CHAPTER 195(The Monarchs Of Flame)

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

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pat.treon:/Keanu_Eugene

CHAPTER START---

---Dungeon Floor 96...

"You seriously don't know what these are?" Welf asks.

The smith was currently collecting samples of massive colorful crystals which were blooming from the walls of this particular area. After testing them with his bare hands he realized that these stones weren't as durable as they appear, but they carried no magical properties.

"I studied ecology, not geology, why the hell would I know what shiny rocks do?" Yang responds from his spot not too far from Welf, leaning against the wall, watching Thalie also admiring some of the crystals.

"I'm just saying these don't look natural," Welf says.

"The dungeon isn't exactly natural," Thalie reminds him. "But these are weird even for the dungeon, precious materials usually aren't just left above the ground. Not this much at least," she gestures to all the crystals blooming from the walls.

"Maybe we'll find a use for it on the surface," Yang suggests as Welf hands him the bag of samples to store away. "Or maybe the dungeon is throwing us some money."

"Unlikely," Thalie says. "Let's keep moving, hopefully we're done with those stupid lightning dragons for the day."

"They weren't that bad," Welf says, earning a headshake from the woman.

"You weren't stuck on the ground while they just kept using lightning bolts, damn things were smart...and that makes them annoying to fight," she says.

After almost an hour of uninterrupted walking they finally come upon something interesting.

A familiar scent assaults Yang, a scent that as far as he knew didn't really exist in this world.

"Stop," he raises a hand and their party comes to a halt, both his allies immediately readying weapons and on high alert.

Yang walks forward and removes his helmet, taking a deep breath and focusing on the overpowering scent of...fireworks.

All along the walls of this massive tunnel were the same crystals, only this time with black powder scattered about. On the walls, the floor, and the crystals.

"What is it?" Welf asks, copying Yang's actions and gathering some of the powder on his fingertips.

"Gunpowder..."

"Gunpowder?" Welf immediately begins collecting samples. "Your notes said this had to be made, how is it here?"

"I have no idea," Yang says as he walks further in, all the while observing the black powder and colorful crystals. "Be ready for anything, and obviously don't use fire."

"How dangerous are guns anyway, if this stuff got to the surface I mean?" Thalie asks.

"To adventurers, depends on the level. Bullets would be like more effective arrows to a certain point, but eventually, in the dungeon, around... maybe floor thirty, they'd be just as useless against monsters. But the danger is guns can be mass-produced, so we won't be revealing this to the surface or giving people any ideas," Yang says.

"Got it," Welf says as he seals the small pouch of powder. "And that's probably why Hephaestus doesn't want you introducing things from your world here anyway, but that doesn't explain why it's down here."

"Monsters with guns?" Thalie asks.

"No, that doesn't fit the theme of the dungeon," Yang says as he comes to a stop, observing some of the powder further in wasn't black, but blue. "Damn..."

"I'm guessing you figured out what we're about to fight, and you don't like it," Welf says.

"It's more annoying than dangerous, mostly because we're good with Fire."

"Oh perfect," Welf groans. "Another monster that Mosoka is useless against, thanks a lot," he switches to his adamantite greatsword.

"The red one is just resistant, not immune like Red Dragons, so not fully useless, just halfway," Yang says as they march forward very quietly.

"Thanks a lot..." Welf grumbles.

"So the crystals? And what's the plan?" Thalie asks as they approach the next chamber.

CRUNCH!

The sound of crystals shattering causes them all to freeze and listen in.

CRUNCH!

"That's them," Yang says as they approach the chamber and look inside. A much smaller battlefield than the massive stadium-style caverns was awaiting them.

Complete with a massive red lion monster, roughly the length of one and a half busses and as tall as a two-story building. Teostra the Emperor of Flame. An Elder Dragon in the form of a massive red lion with a thick mane, massive fangs. Scaly skin and small flickering flames on its hair and batlike wings.

It was currently eating an especially large chunk of the colorful crystal from the wall in the middle of the room. If not for their armor and skills the Trifecta would be feeling intense heat not only from this monster, but also from his Flame Empress.

