Chapter 4:Dragon in a dungeon
Tear was extremely unhappy. He finally makes it into the dungeon and he gets bombarded by trap monster? It was insanely inconvenient. Anyway he now had to figure out a way to kill this ice golem. "Get Off Me! Dragon Magic:Dragon Slash!" Tear shouted as magic shot out of his claws and cut the golem's leg into 3 sections.
Tear escaped from the pin with a flap of his wings and flew all the way up to it's face. The ice golem attempted to throw a punch but with its ruined left leg it couldn't balance itself and fell over. Tear's eyes turned from gold to red and he immediately rushed for the Golem's arm, shattering it with a single dragon infused claw strike.
"How pathetic." Tear said, looking at the incapacitated golem with disappointment and disdain. "I'll put you out of your short lived misery though don't worry." Tear reassured despite the fact that Golems don't feel pain. "Dragon Magic:Dragon Stream!" The volatile energy gathered in front of his mouth and with a push a beam of energy infused smoke shot out and obliterated what was left of the golem. "This can't be the best defense those long dead bastards had." Tear said incredulously. "Eh, no matter. It would've been the same result no matter what they cooked up." Tear continued confidently.
This time Tear stayed in the air. It took two monsters but he had learned his lesson. "Alright now which way did they go?" Tear closed his eyes and focused. "What the hell? What kind or fight would generate all that mana?" Tear thought shocked. There was so much mana in the air he was able to find an exact route to the fight. "That's lucky. Hold on." Tear pauses. "Someone who could actually fight me is there." Tear grew a wry smile as excitement etched on his face. "I can't wait to get there." Tear said as he took off
Asta had just saved Yuno from certain death. "I can't believe I finally caught up to you and you're two seconds away from being killed! Were you just gonna let that guy beat you?" Asta asked rhetorically.
Yuno got up with an annoyed sigh. "I was this close to taking him down." Yuno said seriously. "That's a lie and you know it! You were totally about to die!" Asta pointed out morbidly. Yuno proceeded to claim he was just getting ready to counter which again Asta claimed as lies.
"Alright how about this. We'll fight to see who takes him down." Asta declared. Klaus on the other hand couldn't accept the events that had already and were about to transpire. "This is absurd. Three members of the golden dawn couldn't take him. Yet, his incredible power was bested by a commoner from the black bulls?" Klaus thought. Right after though the crystal clone ran up behind him and caught him off guard. With no time to do anything Klaus was simply gonna have to resign to his fate before suddenly Luck came out of nowhere and blew the clones head apart, killing it.
"Is that the mage infamous for brutalizing his exam opponent, Luck the Cheery Beserker? He's the third member that the Black Bulls sent? I'm seriously being rescued by that ragtag group of misfits?" Klaus thought, with self disappointment.
Noelle walked up to Mimosa who was still healing in her cradle. "Mimosa." She called out "I sorry to be seen like this. I guess I really am a dim-bulb, just like you said" Mimosa said in self pity, revealing that she had in fact heard and been affected by Noelle's insults. "While you aren't the best when it comes to sense. You're still family and I will protect you! Water Magic: Sea Dragon's Lair" Noelle's spell erected a large water barrier around mimosa.
"Are you the person that dis this to the Golden Dawn?" Asta asked angrily. "And what if I did? It is the strong who remain, while the weak fade away." Mars replied. While he was talking though dozens of crystal clones formed to the shock of Klaus and the wonder of Luck.
Asta rushed behind Mars in an attempt to cut him down but right before he could he was replaced with a clone. Mars appeared above Asts with Laevateinn recreated. Mars swung it at Asta who just like last one cut it in half. Though this time Asta landed on the sword, jumped at Mars and managed to land a hard blow sending him into a wall. Crystal chunks were flying everywhere which Asta took advantage of as he batted one back at Mars while he was still recovering.
Even through all that though Mars got out relatively unscathed; rushing at Asta and covering his fist in crystals at an attempt at a grab. This expectanly went nowhere as Asta swung giw sword through the crystal armament and sent Mars flying again. Mars flew into a water pool and sunk to the bottom, to the shock of everyone.
