"This goes here...and this goes there...aaand finished. Hah, I´m so beautiful it should be a crime."
Alise Lovell stood with sparkling eyes and her usual cheeky grin in front of her mirror.
"Mh..."
She twisted and turned in front of the mirror to make sure everything was in place, not reacting to the small noise that came from her bed.
"Mh! Perfect! The emodiment of Justice!"
"Mh..."
Alise sighed and turned to her bed.
"Leon, how long will you continue to sigh?"
Alise wasn´t alone in her room, her door was wide open and someone sat on her bed, Ryu. She looked really down for some reason.
The red haired woman turned away from her mirror, leaving her sword on the table and walked to the bed.
"Ehehe, mouh Leon. You didn´t let me sleep at all last night."
"A-Alise! Someone might misunderstand these words!"
"But you really didn´t let me sleep at all."
"Sorry..."
"No reason to look down, I know how sensitive you can be."
"It felt so real..."
"Leon?"
"Hm?"
Ryu looked up for the first time, Alise stood directly in front of her. She smiled gently, then she leaned forward and hugged Ryu carefully. Alise had to be careful, since she already wore her armor.
"Leon, it was a nightmare, it´s okay."
Alise felt Ryu tremble, the elf returned the hug. In the night, Alise had woken up when she heard a scream in the room next to her own, followed by sobbing and the sounds of someone crying. Without asking for permission, Alise went and opened Ryu´s door, finding her sitting in her bed, crying heavily. When Alise went to her, Ryu nearly threw herself into Alise´s arms, sobbed and thanked the gods that she was still there.
Ryu had a nightmare of the worst kind, it was about the monster back then, that killed three of her familia members. In her dream, Ryu was in that situation again, but they didn´t get saved by someone. Instead she had to look how her whole familia got slaughtered, how her friends laid down their lives to save Ryu. That she was the only survivor, even had to unleash her magic while Alise was pierced by that monster. That she actually had to kill her best friend.
That she took revenge on Evilus afterwards, even asking Astrea to leave the city, so that she didn´t see what became of Ryu. At the end of her dream, Ryu collapsed in a side alley, having nothing left in the world and just lied there until she died from her wounds.
What tore so deep into her heart wasn´t a dream about dying, many adventurers had these after receiving a trauma in the dungeon. No, what tore so deep was seeing her friends die and that it felt so real.
It felt too real.
Alise held the crying Ryu for more than an hour, eventually the elf fell asleep from exhaustion and crying so much. The human decided to do something that Ryu would never allow otherwise, she slept at Ryu´s side and pulled her in a gentle embrace, which Ryu returned. Ryu needed to know that she wasn´t alone and her familia was still with her. She was eternally grateful to Alise for what she had done that night. But she was also extremely embarrassed to wake up in Alise's arms.
"Alise, I..."
"We will be careful in the dungeon, as we always are, okay?"
"Yes..."
"Hehe, good girl."
Alise patted Ryu´s hair.
"A-Alise!"
"What? Oh yeah sorry, I know this is lady Astrea´s privilege."
"She only did that once!"
"And now tell me you didn´t enjoy it."
"I didn´t!"
"Leon, Leon, Leon...as an elf you shouldn´t lie, also you are terrible at it.."
"Aliseeee!"
Alise Lovell had a special effect on her familia, but on Ryu more than the others. She just knew how to get them out of bad moods, cheer them up or distract them. It was one of the reasons why she was the perfect captian, besides being the strongest of her familia.
"Okay, now come and get up, the others will surely be waiting for us. We can´t be late, I am the captain and you are our "Elven Captain"."
"Don´t call me that..."
"Why not? Even lady Astrea likes it and our elves look up to you so much. I think you are some kind of idol for Lefi."
"I am no captian, you are our captain and Kaguya our vice captain."
"Don´t be so stubborn all the time. You have a leading role in our familia, like it or not."
"Mh."
"Alright, stop moping and get going! *Slap*"
"Kya! Alise, what are you doing?!"
"What? Slapping an elf´s butt before going into the dungeon gives good luck! I thought I explained this to you before?"
"That´s nonsense! It´s embarrassing!"
"Hooo? You dare talk back to your captain?"
"Aliseee..."
"Shall I slap it again?"
"Don´t you dare!"
"Hm..."
"Alise?"
"They say three times a charm...but seven is a lucky number...so..."
Ryu´s eyes widened in shock, then she dashed off.
"Here I coooome!"
"Stay away from me!"
Ryu ran off, Alise right behind her. It wasn´t rare to see Ryu chased by Alise...or Lyra...or Kaguya...or Neze sometimes...
.
Astrea giggled when she saw Ryu running towards them, the goddess would accompany her familia to Babel, as she always did when they went on an Expedition.
"Alise, are you teasing Ryu again?"
"No teasing, lady Astrea. Just a lucky ritual."
It was quite adorable to see how Ryu fled into the protection of her goddess, she just couldn´t stand her ground against Alise.
There was also another reason why Ryu fled to her goddess. Astrea was like a mother to all of them, but there was something special in Ryu´s case. Astrea also knew about Ryu´s nightmares and how strong they were. During the time of Ryu´s "punishment", Astrea had often slept at Ryu´s side, holding her trembling child while she cried. It should´ve been extremely embarrassing for Ryu, sometimes this even happened when she was awake. Astrea then hugged Ryu´s face to her chest, as she did with the others too, hummed softly while she stroked her back. Ryu had to be calmed down more than the others, due to her innocent nature before.
