Chapter 36

I watched as Bell and Aisha went ahead first. As the rope spooled out from Lilly's little bundle, I suddenly felt... worried. I'd managed to ignore it until now, but once again I was feeling that little edge of fear. I was about to enter the dungeon. That same place that took me away from my Family and Familia.

Something 'thwacked' into my rear, sending a little jolt up my spine. Looking back, it was Ryuu and her nice wooden sword.

"Focus, and you will always return home." She said, "We're with you, and you are with us."

"Together, sister." I said with a nod, putting my helmet on and feeling it 'stick' in place over my face. "I'll show this Jura fellow that no one picks on my big sister." I took a deep breath, my usual 'pre-combat' ritual, and watched Welf and Ryuu slip into the water. I looked back at Lilly, Mikoto, Ray and Fear, "Lilly, untie that then grab it over here. You two grip it with your talons, and I'll pull you all through." I pointed to a spot closer to the water for Lilly, "Oh, don't untie it until I give it a couple of sharp tugs. And Mikoto, do your best to keep Lilly's pack from scraping the walls."

Mikoto nodded, getting her own equipment secured for the trip underwater.

"Lilly understands!" She said with a smile, her hand giving one of my tails a swish, "Good luck!"

I felt the water close around me, seep into my armour, then fill my helmet as I went under, pulling myself quickly along the rope towards the other side. As I felt the familiar 'the walls have eyes' feeling of the dungeon grow, I distracted myself with ways I might make my helmet or armour a true 'pressure' suit. It would be nearly impossible with the materials I had on hand in this world, but, that would be the challenge.

And I was through, in the dungeon proper, with the walls and 'dungeon flies' (basically fireflies that were one of the other 'impossibly useful' things the dungeon provided) the only sources of light. Even before I surfaced, I could hear the others fighting. A few Giant beetles and a pair of huge goblins, Hobgoblins. I saw a couple of magic stones on the ground already, signs of Bell's firebolt magic most likely.

"Come on Fox! Give us a hand!" Aisha called out, "Gotta make sure you still know what you're doing!" Aisha called out, bracing her wooden Padao between a Bettle's mandibles, then levering her sword around and flipping it onto its back.

Welf and Bell were fighting the other two beetles, while Ryuu faced the two Hobgoblins. I considered showing off, or maybe doing something fancy I'd learned over with Rias and the rest. But instead, I rushed over to Ryuu. My footsteps heavy on the ground to let her know what side I was coming up on, I brought my fist back, and just as she got out of the way, I gave the now solo monster a simple straight punch to the middle of its chest.

My fist didn't even slow down as it passed through flesh and bone like jello, black ash and a gurgling cry diffusing into the air around us, followed by the smallest 'clink' of a magic stone hitting the floor. I looked over to Ryuu, who finished her opponent with a quick smack to the inner knee to bring its head down, then a thunderous cracking blow to its forehead, shattering its skull like a melon.

"Miss Kodori! We're under control here. Signal the others!" I glanced over to the other three, catching sight of Aisha as she moved away from a new pile of black ash towards Bell's voice.

Without replying, I went over to the rope, pulled out the spike Bell (or Aisha) had stuck into the ground, and gave the now slack rope two quick tugs. I then pulled the rope tight again, and a moment later it went slack once more, followed by a quick tug, then slack again. So, I started pulling the rope in.

"Ah, damn! More monsters coming down the hall!" Aisha called out, "Welf help me keep the room clear!"

I trusted them to hold the tunnel, and just kept pulling. Then around me, the walls started to crack, "Yup, dungeon still hates them!" Welf said, "We should have broken the walls up a little first!"

"Miss Ryuu! Cover that side!" Bell called out.

Lilly's head, her massive backpack then Mikoto's head popped out of the water, and with an easy motion of my arm and tails I fished out out supporter, then Mikoto. A moment later, Ray and Fear, looking rather soggy and sad looking, breached the surface. "Here, dry out as fast as you can." I said, summoning a dozen little foxfire orbs. "Don't touch them, just warm up with them."

"Myeeeehhhh... I hate water." Fear pouted, "We can help too!"