"Ah man, I really wanted to fight him too. Oh well I guess you guys'll have to do." Luck said to nobody in particular as he went on a rampage on the crystal clones laughing as tore each one apart.
"This is impossible,how could a commoner with no mana do that?!" Klaus thought angrily. While Klaus was malding though another one of Mars's clones ran up on him. However before the clone could get to him a ball of water blew it apart.
"Please stop looking so horrified and accept it already. He's powerful in his own way, Asta has the ability to nullify magic" Noelle said without the usual noble arrogance. "Nullify it? Truly? But a commoner like him is beneath a power like that. Perhaps he was just lucky to be endowed with such a skill." Klaus said, trying his best to keep that arrogant, pretentious, and know it all persona he had built for himself.
"It wasn't luck. You can tell just by watching him." Noelle finalized.
"If I keep going this fast I shall get there in a few minutes" Tear predicted. He had decided to go back to the pushing dragon energy out of his orbs idea and instead pushed as much magic as the orbs could hold. This created an extremely volatile reaction that with every flap would send him flying.
"This feels so much better on my wings and back."Tear said as a black plume of smoke blew off of him. When Tear entered a room he suddenly crashed...up? "What the hell just happened? Why am I on the ceiling?" Tear said a little bit disoriented. "I know I said to do better but changing gravity is just doing too much." Tear said, still a little dizzy.
Tear stood up on the ceiling and followed the mana to the exit. On the way there though he saw an open chest that had a fully functional organ system, almost like it was alive. "What was even the point of that? That's genuinely just gross." Tear said with a scrunched up disgusted look on his face.
There wasn't anything else going on other than that though. "Why are their so many random cubes just... everywhere?" Well except that. "Like seriously, there is more cancerous cube than their is floor what was the purpose of this? They didn't even place any traps down apparently they just gave up on that idea. Like did they just want to inconvenience people or what?" Tear ranted.
After that long corridor though Tear finally reached the end of the mana trail. The trail ends here and I can definitely sense a few people. But there are more people than I thought, more than double." Tear observed. Tear let himself fall and dismissed his wings.
Tear stopped walking after realizing something important. "What would be the coolest way to walk in there?" Tear said to himself."I could try walking in there all slow and act like I'm an enemy. Maybe I could fly in their and suprise them. Ma-huh!?." Tear interrupted his brainstorming
"The strongest magic signature just went down. Is that good or bad? Only three people should be on this mission and I know two of them are rookies. Which means that the strongest is probably Luck and all the others are diamond mages. If Luck just went down then there's no way those other two stand a chance." Tear analyzed the situation and decided to screw the entrance and get in their as fast as possible.
Asta pointed his sword at the water where Mars had sunk."Well come on! What, are ya done already?" Asta yelled. Mar's grimoire was floating just above the water showing that he was definitely still alive and conscious. The grimoire flipped a page as crystals started to pop up out of the water. A ginormous mass of crystal shot at Asta which he immediately split in half. However more crystal grew in between the two halves, completely crushing him.
"ASTA!!" Yuno called out. Instead of Mar's a 20 foot tall golem walked out of the water, what is revealed to be it's hands moved out the way to show Asta with blood running down his head and his shirt destroyed. Mar's sat at the top of the golem where the head would be and he had an angry look on his face with an equally angry tone. "Tell me Boy. What are you?!" He exclaimed.
"I'm just a boy born with no magic power" Asta struggled. "What? Literally none at all? So it was just luck he w-what?!" Klaus stopped himself. Asta who had just been hit by what should've been a crippling attack had managed to get up. "And I'm gonna be the wizard king. I'll fight and bleed all I have too! I will prove to everyone that's it's possible!" He said with complete certainty.
"Just look at his body. Just how much time has he spent training? The Wizard King, can he really mean it?" Klaus thought.
