Dungeon of Niflheim

380 Chapter 380: Ursa

As a deluge of arrow fire and ice spells rained down upon the multitude of bear monsters Frost’s focus was fixated on one in particular.

At the back of the horde, a creature far larger and far more imposing than even the twin headed polar bears forced its way through the dungeon’s entrance, its natural aura pressing down upon the frost dwarves that gazed in its direction. The small amount of arrows that reached the mighty beast struggled to sink more than an inch into the creature’s resilient hide, resulting in nothing more than a slight itch.

“An ursa.” Frost muttered under his breath as he recognised the creature making its presence known. The monster encyclopaedia described this monster in great detail as did Jared Bando when they had crossed paths.

The mighty War Ursa battalion, an army of the Northrend empire that dwelled within the inner regions of the Glacial mountains. They were named after such monsters and their upper ranked officers even rode such beasts into battle. A devasting monster that only the strongest of their order could ever hope to control.

The war ursa was the evolved form of the ursa now standing within the dungeon’s entrance, an upper C-ranked monster that would rival Findlay, thankfully this one was just a standard caste, lower C-rank at best however....

“Roooooooaaaaaaarrrrrrr!” The massive ursa that stood nearly 5 metres tall while on all fours roared out in fury, smashing down its front paws as it did, compacting the snow and causing the nearby sections of the ice walls to tremble and shake.

“Well.....shit!” Frost cursed and clicked his tongue. Ursas were purely physical monsters, their abilities combined brute force with a tough exterior, very destructive and the worst possible match up for their now flimsy defences.

With a frown Frost leaped from the bottom wall and ran desperately towards the ursa.

“Kiba, Findlay change of plans, enter the battlefield right now, we need to take down this beast before it destroys everything!” Frost loudly ordered while increasing his speed, ignoring the multitude of black bears and polar bears in his way, utilising his deft footwork and incredible speed to leapfrog over them.

.....

The ursa was such a powerhouse that a mere swat from one of its paws could cause the walls to come crumbling down, Frost couldn’t have the defensive walls fall so easily. No more than a few bears had been killed so far, they needed more time to reduced their numbers. His frost and ice dwarves required the height advantage to effectively do this, quarrellers were not that great in close combat, whereas the bear caste were masters of such battles.

“Roar!”

“Understood master, I’m right behind you. Revenants hold the gate no matter the cost!” Kiba roared from the air before redirecting its focus towards the massive white bear at the dungeon’s entrance, licking his lips as he did, keen to experience the taste of ursa meat.

Whereas as Findlay nodded strongly and followed after his master on foot once he gave the revenants their orders. They would have to deal with the defence of the bottom wall, the gateway without him. A tall order given that these bears held large amounts of brute force, the E-rank black bears included.

Five frost revenants were left to guard the wall, all of which were on average 7 levels or so away from their max level so if they played their cards right they may evolve into ice revenants after this. Findlay received confident salutes as he left, the revenants determined to defend the wall till their last breath, it was just a bunch of frenzied bears, they could handle such foes regardless of their numbers. Their mighty runic armour and powerful great swords would see the bears blocked in their ravenous stampede.

Frost moved as quick as he was able but even, so he wasn’t fast enough.

Booooommm!

The large ursa though having blood red eyes still had some modicum of reason left within its mind, it could think and wouldn’t plunge dead ahead regardless of the consequences. The creature witnessed the deluge of arrows and ice spells falling upon its lesser kin without end and traced their origins. The 6 metres high ice walls were really nothing to the ursa, it easily spotted the rows of frost dwarven quarrellers and runic mages. With a fury filled gaze it charged towards a section of wall and instantly smashed it to pieces, generating thick plumes of ice dust and snow. The defending right ice wall now had a large gap within.

Screams from a couple frost dwarves spanned through the room though overshadowed by the growls and roars of the bears and the twangs of bows Frost heard it clearly.

“Bastard!” He loudly cursed while picking up speed, two frost dwarves were insta-killed when the ursa shattered the wall, two more were injured and soon to become permanently silent. The ursa looked at the frost dwarves struggling to their feet, their bodies visibly trembling as they endured the gaze of a superior predator.

Its mouth started to salivate, food! The need to eat screamed in its head and it could not resist.

By the time Frost finally arrived after knocking away a couple of polar bears he was too late. The white furred ursa had had its feast, ripping apart his loyal soldiers and devouring their flesh, yet it didn’t seem satisfied. Its gaze quickly focused on the other soldiers upon the wall who had fought against their fear and aimed their bows and staff its way, doing their best to stop it from eating their comrades. Unfortunately their arrows and spells were nothing more than bug bites to this monstrosity, its thick hide easily protecting it from such shallow and weak attacks. Regardless of their numbers they’d be unable to wound it, a major difference in class. The situation was similar to how low ranking monsters struggled to do damage to the frost revenant’s runic armour, the ursa was of an even higher classification. They were nothing but pitiable prey in its eyes.

A few of the nearest frost dwarves couldn’t fight against their fear anymore, the ursa’s natural intimating blood lust, pseudo aura and of course the image of its mouth and face covered in their comrades blood and viscera was too much. Their primal fear caused their limbs to tremble, their legs turned to jelly, and their teeth clattered against one another, their weapons that had launched two arrows and an ice spell respectively subconsciously lowered, their bodies became powerless, no longer listening their commands.

Too be honest it was quite a feat that could still remain standing and even grip their weapons at all, primal fear was a powerful thing especially when it came to monsters. Without intelligence and wisdom an entity would rely solely upon their instincts making them that much more sensitive. The sole reason they hadn’t completely collapsed was because of Frost and the dungeon, they had a duty and a strong loyalty to their creator, they would not succumb without a fight. At least when the ursa is eating them it would give their comrades a chance to flee or attack. They steeled their resolve, ready to make such a sacrifice. Though they couldn’t bring themselves to raise their weapons once again they never looked away from the ursa’s eyes, drawing its full attention.

“Rooooaaaaarrrrr!” Angered by the insolence shown by such bug like monsters that were equivalent to nothing but a small snack the ursa was filled with wrath. It slowly rose up on it back legs, completely towering over the three frost dwarves as well as the nearby wall, it was absolutely massive.

With its teeth bared, bits of frost dwarf fell from its jaw, landing in front of the three paralysed frost dwarves but still their eyes did not cower, though their bodies failed them they continued to stare at the ursa with hatred and defiance.

“Fire at the big the one!” An order from one of the nearby ice dwarves responded. Seeing the massive bear rise up to over 8 metres made for an easy target. It redirected its squad to fire at will, focusing on the ursa and hopefully aid its comrades caught in its sight.

However as stated earlier such attacks proved fruitless, the ursa pretty much ignored the spells and arrows, swatting them away with a simple flick of its paw before moving to smash the impertinent ones into meat paste, see if they looked at it in such defiance after that.

“Dodge!” The same ice dwarf screamed out but knew it was pointless if the frost dwarves could move in such a situation they would have done so already. Even he an ice dwarf a D-rank monster had the shivers let alone an E-rank rear guard archetype standing so close. The ice dwarf frowned struggling to accept the outcome, he was too far to assist in time, their lives would be inevitably forfeit.

Just as the ursa’s front paws were about to come down and turn the frost dwarves into meat paste.

“[Ice obey my will and form a shield to repel my foe, Ice shield]!”