178 CHAPTER 178(Perfect Intuition)

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---

"ICE, NOW!" Finn's desperate voice screams out.

As all abled body adventurers scramble to swing their Ice Magic Swords at the monster or chant their spells she rushes toward the Heat Rods.

Down in the arena the first-class adventurers were in terrible shape, if not dead.

In her mad dash to the rods Kulve didn't notice nor care that she completely trampled some of them, Tione barely being pulled out of her path by Bete.

Gareth was not as fortunate, a claw crushing him into the ground and burning his body. Leaving him lying broken in a molten crater.

With a pained groan Finn stabs his spear into the ground and pushes himself up, only to collapse down to one knee.

With his clothes and flesh severely burnt he'd need serious help. Looking around the other adventurers were much worse off on account of being a lower level. Allen was struggling to his feet while chugging an Elixir across the arena.

All but one man was down, with Ice Magic being hurled overhead and the savage roars of the monster in their ears. Ottar rises to his feet, closes his eyes and takes a deep breath, he wills his body to keep moving.

His muscles bulge once more and his veins pulse a bright purple.

Stortus Ottar immediately takes effect, Finn watches in amazement up close with many others as he sees the cuts and burns rapidly healing. Red mist wafting off the man as his skin perfectly heals.

His veins bulge a bit more before his muscles tighten, his breath becomes red steam as his eyes go bloodshot.

His second skill, Beastification. A skill all animal people can unlock, some such as Bete of the Werewolf species are naturally born with it even without Falna. But through Falna anyone can unlock it, giving in to their baser instincts for a massive boost in physical stats, temporarily suppressing the 'human' part of what makes them Animal-Humans.

As a Boar-Human Ottar becomes a relentless, merciless beast that would trample and destroy anything in his way, and right now Kulve Taroth was in his way.

Grabbing his sword he bolts off, rushing up the back of the monsters, with one unholy slash he brings the Durandal blade down and tears off the last piece of gold from her coat.

Feeling the cold chill of all the different Ice Swords he ignores it, the monster's heat was resisting it already, he had to break the horns for the magic to take effect, and he had to do it before Kulve reaches the pillars.

Ottar rushes atop the monster's head and begins hammering away at the gold-coated left horn of the monster. Blinded by the white and blue of all the different ice spells he gives everything he has into at least breaking one, that would weaken the monster enough for them to have a chance.

With all his skills active each blow against the horn shook the entire battlefield. Earthquakes after earthquakes made it difficult for some people to stand or concentrate on their magic.

Kulve was forced to stop her charge, thrashing, roaring, and rolling on the stone ground to get this nuisance off. Opting to headbutt the surrounding cliffs which held up the lower level adventurers she brings down dozens of people and ends even more lives in a feeble attempt to get Ottar to stop.

For a full minute the man is relentless. Becoming battered and bloodied as she slams him against walls and the floor. He Felt his flesh constantly burning as if someone was peeling his skin away only to heal over and over again, yet Ottar still didn't let go.

As he hears a resounding crack, the gold is finally broken and knocked off the horn. Unfortunately, his strength finally gives out and fatigue takes hold of him, the cost of his Beastification skill. With the last of his strength, Ottar leaps up to the sidelines, above the arena and onto one of the ledges with the supporters for this hunt.

As he lands on his feet he immediately crumples to his knees, barely keeping one eye open as drowsiness washes over him and his body returns to normal.

He could have stayed on the horn and gotten two more blows in, but what happened next showed exactly why that would have been the wrong choice.

Kulve immediately rushes toward the Heat Rods once more, in front of it two mages are chanting whilst one releases a modest stream of Ice Magic from a magic sword, no bigger than a dagger.

Lefiya and Riveria finally complete their chants, only thanks to the time Ottar bought them, at once they invoke the same spell, "Wynn Fimbulvetr."

Riveria's ice magic fires off in a straight line from both women, a combined attack done through years of practice together. One row of ice forms from them to Kulve Taroth, the ice appears on her and immediately begins to cool her red hot body, the blinding light she was generating begins to finally dim as a block of ice is left on the battlefield.

Before anyone can even cheer however, the ice begins to melt. Ice fabled as being able to freeze even time itself, was melting.

"Wah, what do we do?" Lefiya asks, staring at the melting ice with wide and horrified eyes.

"We stall," Riveria says. "We have to trust our team, that's our job as mages, that monster wants these rods and we can't let that happen."

