Dungeon of Niflheim

Frost’s manoeuvre took care of one talon strike and severely diminished the amount of strength the griffin could bring down upon Kiba, but the remaining right forelimb was still poised to descend. Even with his actions if the griffin got hold of Kiba with just one talon the damage could prove devasting. Though Kiba’s ribcage wasn’t a major weak point like with wolves it certainly wasn’t a match for the hardest part of the ice griffin. The mangled corpse of the Baltic tiger was proof of that.

“Shit!” Frost didn’t have enough time to place himself in front of Kiba to block the strike and the big tiger was too heavy for him to kick away.

“Ice form a shield and defend me from thy enemy, [ice shield].” Frost rapidly summoned his mana and chanted the aria for the 2nd circle spell [ice shield]. As his glaive exited the griffin’s left forelimb and continued to pick up speed, Frost continued his rotational movement. The ice shield would only buy him a second or so before it shattered but it would be enough for him to transplant himself before Kiba or give the mighty winged tiger enough time to get up and move his lazy ass.

Ice mana coagulated before Kiba’s ribs forming a thick but ugly shield of ice. Frost wasn’t too proficient with this spell yet, so his shapes were very irregular but as long as he pumped it with enough mana it’d do the job.

Kiba finally got his bearings back when the shield started to form. Blood was dripping from his left hindleg where the griffin bit down with its sharp beak. The pain caused him to whimper but not lose his head, knowing that he couldn’t put pressure on that leg he shot off using his remaining three.

Smash! The moment he started moving the hastily and ugly formed ice shield shattered almost the instant it came in contact with the griffin’s talon, proving to be no match for the force being brought down. But it did its job, Kiba narrowly evaded the talon by a hair’s breadth, clearing the danger zone as plumes of ice and snow exploded outwards from the impact.

“Screeeeeeeeee!” The griffin screeched in hatred as it saw Kiba avoid its blow, the immense pain from Frost’s actions prevented it from chasing after the tiger, hell it could barely keep itself upright.

Frost appeared at this moment, dashing through the plumes of ice and snow to appear directly before the griffin who was temporarily unable to move. He continued to spin, building up momentum as he leaped upwards with his glaive, aiming to slice open the griffin’s throat. Though Kiba was in a very dangerous position just a second ago it also opened the griffin up to a very nasty reprisal, one which Frost refused to miss.

.....

The ice griffin could only stare down in wrath as Frost leaped up towards its throat with his sharp and devasting glaive.

“[Claw of the ice wolf]!” Frost once again used his most powerful glaive art summoning three sharp claws of ice to supplement his glaive’s blade.

Squelch!

With his rotating force, arm strength and the aid of his most devasting weapon skill, Frost cut deep and viciously into the griffin’s undefended throat. Blood splattered over Frost’s glaive and face as the blade cleaved open the monster’s carotid artery, a gruesome picture. The glaive continued its path across the griffin’s windpipe and then other artery before exiting from the throat. Frost didn’t aim too deep so as to avoid the strong neckbone which didn’t need to be harmed to deal a fatal blow. The mighty griffin would likely die of blood loss in a couple minutes, all he and Kiba needed to do now was wait for the inevitable, keeping their distance until then.

Right now, however he was still within range of the griffin’s attack and this fact was not lost on the beast. It knew the moment it saw its blood spewing out from its neck that its life was over, but it wasn’t one to go down without a fight.

With a crazy look in its blood red eyes the griffin tensed its half cut open neck, bringing down its razor sharp beak upon Frost’s head. It’d split the damn elf’s skull in twain as revenge.

The griffin’s beak was more than hard enough and sharp enough to do such damage, but Frost was prepared. He knew the chances of him having to withstand an all-out blow from the griffin was very high if he chose to attack its throat, but the gains outweighed the risk, and he was confident in his armaments.

“Tsk!” However, seeing that his head was the target Frost clicked his tongue and cursed his luck, he didn’t have a helmet as part of his apparel making it one of the least protected areas. Thankfully his ice chakra armour covered his head but even, so this was going to hurt. He sent an order to Kiba through their soul connection telling him to pick him up after he was smashed to the ground lest the griffin continue its die hard attack.

Boom!

A second later the griffin’s mighty beak smashed against Frost’s skull, his ice chakra armour shattered apart after absorbing much of the blow. The remaining force sent Frost’s mind spinning and blood dripped from the top of his skull. His eyes lost focus, his vision going dark and body going limp as he thundered downwards against the snow covered ground, barely conscious.

A second later Kiba appeared scooping Frost up in his mouth and a carrying him to safety and not a moment too soon. The instant he left a razor sharp talon was right where Frost had landed, his skull would have been smashed like a watermelon if not for Kiba’s timely aid.

This however was the last bit of strength the ice griffin could muster, its might body collapsed under its own weight. Its neck flaying out on the snow, quickly painting it red. The blood red colour in its eyes receding as death took hold allowing it to see the world calmly one last time before darkness took over.

The mighty C-rank ice griffin died a couple minutes later in a pool of its own blood.

Kiba watched the corpse warily as he guarded Frost who was leaning against his fur, waiting for the ringing in his ears and dizziness to stop. That was probably the strongest blow he ever received to the head and damn it hurt, he had the strong urge to fall asleep but knew that doing so could prove fatal. Sam and Lola taught him that the injuries to the head must always be taken seriously regardless of how hard you were hit. Blood was dripping down his cheeks and he had a major headache, there was no option he needed to drink a health potion.

Frost turned around to take a look at Kiba’s wounded leg, it was pretty bad, showing some bone. He likely needed a potion as well if they wanted to get back to the dungeon anytime soon.

Not wanting to suffer this kind of pain any longer Frost removed two potions from his spatial ring, one low level and one mid-level. He was heading back to the dungeon soon so there was no point in saving his mid-level potion, might as well use it now. Of course, he would get the mid-level potion that tasted only meh while Kiba would be forced to drink the disgusting abomination that was the low level potion.

Frost pulled the cork from his first and down the entire vial in a couple gulps, frowning a little from the slightly bitter taste but thanking his stars it wasn’t like the low level crap. The effects got to work quickly, improving his vision, and reducing his headache.

“Kiba you’re wounded and need to take a potion; we’ve still got a long trek ahead of us.” Frost showed a gentle and caring expression but smirked internally, looking forward to seeing Kiba gagging from the intense bitterness.

Kiba turned to look at his wounded leg that continued to bleed and cause him no small amount of pain, he was reckless and should have listened to Frost’s battle orders earlier. Feeling guilty about wasting Frost’s precious potions he rubbed his face against Frost before opening his jaw wide so Frost could pour it in. He was a really well behaved boy almost making Frost feel bad about what he was going to do....almost.

“Bottoms up.” He uncorked the low level health potion and before Kiba could get a good whiff of the concoction he emptied the entire thing into his awaiting mouth. Then he slammed his jaw shut, making sure the tiger wouldn’t spit the stuff out in disgust.

His worries however were unfounded, Kiba merely found the taste a little unpleasant but that was all, no dramatic wailing or tears in his eyes as the taste unfurled on his tongue, much to Frost’s annoyance. He knew that monsters with intelligence could taste the bitterness well, Findlay was a perfect example, perhaps Kiba just didn’t have a discerning palette.

The low level health potion got to work quickly as well, Kiba felt his hind leg tingling around the wound as it started closing, bringing a happy smile to his face. He licked Frost in thanks which Frost then swiftly stopped since Kiba’s tongue was really rough and reeked of the low level health potion.