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---(Monster Pic's in the relevant passages for this chapter)
---3 Weeks After Yang's Spar...
Walking down the tunnel to floor 51, Finn, Gareth, Riveria, Bete, Ais and the amazon twins were fully armed with Tione carrying a backpack for their quest items. Beside them the Trifecta are fully prepared for progress in the dungeon, all their weapons and equipment repaired and sharpened, Thalie's spear resting on her back, stuck to her armor via magnetic plate. A new addition Yang recommended when he realized she'd always be holding it as most spearmen do.
"So what's the big item you guys are after anyway?" Yang asks Finn as he walks beside him.
"Cadmus spring water, Airmid gave us a quest to retrieve a vial, it has incredible healing properties but only produces a small amount so we had to wait for it to fill up, and the Cadmus dragon guards it..." Finn casually informs him.
"Right, that thing is only surpassed by the monster rexes right. Guess that's why you're all going then."
"Precisely, Tsubaki and Lefiya will be enough to defend the camp under Aki's command, especially with your team challenging the dragon vase, and how exactly will you be going about that?" Finn asks at the end, still not sure what Yang's plan is.
"What, you still haven't figured it out, aren't you a genius?" Yang teases the Pallum.
"HEY, YOU BETTER WATCH YOUR MOUTH!" Tione's anger immediately flares up.
"Settle down Tione, he's only having a bit of fun..." Finn's words revert her to a love-struck schoolgirl.
"The dragon vase is a simple problem, when you enter the floor the dragons can sense you and fire from floor 58 all the way to 52, the deeper you go the less time you have to react, and the longer you take the less ground you have because the blasts they use will literally destroy the pathways you can use, and considering those floors are a multi-floor maze, what do you think would make it all much easier if you could change one thing?" Yang questions Finn, seriousness in his voice.
"Hmm, if I had to change one... remove the Valgang Dragons, or stop them from shooting through the floors," he says with a light chuckle, only in his dreams would he be able to do such a thing.
"Exactly," Yang says in a jovial tone, "that's what I'm gonna do, if they can't shoot the monsters on those floors are level 3 mostly, the dragons are the reason it's so difficult," Yang speaks as if it were the most obvious and simple thing in the world.
All but Welf and Thalie are skeptical at best, stunned silent at the idea, the insane idea.
"That... that's impossible, the distance between floor 52 and 58 is easily 200m, the size of the dragon chamber is too wide and the dragons are too numerous, I've already considered every plan, what makes yours so different?"
"Hehe," he chuckles lightly at Finn's disbelief," simple really, I'm THE Elementalist," Yang holds up a small tornado of fire and wind in his palm, "my magic gives me more tools than you'd know what to do with, it's the kind of magic tailored to be highly versatile and powerful, what are a few dragons in the face of that..." he gives the Pallum a devious smile.
At this moment realization dawned on Finn, something that he was loath to believe, but now he knew it to be the truth. In this race to the frontier regions, he never stood a chance.
He lost, he felt it in his heart, this young man, this child, is going to surpass him, to reach further than them all.
Walking behind them, Riveria fell into step beside Ais as the conversation reached them, holding the girl's balled and trembling fist in her gentle hand to calm her down, but Ais's flame wouldn't settle down, she had to walk in silence as the man that would steal away her dream had a casual chat with her captain about surpassing them all. And the worst part of it all, he didn't even give them a second thought...
Arriving at the 51st floor, both teams went their separate ways, Yang didn't miss that Ais took an extra second before she turned to walk behind Finn, but that wasn't his problem.
On the 51st floor, the Cadmus Spring was at the far end of the floor while the entrance to the lower floors was on the complete opposite point, the dungeon loves to put the most valuable loot far out of the main path it seems.
"So what's the plan for the Dragon Vase, you can fill us in now right," Thalie asks as they begin running through the wide square hallways, perfectly smooth as the dungeon made them, bright grey stone on every wall.
"I'll explain when we get closer, needs space anyway..." Yang says as he withdraws his greatsword from his inventory, seeing a hoard of black rhinos ahead of them.
