A very good morning to all you beautiful people! I'm back with another chapter of the story, I'll go ahead and say that this is the last chapter I release before classes resume, so my subsequent updates will take a bit longer than usual, I can't guarantee a very consistent schedule of release as it'll depend if I have a bit of free time on my hands or if I'm absolutely swamped with work, college is quite theride man. Also, I've read a few reviews on my recently published chapter, and I just want to take the time and respond to them. First off, I just want to say thank you for the kind words and constructive criticism you guys provided, it's honestly kind of embarrassing to read since it points out without any sugarcoating the areas where I fall short as a creative writer, but I'm still nonetheless very grateful that you guys didn't beat around the bush and pulled my attention toward a few aspects in my story/writing style that can be improved. Even if I do cringe a bit at your feedback, I still accept them with a grateful heart 3. With that out of the way, here are my specific responses:

SentByTheDragon:

I'm sorry to hear you think that, I understand where you're coming from though. Upon closer inspection, I did kind of make the fight seem boring and pretty one-sided. As for your concern about how Revis even got fairly near the encampment and/or what she was doing there in the first place... I can explain, or rather, planned on explaining it on the next few chapters, I just wanted to create an atmosphere of enigma for the moment, all will be revealed in due time. As for your concern on Bell holding back a lot in this version of their fight, I can see that it seemed like that, but I was actually trying to convey that Bell has more, raw power and talent than Revis, but just like his concern during their failed expedition, has yet to get properly accustomed to his new abilities, so you pit him as he his now against the far more experienced veteran that is Revis, he's bound to get his behind handed to him initially, but all that goes out through the window once she hurts Lefiya, something just snaps inside him and he lets loose, no longer caring if he would have killed her, but once again... Revis was only able to escape since she is the more experienced and skillful one between the two. And while I'm already addressing this concern, I'll go ahead and address your concern of there not being enough internal dialogues and POVs during the fight, I'll take that into account and will implement them where they're relevant in the next chapters, also the last concern of yours is my practice of excessive verbiage, which I do admit is an aspect of writing I still struggle with, I'm sorry to hear that you're irked by this, so I'll strive further to get rid of this weird habit of mine. The points you've pointed out in my story and writing style will be a great help in my and the story's improvement, so I extend to your my sincerest gratitudes for taking the time to share your opinion, I hope you enjoy the rest of the ride!

The Quotable Patella:

Thank you so much for leaving your review on the story! I agree with your take on Bell's philosophy when it comes to morally compromised opponents, he still tries to get them back on track, but when those important to him are threatened, no longer he is that merciful. I try to get my version of Bell as consistent with Oomori's versionof his character as much as I possibly can, but there will inevitably be differences since I'm not Oomori, I'll apologize in advance if he, or any other character in my story seem out of character. Once again, I thank you and I hope youenjoy the rest of the story!

And with that out of the way, let's dive right into it!

I do not own Danmachi

Chapter VIII: Peril

Third Person POV:

The crunching of leaves and cracking of branches and twigs was all that was heard within the silent, dark and eerie forest as a heavily injured scarlet-haired monster tamer limped wearily throughout the seemingly endless woods.

Multiple injuries of varying severity littering her bloodied form, she panted as she exerted herself greatly just to traverse a few meters more, any sort of movement exacerbating the agony she currently experienced and aggravated any and every wound in her body, from minor cuts to the broken bones she had sustained during her brawl with the white-haired monster of a boy earlier.

"Hah... hah... damn those two rats!"

She muttered curses and profanities directed at the two meddlesome adventurers she had a run in with earlier, with especial ire roused at the thought of the wench of an elf that vaporized her arm.

Looking down on it, she had noticed that it had stopped bleeding as if it were a halfway-opened faucet, the makeshift tourniquet cloth from her cape that she had used now completely soaked in crimson, despite the heat of the attack generated, it didn't fully cauterize the wound, leaving it prone to infection.

'When I see that elf again... I'll gut her slowly and painfully!'

Gritting her teeth in rage, she leaned against a tree, catching her breath for a bit after all that physical exertion in her sorry state.

