Conquering His Cold Heart

Squelch!

As Kiba lay trembling on the ground Frost appeared above the shuffling razor scaled yeti and stabbed its throat with his glaive, killing it in an instant.

The monster was vulnerable and completely unguarded, making for an easy kill.

"Seems that you've been holding out on me Kiba." Frost said in a playful manner while removing the blood from the glaive's blade edge.

"Garow." Kiba replied through laboured breathing, grumbling about how hard it was to actually use a move his body wasn't strong enough to handle.

"Then you must get stronger, do that and there'll be no backlash." Again the answer was strength, get stronger, train.

"Grrrr." [Fine, you win master.]

Kiba gave up on resisting, his master was right he was far too weak.

"Good boy." Frost kneeled down next to Kiba and scratched him behind the ears in praise, eliciting a happy purr from the young tiger.

"Here drink this." After a brief inspection and seeing that his partner bore no wounds Frost retrieved a stamina potion from his storage ring.

"Thanks to your little display we've drawn the eyes of a few dangerous fellows."

Kiba's mighty, fear inducing roar had reverberated throughout the surrounding area. Intimidating some while drawing the interest of others.

These others, surpassed Frost in strength and thus posed a great danger to the two of them.

It was in their best interests to avoid such individuals.

Kiba visibly shivered at the thought of facing off against something even more deadly than the razor scaled yeti. He therefore quickly downed the concoction Frost gave him before dragging his exhausted body over to the yeti's corpse.

Before the potion even had a chance to get to work Kiba began devouring the succulent meat of the yeti, relishing in the rare opportunity to delight in a monster that surpassed him in strength.

His master urged him to get stronger and what was the best way for a monster to get stronger? To eat the flesh of their defeated opponents. To absorb the residual life force and mana of their kill.

Since time was of the essence Kiba focused on the prime areas such as the heart, the liver, the mana crystal and of course the brain. All parts which held the most energy pound for pound.

He ignored everything else as did Frost, there wasn't enough time for them to pick the carcass clean of all its usable materials.

Kiba finished his meal in less than 30 seconds and soon began to feel the stamina potion as well as the meat he just devoured get to work on recovering his low energy levels.

"Ready?" Frost asked, his senses starting to pick up some movement in the distance.

"Garow." Kiba nodded his head and gestured for Frost to hop on.

The two then made a quick break for the northeast, gradually picking up speed as Kiba felt his strength return.

About a minute later next to the tattered and bloody remains of the yeti a truly giant creature appeared with a ravenous look in its eyes.

This monster stood over twelve metres tall, had six legs, thick furred covered skin and a mouth so large that it could easily swallow both Frost and Kiba in a single bite.

The creature sniffed the air for a couple seconds before looking to the northeast. It pondered on whether or not to follow after the arrogant little tiger and the one riding it before shaking its oversized head.

Chasing after them was too much of an ordeal, instead it chose to partake in the meal that was already placed before its feet.

With ease it picked up the remains of the razor scaled yeti and held them above its head.

Click!

In the next moment its jaw unhinged, and its lips spread open wide, revealing a massive maw that was filled with multiple rows of razor sharp teeth.

The monster dropped the remains into its mouth and chewed.

Crunch! Crunch! Crunch

This sound of bones shattering and flesh being devoured spread into the distance, an unsettling sound that would make even the stoutest of hearts tremble.

In a matter of seconds the entire corpse of the razor scaled yeti, a monster in the early stages of the B-rank had disappeared. The only thing remaining was the pools of blood that had started to seep into the snow as well as the droplets surrounding the lips of the frightening creature responsible.

Several other monsters that had been drawn over by the sounds of battle and Kiba's mighty roar refused to move upon seeing this creature, fear made them freeze up before each and every last one of them ran for the hills.

To fight against such a beast was madness, even the strongest among them, monsters that had reached the peak of B-rank late stage turned around and escaped, knowing full well that they weren't a match for it.

"Tsk cowards." A deep, growl-like voice escaped the frightening creature's mouth as it shrugged and moved away.

With a full belly and its rather lazy personality it couldn't be bothered chasing after such cowardly prey.

Frost did not know what kind of monster Kiba had drawn over but if he did he would certainly be thanking his lucky stars that they had left so promptly.

The duo continued to travel under the barrage of a relentless blizzard, the surrounding temperatures falling with every hour and the ground on which they trod becoming more and more treacherous. Find more to read at My Virtual Library Empire@@novelbin@@

Gone were the smooth flat lands covered in ice and snow instead before them were cliffs, iceborne spikes, deep bottomless cracks that stretched for miles and steep towering mountains that blocked the passage ahead.

For them to reach their destination they either had to directly traverse these perils or take a substantial detour.

Given their penchant for time and the current danger in taking the more official path Frost and Kiba chose to take the rougher route and because of that they found themselves inundated by fierce attacks every few kilometres.

Monster swarms that chose to live in these rough terrains didn't take too kindly to being disturbed nor did they give up the chance to delight in the foolish prey that dared to walk through their front door.

"Skrriii"

Frost and Kiba were currently being attacked by a family of scorpion like monsters, hundreds of them swarming them, never letting them have a single moment of peace.

"Garow!" Kiba loudly growled as he crushed several of the smaller breeds beneath his claws.

"Dammit are these things endless. Is there a spawner hidden somewhere nearby?" Frost with his clothes drenched in monster blood roared in frustration after slaughtering another batch of scorpions only to see another dozen or so appear from a crack to his left.

Their current situation was similar to the time they faced off against that huntsman spider and its hundreds of descendants only much, much worse.

As opposed to dealing with a single family it felt more likely that the two of them had stumbled across a community, a carved out territory where only these scorpion like monsters were allowed to exist.

4 hours, it had been 4 hours since they came across the first group and since then the attacks had been never ending.

Hundreds of tiny weak E and F-ranks chasing after them from all directions while those at the D-rank acted as commanders in the rear and occasionally made moves personally.

If that was the extent of it then the two could just outrun them, bulldoze their way through but every time they tried, or it appeared as though they might break through the encirclement something far more dangerous would rear its ugly head.

C-ranks would pop out, snarl, hiss and launch dollops of poison while a creature baring an aura no weaker than Frost's would intimidate them from afar and….below.

"Grrr."

"How was I supposed to know that the place was this infested." Frost angrily defended himself. His intel only placed a small nest in the area, a mere fraction of what they were currently up against.

Unfortunately they had delved too deep to turn back now, the only recourse was to kill their way through and reach the other side where the secret entrance to Niflheim was located.

A hidden alcove protected by either extreme terrain or devilish monster nests in seven out the possible eight directions. Few would be able to find it unless they knew exactly what they were looking for.

As long as they crossed this field of scorpions they'd be right on top of it, the temptation of being so close was just too much to pass up.

"Just kill everything, they'll make for good DP at least." Though the amount would only be a fraction when compared to what could be harvested from within the perimeter of the Dungeon, the meat of a fly was still meat.

Kiba grumbled in frustration but nevertheless kept killing the scorpion like monsters as quickly as they came. It was tedious and repetitive work lacking in flare but mildly enjoyable on the odd occasion.

Seeing hundreds of dead enemies, their bodies torn apart, crushed and disembowelled as they laid at his feet stoked his arrogance and pride.

He therefore only lightly complained in response to his master's order.