Good (insert time of day here) to you dear readers! I'm back with another chapter. I'll apologize in advance for the awkward pacing and rather stretched-out scenes of battle, it's because I'm trying to wrap up the fight and proceed with the aftermath since it's where the story will actually start to progress in a meaningful manner, or at least I hope so. So once again, I apologize if the pacing seemed awkward and if the action seemed underwhelming, I still tried my best to put as much action as I could without sacrificing the story progression. Once again, please leave a comment with your thoughts about the story, whether it be suggestions on how to improve the story or simply your opinion of how the story's going so far, I'll be grateful no matter what. Now with that out of the way, happy reading!
I do not own Danamchi
Chapter X: Final Stretch
Third Person POV:
"Can you stand up?"
Riveria asked as she finished healing an injured adventurer's leg
The adventurer in question replied in the affirmative and thanked her for her help, to which she replied with her own nod as he ran off to go aid the others.
"They can take it from here, we need to get back to Finn and the other lot"
Tsubaki told Riveria as she stood idly beside her, watching her perform her healing spell for a bit now
Realizing that she might have forgotten what they were supposed to be doing in the first place, she sighed at herself for being sidetracked at such a crucial and inappropriate moment in time but was quick to squander those thoughts, as she trusted Finn and the other's strength, and there was no harm in helping those who were suffering.
"Indeed, I think we've gathered enough people..."
Riveria nodded to Tsubaki as she agreed with her suggested course of action, she might have trusted Finn and the others to hold out for them, but for how long could they... she did not know, so it was better they pick up the pace just to be on the safe side.
"Alicia, how is Lefiya?"
Riveria asked her student, fanatic, and fellow elf
"Lefiya is still unconscious, but rest assured Lady Riveria, for they told me that she's in a stable state now and that they're keeping her safe."
The fair, golden-haired elf replied to her idol's question concerning the well-being of her student
Satisfied with the response, she nodded
"Good, we'll ask her for her take when she wakes up, along with Bell Cranel's, but for now, we have a monster to take down"
Ending their conversation, Riveria smiled at Alicia and then proceeded to shift her gaze toward the large group of mages and marksmen in front of her
"Hear me, proud fellow mages and marksmen! Tonight, we've been caught off guard by the sudden appearance of an unknown enemy, it is intelligent and can be cunning. I won't lie to you, it'll probably take our all to take down the beast, as its defenses are nigh impenetrable, but we shall prove that despite our force being weakened, we can still put up a good fight, that a wounded animal is still to be feared."
She kept her speech short and sweet, but it was not any less effective at rousing the fighting spirit in everybody present. By now, most of them were cheering, determined to put a stop to the unknown monster's rampaging.
"Not too bad, Your Highness, you've got them all fired up"
Tsubaki smirked at the high elf, whose eye seemed to twitch with the way the blacksmith addressed her
"Quiet, now I believe Finn and the others could use a little more help?"
Riveria commented as her extremely acute sense of elven hearing picked up a high-pitched screech and the even fainter sound of a grand bell ringing off in the distance, where the battle was occurring, and promptly pointed a dainty finger toward that direction, which Tsubaki took as a cue to go on ahead.
"Copy that, I'll be going on ahead!"
Tsubaki, with one last smirk, sped toward the direction Riveria pointed toward, her first-class agility allowing her to move dozens of meters in just a few seconds.
"Why did she even wait for me to tell her that?"
Nursing the onset of a headache, Riveria sighed and turned back to the group of mages and marksmen behind her, eager to prove their mettle
"Last chance for any last-minute preparations! We move out shortly!"
.
CLANG*
The distant, yet loud sound of Bell's Argonaut ability reverberated through the battlefield, with every ominous clang raising the breath-stopping tension in the air.
"On your toes!"
The captain of the Loki Familia boomed out, prompting everybody present to brace themselves for another fight with the monster, who was sitting idle, along with its numerous, grotesque minions, which were numbering in the hundreds by now.
...
Silence
...
The tension in the air was palpable, neither side dared make a move
Both studied each other with the most meticulous scrutiny, the smallest movement from either side would've prompted the other to make a move in retaliation.
Until...
With a sudden high-pitched screech similar to that of a banshee, the monster charged at its target, which was, surprisingly, not the group of adventurers in front of it.
Indeed, apparently, its intended target was the albino boy in the distance who continued to sit by the sidelines, waiting to make his move as he gathered more and more strength, which the monster would no longer allow, as it perceived him as an immediate and grievous threat which must be eliminated at once.
"EEEEEEEEEEIIIIII!!!!"