I turned away from them, "Welf, Aisha, I will hold the tunnel, clear the walls in here first!"

"That's the spirit!" Aisha laughed, her and Welf clearing the way for me, "Leave some for us!"

"No." I replied, slapping a single sword bug from the air with a 'paf', then stomping my right foot down, taking a big step forward, and punching a tiger the size of a car in the nose. The impact sent a shock wave down the tunnel, as well as a cloud of black ash, "I plan on being done by dinner."

With the two Xenos acting as almost literal monster magnets, my hopes to be home by dinner were probably going to be in vain. But, even with the two of them seeming to pull every monster on the floor in our general direction, we were still making progress.

"Come on Fox." Aisha teased, "It's like you're not having any fun!"

"Yeah Sister! It's not too easy for you, is it?" Welf added, the two of them executing a perfect bait/switch on a boar the size of a pickup truck

I didn't reply. It wasn't that it was too easy, or difficult, or boring. I was still fighting down the smallest edge of panic. A little further from here, and we'd be in the exact same room... The exact place where we first felt the rumbles of the dungeon going mad. So, instead of replying, I was methodically, systematically, exterminating everything that attacked us that got in reach. They didn't know it, except maybe Ryuu, but we were all fighting in a 'bubble' of my own magic. In this hyper aware state, I didn't have time to panic or worry.

Sword bug? Two steps back, sweeping knife hand.

Giant beetle? One step over, plant front foot and punch with rear hand.

Hobgoblin quick-spawning from the wall? Interpose self between it and Ray. Open palm strike to middle of chest, protect Ray from rock and debris with tails.

Harpy? Gentle nudge with hip. Sharp elbow to the forehead of charging boar monster.

Nothing flanked us, I wouldn't allow it. Nothing surprised us, because I felt it before it had even started to crack the walls.

"Sister." Ryuu said, holding out a canteen of water, "Are you okay? Your style has gotten boring again."

Carefully, I took off my helmet, the feeling of dungeon air over my face positively refreshing. "It was in here." I said, "Where it all started."

Yes, almost like the dungeon was playing a joke on me, the monsters had started to thin out, then stop, just as we got to the large room we'd been fighting in a year ago. "It is good you are focused, but if you wear yourself out before we get there..." She accepted the canteen from me after I'd taken a sip.

"Miss Kodori, you've gotten so strong." Bell said, "You're very hard to keep up with."

"Your teamwork has slipped a little." Aisha said, "You're supposed to be a fighting forward, not an orbiting fighter."

"Hey, I'm not complaining." Welf grinned, cleaning off his blade, "She's not helping where she isn't needed. Feels good to really see what this thing can do." He put the wide blade over his shoulder, "But yeah, you're style is even more boring than when you left!"

"I dunno... She's pretty scary to me." Fear said.

"Her tails are still too friendly." Ray grumbled, "But thank you for earlier."

"Lilly likes the friendly tails!"

I, and almost everyone else, looked to Mikoto. "Hmm?" She blinked at the sudden attention.

"Everyone else has made a comment on my performance so far. Except you." I said with a shrug.

"I see no problems with you using a simple style. Even wearing full armour, it is almost like watching Lord Takemikazuchi when we train together." She said after a moment's thought.

That brought a smile to my face. "Good." I turned to Ryuu, "Don't worry, I'm pacing myself. Most of my newer abilities need more open space anyhow." She nodded, "Is the dungeon always this bad with Xenos around?"

"Ehh, sort of?" Ray said, "It gets tired after a little while. Then we just have to worry about things that have spawned already."

"There are some places we don't ever go. Like a pantry. We'd have every monster on the floor, and more besides, coming after us." Fear said making a 'bleh' face, "No fun, and honestly, I think I'm spoiled for real food anyhow."

"How's it going tiny?" Welf asked after another monster 'poofed' into black dust, "You got the map?"

"Lilly knows the way!"

"We'll be relying on you to find that monster, Mikoto." Ryuu said quietly, "He will likely be close by. He enjoyed keeping his monsters on a very tight leash."

