Dungeon of Niflheim

321 Chapter 321: Ice griffin

As the mighty ice griffin unfurled its wings and screeched at Frost as a form of intimidation, Kiba leapt from his position landing squarely in front his master, protecting him. Kiba then opened his large jaws, showing off his razor sharp teeth, his muscles tightened, and his fur stood on end in defiance of the griffin screech.

“Raaaaaaaawwwwwwwrrrrrr!!!!” Not to be cowed by the ice griffin’s intimidation tactic Kiba roared out majestically, showing no fear as he stood before the larger and more powerful enemy. Frost couldn’t help but feel moved by Kiba’s actions, patting his lower back in praise.

The ice griffin’s focus was thus redirected to Kiba as was its aggression. The red in its eyes continued to expand and deepen in colour before eventually the entire eyeball was blood red. The monster had been affected by the frenzy brought on by the monster stampede, enhancing its bloodthirsty nature. Kiba’s roar seemed to push it over the edge, making it completely lose all sense of reason.

“Screeeeeeeeee!” It let loose a far more blood curdling screech before launching itself at Kiba, aiming to claw his face apart with its mighty talons.

“Kiba dodge!” Frost roared as he moved to the left. He reinforced his words with a calling through their soul bond, forcing Kiba to listen to his orders despite his eagerness to fight straight up.

Kiba’s eyes frowned in irritation, but he listened to Frost’s orders, dodging to the right before the griffin’s talons reached him.

Plumes of snow and ice shot into the air as the griffin’s talons came down, hitting the ground instead of their intended target. Kiba proved to be the faster one in this exchange. But the griffin didn’t stop there, completely in a maddened state it swiftly turned and chased after Kiba. Who under Frost’s orders continued to dodge, keeping just out of reach from its talons, aggravating it further.

Frost meanwhile analysed what he knew about ice griffins and tried to come up with a plan of action. He was very confident in Kiba’s speed after experiencing it first hand, so he wasn’t worried about the griffin catching him in a short time besides....

“It’s wounded.” A smile quickly grew on Frost’s lips as he got a clear view of the damage. The ice griffin’s two wings had large partially opened scars across the back of them, leaking blood the moment they unfurled. Plus, there was a chunk missing from its left hind leg, clearly from a powerful bite. Frost surmised that the ice griffin lost a deadly battle a few days ago which forced it to flee to the Gamma sector. It was likely hunting weaker monsters such as the Baltic tiger to recover from its wounds. Frost had no idea what kind of monster raked the griffin’s wings and took a bite out of it but whatever it was it had his thanks. They now had a very good chance of winning this fight.

.....

The leg wound would lower the griffin’s speed and lunging power whereas the wings in their damaged state would prevent this fight from becoming an aerial battle or at the very least a prolonged one.

Patches of blood could be seen on the snow wherever the griffin stood, its erratic swiping at Kiba only aggravated its current wounds. At such a sight Frost tightened the grip around his glaive, his lips forming a wild smile before he began chasing after the griffin who had completely forgotten about his presence.

Silently a strong layer of ice chakra formed over his robes, following the form of his underlying armour set, readying him for close combat. Through the soul bond he instructed Kiba to hold the griffin’s attention while he attacked its wounded leg, causing the tiger to show a wild look as it dodged another swipe.

Frost moved incredibly swiftly and quietly, appearing right behind the griffin like a spectre. His glaive raised high ready to cleave downwards at the unsuspecting prey.

“[Claw of the ice wolf]” Frost filled his glaive with energy, activating his strongest glaive art, not taking any chances. Three blue claws of ice appeared ahead of the glaive’s blade as it cleaved towards the griffin’s left hind leg.

His skill activation obviously alerted the mad ice griffin who wrapped its head around to glare at Frost. Panic however ensued when it noticed where Frost was attacking, its injured hind leg. Abruptly it did its best to move out of the way, but the sudden movements sent jolts of pain throughout its body, slowing its reactions and exactly what Frost planned on.

“Squelch! Srcyyyyyyyyy!” The three ice claws and his razor sharp glaive sliced deeply into the griffins leg causing it to cry out in pain. Blood gushed out and the heavy duty scar became a mangled mess. The glaive reached all the way to the bone before losing momentum.