"All's not lost..."

Slowly unholstering her whip with her damaged right arm, ignoring the pain assaulting her senses for moving her remaining, broken arm, her weapon gaining an unfamiliar pure-white glow. A few, small magic circles with indecipherable symbols emblazoned on them appeared above the upper end of the weapon.

"Cheers to the end of the Loki Familia"

With her voice cold and monotonous as usual, she closed her eyes and mouthed an inaudible chant

Raising the glowing weapon up her head, as high as she comfortable could, she snapped it back down, whipping the earth and emitting an audible crack that reverberated through the silent forest.

...

"All right, settle down everyone..."

Finn tiredly urged the similarly tired and upset expedition force adventurers to quiet down, as they were all dying to know what the commotion was about. Apparently a few adventurers that similarly had trouble sleeping overheard Max, the chienthrope night patrol of the campsite, hurriedly wake up his Captain and inform him of the recent developments, prompting them to exit their sleeping quarters and inquire about the situation, which in then turn roused other adventurers, and eventually, around fifteen minutes later, nearly the entire campsite was now roused and deeply confused by what all the commotion was about.

The prum captain of the Loki Familia beckoned them to all come together around him, informing them that it is a matter currently being investigated and it was best they return to getting some rest as the expedition was leaving first thing in the morning.

With a bit of reluctance, the crowd dispersed, kind of disappointed that they were woken up for nothing

Except for a few people who just let the languid and disappointed crowd disperse around them, Ais, Riveria, Gareth, Tiona, Tione and Bete all stood motionless as they waited for everybody to leave before any one of them began speaking.

When the last person except for them had gone, Ais started

"Finn... are Bell and Lefiya going to be okay?"

The sword princess with a bit of unkempt hair from neglecting to properly fix herself before exiting her tent, asked the blonde prum

Finn remained silent for a bit until he spoke

"My thumb is throbbing... I've got a bad feeling about this"

He confessed, much to the dismay of the others, they had been in the Loki Familia long enough to trust Finn's intuition, especially his thumb, whenever he said that his thumb hurts, things usually took a turn for the worse shortly after, this has happened more than it should to be called a coincidence, so it was generally a good rule of thumb, mind the pun, to trust in the prum's intuition.

"Y-You don't think they're in trouble, right?"

Tiona nervously asked, she was genuinely concerned for the wellbeing of her two friends, especially after hearing Finn's warning

Finn sighed as he shook his head

"There's nothing we can do about that for now, as we don't have the slightest idea where they went off, for now we just wait an-"

Suddenly, a titanic rumble shook the floor, throwing them all off balance as they fell onto the ground, much to their surprise

A very low groaning sound was heard as the entire vicinity continued to shake, it was the most horrid sound, it was a cross of the sound iron makes when it is subjected to extreme stress, along with a horrible groan of pain so deep that the vibrations could be felt traveling through your very bones.

Then, the ground around them began cracking and breaking apart, with dust, rock and earth being exhumed and thrown up everywhere as a colossal figure emerged from beneath.

All were speechless at the spectacle before them, the most grotesque creature in the world would still be much more easy on the eyes compared to this absolute abomination of a being, the most immediately apparent characteristic of the beast are the seven gyrating golden metallic discs with indecipherable symbols and figures emblazoned on them, and were sporadically littered with pure-white, angelic feathers, these gyrating discs surrounded and protected a lone, giant eye in the center that stared through one's very soul, the heart of the beast.

"W-what the..."

The silence was finally broken by the Loki Familia's Tiona, dumbfounded by the strange and grotesque sight of the unfamiliar monster before her, his sentiment and confusion being readily reciprocated by the rest.

Fully emerging from the crater it initially resided in, lifting itself up into the sky where all can witness its disgusting form, the beast began to glow an immaculate and brilliantly blinding white, which eventually got as bright as if it were another sun in the sky.

"Agh! It's too bright!"

Bete whined as he shielded his eyes from the painful source of light in the sky

"Ready yourselves! Into formation! Hurry!!!"

