Dungeon of Niflheim

As Findlay was struggling to maintain his stoic appearance a large snowball smacked him in the back of head. An eery silence followed as all the monsters present turned to face Findlay, shock evident in their eyes.

A strong pressure started to emanate from the ice troll commander as he slowly turned around to face his aggressor.

“Gulp!” The two lesser yuki-onnas audibly gulped, their eyes shaking with no small amount of fear as instant regret filled their bodies. Where did they get the stones to mess with Findlay a mighty C-rank ice troll commander and one with a particularly rigid attitude.

“Who!” Findlay spoke with a chilling tone, sending shivers down everyone’s backs, he was truly pissed off now.

The two lesser yuki-onnas instantly pointed at one another as though to shift blame, not willing to take the hit for their actions. Findlay moved towards the two of them slowly with imposing steps, his fury almost palpable.

The lesser yuki-onnas visibly shrunk their necks afraid to look Findlay in the eyes, jabbing at one another as they continued to dob the other one in.

Suddenly Findlay’s large blue hands were on each of their shoulders, pressing down and squeezing causing them to wince in pain.

“Seems the two of you have far too much free time, how about we change that.” Findlay’s smile was chilling, terrifying even, tears threatened to pour from the lesser yuki-onna’s eyes as they endured the pain and fear that rampaged throughout their bodies. The dwarven quarrellers and other nearby monsters all showed evil smirks, the two of them deserved some punishment. Even the mighty frost revenants were nodding their heads, agreeing with Findlay’s words.

.....

Luckily timing was on Findlay’s side, the next wave was almost at the door. Findlay’s large hands immediately increased their gripping strength before the mighty ice troll commander hefted the two lesser yuki-onnas up into the air resulting in some pretty pale expressions to appear on their faces. It wasn’t a nice feeling to be so easily man handled, especially when the person doing it was pissed off with you.

“Time to pay your dues!” Findlay’s smile reached from ear to ear as satisfaction filled his body, finally he could let out some of his pent up aggression. Then without warning Findlay launched the two lesser yuki-onnas through the air, similar to the playful snowballs they launched at him and his subordinates.

“Ahhhhhhh!”

“Ahhhhhhh!” The two lesser yuki-onnas screamed as they flew through the air at breakneck speed before ultimately crashing into the cold snow floor, sending plumes of the stuff flying off in all directions. This garnered a lot of unrestrained chuckles from the observing monsters, Findlay wasn’t the only one annoyed by their antics.

The two lesser yuki-onnas quickly pulled themselves up from the snow and dusted themselves off before glaring at the laughing monsters who were much weaker than them. Their pride took a hit thus they redirected their anger towards Findlay who was still smiling ear to ear as he enjoyed their embarrassment.

“Hoooohh do you really have time to be glaring at me right now?” Findlay tilted his head to the side, feeling a little bit mischievous.

His words caught the lesser yuki-onnas by surprise as well as the rest of the monsters on shift, but that confusion was swiftly cleared.

“Rahhhhhhhhh!” Loud animalistic roars and grunts could be heard coming from the dungeon’s entrance, the next wave was here and the first nocturnal one.

The lesser yuki-onnas trembled and blanched as they turned around to face the oncoming horde. They were magic users, best suited to long range combat like up on the ice wall. But down here they were out in the open, easy pickings. Of course given their upper D-rank strength there wouldn’t be any monster that could kill them, but it certainly wouldn’t be a pleasant experience, a down right slug fest, much better suited to someone with more brawn than brains.

The loud roars alerted the other monsters on shift who swiftly readied themselves for battle, drawing their ranged weapons and aiming towards the dungeon’s entrance, prepared to once again swiftly bring down the invading horde and protect their home.

However their movements were quickly brought to a halt by Findlay. Their commander raised his hand and ordered everyone to stand down....well almost everyone.