"Well isn't that a nice sentiment." An unknown voice had said. "The magicless boy trying to prove to the world that even a commoner can become the Wizard King? Sounds like something out of a novel." The voice continued in a slightly mocking tone. Suddenly black smoke slammed into the golem, taking off chunks of it. "Seriously? We're still going with these damn golems?" The voice said annoyed.
"Who are you!" Mars said aggressively as he looked up. "Huh" the magic knights said in unison except for Luck. "Hey Tear! I didn't know you'd be showing up today!" Luck said as cheery as ever. "Well I couldn't miss this. A royal right here and not to mention the Golden Dawn which I wasn't informed about. Anyway the point is there are way too many people of interest for me to pass up, not even mentioning the fact that I've never been in a dungeon before." The dark-skinned boy explained.
Asta has taken his eyes off of Mars to look at Tear. To say he looked weird was the understatement of the century. He had a dark brown skin tone, red eyes with jagged slit pupils, black marks on the inner corner of his eyes, hair in tight coils reminiscent of springs, a tail?!, wings?!, and long pointed sharp ears. He was wearing a white tunic with the black bulls robe and baggy red pants that had a gold cross on the shins that were tightened by gold bands on his ankles, Finally his shoes were normal with a black, red, and gold coloring.
"Woah. That guy looks so cool" Asta said almost forgetting about the situation. "How Dare You!" Mars suddenly yelled out. "I exist to destroy and I'll start with you!" He continued, gesturing to Tear.
"Perfect! After all those low rank monsters I had to drive out I've been looking for a good fight." Tear smiled, showing off his fangs. "Can this guy get any cooler?" "Not a single normal thing about this guy." Asta and Noelle thought at the same time. Though Asta realized that his fight was being interrupted and started waving his hands. "Wait, Wait, Wait, Wait! I was fighting him first!" Asta said.
"are you the commoner who can nullify magic? Tear asked. "I am nailing this first impressions thing. Just keep going like this Tear, you got it." Tear thought triamphuntly. "Ummm, yeah I am! I guess one of the other black bulls told you?" Asta yelled back. "Yep" Tear gave a short reply and turned away.
Tear flew back to where Luck was and landed. "I never expected you to be one to sit out of fight." Tear said. "I learned a lot today. Like not always fighting alone and how fun it can be to fight together." Luck said as he blew a clone up that tried to sneak them. "And besides, Asta started fighting first and I'm having enough fun destroying these clones." Luck said happily.
"Well that's unexpected. To be honest I only came here for the royal but I heard that Asta's swords could do what I could do but Way better." Tear replied. "Well you probably won't get entertained by ours. She can't control magic real well and she's a little pompous. But she's loyal and will give her all." Luck informed.
"Well that's slightly reassuring. I didn't come here to be disappointed. But more importantly what about the Golden Dawn. Those guys are 100% noble, are their any royals in that group?" Tear questioned.
"The silver haired guy is Klaus, he's a noble, the black haired guy is actually a commoner named Yuno, and- a commoner?" Tear interrupted. "No way a commoner has that much magic power. He has just as much as that other girl. In fact, now that I mention it, that orange haired girl in the cradle has just as much mana as those two." Tear challenged.
"That's because that girl is also a royal. Her name is Mimosa Vermillion." Luck informed. "Vermillion?! But she doesn't have fire magic." Tear stated, confused. "She's from a different family of the Vermillions I guess." Luck assumed, not too interested. "Alright then, she may not have fire magic but a Vermillion is a Vermillion. She's just as much a motivation for my revenge as the rest of them." Tear said with a slight edge to his voice.
"I May Be A Pebble, But I'll Be The Pebble That Shatters The Diamond!!" Asta screamed out. While Luck and Tear were catching up Asta was still fighting and had managed to cut mars out of his golem, completely destroying it. Asta held his sword up and yelled in triumph, Mars defeated at his feet.
Mars was now trapped in a steel bodysuit that kept him completely resticted. Klaus had taken his grimoire so he couldn't use it to get out. "There that should hold him." Klaus said, admiring his handiwork.