Cleaving through the already damaged flesh didn’t prove too hard but its bones rivalled high quality steel, enduring the strike with only a slight crack. But even so the damage was extensive, the beast would be even more lumbered in its movements now.

Enraged by the pain, the griffin glared wrathfully at Frost who had begun yanking out his glaive to attack for second time. Not willing to endure another such blow it swung its tail, bashing Frost in the chest and knocking him backwards. It didn’t have the same strength of its limbs or wings, but it was more than enough to knock the wind out of an elf.

Frost however barely felt it, his ice chakra armour and the amour set crafted by Daki absorbed the blow easily. He was merely pushed back from the force but that too was within his plans. An evil smile could be seen on his face as he glided through the air.

While the griffin changed its focus to Frost it left Kiba open to make his own attack. Using his powerful hind legs the mighty winged tiger pounced onto the griffin’s right wing, biting down hard while his claws scratched at the leftover scars, reopening the wounds and spilling blood everywhere.

“Screeeeeeeee!” The griffin screamed in agony once again after being struck in another previously wounded area. It tried to shake Kiba off, but its wing lacked the power necessary to deal with a tiger that weighed over a ton. Plus shaking only made the situation worse, its wing was quite literally being torn apart, its beautiful feathers coming off in clumps.

“Kiba that’s enough let go!” Frost roared quickly as he moved to attack for a second time, but Kiba was too enthralled in its own attack to hear him, continuing to bite down and rake apart the massive wing. Since his warning fell on deaf ears Kiba was subjected to the griffin’s retaliation. It no longer attempted to shake Kiba off and instead opened up its sharp beak that was a match for any tiger jaw in terms of force and bit down on Kiba’s leg.

Kiba whimpered in pain from the bite but refused to stop his attack, continuing to rake with his free limbs and shake his head side to side, tearing ever deeper into griffin’s wing, which was quickly becoming a mangled mess.

The griffin desperate to remove its aggressor, pulled against Kiba’s leg with all its strength, Forcefully tearing him from its wing, ignoring the chunks of flesh that would come off with him. Kiba was unable to prevent his removal but did his darndest to remove as much flesh as possible in the process.

The horrible sound of flesh be rendered apart filled the area as Kiba was rent from the griffin’s wing. His mouth stuffed with bits of mangled wing flesh and bone as the griffin smashed his large body against the ground with impressive force. Kiba groaned in pain as the sudden crashing stunned him temporarily, leaving him prone before the mad ice griffin.

The griffin’s right wing flopped powerlessly against its side; the main supporting bone shattered by Kiba’s powerful bite. Agonising tears flowed down the griffin’s face as it raised its forelimbs and talons in an attempt to crush the temporary stunned Kiba, its target being his ribs. The griffin knew that once Kiba’s ribs were heavily damaged he would become a sitting duck just like the Baltic tiger from earlier.

This was the situation Frost wanted to avoid, a maddened beast holds abnormal strength, safer to slowly chip away at it instead of facing it down directly. Seeing Kiba about to have his ribs likely smashed and shredded Frost dashed along the side of the griffin, cutting into the mangled hind leg lightly with his glaive, opening up the wound even further.

Then stepping down hard with his right foot he began to rotate his body while swinging his glaive upwards following the path of one of the scars on the griffin’s still functional left wing.

Taking advantage of the already weakened flesh and his glaive’s extreme sharpness after Daki’s meticulous maintenance he cut through the wing making it part like a bloody curtain. Frost dashed through the gap back first, blood dripping onto his chakra armour as he did. His attacks not only caused the griffin immense pain but left it weak on the left side. With its hind leg already collapsing no longer able to support its immense weight.

Frost’s manoeuvre however wasn’t done yet. Utilising his spinning force he brought his glaive across the griffin’s undamaged foreleg, aiming to wound the entire left side and thus prevent the griffin from smashing down upon Kiba. However, cutting through its undamaged flesh proved quite difficult, there was no mangled wound or violent burst of blood just a narrow gash a few inches deep where the glaive passed through. Not much in terms of damage to a monster of this size but it did successfully make the griffin tilt.