Disclaimer: I do not own Danmachi or anything created by the author Fujino Omori; all rights go to him. I only own my original character Sleipnir, Ikuchi & Sylphie.
Speech: "Take that. That's what you get for charging your magic without chanting."
Thoughts: 'Stupid child you stand no chance against the great Sylphie!'
Magic: "Aqua Imperium!"
Screaming/Demonic Voice: "Argh, stop breaking the timeline. You shouldn't even know that name yet, Sly has yet to meet you."
Chapter 18 Brightest Fallen and the Shattered Light
Hidden Lair - Ikuchi POV
Battle music: Shoukei no Saki ni Misueru Mono [Danmachi Battle OST]
Ikuchi stirred in the water. Opened his eyes in surprise after noticing faint vibrations in the water. He glanced around before focusing his gaze outside his pool. An adventurer had found his lair! It was a strange adventurer, with teal glowing tails, large ears, and a faintly glowing body surrounded by a sphere of light teal.
'What a strange thing… If it did not carry a pouch filled with delicious purple magic stones I wouldn't have seen it as an adventurer. And of all the times an adventurer could find me, it had to be in my smallest lair! I already have a headache just looking at him… With that blinding teal sphere it's like it's screaming, "Look here! I am here!"'
Ikuchi stops moving and focuses on the strange circular dome in front of him. Everything inside is a shade of teal. When he focused on it more vibrations hit the pool and he saw the teal being frantically looking around while waving its tails around together with their ears. After a few seconds the dome more than tripled in size and intensity, and two more indistinguishable glowing adventurers appeared.
Ikuchi scowled with narrowed eyes. 'Now there are three! All with two tails and glowing. Just looking at them hurts my eyes and they all glow even brighter than the dome surrounding them!'
After waiting for another moment during which the adventurers remain in their dome Ikuchi decides to approach them carefully. He knows that no adventurer will willingly enter the water once they have spotted him, so he slowly leaves his pond. He will just have to create more water with his breath attack and use that. During his approach, he sees the teal dome along with the three brighter adventurers advancing towards him.
Ikuchi breathes deeply wanting to catch all three shapes, but before he can release his breath two adventurers jump to his sides and one keeps his distance in front of him. However, he can't really focus on that as he is now inside the glowing dome and almost blinded by the light all around him. 'Such an evil trick! Blinding me and their scent is faint!'
Ikuchi releases his water breath in an arc towards the one in front and the one to his right, while using the momentum to hit the last with his tail. The one to his right ducks below the attack, the one to the left jumps back and the one in front dodges to the side before he feels a few sharp objects clash against his scales from the farthest adventurer.
'Annoying attacks! My scales are impenetrable! I only need to attack the one in the back with the magic stones and get some of them, then I can leave. Fighting in this small room against 3 adventures is dangerous. Arles would demand that I run from this cave. Why did I have to eat all my magic stones before I went to sleep!'
Secret Passage - Sleipnir POV
The clash between lights has begun. On one side a kitsune fought in an illusion domain spanning 10 meters in every direction. Within this domain he created two visual doubles of himself, while hiding his own presence.
His opponent is a 2.5-meter-long aquatic western dragon with ocean-blue scales and two 15 cm long golden horns that curve slightly inward on the back of his head. The dragon's eyes are an electric yellow and sparks dance along his face. The scales covering his stomach are sky-blue with golden accents where they meet the ocean-blue scales of his main body. On his back, a long fin flows down to his tail and stands a little higher on his back and middle of his tail, before curving back to end at his fin-like tail; it looks like a fin with a flat perpendicular section on top. The wings appear minute in comparison and are folded in at the moment, but they cannot span more than a meter. His legs all also carry fins on the rear-side that extend down to his claws. He has 3 claws on the front-side and one thumb-like claw on the rear of each paw, all colored the same golden as his horns.
Overall, the young dragon is clearly aquatic and unable to fly at his age. More concerning are the sparks coming from the dragon, indicating it also has lightning as an element. Combined with its intelligent eyes observing all three versions of Sly, the copies and the invisible one, in equal measure Sleipnir became nervous.
What Sly did not know was that the dragon had mana sight and was fighting its own perception as much as Sly, as it was unaccustomed to fighting an opponent with a magical domain around it; this made it difficult to perceive Sly in an ocean of his own mana. The dragon still managed it with the aid of Sly's scent but besides the slightly stronger colors that Sly and his clones had compared to his domain, the dragon barely saw anything but mana in the domain. The dragon could in theory close his second eyelid to only see normal colors, but he did not think of this having just woke up.
After the first test clash, Sly had to dodge to avoid a blast of high-pressure water while also having both his clones dodge; one from the breath attack and the other from the tail. The dragon quickly took a step back and focused on him and his copies again.
Sly also took a step back with all his copies. 'The eyes of this dragon seem dangerously intelligent, just perfect… I found an enhanced dragon! By the spirits how did an enhanced dragon appear in the Middle Floors mere days after we killed the infant dragon!? It even sees me and my clones even with my invisibility! It must be relying on its nose as well; I had to stop using the illusion of hiding my scent to create my visual illusion. At least the dragon believes all of us are real.'
Sly prepares kunai and starts throwing them at the dragon while moving in and out of range and switching with his clones constantly to confuse the dragon. The first few connect without much trouble but bounce off from the sturdy stomach scales. Even those hitting the head do little more than scratch its scales.
