C40: Seal, Return home. Grave News for Orario
Word count = 2175 on 2/20/2024
Apologies, could have given this chapter earlier but i forgor
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"Yahoo the cutest knight, Astolfo has arrived to save the day!!!" They give a slight twirl after saying that.
"Come sit down, I left a clean spot over there" The knight says and points to a circular region around a specific tree that is truly bloodless.
"Antares could be coming any moment now!! We must escape" Artemis proclaims, for once seeing a sign of hope but confused about the situation. Kyrene brings her over to the tree and once they sit down and face Astolfo, they see strange spikes set up around the ruin entrance. They are widespread to cover any potential hole or opening that could be made.
"Don't worry your pretty little head about that. Once that cute kid is out, I'll seal up this Antares nice and tight before we get more reinforcements to finally kill it." As the cute knight proclaims this. Thumping sounds are heard as a super bulky Axel comes jumping out of the ruins. Due to his jump, his head collides with a part of the ruins where a needle is and breaks it loose.
Axel tumbles on the ground from finally being free. Astolfo pacepalms as the formation was undone. They kick Axel in his thick pecs, Axel looks up from the half kneeling position he is in and sees Astolfo. "Hey there" He smiles.
"Don't 'hey there' me, You just ruined my hard work. Now if that big bad comes charging in after you, they won't be sealed." Astolfos words hit like a brick on the head as Antares peaks out from inside the cave before charging forward.
"ill hold it down, back me up and then keep it steady" Astolfo says as Antares exits the ruins and is coming towards them when Astolfo summons their spear and holds it in front of them as they call out "Trap Of Argalia: Down with a Touch". Astolfo goes shooting forward and smacks against 3 of Antares' legs. This doesnt seem to do much damage but the monstrous beast can seem to stand up properly as it falls over every time it tries.
After going past Antares, Astolfo goes to the spike and repositions it before jumping high up over Antares and next to Kyrene and Artemis.
"Hold it there for a moment so I can send it flying," Astolfo yells at Axel, who is making faces at the stumbling Antares. Astolfo grabs a small horn on their waist before putting it before them and chanting. The horn begins to quickly glow into a giant one.
Axel, on the other hand, uses his frustration to heighten his power and to begin tearing apart the non-stumbling body parts of Antares. It tries to smack him and Astolfo away with it's back tendrils but to no avail before Axel rips them apart since he is getting used to his newfound rage and limbs. Now with 6 arms, he can tear out all 6 tendril limbs of Antares.
After a minute of this, Astolfo says they are ready. Axel looks over to see a strange combination of instruments. Amongst them is the giant half black Brass horn connected to a series of trombones and a giant tuba end.
"LA BLACK LUNA" WHOOOOOMMMMM/WRRYYYYYYY/HUUUUUUSH. [1]
A myriad of animal-like sounds is heard once Astolfo begins to play the strange magic artifact, Axel had already left the direct area of Antares as a powerful shockwave strikes the beast head on. It sends it sliding backwards into the ruin cave before all the spikes seem to glow and create a giant barrier to trap Antares inside. With the barrier up and the stumbling effect ending, Antares begins to slam against the barrier with rage inside its one eye.
Axel falls onto his back at seeing the beast finally sealed away. "Heehee" Astolfo let's out a mock laugh as their horn begins to shrink once more before being holstered.
Astolfo leans over Axel as he finds the immortal's gaze on his ripped body. They crouch down and begin to trace his chiseled abs, his skin tone changed to a slightly deeper shade of white, giving him a caramel colored look or as if he just had a light suntan. Astolfo says to Axel
"I haven't seen you in a bit but you have really been hitting the gym. Unfortunately we can't rest yet. This is not a permanent barrier. We gotta get back to Orario and warn them of the threat. I've already evacuated all the nearby villages on Ganesha's behalf. He'll pay me extra if he wants his horses back because I was not meant to intervene here. I saw your fight, you looked really cool and while you were doing that, I set up the barrier to buy time. We have a month before the barrier breaks. So let's go"
"Cant I sit for 5 minutes?" Axel asks as Kyrene overhears this and blows the whistle to call over Anav finally.
"You have until the prized horse gets here" Axel nods in response as he continues to recuperate his energies, Kyrene gives him a potion from his backpack too as once again, the ones he was carrying around his waist have shattered. He is also given a spare shirt he kept in his bag. As they rest, his extra arms lose a bit of their bulk, so as long as they are crossed then they can fit in the shirt but its easier for him to be shirtless at this point
He finds that his legs and chest are not reducing in bulk at all, as if a new permanent change to his physique once again. He isn't complaining but he will have to get used to his new height of 7ft. He could tell that he was growing inch by inch during the fight itself but it met its new limit at 7 ft. He is a proper tower now.
Axel is knocked out of his contemplation as a majestic and powerful looking horse makes its appearance. Astolfo helps Artemis and Kyrene on before slapping its' ass, "Go home to daddy now"
Anav let's out a slight whine as it begins to charge home.
"What about me?" Axel asks from the side as he watches the horse run off.
