Dungeon of Niflheim

Frost cracked his knuckles as he tried to restrain his building anger, he took a deep breath before staring back at Bala. “So then....whatever your name is...what do you as his guardian suggest?” Frost taunted Bala with a mocking tone, discreetly lowering his importance in this gathering.

Annoyed, Bala frowned before replying in an overbearing voice. “It’s Bala, I’m an elder iron dragon....boy.” Bala knew what Frost was trying to achieve with his jab, but he wasn’t na?ve, instantly stating his name and race so as to intimidate Frost while at the same time demeaning Frost as a junior. With this statement Maya looked like she had her tail stepped on and was about to lash out but was stopped by Frost who held out his arm.

“Ok then old lizard, I’ll ask again, what do you suggest?” Not even remotely intimated by the aura of Bala, Frost directly called him a lizard and stepped forward.

Crack!

The floor beneath Bala suddenly cracked as the iron dragon tensed his toes. His body started to radiate a strong amount of blood lust, his veins started to protrude, and his humanoid features started to dragonify. Being called a lizard was a serious insult to such a pure bred dragon, if he wasn’t in the presence of the Dark God, he would have smashed Frost in an instant for such a remark. It took a great amount of self-control to limit the damage to just the room’s floor. A few of the observing Dungeon cores couldn’t help but smile and give internal thumbs ups towards Frost for such a counterattack. Bahamut however was not happy, not in the slightest. His archetype was that of a Dragon, so he too did not appreciate the association with lizards. Unbeknownst to anyone else he marked down Frost’s name internally, promising to avenge this remark in the future unless Bala ends up killing him here and now.

Even with the increased show of aggression Dark still did not intervene. He watched his son, as he showed no fear, even stepping that much closer after Bala’s outburst.

The two men, one dungeon core and the other an iron dragon stared each other down, both full of aggression and provocation. Frost was still waiting on an answer, what did a great and powerful elder iron dragon suggest to fix such a problem. Depending on his answer this situation could immediately escalate.

Seeing that his intimidation wasn’t working, Bala released a breath of fire as he cooled down, choosing to ignore Frost’s clear provocation...for now.

.....

“He should be abandoned, left to fend for himself. I taught him what was required as well as advising against using goblins, but he didn’t listen, therefore he’s not worth guarding.” Bala spoke without a hint of friendliness, completely breaking off his ties with Gobuske and blaming him for the loss here today.

Crack! Crack! Crack!

Over by the audience area, many chairs were shattered as several dungeon cores abruptly stood up with force. They couldn’t believe what they just heard. Because he lost the war and didn’t listen to your opinion, he’s not worth it. The dungeon cores were livid and wanted to rip out Bala’s tongue before he could utter another word of insults. Others thanks to this situation garnered even more respect for Gobuske. He achieved some much while under this simple minded brute.

Crack!

The floor under Frost cracked as he took another forceful step forward bringing him inches away from Bala. He was right up in his face now, his handsome appearance twisted in anger.

“Not worth it! You mean not worth it for you right!” Frost yelled in Bala’s face, completely ignoring the warning signs his body was sending his way. He didn’t care if this person could squash him like a bug, he wasn’t going to stand such insults towards his precious little brother.

Gobuske seeing his elder brother and many of his other siblings becoming angry on his behalf filled him with warmth but then came guilt. Frost was angering Bala on his behalf and putting himself in harms way, Bala was not known as the restrained type, a push too far could see him lash out, would his father be able to save his brother in time. Gobuske didn’t want to risk the chance, so he gathered up his courage to stand up tall and move to have Frost stand down. But he was stopped, Dark’s hand was still on his shoulder and restrained him in place, not allowing him to move or talk. He could only look up towards his father with his eyes filled with confusion.

With Frost yelling in his face Bala’s frown became more pronounced before he replied without any hesitation. “Yes, why should I an elder iron dragon have to waste my time babysitting a goblin.” He spoke with such assurance as though his words were common sense but to everyone here bar a few it was diabolical and was the last straw.

With Bala not even denying it Frost couldn’t contain himself anymore. With his eyes full of fire, Frost pulled back his arm and swiftly covered his fist in a dense layer of ice chakra before utilising his entire body to punch Bala right in the face. That was his younger brother he was talking about, what gave him the right.

Though Frost’s fist contained a great deal of force and speed, that wasn’t anything to someone of Bala’s capabilities. Even Yami the most powerful of the dungeon cores wouldn’t be able to even scratch someone at Bala’s level let alone Frost who was entry level C-rank.

Bala saw this punch coming from a mile away, and simply looked down at the oncoming fist with disdain, finding Frost’s antics childish and pointless.

‘This is your pride and joy, the thing you spent the last couple centuries working on?’ Bala glanced over at Dark in puzzlement, all the more powerful monsters knew that Dark was hard at work to create a new race, but this was it. Though some showed great potential they were hardly worth the honour of calling him father. Another chunk of Bala’s hatred towards Gobuske was the fact that he was the son of Dark even with his pitiful strength and appearance. In that brief glance he showed a pained expression as well as one full of disappointment, thinking that the old man had finally gone senile. He turned back towards Frost and his oncoming fist, to him it was practically going in slow motion.

‘This should be him picking a fight with me, right? Not me bullying the young?’ Bala analysed the situation and weighed his options, he could kill Frost here and now, the question was would his life then be forfeit. He could simply block or restrain Frost but felt that he needed to be punished somewhat. He was a proud elder iron dragon after all, he shouldn’t have to be snubbed by some kid who’s still wet behind the ears all because of a goblin even if that goblin was his brother. Even now Bala could not see Gobuske as anything but a goblin, not a dungeon core or even a new race just a measly goblin.

As Frost’s fist drew ever closer Bala smiled, knowing what he was going to do. ‘I’ll be taking that arm as compensation’ the moment he decided and was about to make his move, he suddenly froze-of course to everyone that is not Maya or Dark this whole thing happened in less than a blink of an eye, so his starting movements weren’t even registered.

With his body frozen he wouldn’t be able to dodge this fist, of course it still wouldn’t cause much damage but still it’s the principle, he couldn’t allow himself to be punched in the face by someone so weak. At first, he surmised that it was Maya’s work, but she too was S-rank, their abilities shouldn’t be that much different, and he should have been able to detect something. That only leaves Dark.

Fear washed over his body as he became completely paralysed, he could feel the scythe of the grim reaper resting against his neck and then an overwhelming sense of pressure that caused immense pain throughout his body, pain that he was powerless to resist against. He barely had time to gaze back towards Dark, his eyes full of terror and anguish. What he saw before him was not an affable old man but an unfathomable demon. When entities reached a certain level of power, they would be able to glimpse into the realm of the Gods. Bala was just at that realm and could see the true form of the Dark God if he chose to display it. It was in one word horrifying, only Maya who was also in the room was subjected to this image. Everyone else was too weak and only saw his old man form, with a cold visage.

Maya had already made preparations to assist her young master since she knew that he would attack regardless of the consequences, but her actions were stopped short the moment Dark ‘revealed’ himself. Since she wasn’t the target of his power she wasn’t overwhelmed by horror and terror, but it certainly was an eye opener. She was still young and had never gotten the chance to witness the true strength of the Dark God, now she had. She and Bala who were at the peak of strength in Nova -excluding the Gods- now felt like ants before a human...no even less than an ant.