Asta walked up, chewing on lettuce. "Are you sure that binding spell will hold him?" Asta asked. "Are you doubting my magic! I can hold an injured mage especially one without a grimoire!" Klaus shot with an annoyed look. "I personally think we didn't do enough. I get not wanting to kill him but if he wakes up he'll still be in fighting condition." Tear chimed in.
"Well it's too late now, he's already restrained." Noelle said. "Fine, don't listen to me then." Tear replied ad he turned away, holding his tail up. "I don't even know you!" Noelle shouted. "Well then let's introduce ourselves." Tear suggested. "Oh, Me First! I'm Asta and I'm a commoner from Hadge village. I don't have a single drop of magic power. But even though I have no magic I'll still be the Wizard King!" The ash haired boy said cheerfully.
"Well then, I'm Tear. I'm also a commoner but I wasn't raised in any village. I use Dragon magic and for some reason it gave me these weird bodily traits." Tear said, gesturing to his tail, ears, and eyes.
"Impossible, how can a commoner have such an incomprehensible amount of mana?" Klaus questioned. "I couldn't tell you. I guess I'm blesses by mana or something." Tear answered. "What is Dragon magic? I've never heard of it." This time Mimosa asked. "It's a magic attribute thats was originally thought to only be used by monsters. I don't know why I have it but it looks like smoke with red lightning crackling through it." Tear informed, showing off said magic by coating his hand with it.
"How interesting, I've never seen magic like this. It's very unique and volatile; chaotic and dangerous. But I have a feeling you'll do just a great job in controlling it." Mimosa said. "W-well of course I will. You may not know me very well but for your information I'm going to be the strongest being alive. And that includes you Royals." Tear said with a slight blush which luckily for him, couldn't be seen due to his skin tone. Mimosa giggled before thinking about the you royals comment.
"Do you have something against Royals Tear?" Mimosa questioned genuinely. Tear looked at her confused "Of course not. You Royals are the pinnacle of power. Which means you're the ones I'm really talking about when I say I'm gonna become the strongest." Tear informed.
"Once I surpass all of you I'll know I'm strong enough to kill him." Tear finished, his voice becoming me rather scary at the mention of whoever "him" was. "And who exactly is him supposed to be." This time Noelle asked him.
"The bastard who killed my mom. A man named Licht." The mood darkened at the reveal of Tear's relative's unfortunate passing. " Oh, I'm sorry I sounded so suspicious I-" Noelle was saying with rare sincerity. "It's fine, I don't find it hard to talk about her death. If anything talking about it just makes me remember all the good things about her, and what I'm fighting for." Tear interrupted.
"Anyway, now that I've introduced myself I'd say it's your turn." Tear said, pointing at Noelle. "M-me?" Noelle stuttered. "Yeah. Who the hell else would I be talking about." Tear said with a sarcastic tone. "Tch, fine. My name is Noelle. I'm a Royal of the house Silva." Noelle said, finally.
"Oh, so you're the Royal with no magic control to speak of. I really hope you get that under control. I'm not supposed to be stronger than yall yet." Tear said bluntly.
Noelle blushed in embarrassment and gave an indignant look. "Y-y-you; w-where did you even hear about that!" Noelle stuttered out.
"From Yami of course. He also told me about the magicless boy that could completely nullify magic. Kinda like what I can do but better in every way. Which by the way, I'm gonna need to fight you Asta." Tear said.
"I can't believe that guy, when I get back I'm gonna-" Noelle then stopped herself as she suddenly remembered just how scary Yami is and stopped that thought immediately."Wait, why do yoi have to fight me?!" Asta asked loudly.
"Because, no rookie is gonna outdo me, I dont care what or who you are. In fact, nobody's gonna outdo me." Tear said like it was obvious.
"Huh?! But we're teama- Yeah Yeah we're a team and we shouldn't fight or something like that. But this is the Black Bulls. If we did it like, for example the Golden Dawn we'd probably be act like we got sticks up our asses; just like this dumbass." Tear said gesturing to Klaus.
"How Dare A Comm- Speaking of dumbass Golden Dawn members, it's your turn to introduce yourselves." Tear interrupted again.
