The ironclad rule of the dungeon was to stay focussed all the time or you could die. A big party like the one from the Loki Familia offered more protection, so you'd think a little lack of focus wouldn't be such a bad thing, but was usually harshly reprimanded by Finn, Riveria, and Gareth.
And yet, no one said a word when they entered the 60th Floor, the first of the three that were the parts of the glacial territory. Each of the three Floors had a specific name, fitting for their appearance. "The glacial Lake", "The great Tundra" and "The Icy Hell". A few chuckled when they saw Bell´s reaction, it was a completely new sight for him and that was what he longed for.
"Woah..."
His breath was in white clouds in front of his mouth, the difference to the volcanic environment of the last floors was extreme. "The great Tundra" was indeed a fitting name, normally the further down one came, the bigger the Floors got, but these three Floors were an exception. The Icy Hell was the smallest of the three Floors, the great Tundra by far the biggest, it was more than twenty times bigger than Orario. After taking back it´s true shape, without all those plants...the Floor looked as if it had a size of between ten times Orario..
The air was cold and clear, it smelled so clean. Compared to the smoky, sooty and spark-filled air of before...it was like heaven. The party had taken a break before they got down to this Floor, the area around the exit of the last Floor was wide open and mostly safe. Not only did they need a break, but they had to change their clothes. The volcanic area before was as hot as the tundra was cold...and yet it was the most gentle one of the three Floors. They stood on a rock plateau that was connected to the rest of the floor by a rock bridge. In the past when the Loki Familia was here it looked like a jungle...well...completely different.
It felt like a blessing, but it was actually very dangerous. People like Bete, Ais, Tiona and Tione preffered light clothes to fight, they all still sweat a lot, but coming down here sweating...was dangerous. Not all party members were the same in terms of sweating, Tsubaki for one didn´t sweat at all from the heat, according to her the volcanic area wasn´t even really warm, but well she was a smith. Gareth and the humans sweat the most, elves not so much and Bell was told by Lefiya and Alicia that Riveria would never, ever sweat, he shouldn´t even dare to imagine it!
Not that he would.
But a light sweaty Ais on the other hand...that was nice.
The cave ceiling was about a hundred and fifty meters away, the whole area mostly white and in fact...ice. They described the Floor to him as an enormous glacial lake with streams here and there. Which meant, Bell saw in the distance a few spots of solid ground, some of them had a few dead trees on them, the rest was ice, ice and even more ice, which would make moving problematic. Despite being so vast and open, there were no monsters to be spotted from up there. But he knew that there were monsters in this Floor and that they were perfectly adapted to their environment.
"It´s...beautiful."
The party gave Bell a few moments time to take it all in, that was also important, so that it wouldn´t overwhelm him.
"But quite cold."
Lefiya stopped on Bell´s right, her sword and wand sheathed for now. When Bell looked at her, he just had to chuckle. Lefiya wore a long coat instead of her usual jacket and right now...she put on special ear muffs. They looked a little bit like socks and most of the elves used them, their ears were really sensitive to the chilly wind here.
Even Riveria used a pair, jade colored like her hair, most elves used similar colors to her hair...Lefiya´s were pink.
"Wh-What...they are cute..."
"Of course they are, they suit you very well."
"Hehe, thank you."
Ais stopped on his other side and also had Zephyr sheathed, she wrapped a maroon scarf around her neck. The scarf was a gift from Bell, given to her before they went on the Expedition, she had cried when she tried it for the first time. Bell knew from her stories that her father, Albert, also always used a maroon scarf.
The color didn´t really fitted with her hair and outfit, but she loved the scarf and when someone said it looked strange, Ais got a dangerous gleam in her eyes.
After the group was done with their last preparations, they moved down the rock bridge, at it´s foot they changed into their fighting formation. Finn was the centre of the whole group, Riveria led the rear guard, Gareth was the anchor of the vanguard. Bete was also part of the rear guard, Tione waited next to Finn for his direct orders to intervene wherever necessary, while Tiona would fight on one end of the vanguard.
Ais and Bell...they were the special team. Both would move freely wherever they noticed the hardest monster attacks. The vanguard would form a crescent, with Gareth in the middle, the centre with Finn and a few others behind them, while the rearguard would form another crescent, but backwards. The vanguard formation's endpoints would be further out than the rearguard's, so the endpoints could be moved back a bit to form a circle if need be.
