Lyze's specialty truly was fire. Even if he wanted to deny it, his friends, allies, enemies, comrades and compatriots would all collectively agree much to his chagrin that he was indeed a pyromaniac when it came to his abilities. He liked using fire above all other things, whether it be his normal fire magic, his golden flames from his Goddess form, his hell flames from his Demon form, or his innate silver flames of Origin effect, fire was his domain, his ever loyal servant.
He had so many different varieties of it and the Loki Familia hoped they'd seen it all by now. Because they knew exactly what to do when they heard 'Greatest Fireball'. They immediately took their cloaks and covered their faces or got behind larger people who were armoured and had frames that would protect them from the rough aftereffects of what was going to happen next.
A ball of fire materialised in Lyze's palm at first an orange colour. Then it deepened as the heat from it rose, the colour of the flames within eventually becoming blue, then white before it took a dip and became a strong violet colour, the heat from it becoming unbearable even to the executives as their eyes watered. But Lyze wasted no time as he threw it straight at Balor's head.
The ball of purple flame flew towards Balor's face, leaving behind itself a trailing tail of flame as it raced towards the monster rex. Unlike the last time Lyze used this attack, Balor did not breath a gas that could dissipate magic and weaken the strength of his strongest normal fireball. But what was alarming to Lyze was that Balor made no move to avoid his attack.
Unlike Amphisbaena who did its utmost best to stop the attack, it waited patiently as the attack closed in. Immediately this made Lyze feel more wary and uncomfortable. He did not need to emphasise anymore exactly how much stronger he'd become since the fight with the two headed dragon. The fireball he'd thrown back then was his strongest at that point in time.
This one was far stronger, perhaps over seven times, and Balor looked like he just wanted to eat it. The Loki Familia held their breath as the fireball connected and a large explosion nearly discombobulated their aural functions as shockwaves filled with extreme heat smashed into them. Balor's head moved back a bit from the force as its skull disappeared into the consequential smoke cloud. But silence reigned thereafter for a few moments before a snort from the monster rex blew away the black smoke, revealing the monster rex with its jaw open in some sort of attempt at a grin.
Lyze stared at where he knew the fireball had impacted and while some of the sheen had been taken of Balor's head, there was no noticeable damage done to the monster. Which said a lot because he knew that even Ottar could not escape that unharmed. The Boaz would have come away with severe burns, perhaps his skin burned completely off and while that would definitely not be enough to stop Freya's favourite child from fighting onwards, the Boaz would be labouring under severe pain.
Here was this monster rex just smiling at him, while completely unbothered by what he'd done to it...something about it all really just ticking him off.
"Well, now we know where we stand." Finn said. "We definitely needed Lyze's boost for this. LET'S GO!" The Pallum shot off just as Balor roared as smashed his fist forward into the ground similar to Udaeus. Blast-waves of unproportionable degrees ripped the ground apart as they travelled in the direction of the Loki Familia.
Gareth and Finn lowered their bodies as they barged through the shockwaves and allowed Lyze to put up a stonewall that protected the rest of his comrades from being blown away. The last thing he saw was the Pallum and the Dwarf running up Balor's arm before the wall went up, and soon large booms ensured as more yet shockwaves resounded, which sounded much like Gareth's impacts.
Lyze dropped the wall and looked back as Riveria's mage team began chanting and multiple different magic circles began to glow in the air as many different spells started to charge up. The elf princess gave him a side eye before gesturing with her head in Balor's direction.
Lyze smiled as he raised Excalibur, and flicked off the monster blood staining it, revealing a sparklingly clean blade that glinted with deadly promise. Silver lightning covered Lyze's form as he rose in the air and shot off to the monster rex who had just thrown off Gareth and had outstretched it long neck to snap at Finn who was clinging onto one of the spikes that was sticking out of the back of its arm.
As Lyze rose up, he got a better sight of the beast. Having fully climbed out of the cavern it had emerged from, Balor had crawled his way fully onto land and the area beneath its torso where Lyze would have at least expected a tail if not a pair of legs was obscured by a mess of scaly membrane flaps out of which stuck out even more spikes than was on its head. The chest area where he expected the sternum to be was where the bony exoskeleton converged to make a flat armoured area.
