Dungeon of Niflheim

100 Chapter 100: Fighting Shadow (3)

Frost frowned at the approaching set of daggers; they were fired with less force than before, but the desperate tossing made judging the trajectory rather difficult.

He was forced to reduce his momentum so as to accurately defend himself, using his glaive to knock down what he could and relying on some hastily drawn up ice chakra to block or at least reduce the piercing ability of the rest.

“Ugh!” The fierce movements involved in using his glaive sent ripples of pain throughout Frost’s body, hampering his movements, and allowing a few daggers to fly past his glaive and crash into his body.

He was forced to take a few steps backwards halting his advance, his ice chakra successfully managed to take the majority of the damage, but the daggers still pierced his skin. But every second he was delayed was a second Shadow could recover.

By the time Shadow ran out of daggers Frost had closed the distance but a precious 20 seconds or so had elapsed, more than enough time for the two of them to recover to an acceptable level.

What happened next was a brutal close combat fight between two high level fighters with neither gaining an advantage over the other. Shadow was forced to rely on his spare set of non-throwing daggers, slightly lower in quality than his abyssal metal ones but still at the 3 star level, made from a duram alloy. His injuries were too extensive to safely use any movement skills or slash with full strength, but he was still a foe to be reckoned with. Frost was in a similar situation, unable to utilise his full strength swings and finding his glaive to be incredible heavy. Their movements and attacks were anything but graceful and resulted in severe injuries on either side.

Unable to effectively block or dodge, most attacks met their marks, leaving severe gashes and gaping wounds. Shadow was filled with regrets, he lamented his arrogance, his stupidity. He was a man of the darkness like Alpha said. He specialised in quick hidden attacks from awkward angles and from the shadows, he wasn’t an in your face combat specialist. The only reason he lasted so long against Frost was his superior attributes. Where Frost was effectively an entry level C-rank, he was in the higher end of the middle level with a greater amount of experience and skills under his belt. Yet thanks to his arrogance he’d been unable to take advantage of his core skills.

[shadow dash], [shadow step] and [shadow daggers] were just some of his basic combat skills, he had many others that were more assassin oriented, but they couldn’t be used in the open.

The two of them had been enduring this slugfest for at least ten minutes, each of them covered in blood and their healing magic or health potion all used up. Their bodies were only getting more injured without any prospect of healing anytime soon. Blood covered the floor around them, their clothes and armour in tatters, a gruesome sight, even Frost’s immaculate face had received injuries.

.....

Frost better hope that it didn’t leave a scar otherwise he’d be on the wrong side of Maya’s wrath.

Gamma had already passed on due to his injury as well as an unexpected couple of air bullets to the chest and face, resulting in Beta having to fight against Leo alone. All while worrying about Luna casting offensive magic her way whenever her guard was down or worse start casting healing magic on Frost once again.

She did her best to interrupt her anytime she tried such an endeavour as did Shadow, he couldn’t allow Frost to have even the slightest edge especially since he discovered that Frost’s stamina and threshold for pain tolerance was higher than his.

As the battle went on and they endured more wounds Frost was gradually gaining the upper hand and he was ....smiling. The smile was at first infuriating to Shadow but after a while it was quite terrifying, he felt as though he was fighting a mad beast that grew stronger as the battle continued, some sort of berserker. The worst kind of opponent for an assassin such as him.

“Bleurgh ahhhh!” Shadow distracted by his thoughts failed to evade a thrust from Frost’s glaive and was pierced deep in the abdomen causing him to cough up blood and scream in pain. This could be it for him.

He looked at his mad opponent, eye’s filled with hatred.

“Bastard! Rahhhhhhh!” Filled with anger, his face warping, Shadow summoned all his strength to push Frost away with his shoulder doing his best to ignore the agonising pain sent through his abdomen from the glaive lodged there.

Frost may be smiling but he was also at the end of his rope, he didn’t have the strength to withstand Shadow’s desperate shove and was forced back but did his best to keep his hand on his glaive tearing it from Shadow’s abdomen as he faltered backwards.

“Ahhhggghhlllbbh!” The scream from Shadow this time was an incomprehensible howl, the pain was easily understood. Shadow slumped backwards, his face pale, unable to move his body below his chest, he was done. Even a high level heal wouldn’t be able save him. His anger and wrath towards Frost was paramount, his eyes were bleeding as he stared at his hated opponent.

“Y..y..you m..motherf...ucking aa....ant how d...dare you!” Shadow roared in between pained breaths and the blood rushing up and out his throat. His pain was maddening and his fury beyond breaking point he’d gone mad. His lower body was paralysed, all he could do was stare, roar and convulse.

This was supposed to be a simple fight wherein he enjoyed and tortured his opponent as revenge for his younger brother but now what, he’d met his end to this ant after a painful inelegant slugfest.

‘No! this can’t be!’ Shadow’s fury continued to increase as he saw Frost gradually make his way to his feet, unsteady and shaking but still able to stand.

“Huuuu huuuuu” Frost gasped for every breath, his body wracked with pain, but he’d won, Shadow was finished, he’d never stand again. He struggled to relish in this victory given the cost he’d paid but when Shadow cursed him similar to how his younger brother did, he was ticked off.