Lunastra, effective a blue version of Teostra, complete with blue flames to match his red, was laying not far away peacefully asleep, shards of crystals around her from a presumably delicious meal.

"They eat the crystals to make the powder," Thalie says quietly.

"Yeah, you two take Teostra, the red one, I'll take Lunastra. She's stronger and immune to fire but he's just resistant," Yang informs them as they begin to move in.

"Have I ever told you how much I hate all these new monsters," Welf mutters just enough for them to hear him through the communication feature of their helmets. "Half of them are fireproof to some level and fire is kind of all I got..."

"Don't complain because you're basic," Thalie says. "Just focus on the fight. When Yang starts off we'll strike too, I assume we need to keep the happy couple apart, right?"

"Right," Yang confirms as he sees Welf and Thalie position themselves in line with Teostra while he approaches closer to the sleeping Lunastra. "They start working together and we're in serious shit. Elder Dragons have pretty epic super moves and these two have a combo version."

"My gods I hate these new monsters..." Welf mutters.

"Break the horns, legs, and wings, ready, and...GO!" Yang commands as he surges forward.

With one massive swing he cleaves down onto the sleeping Lunastra's head. His weapon switching from a great axe to greatsword mid-swing, fueled by blue Water and green Wind magic from his Elemental Wheel to make a bright shining blade, surging with both elements.

Before he can even make contact the sudden change in the environment from his magic causes the blue monster to startle awake, thankfully for him not soon enough to avoid the strike.

Before she could even lift her head he cleaves into the massive shield-like horn growing from the top of her face. The monster reels in pain as the horn shatters, leaving only a quarter of it on her head.

A massive explosion of Wind and Water magic plus the monster's blue flames fills the room and interrupts the others' fight as both Lunastra and Yang are ragdolled away from each other.

Shaking his head to get the ringing out of his ears, Yang looks across the chamber to see Lunastra groggily getting up, her body now covered in blue flames, not unlike his Mage armor.

Across the battlefield he sees Thalie and Welf working away at Teostra, constantly keeping the monster off-balanced and already causing one of his legs to bleed, Yang would wager a certain golden spear found its mark for that to happen.

Focusing on his own fight he charges forward, Lunastra regains her senses in time to match his strikes blow for blow. The powerful flame-coated paws of the Elder Dragon constantly slashing at the adventurer only for him to barely dodge.

Her agility shows when he's forced to block with his blade just as she is able to parry with her claws, but the cracks in her armor are showing. With every clash, he cuts deeper and deeper into her body.

The Wind and Water elements fueling his weapon chipping away at her resistance.

Eventually, she uses what would normally be a trump card, batting his weapon away mid-swing and releasing a powerful torrent of blue flames from her maw.

In response to the incoming attack, Yang activates his Elemental Wheel, pushing three elements into it for his Wind, Water, and Fire elements to mix together, keeping his weapon active while empowering his mage armor.

Rushing forward he tanks the torrent of flames head-on, feeling immense heat, the power of Dragon Energy essentially bypassing most resistances as always. His armor and Mage Armor combine to keep him moving as he feels the flames searing his skin.

To the surprise of the monster, he leaps out of the flames. "AAARGH!" With a mighty yell, he slashes out, splitting her mouth down the middle. Destroying her nose and leaving her jaw dangling with the force of his strike, not quite deep enough to split her entire skull.

Lunastra leaps backward as he deactivates his flame armor and lands on the ground, a gust of wind from her wings sending a new wave of blue explosive powder from her body and toward him.

"Mmm!" he grunts as he lifts his weapon, taking the massive explosion head-on. "Stupid gunpowder..." he mutters, lowering his weapon and focusing more on his Water Magic. A steady stream of water pours out of his armor and makes a pool on the floor. Dousing the puddles of what was essentially blue Napalm that the monster would leave in the wake of all her attacks.

As he collects himself he can feel his skin burning and tightening below his armor from the sheer heat of their clash. He puts aside any thoughts of drinking a potion however, as Lunastra immediately rushes over to Teostra, the red Elder Dragon was currently struggling to deal with both Welf and Thalie.

Using Mosoka, Welf would constantly counter the firey attacks, and Thalie, well, she's a lot for anyone to deal with. Constant high potency attack from a relentless woman clad in golden magic armor, that was a bit much for most opponents.

