Dungeon of Niflheim

467 Chapter 467: Bloodbath

“What about you Frost? Why are you here?” Artemis asked Frost with clear intrigue.

Frost placed his hand under his chin in thought and looked briefly towards Leo and Luna before answering with a smile.

“Pretty much the same as you, I guess. The monster stampede holds great challenges making it the perfect opportunity for someone at my level to break through and gain valuable war experience.” Frost didn’t lie this was an integral reason for his part in Furano’s defence.

“Of course, my friends being in need of my strength played a big part as well.” Frost smiled brightly towards Leo and Luna making their hearts warm with gratitude.

“Hehehehehe just what I’d expect from someone with such strength at a young age.” Artemis laughed and downed his fruit juice (though it wasn’t forbidden for officers to drink alcohol during the stampede Artemis would never risk his accuracy).

Most adventurers though many being quite loyal, and brave had money and fame as their prime goals especially during the monster stampedes. Even if they flocked to Furano in service to their home, they still wished to leave their names recorded in history and or be paid handsomely for their services. It wasn’t a bad mindset and to be honest quite practical, but it did seem to be a restraint when it came to one’s power. Only people fully focused on becoming strong and challenging themselves regardless of the promise of riches made it into the legendary fables.

Artemis believed that Frost fit such a description and was moved by his determination, feeling a sense of kinship with him.

The group of four talked for a little while longer before splitting up to their own quarters. Frost and Artemis needed to rest and recuperate for the next wave while Leo and Luna had to do their part in managing the town’s affairs.

Though under heavy siege for the past couple months the town seemed to be full of spirit. Regular people could be seen walking through the streets with smiles on their faces as they headed to work or the children to school. It was as if the whole monster stampede wasn’t happening, even the refugees that fled to the town rested peacefully and worked hard at their assigned jobs.

.....

The civilians had such strong faith in the soldiers and adventurers that they could completely ignore the threat and go about their regular days. Something that wasn’t possible under the previous viscounts, only with Douglas and Cassandra had the monster stampedes turned into boons for the territory and no longer something to horribly dread.

Of course there was still the loud screeches, roars and sounds of battle that could be heard throughout the day, but the residents were trained to tune that out. It seemed as though everyone within the town’s walls knew that panicking and complaining solved nothing and only made the situation worse so instead they all worked hard and did their best to smile.

This attitude not only helped them deal with the stress of being under siege but also the soldiers and adventurers, inspiring them to work even harder. Frost was quite surprised by the lack of tension within the town and couldn’t help but not his head in admiration.

Several hours passed and eventually the sun began to rise in the sky marking the beginning of a new day.

One day had now passed since Frost arrived, leaving three more until the reinforcements were set to arrive. 3 days, 72 hours, in the grand scheme of this long siege it wasn’t that much time, but it wasn’t a short time either.

“Baaaaaaddddooooooonnnn!!! Baaaaaaddddddoooooonnnnnn!” In response to the rising sun a large war horn was blown awakening everyone on call, Frost included.

He swiftly jumped from the bed and casted clean up magic before grabbing his glaive and making his way to the northern wall.

Hundreds of soldiers also swiftly swapped places with the reserve teams, kitted out in all their gear and ready to face a new day.

Hamon was as always the first one on the wall, it seemed as though the grand commander never slept for more than an hour before returning to his post, inspiring fear in the enemies and vigour into his subordinates.

“Colonel” Frost crossed his arm over his chest and performed a slight bow, saluting his superior.

“Hmm” Hamon mumbled in recognition while keeping his eyes locked onto the treeline that was beginning to part.

Several Majors walked passed the two of them before jumping from the wall to join their squads. Not a very practical approach but certainly impactful.

Frost hadn’t been assigned a clear position yet. They had discussed their strategies last night but since Frost was young, able and multiskilled Hamon decided to wait and see what the enemy had prepared before placing Frost.

Though the soldiers in front of the wall looked plentiful and full of vigour the platforms behind the walls were rather sparce. 80% of the mages were still resting as they were unable to recover from the night’s strenuous activity in just a few hours.

