Dungeon of Niflheim

“Ahhhhhhhh!” With wrath he launched the next two daggers slightly differently.

“[Shadow daggers]”

With the announcement of a skill the daggers in Shadow’s hands were enveloped in darkness and flew with much greater force and speed than his earlier attacks.

This was a skill unique to those that worked in the darkness, being enable to taint your daggers in shadow mana greatly increasing their strength and stealth capabilities. Many a men had died from Shadow using this technique while he remained hidden in darkness. The victims would be snuffed of life before they even knew what hit them.

Frost was completely in the zone and didn’t even shudder at the new weapons being sent his way. Like the other daggers he trusted in his weapon. His eyes visualised the paths the shadow daggers would take and with expert precision he clashed against them with the glaive edge well one of them at least the other changed trajectory mid flight as though it was attached to a string, but he didn’t panic merely manoeuvred the shaft of his glaive to intercept it. His glaive was a high quality weapon through and through not just at the blade edge.

Bang! Bang!

The daggers struck almost simultaneously, and boy did they pack a punch.

“Ugh!” Frost groaned against his will, he felt intense vibrations through his hands but that wasn’t the main issue. The black coloured mana seeped through the tip of the daggers and rampaged through his glaive and up his arms causing intense pain particularly in his left one. He successfully stopped the daggers without even taking a single step backwards but was it worth it?

.....

‘Fuck that hurts!’ Frost looked down his arms, occasionally shots of black foreign mana could been seen shooting through his veins sending jolts of intense pain every time they did.

‘With this damage things don’t look good.’ Frost frowned, the pain was intense and came in bursts, it could attack him mid swing or while he’s attempting to defend a fatal attack, clearly Shadow’s intention and he wasn’t one to wait for Frost to acclimate to the situation especially after insulting his brother.

The moment Shadow released his dagger skill he smirked and moved.

“[Shadow dash]” activating a movement skill similar to his last but slightly different, this time when he vanished into shadow he charged straight ahead towards his target.

Frost barely had time to register the intense pain throughout his arms before Shadow was upon him armed once again with his regular high quality daggers instead of the lower ranked throwing daggers he was launching.

“Shit!” Frost gritted his teeth and did his best to endure the shots of pain as he swung his glaive at the sudden foe in front of him but even with his full speed unimpeded by injury, he was no match for Shadow’s movements.

Shadow’s daggers easily found their way past Frost’s glaive successfully finding their mark.

“Ahhhhhh!” Frost roared in pain.

One dagger pierced deep into Frost’s abdomen whereas the other stabbed into his right shoulder. His leather armour and enchanted robes barely reduced their penetration in the slightest.

Shadow’s attack was true, but he was also in close quarters with Frost, with his weapons firmly embedded within his body.

“Does it hurt Frost? Good it’s going to hurt a lot more!” With a mad smile Shadow started twisting his daggers tearing up Frost’s body and magnifying his pain. For a second Frost was sorely tempted to activate the talisman hidden within his robes if he got the chance but decided against it, he wasn’t out of the fight just yet. Through the pain he smiled at Shadow before yelling.

“Eat ice motherfucker!” While Shadow was distracted with his rapture of torture, Frost started channelling his mana, the most mana he’d ever channelled.

“[ice bolt]”

With the command word spoken two ice bolts were summoned at once, one magic crest on his right hand and one on his left. Each were aimed directly at Shadow, in places similar to where he was stabbed and at this distance even if Shadow was 5 times faster, he wouldn’t be able to dodge.

The one in peril suddenly reversed and Shadow’s eyes shook as he felt the impending doom heading his way, he was tricked. Played into ending a possible wounded prey with a showboating technique but it was too late for regrets, he snarled at Frost and did his best to limit his injuries.

He released his grip on his daggers and brought his arms in close to defend his fatal areas, but he wasn’t quite fast enough.

Squealch!

“Ahhhhhhhhhh!” Frost’s ice bolts struck almost perfectly, one pierced deep and through Shadow’s shoulder whereas the second found its mark in his abdomen but failed to pierce all the way through thanks to Shadow’s quick actions. His left arm managed to take some of the brunt but was rewarded with a nasty gash, ironically, he sported pretty much the same injuries he caused Frost albeit slightly worse.

Frost wasn’t done there, with Shadow no longer twisting his daggers he mustered his remaining strength to violently kick outward right into Shadow’s sternum.

“Bleurgh!” Shadow spat up some blood as his body was sent flying through the air. He crashed against the floor several metres away and continued to roll backwards, this resulted in movement from the two ice bolts still held within his body, exasperating his wounds. He was seriously hurt now.

The other group fighting nearby were alerted by the loud noise and stopped their battle momentarily. Unlike Frost and Shadow’s brief but violent match up Leo, Beta and Gamma’s was much less dangerous with neither of them gaining an edge over the other. Luna hadn’t even gained a chance to effectively join in as of yet.

“M...m...master” Beta quivered as she spoke, she’d never seen her master injured so badly before and it filled her with dread. Gamma wasn’t much better his gaze frozen in place as he looked at his master’s bleeding body.