Klaus gave an indignant and furious look while Tear just smugly smirked at him. Mimosa went first "Well, my name is Mimosa. I'm from the Royal House Vermilion and use plant magic." Mimosa said wholesomely.
"I thought the Vermilion used fire magic." Tear said, a very slight bit of suspicion in his voice.
"Those guys are the main branch of Vermillions. My mom is a regular noble with flower magic." Noelle explained. "Huh, so what exactly do you do then?" Tear pressed on. He wanted to know everything about the royals he wanted to surpass and he might as well start with her.
"why does he want to know so much about me? He doesn't- Stop it Mimosa you just met the guy." Mimosa thought rather ironically. "My magic is mostly support based and allows me to map out a region and heal very efficiently." Mimosa continued to answer with a smile. Tear wasn't satisfied though as he pressed on even further "So you're magic doesn't have any offense capabilities?"
"I do have one offensive spell but other than that not really." This time Mimosa was a little nervous admitting her lack of offensive power. "Hmmm, well I guess you're up four eyes. Tell me about yourself." Klaus gave him another angry and indignant look "I thought I told you to stop calling me that." He said. "I'm gonna be completely honest right now, I genuinely couldn't care less." Tear said, a slight smile on his face and a genuine and honest tone.
Klaus looked at him shocked but introduced himself anyway. "Fine, my names Kla- I'm gonna be honest again, I honestly don't care who the rest of you are. I'll find out your names later, or never; preferably never." Tear interrupted.
"Well if that's finally done; Asta don't you think you could do something about yourself already?!" Noelle said waving a pointed finger with a slight blush on her face. Asta gave her a confused look "What did I do this time?" Asta asked. "Just look at the way you're dressed, it's weird and makes me uncomfortable." Noelle answered.
"Well what am I supposed to do about that?! Besides why are you blushing I'm the one half naked." "Don't be ridiculous I was not blushing." They conversed with Noelle turning her nose up on her last statement, still facing away from him. Asta grabbed his torn up robe and sighed. "Look at it, the poor thing is so damaged. Vanessa is gonna kill me for this." He said worriedly.
"Trust me Vanessa's not the type of person to be upset over a torn robe. If she was I probably wouldn't be alive right now." Tear reassured him dismissively.
"Shameful, not only did we need the assistance of the Black Bulls, but they even sent another one of their members just to torment us. But there is one thing I can hold over them." Klaus thought defeated. "As was expected we got here first and have won the competition. However this once I will allow you to accompany us into the treasure hall" Klaus suddenly said.
Asta didn't like his statement, and shockingly neither did Tear. He couldn't believe that his squad had managed to lose, despite their reputation and his... contributions, to it. "Ok 4-eyes, you don't have to rub it in." Asta said. "How can you call yourselves the winner when the only reason you're alive right now is because of us!" Tear chimed in. "You weren't even part of it! You just showed up at the tail end trying to look cool! And You " he gestured to Asta. "You may have beat that diamond mage but you still have no rogjt to speak to your superior in that way."
Just like last time this devolved into insults and a lack of actual debating of what caused the argument in the first place. Klaus was the first to get tired of it and just declared that they'd be going to the treasure room.
The treasure room was locked behind a giant door, but thanks to Luck's sensing he figured out that said door was made purely out of magic, meaning that Asta could just cut through it. "Well isn't that convenient." Tear said to himself.
The room was filled to the brim with gold, weapons, chests, and othef valuable items. There had to be like, billions of yul in the room.
Asta with starry eyes immediately ran into room followed by the rest of the two squads.
Asta had found this weird device that projected people in a blue light, Yuno found a vase that let out a single green light that floated around, Mimosa found a sparkling red cape that went well with her outfit, and Noelle had found a bubble that wouldn't pop and she was able to cartoonishly float on.
Tear had managed to find something more basic but in his eyes very cool. It was a black bracelet with a ruby on both sides surrounded in gold, and another with a ruby but reversed colors. He could tell their was nothing magical with them due to the lack of mana but they were definitely cool. He put them both on his right wrist and just marveled at them, his pupils turning into jagged slits as he zoned out.