And just like Alise guessed, it felt really good to be held by Astrea...and get her head patted sometimes. Astrea´s embrace was magical and she always managed to calm her children down. And just like she did it for them, Astrea´s followers always asked her goddess if something was wrong, they really cared for her.
All of her followers had nice memories with Astrea and Alise as her first child had the most. There was one particular thing that Alise cherished the most in her heart and had bragged to the others about it. Alise had joined Astrea as her first follower when she was still small, she was already very energetic at that time, but of course wasn´t allowed to go into the dungeon. She spent her time with Astrea in Orario, and sometimes it happened that her legs got tired or her feet hurt, she was a child back then after all. And this precious memory, was Astrea giving Alise a piggyback ride. Alise´s eyes had shone and she promised Astrea that she would get big and strong. Astrea had chuckled about the shine in Alise´s eyes and said she would count on that.
The people that saw them were stunned, to see a goddess do that. It was the first time that Astrea had a very special feeling that she never had before, maternal feelings.
Every child of her was precious to her.
And if one of them would ever find a partner or marry, it would make Astrea feel immense joy. When Iska got a boyfriend, Astrea sat down on the couch in the living room with her, hugging a pillow slightly. She was too curious and asked Iska everything. Seeing an amazon giggle and blush like she did, sometimes pressing her face into a pillow and squeal embarrassed...that was something.
"So then, girls, shall we go?"
"""""""Yes, lady Astrea.""""""""
.
When they arrived at Babel, Astrea saw another goddess standing there, waiting for her familia that was just about to return from the dungeon.
"Artemis, good morning."
"Ah, Astrea, good morning."
The goddess of the hunt nodded to Astrea´s familia, they bowed slightly.
"Is your familia coming back from the Expedition?"
"Yes, one of them came running ahead to tell me that everything went well and no one got hurt."
"How nice of them."
"Yes, they always do that, so that I´m not worried for too long."
Alise raised a hand. "If you want to, we can do that too, lady Astrea."
"That would be nice of you."
Alise looked at Neze. "You are out fastest runner."
Artemis nodded proud. "It was Rethusa´s idea to do that."
"Tch!"
Alise clicked her tongue when she heard the name of Artemis´ captain.
Astrea chuckled and even Artemis smiled slightly.
"Are you two still on bad terms?"
During a time when both familias were about to go on Expeditions at the same time, Alise and Rethusa fell into an argument that still held up to this day. About which goddess was the most gentle, pure, beautiful and wonderful one.
Both captains of course said it was their goddess.
"I just know that I am right!...No offense, lady Artemis."
Artemis smiled. "Don´t worry, little Alise."
"Aliseee Lovell!"
In that moment, Artemis´ familia came out of Babel, their captain ran ahead. Both immediatelly fell into their argument again. It was a good sign, as long as they had energy and time to quarrel about something like that, showed that the general situation in Orario couldn´t be too bad.
"So, Astrea familia, good luck in the dungeon, don´t make my friend worried."
Astrea´s children nodded, then Artemis left with her familia.
"So, girls. I want your promise."
"We promise to come back well and safely, lady Astrea."
""""""We promise!"""""""
Astrea always demanded this promise from her children, she didn´t care about any penalty from the guild about a failed Expedition. The only thing that mattered to her were the lives of her dear children.
Alise grinned. "Don´t be so worried, lady Astrea. I bet noth-"
"Shh!"
Astrea "glared" at Alise. "Don´t tempt fate! Don´t dare to raise a deathflag!"
They heard this term from her before, it was from the language of the gods. Astrea was a little superstitious.
"If anything goes bad, dropp everything you have to and run."
Even nearly ten years after the incident in the dungeon, where three of her children died, Astrea never stopped to be worried about her children. She was the same as nearly every god in Orario.
The Astrea familia would go on their Expedition, their goal was the 53rd floor.
Among all of Astrea´s children, there was one girl that was a bit distracted. Everyone else was focussed on the Expedition, but Lefiya Viridis wondered if she would see the human and the renart again, she ran into them quite often recently.
I guess not, but why am I thinking about them anyway?
.
.
"Here."
"Thank you, Bell."
Haruhime took the arrow that Bell gave her, it was the last she had to pick up. They were on the 10th floor again, but without Lily. She had trained with Alfia in the morning and then went to the Miach familia´s home to shower. After she was done and wanted to go to the dungeon with Bell and Haruhime, Alfia showed up at their home. She asked Lily why she didn´t return after the break, since they had just finished their warm up.
"Warm up? Lily is already exhausted!"
"I won´t allow any slacking off, come now."
Alfia dragged Lily away, literally.
"Miss Haruhime, help Lily!"
But Haruhime shrank away when Alfia glared at her. Bell also couldn´t go against his mother, since Alfia had promised to turn Lily into the best of all supporters.
"Lord Miach! Captain Nahza! Save Lily!"
But...no help came. Miach was busy with a very affectionate Chientrope at the moment. Nahza never went far away from Miach, always glancing at her god...her lover.
"Come now, your training awaits you."
"Nooooooo!"
