Hello my lovelies! Sorry for not uploading according to a consistent schedule, it's just that ideas come to me at the damndest times, so therefore I'll now adjust the upload schedule to be more flexible, this means that I'll either be uploading a single chapter after two weeks or two chapters in the span of three days... whenever inspiration and energy strikes, hehe. Also, about the new story I promised, there's no update yet so just hang in there :3. Another thing, thank you for the motivational comments, keeps me dedicated and motivated to continue the story, I know that the story may have failed to meet the expectations of some of you, so I'll try to do better ;3, with that out of the way... onwards!
I do not own Danmachi
Chapter XIV: Dungeon Dive
"FIREBOLT!!!"
An incredibly potent and destructive torrent of fire burst forth, destroying a sea of monsters in front of the white haired adventurer, they were currently on the thirtieth floor of the dungeon, after Bell had told them about what he had heard from Lefiya the previous day, he had decided for them to go down and further refine their skills and abilities in order to prepare for the upcoming, seemingly insurmountable battle, he needn't worry about Evilus showing up unexpected again, he suspected they wouldn't try anything again so recently after their plan has been thwarted
"Bell-sama! Behind you!"
The roar of victory of a triumphant bloodsaurus could be heard as it rushed to the exposed back of the adventurer, thinking it had a sure hit in, Bell was about to turn around and send it to hell but an arrow had pierced its exposed left eye, stunning the poor creature as it whimpered in pain
Seeing it as a chance, Bell brought down the point of his Hestia Knife onto the Bloodsaurus' exposed forehead, turning the suffering creature into ash
"Woah! That improved mini-ballista of yours is really something Lili!"
Bell praised the prum while he quickly dealt with another bloodsaurus about to bite off his right arm
"Indeed! Lili is very impressed with Welf-sama's upgrade!"
The man in question turned around and smirked proudly at the both of them, he was currently fending off a mushroom-like monster
"Right?! Since Lil' Lili and I are now level two, we gotta make some adjustments...RIGHT?!?!"
He cut clean through the monster as he yelled out the final syllable
Panting and sweaty, he walked towards the two
"Welf-dono, Would you like a potion?"
Mikoto asked the red-haired swordsmith as she appeared beside him
"Thanks... but no thanks, we got to save them up for when the going gets tough"
He gave her a thumbs up and a smile as Lili nodded at her
"Hm hm... Welf-sama is right, we have to be resourceful"
BAM!*
All four of them turn their heads towards a loud crash, shortly following the attention-grabbing sound was a deafening roar
"What the?!"
Welf shouted out, all of them had to cover their ears due to the loud screech that reverberated around the area
As the ear-splitting screech died down, a feral, rabid growl replaced it as a creature stepped out of the woods, out of the shadows and into the light
"Bloodsaurus!"
Mikoto alerted everybody to the approaching creature
Indeed, the creature was a Bloodsaurus... but the appearance of the monster deviated from the standard description of its kind, this particular Bloodsaurus was around ten meters tall, which was double the height of a usual Bloodsaurus, it's teeth razor-sharp and so clear and lustrous that one could see their reflection as they were being devoured by the beast, arms so robust that they could seemingly bend Orichalcum, attached were claws so painfully sharp that they could skewer a fly in mid-air with no effort, and its glowing, malevolent blood-red eyes that myopically focused on its prey
"Irregular!"
Lili shouted out in panic
"Uhm... it seems like it bought some friends along too..."
Welf added, his grip around his weapon tightening
And indeed, all around the Irregular predator was its subordinates, many of them consisted of regular bloodsaurus, which were growling as if a juicy piece of steak had been presented to them, but there were also a few different type of monsters mixed here and there, they were severely outnumbered
"B-Bell-sama! W-what should we do?"
Lili spoke, distress and urgency laced in her voice
"Make a run for it!"
And ran they did, pivoting a hundred and eighty degrees on their axis in the blink of an eye, they all turned tails and ran...
But
The irregular Bloodsaurus wouldn't let them, quickly sprinting past them and obstructing their way back to the upper floors, they then quickly found themselves to be surrounded by a monster party
"Crap! This is bad!"
Welf cursed, his grip on his weapon tightening painfully
"Then we'll fight our way through!!!"