With a battle cry, the monster rocketed toward the surprised albino, covering the distance between them in a mere four seconds, showcasing much greater speed than what it had displayed earlier.
"Don't let it get to Bell Cranel!!!"
The distant sound of Finn's voice could be heard shouting commands
"What?!"
Bell reacted in just the nick of time, using all the power and agility his legs could muster up, evaded to the side, very narrowly avoiding being tackled by the freak of nature that suddenly found him its target, so much so that he could feel the dense wind on his face as it rocketed past him.
Crashing into the side and noticing that it failed to take out its target with that tackle, the monster renewed its efforts to attack, charging at the boy once more.
Bell had been prepared to dodge again but found himself no longer needing to do so as Gareth violently rammed the monster at its blind spot, denting the outer metallic disc and sending the monster crashing onto the side, but causing great pain for the dwarf as he most likely fractured his arm with the blow.
"Mister Gareth!"
Bell tried to get closer to the injured dwarf to inspect him but stopped in place when Gareth held up his good arm
"Not to worry 'lad, 'tis but a regular Tuesday for me"
Gareth joked, trying to lighten up the mood, but the sharp wince he gave while chuckling at his own joke did nothing to reassure the boy
The monster was still motionless in a large ditch its impact had created, but the fight was far from over
Noticing the sky getting brighter, Bell and the others looked up to find the monster's minions in the sky, the rest had been so preoccupied with defending Bell and rushing to his aid that they paid little attention to the minions.
Up in the sky, numerous dots were scattered, each emitting a blinking orange-ish light, easily discernible from the "stars" twinkling in the "night sky", unfortunately, they were just as numerous.
"They're going to fire again!"
Tiona shouted, thinking of a way to stop them from unleashing another devastating attack such as earlier.
But good thing Finn already had a plan in mind
"Ais! Bete!"
The two in question immediately understood what was expected of them and nodded at their commander
"Awaken Tempest!"
Reactivating her magic, she hopped and used her momentum to drop down into a squat and propelled herself toward the sky at the speed of a bullet.
"COME GET SOME!!!"
Bete, with his boots still powered by Bell's firebolt, also hopped into a squat and shot up into the sky with a war cry.
Up in the air, Ais began rapidly rotating as she got further up, generating a powerful force field around her, and any minions unlucky enough to find themselves in her kill zone got shredded by the freak storm that was Ais Wallenstein, the shredded grotesque creatures rendered nothing more than bloody paste, rained back down on the ground.
"RAAAAGGGGGHHHHH!!!"
Not to be outdone, Bete, with a swift swing of his right leg, unleashed a powerful torrent of flames on par with the one he and Tiona would have gotten caught up in earlier had it not been for Finn. Consuming many of the remaining minions, incinerating them into nothingness.
The few minions who remained despite the one-sided slaughter redirected their focus on the two vulnerable, airborne enemies.
"Crap!"
Bete and Ais' eyes widened, they were unable to defend themselves all at once from different angles and there was nowhere to go but back down, which the minions weren't too keen on letting them do, at least, not unscathed.
The best they could have done was brace themselves, but fortunately did not need to do so as the remaining minions had been shot down by arrows as precise as those that came from Artemis' bow itself.
"Ya guys holding up fine?"
Surprised by the sudden assist, they all turned toward the source of the voice, it was Tsubaki wielding a large, wooden crossbow, but augmented with machinery to shoot out arrows in rapid succession.
"Tsubaki! About time you showed up to the fight!"
Finn acknowledged the presence of the weapon-wielding blacksmith, who smirked at him in her usual fashion.
"Sorry, been escorting Her Highness while we gathered the others, they'll be here shortly, just making some last-minute preparations"
She announced, much to the relief of the others.
"Thankfully, we can hold on unti-"
Tiona never got to finish her sentence as she felt an initial sharp pain in her right shoulder, which graduated into a feeling of temporary numbness from the adrenaline that was currently rushing through her body.
"AAAAGHHHH!!!"
Her shoulder had been badly cut by one of the monster's rapidly spinning projectiles, opening a wound that bled profusely as she lost power in that arm, which made her let go of her weapon.
But the projectiles were not yet content with the damage that they have wrought, for they made a sharp turn and renewed their assault on the vulnerable girl
"Tiona!!!"
Tione rushed to defend her sister, but found herself the new target of the projectiles instead.
Moving at speeds barely perceptible to her, she tried her best to defend herself
Inevitably, one of the projectiles got past her hectic defense, which struck her in her left abdomen
"AGH!!"
Wincing from the pain, Tione continued to defend as best as she could, but her defense was starting to get sloppy from the damage she received.