After they were gone, Haruhime looked uneasy at Bell.
"Is this...alright? Will she be alright?"
"Most likely.."
"Most likely?! Is she about to give her a spartan training regime?!"
"If it were only that..."
The night before, Lily said she would endure everything that Alfia would throw at her, to become strong. Her wish wasn´t only to be useful for the party, but also to be strong for herself. Lily never again wanted to be bullied by adventurers.
.
So Bell and Haruhime went to the 10th floor with just the two of them, which made Haruhime a bit happy. As much as she liked Lily, did she also enjoy spending time alone with Bell. After Miach confessed to Nahza and they became a couple, was Haruhime busy to gather up her courage to confess to Bell too. At first she wanted to ask Alfia for permission, but she probably wouldn´t allow that, so...Haruhime decided to be a mischievous fox instead of a good girl. For the future, Alfia´s blessing would still be very important for her.
Bell guarded Haruhime while she cleaned her arrows, then she watched over him extracting the magic stones, at first he wanted to borrow Lily´s special gloves, but she just looked at him and then asked how he intended to fit inside.
Both moved carefully on the floor, not scared, just carefull. Bell was strong enough to deal with everything that this floor had to offer them and they didn´t expect another trap. From informations they got, two of the five people that set the trap for them were found dead in the dungeon, killed by monsters. They didn´t know where the other three were and people assumed that they also died somewhere in the dungeon, since they didn´t show up at their familia´s home again.
What Bell didn´t know and would never know...Alfia made sure that no one would ever find these three. While she agreed to not destroy the Soma familia in general, couldn´t she forgive the ones that set up the trap.
Alfia killed them for nearly killing her son and his friends. They would never harm someone again. She didn´t know if this was justice, revenge or just another sin. Alfia was sure she would never go to heaven when her time came, it didn´t mattered. Everything she did, she did for Bell and Meteria. He was her everything and Alfia would gladly die to save him, and he was her beloved sister´s son, she made a promise to her after all. If this promise was just a dream didn´t matter, for Alfia it was real.
There was just one thing that Alfia didn´t tell Bell. She had far more savings than he knew. Since hardly anyone knew that she was one of the people who worked with Evilus, her savings stayed with the guild. She had used a special seal that did not indicate that she belonged to the Hera familia. It was common knowledge that a magician named Silence belonged to the Hera familia. But Alfia's picture was never published, simply because Alfia didn't want it. She had first told Hera never to give her image, but the goddess wouldn't quite listen, so Meteria finally "asked". Hera couldn't refuse Meteria, everyone in the familia knew she was her favourite. So Alfia's savings were simply in the name of Alfia and could only be used with her special seal. In the past she had never thought to use the money again. Everything she had saved went towards her sister's treatments, no matter how expensive it was, Alfia didn't care about the price. But after Meteria died, the money was no longer needed. Alfia kept it in the guild and according to the contract, the guild didn't touch the money. Normally, after a certain number of years, it would be assumed that the owner of the money had died, but the guild staff who set up Alfia's account were so afraid of her that they stamped a special rune on their documents . Not even the head of the guild would dare touch this account...
One point four billion Vals...
Together with the money she had with her when she went to the village, Alfia had over One point five billion.
Which meant Alfia had more money than the whole Loki and Freya familias...combined.
Well but the Loki familia was nearly constantly broke, due to them exploring the dungeon. Alfia thought it was more than weak that they had problems with just these dungeon floors they had currently reached. She bet that Bell would be able to go down there in less than a year, he was her precious, cute, adorable son after all!
Alfia just wished that Bell would allow her to help him with the money...but then again it would be bad to spoil him too much.
.
Haruhime and Bell took a short break, they never moved too far away from the exit to the 9th floor.
"Hm."
"Bell?"
"Haruhime, is it just me...or does this floor feel...I don´t know...odd?"
"I thought so too, maybe it feels like this for us, because we got attacked here the last time?"
"I guess that is it."
"Shall we continue?"
"Sure."
Bell took his sword in his right hand, Haruhime held her bow and they moved on. The next group of monsters that attacked them, were just one orc and a few imps. Bell made sure to never let an orc even get close to Haruhime.
It was a small group. Somehow...there were far too few monsters on this floor...and too few adventurers.
"Hm."
"Haruhime?"
"I hear about this before from Aisha, sometimes floors are empty when Expeditions move through them on their way down."
"But why would the floor be empty?"
"A large group like for example the Loki familia´s would strike down every monster in their way. They would probably aim for the magic stones, so they don´t have to pick them up on the upper floors. Which means adventurers like us won´t get a chance to get any monsters and we shouldn´t risk waiting for them to appear again from the walls and ground."
"Makes sense I guess, they would all be reborn about at the same time."
"Then maybe w-"
Haruhime stopped, her ears twitched and wrinkled her nose.
"Haruhime?"
Her tail shot up, as did her ears, she heard something.
Bell looked around, the fog was as thick as usual, he heard it was worse on the 11th ans 12th floors. If his eyes didn´t betray him, he saw something moving.
"Irgh...what is this smell?!"
Now it hit Bell, something that Haruhime had already smelled, since her nose was more sensitive.
"Bell, we should go, I don´t like this."
"I´m with y-"
Bell had no chance to end his sentence, Haruhime suddenly jumped and tackled him.
"Wah!"