It was like the armour plate Ottar wore over his heart whenever he went diving, a measure of making sure his most vital organs remained protected. Lyze would bet anything that that was where the core was, and it was well protected by the look of things.
Finn avoided the snapping jaws and stabbed into its head with his Fortia, only so much that the tip got stuck in but did not proceed any further. Balor was faster than Lyze gave him credit as the monster rex began shaking its head vigorously to throw the Pallum off. At the same time, Tsubaki led the remaining warriors beneath the monster rex as they started slashing at the skin flaps. Only the best weapons such as the few magical ones they had managed to at the very least draw blood.
Noir put aside his regular sword and from his back drew out a sword that was pale blue in colour, and with a swing, he froze one of the flaps and picked up his normal sword again to shatter the frozen membrane. But Balor was more aware than they'd given him credit, for even with Finn hanging off of his nose, Balor looked down at them at swiped at them from the side.
"Incoming!" Dain shouted as he dove out of the way, urging the others to do the same. Some were unfortunately not fast enough and got caught by one of the long fingers, swept away by the long appendages and thrown across the Floor as their screams faded into the distance.
"Dammit!" Tsubaki growled. "He's smarter than he looks!"
"And a lot more violent." Bara said as Balor began smashing the ground with his fist, making the Floor shake as craters were formed under its curled fingers. The red glow from inside its body pulsated and grew brighter.
Finn grit his teeth as he felt Fortia come away finally and Balor flicked him with its head up in the air, making Finn's body flail as he was flung upwards and he looked down as Balor opened its mouth, waiting for him to fall right into it. But the Pallum had no fear even as he began to descend. After all, they had air power on their side too.
As Finn's body fell past its front row teeth and the jaws began to close, someone teleported inside with a purple flash, put a hand on his shoulder and teleported them both out of there as Balor closed his jaw with a confused growl. Lyze reappeared with Finn holding onto his arm a few feet away from the monster rex.
Balor lowered its head and looked at the boy with interest as it sensed the magic flowing off of the boy. Lyze had seen enough enemies by now to know when they took a unique interest in him. It had been happening all over the Dungeon and that sudden glint in Balor's eyes was nothing new.
"That's right ugly." Lyze said. "YOU are the challenger here."
Balor grit its giant teeth before opening its mouth and roaring at them both, releasing a howl like Goliath's...only much more powerful and one which would probably flay his flesh this time unlike Goliath's. Lyze held up Excalibur.
"{Full Counter}"
And the howl was directed right back at Balor's face, making its head jerk back in disorientation. Lyze then stuck out a finger and a silver fireball formed on the end, growing larger as fire rings orbited around it. Finn's hair started to blow about his face as he felt the raw magic build up in Lyze's spell.
"You shouldn't antagonise it you know." Finn said. "Out of all the monsters you've poked. This one here is the nastiest."
"I'm fully aware." Lyze said. "But my days of running are long gone. When my foes become angry, that is when I win." Balor growled as it swiped away more adventurers attacking its lower half before it blew smoke from its nostrils and locked its eyes on the boy whose eyes it could not see. "Try and eat this fire, tyrant!" Lyze snapped.
The fireball blasted towards the monster rex and Balor swung its head in the direction of the spell, intending to deflect it with its scalp. But as it came to know, Lyze had not been aiming for its head and the spell blasted past its chin and smacked straight into the armoured plate on its chest. There was an explosion of silver fire, the heat of which bore down upon the souls of the adventurers fighting below and having seen what Lyze could do with this fire, they instinctively leapt back as forks of lightning spat out of the explosion and seared the ground.
Balor was pushed back by the force, its claws stuck into the ground as its large body was shoved back for about ten metres. Silver lightning covered its form and crackled up and down its body. It leaned on its arms, like someone who had the wind knocked out of them as it heaved a few breaths here and there before looking back up at the adventurers with a groan.
