~X~
General POV
"Oh shit… A behemoth…" Ithil whispered.
"Behemoth?" Alfia quickly glanced at Ithil, taking note of the name.
As a former member of the Hera Familia, Alfia knew that name intimately. Behemoth was the name of one of the monsters of the Three Great Quests, quests that were issued to kill the three strongest monsters in the world.
It was defeated when the Zeus and Hera Familias teamed up to kill it. An adventurer named Zald had consumed its flesh to gain power with the use of one of his skills and killed it in one strike. However, Zald was forced to retire after the fight because consuming Behemoth's poisonous flesh weakened his health severely.
And now this amnesiac dark elf knew this monster's name. A monster that neither Alfia nor Cloud had seen before.
Before the two could ask her about the name, the behemoth roared. Red lightning started generating between its two curved horns, and it charged forward.
Alfia jumped to the side, and Cloud jumped in its path because Ithil was too slow to move out of the way in time. The behemoth lowered its head and quickly swiped up with its horns at Cloud. He activated his Flaming Swordspell, imbuing his sword with fire, and tried to parry that attack.
But, to his surprise, he wasn't strong enough to fully parry the blow to avoid any damage. Lucky for him, Alfia hit the behemoth's head with a well-timed sound blast, knocking its head to the side and changing its path enough for Cloud to just barely dodge to the side of it.
"Ithil! You seem to know what this is!" Cloud shouted. "How do we kill it?!"
"Hit it until it dies!" Ithil replied. "Open the gate to the Arcane Tier!"Ithil was suddenly surrounded with spell circles and runes flying around her.
Just then, multiple giant balls of fire formed throughout the cavern.
"It can use magic?" Alfia said.
"Oh, shoot!" Ithil grimaced. "Dodge those, they explode!"
The multiple Flare spells exploded and everyone was able to avoid them. The behemoth turned around and roared in the air. Lightning from its horns and a Thundara shot off toward Alfia, but her magic nullification field negated it.
"Tsk, I'm surprised it's not even dazed," Cloud observed. He'd been hit with Alfia's sound magic before and it was not pleasant, to say the least. So, for this behemoth to tank it with no visible effects was annoying.
"Heat Riser. Regen," Ithil quickly cast some buff spells on everyone. Well, except Alfia. Her negation field doesn't differentiate between helpful or harmful spells.
Heat Riserraised their attack, defense, and speed.
Regen gradually heals them over time.
The behemoth charged again, focusing on Cloud, who took a defensive stance.
"Gospel," Alfia shot out multiple sound blasts from a distance.
"I don't think I have any spells that can do any significant damage to it,"Ithil thought to herself. "It's probably best I let Cloud and Alfia handle it while I use some support spells where I can."
Ithil retreated a safe distance away from the behemoth.
Behemoth roared again, and another series of Flarespells went out throughout the cavern.
Ithil dodged, Alfia tanked a couple unharmed thanks to her field, and Cloud was able to maneuver in a way that allowed him to charge at the behemoth and land a series of strong and fast attacks that he likes to call Searing Onslaulton its head, but it did no damage.
Behemoth went for a huge slam with its paws and Cloud easily jumped back to avoid it. It let out another ferocious roar strong enough to shake the cavern. Parts of its skin all over its body started glowing bright red like plumes of fire ready to burst out, and its horns had glowing red lines.
This was something used by the behemoth called Rampage. It increases the behemoth's attack and defense.
It jumped in the air and tried to pounce on Cloud, but he was fast enough to jump out of the way. When the monster impacted the ground, an explosion of fire erupted from its attack. It wasted no time attacking Cloud again with a double spin that he was forced to block. Fire burst out of its body during the attack, leaving trailing embers in the air that quickly died out.
"Geez… It's gotten more aggressive," Cloud said as he blocked and deflected some paw swipes. He tried to go for counterattacks, but it was attacking one after the other.
Alfia was doing her best to deal as much damage as she could with her sound blasts, and Ithil kept her distance and made sure to keep using buffing and healing spells on Cloud and Slow on the behemoth.
