the Loki Familia base was attacked by monsters they have never seen, they saw as Raul had parts of his body melted off, muscle tissue and bone visible and half his face burned off as well, his eye melting into a gloop, with parts of his skull and teeth visible, his armor and clothes in no better shape with bearly any of them left, as he was one of the few who was able to escape as there were 13 other members who seemed to have been eaten or melted by the new monsters, Raul only surviving because he specialized in running away, the others, however, weren't so lucky, and the new monsters attacked, they looked like giant Catapillars that are green with orange and purple marks, wings in the front next to their "head?" and also had mouthes that once open, shot out corrosive acid, while monsters that use acid for weapons isn't new, it's acid was particularly corrosive, and it was a serious situation as all the Loki Familia got into action.
Riveria:" LEVIYA, CHANT A AOE SPELL, NOW"
Lefiya:" wha- YES MASTER"
Riveria trusted Lefiya to do this not as her teacher, but as Lefiya has great potential to be the most powerful mage in the world, unlike Riveria, Lefiya's royal bloodline has special magic exclusive to her family, namely on her mother's side, the magic to use any elven magic they desire so long as they know the spell, but due to Lefiya being the first to have this power in over 7,000 years, her skills with it are sloppy at best, especially since her mother wasn't a mage, but a vanguard fighter, so Lefiya had to be taught mage craft by other's who didn't know how to teach someone like Lefiya, though Lefiya was still taught how to be an effective vanguard by her mother to help her out even if a little.
Lefiya started chanting as she was preparing a spell, choosing which one to cast as she was prepared for the worst, Ais got into the fight and went after these monsters, their acid blood doing little to stop Ais who ignored the pain and pushed on, cutting the monsters to pieces using her magic to it's fullest, Bete Supported his sister and wife Reene as he and Luna acted as vanguard to protect Reene as she gave support magic to the 2 of them, giving them temporary acid immunity as Bete and Luna attacked without worry of being melted by the acid, making sure to pay attention to if the spell Reene cast is still active, but the monsters were attacking too, spitting acid everywhere, aiming at their tent's and equipment, from Finn's perspective, he could have sworn that these monsters were sent specifically to make sure traveling further down was impossible as they would be forced to head back due to low supplies, and abandon their goal.
Finn:" this is odd though, these monsters are new and the dungeon itself is fine, as well as the fact they seem focused on hampering with our progression, what's going on"
Finn would have coordinated his Familia to move in formations to help decrease casualties, since the acid melted everything in sight, he had them scatter to make sure the acid doesn't melt everyone at once, that said though, 70 members died already with more casualties counting up, and Ais didn't lose her head yet, this was bad, and as things were going from bad to worse, Ais started to lose her mind again as she was killing members and monsters alike, forcing Finn to activate her collar and immobilize Ais once again as Tiona had to go fetch her, as Tione was going Berserk, unlike when Ais goes Berserk, she was only attacking her enemies, and went in a battle frenzy, reaching into the monster and getting one of the magic stones out in fact, then putting it between her breast for safekeeping while they were fighting, even with her skin melting where you can see bone in some places, Tione didn't seem phased at all, which only made it more terrifying for everyone watching.
Lefiya chanted, she made sure the spell would work to help those in need, she lived for more than 50 years, she was an adult and needed to act like one so she wouldn't mess up like last time, this time, she will succeed and contribute to her comrades and as Lefiya was close to activating her spell, one of the monsters came from the ground beneath Lefiya, forcing her to move and cancel her spell, dodging the acid as she uses Ki to boost her abilities and move faster, using her sword and arrows where she would on some of the monsters that got close, taking down 9 of them, though she would be smacked hard by one of them to the ground with a the monster pinning her leg, snapping her Femur bone as Gareth came at the last second to defend Lefiya with 4 shield's in a layer and then ram the monster through, as Lefiya is assessed for damage, other than her leg, she finds 4 of her rib's cracked and a lung punctured as she coughed up blood, Riveria then steps in for Lefiya as she cast her spell, killing all the new monsters and putting an end to the battle, Lefiya felt defeated again, only for Riveria to give her words of encuragement.
