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---
"Ok, this might be a problem," Yang says as they arrive at the entrance to the floor 69 boss room.
Standing in the ice tunnel with wind moving fast enough to strip the ice off the very walls they see a wall of wind blocking them.
Not as if the wind were made to block the exit, but the doorway was simply pressed against the side of a tornado.
With chunks of ice and snow flying at incredible speeds only some of the wind would move down the tunnel, but apparently enough to spread throughout multiple floors.
"What's the plan here?" Welf asks as they walk up to the wind wall.
Reaching out and touching it, Yang feels his skin become slightly cold immediately. Even through all the layers and his natural resistance to the elements he could tell this room would be well below freezing. "If the fight goes long and I drop the safe zone around me then we've got maybe 30 minutes before you two are too cold to fight properly. Whatever is making this needs to be dead before that time hits, let's stay low and try to get close. I genuinely have no idea what to expect so stay on high alert," he says as they carefully step into the wind.
Feeling the elements batter against the safe zone he's providing around him Yang notices his magic declining faster than before. This room was bad news if they stayed and he was hoping to be out of here quickly.
After a dozen or so meters of walking through the wall of what's clearly some mix of a blizzard and tornado. The Trifecta sees mounds of snow and ice in the middle of a massive room. Easily the size of Orario and shaped the same way.
This one cylindrical chamber ascended hundreds of meters and was the size of Orario, the same size as the entire 37th floor. Almost a quarter of floor 69 was dedicated to this boss room.
Along the entire wall was the raging tornado. Impossible to see through it because of all the ice and snow caught in the winds. It was simply a wall of spinning white.
Looking around they saw no monsters, only large chunks of ice protruding from the solid floor which they quickly used for cover.
"This is so weird," Thalie points out. Her grip tight on Liberty as they huddle behind a large chunk of ice.
"Yeah," Welf nods to her as he points toward the ceiling, hundreds of meters above them. "Anything that can make this much bad weather is a serious problem. And look how big this chamber is, it's probably some massive fucking ice dragon," he says.
"Yes and no," Yang says. Both his allies raise a brow at this prompting him to explain. "Ice dragons cause cold yeah, but this isn't really a blizzard, look there," he points at the sides of the ice protrusion they were huddled behind.
Both his allies immediately see what appears to be small cuts on the edges of the ice. Following his gaze, they see the same digs and scrapes in the ice floor of the room as well.
"Ok, so it has claws?" Thalie asks.
"Most likely, but the entire floor is cut up like that and all the cuts are pointing toward the middle of the room." At his words both adventurers take another look, noticing the cuts acting more like arrows.
"Hmm, so what does that tell us?" Welf asks.
"It tells us the wind is cutting the ice and carrying it. Whatever is making the tornado doesn't have to be making the ice, the dungeon probably makes that naturally. But it's carrying the ice and using it as if it were a natural blizzard. That narrows down the list a lot, and if the monster rex is who I think it is then at least we'll have a break from fighting ice monsters," Yang says.
"Alright, let's move forward then," Thalie says as they continue sneaking from cover to cover.
Eventually arriving toward the middle of the room, they finally lay their eyes on the prize, or prizes in this case.
Wiping flecks of ice and snow from their visors they see not one, but two silver dragons. Their metallic scales were shiny and magnificent. Smaller than Valgang dragons at only 15m (45ft) from the tip of their red nose which looks like they recently ate an animal, all the way to the end of their tails.
With both dragons seemingly busy preening each other the adventurers hide behind some cover to discuss this unexpected occurrence.
"Two bosses, what the hell..." Thalie says.
Giving her a nod Welf turns to Yang, "they don't look that big, how bad is this?" he asks.
"That's Kushala Daora, the wind elder dragon. The problem is most elder dragons like to be solo so them pairing up is unnatural for them. But that explains this wind flowing through multiple floors at least."
"And your plan?" Thalie asks.