He briefly saw the expression in her eyes, panic and maybe fear.
Something missed him by a hair's breadth...a spike. A spike that hit Haruhime's lower leg.
"AAAH!"
Her face immediatelly contorted and she screamed from pain. She had heard a very faint sound and acted, it was a whistle in the air from something flying towards them. Her fox ears were so sharp, that she was able to locate the direction of the sound and her heart had stopped. The spike was aimed at Bell, so she jumped right away. They both hit the ground, Haruhime landing on Bell. She cried out again, partly because her leg hit the ground so that the spike in her lower leg was moved. Also, landing on Bell's armor wasn't very comfortable. Though he wasn't wearing full armor, somehow one of the edges caught her in the ribs.
Then she started to scream for real, it felt like someone was pouring liquid fire down her leg. Bell caught himself fast, moved them to the side when he heard Haruhime´s cry.
"Haru!"
Bell saw it, a ten centimeters spike sticking out of her lower leg... and it looked like purple-green veins were spreading from the wound. He couldn't warn her, clamp her between his teeth, or wait. Bell grabbed the spike and ripped it out of her leg.
"ACK!"
Blood immediatelly flew out of the wound and it didn´t have the natural red color.
"Haruhime!"
Her face spoke of a lot of pain and the situation only got worse before he had a chance to help her.
"Be-"
He moved on instinct, put Haruhime down and jumped up with his sword in hand. With a thundering stomp, something came out of the fog.
A massive horned head poked out of the mist, followed by a relatively long neck. This was followed by a body weighing several tons, supported by four powerful legs, with a long tail behind. From the soles of its feet to the horn tip on its head, this monster was a little over two meters tall and almost five in length. It was also covered in scales...an infant dragon.
A...black...infant dragon.
Bell almost froze in horror. This type of monster was incredibly rare and shouldn't appear on this floor. In the description he had gotten from Alfia and Eina, Infant Dragons shouldn't be taller than five point five meters and only four long. Of course, there were times when monsters would move up and down a floor or even two, that wasn't what horrified him either. What appalled him was the color of the dragon. Black colored monsters were always the stronger version of the original monster, the much stronger version. As the dragon growled, Bell noticed green-purple liquid dripping from the dragon's mouth, also missing a spike from the dragon's tail tip, he had three more.
An Irregular!
Everything else was impossible, he had heard that infant dragons shouldn´t even be able to breath fire, which was the most common breath attack among dragons. But it looked like this one had poison in it´s body and was even able to shoot spikes!
Bell glanced quickly back to Haruhime, who lied on the ground and groaned in pain, holding her leg. They had two antidot potions with them, as well as Nahza´s new healing potions, which had a detoxifying, due to the unicorn horn she used to make them.
The problem was, when Haruhime fell onto Bell, the armor on his hip had cracked her potions. Also it looked like she couldn´t really move, even her tail went limp.
"Grrr!"
The one that growled wasn´t the dragon, but Bell. An attack that came out of nowhere was to be expected in the dungeon and it was dangerous. The normal reaction should be to run away from an irregular and alarm everyone and the guild, so they could send a special group to take care of that. But he couldn´t and wouldn´t run! Haruhime was hurt and couldn´t move, most likely poisoned.
So Bell readied his sword and shield, facing the approaching dragon.
A maiden in distress was behind him, a terrifying dragon in front of him and he had his sword...it was like a moment out of his books.
"Bell...run...leave me..."
He only heard Haruhime´s voice weakly, there was no way he would abandon her. For a moment he loosened his grip around the handle of his shield and raised his left hand.
"Thunderbolt!"
The lightning bolt shot out of his hand and smashed into the dragon´s head. It hissed in anger and locked it´s eyes on Bell.
"Here, you foul beast!"
Bell moved away from Haruhime and raised his hand again.
"Thunderbolt! Thunderbolt! Thunderbolt!"
A cloud of smoke enveloped the dragon´s body, hiding it from Bell´s sight. A strange sound followed, as if something massive moved through the air. Bell got surprised how fast the tail of the dragon came out of the smoke, he was only able to raise his shield in time, while jumping backwards. If he had tried to stand his ground against the tail, his arm would probably get shattered.
"Irgh!"
The dragon catapulted Bell´s body to the side as if it was nothing. His back hit a rock, but thankfully he had trained for something like that, so he managed to land in a way that didn´t broke his spine. Smoke was rising from the dragon´s head, but it wasn´t harmed.
But at least Bell achieved his goal, the dragon was fixated on him. With a loud roar, it followed him. Bell jumped to his feet, shook his head and readied himself.
Analyze the situation! Your opponent!
A dragon was the pinnacle of what it meant to be a monster, at least in Bell´s eyes. Infant dragons had no wings, so it could only move with it´s legs. The dragon was not much taller than Bell, but had overall much more mass. Which meant it was a bit slower, even when this type of monster was estimated to be level two and since it was a black kind, probably stronger than normal infant dragons.
Bell rememberred that these dragons had two weak points. The first one was the head, while heavily armored and armed with horns and spikes, the eyes and inside of it´s maw were not as tough as the rest of the body. The second weakspot was at the behind of the dragon, below the tail... But at the same time it was guarded by the tail and the legs there, also, Bell didn´t want to stick his sword in there.