"Understood, Ryuu-san." Mikoto nodded.

As we continued to the Twenty Fifth floor, the top of the waterfall, the fighting only got more intense. Just as the two Xenos said though, it was in short furious bursts. We'd get to a new floor, hit a pocket of monsters, fight insane amounts of them, then... nothing. As the sound of rushing water got closer, the rooms started getting a little bigger, and our two flying friends were starting to really help out as well. Even without hands, they were expert kickers and seemed to know when other flying monsters were approaching. I'd have easily put them into a high level four power level as well, maybe even low level five. They'd gotten much stronger since I'd first met them, down in Dix's underground prison.

Then, finally, we'd arrived.

"You know." I said as we stopped at the very top of the grand waterfall, "I think this is the second time I've ever been jealous of Ha-chan."

I didn't care if it was the dungeon. Or that it was 'too perfect'. The view was incredible. The massive basin of water below. The random crystal growths along the walls. The massive pillar of stone behind the waterfall itself. The list went on and on with the sheer majesty of it all. Even while I idly shook monster gunk off myself, or sipped a bit of water again, or ate a bit more from our rations, I just couldn't take my eyes away from it.

"Oh? Why's that?" Welf asked.

"She got to see this first." I said, "This is... You know, if I wasn't wearing my armour, I'd almost want to swim in that." I motioned to the water far below.

"You'd need your armour to survive swimming in that." Aisha laughed, her hand giving one of my ears a scroofle before I could put my helmet back on. "And now I'm curious, what was the first time?"

All eyes went to me, and before I answered I put my helmet back on to hide my blush, "That even though she has the most amazing girly-abs, she hasn't lost any of her curves." I said.

Everyone laughed quietly, "Miss Mikoto?" Bell asked after we'd settled, "Anything?"

Once again she made that curious hand gesture, but shook her head after a moment, "No, however, we will have quite the fight on the way down."

"Let's take another couple of minutes then." Bell said, "Miss Ray, Miss Fear? Are you ready?"

"Yup!" They both replied together, "Oh! You do have ear protection right?" Ray asked.

Lilly started handing out special headbands without needing to be asked, while I nodded, "Feel free to go nuts until the air is clear." I said, "If you need help, don't be afraid to land near us. We'll give you time to recover." I was sure the helmet hid the smile in my voice, "I will finally have enough space to let loose."

"I will check every two minutes." Mikoto said, "Let us hope we are the first ones it has seen since our first meeting."

And like that, the hunt was on.

After our little break we started our descent. Almost as soon as we hit 'open air' with the mouth of the waterfall and rough domed ceiling above us, the dungeon started to wake up again. Without needing to be prompted, our two Xenos members extended their arms and hopped off the long downward spiralling ramp we were on, and got to work.

For a moment I was worried. There were a LOT of spawning monsters. A dozen harpy (still pretty, but also naked and angry looking, with no shred of 'civilization' about them like Fear and Ray), a heap of Iguazu (The little red 'flying lemmings' that were more sharp edges than brain cells), massive hornets with stingers longer than my arm, and even the walls started to come alive with light quartz (I wanted one of these to experiment on SO BADLY... I mean... lasers in the dungeon?)

But our two Xenos friends seemed to be in perfect harmony with each other. Ray, the Siren, used her voice as a literal weapon. Her directed blast of sound was powerful enough to distort the air, shattering light quartz, dispersing swarms of flying critters, and even making one harpy's head explode. After that short blast of sound, Fear would swoop in and pull apart a few disoriented monsters, then be away again before they could react.

"Why are you laughing?" Aisha asked when she and I had a moment of fighting shoulder to shoulder against a truck sized turtle made of rock and crystal, "Finally having fun?"

I slapped the turtle's head aside, giving Aisha the perfect opening to stab it in the shoulder and crush its magic stone, "I'm imagining Oni with wings." I replied, leaving her amid a cloud of ash as I backed off to help Mikoto with another turtle.

A few minutes later, we had made it maybe a quarter of the way down the grand ramp. We were in 'front' of the waterfall now, the view even better than from above. "Incoming!" Fear called out, giving us plenty of warning as the two of them flew towards us.