Finn's strong, commanding voice bellowed out for all to hear, urging them to get into formation and to brace themselves for the worst

Turning around to his right shoulder, Finn locked gazes with his high-elf companion

As if knowing what he expected of her with that simple wordless gaze, Riveria nodded and immediately started reciting the chant to her most powerful defensive spell.

"Dance around spirit of the atmosphere, lord of light..."

Her beautiful voice, confident and resolute, spoke the spell's recitation.

His unease assuaged for now, Finn turned his apprehensive gaze back at the blinding source of light in the sky, their foe was yet to make any moves, but that only built up the tension and nervousness of the adventurers.

"Huh... ain't that strange"

Gareth started a conversation, walking up to the high-class smith of the Hephaistos Familia

"Sure is, but it ain't the strangest thing I've seen"

She vaguely responded, turning her focus back to the spectacle in the sky

"Ya' shakin' in your boots, gramps?"

Smirking, the smith teased him, as he huffed

"Hmph, if ya' get scared during the battle, make sure to hide behind me"

He shot back with his own smirk

The two were in the front lines, as Tsubaki was part of the main force of fighters, and Gareth was one of the tanks that helped safeguard the more vulnerable members of the expedition group.

The light was steadily becoming more and more blinding as the seconds elapsed, it seemed as if the beast's dazzle will swallow the darkness of night around it, but then it suddenly lost its intensity, dimming into less than half of what it had been previously, which allowed the adventurers to comfortably focus their gazes on the creature, able to make out its gyrating metallic discs if one looked closely.

"Huh?"

Confused by the development, the adventurers seemed to relax, taking the sudden and significant loss of luminosity as a good sign, except for Finn, who remained sharply focused at the static monster in the sky and waited with baited breath as his thumb started to ache.

"Riveria, is the spell ready?"

Without looking over this time, he inquired at the readiness of their defense

"Yes, say the word when"

Also as apprehensive and focused at the figure in the sky, Riveria made sure to listen close for Finn's command, ready to activate her spell at a microsecond's notice.

"Captain, is something wrong?"

Noticing his unease still present, Tione took the liberty to approach him and check on him

Unresponding, Finn remained hyper-focused, until...

"NOW!!!"

Acting upon his cue, Riveria unleashed her magic

"VIA SHILHEIM!"

At the powerful bellow of her voice, a great, expansive magical barrier encapsulated the entire expedition force, surprising many.

Not a moment later, the monster unleashed a most terrible pillar of death, pure, concentrated fire shot down from the monster towards them, or so they thought

The monster was intelligent, noticing that the barrier hastily put up was too powerful to be penetrated by its attack, and will likely absorb the damage it deals, so it opted to unleash the blast elsewhere instead... namely the floor in front of them, not encompassed, and was very much vulnerable.

The resulting blast powerful enough to unearth massive amounts of the dungeon floor, and destabilizing Riveria and the others, resulting in the barrier being dispelled, they were showered with earth, fire and dust.

As if content with the damage it had wrought, the beast let out a seemingly pleased low pulse from its being, which sounded alien.

"Argh!!! Damn it!!"

Finn dug himself out of the displaced earth that covered him, taking a second to shake off any remaining dirt that clung to him, he scanned the situation in distress.

His sharp and astute mind going to work, he quickly noted that most ground units were rendered unusable, from the fighters to the tanks, the mages did not sustain great damage due to being further at the back when the blast hit, with the obvious exception of Riveria, who was behind him, raising the barrier to attempt to protect the group.

"Everybody all right?!"

Shouting off into his surroundings, a few nearby adventurers responded

"Ngh...! We're fine, Captain..."

A group of seven Loki Familia adventurers nodded at their captain, signalling that they were ready to fight at his command

"Ack... I'll live"

Tsubaki, clutching her left arm, responded as she got up from the ground nearby

"Finn, what's the plan?"

Riveria, having recovered and tidied herself, got up and asked the prum, who was still scanning his surroundings to properly gauge the situation

"We'll need to find a way to regroup..."

Hearing a low pulse, he turned to see the monster rapidly approaching their position

"But we have other priorities at hand!!"

