C47: Wacky Adventure, Dungeons Rage
Word count = 3114 on 3/6/2024
Before we start, a short message that Amphisbaena was just an appetizer.
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"Um. so i think I may have had a breakthrough in my magic. I learned how to teleport." he says matter of fact as there is another small crashing sound as the giant sword falls over onto its side. A part of the floor dug up as it had partially sliced into the ground.
He omits to tell them right now but he does drink a potion which heals up the strange injury on his arms which look like they were stripped of flesh but only the outer layer luckily. The black and purple bruise on his cheek also disappears slowly. Lily finishes packing up the items as well as depriving Welf of his magic sword so it can go back into her bag.
Naturally everyone in the team is silent upon hearing about teleportation but Daisy is the first to speak up.
"What's it like? To teleport?" Her questions causes the others to restart their bombardment of questions about how he is feeling, where he went and how he brought the sword here.
He placates them by informing them that he will tell his story once they get to rivira or Orario. Preferably Orario where they wouldn't be as much danger unlike the dungeon. His words ensure that they are brimming with motivation to get back home but not so much as to be a hindrance to their concentration.
"As for the feeling of teleporting. It has two different feels to it. On one end I'm sliding down an endlessly dark tunnel that opens to a pathway of winding golden roads. Then I just appear at a place. It's very disorienting, especially since I had just had the comprehension of how properly activate it. I don't fully control this but in the coming days I should get much better. We have reached all the way here so I can actually bring people with me then what is to say I can just bring us back and forth"
His words offer more incentive to get back faster so that Axel has the chance to experiment with his magic.
The party rests for a bit and in the meantime, Axel tries to comprehend what he actually did go through.
-----------------FLASH BACK---------- (music recommendation for rest of chapter is a compilation of songs by Audiomachine on Yt. The compilation itself is made by 'Epic Music VN' and it's called "To kill a god". My personal fav of that list as I write this chapter is "time to save the world" & "no time to lose" while my least was "battle weary". Your welcome to give your takes on this if you want)
During the time he was semi conscious after experiencing soul pain from the asura construct being defeated. The knowledge of magic was flowing through his mind and thus when he was finally able to touch the magical seed within his own mind. That magic knowledge served as a conduit to bring him to a place where it is more 'relevant'. Granted he wasn't brought to the safest location.
Axel suddenly disappears from the dungeon and appears at some sort of strange location with multi-colored metal walls in box-like formation (shipping crates). He can smell the scent of salt water even though he doesn't have much experience with that scent. The sounds of collisions are heard occurring near him and when he turns around to take a look. He finds that he is actually in the location between two warriors.
One is a golden but semi short haired blonde holding…'nothing'?. The air itself seems to distort around the 'nothing' she is holding. She has a familiar face but nothing that comes to mind immediately.
The other is a pure black knight that seems to be covered in smoke that makes it hard to make out the design of the armor itself. The visor is completely tinted red and even seemingly glowing. This figure is wielding a pure black steel pole that has red veins on it. There are a few dents on it.
Axel quickly realizes that the collision he heard was actually their feet pushing off of the floor as they move to strike each other. That Is when Axel appeared between them. The lady knight has enough self restraint to not attack Axel since his back is facing her blade. As such she pulls back.
"Dodge it" she even so kindly warns as the black knight holds no such restraint and fully plans to snap Axel in two with it's pole.
Axel feels a massive threat and with his asura shade almost reassembled but not quite. He can only try to dodge. He starts bending his back to hopefully get under the oncoming strike but the black knight also slightly lowers the pole with full intent to hit him. Axel can only grit his teeth and put all his arms forward to block the blow. Though he doesn't neglect bending his knees.
As a result, when the strike lands. It breaks his gauntlets with ease and scraps the exterior of his skin. Axel is then sent flying off into thr distance and punctures a shipping crate. He begins to cough as the force of that strike damaged his spectral asuran arms but not enough to break them luckily. Otherwise he would be toast due to the second backlash of his skill being broken.
Cough cough.
The surrounding people are in shock that Axel survived but more collisions are heard as the black knight planned to finish Axel off when the lady knight stopped him. Her sword meets the black knight's makeshift spear.
In a far away location. A person is looking through a sniper scope and suddenly talks to his ally on the radio.
"Maiya, come in. What is going on down there?"
"I don't know Kiritsugu. A person suddenly appeared between Saber and berserker. He seems to still be alive but it's hard to tell if he is a servant or not."
"Is it a caster?" Kiritsugu asks as that is the last servant to not show themselves yet.