However, after the first few kunai, the dragon starts avoiding the ones aimed at its head, while striking him or his clones. The dragon is slightly faster than Sly, which is bad, but it is also cautious. Allowing him and his clones to scurry away by throwing kunai or illusions of kunai.
The first time a clone of his had to dodge away, he used an illusion to send the image of a kunai at the dragon. Unexpectedly, the dragon dodged the illusion with its entire body and not only its head, before pushing on towards the clone with more ferocity.
This gives the real Sly the chance to attack the dragon's flank and maybe even the wings or fins, which seem like its only weaknesses. The dragon keeps up the attack on his clone and Sly has to focus more intently on making the clone seem realistic but gives it just a tiny bit more speed than himself to keep it from "harm."
He swiftly reaches the dragon's flank and strikes as quickly as he can, only for the dragon to shift the leg he attacked and instead of the fin his daggers hit the scales. They dig in unlike his kunai and a few blue scales are slashed off. The dragon growls and retorts with a tail slap.
Sly braces for impact and is slammed away by the strike. He flies back 5 meters along with his illusion domain and even his two clones. Once he returns to his feet in the middle of the puddle a jolt races through the back of his mind. Red, slitted eyes focus upon his form; a deep hunger that feeds the glee and confidence in them. A massive frame encompasses everything.
Sly quickly shakes his head and refocuses. 'Did its eyes just flash red? No, did it realize I'm the real one already!? I need to make my next attack count and flee in the distraction! I still have a few flash bombs. With them, I should buy enough time to find the right crystals and escape. I can't waste any more mana!'
Hidden Lair - Ikuchi POV
Growling to himself Ikuchi notices something. All his opponents are connected. When he hit the one with the magic stones, they all got pushed back. However, they were evading too many of his attacks and wearing him out. Now he has the advantage, and he would not give it up. The adventurer with the magic stones landed in the puddle left behind by his previous breath attack.
Ikuchi presses his advantage and rushes towards the middle adventurer while charging another water breath for the other two adventurers. 'The one in the back prefers fighting at range with his knives and the two in front use magic in melee. I will need to dodge them and attack the one with the magic stones directly. He won't be strong enough to hold me off. I can get his magic stone and leave. Once we are back in the main corridors they won't stand a chance against me!'
Just as Ikuchi expected, the ranged adventurer tries retreating while the two fighters rush towards him. He cuts short the charge time of his water breath and releases a weaker water blast at the two fighters, before focusing his mind and commanding the puddle. 'Bind him!'
The breath attack uses very little of his large mana capacity, but manipulating existing water is far more draining. Only a single water tendril, strong as a level two adventurer, follows his command. The puddle gathers below the adventurer and the water tendril binds one of his legs, keeping him rooted to the spot, right when Ikuchi reaches him.
Ikuchi slashes at his pouch filled with magic stones, intent on getting his prize and leaving, but not concerned if the adventurer survived.
As his claw descended the adventurer put the leg he could move behind his other leg in a stable position and countered his attack with both his arms, holding on to two knives. Claw and knife meet and Ikuchi's momentum pushes all three further, the adventurer the water tendril and himself. The most astonishing thing however was the adventurer who held his heavy strike with just these two black daggers contrasting the bright teal glow of the adventurer and the area around them.
This, however, did not stop Ikuchi. He continued his attack relentlessly, biting clawing, and pushing the adventurer even further back. He ignores everything but the adventurer in front of him, even ignoring the fluctuating teal glow all around him. A few slashes from the knives hit his paws and even his nose, but Ikuchi pushed further, and the adventurer took even more hits than him. A scratch on one arm, a broken wrist from a bad block, before Ikuchi even managed to bite the now weaker arm, leaving a large bite wound.
Unfortunately, Ikuchi did not see the angry glint in the glowing eyes of his opponent, or he might have been prepared. When the adventurer had a little less than a meter behind him to a wall, Ikuchi heard a growling command. "Foxfire!"
The previously useless arm discarded the knife and instead ignited a ball of flame. The glow around them grew in intensity and suddenly Ikuchi remembered the other two adventurers.
But that was the last thing he should worry about, as right now the adventurer in front of him wielded blazing blue fire with his injured arm and, surprising Ikuchi even more, both his tails as well.
The momentum turned. Ikuchi was weak to fire and the adventurer in front of him wielded balls of fire that were at least 300 degrees without slowing down. They weren't as hot as a hellhound blast, but they were continuous and whittling away at his defenses. The drier his scales got the more brittle they grew and the weaker his defence.
Ikuchi had to retreat quickly. The water tendril was destroyed the moment the adventurer used his fire and Ikuchi only had two paws to block the dangerous knife and scorpion-like tail punches of fire. The repeated hits he still received served as a clear warning. If he did not create distance soon, the adventurer would weaken his scales enough to break through.
Thus, Ikuchi kept his head back with narrowed eyes and charged another water breath to fight the fire while trying to block everything with his paws; this caused many cuts and the loss of far more scales than their previous scuffles.
The adventurer noticed his intent and threw the fire at his head. Ikuchi had to close his eyes and mouth and endure the three fireballs before he opened his mouth as soon as the fire passed and blasted a large water jet at the adventurer.
Both took significant damage during the last exchange and the adventurer was blasted back into the wall. Ikuchi used the moment the adventurer needed to stand back up to retreat to the edge of his pond.
'This is going nowhere and my lair is too small to fight him efficiently! It's difficult to spot him in this glowing sphere and I do not know what the other two did while we fought. At least I injured one of them and made him wet, but I need to end this now. I do not have much mana left. One large lightning breath and if this does not at least knock him out… Argh! I hate it! I will need to hide in my pond!'