This formation had proved useful as they had to deal with attacks from all directions as they moved across the ice. That ice held an additional danger, not only was it slippery, spells like Riveria's or Lefiya's held the danger of destroying it. Alicia, with her ice magic, was free to cast any spell she wanted, except that most monsters here were virtually immune to ice attacks.
And there was another danger on these Floors. A few Floors in the dungeon were special, since they marked the beginning of new monsters strategies. Like using ranged attackes, poison, fire and other magic like attacks.
The monsters from this Floor onward, used...strategies.
And not only that, they worked together.
Of course there were monsters who fought in packs, but it went further here. Some monsters would distract adventurers with a massive attack from the front, while others sneaked around them and came from the sides. Others would attack from the front, fall back, just to attack from another side again. And just when the adventurers got used to it, they would instead charge from the front again. Adventurers that would get used to a frontal assault, fall back and then a flank attack, would get surprised when the monsters came back from the front...the one direction they didn´t expected.
And one special kind of monsters were even worse.
They weren´t incredibly strong...but smart...and many.
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"Here they come!"
He was amazed at how far visibility had deteriorated as they stepped onto the ice. It was as if there was a light fog on the ice and of course the changed point of view came with it. From the entrance he could see far, from down here he first became aware of the blocks of ice. The entire frozen lake was speckled with blocks of ice the size of his head up to the size of a house. Along with the fog, it was perfect cover for monsters. In addition, the cave ceiling was now hidden by fog.
The first wave of monsters didn´t waited long, since no one except for the Loki Famili came down here...there was no one who would thin out the monsters, also they respawned faster here.
Bell and Ais always moved around a dozen meters in front of the frontline, they needed room to fight in their usual style.
The first wave of monsters, were wolves...wolves...with riders.
When Bell heard about this for the first time, he didn´t wanted to believe them. Of course it wasn´t like mortals would fight from a mount, just the monster style of it. The wolves fur was completely white, so they could melt into the fog and white environment. The riders...and that was nearly ridiculous...were Goblins.
Goblins.
The weakest monsters found in the dungeon on the first Floor. But these Goblins here, were far more dangerous and stronger. Each Goblin had at least one bone spear in a hand, ready to throw it with a surprising strength. Bell was reminded of the bone sheep fromt he 37th Floor, but they were nothing compared to the Goblins. Even when they only had one spear, a throw was life-threatening. Able to pierce through metal and bodies...and even when they missed, they were able to pick up spears that lay on the ground or stuck in ice...or bodies...to throw them again. In the other hand, they had various bone-like weapons. Axes, Clubs, a sord of scimitar.
But their biggest strength was their sheer number and the speed...and the nearly grey skin of the Goblins, so it was hard to spot them from far away. They would attack in big numbers with enormous speed, the sound of the battle would lure other monsters to the fight. Since a monster didn´t cared for it´s own survival or that of others, they wouldn´t flinch no matter how many wolves or goblins were killed.
Some were even killed by other monster when they charged in and the riders were too slow to evade.
The best strategy for the incomming attack was for the party to close their ranks, raise up their shields and block the projectiles. Of course blocking them head on with a shield would lead to getting pierced, so there was a little trick to it. Lefiya used Riveria´s large shield magic to a degree where it wouldn´t stop the spears completely, just slowing them down so that they could be blocked.
But the easiest way where the two people who didn´t stood in the shield wall.
Ais´ wind threw the spears to the side, she hacked all in two that passed her, so that the Goblins weren´t able to pick them up again. From the point of view of the party, Bell stood behind Ais, a few meters between them. He held Olympus in his right hand, Vesta in his left. He whirled, stepped and moved around, drawing in the attention of the Goblins. Bell deflected spears thrown at him instead of blocking them, damaging them at the same time.
One of the wolf riders rushed towards him with a raised speer, using it like a lance instead of throwing it. Bell showed what made a level seven adventurer so dangerous, a single rider wasn´t a threat to him.
