Dungeon of Niflheim

Frost’s brain was firing on all cylinders and finally came up with a solution, using his glaive as an anchor point. He couldn’t move the way he wished in mid-air and his feet couldn’t reach the ground, but his glaive could. Knocking the butt upwards the glaive blade met the icy floor. The moment it did Frost placed his entire weight on his weapon and used it as a vault. He wasn’t worried about snapping the shaft given that it was made of sturdy 3 star materials.

With nimble movement Frost moved his body backwards out of the great sword’s path before raising himself up high.

Clang! Sam’s great sword struck the shaft of Frost’s glaive with great ferocity but failed to leave a dent let alone shatter the thing. He did however knock it backwards, but Frost was already prepared, his body was already resting above the glaive’s butt, building up potential energy.

Sam watched this all unfold with an unchanging expression, his gaze never leaving Frost’s body as he already moved to recall his weapon. Though his expression was neutral, internally he was amazed. He knew that he for one wouldn’t be able to move like Frost just did.

‘Haaaaaaa the advantages of youth,’ perhaps when he was in his twenties he could have been that limber but now...not a chance. And he didn’t need to, Frost’s movements though flashy were very inefficient, how much energy did it take for Frost to perform that manoeuvre in comparison to his methodical and simple attacks. He had to admit though, Frost was a lot more tenacious than he gave him credit for and that mad smile on his face that continued to grow.

Sam couldn’t help but slightly mimic his foe’s expression, Frost was clearly having fun so why shouldn’t he, he now understood how Frost was so strong at his age, he was a natural battle junkie, born to fight. His passion and almost innocence towards the exchange filled Sam with fire, one that had been dwindling over the recent years.

Lola watched on, she too was surprised with Frost’s abilities and was slightly jealous with how flexible the young man was, but she wasn’t worried that her man wouldn’t be stumped by a flashy move such as that.

As Frost started to spin with the aid of his glaive being smashed, Sam had already begun to draw back his sword without wasting excess energy or strength. His weapon moved in a simple path that didn’t look that impressive, but power came from simplicity. There was a reason that the highest level of mastery was called the origin.

.....

Frost garnered a large amount of momentum, harnessing the force from Sam’s skill he spun forward, bring his glaive along and slammed down.

Boooooommmmmm!

An incredibly booming sound reverberated throughout the area as Frost’s glaive smashed against Sam’s great sword, the blow was perfectly blocked with the glaive edge meeting the thickest part of the great sword.

“Tsk!” Frost loudly clicked his tongue, annoyed that even with his dramatic moves, his spinning force and advantage of higher ground he still couldn’t get any traction.

Sam however was sweating buckets, the strength contained in Frost’s swing was bestial and took everything he had to endure. Now he understood how the young man could smash his way through a great frost centipede’s carapace without much effort. He wasn’t even using a skill and already Sam could feel his hands going numb and his legs near buckling as he remained upright.

Lola and Frost had no idea of Sam’s struggle, and he would like to keep it that way. He especially didn’t want to lose to Frost in a match of physical strength with his wife watching.

Clenching his jaw and tensing his grip on his great sword, Sam knocked Frost away. The move wasn’t harmful, Frost merely leaned into it, preforming a backflip before landing safely on his feet. They were back to being around 10 metres between them, back at square one.

The two powerful fighters eyed one another in silence for a few seconds before Sam finally spoke up. He’d learned a lot from this exchange, and they could technically stop there but from Frost’s expression and feelings portrayed through his glaive he knew that wasn’t what he wanted, nor was it his desire. This exchange was enjoyable for both of them.

“Not bad kid not bad at all, your weapon mastery is just a shy below mine, but you clearly lack the experience necessary to utilise it efficiently. Your speed, flexibility and innate strength allow you to keep up but that won’t help much against a monster faster or stronger than you.” Sam spoke in a calm tone, both praising and admonishing Frost on his performance. Frost took a deep breath and relaxed his body as he listened.

