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---
---Dungeon floor 44...
"So, anyone else disappointed with these guys or just me?" Yang asks while punching another Flame Rock in the face.
Upon entering the final room of this floor, dozens of 12ft tall rock monsters erupted from the stone walls.
The recent floors had regressed into the monotony of becoming a cave system, however, the deeper they got the hotter the temperature rose, and now they finally saw a hint of why that was.
The Flame Rocks were tall humanoid-shaped monsters with a hole where they would have had a face, molten rock pouring out of their face hole as well as smaller holes randomly formed around their body as they appear. Dangerous creatures that apparently got buffed when the dungeon changed.
"We aren't all lava proof or whatever..." Thalie says while slashing a monster in half.
"We've been fighting these guys for two floors, I'm with Yang on this one," Tiona adds in, she'd long since collected some Flame Rock cores for a quest her familia had accepted. Their plan is to get to the safe zone then Finn would dispatch teams to go complete the quests on these floors, with Yang at her side however she decided to ask him for a hand in saving her friends a trip. He didn't see any reason to refuse the girl.
As a wave of magma is belched toward Welf, he swings his sword and sends a sharp arc of flames forward. The blood-red flames divide the magma and bisect a column of Flame Rocks, giving him more room to move around.
With a flying kick, Tiona launches one of the monsters backward, toppling a dozen more as it gets hurled across the room.
They'd been fighting for a few hours already, since entering floor 40 Yang insisted they challenge as many rooms as possible in the lead up to the safe zone, he deemed it necessary to properly train when entering new floors.
None of them had faced a real challenge yet as they were all fighting together, no longer was it just Welf and Thalie. This wasn't about challenging themselves, it was about quickly moving through this floor while experiencing as many of its monsters as possible.
With relentless vigor they cleared out the room, leaving broken monsters in their wake as they ignored the crystals and drop items, they were heading to deeper floors anyway.
As they enter the 46th floor, this is when things change.
The Freya familia had been tasked with double-checking maps and guild data up to floor 50 on their last expedition. The rising heat on these floors was new and reported in their information, and so were the rivers of molten rocks that can be found from this floor onward to floor 49.
The layout of the dungeon hadn't changed, but the danger of the very environment increased the deeper you went from this point onward. The heat wasn't bothering them simply because of their skills or equipment, borrowed equipment in the case of Tiona as she was still wearing Yang's cloak.
Leaping over a small stream of lava, they continued deeper into the floor, until a familiar yet different monster appeared.
"Huh, anyone else kinda wanna keep one as a pet?" Yang asks, earning a glare from everyone in his party.
"Can you please stop trying to pet monsters..." Thalie grumbles as she takes a fighting stance.
"Mmm, no."
As they enter the room, dozens of floor 46 variants of the small floor 13 monsters, the Hell Hounds, immediately detected them.
The small puppies of floor 13 that would shoot balls of fire from their mouth were truly babies compared to the monsters that now stood before them.
At 5ft tall to the shoulder and 12ft long not counting their admittedly fluffy tails. Their black fur had sparse streaks of orange in it as the massive wolves occasionally had wisps of flames dancing on their bodies.
"Welf..."
"Yeah, I know," the smith replies.
As the pack of monsters charges forward, some of them open their mouths, familiar balls of flame are formed within as they prepare to fire.
"Will-O---" as he was casting his spell, the monsters slammed their mouths shut, consuming the fireballs. Their black fur began burning up, changing from sparse streaks of red to full red and blazing fur all across their bodies.
"---Wisp," he completes his chant, the flames on their bodies immediately disappear as the monsters each collapse as if their legs had been kicked out from under them, heads slamming into the hard floor.
Seconds later they immediately stand back up, flames gone but angrier than before.
"Huh, you pissed em off, thanks a lot," Tiona jokes as they all rush the monsters.
Withdrawing his greatsword from storage Yang doesn't use any magic for this fight. Opting to fight beside Tiona as they both hack and slash their way through the monsters with ease.
