Dungeon of Niflheim

Frost’s brow rose as his hair stood on end warning him of impending danger. listening to his instincts he rapidly darted to the side and a moment later, the wind before him was pierced. The centipede launched its upper body like a spring, generating a sonic boom from the rapid acceleration before.

Boooooomm!

Where Frost was previously standing there was now a significant crater and plumes of ice dust. The centipede smashed its own body against the ground, destroying the ice floor before receding back to an upright position, completely unharmed. Its powerful carapace allowed it to endure great impact damage without the slightest injury. Many of its opponents are stunned by this attack making the rest of its battles easy.

Frost audibly gulped as he witnessed the carnage of such a strike. ‘If I had been a second later in reacting.’ A cold chill floated down his spine as he imagined enduring such a blow. If it landed on his head he’d likely be dead in a single shot. That move was devasting, the only good thing was that it had quite an obvious wind up and couldn’t be launched immediately after one another.

The centipede slowly rose back to its massive height, turning to face the still shocked Frost with a mocking expression well at least for a centipede it was. It was proud of its powerful body and almost pitied those that were born so....so flimsy like this adventurer. Its ego was stroked by Frost’s reaction, but it would have been nicer if he was turned into a pancake instead.

The centipede’s muscles groaned and creaked as it once again primed itself for another strike, aiming for Frost once again. If the first time didn’t hit the mark then the second will. The centipede had no qualms about smashing against the ice floor.

“Tsk you really think I’ll be foolish enough to stand here and wait.” Frost clicked his tongue as a look of contempt flashed passed his eyes. ‘Just a beast after all, relying on instinct.’ Once again the moment before the centipede launched itself Frost moved silently to the side.

Boooom!

.....

The attack missed again, creating another crater and plumes of ice dust. Not one to take a hit lying down Frost twirled his glaive to gain traction before slashing down on its receding neck.

Clang!

With a sound akin to metal banging against metal, Frost’s glaive was swiftly rebuffed, with intense vibration reaching his hands. The thing was hard, really hard.

“That’s more like steel than refined iron.” His glaive being a quasi-4th star weapon was unharmed, but the centipede’s carapace was built for endurance. He barely left a dent on thing with his swing, a minor gash but nothing in the face of its overwhelming size.

Preparing to strike once again in the same spot this time with even more force he raised his glaive up high. The centipede was far slower at retracting than it was at extending, he had more than enough time to strike twice. However, though Frost’s slash did minor damage at best, it was enough to startle the centipede. Never in its entire life had there been someone or something who could damage its invincible carapace in a single attack. Afraid of being hit again it tightened up its muscles to rapidly swing sideways, narrowly avoiding Frost’s swing, before shrinking back, like a frightened animal. Though the centipede was large and had very little opponents on this floor, its natural personality was quite cowardly. It preferred ambushing its prey even those weaker. It only fought head on with Frost before because he barged into its home and interrupted its meal.

Frost withdrew his extended glaive quite surprised that he missed, for the centipede to changed directions so quickly like that couldn’t have been easy. But more to the question was why. Frost had a confused look on his face as he eyed the great frost centipede that had retreated backwards without any intention to attack. He looked into the beast’s eyes and saw shock and slight amount of fear.

“Seriously you’re afraid after just one attack hahahahhaha.” Frost broke into laughter, his opinion of the centipede instantly plummeting. He waved his glaive around and watched the centipede’s eyes follow the blade, wary of its direction. “Pathetic! And here I thought you were proud of that carapace of yours, how disappointing.” The look of scorn and contempt in Frost’s eyes were as clear as day even for the centipede with its beastly intelligence.

It felt frustrated and wrathful, it started the fight by proudly displaying the strength of its carapace but retreated after receiving a single slash from Frost’s weapon, it was shameful to say the least.

“Screeeeeeeeeee” the great frost centipede screeched once again, not willing to be insulted. Its eyes filled with rage, becoming a deeper shade of red, it was truly incensed. Its previous wariness vanished as anger prevailed, it would not be insulted by a mere fleshy creature. However, it wasn’t completely lost in the madness, it would continue the fight but launching its upper body at Frost was clearly detrimental, time to try something else.

Frost saw the red in its eyes grow, an evil smile adorned his lips, happy with the result he got. ‘I’m really getting this taunting thing down to a tee, perhaps I’ll unlock a skill soon.’ Frost’s use of a glaive and magic termed him more of a damage dealer instead of a tank type but when adventuring alone he played all roles.

Leo had mentioned certain skills held by those that were referred to as tanks. They’d be able to taunt monsters and even people into targeting themselves over the more squishy of their party members. Apparently it’s a very highly desired skill tree similar to healing, those with such abilities are always in high demand, especially in the higher levels wherein monsters could one shot light armoured adventurers if they weren’t careful. Leo as well as Bruno trained methodically to get the chance to unlock a taunting skill. Given that they both utilised shields there was a good chance, especially in Bruno’s case. His fight with Frost and the against the many goons showed that his ability to protect teammates was at a very high level.

For now, however Frost practised taunting the old fashioned way using words. It wouldn’t have any binding effect, but it certainly helped stop cowardly monsters such as this centipede from running away the moment it felt at a disadvantage.

The moment the centipede readied itself for continued battle, ice began to form across Frosts robes and skin. In a second or two his magnificent ice chakra armour adorned his body, giving him a majestic warrior king appearance. He wouldn’t take any chances against this foe, though he spread fear into it from his first attack the same could be said for him. Seeing the destructive power behind the centipede’s smash had sent shivers down his spine and if he was caught by it, it could spell the end of his short life. As long as he wore the ice armour it should deflect the majority of the damage if he somehow mistimed his dodge.

But the centipede wasn’t attacking the same way, its body was still standing straight and looking down on Frost with wrath, but it didn’t prime its muscles for a physical attack. No, it channelled mana through its magic crystal, it was going for magic instead.

Frost soon felt the changes in mana around the centipede but that didn’t stop him from finishing his armour, it also helped deal with magic plus he was curious to see what level of magic this D-rank monster had available. So far all the monster’s he’d come across only used 1st circle spells all at varied levels of mastery. But this was the fifth floor, surely there’d be users of 2nd circle magic.

He didn’t need to wait long; the centipede finished its casting relatively quickly. Since it couldn’t speak common tongue Frost couldn’t predict what spell it would be, an advantage for the more beast like monsters. A large magic crest was suddenly created above Frost’s head, far larger and more detailed than that of a 1st circle spell. Wanting to test his armour’s durability Frost arrogantly stood in place waiting, ice magic would have very little effect on him so he could take this risk.

Frost had perused the magic available in the menu several times and talked about it with Maya a lot but as of, yet he only had a single 2nd circle spell [ice spike]. His personal hands on experience was rather limited so seeing magic crests up close and exploring the might of a spell with his body was a thrilling concept.

A second later a large boulder of ice was summoned from the crest before dropping down onto Frost with great speed. The ice boulder was around metre or so in diameter and was heavier than it appeared. This was the 2nd circle spell [blizzard].