I look back up to see the thing that I've come to dread the most in the past 2 minutes. The hulking mass of anger and savagery, starting into my very being, wishing for nothing more than to tear me limb from limb. A Lygerfang, a tiger-like monster that is about 1.35 meters tall and about 2 meters long, a level two monster, so Why the hell is a Lygerfang is floor 6, so why is there such a monster here .I curse my luck, and try to stand, but I don't even get 4 inches off the ground before I collapse again. The pain mixed with the terror keeps me from getting up.….I don't want to fight this thing….This is bullshit.
…
…
"Please Kanin, you have to get up. I know you can make it, you have to."Urges an elf in her mid teens with bright purple eyes that seem to shine like jewels, she has looks that could even make a god envious and with two long elf ears sticking out from the side of her green hair that she normally has under a hood that had been blown off during the fight. In her hair is a bright purple butterfly hairpin that's just barely visible. It's easy to tell given a few years she'll truly become a beauty, I never asked her why she always hides her hair but it's not really my place to pry, she is noticeably tall, and has a dark green shirt with black leggings with light brown leather armor and she is gripping onto a staff in her left hand that looks like it was just pulled off a tree 20 minutes ago and she had shoved a blue mana focusing crystal into the top of her hand she holds a 80cm steel sword that is used primarily on defense. Although she wasn't proficient with the sword, it gave her the close combat potential she needed to save her mind power for spells. She looks at me sternly trying to hide the nervousness and worry she is feeling at the moment looking at my bruised and damaged body.
'Please, Sadari, you're too loud.'
"Come on kid, don't give up, keep going." A man that looks to be in his late 20's with bright blond hair tied back in a braid and has the look of a viking, with very hardened and dimm blue eyes, he wears thick armor that is made out of hardened leather, and holding a two-handed war ax, not that, that will do any real damage to a Lygerfang, it's just pathetic guild armor. And a flimsy Ax, he had gotten from a beginner smith.
'Magnus I just want to sleep'.
"Kanin we need you… don't go please… I don't want to lose anyone else." A girl older than the first, about 20, with caramel brown hair and eyes, Said in a desperate voice, she's wearing a black coat and she wore no armor as she doesn't like to have her movements slowed down, in her left hand she wields her trusty Marie, a rapier like weapon that she got from one of her last teammates before they retired. It was the strongest weapon we had; it was made from two War Shadow's claws reforged into a rapier
'Have you seen that thing Jessica, it doesn't matter what I do.'
"If you don't get up, and stop that thing I swear I will kick your ass in this life or the next!" And then there's Jack the total ass-hat of a team leader, he was also in his 20's and has the best armor of the group made from orc hide that had a light gray and scaly look to it, and his Bow was very well made as well. He had about 10 arrows left, as he couldn't pick any up while the Lygerfang was here on the prowl. He also wore a normal brown shirt and long black pants under his armor. With the most average looks to ever be. With slightly scraggly brown hair and brown eyes.
"Grrrr" I let out a grumble from the pile of broken armor that I am currently attached to. I can feel blood dripping from my scalp sticking to my black hair making it even more messy than it was already
"Brat get the hell up right now, do you want to kill all of us just because you don't wanna get up anymore"
'Shut the hell up Jack, why are you always so annoying'
Although I mentally lashed out at him I knew he was telling the truth so again I started standing up fueled by pure anger and desperation, pain all over my body half from cuts and gashes while the other half from internal bleeding due to the blunt force trauma, the armor turned punching bag had prevented any serious breaks. I get to my knees and In front of me I see the two short swords that I found on the way here on the corpse of another adventurer.
One of the most well known taboos is to take weapons or other equipment off dead bodies but I don't really care about taboos, if it's there I'll put it to good use. The swords are strong but they're most likely not strong enough to fully pierce a Lygerfang's pelt, not without some serious force. I reach out and grab the two swords and then look up and to my left to see Jack getting charged by the Lygerfang because it flung both Jessica and Magnus just like I had been.
As soon as Jack turns away from me to look for the large cat that is now hunting us, Jack's face in the matter of milliseconds drops from anger to fear and regret when the saber-toothed cat starts to charge him, he tries to get out of the way but fails horribly. Unlike the other well known monster from the floors 15-17, the minotaur, the Lygerfang has an insane amount of agility, with blindingly quick movements
The fangs of the Lygerfang follow the diving human and sink into his neck and shoulder. The sickening sound of bones being shattered, of muscles being torn and of the very life of our party leader being ripped out of him. At that moment I knew he was dead for sure so there was no point in trying to save him. With his final moments of life while he's staring at me he gives a sad smile as if he was saying, "sorry" which makes me frown
Discarding that unnecessary train of thought. I look to my right and see Jessica and Magnus getting up. Fortunately, or unfortunately all of us left have seen somebody die before our eyes in the past so we don't freeze up. Seeing them getting ready to fight again, I shout at them" Mangus when I say so, throw your ax as hard as you can at it, it's all or nothing."