His left hand came up and Vesta left it. The Goblin had grabbed the fur around the Wolf´s neck to hold himself stable, the spear raised with the right, so he was completely open. Vesta got burried into the Goblin´s chest, piercing it´s magic stone. In the same movement, Bell whirled around, let the Wolf pass him, grabbed Olympus with both hands and chopped off the head of the beast. Both monsters turned to ash together, Bell catched Vesta and started to move again. Green and golden wind surrounded Ais as she jumped forward, piercing the chest of another Goblin, before ripping her sword free and stabbing the neck of the wolf.
She made a somersault as the monsters turned to ash behind her. Ais landed on the ice, it was a bit slippery so she needed a second to regain her balance.
A wolf jumped at her with an opened maw, she was about to raise her sword as with a light whisper, an arrow pierced the monster´s left eye, letting it yelp and stumble forward, the Goblin on top fell right into Ais´ sword. She knew from who the arrow came...her Mom watched over her little girl.
A thankful smile appeared on Ais´ lips and her wind moved in a special way. A few party members had learned to read the movement of Ais´ wind, it was a form of silent communication.
Bell´s and Ais´ ears twitched as they heard a loud thunk. Gareth had slammed his shield onto the ice one time, giving them the signal that the party would move forward on Finn´s order. Just standing in one place was dangerous due to the ice, it could crack. Bell simply followed Ais´ movements, she knew the direction they would head to. While the party moved forward, the supporters picked up all the magic stones and dropp items they found. To do that while the party moved forward as a whole, needed quite some training, since they put it directly into their backpacks. And not only dropp items, arrows and bolts that were fired by the party were also picked up. As much as possible, they didn´t used magic to save their mental strength. But thankfully their was one among them that could use his magic over a hundred times in a single day.
Bell pointed Vesta at a jumping Wolf.
"Firebolt!"
He could actually use their tactic against the monsters, like this he was able to ignite two monsters at the same time. Yet he didn´t fired it too often, since it was still fire magic. .
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A different kind of howl mixed with the ones of the monsters who attacked them already. The second kind of new monsters rushed towards them. It were also wolves, but bigger than the ones before, with pure white fur, no riders...and blue fangs.
Their fangs didn´t only looked like they were made of ice, they were. It was a form of natural weapon that was very common on these Floors, so the bone weapons that the Goblins used, were actually more rare, since only the weakest monsters here used them.
Magical Ice Weapons.
Be it fangs, tusks or the typical dungeon weapons that some monsters used, nearly all monsters on these three Floors used magical ice weapons in one way or another. They were way more dangerous than the usual dungeon weapons. Not only did they contain the ice element, which some races were weaker against than others, they also had a side effect.
Being part of the elemental class, ice had an effect on their victims stamina. Of course being mauled to death, pierced, stabbed, hacked into pieces was the actual danger, but the dungeon liked to play the long term game. A scratch from an ice weapon was not just a normal scratch, the ice made it harder to heal and chipped away some stamina.
Even someone like Gareth, who could take sheer endless amount of damage, would get weaker and weaker the more he would be hit with this ice weapons. In the end he wouldn´t even been able to raise his weapon and shield, while he was still in good health...he just would have no stamina left.
Also the ice would leave a cold feeling, getting the victim numb more and more. The poor Lefiya was the first one that got hit by a really nasty attack when they were here for the first time. One of the bigger Goblins had smashed his club forward into the ice, creating a hail of sharp splinters. One of these splinters somehow managed to get shot between the shields and bodies of the party, piercing the skin of Lefiya´s left thigh.
She had yelled out in pain and fell to the ground, a healer quickly ripped out the splinter and started to heal her, but the wound didn´t closed until they warmed it up first, which let her blood flow stronger. Even with being healed, Lefiya had problems to stand on her leg for a while and was out of breath.
"Ice Wolves!"
According to Finn´s orders, Bell yelled out the name of the new monsters, to alert the others. It was irrelevant if they had actually seen the monsters themselves, but by calling out he made everyone aware of it. The wolves were fast, strong...and as big as a horse.
All of their fangs were made of blue ice, it could look beautiful if it wouldn´t be so deadly. The foremost wolf rushed at Bell at full speed, due to the huge size, he felt tremors in the ice. The mouth was wide open, the teeth bared menacingly.
Out of the corner of his eyes, Bell noticed that Ais danced more than she ran over the ice, with help of her wind magic. She was already used to this Floor and fighting on ice, Bell was not.