Riveria:" one of the first steps to a good mage is a mage who can defend themselves when their enemy gets too close, in the dungeon, a mage who can't fight like a vanguard when needed is dead weight we need to babysit, you got the first part down, now you just have to be able to cast your spells, though I wonder when you will learn Concurrent Chanting so this doesn't become an issue"
Lefiya:" I understand mas- OWW"
Gareth:" easy lass, your leg's broken with a punctured lung and broken ribs, I'd take it easy"
as Tiona carried Ais's limp body, she was concerned about Ais, their first meeting wasn't exactly what you would say good, not that meeting anyone with the "Avenger" Development Ability can have a good first meeting, Ais being a level 2 at the time and Lefiya being a level 1, Lefiya said hi to Ais only to be met by being beaten half to death by her, all her ribs were broken, both her arm's and legs were shattered, she had internal bleeding, and part of her skull was caved in, if not for Lefiya having Battle Continuation and Finn activating her collar after stumbling upon her and Ais, she would have died, but upon hearing about the life Ais lives on a daily basis, especially about men taking advantage of her, she felt she couldn't just sit around and decided to help Ais, and now over the years, lefiya is something of a caretaker for Ais, but now, she realizes how weak she still is, and upon Riveira casting a spell to destroy all these monsters, it was now time to assess the damage.
the monsters didn't do nothing in their attack however, over 200 casualties and over 750 wounded, almost all their supplies and rations melted, and the last of their healing potions were used to treat the injured, they had no ability to continue forward and nearly had enough to get back considering they don't eat for a whole day to save food, they also didn't have water, so they would need to stop on the 18th floor's safe zone in order to replenish themselves, as such, on their way back, they've struggles with near starvation and dehydration, it was especially bad for the level 1's and 2's in their Familia as they had to be restrained and carried, and upon them reaching the safe zone, they stopped to gather supplies, even if it would cut into their profits in gains.
Finn:" I know the 18th floor is known for inflated prices, but this is rediculous, compared tobefore, you trippled the price the second we came"
Vendor:" take it or leave it, but considering the state of your Familia, I don't think you're in a place to be picky now, right"
Finn wasn't the only one having trouble, everyone in the Loki Familia sent to buy new supplies ran into the same trouble, while it was a known fact that the people of Rivira were known scumbags with no morals or care for the wellbeing of law and order, as well as scam you out of your money, the Loki Familia still were angry at them for taking advantage of their desprate situation, thus, they left with only hand picked berries and other food they could find since they refused to pay for such inflated prices, and left with hardly anything to actually sustain themselves, though that didn't stop them from talking about what happened on the 50th floor.
Bete:" that was awful"
Luna:" what were those thing's anyway, unless we reached into them to rip their Magic sontes out, they disappeared as well, what is going on"
Bete:" all I know is that they weren't normal, not by monster standards anyway, especially by what we know about it, hey Lefiya, have you ever seen anything like this before, you've been an adventurer for about 30 years, and in 2 different dungeons in the elven kingdom and this one, what say you"
Lefiya:" while I have seen my fair share of abnormal monsters before in both dungeons, I've never seen these one's before, they were almost like tamed monsters doing someone's bidding, but I can't say for sure since I've not ventured down to low in either before in a meaningful way so I can't say my experience is to reliable"
Bete:" seriously, darn it... to think one of the few Hera familia members to survive and one of the few level 8's in the world would have a daughter who doesn't even come half as close to her mother"
Lefiya's mother is not only queen of the dark elves, but also a survivor of the Hera Familia after the battle with the One Eyed Black Dragon, and one of the few level 8's left in the world, because of this fact, Lefiya had a lot to live up to since her mother is famous and infamous, a stigma that would haunt Lefiya more as she grew older knowing her mother is an amazing person, though, for Lefiya, she could only see her mother as a kind and caring person and not one of the strongest people in the world, though she also remembered her mothers training in hand to hand and weapons and Lefiya would shiver each time, she decided to be a mage because she was able to use her families magic to copy any elven magic, but due to her heritage, she's better as a vanguard than anything, though, she was saved from answering when Reene spoke up.
