Dungeon of Niflheim

While clenching his right fist and feeling his strength return, he looked around. The room was incredibly dark, making it difficult to see anything at all. Ice trolls didn’t have night vision so he couldn’t make out the area very well, relying on his C-rank strength to make out rough shapes. The spriggan held the advantage in this regard but it was too angry to take advantage of this fact, merely launching itself directly towards Findlay after being knocked backwards.

The ice bolt failed to cause any damage, just aggravating the spriggan’s burned chest, further enraging it.

“Rahhhhhhhhh!” The spriggan lunged for Findlay with both its arms raised.

“Tsk” Findlay clicked his tongue as he subconsciously reached for his prided axe, unfortunately it was dropped when he stopped the rampaging boulder. He’d have to deal with the spriggan the old fashioned way, hand to hand. In some cases, dealing with an enraged opponent would by far easier to manage given Findlay’s intelligence and battle knowledge however, this was an enclosed room with poor visibility, and he lacked not only a weapon but an arm as well. He’d likely be on the back foot for the entire fight, relying on the spriggan to come to him before counterattacking. The poor visibility would make smoothly dissipating the immense force behind the spriggan’s blows near impossible, forcing him to endure. This will likely be a pure slugfest.

The spriggan was on him in moments, its arms raised high, attempting to smash Findlay to the floor. Its arms and fists were far larger than they should be, making its form rather comical, and top heavy but its strength was true.

Findlay frowned as he bent his knees and readied himself to withstand the blow, raising his right arm up.

Boom! Crack!

Both the spriggan’s arms came down with immense might causing the floor that Findlay stood on to crack like a spider web. The wounds on Findlay’s calves split open once again, leaking blood.

.....

“Urgh” Findlay groaned as he spat out some blood. He endured the blow, successfully holding back the spriggan’s arms but it was very painful. Taking a deep breath Findlay once again tensed his right arm and swung upwards, knocking the spriggan back and leaving its chest defenceless. This time however he wasn’t going to use magic- his head was in too much pain to use it effectively- no after knocking up the spriggan’s arms he twisted his body and kicked out with his left leg directly onto the spriggan’s chest.

Don! The blow was fierce, sending not only the spriggan backwards but Findlay as well, he failed to hear or feel any cracks, but he knew the kick would have hurt.

“Bleurgh!” The spriggan coughed and spat out blood and saliva as it was forced backwards. Its feet sliding across the floor and its burned chest sporting the imprint of a foot. With its eyes twitching the spriggan dropped to its left knee, holding its chest in pain before looking up at Findlay with hatred. Its fury building continuously, dampened the pain, making it numb. “Fucking troll!” It roared aloud before dashing forward, this time not striking with its fists but charging with its entire body.

‘Shit!’ Findlay frowned and internally panicked; this move was hard to defend against. He wasn’t exactly the most mobile in his current state, the potion hadn’t gotten to work on his legs yet either. All he could do was brace himself for the charge, hoping to reduce the damage as much as possible before letting loose upon the spriggan.

A second later the spriggan lunged at his waist, smashing into his body with its shoulders, slamming him against the wall, resulting in large cracks spreading from the point of impact. Thankfully the walls were very thick and would naturally repair themselves otherwise this entire room could collapse with them inside.

“Urgh!” Findlay had the wind knocked out of him and couldn’t help groaning but the spriggan was now within striking distance. He brought up his right elbow and smashed it onto the spriggan’s back.

Boom!

The sound was vivid, but the move failed to knock the spriggan down, merely causing it to flinch a little. “One time not enough, then how about another!” Findlay brought down his elbow once again. “And what about another!” With clenched teeth Findlay repeatedly brought down his right elbow onto the large back of the spriggan, aiming to knock it to the floor or even better, shatter its spine.

The spriggan though numbed thanks to its rage filled state could still feel every blow and wasn’t one to be passive. In responsive it started to squeeze down on Findlay’s waist, crushing his ribs, especially the fractured one from earlier. This resulted in a sharp howl of pain from Findlay and helped to mitigate the strength of his elbow drops but this wasn’t enough. With great strength the spriggan picked Findlay up and repeatedly slammed him against the wall, resulting in more and more cracks.

The exchange was brutal, blood from both parties was constantly spilled and the entire room shook with each attack, causing bits of rock and dirt to fall. The spriggan though lower in rank was far less injured and its maddened state allowed it to ignore a certain amount of damage. No matter how many times Findlay brought his elbow down onto the spriggan’s back it didn’t seem to work. He’d still be squeezed tightly and lifted off the ground before being slammed against the wall. A couple more ribs were broken and even his elbow was beginning to hurt, the spriggan’s back was quite hard, especially the spine. Growing desperate he started kicking and using his knees, smashing the spriggan’s chest, he managed to break a few of its ribs in retaliation but the spriggan seemed to never tire. Its blood covered rage seemed to give it unlimited stamina, whenever the health potion seemed to start repairing his body, the spriggan would just injure it again, he was effectively being tortured and healed creating a never ending cycle of pain.

Seeing as this wasn’t working and that he was on the losing end. With his mind growing ever slower and his vision darkening, his body reaching its limit. Findlay decided to use his last set of skills.

‘You want to fight using rage and anger well two can play at that game.’

“[Enrage]!” Findlay used his enrage skill, an active buff that would fill the user with endless rage. Granting him increased strength and ability to withstand pain. The cost was of course a decrease in battle awareness, intelligence and once the buff was over, a great consumption of energy. With Findlay’s roar his entire body filled with fire, his skin and muscles trembled as they entered an excited state and his blood started to pump a mile a minute. His frame visibly increased in size making him almost rival the spriggan wrapped round his waist. His eyes became blood shot and red as though on fire.

“Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!” Findlay roared in anger as his body filled with power. He brought down his elbow upon the spriggan once again, this time however the results were much more responsive.

Crack!

With the enhanced strength, Findlay’s elbow not only forced the spriggan to release its death grip slightly, its body was forced down and one of its ribs cracked at the thickest part. The spriggan was just lucky that Findlay didn’t aim for its spine. Though he was hardly stopping there. With mad aggression Findlay smashed down with his arm several times, completely removing the spriggan from its death lock before smashing its chest with his knee, sending the massive creature flying through the air. Its chest caved in where Findlay’s knee struck.

Don Don

The spriggan’s body crashed onto floor and bounced backwards, its body visibly trembling. Its face warped in a mix of pain and fury, it tried to get up but couldn’t put out any strength.

“Rahhhhhhhhhh!” It roared as it tried to use anger to once again fuel its body. ‘This damn troll, I’m a friggin spriggan! I won’t be beat by a failed giant kin!’ Its attempts seemed to work as its body slowly started to rise back to its feet...but would Findlay give it such a chance.

Still fuelled by the enrage buff and his emotions on fire, Findlay glared at the struggling shadow of the spriggan and activated his special enraged skill.

“[Mad charge]” thankfully this skill didn’t require a weapon, as his whole body became the weapon. A red glow surrounded Findlay’s body, enhancing its toughness, and charging power. A moment later Findlay starting accelerating, heading directly for the spriggan like a mad bull. The floor caved with every step and the spriggan felt the onset of death. The moment it finally rose back to its feet was the same moment Findlay reached it.

Booooooooom!

“Bleurghhhhh!” A shockwave of sound exploded as Findlay’s charge met contact with the spriggan. Just like when he demonstrated the mad charge skill against that tree, the force contained was immense. The spriggan placed its arms before itself in defence but the guard was quickly shattered, and Findlay literally mowed the spriggan down.