Holding her staff up once more Riveria begins chanting her barrier spell, Lefiya hesitates for a moment. Looking at the incoming Elder Dragon, the broken and dead adventurers scattered about, she wanted to run, every part of her wanted to run.

Hedin decided that would be the most logical move, a pragmatic strategist who doesn't simply act on faith, he leaves the plateau and moves up onto the ledges at the side, taking a new and safe position.

Seeing her choices laid out, Lefiya decides her path, she wouldn't be someone who runs from danger, she'd trust her team to have her back, especially against monsters.

Raising her spear up she begins chanting as well to use Riveria's barrier spell.

As they chant the ice begins to weaken more and more, within a few seconds it completely shatters. Large chunks fly everywhere as most of it simply melts or evaporates from Kulve's heat.

The monster pauses for a moment and shakes her head, stumbling side to side as she sways. Shaking the dizziness away she releases a hellish roar, Lefiya instinctively takes a step back, her spell breaks. She isn't able to use Concurrent Chanting yet therefore she can't so much as move while casting.

Seeing this Riveria turns to her student, her Alf Regina already absorbing the girl's magic into her own, as a user of Concurrent Chanting the princess grabs Lefiya by her arm.

"What? Wait no!" Lefiya cries out as she realizes what's happening.

Riveria knew the girl wouldn't be able to chant the spell in time to help, and she knew this shield was more of a stop-gap measure after seeing the little effect two of her spells had on the monster.

But she had to stand her ground. She knew if the Heat Rod's break everyone here will certainly die, they were the only thing between the monster and the rods. And if Lefiya couldn't help, then she didn't need to be here when the shield inevitably breaks.

Lefiya looks on in horror as she's tossed away, feeling despair at the solemn look on Riveria's face, understanding how useless she would have been there. When her mentor needed her most, she couldn't help at all...

As Riveria's barrier comes up Kulve collects herself and rushes forward with immense speed. Gone was the large and sluggish Elder Dragon, without her extra weight from the massive gold coat her strength was now on full display. The much more slender body was a complete contradiction to the insane strength and speed held within.

In a matter of seconds she clears the hundreds of feet and begins clawing away at Riveria's barrier. The yellow bubble shakes and trembles, the monster relentlessly slashes away with her claws while pushing all the heat she can, attempting to crack the spell as if it were an egg.

Desperate to get to the rods so she may unleash her full strength once again and completely destroy the opposition, Kulve ignores the feeble attempts people were making to pull her attention away from the barrier. The main threats were gone, Gareth and Ottar were too broken or tired to lift a finger. Finn and Allen were horrendously burnt and needed more time to get healed before they could move.

Feeling the ground shaking and breaking apart beneath her feet Riveria prepares for what's coming. Staking her staff into the ground she focuses all her magic on stalling for as long as possible, thinking of her allies, all the things they've done together. The lives she's helped save and raise, she smiles happily for once at that nicknamed she'd always been annoyed by, Dungeon Mom. Thoughts of Lefiya and Ais cross her mind, one girl she raised like her own daughter and almost turned out to be their undoing. The other was more like her daughter and even treated her as her mother, just as much as a mentor, Loki familia's next vice-captain, Orario's next great mage.

From the sidelines Lefiya barely manages to see through her teary eyes the smile on Riveria's face as her eyes close and her hands let go of her precious staff. Still standing tall staked in the ground, a sign to her student, Loki familia would exist beyond her lifetime.

The last of her magic is finally used and her body collapses, with one final swipe the barrier shatters like glass and the Elder Dragon melts the entire plateau. In a wave of heat and gold everything is destroyed, only the two Heat Rods are left standing, along with the metal head of a lone staff, the rest of it completely incinerated.

Lefiya slumps to her knees, mind completely blank as she stares at the impossibility. Seeing the plateau break as Kulve grabs both the Heat Rods in her maw and begins biting down, seeing the head of Riveria's staff fall to the ground, nobody knows what to do.

Everyone feels despair, and Finn feels betrayed. His intuition was wrong? The almost divine sense second only to Loki's Trickster's Intuition was wrong? The very thought never occurred to him, it hadn't happened in all his time as an adventurer.

He wasn't quite sure what to do, but he knew he had to do something, he immediately tried to stand up only to have Tione pull him back down.

"You need one more Elixir," she says quietly, tears flowing down her face as she opens another vial and pours it over his head.

