104 CHAPTER 104(The Strongest Familia)

Please read the author's notes. (Examples and explanation of moves and appearance+ Monster Sources)

Discord: https://discord.gg/K7f8qGpvuk

pat.treon:/Keanu_Eugene

CHAPTER START---(Lots of Pics in comments/paragraph-comments for this chapter)

---Floor 35...

"I can hear it..." Ottar's deep voice quietly says, standing on a raised area looking down at the tunnel to the 36th floor below them, Freya familia's strongest team, no, mankind's strongest team waits for their target.

The 35 and 36th floors are one of the few floors in this section of the dungeon with only one path between them, the perfect spot to ensure you don't miss your moving target.

Stepping forward, Ottar holds his Supreme Black Sword with its point in the stone ground, the blade reaching above 6ft, reaching his collar bone. The rough and crude handle molded from the same hung of tempered metal, the entire weapon was a testament to the strength of its user. A show of power that values function over form in every way, no extra detailing, only metal and violence given form.

"Not so fast Ottar, I'd rather you engage only if needed," Hedin says as he walks up and stands beside Ottar. Placing the blade end of his staff on the ground he glances over at Ottar before looking down at the tunnel, his blonde hair and adventuring clothes immaculate as a former king should always be. "Some...all, of our allies are more desperate than ever to impress our goddess because of her new interest. They'd like to take this chance to try for a level up, draw her eyes away from Yang Shen and onto themselves."

"My lady tasked me with dispatching this monster immediately, that is what shall be done," Ottar turned his head slightly to meet Hedin's eyes, before looking back to the tunnel.

"Do you think they will stand for this Ottar, it's bad enough that they couldn't gain her attention, but someone outside of our familia managed it, and even had a night with her. Some of our more, passionate, members...well, if they can't win they may disobey our goddess and try to remove the winner to restart the contest."

Ottar's head immediately snaps back to the mage, his brows furrowed and eyes narrowed at the thought of someone attacking the latest source of Freya's joy.

"They know what that means, to betray our goddess is to invite death," his voice was a low growl at the thought.

"Yes, but people tend to do ridiculous things for 'love', give them a chance to deal with this monster and impress her, you're here so if things go bad you can step in," Hedin points out to his captain.

After a tense moment, Ottar moves his gaze back to the tunnel, "I won't intervene if this cost their lives, do as you like," short and to the point, if they wish to delay his goddess's will, then they would have to do it on their own, no matter the cost.

"This will keep them from doing something stupid and causing more trouble for our goddess..." Hedin says as he walks away from Ottar.

Contemplating the conversation he just had, Ottar can't help but ponder the idea of his allies attacking Yang,' anyone who upsets the goddess has to die...they have passion for our goddess, romantic and otherwise, but no...they know the outcome---'

Before his thoughts can go any further, the footsteps become much much louder. Looking down at the tunnel entrance, Ottar sees a dark green creature, almost like a Bloodsaurus but, bigger, angrier. As big as an Anjanath but bulkier, standing at maybe 12 meters tall. Its skin naturally torn by the force of the bulging muscles beneath, red steam constantly rising from the exposed muscles as heat that's being pushed off its body is boiling it from the inside out. A thick tail, having just as much mass as its torso to act as a natural counterweight, its chin having teeth flowing down like a thick beard, teeth constantly growing and pushing the previous row further down its face. A ferocious build, power and death wrapped in dark green and anger, but even Ottar couldn't help but raise a single brow as his eyes fell upon the impossibly tiny arms.

A low rumble echoes out, not from the mouth of the monster, heavy breathing is all that did, but the monster's stomach was rumbling. Unprecedented hunger like the world had never seen before.

Breaking into a sprint, the Deviljho rushes down the valley and grabs onto an unfortunate large bear monster, scooping the entire thing into its mouth and crushing it, the magic stone shatters and the body becomes ash as the monsters crystal enters the Deviljho.

'Just like the information the guild gave, the 'Savage Deviljho'... its body can't keep up so it has to keep eating to survive... we can stall it out if we wanted,' Ottar instantly realizes as he walks along the top of the valley observing the monster.