Ikuchi steps back and takes a deep breath while keeping his attention on the adventurer with the magic stones. Hit him with lightning and he could escape. He spots a few black things flying at him again, dodges them with his head, and hears the grating sound of dry scales breaking and needles piercing his body.
With a snarl, Ikuchi finishes breathing deeply and prepares his last move.
In just a few moments he sees the adventurer start glowing even brighter. The teal aura is growing so strong he can barely see the adventurers again, but this time there are far more!
'By the Mother, what am I fighting!? How can he summon so many adventurers!? No, I won't give up! I need to push through this. I am a mighty dragon I will not tuck my tail and hide like the old geezers! I will win and reach the surface!'
Ikuchi returns his gaze at the singular crouching adventurer, who holds his left only slightly injured arm in a throwing position with his remaining dagger, and both his glowing tails in front of him.
Ikuchi would endure the next few moments while he charged his magic to the maximum.
Secret Passage - Sleipnir POV
Sly had seen the dragon charge its breath attack a few times now, and previously there weren't nearly as many sparks around its muzzle. With widening eyes Sly made the only logical conclusion in his mind as one of his tails goes rigid, glowing brighter than the other. 'This freaking dragon has two breath attacks! Are you kidding me?! And the second one is lightning! How is this fair!? Argh! No time for whining, I need a plan!'
Sly internally debates while the dragon charges. 'My clones are mere illusory constructs that can be sacrificed, the dragon has shown to react to them, but nothing else I did with my illusion during our extended bout. He ignored increased light, darkness, and even random colors as if they weren't there. So, a large illusion won't work. So why not spam more clones? I already have the illusion domain set up and they might buy me a few seconds while I prepare a counter.
Then, if the dragon still targets me, I need to dodge. Lightning is far too dangerous. If it paralyzes me like the wyvern did a few hours back, I will be at the monster's mercy.
How do you dodge lightning? It travels at the speed of light, thus I need to dodge before it happens. But how can I be certain when to dodge? I can't and that's a risk I won't take. What else can I do? Think kitsune think!
I've got it! Lightning travels through the path of least resistance. This includes magical lightning unless it is actively controlled. From the wyvern today I saw that lightning breath does not follow the user's commands after they breathe it out, so if I can redirect the lightning then I can avoid the attack entirely and create an opening to attack. How do I redirect the lightning?'
Sly's eyes narrow while both tails briefly lash to his sides.
'I have it! Shadoudansā redirected the previous electrical charge through it instead of going through my entire body. If I throw it just before the dragon releases its breath, then it should, in theory, redirect the lightning strike. If that does not work let's better hope my magic is stronger than the dragon's…'
With his plan set Sly prepared to throw his good dagger Shadoudansā, while crouching low. In front of him, both his tails cross before him with one touching the earth and the other swaying in front of his head as it loses its brighter glow. The shortest path to the ground now goes through his magic-resistant tails.
The dragon has barely moved since Sly began concocting his plan. Barely a second has passed and now Sly sends out tens of clones all of them rushing toward the dragon, hoping to intimidate him. However, the dragon remains stationary and his eyes glint fiercely, while he presents his durable stomach to the clones. All the while it keeps its eyes trained on Sly's real body.
Sly sees his first plan not working and instantly throws Shadoudansā in front of him, still close to the ground. It slowly sails through the air.
The dragon releases its breath attack. A bright yellow lightning flashes from its maw towards Sly.
Shadoudansā continues spinning in the air and, the moment it is right between them, the lightning strike hits it with the handle pointing towards the dragon and the tip pointing towards the lower half of Sly. The lightning connects with the dagger, and charges through the conductive monster alloy before jolting out of the tip.
It connects with Sly's wet tail, and an incredible electrical charge rushes through his first tail, into his second, and then mostly through his lower body and very little through his second tail into the ground. Even though the path is shorter, his magic resistance works like a common resistor and makes his body the more suitable path for the magical currents.
The direct current from the lightning magic causes Sly's tail muscles and legs to slowly contract, instead of contracting immediately upon the contract as a civilian would. This is due to his higher endurance, which gives Sly a higher resistance to all physical harm, including currents. However, this still causes his tails to stretch to their fullest and stand completely straight, while severely straining his body due to the opposite directions they both pull in from the point he interlaced them. The current also causes Sly to slowly stand up and lose all control over the muscles in his legs.
The resulting pain is staggering and rips through his concentration like a knife through butter, causing an immediate Ignis Fatuus, and adding internal injuries as well.
However, the dagger continues spinning, and with its rotation, the lightning bolt arcs closer to the ground, soon only hitting his bottom tail and no longer flowing through his lower body, until it stops hitting Sly's tails entirely. By now, all his fur and hair stand upright while Sly's legs and tails are effectively paralyzed and suffer severe electrical burns.
Nonetheless, the dagger continues spinning. The dragon can only look in disbelief at this, and Sly manages a vindicative smirk through the pain when he sees the dagger turning towards the dragon, who is still using his breath attack.
The dragon who is just as wet as Sly after leaving his pool mere minutes prior can now only mutter in disbelief, "Not again!"
The lightning crashes against the dragon and causes him to roar, paralyzing him and cutting his breath attack short. He can only slump to the ground twitching and unable to move.
However, Sly is far too stunned by what happened before the dragon was hit by its own attack. 'It spoke..!'