He looks at me like I'm insane for a second then realizes he has no other plan so he agrees, then I shout "Jessica get ready to go for one of its eyes, Sadari, use your lighting arrow spell when I call for it, I'll try to distract it so you can get a clean shot." they both look at each other then at me then nod.
Sadari starts to chant "Bolt of Thunder strike my enemies down…"
I get onto my feet and start charging at the Lygerfang, then about half way there, and while the Lygerfang is still enjoying the meal that was Jack's now lifeless body, I shout, "Magnus, now!" and at about 4/5th of the way there I see a giant ax to my right fly into the body of the Lygerfang and luckily hit it in the back left knee, buckling the overgrown cat and slowing it down.
The Lygerfang then looks back up and sees me and has fury in its eyes, I would be lying if I said was just scared a little bit, because I was terrified, but I shoved that terror into the back of my mind for later, as I heard Sadari finish her only spell, "pierce their wretched unclean heart..."
"Lightning bolt", with the Lygerfang being so hyper-focused on me it failed to see the bolt of lightning from its side going towards its head.
Right before the spell hit the Lygerfang, it had leaped at me causing it to hit right behind the eye, although not the best hit, enough of the spell managed to hit the eye to blind it, while it got knocked to the side from the blast and recoiling in pain,As the smoke cleared the Lygerfang was revealed to be missing a small chunk of its head, its left side's eye had been liquified by the spell and the same side ear had been blown clean off, with third degree burns running down it's face. it had then noticed movement to its right but it was too late, as a rapier was now centimeters from it's remaining eye.
With its right eye almost pierced, the Lygerfang desperately tried to back away from the sharp object trying to take its remaining eye. But right before it could move itself, it was then blindsided by Magnus' shoulder charging into the angry cat, slamming it back into the blade and driving the sword into the giant Tiger's second eye. Magnus had not stopped even after he had thrown his ax, which had played heavily into our favor as the Lygerfang was now blinded in both eyes and the Viking look-alike had managed to get his ax back. But this fight was still far from over, it now was just slightly more winnable.
With the Lygerfang now relying on hearing and smell to find us it was a little easier to dodge the less accurate attacks but we still didn't have a way to reliably damage it except sadari's spells but she can't use too many more before passing out due to mind down. While Magnus had managed to get his ax back after he shoulder checked it into Jessica's stab, she wasn't able to pull her sword out before it shook her off.
With it's remaining ear most likely still ringing, we should have the upper hand, but the cat's high sense of smell put us back to a fairly even playing fields
So with the sword Jessica uses still firmly planted in the eye of the Lygerfang. The best bet would be to wait for it to tire out, but given the monster's level two status the chances of that happening are well below 1%. we can't run as it would just track our scent, we could spit up and run, and had these people not been my close friends and Familia members I would have done exactly that.
My thoughts grind to a halt as I see the Lygerfang staring directly at me with its remaining ear pointed right at me and its nose twitching to keep my scent.
My blood runs cold as I see my predator slowly walking towards me. Despite its massive body, it doesn't make a single sound. My mind spins rapidly, downing out every other thing other than the murder machine in front of me and trying to figure out what I can do to survive this disastrous situation.
I try to silently move to the left, but the moment my foot comes down, the massive cat's head also slightly turns, keeping its now blinded eyes locked on my position. I would only learn this later but the Lygerfang wasn't focused on me, but the noise coming from behind me.
Before I have time to figure out a plan, the Lygerfang bolts leaving the only obstacle in its path, as little ol' me.
Knowing that it can adjust its course on a dime, I set my feet with my arms up in a block to at least protect my chest and vital organs.
As the lygerfang is about to make contact I hear something I had been zoning out,"Unclean heart. Lightning Bolt '' with about 3m between me and the charging cat, a streak of lightning zips by shoulder and right into the now open mouth of the Lygerfang.
With the spells explosion the it Lygerfang is slightly slowed, but that's it, only slightly.
All I could see was white due to the explosion, but it's strange. I feel my chest start to cool down like a thin layer of ice had formed over my chest, to help block the attack. Though that no longer matters as in the next instant I felt my arms and ribs being crushed as I'm sent flying back. I fly for half a second before the last thing I feel is me impacting something incredibly vision rapidly dimmed from white to black in an instant as I passed out.
