Dungeon of Niflheim

"What you never been teased before?" Frost asked playfully.

"Not…not like that." Khione's anger instantly shifted back to embarrassment as her mind returned to those provocative images.

The image of Frost without his robes, his bare skin on full display as he groped and fondled Maya's equally naked body. At one point she even imagined herself in her place. Frost with his enchanting visage, staring deep into her eyes as her hand grasped around something hot, hard and pulsing.

The longer she dwelled on such thoughts the redder she became and eventually her entire body felt hot and bothered, a rather foreign feeling for Khione but not one that she found all that uncomfortable.

When it came to the matters of romance and adult relations the youngest daughter of the Primordial Ice King was completely ignorant. At 22 years old she was yet to have a single boyfriend, yet to experience the feeling of her first crush, yet to kiss another person on the lips.

Of course she understood the base mechanics thanks to her mother and several elder sisters but whenever they tried to ask her in depth about her romantic aspirations, her ideal type, the idea of having her own children she would place her fingers in her ears and run away to train. She showed no interest in experiencing love and thanks to her being the apple of everyone's eyes no one pushed her, allowing her to focus solely on her martial strength and ignore all else…..at least until now.

"Hoh….well now you have." Frost almost felt guilty as he watched Khione shift between anger, embarrassment, confusion and…curiosity. His little stunt may have corrupted a once pure mind.

Upon realising this he remembered his own innocence and the face of the women who slowly but surely turned him into the man he was now.

"Shall we continue with what we were doing earlier or do you want to hear more about my…"

"NO! no more" Khione jumped in shock, her hands quickly covering Frost's lips so he couldn't speak.

He could take advantage of this situation and lick her smooth, delicate fingers but that would be a step too far. He only wanted to tease her, not actually flirt with the Raging Valkyrie.

Eventually after a period of eery silence and contemplation Frost once again stood opposed to Khione. She had managed to regain her usual calm and held her spear across her shoulders.

"You have a strong physique for your rank and a form well suited for pole weapons. How high is your mastery over the glaive?" Khione asked, needing more information before she began her instructions.

"Advanced, roughly mid stage." His Glaive mastery had struggled to advance much since he reached B-rank, only through repeatedly placing himself against worthy opponents did he see himself improve at a speed he deemed appropriate. To others however his speed was monstrous, world defying even.

"Acceptable albeit barely." Khione narrowed her eyes and sternly nodded, finding his level to be just within the minimum margins. Ideally one should be at the A-rank and have either expert mastery or late stage advanced mastery before they began learning the Niflheim royal spear arts, but the first steps were doable with less. It wouldn't be easy however, Frost's talent would be put to the test.

"Can you wield any other weapons, ideally pole weapons with a similar nature, spears, partisans, halberds etc…" The Niflheim royal family's spear arts were compatible with most bladed pole weapons not just spears. Having mastery over other type would make the learning process a little easier if the prime mastery was lacking.

"I can probably fight with them if needed but no I've not gained any mastery in any other weapons." He'd only been alive for 18 months, not enough time to branch out with other weapon types.

"Then this is going to be a lot harder than expected." Frost's answers only served to give Khione a headache but ultimately whether or not he managed to learn anything was not her problem. She would teach him to the best of her abilities regardless.

"Before I show you the first few stances of my father's spear arts you need to understand the methodology behind it." Khione slammed the butt of her spear against the ice floor and radiated the air of a strict drill sergeant.

Frost felt as though he was back in the presence of Maya, his skin even formed goosebumps, warning him of the coming pain.

"Show me your mastery over ice." She demanded as an elegant set of chakra ice armour covered 70% of her body in an instant. Both her speed of creation and the strength of the armour even the thinnest sections far surpassed whatever Frost could muster. He was in awe of her display, finding her style and natural affinity with ice chakra inspiring. He still had a long way to go.

Not dwelling on his inferiority Frost summoned his own chakra, forming a solid set of armour that covered over 90% of his body and several tendrils of ice fire that wrapped around both his glaive and throughout the underlayer of his armour.

The journey through the realm of Niflheim and his face to face meeting with Shivali brought him a great deal of inspiration in regards to how he channelled his ice chakra. He had seen the effects of combining both cold flames and solid ice within many buildings throughout both the city and the palace. The fusion seeming to improve both the physical and magical durability thus he tried a small experiment.

'Not bad for a first try.' He internal remarked already noticing a small difference in his armour but it came with an increase in demand for energy and concentration.

"Good, your chakra control is quite advanced for someone in the middle stages of B-rank." Khione nodded her head in approval, finding his armour -albeit a little crude- effective, easily able to endure the rigours of a battle between individuals at the B-rank.

'He can use the cold fire property as well, not bad.' Regular ice chakra had a fair amount of shortcomings but by changing it into a cold flame many of them could be overcome albeit one.

"Ice chakra and ice based spells even those with the property of cold flames can be devastating to one's enemy. Boasting both strong offensive and even stronger defensive capabilities but they do have one major shortcoming. What would that be Frost." Asked Khione.

"…Speed, there is no way to increase one's speed regardless of whether it's through magic or chakra." Frost didn't have to think for long before giving Khione his answer, the weakness was quite evident after all.

"Correct, no matter how we channel it there is no known method or spell of the ice element that can increase our speed. Even my father has found himself powerless to change this fact. Our speed relies solely upon our own physical capabilities." If one could not use other elements like Frost and Khione they either had to rely on others or artifacts to increase their base speed.

The most ice could do is allow one to skate rather than run, not really an enhancement in speed.

Khione's answer made Frost visibly frown, a problem that even the mighty Primordial Ice King the origin of the ice element could not remedy, what chance did he a young Dungeon core have then.

"My family's spear arts aim to reduce this weakness." With grace and an air of intimidation Khione twirled her spear in hand before entering the Niflheim spear arts first stance.

"Every motion, every flowing pathway of both internal mana and aura helps the wielder to establish a zone of influence." Khione moved to the arts second stance, creating a light blue sphere around her that only she could envision.

"The first stance is called the creation of the lunar eyes while the second is called the opening of the lunar eyes." As she spoke Khione's blue eyes sparkled with light, her mana and aura freely flowing through them in a precise manner. "With the second stance a radius of 5 metres at least when you reach my mastery is established with me at the centre."

Frost couldn't see this so called zone, but he could somehow sense it, instinctively feel that if he entered the sphere he'd become an instant target.

Khione moved to the third stance, her presence becoming even more intimidating, waves of ice aspected chakra and aura crashing directly into her brain.

The world before her now slowed to a crawl, her perception of time changing as her mind worked overtime. Such a method would normally quickly fry a person's mind but thanks to the cooling effects of the ice such a thing did not come to pass.

"The third stance, gaze of the lunar eyes." The Niflheim royal family's spear arts were based around the use of the so called Lunar eyes. A powerful state that dramatically increased the user's, spatial control, reaction speed and perception of their surroundings.

Frost would need to first learn and master the three stances before learning the many moves and forms dedicated to actual battle.

"With the third stance my perception of time can be altered, allowing me to react to opponents far quicker than I." The lunar eyes while in full effect place a great burden upon the user thus their time dilation effect is usually only activated when someone enters the sphere of influence.

"Attack me with your glaive Frost."