Authors Note1: So as promised the next chapter, time to start the expedition!
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They made good progress on their way down into the dungeon, as ordered Riveria led the group that Bell was in. He saw some unfamiliar faces but also Lefiya and Ais in that group.
Over the last weeks they had teached him about how the Loki Familia went on an Expedition.
"Bell?"
"Hm?"
Ais let herself fall back from the front of the line, hands clasped behind her buttocks. "Are you okay?"
"Yes, just a bit nervous and excited, it is my first big expedition."
She smiled. "It is exciting, I´m really happy that you are coming with us."
Wow... Bell blushed lightly, he had never seen Ais smiling like that before.
"And I am happy to be here."
"We will take our first real break at the 50th Floor."
"The 50th...I was never before that deep down."
"We have to be wary on our way, but it gets really dangerous past that Floor, and even harder with each Floor we pass."
"You and your Familia really are amazing, Ais."
Ais giggled, blushing. "Thank you, we do our best."
"Have I ever told you how much I look up to you?"
"Hm?"
"Ever since you saved me from the minotaur, I had my eyes on you, I wanted to be strong like you."
Her cheeks got more red, Ais wasn´t used to be complimented.
"Hey, hey Bell. No flirting on the walk! You are disturbing Ms. Ais!" Lefiya joined their small group and was pouting.
Over the last two weeks, Lefiya had started to call Bell just by his name, it was shorter to say.
"Lefiya, we aren´t flirting." Ais tilted her head lightly confused.
"I wouldn´t do something like this on an expedition." Bell looked honest.
"Hmmm..."
Lefiya eyed him, she didn´t do that because she still saw him like in the past. She often got flustered now when she saw him and was confused about that. It was not like the feeling that a woman would have for a man...it was more like...a brother?
"I just wanted to thank your Familia, and you too of course Lefiya. You showed me so much over the last two weeks and I will see even more on this expedition. I guess I am really lucky to have three such beautiful teachers."
By his honest, happy grin, Ais and Lefiya couldn´t help but blush.
"Bell Cranel."
Riveria waved from the front.
"Oh I have to go, I see you two later."
Bell increased his walking speed until he caught up with Riveria.
"Ms. Riveria."
"Have you memorized everything about the Floors we will pass through?"
"As much as I could, to be honest it was just too many to memorize in just two weeks."
"As long as you did your best and worked concentrated."
"I did, I don´t want to be a burden."
"You have a good attitude and I´m sure you won´t be a burden. We already talked about your position, you will be in the vanguard together with Ais. Since your fighting styles are a bit similar, and you two often fought together, it is only logical."
"So that means, I´m together with Ais all the time?"
"Not directly, you two will be vanguard team A, Tiona and Tione are team B, Bete will be part of the vanguard line behind you. The vanguard line includes our tanks and blocks the biggest parts of monsters. You two teams will intervene wherever there is need. Most of the time Finn will order you where.
Sometimes you will split up, but we want to test out using a partner for Ais."
"So she fought alone?"
"Not directly. But no one could keep up with her, Bete is more the speed type like you two but they didn´t matched. Tione and Tiona are more of a stregnth type. You would most likely be the perfect partner for her, and who knows we can´t know if this will be your only expedition with us."
"But when we return I.."
"I am aware that you will become a father, let us see how this expedition works and maybe in a year or a few years, well who knows." She smiled lightly.
"Sounds good."
It was an interesting experience for Bell to move in such a large group, as soon as they arrived at the 18th Floor, the whole expedition came together, there were thirty-one people in the main party and ten supporter and blacksmiths, so fourty-one people all in all. Even Tsubaki the captain of the Hephaistos Familia accompanied them.
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"Ooooh Bell Cranel! Hey there buddy I wanted to thank you." Tsubaki put her arm around Bell and pulled him grinning towards her.
"M-Me?"
"Yeah, look here."
Tsubaki pulled a long black sword out of the knapsack on her bag where she carried a whole lot of weapons.
"Thanks to you I got my hands on this amazing dropp-item and I want to test out what this baby here can do."
"Oh ahm...good for you."
"Ah you´re a cute one, come here." Laughing happily, Tsubaki rubbed Bell´s head.
"Ah please stop."
"Okay I have to go back to the others, say little Welf hello from me yes?"
"Okay..."
Welf had often told Bell, that Tsubaki treated him like a big sister...sort of.
