Conquering His Cold Heart

Following Frost, Daki, Loki and Nanna all sang Khuno's praises and admired his new powerful look with envy. All three of them sorely wished to become stronger, to better support Frost.

"Daki would you mind taking the children out, I'd like to test the limits of Khuno's newfound strength?" Frost requested with an ever growing smile and a fierce glint in his eyes. His penchant for battle rising to the surface.

"Tsk fine, guess we'd just get in the way with our strength." Daki clicked her tongue before reluctantly pulling Nanna and Loki away from the training space. He couldn't protect them from the outbursts of aura if he was in the midst of battle.

Khuno apologised when he saw the evident disappointment on the children's faces but did nothing to protest his master's suggestion. He too wished to test out his newfound strength without having to worry about external factors.

The moment Daki, Nanna and Loki warped away Frost brought up the dungeon menu from his arm and connected to Findlay, his other B-rank monster.

"Findlay are you busy?"

"Not particularly master, why?"

"Want to help me test Khuno's new rank?"

"…..Give me a minute and I'll be right there." Frost knew of the friendly rivalry between Khuno and Findlay, he was sure his right hand man wouldn't miss the chance to retain his superior position.

"Hahahahaha see you soon." Frost laughed and ended the communication before looking at Khuno. "Findlay's in, look's like we'll be able to have a real battle."

In response Khuno tightly clenched his hands around the shaft of his new and improved halberd that accompanied his evolution. The weapon was now a rival for Frost's own [wolf howling at the moon].

"Finally I'll be able to put that pompous ice troll in his place." His lips stretched from ear to ear revealing a set of razor sharp teeth that could easily tear apart even the toughest flesh. Tendrils of cold flames instinctively formed along his body in response to his emotions, quickly lowering the temperature around him.

Their sliver colour was even slightly deeper than the ones Frost could summon revealing his superiority over his master at least for the short term.

A minute later Findlay warped into the training space with his battle axe in hand and wearing the armour Daki specially forged for him. He was ready to get down to business.

"Perfect, let's get started then shall we." Frost summoned his own weapon in hand before covering his body in chakra armour. "A three way battle, no holds barred. Khuno show us what you can do." With a final dash of cold flames around his glaive Frost was in full battle mode.

"I missed sparring against you Khuno, finally you're strong enough to endure another beating." Findlay taunted his colleague with a blatant smirk.

"Hmph just keep smiling Findlay, I'll put you in your place soon." Khuno's cold flames flared around him in challenge. The three B-rank fighters stared daggers at one another, eager to tear each other apart.

Frost brought out a coin from his storage vault and tossed into the air, the moment it reached the ground the battle would commence.

The three of them glared at the coin as it slowly descended, their muscles tensing in preparation for a charge.

Clink!

Boom!

The moment the coin touched the floor all three dashed forward with their weapons raised. Axe met halberd, halberd met glaive and glaive met axe. The three weapons clashed against one another with immense force and ferocity, none of them held back in the slightest. The first test was brute strength.

"Ngh!" Frost unfortunately despite being the master was the weakest in the contest of pure power. He reeled backwards, his glaive vibrating so much that his hands grew numb as he skidded across the floor, struggling to maintain his balance.

Findlay and Khuno however continued their clash, refusing to yield even the slightest millimetre. Veins bulged across their arms, legs and even foreheads as the two monsters pushed their weapons towards the other, demanding that the other submit to their power.

Grind!

The sound of metal grinding and defiant grunts escaped from the clash but even after a several seconds there was no clear winner and Frost had gotten bored waiting.

"[Freezing fireball]" Knowing he was weaker in terms of brute strength he launched a fireball of ice fire at the two forcing them to pull away from one another lest they wished to become freezing barbeque. Following that he charged with his glaive in hand at Khuno.

"[Earth's upheaval]" The image of a large, heavy boulder formed behind his glaive, adding weight and durability to his already imposing swing. In addition tendrils of cold fire chakra danced around the blade edge and aura was infused into the blow. Frost would struggle to attack any harder but unfortunately Khuno was completely unfazed.

