Dungeon of Niflheim

Swoosh! The arrow flew through the air with great speed and accuracy. The archer’s three colleagues smiled with pride at the sight. A beautiful shot. But their smiles quickly evaporated.

Ding! The arrow reached Frost’s chest but not before his ice chakra had a chance to encase the area. The arrow simply broke off a few shards nothing more. Frost turned around towards the archer and eyed him with disdain. Taka was far better than this whelp. His arrows could at least force him to groan in pain even with his chakra armour, but this guy didn’t even reach the bottom layer of his armour.

“Hmph! Pathetic!” With a slight shrug Frost encased himself in his ice chakra armour as he did with the yetis looking once again like an ice king. All but his pretty face was covered in full plate ice armour as though mocking his aggressors. The other three grimaced at Frost’s presence, feeling a great pressure on their bodies as fear filled their hearts but that was only fleeting. This group had faced many a dire circumstances and knew that the moment you give in to fear is the moment you die, besides they already made their intentions known. No way this situation was going to end in a civil manner, either Frost died, or they did.

Surprisingly it was the hammer wielder that arrived first despite the weight of his weapon. He swung downward with great force, unaltered by Frost’s new imposing armour. It was just ice; he could simply smash it with his great hammer. So, what if an arrow only pierced part way through, could its force be compared to his hammer, no way. But Frost wouldn’t simply allow his opponent to strike his armour, it was nowhere near the level needed for him to simply stand there and take no damage. He gripped his glaive with his right hand and swung up to meet the hammer.

Donnggggg! A loud sound reverberated in the area when the glaive’s blade struck against the face of the hammer but that was all. No cracks appeared and no one got off better than the other. The rat beastman’s arms swelled as he pushed down with more pressure, but Frost didn’t budge. He held back the rat beastman’s hammer with one hand leaving the other to deal with the pugilist that appeared at his side a moment later. This would be Frost’s first time engaging a pugilist as an adventurer but out of all the professions it was probably the only one he had ample experience with. Maya repeatedly beat him to a pulp with just her fists and often made him use his own body to fight instead of relying upon his glaive. Could the rat beastman’s moves be compared to his guardian.....not a chance.

Frost saw the rat beastman coming from a mile away. His target was his shoulder, primarily the socket that connected his arm to his shoulder. Pugilist was a very difficulty class to master, especially against monsters. High level pugilist were sometimes even rarer than mages. To take on monsters with their high strength bodies, pugilists needed to train their own bodies. Whether that be in speed, endurance, strength or even mentally. Their own bodies needed to become the weapon. less skilled ones used gauntlets such as the pugilist before him now, but the really skilled ones used their bare fists and legs to pummel their opponents. The best chakra users were usually pugilists given the fact that without it they’d be hard pressed to damage monsters at C-rank and higher.

The rat beastman to Frost’s side was still a newbie in comparison, he could utilise a little chakra to give his fists a little more oomph but mainly relied on his gauntlets, but his technique was still rather fierce. Whether attacking monsters or humanoids the target areas were always rather the same...the weak points. Primarily the joints where bones connect. Since they couldn’t carve up flesh or deal as much blunt damage as a hammer they aimed to break apart the joints, proving just as devastating.

Knowing how to deal with such a move thanks to Maya, Frost didn’t dodge. Instead, he used his shoulder to strike pre-emptively against the pugilists fist, cutting a large amount of its momentum. The blow now only broke a couple layers of his ice armour instead of blowing apart his shoulder socket. The rat beastman’s eyes opened wide in surprise before quickly dealing another blow. Pugilists were all about fast attacks and combos, so what if the first attack didn’t land the second or third or fourth would. The rat beastman’s other fist swiftly moved to strike an uppercut on Frost’s chin.

.....

Frost moved his neck a couple inches to the side avoiding the blow by a hairs breadth before attacking with his own fist. His right hand was still preoccupied with the large hammer, but his left was free to strike. Covering it with an extra layer of chakra he punched out at the rat beastman’s abdomen hoping to blow the man back so he could deal with the leader that was about to strike him with his blade. The rat beastman reacted well, bringing down his elbow and his left knee upward. Both were covered in his own partial chakra as well as elbow and knee guards. His chakra was of the wind element, causing the areas to slightly glow green.

Boom! Frost’s punch met with the elbow and knee guards, flakes of ice broke from the blow but was still mostly intact, the same was said for the elbow and knee guards. Frost’s fast punch was up against a knee and an elbow both applying perpendicular force, the ending was a draw much to Frost’s shock.

‘Dealing with intelligent opponents and their techniques is far more difficult.’ The yetis he fought before, though had more strength, tenacity and sometimes burst speed could not utilise techniques such as this rat beastman just did.

Frost didn’t have time to ponder the differences between yetis and his current opponents, however. On one side a hammer continued to press down on his glaive, locking it down. On the other the pugilist had caught left fist between his knee and elbow, the archer had manoeuvred to the rear aiming to fire arrows at his back from a blind spot. And in front on him the ugly human leader started thrusting his sword towards his abdomen while covering his side with his shield. Their teamwork was marvellous and each of them were rather skilled in their own profession.

‘This is not the first time they’ve moved in such a way.’ Frost could almost envision the amount of people and monsters that died this way, but he wasn’t too fazed. Even if that blade reached his abdomen and pierced him it shouldn’t go too deep, but he wouldn’t allow that.

The whole process lasted about a few seconds but for Frost it was as though it was playing in slow motion. He kept his ears perked waiting for the archer to make his move. The blade of the human leader grew imperceptibly closer and the ugly smile on his face became more and more obvious. He was sure of his victory. Even if it didn’t kill the elf he’d be hurt, and they would be in the perfect position to keep attacking.

A fraction of a second later Frost heard the twang of the archer’s bow and his lips curled upwards. Rapidly he bent his knees before pushing against the ground with some force, all while tilting backwards. He performed a back flip.

With his legs outstretched he kicked the oncoming blade with his chakra covered foot- safe to do so since the blade was thrust forward not down- sending it upwards, much to the leader’s displeasure but he was powerless to stop it. Frost moved too fast, and his kick was too strong, it took him a great deal of effort to even hold onto his weapon. His momentum however continued forward.

At the same time because of his flip, Frost’s left fist was pulled from the pugilist’s vice grip while the pressure on the hammer side was lifted, and it slammed down onto the ground without resistance nearly hitting the leader’s arm, but the move wasn’t done yet.

The archer’s arrow that was originally aimed at Frost’s back was still howling through the air but now its target had flipped backwards and into the air leaving the flight path. Now what was there was the human leader, an arrow knew no allies once fired. The arrow screamed through the space that was once Frost zooming at the ugly leader’s face.

‘Fuck!’ The ugly leader screamed profanities in his head, their perfect timing had such a loophole. Thankfully he had his shield, with a deft movement he moved it in front of the arrow’s path and moved his body behind it.

Don!

The arrow stabbed into his shield, right on the rim, a half second slower and it would have pierced his shoulder or even his neck. A cold sweat trickled down the man’s forehead and back before he quickly came to his senses.

“Kargul!” He roared the name of the archer, warning him as well as slightly admonishing him for nearly killing his boss.