“You’ve got sharp instincts meaning you’ll improve fast.....” A sharp smile grew on Sam’s brave face. “Let’s see how fast exactly,” with his taunt Sam summoned his metal element chakra, creating armour over his vital areas only. He was efficient and had limited mana, there was no need for a complete armour when he could control where he’d be hit. This meant he could apply denser chakra given that it didn’t have to cover his entire body. “Come use your chakra armour, blades know no allies, this way we can go even harder without fear of fatal injuries.” Sam exuded his sharp aura full of threat, hinting that the real fight was about to begin.

Frost felt his entire body tremble in excitement, his mad smile returned as did some laughter before he too summoned his glorious ice armour. A moment later his suit of ice covered his body making him appear like a legendary ice king, like his face it was a beautiful sight....but beauty doesn’t win battles.

Sam frowned as he witnessed Frost don his ice charka armour. ‘This kid really is an amateur’ he thought. Frost didn’t require his entire body to be covered and doing so weakened the overall strength and was far more difficult to maintain. But Sam had to admit he was slightly jealous of Frost’s reserves.

“Too showy!” He insulted Frost’s armour before rapidly dashing forward, his great sword in hand. He’d teach Frost the same way his master taught him how to use chakra armour.

Frost reacted fast, swinging out his glaive to meet Sam’s great sword but at the moment of contact Sam sidestepped along with his sword.

Smash!

He slammed the flat of his sword against an area of Frost’s waist, smashing apart the ice chakra armour without mercy. “You need shore up the armour over your vitals!” Sam ordered before continuing to attack another area near his shoulders. Frost had created what was effectively full plate armour with his ice chakra, completely opposing to his battle style which required light armour. Having thick overbearing layers of ice over his body would actually inhibit some of his moves. For example, his shoulder armour was way too thick in comparison to his chest area.

Sam continued like Maya did to smash apart his chakra armour over and over while yelling out orders and slowly as they fought Frost’s amour became more and more refined, stronger yet thinner and not nearly as flashy. He began to understand Sam’s movements and the areas he’d likely be attacked.

Their spar lasted 30 minutes and by the end both men were completely drained of energy, panting heavily, and sweating profusely. They didn’t let up for even a second, using everything they had to kill one another, there was no shortage of wounds on the two men and blood littered the ground in puddles, but each had wide smiles on their faces.

Frost collapsed first, his body completely out of gas, he had to reform and refine his chakra armour god knows how many times and even he with his massive mana reserves was completely spent. His every muscle was convulsing, his legs couldn’t hold up his weight anymore and he fell backwards slamming against the floor.

“Hahahhahah looks like I win urgh!” Sam managed to declare his victory before he too succumbed to his exhaustion, collapsing to the ground with a crash.

Lola was sat at the side, she let out a deep sigh and shook her head, not understanding the romance of a battle between men. Of course, for her it was quite enjoyable, seeing the clash between two well trained male bodies slamming against one another got her quite hot and bothered but she wondered why Frost and her husband had such satisfied looks on their faces. The two of them were completely covered in wounds, didn’t it hurt?

“Sam wins, that means he gets the lovely prize.” She rose to her feet and walked over to her husband, her wide hips sashaying side to side as she did so. She peered over her husband and gave him a romantic kiss on the lips. “A kiss from the beautiful princess.” Sam enjoyed his reward with relish, his lips were clearly full of energy as Lola struggled to pull herself away.

Frost was too enthralled with the battle he went through to be bothered by the public displays of affection between the couple. His body was exhausted but his mind was active. His glaive mastery had improved greatly, though he didn’t increase in realm he felt that his foundation had solidified. Like Sam said he had a lot of excess and useless movements meaning he couldn’t bring out the full strength of his adept mastery. Though he was still not a Sam’s level he could clearly feel a change and it filled him with joy.