Taking his spear, Finn rushed to meet the incoming monster, with Gareth, Tsubaki and the other fighter and tank units closely following behind while Riveria readied her magic to assist in taking down the foreign monster

...

"Hah...! Hah...!"

Ignoring every fiber in his very hurt body that screamed at him to stop moving and exerting himself so much as he's greatly aggravating every wound he has, Bell Cranel rushed back toward the camp cradling a similarly gravely injured and unconscious Lefiya.

Upon hearing the massive explosion far in the distance he immediately checked for signs of life, scooped up her limp, petite figure and bolted

Rushing through the woods at high speeds, toward the direction he remembered seeing the campsite was during his scuffle with the scarlet haired woman, but made sure to be gentle enough and not jostle around needlessly the unconscious elf in his arms lest he woke or aggravated her injuries, at great expense to himself as his body felt like giving in and breaking down then and there, but Bell Cranel grit his teeth and pushed forward, mind over matter so they say.

'Hurry! I need to help them!'

Twigs snapping and leaves crunching as he stepped on them during his dash, Bell picked up the pace as he started to feel the toll of exerting himself so much for so long, it was a tiredness he couldn't just shake off, he knew this and prayed to every god in existence that he make it before his body fails.

Finally reaching the clearing, Bell's languid eyes adjusted to the unexpectedly bright sight in front of him, which caught him off guard

'Why is it so bright?'

Then it dawned on him, recognizing the unmistakable smell of smoke and soot

His tired gaze focusing on the sight before him, he nearly dropped to his knees then and there at the hopeless sight in front of him

Instead of the campsite of the expedition force, in its place was a massive, circular crater that was at least ten meters deep and a few dozen meters wide, devoid of earth.

Bell nearly dropped to his knees at the hopeless sight, unable to scream out in utter shock of the situation, he was too late.

"R-Rabbit's Foot?"

Before he fell into complete despair, his attention was grabbed by three wounded adventurers grouped together, one was a female human mage wielding a wooden staff with a power crystal as its power source, the other was an elven male with a longsword as his weapon, the last one was a cat person that was on the ground nursing a pretty bad wound on his leg, all three of them were roughed up and had seen better days.

"W-What happened here?!"

Bell demanded to them as he got nearer, desperate to know what happened to the others

"S-some freak of nature attacked us, it was really strong, the captain and the others are currently in battle with it..."

The elf answered on the group's behalf, then his eyes fell on the injured and unconscious elf in his arms

"L-Lefiya?! What happened?!"

Initially assuming the worst, pointed his sword at the albino boy, whose eyes widened in realization at the elf's antagonistic behaviour

"N-No no! I didn't do anything! She saved my life and now I need your help in saving hers, please take care of her for me, I'll assist in battle!"

Bell pleaded as the elf narrowed his eyes at him in suspicion, he gentle laid her down onto the grass beside the trio, who looked at each other and nodded.

"I see, I'm deeply sorry for doubting you, Bell Cranel. Not to worry, we shall take care of her, they need your strength at the battlefield"

The elf bowed apologetically at the boy before tossing him a health potion, which he gratefully accepted and downed.

Feeling his strength come back to him, he gave one last look at the unconscious Lefiya and a final nod to the group before he ran off toward the direction of the explosions.

...

"ORAHHHHH!!!"

The werewolf of the Loki Familia unleashed a powerful kick aimed straight at the eye at the center, but was blocked when a metallic disc connected with his foot instead, sending painful shockwaves throughout his body.

"ARGH!!!"

Bete grimaced in pain at his foot likely being fractured from the strength of the impact

Sensing its chance to retaliate, one of the creature's numerous wings slapped the werewolf away, as if he were but an annoying gnat, sending him crashing into the ground with much force, taking him out of the action for now.

"Bete!"

Finn exclaimed out in concern before narrowly dodging another superheated beam-blast from the creature, feeling the extreme heat on his face along with few strands of his hair getting singed.

"Tch! Close call"

Finn murmured as the beam shot off into the distance and exploded

"Captain!"

Tione screamed out in concern for her dear captain's safety, seeing the damage he received, even if it was just a little, angered her greatly

"Y... You...!!!"