Luna and Leo however turned their eyes to Frost who got the last hit in but looked anything like a winner. He was bleeding profusely, and his robes were dyed red and ripped in multiple places also Shadow’s two daggers were still lodged within him.

“Frost-senpai!”

“Frost-senpai!” The two young kids screeched in distress, Luna on the brink of tears and Leo grinding his teeth in anger. Leo moved to aid but received a fierce look from Frost stopping him in place.

‘Take care of your problem first, this isn’t over.’ Was what his gaze roughly translated as. Frost couldn’t have Leo run over and get in the way, he needed to take care of Gamma and Beta. Shadow was far from done; he knew it in his bones.

“Ughhhh!” Frost groaned as he yanked out the two daggers lodged in his flesh before giving a signal to Luna who was on the brink of tears. Luckily, she understood quite quickly.

“[Heal]” she put her everything into this spell, but Frost’s injuries were extensive, and they were short on time.

Frost sucked in sharply as he felt the spell get to work. Luna was a lot less skilled than Maya so instead of being filled with a warm fuzzy feeling that numbed his body he felt itchy as his wounds tried to close themselves but one spell from Luna wasn’t enough for that. She merely helped staunch the bleeding, replace a small amount of lost blood, and narrow the two holes left by the daggers.

[Heal]

[Heal] she rapidly casted an additional two healing spells but each additional one had a much more reduced effect and by the third Luna was starting to bleed from her nose. The sudden and rapid channelling of a large reserve of mana was quite taxing. Luckily Frost gave her another signal telling her to stop otherwise she may have continued casting until she passed out due to mana exertion.

Frost sat up with difficulty as he endured the healing magic sent his way. He needed to keep his eyes on Shadow in preparation for his next move, he was unlikely to be able score such a clean hit again or successfully take him by surprise given that he’d revealed nearly all his trump cards.

‘I’ve still got the 2nd circle spell ice entanglement but... nah with his speed I’d never catch him.’ Frost focused on recuperating from his injuries while keeping close eye on any movement.

Shadow however was in bad shape; he didn’t have a healer on standby that could heal his injuries, but he did have something just as good. Carefully and with subtle movements he retrieved a glass vial filled with a deep red liquid from his robes. It was a high quality medium level health potion, far more pure and potent than a low level one and far more expensive. He sourced this potion with his own money, a life saving trump card that he kept just in case.

Using as little movement as possible when Frost was preoccupied with his own pain he downed the vial, the taste was still pretty bad, but the effects were marvellous, he could feel his wounds rapidly start to close. A single medium level health potion surpassed the capabilities of three healing spells cast by little old Luna. It also worked at roughly similar speed as well, so he was more than happy to play the waiting game for a short while at least, shame that Frost’s instincts were on point.

Frost felt something was wrong and ignored his body, forcibly channelling mana once again,

“[Ice bolt]” a fragile looking magic crest appeared before his right hand and an equally fragile looking ice bolt was summoned and launched at Shadow while he stumbled to his feet, picking up his glaive from the ground and readying himself for battle. The healing magic still doing its work throughout his body gradually restoring his strength.

His aim wasn’t perfect, and the bolt wasn’t launched at the fastest speed, but it was on target, Shadow would have to make a move to either block or avoid this spell.

“Tsk” Shadow clicked his tongue, pissed off about being disturbed during his healing process. He was forced to roll away resulting in his recently starting to heal wounds to rip wider. He grimaced from the pain but didn’t cry out, instead staring at Frost with flames in his eyes. This was a race, who could heal fastest would win, yet now that they both knew each other’s state they wouldn’t allow the other to sit on their laurels no they were forced to fight through the pain and injuries.

Frost had already gotten to his feet and started to move towards Shadow growing in speed as he ran, the healing magic clearly taking effect.

“Bastard!” Shadow cursed loudly through gritted as he reached into his robes for any flying daggers he had left, the pain of movements causing his movements to spasm on occasion.

“Beta! Gamma! Kill those brats now!” Shadow roared at his still stunned subordinates, if they had not been so preoccupied with the shock of his current condition, they could have intervened preventing Luna from casting her magic. If, no when he survives this battle, he’ll have to fully clean house. He had never been more disappointed in his subordinates than he did today.

After yelling he withdrew a few daggers and launched them at the approaching Frost, he didn’t have too many left but enough to delay his opponent even slightly.

His subordinates Beta and Gamma were quickly brought out of their stupor with his yell but not quick enough. Leo was already making his moves, he understood the gravity of the situation and had already moved to attack, catching Gamma by surprise.

Squelch!

“Ahhhh!” Gamma screamed in pain as his arm was severed by Leo’s blade, the cut was quick and clean, and the sword treated his flesh like it was butter.

‘Now that’s a sword.’ Leo applauded his family’s sword internally as he smiled and prepared to strike again but he wasn’t given that chance, Beta responded with her daggers. With increased fervour she forced him back into a defensive stance, but the damage was done. Without aid Gamma would quickly fall.