Ice Queen in Another World – Volume 1 [Completed]

The problem with 'curling' a dungeon was that, most definitely, there were a lot of monsters to curl, and beasts were not nice in the least. As soon as they descended the cliff, and found themselves within a non-crimson valley facing barren lands, they came face to face with a group of beasts.

"These fucking moles!" Via grumbled, her feet barely avoiding the drop of dirt below her, stretching herself as she stabbed two short swords down while she flipped through the air.

A wail escaped the hole and blood spurted. A creature as large as a young child shrilled with its whiskers as her weapons dug through its eyes. It scurried within the hole, snout spitting saliva and blood, but still died by her hand.

She landed swiftly and slashed right, slicing off a stubby, bald head, of a Mole Rat who had popped its head up before it could take a bite at her.

The battlefield was as chaotic as always. She held her weapons and blocked two sets of claws, a bloodied fist smashed through the head of the beast, then ripped out as Alicia passed the area, blood bended on her hands to form gauntlets.

The vampire flapped into a bat then dived down from a height, leg smashing through hollow dirt and feet creating a mush of the unlucky beast below. She reached a hand out with a laugh of pure bliss, her fangs showing and her eyes gleaming, grasping an adventurer from a bite through his legs, then glared at the battle as the gem of her mask shined red.

"<Death's Glare>!"

The battlefield steeled for a moment as blood strings ravaged the area, ripping through the hard ground, the beasts below, and the beasts above. Adventurers rushed to follow her lead, weapons raised at the stilled and confused Mole Rats. The hideous creatures found themselves assaulted on all sides, and some moved to escape.

A screech rang and fire engulfed the sky. The bright ray of flames spewed from multiple locations, but conjoined to slam down at the earth.

"Mana Shield!" The two mages within the group raised a mana orb, draining its energy to power a more advanced form of magic they otherwise could not use on their own.

The path of fire met a dome of clear mana that covered, and protected the area. The heat rose in that moment as wings flapped within the sky. Up was an airspace covered in falcons as large as humans themselves, flapping their wings as they circled the area.

"The Blaze Falcons!" Albert yelled, rolling to evade the swipe of claws then jumping over a burrowed hole as his weapon swung, taking the head of a mole rat. In essence, they had walked in on a falcon herd coming to dine on a mole nest.

"On it," A cold voice answered back, a bolt of a crossbow striking through a feathered head before an armored knight moved to recharge.

He crouched, aimed again, tracked his target through the air, and nailed another within an eye. Clearly, he was a great marksman.

"Who do you think has killed most of them?" A monotonous voice asked, slightly amused.

A spear of ice shot from the ground, whistled through the air, and pierced through the skull of a falcon, its head bursting apart in flames. Claire moved a finger, a habit more than a need, and tracked her spear as it turned from the sky and dived down.

Two more beasts died by her hands. Then, she waved. A rain of ice spears shot forth, piercing through the mana shield with no obstruction, and curling the beasts within the air as they evaded fire.

What was left was only a rain of beasts as the flames died. And, in that way, they had a moment of calm.

"Insane. . ." A certain boy muttered.

Via swiped sweat from her forehead, frowned, then bemusedly stared at the ghostly pale face of the boy.

"You weren't attacked at all."

"Ghosts don't draw attention from beasts." Alicia waved her hand as blood seeped back into her. 

"He's not edible," Claire said, moving to freeze and dissipate the blood from her body. "Alice. . .you reek of blood."

"This entire place reeks of blood," The bunny said.

The vampire moved closer to her as the boy ignored them and stared at the battlefield littered with corpses, and various injured adventurers taking muster.

"All this seems a bit ridiculous," Vander, the boy, muttered, "This is a dungeon? I've only ever heard tales, but this seems ridiculous."

"It's not usually like this," Via rolled her eyes at the country bumpkin, then winced. She reached a hand into the pouch at her waist and pulled out a small, glass, bottle about the the size of her thumb. Within was a liquid of red.

"What do you mean?" Vander asked, watching her uncork and drink the item. 'What is that even. . .?' Was a thought he did not say.

At his question, the blonde headed soldier leading the group spoke up, standing from a glance at the falcon at his feet.

"Dungeons are automatic systems that allow Demonic Beasts to thrive," Albert said, motioning to the land before them with a hand. "They are made to keep them in and allow others to enter and exit. Some speculate that the creators made them as a training ground for humanity. Yet, even those legendary figures have their limits as, when too many beasts exist at once, the energy of the dungeon, the spatial strength, wavers. Forced to spew some monsters out to maintain stasis. . .what we call a Dungeon Break occurs. . .and that's what we're here to mitigate."

'How interesting.' Claire thought that was an acceptable lore and reasoning attached to dungeons. At the very least, it made more sense then them simply existing from nothing. Yet, she still raised an eyebrow.

"The creators?" She asked.

"The wielders of the Law Seeds. The owner of the Space Seed in addition with the elemental seeds created the dungeons."

"Interesting," She muttered, dissipating blood to ice from Alice's body before a poke drew her attention.

"Hey hey~"

"What. . .?" Claire stared at the clearly excited vampire.

A fang showed, "Can I suck your blood now?"