Dungeon of Niflheim

97 Chapter 97: The Shadow

‘Hmm’ Frost frowned however when he noticed the blurring leg movement, it was familiar yet not quite the same, he’d definitely seen something similar but couldn’t say when.

But that wasn’t important right now, killing this assassin and reaching Leo was the priority. Luckily, he was in no danger of really dying or even getting seriously injured. As long as he kept his wits about him, his superior strength would prevail plus his opponent wasn’t engaging in their specialty. Catching the bastard however was very annoying.

Every time he felt his glaive connect and aim to cleave his opponent apart, he’d suddenly feel as though the assassin became weightless, his glaive merely pushing him aside instead of cutting. Other times the assassin’s dagger would grind up against the glaive blade before encroaching like a vine up the shaft aiming slice off his fingers, it was very annoying and difficult to deal with. This assassin was certainly more skilled in their movements than the previous death soldiers, but it was only a matter of time before Frost caught him.

The longer they battled the more used to the assassins movements he became. He started to catch him more often resulting in sparks caused by their weapons clashing and the assassin being unable to evade the impact.

Don!

One such swing from Frost’s glaive was so well timed and aimed that the assassin had no choice but to brace himself for impact and endure the blow instead of redirecting it to the side or using it as a springboard.

The assassin’s legs creaked and groaned from the weight being redirected towards them, his leg’s screamed in pain, teetering on the threshold of completely buckling from a single swing, he wasn’t build to endure this kind of weight. But endure he did as he was instructed even though it was against everything, they’d ever been taught the three assassins engaged in direct combat regardless of the implications, all because they were ordered.

Frost smiled with joy at finally feeling a blow land successfully, he could feel the assassin strain against the weight of his glaive as he continued to push downwards escalating the pressure, aiming to completely crush the assassin’s legs.

Yet in the back of his mind, he was still wary of the danger that he could not sense, this fight was going too easy, especially for a fight so close to their target but still he couldn’t sense anything. Even now with one of the assassins about to crumble under his glaive there was no movement. Once he took care of the assassin’s legs, he’d be no further match, which would allow Frost to aid Leo and bring a swift conclusion to this affair.

.....

Suddenly after he increased the pressure on the enduring assassin Frost felt something, it was slight but there was definitely movement in the shadows and the speed was chilling. In almost the same instant that Frost noticed the shadow it moved into the open and appeared directly behind Luna.

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The shadow was but a black blur in the shape of a human, it magically appeared behind Luna with two daggers raised high ready to cleave her neck from her head. Luna had no idea that her doom stood behind her, her senses not enough to notice this person even when they were right behind her.

Frost’s eyes opened wide in shock and anger, he was too far away, powerless to do anything. Even if he called out to Luna nothing would change, by the time she reacted and moved to turn around, the daggers would have decapitated her, but he tried anyway.

“Luna behind you!” Frost shouted as loud as he possibly could while at the same time kicking the assassin before him and turning his body around to rush this new target. He conjured up an ice bolt spell but before the bolt even formed it was too late.

Hearing Frost shouting in panic and witnessing the distress in his eyes Luna was filled with fear, her body trembled, and she felt a cold sensation down her back. In response she did her best to jump forward knowing time was of the essence, but she wasn’t fast enough.

The shadow brought down its daggers down upon her soft neck without an ounce of hesitation with enough force to instantly snap her spine.

Doooooonnnnggggg!

However, what the shadow envisioned never came to pass. Its daggers were stopped by a powerful barrier guarding Luna’s neck. Sparks fired off as the daggers tried to force their way through. Suddenly the barrier turned purple in colour from its starting blue which caused the shadow to clicked its tongue.

“Tsk should have known that old badger would set up defences for his precious daughter.” The barrier protecting Luna’s neck suddenly went on the offensive, reflecting the force inflicted upon it along with some of its own strength in the form of a powerful burst of energy.

The shadow was sent reeling backwards but appeared unperturbed as it dissipated the force by performing a backflip and dusted off its robes.

“[Ice bolt],” feeling that this enemy was dangerous Frost didn’t give them anytime, launching an ice bolt towards the shadow while mid flip aiming for its landing spot.

The bolt whizzed past with incredible speed and accuracy, arriving before the shadow the moment he started dusting himself. The timing was perfect, however.

Don!

The shadow simply cut down the ice bolt with one of his daggers without even looking in Frost’s direction. An attack like that wasn’t enough to even faze it but it bought Frost enough time to reach Luna and shove her behind him.

She was in shock, her eyes trembling, and her entire body felt ice cold. She was so close to death and didn’t believe she was truly alive, bringing her hands up to her neck to make sure it was still attached.

Frost frowned but couldn’t really blame her reaction, his attention quickly returned to the dangerous foe that was now before him, no longer hiding within the shadows.

‘He was here the entire time, yet I couldn’t even sense a sliver of him until he moved.’ Frost’s hand clenched hard around the glaive’s shaft and his eyes and other senses became incredibly focused.