They'd thinned out the flying mass of monsters quite a bit, but were looking a little tired and had a few bright red cuts on their otherwise pale skin. Bell stepped forward, arm extended, "Lilly! Ryuu!"

"We'll catch you!" Welf and Aisha positioned themselves behind and to the side of Bell, Ryuu and Lilly as they took up firing positions, planting their weapons point down in the floor and making ready to catch the two avian.

This left me to keep them safe from the still encroaching herd of monsters that were coming up the ramp. But that was fine, I could multitask. "I'll slow down the flyers." I called out, "Aim for the smallest ones first!"

They didn't question, they just adjusted their aim. As I punched and kicked things out of some deep sea horror story (like giant crab with a claw the size of a motorcycle), my tails swished as one towards the edge of the ramp. I heard Ray and Fear make a puzzled noise, likely because the air resistance had tripled for them, for just a moment, as they caught the edge of my 'zone control'. Using the same technique I used to slow down Albion and Ottar, it was like the flying monsters were suddenly trying to move through jello.

The bigger ones were less affected, but by the time their momentum had gotten them out of my projection, Ray and Fear were safely on the ground, allowing Welf and Aisha to hack them apart as they freed themselves.

"They are safe!" Ryuu called out, signalling me to release the effect.

From there, we all got back in formation. Lilly helped the two Xenos with a couple of potion pills and a magic stone or two. The 'lighter weapon' fighters (Mikoto/Ryuu/Bell) fought off the softer/faster targets (mermen mostly, with the occasional harpy who slept in or giant wasp), while Myself Aisha and Welf handled crabs and turtles.

Then, our first (real) problem arrived.

At about the half way point, near the same room that Ironbeard and his former party had taken shelter with Jura when they 'rescued' him, Mikoto perked up, "It's close!" She said as she used her special monster detection skill. We all turned to look the way she was facing, towards that same room, but instead of the giant moss monster they told me about (which I thoroughly intended to punch the head off of), we were greeted by a dozen mermen.

"I guess it wants us to warm up a little first!" Welf laughed.

"Careful, that path is slick." Bell said, "FIREBOLT!"

As usual, he tried to take down the lead monster first. Many 'pack' monsters (hellhound for example) became confused if you took down the 'leader'. It was about the only thing the monsters had in common with 'normal' animals, since they were usually just mindless hunters.

But, instead of his patented electrified bolt of fire slamming into the merman's chest and (probably) turning it to ash...

The one behind it stepped forward, a metal tower shield on its arm deflecting the bolt away harmlessly!

"Scatter!" I called out as the ones in the rear of that little formation pulled their arms back and threw their stone 'tridents' at us. Sure, they were land-form weapons, that were only 'mostly' weapon shaped, but there was a LOT of power behind those throws.

"It's moving!" Mikoto called out, her katana sweeping a trident out of the air, her shoulder armour 'pinging' with bits of stone from the shattered weapon, "It's going up the way we came!"

"Mr. Ironbeard said it came through the wall! It probably knows how to tunnel!" Bell said as he and Aisha started towards the pack of mermen. The path towards them would only allow maybe three or four people across, but they were avoiding the rounded edges, not wanting to risk a fast trip to the basin floor.

"Who the hell taught them to fight?" Aisha called out, "Ah damn! Fox! Heavies coming up the ramp!"

With the harpies and Ryuu dealing with flying monsters, Bell and Aisha confronting the mermen, Welf and Mikoto holding the way back up, I was left to bar the path down. Thanks to the mess back in the Underworld, I knew how to fight these turtles and crabs. I was also strong enough to shatter their hard shells, though, I could feel my knuckles getting a little raw from all the fighting.

"He would teach them 'tricks'." Ryuu called out, her green wind lashing through the air cutting apart hornets and harpy alike.

"Gah!" Bell backed off as his dagger bounced off a tower shield, and a trident from the rank behind nearly stabbed him, "Simple but effective!"

Then a boulder the size of a person crashed into the ramp, just missing Lilly (who shouted a warning and dodged it in time) before rolling towards me. "It's gotten above!" Mikoto called out.

