Smoke and dust filled the streets of Orario, rose over the city and sometimes covered Babel. Many adventurers had experienced fights in the dungeon and how loud it could become there, but a fight in a whole city was on another scale.
Weapon sounds and monsters screams echoed everywhere, when the first schock was gone, every person capable off fought back. Many adventurers were self centred and egoistic, but for once everyone fought for the city they lived in.
The second wave of monsters started to turn the direction of the battle, the Miasma they produced were toxic for everyone. Normal citizens would probably die by contact, as would low leveled adventurers. Those adventurers that were past level four would feel sick but survive, those of level six could deal with it but shouldn´t inhale too much of it too.
"Hah...hah...hah...hah..."
Sweat streamed endless down on Bell´s face, whenever possible he wiped it away. The monster before him growled and roared in anger, bleeding from a few small wounds and the empty eye socket. So far Bell had managed to only get grazed, a direct hit by these claws could be fatal.
More black smoke slowly came through the hole...but no monster so far. Bell couldn´t be more amazed and proud of the woman he loved, Ais defeated every single lesser monster, making the area nearby the second safest space in Orario.
What made the fight even worse was the smell from the monster corpses, Bell didn´t understood why they didn´t turned to ash.
With a fierce scream, the monster charged him again. It always charged him head on, sometimes lowering it´s head to ram him with the horns. This monster wasn´t really dumb, but it was born as a living siege ram and acted to it.
Except that it was angry for Bell hurting it, it wouldn´t mind him normally and search for gods to devour, like the one it nearly got before. But there was something at Bell it was drawn to...the black Knife. For a monster like this, the Hestia Knife had a faint aura of divinity...it just had to devour it!
When the monster charged at him, Bell turned around and ran, he wasn´t as inexperienced as in the past, Bell had worked on a strategy the whole fight. He didn´t let the monster charge into houses just to evade it, Bell lured the monster to a special point.
At first he wanted it to charge into the hole in the wall, to get it out of the city and kill it´s lesser conspecifies by accident, but it was too smart for that.
Bell wasn´t happy with the name of this tactic...but Ais had mumbled it when he tried it at first.
"So...a...rabbit...hunt?" She had tilted her head and looked like she was in thoughts.
From every other person it would hurt Bell...but Ais was different. Her pet name for Bell was "My rabbit", no one else was allowed to call him that.
Time for a rabbit hunt!
The monster got enraged that he refused to face it head on, it´s desire to ram something again got stronger and stronger. Bell dashed to the lef but before the monster could charge at him...it sped up very much when it did that...he suddenly turned into another direction.
He dashed at right so the monster had to break up it´s charge and follow him, preparing to charge again. Again Bell changed the direction when he heard the howling behind him, the sound the monster made when it started to charge. The monster only roared in more rage and followed him.
Left, right, left, right, left, left, left, right.
Bell seemed to change the directions of his run at random, but he got closer and closer to the point he aimed for, the monster slowly got blind with rage. Particles of light gathered around the hand that held Olympus, he wouldn´t be able to one-shot the monster but he could defeat it in another way.
Finn had teached him a method that the Loki Familia used in the dungeon, "Death by a thousand blades".
Except for those monsters who possessed regeneration, every monster got slowly weaker the more damage it took. The city wall shook again for some reason that he couldn´t see and he heard something like screeching. That sound came from Ais´ wind as it fought against the Miasma and touched the city walls in the hole.
Due to the dust he couldn´t see Ais, but he noticed the point where the dust got whirled up and the screeching got louder. Bell could only try what he did now because Ais was there, no other person knew him so well when it came to fighting.
Dear gods, I love you so much, Ais!
The wall of Orario towered before Bell, there was no place for him to escape to. Bell ran directly towards the wall, the monster behind him didn´t cared, it could just ram through the wall if he evaded again. The ringing that accompanied the particles of light around Bell´s hand got louder, it was not the sound of bells, but a fainter sound...a sound that his special someone could hear clearly.
And Ais understood what Bell aimed for, without them even talking.
Her head jerked up while she fought the smoke turtle, how she called the monster in her mind.