"Hmm, if we get to them it shouldn't be that hard. Getting to them is the hard part. They aren't using their stronger Dragon Wind yet, when they do you'll see it much darker than this normal wind. They aren't that physically strong so they use wind to keep people back, but they can still put up a fight, there are no weak elder dragons after all."
"Ok," Welf tightens his grip on Mosoka, "so we rush them and make it quick then right?"
"Yeah, and keep them on the ground. If they get in the air that could be game over for us, flying in this wind is gonna take a lot more magic and it'll pull me away from you guys. Focus on the head and break the horns first, elder dragons use their horns to command their power," Yang explains. "Our best bet here is lighting so be ready," he tells Thalie, she immediately adjusts her throwables pouch.
Resting on a massive chunk of ice at the very middle of the chamber, both Kushala Daoras look out into the ice and snow as their wind auras naturally kick up the massive tornado.
Beneath them the ice protrusion they rest on strips away. Shaved by their wind and scatters toward the edges of the room to be infused into the large tornado.
What the adventurers don't notice, however, is the ice was self-repairing. Constantly being cut and flaked away only to rebuild itself.
Both dragons sense a strange presence, something completely new to the monsters here.
Not too far away from their position is another large chunk of ice rising from the ground. Behind it, however, is two strange colors.
Purple and gold were glowing behind the cover.
With a low growl both dragons stood up, the larger of the two immediately jumps down from its perch onto the glacial floor. Slowly moving to inspect the light.
In a flash, the ice blocking the light shatters.
There was a crash, muffled by the howling winds.
A gold blur slams into the nearest dragon.
"RAARRGH!" it releases a guttural scream as the force knocks it over.
In almost the same instant a massive purple greatsword slashes down toward the monster.
Thalie had charged her magic behind the ice. Crashing through it and into the monster. The metallic dragon barely moved in time to avoid a spear to the face as the woman rushed forward.
Her blade hitting the side of the monster and cutting into its left wing. Taking a chunk of it and crippling the dragon.
As she stabs the monster she lands on the floor behind it while Yang follows up with his own attack.
Building on the damage she already did he swings down with his weapon already flowing with purple lighting. The greatsword slashes out as the monster reels in pain. As he's swinging down at the head the dragon moves, leaping to the right and causing him to cut through its wing. Completely detaching the appendage from the monster and definitively grounding it.
The monster falls over, overwhelmed by the pain as its body is thrown off balance.
Its companion lunges forward, knocking Thalie aside, sending her skidding across the icy floor.
Yang rushes the healthy dragon, swinging out with his weapon preparing to clash.
The monster is ready this time, no more surprise attacks. Hovering in the air and fanning its wings with vengeance. Black winds begin rushing out. The adventurers find themselves being sent careening across the room, digging their weapons into the floor just to stop their momentum.
The dragon releases a high-pitched painful scream. The glacial floor begins to shake in the entire room as the raging tornado that acts as a wall at the edges of the chamber gains streaks of black in it. Picking up speed as Dragon Energy fuels it more than ever before.
The adventurers find themselves skating across the floor whenever they stop anchoring themselves. Yang's protective barrier shatters immediately as the winds overpower him, Dragon Energy tearing through his magic.
"STAY TOGETHER!" he yells out. Seeing Welf trying to move toward the hurt monster. Desperately trying to at least remove one source of the black winds.
In a blur of wind and steel the healthy Kushala Daora swoops down, almost too fast for the adventurers to react. One moment the monster was in front of them, the next it was behind them with Thalie in its grasp, ascending as it flew toward the powerful tornado.
"Thalie!" Welf cries out, seeing the woman get dragged away.
"Kill that one!" Yang points at the greatly injured dragon trying to get back on its feet, yelling just to get simple words across in this howling storm. "I'll get her!" he immediately rockets off after the flying dragon. The Elemental Wheel at his back boasting wind and fire to keep him on course. With the added strain of the skill and fighting the environment he had limited time...so much for 'stay together' he thinks to himself.
Seeing Yang ascend after the dragon, climbing hundreds of meters toward the top of the room as a blue ball of fire, Welf focuses on the weakened dragon bleeding out in front of him.
