Dungeon of Niflheim

Frost and Kiba carried Colonel Casper into the western mountain following the rest of the unit while the 7 Majors held back the enemy General.

Individually they were no match for her but by working together as a single cohesive unit they could hold their own.

"Ahh you damn annoying flies!" The General from the blue horde roared out her frustrations as she lashed out with her bladed legs.

Each and every lash was equivalent to a full strength blow from a late maybe even peak stage B-rank due to the shell of solidified aura wrapped around her legs.

She was absolutely livid, her face turning red from her growing fury. Her mission was to kill Casper not these common officers.

The death of a Major even seven of them couldn't be compared to the death of a single Colonel like Casper.

The choice to attack Casper and Ridge came with great risk. Without success the consequences would be dire and their efforts would have been made in vain.

A creeping fear, a primal terror wrapped around her heart, growing more vivid with every passing second.

All she could do to resist this encroaching fear was lash out at the flies swarming around her in a desperate attempt to save their leader.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

"Kill! Kill! Kill! What are you louts waiting for! Follow them into the mountain!" The large bipedal mantis loudly ordered as she witnessed both Casper and Avalon vanish into a hole in the ground.

No matter how hard she hit or how fast she moved she couldn't escape the 7 Majors restraints. Whenever she blew one away another would simply take their place, rotating in and out so as to share the burden. They were determined to hold her in place no matter the cost.

"Hah is this all you've got." Said one the Majors as he slashed with his massive axe.

"You want to take the Colonel's life with just this, in your dreams."

"So this is what passes for A-rank in the alliance…Pathetic."

The Majors all mocked and taunted the enemy, growing her fury and redirecting her attention to them rather than the fleeing Casper.

Even if they died here today as long as Colonel Casper survived, and the catacombs weren't breached they'd consider this operation a success.

Behind them near the catacombs entrances a trio of senior Captains were left in charge of the collapse. Ordered to blow the tunnels to kingdom come the moment the enemy forces made an advance on the mountain.

"AARRGGGHH!!" The enemy General's eyes turned blood red in her anger, she gave up all manner of defence and decided to kill all the annoying flies first.

Boom!

A Major caught unprepared by the sudden aggression had his shield blown apart and his right arm broken as his body was smashed against the ground.

The others weren't quite fast enough to reach him before…

Squelch!

"AAAHHH!" One of the mantis general's bladed legs stabbed him in the gut, eviscerating his intestines and leaving a gruesome, open wound that spurted out blood like a geyser.

This decisive action didn't come without some cost, however.

Because she focused her full attention on attacking the mantis General was left open for a counterattack.

"DIE!! [Snakebite thrust]" Major Kursch with his spear in hand used his most developed skill, summoning the image of a vicious green snake around his spear. The apparition was filled with large amounts of aura, solidifying its form and giving it a terrifying glint in its eyes.

The spear and snake moving as one flew through the air, generating a high pitched ringing before crashing against the torso of the enemy General.

Two more equally strong attacks came from two other Majors. Their attacks landing at the same time, their enemy incapable of defending herself.

Don! Don! Squelch!

The three attacks were on the mark, one to the torso another to the back and the last to the head. The timing was perfect, the strength behind them immense and all at the exact same time, impossible to block.

Unfortunately their opponent was an A-rank monster, and they were just B-rank, not even at the peak.

The attack on the back crashed against the General's carapace with a loud thud, 50% of the power was absorbed by a barrier of aura while the rest was endured by the strength of her natural body, resulting in nothing but a small mostly superficial crack.

Mantis monsters were not just strong physically but highly armoured thanks their dense exoskeletons. Breaching their carapace with sub star weaponry was an almost impossible task.

And the opponent before them was not just any mantis monster but one that had reached the A-rank. The hardness of her exoskeleton likely rivalled that of 4 star metals at the very least.

An axe filled with primal strength slashed at her head, but it was easily caught by her razor sharp mandibles.

There was no crack or nick with this one, but her mandibles were heavily bruised by the blow. Despairingly however at the moment they appeared pristine, not even a slight blemish left after taking the Major's axe skill head on.

Finally there was Kursch's spear and unlike his two colleagues he actually drew some blood. The snake apparition tore apart her aura defence at the expense of its form while the spear thrust straight for a discoloured spot on her torso, likely left behind by Jared, Danielle or perhaps the meteor summoned by General Jessica and the magic corps.

He didn't know the origin of the weak point but nevertheless he set his sights upon it.

His spear met with great resistance but eventually it plunged through a chink in the carapace and reached soft flesh.

The head went in as far as 70% of its length before being unable to continue. Thin streams of the General's blood flowed along the spearhead's narrow grooves, dripping down onto the snow below.

There was an eerie silence that seemed to linger forever.

The A-rank mantis General that was roaring a second ago was completely silent as she looked down and saw the spear thrust into her torso. She felt pain, true pain.

A B-rank trash actually wounded her glorious body, such an insult couldn't be allowed to pass.

Without a single sound or warning her right foreleg cut through the air and smashed into Major Kursch sending him flying like a sack of bricks.

"Cough!" Such a blow rattled his organs and nearly dislocated his shoulder. The opponent was far stronger than he thought.

Following him the soldiers who attacked her back and head were also sent flying a moment later, powerless to resist such immense force.

Crack!

The axe that was still lodged in the mantis General's mandibles was turned into scrap metal the moment she bit down. A half-step 4 star weapon, crushed just like that.

The owner couldn't even bemoan his loss as he crashed into the ground with his wounded body.

Kursch's spear was snapped in half, the shaft tossed into the distance while the head remain lodged within her torso.

The last weapon failed to pierce her carapace and was thus still in the hands of the woman she just sent flying.

Things weren't looking good, their formation was completely shot, half of them were injured -one in critical condition- and separated across the battle zone.

They could only compete with an A-rank enemy if they worked together as a cohesive unit. Split apart they'd be easy pickings and unfortunately the enemy General had set her sights on her first target.

The man she stabbed in the gut earlier.

She chose to kill the one in critical condition first and then gradually pick off the rest, one by one.

By this point she had completely forgotten about her mission to hunt down Colonel Casper.

She was so focused on the annoying flies buzzing around her that she let her anger override her judgement, and because that she forgot something important.

Her anger made her ignore her sense of danger, that looming dread and pressure that made her very skin crawl and heart struggle for every beat had been forgotten.

With murder in her eyes she glared at the seriously wounded Major bleeding from his gut, his allies desperately trying to cover for him and or drag him to safety.

Her glare made the battle hardened man shiver in fear, he turned to look up at the woman's insectoid face and a moment later she was right in front of him with her bladed forelegs armed and ready to slice him apart.

His mind became blank, and his sense of time slowed down to a crawl. He watched as she towered over his body, feeling harmless and fragile in the face of an apex predator.

Fear? Yes he did feel afraid. He didn't want to die but what he worried about more was the comrades currently by his side, ready to block this incoming blow that was sure to be fatal.

If he just lay here, his friends would be seriously wounded, and his death would merely be delayed for a moment.

The choice was obvious.

With a determined smile on his lips he ignored the pain in his gut and picked himself up. He saw his fractured shield by the wayside…useless, but his sword, that was still tightly gripped in his left hand was whole.

Pushing his comrades out of the way he charged forward with his sword, eager for a glorious death.

'No court martial for me I guess.'