Dungeon of Niflheim

469 Chapter 469: Duelling the cyclops

Boom!

Frost dodged to the left avoiding another strike from the cyclops causing its fury to escalate even further.

The beast’s arms bulged obscenely, and its club groaned from the pressure of its grip as it was drawn back in preparation for another blow.

Frost danced circles around the creature, easily avoiding each and every one of its swings. Even when it used weapon skills or that dreadful eye beam, he moved with deft grace and avoided taking any damage.

After dodging he’d swiftly counterattack with his glaive, swinging it with devastating speed and force towards the cyclops’s exposed areas. Unfortunately, even after slashing dozens of times in multiple different areas he failed to leave a single ‘deep’ wound. The creature’s robust muscles and solid bones always stopped his glaive’s momentum, and the cyclops never gave him enough time to push through.

Frost skidded across the ground after jumping backwards for the umpteenth time. His chakra armour was still in pristine condition and his glaive was still wreathed in slivery cold flames, but his breathing had become slightly laboured, he was growing tired.

The cyclops wasn’t looking that great in comparison. Its body was completely dyed red from its own blood and hundreds of cuts spanned the entirety of its body. Unfortunately, none of them could be considered fatal or even serious, just numerous.

Frost stared at the cyclops with focused eyes and his jaw clenched in frustration. ‘Damn thing’s harder than duram!’ He internally cursed the cyclops before preparing for another attack. Though his progress was abysmally slow he could feel that he was making some improvements. His slashes now cut 2 centimetres deeper than when he started.

As the cyclops reeled back for another swing Frost’s eyes focused on its left arm finally making his choice.

.....

Booooommmmm!

With another skilful dodge Frost evaded a skill enhanced strike that sent plumes of soil exploding outward. He twirled his glaive as he moved filling it with energy as well as reinforcing his chakra. The sliver flames condensed into a dense silver beam along the blade’s edge while the skill infused energy formed into three sharp claws of ice.

“[Claw of the ice wolf]” Frost activated his most used skill, one that focused the cutting power of his glaive.

The three ice claws formed before the glaive’s blade reflecting the light of the early morning sun as they slashed down upon the cyclops’s left arm.

Schwing!

The claws of ice dug in deep before shattering, opening up the wound in preparation for silver beam of cold flames to slice even deeper before they to eventually fragmented, seeping into the cyclops’s flesh, causing it no small amount of pain.

Finally, it was the glaive itself. With the skill and cold flames entering in advance it slashed through a decent amount of muscle before once again being stopped. Frost wasn’t dismayed by this however as once again he’d reached a little deeper than his previous strikes.

He then promptly pulled out his glaive and jumped to the side narrowly avoiding the cyclops’s attempt to grab and crush him with its oversized hand.

Frost then proceeded to twist his body and shuffled his feet placing him back in front of the cyclops’s left arm.

“[Claw of the ice wolf]” He activated his trademark skill once again and attacked the exact same area as before, deepening the wound by another centimetre or so before once again escaping from the beast’s field of control.

Frost landed a few metres away and let out a restrained breath and smiled, slow and steady wins the race.

Frost thus attacked the same spot over and over again, repeatedly deepening the wound. Of course, the cyclops wasn’t a complete idiot it realised what was happening and did its best to protect its left arm, but Frost was far faster and far nimbler than it was. Despite its desperate attempts the wound on its left arm continued to grow and grow and soon the cyclops’s bone was clearly exposed.

The cleaving sound of Frost’s glaive carving up flesh changed to a clanging sound reminiscent of metal striking metal revealing how dense and solid the cyclops’s bones were.

Clang! Clang Clang!

“Rahhhhhhhhhh!” Frost continued to slash away at the cyclops’s left arm generating minute cracks on the bone after each contact. The cyclops roared in fury as it flailed around madly, desperately trying to swat every possible place that Frost could escape to. As long as the cyclops grasped Frost even once it knew it could turn this battle around.

Frost couldn’t dodge all this desperate flailing, but he didn’t need to. With a flourish of his glaive, he slashed at the cyclops’s fingers, spurting blood and forcing back its hand before easily making use of the opened gap to escape, smiling arrogantly as he did. However, that arrogance was sure to be his downfall.

A split second later before Frost could get completely clear the hair on the back of his neck stood up and a strong sense of danger gripped his heart, causing him to flinch. He was then forced to jump back into the reach of the cyclops.

A millisecond after he moved a fist sized rock flew passed where his head once was and crashed into the ground. The force behind the rock rivalled that of a ballista as it burst open the ground leaving a large pit in its wake.

‘If that had struck me, I’d likely have been knocked unconscious.’ Frost’s skin shivered as he imagined the possibility. If he was knocked out the cyclops would definitely take advantage of the situation, likely ripping him apart with its massive arms.

“Tsk!” A loud tongue clicking could be heard by Frost the moment the rock missed but he didn’t have enough time to turn around and see who ambushed him.

Thanks to the sneak attack his body was now once again before the cyclops and the beast had already finished winding up. Its massive club was coated in an earth-coloured energy and the image of a dense rock could be seen behind it. The cyclops was using an advanced level skill and this time it was likely to meet its mark.

“Fuck!” Frost cursed as he desperately braced himself for the impending blow. His glaive was placed before him and gripped hard as he generated his strongest move.

“[Wyvern’s maw]” With a violent swing a wyvern’s head was quickly created and launched straight at the rapidly incoming club.

Booooooooommmmmmm!

A loud sonic boom erupted on contact. The cyclops’s massive stone club smashed against the wyvern maw and was halted for a brief second before shattering the energy-based life form into millions of fragments. It then continued on towards Frost and his glaive, dragging a fierce gale as it did.

Frost frowned and gritted his teeth as he firmly planted his feet on the ground and tightened his posture. This was going to hurt, and he knew it.

Booooooommmmmm!

Another shockwave exploded when the two weapons met and like earlier the stone club was stopped but only briefly.

The webbing between Frost’s fingers split apart, leaking drops of ruby red blood down his hands. The residual force passed from his glaive to his arms and then down his waist and legs before entering the ground. His muscles and bones trembled from the pressure and the ground on which he stood loudly cracked forming spiderweb shaped crevasses.

“Urgh!” Frost coughed up blood before his defences gave out and his body rose up.

The next moment Frost was literally swatted away by the cyclops’s mighty swing, like a ball facing a bat.

Don! Don! Don!

Frost’s body shot out and skipped across the ground. His chakra armour fragmenting as he rolled and even his white robes started tearing apart.

After the third or fourth skip Frost reached out and slammed his glaive into the ground, dragging a deep trail as he came to a stop.

“Cough cough” Frost violently coughed up more blood and leaned against his glaive for support. His appearance was quite ragged looking. His chakra armour was all but destroyed and even his white robes were torn up and covered in muck and blood.

Crack!

A horrible sound filled Frost’s ears and his gaze rapidly focused on his glaive. A large crack and chips could now be seen running along the blade’s edge. After battling for weeks in the dungeon and the fierce combat yesterday his weapon had finally been damaged. Daki’s hard work had come undone.

The weapon couldn’t be blamed Frost ran it through the wringer after all. It was never designed to fight against B-rank foes and especially not to withstand a direct full-strength strike of a cyclops.

Boom boom boom

As Frost was gradually regaining his faculties and lamenting the state of his weapon the cyclops started chasing after its hated foe, its massive weight causing the ground to shake with every step it took.

Thankfully due to his quick reactions and good armour Frost’s wounds were pretty superficial. With another blood-filled cough he felt much better and started finding his feet, he really couldn’t risk taking another blow.