Dungeon of Niflheim

The first wave of the mid stages, a wave containing approximately 100 enemies and each a fair bit stronger than what they’d encountered previously.

“Squeeeaaaaalll!!” As everyone’s focus was drawn to the dungeon’s entrance a loud pig like squeal could be heard, or rather a boar like squeal.

The ground trembled as a horde of muscular boars charged through the narrow entrance, straight into the prepared kill box. Like before their eyes were blood red, veins violently throbbing across their bodies, completely in a maddened state.

F-rank winter boars were at the forefront, their tough hides struggling to squeeze into the narrow gap, pushing against the ice walls.

E-rank frost tusked boars followed behind them, their enlarged ice encrusted tusks looking incredibly menacing and if given the opportunity would quite easily sink into the prepared ice walls.

Finally at the back were the D-rank monsters, two lagombis, giant wombat like creatures with powerful leg strength, a 6 metre high wall would be nothing to them, a simple light jump would see them careening over without difficulty. But that wasn’t all.

“That must be the D-rank version of the frost tusked boars.” Frost assumed as he analysed the massive creature struggling to enter the dungeon’s entrance. An ice back boar, larger than even polar bears, stronger too and with much higher defence. Thick almost impenetrable skin, powerful muscles that grant them impressive charging momentum. Great long tusks that rivalled steel in durability, a man would quite easily be pierced through by such an appendage if he wasn’t careful. This thing that appeared was a complete beast, all brawn and no brain, a very dangerous opponent when in a numbed, maddened state.

“Quarrellers and mages, take them down!” Frost swung his hand downward giving the order to fire. A second later an endless chorus of twangs could be heard as over a hundred arrows and spells were launched at the enraged horde, blindly charging forward.

.....

Don! Don! Don!

The arrows from the frost dwarven quarrellers held a fair bit more momentum that the ones launched by the goblins and hob goblins and were of a higher quality, the heads being made from iron at the very least. The arrows rapidly flew through the air before sinking deep into the bodies of their targets, only half of the shafts remained visibly, however.

“Squeeeeeeeeell!” Such attacks seemed to only anger the boars with very few actually falling from their wounds. Their skin and layers of fat were incredibly thick, it would take a lot more than a few arrows to bring down such beasts. Frost now understood why Furano armed their walls with such high amounts of ballistae. Regular arrows and bolts though damaging struggled to truly bring down such large, enraged beasts. And that was just the F-rank boars, for the E-rank and D-rank monsters the situation was even worse. A foe that could not feel pain with adrenaline pumping through bodies were archers’ worst nightmare.

“Keep firing, bring them down!” Frost roared, the mid stages were no time to worry about their ammunition reserves, making sure this kill box zone lasted as long as possible was key to their survival. Besides with the level of DP income the dungeon had been receiving Frost didn’t really care about such a paltry expense.

The frost dwarven quarrellers thus began to fire at will, rapidly reloading their weapons whereas the runic mages launched bolts of ice continuously, stabbing into the boar’s tough hides, occasionally bringing down a few who ended up looking more like porcupines than boars.

“Squueeeeeeeeeelllll!” Suddenly the ice back boar, the strongest of the invaders squealed out like a roar before immediately picking up speed, charging madly forward without care for the weaker boars in front. Some were even crushed under its hooves or smashed against the ice walls, furthering the cracks. The ice back boar was heading straight towards the frost revenants, looking beyond them, towards Frost. It could sense instinctively that the source of the delectable scent was coming from deep within the dungeon, but this person gave of a similar feeling. Saliva dripped from its mouth as it gazed fervently at Frost, desiring to devour him.

Frost frowned as he felt the boar’s gaze, an intense anger filled his body.

“You want to eat me huh?” Frost’s aura began to expand around him, pressing down everyone in the vicinity. His anger continued to rise as did the blood lust being emitted from his body. A mere D-rank boar wished to eat him, to taste his flesh and devour his body hahahaha the very idea was laughable.

