"Is everyone ready?"
Looking at the many members of his family- about 90% of his entire Familia. The Azure Squad was all ready, Ajax clutched the new staff he had received as a gift from Darius ("F-for me?" Ajax looked at the shiny new staff Darius held out to him, a small blush on his lips: "Thank you..." He smiled up at his captain, who just rolled his eyes and looked away- Although Ajax could see his ears a little bit redder than before) and nodded as he looked at his team members- Recently, due to the familia's fame, more members joined their rankings and today it's going to be their very first expedition into the dungeon.
"Now, maggots-" The Crimson Crusaders, the front line division Darius - THE Crimson Lion himself - commanded had now a total of 85 members. About 72 of them were Level 1 and 13 of them were Level 2. Today's expedition was to make the Level 1s increase their power. It was a training expedition as they would go down to the 18th floor and come back, and they will repeat this three times before coming back home, just to be sure. "-I want everyone ready, armed to the teeth. Show me the potions!" Everyone, all 122 members of the Familia that were going to this expedition, raised their hands and there was their potion- A flask of silver, full of poison, healing potion, and a little tiny bit of Souma's Sacred Sake. "Good!" Looking now at the Green Thumb divison, Darius nodded as they all had their bags on them, Agathax blushed when he noticed Darius' eyes on him, making the big red guy grin.
"Bunny, you ready?" Silverly simply rolled his eyes and looked at him: "Yep." Darius then turned around and said: "Let's go then-"
"Wait!" Running in, a blur of golden appeared- There before him stood Haru, the fox boy was holding this katana on his hands, looking a little tired: "I'm coming too!"
"Sure, little fox boy-" Darius pulled the boy's tail and pulled him into his arms before letting him sit on his shoulder: "-but you'll have to kill double the amount of monsters than the others."
Haru paled.
-----
The ridiculously stupid chance of seeing an entire familia of adventurers jump from the Dungeon's entrance was a sight to behold to many. As per tradition, everyone jumped- Many of the new recruits hesitated to jump, but as Darius said before he jumped in: "Anyone who is fucking scared of jumping down, you better leave this familia now. I can make you strong, but only if you take the chance." He said as he turned around and fell looking at them all, the others soon followed them, with Ajax just grinning and jumping down while holding his staff, Silverly just letting himself fall, Agathax literally ran and jumped, and every single other member of the Souma familia jumped, even the little cowardly Haru.
As they fell, they had to think of ways to stop their fall. Darius simply let his whole body fall, which did no damage to his body, the same happened to Silverly but mostly because of the strength of his legs! Agathax was able to slow his descent by using his cape, and Ajax just casted a "Gust!" Spell on the ground. He was able to now shorten the chanting necessary for his magic to work to a single word, absolutely breaking the entire system of magic on its head! Soon, many member fell down. Those who weren't able to come up with ways to safely land fell down and bruised or broke their bones, making Darius sigh before using "Dia Fratel" on them. Haru, surprisingly, did something Darius did not expect- He used his tail to land. How? He positioned his tail beneath his body and entered a state of Beastification.
All Beastkind can enter a state of Beastification. Silverly had done so before, and seeing it wasn't so surprising. What surprised him, however, was how Haru's tail just... Increased in size and fluffiness. It swelled up like a balloon and he landed on his tail before pulling back his Beastification with some difficulty, seeing as he just snarled at Darius before he shaked his head and look embarrassed: "Sorry..." He whispered, suddenly shy- Even Silverly was impressed, because it is a very known fact that not many can control their Beastification, which a few little even keeping their sanity while under such effect, and to see it being used so masterfully was a surprise.
Once everyone was healed, Darius berated them and told them that every single day, they would enter the Dungeon by jumping from the top, anyone who tried to take the stairs down would be kicked out of the Souma Familia and become an outcast. Those whose bones were broken received the news that they had to kill 10 monsters each, making them almost cry from how unjust it was. As they reached the first floor, Darius saw something he wasn't expecting to see: "...is that a fucking Bullfango?"
"-what the fuck!?" Bullfango was a monster from the Monster Hunter games, a game Darius had played before with the spoiled rich young guy he tamed with his cock. He did not expect to meet this guy here, I mean, he did fight a few unusual monsters here in the Dungeon, but he never saw a monster from the Monster Hunter verse! "Wait..." Does that mean there are other monsters from Monster Hunter here too? "Listen up, maggots!" Darius pointed at the boar with a grin on his face: "That bitch has only a single attack pattern-" The moment the boar saw him, it charged at him with a blinding speed- Darius didn't even bother to dodge, simply stopping it by putting his hand on the big boar's tusks, stopping it in it's charge. "-which is charging forward." He finished the monster with a punch to the head, cracking its skull with his finger.
"Now-" He pulled his finger back, pulled the head of the monster off of its body easily, grinning as the corpse exploded into particles (including the head on his hand) leaving behind a weird crystal as well as a large packed box? "-what is this...?" He opened up the package only to see meat inside: "Huh, cool."