"Have you studied it enough?" Hedin asks as he walks beside Ottar, watching the Deviljho consume some unfortunate monsters.

"This is the variant."

"I'm aware, that changes nothing, permission to engage captain?"

"Hmm, granted," Ottar says with a small nod, stopping in place to give his full attention to the fight.

Standing in a rocky flatland with small boulders scattered about, the Deviljho spots Ottar's 7ft tall figure above as it finishes its latest meal.

"RRAARRGGHHH!" its ear-piercing roar echoes across the landscape as it breaks into a mad dash toward the king.

"Oh-"

"No-"

"You-"

"Don't."

The Gulliver brothers, known by Bringar say in their emotionless voices. The Pallum quadruplets leap toward the creature, wearing their full white clothes with half plate and helmets, the famous level 5 siblings are the first to engage.

The siblings communicate perfectly in and out of battle, often finishing each other's sentences and having complex conversations without uttering a single word, even with helmets on.

As the brothers descend onto the monster, they all strike in the same instant.

A hammer slams into the face of Deviljho, the monster barely flinches.

A greatsword slashes into its back, the blade struggles to get even an inch deep into the absurd muscle before being shrugged off.

An axe crashes onto the back of the monsters neck, the adamantite blade bounces off the skin and bone at the base of the skull.

A spear is plunged toward its leg, trying to immobilize the monster, the blade gets a few inches in before the muscles flexing grips onto it, whilst all his brothers are shrugged off and cast aside by the physical might of the monster, Alfrigg, the self-proclaimed leader of their little team and the oldest of the brothers is dragged along as it rushes to snap at his hammer-wielding little brother.

As the pallum swings his hammer as the toothy maw descends onto him, he steps to the side, his small frame allowing him to hide from the monster by using its own face for cover.

Before he completes his swing, the spontaneous plan they concocted in this moment is executed, a greatsword slashes the monster's neck, barely breaking the skin, his brother leans back as he brings the hammed down onto the back of the sword.

"GRAGH!" the monster groans out as it gets knocked away from them, its momentum making it stumble away from the two brothers.

As the monster takes a few steps away, their oldest brother places both feet on the thigh of the beast and puts his back into retrieving his spear, landing on his feet as they all regroup.

As the Pallum brothers stare down their opponent, silently forming a new plan, Hogni lands beside them.

"Please try n-not to look at me..." his voice was shaking, not from fear of the monster, he just doesn't like attention.

His simple purple and black outfit with a small breastplate over his chest rests below a dark cloak with a purple inner lining, the Dark Elf's tan skin and white hair being his stand out features as well as the longsword in his left hand, Black with a single line of leads all the way down to the zig-zagged tip of the blade.

As the five adventurers scatter about trying to confuse their opponent

"Shut up about that, be ready to charge in!" Hedin yells from his vantage point, "Caelus Hildr," a large magic circle forms roughly 10ft(3m) around him in deep yellow color. His super short chant long-range magic activates and 6, half of the thunder orbs his magic can make are released fly out and toward the ceiling of the massive rocky dungeon cavern they're fighting in.

All of his allies immediately dash away from the monster as the thunder falls, bringing destruction with it.

"I had to limit them because of space but this should do..." he mutters to himself while adjusting his glasses as the sound of explosions and agonizing roars spread out from the monster.

"Not enough," Ottar simply says as he looks at the pillar of smoke blocking their vision from the monster.

Before Hedin can even ask what he means, Deviljho makes one massive leap directly to his position, he immediately leaps away as the monster is in mid-air, but Ottar doesn't move.

Leaving his greatsword in the ground he cocks back his hand, delivering a left hook to the monster, instantly causing it to fall against the cliff he was standing on and tumble back into the battlefield.

'This thing, isn't enough for me...' he realizes as he now personally knows how strong it is, it wouldn't be enough to push him.

"This is taking too long, lady Freya doesn't have any competent guards with us here, let's finish this," Allen says as he walks out from behind Ottar and drops down to the monster. Kicking off the top of the cliff so hard that the area is cratered beneath his feet.

Rocketing through the air with spear in hand, wearing his full black armor with the visor to match, fallen strikes down onto Deviljho's midsection, an educated guess as to where the crystal would be.