"Right, monsters first plan after," Welf agrees as he too draws his weapon and charges forward.
Slowing down slightly and letting them take the lead, Thalie pulls out the map of this floor, a true labyrinth in its own right, and this was just the first floor on the schedule.
"Alright take the next left..." she begins giving directions as they mow down monsters left and right, no real challenge for them as they make their way to the next tunnel.
---Floor 52, The Dragon Vase...
Standing at the edge of the tunnel to the upper floor, Yang sees the stonework go from bright grey to a deep dark smokey grey, only a shade or two from black. The change is visible and jarring as one step in front of him the large blocks in the floor suddenly switches.
"Hmm, figured as much..." he says while crouching down, forming a powerful flame at his fingertips like a blow torch he passes it from the light grey to dark grey stone.
"So wanna fill us in now?" Thalie asks, standing just a few feet behind within the tunnel.
"It's actually pretty simple, I'm gonna run out there and find a nice spot to stand on, when the dragons shoot me they'll make a hole and I'll fly down to distract them, then you guys can take the normal route without worrying about dragon fire, they'll naturally focus the biggest threat which is the guy in their faces."
"So you're gonna fly down a hole the dragons make to distract them while we take the normal route, huh, pretty smart," Thalie compliments him.
"Thanks, you guys ready?" He asks them.
"Ready," Thalie holds the map in one hand and a shortsword in the other.
"Ready," Mosoka lights up in Welf's grasp.
"Alright, wait one minute then get moving," Yang commands, running down the large hallway and making a right, his team has to go left to get to the lower floors, he was in a dead-end.
"Far enough," he thinks aloud, stopping suddenly and focusing on the floor below him.
As he listens carefully, he hears something not unfamiliar to him.
"RAAAARRWW!"
The roars of the Valgang Dragons permeate the entire dragon vase all the way from its lowest floor.
"Creepy," Yang says, a moment before the ground beneath his feet begins to rise.
Instinctively he jumps away, barely avoiding it as his coattails are caught in the dragon's fire blast.
The entire hallway he's in erupts with similar pillars of flame, completely destroying the stone ground.
"Ok, that's pretty awesome," he can't help but appreciate the power of these monsters.
Taking a look down the hole he sees dozens of Wyverns, dark red in color flying up the newly made tunnel. The hallways that were cut apart are visible as doorways on the walls of the hole, and below it all, the 8 Valgang Dragons, large and red, standing proudly on all fours as their wings are stretched wide, clearly building their breath weapons back up as they take aim at him one more. The light red on their scales making them stand out against the dark grey stone floor at their feet.
Giving them a devious smile he takes a step off the edge, beginning the long seven-floor drop.
"Alright just like she said, element then fuel," he mutters to himself while falling headfirst into the dragon hoard.
Taking a deep breath, an Elemental wheel of flowing clear water forms around his back, he furrows his brows slightly, focusing on something new.
As a white mist forms around the water, they both begin to spin and bend.
As they both change sizes and fight for dominance because Yang has to manage both elements at once, they eventually find a happy medium. Half of the Elemental wheel has his mist, representing his Cold, the other half has the clear water, perfectly balanced.
Seeing Wyverns flying toward him, Yang begins pouring his magic into one massive attack, the largest he's ever done.
While falling he kicks any Wyverns that try to bite him, knocking their jaws off or completely decapitating the 15ft(5m) monsters.
"Shit," he mutters, seeing the second volley of flame breaths from the Valgang Dragons below.
Kicking off from a Wyvern, he pushes away.
*CRACK*
He embeds himself into the wall of the tunnel ankles deep, effectively standing in the wall as the pillars of flame destroy the monsters at his last position.
Pulling himself out of the wall and kicking down with all his might, he can feel the cold from his own magic biting at him.
Looking at his hands he sees his gauntlets forming bits of frost on them as he enters the 58th floor through the ceiling.
Falling hundreds of feet to the floor, he twirls around in mid-air, 8 Valgang Dragons, countless Wyzerns, the room was massive, but most of the monsters were directly around him, lured to his presence, perfect.