—
I don't know how long I was like that, all I knew was my body broken and I couldn't feel anything. The only thing I could feel was a smooth liquid now trying to go down my throat. I tried to cough it up, but something started to rub my throat to force the liquid down my dry throat.
Instantly my body starts to mend together, and I start to feel again, but oh so dammit I wish I couldn't feel it.
"AaAHhhhHHHHhh" a horse cry escape my throat as I experience the worst thing imaginable.
Pain,pain,pain. That is all I can process, I couldn't even cry out anymore now that my diaphragm and lungs were now also being mended making me unable to take air in or push it out.
But after a few agonizing eons, the pain finally dies down, it doesn't go away, as everything still aches. I slowly open my eyes, to see two watery purple gems in front of my face. And they truly are the most beautiful things I can think of at the moment.
I start to look around the gems and see red liquid running down the face the gems are connected to.
In a barely audible voice I force out, "Sadari… your… bleeding."
For a second the expression on her face morphed to confusion before she touched her head, and felt the blood, and looked in anger at me and started to berate me.
" dummy you absolute stupid dummy, stupid this is your blood that you spilled on me, when you crashed into me." I see her start to get angry at me," stop worrying about me and worry about yourself, you almost died you absolute fool." Oh yeah she's getting real angry now.
I slowly reach my hand up and stroke her face which makes her freeze, "I'm happy as long as you're okay." I give her my best smile before I close my eyes to get some rest.
—
Jessica Watched as the Lygerfang charged Kanin and Sadari. She knew she was too slow to reach in time to help but that didn't stop her from trying.
Then as Sadari finishes her spell the lightning bolt streaked by Kanin's shoulder, almost nicking him in the process. The bolt processed to go right into the charging animal's mouth and exploded but sadly it didn't stop the momentum of the beast as Kanin got sent flying by the heavy body slam of tiger like monster
I watched as Kanin's now disfigured form flew right into Sadari which also knocked her down, but despite getting hit by a human projectile I see Sadari's slender frame rapidly get back up and immediately she starts to rush to Kanin's body. As I got over there I watched the cat with caution. But when I get a good look at it I nearly gag as I see the head of the beast
The cat's entire jaw had been blown off, with the remaining flesh dangling in any place that it could fit. With the lower mouth blown off I could see the roof of the mouth was also blown open completely liquefying the brain, safely labeling it as dead.
I looked at the figure of Sadari who was nursing Kanin with surprise as she was undoubtedly the main reason why we… Well most of us can walk away from this, I turn my sight to see the mauled form of Jack our former party leader. I sigh while closing my eyes and whisper,"The dungeon is a cruel mistress."
I snap my eyes back open and decide to take the temporary role of leader, I look at the magnus and order," Magnus, take this potion and be on watch while I take the core out of this thing, I will switch with you when I'm done with the Lygerfang."
I see him look over to me as I toss him a potion that he caught then he nodded at me.
I turned back towards the Lygerfang and got to work trying to chip away at the now dead Lygerfang to try and get the magic stone out, after all a Lygerfang's stone is worth about half if not more of a normal day in the dungeon with our whole party. But I guess our luck didn't run out because when the stone was taken out something dropped from the ash, long pearly white and razor sharp, A Lygerfang's Fang.
—-
I awaken to the feeling of fingers running through my hair and my head on something incredibly soft, and warm, but this warmth is incredibly comforting and welcoming. I've always hated warmth, whether it be the summer heat, the heat of a fire or the heat of someone else. But for the second time in my life I found this heat…nice.
I try to move to get a better position, but pain shoots through my system and makes me stop. Opening my eyes I see Sadari smiling down at me with her long ears now red and twitching with her green hair once again covered by her hood that had come off during combat. almost instantly I realize where I am and try to get off but I get held down by a soft hand. My str stat is higher than Sadari's, which makes me normally stronger than her, but with my incredibly weakened body I can't do much.
I then hear a beautiful voice from above me say," Stay down Kanin, you need to recover for now."
I look into her bright purple eyes and ask in a parched voice," why your lap?". As soon as I ask I see the red from her ears instantly travel and invade her face too.
" B-Because you need to get better you idiot." She mutters while turning her beautiful face away from me.
"You're so cute" I say out loud. I don't know where my sudden bout of confidence came from, but if I had to guess, seeing the reaper and flipping him off while laughing in his bone-y face probably helped a lot.
At this point Sadari is hiding her face behind her hands, as I start laughing quietly at her, she suddenly takes her hands aways from her face and glares down at me.
"What would I had done if I lost you, W-Why are you *hick* a-always getting hurt!" she yells in indignation.