Hidden Lair - Ikuchi POV
Ikuchi couldn't believe his eyes! The adventurer had redirected his magic against him and paralyzed him! The first time this happened to him was when he was still a wyrmling, not even a meter in size. At the time, he was one of the weakest monsters in the Watercity imaginable.
He was cunning. He kept out of sight of any large monsters and hunted only the smallest fish. He prepared a large pond like those he uses now to electrocute a school of fish. He was certain it would work, as his lightning breath always worked on the small fish, and he saw it in action in water many times.
But what he did not anticipate was for the lightning to follow a puddle back to his body and paralyze him as well. He had incredible luck that day since Marie, instead of another mindless monster, found him and brought him to the other Xenos.
Now it had happened again and against an adventurer of all opponents! He couldn't even move to defend himself. The irony wasn't lost on his young mind. His strongest weapon was also his greatest weakness.
'I am sorry Arles, I couldn't keep my promise. I won't regain my movement before the adventurer does, he should only be partially paralyzed while I am completely. And when I was so close to challenging ligerfangs on my own!'
Ikuchi could barely move his head with great effort and look at the single adventurer, who no longer is surrounded by the strange dome, but whose tails are still glowing strongly. The adventurer was still moving, albeit slowly. He clearly was exhausted and had large rings below his eyes, but still carried the weight of countless pouches below his robes. He used one numb hand to undo a strap of his pouches next to the nicely glowing magic stone pouch. He suffered significant damage from his last-ditch attack but would recover sooner with his upper body still able to move.
The adventurer stumbled for a few seconds with the strap, managed to undo it, and slowly lifted a red potion from the pouch. He brought it to his mouth, bit off the cork, and drank in greedy gulps. His face showed a smile of bliss before he opened his emerald-green eyes again. He looks at him strangely. "You know, when I start planning, the outcomes even frighten myself!"
Ikuchi muscles are still erratically contracting, making movement or even speaking impossible. Not to mention the burn scars he would get from the lightning. The haphazard golden scales on his body only grew after he suffered his first lightning injury.
'Of course, it can already speak again. I will die here. Perhaps I should have followed Arles' advice and kept with the other Xenos for longer.'
The adventurer stays rooted in place, while his legs and tails slowly recover. Still speaking. "Dragon-san, I heard you speak before that last hit. My name is Sleipnir. Are you able to understand me? Will you tell me your name?"
Ikuchi is confused. 'Why is he speaking to me? Other adventurers only ever attacked with even more vigor when I spoke. Does he want to humiliate me further? Wait, perhaps I can use this chance and recover from my paralysis!'
Ikuchi waits a few seconds before forcing his head to nod slightly. The ground rumbles faintly below him. The Mother is getting agitated.
The adventurer smiles brightly at that. "Wonderful! You even know common humanoid cues. Dragon-san, both of us are unable to continue this battle. I will recover a little earlier than you from my paralysis, but won't have the strength to defeat you, and I doubt you will recover on your own either." The adventurer turns his gaze to the rumbling floor.
Ikuchi can only stare. 'He wants to make this battle a tie? I know he could kill me with his fire, why doesn't he do it?'
Sly returns his gaze to him. "You should have recovered enough to speak dragon-san. I propose we make a contract to declare our battle a tie and enter a ceasefire. Neither of us will attack the other until I leave the dungeon and you return to your lair."
Ikuchi sees the teal glow of the adventurer brighten and accumulate on the tips of his tails, turning them almost blindingly bright. He has to squint his eyes at them, the adventurer does the same towards Ikuchi raising his one good hand up with a finger pointing up and their smile almost gleaming. "And a little warning! Oaths with me are binding!"
The Mother rumbles loudly and a few small stones fall from the ceiling. Ikuchi manages to move his head and asks in a high-pitched tone filled with aggression. "What … adventurer … are … you?"
Sly watches their surroundings warily and narrows his eyes. "The special kind. I am new to Orario but, to my knowledge, there should be no sentient monsters, so we could say you are quite special as well, can't we?"
Ikuchi growls out. "I … was … told … never to … trust adventurers! … Go away!"
Speaking was quite straining with his paralysis, but at least it looked like he would survive. The adventurer focuses on him again. "Unfortunately, that won't happen. We seem to have enraged the dungeon. As for never trusting an adventurer, you are in luck because I am a spirit and spirits aren't technically adventurers."
The amount of revelations overwhelms Ikuchi. "A spirit. And what … do you mean technically not? … Are you one or are you not?"
The tails behind Sly, still glowing, twitch slightly with a tilt of his head. "I am working as an adventurer, but I am not opposed to the existence of intelligent monsters. Now, may I learn your name dragon-san?"
'So he works as an adventure but isn't one… This is too confusing! At least I don't have to trust a normal adventurer.'
Ikuchi breathes a few wheezing breaths. Before adopting a more neutral but still rather high-pitched tone, reflecting his young age. "Fine … name's Ikuchi … storm dragon. What species are you?"
The ground rumbles a little. "Oho, someone must know their legends! To think, you received the name of an ancient sea serpent from the East! Glad to make your acquaintance Ikuchi-san! As for me, I am a kitsune. A type of fox spirit."
Secret Passage - Slepnir POV
Finally, having gotten Ikuchi's name, Sly believed he made quite the progress. Unfortunately, the dungeon thought so too. The quaking from below intensified, together with the strange sensation of being observed.
'I have recovered enough motor function after drinking a health potion to move again, but moving is still strenuous and my muscles ache as if I overtrained them for an entire day. Ikuchi-san must feel much worse without magic resistance and if I believe in the rumbling dungeon, we don't have much time before monsters start spawning.'