Her switch flipped, she took out both of her swords and went straight for a mad dash toward the monster, fueled by nothing but her rage and hate for its tresspass.

"Lass! Stop!"

Gareth called out to her, but she shut him out, her rational thinking was drowned out by her rage as soon as she saw her beloved captain get hurt.

Jumping high into the air, she stared down the winged abomination, who had yet to notice her

"RAGH!!!"

With all of her strength, she brought down her twin kukri weapons against the outermost disc, producing a significant and extensive crack, she applied even more strength to it as she drew upon her anger for power, but was shocked when she found that her weapons shattered under the sudden extreme stress it was subjected to. The weapon had been made of extremely durable and powerful material, which means that Tione was powerful enough to break her own weapon.

"Wha-?!"

In the next moment, she was sent flying in the air by the sudden, powerful pulse the monster had released, knocking the amazoness off and throwing her a great distance away.

Reading to shoot one of its beams again at the very vulnerable airborne Tione, Riveria acted instantly, releasing the ice spell that she had pre-chanted to make use of in critical moments like these

"Winterfrost!!!" (A.N.: I'll be making up spell, attack and ability names here and there :3)

Unleashing a colossal sphere of solid ice, she aimed it in such a way that it came between the vulnerable Tione and the rapidly incoming blast, intercepting it just in time and successfully blocking the attack, which barely melted the stone-cold ice sphere halfway through.

"Nice one, Riveria!"

Finn complimented her quick thinking as she smirked at him

"It'd be a shame if I let your dear Tione get hurt, now wouldn't it?"

She teased the prum as he blushed slightly, coughing into his hand

"A-Anyway, try to rally up the others and finish it off with your magic, we'll buy time"

Ignoring the warmth in his face, Finn jumped into the fray once again while Riveria sighed as she rushed back to look for and gather the others for one final attack.

"You can only beat around the bush for so long, Finn..."

...

"HAAAAHHHHH!!!"

With a mighty swing accompanied by a similarly mighty roar, Gareth unleashed a powerful axe swing against the approaching monster, halting its advance dead in its tracks and generously damaging its outermost disc, making way for Ais and Tiona to jump into the action.

"Awaken Temptest!"

Activating her trump card, Ais' offensive and defensive abilities were all greatly increased, along with her speed, allowing her to zip past the numerous wings that tried to smack her off, cutting off a good few, only to find them regenerating not even a few seconds after she chopped them off, much to her annoyance.

"Yah!"

Like a fly, she zipped back and forth, attempting to get through the monster's numerous defensive discs by taking advantage of her greater speed, but could not penetrate through the monster's defenses.

The monster was much too focused on the annoyingly fast pest zipping here and there trying to get past its defenses that it completely overlooked the bloodthirsty amazoness dashing into the scene, her formidable Urga in her right.

"Don't forget about me!!!"

Jumping high into the sky, she gripped her weapon with both hands, and with all of her strength came down on the unwitting opponent.

Her blow greatly shaking the beast, her attack was about as effective as her sister's, producing extensive cracks from where the blow had been received, denting its defense. Finn had ordered them to slowly but surely carve away its defense until either it can be sufficiently hurt by the mages' final attack, or the eye at the center is completely exposed.

The monster let out a low sound that was akin to a pulse, as if for the entire battle it had just started to experience pain.

Taking that as a positive sign, Tiona followed up with more heavy strikes to deal more damage to it...

But was taken by surprise when the outermost disc suddenly disappeared, leaving five gyrating discs left to defend the center.

"What?!"

In shock, she barely registered a distant buzzing sound that was rapidly getting closer, turning her head just in the nick of time to notice what was suddenly approaching and narrowly avoided getting decapitated by a very rapidly revolving miniature version of the sixth disc.

"Whoa! Way too close!"

Still recovering from the shock of nearly dying, she forced herself to focus on the once more approaching revolving disc akin to a saw blade.

With little time to raised her Urga in order to intercept the disc, Tiona was shocked, and relieved when a golden blur suddenly sped in front of her and deflected the disc away.

"Are you hurt, Tiona?"

