Dungeon of Niflheim

“Coming dear,” he responded almost instantly, pouring the rest of the mid-level potion down Frost’s throat before cradling his wounded body and moving him a little out of the way. Once Frost was moved to the edge of the room Sam quickly dashed away, his great sword at the ready.

Even with the ice revenant’s level of wounds as well its current trapped state, the battle couldn’t be considered over. Beasts had far more vitality than that of the sapients races, taking far more damage to bring them down. Monster were even more difficult to take out, especially monsters that were part spirit/ethereal. As long as their cores were in tact it’d be truly hard to end them.

Sam moved with speed, reaching the ice revenant’s side in a couple seconds. He raised his great sword up high before swinging across the thing’s shoulder. Leaving a gash across its runic armour. With the pillar of fire burning away and its mana levels significantly reduced the runic armour was far more fragile.

Sam didn’t let up, releasing slash after slash upon the revenant’s armour and exposed ethereal limbs. Each slash held great cutting force, weakening the revenant further and further. Each blow was aimed well to make sure the ice revenant could not escape the large pillar of fire and that its core would be left in the highest state.

“Ahhhhhhhhhhhh you damn insects!” The ice revenant had gone mad with pain; fire was its nemesis and caused no small amount of damage to its body. It was on the brink of collapse, soon it’d be forced to retreat back into its core. To hibernate and convalesce until it had enough strength to recreate its physical body. It tried to leave the effect of the fire pillar but each time it’d be meet with a slash of Sam’s great sword, injuring it further and knocking it back into the flames. Its blue flaming eyes turned a mixture of purple and red as it burned the last vestiges of its power.

Its chilling aura began to coalesce, even while under the flames of Lola’s spell, the revenant summoned everything it had, pooling its power inwards before boom! All of its power was violently sent outwards like an explosion. The frigid wave of air shattered the 3rd circle magic crest underneath sending a wave of pain through Lola’s head. A trickle of blood dripped from her nose and her eyes became unfocused. Holding on with her 3rd circle spell for so long had drained her quite considerably. Now with her magic crest being forcibly dispelled she fell to her knees, gasping for air and with a serious headache.

Sam meanwhile had braced for the impact. His great sword lay horizontally in front, with the red hot blade facing the oncoming wave. His knees were bent, lowering his centre of gravity.

The wave of frigid air burst out in all directions, aiming to rebuff all foes and magic. The fire pillar was released almost instantly, revealing the extent of the damage done to the revenant’s body. Deep gashes covered its runic armour, turning it into mere scrap. It’s ethereal body was fading and barely holding itself together, as though it could be extinguished any second.

.....

The frigid air that burst out, violently collided with the nearby Sam, forcing him backwards and away from the revenant though not nearly as much as desired.

With his great sword blocking ahead and his legs braced, Sam held his body’s position while creating deep trails in the ice floor as he was forced back close to ten metres.

Sam’s brow was frowning, his hands and legs shaking as they just endured a great amount of force. Thankfully he took precautions otherwise he would have been sent barrelling through the air right into one of the walls. The ice revenant would then have a small amount of time to heal up, with his wife in no shape to cast more magic and Frost still recuperating. A cornered prey was not something to take lightly especially one as strong and tenacious as this ice revenant.

The ice revenant frowned as it saw Sam only pushed back a mere ten metres but what was done was done, he needed to make the best of it. Sam quickly straightened his legs and moved to re-enter close combat range, not willing to give the revenant a chance to recover.

“[Ice form into a mighty tomb and seal my enemy, icy tomb]” In a last ditch effort to stop Sam, the ice revenant channelled its mana for a 3rd circle spell [icy tomb]. Though it was much weaker than usual the revenant still successfully summoned the magic crest.

As Sam dashed forward a large blue crest, flickered beneath him, sending a wave of danger into his heart. A moment later on Sam’s left and right two large blocks of ice grew from the floor, each one heavy and imposing. The two blocks quickly snapped together like a giant frozen maw, aiming to seal Sam and or crush him to pieces.

Sam was quick with his reactions, launching his body froward into a sharp conical spin aiming to clear their sphere of influence but that wasn’t enough. Gripping his great sword hard he swung out while spinning, carving massive gashes into the blocks as escaped their grasp. The revenant’s last spell failed, and he knew it. Sam dropped to the ground and continued his dash forward, his great sword at his side.

The ice revenant’s eyes filled with resignation and despair, he sighed as he felt his life force dwindling. He raised the remaining half of broadsword to meet the swing of Sam, it was all he could do, his mana was spent and even if it wasn’t he had no time to cast another spell.

Sam moved with deft precision and such speed that he was in front of revenant in under a second, his great sword poised to his side at the ready. He saw the movements of the ice revenant but thought little of it, a desperate act of a dying monster, there was not much power contained in the strike, merely for show, no bite behind it. But Sam wasn’t one to take any chances, he decided use his most powerful strike.

With his great sword in hand Sam’s eyes revealed a powerful determination. “[Earth rending slash]” the great sword glowed with immense energy as a thick metallic beam, covered the blade edge, giving it a weighty presence, as though the sword was ten times heavier. This was Sam’s strongest attack, it sucked up a great deal of energy and its power rivalled that of a B-rank adventurer.

The mighty great sword met with the half cut broadsword, but there was no loud clanging of metal, just a sharp howl as Sam’s weapon skill, obliterated the broadsword on contact, before rapidly doing the same to the revenant’s left arm and shoulder. The broadsword and runic armour that was struck had a clean sharp cut across it where the blade passed through, the released part fragmented into practically dust from the residual energy.

The ice revenant’s eyes returned to their regular blue colour before finally growing dark and vanishing. Its body collapsed and returned to its core. The remaining pieces of runic armour and the handle of the broadsword fell to the ground without support, it was over.

Sam reached out to grab ice revenant’s core before it struck the floor, being very delicate with his touch. Sweat poured down his neck and back, and his arm and leg muscles were shaky as the cost of using such a powerful skill came into effect. He fell to his knees and gasped for air, his body wasn’t trained enough to channel such high amounts of energy, putting him in a very exhaustive and vulnerable state. Thankfully no other monsters could enter the boss room and it was unlikely for another party to enter given the danger. Sam knew the risks of using such an overpowered strike but still chose to do it, on the off chance that the ice revenant had one last thing planned. They’d come so far, to have one of them die or seriously maimed at this point would make it a hollow victory.

He removed a special sealing case from his spatial ring. It was made of special anti-mana materials and was covered in runes. He opened it up and placed the grapefruit sized core inside, on top of a velvet like cloth before closing the seal. As he did it the runes glowed with mana sealing the core within and preventing the ice revenant from absorbing mana in order to reform as well as preventing the leakage of mana that would affect its quality. Sam and Lola had prepared this case for the transport of the ice revenant’s core as it would ensure its stability on the journey home.

Once the core was safely placed in the chest and the lock sealed Sam finally let out a sigh of relief. The tension in his body was released and he fell back against the floor with a victorious smile on his face, they’d won.