Bell's voice bellowed out as he sprinted forward in the blink of an eye and rammed into the Irregular Bloodsaurus' body with as much power as he could muster, forcing the both of them some distance away
"Come on! Let's help!"
Welf shouted out, making a powerful swing towards a mushroom-like monster, which connected and turned the monster into ash
"Understood! Lili-dono! Stay behind me and provide support!"
Mikoto said as she closely guarded Lili, rotating every now and then to constantly monitor the surrounding monster party
Lili embedded a few arrows into a slowly approaching bloodsaurus, immobilizing it, then she sent a final arrow into its monster crystal on its forehead with amazing precision, turning it into a heap of ash
"Good going Lili-dono!"
Mikoto praised, with the grace and dexterity of a master sword-wielder, she cut through a few monsters that were getting a little too close for comfort
"Ragh!"
Welf took out a large, lanky monster and regrouped with the two of them
"We need to stick together! Bell's taking care of the big, ugly bastard over there"
Welf quick pointed out towards the distance, where Bell was indeed fiercely engaged in battle with the Irregular
"We must hurry up here and help Bell-dono immediately!"
Mikoto urged as she embedded her katana into a grotesque goblin-like monster's forehead, killing it
"Bring it!"
Welf lunged forward with a fierce slash
...
"Gah!"
Bell was currently struggling against the fearsome reptile, which was swiping at the adventurer as if it had been driven mad, barely dodging the beast's onslaught, he sustained cut wounds from the slightest scratches
Intercepting a claw from the beast with the Hestia Knife, he delivered a vigorous kick to the beast's abdomen, which pushed it back a bit, wasting no time, Bell followed up with his spell
"FIREBOLT!!!"
Three concentrated and powerful blasts of fire burst forth from his outstretched arm and engulfed the monster in flames, which screeched sharply due to the blasts
But it wasn't enough, the scaly exterior of the irregular monster was much tougher than a regular bloodsaurus, this enabled it to tank much more powerful attacks
"So a regular firebolt won't do much huh..."
He took a deep breath, then his left arm started to glow a brilliant white
"In that case!"
The sound of chiming bells became audible
He was charging up Argonaut
"Just one or two minutes won't be enough... I'll charge it all the way to five minutes then"
Bell readied to engage with the monster again to buy enough time for a fully charged argonaut attack
...
"Damn! These guys just don't stop coming!"
Welf leaped up into the air, aiming to go for the bloodsaurus' forehead, but was thwarted when it opened its mouth, ready to engulf the smith
"Crap!"
He swung his sword down with all of his strength, unhinging the poor creature's jaw
Before he could get to safety though, he was backhanded by the reptile into the ground as it roared and writhed in pain
"
"Welf-sama! Use your magic swords!"
Lili shouted out over as she unleashed another volley of arrows at more unfortunate monsters
"Push came to shove huh"
Putting his long sword aside for the moment, he took out a magic sword he had forged ahead
"How about this?!"
Welf unleashed a wanton torrent of fire from the magic sword, engulfing many of the enemies in its cruel conflagration
"Nice one, Welf-dono!"
Mikoto praised as she decapitated a monster, her arm was starting to tire out from the relentless swings she was generating
It took nearly all of their strength to bring down their weapons with sufficient force to take out the monsters, any weaker and they won't do enough damage
"Lili-dono! I need your support he-ARGH!"
Mikoto's pained voice caught both of their attention
"Mikoto!"
"Mikoto-san!"
She sustained a large cut on her forearm, had she not reacted it time, her neck would've been sliced open by a Bloodsaurus' claws
"Kuh... curse you!!!"
With a furious cry, she brought down her katana on the monster with all of her might, completely bisecting the creature lengthwise
"Are you alright Mikoto-sama? Do you need a potion?"
Lili urgently asked as Mikoto raised a hand at the prum
"N-no need... it's just a scratch, I'll be fine"
Mikoto would prefer the potions be saved up for when they really need it
"A-alright!"
As soon as she finished the word, she sent a few arrows flying beside the injured Far-Eastern woman, hitting a monster creeping up behind her
"Look out Mikoto-sama!"