I stop laughing when I feel drops of water fall on my face and look to see her with red and puffy eyes. I can't look her in the eyes anymore and mutter out," sorry"
We sat there in silence for a few minutes with her occasionally hiccuping while trying to stop her tears.
We are taken out of our alone time as Jessica walks over, with a serious face she turns to me," can you walk?" she asked as she looked over my body,"We need to get out of here and we can't waste manpower carrying you, we are too messed up for any lea-way on the way up."
" Let's find out" I simply say as I start to stand up, with every movement I make, I hear either a crack or a pop and a few times I even hear both.
When I get to my feet and stabilize myself, I try to move around a bit but I start to feel wobbly if I move any faster than a normal walk
" That's better than I thought you'd be,you've always had an unnatural amount of recovery" Jessica nods with appreciation " alright get ready we'll start making our way back up in 15 minutes after Magnus comes back from monster scouting. Staying down here any longer in our current condition would be asking for death."
I spent the next 15 minutes slowly testing out my range of motion and chatting with Sadari who was still angry at me for almost dying. I smile mirthlessly at myself at my reckless activities, if I had just listened to my team, I would've known Sadari was chanting her spell so I could have backed up to have more time to dodge.
Once Magnus finally gets back we spend just 1 minute saying farewell to our former team leader and start our trek up.
—
The way up was fairly uneventful, the only reason they had waited for me to wake up was in case another stupidly rare and dangerous situation had occurred. Although the chances of that happening was very low, it wasn't 0. And the dungeon is known for taking any chance possible to take you out.
Although when we had gotten to the first floor something very unforgettable did happen.
"Did you hear the Evilus are starting to harass small businesses, in the last week alone, 6 shops have been destroyed." we were talking to each other on the passageway from the 2nd to the 1st floor as we were no longer in a large amount of danger.
But we stopped when we heard multiple people shouting from the 2nd floor, we all got a little more wary but we still continued on.
"This —- —- — sure —- come on!" We heard voices that seemed to be getting closer to us, and they sounded like they were chasing something. *Whoooosh!* Suddenly a ball of something yellow and green flew past us fast enough to make the lygerfang we just fought, fume with jealousy.
"What the h—" but before Magnus could finish that sentence we next saw 4, now humanoid shapes also blow by us, going as, if not even faster than the little ball from earlier.
"Ok, what just happened?" I mutter out not really expecting an answer
"I think that was a Jackbird." Jessica replied also still dazed
" That thing was a Jackbird? How the hell are you supposed to catch something like that?" Magnus was now fuming
"Apparently no one under level 3 has ever caught one" Sadari added her piece to the conversation.
" Well if somebody under level 3 did catch one they would never talk about it. I've seen people do much worse than robbing someone for far less than the 1,000,000 vails that thing is worth." Jessica replied with a disgusted look on her face
With us all silently agreeing, we start walking back to the surface again.
—
Finally reaching the surface we agreed to freshen up and charge at respective homes before we come and meet up again at the guild in an hour.
With Sadari and I waving to the other 2, we start walking north to the Freyr Familia home.
With me and Sadari having a peaceful walk home. The sun had started to go down and the street lights had now started to come on. The occasional cool gust of late Autumn air brushes by us with our reactions being polar opposites, with Sadari shivering and pulling her light dungeon gear tighter to try and get more warmth, while I let out a sigh of contentment as I feel the chilling evening breeze..
Seeing the hooded elf shivering a bit, I frown before I take off my thick over shirt that I use to keep my metal armor pieces from biting into my skin. Although I notice there are holes in it now after the Lygerfang beat me around like a pinata, it would be better than what light clothing the cold elf next to me is currently wearing.
Handing the padded shirt over to her, I see her turn and look at her with questioning in her eyes. I lightly say," sorry it's a bit messed up but it should warm you back up" .
I see her hesitate a little before I give her the final push, "you know I've never liked to be warm, and I don't wanna carry this around so you should wear it, it's a win-win.".
We both know that this was just a lousy excuse but she happily latches onto it with a firm nod as she swipes my shirt. I see her slow down a bit to get the oversized shirt on. And without a doubt the sight I saw before my eyes I would never forget, when she had finally put the shirt on it made her look incredibly precious, Sadari was by no means short, actually she was quite tall, taller than the average man in fact, with her standing in at roughly 179cm. But with my own equally tall 191cm height my shirt came well down to her thighs, and although I didn't have a massive frame, I could still say I was proud of my well built body honed through exercise and training, but the only way to describe Sadari would be, slim. So when Sadari finally got it on, I got to see the adorable view of the elf in my oversized and baggy shirt ,with her hugging her arms to her chest with a blissful expression and a heart warming smile.