"ARGH!" he cries out, a direct blast of fire washes over him, not powerful enough to stop his fall outright because of the force he kicked himself down with, he feels his hands warm up slightly, a smile forms on his face.
"Thanks," he jokingly says to the dragon while slamming down in front of it.
'ICE AGE!'
He impacts the ground, as the small rocks are thrown upward by the force, a wave of water and cold wash over the area, everything freezes in place, coated in powerful ice.
As if the air died when the wave of magic washed over everything for hundreds of feet all around, the flying Wyverns all dropped to the ground, shattering like the ice sculptures they had become.
A layer of ice and snow stretches out far past all the Valgang Dragons, their bodies are completely frozen by the magic attack. The air itself was hard to breathe, dragon breath was snuffed out as everything died.
As sparse snow falls in the area, standing in the epicenter of this massive attack, is one man, no, as if it were an ice statue of a man.
Frozen with a thin layer of clear ice around him, Yang is stuck in a crouch with both his open palms slamming into the cracked ground beneath him. The cause of this frozen wasteland, the cause of this 'Ice Age'.
With his Elemental wheel completely gone now, Yang feels drained, with an immense effort he begins heating himself up while trying to move. Eventually, the ice shatters.
"GAH!" he takes greedy gulps of air while falling forward on his hands and knees.
Small flames erupt on his shivering body, his face and neck are black with severe frostbite, he can't even feel his fingers.
Withdrawing an elixir, he smashes it against his forearm, afraid of what flexing his fingers would cause.
The healing liquid flows into his gauntlets and down to his hands, after a few seconds, he can feel his hand again.
"Ok, thank god!" he cheers while using more elixirs on himself while he looks around. "I need to thank Riveria for those pointers when I get back, holy shit..." he says breathlessly as he looks at the icy tundra around him.
Rising to his feet, he sees a few Wyverns off in the distance still, downing a Hi-Potion he ignites his mage armor and flies off toward them.
'That took way too much magic, and I was frozen solid for a good two minutes, can't use that when I'm in serious fights, not yet at least,' he mentally reviews his newest move.
That attack took well above half his magic, not to mention his body couldn't keep up with it, it was dangerous not only to his enemies, a double-edged sword.
---2 Hours Later...
Entering the final floor of the Dragon Vase, Welf and Thalie see mostly melted ice all around them, confusion obvious on their faces as they walk up to Yang, seeing him sitting at a stone picnic table he made in the middle of the floor, just beside the stairs to the lower floors.
"So... we miss all the fun?" Thalie jokes as they walk up to him, seeing him eating one of his ration bars.
"I almost killed myself, overdid it with an ice attack, got frozen..."
"Shit, glad to see you're in once piece man, you healed up?" Welf asks as Thalie takes a seat opposite Yang.
"Yeah all good, just need a little more time for my magic to be back to full, dumped most of my power into that attack."
"Was it worth it?" Thalie asks, curious about the scale of the attack.
"Calling it 'Ice Age', froze all the Valgang Dragons instantly and most of the things within like...maybe 2 or 3 hundred feet ish."
"Damn," was all she could say.
"Guessing you freeze yourself too?" Welf questions.
"Yep, thank god all the monsters were dead around me or I would have been in trouble, also... frostbite sucks, that cost some elixirs."
"Now that I know, all we did was fight these black spider things, nothing interesting," Thalie says in a bored tone.
"Uh-huh," Yang looked a bit nervous at her words," I rather dragons so yeah..."
"Wait... you scared of spiders?" Welf realizes.
"Bugs are gross so I don't touch them, but spiders especially...and horses..." Yang mutters at the end.
"Why horses?" Thalie couldn't help but ask.
"Horse threw me off its back as a kid, those things are dangerous so of course I avoid them," he spoke as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
"Uh-huh... didn't you just punch a legion of dragons in the face?" Welf jokes.
"And can fly," Thalie adds.
"Yeah well, I couldn't when it dropped me so it is what it is."
"Yeah well, guess I'm in no position to talk anyway, if I wasn't such a coward we could of all just took your shortcut down, my fear cost us time..." Thalie berates herself.