Locking eyes with the adventurer, as if to accept the challenge the silver dragon begins generating more and more winds sending the smith rolling across the floor. Welf digs Mosoka's red hot blade into the ice floor just to stop himself. Withdrawing an adamantite dagger to wield in his off-hand he takes a low stance and begins making his way to the monster. Using the weapons as ice climbing spikes.
Feeling the wind trying to chill his bones even through all his layers of protection. The heat of Mosoka being pushed back by the cold atmosphere of the room, cuts forming on his cheek from the razor winds blowing against him. He gives his all and keeps moving forward, determination and courage masking the pain on his face.
As Welf was fighting his way toward his opponent and Yang was trailing behind his dragon. Flying hundreds of meters above the ground doing laps only meters from the edge of the wall, almost blinded by the snow and ice caught in the winds of the tornado they were flying in. Thalie was having another battle, and she was losing.
The ever proud and confident warrior was nowhere to be found. All there was is a scared woman crying, sobbing. Held by a metallic dragon as it flew in a tornado. Her spear was nowhere to be found as she dropped it not long ago, both her arms wrapped tightly around the claws of the monster as it holds her in place.
The Elder Dragon squeezes and squeezes. Straining and warping her armor, small chips and cracks in it were already forming but she didn't care. The monster itself was a secondary concern of hers. All she could do was squeeze her eyes shut and hold on as tight as possible, the thought of how high above the ground they were overpowered her being. Her one fear made her completely helpless.
Raging winds freezing her face and the tears on her cheeks, the cold slowly numbing her body and sapping her strength as she continues to panic, desperate to be set down.
Trailing behind the dragon was a bright blue flame, battered and challenged by the streaks of black wind as well as the cold temperature, desperately trying to catch up.
Yang looks forward to barely make out the outline of the beast through the screen of white.
But he could be certain of one thing, even as he was putting everything into catching up...he was losing ground.
He simply couldn't outfly a wind dragon, that wasn't an option.
The wall of the dungeon was a thick layer of ice just meters to their right. As he tries to catch up he loses sight of the dragon as it accelerates faster than he can hope to match.
Moments later he feels something barrel into him, slamming him into the wall of ice hard enough to carve out a line in it. He steadies himself just enough to see the dragon disappear ahead of him once more.
"Did it just fucking lap me?!" he thinks aloud, completely amazed by the difference in speed. The monster was using the wind of the tornado the speed itself up just as he was, it was just on a completely different level.
Moments later he hears a low growl, immediately moving to his right he avoids the dragon once more.
'Ok...this is embarrassing,' he admits, changing his approach.
If he couldn't catch the dragon he'd let it come to him.
Slowing his speed he prepares himself for what's about to come, only for the winds around him to suddenly slow down, almost cut to half strength.
The screen of white fades to a light tint. Enough for him to peer down and see a thin line of flame cutting off the head of the injured dragon. Welf had done it.
A moment later the entire chamber begins shaking, ice from the walls breaking loose and falling hundreds of meters down to the ground as the large iceberg the dragons were first perched on begins to rise up.
A look of horror dominates Yang's face as he immediately realizes what's going and brings out his message ring.
Standing beside the decapitated head of the Elder Dragon. Welf immediately feels as if a massive earthquake is going off.
He hears the floor cracking apart around him, all spreading out from the middle of the room.
Looking over to the specific piece of ice, it begins to grow and expands.
He finds himself running hundreds of meters just to avoid being killed by this event.
He can't even hear his own heartbeat over the breaking of ice at his back, and the moment he stops to look back, his face goes pale.
Breaking itself out of the floor, now awake from its slumber, woken by the death of one of its minions. A 60m(Colossal Titan size) monstrosity of ice and death rises.
A walking glacier. Its hoary, icelike body is vaguely humanoid, but shrouded in an ice storm that screams and howls around it.
Welf feels a chill set into his bones and a wave of cold redoubles the arctic climate of the room. His face immediately goes numb as the ground repairs itself before his eyes.
