Dungeon of Niflheim

He smirked before raising up his battle axe with a single hand.

Boooom!

A loud boom erupted at the point of contact, air and snow was blown outward from the force, but Findlay was still in the exact same spot. The snow underneath had compacted but there wasn’t even a single millimetre of drag marks.

The mighty stone club of the giant frost ape was stationary, completely absolved of its momentum after striking against Findlay’s battle axe. It was clear that even without using a skill or even both hands Findlay was physically superior and not by a small margin either.

The gap between C and B-rank was a vast chasm that couldn’t be bridged by a simple giant frost ape.

With its eyes blood red in colour and the frenzied state taking full control due to its overwhelming instinctual fear the giant frost ape roared out before grabbing its club with both hands and pushing downwards, refusing to lose against the much smaller Findlay in terms of physical power.

Grinding sounds could be heard from the stone club as it pushed against Findlay’s battle axe and successfully pushed it downward slightly. Findlay’s feet even began to sink into the floor from the pressure.

“Hmmmm not bad.” Findlay spoke with a tinge of surprise before his eyes showed a wild glint and his smile started to widen.

.....

He tensed the muscles in his right arm (the one holding the battle axe) and pushed against the giant frost ape’s club, willing to engage in a contest of pure strength.

As the moments passed the giant frost ape became red in the face and its arms and back muscles were expanded to their upmost, revealing thick bulbous veins. It was putting its all into pushing down its stone club but even, so it was making very little headway.

Findlay continued to limit himself to using only his right arm and although his expression was clearly a little strained he was in a far better state than the giant frost ape, he obviously had more to give.

Infuriated by its inability to best Findlay in brute force the beast roared out before swiftly recalling its stone club to above its head. Then once again it covered it a grey energy enhancing the weapon’s weight and sturdiness.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

It then proceeded to slam down against Findlay’s battle axe repeatedly like a jack hammer. Findlay’s smile however continued to widen even as his body compacted the snow beneath his feet to the point that it rivalled stone.

“Haaaaaaa” He let out a sigh as boredom set in before when the stone club was about to strike down once again he swung upwards with immense fury.

Smash!

The giant frost ape’s stone club was shattered, the top half where the battle axe passed through was gone leaving a mere stump in the ape’s hands. Blood seeped out from the seams of its fingers due to brief yet intense force that passed through the club before it inevitably shattered.

The giant frost ape stared at the stump in its hands in confusion before looking at Findlay and blinking rapidly.

Findlay instead of bringing his battle axe back to his side raised it above his head before speaking to the dazed giant frost ape.

“Testing is over, thanks for playing [Giant’s axe].” Energy flowed through out his body as he spoke the name of one of his new advanced level skills. This blue tinted energy coagulated around his battle axe mimicking its shape and texture before expanding it to triple its size and exuding a heavy pressure. This was now the axe of a giant, something that was even more physically renowned than this giant frost ape.

The ape’s eyes were drawn upward to the massive axe that rivalled it in size, fear once again filled its gaze as the stench of death made its presence known. Findlay decided to go all out, not only was he using one of his greatest axe skills his aura started to seep out, pressuring the nearby giant frost ape. His aura also intensified the weight behind his battle axe as well as increased the strength of his own body. To the giant frost ape Findlay appeared to be a true giant, dwarfing its pitiful existence.

“Goodbye.” Findlay spoke in a neutral tone, neither mocking nor praising the giant frost ape’s efforts. The enlarged battle axe then started its descent and in a fraction of a second the massive weapon made contact with the ape’s head before instantly cleaving through.

Like an axe through firewood the battle axe cleaved through the giant frost ape’s body like it was nothing, splitting it in twain before crashing against the floor.

The giant frost ape’s eyes were still open and in shock as the two halves of its body slumped down. A moment later an explosion of blood and gore erupted from its divided corpse, dyeing the area in red, its killer included.

Audible gulps could be heard from the sideliners as they watched the entire fight from beginning to end. Kiba was holding his head as though he felt the pain of Findlay’s axe cleaving through whereas Khuno and Frost looked at one another.

Khuno asked with his eyes if Frost could do something like that now that he was B-rank while Frost replied with a ‘hell no’. Findlay was easily at the peak of early B-rank whereas he was still a complete novice who couldn’t even attach his aura to his attacks yet. Plus his capabilities were more B-rank adventurer based instead of B-rank monster based so there was a very large gap physically.

Of course he could have killed the giant frost ape, but he wasn’t capable of doing it in the same way Findlay did, that was absolutely brutal.

He had to admit though that it was pretty cool, a subtle sense of jealously thus arose within him as did the desire to start another intense training regime.

Findlay who was painted in the blood and gore of the giant frost ape revealed a horrifying smile as he looked around the battlefield, locking eyes with the C-rank invaders as though threatening them.

Each and every monster that fell victim to his gaze – friendlies included- couldn’t help but shiver as a cold sweat ran down their backs. Findlay was hella terrifying already with his B-rank presence but now after a being covered in the guts of the strongest invading monster and smiling like that he jumped to another level of intimidating. Even the ronsos and ice revenants on his side couldn’t help but subconsciously distance themselves from their commander.

Findlay lightly chuckled before placing his battle axe over his shoulders and walking towards his original position near Frost and Khuno.

“That was fun.” He commented with a much less frightening smile causing Frost and Khuno’s lips to twitch.

The battle thus proceeded as expected. With Findlay’s passive and active buffs the ronsos, ice revenants and even the yuki-onnas managed to make short work of the D-rank monsters before taking on the remaining C-ranks who were quite frankly constantly wary of Findlay after his dramatic killing fiasco.

He kept his gazes on them, occasionally utilising his aura to pressure them at certain moments but other than that it was the ronsos and ice revenants that took them down, working in teams to safely do so.

Casualty wise there was still 4 deaths, one ice revenant, one ronso and two frost revenant knights, far less than the previous wave but the main difference was the amount of heavy injuries. Only one monster had significantly heavy injuries preventing him from moving to the medical centre on his own merit. The rest had minor wounds that could be easily managed by spells, potions and the natural healing environment of the dungeon.

Frost and Kiba didn’t even take part in this battle and the results were already so positive. Findlay’s evolution had made a massive impact.

Khuno however who wasn’t necessarily needed in the fight couldn’t stop himself from entering half way through, desperate to reach his max level which was unfortunately still quite a ways off.

Findlay had been alive for a fair bit longer after all plus given that Khuno was even stronger, an upper C-rank monster the amount of experience he gained from killing the invading monsters was less thus his journey was still a long one.

With Findlay’s newfound strength being made obvious by the results of that wave as well as his battle with the giant frost ape, a very positive mood lingered around the dungeon as everyone felt they could relax a little. Findlay’s strength allowed them to no longer feel as though they were constantly on the knife’s edge during battle plus the gaps between the waves granted them time to heal completely and decompress, allowing them to always be at full strength.

4 days passed in a blink of an eye.

The waves grew more and more sparse and currently the dungeon hadn’t suffered a wave in over 18 hours.

Findlay, Frost and Khuno were all gathered in a large bunker in the winter highlands that was prepared for their strategic meetings. The room was silent and each of them sported quite serious expressions on their faces.

A layout drawing was placed on an ice table between them and was the cause of their expressions.

“Well what do you think?”