Please read the author's notes. (Examples and explanation of moves and appearance+ Monster Sources)
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CHAPTER START---
Seeing Dvalinn's death, everyone was surprised for a moment, a new sense of danger went off in their mind as they pushed back against the monster once more.
At the back of the fight, Finn's role was to observe and coordinate the battlefield. Multiple working parts all under his care, at a glance he looked to the cliffs and ledges above the arena, the adventurers were all well hidden away from the edges, the monster shouldn't know they're there.
He could see people shaking in the boots, some passed out and others trying to shake them awake. Their swords were ready and waiting for his signal.
"Offense team focus the coat!" he yells out, his voice reaching every adventurer on this battlefield. Command Howl allows orders to reach anyone involved in a battle no matter their distance, ensuring nobody misses information. But the scale of this battle was larger than he'd realized, his entire hunting force was currently on floor twenty-seven fighting the monster, yet his voice reached up to floor twenty-five.
"Ottar, Gareth, keep the head distracted! This isn't a regular monster, don't use standard tactics! It's smart and learning!" his orders carry a sense of surprise, the thought had occurred to them but nobody wanted to make the statement.
Dvalinn died doing a simple but effective Great-Hammer tactic, keeping large monsters busy by repeatedly hitting their head. But this was an Elder Dragon. It only took two hits for Kulve Taroth to stop reacting, on the third hit her golden eyes tracked him through the air and she caught him in her jaws.
A never-before-seen rate of adaptation to a fight, a new breed of monster in every sense.
Back in the fight Ottar and Gareth were constantly trading blows, their Great-Axe and Durandal blade taking small bits and pieces out of the gold covering the chest of the monster.
Standing so close they could feel a slight warmth from the monster, they could taste metal on their tongues from the air. They could smell fumes like poison wafting off Kulve Taroth.
With a deafening roar Kulve takes a massive swipe at them, both men easily see the large claw coming their way and share the same thought.
In a unified move they both turn and rush toward the claw, their bodies almost fitting in the palm of the monster as their weapons try to dig in. The thin layer of gold cracks and is chipped as their muscles strain.
"Aaarrrgh!" Gareth grunts as Ottar only furrows his brows, keeping his features schooled as he put his strength into this. He could certainly bring forth more power, but he can't afford to use that skill, he couldn't burn himself out in this fight.
With great effort they push back against the claw, for the first time the Elder Dragon feels some kind of opposition and staggers to the side slightly before she catches herself.
Looking up both men see the monster glaring dangerously at them, they could feel it, she recognized them as a threat. This was the plan, for them to take the brunt of her focus, but that doesn't mean they'd like it.
"MOVE!" Gareth yells out. seeing the furnace of a maw open up, the heat immediately washes over the area in a focused cone before she releases pure Dragon Energy in the form of shimmering heat and flakes of Gold. As a thin cloud of shimmering air and gold dust, the heat causes the stone floor to immediately bubble and boil as both men scatter, with Gareth dashing to one side and Ottar to the other.
Deciding to handle the biggest threat, Kulve's head swivels to track Ottar, all the while pushing immense heat in her path.
But Ottar is level seven, even if it isn't his focused skill set his speed is immense, tracking a small and fast target is difficult.
Seeing this Kulve does a completely 180, her massive and heavy coat knocking many adventurers aside, some such as Bete, Ais, Allen, and Hogni manage to leap over it, others like Tiona and Tione have the physical strength to hold their weapons against it. The weight and force carry them but they don't take any irreparable damage.
"Damn it," Tiona whines as she sees her new Urga already beginning to get worn down from the short fight.
The remaining Gulliver Brothers, as if possessed by an unholy rage at the death of Dvalinn are on the monster's back, hacking away and chipping into the gold as much as possible, already making progress as they chip away.
In the wake of the surprisingly fast spin, Kulve's breath attack doesn't stop, leaving a long arc in the floor as a river of molten rock. Her eyes quickly see new targets. Locking onto Bete, Allen, and Ais she immediately moves to incinerate them.
In a blur Allen disappears from his position, the ground cracks only after he leaves as if trying to catch up to his movement.
Before Ais or Bete could even react, to their surprise Ottar appears in front of them, with his back to the monster he grabs onto both adventurers and says two simple words, "from above," before throwing them straight up.
They feel their stomachs drop as the air rushes past them, almost immediately soaring hundreds of meters above the battlefield. Desperately opening their mouths to get some air they get a top-down view of the fight.