After leaving the 18th Floor, Bell had not time for small talk anymore, they moved at high speed and he was surprised at the ease with which they advanced. As Riveria had mentioned, Finn parted the vanguard into smaller teams, he and Ais took the left flank, Tione and Tiona the right.
It was pretty easy to move with such many people behind him, Bell could focus completely on the monsters in front of him, the rear guard protected the mages and marksmen in the middle, and the main vanguard took care of every monster that they let through. At first it was not easy for him to evade some monsters, but he got used to it soon. Another good thing was, Bell didn´t had to care about the magic stones, the party that moved behind them took them all up.
When he was with his own Familia, all had to work together since they were only eleven people. But fighting like this was pretty easy. He and Ais made a perfect team, their communication was limited to the occasional shout of the other's name. The only person he had a better teamwork with was Ryuu, with her Bell didn´t even had to say something. So during their battles Bell was focused, but a part of his mind circled around his beloved Ryuu.
As much as possible the expedition evaded fights but when it wasn´t possible, they shredded their way through the Floors, on the 27th Floor they encountered the freshly respawned Amphisbaena...it wasn´t even a real fight. Since the higher adventurers were itching to blow of some steam, Finn let them attack without formation. Lefiya in the middle part almost felt sorry as six level six and one level seven adventurer jumped onto the twin headed dragon...they slaughtered it in under thirty seconds.
The next part that was important for Bell was the 37th Floor, and even here the party didn´t stopped but hacked and bombarded their way through white city. It may had been better for Udaeus that he haven´t respawned yet. .
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"Wow..."
Bell couldn´t help but look around as they entered the fourty-fourth Floor. Like he had heard it looked like the inside of a volcano. High up in the air he could see wyverns, from that point on they had to scatter the party more, since dragons that lived on the deeper floors, could aim through multiple floor layers at adventurers.
"Your first time seeing it, right?" Ais stopped next to Bell.
The party took a short break, so far they had needed eight hours to get this deep.
Eight hours...and we are this deep.
"Yeah...an amazing sight." Despite his concentration, Bell really enjoyed the situation.
He had never before seen all this. But there was also something missing for Bell, something he couldn´t put his finger on. It felt almost too easy.
Bell fanned himself with his hand. "It is really hot down here."
Ais did the same. "Yes, but what bugs me more is the smell of smoke, thankfully on the 50th Floor there is a small lake."
"Thats good news."
"You fight really well, Bell. For someone who was never before on these Floors."
"Well I had good teachers."
Ais chuckled. "You are too kind."
After that Finn gave the signal to continue walking, for a few minutes they were spared from monsters and Bell took his time to take in the environment.
I have so much to tell the others when I come back home.
The fights that Bell enjoyed the most was against the dragons. In the past he had read many books about a shining hero defeating an evil dragon to save a maiden in distress. While they moved through the most dangerous area, Ais and him split up across the party in case something would happen.
Finn´s caution paid off.
As they crossed a more narrow area, suddenly there was a high-pitched screeching.
"Scatter! Hurry!"
The ground under them started to glow and a massiv flame pillar burst out from the ground, unnfortunately Lefiya was the one that was aimed at, even with evading she couldn´t escape the crumbling ground.
"Ah!"
Lefiya lost her ground and was about to fall into the pit.
"Lefiya!"
Her head shot up as she heard Ais yelling her name, but the one who saved her wasn´t Ais...but Bell.
"Lefiya! Hold on tight!"
Not even Ais or Bete were that fast, Bell jumped over the edge of the pit, kicked himself of the wall and caught Lefiya skillfully in a princess carry...he had enough experience carrying women like that...that shameful young man...
"E-Eh?!"
Returning to save ground, Bell stopped for a moment and looked at Lefiya´s bright red face. "Are you okay?"
"Y-Y-Yes! Th-Thank you...b-but...please put me down..."
Bell showed her his purest smile. "Of course, if anything happens I will be there. I will help you whenever you are in danger."
Mmmmmhhh!
Lefiya wasn´t used to deal with a man like that...especially Bell. And somehow...she didn´t knew from where or how...a single thought came to her mind, it came from so deep within...maybe her soul?
Dummy, pervert brother...
But she didn´t mind that he held her like that.
Finn nodded to Bell with a pleased smile as he returned to his position. "Good reaction, Bell Cranel."
