Dungeon of Niflheim

The axes of the hob goblin commanders met with very little resistance, piercing deep into the boar’s belly, bringing a swift end to the foe. While the remaining two boars were quickly swarmed by the goblin tide. Unable to regain momentum they received dozens upon dozens of stabs and slashes causing blood to pool at their hooves. Those three were done for, the remaining winter boars panicked and did their best to retreat from whence they came, however they couldn’t escape from injury, a severe blow to Frost’s defences.

Filled with mad joy the two hob goblin commanders roared in goblin tongue as they were covered in the blood of their victims. The swath of remaining goblins joined their commanders in roaring, their bodies filling with fire and their once broken morale flipping to an excited state. Gobuske smiled in his chambers, a mad glint present in his eyes.

‘Time to show them what I can do,’ he promptly gave orders to his defence teams as well, quickly getting back on track. He accepted that he would still likely lose and many of his monsters would inevitably be killed but they’d die in glory. His father was correct, others would not show mercy, Bala was a perfect example of someone not agreeing with his existence. If he wasn’t bound by Dark’s covenant and fearful of him, he would have already squashed him. Gobuske matured at this moment, no longer as na?ve or as timid in his nature. He planned to fight with all he had, learn from every battle, improve after every encounter and no longer be so afraid.

Thanks to Bala and his inherent cowardly nature he was one of the many dungeon cores that didn’t leave his dungeon. Holing himself up afraid to interact with the outside world. Dark however had taken into account the appearance of his children and their future locations. Whereas with Frost, Indra, Pyro, and the other elven appearing dungeon cores who could interact with pretty much any civilisation without much scrutiny. Gobuske and several of his siblings would not be welcome. He did have the appearance of a goblin after all, a monster to be hunted. But if Gobuske had left his dungeon he would have met with many monster tribes that formed pseudo villages and towns where even a goblin would not be seen as simply a kill target, especially one with such intelligence. Though monster based races such as goblins, orcs, gnolls etc... weren’t counted among the sapient races and lacked the massive empires or countries such as humans or beastmen they weren’t anything to sneeze at. They too have their own territories and civil rules, although not as diverse or stringent, choosing to follow the strong has more say, it was still for all intents and purposes a community that Gobuske could interact with and make friends like Frost had done. Perhaps with his newfound drive and confidence he’d leave his home and finally interact with Nova as Dark intended.

Dark couldn’t help but fill with pride as he saw the expression on his son’s face, he nodded and waved his hand, ending the secret communication channel he gave Frost.

“Master, three winter boars have been killed and several have received injuries.” The moment Dark collapsed the communication was the moment that Gobuske’s hob goblin commanders got involved in the battle personally. Nanna quickly reported the situation with a panicked tone. So far, they’d only lost one winter boar with others sporting superficial injuries at best. So, to lose three at once was quite an impact.

“....” Frost was silent, a smile adorned his immaculate face. He heard and saw his younger brother’s rousing speech and couldn’t help but be moved himself. His fists were clenched and the urge to battle was strong. This fight was far from over.

“Master?” Nanna asked after not hearing a response.

.....

“......Have the defence forces fallback, engage in only low risk attacks from now on. Move all our forces bar the backups to the third section, we’ll face the remainder of Gobuske’s forces there. Tell the frost troll and Lagombi that they might need to take action personally to deal with the hob goblin commanders.” Frost gave his orders before speaking to Findlay. “Findlay, choose straight ahead, take all your forces. If it’s right it’s right if not... well we’ll just have to clear it out and head in the other direction... make it quick, Gobuske’s invading team has regained their morale and will be much harder to deal with.” Frost spoke with the air of a commander.

“Understood master, your will be done!” Findlay responded with a loud booming voice, as he struck his chest in salute before leading his men dead ahead. His team never suffered from poor morale and were still more than ready to enter battle, responding with positive grunts.