A hero should face a dragon head on!
He longed to get stronger, longed to reach level two. Longed to protect a beautiful maiden from a monster, but right now Haruhime was in mortal danger, so he had to think about something.
And even when Bell Cranel was looking forward to have his first true adventure, to face a monster that was worthy of this name, he was scared.
The hand that held his sword trembled, made it shake. Whatever he tried to do, the shaking wouldn´t stop.
Why am I scared right now?!
He had trained for this, this was what he was longing for, yet his hand...no...his whole body trembled. Bell could understand this feeling if it was a minotaur, he had nightmares for a while after he nearly died from that monster.
Thick threads of saliva dripped from the dragon's claws, where they hit the ground there was a slight hiss. The saliva was very likely extremely toxic and possibly corrosive. With an audible rumble, the dragon began to move, roaring. He was faster than Bell expected, the stories always described dragon movements as massive and unstoppable. He reminded himself that it was an infant dragon, much smaller than adult dragons but more agile. The trembling increased as the dragon waltzed towards him and...Bell started to grin. He couldn't help it, maybe it was a shock or a fear reaction, but his mouth twisted into a grin. The trembling increased, his hand tightened on the sword hilt. The dragon's head shot out and Bell dodged sideways much faster than he intended. He almost lost his balance when his feet hit the ground.
"RAAAAH!"
Bell kicked the ground and jumped towards the head of the dragon, dealing a diagonal slash upwards.
He wasn´t afraid...he was excited.
His arms and legs shook from excitement and way too much adrenaline rushing through his body. The sword did nothing to the scales at the chin of the dragon, but it angered the monster.
The reason for Bell's anticipation was his subconscious. He's always wanted to protect a damsel in distress, preferably from a dragon! Now he had the chance, part of his mind worried about Haruhime, the other part "hungry" to prove himself and fight this dragon.
Bell´s grin widened when the dragon turned to him again. Words came from deep...deep...deep inside of his mind.
"Let us dance."
When the dragon´s eyes wandered to the groaning Haruhime for a second, Bell hammered his sword against his shield.
"I am your opponent, you vile beast!"
The dragon thundered forward and used it´s right front leg to hack at Bell. He moved backwards and raised the shield, while stabbing with his sword. There were some places on a dragon's body where the scale skin wasn't as thick as the rest of the body. In the armpits, just under the tail and between the claws. Basically at every point that had to be movable. While these weren't real weak spots, they were spots Bell could target.
Only the very tip of his sword managed to get between two small scales, doing not more than scratching the dragon.
The fight was on.
.
.
"Stay awake! Tell us what happened!"
Alise knelt next to a wounded adventurer, he held his left arm, which was covered in violet and green veins. Lyra had forced an antidote in his mouth and Ryu used her healing magic on him at the moment.
"An...irregu...irregular...on the...10th...floor."
"An irregular? What kind of irregular?!"
"A black...dragon..."
"An infant dragon?!"
"No..never such a thing before..."
Alise looked at her fellow familia members, then at the adventurer again. He wasn´t the only wounded, three party members were with him.
The red haired woman nodded.
"Neze, Laurier, you bring them back to the surface. Everyone else, we go and hunt the irregular. Tell the guild that we take care of it."
""Understood.""
Alise got up and turned into the direction they had to take.
"Let us go."
.
.
The snapping maw closed right where Bell just stood a second ago, the dragon pulled it´s head immediatelly back and raised it again. Bell´s only real advantage was his agility, so he intended to use it. He rushed forward and evaded the right front leg, running past it and jumping up. The dragon moved to the side and whiped with it´s tail at him.
"I-"
Bell´s whole world suddenly got dark. The dragon opened it´s maw and unleashed a cloud of violet-green smoke around it.
Irgh, poison!
His eyes burned and he jumped backwards, to get out of the cloud. Bell jumped backwards again when his feet hit the ground, then he got out of the cloud. He coughed and spat out, having a foul smell in his mouth. Bell just hoped he would deal better with the poison than Haruhime, since he had at least a slight resistence to it.
Whatever was happening inside the cloud, Bell used his chance. As fast as possible, he rushed towards Haruhime. While he wanted to fight the dragon, her safety was much more important to him.
"Irgh...Bell..."
Haruhime was pale, since her long skirt was ripped, he could see her bare, wounded leg, the poison spread.
"Haruhime, here, quick!"
He looked over his shoulder while he hastily opened the antidote he had in his leg holster. Bell had no time to be gentle, he nearly forced the opening into her mouth and poured the liquid inside her mouth. It came too quickly for Haruhime to swallow properly, she spluttered and half-spit, but most of the antidote ran down her throat. Barely giving her a breath, Bell uncorked a healing potion and poured it into her mouth as well. As soon as it was done, he mentally apologized as he roughly lowered her to the ground and whirled towards the cloud, at the same time moving away from Haruhime. What happened next made him freeze.
"GROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
With a ear deafening roar, the dragon burst out of the cloud.
What?!
The dragon had...changed.