"Th-Thanks."
It was a good thing that Bell had such a high status, lower leveled adventurer needed a diversity of cloaks made from salamander-, Undine-, or frost-spirit wool. Bell only had that of a frost-spirit with him, because they couldn´t know how he would react to the icy hell.
As Finn had said no one ever reached the Floors behind the icy hell, that were as well correct as it were not correct. No one in many years was down this deep and the data they still had from the Zeus and Hera Familia only went this far. Maybe they were down this deep in the past, that would be most likely but no one alive knew about that.
So it was fair to say, they were heading to unknown territory.
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Even a strong expedition like the one from the Loki Familia needed some time to travel down to the 50th Floor, half of the time for way from the 44th Floor downwards alone.
And so finally after twelf hours...they reached the save point of the 50th Floor.
"Phew...that was something..." Bell wiped his forehead.
He needed some time to take everything in he had seen today, diving down so deep in the dungeon for the first time...that was something his status couldn´t protect him from. So he closed his eyes for a moment and let the light wind cool his face. Bell was surprised that there was wind in the dungeon, but the 50th Floor was so large and open that the wind developed by itself.
Bell took a deep breath. "Aaaaaaah...it stinks..."
Surprised he opened his eyes, a faint smell of ... Carrion drifted in their direction. Some of the Loki Familia were really exhausted and didn´t paid much attention to it, it was a save point after all...
"Mr. Finn?"
"Bell Cranel?"
"Is this...smell normal? Ais and Lefiya told me it normally smells rather nice here."
The werewolf Bete made a face as the wind got even stronger, he definetely smelled something.
"Oy Finn, something isn´t right here. Somethings coming in our direction!"
The plane of the 50th Floor wasn´t a complete plane, some trees and small forests were down here. It had some similaritys to the 18th Floor and was a paradise in it´s own.
They saw Bete´s ears twitching.
"Get into formation! Somethings coming!" Exhausted or not, Finn gave the order and the Loki Familia got up again.
Some trees in the distance moved, small formes came running out of the forest.
"Are those...monsters?"
The creatures looked similar to minotaurs, just more slender, taller and instead of the head of the bull there was a head of a goat.
"Fomoires! Close the ranks!"
The whole expedition got into battle formations, the trees behind the running goat monsters moved more and they heard breaking sounds.
But the group of monsters didn´t attacked the Loki Familia, they didn´t even run into their direction, they passed them at a distance of around 100 meters...they were running away from something.
Finnaly it came out of the forest...and "it" was the most appropriate description.
"What is this?!"
"Irregular!"
More than one member of the expedition started gagging in disgust, one or two couldn´t fight the urge and had to vomit by the sight.
The thing that came rolled out of the forest looked hideous ... at least six meters tall and three wide, covered all over with wet fur. The wetness of the more than mangy fur was a mixture of blood, sweat and tears. That thing wobbled more than it ran, it looked more or less like a giant goat monster...but with seven heads.
"BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!
"BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!
"BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!
The seven heads made an infernal noise, they rolled back and forth as if the short necks had no bones. The eyes rolled back and forth in their sockets like mad, long tongues hung from mouths in front of which foam stood. Now they could see why it couldn´t walk straight, six too short legs that looked like they were broken in three to four places each, couldn´t really carry the enormous weight of that thing.
And the arms...
It had two giant arms, long enough to drag across the floor, each ending in enormous claws, one holding a tree like it was a club, the other a screaming Fomoire.
"BAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"
With a disgusting crunch, one of the rolling goat's heads bit off the upper half of the monster's body. From a closer distance they could see...this thing didn´t only had two arms, a third arm grew from the back, twice as long as the other two arms...and around two dozen arms across the middle of the thing, each as long as that of a Fomoire. Wounds opened around the body and closed again...with a disgusting smack, the head of the just killed Fomoire appeare out of one of those wounds...and started to scream as well, the eyes of the new head were filled with the same madness as the main body. It left a long trail of body fluids as it rolled toward their lines.
"Formation C! Hurry up!"
Bell didn´t knew what formation C was, but that wasn´t necessary, he just had to follow Ais. Instead of taking that thing head on, the expedition splitted into smaller camps to distract it, the mages fell back to the entrance of the Floor and started their chants, with leaving space on the side in case they had to evade.
In this fight he would get to know the most dangerous side of Finn Deimne, his tactics.
"BAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"
Only two things countered a big part of Finn´s plan, sheer volume of the monster and its random movements. The seven heads didn´t worked together like a single body, they fought over the control of that big chunk of meat and attack randomly in every direction.
"Aaah! My ears!" Lefiya crouched down and covered her ears, the screams of the heads had a volume that made it painfull for elves, and she wasn´t the only one.
"Hnnngh..." Riveria also couldn´t concentrate on her magic, as well as Alicia.
Not one elf of the Familia was able to fight as long as so many heads screamed in agony and madness.
A memory came to Bell. "Baphomet.."
"What?!" Finn had heard him. "What did you say Bell Cranel?"
"Baphomet...the seven headed black goat demon."
"You know what this is?"
"No...I ahm...I read about monsters in the past, once there was a description of a towering demon with seven goat heads, called Baphomet."
"Were there any weaknesses in that book?"
"They cut off all of the heads."
"Hm.." .
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"Oy over here you fattie!"
Bete was the first one to attack, he wanted to proof something, that he was still a first tier adventurer. His silver leg was covered by his pants and boot, but the silver arm was free except for his gauntlets. He wanted to show the whole world that he was horribly wounded, and was still strong.
But he wasn´t reckless, normally he would attack a blind spot, but this thing had no blind spot. Also the screams hurt his ears. But his one advantage against that thing was, speed.
He landed the first hit even before Ais or that dammed Argonaut boy. On this expedition he used the Dual Rolan swords made by Tsubaki. He used his full speed to undermine the huge arm swing, jumping upwards and hacked off the first small arm of the thing, instantly he fell back like formation C demanded.
"BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!
The thing...Baphomet...screamed in agony as the arm fell down, by chance stomping on it with one of its broken looking legs. Blood gushed out of the wound and created an even more horrifying scene.
As soon as Bete fell back, Tiona and Tione came from the other side, Baphomet expected a similar attack and heaved his enormous body around. But this was a feint, the amazon twins jumped backwards.
"Release!"
On Finn´s order, every marksmen shot at the huge monster, using bows, crossbows and even a new heavy repertier crossbow. The Familia member that used the last weapon had to stand still and put the heavy weapon on his hip, but he unleashed a hail of bolts.
"What are they doing?" Bell looked at the maneuver.
Ais ran next to him. "Formation C, death by a thousand blades."
It was a tactic used by the Loki Familia for big targets that were a bit on the slower side. Baphomet was pretty fast for such a big meatball, but they were used to faster enemies. Finn developed the tactic as he read about the past, how the people fought monsters without Falnas. The seafarers had to fight off Kraken and small Leviathan´s in the past. They had a saying.
"Every harpoon counts, from the first to the last."
Scales bend and break, skin bursts, blood flows, limbs fail ... even the most dangerous monster gets weaker and weaker.
The people in the past had to fight like this, now they had Falna´s, but that didn´t meant that these tactics couldn´t be used.
And the motto was still "Safety first". No one knew how strong Baphomet was or what kind of ability´s it had, so they fought as safe as possible.
Almost insane with pain, lashed out in every direction. It wasn´t like Baphomet was just a mindless beast, and having no blindspot was a huge advantage.
"Aerial...Tempest!"
Ais sped up and ran around towards the beast, Baphomet saw her of course, but was too slow to react. Like Ais did with Bell in the past when he was a dragon, she jumped around and buzzed like an angry hornet as she slashed wherever her sword reached.
She was also the first that discovered one of Baphomet´s abilities, a drop of it´s blood fell onto her skirt, smoke started to rise and it burned a whole into the cloth. Reacting fast, Ais cut off the piece of cloth with her sword.
"ACID!"
The expedition understood, now they saw that the arrows they had shot into the body also smoked and fell off after the acid had eaten its way through the shaft.
"BAAAAAAAAAAAALRGRLRGL!" The scream of one of the heads went over to spitting out a huge amount of blood.
The adventurers in the direction ran for their lives.
An outsider that watched the fight might wonder himself why so many level six adventurers and a level seven adventurer had so much trouble with a single monster. But Baphomet was an irregular on the level of a monster Rex, and in contrast to other Irregulars, it didn´t arose from a single monster, but from the failed birth of multiple monsters. And a Monster Rex was a catergory on its own, that was why Ottar had trouble with fighting Balror of the 49th Floor alone, and this thing here was far far stronger. Even the dungeon didn´t liked this thing, it had an aura of the unnatural about it, wherever it´s blood fell, the gras started to change...mouths and eyes arose from there, each screaming or staring in madness. This experience was extremely horrifying.