The rabbit hunt!
The monsters vision focused on one point, lowering it´s head and charging forward with enormous speed, not even Bell would be fast enough to escape now...
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"Rafaaaga!"
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The left over right eye of the monster widened in the second before a ball of green wind came out of the dust, ending in the tip of a sword. Ais had listened to the ringing of Bell´s skill, how it got closer and closer to her. While she couldn´t to real damage to the heavily armored monster in front of her, the turtle was incredibly slow, relying completely on it´s armor and Miasma.
But since the Miasma was wind based, Ais was immune to the effect, due to her blood. She had called her wind magic and surrounded herself with Aerial, the turtle had waited for her attack...
But Ais had dashed into another direction with a speed they couldn´t follow.
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The monster screamed in rage and pain when Hurricane pierced it´s left over right eye and showered Ais in blood. It tried to shake her off, but in that moment it´s head came up. Bell turned around and charged right under the monster, using the charge of his Argonaut skill in Olympus and rammed the sword upwards.
Bell moved as fast as he could and managed to slice through the scales under the monsters throat, dealing a deep cut. Ais kicked herself off the monster and jumped towards the turtle again, stopping it from coming through the hole. The enormous body of the turtle blocked lesser monsters from coming through it.
With no other person Bell could have tried to do such a teamwork, without talking beforehand about it. Only Ais would get his intention...only the love of his life did he trust so much to risk it.
The monsters screams turned into a gurgle, blood gushed out of the two empty eye sockets, the maw and the cut in it´s throat...it was now blind on the right side. But...it still didn´t died.
Even with those wounds and more than one hole in it´s head...the monster still lived. Also, the same trick wouldn´t work against it again.
The fight went on, Bell evaded and charged at the monster, which got problems to walk due to the slippery ground. Bell didn´t focused on the blind side, the monster learned pretty fast to defend this point if he would only aim at it, using it´s tail to wipe around that area.
But the wounds were fatal, it was a natural monster and got slower and slower. Bell got sick to fight like this...this wasn´t how a fight against a monster as an adventurer was meant to be.
Blood, fat and loosened scales filled the area, Bell and Ais were covered in it due to their attacks, the smell was different from the Miasma, but he fought with the urge to vomit. Olympus was covered in blood and fat too, making the blade slippery, he had to use firebolts now and then to burn it off the blade.
It might be the nastiest fight that Bell ever fought, even when Ais had rescued him in the past and he was covered in blood, it wasn´t so bad.
And without knowing it, Bell had triggered the worst possible thing on his enemy. While it wasn´t dumb, the monsters thoughts were simple, ram things, destroy, devour...and now that it was mortally wounded...it went enrage. It was a security measure, once it got wounded like that, it would do absolutely everything to destroy the one who did it, so that the knowledge about how it got killed wouldn´t spread, so that others couldn´t do it to it´s conspecifics. The movements got faster and more ferocious, it was focused on killing Bell and didn´t paid attention to new wounds. Even with being blind on one side, the fight got more and more dangerous for Bell, and since Ais couldn´t wound the turtle, she got problems too.
It surprised Bell just when he wanted to evade to the side, a piece of rubble flew to him, catapulted by the lashing tail. The rubble hit Bell´s side and stopped the movement of him.
Curses!
Even with being in great danger...Bell wasn´t able to yell out swear words...
The claw of the monsters came down, Olympus was too far at his side to come up in time. A strange sound filled the air...
Whup, Whup, Whup!
Before the claw could make contact with him and rip the flesh off his bones...and the bones off his body, an enormous black sword rammed into the ground in front of him and stopped the claw.
Wha-
"Rabbit."
Bell´s eyes widened in surprise, a giant of a man appeared before him, he couldn´t tell from where he had jumped. The giant man had boar ears and put his hand on the hilt of the sword, still holding the giant monster in place like that...with one hand.
"You are...the Warlord!"
"Go, Rabbit. Help your girl."
"Why are you here?!"
"Go. I will take care of this thing, it deserves death for making such a troublesome mess before the eyes of my lady."