As they cut through chamber after chamber of monsters, they eventually get swarmed.
As 6 Hell Hounds launch jets of flame at their party, much to his annoyance everyone decided to dive for cover, by jumping behind Yang's back.
"You di---" is all he manages to say before the jet of fire blasts into him.
As the dust and smoke blow away, Yang stands with an annoyed expression. Not from the attack as he barely even felt it, but from the fact that everyone decided to use him as a shield.
They all leap back into action dividing the monsters up with their weapons, quickening their pace as the floor spawns more and more monsters the further they get.
---Floor 49...
"Wow," was all Yang could muster.
Staring out at the absolutely massive room ahead of them, at least a hundred Formoire; Humanoid monsters with the head of a goat, much like a goat version of a minotaur.
"Yup, they're the most famous swarming monster species, they gather up and stampede all over these floors, the herds on the 51st floors are even bigger and they'll probably cause problems at the safe zone for us," Tiona explains, having the most experience on these floors as nobody else in this party has come this far before today.
"Suggestions?" Yang asks.
"Ugh, they aren't strong if they swarm like this, and I don't feel like a marathon of slogging through weaklings, just torch em," Thalie shrugs as she leans on her spear.
"These things are never fun so yeah, OOO DO THAT THING YOU DID AGAINST UDEAUS!" Tiona yells out as she bounces in place at the memory of the exciting fight.
"Hmm, nah, I'm not the only artillery we have, Welf, get some practice..." he commands, earning a surprised look from Welf.
"Uh, that's a lot of monsters, but yeah I'll try..." The smith says, not sure how much magic he has remaining.
As he quietly walks forward, both hands on the hilt of his sword, magic begins to flow into the blades.
*BOOM*
A loud explosion is heard behind him, with the help of wind magic, Yang snapped his fingers and shattered the air, drawing the attention of all the monsters.
Immediately they begin stampeding toward the adventurers.
"That's your motivation, now get to it," he gives Welf a devious grin.
As the magic continues to build, instead of just the inner walls, all of Mōsōka becomes blood red, waves of heat pulse off the item, the stone beneath Welf becomes hot to the point of glowing as the flesh on his hands begins to char and burn.
With one quick motion, Yang pulls Tiona to his side, holding her and protecting her from the waves of heat.
"AHHHHH!" Welf cries out as he does one massive horizontal slash.
A wave of blood-red flames cascade across the battlefield. The monsters can barely let out of cry of pain before they're silenced. The stone interior of the chamber becomes completely red hot well within the tunnel to the other room.
Welf drops Mōsōka as he leans over, panting heavily while staring at his burnt hands.
"That... that's my limit, I don't think my hands would survive if I did that at full power..." he mutters while watching the blood fall off his hands.
"How's your magic?" Thalie asks while pouring a potion onto his hands.
"I'm good, I wasn't full before that attack, but I avoided mind down..." he explains.
Walking over to him, Yang picks up Mōsōka, letting his curiosity get the better of him, he channels some magic into the sword.
Before everyone's eyes, the two walls of blood-red color on the inside of the blades disappear, shifting to bright blue like Yang's fire.
"Wow, didn't know it could do that..." Welf mutters as he takes a closer look.
"It feels like it's, pushing me away. Like I can use it if I wanted but I'm not its first choice," Yang says as he hands it back to Welf.
The blue immediately reverts to red as it reaches his hands.
"It was made to amplify Crozzo blood, you satisfy the conditions to use it but it wasn't exactly made for you," he explains with a shrug.
"That's pretty epic, that explains why your level 4 attacks are so intense huh."
"Don't think you're the best person the judge that," Welf jokes as they begin walking toward the exit, stepping onto the red hot stone as if it were nothing.
"HEY!" Tiona yells out from behind them.
Turning around the Trifecta see the young amazon staring at the red hot floor with apprehension, for a moment they're confused as to what's the problem, then they remember. She's barefoot.
Entering the 50th-floor safe zone, Thalie and Welf walked a few steps ahead of Yang.