Glowing blue eyes stare down at him as the massive clawed hands reach down to grab the smith.
"THIS IS BULLSHIT!" he yells out while breaking into a full sprint. Withdrawing an elixir he pulls the cap off with his teeth and empties the bottle over his face while barely running away from the massive hand.
"Don't let the Xixecal touch you!" he hears Yang's voice call out from his message ring.
"The what?!" Welf asks as he uses his sword to propel himself upward. The weakened winds no longer threatening to drag him out of the air, at least not as easily. He just barely manages to move between the large claws of the monster and land on its fist.
Running along the arm of the elemental monster he creates a massive greatsword of flame from his weapon and cuts a line into the monster, only to see it immediately healing as his sword moves along it.
"Just stall it for now, I need to get Thalie!" Yang says through the ring.
"Ok...sure..." Welf says in disbelief, jumping off the arm as the monster violently swings it away. Looking down he sees his boots already slightly frozen from the short contact. "Now I'm sure of it," he propels himself toward the feet of the monster to begins slashing away at it, "Yang definitely forgot I'm only a fucking level four..." he says while facing off against the gargantuan monster.
High above the battlefield, Yang wishes his friend luck while focusing on his own task.
Now vaguely able to track the dragon through the wind he bides his time waiting for it to strike.
As he sees it approaching, instead of trying to catch up he simply lets it hit him.
Turning his body at the last second to grab onto the metallic beast. His fingers barely finding a hold between the sharp scales.
The monster roars, an ear-splitting cry as it feels him pulling against the scales on its back.
'C'mon, just like the Rok,' he says to himself while his Elemental Wheel disappears. A new one sparks to life on his back made entirely of purple lightning. He flattens one of his hands and controls the lightning to form a loose lighting blade around his hand, stabbing down into the back of the monster right between the wings.
"C'mon...arghhh!" he grunts as the dragon bucks and wilds in the air. Desperately trying to shake him off as he pushing more and more current inside its body.
Eventually, the monster stops moving, and begins falling. Ignoring all the cuts on his face and clothes from the intense dragon winds it made he removes his hand from the corpse.
Creating his regular flames once more and diving down toward Thalie.
Even over the howling winds, he could hear her screams as she falls down to the floor. He easily catches up to her, her eyes frozen shut from her own tears, the woman immediately feels him and wraps herself around him in a death hold.
Feeling the cold fighting against his flames, Yang is forced to use more and more magic the lower he gets. His proximity to the Xixecal diminishing his magic.
At a few hundred feet above the ground, his flames completely stop. Sputtering out as he fails to keep them active. The sudden change in how much magic they needed was too much as he entered the monster's direct aura.
Focusing on wind magic he barely manages to get them to the ground, all the while Thalie was a sobbing mess in his arms. Seeing Welf dancing around the monster, keeping it distracted rather than attacking. The flames on his sword seeming fine even in the face of this new level of cold.
"We're on the ground, you're ok now," Yang says as he lets go of the woman.
Taking a few deep breaths Thalie breaks the ice off her face to look around, realizing that they were indeed on the ground.
"U-um...that didn't happen," she says. Trying to put back on her usual fearless facade even while standing on shaky legs.
"Sure, can you find your spear?" Yang asks, turning his attention to the boss of this room.
"Yeah, I can feel it, what the hell is that thing?"
"Trouble," Yang raises his ring to his mouth and calls out to Welf. "Can you distract it a bit for me, try to keep it in place?"
An annoyed voice responds from the other side of the ring, "what the hell do you think I've been doing, what's the plan?"
"I'm gonna try something big, just need a little time," Yang looks toward Thalie, "find your spear and help him. It regenerates and freezes on touch. It can also use ice attacks like ice breath," he quickly says.
"Ok, but what's your plan?" she asks while taking out a potion and drinking it.
"Something big...like an act of god," he says before using wind to rocket into the air, flying up high above the battlefield.
END CHAPTER---
Not sure if I properly gave a sense of scale to this fight. Fight scenes are my weak point so major points in Author's Thoughts below :(