"Nothing wrong with being afraid of something, especially gravity," Yang points out.
"Yeah gravity doesn't play favorites, besides jumping down holes at that height isn't sane," she gives Yang a teasing smirk.
"Ugh, I'm not that weird, anyway when you guys are ready we can move on..."
---20 Minutes Later...
Walking down the tunnel to the 59th floor, the Trifecta could see ice and frost on the walls, gentle cold winds blew across their faces as they marched forward.
"This salamander wool is awesome," Thalie points out, even with her metal full plate she couldn't feel the cold.
"That's why we use it, I've got some more if we need to replace it on the go," Welf tells her.
"We won't be here that long, let's just kill something for proof then we can head back, the expedition force is supposed to be leaving the day after tomorrow anyway," Yang reminds them.
Walking out into the new floor, they're blinded with white light for a moment as their eyes adjust.
Finally getting to take in the scenery, they see large spires of ice, thick blankets of snow all across the ground of the massive chamber, and not far ahead of them, a pack of 10ft tall polar bears.
Looking around Yang saw no kind of landmarks, far to his right he could hear water, 'that must be the glacial streams the files had...' he realizes as they begin to walk toward the bears.
Cold, White, dead... the only words that came to their minds when they looked at this frozen wasteland, not a single plant in sight.
"Let's get some drop items from these bears then head back, we've been gone long enough, and I've had enough cold for one day," Yang whines at the end.
"Yeah, the other team should be back by now anyway, they're probably having a nice hot meal and waiting for us...."
"Please don't mention hot food right now, I can't stand the cold," Thalie groans as they prepare to attack the bears.
---2 Hours earlier...
Walking down the hallway to the Cadmus Spring, Finn's thumb felt as if it wanted to break itself off from his hand and run away. His thumb always aches when something bad was about to happen, but this is ridiculous.
Then the scent hit him, ozone, like a thunderstorm.
"I feel something ahead, Finn," Riveria calls out, the hairs on the back of her neck standing on end as her Elven senses boosted by Falna can feel immense power from down the hallway.
"RARRRGH!" They hear a loud roar. Not the Cadmus dragon, they know how that sounds, this was new, primal, angry.
Taking off in a mad dash, Ais draws her blade as she rushes toward the monster. Eager to challenge herself.
As she's about to reach the corner and turn into the room, Finn grabs her and pulls her back.
Bolts of lighting rush past them, right where she was running toward.
They hear what sounds like, a horse, hooves clattering across the ground, thunder cracking in the room.
Roars challenge it, fighting?
Approaching carefully, Finn sees two of the monsters he's read about fighting it out.
On one side of the battle, what looks like a mix of a Unicorn and a thunderstorm, Kirin. Tough hairless blue and white skin with a large mane of sliver and blue hair crackling with lighting. A swirled single horn brimming with lightning as it stands at 9ft tall at the head.
Unknown to him, the elder dragon of thunder.
In a flash, Kirin disappears and reappears as a thunderbolt opposite, a chimera?
With the face, tusks, arms, and upper body of an ape, the horns and back thighs of a bull forming into the lower back legs of a kangaroo, make for quick movements, and finally, the tail of a bull and a thick mane of hair on it's back. All standing at 12 feet(3m) tall with bulging hardened muscles across its body, barely contained under short brown fur.
Rajang challenges Kirin.
"We can't let it get the Kirin's horn, the guild files said it'll become even stronger, we need to kill Rajang or destroy the horn," Finn commands his team as they watch the monsters fighting each other, Rajang tanking bolt after bolt of lighting as it continues its relentless onslaught.
Only one member of their team couldn't completely agree with Finn.
'To face death...and overcome,' Ais couldn't help but think, this was her chance to become stronger, she wasn't out of the race just yet...
END CHAPTER---
Did you really think we would only see Loki familia in one small fight... they deserve better than that.
Yang finally used ice, you can stop commenting on it now, love you guys XD
Sword Oratoria Volume 1 hasn't happened yet so the dungeon is still its normal ice state.