"We need to evacuate," Finn tells Tione before he looks over to Bete, "can you run ahead while we try to stall, hopefully they can meet us a few floors up," he says.

"Ach," the Werewolf forces himself to stand up on his bloody feet, "yeah, I'll have em here in no ti--"

CRACK!

His words are cut off by Kulve Taroth cracking the heat rods, their heads turn to her as everyone prepares for death.

A moment later the crack spreads, and both rods snap.

The shimmering heat leaving the monster in waves was being pulled into the rod, now it would wash over the battlefield and boil them all in their own skin.

Many people closed their eyes, preferring to accept death in the darkness, others stared on in horror knowing what was coming.

But no heat came, and everyone was confused.

Even the monster herself showed some confusion, looking around for another of those accursed rods.

"Up," Finn says. Tracking the shimmering air with his eyes he sees it moving up, hundreds of feet above them to one of the lower ledges of floor twenty-six.

"Oh thank the gods," he says in relief as he drops back onto the ground...

Standing at the edge of the ledge was Welf, with two massive greatswords on his back, both white and blue with cold mist pouring off of them and Mosoka pointed down toward the battlefield. His signature weapon was glowing a dark red as it absorbed all the excess heat just like the Heat Rods did, it was now obvious to everyone where he got the design.

To his right was Thalie, wearing standard combat clothing with no armor and holding her spear at her side, glaring down at the monster. Now finally able to stand in dangerous places like this with no fear. [See chapter 55]

To Welf's left is the sight that really gave Finn a sense of relief, not only had Yang Shen arrived, but he was sitting on the ledge with his feet hanging off the edge as if it were the most normal thing in the world. To his right slumped against his shoulder was his blue Zinogre Coat, roughly wrapped around a sleeping Riveria.

As he begins to put the pieces together the monster takes notice of the newcomers, building immense heat like never before it breaks through to its final enraged state. Almost sinking into the stone floor as its entire body burns bright golden-white.

Taking a few steps away from the cliff face Kulve aims up and opens her mouth toward them, unreal heat pours out in a dense line. The ground around the monster melts and is pushed back in ripples as if it were waves on the ocean from the sheer heat and force, but the Trifecta doesn't even react.

Welf only adjusts his weapon slightly and the stream of heat splits down the middle as it reaches them, melting the walls to the far sides of their team and leaving them unharmed.

"Can you guys start this one, I need to go get this to someone responsible," Yang says as he pats Riveria on the head.

"Sure, but don't take too long, might miss all the fun. These babies weren't exactly made with stalling things in mind," Welf says as he draws one of the massive Magic Swords.

With a nod to Thalie she drops into a low crouch, closing her eyes she takes a deep breath, "War God's Blessing," she activates her evolved magic.

Around her body the outline for a set of roman armor forms like gold wires. Full plate much like her standard armor with gauntlets and boots, focusing on Liberty in her hand the spear shines a brilliant gold just as her magic. She turns to Welf and gives him a nod, "ready."

"Here we go," Welf says as he swings the sword down.

Most smiths aside from gods can't create Magic Swords, only a handful in the entire world can create magic swords larger than a dagger, Hephaestus has two such smiths. Tsubaki, given much time can create a Magic Sword in the shape of a full longsword.

But Welf was a completely different beast.

Two greatsword-sized Magic Swords, not regular greatswords, adventuring greatswords, buster swords.

Beyond the fabled anomalous blades of the cursed Crozzo bloodline which brought down a country in one night.

With a single swing, Kulve's heat is more than nullified, she's utterly embarrassed. The flakes of gold in her heat breath freeze in mid-air and fall to the ground as ice and snow rush toward her. In an instant he does what two casts of the strongest Ice Magic in the world and hundreds of other spells couldn't do.

Kulve Taroth is once more trapped in a block of ice.

Looking at the spectacle all the mages feel despair, but none more than Lefiya. The exact words of her mentor were indisputably proven wrong, there is a world where a Magic Sword could replace an artillery mage, they were already living in it.

BOOM!

The sound barrier shatters as a golden arrow descends from up high. In an instant almost too fast to track Thalie crashes into the chunk of ice and bores all the way to the monster.

With perfect accuracy she slams into the monster's horn, using the already formed crack as the entryway for Liberty. The golden spear is pushed past anything it's done before as it digs in and shatters the horn.

An explosion of heat and force rocks the arena as chucks of icy fly everywhere. The monster topples over and rolls a few times while Thalie is knocked back into a deep hole in the cliffside she dropped down from.