Reene:" Bete, please leave Lefiya alone, she's doing her best, and if we're talking about not performing well in that battle, I did even less than Lefiya did, so aren't I the one holding everyone back"
Bete immediately shut up as his sister poked fun at Bete for insulting his wife for Bete to retaliate back and the 2 then started to bicker one again, a common sight for the Loki Familia at this point, though as they were heading to through 17th floor to the 16th floor when about 300 Minotaur spawned, this wasn't anything the Loki Familia even in their current state couldn't handle, but once they attacked, the minotaur ran to the upper floors, a massive problem, and they couldn't just let it happen either, since they were the one's who drove them to run away, this meant any and all casualties would be on them, and thus, a first priority order was placed to stop the Minotaur, as they assended, they picked them off one by one, all the way up to the 5th floor where thank's to their team splitting up an da idea of the mapping of the dungeon, had a idea of how many they would take out, and upon the team of Ais, Bete, Lefiya, and Reene they were chasing the last Minotaur when they saw a white haired adventure being beaten by it, and as the Minotaur was about to crush the boys head, Ais charged at it and cut it to pieces as the boy was bearly contious and passed out, and upon seeing the boy, she acted weird, she then started to act odd as she then tried to kill Bell in a sudden fury of fear and rage, it was odd, Ais never acted like this before, at times where she lost her mind, she was bloodthirsty, but this time, she seemed terrified and angry, so Bete activated Ais's collar, and while Ais normally is incapacitated, she snapped her neck to forcibly attached the C1 and T1 vertebra and continue her attack on the uncontious adventurer who she was suppose to have saved.
Ais:" HE MUST DIE, HE MUST DIE, HE'S BAD, HE'LL STOP MY STRENGTH, HE'S A OBSTICAL TO MY REVENGE"
Bete then grabbed Ais's head and forcibly resnapped her C1 and T1 vertebra out of socket and then reached inside of Ais's neck to rip her entire spinal colem out, tearing chunks of muscle and flesh with it, while this won't kill Ais, she will now be paralyzed for about 3 days, due to the Avenger Development Ability making healing work slower and less effective as a way to retain all their pain and injuries to increase their power and strength, the Avenger Development Ability is quite litterly trading your own physical and menta health and wellbeing for power, another reason why 9 out of 10 Familia members with the Development Ability are usually killed before they become a problem, Loki only spared Ais cause she figured Ais was special and killing her won't solve anything, but as she was, Loki felt that Ais was a rabies infested lion that they can bearly control, and upon giving the boy medical treatment, doing all they can for him, and even carried him to a hospital, even though they will answer for their crime.
authors notes
for those who don't Like Ais's change, I wanted to make a character that show's just what the path of revenge will really get you in the end, one of pain, misery, and becoming a mosnter that is infinitely worse than eh supposed monster that wronged you, and that's just what I turned Ais into, if you don't like it, then drop it cause I don't plan to change her current character set up
for this story, I am removing Bell's drive to catch up to Ais and replacing it with the drive to get stronger to save those he was unable to before, he killed his family to save the people of Oranio, and Bell wishes to become stronger for that reason alone, kinda a Cliche with a twist, but this would indeed fit Bell's character, as well as make him less cringy at times as his action's and motivations will make a lot more sense
I also have plans to change Bell and Lefiya's relationship, namely because Lefiya is mentally older, so she's going to be slightly less impulsive, and also somewhat a voice of reason and wisdom in the group when Riveira, Gareth, or Finn aren't around and give them a better relationship than in the anime considering Lefiya int eh anime isn't very well liked despite having the kind of character design that would normally be adored by some
Betes personality and action's will also be drastically different with his sister and wife (first love) still alive (Bete's initial backstory after that is still the same with a his first Familia dying out to scar Bete, but he has support to help him this time, though I will add something new for how he and his sister and first love lived), but I will have these 2 be more they are his anchor to stop him before he crashes into the waves and tips over than anything
and as for the casualty count, the Loki Familia initially had a little over 2000 members, with the casualties, they'll still have about 1700 left, for the most part, they should be fine, and in case anyone is unaware, I do plan for many casualties in the Familia's to show just the level of sacrifice that is needed, new members will be added and many members will indeed die, that is how I figured it worked, like a never ending amount of new faces added in and see if they 'stick around" in the dungeon life, and why Bell being the only member of the Heastia Familia is that much more critical, and as for how hard to kill Ais is, let's just say, it's comparable to Hercules form FSN, but obviously weaker since a decivine fatal blow can still kill Ais