"You're going jogging with me, nice little bonding exercise to make up for me leaving you behind when I went to fight the swarm with Pendragon familia" Astolfo says cheekily as they begin to zoom off after the horse.
Axel can only shake his head as he uses his stronger and bulky legs to begin charging after them, occasionally jumping a great distance to keep up. (for a visual image, use the older hulk movie [2003] where the hulk is jumping around by a canyon…and he jumpin)
A trip that originally took almost 1 and a half weeks to make was shortened to a day of running by the trio of Anav, Astolfo and Axel
(A/N: call that shit a triple A battery)
The powerful stampede alerts the guards of Orario before the Ganesha familia who are the ones in charge of the so-called defense rush out as they spot Anav. Ganesha who had regularly been making his rounds to the wall ever since he got the first horse back and then each one the subsequent day is overjoyed at seeing the greatest one return home seemingly safe and sound. "I AM GANESHA" he calls out happily but his expression changes soon.
Just as he is about to head outside along with his familia members to inspect his beautiful child. A dust cloud from behind Anav soon surpasses him before Anav could begin to slow down and it crashes into the side of the giant walls. The tremor is felt throughout a third of all of Orario. The wall itself gets quite a few widespread cracks but nothing a week of work won't fix. Luckily, nobody nearby is hurt by the shockwaves though there are a few injuries inside as things got bumped and fell on top of people. The injuries vary on material of the dropped item. But infrastructure is stable as it was made in view of potential monster outbreaks.
One grandpa in particular is laughing his ass off as the shockwave struck as his grandson pulled his finger. (A/N: congrats to anyone who recognizes the reference)
"Hey Axel, You should learn to slow down a bit" A cute pink haired knight makes an appearance near the gates, more specifically next to Anav who has slowed down to a stop as well.
From within the dust cloud, a seemingly uninjured tall figure climbs out of the wall as he rubs the dust and bits of rock off himself.
"I've only ever learned to go faster the past few days, not slower." he calls out before climbing out of the ditch and back onto the bridge, Anav is giving him the stink eye or some sort of strange look that he can't identify. Artemis and Kyrene are brought away to the medics nearby as they had just been in a pretty rough journey though Artemis looks refreshed a bit from the long ride.
"Well Ganesha, unfortunately you owe me money. But for now, follow us to the guild so you can immediately hear what's going to happen for the next few weeks' ' Astolfo says to the god as they begin to skip towards the guild building. Axel follows but the god is split between his duty and his horse but Anav makes the decision as it follows the group as well.
"I am Ganesha" the god says droopily as he follows the group along. Once there they meet up with the Ouranos familia captain who is also the guild head manager, a short fat elf by the name of Royman Mardeel [2]. Originally the 'guilds pig' wanted to discuss profit margins and investments into Axel's magic items but Axel waves him off and Illyasvial shows up and introduces the proper duty of the guild.
Astolfo and Axel side-eye Royman but otherwise begin to explain the situation. Axel first explains how he quickly handled the castle and killed everyone there before stealing resources and handing them over to the Ganesha familia. Ganesha himself says that those resources were already handed over to the guild except for the fine for their service. Royman huffs at that tidbit as there was no specification of amount that the 'fine' was for.
After getting the first request out of the way, Axel lightly details his journey until he reaches the part where he explains Kyrene and what prompted them to go into the forest 'together'. He details the scorpion monsters and their attributes to the best detail he could which makes Royman particularly nervous at the examples Axel is giving. Both stat-wise and number-wise they are a threat to Orario.
The mood of the room plummets as Axel describes Antares and it's exceptional regenerative abilities. He glosses over his own new abilities but he does try to allude that antares has it's own form of gluttony by explaining how he felt weaker as time went on.
The escape was made and Astolfo came in clutch with the seal and slaying hundreds of scorpions beforehand. Ganesha understands why he owes money now as when he hired Astolfo to go after Axel to ensure Anav's safety. He specified that was the knight's only duty but they went above and beyond. Now knowing that they have a month before the beast is free and very well coming to Orario.
Afterall, from the details, it's obvious that Antares seems to have a hardon for Artemis which they link with the alluded gluttony skill. Axel is given his reward while the situation is explained to the guild higher ups and specifically Ouranos with Alaya listening in ... .somewhere.
Axel returns home finally to the loving embrace of his family. Kaoruko gives him a light hug and a kiss on the cheek while Raikou who is annoyed by the abruptness of the affection she witnesses, pretty much pushes her away before she clings to Axel akin to a koala. She locks lips with him and he has to bring her inside as they are still in public.
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[1] for those that don't know or are questioning the choice of using black luna. Know that Astolfo only has 1 Anti Unit skill which is the Trap of Argalia, the only other anti unit is a defensive barrier for his own use. So you can see that he doesnt have the hippogriff and thus could only use the black luna as a knockback effect on Antares.
[2] Fun fact, Royman is the reincarnation of some legend named Mardy but like other than his appearance there are ZERO details about him. Which means he could have very well been a merchant that gave the ancient heroes a ride in his carriage and that was enough for him or something.