The latter was still carrying Tiona on his back, the girl had decided to fall asleep as he was carrying her through the 49th floor much to his annoyance, but she was weightless considering his stats so he just let her be.
"Hey pancakes," he nudges her head with his.
Blinking a few times, she groggily straightens her back and stretches her arms out.
"We're here," he informs her, following Thalie as she finds them a nice camping spot.
Eventually making their way to a spot not far from the entrance to floor 51, Yang erects another plateau for them to use as a camping site.
Later that night after everyone got cleaned up and ate, the tents were up and stairs were removed so monsters couldn't easily walk to the campsite, Yang approached Tiona.
"Hey Tiona!" he waved at her while walking up. She was currently standing at the edge of the plateau staring out at the forest below, thankfully all the safe zones were essentially the same.
"Hey, need something?"
"Nah, I'm gonna fly around for a bit to see if anything catches my eye, wanna join me?"
"YES!" she answers, eyes wide at the prospect of flying.
In an instant, he scooped the tiny girl up into a princess carry and rockets into the air.
"Wow...."
"If you think this is something you should see how it feels to fly above Orario, flying under the open sky is a totally different feeling..." he muses, flying on the surface really was a different feeling entirely.
"Yeah I'd bet, you're so... free," her eyes are fixed on the forest far below them.
"That's the point, magic is whatever your soul wants right, I guess I wanted to live free and safe, to overcome anything in my way, so I got this," he says while holding them in place, the lake below them reflecting the crystals in the ceiling to make quite the beautiful image.
"Hey, are you trying to charm me like this, a moonlit flight?" Tiona teases, earning a raised brow from Yang.
"You're cute but I've got enough woman problems as it is, I just figured you'd like getting to fly around," he shrugs.
"Oh..." she squeaks out, barely a whisper. This gets Yang's attention.
"Wait, are you pouting?"
"NO!" she refuses to meet his gaze.
"That's adorable," he releases a deep chuckle.
"It's not that I like you or anything, but I mean, how come all the guys just ignore me..." she quietly admits.
"Who cares what people think, you don't need everyone to like you, just one. He'll appear eventually, and you're level five so you'll outlive most of the people who ignore you anyway," he casually replies.
"That's...really nice of you to say."
"Yeah but remember who you're talking to here, relationships aren't my forte," he begins taking them back to the plateau.
Moments later they gently land at the campsite.
"Get some rest, we'll be heading out the moment Welf finishes whatever repairs we need," Yang says while walking into his tent.
Tiona can't help but look at his retreating figure as he walking into the tent. What if he never regained his memories? What if Orcus never issued the challenge? Would he have become part of their familia, part of their team, having someone that didn't tease her or get into their usual shenanigans with all that power would make life a lot easier, and he was easy to talk to.
But their curiosity came around to bite them, it's obvious even to her that he doesn't fully trust her familia, and she can't even be mad because if she was in his position with all that power, she would be causing problems for everyone with the Loki falna on their back.
In the tent, as Yang lays down Welf hands him the vial of Status Snitch, gently storing it away he pulls the sleeping bag over his head as he gets ready to sleep.
"Did I buy you guys enough time?"
"Yeah, we got updated while you had your moonlit flight..." Welf can't help but tease him.
"Don't even start, I've already got one woman I don't want, don't need more," Yang groans in response.
"Hmm, what're your plans for that one, did you figure that out before we came down here?"
"That's a problem for when we get back to Babel."
"Yang," Welf immediately sits up in his bed, "did you at least tell her we'd be gone for a few weeks?"
"I'm an adventure, she should know this is how it'll be. I did mention I'd be in the dungeon for a while anyway," he lazily admits.
"Man, your dick is gonna get you killed, don't you know goddesses can be petty..."
END CHAPTER---
Tiona and Yang are friends, that's all. Don't need Freya sending Ottar after pancakes over Yang.
Yeah we're getting straight to the good stuff for this arc, no time for small fry so they just treat them like the fodder they are.