It finished off its Rampage with a combination of Flare and Thundara spells, and its glowing skin went dim. Most of the spells were dodged, but Cloud took some hits from the fire and lightning, and Ithil took a direct hit in the chest from a Thundara, knocking her to the ground.
Cloud took this opportunity to dash at it from the left side and hit with a Searing Onslault at its legs. At the same time, Alfia, who was on the right side of the behemoth, focused on the lower body. This combined assault caused the behemoth to lose control of its lower body as it was just laying there, limply, but it still had control of its upper body.
"Hey! Focus on its upper body now!" Ithil called out as she slowly got up and healed herself.
It took a while, but she finally realized why the way this behemoth fights was so familiar. Despite it looking different, this behemoth fights a lot like the Type-0 Behemoth from the FF7 Remake, just with added lightning spells. Now, she finally knows how to take it down.
With the behemoth's lower body disabled, Cloud had a much easier time attacking and defending due to the behemoth's limited movement. Combined with Alfia's magic, the upper body went down quickly.
"Cloud, destroy its horns!" Ithil shouted.
With the behemoth staggered, Cloud was free to attack, allowing him to build up Searing Onslaught and Flowing Flame increasing his damage and attack speed. The horns were destroyed in quick order, and Cloud continued his barrage on its face, getting faster and stronger as he kept going. He ramped up to the point where all he was, was a blur, like a fiery whirlwind of sharp attacks.
Ithil's jaw had dropped at the sheer power Cloud was displaying. She thought Cloud would destroy the horns and then deal as much damage as he could. The behemoth would get up and recover, and they would attack, knock it down again, and kill it. But it looked as if he was trying to end it now.
She noticed that Alfia had stopped attacking. She was relaxed and had her arms crossed with a bored expression.
"She believes Cloud will kill the behemoth at this moment," Ithil realized and turned to watch Cloud's onslaught.
Cloud was still blazing on in his whirlwind. Behemoth had tried to get up multiple times, but Cloud had pivoted and attacked Behemoth's legs, hips, and shoulders, weakening them to the point it couldn't stand in the face of this onslaught.
After what seemed like minutes of attacks but was, in reality, 30 seconds, Cloud jumped back and prepared his finishing blow. His body started glowing fire-red, and fire was coming off of him. His eyes were glowing blue.
Ithil… couldn't help but stare at Cloud. For some reason, his appearance reminds her of something she knows she's forgetting. Something from her past life, not related to the memories of this life she's missing because of amnesia.
The fire Cloud created that still surrounded him exploded and looked to have engulfed him, but it soon spiraled and swirled as the firestorm was compressed onto the blade of Cloud's sword.
He grabbed the hilt with both hands, spun full circle, and slashed his sword.
"Burn!"
The fire on his sword flew and took the form of a Phoenix. It then seemed to speed up and flew straight toward the struggling monster. And when it reached it, the Phoenix erupted, engulfing the behemoth in a fiery inferno. When the fire cleared, the behemoth was lying there, dead. Most of its body had burnt to ash.
Cloud let out a breath as he released Phoenix's power.
~X~
Ithil POV
Holy hell… What was that?
Cloud… he just… I mean… What?
What he just did was so amazing I couldn't put it into words.
Behemoth was one of the strongest monsters in the Final Fantasy world. The one here proved it with the power it showed. But Cloud had somehow ramped up his power and speed to a point where he could kill it so quickly.
Cloud walked toward the behemoth's corpse with his sword still out. Alfia moved to follow him and I followed her but stumbled a bit. My body still felt numb from that lightning spell the behemoth hit me with. I healed the damage but the numb feeling was still there.
Eventually, I caught up and Cloud was carefully slicing up the behemoth.
"What are you doing?" I asked.
"I'm trying to find its magic stone," Cloud said while slicing another part but found nothing. His eyes showed confusion. "But… it looks like it doesn't have one…" He gave the behemoth another once over. "This doesn't make any sense. Its body is still here."
"What are you talking about?" I had to ask.
"Every monster has a magic stone, even surface ones. They're like the heart of a monster," Cloud explained. "A monster this powerful would have a huge one. But I can't find it despite the fact the body is still here."
