Please read the author's notes. (Examples and explanation of moves and appearance+ Monster Sources)
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pat.treon:/Keanu_Eugene
CHAPTER START---
"Can't believe you didn't even let me fight one of those, c'mon!" Tiona whines as they all run through the 24th floor.
"Get over it, you'll get to fight lots of giant frogs when you're with Finn." Yang casually brushes off her whining.
The amazon had been getting antsy from the lack of combat. Currently, Welf and Thalie were slicing, dicing, and burning everything in their way, their team had yet to slow down since Thalie was ordered to join the vanguard as soon as they entered the current floor.
As they run through the tunnel toward the water palace, Yang changes things up a bit, partly to brighten the amazons day, but mostly for his team and to avoid Thalie trying to tear his head off for the shortcut he's about to use.
"When we get to the 25th floor we're splitting up. Ladies take the tunnels and meet us down at floor 27's main room. Welf and I are gonna jump down and try something."
"Should I be worried?" Welf asks.
"Nah you'll be fine, alright this is where we split, Tiona feel free to join the fight," Yang commands as they separate, the women breaking off to the right while he and Welf run directly toward the lake.
"FINALLY!" Tiona cheers as she eagerly raises her greatsword.
As Welf and Yang reach the lake, even with Welf in front neither of them stops running. Welf runs across the water as if it were expected that he'd be able to stand on it, because it was.
He knew Yang would make the surface solid, just like they naturally fell into formation when dealing with certain enemies. Weeks of constant combat side by side tend to make you become quickly in sync with your allies.
"JUMP!" Yang orders, and without hesitation Welf leaps over the edge of the cliff.
Hundreds of meters below them rest the 27th floor's main room. A lake that holds the monster rex that unfortunately isn't spawned yet. A large forest where Yang camped for a while. And even from this height they could see the outlines of monsters in the water and walking across the land.
"WHAT'S THE PLAN?" Welf asks as they both fall side by side.
"Use the sword, use flames like I do and slow your fall, good luck," Yang says while stopping his own fall,
As Yang stops falling Welf immediately loses sight of him.
"AHHHHH!" He yells out, realizing now that he has to save himself, he genuinely thought Yang was going to carry them down.
Swinging Mōsōka downward, barely 500m from the the lake, a massive pillar of flames erupts out of the sword directly toward the floor.
His momentum is barely slowed as he finds himself falling through the pillar of flame itself.
"DAMN IT!"
He swings down again, closing his eyes and focusing his magic more and more.
After a few moments, he opens his eyes to see that he's being lowered at a much slower pace.
Concentrating his flames had eased his fall much more than before, but nowhere near the level of flame control Yang had to be able to fly around freely.
As he drops onto the floor, panting with beads of sweat running down his face, fishmen and crab monsters begins approaching.
"NO BREAKS!" Yang announces, hovering above the new battlefield.
---Meanwhile...
Thalie and Tiona were having a blast. Both the level 5s were facing no real challenge as they rushed through the winding tunnels between the floors.
Water reaching up to their knees didn't bother them as they swung their weapons and divided everything in their path.
"This is pretty fun!" Tiona starts up a conversation as they continue running and killing monsters.
"Isn't this every day for you?"
"Nah, we move a lot slower. We can't all run like this ya know."
"Lefiya?"
"Mostly, but we tend to pick up as much loot as we can. You guys are just ignoring it all, how come?"
"Few reasons, don't need the money. Don't need the items. Deeper floors have better stuff. We have a specific goal."
"Oh yeah, what's that?"
"You'll see soon enough anyway, Udaeus," Thalie admits, not as if they could hide it from their tag along.
"KNEW IT! The captain said it was that, you guys wanna kill it with just three people huh."
"Nope, how many of you guys does it take?"
"Well, normally my familia just attacks at once. We have the same plan for most big monsters, Riveria starts her chanting while we run-up to the room, she starts with a big hit, then we fight until she's ready again and we give her space. Hasn't failed us yet."
"And how long does that usually take for that monster?"
"Dunno, maybe 15 minutes?"
"Hmm, well Miracle Boy tends to break records, maybe he'll do it again," Thalie says with a small smile.
"Why do you call him that?"
"Because, how else would anyone make sense of his absurd growth."
"That...fair enough."
Eventually, Thalie and Tiona found Yang and Welf on a battlefield on the 27th floor.