The screech behind her got her attention, finding a monster littered with arrows as it screeched terribly, she promptly brought down her blade upon it, turning it into ash
"I owe you Lili-dono!"
She smiled gratefully at the prum as she got caught up with two monsters at the same time
"Orah!!!"
Welf decapitated one monster with the magic sword, then set ablaze a few more that got near, they were now quickly reducing the numbers around them, but they were still at a disadvantage, if they don't hurry... they'll be overrun
...
After barely managing to dodge the monster's consecutive attacks, Bell decided that should he remain on the defensive, he'll get overwhelmed, so he decided to avoid clashing for as long as possible
"Well then... how about this?"
Leaping back towards a safe distance, he then rapidly sprinted around the monster in a circle, confusing it
Regardless, the monster didn't want to play around and decided to charge at the circling blur of white in front, but Bell also followed along and widened the circle in response
'No you don't'
Using his full speed, Bell kept running around the monster in a wide circle, then every now and then would quickly close the gap between them and inflict some damage upon the beast, keeping it on the defensive so it doesn't try to break out
'I'll need to stall it for a few more minutes...'
He thought, his Argonaut ability had only passed the one-minute threshold for now, and was approaching two-minutes
Unable to keep up with its opponent's speed, the irregular decided that the best thing to do was to throw the pesky adventurer off
With as much power as it could muster on its legs, it leaped high up into the air, which surprised the boy as the target had suddenly left his vision, but before he could look up, there was a violent and devastating crash nearby, unearthing a torrent of rocks, dust and earth from the ground as it gave way and cracked
The circling adventurer was sent flying away some distance due to the force of the crash, surrounding rocks pelted him as he pathetically crashed painfully into the ground a few meters away
"Ack!"
Hurting all over from the less-than-comfortable landing and getting pelted all over his body by rocks, he tried to stand up, his body was bloodied and bruised all over the place, blood trickled down on his forehead and mouth
"W-wha... what just happened?"
The crash had caused dust to be thrown up into the air, which limited visibility, then the dust in front of the boy in direction of the crash suddenly, or forcibly, cleared as the Irregular Monster charged towards the boy at a high speed
Seeing as he was too injured to quickly get out of the way, he threw up his arms in a defensive manner to at least cushion the impact
"Crap! I can't do-"
The resulting collision was violent
Bell was sent flying a great distance, right into a cliff some distance away, dust was thrown up into the air due to the impact, the sheer force of the impact nearly collapsed the cliff
...
"What the hell was that?!"
Welf took note of the powerful tremor that shook the vicinity, and the loud crash that was heard a few seconds ago
The earthquake forced the striedto drop to the ground, thrown off balance
"Welf-sama! Look out!"
Lili tried to warn the smith, but her warning came a second too late
A bloodsaurus had swiped at Welf's back, inflicting a deep and bloody wound on the adventurer, the force of the attack also sent the smith hurling back a few meters
"ACK!!!"
Welf cried out in pain as he tried to get up before he became monster lunch
"Welf-dono!"
"Welf-sama!"
Mikoto and Lili rushed towards the injured smith, fending off monsters along the way
Lili took out a healing potion and forced the injured smith into a sitting position to expose his recently acquired wound
"This is going to sting a bit!"
She splashed half of the contents of the healing potion into the injured back of the smith, which was sufficient to close the wound, he hissed due to the burning sensation on his back
Then she handed the remaining elixir towards Mikoto
"I'm grateful, Lili-dono!"
She then poured the contents onto the injury on her forearm, which completely healed it
"Damn... bastard got me good!"
Welf muttered as he stood up, the monsters were quick to surround them again
"Mikoto! Can you use your magic?"
Welf asked, he had an idea in mind
"I'll start chanting Welf-dono!"
She took up a genuflected position as she started chanting her magic
"I respectfully speak to you, my war god..."
"Lil' Lili and I will take care of the uglies here! Just focus on your chant!"
With a roar, Welf hacked through the monster party, eliminating three monsters in a short amount of time, the battle was pushing the smith to new heights
"Leave the rest to Lili!"
Loading her ballista with five arrows at a time, she rained hell down on the monsters
"How do you bastards like this?!"