Not far from the spectators falls a metallic blue and golden horn, roughly broken off of the growling monster.

They receive no cheers or applause, only jaws on the floor as everyone watches in stunned silence.

"Should we help?" Tione asks, not quite sure how they were expected to proceed.

"No," Finn calmly answers, "I don't think this is a fight we can step into."

As the monster rises to its feet Thalie jumps out of the hole in the wall and lands on her feet, Welf drops down beside her, using flames from Mosoka to soften his landing as he still holds the greatsword in his off-hand.

Two against one, both parties immediately charge each other, trading blows, blasts of heat, and Ice Magic, all while Yang slowly descends toward Lefiya.

"Hey," he greets the Elf as if this were a casual encounter on the streets of Orario. "You ok?"

"Uh-um, yeah, when did you... thank you!" she gives him a deep bow.

"What? For saving her? C'mon, couldn't let my favorite Elf die," he jokes while still holding the sleeping woman.

"When did you even? I mean, you should probably go help your team, I'll take care of her I promise," Lefiya reaches out to take the woman off his hands.

As he hands her over Yang carefully removes his coat while giving Lefiya an apologetic look, "if Freya smells another woman on this we'll all be in trouble," he says before storing it away.

"Oh, right, Lady Freya. Thanks again for helping us," Lefiya says one last time.

"Don't mention it..." Yang turns around and slowly begins walking toward the fight.

'So he really didn't know about the deal,' Lefiya turns to look at the woman sleeping in her arms, 'you were right about that devil...'

Strolling back toward the fight Yang looks around to see the aftermath of the battle. Adventurers desperately trying to get away from the monster and his team as they clash. Elixirs and Potions being handed out, healing spells constantly being chanted on the sidelines.

He shakes his head at all this wasted effort, so much trouble, if Royman wasn't such a stickler for the rules he wouldn't have had to make that deal with Ouranos, all these theatrics wouldn't be necessary at all...

Much to the surprise of everyone watching he arrives at the fight and only stands on the sidelines, observing Thalie and Welf fighting the monster. Unlike the previous adventurers, her spear, at least in its current state could pierce the Elder Dragon's hide even through the gold.

Welf's signature weapon was useless in terms of offense as Kulve is immune to fire but he kept it out to deal with the ambient heat, the Magic Sword in his offhand however allows him to hurl Ice Magic whenever he sees an opening.

"How does the magic feel?" he asks from the sidelines as Thalie ducks under a claw swipe.

"Intoxicating!" she shouts back.

'Uh, that's a bit concerning,' he thinks to himself. Looking over to Welf he sees the man focusing on the right arm, constantly ducking and weaving through attacks as he slashes out with the greatsword.

As the breath attack starts once more they both leap backward and Thalie gets behind Welf, again he easily blocks it.

After almost another full minute of fighting, allowing his team to stretch their muscles for a bit Yang finally join the fight. "Let's wrap this up," he says while leaping up and punching Kulve in the jaw.

With his immense strength, the entire battlefield shakes as the monster rolls over from the force, some of its teeth go flying before it comes to a stop.

Taking the chance Welf dashes forward and aims to pierce its chest with his Magic Sword, seeing the attack coming Kulve reaches out and swipes at him. Moving instinctively he blocks with Mosoka, a blade of pure flame at the edge of his weapon as her claw grinds against it.

Where nothing should have happened, something did. A flicker of a black flame appeared just before they made contact. A flame so potent that it would never be matched by any fire in this world, even when considering the flames of Yang Shen.

A flicker of impossibility which all great smiths cling onto in their hearts becomes real as he cuts the claw off the monster. A feat beyond simply hitting hard enough or being at the right level. Mosoka cuts with pure heat. Kulve Taroth is an Elder Dragon completely immune to fire.

A flame beyond Fire Immunity flickers to life for barely a moment, barely enough for even Welf to notice before he drives the ice sword into the monster's arm.

Jumping back in immense pain Kulve feels her arm go numb around the injury, the wound tries to burn itself shut only for the blade to get stuck causing it to be pulled out of Welf's grip when she jolts backward.

Ice begins to spread up her arm from her hand where she was stabbed all the way up her body, in an incredible display he was freezing her arm completely with one sword.

Always one to surprise these adventures Kulve recognizes what's happening and gnaws into her biceps, biting through flesh and bone she tears the arm off before the ice can spread all the way to her shoulder.