Before it was clearly a subspecies of infant dragons or an irregular form. But now, the dragon charged at Bell on two legs. His height was still a little over two meters, but the monster in front of him now looked more like a mixture of an infant dragon... and a minotaur. Or so it looked to Bell. The dragon had a similar build to a Minotaur, each of its legs being bulkier than Bell's chest and terminating in massive foot claws. The legs merged into the torso, which became a barrel-shaped chest, a long, thick, hard, powerful tail still growing at the back, with three spikes at the end. At the shoulders, the scales were much thicker, forming plates and arching over. It almost looked like the monster was wearing massive shoulder armor. It looked similar on the knees, on each of which sat a large triangular scale that protruded upwards. A knee strike would surely pierce a human. From the shoulders downward, he had extremely muscular arms. The front claws or "hands" were the strangest thing about the dragon. The right side was proportioned to match the body, with long sharp claws on the fingertips. But the left side... if Bell had to describe it he would say the dragon wore a massive gauntlet, yet it was the left front paw. The claws were much longer than those on the right, the dragon constantly opening and closing them as if eager to cleave anything, even if it was just air. The head was crowned by two massive horns that jutted backwards. Below the horns, a curved plate of scales jutted out over the neck, protecting it perfectly. In the right hand claw, the dragon held a type of rock cleaver, a dungeon weapon.
Bell had never before heard that a monster could shape it´s form.
The dragon roared furiously at the top of its lungs, caustic, poisonous saliva flying through the air. Then he rushed forward, the movement was incomparable to the previous form. The cleaver came up and fell faster than Bell expected. He jumped sideways and luckily was only hit by a hail of shrapnel as the cleaver smashed into the ground. His eyes widened for a second, he had to duck as fast as he could or the Drakonid...a name Bell thought fitting more than Drakotaur...would just rip his head off. Each of the five claws on the hand was about a foot long and slightly curved. As soon as he ducked, the drakonid stepped forward, catapulting Bell several meters through the air. The monster charged after him, roaring, intent on killing and devouring. Little did Bell know it had already eaten an adventuress, the support of the other group, it was after the magic stones.
It´s eyes shone bright red, similar to Bell´s own, but they were filled with rage and hunger. The tide of their battle changed abruptly with the monster's new form.
"Bell...Bell!"
"Haruhime, run!"
Bell noticed that she got wobbily up to her feet.
"Bell, no!"
"Run!"
"No!"
"Run!"
"I can´t leave you here!"
Bell moved backwards, to lure the dragon away from the girl he loved so much. He clenched his teeth and screamed at Haruhime for the first time.
"GET GOING ALREADY!"
Haruhime felt her heart nearly breaking, she understood what he did. She had to run away so that he could wait for a moment to escape on his own, as long as she was there, he couldn´t run.
But she hated herself for leaving him here..then again she was still injured.
"*Hic* Waaaaah!"
As good as she could, Haruhime ran in the direction of the exit towards the 9th floor.
Now I can esc-
The monster fell into a frenzy, a wild storm of attacks rained down on Bell. Left and right went the cleaver, yet it looked like it wanted to use the claw more, to get Bell. All in all, the dragon had four to five weapons. Head, claw, cleaver, tail and one of the legs when the time was right.
Bell had only his sword...and his magic...which didn´t work against the drakonid.
No, I won´t escape!
He would fight on until he was sure that Haruhime was safe.
The drakonid lowered it´s head and charged at Bell again, he jumped to the side...and the monster simply smashed through a stone pillar. The thick horn combs between the two horns protected the head, this thing lived to smash through things. Bell had heard a term that was a fitting description for such a monster.
A linebreaker.
According to his informations, minotaurs tended to fight like this.
And Bell learned something new, something that the hero stories always let out or missed.
Dust.
When the stone pillar got smashed to pieces, a cloud of dust filled the nearby area, together with poisonous smoke from the dragon´s maw.
Bell´s instinct to jump away when he couldn´t see anything saved his life. The giant claw from the left side swung out of the cloud and shredded his chestplate to pieces, ripping away his shirt in the same movement.
"Woah!"
This had been way too close.
But the dragon wasn´t finished, the claw continued to move, as if the body was whirling around. Then came the enormous tail and hammered into Bell more like a tree than a whip. He fell backwards and hit the ground.
Move! Move! Moveeee!
He forced his body to react, rolled to the side before the foot claw came down where his head was a second ago. When he rolled away, the dragon roared fiercly.
Bell jumped to his feet and prepared to defend himself, but the dragon stopped.
He isn´t moving?
"Huff...Huff...Huff..."
Bell remained focussed on his enemy.
"Mr. Cranel, please step back."
In surprise, Bell looked quickly over his shoulder. Except for two members, the full Astrea familia had arrived. He saw that Lefiya Viridis out of all people supported the weak Haruhime.
"Bell..."
Haruhime is safe, thank the gods.
Ryu drew her special wooden sword from her belt and made a step forward. The other sword, the one made from metal, hung on her back.
"I will take care of this irregular, you did well to fend it off so long, so that no one else is going to die."
"It...killed someone?"
"Yes, a human girl."
His thoughts raced, his eyes returned to the dragon monster. The Astrea familia should be more than strong enough to defeat this thing within seconds, that´s why they only let Ryu go forward.
He was safe, rescued again by the Astrea familia...
Kuh...
And somehow...he didn´t like that.
Am I going to get saved again? Again?!
He clenched his teeth. His dream was to get stronger, to become a hero. To slay the vile monsters that made other people sad, to safe a maiden in distress. He had done only one of these things and he would never get stronger when things remained like that! His Mom was slowly dying from her illness and he would save her by all means!