I see the now warm and content elf turn her dazzling smile towards me which turned even bigger and said,"thank you for the gift!" my heart nearly stops from the cuteness overload.
But then I registered what she said, "Gift?" I ask a little hesitantly, and I feel my heart drop when I see her smile turn impish before she turns and bolts towards the Familia manor with only a childish giggle being left in her wake.
"Wait, no get back here you gremlin!" I shout after her as I also take off after her.
Not even 5 seconds later and seeing her gradually putting more distance between us I remember two crucial facts, although my Str and End are both far higher than hers the same cannot be said about her Dex and Agi. While I'm at the E and D rank respectively, which is a very impressive feat seeing as how I've only been adventuring for 7 months, meanwhile Sadari was already in the C rank for both and that was a month ago despite us starting at the same time, me actually one day before her. That in my personal opinion is utterly ludicrous.
Although there are not as many people out, as the sun is practically set, Orario isn't called the city that never sleeps for no reason. With the body i was all so proud of not even half a minute ago, is now nothing more than a detriment, I have to dodge every person with a reasonable room in between us, as if by chance a adventurer is running and runs into a civilian, the adventurer can get into massive trouble with the guild. But Sadari is having no such troubles as she seamlessly weaves between the people while merrily laughing all the way.
Seeing her turn back towards me while laughing and smiling suddenly I just stop moving as I see something straight out of a picture book. But I know, I know that no painter or artist would be able to capture something as stunning as what I'm seeing
Strands of vibrant green hair had come out from her dark blue hood and they were fluttering around in the air. Which gave the perfect frame for the elf's perfect face. Despite the distance between us I can see her purple eyes shining with the corners of them squinted ever so slightly giving her an otherworldly look, which was countered out by the soft and gentle smile, showing that despite her beauty she can smile, laugh and feel happiness like everyone else. In the background the final parts of the sunset give way as if being suppressed by the elf's radiant smile. No matter how bright the street lights are or how dazzling the stars now appearing in the sky are, they all become dim to me. In the end the only light left in my vision is the shining elf. And suddenly I have a thought, and that thought quickly turns into a belief and that belief turns into a vow and engraved itself directly onto my very soul.
'I will protect her happiness at all cost' I state firmly to myself and without any doubt in my mind, ' until the end of time, no matter how dark things turn, I will make sure that she can always smile brightly'.
'I understand my child' ,I hear a feminine voice in my head, but for some reason I don't become frightened but instead I feel…safe.
'it seems as though you have found your purpose, but know that a spirit never breaks their promises, no matter what.'
I feel a pair of arms wrap around me from the back in a gentle embrace, but unlike a normal hug in which you can feel the warmth of the other person, the woman's slender arms are extremely cold. Being cold enough to chill someone to the bone, and in this arctic encirclement all I felt was comfort and my body starting to relax.
As I felt my body starting to fully relax into her hug, the lady continued.'I'm so proud of you. You've grown so big and strong. And remem—r Yo– —her lo– –u..'
And as though the connection was severed, I notice the surroundings start moving at full speed again. I was startled as I hadn't even noticed that everything had slowed to a crawl around me. But as I try to remember what had just happened my mind is a bit fuzzy like trying to watch level 6's fight as a level 1. You might be able to tell some key details but all the extra little movements that truly defined the moment are just simply not able to be caught with such low abilities. I could only remember a few things like something about promises, and something about them being proud.
Shaking my head clear of whatever the hell that was knowing that I could do jack squat even if I tried to fight back there's not much I can do that can make everything slow to a snail's pace, I look back at Sadari to see her looking at me with a slight tilt of her head, and her childish smile still plastered on her face, although one of her eyebrows is quirked as if asking,"is that all you got slowpoke."
I smile back at the elf as I start to chase her again. I was extremely confused by what had just happened,But I could always get answers later, but now? Now I needed to teach this little elf a lesson.
Seeing me starting to run at her again, Sadari starts to giggle again as she too takes off down the street leaving me in the dust.
A/N
I made a little list of things that are kinda important so reading them would be a good idea
This story starts 9 years before the start of the main story
Some of the adventures get a lvl boost-examples: Ottar should be lvl 6 at this time but now he's a 7, the Loki executives should be lvl 5 but now there lvl 6
Why I did this? simple actually, they simply aren't strong enough, I mean in the main story bell blows by a normal lvl 5 in power by like 6 months, so when he's finally introduced I don't want him to turn into the strongest adventurer in like a year and just ruin the story.
I created a new great spirt, but you figure out more later
but that's it for now, If you have any questions or suggestion they are gladly accepted