Ottar pushed the monster back and grabbed his sword. He didn´t needed to tell Bell twice, Ottar was the strongest adventurer in the city, by far. Bell didn´t minded that Ottar "stole his prey", like adventurers called it.
Right when Bell turned around, he heard Ottar again.
"You have risen in my eyes, for protecting her."
Does he mean Syr?
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Before Ottar came to Bell, he had found Allen and Syr in the orphanage, a few dead monsters were around the church but not one got inside.
"Allen, is she inside?"
"You are late, you big chunk of meat!"
"I take this as a yes."
He found Syr sitting together with Maria and the children in the middle of the church, she did her best to calm the children down. Two of them had burried their faces in Syr´s dress and were crying, she smiled so motherly when she gently carressed their heads.
The children had startled when Ottar came inside.
"Ah, Mr. Ottar! Hello! Don´t worry everyone, he is a friend."
Freya always acted differently towards her children when she was Syr. Ottar didn´t showed it but he was amazed by the sight before him, he had never seen Freya like this before. And as usual, she was perfect in his eyes.
"I´m here to protect you."
"Thank you Ottar, but that won´t be necessary, Allen is here."
Ottar raised an eyebrow.
"Aw come on, you two won´t quarrel right now...riiiiight?"
The smile on Syr´s face looked so innocent and pure...for the children. She excused herself for a moment and went with Ottar into a corner to talk to him in privat. When Freya told Ottar what Bell and Ais had done...they rose a bit in his eyes.
After making sure that she was safe, Ottar left the church.
"Don´t die on me you big chunk, not before I get the chance to get you."
"Whatever you say, Allen."
Ottar wasn´t good with words towards others, he had once by accident insulted all prums apparently when he wanted to give the Gulliver brothers an advice...according to them.
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"Ais!"
"Bell, over here!"
He jumped through the dust and landed next to her, now he saw what she faced...the turtle was enormous, at least as tall as the other monster, but more massive.
Bell raised his sword with both hands. "Are you ready?!"
"Let´s do this!"
Together, Bell and Ais charged forward to face this massive monster together.
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A few hours later.
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"Huff...Huff...Huff..."
Bell tried with weak arms to yank his sword out of the monster's head. When Ottar was finished with the wounded leader, he came to take over the turtle. There was no time to be ashamed, Bell and Ais left into the city and hunted the smaller monsters, that wasn´t worthy of Ottar´s attention, he only cared about the safety of the church.
As brutal and suddenly as the attack of the monster army came, as fast was it over. Five hours after the first attack, the last monster in the city was dead. Not one of them turned to ash, monster corpses were in many streets, mostly around the homes of Familias who had protected the citizens inside their halls. Smoke and dust waved over the city, dazed people...adventurers and citizens alike...stumbled around. Orario was not a ruin, but a warzone, nobody had expected such a sudden attack. Ais and Bell had no time to meet with their Familias, they were busy slaying monsters and protecting citizens.
With tired eyes he looked up, not noticing before in which part of the city they were. Babel towered before them...the place was a slaughterhouse. Hundreds of dead monsters filled the place, some of them struck down by magic, most of them by weapons. The Freya Familia had protected Babel and the monsters were drawn to so many gods in one place.
A total of six gods were killed by the monsters...and countless people. It would took days to get a sight of all the damages and dead people. Inside the Daedalus street it was the worst, since no one knew exactly how many people lived here.
"Bell..."
Ais looked horrible, blood, fat, dust and dirt stuck to her, her normally golden blonde hair was dull due to the dirt.
"Is it...over?..."
"I...think...so..."
Even with being level six, the last hours were exhausting for them. One by one, the big turtles were killed by magic, one by Ottar and another by Ais and Bell, together with Riveria. With the death of a turtle, the Miasma stopped coming out of the chimneys on their backs.
The city stank...but thankfully the black Miasma that had waved in from the holes in the wall and gates started to dissolve into nothing. Low leveled adventurers had died by the pure contact with this black mass, higher leveled ones got sick and were brought to the hospital.
"Thank...the gods..."
"Mhm..."
