Dungeon of Niflheim

Kiba elegantly landed within the large ring of silver flames, being very careful to not burn himself on his descent. His arrival caused the iceborne huntsman to grimace. It knew it was trapped, the only option it had was to struggle against Kiba and hope for a miracle.

With a resigned look the massive spider prepared itself for the fight of its life, Kiba was a stark contrast to the human woman from earlier after all.

Without its swarm and access to three dimensional terrain the iceborne huntsman was at a severe disadvantage and that's before counting the significant injuries caused by V.

The young winged glacial tiger didn't care about its advantages instead he smiled from ear to ear, looking forward to the opportunity to truly stretch his legs. While Avira could at best land a decent blow Kiba had the strength to kill it and then some.

Displaying his razor sharp teeth in an intimidating manner Kiba started off with a loud roar before pouncing on his would be prey, starting their mighty clash.

Meanwhile Frost erased the spiders surrounding Borris with his cold flames allowing the old dwarf to see the light once again before laying Avira on her back to rest.

The young woman was panting, every breath exhausting to take. Her face was flushed, and she felt both boiling hot and freezing cold. Her mind was foggy and her vision blurring, she wanted to so badly go to sleep but her will and desire forced her to remain awake. She gazed up at Frost as though expecting something from him.

'Haaaaa is this how Maya felt when she trained me in the beginning.' It was clear that Avira was looking for praise, a pat on the back for a job well done.

Frost smiled gently and caressed V's head "You did well V, now rest. Kiba and I will finish what you started."

A smile that could only be described as angelic appeared on V's lips as she heard Frost voice singing her praises and a moment later she passed out. She got what she wanted.

"Is it over?" Asked Borris as he kicked a few spider corpses.

"Almost, V showed her mettle now we just have to wait for Kiba to deal the final blow….do you want to help me mop up or are you content in observing from this point?"

"I'll just observe." There was no hesitation in Borris' voice. Frost couldn't help but stifle his laughter. Seems the stoic dwarf wasn't all that keen in facing a horde of giant spiders.

"Is there any point in keeping the corpses?" There was only a reward for the iceborne huntsman not any of its kin.

"Not much, apart from the venom glands there's really nothing useful." A spider's corpse apart from its venom was pretty useless. Their bones too weak for a blacksmith, their hairs too short for a tailor and their blood was too contaminated for runes, of course this only really applied to low ranking spiders i.e. anything D-rank and below.

If there were D-rank non-huntsman variants however it would be a different story. Along with their venom glands the webbing organs as well as any recently generated webs would be highly desired. Some of the most fashionable clothes and protective robes were partially formed from threads made of spider webbing.

Unfortunately given that the spider matriarch was an iceborne huntsman most of its kin were of the huntsman variety making the vast majority of their slaughter a complete bust, profit wise.

"So just burn them all?"

"Yeah, anything below D-rank isn't worth the effort." Though it felt like a complete waste it really wasn't.

"Alright" Upon hearing Borris' confirmation Frost turned to face the masses of spiders that remained in a confused state, not knowing whether to dive into the ring of fire to help their matriarch or continue attacking Frost, Borris and V.

"[Freezing flame waves]" Frost thought about his choice in spell for a second before choosing one of his new editions. The Dungeon menu was awash with 4th and 3rd circle spells after all. [Freezing flame waves] was a 4th circle spell that targeted a large area.

With the spell's name spoken, Frost felt a large chunk of mana flow out his body to create a wave roughly 5 metres tall and 15 wide made up of silver flames. The giant wave behaved very much like the waves found on the ocean, it built up a great deal of momentum before crashing down upon dozens of low rank spiders, incinerating and crushing them in an instant.

Nearly a dozen waves just like the first one followed in its wake, easily decimating hundreds of spiders who were completely powerless to resist.

The gap between Frost and their strength was too large for them to pose even the slightest threat. Frost was able to kill them at will, as long as he had the mana of course.

'It's certainly a different feeling than when I'm in the Dungeon.' Frost noticed a small amount of strain and even exhaustion in his body after casting the 4th circle spell [Freezing flame waves]. Out in the world his stamina was no longer quite so limitless thus he decided to stick to 2nd and 3rd circle spells, it'd take longer but he wouldn't be out of gas by the end.

While Frost took care of the 'stragglers' Kiba was facing off against the wounded iceborne huntsman and unlike the fight with V this was a contest between monsters. Their attacks were violent, vicious and full of momentum.

Kiba aggressively charged into the iceborne huntsman, pushing its large body to the edge of the ring, lighting its backside on fire while his jaws bit down on its remaining front leg and his claws attempted to rake its abdomen.

With its life on the line the iceborne huntsman was in no mood to hold back. With eyes filled with bloodthirst it withstood Kiba's charge, utilising its rear legs to dig deep into the ground while its fangs attempted to clip the tiger's wings.

The two exchanged vicious bites, raking of claws/hooks as well as intimidating roars as they pushed against one another. Deeps cuts and nasty gashes quickly covered their bodies spilling litres upon litres on blood on the snow beneath their feet. But to these giants such a small amount of blood was nothing, they barely even felt it as their monstrous duel continued.

Their fight held no technique, no strategy it was simply a brutal contest of power between two alpha predators.

As their wounds worsened it was clear that one of the monsters was dominant in their fight. Kiba was in a far better state, his wounds were mostly superficial, and he controlled the battlefield well, keeping the iceborne huntsman's back up against the ring of fire. The only thing he had to be wary of was the spider's venom, it was the main reason why he couldn't fully commit to an attack.

Thus he was forced to gradually weaken his foe with 'lighter' blows and force it to expend its reserves before moving in for the kill.

The iceborne huntsman was wise and experienced, it knew full well of its current situation but unfortunately there wasn't much it could do to change it. Kiba was too quick, his hide too tough for it land any severe blows yet its own body threatened to crumble whenever it suffered one of his claws, the difference in physical strength and body density was obvious.

In its mind Kiba was likely in the upper stages of C-rank possibly nearing the peak while it was still middling around the peak of the early stages, a significant chasm that it was struggling to overcome. Alas it wasn't a young monster.

Suddenly the iceborne huntsman appeared to buckle, its body falling to a kneeling position after receiving one of Kiba's many claw strikes, placing it in a very vulnerable position.

Kiba's instincts roared when he saw this, his eyes glowed red and his mouth opened wide as he moved in to deal the final blow and relish in his victory.

However this was a trick, a cunning ploy from the experienced hunter. The moment Kiba's mouth was opened as far as it could go, and he craned his head back the iceborne huntsman suddenly ignored the pain from its wounded legs and forced itself to stand.

A fraction of a second later a dark blue wad of venom -the last and most potent of its reserves- was shot from between its fangs, aimed straight for Kiba's awaiting maw.

The young tiger's eyes trembled as fear jolted through his system. If that venom reached his mouth and went down his throat the pain would be unimaginable, his strength would instantly plummet, and his life could be in jeopardy.

He tried to quickly close his mouth, to prevent the venom from affecting his internals but that still left his face, primarily his eyes and nose exposed. He was too impatient and now he was going to pay for it.

'Wings' Suddenly however he heard Frost voice through their soul connection and as if driven by natural instinct his large white wings which were strong enough to let his body fly high in the air moved to shield his face.

Sizzle!

"Grrrr!" The wings made it in time, taking the full wad of venom. It hurt a lot, his wings felt as though they were on fire, he groaned from the pain but with his wings taking the blow rather than his face his fighting strength wasn't affected.

But now he was angry.