At first he tried to steady himself, but slipped his right foot. His body reacted immediately and he threw up his left arm to keep his balance. Unfortunately, the ice was slippery than it looked and he didn't make it fast enough.
He slipped.
Blocking was impossible, as was evading.
The wolf slammed with full speed into Bell, trying to bite off his head. Bell countered by thrusting Vesta forward, while leaning backwards, just as the jaws closed. There was a squeaking sound as the wolf's claws scraped across his golden bracer. Though made of ice, the wolf's claws were not slippery. With a creak, Bell's bracer caught and he was thrown backwards as the monster continued to run.
The sudden thrust backwards, ripped Olympus out of his right hand, which skidded across the ice.
"Bell!"
Ais saw what happened, but couldn´t come to him, the other ice wolves immediately blocked her way.
"Argh!"
The wolf jerked its head up and threw Bell back and forth, giving him no chance to find a secure footing. He didn't get a chance to use his knife in the monster's jaws, instead pounding the wolf's muzzle with his right fist. Following the monsters' instincts, ignoring his own injuries, the wolf immediately turned and ran away from the party to isolate Bell. His feet briefly touched the ground before the wolf hauled him up again, simultaneously attempting to break his arm with his fangs... luckily the Golden Fleece held up. Ice rocks and other monsters quickly swam past Bell, he quickly lost track of which direction his party was headed, just as the dungeon intended.
The wolf growled loudly, Bell heard more howls, turned his head and noticed goblin riders following him. The dungeon sensed how strong it was and the monsters acted accordingly. Test, assess, improvise, isolate, destroy... the tactics of the dungeon were often the same... and incredibly effective.
This is gonna hurt.
Bell´s eyes flashed, he couldn´t move Vesta, but do something else with it.
"Firebolt!"
As before, fire washed over the blade and shot into the monster´s throat.
"Firebolt!"
For a moment he remeberred his fight with Asterios´ first incarnation.
And the result...was the same.
"FIREBOLT!"
Since the magic had nowhere to escape, the wolf howled in pain and suddenly puffed up. Flames and sparks shot out of its maw, singeing Bell's arm slightly where his sleeve had ridden up. But the wolf didn't let go, even when it...exploded.
"Ah!"
Shielding his face from the blast with his right arm, fire washed over him, luckily very short-lived. Also, Bell had some immunity to his own flames. He whirled through the air again and instinctively curled into a ball, ducking his head. He gasped as he hit an ice rock. Training took control as he fell, he rolled and got to his feet quickly, his head floating for a moment but his vision clearing quickly.
He was standing with his back to the ice rock, his left arm oddly heavy. With a quick glance, he noticed a fang stuck to the bracer. Bell didn't have time to remove it, he threw Vesta into his right hand and got into a fighting stance as the first wolf rider charged out of the mist.
"Come here..."
Bell grinned, his pugnacity fully awakened, his blood pumping. His situation was life-threatening, isolated from the party. But the solution to his problem could wait on the one hand, and was simple on the other. He had to fight to survive and draw as much attention to himself as possible so the party heard him.
He felt his left hand tingling, a very familiar feeling that had only one meaning. For one second before the Goblin rider charged into him, Bell charged his left fist with his Argonaut skill. He had learned to control a bit what he powered up, instead of an overall charge. Faster than the monster duo could react, Bell jumped forward and slammed his fist into the wolf's snout from below in an uppercut...Lightning crackled around it. In the past, when Blood of Zeus would trigger and charge him with a bolt of lightning, it would be random for him, now he could sense when it was about to happen.
The passive part of the skill, which granted him this lightning sometimes, contained of two parts.
Lightning and Thunder.
This time, Bell charged up the thunder part. He had turned his ear away from his fist...and that was a good thing. The lightning magic shot through the monster´s head and deep fried it´s brain instantly, turning it to ash and let the Goblin slam face first into the ice, breaking it´s neck and turning it to ash too.
At the same time, an incredibly loud thunderclap echoed through the area. He could only hear a whistle in his left ear, but it was worth it, the others must have heard him.
Bell readied his stand as more Goblin Riders charged at him, using Vesta with his right and shooting Fireballs with his left, sometimes charging them up to get two or three riders at once and to produce more sound.
It was the smartest option to make much noise and don´t wander around aimlessly.