I let the boulder do some work for me, letting it roll over a turtle before I stepped in behind it and punted it off the ramp. "They're only pretending to know what they're doing!" Aisha said with a laugh, "Welf! Switch with Bell!"

"Ryuu!" I called out, "How bad do you want this guy?" I did a little hop back to avoid a pincer, then dashed forward with a high powered shoulder check, slamming the crab into the turtle behind it, making them both tumble helplessly down the ramp.

"Don't exhaust yourself!" She called back, "I will handle the ramp."

Welf and Bell switched, while Ryuu and I did the same. Ryuu knew one of the 'weaknesses' of my 'fox aura' trap, and that was the massive drain on my mana. It was only because of Haruhime's tails that I could even do this at all, and for some odd reason I could never figure out, it was harder to use her power than my normal abilities. Harder? No... It was more like I was using a muscle that was weaker than usual, it got tired faster.

That said, as the moss monster (that was indeed huge and looked like it had rolled around in a construction yard, exactly how Bell and the others said it looked) threw the next boulder, I extended a hand, projecting a dark black claw of mana, slashing it out of the air so that it plummeted into the basin below. "Ray! Fear! Keep clear of that area there if you can!" I yelled over the screams of mermen, as Welf and Aisha used their much heavier weapons to smash shields out of position to get at the ranks behind them.

Ray screeched another wave of empowered sound, shattering a wasp as it made for the ramp, "We'll head up! Try and keep eyes on him!"

"Be careful!" Lilly called back as the two Avian spirals about each other, making their way upwards, "Another one incoming!"

I saw it, and as before, I slapped it aside with a projected claw. "That thing is so lucky I can't... Wait! Lilly! Glue bomb!" The distance was about a hundred meters...

"Careful! Catch!" One of my tails (soft and fluffy thing that it was) snatched the glass vial from the air without breaking it.

"Koneko special!" I tapped down the stopper, took a big step forward, and threw the vial as hard as I could, making sure to encase it in my aura so the force of the throw didn't shatter the thin glass. The little vial zipped through the air, and slammed into the monster someplace near its shoulder. The glass, now out of range of my aura, turned to dust on impact, the glue expanding as it hit the air and starting to harden instantly.

The other thing they had told me about it, was it was cowardly. If we could get it to stop throwing rocks for a moment, we could run back up the ramp, and maybe put it down. And they were right, as soon as the vial hit it, it dropped the stone it was about to throw and ran back into the room we had passed earlier.

"Mikoto!" I called out, "Back up, track it! Bell! Together brother!"

"We see it!" Fear said, "It's digging into the wall again!"

"It is!" Mikoto called out, "It's heading... down?" She said, her eyes looking at the wall, tracking its progress. It was REALLY fast too. Pre-made tunnels?

I glanced at where it looked like it might be heading, "Welf! Aisha! You done?"

"Almost!" Aisha laughed, "Good distraction!"

"YA!" Welf's blade glowed red, cleaving through a tower shield and merman at the same time, "Holding a shield isn't enough!"

Bell put together what I was planning, just by the questions I was asking, "Let's ambush it! Miss Ryuu! We're breaking through to the bottom!"

"Understood!" She replied, her 'emerald wind' magic intensifying suddenly and scattering the last of the crabs she was fighting. Some fell off, others crashed backwards down the ramp, and now the wisps of magic that were surrounding her were gone, her spell 'reset' to zero. "Ready!"

"Lilly will get you later..." She said (probably to all the magic stones we were leaving behind) as she ran down the ramp after Ryuu Welf and Aisha.

"The real prize is getting home!" I said, picking her up with my tails on the way by, slowing down just long enough to balance her and that massive backpack, then picking up speed again, "But yes, we'll come back if we can."

"Lilly is not cargo!"

We basically plowed our way through to the bottom of the basin. With me in the lead and Welf and Aisha by my side even the incredibly tough shells of the crabs and turtles were only slightly more inconvenient than almost anything else I'd fought so far today. My mana reserves were still pretty high, but I was saving my for what ever surprises this Jura fellow might have.