Welf was still fighting a few monsters, more and more fishmen continued to crawl out of the lake to challenge him. Yang sat in a tree nearby watching the show.
"Hey ladies, had fun?" Yang asks.
"Yeah, girl time ya know. Want me to help him?" Thalie asks.
"Nah, we were just waiting for you two, WELF LET'S GO!"
A massive arc of blood-red flames incinerates the battlefield from one large swing of Mōsōka as Welf makes his way over to the group.
"Alright, let's get going, we'll switch up the formation when we hit floor 32---"
"Shouldn't we take a break, he's been fighting non-stop," Tiona suggests.
"This is all part of the process, trust me," Yang explains.
With those words, they shot off toward the deeper floors. Thalie and Welf in the vanguard once more.
As they cut a swathe through the floors, in almost no time compared to their previous expedition they arrive at floor 31.
This is the fastest any of them, including Tiona, has ever traversed these floors. Not by a difference of power, but because the Trifecta had a different goal than collecting crystals and drop items. They simply treated monsters as things trying to get in their way and tore through them.
As they run through the 31st floor, a loud roar echoes through the caverns.
"Stop," Yang commands, the entire group immediately holds their positions in the rocky terrain of the 31st floor.
"Anyone else hears that?" he asks quietly.
As everyone strains their ears, they hear, snarling.
"That sounds so familiar... I just can't place it... definitely heard it before," he mutters out.
"It sounds like dogs, what's so weird about it?" Tiona asks.
"Is this one of..." Thalie gives him a raised brow, Welf immediately caught on to what she was asking.
Maybe this was one of the monsters only he knew about.
"Let's stay cautious and check it out, it's coming from this way," he points to a pathway the leads away from the exit to the deeper floor.
"Let's get to it," with his command given, Welf and Thalie take point as they begin walking toward the source of the noise.
A few minutes later, Welf raises his hand to signal them to stop. Everyone takes a few steps away from the corner as he brings them in closer to explain.
"Dog, muscly, red, big teeth and claws," He says bluntly.
"Fur?" Yang asks.
"No."
"Odogaron huh."
"A pack," Thalie adds, "how deadly?"
"Extreme reflexes and combat speed, weak to poison. Super aggressive, never backs down from a fight even in death. How many?"
"5," Thalie informs.
"Hmm, Thalie take two, Welf takes two and, you want one Tiona?" he asks the amazon.
"New monster, hell yeah. And I want a claw or something ok?" She asks, knowing they tend to move on before the bodies completely become ash.
"Yeah sure thing, I'll hang back here. Don't let it cut you, the claws have a protein that causes profuse bleeding in victims," he explains with a nod before they all begin to walk away.
"Wow, he's really taking this leader thing seriously huh..." Tiona whispers to Thalie and Welf as they sneak up to the room the monsters are in.
"Yeah since we've had this team really, he defers to me if people are involved but down here, in the dungeon is where he's the boss without a doubt. Adventuring is his thing," Thalie explains.
"And he studied all the new monster info the guild gave out, I couldn't even stay awake after the first few, man he's just like Finn," Tiona admits.
"Well, wouldn't go that far, Finn is a hero, and Yang really doesn't care about that..." Welf adds.
"Huh?"
"Don't worry about it, we've all got our own reasons for being down here after all," Thalie says as they round the corner, "Welf, start the show." She says with a small smile on her face.
"Alright," Welf agrees while building magic into Mōsōka.
Five of the 18ft long and 8ft tall(At their shoulder) doglike monsters stood in the room, gnawing at something just beyond the adventurer's sightline. Their large bodies strapping with muscles barely contained by their red skin, no fur to cover them whatsoever. Two sets of claws on each paw, one stacked above the other like shark teeth and large fangs protruding from their mouths.
As more and more mana flows into the sword, the inner red walls of the weapon begin to glow brighter and brighter.
The gap between the blades slowly but surely fills with blood-red flames before it becomes solid.
In one massive motion, he swings the sword up and over his head before coming down in one large vertical swipe.
*FOOM!*
A massive cone of fire erupts from the weapon. Crashing waves of scorching flames spread across the room and slam into everything in sight.
Like waves against the shore, the entire terrain is battered by flames and heat.
Tiona holds Yang's cloak tightly as the intense heat causes her to take a step away from her allies.
She's grateful that she hadn't refused the cloak now, Welf's flames wouldn't severely damage her but the fire still hurts.