Ais asked

"Ais! Man I owe you one!"

Patting her back with a bit of strength, which she grimaced slightly at, Tiona grinned at her

"How's about a bit of tag teaming sound?"

The amazoness turned to the blonde sword princess for her confirmation, to which she nodded her agreement to.

"Alright!!!"

Blitzing right toward the enemy with her partner closely following behind, they engaged the creature once more

...

"Argh! That fucking hurt...!"

Bete cursed as he tried to get up after the painful swat he received from the monster

Gritting his teeth, he turned to face the winged freak currently being occupied by Ais and Tiona.

"Next time, I'll mak-"

"Bete-san!!!"

His attention caught by the familiar voice, he abruptly turned toward its source

"Oi, where the hell were you you damn rabbit?!"

His pain from the blow he received earlier all but forgotten, Bete marched toward the newly arrived albino boy

"It's a long story, I'll explain later, I've come to help out"

Bete's eyes narrowed at the boy, who he quickly noted looked like he just got hit by a hurricane, but decided to let it go for now.

"Tch, took you long enough to get here, OI FINN!!!"

Calling out for his captain, which happened to be not too far from them at the moment, the prum noticed his name being addressed by the werewolf and quickly made his way to the two adventurers

"Bell Cranel, where have you been all this time?"

Finn gave him a curt nod and quickly began interrogating him on his earlier whereabouts

Quickly noticing that they were growing suspicious of him for his all-too-convenient time of disappearance, he acquiesced and explained all the events that had previously transpired up until that point, from his discovery of the mysterious, hooded woman, to their fight against the scarlet-haired woman, which Finn seemed to recognize when he was asked to describe her, all the way to him carrying Lefiya back to the camp, or what was left of it, leaving her unconscious form to her fellow Loki Familia members, and him rushing toward here.

Finishing his explanation in just a little bit over a minute, Finn mulled over his words, double-checking them if there were any inconsistencies in his alibi. Finding none, he nodded to the two

"I see, we'll talk more about this later"

He finalized, making the boy nod in agreement

With that out of the way, the three then promptly turned their attention back toward the still-preoccupied foe in the distance.

"What do we know so far?"

Bell inquired about the monster that was currently oblivious to them, Finn cocking his head back to face him just a bit

"We've never seen anything like it before, I believe that eye at its center is its heart and if we can get to it, we defeat it, the problem is, it's surrounded by a few rings that are about as hard as adamantine, with numerous wings around them that enables it to take flight, making it a very troublesome foe to deal with. Also, it can let out powerful pulses of energy that can temporarily incapacitate you, can shoot out powerful destructive beams, can take off its protective rings to be used as weapons, and probably has more tricks up its sleeve that we have yet to discover..."

Finn summarized, making the white-haired boy's eyes narrow at the monster

"I see, do we have a plan?"

He asked Finn, who nodded

"We have to buy time for Riveria and the others to arrive and unleash a final all-out attack on the monster, at the same time chip at it little by little to wear it down enough for their attack to get through and actually deal significant damage"

The prum revealed, it was a very straightforward plan since he had to come up with it on the spot with very little leeway from the monster having the initial advantage of tearing through the expedition force, but it was not a bad one if they act in a careful and calculated manner.

"I'll try something on it if you guys don't mind"

Bell told him, which surprised the captain of the Loki Familia

"Oh?"

The boy spoke three syllables, which confused the prum

After a brief explanation of what he meant, Finn's eyes widened as a smile appeared on his face

"Not a bad idea at all..."

With the commander's blessing, Bell nodded and turned back toward their foe.

"Let's dance"

A biblically accurate angel as a new monster? Really?

Okay okay, I know that this chapter fell short on the action criteria, I was focusing on the narrative on this one, I promise I'll make up for it in the next chapter, it'll be pretty action packed and the more minor characters will also get a chance to shine, I'll try my best to make it as engaging as possible and therefore will take a bit of time to finalize and upload, so I ask you to please bear with me. Anyway, that's all for now, please comment any suggestions that you have on the story and my writing style, and with that, I'll see you guys in the next one. Author-kun out!