He was broken out of his treasure induced trance due to another argument from Klaus and Asta. Something about not touching the treasure or some dumb shit like that. "Can You Two Shut Up!" Tear yelled, stopping their bickering. But unfortunately it didn't have the desired effect as all it did was bring him into it.
"I'm definitely gonna lose it. I should've just stayed at the hideout." Tear said to himself while rubbing his temples, tail slapping the floor in clear annoyance.
Yuno on the other hand was following the green bulb of light that led him to a scroll. It was surrounded in wind and when he opened it, it was in a language he didn't know.
Suddenly Yuno's grimoire started glowing as the writing on the scroll disappeared as it started glowing as well. Yuno was completely bathed in the green light which caught everyone else's attention.
Klaus walkes over and asked him what happened which Yuno replied he didn't know. After putting it back we see Asta being pulled by some anti-magic bird.
"Come On, Quit It Nero!" Asta shouted. "Who the hell is Nero?" Tear questioned as he looked over. "Nero is an anti-magic bird who follows us everywhere. She's basically the Black Bull's mascot." Noelle explained as walked up. "Huh, you rookies sure are weird." Tear said offhandedly, flicking his tail back and fourth.
Noelle followed his tail's movements, not saying anything about his comment.
Nero led Asta too a wall with a gold plate in the center. Asta asked what exactly it was and was replied by a vicious attack from the bird.
Klaus was busy admiring Mars's grimoire. It was half pale blue and studded like the crystal magic he was using, and the other half was stitched to it and it was red. It was clearly a result of Diamond's experiments. "Interesting,Yuno the four leaf clover, and he has a grimoire so dirty and faded you can't read it. I guess you never can tell." Klaus thought.
Tear was sitting down when it happened, he was watching the girls talk to each other. He enjoyed how Mimosa spoke and how her voice sounded. She sounded so caring and kind, it reminded him of his mother. Though she didn't seem to have those fiery outbursts he vividly remembered.
He didn't know why or how he forgot so much from before that day. He remembered everything clearly from after Licht's attack and forward. He remembered how his mom wanted to become a magic knight but didn't have the magic power and skill in it. He also remembered her adoration of the Royals, and how he always wanted to be adored like that.
"Why did I care so much about what others thought of me back then? I was so desperate as a kid, honestly it's kinda embarras-" Tear's thoughts were interrupted by Luck screaming to get down. He looked over to the wall and saw and explosion of dust as Mars's crystal golem came into view. "It's like, why the hell do I go ignored?! Is this not what I said would happen?! And where the hell is Klaus!? I thought he said his magic would hold him! He looks pretty unheld to me!" Tear shouted as his tail flicked wildly and his eyes turned red.
Suddenly crystal trails shot out at them. Tear was able to fly out of the way of his but he didn't see anyone else. "How the hell did he recover so fast? There's no way his magic attribute has a recovery spell and he can't even use it without his grimoire."
That's wheb Tear saw it. Mars had a flaming aura that was actively healing his wounds as they stood there. "What!?" Tear said shocked.
Klaus couldn't believe it. What he was witnessing was impossible. A mage could have only one magic attribute. Fire, Water, Ice, Lightning, and earth, and all other attributes that are an extension or combination of the main five. Each element interacts with each other in special ways. Fire is effective against wind and ice but weak to water. This is the law of man and magic that also dictates that a mage can only have one attribute.
"But yet, in utter defiance of that law he is wielding crystal and fire magic. Is this what came of Diamond's experiments?"
Chapter End
AN:I completely lied about Tear turning up this chapter, my bad. This chapter didn't see a lot of action as I tried to focus on dialogue instead of aggressively progressing the story. I don't want to finish this arc in two chapters or really even three. But it probably will be three though. Also if you were wondering, if there is a relationship that Tear would have it would probably be Mimosa. I'm still on the fence about making a pairing because it's just not important to BC and I don't want to mess it up. Anyway first track meet this week so don't expect any update too fast.