"TIONE!!"
Finn, having retrieved his spear earlier, rushed to defend the struggling amazoness, while Gareth rushed to her other half.
But before Finn could reach her, he was suddenly sent flying by the monster ramming into him at a high speed, crashing into some distance away.
"Captain!!!"
Tione exclaimed, worrying greatly for her commander's wellbeing
Unfortunately, she had lost concentration for just a moment, but that moment was all that was needed for most of the discs to get past her defenses and into her personal space
"Cra-"
Barely twisting her body in time to evade taking lethal damage, she nonetheless did take major damage, the first disc striking her in her left arm, the cut nearly reaching the bone.
There was no way she could dodge the three other incoming discs, her life was forfeit
Or it would have been until Ais and Bete decided to intercept them.
"Tione!"
Ais hastily took out a health elixir from her potion strap, uncorked it, and splashed it over Tione's injuries, adequately healing them.
"Ouch... thanks, you two"
She winced in pain as she thanked the two adventurers who narrowly saved her from dying
Without replying, Ais swung her sword at an incoming, opportunistic projectile
"Tch! We need to get these annoying discs off our asses!"
Bete crudely complained as he kicked another incoming disc away.
.
"Here lass"
Gareth poured the contents of a health elixir onto Tiona's open wound, working its magic, it stopped the bleeding and closed the wound
Inhaling sharply from the sudden sting of the liquid coming into contact with her fresh wound, she exhaled in relief once the sensation of pain faded as her wound was mended
"Phew, thanks Gareth, that was a close one!"
"Tsk tsk, a bit irresponsible of ya' getting distracted in the middle of a fight, eh Tiona?"
Tsubaki teased as she appeared beside the two, this time wielding her signature weapon, a katana
"Mouh! It's because you suddenly appeared out of nowhere!"
Tiona gave a pouty rebuttal, to which Tsubaki simply laughed
"True, it's partly my fault"
She stepped in front of them, staring down the approaching swarm of minions, ready to apprehend them
"So why don't you two it easy for now, I'll take care of things"
She noiselessly and adeptly unsheathed her katana, which glistened in the "moonlight"
"Are you sure, Tsubaki?"
Tiona asked, not necessarily out of worry for her
Turning back to them, she smirked
"Yea, why don't you babysit Gramps for the time being, it's past his bedtime"
Her joke earned her a stern glare from the dwarf, she laughed then sped toward the approaching swarm
"This is nothing!"
With cutthroat precision and minimal, extremely efficient movements, she turned the minions in front of her into nothing more but a bloody paste, taking out a solid quarter of the swarm in one go.
The rest of the minions took their chance as the new opponent in front of them was still recomposing herself from that initial attack.
Raising their claws, they readied themselves to swipe at the woman, intending to tear her apart chunk by chunk.
"Too slow!"
As it turned out, Tsubaki had merely feigned, and now the minions were the ones vulnerable as they carelessly and thoughtlessly rushed her supposedly vulnerable form
In a single, swift swing, she took out ten of the minions at once, and another taking out eight more.
.
"Woah!"
Bell narrowly avoided being tackled once more by the monster, ever since his ability started to generate noise, the monster had been hot on his heels since.
CLANG*
The tolling sound of the grand bells was becoming louder and more erratic, Argonaut had passed the three-minute threshold.
"HAAAHH!!!"
Bringing his knife down at the monster's extensively damaged outer disc, he recoiled from the feeling of the impact
'It's too tough!!!'
There was no way he was able to break through such a solid defense for he did not have the strength of Gareth.
'I can't fight it directly, I'll just keep dodging and trust in the others...'
Bell was ordered by Finn to stay by the sidelines no matter what and just focus on charging his Argonaut ability, to not worry about any fighting until he finally charged his attack since they would be defending him for the duration.
In a desperate move to stop the boy, the monster unleashed its four deadly projectiles straight at him.
Raising his right arm clutching the Hestia Knife to attempt to block the incoming threat, he was beaten to the punch by Tsubaki, appearing in front of him and intercepting all four projectiles without a care in the world.
"Hiya there Bell Cranel, figured ya' could use a hand"
She smiled at him in her usual cheerful fashion, her presence made Bell sigh in relief.
"Miss Tsubaki! I appreciate the help!"
Bell happily acknowledged her, returning her smile.
Caught off guard by the new foe in front of it, the monster let out another high-pitched screech of annoyance.
"So, mind telling me what ya' got cooking there?"