They leaned on their weapons and spat out to clean their mouths of dust. He would normally never do that, but he had no choice. Slowly the gates of Babel opened and the people from the inside walked onto the place. Many of them vomitted by the sight and the smell...but at least they were alive. It was only early afternoon, but due to the smoke and dust over the city, it was like evening.
"Aiiiiiiis! Argooonaaaauut!"
Tiona came running to them, waving with her right arm, the left holding the bloody two sided sword of her, Urga III.
"Tiona..."
"Ah, Tiona..."
"Thank Loki you two are okay! We were so worried!"
"Is everyone safe? We met with Riveria earlier, but split up again."
Tiona grinned widely and showed them a peace sign with her fingers. "No losses for our Familia, Finn operated the counter attack when he and Tione got back. Aki and Raul were picked up by Lefiya and her party, they defended people in the city, both are okay."
"Have you heard something from my Familia?"
"Yeah, I went and checked your home, they are all fine. Your goddess let so many people inside the Mansion and your Familia members defended the ground. Finn ordered me to stay with them, just in case something stronger appeared, since you two had no time to go."
"Phew...thank to all gods..."
Ais looked surprised. "Finn knew we had no time?"
"When does everything slip from our captains view?" Tiona grinned.
As exhausted as he was, Bell stumbled towards Tiona and put his free hand on her right shoulder. "Thank you Tiona, I really mean it."
"No problem."
The three looked together how the people and gods left Babel, looking at their city. Houses were destroyed in a few areas, but not that many actually, since the monsters were after the people. Maybe it was a sad thing, maybe a good thing...Bell couldn´t tell...but as soon as the danger was over, the people returned to their homes and started to clean up, they had no other choice.
Attacks and fights happened alot during the dark times, so people in Orario were used to it, then there was the outburst of the Xenos were Asterios had leveled a city block and destroyed even more in his fight with Bell.
They looked up when they heard screams and loud mourns from the left. Three prums knelt around something and cried openly, yelling a name again and again.
"Are those..."
"The Gulliver´s..."
The four brothers would normally fight together all the time, but due to the circumstances of the fight, they had to fight alone. Even so they were stronger than the monsters that attacked them and they slaughtered them in dozens. But one of them...Davlinn, the one who wield a big hammer...was...killed.
His brothers didn´t saw how it happened, during his fight against the monsters, his hammer came up a splitsecond too late and he got stabbed in the side. The stab wasn´t the problem...but the poison that got inside his body...liquid Miasma. At first his status protected him from the poison and he simply kept fighting.
But over time he got more and more problems, until his vision got blurry and the hammer fell out of his hand. His brothers noticed the danger but were too late...he was pierced from four sides. By the time his brothers had killed the monsters, the light had already vanished from his eyes.
"Such a shame..." Tiona frowned.
While the Loki Familia didn´t liked the Freya Familia...especially after the events before the wargame...seing an adventurer getting killed just like that was always sad. And Dvalinn was one of the strongest adventurers in the city...
"We should probably go, Finn said you don´t need to come back immediately, Ais."
Ais nodded, she understood what Finn told her with that, they were okay with her going with Bell to his Familia. She wanted to give Tiona a hug, but the amazon backed away.
"Please don't hold it against me, you two ... but you stink..."
Tiona waved goodbye to them and went into the direction of the Twillight Mansion.
"Shall we go?"
"Yes."
They kept their weapons in hand, not because monsters could still be around, but they were still dirty and it would only bringing dirt into their scabbards if they put them inside now.
Some people and adventurers nodded to them or thanked them while passing the two. Ais and Bell had no memory who they had saved during the fight, maybe it were many people...they couldn´t tell.
Bell sighed and dragged himself forward, this was supposed to become such a wonderful day...but now...
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"Beeeeeell! Aiiiiiis!"
As soon as they opened the door to the Mansion, a projectile in form of a small godess was fired onto them. Hestia didn´t cared about all the dirt on them, she hugged them in relief.
"Thank to the others you two are saaaaaaave!"
She cried openly and added tears and snot to the dirt on their bodies. But Bell hugged his goddess in return, glad to see she was okay. Ais returned Hestia´s hug with one arm, she had grown really fond of her.