"Ikuchi-san. Are intelligent monsters attacked by dungeon monsters?"
The horribly confused and prone dragon stares at him blankly before answering. "Yes, feral monsters attack us. Why ask that?"
Sly nods quickly. "In that case Ikuchi-san please agree to my contract and I will heal you, because any moment many feral monsters will appear in this room!"
Ikuchi's eyes widen in sudden realization. "Fine! I agree to the tie, but you must tell me what all of this means."
Upon hearing the words the glow of Sly's tails' dims faintly and drains his already low mana to the point where he can barely think straight anymore. His eyes visibly widen and twitch as he almost hits Mind Down due to his earlier extensive use of Foxfire. Sly can wait no longer, immediately drinking a mana potion and running up to Ikuchi to feed him his second health potion. Sly quickly takes out his only stamina potion and drinks it as well. "What monsters appear in this secret passage?"
Ikuchi slumps to the ground in relaxation as his forcibly contracted muscles regain their mobility. His hide itching, a lot of the dry scales fall out and are replaced with new ones, while a handful of the scales that took the direct hits from the lightning bolt gleam brighter than the rest.
He answers Sly's question, "The crystal bugs and young snake ladies from the Watercity."
Sly's expression turns into a deep grimace at the mention of Lamia. "What are their weaknesses I have never fought a Lamia before?! To my knowledge, they only appear on floor 27!"
Ikuchi explains quickly. "The ones here are smaller. They are shorter than you and their tails are only as long as me."
'Great so they have at least 3-meter-long tails.'
"As for weaknesses. Hnn… Their magic stones are in their chests. If you hadn't interrupted my nap, I could have beaten them. They can appear in many of my lairs."
Sly nods. "In that case, are they water bound?"
"Not always. They can leave the water but are slower on earth."
Thinking quickly Sly decides. "Then we focus on the landbound monsters first. I will use my illusion magic to hide both of us, so the mantises won't know where to strike, but you need to keep close to me for this to work, my illusion domain won't work for long after our fight!" Following this exclamation, Sly immediately gathers the dagger closest to him and rests his right arm at his side.
He then uses his left hand to grab the wrist of his right, where his wrist broke during his battle with Ikuchi. Grits his teeth and pushes the bone back into position, while letting out a pained scream, but at least it won't heal misaligned since he just drank a potion. Now his wrist can heal properly, however, his right arm won't be of any use in the next battle.
Ikuchi finally pushes himself to his paws again, with the paralysis mostly gone. "Wait a moment. That was magic? Your strange blue dome which took my vision from me was mana?! Why did you not tell me this earlier?! I fought half blind because of you!"
Sly just shakes his head slightly with furrowed brows and his jaw dropped in exasperation but can't give Ikuchi too much thought. "Do you have a way to protect yourself from getting blinded? My magic is a huge advantage against mantises, it will turn both of us invisible."
Ikuchi sneers at him in contempt. "Hnnn. Now that I know this trick, I can just close my inner eyelids and ignore it. I will crush these stupid insects myself!"
Meanwhile, both of them begin stumbling as the earthquakes in the secret passage grow worse. Ikuchi can keep his balance thanks to his 4 paws, but Sly has to take on a wide stance and spread both his tails to remain standing. This continues for a few seconds during which they hear the loud cracking of the dungeon walls and a loud splash from the pond.
Already having decided upon their strategy Sly spares no time chanting. Even before the monsters fully form, he already completes his Illusio and pushes the range to his current comfortable max with a 15-meter radius.
Ikuchi who anticipates this has closed his eyes while the domain settles, and only opens his outer eyelids afterward to see. From there he shakes off the last vestiges of paralysis in contrast to Sly, who still feels his limbs stiffen periodically. His right arm hangs almost limp at his side after all the abuse he pushed it through today. In his left he carries Shadoudansa.
He is to the left flank of Ikuchi, who only faintly senses his presence, as he had too little time to explain the intricacies of his magic. It would have to do.
The dark crystal mantises begin emerging from the crystal pillars. They start advancing through the room in little groups but do not see any opposition.
'Nice, I have time to plan a little. There are around 20 enhanced mantises. Normal crystal mantises are as fast as me, so these enhanced ones must be quite a bit faster than me and even a little faster than my ally, but they can't see. If we just wait, we might ambush a few before they even notice our presence…'
Right as he had finished that thought, Ikuchi charged. He wasn't concerned with keeping quiet. He bull-rushed the first group of three and trampled two before they could do more than stab their claws in his general direction. These attacks pierced his scaled stomach but weren't strong enough to do serious harm.
The last dodged to the side, but Sly took it out with a well-timed dagger blow at its chest.
Before he had time to plan for their next target Ikuchi was already rushing ahead again. This time Ikuchi almost left Sly's illusion, forcing him to abandon planning in favor of keeping them invisible. It wasn't his ordinary style of stealth, but if it worked who was he to complain?
Thus, he rushed after Ikuchi. Like a trampling elephant, Ikuchi used brute force to slash one crystal mantis after the next apart. Those he missed were quickly taken care of by Sly. Who had to rush around him to keep his flanks safe.
With Ikuchi's vast vitality, he simply took their hits. They couldn't pierce more than a few centimeters against the armor-like scales on his stomach. They were never a target of Sly's foxfire either, which meant they still maintained their defense, which was on par with a mid-level two armor. Together with the added invisibility, the mantises could only blindly attack, which broke past his scales, but stopped once it reached a certain depth due to his dense muscles.
