Dungeon of Niflheim

233 Chapter 233: Claw of the ice wolf

Frost quickly used his leg strength to evade his aggressors, swiftly dashing across the frozen ground as though weightless. Blood dripped down his cheek, further painting his robes. He raised his left hand in shock, still in disbelief about the events that just occurred. The stinging pain however was a stark reminder. He was hoodwinked, such sneaky methods. He grit his teeth while quickly dashing to the side.

Two arrows flew passed his previous location, piercing into the hard ground. The moment Frost retreated away from the battle Kargul fired his bow, not giving him a chance to relax or check his current situation.

The damage to his cheek though painful was not that serious, hell it wouldn’t even be the slightest bit debilitating to Frost but he was worried it wasn’t so simple. With a shaking hand and somewhat panicked expression, Frost wiped his cheek and brought his hand to his nose. He was checking for poison.

Yes the damage from such a move was nothing in his eyes, in fact he even respected the pugilist for hiding such a move so well but if his spike was coated this could become a real problem.

Ever since his encounter with Alex he had an ingrained trauma towards poison, finding the stuff incredibly off putting. No matter how strong he was with his magic or glaive as long as he received a small nick, even less than what he currently endured his battle strength could become worthless. Alarm bells were ringing in his head at the moment as the worst situation flashed before his eyes. His heartbeat started pumping a mile a minute, he was afraid.

“Sniff sniff...smells fine haaaaaaaaaa.” As Frost smelled his own blood, checking for anything untoward he was relived to find that it was uncontaminated. His body wasn’t showing any signs of poison, no weakness or funky smell from the wound. It was just a surprise attack, no venom coating. With such a realisation Frost released a deep sigh of relief before swiftly refocusing his attention.

Ding ding

Another two arrows were sent his way, which he knocked down with his glaive before the three close combat users were back on his heels. This time he was far more wary of their attacks, taking on a more defensive role, his eyes paying specific attention to the pugilist.

The pugilist in question was not faring to well mentally, not only was his surprise attack perfectly on point in his mind, his head was still ringing from Frost’s vicious headbutt. He initially hoped to either carve up Frost’s neck or at the very least pierce one of his eyes but no all he got was a gash across the check and now his target knew about his hidden spike.

.....

His gauntlets were specially commissioned by his request to have this hidden spike attached. It worked wonders for surprise attacks, whether that be on humanoids or monsters. The spike had saved his ass a great many times over the past couple years, so when it failed to leave even a single meaningful injury his confidence was shot. He also regretted not applying poison to the thing but after a few annoying incidents he no longer did such a thing. Poison, especially the fast acting stuff tended to damage the prey’s quality if it was a monster. Greatly reducing the materials garnered from the victim. The meat would become unusable, the blood would be contaminated as well as the organs and sometimes even the skin and fur could be permanently discoloured making it a pretty unprofitable move.

Next when dealing with humanoids, using poison was always seen as quite cowardly and harshly condemned by all. If they didn’t kill the target they could be hunted down, using poison was over the line in the eyes of the adventurer’s guilds. And finally, the other main reason he didn’t use poison anymore was because one time he accidently poisoned himself. The mechanism failed and he ended up cutting his own finger. Thankfully it wasn’t a deadly poison, and he had the antidote, but the situation was incredibly dangerous given that it happened during battle, not making his colleagues lives any easier. He was mocked relentlessly after that incident, a black mark in his past.

Shame however that he came across Frost, without poison his surprise attack was not that threatening which Frost quickly became aware of after raising his guard.

While enduring the three close combat attackers with the strength of his glaive, Kargul struggled to get a clean shot, afraid to hit one of his allies. Frost’s movements had him always hidden behind one of his assailants. The pugilist had already revealed his tricks so he attacked with wanton abandon, trying to overwhelm Frost as much as he possibly could but given his lower skill level, he wasn’t much of an opponent. Quickly even with the aid of the swordsman and hammer user, Frost gained traction. With a deft upward swing he sent the pugilist flying even though he had a cross guard up.

“Ptuh” the pugilist coughed up blood from the force, his arms and chest felt numb. And without a moments rest Frost moved to strike against the human leader and the hammer user.

“[Crescent slash]” Frost’s glaive filled up with energy and emitted a pale blue light as he swung against the leader’s shield.

Bang! Like metal striking metal the shield revealed a deep gash but remained together. This wasn’t just because of the materials used to make to the shield no the ugly human leader was more skilled with it than Frost initially thought. The moment Frost’s glaive skill struck the ugly human leader moved backwards, dissipating a good chunk of the attack, saving his shield. The man also attacked at the same time with his blade, making Frost unable to strike towards him a second time as his body skidded backwards.

Next was the hammer user, taking advantage of his colleagues’ situations the rat beastman revved up a large swing given that he had some more time. Hammer uses were generally slow in their attacks but give them enough time and the chance to hit you, you won’t last long. Frost had inadvertently given the hammer user enough time to wind up a large swing while in close proximity, the chances of him missing were negligible plus Frost’s glaive already launched a skill towards his leader. The most he’d have to fend against was a half assed desperate block.

“Rahhhhhhhhhhh!” The rat beastman roared as he brought down his hammer “[elephant stamp]” he activated his own skill, a hammer technique that enhanced its crushing power. Similar to the standard slash skill in among bladed weapons. This [elephant stamp] would coat the blunt weapon in energy, increasing its stopping power as well as its weight. Out of the four assailants he was the first to use a true skill in this fight and he only did so because he felt the timing was best.

Frost frowned in the split second he had to acknowledge the strike coming for him. Maya had never used any hammer skills on him since his body wouldn’t be able to withstand it but she did strike him several times with a chakra formed hammer, so he knew the attack patterns fairly well. The [elephant stamp] skill was also fairly basic, no more than an enhancement. Could this rat beastman’s strength really compare to Maya and her training.....not a chance. But he had to admit the man’s timing was pretty good.

Frost’s glaive had just finished a downward swing, he wouldn’t be able to bring out his full strength with such timing. There was always enduring the blow with his chakra armour but that was out of the question. The yetis with their untrained punches could already break through his armour let alone a steel hammer of a D-rank adventurer. Even without the skill his armour would be blown off and his arm bruised. With the skill it might even crack, such was the devastation of a hammer. It was the blunt weapon with the greatest force after all.

As the milliseconds passed, the hammer grew closer towards Frost and the grey energy started to coat the face of the hammer, making it look that much more daunting. The rat beastman smiled, his timing was perfect, his colleagues agreed but wary of their last failure they chose not to let up. The pugilist and ugly leader both regained their footing and prepared to move back into attack mode. While Kargul drew his bow, ready to launch another arrow regardless of the outcome. He had an uneasy feeling that Frost would somehow get away scot-free, so he readied himself to use his own skill [piercing shot].

Frost though frowning at the same time had a mad smile on his face, along with the bloodied cheek it looked quite frightening. The rush was incredible, he loved this feeling. Once the fear of poison was removed only the thrill of battle remained. As the hammer continued to draw closer and his glaive turned in the air, aiming to counter the blow his smile grew wider and wider as a flash of inspiration hit him. His eyes sparkled as knowledge began to unfurl in his mind, his training against the yetis, the frost elemental as well as the frost lizards and now finally facing against this hammer skill, [elephant stamp]. His experience with the glaive flashed in his mind and all the data coalesced into a brand new skill.

“[Claw of the ice wolf]!”