Please read the author's notes. (Examples and explanation of moves and appearance+ Monster Sources)
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CHAPTER START---
---Dungeon Floor 24...
Walking through the massive forest of the 24th floor, the Trifecta can be seen strolling alone, with Thalie and Welf trailing a few feet behind Yang as he incinerates the small monsters that occasionally attack them.
"Honestly you kinda make things way too easy, like having a convenient assistant haha," Thalie jokes as she sees Yang incinerate another set of Deadly Hornets.
"Yeah well lucky you, you're teamed with a mage that has high mind regen and no chanting,"
As their banter goes back and forth, Welf speaks up.
"Hey, can I take point for a bit, kinda sick of you guys babysitting me, and I might as well get some exelia right, can't always rely on you two to fight for me," Welf says as he quickens his pace.
"Yeah sure thing," Yang says as he lets Welf walk past him.
"Didn't you say you wanted us to get there faster, figured having you take point would be the fastest..." Thalie mutters as Yang falls into step beside her.
"Eh, we're already here, he needs to level up if he wants to get into the field with us anyway so might as well let him, besides, you think anything here can give more exelia than Amphisbanea..."
"Yeah good point, thinks on these jungle floors tend to get...gross... I'd rather not use my short daggers so doesn't really bother me," Thalie finishes as she takes a sip from her water skin.
Glancing at her from the corner of his eye, Yang casually reaches out and touches her water-skin with the tip of his finger, a cold chill flows through the item, chilling the contents within.
"Huh, well if the adventuring thing isn't for you, the bars will love you," Thalie jokes as she takes another sip.
As they progress through the dungeon floor, passing between more and more massive trees, Welf continues cutting down every monster he can, effectively soloing the floor and its smaller monsters thus far, granted, nothing above level 2 has attacked them as of yet.
As Welf raises his blade, the fist of another Hobgoblin(Bigger Goblin) slams onto the flat of his greatsword. With a grunt, he focuses his strength and pushes the monster off while simultaneously turning on his heel to decapitate the Hobgoblin at his back.
"Nice one, but you attracted some more," Thalie casually calls out from beside the battle.
Sitting on a log with Yang, both level 4 adventurers watch their teammate fighting a group of Hobgoblins, completely unbothered, confident that they can intervene if things get too serious.
"It feels like they're endless, what was that the twelfth one so far right, and two more just showed up," Yang asks Thalie.
"Eh, he doesn't kill them fast enough, the fight keeps bringing more," She quickly replies.
"Huh, how come I never have that issue?" Yang questions.
"You do, but most people aren't meatheads that smile when they see more monsters, most of us are sane," She comments while rising to her feet.
"Bored already?"
"Kinda yeah, maybe he'll find something that's actually fun to fight on the lower levels," She coldly replies while approaching the fight.
As Thalie draws a dagger and quickly helps Welf clear the remaining monsters, Yang takes a look at his surroundings one more time before making to leave, the jungle floors always brought him a sense of calm, the water palace does as well but he feels more comfortable on these floors.
Looking at the trees above him, he notices some massive claw marks on the trees, above where any monster he has seen before can reach. Squinting his eyes a bit, he focuses on the tree trunk around the marks, a sense of familiarity washes over him, unsure what it is exactly, he decides to take a closer look.
With one Wind assisted leap, he ascends almost 25 meters into the air before sinking the fingers of his gauntlet into the bark to anchor himself.
The scent of a pungent musk immediately assaults his senses as he grabs onto the tree.
'About 9 inches deep, three massive claws, and is that...'
Reaching forward he feels around the claw mark before pulling his hand back, a thick coating a green mucus now coating his fingers, as he separates his fingers the mucus refuses to let go.
'Definitely familiar, something weird is going on here,' He thinks to himself as he drops to the dungeon floor below.
"So care to explain what that was about?" Thalie questions as she walks up to him with Welf in tow, weapons already cleaned and placed at her side.
"This," He says, showing her the mucus on his hand.
"UGH! Get that outta my face man," she says while pushing his wrist to the side.
"Does it look familiar to either of you, cuz I can't help but feel like I've seen it before..." Yang ponders.
"Uh, just looks like monster slime to me, what you thinking?" Welf adds.
"Well, is it just me... or are those new..." He says while pointing high into the 50-meter canopy.
As Thalie and Welf crane their necks upward, they squint to see exactly what he's talking about. After a few seconds, realization dawns on them causing their eyes to widen in surprise.
"That looks like... now way, what would cause that?" Welf questions, wonder clear in his voice.
"A bridge in the canopy, a bridge made of vines...maybe a new monster?" Thalie questions as she focuses on the bridge connecting the massive branches above.
'Man I hope I'm wrong about this,' Yang thinks as water forms around his hand to wash away the mucus.
"Let's go check it out, could be something new," Yang says, but with no real excitement in his voice, a change that puts Thalie on guard immediately.
Stealing a glance at the young mage, the assassin gives him a once-over, seeing the nervousness in his eyes and the slight agitation as his hands shake a bit.
'Excitement... no... worry... both?' She questions to herself as she studies him for a moment.
'He knows something, or thinks he knows something,' she concludes.
"Sure, Welf stays behind us up there, think you can get us up there without roasting us?" Thalie jokes, trying to lighten the mood.
"Yeah, just hand on," he replies with a small smile.