"Light quartz swarm!" Bell called out, "Lilly, mana potion!"

"So many of them!" Fear said with a hint of panic.

"They're coming out of that wall there!" Ray added.

"Kinda missing little Chigusa." Welf said, "Her shield is perfect for this!"

"We're almost there!" Aisha said, "Fox! Help cover, we'll get to the room!"

"Lilly is still not cargo!" I did however see her toss a vial to Bell.

I set her down, then swept a black claw through the air, catching a few of the little crystal monsters before they could focus on anyone long enough to burn them, "Ray, Fear! Keep them off Welf and Aisha! We got this! Ryuu! Bell! HIT ME!"

Bell looked at me like I'd grown a new arm or something, but Ryuu knew what I had in mind. Once Bell saw that Ryuu was about to hit me with her magic, he turned as well and called out his spell, "FIREBOLT!"

The enchantments I'd laid into the armour, for the most part, simply amplified what I could already do. Magic resistance for example. Absorption too. Riser was probably my first real victim of this one, when I ate his fire, and fed all that useless magic power into the fox that almost ate him. Now however, as the little constellations on my armour lit up, glowing like little suns as they soaked up the magic, I focused myself to let out. My arms and hands tingled with the effects of their magic, but then I pushed it out of me, a fox projection laced with fire lightning and razor sharp wind filling the air behind us, shattering the swarm of crystal monsters as if I'd taken a hammer to each and every one.

It was costly though. I felt a little twinge of pain behind my eyes, and my arms felt like I'd been in the sun too long. "It's waiting for us!" Mikoto shouted, sweeping a wasp I'd missed out of the air with a quick slash.

"Let's oblige then!" Aisha said, her padao flattening a crab, the way to the room finally clear, "Go go go!"

"Lilly is still not cargo!" She complained as I picked her up again, "So many missed crystals..." She pouted as her little hands gripped my shoulders, "Wow... Your armour is really warm."

"Are you okay sister?" Ryuu asked as she ran beside me.

"I'm not doing that again today if I can help it." I said, "This is probably a trap." I added.

"We're ready." She replied, the light of the basin growing dimmer as we entered the tunnel and exited into a huge room. A domed ceiling at least twenty metres high, a floor with random pools of clear mildly glowing water, walls dotted with little crystal formations, and at the far end, the moss monster. That wasn't all however. Curled up there next to the three metre tall moss monster was a dragon. It had emerald green scales, with a body that was at least two bus lengths long, and that was before its neck and tail. It was... very very big.

But, surprising me, and Ryuu apparently, was Jura. Sitting on the dragon's long neck, his only hand holding what looked like a massive metal studded leather collar. He had a... complicated expression on his face. Like he was trying to hold still, but waiting for something to happen.

"It's not fair." He said when we'd all stopped at the far end of the room, "In less than two hours, you've killed almost three years worth of monsters I'd tamed." He pulled up on the collar of the dragon, making it growl in pain, though it didn't even try to throw him off, "But you know what else isn't fair?"

Ryuu replied with a lash of green wind, sharp and strong enough to leave a furrow in the ground. The moss monster simply stood in the way, losing a couple of stone chips from the materials it held in its body.

"You. Getting to live a normal life. After what you did to my Familia, and me!" Jura shouted over the little burst of noise.

"Why aren't we killing him yet?" I asked, feeling a little impatient since it would be dinner soon and I had children to cuddle.

"Right, you wouldn't know." Aisha said, "I swear... level six, still a rookie. That's a green dragon, usually considered a level four threat. The moss huge is a xenos, right?"

Ray and Fear nodded.

"We can't move carelessly." Bell said, "Miss Kodori is fireproof, but we aren't. It can breath enough fire to fill the room."

Ryuu ignored us, and replied to Jura, "Half your Familia was wiped out by your own trap. I simply made sure it would never happen again." She said, "You knew the dungeon would react to that much damage!"