"RAARRGHH!" A series of growls and howls are heard through the waves of fire as the outlines of the monsters are just barely noticeable.
"Ready ladies?" Welf asks as the flames subside for them to see the injured monsters.
"Uh, the floor..." Tiona says, nodding toward the glowing stone floor.
"My bad," Welf places the tips of his weapons' blades against the floor, pulling the heat into his magic sword. This earned a surprised stare from both ladies.
"It's one of a kind for a reason ya know," he says with a cocky grin.
Now that the barefoot amazon could comfortably walk, they all rushed toward the monsters.
As both sides charge towards each other, Welf slashes down, a thin wall of flame shoots out and separates two of the monsters on his side from the others, drawing all of their attention to himself.
As one of the Odogarons pounces toward him with its maw open.
In one smooth motion, he leaps to his left, evading the attack while slashing downward on the monster's front leg.
It whimpers while ragdolling across the floor, its newly injured leg unable to properly support the landing.
As the second monster strikes out, already too close for him to make any large motion, he raises his sword to block the claw swipe. One of the massive claws digs into his forehead, causing blood to begin running down his face and making him keep his right eye shut.
Pouring magic into his blade, he ignites Mōsōka, the claw is severed as the monster reels back, taking the chance Welf stabs forward with his sword, a small pillar of flame blasts forward and eviscerates the monster.
Turning on his heel just in time he slashes downward vertically, dividing the remaining monster at his back right down the middle with a sharp line of flame.
"Damn, how the hell am I supposed to top this," he asks himself while looking down at Mōsōka. He made this weapon because he can't level up as fast as Yang, this was his way of making up for that. But now that he's had a chance to let loose with it the power is scaring even him.
With the other combatants, the moment the wall of fire split the enemys' focus Tiona was the first on this side to engage properly.
"FETCH!" she yells out while throwing her greatsword at her chosen opponent.
Reacting quicker than other monsters of this level would, the Odogaron raises a paw and swipes at the weapon, diverting the force and knocking it off course, what it didn't react in time to however, was Tiona.
The amazon used her powerful legs to rocket toward the monster with one leap, tackling it in the shoulder as she began punching her way straight to the crystal within. A straightforward and brutal assault that matched the style of the current victim.
Thalie saw this and quickened her pace to avoid having both her targets focus on the amazon.
Throwing a dagger at one of the monsters, it moves its head to quickly dodge the object aimed at its eye.
Reaching up to the targets, she stabs forward with her spear, the monster once more reacts quickly and avoids the blade.
As it reels back the other swipes at her from the side, she raises her spear and blocks it with the Durandal shaft, using her new level 5 strength stat to push the claw to the side, causing it to slam into the ground beside her as she moves in one fluid motion to thrust her spear into the skull of the monster. The body instantly goes limp as it dies.
Hearing the other Odogaron behind her, she quickdraws a yellow shuriken from her holster within one of the gaps in her armor and throws it at the growling sound behind her.
As the shuriken leaves her fingers, it travels for barely a meter before it transforms into a column of yellow lighting.
As she turns around, the monster's head and everything behind it all the way to the tail is missing as a burnt trench runs through the stone floor.
The left and right sides of the monster immediately begin to fade into ash.
"Damn, what was that?" Tiona asks, finding her way beside Thalie the amazon holds a few monster claws and is covered in blood, none of it belonging to her.
"Crozzo magic sword, barely the size of my palm, damn..." she mutters out, her mind still trying to understand how it was that strong, trying to imagine how powerful a Crozzo greatsword, or gods forbid Mōsōka really is.
"Uh, let's head back to Yang, this thing isn't stopping."
Looking over at the voice, both women see Welf holding the cut on his head as the bleeding continues.
As they walk back to the entrance where Yang watched the entire fight, with Tiona holding her greatsword he removes a potion and heals Welf's cut after cleaning it with water.
"C'mon you too..." he motions to Tiona.
"WhaAAHHHH!" her confusion turns to a surprised yell as warm water suddenly flows over her, washing away the monster blood and grime.
"Better?" he asks while emanating heat and standing beside her to warm her up.
"Uh, thanks, a little warning next time please..."
"When you aren't borrowing my stuff you can stay as filthy as you want," he says as they begin their adventure once more.
Looking at herself a bit, it had completely slipped Tiona's mind that she was brawling on a monster while wearing a hundred million Valis cloak that wasn't hers...
END CHAPTER---