"What does its body have to do with magic stones?"
"When a monster's magic stone is removed, its body disintegrates," Cloud said. "Since this monster is still here, it stands to reason its magic stone is still in it."
Except this behemoth is not from the world of Danmachi but the world of Final Fantasy…
Maybe…
"Cloud, could you check those goblins' magic stones," I pointed to the dead goblins that the behemoth had killed earlier. "I want to confirm something."
Cloud's eyes settled on the dead goblins, specifically the goblin champion, and narrowed his eyes. He walked toward their bodies and started cutting into them. He checked every one of them, and again, I saw confusion on his face.
"These goblins don't have magic stones either," he said, frowning.
"Monsters with no magic stones," I said. "How does that happen?"
"I have no idea," Cloud said. He then walked back to the behemoth to give another look. "Hm? What's this?"
Cloud kneeled and picked up something on the ground near the behemoth.
"A ring?" Alfia moved closer to Cloud to get a better look. "What is that? An item drop from the behemoth?"
"Maybe?" Cloud shrugged. "I have no idea what this ring does."
"Give to me." I held out my hand. "I can analyze it."
Cloud handed the ring to me, and I activated a spell that I 'remembered' from a flashback I had during the fight.
.
Here, try it on this.
A sword?
.
With a thought, my Mind (Mana) permeated throughout the ring as I used Structural Analysis on it.
Hmm…
"There's an enchantment on this ring," I said.
"Oh? What kind?" Cloud said, a little excited.
"It increases the wearer's fire damage," I handed the ring back to him. It's pretty obvious Cloud should use it.
"Hmph, of course it does," Alfia huffed mildly amused.
"Huh. Well, all right then," he took the ring and placed it on his right ring finger. "Let's move on. We need to find out what happened to the villagers."
"And the monsters without magic stones?" Alfia said.
"As curious as I am about that, the villagers take priority," Cloud said.
~X~
We moved further through the tunnel that the behemoth came from. We ran into no trouble along the way. It seemed the goblins avoided this tunnel. Probably because it was the tunnel that led to the behemoth's lair.
Speaking of lairs, when we reached the behemoth's it was another spacious cavern. There wasn't much to look at… Well, except for the human-sized bones that had huge fang marks on them.
We didn't run into any of the villagers, and there weren't any hidden or missed paths. We went back and checked. That meant there was only one conclusion to come to.
The goblins kidnapped the humans in Westend and fed them to the behemoth.
"Damn it. It looks like we were too late," Cloud growled. He let out a frustrated sigh and ran his hand through his hair. "How'd this even happen? How did goblins make a nest here? Why were there goblin variants no one else has reported before? What about that giant beast? Where'd it come from and how did it move into the area without the Artemis Familia noticing?"
"Too many questions and not enough answers," Alfia crossed her arms and frowned.
None of us were happy with this outcome, but there was nothing we could've done differently to change it.
"So, what now?" I asked.
Cloud let out another frustrated sigh. "Nothing we can do but go back to the village and tell Katie and the old man. Katie will tell Lady Demeter, and then Lady Demeter will have to run logistics. I don't know exactly what she'll do, but she'll need help from some of the other gods," Another sigh. "C'mon, let's head back."
~X~
On the road back, things were silent. We had already past Westend and were halfway back to Camden, and no one had said a word. All three of us were thinking over the events of today.
Seriously, I had a lot of surprises today.
Goblin variants that looked like they were from Goblin Slayer.
A behemoth from Final Fantasy.
And none of them had magic stone. A staple item to monsters here.
I'm sure Cloud is going over that last fact too. I wonder what he's thinking.
"Hey, Cloud?" I spoke up.
"Hm?"
"You looked surprised by those goblins earlier. The big one and the one that used magic," I said. "Why's that?"
"I did, huh?" Cloud scratched his cheek. "Well, it's because I haven't seen those types of goblins in years."
"Years, huh?"
"Five years, to be exact," Cloud said. "I moved to this continent five years ago, and not once did I see a goblin variant."
