Dungeon of Niflheim

“Fighting against you was quite fun and to be honest quite enlightening in regards to the limits of the stampede’s frenzied state. However, our short time together must now come to an end.....playtime is over.” Frost spoke while exuding intense pressure. The ursa that was tipping leftwards felt as though an entity of several tons was standing on its back, pushing it down and restricting its movements.

“Goodbye, Schwing!” Frost uttered a final farewell before he once again slashed out with his glaive, aiming for the creature’s undefended neck. Similar to the left hindleg the neck sported countless wounds left by Kiba’s claws and fangs, all heavily damaging and possibly fatal if left alone but nothing that would silence the beast in the short term. Frost’s slash however was not so gentle.

With sharp force -far faster and sharper than Frost had ever been capable of doing before- his glaive met with the tough yet exposed skin and muscle and like it was almost effortless the glaive’s blade cut its way through.

Frost could feel something within him shatter as he swung, the limitations brought on by his adept glaive mastery crumbled to dust as a new path rapidly formed before him, increasing his connection with his glaive. The blade edge as it cut through the ursa’s flesh accelerated instead of slowing down, unperturbed by the density of its muscles ardently doing their best to resist the foreign intruder. Frost felt his glaive become lighter yet heavier at the same time, sharper and far more devasting as it become more attune with his thoughts. He was in the process of reaching advanced glaive mastery, a level reserved for the true upper class and one that would officially propel him into B-rank, granting him far more devasting power. The ursa was the last stepping stone and his aura infused form allowed him to push past the wall, allowing his painstaking training and experience to come together.

In the split second that Frost felt himself reaching advanced mastery the glaive rapidly increased its speed, swiftly reaching the ursa’s powerful neck bone that Kiba had so much difficulty damaging and Schwing!

A moment later the glaive could be seen back by Frost’s side, the blade still shimmering in the light, proving to have not a speck of damage.

The roars of the ursa and its desperate flailing stopped at that moment, the blood red colour that had pervaded its eyes receded, replaced with a look of relief before ultimately growing dark. The massive beast’s head and upper neck then slid down falling to the ground. A smooth almost mirror like finish cut was left at the point of severance, beautiful and mesmerising in a way but that was quickly ruined by the intense blood pressure that now had nothing containing it.

A veritable geyser of ruby red blood flowed out from the ursa’s exposed neck, painting several metres ahead blood red before the beast’s body completely collapsed, lying prone on the ground without the slightest sign of twitching.

.....

Frost elegantly jumped from the creature’s back, avoiding the large pool of blood to land on the soft snow. His eyes were still glowing brightly, and a passionate smile adorned his face.

“Advanced glaive mastery.” Fighting powerful opponents wherein death was a very real possibility always seemed to accelerate his training by leaps and bounds, a very worthwhile risk.

“Ugh!” Frost’s happy expression was quickly warped. He let out a groan as his aura enhanced state came to an end. An intense bout of exhaustion filled his body, causing him to pant and his muscles to tremble.

The aura form allows one to inject their body with the enhancement of their aura, allowing their body to surpass it usual limitations. Such effects differ depending on the user, a physical aura such as Frost’s, Bastion’s and other close combat fighters would see their bodies’ become faster, stronger and far more resilient to damage. This can be broken down even further depending on your fighting style, some would focus more on speed whereas others more on their body’s defences.

Mages such as Ryuu and Drogan would have their mana channels expanded and their sensitivity to mana increased thus allowing them to cast stronger spells and at increased frequency.

Ranged fighters such archers would tend to more often attach their aura form to their weapons like Frost did, allowing their arrows to surpass their material limitations. Anything else would likely go to improving their reactions and perhaps their senses.

Aura was a very adaptable energy that was born from one’s own strength thus each and every one was unique in its own way. This uniqueness would truly start to show itself once a person reached A-rank wherein they’d be able to use the next level, something that would truly make them stand apart from their peers.

Aura was truly the path to strength in Nova, without it and without being able to channel it skilfully one would forever be one of the masses.

A man or a woman could achieve advanced mastery with their weapon or perhaps even expert mastery the 5th level of mastery all without ever contemplating their aura. Many over the millennia since Nova’s creation have done this, focusing solely on the path of the sword for example but each and every one of those said individuals could never go beyond the 5th level of mastery and unless they formed their own aura were unable to utilise the true abilities of such mastery, an impassable wall.

Aura was what differentiated life order, the quality of one’s existence. Those that could use, and harness aura were superior than those that could not, granting them greater health, more resilient bodies and in the cases of the sapient races often an increase in lifespan. Another reason why people ardently chase after power, growing in strength granted a longer life something that all living creatures tend to strongly desire.

Frost didn’t know what his or his siblings’ lifespans were and to be honest he’d never thought about it, it’d be a little weird in fact if something that was just born a few months ago was worried about old age. However he could tell from the changes in his body that utilising aura and being able to use aura form didn’t have any influence on his life force thus no life span extension.

This wasn’t exactly unexpected; Maya also didn’t receive any change in her life force when she first harnessed aura. This was because she was of a high ranking race, a fenrir, a race that inherently had strong and resilient bodies that already granted substantial life span. Of course going along this line of thinking Frost couldn’t help but wonder about his girlfriend’s age, she may look as though she was in her early twenties but who knows. Such thoughts however were sensed by her and quickly shot down with a terrifying glare and audible knuckle cracking, that question would likely go unanswered indefinitely.

Frost thus assumed that his lifespan would probably be quite long given that aura had no effect, good news as he’d get to stay with Maya that much longer. Nanna and Loki would likely have similar situations given the strength of their ancestral phoenix blood.

Frost fell to one knee as he felt his enhanced strength swiftly leave him, the sudden change being quite difficult to bear. This was the first time Frost used the aura form in battle and for longer than a few seconds, a skill he was still getting used to but so far he was more than happy with the results.

“Hu hu hu” Frost did his best to control his breathing and stop the trembling in his limbs, relaxing as best he could before his body was suddenly filled with pleasure.

“Annnnnn” Frost subconsciously moaned as the DP from his most recent kill flowed through his body, refreshing his muscles and rejuvenating his stamina. The pleasure was incomparable to what he’d experienced so far thus he couldn’t keep a straight face nor hold back his voice, it felt that good. There was always a difference when DP of a higher quality was first experienced regardless of the numerical value.

“.....Did you just moan?” Maya’s teasing voice could be heard within his mind. She had been watching his fight against the ursa with great interest feeling proud of her student’s and boyfriend’s developments thus she also saw and heard him the moment the ursa’s high quality DP entered his body.

Frost’s face turned red like a tomato as he clenched his teeth and cursed his father for making DP intake so intense.

“You heard nothing!” He roared in his mind and portrayed a stern expression, ordering Maya to forget it.

“Hahahahahaha so cute hahahaha.” Maya ignored his anger, laughing out loud until tears threatened to pour out her eyes. Frost with his handsome and elegant face moaning in pleasure was so cute and hot that there wasn’t a chance in hell she was going to forget such a reaction in fact she desperately wanted to see more of that expression. She licked her lips as many plans and thoughts flowed through her mind, she was going to have to up her teasing.