Frost suddenly looked towards the ballistae stationed by his side which now numbered four. Menacing concoctions of wood and iron that launched metal bolts over a metre in length and over triple the thickness of the standard bolt used by a crossbow. Even with a thick hide and multiple layers of fat such a bolt would easily reach the internal organs of these boars, the ice back boar included.

“Bring it down” Frost uttered with a chilling tone, sending shivers down the backs of those who heard it. But the frost dwarven quarrellers were loyal and skilled soldiers, after a brief moment of hesitation the four of them nodded before aiming the ballista’s cross hairs at the still vehemently charging ice back boar. The frost revenants on duty had already prepared their stances in preparation for the beast’s charge. Their great swords raised high, ready to brought down with vengeance at a moments notice however it seemed as though they wouldn’t get a chance to act just yet.

The lesser yuki-onnas also decided to hold back their magic, ignoring the massive charging ice back boar, focusing instead on the encroaching F and E-ranks that would swiftly follow the boar’s path. This foe would have to face off against the mighty ballistae something not even they were confident in withstanding.

“Squeeeeeeelllll!!!” The ice back boar squealed with such intensity that many nearby felt their eardrums pop. Blood leaked from their ears as they were suddenly assaulted with pain and temporary deafness.

“Well at least it isn’t completely stupid, but it makes no difference, fire!” Frost hmphed as he removed his fingers from his ears, a loud high pitched screech used to disorient attackers. However that wouldn’t be enough to stop what was about to happen.

Twang!

Four loud twangs were heard in succession, the four quarrellers ignored the pain in their ears as the followed Frost’s instructions. Launching their massive bolts towards the ice back boar without mercy.

“Squealch! Squeaallllll!!!” The four bolts easily found their target, it was near impossible to miss such a massive boar in a such a confined space even without their inherent abilities as quarrellers. The large over 1 metre long bolts pierced deep into the boar, one in each shoulder, another through the chest whereas the final one brushed against one of its tusks before piercing into its cheek. The final one was by far the most gruesome wound, the boar’s face had a massive bolt sticking out of it, marring a large chuck of its face, revealing internal tissue as heavy droplets of blood landed on the ground. The bolts in its shoulders were targeted so as to interfere with its movements. It couldn’t really feel pain but if the joints were destroyed and or the range of movement impeded it wouldn’t be able to charge. The real killer however would be the bolt in its chest, its internal organ were seriously damaged, the beast didn’t have much longer to live, however.

“Squcueanijeninllll!” The boar let out an incomprehensible squeal due a large chunk of its face being non-existent. The shade of blood red was still glowing brightly in its eyes and its veins continued to throb disgustingly, it was still in a state of frenzy.

The creature ignored the large bolts entrenched in its body forcibly moving its body forward though at a much slower pace.

Frost had to give the creature some credit, its will to live or rather eat was quite impressive.

‘...no not impressive....a pity.’ Pain flashed in the dungeon core’s eyes. This boar didn’t choose this path willingly, it was driven by its instincts, a result of an artificial machination.

“Haaaaaaaaa” Frost let out a deep sigh before swiftly jumping down from the tall ice wall, alerting Findlay.

“Master” The loyal ice troll commander was about to jump down and join his master on the battlefield. The ice back boar was still very much alive, and tens of other monsters lay behind it, encroaching through the rain of magic and arrows, the danger was far from over.

Frost raised his hand up to stop Findlay, he wasn’t some weak child, Findlay’s strength was unnecessary at the moment, as was his technically. He just had something he wanted to try and felt that since the boar showed such tenacity it would be a somewhat more beneficial way to die than being transformed into a porcupine.

The dwarves in charge of the ballistae had already loaded a second bolt, prepared to keep firing until their target was completely immobile and or dead. If such a prey reached the walls the damage would be immense thus if they were told to bring something down they were going to do it and do it thoroughly. They only stopped because they saw Frost landing before the boar though they kept their cross hairs focused on it, just in case.