"Well it definitely did something." Finn commented. "But...it didn't break anything unfortunately."
"That was just the prelude to a real firestorm." Lyze said. "With the adventurers out of the way and the monster out of their range, it gives clear way for Riveria to do her thing."
Finn looked down just as Riveria and her elves let off a barrage of powerful spell boosted by Lyze's Light magic, golden coloured fire washing over Balor as well as hails of ice and lances of light and a plethora of other elemental magic spells rained down upon the monster rex as it was driven back. When the onslaught came to a halt, Balor howled again only for Gareth to appear from behind its head and smash his axe down on its skull, the blade digging deeper than Finn's spear.
Now a dwarf's strength was no joke. Amongst all the races, they sat at the top of the ladder of physical capabilities alongside very few other species. Gareth was already renowned for his own physical might, and now that he had been boosted by Lyze enough for it to qualify as a temporary level up, he was more of a monster than before. That axe swing made Balor's skull smash into the ground as its body lay flat on its front. Noir closed in with his fighters and began attacking the monster rex as it bellowed in fury.
"I'm impressed." Fin commented as he looked up at Lyze. "You're already able to work in such great tandem with everyone even though you're so used to working on your own. Perhaps you're a born leader."
"If this is your way of trying to get me into the captain's seat so you can foist off all the paperwork onto me, no thanks." Lyze deadpanned. "Doesn't matter how much honey you give me, I will always be wary of the hatchet."
"Someday Lyze. Someday." Finn promised before he gestured below them. "Mind letting me down now?"
Lyze looked down and saw that they were both still floating high in the air...or rather he was. Finn was hanging on to his arm while his body swayed. Looking down at Finn's unenthusiastic smile, he sheepishly grinned before that smile became mischievous and Finn became wary all of a sudden. Lyze swung the Pallum up and flung him towards the monster rex. Finn braced himself, promising to share a few words with the boy once this was over and gripped his spear as he landed in front of Balor's face.
He ran up Balor's face and prepared to sink Fortia deep into the eye as it stared at him. Balor became panicked and decided to stop holding itself back in front of all the fodder. With a burst of strength, it lifted its head and knocked the fighters away as Finn stopped his attack and focused on getting steady footing again as there was a gaping mouth beneath him.
Red lightning with black cores began to burst and fizz out of the glowing holes in Balor's body and rope around its limbs as it reached up with a hand and gripped Gareth before the dwarf could react. One of the claws knocked Finn off as Balor grabbed the dwarf and lifted him off its skull, leaving the axe stuck in its head as Gareth shouted in agony at the monster rex's tightening grip. Balor roared in the dwarf's face, the sound of bones cracking inside of Gareth's body sounding as blood dribbled out of the warrior's mouth.
Balor then swung its arm around and threw the dwarf across the Floor, Gareth's body flying like a bullet past Lyze and smashing into the wall of the Floor, large cracks spreading out from the point of impact as Gareth's eyes rolled back and he slumped forward, falling to the ground. Balor roared and swiped at the ground, sending waves of debris into the adventurers' faces as it slammed its palms on the ground.
Bolts of red lightning rained down on the adventurers and electrocuted them painfully as they screamed in pain, while also being blown away by the shockwaves from Balor's palm slap. Lyze appeared next to Ais and put her behind him as he raised a palm and took the red lightning bolt head on. She was stuck still fighting smaller monsters that were flanking them as they engaged the monster rex.
Ais turned back as she heard the sound of Lyze being hit with the red lightning and looked at him concerned as he yelped in pain as the lightning burned his hand. She turned to him and held his hand in worry.
"Are you okay?" She asked him.
"Better than you would have been." Lyze chuckled before he looked to the side with a raised brow as he saw Raul rolling on the ground ensnared in a net of crackling red electricity while screaming pain. Lyze's face became flat and exasperated as he faced a palm at the boy. "{Magic Cancel}"
The red net of lightning was dispelled as Raul stopped rolling and breathed deeply in relief of the absent pain. He looked up at Lyze gratefully.