The arm and Magic Sword both shatter as they hit the ground just a few dozen feet away from the monster.

"That's cheating, right?" Welf asks with his mouth agape, nobody had ever expected to see something like that.

"I dunno, we'll check the rules after," Yang jokes as he summons his weapon. All eyes move to the Switch-Axe as it appears in his grasp, seemingly the same size as the user he holds it toward the monster and passes magic through it.

"You've got this right?" Thalie asks.

"It's only for a few seconds, I got this," Yang says. He'd been much more efficient with his Chaos Mark lately, and right now he had a feeling the physical boost was needed, but the longer he uses the mark the less control he has. Channeling his Cold and Water magic he summons his Elemental Wheel with both elements in tandem. Pushing the magic into his axe the weapon shifts and morphs into a shining blue greatsword with cold mist pouring off of it.

Seeing the monster trying to stand on three legs only for it to faceplant into the floor, Thalie rushes forward and sweeps its remaining front leg out from under it, "now!"

Taking a deep breath Yang activates his Chaos Mark, Lefiya feels a cold chill run down her spine at the sight. Memories of her best friend flowing back.

As if he teleported, one moment he crouched down and the next he was gone.

One massive vertical slash into the monster's skull completely divided the head in two, shattering the completely untouched horn in the process.

With absolute ease, a month-long hunt was dealt with by three adventurers while they were cracking jokes.

Everyone felt the bitter taste of despair at the realization, but some felt hopeful. Notably, Ottar felt extremely hopeful, he now had a goal that he could aspire to be. He now had some idea of how badly he was lacking, and he immediately made plans to rectify his lacking strength.

As the crystal in the body cracks from the sheer force of his attack, the corpse becomes blue dust, the mark of a boss-type monster dying. The gold that'd been pouring from the dungeon disappeared along with the corpse only leaving the two horns.

But this was an Elder Dragon, something always has to be strange about them, they always seem to want the last word.

As the corpse disappears one last wave of heat ascends toward the sky. Slamming into the ceiling of the Water Palace, the underneath of floor twenty-four.

The dragon organ which controls and generates Dragon Energy in Elder Dragons had ruptured from the slash.

Looking up Yang only released an annoyed sigh as he sees the entire ceiling suddenly dropping as molten stone. A floor the size of almost a quarter of Orario and the surrounding rocks were falling on their heads.

'We need to get to the tunnel,' everyone thought, already trying to get moving.

The executives knew better however, they didn't move an inch, they didn't see a need to. If the Trifecta isn't moving, all would be well.

In one swift motion Welf draws the untouched Ice Sword from his back and releases all the magic directly upward. A blinding white light shone forth and when all eyes were opened, they were wide as saucers.

These weapons were made while Welf kept one of Yang's more, dramatic, moves in mind. Ice-Age.

The entire ceiling now had a small glacier with massive chunks of instantly frozen rock inside. All hanging hundreds of meters above their heads. The Great Fall, a waterfall 800 meters tall and 400 meters wide was a sheet of solid jagged ice.

Everyone could easily see their breath and all the lakes of the Water Palace were frozen completely solid.

"Welf..." Yang says in a low voice as the magic sword shatters.

"Yeah yeah, I overdid it," the smith groans.

"Honestly sometimes I forget you two are just kids," Thalie jokes bitterly, "then sometimes you do shit like try to pet a shark or get too excited with a magic sword, then I remember..."

"I'm twenty," Welf argues, "I'm not a kid."

"Well I am," Yang gladly says, "if I can pet a shark, I'm gonna pet a shark..."

As they go back and forth with the nonsensical chatter, once more discussing the merits of petting dangerous animals, a discussion Yang's behavior tends to bring up.

Everyone is staring on awkwardly, not quite sure what to do.

Eventually, the captains of the familias give them sincere gratitude after being healed enough so they can actually stand up.

But looking down at his thumb Finn finally puts the pieces together, his intuition is in fact perfect, it simply had more information than he thought was out there. It knew they'd win from the moment they left Orario not because they had the heat rods, but because the Trifecta followed them down. This could only beg the question.

'Why didn't they help earlier...'

END CHAPTER---

Got Thalie's new magic idea from Armor(X-men) aka where Kishimoto basically stole Susanoo from, had her new magic planned since chapter 1 but I think I saw something like it in the Eternals trailer so just had to clarify.