As he walks between both adventurers, he drops both hands at his side while focusing his magic, slowly raising his hands with palms facing upward, a current of wind begins lifting the three adventurers off their feet.
"Huh, how good are you with this?" Thalie questions.
"Good enough to use it like a... lift, of some kind, needs focus to keep the right amount of force in check," he says, hesitating for a moment as he forgets this world doesn't have elevators.
As the Trifecta ascend toward the canopy, their feets touch down onto the fauna bridge, granting them a moment to observe this new change to the dungeon.
"Hmm, it looks like the vines just grew like this, maybe a moss huge or something... could be a new monster..." Thalie says before muttering more and more theories to herself.
As Welf cuts a sample of the vine off, Yang is in his own head having a mild panic attack,
"FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK.... ok, deep breath. Yes, this bridge looks exactly like the bridges from the Ancient Forest map of Monster Hunter World. Yes, it is new and happen to be made around the time I came to this world. Yes those claw marks looked like HIS and had mucus that seemed similar to HIS, but that doesn't mean the dungeon is suddenly swapping those kinds of monsters... I hope'
"---this out" Yang hears the tail end of Welf's call.
"What, sorry I was lost in thought,"
"I said, check this out,"
Walking over to his smith, Yang sees him at one end of the bride, leading into a massive hollowed out tree with floors of vines connecting to each other.
"Fuck..." Is all Yang has to say
'He definitely knows something...' Thalie notes to herself.
"Yeah and look, more of that stuff you found..." Welf says, pointing out more claw marks and mucus.
'If that thing is here, then it's probably because the dungeon somehow scanned me... or maybe those monsters were from this world first, I mean, they've got goblins and games back home had those too right...' he thinks to himself while looking at the trail of claw marks ascending the bridges within the tree.
"Let's see what causes it, stay behind me..." Yang says before walking toward to top of the tree.
Noticing his serious attitude, his teammates immediately draw their weapons as they trail a few feet behind him.
'He's spooked...' Thalie concludes as she watches the rigid way he is carrying himself.
As they walk up the natural pathways which form a swirling roadway of vines and other plants toward the top of the canopy, they find an opening in the tree. Stepping outside, a vast array of massive branches, meters wide connect to each other as if to form a natural roadway.
"Wow, this is---"
"SHH!" yang immediately shushes Thalie, "Listen..." he says, closing his eyes and focusing.
As Thalie focuses, her level 4 senses... the faint sound of branches snapping meets her ears.
"Hmm..."
"Yeah," Yang says, confirming that he hears the same thing.
'This looks just like the Ancient Forest level from the game, I can't take any chances here,'
"Be ready to race back to either the 23rd floor or forward to the 24th floor, this could go very very bad," he warns, igniting his mage armor, blue flames and purple lightning flare to life on his armor and he walks forward.
"Is it me, or is he actually worried..." Welf nervously asks, unsure of what he's seeing as Yang is usually confident to a fault.
"Something's up, just do as he says and stay close to me," Thalie replies as she follows behind Yang, toward the sound of the branches snapping.
As they progress further flattened plants and torn up wood litters the path in certain areas, Yang pauses for a moment, stopping at one of the massive three-toed footprints.
The footprint larger than the size of a regular man, three deep claw gashes at the point of the toes, as he kneels beside it his mage armor subsides as he looks around at the branches above.
"Mhm, this could be bad..." he says.
Leaping above before landing back on his feet with a thud. More mucus in his hand. Seeing this, Thalie gives him a weary look as she poses another question.
"So... finally gonna explain why you're so interested in the mucus, or what you think it is?"
"Something big, angry, and that can breathe fire, I'm really, really, really hoping I'm wrong here," He says, washing the mucus from his hand with some conjured water and following the path a bit faster now.
"So am I the only one nervous here?" Welf whispers to Thalie as he walks beside her.
"Definitely not, I think h---"
Her words are abruptly cut off as Yang suddenly lunges backward and pushes both her and Welf against the trunk of the massive tree.
"Shhh..." he shushes them as they can feel as though he is trying to crush them into the tree.
"What did you see?" Thalie questions, not knowing what he saw around the corner that has him this startled.
"Shh-"
*THOM!*
The sound of a massive footstep cuts him off, causing bot their eyes to widen a bit.
*THOM!*
it sounds louder now, closer, almost as if.
*THOM!*
Stepping out from around the corner, one massive reptilian foot, covered in pink scales and small patches of fur, three massive claws at the tip of each toe as they dig into the ground.
*THOM!*
Another foot follows up. The large figure of the pink reptile, a patch of fur on its back as a familiar mucus drips from its tooth-riddled maw, the long tail trailing behind it, meters behind as it sways left and right. It's two short arms hanging under it as it stalks forward.
As the creature walks past, loud steps echoing past the Trifecta, appearing unbothered as it roams about, its head 15 meters above the ground, far above the adventurers.
Looking toward Yang, Thalie and Welf are somewhat confused and concerned, confused as to why he's apparently showing this much caution to a monster on the 24th floor after killing the 27th-floor monster rex solo, and concerned that he IS weary of this new monster.
As the monster rounds another corner and the adventurers step away from the wall, releasing a breath he didn't realize he was holding, Yang mutters one word.
"Anjanath..."
END CHAPTER---
Picture provided in the chapter comment and paragraph comment "Anjanath..."
I genuinely feel bad about this cliffhanger, really wish this was a Monday chapter tbh :/