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---
"You think he's ok?" Thalie asks. Sitting in the Trifecta meeting room on floor 51 of Babel.
Wearing a short black jacket over a green top with a matching green skirt the woman leans back in her chair. Tapping her fingers on the smooth cool table as her patience runs thin.
"You don't break up with someone like Freya then just be 'ok' after," Welf says. Wearing black pants with a white t-shirt. A blue coat in his lap as he takes a deep breath. "Let's go see what he's up, he never misses a meeting," the smith says as he gets up and exits the room. Thalie follows a step behind him.
Knocking on Yang's door, Welf doesn't even wait a moment before pushing it open. Not noticing anything strange immediately.
Walking in with the coat slung over his shoulder Welf immediately sees his target. Sleeping with a leg hanging over the top of the couch Yang is only wearing a pair of shorts as he takes an afternoon nap.
"Huh, doing better than I thought..." Thalie says. Seeing a pillow from his bed on the couch.
"He put himself on the couch, can't be doing that well," Welf says as he gets closer. "YANG!" he yells out.
Yang jolts awake only to fall off the couch, not really feeling the impact at all as he looks up to see his friends staring down at him.
Taking a good look at him they could see his face slightly thinner. Dark bags under his red eyes as he squints to look at them.
"You ok?" Thalie asks.
"Uh, yeah. Just need to get some sleep, feeling a little tired," Yang says as he rises to his feet.
"Look like you need a bit more than that," Welf says. "When was the last time you ate something?" he asks.
"Yesterday when we had lunch, I think..." Yang says as he gives it a bit more thought.
"You mean three days ago just before we got our Falna updated? Yeah, get dressed, let's get you some food," Welf says.
"Not hungry, just tired," Yang argues weakly.
"Not asking, go get dressed," Welf says, tossing the blue coat to Yang and pointing down the hallway to Yang's bedroom.
"This really isn't necessary," Yang says as he walks down the hallway.
"It is," Thalie says before turning to Welf. "So... he's taking it pretty well considering how good they were together, right?"
"Definitely, can't imagine anyone else who wouldn't be standing on the edge of Babel if they had to break up with Freya," Welf admits.
"Mhm, but to be fair. I don't think a step off Babel would do it for him," Thalie says, shaking her head at the absurd thought.
---15 Minutes Later...
Walking toward the elevator on Floor 50, Yang is cleaned up courtesy of a quick shower. Now wearing his usual black combat pants and boots with a white t-shirt. However this time he has a blue coat on. A very dark blue on the outside and brighter blue short fur on the inside, the length of the coat reaching down to his knees as he leaves it unbuttoned.
"So you bought me a coat?" Yang asks, passing a hand over the soft material as they walk through Hephaestus's top floor. Ignoring the stunned gazes of the adventurers nearby. Whether it be from their familia or just shoppers who happen to be here, everyone was blatantly staring at the trio.
"I didn't buy anything, I made it," Welf says. This earns a surprised look from Yang.
"You can make clothes...clothes that look good?" Yang asks, not hiding his surprise at all.
"Yeah, of course I can. I can make leather armor and stuff so why not a coat? Besides you always wear your battlemage enchanted stuff but the top got destroyed. Now you won't be shirtless if you use magic." Welf explains.
"So this coat is---"
"I made it from the True Ice drop item we collected from the Xixecal, plus a lot of ice bear and Zinogre fur, with a lot of other stuff. It should be able to take your regular fire and ice to a certain extent. But it isn't battle equipment so don't overdo it, and it isn't gonna stop a strong physical attack like armor. It keeps you at a good temperature but that's it," Welf says.
"Maybe you should make all our clothes," Yang says as he forms a small flame in his hand and holds it against the sleeve of the coat. To his delight, it has no effect whatsoever.
"Yeah," Thalie agrees. "If I'm gonna be around you two the last thing I need is to lose all my clothes in the street ya know."
"Yeah, that's the plan. But this was a test run. Smaller more intricate pieces are gonna be harder, this is big and simple so it let me work with the materials. Took two days to figure this out," Welf says as they enter the empty elevator.
"That means I'll need a lot more trips to the lower floors hunting Ice Bears right? At least I'll have something to do," Yang says.
"Yeah, you need a distraction. You aren't hands-on with the charity work you do and all you really care about is clearing the dungeon, the only thing you had to do between expeditions before was Freya," Thalie says. Only realizing what she said after it was too late. Turning to look at him she saw him giving her an awkward but pained smile.
"It's ok, I'll be fine you don't need to worry so much... I can deal with the choices I make," Yang says. Hands behind his back as the elevator arrives at the base of Babel, his fingers playing with the Ring Of Odr on his right hand, the last gift he got from Freya.
