Dungeon of Niflheim

320 Chapter 320: Leaving Kranor

As Frost left the restaurant he spotted Kiba who was eagerly waiting outside, ready to carry his master out into the Glacial mountains. Excitement was clear in his eyes at the prospect of leaving Kranor on an adventure.

Frost smiled when he saw the tiger’s excited expression, “Hey Kiba, did you have a good meal?” He petted the massive tiger’s head like he was a common house cat.

“Rawr” Kiba nodded while licking his lips. He and Ruby were treated like a king and queen, allowed to eat till their stomachs threatened to burst, thus Kiba was in a very good mood.

“Good, glad you enjoyed it.” Frost scratched Kiba’s ears eliciting a happy purr from him. “But now we’ve got work to do. I have a quest to finish, and I need your help.”

“Rawwwrrr” Kiba chuffed loudly displaying his eagerness to help.

“Good answer,” Frost showed a wild expression before leaping onto Kiba’s back. “Time to leave Kranor Kiba, a large open world awaits you and I.”

“Rawwwwr!” Kiba roared once again before setting off with Frost on his back.

The Dungeon core and glacial winged tiger made their way out of Kranor without issue. Receiving many respectful looks as they passed through the defending gate before dashing into the endless white expanse that was the Glacial mountains.

Here Kiba could run at full speed without worry and he took to this fact with great enthusiasm, showing Frost his greatest speed. His wings even beat on occasion granting significant bursts of acceleration or rapid changes in direction. The winged tiger felt free and unrestrained, bringing a wild smile to his face. Frost allowed his new partner to act as he wished doing his best to hold on as they barrelled through the falling snow. Thankfully Kiba’s wings weren’t fully developed otherwise this mad dash would have taken place within the air, a much more dangerous prospect if Frost was to slip.

.....

The skies within the Glacial mountains were a whole other ball game in terms of danger. Regardless of whether you were in the core, inner or external regions of the mountains. Above a certain height the temperature plummeted sharply, and powerful flying monsters dominated, resting on the peaks of the unsurmountable mountains. Even if Kiba was able to fly properly, Frost would not allow it, B-rank monsters were a plenty in the high altitudes, way beyond his and Kiba current capabilities.

Though Kiba was dashing around haphazardly, the duo still made it to section 23 of the Gamma sector in rapid time, Kiba wasn’t even out of breath. Travelling with a monster mount was a stark contrast to regular walking.

When they arrived in the area however it was eerily quiet and a strong stench of blood could be smelled in the air, alerting both Frost and Kiba. Something wasn’t right.

“Kiba stop” Frost ordered Kiba to come to a halt before he swiftly descended. The small hairs on the back of his neck stood upright warning him of danger but he couldn’t tell what. Kiba growled lowly as he too felt something amiss but instead of fear he felt thrilled. A good opportunity to fight, something he hadn’t had the chance to do back in Kranor.

Frost scanned the horizon with his eyes and found a corpse in the distance, a fairly large one too. Last week when he scouted the area there were occasional D-rank monsters that passed through as well as half eaten E-rank corpses, nothing that unusual for the section given the looming monster stampede. This however felt different, the corpse in the distance was too large for an E-rank monster.

His mind suddenly remembered the warning given by Bastion as well as the [frost lilies] (the adventurer group he met in Beta camp).

‘C-rank monster,’ his heart ultimately came to such a conclusion and a frown adorned his face. The ice revenant he fought with Sam and Lola was already an eye opening into the powerful capabilities of such monsters and now he only had Kiba by his side. Though Kiba could be considered entry level C-rank he was still young and lacked battle experience, such an opponent could prove very risky for their first challenge as a team.

Frost could tell however that Kiba was raring to go, his fur stood up straight and his muscles were tense let alone that desire for battle that flooded through their soul connection. He placed his hand on Kiba’s head, petting him. “Calm down, we need to play this safe. Remain low and out of sight while I investigate the corpse.”

“Grrrrrrr” Kiba though reluctant acquiesced to Frost’s instruction, relaxing his body and sinking low to the ground. His natural white skin giving him the benefit of camouflage in such terrain. Seeing that Kiba listened to his instructions Frost nodded and revealed a praising smile before walking towards the distant corpse, keeping his eyes and ears peeled as he did.

His feelings of danger only increased the closer he got to the large corpse, as did the stench of blood. He summoned his glaive in hand, ready to defend himself at a moment’s notice.

He slowed his steps so as to aggravate any waiting predator, encouraging them to attack early but his attempts met with failure, deepening his frown. If there was a strong monster in the area, watching him, then it had a good deal of patience, not a great sign.

The snow under Frost’s feet crumbled as he stood before the corpse he spied from afar, his face showing a very serious expression.

“A baltic tiger” Frost uttered as he recognised the corpse as a baltic tiger, one of the strongest D-rank monsters within the external regions and not normally seen within the Gamma sector. The fact that it was here alone spoke of the monster stampede’s looming progress but it being a corpse was a far worse sign. Hardly anything within this sector could kill a baltic tiger which meant something stronger was also driven to the Gamma sector.

Frost took a deep breath heightening his senses to the upmost before examining the corpse. “Large, deep gashes and not from another tiger, the shape’s all wrong.” The corpse was littered with wounds showing that it likely stood no chance against its aggressor.

Frost then placed a hand on the body before rapidly pulling back. “It’s still warm, Shit!” For the corpse to be still warm in this weather meant that it died less than a few minutes ago, the attacker was close, very close. Frost was sure now that the attacker either fled out of sight when it heard Frost and Kiba coming, wary to enter another fight or that it used the baltic tiger as bait to easily kill more victims. He got his answer a second later.

Suddenly Frost’s entire body screamed out in warning, and he could hear Kiba roaring in an attempt to alert him of the incoming danger that suddenly made its presence known. Listening to his instincts Frost rapidly dashed to the side, clearing the corpse while at the same time attacking the air behind him with his glaive.

Clang!

A loud sound akin to metal on metal could be heard as his glaive struck against something hard and sharp, that barrelled down from the sky with immense force. Frost was blown away by the impact, his hand shaking slightly from the blow.

Frost’s eyes opened wide as he saw the entity that attacked him from his blind spot. “Fuck!” He loudly cursed while entering a defensive posture.

Before him standing with its talons deep within the corpse of the Baltic tiger was something that really shouldn’t be in this sector, an ice griffon, the symbol of the Furano house.

The great beast stood close to 4 metres tall and nearly 7 metres long, dwarfing even Kiba. The ice griffin turned its eagle like head to face Frost, the prey that not only dodged its well timed strike but struck back against its mighty talons. A deep shade of red could be seen in its eyes as its hunger grew.

“Screeeeeee!” It bend back its head and screeched to the sky, unfurling its mighty feathered wings, growing to a frightening size, in an attempt to intimidate Frost.

Ice griffins: the combination of an eagle and lion. They are deadly hunters both in the air and on land. Prone to living in cold climates, these monsters are fast and very skilled at ambushes. Their mighty talons can rend apart steel and a single beat of their wings contains enough force to shatter a man’s ribcage. Though not avid spellcasters they can summon blizzards around them that can lift and chill unsuspecting prey, a dangerous adversary.

Frost had read up about such creatures in the monster encyclopaedia and Douglas had spoken of them given that they were the symbol of the Furano viscounty. According to the book they were C-rank monsters and primarily in the middle to upper grades of that rank. Meaning that the monster screeching at Frost could very well be stronger than the ice revenant he defeated with the aid of Sam and Lola. He had sufficient reason to curse.