Bell thought about the attack that had recently happened, about Haruhime´s suffering in the Pleasure Quarter. If he would just be stronger, he could protect his loved ones. The heroes of the past all had fought against strong and dangerous monsters! He couldn´t take the safe route all the time or he would never become stronger! Alfia had explained to him what was necessary to level up.
And now it looked like Ryu Lyon would save his life again...in nearly the same way as the first time.
No...No!
Bell Cranel knew one thing for sure, if he wouldn´t stand up now...if he wouldn´t face this opponent on his own...he would never gather the courage to become stronger. And he couldn´t do that!
I am the grandson of Zeus! I am the son of the strongest mage in the world! I am the only child of the Hera and Zeus familias! And I am in front of the two girls that I love! I can´t lose here!
He just had to reach for new heights! Or he would never do that.
Ryu walked past him, but he grabbed her wrist.
"No. I can´t."
"Mr. Cranel?"
His eyes were filled with determination. "I can´t let the Astrea familia save me time and time again!"
I can´t bear to show such a shameful sight in front of the women I love!
Ryu looked surprised at him, Bell´s eyes wandered for a second to Haruhime and Lefiya, then he walked in the direction of the dragon.
Bell raised his shield and held his sword pointed towards the dragon, balancing the blade on the edge, similar to how the famous spartan warriors stood with their spears and shields. A bigger shield in the future would be nice.
The dragon growled, bared it´s fangs and glared at Bell. Despite it´s fury, it noticed when another predator bared it´s fangs at it.
They faced each other for a moment, the last of the dust cleared, both eyed their opponent, judging him.
"Mr. Cranel, this isn´t the time for that, this is an irreg-"
"Don´t interfere!"
Bell yelled without looking back. Ryu gritted her teeth and wanted to make a swift step forward.
"Leon, stand down."
"Alise?!"
"All of you, stand down. This is his decision, he found the monster first."
"But, Alise!"
Alise shook her head. "This is an order as your captain, non of you will interfere."
The captain of the Astrea familia had a grim look on her face, it was rare that Alise gave them a direct order. But Ryu listened, she went back to her familia. All of them took their hands away from their weapons, except Alise. Contrary to what she had ordered the others to do, Alise would intervene and strike down the monster if it threatened to kill Bell. He might hate her for it, but she wouldn't care. After all, she had just told the others not to do anything. There was just something about Bell that Alise liked...he reminded her of herself when she was his age. Even if she was only about twelve years older than him...
"My name is Bell Cranel! I am the one that will defeat you!"
And in the ranks of the Astrea familia, stood two young women next to each other, both having the same thought.
"Fight, Bell!"
"Fight, Bell Cranel!"
.
.
The dragon roared like an out of control moloch and raised the immense cleaver. For the first time Bell noticed, that the ellbows were equally armored as the knees, with triangular bone plates. Bell ran as fast as he could, bringing up his sword to block the cleaver. He went down to one knee, not trying to resist the full force of the impact. The dragon was strong, but Bell took a beating from a far stronger opponent in the past, except that Alfia didn´t try to kill him that time. The dragon just knew and felt that it would die by the hands of the females watching it, it´s instinct drove it to slaughter and devour the male in front of it. After all, this was it´s purpose for which it was born.
Bell went with the swing and moved to the side. The enormous claw came up and pierced his shield.
"Argh!"
One of the claws had pierced his left forearm, but Bell didn´t allow himself to show any pain or weakness. The arm of the dragon ripped him intot he air, Bell had no other choice than to cut the straps of his shield and kick with all of his strength against the monster´s arm. With a smacking sound, the claw slipped out of his arm and he jumped away. Blood immediately ran down his hand as the dragon closed its claw and dismembered the shield. But at least the shield had protected him from having his face mauled.
"Grr!"
His left arm would make him trouble when he would use his sword with both hands, but Bell had no choice.
"Thunderbolt!"
Even if it didn´t delivered any damage, the sudden flash of light could blind the dragon for a moment. And if he would hit the eye by chance, maybe it would do something.
Lefiya watched perplexed how Bell fired his magic. Swiftstrike Lightning magic?!
"Thunderbolt! Thunderbolt! Thunderbolt!"
Bell ran to the side and fired lightning bolt after lightning bolt. The dragon had to raise the claw to shield the face, since the lightning bolts crackled into various directions before hitting the target. To do that, the dragon left the right arm hanging low.
"Deyaaaaah!"
The dragon didn´t see him coming, Bell rammed the tip of his sword into the right wrist of the monster. At least he tried, but the scales were too hard. With a fierce roar, the dragon swung the cleaver around and Bell dodged. Without his armor, even the smallest hit could kill him...probably even with the armor.
That he dared to try to hurt it, made the dragon more furious. With a whooshing sound, the dragon took a deep breath, then spat something resembling fire breath but made of venom at Bell.
"Bell!"
"Bell Cranel!"
Kaguya sighed. What a fool he was...
A new lightning bolt shot inside the venom breath, right into the dragon´s maw. The scream that followed was not a roar of anger, but a shriek of pain. The inside of a dragon's mouth was indeed vulnerable. Bell had used himself as a bait to provoke the dragon into using this attack. Still, his nose, mouth and eyes burned, his resistance wasn´t strong enough to make him completely immune.