"Mhm, let's go eat," Welf says as the elevator comes to a stop and the doors open up.
Taking his first steps out of Babel in days Yang fills his lung with fresh air. Much cleaner than the environment back in his world. Seeing civilians walking about in their winter clothes and smaller patches of snow on the ground, the evening sun was almost ready to begin setting. He can't help but smile, once more reminded of the beauty of this world.
'Almost as beautiful as her...' he thinks to himself. Immediately mentally berating himself for allowing that thought to worm its way into his head.
Walking across the plaza, whilst Welf tries to get Yang talking, Thalie gets a strange feeling. Taking a look around she sees adventurers glaring her way. Their gazes were intense, ill intent blatantly on display as some of the men and women around the plaza slowly begin closing in on her team.
"Something's wrong," she says.
Both Yang and Welf immediately cut their conversation short, seeing the mob of adventurers forming a circle around them.
"You idiots gonna move or do I need to put you in the ground?" Thalie growls out. Some of the adventurers take a step back instinctively, others remain defiant. Not because they were strong, because they believed the Trifecta were weak.
"Wait," Yang puts a hand on Thalie's shoulder. "Let's not kill anyone just because they walked up to us," he says before turning to address the crowd. "Look everyone, I've had a long week ok. Got roughed up a bit by some monsters and now I'm dealing with a breakup, can you just save whatever this is for next week please?" he asks. More annoyed than anything with their antics.
"Shut it!" An older dwarven man steps out of the crowd, looking around 50 years old, clad in silver full plate armor with a Warhammer in his hand. Beside him, a young amazon girl, no older than 18 stands with reinforced gauntlets on her arms in what was a fur one-piece swimsuit.
"Who the hell are you?" Yang asks, genuinely confused.
"I'm---"
"Nobody gives a fuck about who you are!" Thalie cuts the man off, her tone low and dangerous. "Move, or be moved," she narrows her eyes at the man.
"Please, what are you gonna do... Woman," he says with venom in his words.
Before Thalie can lunge forward Yang holds her back, a tight grip on her arm stopping her in place, the stone floor cracks slightly beneath her feet. "Thalie, let's try not to make this a bloodbath alright," Yang says before turning back to the man in question. "What do you want?"
"Hmph, I'm Grandel, captain of the Urhs familia."
"Never heard of you, or your familia," Welf says.
"I'm level four, and fact of the matter is," the man raises his Warhammer and points it directly at Yang, "I think you're a lying piece of shit, and Hephaestus is in on it."
"You better watch your mouth!" Welf threatens, gritting his teeth as his anger flares up. Barely stopping himself from attacking the Dwarf at the mention of Hephaestus.
"Ten months to level 7, that's horse shit and you lot know it. A nonsense lie you're feeding us to raise prices I bet!" he announces loudly, more and more adventurers begin joining the crowd to see what was going on.
"That's what this shit is about, seriously?" Yang says, rolling his eyes as he realizes what's going on.
"Adventuring is our life, and you lying about it to make us look bad ain't gonna be tolerated. Our pride as adventurers won't allow it!" the man announces loudly, earning a loud cheer from the crowd.
"So if Yang proves it, you fuck off?" Thalie asks, getting more and more annoyed. She quickly realized that this wouldn't stop unless the star of their team gave the people what they wanted, even if she killed everyone here the city would doubt them.
"Proof or apology, your choice," the man growls out, narrowing his gaze directly at Yang.
"How am I supposed to prove I'm level 7?" Yang asks, not sure what they expect from him.
"Just kill the Dwarf, punch his head off," Thalie casually says.
The entire crows fall silent at her casual disregard for the man's life.
"Don't kill him, just knock him out or something," Welf argues.
"He needs to make an example or they'll never stop bothering us," Thalie says.
"That doesn't mean he needs to kill him, death isn't the answer to every conflict," Welf says.
"To end conflict just remove one side so yes it's literally always the answer," Thalie says.
As they go back and forth, everyone, including Yang keeps looking at the two adventurers. Feeling increasingly uncomfortable with the debate.
"Fuck it I'll do it myself," Thalie finally says. Stepping forward the woman reaches out to grab the man by his face.
Reacting immediately he swings his hammer at her face, only to have her catch it in one hand.
"Slow swings huh," she says while moving to grab his face.
His amazon ally strikes forward, aiming to punch Thalie in the face with her Adamantite gauntlets, the exaggerated metal fist not even getting within a few inches before they're intercepted by Yang's palm.
With one hand he drags Thalie back away from the Dwarf while his other crushes the gauntlet and the girl's fist within.
The sound of bone and metal shattering is heard below the loud scream of the young woman as she crumples to the floor.
