, he could hear a bow string being released and Luna’s voice as she casted the 1st circle spell fire bolt. He wasn’t alone in this fight.

The fire bolt sent by Luna wasn’t enough to kill in a single strike, but she successfully launched it at the female archer before she had a chance to fire her arrows at Frost.

“Booooooom Ahhhhhhh!” The archer screamed out loud as she was hit by a powerful explosion burning her face and send her reeling to the ground.

Wooooshh Ding Ding

Taka’s arrows however were launched at the goon leader hoping to possibly end him when he was distracted by Frost but unfortunately the goon leader was stronger than expected. He immediately stopped his swing towards Frost and held two axes in front of his chest successfully blocking the arrows without much issue.

This gave Frost ample opportunity to remove himself from danger but not without landing a final attack.

“[ice bolt]” While dashing backwards and away from the group of goons Frost launched an ice bolt at the now prone archer who was clawing at her burned face.

The bolt struck true piercing her through the head, using the already burnt flesh as an access point, killing her swiftly. The strange thing was Frost caught the last look in her eyes and they seemed to show relief.

‘Weird’ but his attack had succeeded so he vamoosed out of there quickly re-joining Bruno and the rest, not forgetting give a nod of thanks towards Taka and Luna.

To be honest he didn’t really need their help, he was confident in successfully retreating perhaps even after killing another one of the goons or maybe two. But it would have been hard, and he’d probably receive a wound of some sort resulting in a 50/50 shot of him needing to drink another health potion. He’d do anything to avoid that torture, so his thanks were genuine.

Now the group of goons or death soldiers were down to 11 with the long range attacks being pretty much spent, they could only carry so many throwing axes or javelins, they weren’t like arrows that could be contained in a quiver.

“Bastard!” The goon leader shouted in anger his rage being primarily being directed at Frost the one who killed two of his squad members. Although they were death soldiers it didn’t make the loss of his subordinates any easier, especially when they failed to wound the aggressor.

With their long range attacks now gone and several of the group being filled with pure anger they wouldn’t be very good at defending so the goon leader gave the order.

“Charge!” He roared while pointing his axe forward, causing the shield bearers to toss aside their broken shields and draw their axes before running straight at their foes, aiming to close the distance as fast as possible. They would take at least one of them down even if it kills them.

Dealing with a group of charging goons was much easier to deal with than if they stayed all turtled up but this way, they had a higher chance of killing or at least causing injury.

The battle thus proceed much more smoothly and lasted no more than 10 minutes, with the majority of kills once again going to Frost. He simply pelted them with ice bolts as they charged damaging many of them. Only the swordsmen and goon leader could effectively block his magic. Taka and Luna took down a couple with their arrows and magic working in tandem. Luna damaging and blinding the foe while Taka finished them off with a swift arrow to a vital area.

The goon leader however fell to Bruno’s hammer much to Frost’s displeasure since he would have granted the greatest amount of DP, but he couldn’t control who the goon charged towards, and it was against his principles to kill steal.

In fact, the goon leader was the last to die, Bruno faced him one on one and revelled in testing out the extent of his new weapons. He finished the fight by bludgeoning goon leaders head in once his axes were smashed apart after repeated blows to his shield.

All in all, it was a very enjoyable fight and didn’t result in any injuries or cost too much stamina or mana, a great start to the second floor. Adam now had 13 less goons to use and they were making great progress, however the subsequent fights weren’t as simple.

Although there were less opponents on this floor, they were significantly stronger, it took they nearly twice as long to reach the end of the second basement and they were far more tired. Ryuu and Bastion even had to get involved a couple of times to save them from death or severe injury making their next fight all that much tougher.

“[Heal]” Luna casted her healing magic on Bruno who had received a nasty gash across his chest from a great sword quickly sealing up the injury but not much more. She then had to quickly move over to Taka who had a severely broken arm which he got from blocking a strike aimed at her. The two of them were done, they couldn’t fight anymore, completely exhausted and sporting fairly significant injuries. They even struggled to hold up their weapons even after drinking their last health potion. They were forced to drink a couple in between rooms lowering their potency.