"Thanks bro." Raul huffed with a thumbs up.
"Get up off your backside and defend the wagons." Lyze said before he looked at Ais. "Don't get too confident with your boosted powers Ais. These monsters are still stronger."
"But at least now I'm the same level as you." Ais smiled as she held Desperate up. "I feel so incredible at the moment."
"I'm well acquainted with it." Lyze looked at new monsters coming out of the ground to jump them. Bara at that moment came rushing back with her Amazons to back up those protecting the carts and pummel the monsters who were trying to sabotage their assault on Balor. Lyze pushed Ais towards the team. "Go, go help them."
Ais nodded as she activated her magic.
"{Tempest, Ariel}" Ais said as her winds cocooned her like they usually did. But this time, instead of being green, they shone a golden colour with little flecks of pink here and there. Probably an effect of his boost, much the way Riveria's fire was now gold in colour. Ais gave him one last smile before she leaned up and quickly kissed him on the cheek again. "That was thanks for earlier."
Lyze looked at her indignantly as he held a hand to his cheek but was not given a chance to reprimand her as he usually did before she ran off and joined the slaughter. He sighed and shook his head before Balor's roars reached his ears and he turned to see Balor swipe away Tsubaki in his direction. He flew up and caught her before she too smashed into a wall and descended with her in his hold.
"Thanks kid." The blacksmith said as she wiped some blood off her lips. "The bastard is even more nastier than I expected."
"As are you miss temporary Level 6." Lyze grinned at her.
"Watch it kid, or the next breastplate I give you will be customed for a woman." Tsubaki said teasingly to him. As if to emphasise her point, she reached her hands up to her shirt and ripped it open so her sarashi-bound chest came bouncing out. "The spiky asshole is strong, I'll give him that. But he hasn't seen what I can do just yet." She stuck her naginata in the ground and pulled out her katana and slashed it a few times in the air. Lyze could tell just by a glance that it was a high quality blade.
"And that would go for me too." Lyze said as silver electricity began to go up his arms. "He's not the only one that can use lightning based attacks."
He put his hands together as a storm of lightning gathered together before he fired a thick stream of it straight at the the monster's chest. Balor howled as he was caught in the net and angry red lines were starting to burn into his body as the lightning continued to electrocute him in both body and soul. But as Lyze expected, he couldn't even budge the soul out of the monster while it was still relatively at full strength.
Tsubaki took the moment to burst forward with great speed and jump on a dwarf's helmet before using it as a launch pad to jump straight towards Balor's face. She quick drew the katana and slashed its face. Balor lifted his head up in the nick of time but not quick enough as the adventurer who was nicknamed 'Cyclops' cut off one of the spikes on his chin.
Balor lifted his hand to swipe her while she was mid air but another spell from Riveria blasted his face to the side and he missed his target as his aim was thrown off. Tsubaki landed on the ground uninjured. With Lyze's lightning holding the monster rex down momentarily, the mage team unleashed another barrage of magical attacks on Balor as he thrashed around and the air vibrated with magical energy. The fighters drew back in order to not be caught up in the cross fire, especially where Lyze's magic was concerned.
Lyze let go of the lightning net just as the mages finished their barrage and drew out Excalibur again. The air around him became cold and sickly as a malicious aura surrounded him. The adventurers near him instinctively drew away and the monsters paused their own attacks as an uncomfortable shiver ran up their backs. Balor snapped its jaw shut as all eyes turned to the boy.
Dark tendrils of evil magic began to pile out of the boy's body as a black mark appeared on his forehead and a slight miasma began to emanate from him. Everyone in front of him quickly made way as they allowed him path to make his advance. Finn held his spear up in signal for them to hold still as he watched Lyze. Lyze gathered his dark powers and looked at Finn for permission, to which the Pallum nodded.
Lyze smiled and stared at the monster rex who looked back at him.
"How about we both stop holding back then, beast?" Lyze said as he brandished Excalibur and pointed it at the monster. "Let us see which is the worst. The monster...or the demon."
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