She pointed at the impossible-to-ignore, brilliant, yet soft white glow on his left hand
"I'm charging up for an attack on the monster, it's past the three-minute mark, I'll max it out in two more minutes"
Bell quickly briefed her on his and Finn's plan, to which she smiled in childish excitement
"Damn! I gotta see that!"
With renewed resolve, she charged at the monster with speeds that surprised both the monster and the albino boy
"Show me what'cha got!!!"
She taunted as she swung her katana at the beast, testing out the waters for now
The monster let out a minor shriek in pain as its outer disc was dented, but mostly shook off her attack.
Noticing this, she narrowed her eye
'It's tough all right...'
She clicked her tongue at the thought, this was going to be more troublesome than she had expected it to be.
Back with Bell, he continued standing idly by as he watched, with bated breath, the captain of the Hephaistos Familia clash with the restless monster, eager to tear him apart at any chance.
The slightest feelings of uselessness were festering inside him, but he forced them down as he remembered the direct orders he had received from Finn, and to place his trust in his comrades.
"Bell!"
Ais, Bete, and Tione approached him
"Are you guys alright? You took quite the beatings earlier..."
He, being the kindhearted soul that he was, worried for the well-being of his friends
"Tch, we've had worse, rabbit boy!"
Bete grumbled at him but decided to ask him about the status of his ability
"Is it done yet?"
He asked, only to receive a shake of the head from the boy, to which he clicked his tongue.
"It's past the three-minute mark though, just two more minutes left"
He responded, only to be shot another question, this time from Tione
"Is that... your ability when you fought the irregular minotaur on the surface?"
Tione asked, to which both Bell and Ais' faces soured after hearing, that she had just made them remember bad memories.
But nonetheless, Bell answered after a bit of hesitation
"Y-Yes it is, I'll tell you about it later, please help Miss Tsubaki out"
Bell pleaded for them to aid the less-than-struggling blacksmith, who was holding out quite fine on her own but would appreciate a little help.
"Tch,! Well, come on then!"
Bete was the first to jump into the action, following shortly after him, while Ais remained by Bell's side for a little bit longer.
"M-Miss Ais? I-is something the matter?"
Raising an eyebrow at her, Bell asked her what was wrong, receiving no reply as no words were exchanged between them for a solid ten, uncomfortable seconds.
"Bell... do you hate me?"
She finally spoke, surprising Bell
"H-Hate you? W-what possibly for?"
Bell was genuinely shocked she'd asked such a question
"W-well, about that little... disagreement we had... back then..."
Ais solemnly turned her gaze to her feet, her pair of golden irises unable to meet his rubellite ones
Realizing what she was talking about, he sighed
"Miss Ais... my belief still stands to this day that it was you who were clearly in the wrong at that time"
It was the response that she was expecting, a censure from the boy and maybe even ridicule. A feeling of tightness was forming in her chest, was it hurt, guilt, shame, all of the above, or none? She did not know.
"But, I understand that you have your reasons for acting the way you did..."
Her eyes widened at the boy's interjection
"So, to answer your question, Miss Ais... I don't hate you, I've never hated you, and I never will"
He replied, his words honest and heartfelt.
Her eyes widened as small traces of tears began forming in her eyes, it was as if a huge load had been taken off her conscious by his words.
"I see, I'm glad..."
She gave him a beautiful smile, which made his cheeks gain a light pinkish dusting
"*Ehem* S-Shouldn't you be helping them out?"
He less than gracefully shifted her focus from the awkward situation to her comrades currently engaged with the monster.
"R-right, can we talk about it some more at another time?"
She asked once more before she headed off
Unsure, the boy replied with a hesitant "yes", to which she nodded to before joining the fray.
.
"Ow ow ow... Bastard got me good..."
Finn muttered to himself as he tried to get up from the large ditch his earlier impact had created, with a fair amount of struggling due to a fractured clavicle, a few ribs, and his left arm.
Using his spear to prop himself up to a standing position, he grits his teeth from the pain, tasting iron.
Rolling up some bit of blood in his mouth, he spat it out onto the floor
"Things are starting to heat up now..."
Sighing lightly lest he further aggravate his injuries, he pulled out an intact health elixir from his pouch, opened it, and downed its contents, feeling himself heal from within.
"Looks like you got your behind promptly handed to you"
A familiar voice caught his attention, the captain of the Loki Familia turned and locked gazes with the Familia's Vice Captain.
"Riveria! Glad you guys are finally here!"
Regaining some of his spirit after seeing that the heavy hitters were now here, the tide was now about to change.
.
"COME ONNNN!!!"
With a fierce cry, Bete unleashed a powerful roundhouse kick directed at the monster, only for a wall of minions to quickly form in front of their master and absorb the blow.