Regardless of that, he sent every single member of his familia forward to go kill monsters. Everyone would kill 5 monsters each (except those who broke their bones in the Starter Fall, as Souma Familia members liked to call, and Haru who had to kill 10 monsters each) and bring him the crystals as proof. He also watched them, to make sure none would die to their fucking stupidity, but barely giving them any rest- Unless they were about to pass out. When they were going to pass out, he used [Dia Fratel] on them to heal their Stamina right back up, making them able to go at it for another round, fighting for their live under Darius endless pressure for them to go and fight. Even when one would try to escape, they would be dragged back by Darius and forced to fight with broken bones using only their teeth!
Many cried, many said they wanted to leave the Familia, many cursed him.
But he just healed them.
Soon, everyone stopped complaining and went along his instructions, and surprisingly to them, they started to improve a lot. They just kept fighting, fighting, and fighting (one kid even killed a Hellhound with his teeth! Darius calls him Bite now) and- They were suddenly these crazy beasts, killing basically on instinct, their weapons were broken but they fought with their hands. If their hands were broken, they would fight with their legs, if their legs were broken they would fight with their heads, and even their teeth if they had to. As they were level 1s, they were fighting in groups to survive, forming bonds that were essential for their own survival-
In the end, Darius took them all to the 18th floor, and when they reached that floor, the entire familia was fucking tired. Except, of course, the ones that were used to it by now! "Now rest." Two words were enough to make every single person there let out this heavy sigh of relief as their entire body released the burden and their muscles relaxed. Darius looked over at the wall where the giant bitch guy would come out of, and it had no giant, so he shrugged and turned to his familia: "Seems like we're unlucky, the Monster Rex of this floor was clear-" Suddenly, Darius' whole body turned and twisted on itself, his entire spine cracked as his body moved itself out of the way by using his [Total Mimicry] to mimic a snake's ability to move alongside giving his bones the elasticity of gum, making a weird combination of different aspects that made him move out of the way from something he felt was attacking him out of a sudden.
When his neck turned 180 to look at what had attacked him, Darius saw- "Ah, Sword Princess, huh?" He fell on all fours, his body rolling as his bones jiggled, much to his amusement: "Any reason you're attacking me and my familia? Is this a declaration of war?" His body did a 360° turn while his head stayed in place (creepy, I know), Darius still spoke: "If that's what you wish then-"
"Hold it!" A voice called out- Darius and his familia (who had gotten up and held on to their weapons and themselves) looked at the surging faces- A small golden haired Pallum and a green haired High Elf that Darius had learned the names of- Riveria Ljos Alf and the captain of the Loki Familia, Fin Deimne. "Ais, we told you-"
"Monster." She said, looking directly at Darius: "I need to kill it..." She raised her blade again, dashing forward with her rapier blade. Darius, this time, didn't move- no, he mimicked an Octopus and its three hearts. Two new hearts grew right beneath his pancreas and another one in the back of his head. The moment her blade pierced where his heart was, he simply looked at her eyes as her blade sank into his heart as he said: "...is this all?" His hand reached out and held the girl's head tightly, he clenched his fist over her head and smirked as she screamed out in pain and anguish- Immediately, he threw the little kid away from him as a spear sank into his body from above, through his eyesocket and into his brain, making him frown.
"Now I'm gonna have a damn headache, you fucking little pipsqueak!" In his rage, Darius activated his [Fanalis True Form], increasing into the giant red wolf-like lion- Yep, it was a lion, even though he looked like a wolf just a little bit. His body grew in size, the spear was still stuck inside him as his head morphed and melted as Darius made his head mimick water, turning into a liquid and letting the spear fall through his head before reforming his head again into his form. "It's war that you want, it's war that you'll-"
"WE'RE VERY SORRY!"
"...eh?"
Bowing, his forehead hitting the ground, the golden haired Pallum continued: "I'm very sorry for what my family member did to you, it in no way reflects what relationship my familia wants to have with your familia, I apologize once more for what my foolish familia member did to you." With a pull from the small Pallum's hand, the airhead that was Ais was also now with her forehead against the stone floor or the dungeon, much against her will. "Please, forgive us."
...
"...no?" Darius was quite confused- did they want to fight or no? "What the fuck is going on right now?" His massive lion-wolf form sat down before he deactivated his form, and with a burst of white smoke for comedic effects, there stood Darius, in his birthday suit. Shamelessly getting up from the ground, he stood right before the little Pallum and asked: "So, your familia attacks me out of nowhere, I try to defend myself, you attack me again, and then you back down before I can beat your entire familia's ass?"
"...it's not exactly that, you see, Ais here... She thinks you're a monster." Looking up and immediately regretting her decision, Riveria blushed hard before looking away: "Please, have some decency and put on some clothes, please?" Darius rolled his eyes and feeling very petty he answered: "Nah, I feel better this way... finish your explanation before I feel the urge to kill you again." Riveria coughed on her fist and with her eyes closed she further on explained: "She has... a sense for monsters, and due to the appearence of unusual monsters on the dungeon, she has been greatly affected and her senses are now messed up, which might have made her attack you... so, for that, we apologize."
"So she thought I was a monster? Well, I am." Darius grinned: "Congratulations, you and your familia just got yourself a whole year without godly booze."
...how are they going to explain that to their goddess?
Author:
Announcement! This series is being continued on my AO3. Please go take a look-see if you wanna continue reading it.