This gave Sly the perfect windows to counter. It still took a lot of effort after his continuous battles today, but being invisible made up for his slowness. At least until he heard the telltale clicking of the last 6 crystal mantises arranged in a semicircle in front of Ikuchi, while a loud splash resounded from the pond.
They made too much noise, and the mantises found their location.
The monsters began another attack, by slashing in front of them in a slow advance. This made Ikuchi pause for a moment when Sly decided to distract the mantises. He used his 3 last remaining kunai and threw one towards the middle and two more towards the outermost mantises.
The kunai sailed through the air invisible like their user and cluttered against 3 mantises, breaking apart a few centimeters of their dark bodies, before clattering to the ground. This attracted the attention of all the mantises and broke their formation.
A bloodthirsty grin grew across Ikuchi's jaw at the scattering of insects, and he used the moment to rush in front of Sly and engage the three groups of two.
The mantises recognized the sound of the stampeding dragon and attacked in pairs.
The first aimed high for the dragon's head, but with no solid visual Ikuchi easily lowered himself below their strikes and retorted with two clawed paw strikes that sundered the pair's torsos beneath his weight with a heavy crunching noise.
The second flanked Ikuchi due to his reckless charge and slashed towards where his right haunch would be only for an unseen blade and foxfire to slam into their respective torsos with a loud cracking noise. Their bodies and magic stones turned to dust.
The third, however, had a clear path towards the loud, but invisible target and were able to use their claws to slash away a few more scales on Ikuchi's left haunch. This quickly drew the dragon's attention, and one was met with a powerful slam of a tail that pummeled it down before a quick blur of motion and audible crunch ended it as Ikuchi tore it in half with his jaws and swallowed the prize of flesh and magic stone. The last mantis barely got to see two emerald eyes and a blur of teal fur before its perspective spun widely until it slowed to a roll on the ground; it had been decapitated and its corpse crumpled, limp.
Breathing heavily, Sly truly felt at his limit as he let his illusion domain fade to preserve mana. 'Fighting down to the 13th floor with my party is doable. Continuing fighting there for a few hours is exhausting, but fighting all on my own on an even lower floor is too much! At least that was the last enemy. We can rest now.'
Ikuchi on the other hand felt thrilled. He rarely fought such great battles and with such ease. He roared to the dungeon in victory. 'Take that Mother! Your feral children are nothing in front of a mighty dragon like me!'
However, they forgot about the last opponent. While Sly was lost in thought and Ikuchi roared, the young lamia yet lived. And it chose this moment to entangle Sly with its bedrock gray tail.
Yelping in surprise Sly only managed to brace himself with his injured arm and cursed, as the lamia was already entwining around his legs. With the sudden spike of pain in his arm Sly was distracted while the lamia began quickly wrapping around him.
This quickly made him regain his wits and without much thought, flared his mana but his reaction time was too slow to chant his foxfire, as the lamia entangled his stomach with the pressure of an angered minotaur.
The air left his lungs in a pained gasp and his tails hurt terribly pressed so tightly against his body. Even his ribs creaked in protest, all while the dangerous humanoid black face with red irises of the enhanced lamia loomed overhead. It hissed in contempt and showed its glinting sharp teeth, dripping with poison.
It strikes towards Sly's neck, and the most he can do is use his uninjured arm to protect himself. The lamia is faster however and avoids the desperate strike of his dagger and goes for a second bite. Forcing him to block it with his arm and the armguard Welf made him.
The force exerted by the lamia is enough to instantly dent the metal, while poison drips from the lamia's fangs, but this buys enough time. Ikuchi uses this momentary break in movement to bite the exposed neck of the lamia.
It screeches angrily and Sly is thrown back as it whips its tail out to unwind within seconds and starts entangling Ikuchi.
Sly sails back 10 meters and his head hits a sharp crystal again. His mind feels dizzy and his balance reels, but he struggles to his feet in a second and sees the lamia almost entirely wrapped around Ikuchi's neck. 'It's strangling him!'
Without another thought Sly jumps beside the trashing monsters and with the little air he has regained chants Foxfire. Both his arms hang at his side, both daggers dropped, but his tails can still move with bright, glowing intent.
Two blue fires alight on his tails and Sly calls out. "Ikuchi, stand still!"
A moment passes and Ikuchi stops his struggling, which gives Sly the perfect time to throw both his foxfires, which quickly grow to almost half a meter in diameter at the torso of the lamia.
It struggles against Ikuchi, but he maintains his hold on its neck. Within moments the flaming orbs of magical fire connecting with the head and the torso of the lamia, a controlled explosion of fire roars forth burning the lamia and penetrating until it reaches the magic stone, before detonating.
It would have injured Ikuchi as well but, with Sly's pyrokinetic talent and intense focus, the explosion is contained. Only Ikuchi's scales cracked in the wake of the detonation.
Now, Ikuchi breathes heavily. As an aquatic dragon, he can hold his breath for extended periods, but it requires preparation, which is hard to come by mid-battle.
However, together, they defeated the enhanced lamia mormos. With its defeat, a single large poison-dripping fang fell to the ground and a piercing howl passed through the room before a heavy silence descended.
The silence holds for a few seconds before Sly laughs at the absurdity of his current situation. Ikuchi watches him curiously and tilts his head in confusion.
Sly turns his head to Ikuchi with more chuckles. "Ikuchi-san, this day just keeps getting stranger. I had a prophecy that I would be separated from my party in the dungeon. But when I do I fall multiple floors, have to avoid any battle to keep my stamina high, then when I find a place to rest, I meet you, we battle, and I have to use most of my resources! And now we have just beaten an enhanced monster party sent by the dungeon and I am only a single step away from Mind Down next to an intelligent monster!"