Ais fell back after she had attacked a few times, Tiona and Tione attacked on the other side again.
My turn!
Bell charged his Argonaut skill for a second.
"Firebolt!"
A white electrical fireball shot from his hand aimed at one of the heads. So far no archer had hit the heads since they moved too randomly and fast. But Bell´s level let him do what the others couldn´t.
The fireball hit the side of one of the heads, right onto the eye.
"BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" The screaming of the heads didn´t stopped the whole time, but from the one that got hit it only increased.
Bell had to gag as he saw the burning side of the head...the eye melted in its socket... The smell of burning mutated flesh was the worst. It was so strong that it hit Bete like an hammer.
"Hurph!"
Before Baphomet could use the situation, a black lightning bolt shot from the supporters into the things chest. It was non of the magic user, everyone except Bell couldn´t use their magic due to the screaming. Not only because it was loud, but also because it interrupted their spells. That to say, the elves of the expedition had enough to do with keeping them from going deaf.
No the one who had shot the black lightning bolt was Tsubaki who wanted to test her new magic sword. The magic attack burned a huge amount of flesh away on the chest, it only increased the smell.
For a moment the screaming reached a new high point, so much that the amazon twins staggered. In an instant the third arm on the back shot around and slammed into them. Both sisters were hammered away, thankfully not into the cave wall. But their clothes already started to melt, even the skin was burned, at a lower level both would probably be badly wounded. The support corps acted right away and ran over with potions to fight the acid effect. It was good that the front adventurer of the expedition all used weapons with the Durandal effect, most of them made by Tsubaki. That was the least that was required on such an expedition.
"Release!"
A new wave of arrows rained down on Baphomet.
"BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"
This screaming is annoying.
Bell clenched his teeth as he sprinted to one of the legs. He had sheathed the Hestia Knife and used Fairy´s Dawn with both hands. Only Gareth, the strongest member of the Loki Familia in terms of strength, surpassed Bell when it came to strength. So as he used his sword with both hands, Bell didn´t only cut deep into one of Baphomet´s legs, he cut if off at the ankle. He didn´t stopped there to see what happened, Bell jumped away as fast as he could. The thing screamed in agony. Bell hadn´t only hacked with his sword, in the moment he cut the foot off he had used one of the charges in his sword to maximize the damage and to turn out wound to prevent acid blood from spilling.
"Raaaaah!" Finn joined the fight and rammed his spear deep into the left arm of the thing.
"Captain!"
The right arm came down, using the tree as a club to crush Finn.
But he ripped out his spear and jumped back, the tree changed direction so that the beast would not crush its own arm.
"Mr. Finn! I have an idea!"
Bell jumped at Finn´s side and yelled into his ear so that he would understand him.
Finn bumped his fist two times against Bell´s chest and pointed into a certain direction, forming the word "go" with his mouth.
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Bell ran away from the monster while the others kept attacking. Soon Bell found his target. Lefiya, Alicia and Riveria were kneeling on the and covered their ears, they looked like they were in pain.
Bell tapped on Lefiya´s shoulder to get her attention, she looked up and made a face, the screaming really hurt her. He used his hands to try to explain what he planned to do. He could only ask Lefiya, since they knew each other well enough...also Bell didn´t dared to touch Alicia and Riveria.
Lefiya got up to her feet, Bell stepped behind her and carefully he slipped his index fingers under her hands and put them into her ears as gently as he could. Even if Lefiya didn´t had much problems anymore with Bell touching her, what he did right now would be a step too far, but even she ignored such things when it came to danger.
She let go of her ears, trusting Bell that he would cover them and started to sing her chant.
Lefiya wouldn't openly admit it, being touched by didn´t wasn´t that bad, it calmed her down that he was behind her and watched over her.
Tiona and Tione finally joined the battle again, all too eager to pay the beast back. Bete feinted the next attack, Ais took advantage of the distraction and sliced one of the smaller arms off. Tione´s eyes became smaller and she let out a fierce warcry, together with the suddenly appearing Gareth, she pinned down the club-like tree.