Welf unleashed a wave of fire upon another group of monsters, turning them to ash
Retrieving as many arrows as she could, Lili continued to provide support
"Lili won't let you!!!"
...
"*cough*cough* Ack... that hurt!"
Bell weakly picked himself up from the dirt, limping pathetically as he clutched his left ribs, a few were definitely broken, he had to bite down on his bottom lip to avoid screaming from the pain, he suffered a concussion and was slowly starting to lose consciousness, yet he forced his eyes awake
His left hand barely holding on to the Hestia Knife, he probably also suffered a minor fracture there, despite his battered state, Argonaut still kept on charging, its glow becoming more and more brighter with the passage of time, three minutes had passed... not too long now, but the boy wasn't sure if he still could hold on any longer than he is now, another impact like that and he'll be done for
The impact from the collision caused a large smokescreen, which was now starting to clear out
Then came out the ominous figure, stomping forward in a slow but deliberative manner, as if taunting its prey that its life is now forfeit
"Hah... hah... that... ow, was quite the impact..."
He laughed to himself as the irregular monster stalked ever so closer
With a fierce roar, the creature dashed forward once more, about to devour the boy once and for all
But just before it could reach the boy, he disappeared from its sight
With a groan of confusion, the monster glanced around its surroundings, finding no trace of the boy, but it then felt the trace of the boy
A powerful blow connected with the monster's chest, sending it tumbling a few meters away despite its size
With a screech of pain, the irregular monster picked itself up, but then came face to face with the boy, who gave it a powerful kick to the snout, further intensifying the monster's agony and rage
"My friends need my help so I need to end this now"
As if he was talking to the monster, he spoke this in a calm manner
The only response he got was getting launched off of the monster's snout by its flexible tail and crashing into a tree with enough force to uproot it
"Argh!"
Bell felt a sharp pain originating from his left ribs shoot throughout his entire body, his fractures have been aggravated
The monster quickly appeared in front of the boy as it lunged with its mouth open, intent on devouring the boy, he unceremoniously lunged over to the side to avoid its snapping jaw, which snapped a few nearby trees in half
"Yikes..."
Getting up, he ignored the pain and kept running, Argonaut was now in its final stretch
...
"Arg! You'll pay for that"
A large monster holding a club landed a blow on Welf's abdomen, making him taste iron as the powerful blast forced the air out of his lungs, he was sent tumbling back some distance
"Welf-sama!"
Lili unleashed a fury of arrows aimed towards the monster's vital points, most connected, paralyzing the monster, which promptly fell down dead a second later
"Descend from heaven, rule the earth..."
A large magic circle appeared around them, Lili was within the unaffected zone of the spell, but Welf was outside
"Welf-sama! Run away!"
Seeing the large circle appear above, Welf made a run for it until he was out of the range of the spell
"Futsunomitama!"
Mikoto unleashed the spell, a second later... the gravity got significantly heavier and all monsters within the affected range were promptly doubled over, they were being crushed by ten times their body weight
Yet, despite the inundating force being exerted on their bodies, some were still able to stand with tremendous effort and slowly limp their way towards Mikoto and Lili
"Did you forget me?!"
With one last swing of his magic sword, which promptly shattered into infinitesimally small shards of useless pieces, he unleashed the most destructive torrent of fire yet, engulfing many of the monsters within the magic circle, he took great care in aiming away from his two fellow Familia members within the circle
"Nice going Welf-dono!"
Mikoto breathed a sigh of relief as she now deactivated her magic, releasing the few remaining monsters from their torment
Before they could get back up to their feet, the monsters were dealt with
"Phew... that was quite the workout huh?"
Welf smiled at the two females beside him, wiping his sweaty forehead with his sleeve
"Yes... I can't believe we actually survived that..."
Mikoto spoke in an incredulous manner, they expected to get overwhelmed by the monsters during some point in the battle, but they surprisingly pulled through
"There's no time to waste, we must go and help Bell-sa-"
A loud crash was heard a few meters away from them
"Augh...! *cough* *cough*"
The battered body of Bell Cranel could be found on the impact crater, he was bloodied and bruised, but was alive
"Bell-sama!!!"
"Bell-dono!!!"
"Bell!!!"