Ikuchi sits on his haunches, revealing the many cuts from fighting countless crystal mantises in melee, while a few purple scales around his neck speak of bruises. However, behind him his tail wags happily, reminiscent of a content cat. "I am surprised we fought that good. This battle would have been hard even fully rested. Your tricks are useful. Do you have another potion?"
Sly checked himself as well. His tails lack a lot of his faint blue fur, but one thing he sees is that one tail now carries a dark blue tip, as if he had dunked it in paint. Besides the missing fur, his tails had many scratches, even a few bleeding ones left over from his scuffle against Ikuchi, and where the fur was missing, he saw the purple-blue indication on his skin that spoke of bruises.
Luckily his ribs weren't broken, but both his arms had been strained to their limit. Sly quickly undid the armbrace he had on his left hand, as it was cutting off his blood flow to his hand, and looked over a few black patches of skin where the lamia poison touched it. He wipes it with a piece of cloth he took from his gown and makes an impromptu bandage for the large bitemark Ikuchi caused on his right upper arm. The remaining cuts were deep enough to bleed but not life-threatening.
Finishing his self-examination Sly could only let out a deep sigh. "I wish I did Ikuchi-san. The only extra supplies I have at this point are fair amount of food… Our advisors-"
Ikuchi's eyes fix onto Sly now as his tail goes rigid. "Wait! Food!? What food do you have?"
Sly could only blink at Ikuchi's enthusiasm. "Uh…well there are a bunch of lunch boxes that are sold near the dungeon's entrance mid-morning. So, grains like rice with meat and vegetables? Where I grew up they are called bentos."
Ikuchi's eyes could only narrow at his words. "Hnnn… I don't know about grains or vegetables, but I do know meat. Give me one of these… 'lunch boxes.'"
Sly tilted his head with a slight smile growing on his face. "Ooookay…" With a quick turn he starts rummaging into his belt pouches and bag, he starts to blanche. 'Ohh….damn it! Most of them are crushed…Ugh! Fine I'll give him the "good" ones.' He let out a deep sigh and pulled out three bentos holding them in a hand.
Instantly, Ikuchi's eyes fixated and narrowed on the curious three rectangular objects in Sly's hands. "That, does not look like meat."
"Indeed Ikuchi-san! They are containers to make sure the food inside is still good... and verrry tasty." Sly smiled at him and held them a bit higher, Ikuchi's eyes following. Sly tilted his head slightly and tossed them to his other hand, the eyes and Ikuchi's head followed. Sly's grin grew.
"So…. How about we make a deal?" His tails briefly light up, emphasizing his emerald eyes.
Ikuchi's eyes then fixate on Sly's. "A…deal?"
"Yes! In exchange for this tasty food, let me rest in this cavern with you until I regain my mana. Sound good?"
Ikuchi glances with a ravenous glint in his eyes at the bentos in the kitsune's hands. "How long till you regain your mana?"
Sly couldn't keep himself from amusing himself further and moved the bentos back to his other hand, just to see Ikuchi's head following the movements. "At least 8 hours. I have a lot of mana and very slow mana regeneration."
"Fine, but you have to tell me about spirits! What are you?"
Sly gives a little nod and opens the bento boxes. Filled with a variety of common animal meat, vegetables, and rice. "Very well, but you will also have to tell me about intelligent monsters in return." Sly wobbles on his feet and almost loses his balance as Ikuchi grunts in agreement. "After I have regained some mana and can think at least somewhat clearly again."
Hidden Lair - Ikuchi POV
After a scene akin to a hungry cat protecting its three food bowls, with the accompanying light growling if Sly got too close, Ikuchi finishes his meal first. He then quickly half-submerges himself in his pond. While resting here, Sly has few minutes to regain a little mana and wobble about collecting his weapons. Ikuchi knows how difficult it is to think through the fog of almost using one's entire mana.
Ikuchi observes Sly taking off his salamander wool cloak, producing a small bedroll from one of his pouches, and sitting with his back against one of the dungeon crystals. Ikuchi notices that Sly also pulls out some mangled-looking object that looks like a bento with a pout before using chopsticks to feed himself the remains. Around him, there were a few deep cuts from his claws, after Sly told him the dungeon would birth less feral monsters if it was damaged.
A few minutes later, Sly started telling him about spirits. "Spirits are beings a step between adventurers and natural laws. We have supernatural traits and abilities that revolve around magic. Most of us are invisible to mortals."
Ikuchi bobs his head but looks beside Sly. "So, the black shape beside you is a spirit? I can't see it without opening my second eyelid?"
The adventurer follows his gaze and seems to be concentrating. "Interesting for you to see it… Even I can't discern the spirits around me. I sense their presence thanks to a young wind fairy who would normally be helping me but seeing them is beyond me. What do they look like?"
Ikuchi squints hard and seems to have gained the attention of the spirit. It tilts its head side to side appraisingly. "The way the black moves is similar to you. It has three tails, but otherwise resembles a smaller hellhound."
Sly murmurs more to himself than Ikuchi, "A fox spirit! Sylphie, you hid this from me… That's it! I will prank her once I return!" A faint green gleam seems to glint from his eyes.
Ikuchi can only tilt his head slightly. "…Prank? What is 'prank?'"