He didn´t constantly used magic, but rememberred an old hero story he read...and acted to it. A bone spear was stuck in the ice close to him, Bell ripped the spear out of the ice, spun it, and hurled it, ripping a goblin from his wolf.
In addition to the riders, Goblins on foot also charged at him. A whirling dance of blades, spears, clubs and death began. Bell didn´t limited himself to his Knife, as the story of the old hero told, he used every weapon possible with his left hand. After slashing a Goblin´s throat, he used the club that fell to the ground to smash in the skull of another one. Letting go of the now bloody club...dungeon weapons didn´t cleaned themself like Vesta when he burned away the blood...Bell used the axe of that Goblin to hack into another one´s chest. This one used a sword, so Bell threw it into a wolf´s eye. Their large number and trying to give him no chance to escape, was now Bell´s advantage.
Goblin after Goblin charged at him, Goblin after Goblin turned to ash. This almost unknown hero from the past wasn´t known by name, only by what he did best. He didn´t had a famous sword or something like that, he just used every weapon possible.
This technique was very similar to the teachings he got over time from various people. Improvise, Adapt, Overcome. Always use the environment to your advantage.
The goblins and the wolves tried to bite more than they could swallow...a bloodthirsty killer rabbit was among them...and reaped a bloody harvest.
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When the party found him, Ais running at him with immense speed, Bell was surrounded by a large number and magic stones, ash and blood. The ash had helped him to get a better stand, in normal floors they wouldn´t even notice the ash on the ground, here it was easy to see.
"Bell!"
"Ais!"
A small tornado of golden and green wind hammered from behind into the last monsters. The two lovebirds destroyed them together, happy to be united again. Eventually the party caught up and secured the area. No new monsters came and they took a short break.
With Ais´ help at the end, Bell had slaughtered sixty-nine monsters.
"Bell Cranel, are you hurt?"
"Mr. Finn, no I am unharmed...ahm Ais...you can let go of me..."
"Don´t wanna..."
Ais clung to Bell´s side, she could catch her breath more easy at Bell´s side...she copied a bit Lena´s behaviour with Bete, recharging her Bell-energy.
"Im amazed again and again how strong you two are, Ais was unstoppable on her way to find you, I´m not sure which one of you defeated more monsters just now."
"Well, most of them were Goblins."
"True, but still."
Finn winked and whispered.
"Riveria was worried too about her son-in-law, as was Lefiya about her brother."
Bell nodded smiling, he would report to the two elves that he was safe and apologized for worrying them.
"Oy, Belli!"
"Ms. Tsubaki?"
"Quite the lucky one, aren´t you?"
The smith came grinning to him.
"What do you mean?"
Tsubaki pointed at Bell´s left bracer, the ice fang was still connected to it.
"Ice Fangs are a rare dropp item, we only had two so far on this Floor. Seems like rabbits really do bring luck."
The smith grinned with closed eyes...due to that she didn´t noticed Ais´ "glare". No one except her was allowed to call Bell a rabbit. He was a true warrior, a strong adventurer and a young hero...Rabbit was just the nickname that Ais used for him.
Not that he blamed Tsubaki.
"Is it really that rare?"
"Sure is, makes some good weapon."
"Hah..."
Bell started to pull out the fang and wanted to give it to Finn, so he could decide which supporter would transport it.
"Keep it, Bell Cranel. Your personal trophy for what you did just now."
"Hm, okay. I guess Welf will be excited to forge something with that."
Tsubaki nodded. "He surely will, you´re a good one, Belli."
When he moved to Riveria and Lefiya, the adult elf nodded to him and said she was releaved he was okay. Lefiya looked very worried and a bit shy.
"I´m okay..."little sister"."
Bell patted Lefiya´s head, the other elves, except Riveria, looked shocked because of that. They were like this since the stageplay, something deep in them was feeling right about it.
"G-Good to have you back...b-brother."
Secretely, Riveria was amazed about his different relationships with various women, but only loving one of them.
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"Allright, group up, the break is over!"
After collecting all the magic stones and the few dropp items, the party formed again and moved forward.
The first Floor of the glacial territory was really amazing.
But Bell would be even more amazed by the next one.
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Authors Note: Edit: I changed my plan, the chapters about the Icy Hell and the Great Tundra would be too similar to the ones in Like a Fairy, so we will move on to what I have planned for the next Floors.