As the blade of his spear completely pierces the monster's tough skin and muscle, his weapon gets stuck as the same tissue tightens and bulges around the weapon.

Placing both feet on the monster he pulls the spear out while vaulting over to his allies, "it's tough, are the muscles actively expanding?" he asks while twirling the boiling blood off his weapon.

"It would seem so, the information said it becomes stronger with anger, hunger, and pain...problematic..." Hedin reminds them.

"All monsters have a limit, we just need to get to the crystal anyway," Allen says as he rushes off, dancing around Deviljho as he constantly stops and swings at it, with every hit his limbs feel more numb and his hands rattle that much more, but he grits his teeth and pushes himself.

He's buying time, as Orario's fastest adventurer he would normally distract the enemy while everyone else got into position for Hedin to formulates a plan.

"I don't believe any of us have the physical strength to deal with this monster or pierce deep enough for the crystal, we'll have to cut it down and exhaust it like the profile said, as long as we keep it here and away from food it won't be able to fight forever and burn out, Hogni, let's save our magic as plan B," he says while flipping his staff so the blade half is now at the top to act as a sword.

"I don't like this kind of thing, but..." Hogni takes a moment to focus his magic, "Dainsleif," a super short chant magic is cast," hell yeah, let's kill this bastard!" he howls while lifting his sword and charging in, his magic completely flips the shy and timid personality to a bloodthirsty warrior, a necessary tool for him to be used in combat.

"Bringar, keep it busy while we cut it down," Hedin says while rushing forward.

With practiced ease, the seven adventurers dance gracefully around the flailing monster, Bringar constantly getting in Deviljho's face, giving it multiple targets and confusing it.

As it does a complete 180 spin to slam the massive tail into Hogni, Allen jumps above the mage, extending his spear all the way down for the Elf to grab the end as he rolls in the air, moving the spear and launching him onto the back of the monster while to tail passes below them.

Landing on the monsters back, Hogni digs his longsword in with all his might, only getting a few inches in, he kneels down holding the blade as he rears back his fist, "Burn Dain," he uses another super short chant magic, enveloping his fist in flames as he strikes down at the small wound, removing his sword and jamming his fingers into the skin.

What would normally be roaring flames becomes a wildfire as flames shoot up as well as into the monster, only being able to fight that much inside.

As the bright orange flames finish flowing, everyone jumps away as Hogni uses all his strength to leap as far away as possible. But the flames linger, even in mid-air as he was leaping away.

After a second...

*BOOM!*

All the flames explode, the monster cries out as it falls forward from the pain and injury, the skin on its back completely torn open and the muscles severely damaged, bones protruding outward as it tries desperately to stand up and keep fighting.

"Caelus Hildr," Hedin uses his lighting magic once more with half the true power of it, explosions rock the battlefield as the monster cries out in pain.

As the dust settles, a chunk of Deiljho's back is completely gone, Allen tightens his grip on his spear as he walks forward to finish the fight.

In a sudden burst of desperation, Deviljho begins releasing what looks to be a thundercloud from its mouth, black clouds with red lightning sparking all over it.

All the adventurers give the massive cloud a wide birth as it permeates the area around the monsters.

*BOOM!*

A massive red fiery explosion sends shockwaves all around as the strange clouds of lightning explode with incredible force.

As they all stare at the position the monster was in, the dust and debris settle, then a strange and loud crunching sound rings out.

The sound doesn't stop, it's coming from the dust...then they see it. Deviljho ate its own tail, an act of desperation that only happens when the monster is at its very limits.

A bloody stump is left at the end of the monster as they barely get to see it finish eating its own tail, a horrific and amazing sight as the monster ate half of its body weight in the time it took the smoke to clear.

"It's healing," Allen points out, seeing the red steam rising from the wound they had just caused, the muscle repairing itself at a visible pace but staying exposed.

"Destroy-"

"It-"

"From-"

"Inside," the Gulliver brothers say, converting their thoughts to everyone.

"Make us an opening to force-feed it some magic..." Hedin commands as they all charge the monster.

To say the Deviljho was slow compared to them would be a severe understatement, it couldn't land a hit much less a bite attack. Every time it would snap at one of them a massive hammer would slam into the side of its head.

