Please read the author's notes. (Examples and explanation of moves and appearance+ Monster Sources)
Discord: https://discord.gg/K7f8qGpvuk
pat.treon:/Keanu_Eugene
CHAPTER START---
"C'mon," Yang spoke, trying to win over his hesitant friends," just imagine it, me riding a pet dragon through the skies, that'd be epic!" he argued as they walked through floor 52, the highest level of the Dragon Vase.
"If I look away you'll try to feed hellhounds and pet them, no way in hell I'd trust you with a dragon, and you can already fly," Thalie couldn't see the appeal in his argument.
"Yeah but...dragons," he couldn't understand how she didn't see his point.
"You can't even get on a horse but you'd ride a dragon," Welf adds in, chuckling lowly at the thought.
"Horses are dangerous man..."
"Dragons are way worse, and can eat you," Welf points out.
"It's not the same and you know it."
"Sometimes I forget you're one of the most powerful people on the planet when you act like a bratty child," Thalie takes a playful jab at Yang as they round the corner to the upper floors.
"Finally at the end of this place, I hate these damn floors..." Yang mutters as they approach the final stretch to the exit.
"At least only these floors have spiders so you can skip them," Thalie reassures him.
"Yeah but 7ft long spiders, this place really is hell," he shivers at the memory.
"You don't make any sense man, punched out a floor of dragons but scared of spiders, no spiders in the snow at least...according to logic, whatever good that'll do us in here," Welf says.
"I'm sure the dungeon will throw one at us just to spite me," Yang frows deeply as they can now see the exit.
"Something's wrong," Thalie suddenly says, her gaze locked on the exit while Yang and Welf have their idle chat.
She sees Raul in the doorway just in front of the stairs, he looks mortified, face pale and stressed, hugging himself as he sits on the floor.
"Raul, what's wrong?" Yang yells out to him, raising a brow as he cautiously waves at the man.
Immediately Raul perks up, jumping to his feet and staring at them.
"PLEASE HURRY BACK TO CAMP, THEY NEED HELP!" His panicked, desperate voice yells out, much more forceful than his naturally timid self.
Without a second thought, all the adventurers begin racing through the 51st floor, leaving Raul and the few adventurers that accompanied him in the dust, they arrive at the safe zone on floor 50 before long.
Racing up to the safe zone, there was no battle, no panic, just sad faces all around.
The guards posted at the tunnel looked as if they were sick, at least until they saw the new arrivals.
"T-the main tent!" One of the guards yells out as he points up toward the campsite.
Taking a massive leap, Yang arcs through the air, easily a hundred feet as he lands with a small crouch on the plateau filled with tents.
"Yang," Tsubaki immediately rushes to greet him," elixirs, hurry," her voice wasn't demanding, it was panicked, desperate.
He withdraws a case of two dozen elixirs from his storage and drops it into her arms with no hesitation.
"Wait for me at your tents," she says with a small nod before racing into the main tent.
"They needed, meds?" Yang mutters softly, confused, looking around the camp he sees everyone trudging along, the atmosphere was depressing, as if someone died... 'No, did someone really die... I should just wait for Tsubaki before I ask someone and make them feel worse...' he decides, walking to his tent to change out of his armored clothes while avoiding the sad adventurers.
Sitting in his tent, Yang already stored away his Elementalist Gauntlets and Battlemage armor and was in some black combat pants and a simple T-shirt for some light magic training when Welf entered the tent.
"Did Tsubaki tell you what's going on?" the redhead asks.
"No, she seemed busy with taking potions to the main tent, you?"
"Nothing, Thalie's talking to her now I think, she wants to talk to us in a bit after she's done helping Loki familia, I think they had a rough time on floor 51 or something..." Welf made an educated guess.
"Hmm, maybe the Cadmus dragon got stronger and surprised them, I'm gonna head over to our usual spot and wait for them then, get changed and meet us there," Yang says as he exits the tent.
10 Minutes later the Trifecta are sitting around a picnic table at the far end of the campsite, far enough to get some privacy from everyone and have important conversations.
Thalie and Welf both changed into some light training clothes in case something happened as they wait for Tsubaki.
Seeing their captain approaching with a frown on her face, carrying a downcast expression, they all felt a bit worried at the news.
"You guys ok?" She greets them, hoping for some good news today.
"Yeah, pretty standard dungeon stuff, what the hell happened up here?" Thalie was the first to answer.
"Loki familia met one of those Elder Dragons," Tsubaki takes a seat at the table, not missing the horrified look on Yang's face.
"Oh god, how are they?" He sounded concerned, not normal for him at all.
