Dungeon of Niflheim

After giving the praise she so desperately craved Frost reminded her to take a health potion before walking over to Borris. Kiba meanwhile sauntered over to Avira, he gently licked her face, rubbed his fur against her and mewed in a concerned manner.

"You're one vicious bastard you know that." Borris couldn't help but say once Frost walked over to peruse the belongings of the bandits.

"Perhaps from your perspective I'm being vicious but in my view I'm just being efficient and a little mischievous." Frost knew that his methods wouldn't be for everyone, but he didn't care.

"Huh forcing a young girl with no experience in killing others to fight and kill a bandit and then deem her useless for failing, even going to the extent of urging the bandit to put her out of her misery if that's not vicious then I really want to what you consider vicious." Boris understood the logic behind Frost's methods and to be honest couldn't argue with the results but still it really left a bad taste in his mouth.

Avira was just a girl in his eyes, naïve and innocent, traits he deemed worth protecting. Just because she had the potential didn't mean she had to be forcefully matured. He worried about her mental health.

"Borris first off I never forced her she could have said no at anytime and or asked for help and I would have given it. V chose to follow my methods because she knows of the dangers that await her….stop looking at her like a little girl Borris, she's a warrior, a woman with the potential to be the Empress of Northrend." Frost turned around and spoke in a serious tone.

"Second what I consider vicious would be akin to greeting death on daily perhaps even hourly basis until you become completely numb to the meaning of fear." His eyes showed a strange fanaticism as he said this.

Only training like what Maya put him through could be considered vicious, carving up his body, breaking each and every one of his bones again and again, leaving him on the brink of death over and over, that was vicious but again…effective.

Borris' eyes shook upon seeing such a look in Frost's eyes. He now understood Frost a bit better. How could someone as young as him have such great strength? Talent alone could only get you so far. He surmised that Frost must have experienced something far more gruelling than Avira.

"Are you just going to stand there or are going to help me fleece the bodies, we're on the clock remember." Frost returned to normal expression seamlessly making Borris wonder which Frost was the true Frost.

As expected the bandits didn't have much in terms of valuables, all their money was back in the enclave and Frost, Avira and Borris were their first marks in days.

Frost divided up the meagre spoils and set their corpses ablaze before gently placing Avira on Kiba's back and continuing their journey to Icethorne.

They ran into few more packs of bandits but learning from her mistakes Avira wasted no time taking out the opponents she was assigned. Unbeknownst to her the air surrounding her was colder and filled with a natural bloodlust, she had changed, completely shelving her former identity as a sheltered princess.

Once night fell they spent their last night in the wilderness, tomorrow -as long as nothing unexpected happens- they'd reach Icethorne. Avira would find sanctuary and could begin planning her conquest for the throne while Borris would be able to reinvigorate his passion for smithing by offering his services to one of the most war-torn fortresses' in Yangmir.

And Frost would continue his travels, making his way towards the secret entrance of Niflheim, the personal dimension of the primordial ice king, Shivali.

The group slept rather well despite their anticipation, they also filled their stomachs with large portions in preparation for the last and possibly the most dangerous leg of the journey. Though it wouldn't even take half a day to reach Icethorne from their current position the route was near the crevasse of Ymir, meaning frost giants. A race beholden to the same category as dragons.

Even their weakest members were C-rank and none of them were in the early or entry stages.

Frost was particularly on edge as they travelled. There was no talking, and everyone had to listen to his orders without dropping a single beat.

The first couple hours were quiet but by the third hour the group could smell blood. In the distance there was what could only be described as carnage.

From what he could tell a merchant caravan was travelling nearby and was attacked by a pack of dire wolves and thus forced near the crevasse. This action probably alerted a nearby troop of frost giants who immediately slaughtered everything in sight.

Bodies of dire wolves were torn in half, some sporting bare skeletons after being feasted upon while the merchants were crushed and robbed of anything the giants deemed valuable. Everything else was left for the mountains to reclaim and to serve as a warning to anyone passing through.

As they continued the group came across a few more battle sites as well as territory markings. By this point Frost's hairs were standing on the back of his neck and his ears were twitching at even the slightest sounds of movement.

Eventually he was inundated with a sense of dread. He raised a closed left fist ordering the group to immediately halt. Kiba quickly tensed his muscles while Avira drew her rapier and Borris held his hammer.

There was silence for tens of seconds, no sign of any movement but that sense of dread never left Frost's heart.

Borris was the first to break under the pressure, he wasn't used to being so on edge. He loosened his grip on his hammer and commanded the frost wolf to move closer to Frost, so he could discuss what was going on.

The moment he let down his guard and had the frost wolf move however, disaster struck.

"Shit Borris dodge!" Frost desperately called out but he was too late.

Boooff!

Suddenly from beneath the snow a massive giant with pale blue skin leaped upwards like a fish in water. The giant wielded a massive club that was already swinging upwards as he ascended. The target was Borris and the frost wolf.

Crunch!

"ARRRFFFFF!!!" The frost wolf took a heavy blow to its ribs and was sent flying along with Borris. The poor E-rank wolf had its ribcage shattered and several organs pulverised; death was a certainty. Borris got off better thanks to it taking the brunt of the attack, but his insides were still rattled.

Frost quickly leaped from Kiba's back and caught Borris, bringing him onto Kiba's back while he withdrew his glaive ready to meet their giant adversary.

"Kiba protection detail, don't drop them!"

"Garow!"

Frost wasted no time at all, he attacked with some of his most powerful techniques hoping to end the fight as quickly as possible.

"[Wyvern's maw]" He slashed out with one of his best glaive skills, summoning a semi-corporal wyvern's maw surrounded in ice fire.

The wyvern's maw roared and flew at the surprised frost giant, taking a bite out of its left arm while Frost quickly followed up.

Clang! Squelch!

The wyvern maw bit deep into the frost giant's muscle, causing it to roar in pain and fail to properly defend itself from Frost's glaive.

His weapon first clashed against some kind of bone armour that greatly reduced the force behind his slash. In the end he was only able to cut a few inches deep which was, but a flesh wound for the frost giant.

Frost frowned finding his opponent far more durable than he expected but he didn't hesitate in continuing his attack.

"[Freezing fireball]" He used a 3rd circle ice fire spell to soften it up while coating his glaive in chakra, his target the monster's throat. He couldn't have it call for reinforcements after all.

Given how close they were to the crevasse of Ymir this battle had to be quick, quiet and done without aura lest he wished to paint a target on his back for the nearby B-rank frost giants who were likely on the lookout for powerful intruders. The one in front of him right now was an upper C-rank and likely just an outlying scout.

"Can I help?" Avira who had really started to grow into her own over the course of their journey asked with her rapier in one hand and wand in the other.

"No! stay put." Frost loudly replied as he slashed out with his glaive, constantly having the frost giant on the back foot but that didn't make him happy in the slightest.

'God damn meat bag!' He internally complained at how dense the giant was, his glaive could cut through iron like butter, but he was only managing to cut a few inches deep into the monster's flesh. Its muscles were just too damn thick and its bones like diamond. He even failed to completely destroy the creatures throat.

"ROOOOOOOAAAARRRR!!!"

"FUCK!!!" What he dreaded happening happened, the damn monster despite the blood pooling in its throat roared at the top of its lungs, likely alerting its comrades.

This roaring did give Frost that chance to finally kill it, but the damage had already been done.

A second later they could hear the roars of frost giants in the distance.

"RUN!!!" Frost gave the order to Kiba who quickly started running once Frost landed on his back. Carrying three people would slow him down somewhat and the space was rather cramped but what choice did they have.