Looking down they see everyone running and scattering to avoid the breath weapon, and they could see exactly what Ottar meant, Kulve was a massive, wide target from above. A large gold object impossible to miss.
"Don't fuck this up!" Bete yells out as he realizes what needs to happen. Feeling their momentum stopping he reached out and grabbed Ais by the leg, twisting his body he pulled her into a whirlwind.
The girl holds her breath and grips her Durandal swords with both hands as he releases her.
"I won't miss," she says to herself while rocketing toward the stone ceiling of the massive chamber.
With a perfect twist, she slams onto the ceiling, ankles deep in the stone to keep herself above, she chants, "ariel." Her wind manifests like a small maelstrom, Ottar and Freya are two of the only people outside of Loki's inner circle who know about this particular combination of skills. The combination which gives her what's likely the highest damage output of any adventurer in this fight. The reason he trusts her to make good use of this chance.
Falling toward the battlefield, to Bete's surprise Finn is the one who grabs him out of the air.
"You finally joined the party?" he jokes as they land, readying both his knives.
"Well, there isn't much more to do from the back, Riveria and Hogni know the plan well enough, and I need to stall for the princess," Finn says. Pointing his spear toward the monster he gives one more order, "keep the monster pinned as much as we can, stand your ground, and make her an easy target for Ais! The sword princess is building her strength, we must make it count!" he leaps into the battle.
For minutes this war rages, pieces of gold breaks off, but never enough.
Any attempts at cutting deeper were almost meaningless. Ottar and Allen would land hits on the monster's face, but their weapons would only spark and scrape against the rough, black scales, even harder than the Gold.
As the battle went on their moment eventually came, with a loud boom, the air shattered high above them.
"Phase one be ready!" Finn howls, all the adventurers scatter as he withdraws what looks like a yellow ball from his adventuring pouch at his back.
As he throws it toward the monster's face, a magic item in itself, Lingering Smoke. Something regulated by the guild simply because of the illicit uses it has.
The magic item activates as it slams into Kulves head, a cloud of yellow smoke lingers around her head.
She thrashes and uses her Heat Breathe but nothing seems to affect the smoke illusion, it blocks her view as Ais rockets straight down.
Everyone rushes away to their predetermined positions and grabs a Lightning Magic Sword, watching in amazement as a pillar of green wind is held at the Durandal blade in Ais's grasp.
What most of them couldn't know was this was beyond just hard work. The Sword Princess has the reputation as a relentless woman always seeking to improve and train, all true, but her Falna was far more than that.
A unique set of circumstances brought her existence into being. Sword skills lost to the ages, but somehow as a child, Ais intuitively knew them, the backbone of her direct and raw fighting style.
Ariel, a super short chant magic with power superseding ever super long chant magic. An anomaly that was unique less than a year ago.
Added to her skill Avenger, a skill which more than doubles her damage against monsters in relation to her hatred, and this multiplier is pushed even higher for any dragon-type monsters at the cost of the recoil her weapons would suffer, hence her being the only member of Loki familia who could afford the lower damage Durandal weapons do in exchange for the durability. These three skills when put together are the foundations for making her the perfect dragon killer.
But this is beyond hard work, this is also inheritance. Sword skills inherited from her father, magic inherited from her mother, a hatred of monsters inspired by her childhood. A great combination which began at her birth, the birth of an impossibility, a child of a bloodline that was deemed impossible by even the gods.
As she's rocketing down the illusion clears, the swirling wind in the underground chamber easily allows Kulve Taroth to focus on the girl.
With a low grown the monster opens her mouth, all the gold on her body heats up and softens as she draws more and more power up from her core. Exactly what they wanted.
A pillar of pure heat is pushed toward Ais, for barely an instant it scorches her skin, burning bits of her hair, lips, and the tip of her nose. She snarls bitterly and bears the pain. Barely able to open her eyes, until the heat stops.
In a show of perfect teamwork, the physically strongest members of this expedition force all pull the monster down by the horns.
Ottar, Gareth, Allen, and Finn. All wrestling the monster down to the ground, with barely a struggle Kulve begins pushing herself off the ground, until everyone joins in. Twenty first-class adventurers against the head of one elder dragon. Their bodies exposed directly to the immense heat as the entire beast glows brightly like hot coals.
Feeling the monster gaining ground Ottar grits his teeth and releases a low growl, his muscles tense up and redden. Swelling slightly as all his veins bulge and pulse. His strength becomes even further beyond that of a level-seven as he pushes down and allows them to more easily control the thrashing monster.