"Hurt, bad, very bad. But they should all live. Bete and the amazons broke...well, everything, Gareth wasn't much better but it's Gareth so I'm not that worried, Ais and Finn had messed up arms, Finn's arm was split and had to be put back together like a puzzle, but..." She wasn't sure how to explain the last problem.
"Riveria?" Thalie asks, seeing Yang staring down at the table as he thought over everything he was hearing.
"She... she had everything broken and was basically burnt alive, lost an arm too, they froze her arm and sealed the wound but, something else is wrong, do elder dragons leave diseases behind maybe?" She asks Yang, his head immediately snaps up to look at her.
"Only one that I can think of...but it's pretty obvious when it does, which one did they fight?"
"Kirin, the lighting unicorn thing."
"Wasn't Kirin supposed to be one of the weaker ones?" Welf asks, surprised and horrified one of the weakest Elder Dragons could annihilate the Loki familia main team.
"Yeah, this doesn't make sense..."
"It wasn't alone, the monkey thing was there too, the one that eats the horn," Tsubaki says, a look of realization claims Yang's face as he holds his head in his hand with elbows on the table.
"And it got the horn somehow I'm guessing..."
"That's what Gareth said, it picked up the horn when they killed Kirin and ate it before they could get to it," Tsubaki relays the story he spun for her.
"Was it that big of a buff?" Thalie was genuinely curious about the strength of these new monsters.
"Yeah, physically Rajang is one of the stronger monsters, with the horn it becomes Furious Rajang and can tangle with some mid-level elders, at least if it's just a brawl," he looks up at Tsubaki," but it doesn't have any diseases style things, it's just muscle and lighting when Furious, what the hell is up with Riveria?"
"That's the thing, we don't know. We've never seen anything like it before, every time she opens her eyes her body shakes like she's being hit with lighting then she starts foaming at the mouth, it's been happening for the past hour since we used healing spells on her, when we used all the potions and elixirs it was fine she was just asleep, maybe an anti-magic disease?" Tsubaki theorizes.
Yang falls deep in thought as he considers the possibilities.
'Kirin and Rajang don't really have any status effects, well aside from lighting effects. Would the dungeon even give it other effects, none of the other monsters have extra things... shaking like she's being shocked and foaming... every time she opens her eyes,' a look of realization forms on his face after 5 minutes of thinking.
"You said you've NEVER seen this before?" He asks Tsubaki.
"Never, have you?" She was hoping he knew what to do.
"I might, at least I might have a theory, I think it might be her brain, but technically it isn't damaged so magic won't work on it..." he was hesitant to even say this.
"Can you help her?"
"Uh...I dunno, I'd have to check on her before I know if I'm even right, my magic should be able to at least check, but I don't think healing magic will fix this, even if it's Airmid."
"But should he?" Thalie questions, earning confused looks from everyone.
Welf was the first to speak up, "yeah, if he can help he should help, that's obvious."
"You aren't thinking this through," she passes her eyes over everyone and fixes her gaze on Yang," you're the only person in the world that can diagnose and maybe fix this problem that one of the new monsters caused, monsters that started appearing around the time you got to Orario, if anyone can connect information that isn't there and get the right conclusion it's Finn, this can blow your cover..." she made good points, logical points.
"But," Welf responds," you'd rather let him watch someone die, someone we can help and someone who is mostly good to us?" The Crozzo argued for the Elf's life.
Thalie gives him a bored look," She's an adventurer, she knew the risk, if he blows his cover then we don't know what happens, but if she dies, we leave, they mourn, and we continue our adventure, we know the outcome of one choice and it barely affects us."
"It's still a person that you're just letting die," Welf pointed out, she wouldn't budge.
While they kept going back and forth, Tsubaki quietly observed Yang as he pondered his options. She wasn't sure what kind of person he was in tough situations, this was what separated great leaders from great warriors.
"Quiet," his voice was low, but commanding, the table fell silent. "Look, this isn't really my fault since I didn't ask to come here, but Riveria has been good to me...recently, and I don't think Finn will be dumb enough to call us out on anything if I somehow save her, I'll at least try, if it works I should be fine, if it doesn't...well I'll deal with that if needed."
"We'll deal with it you mean, we're still a team," Thalie reminds him, she wasn't pleased with his choice but wouldn't abandon him over it.
With a small smile, Tsubaki sees the three kids growing that much closer together and felt like a proud mom for a moment, "I'll go tell them to give you some time to check on her," she quickly leaves the table and makes her way toward the main tent.
"So what's wrong with her?" Welf asks, not sure if he even wanted to know.