“Huu huuu huuu” Leo was panting while lying on his back, he had a few cuts and bruises but nothing serious thanks to Bruno’s expert defending skills and Frost’s ability to direct the enemies ire towards him.

He lifted his head up to look around for his senpai, the fighting in the last area was so fierce and dangerous that he couldn’t keep track of his whereabouts.

There leaning against the wall, slumping slightly was Frost, his robes already repaired and cleaned to their pristine, white, and blue state looking perfect as always.

Frost’s face was now out in the open for the whole world to see, during the last battle even he felt pressured when three opponents each at D-rank attacked him all at once and no one could assist him. The constant battle since they arrived at this compound had finally began to take its toll.

Unlike Bruno or Taka, he didn’t have any injuries albeit a few cuts and grazes here and there and perhaps a bruise or two, but he was quite exhausted. His energy level felt incredibly low, his body was seeking the energy of the dungeon, craving it. He’d long used up the sustenance given by the feast he enjoyed at the Lord’s manor as well as the healing effects of his earlier potion which he was forced to drink.

Even without injuries his battle strength had dipped quite a lot luckily, they were prepared to have a short respite but probably not long enough. They still had the final floor to clear, wherein their greatest opponents lie in wait.

Frost looked over at their two trump cards, Ryuu and Bastion, they managed to preserve the majority of their stamina throughout this journey but still had to intervene in the end. He could see Bastion twitching whether that was from excitement or anxiety he couldn’t tell. What bothered him most however was Ryuu, he was completely silent even when his daughter spoke to him.

‘This fight seems to be incredibly risky.’ Frost then looked downward beneath them. He could feel an aura thick with mana pervading into the room and only the three of them could feel it.

‘Strong’ was the feeling Frost got, the mage was strong incredibly so, an opponent well beyond his league. He held his hand up in front of his face, it was trembling.

‘Is this fear?’ He watched his hand curiously clenching and unclenching to see if it would stop trembling, but it didn’t.

He frowned.

‘No, this isn’t fear.’ His mouth slowing curved upwards as he remembered what true fear felt like. When he felt Maya’s blood lust that was true fear or when Ryuu let out his aura that was fear, this however was pure excitement. Even though he knew he was no match for the mage he still wanted to try. He didn’t feel this way about Ryuu or Maya, but he did about this mage. What does that mean?

‘He’s weaker than Ryuu.’ Upon realising this he turned once again to Bastion and the silent Ryuu a short distance away. He was smiling and not just slightly it was a wide and mad smile. He wasn’t afraid in the slightest no he was full of joy at the prospect of battling someone so strong, it filled his old bones with vigour, and he could feel his blood pumping faster than it had in years.

Bastion was much the same, his twitching hands were from him dying to rush down the stairwell and fight but having to reign it in until everyone was ready, but there was a limit and Ryuu broke first.

Wooooooosh

Suddenly Ryuu started to project his own powerful aura not holding back in the slightest slamming down upon the mage’s aura, forcing it back down.

However, his aura couldn’t determine friend from foe in his current maddened state. Everyone but Bastion felt an incredible force on their bodies making it difficult to breath and even move, it was suffocating. Even Frost found the pressure quite unbearable, perhaps that was because he could sense it that much clearer than the rest.

‘God damn so this is B-rank.’ Frost smiled ignoring the pressure, his eyes were filled with desire, he wanted that level of strength and more.

Then without warning a second aura burst forth from the nearby Bastion just a tad less heavy and aggressive but instead of doubling the pressure on Frost and the rest it relieved it. Unlike Ryuu he was still relatively in control of his urges and used his powerful aura to protect everyone before given his old friend a harsh slap on the back of the head.

“Ryuu you idiot control your aura!” He yelled in his friend’s ear at a level that could cause damage in itself, but it worked. Ryuu subconsciously reigned in his aura as he covered his ear in pain before glaring at his friend well once friend if he loses his hearing.

“Why are you getting in the way of my fun you stupid old dwarf.” Ryuu spat out an insult while rubbing his ear.

‘That friggin hurt!’