Sly blinks and looks to Ikuchi. "Oh! Hmm… Pranking is something really fun! Getting back at someone in a harmless way that is funny!"
Ikuchi then narrows his eyes. "In a harmless way…. So you only do it to your…allies?"
Sly then shakes his head and puts a hand to his chin while the other holds his shoulder. "No no no! You can do it to both allies and enemies; that's the best part! How to explain this… Ah! Well, imagine that your friend frustrates you and you want to get back at them for that? You cause something embarrassing to happen…something that hits them in the pride you know? Like… If your friend is really good at moving about and being controlled in their movements, you make them trip onto their face!"
Sly could only have a massive grin grow across his face at a fond memory from the past couple days; though a slightly malicious curve at the end of his smile was visible.
At the same time, the dragon seemed to narrow his eyes looking up. With a blink, his eyes widened and a smirk grew across his large jaw. 'Getting Arles to slip somehow!'
Recollecting himself Sly continues. "It is still amazing to think that you can see mana Ikuchi-san. Is that a common ability amongst monsters?"
At Sly's words, Ikuchi refocuses on the kitsune with an almost offended huff as he raises his head higher. "No! Only dragons have this ability. And only the really rare ones like me!"
Sly smiles. "Good, then it's unlikely that normal monsters will see through my illusions. Now it's your turn. What are intelligent monsters?"
'Should I tell him? He told me he was a half-spirit half adventurer. Arles hates adventurers and would be furious if he learned of this… OH, wait a minute! Is this what a prank is?! I'm in! It will be interesting to see Arles's reaction when he learns I befriended a spirit. This is what he gets, he hasn't visited me in weeks!' A wide grin grows on Ikuchi's jaw.
The moment of silence followed by Ikuchi's grin causes the kitsune some confusion, but Sly decides to give another option. "If you wish to hide information from others, I could make another oath not to tell any adventurer about you? In return, please hide that I am a half-spirit?"
Ikuchi jumps ahead. "Why not! That oath thingy was really useful! It let you support me, which made the battle easier! Why not make another one? Ah… But I need to tell Arles. He checks up on me regularly and will be furious when he learns of this."
A deep rumbling laughter escapes Ikuchi the moment he thinks about this. However, he sees Sly scrunching his face strangely. Which emotion it depicts is difficult to tell in a humanoid. At least his tails give a better indication. Concern or nervousness he assumes from his scent, but he answers nonetheless. "I accept your terms." A glow pulses from Sly's tails.
With the difficult stuff out of the way, Ikuchi relaxes his posture a little more. This urges Sly to start petting his head with a small smile, secretly scratching a few of the damaged scales and picking them up when Ikuchi wasn't looking. Ikuchi is within arm's reach and still rumbling in contentment. 'Fighting him was difficult, he is worthy of respect! Even if he is weaker with such tricky spells, he can fight numbers. I need to learn how to do that too. Haaa... And he knows where to scratch too! Not that I would tell him!'
After a few minutes of calm silence, Ikuchi begins. "We are called Xenos. I do not know how we got the name, but it always was there when I entered the conclave."
Sly nods slowly and adds. "Xenos. It can be roughly translated to outsiders or perhaps outliers in hieroglyph."
Ikuchi looks at him strangely. "What is hieroglyph and why would we be named after a language of your kind? We named ourselves!"
Sly explains slowly with a slight frown. "Maybe your people forgot..? Hieroglyph is the primary language of the gods. Mortals can't speak it, unless they are chanting spells, and even that takes a toll on them. The name could mean that Xenos and gods have interacted before..."
Ikuchi splashes a little water at Sly. "It doesn't matter! Gods or no gods we are called Xenos! We travel between floors regularly and most stay together on the Middle Floors, but below the adventurer village. You adventurers also have a few floors deeper that you use."
Sly smiles. "You must speak of Rivira and the other safety points. I can't wait to explore Rivira and meet more of you."
"They wouldn't like that. Even as a spirit, you are seen as an adventurer. Most would avoid you if they couldn't fight you. There are many stronger Xenos. The one looking after me could even beat the big mean giant behind the wall."
Sly's eyes shine in excitement. "Such strength! He must truly be a grand fighter!" In his mind, Sly can already imagine it. A huge, looming shadow of an unknown monster fighting against the Goliath monster rex on even footing.
Ikuchi agrees. "Yes, he is a great fighter. But I will surpass them all and reach the surface! I will be free of this prison and soar through the sky or dive into the great lake outside, just like in the dreams I've had!"
Their discussion continues for another hour until Sly feels secure enough to meditate. He keeps his senses prepared, but at least gets light rest in his meditative state.
Ikuchi all the while watches the strange spirit with a frown. 'I want to learn more about him. He must be lonely. A spirit surrounded by adventurers, unable to see more of his kind but knows they are there…'
The frown then deepens. '…What if Arles wasn't there..?' He heavily huffs. It was stupid to think such things, right? It wasn't so for him.
Author's Note
Finally, we introduced Ikuchi. Really introduced him. In act 1 there were a few snippets of him and Arles, but now we have both the protagonists of my story. Ikuchi will still be a step behind Sly, when it comes to the spotlight, but he will get a lot of attention as well.
Next time in Foxball Z we'll see how Sly and Ikuchi handle their newfound knowledge and what happens when the Ganesha rescue party fights their way down the middle floors intent on saving Sly.
Side Note for NinjaFang. If you want to learn a little more feel free to ask questions in the reviews. If they aren't too major I might include them at the beginning of the chapter, and if they are I will give you a simple answer via direct message if you want to.