"Neither have I," Alfia chimed in. "And I have been fighting monsters almost all my life."
"So, where did they come from?" I said.
"I don't know, and that's bothering me," Cloud slightly grimaced.
"Hmm," I thought it over. I highly doubt they were all created here. If they were, they would've shown up in the dungeon, where the strongest monsters come from. "Maybe they came from the continent you're from," I suggested.
"Oh… Uh, I really doubt that," Cloud said nervously.
"Why? You've seen them before, which means they exist where you were originally from," I said. "Maybe someone brought them over here."
"You're not wrong with that line of thinking, but that's not the case," Cloud said.
"Why?" I stressed. This was weird because Cloud sounded so certain of his answer. He believed there was no possible way for goblins of his continent to be brought here.
Cloud remained silent for several seconds before he finally answered. "The lands where I'm from… They're so far away that I have no way of going back. And I came here by sheer accident. So, there's no way someone from there can come here."
What the hell does he mean by that? There's something I'm missing and he doesn't want to say. I am so confused, and from the look on his face, he doesn't want to talk about his homeland. And Alfia looked ready to step in if I kept asking him. So, I let the matter drop.
I sighed. "Well, if these variants are not from your homeland, then where?"
"I don't know," Cloud sighed, relieved that I moved on. "But someone will be assigned to find out. Especially with that giant monster we fought."
"That's right. I've been meaning to ask you about that," Alfia spoke up. "You recognized it and called it 'Behemoth.' You even had a general idea of its abilities and how to fight it. How?"
I shrugged. "I had a flashback. One of my forgotten memories surfaced when I saw it. I was in some sort of study area and someone was teaching me about the monster… That's all I remembered," That's a lie. But it's the best way I can to explain why I have knowledge of a monster not native to this world.
Alfia nodded, accepting the answer. "I suppose 'Behemoth' is an apt name for that monster, but it was nowhere near as big as the one from the Grand Quest."
I hummed in response and we lulled into another silence.
"So, Cloud?" I said.
"Hm? Another question?"
"Yeah. You mentioned the Artemis Familia earlier and they didn't notice the behemoth moving into the area," I said. "What do they do?"
"The Artemis Familia is an all-female familia led by Artemis, Goddess of the Hunt. They're a hunter-type familia that hunt surface monsters across the continent that pose a threat to people's lives," Cloud explained.
"Huh. It sounds like a goblin nest and behemoth are right up their alley," I said.
"Exactly. Which is why I find it weird they didn't get a whiff of this," Cloud sighed and anxiously ran a hand through his hair. "I can't shake the feeling that something bad is happening in the background."
Once again, the three of us fell into silence with Cloud's last words on our minds.
~X~
Author's Note:
As always, constructive criticism is appreciated.
~X~
Cloud's Status Sheet (As of Chapter 5)
Cloud
Level: 6
Strength: G-262
Endurance: G-223
Dexterity: F-301
Agility: F-347
Magic: G-219
Skills
Determination: Fast growth as long as the user is determined. The speed of growth is based on the user's determination to reach their goal.
Searing Ember: Temporarily increases the user's Strength and Agility the more damage the user takes.
Searing Onslaught: Increases the user's attack speed and the damage of Flaming Sword when attacking in quick succession.
Blessing of Phoenix: Increases the user's healing regeneration, fire resistance, and fire damage.
Magic
Flaming Sword, Nemesis of the Dark: A chant-less spell that imbues the user's attacks with fire magic.
Phoenix, Harbinger of Dawn: Cloud strengthens himself with the power of Phoenix. He can summon a small piece of Phoenix which flies forward burning anything in its path then explodes. Phoenix leaves behind a healing circle that heals Cloud and his allies.
Development Abilities
Swordsman:D - Increases the user's power and mastery when using a sword.
Hunter: F - Increases the user's abilities against monsters the user has already defeated.
Magic Resistance: S - Negates the effects of harmful magic. At Rank S, Cloud can completely resist any magic, including Divine Curses.
Spirit Healing: G - Automatic Mind regeneration.
Flowing Flame: E - Further increases the damage and speed of Searing Onslaught.