“If I’m ant what does that make you, a bug that lost to mere ant hahaha ugh!” Frost laughed in derision but was quickly forced to stop due the pain. He turned his eyes away from Shadow towards the battlefield nearby.

Gamma was dead, lying in pile of his own blood while Beta was close to death herself. After fighting for a while Leo picked up on her fighting style and managed land several wounds and was gradually overcoming his foe. He sported no more than shallow cuts; his armour certainly was in a class of its own.

Meanwhile Luna was keeping one of her eyes on him for the entire fight looking for a chance to cast another spell to help even slightly but as of yet couldn’t find another opportunity. She let out a sigh of relief when she realised Frost’s fight was over and redirected her attention to helping Leo finish off Beta. It wouldn’t take long.

Veins in Shadow’s forehead throbbed due to excessive anger, but his mind was still somewhat clear, when Frost looked away, he quickly got to work on another trump card. Next, he just needed Frost to come over and gloat, in which he was most inclined to do.

Seeing that Leo’s fight was progressing well Frost turned back to Shadow and slowly made his way over, his eyes full of scorn and contempt but also relief. This was the hardest fight he’d ever been in and the most wounds he’d ever received. If he had made a single slip, he could have been the one paralysed and waiting for death. The world of Nova was truly a dangerous place for someone of his meagre strength.

‘If this idiot chose to stick to the shadows like earlier there would have been no way I could have won.’ Luckily Frost killed his younger brother Alex otherwise he would have had no reason to act as such.

‘I’m so pathetically weak.’ Frost frowned and felt how weak he truly was.

‘Maya was right to worry.’ Now he understood Maya’s anxiety in giving him free reign, this opponent wasn’t even the strongest he’d come across, there was still Drogan, Rock and Jin all far superior in direct combat and then there was also Adam. At the moment they still didn’t know how strong this Baron was. If he was even remotely close to C-rank, Frost wouldn’t be able to fight in his current state and they couldn’t exactly wait for him to heal naturally or using Luna’s magic. His injuries were far beyond her means.

He moved in close to Shadow who still lay in a slump, staring his way with fire spitting out of his eyes. He was reminded of when he stood over Alex in the same way last week.

‘He had the exact same look right before....’ Frost’s eyebrows raised up in recognition before smirking and moving in closer to Shadow, fully prepared for what was coming.

“Hmph just like your brother, dying pathetically under my blade.” A face full of contempt for multiple reasons, Frost raised up his glaive with great difficulty over his head, he’d kill Shadow the same way.

“Hmph! You won’t get the chance ptuahh!” Shadow spoke through clenched teeth before shooting out a bunch of poison coated needles from his mouth. He directed them straight at Frost’s annoyingly handsome face.

“Haaaaaa” Frost sighed as he dodged to the side easily, not letting the needles scratch his skin like last time. The three needles flew passed and lodged themselves into the closest wall quickly painting the area black.

‘Just like his brother.’ Frost looked at the black spots spreading along the walls. Another potent poison but probably slightly different from the wyvern poison he endured. It appeared much more deadly and lethal.

Shadow’s eyes opened wide in shock, he didn’t account for the possibility of Frost dodging and doing it so easily as though he knew it was coming. His heart broke, his last ditch effort a pathetic attempt, he broke into a mad laugh as the stench of death reached him.

“Shut up!” Frost found the maniacal laugh incredibly eery and disturbing, he brought down his glaive upon Shadow’s head crushing his skull and ending this once greet foe before falling backwards onto his back and lying prone on the ground. With the danger of the situation over, all the built up pressure and damage was released at once, causing him to collapse and begin convulsing on the ground.

Quickly however his body was filled with something else entirely, it was warm and felt good, his wounds no longer hurt so much, and he could feel a slight amount of strength return to his limbs. It was the DP given by slaying Shadow. It was of a much higher quality than the usual riff raff he killed, and it felt amazing.

‘This stuff could really become addicting.’ Although he received far more from the killing in his dungeon, that was filtered through the dungeon core and was a combined amount from low level opponents. The DP given by Shadow was deeper, richer like a high quality steak opposed to lots of meatballs. He even licked his lips as he relished the feeling filling his body, he was still however unable to get up, stuck to being flayed out on his back for the interim.

“Hyaaaaahh” Leo however invigorated by Frost’s victory took advantage of Beta’s shock and delayed reactions slashing her diagonally from the left shoulder down to her hip ending his more powerful opponent as well albeit with a lot less injuries.

“Ugh eh ugg m...mas.” Beta’s eyes were wide open in disbelief as she fell backwards from Leo’s slash, tears spilling from her eyes as she gazed at the lifeless body of her master before ultimately her eyes too, closed forever, the battle was finally over.

They had hopefully taken care of the last of Adam’s forces, Shadow being the most likely leader for the death soldiers, now it should be a straight shot towards the Baron. Unfortunately, with Frost in the shape he is and Luna being pretty much fresh out of mana they weren’t going anywhere soon.