"Not sure, he is wearing some sort of armor but it was destroyed by the berserker. He is also bleeding on his arms. Granted he has 6 of them. But only two are bleeding." Maiya quickly gives the report of what she can see to the utmost detail. Kiritsugu is thoroughly confused to resettled himself as he continues aiming at the hidden master of Lancer he had spotted moments ago.
"keep an eye on the situation"
Back at the battlefield, Artoria Saber continues fighting against Berserker when Lancer jumps in and tries to halt Berserker from interrupting his Honorable fight against Saber. But a voice rings out commanding Lancer to join forces with Berserker against Saber and also kill Axel for good measure.
Lancer with grit teeth turns around only to find a dense red aura spread around with the origin being the clay like figure of Axel who has assumed the 'invictum furorem' state (indomitable rage, 2nd asura skill). The red molten lines coat Axel's body as he seems to borderline teleport next to Berserker, grabbing his head and thrusting it into the shipping container.
Crash
Axel is sent flying again as Berserker punched Axel in the spleen. Axel seems to pay it no mind as he and Berserker meet in the middle. Axel sending out his fists and feet at the black knight while he is back to using the pole to strike at Axels with no care for his own body as the armor tanks all the strike but injuries pile up on Axel but his rage effectively nullifies some of the damage due to the clay like state that constantly fixes itself naturally.
Lancer and Saber have restarted their fight with a more willing Lancer since he is getting the 1v1 he wanted. Naturally the two keep a small eye on Axel and Berserker. Saber does do out of worry for potentially involving a bystander as Axel doesnt give off the same impression of a Servant as Lancer or Berserker do. Especially since Axel himself seems to be another Berserker which shouldn't be possible.
Lancer on thr other end is still compelled by the command seal to kill Axel and is thus looking for an opening but he is studying Axel and is unsure of who or what Axel is. Thr fight between Axel and Berserker reaches it's Climax of collisions when Berserker jabs his polearm towards Axel who combines the might of all his arms, the asuran shade and even gluttony vortex punches on each arm.
Booooom
The pole that Berserker was using was destroyed with even part of his armor being visible due to the aura being devoured. Artoria Is partially in shock as she recognizes the armor a bit but can't let herself get distracted.
The destruction of the pseudo noble phantasm caused a small explosion that sent Berserker flying back but after skidding on the floor a bit to realign itself. He prepares to jump back into combat while Axel falls over on his knees. The clay shell breaking apart and parts even turning to dust as his mind is expended. He is panting hard as he has met his match in the battle of madness. His hands on his knees, draped over as he is covered in sweat.
He is quickly recovering his mind due to absorbing berserkers much purer energy. Suddenly a chariot comes charging in, runs over Berserker before he can charge over at Axel again. The owner of said chariot shooes Lancer off as he does at his masters request as the rider announces he would join Saber against him.
Axel falls on his back as Berserker seemingly disappears while Lancer retreats.
"hahaha, quite the vivid show you have given us. But who are you?" The chariot owner bursts into laughter as the fighting is resolved and his desire to drink and enjoy the new world comes back hard.
"huff. Thanks. Huff. I…huff. Didn't plan on this. I ended up here by mistake…I don't even know where here is" he says blatantly as he slowly recovers enough to sit up with one knee up and the other flat. He dispels the extra arms as he wants to focus on recovering.
"Are you not a servant?" The lady knight pitches in as she truly is confused by who he is"
"I know what a servant is but with how you're saying it, it makes me assume that it's some sort of title. So I shall say, no. I'm not and don't know what that is" His words are shocking to the trio as Wazer, Rider's master is still hiding in the chariot, happens to overhear and is shocked. So shocked in fact that he almost jumps out of the carriage with glowing eyes.
"Wow, are you a traveling mage? How did you summon those extra arms and become so strong that you can fight off a Berserker like that?" Waver keeps throwing out more questions as his magical desires get the better of him; it's only after Rider speaks up again that this passion is quelled as he realizes what actually happened.
"Ah, master. It seems you have finally developed a stronger desire for combat, I shall begin training you in the sword henceforth. Though you do have to shape up a bit more. Ill make a proper leader of you yet master"
"Please spare my rider" Wazer almost whimpers as he deflates and returns to the chariot. while Axel laughs a bit at the scene.
"So friend, would you like to join my army? I'm recruiting talented folk like you. I'm sure you will become a great general in the future. What is your name, young man?"
"Names Axel Gram, Thanks but I can't right now. Have my own war going on. Speaking of, I need to get back to the dungeon. My friends should still be fighting off Amphisbaena" Axel declines and begins to call upon the golden seed to bring him back to the dungeon. He focuses on some aspect of memory that was most memorable to him.