After giving his orders and relaxing a little Frost thought about Gobuske’s guardian and subconsciously looked towards Maya. ‘Looks like I was really lucky with my partner.’ He frowned as he pitied his younger brother for not being able to experience such a relationship. ‘Perhaps there’s something I can do,’ Frost was filled with disgust and anger towards Bala and wanted to help his younger brother deal with him but was unsure how or if it was even his place. Dark chose the guardians, and he was Gobuske’s did he really have the right to interfere and even if he did what could he do. Bala was a guardian, someone with peak strength whereas his was low level C-rank at best. He shook his head and put such thoughts towards the back of his mind, he was still currently in a dungeon war, such things can be dealt with later.

Meanwhile in the audience (who were not aware of what transpired in the private spaces) Pyro stood up abruptly and yelled. “Come on! That’s more like it!” He knocked his fists together while having a wild looking smile on his face. He just saw Gobuske’s goblins who had just been getting their arses handed to them, finally fight back and in the most brutal of fashion. Anytime Frost encountered resistance he showed some form of support for Gobuske, anything to indirectly harm Frost.

“Sit down you oversized brute, you’re blocking the view.” Aqua spoke out with a cold tone, ready to launch some magic at her loud and obnoxious younger brother. Pyro wasn’t the only present; it was very rude to suddenly shout out when everyone’s trying to watch the show. Especially when it’s just because Frost was pushed back.

Pyro turned behind him to face Aqua, giving her a deadly stare but eventually he hmphed and sat back down, feeling a mix of nervous when under her gaze as well as the many on lookers staring his way.

He wasn’t the only one excited by the war, just the most obviously vocal. Indra also fist pumped the air when the hob goblin commanders took to the field. Not because he was rooting for Gobuske but more that it was exciting. Overall things weren’t looking that bright for Gobuske, so he was glad to see that he didn’t just give up, garnering him a few points of respect with Indra and many other cores.

With Gobuske back in focus, his invasion team aggressively moved forward, covering far more ground than before, riding the wave of the sudden high morale. Bala remained silent, watching in the background, waiting. Gobuske and or his goblins would mess up again, and he’d get another chance to mock and gloat, still refusing to learn his lesson. It’s a shame, given Gobuske’s talent and intelligence he’s made it this far all by himself, reached the top 25 in terms of DP, gave his elder brother Frost and decent fight the one in the number 4 position who not only has a larger dungeon but a C-rank monster. Makes you think what he could have been capable of if his guardian worked with him instead of against. But Bala is too stubborn, will he ever change and if he does, does he have the right to remain as a guardian? If he took a good look, ignoring the fact that Gobuske looked like and summoned pretty much only goblins, he’d be able realise the gem that he had been granted. His position among the other powerful guardians would only rise with such a talented charge. Yami was right, Gobuske’s monsters, environments and even tactics were a solid foundation, far more than Frost’s who mainly utilised his advantage of having a C-rank monster, making Gobuske’s hard work in defence pretty meaningless.

If Findlay wasn’t present, replaced with a regular frost troll would his team had made it past the ridged caverns so easily....not a chance. But this wasn’t time for what ifs, Frost’s forces were what they were and his were what his were, there’s no changing that. He just needs to do the best he could with what he’s got.

With both sides progressing, Gobuske’s team would reach the third section soon, but Findlay and his group were already there on Gobuske’s side, the third section and hopefully where the dungeon core was held.

Findlay’s forces marched through the gateway at a steady pace and what greeted them thankfully was not another set of low ceiling caves but what appeared to be an underground city of some sort. There was no sky to see like in the caves just rock. The entrance overlooked a precipice, they could see an arrangement of buildings and hallways down below, with dozens of pathways intersecting and leading off into different sections of the room. It was reminiscent of Frost’s frost castle ruins, yet they could see it from the outside since there was no ceilings per say, just an earthen sky. It was quite majestic in appearance and gave off a very old feeling. Gobuske didn’t cheap out on this environment. though it lacked anything worthwhile in terms of materials, vegetation, and free creatures it was incredibly grand and would take a long time to traverse. Given the size, getting lost would be very easy, shame all of Frost’s aerial troops were killed otherwise mapping out the correct path would be simple.