The dragon charged at him again, smoke rose from the inside of it´s maw. Pure fury burned in it´s eyes. Cleaver, claw and tail moved wilder through the air and tried to hack Bell to pieces or smash him. Bell ducked down, rolled away, jumped to the side and did all he could to evade. This only made the dragon more angry.
"Thunderbolt!"
"GROOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
Alfia had teached him one important thing, a furious monster was dangerous, but not even close to one that managed to be smart and think. So Bell did his best to make the dragon more and more furious. The cleaver swung wildly around, carving furrows in the ground. Bell was focussed on his enemy and the surroundings, the dragon was not. When Bell jumped out of the way of the cleaver again, it continued to swing and hit a wall. This time it was the cleaver that got shattered to pieces. It took the monster a second to understand that it´s weapon was gone.
Bell would use this second.
He jumped up and aimed with his sword at the right eye of the monster.
But...
The claw was still the monster´s favorite weapon. It seemed to appear out of nowhere, caught Bell in midair and closed a bit around his body.
"Yaaargh!"
It hurt very much. The claws were sharp and his blood flew from fresh wounds. Instead of closing the claw and crushing Bell, he got pulled up and the dragon opened it´s maw impossibly wide.
Alise just pulled her sword a tiny bit out of it´s sheath, her whole body stiffened.
"CHOKE ON THIS INSTEAD!"
Bell could only react in one way, when he was right above the maw of the dragon, he rammed his sword into it. Thankfully the inside of the maw was soft and not armored. His sword pierced the dragon's tongue and buried itself in the floor of the mouth...and lodged in the bone.
"REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"
Bell was thrown away, carving deeper wounds into his upper body, ripping away his hip protecting and part of his pants. He nearly lost something very important to a man. Bell slammed into the ground and got up right away, flowing blood or not. The dragon was indeed choking, it tried to get the sword out of it´s maw, but it stuck.
What followed broke Bell´s heart, the dragon used the smaller claw on the right side, grabbed the hilt of his sword and broke it off, his father´s sword cracked and got destroyed, most of the blade still burried in the dragon´s maw.
Pure hatred and rage filled the dragon´s eyes, it charged forward directly onto Bell.
"Thunderbolt!"
The dragon turned the head to the side, but strangely...the lightning crackled and changed the direction, right into the dragon´s maw. Another pain filled scream followed.
Bell understood quickly what happened. The remains of his father´s sword worked like a lightning rod. He gritted his teeth and prepared himself to wring everything out that he had.
"Thunderbolt!"
This lightning bolt acted exactly like the other. The dragon noticed the danger and charged with full spead at Bell.
"Thunder-Bolt!"
Bell apologized in his mind to every elf of the Astrea familia, the werewolf woman and Haruhime. Each of them cried out in pain and covered their ears, when the massive thunderclap hammered down on them. His mind felt a bit fuzzy after using this version of his spell. But the wave of thunder and lightning managed to throw back the dragon for a second.
It´s now or never!
Bell took the deepest breath of his life.
"Thunderbolt! Thunderbolt! Thunderbolt! Thunderbolt! Thunderbolt!Thunderbolt!Thunderbolt!Thunderbolt!Thunderbolt!Thunderbolt!Thunderbolt!Thunderbolt!Thunderbolt!Thunderbolt!Thunderbolt!Thunderbolt!Thunderbolt!Thunderbolt!Thunderbolt!"
Bell yelled out as fast as possible without making a mistake with the word. It didn´t look like multiple lightning bolts shot out, but one lone lightning that connected his hand with the maw of the dragon. Right now, he indeed looked like the grandson of Zeus. For a second, it looked like Bell´s eyes were flashing blue...like his mother´s.
He stopped his bombardement and gasped. The feeling was familiar, a mind down was coming closer.
Grandfather, Mom, give me strength!
He fought a black dragon, an evil dragon. Bell thought about a hero of the past that he had read about.
The hero Siegfried.
.
.
GONG!
.
.
One time, one time echoed the sound of a grand bell over the floor, then Bell raised his hand a last time.
.
.
"THUUUUUUUNDERBOOOOOOOOOLT!"
.
.
He squeezed everything out that he had inside him, poured every tiny bit of his magic into this truly majestic lightning bolt. It flashed in such a bright, actinic blue, with sparks of white in it. The lightning bolt was thicker than Bell´s leg, it almost looked like a lance of divine energy.
The dragon didn´t scream, he couldn´t scream. It twitched and spasmed as it was fried alive from the inside, all of it´s muscles stopped to work, overloaded from the electricity. The remains of his father´s sword exploded from the energy, sharp splinters shot everywhere in the dragon´s maw, everything that this monster felt was immense pain.
It got fried from the inside and died standing. The last thing it looked at was Bell, it´s own eyes filled with sheer hatred before the magic stone inside it´s chest got pierced by the lightning and shattered.
The following explosion ripped the dragon apart and turned it to ash. The shattered remains of Bell´s sword fell to the ground.
.
.
.
I...did...it...Grandpa...Mom...I did it...
Bell couldn´t hear the Astrea familia rushing towards him, Haruhime...and Lefiya...in front of them.
Eventually his mind gave in and everything turned dark, he fainted with a smile on his lips.
.