Jura laughed, a broken, half insane laugh. "Oh yes, we knew the dungeon would react! It always does! But what it reacted with! Ohhhhhh it was glorious!" More giggles, "When I heard you survived the last beating I gave you, I planned, and plotted, and grew my army! You wanted vengeance, and that's fine! They were all useless anyhow!" Behind me, I could feel Lilly moving slowly, probably trying to aim through the cover of my tails. "But... That nonsense with dungeon delayed my plans! I had to hide even further!" He shook his head, "I was going to impersonate you, you know. Pretend I was you, use your old name, lure you down here to investigate... But NO! You had already entered the light again!"

He started to pull and yank at the collar on the dragon, and I could see little glimpses of blood under it, and still, all it did was growl in pain.

"After all the pain and suffering I went through to try and show you what I planned! To lure you here, into this very room, and kill you with the very same thing that wiped out your Familia!" There was a solid 'thump' and the moss monster acted like someone had kicked him, "Do it!"

"NO!" Ryuu shouted, lashing out again with her magic as the moss monster slammed its hand into the floor.

It was like a mine had gone off. A loud, brilliant explosion. But then a second one, and a third, then they were happening in rapid succession, a series of WUMPH WUMPH WUMPH noises as the detonations ran along the floor towards the edge of the room, then into a tunnel I hadn't noticed before. I could feel each explosion through my boots, and I started having flashbacks of that day...

The day I was taken away from my family.

"Dragon is mine!" I yelled out, leaning forward to start my run, then charging towards Jura and his two monsters.

"You can't mean to summon the Juggernaut!" Ryuu shouted over the explosions, her emerald wind magic bursting in to full power and sending lashes of green energy past me to assist my charge.

"I DO mean to! And when it appears, I will control it!" He shouted back, "BURN HER!"

As planned, the dragon pointed its head at me as Jura did a neat little flip off its neck and away from me. Also as planned, it opened its mouth and spewed forth a massive stream of crimson fire. Sure, it was hot, really hot, but meh, it was just fire. All it was really doing to me was slowing me down, and thus prolonging the life of the dragon I fully intended to make into a new coat.

(In the Basin)

The detonations ran through the network of tunnels the Moss Huge had made. Explosion after explosion, ripping open the walls and floors, collapsing rooms, destroying the basin's central pillar (again), rending the spiralling ramp that went up to the top of the waterfall to pieces... Smoke and dust, stone shards and crystal powder, wandering monsters and water, all of that and more filled the air as the walls of the basin itself seemed to just... fall apart. It was the most damage the dungeon had suffered in a single 'incident' since its creation, far more than when the juggernaut, the monster that had wiped out all but Ryuu of the Astraea Familia.

The dungeon despised adventurers. It knew where they were within its body, but was too slow minded to simply kill them. But, it had defences. Traps, monsters, natural and unnatural hazards. But it had one other thing, the ultimate 'antibody' for adventurers that were more than a nuisance.

And it appeared. Ripping itself out of the floor of the now rock filled basin, shedding rock and crystal like they were nothing but bits of dust. To any that might survive seeing it, it had the body of a snake, with arms like a praying mantis, a face like an arrowhead filled with teeth, and skin that looked to be made of obsidian scales.

With a single minded determination, it lashed its body towards the origin point of the dungeon's most recent pain...

Even as I took the full attention of the dragon away from the rest of the party, Jura kept talking, "This collar here? I made it! It can command anything with a magic stone! Even these ones here! Maybe if they survive, I'll take those two there!" A pause, "How are you still moving!?"

Because yes, I'd started to scream over the sound of fire pouring over me, focusing myself so that when I did get there, and I WOULD get there, I could pull this things teeth out and make table legs out of them later.

"Ignore her! Get them!" He sounded a little panicked, but then, as the fire snapped off like a switch, making me stumble with the sudden lack of resistance, he pulled a little metal whistle out of his belt, and blew into it. "You're going away!"

Then the floor opened up beneath me, a mouth filled with teeth and smelling like sulphur opened up around me and swallowed me whole.

NOTES!

Yes, this is a cliffhanger. No, I regret nothing.

See you in five days. :)

Also, combat is so tedious to write sometimes...