After a moment, from the sight of the trio as well as the far off Kiritsugu and Maiya, Axel just disappears. Waver and the servants examine the place he just was and can only go their own ways after a while. Waver then suddenly remembers one of the supposed magic 'types', general info that was taught to him at the Clocktower. It's something that's glossed over in magic theory but this may be the first time he has truly seen it.
Back to Axel himself, he ended up back in the dungeon but inside the goliath arena. He wanders around a bit before finding his goliath blade. He bypasses the defenses before heading over to it. The blade has been deserted as all efforts are being used to defend the city. Axel brings out his arms once more to lift up the blade handle. He then begins to think of returning to his friends while holding the blade tight. His mind gets a bit jumbled due to exhaustion and the final result is that he ends up high above Amphisbaena with the sword in hand which falls down to kill the monstrous rex.
-----------------back Flash end------------
Axel and the others finish their rest and pack up their campsite as they begin to make their way back to Rivira.
Booommmm, QUAAAAKKEEEE
The dungeon suddenly shakes violently as chunks of the wall break off. From the area that Amphisbaena came out from is tons of rocks from the wall being shot out along with hundreds of tons of water. Welf quickly retrieves his magic sword from lily's pack and sends out an ice wall to block or contain all the water but small cracks appear as more water fills in and even overfills the contained area. As the group is moving to run out of the room. Something breaks out from the wall. It looks like a giant snake. It breaks a part of the wall which opens the floodgates of water.
The snakehead slinks through the water, somewhat mindlessly as it just rubs around the edges of the arena until it finally ends up blocking half of the pathway out. It stops there, unmoving, and Welf creates a second ice barrier as a second reserve of water comes shooting out.
Axel grabs his giant sword again, and begins to lift it up. He hopes to cut the enormous snakehead in half so that the water would flow out or at least let them escape. He steps forward with sword in hands and drops its blade first onto the neck.
SNAP.
The blade quickly cuts through the head but when it gets to around halfway through and past the bones that shattered with a snap, the blade stopped. Axel drags the sword out and begins to lift it again to drop it on the previous cut but that is not meant to be as it rapidly bubbles up and reattaches to the other half almost instantly.
Axel has a dark look on his face as he can only seek to use more force to hopefully cut all the way through. Welf takes out his second magic sword and the others flex their magic items courtesy of Axel. They charge up fire spells in hopes of burning the cut parts before they heal to slow down the recovery so that Axel can finish the 2nd cut if the first fails again.
SNAP, boom boom boom.
Axel gets roughly 3/4th of the way through this time around and just as he takes the blade out for the 2nd strike, the others release flame bolts or flame waves to melt the snake flesh. Clouds of dust and smoke rise up as Axel sends down the 2nd cut.
SCREEEECH. Only to find that it has already healed regardless but now the snakehead's eyes are open. Staring at Lily who is the closest to it. Its gaze suddenly shifts to Axel who is holding the giant sword as it opens its mouth to release a powerful screech. Everyone has to cover their ears as their bodies shake from the powerful vibration. Luckily Axel has extra pairs so he can only try to brute force it as he slides the sword in and out like a knife to finish off the cut.
The screech also shakes the dungeon that more cracks arise from where the snakehead came from. Cracks open up to reveal 2 more heads and an enormous torso following behind. It has a similar physique as Amphisbaena in terms of its body but more reptilian. With the exception of the 4 giant legs that support the body. Draconic scales adorn the torso body but the heads are covered in snake scales. It has no fancy adornments on it's body except horns on each head that trail down the entire length of the snake-ish body. It's emergence shatters both layers of ice walls as the water floods the room. The first snake head still remains in place to contain the water inside the room.
As the water comes flooding in, everyone grabs onto each other except Axel who was too far away. By holding on like this they prevented themselves from drowning or being swept away by the water. Though with the amount of water, they had to toss aside some of their items that was holding them down like lily with her backpack or certain pieces of armor.
Axel himself was stuck completely underwater as the weight of both himself and the knife prevented him from reaching the surface level of the water. Water is spilling out of the room through the small cracks around the first snakehead and Axel can only continue to cut at it in hopes of saving his team when the second snakehead flings it's head to smack the knife out. This also jolts the first head properly awake which makes it rise up to meet the other heads and hiss a bit as the water begins flooding out. After a few seconds the room is wet but nothing more than a few puddles remain.
The entire team is soaking wet but they can only continue as they try to slink out of the room while Axel is walking towards the sword again as it was knocked out of his grip by the previous attack.
ROOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAARRRR. The beast known as the Hydra releases a roar to signify it's awakening.