Conquering His Cold Heart

"Loki, Nanna are you both ok?" The moment he arrived Frost asked about their status, the shaking was prevalent everywhere and was violent enough to knock someone unprepared off balance.

"We're fine master but our cups and plates fell over and smashed." Nanna responded back while her eyes darted to the remnants of broken ceramic which Maya was currently in the process of disposing -couldn't have the two children handling something so sharp and dangerous.

"Good, good." Frost walked up to Nanna and Loki and ruffled their hair with affection before kneeling down, placing himself at their eye level.

"The late stages have begun which means the most intense phase of the monster stampede is over and we're close to the end of this war." Frost said with a smile.

The mid stages of the monster stampede were always the most dangerous for the regular inhabitant of Furano and the other bastion towns.

The number of monsters present during that stage as well as their diversity, their aggressive intensity and of course their attack frequency was unsurpassed when compared to the early and late stages. The mid stages always resulted in the most deaths among the defenders as well as took up the vast majority of ammunition, supplies and even time.

For most it was accepted that once the late stages arrived they had already won. Reinforcements would be arriving and only the best of the best would be taking to the field, the average military man or woman as well as adventurer would serve solely as back up from that point.

This situation was true for the dungeon as well. A solid unpassable bulwark wasn't needed for the late stages and quite frankly would be pointless. The dungeon's impromptu defences were nothing in the eyes of the higher ranked monsters, a simple jump, step or light swing could see them annihilated. In fact utilising such defences would likely serve as a limiting factor rather than a boon.

It was far more effective for the upper ranked forces such as the ronsos, ice revenants and yuki-onnas to face down the invaders in open combat.

Furano and the other bastion towns behaved in the same way. At the late stages the upper C-rank fighters as well as the B-rank fighters primarily take position in front of the northern wall as despite it being over 10 metres high it wouldn't last long against the monsters present at this stage. They were the wall, the last and pretty much only defence line.

If the monsters made it past them then there wasn't much the people of Furano could do.

The same held true in Frost's mind. If the late stage invaders made it past his C-ranks then his D-rank monsters would be nothing but cannon fodder.

"Are you two ready?" Frost asked with a serious expression, Nanna and Loki would have to be on point while relaying information between himself and the officer class monsters.

"Un" The two nodded their heads with gusto, they were ready for such responsibility.

Frost then looked towards the ravishing beauty that was both his guardian and girlfriend. She had just finished cleaning up the damaged crockery and sashayed herself over towards him.

Once Maya was in front of him she opened up her arms and wrapped them around his neck. She pulled his head downwards leaning it against her bountiful chest, Frost felt a heavenly softness against his face one which he found enchanting but was puzzled as to the reason why he was being granted such a reward.

Maya stroked the back of his head as she pushed him deeper into her cleavage.

"Relax Frost, you're almost done." She spoke in a soothing tone. Nanna, Loki and his many monsters likely didn't see it, but they didn't have her perspective. Maya knew that Frost was quite stressed and anxious at the moment. He just hid it well and usually with excitement.

Though he had the body of an adult and was fiercely intelligent he only had a few months of life experience, and for a decent chunk of that he'd been embroiled in an ever intensifying war. It'd be strange if he wasn't nervous at this stage. There had been so much death during the mid-stages and now the late stages had arrived, a stage that promised even more powerful intruders.

Frost's entire body trembled at Maya's words. His false front faltered, and he allowed himself to be worried, to be afraid. He remained entwined in Maya's embrace and cushioned by her motherly assets, enjoying the comfort that they provided.

Nanna and Loki wisely left the two of them alone, occupying themselves with their homework -something that despite the seriousness of the stampede Maya still made them do regardless.

Eventually Frost and Maya's position became rather uncomfortable for the both of them, so they relocated to the sofa where Frost received a lap pillow as he monitored the dungeon through the menu.

Around half a day later -far later than they were used too- the next wave arrived, the first one of the late stages.

Whereas the last wave easily held over 150 monsters this one barely had 70. The weakest one present however was mid D-rank and low and behold a prime target for Findlay's 'tossing into the deep end' plan was in charge.

A war ursa, an upper C-rank monster that was the evolved form of a regular ursa. Bigger, badder and whole lot more powerful. The hallmark of the war ursa battalion, partners to their high ranking officers.

The thing was a purely physical beast that weighed several tons and spanned at least 8 metres lengthwise. Its fur was snow white with streams of light blue near it limbs and neck. Its teeth and claws long enough to pierce all the way through a man's body and still have some leftover.

Two mid C-rank frost drakes were shadowing by its side looking rather small in comparison. Another 5 entry level C-ranks could be seen at the edges, normally powerful and commanding entities in their own right but next to this war ursa they were nothing.

"Well there goes the possibility of the first wave being easy." Frost said with a frown.

'To think an upper C-rank would arrive during the first wave, what terrible luck.'

Frost opened up a communication channel with Khuno and Findlay.

"Khuno the first wave is here and it's a strong one, 5 entry C-ranks, two mid and one upper rank, a war ursa…..dealing with that one will fall to you Findlay…last chance to back out."

"Would never dream of it master, let me at it." Findlay responded back while slamming his forearm against his chest, he was ready to fight.

"Very well, Khuno you know the plan. You, me and the other C-ranks will deal with the majority of the forces in the dungeon's first section while the upper D-rank officers provide support. Nanna and Loki will serve as go-betweens keeping us abreast of how everyone is doing, and Findlay will take care of the war ursa, any questions?"

"No."

"No." Findlay and Khuno both replied firmly, they knew all they needed to.

The reason the fight was being brought back to the first section; the winter highlands environment was for a few reasons.

First it gave them a lot of leeway in regards to a forced retreat. They could fall back several sections and not involve the weaker forces holding up on the lower floors.

Second, the traps installed would do very little against the new intruders thus waiting lower down and hoping for them to pick them off or cause injury was pointless. If they are going to die it'll be by the hands of Frost and his C-rank forces.

Third the winter highlands room suited their battle plans better than the other sections. It was practically an open field right at the start of the dungeon, easy for them to keep an eye on each other's situation and reinforce one another quickly if need be.

The ice revenants, frost revenants, their knight variants as well as the frost troll lieutenants would form a pseudo wall grabbing the intruders attention. Frost would also stand at the forefront here emitting his aura and unbridled bloodlust making for an attractive target.

The yuki-onnas would be behind them casting from the rear while the ronsos taking advantage of their colour scheme would hid under the snow like the frost goblins and ambush the unsuspecting enemy.

However Frost didn't place much hope on such an ambush working, the invading monsters were of high enough rank to have good instincts after all.

Frost ended the communication and looked upwards at Maya.

"Looks like I have to go to work." His smile was full of reluctance. The feeling of comfort on the back of his neck was quite blissful.

Maya replied with an enchanting smile before leaning down and planting a peck on his forehead.

"Be safe and good hunting."