"[Glacial shift]" The powerful ronso responded with one of his own weapon skills, a new entry into his extensive list of abilities. Similar to [Earth's upheaval] this skill added weight to the weapon but instead summoned a glacier rather than a boulder and like his master he infused his aura into his blow though he was rather inexperienced in such matters it still added lethality.

Booooooommmmm!

A mighty clash erupted between the two, bursting the very air between them, creating sonic booms that reverberated throughout the training space. This time they were roughly on par with one another, but this was no longer a contest of brute strength, the battle was truly underway.

"[Fiery burst]" Keen to experiment with his newly gained abilities Khuno used another. [Fiery burst] pooled a large sum of his cold flame chakra, moulding and folding it over and over until it was ready to burst with a fierce vengeance. And that it did. Khuno's skin was suddenly engulfed in a silver like sheen before the dam broke.

Silver flames explosively burst from his body violently repelling Frost away while at the same time piercing through his skin with an ethereal chill. Even though Frost held high immunity towards the ice element he could feel how cold and invasive Khuno's flames were. An instinctive shiver ran up his spine as he skidded across the floor. Unfortunately Khuno was far from done.

"[Chilling wraith strike]!" With his halberd raised, energy flowed through his body and into his weapon, forming an ethereal ghost-like apparition that screamed death. The wraith matched Khuno's stance behind him before both of them charged at Frost, ready to cleave him in twain.

"Shit!" Frost loudly cursed as he quickly readied his glaive to block the frightening move.

DUUUUNNNNN!!!

Frost felt his arms and even legs grow numb as Khuno's halberd crashed against his glaive but thankfully he endured, at least he thought so at first. The physical strike was only the first attack, following close behind was the wraith with its ethereal halberd.

Frost expected to be blown away by the second strike but instead of withstanding a blow filled with force the ethereal blade passed straight through his glaive and hounded for his heart. A horrifying fear gripped Frost as he slowly witnessed the ghost-like weapon easily bypass his glaive and even his chakra armour though it seemed to have more difficulty with the latter.

How was he supposed to block such a strike?

Just as his mind drew a blank an untoward saviour appeared from behind him with his battle axe outstretched for a wide swing.

Bang!

"Urgh!" Frost violently coughed as Findlay's axe sent him careening through the air and away from the Khuno's deadly strike. This was followed up by him leaning into the spin and striking Khuno with an even stronger blow. Findlay thus successfully managed to blast away both his opponents after being ignored. This was a three way battle after all not a simple duel.

Findlay smirked with pride and rested his axe upon his shoulders before taunting both Khuno and Frost, he was determined to retain his position as the most powerful combatant within the dungeon (Maya excluded of course).

Frost and Khuno looked at one another for a second before accepting Findlay's challenge.

"[Wyvern's maw]"

"[Lance of Niflheim]" While Frost responded with his trademark [wyvern's maw] Khuno used another new skill, this one being something unique to the elder ronso race. Layered, dense ice was summoned in the shape of a massive stake before being adorned in silver flames that not only enhanced the stake's toughness but acted as propellent, drastically amplifying its speed.

Frost's [Wyvern's maw] looked rather lacklustre in comparison. Even Findlay who confidently taunted the two of them started having second thoughts as the shadow of the stake loomed over him.

The three B-rank fighters thus continued to trade blow after blow for the next several hours, fully testing the limits of Khuno's new form. Unfortunately for Findlay, his colleague had finally surpassed him in strength, albeit only slightly it was still a harsh blow for the prideful ice troll lord.

Khuno had far too many new abilities and methods of attack, he and Frost were pretty much on the backfoot for the entire battle. Nonetheless the fight was greatly enjoyable and enlightening, all three of them gained a lot from it. Frost even felt the barrier that blocked him from becoming a B-rank mage crack, he only needed to take a single step to enter that domain.