Dungeon of Niflheim

154 Chapter 154: No holds barred

After looking over the current monster arrangement of his dungeon, Frost felt satisfied, deciding to not spent the remaining 5000DP on more monsters. Rather saving it for something more substantial.

“Maya, I want to train, no holds barred.” Frost had a determined look in his eyes. Maya had steadily increased his training over the past two weeks, many times so much than he couldn’t move a single muscle in his body once it was over. However, afterwards he could always feel a measurable increase in his abilities. He particularly enjoyed fighting multiple ice golems at once, each with differing weapons, finding the experience enlightening.

Maya looked at her young master with a coy mischievous look, pummelling her young master was one of her favourite pastimes. No holds barred meant that she’d be the one doing the beating personally, Frost would literally always be on the back foot, never able to match. A tough and spirit crushing method, but effective.

Nanna and Loki also took part in such practises, pushing their limits for hours on end, until collapsing into convulsing bodies of flesh. Yet like their master, they were smiling at the end of it, possessors of a powerful mental tenacity. Physically however, when Frost mentioned no holds barred, they shivered on instinct but didn’t balk at the challenge, staring at Maya with pleading eyes.

“Fine, let’s head to the training room for some drills. I’ll handle young master whereas the two of you can fight against a golem.” Maya shook her head, feeling a little jealous of their intensity and passion. The two of them were too weak to in anyway be a match for one of her ice golems, but if it was unarmed it could serve as an effective training dummy.

With Maya in agreement the group teleported to the training room for some last minute gruelling training before the family gathering.

“[ice golem]” Maya spoke the command word and an unarmed ice golem with a standard appearance was summoned from the magic crest. Only the higher ended golems that she used against Frost had more humanoid features.

Ice golems like other monsters also had ranks to determine their strength. Appearance isn’t always a determining factor but those that are more humanoid tend to be on the stronger side. This one however was incredibly basic, slow, no weapon or known skills but durable. Nanna and Loki would have to work together and use a sufficient amount of power to even damage the thing. Basically, this thing was a practise dummy that would occasionally strike slowly with its fists, little danger.

Without even waiting for permission, Nanna and Loki readied their weapons and entered battle mode, standing on opposing sides of the golem. Their weapons were still the training room generated weapons, made of wood. They were however denser and heavier than their first set, though still not 1 star equivalent. With those two taken care of, Maya led Frost to the other side of the room, while flicking through the training menu. Since her young master requested no holds barred, she wasn’t one to disappoint.

.....

With a swift couple clicks the north side of the training room changed in appearance. Solid barriers arose to create a complicated terrain, narrow spaces, sharp turns, and varying degrees of height. This was a multipurpose terrain for training under all situations. They’d moved passed simply duelling against one another, Frost needed to learn how to take advantage of his present environment given where he was planning on heading.

The Glacial mountains are a perilous place, with varying terrain and obstacles along with a near permanent blizzard that obscured the senses. The deeper one went the more violent this blizzard became; you could be a half foot before a deep gorge and not even know it.

Maya wasn’t done yet however, with another couple flicks the area changed once again. Automated crossbows dotted the tops of the barriers and a shifting floored arena opened up in the centre of the terrain.

Frost’s lips started twitching at the sight of this monstrosity before him and a shiver ran down his spine. He’d seen the crossbow traps before when Maya wanted to train his reactions (mainly due to him returning to the Furano mansion without a mask) but everything else was new and daunting. He suddenly felt anger towards his big stupid mouth that didn’t know when to keep shut. But it was too late to complain now, the look in Maya’s eyes clearly meant that he couldn’t back out now. She was excited and wanted to let loose and Frost was her victim.

‘Haaaaaaaa’ Frost sighed internally before putting on a brave face, following Maya into the arena section. They’d likely battle on the move, all while Frost would be shot at from all angles, if this wasn’t overkill, he didn’t know what was.

“Are you ready young master?” Maya asked with an innocent expression, taking great pleasure in her young master’s forced smile.

“Haaaaaaaa let me have it then.” Frost released a deep sigh, a look of resignation in his eyes as he prepared himself for the oncoming onslaught.

“Good!” Maya spoke a single word with a joyful tone and the next second she was gone.

Frost tensed his body, his eyes darting in all directions.

‘Left no, right no, above no, shit! Below.’ Frost managed to only catch a short glimpse of her movements, quickly crossing his arms into a guard, protecting his chest from the dainty white hand that suddenly appeared. Although it looked small and weak Frost knew from ample experience that that fist could crush mountains.

Boooooooom!

A powerful shockwave erupted the moment Maya’s fist encountered his guard and Frost was sent barrelling upward into the air, his forearms numb and itchy, but a successful block.

He let loose a confident smile, her speed was manageable albeit barely. The more they fought the more abilities Maya revealed to him. Before she’d limit herself to C-rank but now her movements were clearly those of B-rank, proving that he had vastly improved.

Unfortunately, he didn’t have time to enjoy his minor victory. The dozens of crossbows suddenly turned upwards and fired their ammunition his way.

“Fuck!” Frost roared; he was still steadily rising meaning he’d struggle to dodge. He didn’t have wings so manoeuvring his body mid-flight was almost impossible, he’d have to tank the damage, destroying as many bolts as he could in the short time frame he had. Luckily Maya wasn’t too sadistic, the bolts were roughly equivalent to iron in strength, something he could handle, well a few at least.

In the short couple of seconds, he had, Frost used chakra to cover his major areas in ice while at the same time calculating the rough trajectories of the bolts. He moved to summon his glaive but was interrupted.

“No using your weapon!” Maya shouted from somewhere bringing his actions to a halt.

“What are you serious? Ah fuck!” By the time he shouted in complaint the bolts were upon him.

Don don don don don

Over a dozen crossbow bolts struck against his body sending waves of pain throughout his system, a few of them even broke through his hastily generated ice armour. Leaving impact dents or even drawing a little blood. This wasn’t the end, however.

“Don’t let your guard down!” Maya mysteriously appeared behind his back. Hovering above him, she slammed her two fists down on his unguarded back, sending him hurtling back down to the ground. His body smashed into a barrier causing him to cough up some blood, he landed in a narrow stretch of the terrain. High barriers on either side, only able go forward or backward.

He took a second to catch his breath but the moment he was on his feet, Maya returned.

“Too slow young master!” Not holding back in the slightest she kicked him in the chest, releasing a crack from the targeted rib. He was once again sent flying unable to counterattack. Maya was using low B-rank strength, focusing on physical attributes. Given the type of monsters Frost would end up encountering, she deemed it beneficial to work on his physical strength. No weapons or offensive magic, just a good old fashioned hand to hand beat down.

Baaaaanggggg!

Frost barrelled once again into another barrier, his chest and back in a great deal of pain, yet his eyes remained focused and full of spirit, this was exactly what he needed. Recovering a split second faster this time, he earned the right to witness the next attack, yet still powerless to stop it, but a step in the right direction.

This diabolical training regiment was truly no holds barred and Frost got to enjoy such preferential treatment for an entire 4 hours without a break. Maya would simply cast healing magic once his wounds reached a certain level, but she’d continue to hit him while he healed.

Nanna and Loki struggled to maintain their concentration with the frequent yells and booming sounds that came from the northern part of the room. Occasionally they were on the receiving end of the ice golem’s fist due to taking a peek at their master being sent hurtling through the air. Whenever this happened, they’d be in a fair amount of pain and Maya would yell a couple orders their way all while pummelling Frost. Nanna and Loki would always remember this day in the future, and because of it they’d always hold a modicum of fear towards Maya no matter how strong they became. They even gave her the nickname ‘demon general’.