"Rajang probably fried her brain, his lightning is more bio-electric than pure elemental so it works a bit differently, Kirin would have just burnt you, he makes muscles and your brain act weird...or just not act..." Yang says in a weary tone.
"Oh..." That was all Welf could say.
"Fuck," Thalie's response wasn't much better.
They sat in tense silence for 5 minutes before Tsubaki returned.
Following Tsubaki to the main tent, Yang entered behind her, not sure what he'd find waiting for him inside.
Entering behind her, he sees the tent all but empty, only Gareth and Finn are sitting on the floor on either side of Riveria, the woman was laying with her eyes closed in her torn up and burnt robes, her left arm missing from just over halfway up the bicep.
Finn had bandages across part of his body, his right arm in a full cast.
Gareth had bandages everywhere but his face with his arms in splints to keep them steady, both men were currently shirtless as they were recently treated. Otherwise, the tent was deserted.
"Thanks for your help," Finn's voice was a bit hoarse as he spoke," do you have magic that can help her?" his worried gaze went back to the unconscious Elf.
"I'll need to see if my theory is right first, but if it is then healing magic won't work, it might take some time," Yang informs them.
"I'll go make sure nobody misbehaves, at least not anymore..." Gareth says, giving Finn a knowing look as he receives a nod, exiting the tent with Tsubaki behind him.
Taking a seat beside Riveria, just opposite Finn, Yang begins gathering information on his potential patient," I need to know what happened down there, what caused this?"
Releasing a deep sight, Finn lies "We dealt with Kirin but Rajang got to the horn first, it broke through our formation after eating the horn and getting the boost then grabbed Riveria, the lighting nearly burnt all the skin off her," Finn points at the bandages around the woman neck, reaching partway up the left side of her face. "It crushed her and roared lighting in her face, now after we healed her she starts... it looks like she's getting shocked all over again and foaming at the mouth," the Pallum was at a complete loss at what to do.
"Mhm, I can't promise anything," he looks from Riveria to Finn," but I can try, and if my hunch is right I'm your best bet..."
"Anything," Finn wasn't above accepting help, especially now.
"Alright just give me some silence," Yang says as he places a hand on her forehead, a small current runs from him into her and back to him constantly.
Using his lighting element he circulates his AMP technique from his mind to her, searching for irregularities in her brain, a method far beyond him, thus he was taking it extremely slowly.
After a few minutes of this, she begins shaking.
Opening his eyes Yang removes his hand to see her having a Seizure. His eyes go wide in realization, he'd been right, it was just as he feared.
"She's having a Seizure," he says to Finn before moving to quickly remove her clothes, they were making it difficult for her to breathe under so many layers.
Finn sat in stunned silence, averting his eyes as Yang opened the front of Riveria's clothes. Her body was exposed for all to see.
Glancing back at the Elf, Finn saw Yang carefully turn her to her side onto her good arm while cradling her head to support her neck.
A few seconds later and her body stopped shaking, her chest was able to move normally thus allowing her to return to normal quicker.
In any other situation Finn would have been all over Yang to stop him, but those words, 'She's having a Seizure'. They told him Yang knew something he didn't. He had to trust him to help Riveria right now. And clearly what he knew was working.
"So you know what's wrong... can you help her?" Finn asks, hesitation in his voice.
"You know how bones can heal improperly because of magic?"
"Yeah, common when adventurers try to treat themselves in the midst of a fight."
"Well, that happened to her synapses and her..." Yang immediately cuts himself off, realizing these words make no sense to anyone in this world. "The branches in her brain that let her think were broken, magic forced them to heal incorrectly, Finn," he looks the Pallum in the eyes, treating the matter with full sincerity," if I can't fix this, she's braindead."
Finn felt as if the world crumbled around him. He never thought he'd lose Riveria or Gareth, but now he was faced with exactly that situation.
"What do you need?" The only thing that came to his mind, if Yang could fix this he'd get whatever he needed from Finn.
"Time and silence so I can focus, this might take a while so we can't move her until I'm completely done... where's her arm?" yang looks down at the bandaged stump at her side.
"Frozen, it'll be good once we get her to Airmid within maybe 7 days, our ice magic isn't that potent without her to preserve it longer."
"Bring it in here and I'll keep it frozen for longer, but yeah time and silence and I'll do what I can," Yang gives the sleeping Elf a sad smile.
"I'll make sure you aren't bothered, and Yang," Finn meets his gaze as he rises from his seat on the floor, "thank you for this," he gives the young man a grateful nod before leaving the tent for him to work...
END CHAPTER---
Heal Riveria and potentially blow his cover or just let her die and keep things moving, what would you of picked?
Rajang really gave them all the hands XD