Feeling his Endurance drain my the second he's relieved with an explosion of wind knocks them all away.
Ais slashes into the back of the monster. "LIL RAFAGA!" she cries out as the green winds wash across the battlefield.
The battlefield shook as heat and wind washed over everyone, the first-class adventurers tumble and roll but find their footing to look at the aftermath.
Kulve Taroth was...dizzy. Swaying slightly as bits of her massive metal cloak fall off in pieces. Embedded into the wall not far away from her was Ais, the girl looked like a broken and bloody doll with her sword nowhere in sight, completely knocked out.
"Riveria now!" Finn commands as he rushes toward Ais. Feeling the skin on his face still sizzling he ignores the pain and goes to collect the girl while everyone else scatters to a safe position.
"Rea Laevateinn!" Riveria completes her chant as Finn retrieves Ais. A massive pillar of flame erupts from below the monsters, completely enveloping her and maybe even slightly softening the gold.
Kulve Taroth is completely immune to fire, Yang knew this, Finn was told this. But Riveria's magic is still instrumental in this battle theatre.
Standing on both sides of Riveria with the three rods behind them both Lefiya and Hedin finish their chants simultaneously. Both these mages did the exact same super long chant, "Caelus Hildr!"
Following their battlecry Riveria maintains her spell, completely focused on the flames and all the adventurers who couldn't help in the fight. The army of people who were too weak to participate and were hiding above the battlefield finally showed themselves.
As the yellow lighting orbs of Lefiya and Hogni flew out, his own spell which he resentfully allowed the young girl to copy, the army of adventurers all use their own lightning.
Whether it be in the form of Magic Swords or much weaker spells of their own, they all poured everything they had into this.
Riveria provided a perfect smokescreen with her spell so Kulve wouldn't see where the weaker adventurers were hiding, then they all brought forth the lightning.
In response to the pain of being hit by hundreds of spells, Kulve thrashes and screams within the pillar of fire. Releasing more and more heat in response, the ground begins melting, as do the walls before the Heat Rod behind the three lead mages begins drawing in that heat as well.
Maintaining their spells they hear a small cracking sound behind them, as if someone pressed too hard on a piece of glass. Lefiya couldn't turn her head to check for her concentration would be disrupted, but Hedin and Riveria turn back to see the pillar, what was a black metal rod was now almost crystal clear like glass with massive cracks in it.
It was at its limit.
Before their very eyes, it shatters.
All the heat it'd been suppressing suddenly had nothing holding it back. The heat pouring off of Kulve didn't have a 'Lightning Rod' of sorts to go to and once again washed over the battlefield.
Left and right, spells began stopping as people felt their blood boiling and skin bursting.
Immediately Riveria drops her spell and turns to the next rod, pouring some magic into it the battlefield suddenly becomes cooler.
As her pillar of flames drop and all the lighting is used up, Kulve Taroth emerges, glowing bright red from the immense heat, waves of shimmering air pouring off of her. She looks around the battlefield, her coat almost completely broken off, only one last chunk remaining.
In her newly Enraged state, the monster releases a deafening roar as a pule of heat reaches out.
Looking around she sees some adventurers on ledges, previously hidden, now revealed from their hiding holes.
She expects the heat to kill them, but it doesn't. And she notices. Opening her mouth a more powerful blast rips through the adventurers, dozens instantly killed, armor and flesh melted into one unidentifiable mess. Everyone watches on in horror, then their horror becomes dread at what they see.
The immense heat caused the air to shimmer and move toward the Heat Rod, what they didn't expect was for the monster to notice that.
Kulve's head slowly turns and follows the heat as the surviving first-class adventurers patch themselves up. Her eyes trace everything all the way back to the two remaining pillars. To the one glowing pillar currently pulling the heat. To the three mages protecting it.
Looking between the monster and the pillars Finn feels despair, deciding to ignore his thumb, the focus of his intuition fabled to be second only to Loki's divine intuition.
His thumb said everything would be ok, but the facts said otherwise.
Kulve narrows her eyes at the mages, at the woman who just activated the pillar and was standing closest to it, at Riveria.
More and more heat rages in her and she makes a mad dash forward toward the plateau, toward her new targets...
END CHAPTER---
Took all day re-writing and editing this fight(The entire fight not just this chapter) because I read it last night and wasn't happy with the final product sorry :(