"God damn it, nobody dies because of this shit!" Yang says as he drags Thalie back.
Stomping his foot on the ground all but his team is knocked back by a large gust of wind, sending them tumbling across the plaza.
"You want proof, fine," Yang says as he forms his Elemental Wheel, wind and water at his back as he forms a fist of swirling green and blue magic.
Looking at him and feeling the magic power, the elves and mages can't even breathe. Feeling suffocated by being in the presence of such overwhelming magic. As if a mountain was standing on their chests.
Punching toward the sky Yang utters one simple toward, "Sunshine," he says as his fist punches toward the cloudy sky.
With a powerful updraft, a hole appears in the clouds, as if he punched the sky itself. Then like a ripple on the surface of water it spreads out, until the area above Orario was completely clear of the winter clouds, allowing the sun to beat down on the city once more.
"There, now stop bothering me," he says before walking off. Leaving everyone staring up at the now clear sky in amazement.
All across the city people stopped what they were doing to look up at the cloudless spot above them, as if a hole wasn't filled in with white.
The overwhelming strength of a level 7 to be sure. But little did most people know...this was beyond any ordinary level-seven adventurer.
---Folkvangr (Freya Familia Mansion)...
Standing in her garden, goddess Freya craned her neck in an uncomfortable angle to stare up at the sky, no, to stare at a hole in the cloudy sky.
The goddess felt no pain in her neck, a smile on her face at the beauty she was seeing.
"Isn't it amazing... he really is perfect," she says in a giddy tone, eyes glazed over as memories of her time with Yang came flooding back.
Heith, a human woman with light red hair was standing beside her goddess, with Ottar and Allen behind the women. Her familia was currently having their daily Baptism, near-death battles in the garden, training that their goddess rarely paid attention to in these past months.
They were happy to show off for Freya, but the moment she felt his magic, they were forgotten as if they'd never even existed. She immediately became intoxicated by memories and love for the outsider whom most of them hated. Only a few such as Ottar had no disdain for Yang, her captain held no jealousy to anyone that caught Freya's eye.
"So Orario really does have another level 7, quite a prodigy you've snared Lady Freya," Heith says. Her tired eyes looking at the bleeding adventurers in the garden. As a healer second only to Airmid she never had any rest in the bloodlust crazed familia, constantly using her magic between rounds of combat, one spell could bring a man back from the brink of death, she was an asset that allowed these adventurers to flourish.
"I haven't snared anyone... if anything he snared me. But he refuses to truly claim his prize, it's a problem," Freya says as a frown forms on her lips.
"That's unheard of Lady Freya," Heith says. Behind them Allen was seething with rage, hearing his beloved goddess speak so fondly of another in his presence, but knowing the man was already level 7 calmed him somewhat. He wasn't a fool, he could at least use the excuse that it's simply because of power, at least that was a problem he had a solution for. That was one way to make himself feel better about this great loss.
"Ottar," Freya turns around to look at her captain, "would you oppose losing your title, 'King' should go to the strongest after all, and I don't think you'll be there much longer," Freya says. Not even she knew the true extent of her beloveds' strength.
Without hesitation, Ottar responds, "whatever pleases my lady, is that your plan?"
"Hmmm, no," Freya taps a finger against her chin as she looks up at the sky once more. "He doesn't want me around, but even if a man doesn't want help it's my duty to be there I believe... that's what a good wife would do... then maybe one day he'll realize what a good wife he already has," Freya says as she begins to zone out into a fantasy daydream.
The entire garden falls silent as all the adventurers stop their fights to stare at their goddess, jealousy, and anger fueling them.
Seeing their emotions clear as day, Freya gives them a bored look.
"If you have a problem with me wanting Yang Shen to marry me, then please, speak up," she narrows her eyes at the adventurers.
Nobody could say a word, as far as they knew Yang was second only to Ottar, a reasonable assumption with the information they had, but they didn't have all the information.
Just like Allen they suddenly felt it much more justified for Yang to claim Freya as his prize, but the very reason he won is that he was never part of this game. To him she was never a prize to be claimed, she was just another person.
If only lust and jealousy hadn't clouded their minds, maybe they would have come to that conclusion instead of working themselves to near-death trying to catch up to the level-7 adventurer.
"At this rate I won't have enough magic Lady Freya," Heith complain, tired eyes roaming over the fights as they suddenly become much more aggressive.
"I'm sure they know that. But love is something men are willing to die for...or worse, willing to leave me for," Freya says as she turns on her heel to walk inside. Her mood was completely soured by the memory of what exactly drove him to leave her.
The very thing she was the goddess of...love.
END CHAPTER---