Except for some damage at the fences, the Mansion was okay. Some of Bell´s Familia members were wounded, but not too badly. He saw pillows and blankets lying around everywhere, the Familia had offered shelter to many people.
In the living room, Cassandra was lying on a couch and looked very green in the face. Even with possessing magic that could cure poison...which was very rare...Cassandra was poisoned. Not by a monster but due to an overuse of potions in the last hours.
Since she possessed healing and curing magic, Cassandra had used her spells non stop, with Daphne giving her potions to restore her mind that Nahza produced. Many people that came in were wounded or poisoned by the Miasma, Cassandra healt them all.
It was a good thing that her healing magic had an area effect, so she could heal everyone in the living room at once...but it was draining. Bell and Ais made a face when they heard her groaning and her stomach rumbled in protest.
She looked even more pale than usual, Daphne sat next to her and gave her a lap pillow, stroking Cassandra´s hair to calm her down a bit. These two were always together, Bell didn´t knew if they were just very good friends or maybe even more.
"Hey everyone..."
"Master Bell! Ms. Ais!"
Haruhime came from the kitchen, she had prepared more tea. She was constantly inside the kitchen since the Tiona had arrived to help them, the people inside needed water and other things.
"Haruhime...good to see you are okay."
"Hello..." Ais smiled tiredly.
In the next moment, Haruhime turned away from them and covered her nose, making a face.
"Irkh..."
Everyone else also covered their noses.
"Bell...Ais...please...go shower..." Hestia waved with her free hand in front of her face.
They smiled wryly and went up the stairs, taking probably the longest shower together they ever had. Bell spend a long time to help Ais washing her long hair, both made sure that the others body was unharmed after all the dirt came off.
While they were together under the shower, Bell hugged Ais from behind.
"I´m so glad that you are not hurt..."
Ais turned around in his arms and put her own around him. "And I that you aren´t..."
They kissed and just hugged each other for a while.
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They felt alive again when they came down with fresh clothes. Their other clothes were thrown into basins filled with hot water, soap and other things that helped to free their clothes from the dirt and other stuff.
The table in the living room was filled with light food and a tea cup was there for everyone. Daphne and Cassandra weren´t there, they had entered the big bathroom after Ais and Bell left, Cassandra had thrown up...while her head was still on Daphne´s thighs...
"Aaaah..."
Bell groaned while he sat down, Ais sat down next to him and leaned slightly agains him, her head against his shoulder. She didn´t cared if the others saw that, she was exhausted and wanted to cuddle with Bell a bit.
They weren´t the only ones, Nahza moaned slightly while Miach massaged her hands and fingers, she had worked for hours to make new potions for Cassandra and everyone that fought outside. He took the time to massage each finger individually, kissing them at the end and rubbing a soft ointment on her hands, nobody said a word to that, those two could get really lost in each other. Lena was the only one that didn´t looked completely grounded, she was really amazed how strong Tiona was when she came to help them.
That was the level she wanted to reach, and her amazonian blood sung while they fought the monsters together.
They started to talk about what happened, Bell and Ais told them what they had seen at the northern walls.
Until...
"Hey everyone! Look, outside!"
Everyone rushed to the windows...trails of ash moved up to the sky. Every monster in the city started to dissolve to ash at the same time, not in an explosion like in the dungeon, but slowly. Starting at the end of their tails they slowly vanished, their heads dissolved at last. The ash rose and moved up to the sky, higher and higher...it looked like dark clouds gathered over Orario...and these clouds didn´t vanished. All the Miasma outside of the city also vanished to ash and moved up...it was a scaring sight.
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Far away from Orario...in a dark place.
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Badumm...Badumm...Badumm...
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A giant heart...started to pound.
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An eye as big as a wagon wheel...opened.
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When evening came...the ground in the far north started to shake again...
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And far out at sea...a merchant ship suddenly stopped as if it had bumped into something.
Before the crew got what happened, the ship was crashed and pulled under the water.
No one survived.
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Authors Note: I will just say it again, I just got the general idea from Danmemo, but this isn´t a copy of the Grand Day event.