All three rushed towards the boy's side, Welf supported the boy into a sitting position, he was violently coughing
"Bell-sama! Drink this!"
Lili urgently handed the boy a health potion, who looked at her thankfully and downed all of its contents in one second
He felt his strength returning to his body, he slowly pushed himself off of the smith's grasp and into a standing position
Argonaut was now fully charged...
His arm contracted painfully from the sheer power being held in
A mighty roar reverberated through the walls of the floor
"It's here!"
Bell said as the monster ominously appeared, stalking towards them like a predator awaiting the perfect opportunity to strike
"It's time to end this!"
Bell exclaimed
The monster, as if understanding what had been said, sped forward to finally put an end to the fight, Bell met it halfway
Despite the monster opening its jaw to receive the running adventurer, Bell did not stop
With an arm outstretched, Bell screamed out two syllables
And with that, the battle was decided
"AN IRREGULAR?!?!"
The voice of a certain half-elf advisor rang through the walls of the guild
"Ahaha... at this point, I'm not really surprised anymore..."
Misha followed along behind the advisor that was murmuring incoherently in disbelief
Bell and the others could only laugh nervously as they didn't really have a reply for that
"Hah... goodness gracious all of you... good thing that nobody was hurt..."
Eina managed out after taking a few deep breaths to recompose herself
"It seems that your teamwork doesn't become lacking even at such depths..."
She smiled at them, apparently there's no need to worry about them
"Even if the monsters do get more dangerous the deeper we go, I trust them to have my back and they trust me to have theirs"
Bell spoke whilst he looked around at each person for confirmation
"Yeah... I trust Bell with my life, and he trust me with his!"
Welf gave a thumbs up as Mikoto nodded her agreement
"Same here!"
Lili exclaimed jovially
Eina smiled at this heartwarming expression of trust for each other
"Well then... we'll get going and cash in our loot now Eina-san!"
Bell ended the conversation there with a respectful bow to the brown-haired guild advisor, as the others closely followed along
"Alright then, see you guys... "
In the midst of her sentence, a crucial piece of information suddenly came back to her
"Oh right! One more thing... "
She trailed off as they all stopped walking and heard her out
"Hm? What is it Eina-san?"
Bell asked with a raised eyebrow
"If any of you happened to see Lord Ares anywhere... please don't hesitate to inform the guild, the sooner the better"
Eina spoke in such a manner as if she just suddenly got a headache
"Lord Ares? He escaped custody?"
Bell asked for confirmation, she nodded at him wearily
"Yes... it was on the same day as Orario was attacked by those unfamiliar monsters..."
This surprised them, apparently that muscle head of a god escaped Orario's confinement, which is an astounding feat since its Ares we're talking about here and the city's correctional facilities are very much well-guarded, how come they haven't heard of this earlier?
"Ares? As in the Ares?"
Welf asked for confirmation, even he couldn't believe such a ludicrous thing would happen
Eina nodded her head with a sigh
"This is very troublesome not only for the guild, but for the adventurers who'll probably be called to suppress his renewed assault on Orario again in the future..."
They all nodded, since Bell was now a level six... it wasn't far-fetched that he'll be called out to suppress the kingdom of Rakia's assault should it occur again
"Bell-sama! Bell-sama! Where will we be going now?"
Lili asked as she walked with a spring in her step
The irregular Bloodsaurus' crystal indeed fetched them a price, around a few million valis to be exact, the majority of the earnings will be delegated to alleviating their debts as a Familia
"How about we head over to the Hostess of Fertility for lunch? You guys must be pretty hungry right?"
Hearing this they all perked up, well... some more so than others
"We should be a bit more frugal should we not?"
Lili attempted to protest as Welf ruffled her hair
"Oh c'mon Lil' Lili! We can afford this much now can we? Especially after taking down an irregular!"
He smiled at the glaring prum, who pried his hand off her head
"Fine! Lili guesses that it won't hurt our finances to indulge ourselves just this once..."
With the prum acquiescence, the group merrily made their way towards The Hostess of Fertility
.
..
...
..
.
"Welcome to- Oh, Bell! Hello!"
Syr came to greet the newcomers with a sweet smile, since it was Bell and the others, her smile became all the more saccharine
"Syr-san! Hello!"