The impact initially killed off a few minions, punching a gap through the wall, but unfortunately for the werewolf, his leg was caught by the minions before he could get away.
"WHA-?!"
Surprised, Bete attempted to raise his other leg to free himself, but the aforementioned other leg was also grabbed a hold of, immobilizing it as well as the minions started grabbing a hold of the rest of his body.
"!!!"
Feeling their numerous claws scratching and wounding nearly every square inch of his body, he panicked.
"HAAAH!!!"
With extreme precision, Ais carefully and adeptly tore through the horde of minions without harming the werewolf they held onto, freeing him
Taking a few breaths to collect himself, Bete nodded his gratitude at the blonde sword princess.
"No problem, le-"
Without any warning whatsoever, Ais was rammed right into Bete by the monster at high speed, sending its two foes rocketing some distance away, both down for the count for now.
"Ais! Bete!"
Tione exclaimed out in worry for her two friends but immediately found her attention being forcefully taken back to the fight as she heard multiple buzzes rapidly getting closer.
Once again, the dreaded projectiles were approaching, intent on cutting down its targets this time.
"Those again?!"
To add fuel to the fire, in front of her was a horde of minions rapidly approaching, one too many for her weapons specialized in combat with only a few enemies at most prepared to deal with.
"Damn!"
Then, she suddenly had an idea
Decreasing her speed, she purposefully let the discs get closer to her as she bolted right toward the malicious horde of minions, who were ready to receive and tear her apart.
Then, right before she was about to be sandwiched, she made a sudden sharp turn to the side and evaded the rushing projectiles by a hair's length, leaving them rocketing toward the minions, who scurried to get out of the way but not before a few in front of the horde got sliced to bloody ribbons.
"Haha! Nice try!"
She taunted, but then was caught off guard by a large fireball slamming right into her.
A few minions had charged up their attack beforehand, and seeing as she had witted herself out of the sticky situation, they shot their attack at her.
"AGHH!!!"
Immediately being inflicted with second and third-degree burns, Tione growled in pain as the force of the attack sent her slamming into the floor, generating a crater, steaming and badly burnt, she struggled greatly to reach for a health elixir in her pouch.
Not willing to allow their opponent even the slightest time to gather herself together, the minions, numbering in the dozens, all charged at her, claws outstretched ready to tear her into nothingness.
"Nah ya 'ain't!!!"
Tsubaki went for a last-minute save, slicing through the quickly approaching minions as easily as a hot knife going through butter.
"T-Tsubaki... I ow-owe..."
Tione struggled to speak to thank the blacksmith but was shushed by her as she took out a high-grade health elixir and poured its contents all over the injured girl, which immediately began to heal all of her burns and wounds.
"Goodness, you gotta stop being so reckless..."
Tsubaki scolded as she split another incoming minion in half
"I-It's not on purp-"
"Don't lose focus now, the main force is here"
Tsubaki interrupted her as she pointed toward the recently arrived group of Finn, Riveria, and the others.
"C-Captain!"
Tione exclaimed in joy upon seeing the prum was alright
Finn's eyes scanned the battlefield, finding Gareth along with Tiona, and Tione with Tsubaki, with Bell Cranel passively and diligently charging up his ability, avoiding any fighting. He was unable to find any trace of Bete and Ais though.
"Listen up everybody! We're in the final stretch, let's give it our all now!"
Short yet concise, Finn shoveled more coal into their burning fighting spirits.
"Riveria and the mages, start chanting!"
With his last order given, Finn jumped back into the battlefield, ready to throw down the monster with his allies once again.
Needing no further prompting, Riveria ordered the mages to chant their spells while the marksmen were to shoot down any approaching minions.
And to make things better...
*CLANG!!!*
With the last cacophonous clang of the grand bell, five minutes had passed, and Argonaut had been fully charged.
His left arm shone a blinding, white light as if it were the sun itself, shaking with the sheer power aching to be unleashed.
Directing his left palm toward the Hestia Knife held by his right arm, he chanted
"Firebolt"
Then in an infinitesimal amount of time, a large torrent of flames quite literally exploded from his left arm, which was voraciously siphoned by the weapon, the intensity and heat of the magic it absorbed making it glow blue.
"Argo Vesta..."
And another chapter done! Been less busy this week with schoolwork so I had more time to write, but not sure about the following weeks so the next chapter will be out in either five to six days at the soonest and probably a week and a half at most. That's pretty much all I want to say for this chapter, so I'll be on my way now, thanks for taking the time to read! Please share your thoughts in the comments if you'd like to, constructive criticism and suggestions are always very greatly appreciated!