"My tuuuuuuurn!" Tiona whirled around her Blade Rolan, also a Durandal weapon.
She didn´t hacked off the giant claw that held the tree, but she cut halfway through the wrist.
"BETE!" Tiona had to scream on the top of her lungs so that he could hear her.
Bete covered his ears with his hands but he had waited on that signal, with a grim face he jumped and kicked against Tiona´s blade from the other side, so that the blade got free again.
All adventurers ran or jumped away from the monster, Ais dealt a last hit against on of the eyes before she flew away with her wind magic. One of the heads rolled forward and eyed the halfway cut off claw, the others still rolled around screaming in agony and madness.
"ARCS RAY!"
Lefiya had to scream loudly to hear her own voice, with Bell´s fingers in her ears it was hard to follow the chant without hearing herself.
A ray made of white light shot out of Lefiya´s staff, faster than any arrow and slammed right into the goat head that had stopped for a moment, the magic burned it´s way through the thick skull, everything that was inside and left through the backside, burning the neck of a second head halfway off. With the death of the first head, the intensity of the screaming lowered down a little bit. But now the dead head rolled from one side to the other whenever the huge body moved.
"Attack!"
The expedition continued their attack with renewed energy. Lefiya tried to catch her breath, she put her hands over her ears and nodded to Bell, so he gently took his fingers out of her ears and wiped them at his pants. Using magic was always exhausting and the whole situation didn´t helped. So Bell put his palms against Lefiya´s back, rubbed her softly and hummed loudly, his voice send the vibration into her back, helping her to calm down more. It was something he had watched with Daphne and Cassandra, Bell couldn´t know that this was needed due to Cassandra´s personality. Bell looked to the side to one of the other supporters and nodded to Lefiya, they changed the position, Bell tapped Lefiya on the shoulder, nodded to her and returned to the battle.
Baphomet was heavily wounded...but now it got really angry. As it pulled up it´s right claw it let go of the tree so that it´s wrist wouldn´t break off. What happened next let even more adventurer gag...and some vomit. One of the heads suddenly shot forward, still rolling uncontrolled into every direction, but it´s neck grew four times as long as before. Gareth got surprised by this action and was rammed into the ground, the head didn´t stopped and wanted to crush him.
Bell saw something green shimmer, Ais jumped over the wounded arm of the monster, surrounded by her wind magic and then she made a move that Bell had never seen before. She turned faster and faster on her own axis, starting at the base of the neck and going down to the head base Ais looked like a whirlind made of blades.
Baphomet tried to hit her but Ais was too fast, eventually she reached the base of the head and rammed her sword in it diagonally. The eyes of the head rolled around in panic, then the head went slack. Bete jumped from the side and kicked with all of his strength against the head, with Gareth pushing from below he finally got free.
Two of the seven heads were dead, but now it used the long neck like a whip, also it´s moving got more unstable and randomly staggering in that direction, then in the other.
The archers had stopped shooting, the expedition had just started and they had to save ammunition.
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They kept surrounding and attacking the beast, bit by bit they made progress and killed two additional heads. Bell learned an important lession about the deep Floor´s sometimes it needed a hero like in his fight with Udaeus. But sometimes a hero just couldn´t help or fight alone, it needed tactic and as many adventurers as possible. Despite the fierce fight, Bell was...happy.
This was how a Monster Rex fight meant to be, this was how he had pictured fighting in the deep Level´s. The way down here felt too easy for him and just not right.
Only three heads remaining.
Some of the adventurers were exhausted or wounded, the way down here was exhausting enough.
I can still go on.
Together with Bete and Ais he attacked again, they swarmed the wounded arm, slashed and attacked it again and again. Gareth, Tiona and Tione attacked the other arm. Together with a second spell from Lefiya that blinded the monster, they hacked off both of the giant arms.
With only three heads remaining, the screaming got down to a level were the elves could take their hands from their ears. It still hurt them but they could fight again, so everyone of them started to chant right away. .
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The number one rule of the dungeon, never...ever...make the mistake to underestimate it.
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With a loud screaming and rotating dead heads, Baphomet went berserk and charged right into the direction of the caster group. Whether it had never shown its true speed or had spontaneously mutated, Baphomet moved with a speed they never had expected, at least thrice as fast as normal.
"BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"
"BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"
"BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"
Two of the heads spit acid blood into every direction, it splashed out of the others anyway. The last head was fixated on the caster and the supporter that carried the magic stones, if it could devour them it would mutate again and regenerate.
Riveria and the other mages stopped their chants and started to move away, but the speed was too sudden. Baphomet ignored every attack that was shot or hit at it, due to its heavy wounds they had to keep distance or they would just burn in the acid.
"Bell!" Ais came to his side and they ran together. "We have to stop it."
"Attack the legs!" Finn shouted and went first to attack the target.
"I will stop it from the front, trust me." Bell looked into Ais eyes.
"Go."
They split up and Ais helped to attack the legs, with so many adventurers they broke and hacked them off one after the other. This was easily the nastiest fight they ever had.
Bell ran as fast as he could and started to charge his Argonaut skill. His eye was focussed on the one person that wasn´t fast enough like the others...Lefiya.
Not on my watch!
Baphomet was incredibly fast...but Bell Cranel was faster. For him the time got slower and slower as he raised his hand.
"FIREBOLT!"
Like before when he used his skill, a blinding white ball of electrical fire burst and and exploded right into the head that was in the front. This time no blood or other things spilled out, like the first time he had ever used his Argonaut Skill, the head was evaporated.
But Baphomet didn´t died with that, one head was still remaining and the Loki Familia attacked from all sides. The flesh of the monster started to pulsate
Oh no!
Bell turned around and ran as fast as he could towards Lefiya. Unnoticed by Bell, the first tier adventurers of the Loki Familia attacked the same spot on the back again and again, carving a whole into the back to make way for Finn. With a fierce scream he activated his skill and threw the spear with all of his might.
The spear smashed through the back and pierced the corrupted, mutated magic stone.
And yet Baphomet still didn´t died.
Panting, screaming and puffing, it heaved himself on, only one goal in it´s mind...take them with you. When his body was fatally wounded, it set off a catastrophic chain reaction in the mutated body, it started to glow red.
"GET AWAY FROM IT!"
Bell sprinted forward, grabbed Lefiya and ran with her in his arms, he saw her shocked face as she looked over his shoulder.
.
Baphomet detonated.
.
It wasn´t fire...but tons and tons of blood, meat, flesh, smoke and bone. Only due to Bell´s speed Lefiya was saved, for once the Loki Familia had made the mistake and underestimated a monster, that hideous beast had hid its true speed until the right time.
.
But...Bell wasn´t fast enough to escape all of the blood...and so did Lefiya. Thankfully with the death of the monster, the blood loosed its acid effect. Both were still covered in it...and very unhappy.
Silence fell over the area.
Bell sunk down to his knees, the panting and sobbing Lefiya pressed to his chest.
"You...okay, Lefiya?"
She turned her teary eyes to him. "Thank you...so much.."
Lefiya couldn´t...didn´t wanted to hold in her feelings and didn´t cared about others watching, she kissed Bell on the cheek. It wasn´t a sign of love, just gratitude and since she was an elf it meant a lot. "Thank you for saving me..."
Nothing remained of Baphomet, the rest of its body started to dissolve...except for that on those poor adventurers bodies.
After getting everything together, Finn led them to the place where they would camp, and send Bell, Lefiya and Ais, who also got hit with some blood, to wash themself.
The whole fight had taken almost an hour...
All in all they needed fourteen hours to reach the 50th Floor and started to set up their camp...and that was just the first day of the expedition.
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Authors Note2: So Limrix I will answer your questions here in case others want to know it too, I didn´t wanted to do that in the last chatper because...ahm...you know.
1: How many words normally on a day, that varies a lot, sometimes about a thousand, sometimes like today five thousand, depends on if the writing bug bites me. If I get into a flow it just comes out.
2: What keeps me motivated, I always wanted to read a story with Ryuu as the main girl, that she gets Bell, I didn´t found one so I made the Thanos and just did it myself. I gathered all the ideas in my head. Sometimes just one specific scene and I write the chapter around it. Like with Astrea as Ryuu cried at their reunion, or Ryuu defending the dying Bell from ais, or with Baphomet here.
3: Continuiung this story here, I thought about writing a new chapter from time to time but more like specials or one shots, maybe about the children or so. But only rarely since after finishing this one, I wil start the next one ( with the more Harem route and Ais as main girl in the second part.)
And yes that was it.
So long, the next chapter will come in about three to four days, I have more time to write right now.