Bell returned the greeting with as much enthusiasm, the others simply smiled at the cute silver-haired waitress, save for Lili who was hotly glaring at her
"Would you like a table? ...or perhaps... me?"
Her mischievous side never fails to fluster the poor white-haired boy, who immediately put a tomato to shame
"S-S-Syr-san! P-please don't say such things!"
Bell stammered out, Lili's gaze intensified and oscillated between the boy and the mischievous waitress, who feigned innocence with a cute smile
"Tee-hee~ If you would..."
With one last giggle she led them to a table
"So, how was the dungeon crawling mister hero?"
Syr started some light conversation
Hearing this, Bell perked up and responded to the waitress' question
"Oh uh... it went great! We were able to take down an irregular Bloodsaurus!"
He might come to regret revealing that tidbit pretty soon
'Hehhhhh... so they defeated an irregular? It seems they're pretty loaded now then...'
Syr concocted a plan inside her mind, she loved to pull pranks on the boy, whether to spite, to irritate or to simply get his attention... nobody knew but herself
"I see... then you guys must be pretty hungry! Might I suggest today's special?"
Bell, being the hungry and naive boy he was, nodded his head in approval of her suggestion
"Fantastic! I'll be back with your order in a little bit!"
With a sly smile, she left their table and went into the kitchen
Bell was then suddenly pulled by Lili into a lower posture so that she could whisper something in his ear
"We should've asked about today's special, Bell-sama! It might be incredibly expensive!"
Lili furiously whispered, but he paid it little mind
"It'll be fine Lili, it's probably not too bad..."
He replied flippantly, but then had a sinking feeling in his stomach, when he thought about it... this was Syr after all
'It probably won't be too expensive... right?'
...
"Thanks for waiting, valued costumers!"
For a girl of such a petite and delicate frame, she can carry a surprisingly large tray of mountain-sized dishes of pure deliciousness
To say that Bell and the others were surprised was a gigantic understatement, for a minute there, they genuinely believe that even with the valis they earned today wouldn't be enough to cover the cost
Lili, with a face that betrayed a dismayed yet furious expression, turned to Bell
All in all, the meal had cost more than ten thousand valis, which was unreasonably high, even for a group meal, when they had brought this concern up to Mama Mia, she just laughed them off, saying that since it was her pub, it was her rules
Well, at least they had enough food to keep them feeling full for three days...
From that day on, an unwritten rule was born within their little group... never, NEVER talk about today's haul in front of Syr
Deep within the Kingdom of Rakia...
"Are the preparations ready Marius?"
A figure which sat in his throne swirling a wine glass on one arm asked, he donned a fiery-red suit of high-class armor that can withstand the strongest impacts, it was the God of War himself, Ares
"Affirmative milord, I sincerely hope that this isn't another one of your half-baked plans that'll lead to our ranks' needless slaughter..."
A man with blonde hair in a general's suit bowed stiffly towards the god, Marius Victrix Rakia, the vice-captain of the Ares Familia
Instead of a verbal reply, the god of war locked gazes with the man and smiled at him, not a warm or charming one... it was a smile of a lunatic filled with bloodlust
"It seems you have something up your sleeve this time..."
Marius prodded, to which the god of war nodded
"It'll be different this time, let's just say that I had quite a lot of time to ponder about the shortcomings of our army and assault during my detainment..."
With a grin that was becoming of a maniac, he clenched his fist
"Orario's fall is imminent, Rakia shall take over the world!"
-Fin-
Heyyyy, you've reached the end of the chapter! I know that I kinda made the others much more powerful than what their stats should allow, but just go along with it, pretty please, I'll try not to make them absurdly more powerful than how they should be, this growth is simply for the sake of plot advancement hehe, also, about the plot hole of diving into the dungeon so soon after an encounter with Evilus, the best I can explain this is that they need a way to grind, I miiiiiiggght have made it overkill by putting them on the thirtieth floor, but screw it, next chapter will be the start of a new arc, The Radian Invasion Arc, I'll try to make it as similar to a siege/war setting as I possibly can with what I know, but I'm expecting it to be terrible because I know next to none hehe, anyway... that's all for today folks! See ya in the next one!