The archers were also rather tired but at least half of them were reassigned to help guard either the top of the northern wall or the back lines of the main contingent, adding numbers to the close combat forces. Though they wouldn’t be as strong as the regular soldiers and adventurers it was better than nothing. Any good archer worth their salt could use some form of dagger or short sword so Hamon put those skills to use thus allowing the smiths to try and catch up with their spent ammunition supplies.

Those left on the platforms were the strongest of the bunch, the ones that wouldn’t waste even a single arrow. Artemis was one of these few, he nodded and smiled at Frost as their eyes met.

For the mage side Ryuu wasn’t present but Jessie was. Frost would either be assigned to the mage team to help bolster their lacking numbers or added to the ground teams.

The treeline before the northern wall split open as the soldiers and adventurers all got into position.

“Roaaaaaarrrrr!!” A cacophony of loud roars erupted as massive monsters charged forth with vicious expressions.

“Tsk! Bastards!” Hamon clicked his tongue and cursed before giving some sort of hand signal to both Jessie and Artemis who both turned to their subordinates.

“Frost take up the frontline, squad three will be under your command, go!” Hamon didn’t even turn to look at Frost simply giving out his order and waving his hand.

“Understood Colonel” Frost saluted and smiled wildly before leaping from the wall and joining squad 3 which was made up of minimum mid C-rank adventurers.

Seeing Frost coming towards them they all smiled and gripped their weapons tight before staring dead ahead at the large group of monsters charging forth. This group was considered quite talented and experienced thus their was little pressure on Frost, all he needed to do was fight and occasionally keep an eye on them and they’d do the rest.

“Everyone ready arms!” Hamon loudly proclaimed his orders, his voice drowning out the roars of the charging monsters and filling everyone with strength as they raised their weapons in preparation for the charge.

The layout this time was back to normal with a less dedicated shield wall and more offensive line up however upon seeing the monster types charging forward a certain group of weapon wielders made their way to the forefront of the defensive line, spearmen as well as halberdiers and other anti-large weapon users.

This was because charging towards them was a large contingent of trolls, ogres and minotaurs, all very large enemies that would be more susceptible to spears and other pole weapons just like cavalry. A shield wall, even a dense one wouldn’t be able to stop a full on charge of these massive creatures, even the shortest trolls were still 3 metres tall.

Normally such a line up would actually fair poorly given that Furano boasted a large group of skilled archers and mages. Larger bodies made for far easier targets, but their arrow supplies were low, and the mage team was currently a remnant of its usual power thus making this force quite dangerous and the reason Hamon clicked his tongue and cursed.

The eldest rindar and the B-rank poison herald were certainly no pushovers when it came to military strategy, they were hitting them right where it hurts.

“Upper C-rank and B-rank combatants break their charge!” Hamon shouted while smashing his right fist into his open left palm.

A few powerful arrows along with some more hard hitting spells flew overhead in response, slamming hard into the charging ogres, trolls and minotaurs bringing a few down.

Frost smiled from ear to ear before being the first to run beyond the spear line, his glaive hanging out by his side, gradually being coated in energy.

“[Wyvern’s maw]” With a loud roar the energy filling his glaive formed into a massive wyvern head and with a sharp swing it shot forward with its mouth wide open.

Squelch! The massive jaws bit down hard on a troll’s head, instantly decapitating it before slamming hard against a nearby minotaur. A bipedal cow creature that sported large sharp horns and wielded a mighty great axe.

Frost followed swiftly after the wyvern head diving right into the thick of battle. His glaive clashed against the club of an ogre while he kicked out with an ice encrusted left leg knocking back a troll.

Blood quickly covered him from head to toe making him appear quite ferocious as he smiled.

Many upper C-rank fighters swiftly followed his lead, utilising the gap he wrenched open they attacked in masse, heavily diluting the wave’s charging power.

Multiple Major level fighters did the same as Frost, opening up a point for their subordinates to let loose with their weapons. But that wasn’t enough to halt them all. A large group still charged forth and slammed against the spear wielders knocking back the frontline with their ferocious swings.

A bloodbath thus ensued.