The shadow was a man similarly dressed as the three assassins but with higher quality equipment. His daggers were dark like shadow, clearly made from darkness aspected material, and his robes floated around him giving off a strong sense of mana, they were enchanted.

This man looked in contempt at the shards of ice rapidly turning back into mana, as though they were pathetic. His gaze then found Frost who now blocked Luna behind him.

With the appearance of this shadow like man the two battling Leo backed off, waiting for their next orders. Their master had come into the light yet failed in his sneak attack; the plan had gone awry.

The other assassin who suffered under Frost’s fervent assault was quickly regaining his strength, massaging his legs to get movement back but this was not lost on Frost.

Keeping his eyes dead centre on the shadow like man who was now staring his way, eyes filled with hatred and wrath for some reason. He channelled his mana for a fourth casting of his magic. Ideally, it’d be great if Luna joined him, but she was in no condition to do so.

“[Ice bolt]!” Frost shouted and an ice bolt formed beyond his right hand and zoomed its way towards its intended target. The shadow like man didn’t even flinch or look at the bolt of ice that speeded off to kill the still less mobile assassin. His gaze looked directly at Frost, his face in particular, as though ingraining the image within his mind. Causing a chill to run down Frost’s spine.

‘He’s not like that mage, right?’ Frost now feared the shadow like man for a different reason.

The less mobile assassin saw the ice bolt coming straight for his chest but didn’t panic, knowing he couldn’t dodge in time he readied his daggers and cleaved downward on the oncoming ice bolt, shattering it to pieces however the resounding impact sent the assassin backwards and filled his hands with pain. He was designed to use finesse yet using straight brute force for his defence caused minor damage to his deft hands.

“Tsk” Frost clicked his tongue, it was worth a shot, bringing down their opponents to three instead of four would certainly help but it was a long shot after all. Frost returned to his stare down with the shadow like man while continuing to protect Luna behind him.

Leo meanwhile was using the time he had to regain some stamina and kept his eyes closely on his two assailants, awaiting a chance to strike. Although he was greatly worried for Luna when he heard Frost’s frantic shout he was preoccupied, and Frost had already successfully placed her behind his back. The best thing he could do was to take care of these two assassins and if possible, the third one that Frost successfully injured.

Luna started to calm herself down while being shaded by Frost’s large back, along with the silence and lack of movement by either party she stabilised her breathing and regained focus.

Taking a deep breath, she tapped Frost’s shoulder in gratitude revealing to him her restored state albeit refusing to look in the direction of the shadow like man. She’d stand no chance against someone like that, so she turned her attention to the other three as well as Leo.

Feeling Luna’s tap, Frost released a small sigh in relief, he wasn’t confident in handling this new foe if he had to constantly be wary of Luna. He gripped his glaive with both hands entering a battle ready state, the moment this shadow like man moved he’d be prepared.

The shadow like man continued to look towards Frost, studying him in detail, his face, muscles, limbs, movements, and equipment all with increasing fury. His eyes were almost spitting flames at this point and his fists were trembling with nigh uncontrollable rage.

“You are Frost I presume?” The man’s voice was deep, and smooth filled with gravitas, the voice of a leader and full of hatred as he spoke.

Frost’s eyes opened wide and frowned in surprise.

‘He knows me?’ He hadn’t been in Furano very long and no one bar Leo, Luna, Ryuu and those Glacial Scions had seen his face before this yet this shadow like man seemed to hold a great amount of rage towards him personally.

“Yes, and you are?” He asked tentatively while shifting his feet to lower his sense of gravity preparing to rush his target as soon as he sees a chance.

“Haaaaaaa” the shadow like man sighed deeply and scratched his head before suddenly pulling off the cloth covering his face, revealing a somewhat familiar visage albeit with a couple differences, it was expressing pure rage.

“Eh?” The shadow like man’s face was incredibly familiar and sent goosebumps along Frost’s arms.

“You...didn’t I kill you already?” Frost stuttered as he remembered the face of the man before him. They had met before or at least someone who looked almost identical.

‘Alex, the cold knight and my first real opponent.’ The man’s face was incredible similar to Alex’s the knight assigned to hunt down Leo and Luna along with the red hawk bandits. The very first non-golem (or Maya) opponent that Frost fought against.

“Hmph so you were the one who killed my younger brother Alex. Perfect then not only will I complete my assigned mission, but I’ll be able to avenge my little brother. Beta, Gamma take care of Leonardo I’ll take care of this damned elf, Alpha you kill that little bitch, Luna.” The shadow like man gave his orders to his subordinates before reaching for his removed cloth.

“You can call me Shadow, and you will die by my hand Frost!” Shadow re-covered his face and prepared to enter battle but was suddenly interrupted by one of the assassins.

“But master is that wise, we work in the shadows?” Alpha the oldest of the three assassins and the one who battled against Frost spoke up against Shadow’s orders which was not the correct move.

Regardless of his intentions and whether or not they were correct, Shadow was not one to tolerate disobedience or even the slightest questioning of his orders especially in his maddened state, due to being in the presence of his brother’s killer.