“Relax our mighty magically inclined lesser yuki-onnas have bravely volunteered to take care of this wave by themselves, desperate to show us the power of their ice magic. It would be insulting to interfere in leu of their bravery. Instead everyone should watch and learn, take a break and let our friends here strut their stuff.” Findlay spoke with glee, a slight chuckle on his lips however his eyes showed that he was deadly serious, this wave would be entirely left to the lesser yuki-onnas and everyone else was forbidden from interfering.

At first everyone looked down at the two lesser yuki-onnas who were both trembling with rage as they heard Findlay’s words. A brief look of plight flashed across their eyes before each of them followed the words of their might ice troll commander who represented Frost’s will. They lowered their weapons and looked towards the entrance and the lesser yuki-onnas with a relaxed atmosphere, fully prepared to watch and learn.

Meanwhile the lesser yuki-onnas in question’s lips were twitching. ‘Volunteered who the fuck volunteered! You tossed us towards the entrance, right in front of the horde! Volunteered my ass!’ Was what the two were internally screaming. Findlay’s piercing glare however siphoned away their courage to openly say such words, they really had no one else to blame bar themselves, not a single ‘comrade’ spoke up in their defence either. They really would have to deal with this entire wave by themselves without even the slightest aid.

Crack! Whoosh!

Their anger that couldn’t be directed towards Findlay was thus focused upon the encroaching horde. The lesser yuki-onnas cracked their knuckles as the nearby snow floated beside them, wrapping around them like a personal blizzard.

‘You wanna see a display of magic huh! Well let’s show you some ice magic then.’ The lesser yuki-onnas were completely fired up, the prospect of actually doing some work actually excited the two of them. Playful spells were one thing but using actual devasting ice magic was something else entirely, the enjoyment was like the difference between heaven and earth.

Magic crests appeared around the two of them before large, sharp ice bolts began to protrude, eight in total. Next an ice fog formed around the two of them, partially obscuring them but more importantly it would act as a restraint for the charging masses. A thick freezing fog that would wrap around their bodies, slowing the targets down, even binding them in place if they were weak enough. This was the lesser yuki-onnas’ response to mass close combat; they really weren’t suited to a slug fest. Their physical abilities were a far shy from their magical talents, a very lop sided species.

Findlay who saw their prep work couldn’t help but raise his brow, these two when they actually did some work were quite the foes to be reckoned with. Findlay himself knew ice magic but despite him being a high level C-rank he’d probably be outshone in that department by these two lesser yuki-onnas. If they weren’t so mischievous and downright lazy they’d be ideal leaders for the magic corps. His gaze then drifted towards the few frost dwarven runic mages who were on shift, they would be the ones learn the most from such a battle.

Just when the lesser yuki-onnas’ prep work was finished the wave arrived and looking a fair bit more dangerous than the first three. Night was certainly a different ball game.

‘7 F-ranks, 30 G-ranks and they look even more crazed than the last ones.’ Findlay frowned as he took in the invaders. This wave was certainly a notch more powerful than the diurnal wave but still well within their means.

Realizing that there was nothing to be worried about given the involvement of two upper D-rank monsters Findlay leaned back so as to enjoy the show, hoping that at least one of the invaders would get off a good blow against the two lesser yuki-onnas. Not anything too damaging but just ammunition for everyone to use whenever they cause a ruckus again.

As expected even without the aid of the other monsters the lesser yuki-onnas were more than capable of taking out the entire horde. Though they were tossed fairly close towards the dungeon’s entrance they still had enough time to get off a fair amount of shots with their powerful magic before the masses entered their restraining ice fog.

Ice bolts fired off at will, penetrating deep into the G-rank monsters, killing them outright whereas the F-ranks which this time consisted of winter boars suffered serious wounds. Not enough however to stop all their charges. One of the lesser yuki-onnas was barrelled into by one of the said winter boars and launched backwards a couple metres, a trickle of blood dripped from its lips due to it biting its tongue mid cast.

This event actually caused the horde to die faster, an angry lesser yuki-onna was really not something to be messed with. The offending winter boar was smashed into paste by a [blizzard] spell, along with many others. Very little materials could be salvaged from this wave thanks to the lesser yuki-onnas over enthusiastic display.