Its legs were far too telegraphed to catch anyone by surprise, and now that it had no tail it could hardly afford to kick and possibly fall over.

Their weapons could cut it slightly, but nothing meaningful, but the physical attacks weren't the problem.

"Get back," Allen says as it bellows out another plume of the mysterious breath attack.

The stone floor is torn apart by the ensuing explosions as everyone braces themselves.

"NOW!" Hedin yells out, knowing such an attack would create an opening, a bold assumption.

Bringar immediately jumps into action as Allen runs interference, the four Pallums rushing up to the creatures' toothy maw, the hammer-wielding jumps directly toward the jaws.

The monster notices just in time for their plan to work, catching the Pallum in its mouth it clamps down hard, finally getting a meal, only for the hammer to be placed between its jaws.

The three other brothers immediately jump up as well, out of the corner of their eyes they see the adamantite hammer cracking just before they place their weapons vertically to keep the mouth open.

"Ready!" they call out simultaneously, holding onto their weapons rightly the tips of their blades beginning to pierce the roof of Deviljho's mouth.

Seconds later Hogni reaches up to the monster's mouth, forcing himself inside by crouching down and cocking back his fist.

A plume of black smoke begins to form as a gust of foul breath tries to push them out.

"C'MON!" Hogni smiles at the challenge and begins to punch forward," Burn Dain!" he yells out the chant as his fist erupts in orange flames.

A struggle between the torrent of Dragon Energy from Deviljo's mouth and Hogni's flames ensues, the blinding light causes everyone to squint to avoid hurting their eyes as loud explosions ring out.

The ground shakes as everyone gets scattered about. Bringar is ragdolled across the stone floor as well and Hogni, all groaning with Hogni's entire arm sporting intense burns, charred black and numb to him.

The Bringar slowly begins sitting up to see a large trench in the direction the monster was in. The creature in question granting as it lays on the ground at the end of the trench, its entire lower jaw completely gone and half its face blasted apart.

"Just-"

"Not-"

"Quite-"

"Enough," they say while forcing themselves to stand, bits and pieces of shattered weapons scattered around them.

"Hedin?" Allen asks as he looks to the mage."

"If I use my full magic in here is could cause a juggernaut to spawn, and we don't know if other adventurers are nearby to get hit, I think you'll have to finish it with your magic..." the elf says while adjusting his glasses, walking over to Hogni as he withdraws a potion.

"Damn it, I hate doing this shit, you bastards better not tell our goddess to embarrass me!" Allen bites out as he walks up to the monster as it slowly tries to get to its feet.

As he walks up, taking a deep breath, Allen raises a fist to his heart as he gathers his magic," Trample through all in our path as we escort her excellency, Vana Freya!" he cries out, casting his open hand forward as if reaching toward the monster while expelling all of his magic.

No sound

No explosion

Only destruction.

The ground as well as the monster breaks apart, as does the air and everything else in the wake of this attack. Powerful enough to kill even Ottar should he not put his all into defending, but as the monster is destroyed with one simple motion the drawbacks are made apparent.

"Shit---" Allen barely mutters out as he falls unconsciously, slamming into the hard floor for all to see.

His destruction magic is just that, destruction. At the cost of always using all the caster's mind and immediately sending them into mind down. Magic that embodies his will to sacrifice all for his goddess, even himself.

Combined with being the fastest and one of the most skilled adventurers in the city, it's no wonder Allen Fromel is second only to his captain in Orario.

Casually landing beside the unconscious man, Ottar picks Allen up and puts him over his shoulder before looking back at his team, they were all standing ready to get back to their goddess, Hogni having the arm of his clothes and his entire cloak gone as he pours another elixir onto himself.

Bringar had cracks and pieces of armor missing, most notably all their helmets were shatters and thrown across the battlefield.

"Let's go, our task is done here..." a simple direction by a man who had to watch an unnecessary fight. They would have been well on their way if their desires hadn't insisted he not fight...

END CHAPTER---

This chapter was so damn hard to write because the anime and manga haven't shown how they fight so I'm going off the LNs.

Savage Deviljo is NOT a elder dragon but it can challenge some of the weaker ones.