As Teostra senses his Empress coming closer he releases a ground-shaking roar and beats his wings. Sending a new wave of black powder at his opponents on a gust of wind, blinding them and buying himself a moment to rush into the air and link with his mate.

Yang immediately recognizes what's about to happen. A pit forms in his stomach as a mix of blue and black powder rains from the monsters as they hold onto each other and hover in the air. A beautiful dance of red and blue as flames build and build on their bodies, The Monarchs Of Flame combined attack, The Flame Bond.

In response, Yang races over to Thalie and Welf as they emerge from the cloud of black smoke.

"They're gonna blow!" he yells out through his helmet. Not using his flames to fly in order to avoid triggering the explosions, his feet move so quickly that he leaves craters in his wake. Craters that form almost two steps behind him as if trying and failing to catch up to his boots.

Seeing the blood dripping from Lunastra's face in one final glance he makes it over to his allies and pulls them both into a tight hug, almost cracking their armor with the force of his impact.

As he pulls them away they're both able to see a massive kaleidoscope of colors from the combined Nova of two Elder Dragons reaching out for them.

With Yang moving so quickly they could barely understand what was going on before conflicting hot and cold was washing over them.

Before they knew it they were stuck in a strange water bubble, multi-colored flames evaporating the water on contact as it tries to get at them from every angle, constantly washing over the bubble.

The more the water evaporates the more freezing cold water Yang produces to keep them safe. He was trying to form ice but the heat was simply too much for even his magic to match. Dragon Energy was still beyond him.

This attack simply ignores all resistances, knowing even his own Elemental Resistance wouldn't be enough he used what would now be called Water Prison to add countless layers of cold between them and the Elder Dragons.

Keeping his eyes shut he focuses only on his magic, and after almost a full minute of defending against this absurd attack, he feels Thalie tap on his shoulder.

Opening his eyes he sees the flames have stopped, allowing him to release the Water Prison.

As they all crumple to the floor gasping for desperate breaths, Yang pulls off his helmet to get some direct air as all the water is dried up by a much lower amount of ambient heat from the monsters.

"That was---" Yang takes another deep breath, "so much magic...shit..."

"It worked," Thalie says while standing up, using Liberty to support herself. "They're weak, let's end it."

"Hmm," Yang turns around to look at the monsters. True to her words they were struggling after using that much energy in that attack. Lunastra, the blue monster, was barely awake. Between using that much energy and the river of blood that's poured out of her face it was easy to guess she was too weak to really fight.

Teostra was fiercely defending his Empress, standing in front of her and posturing even while he himself was panting and not even covered in flames.

"Ok, let's end this," Welf says as he grips Mosoka firmly, rising to stand beside Thalie.

Without another word, they both move toward their opponent while Yang waits to finish off his own.

taking off in a mad sprint they charge the enraged monster, in its weakened and tired state it can barely defend itself. With deft action, Thalie shoots forward like a golden arrow once more and pierces its shoulder. Taking a massive chunk of bone and flesh as her entire body passes through the monster.

Following up on her attack Welf grips Mosoka with both hands, all his rage and anger bubbling over at the fact that most of these monsters make Mosoka, and by extension him, less than useful with their Fire-Resistance.

The usual longsword flame construct forms on both the rods of Mosoka, only instead of blood-red flames they're both made of jet black fire. It gives off no heat, but when he slashes down it cleanly cuts the Elder Dragon in two.

"RESIST THIS!" he yells out, flames flicker all over his weapon as the Elder Dragon is suddenly missing roughly a foot wide sliver of matter from the middle of its body, something that they were only able to tell because when the body dispersed and the crystal remained, that's the state it was in. As if that sliver never existed.

As the attack is finished he hunches over, deactivates his weapon, and puts his hand on his knees. Taking deep calming breaths, feeling his boiling blood slowly cooling down.

"You ok man?" Yang asks after a few moments. Welf raises his head to see the man holding Lunastra's fang, one of the many drop items he received from executing the weakened monster.

"Yeah, just need a minute," Welf says, waving away his friend's concern.

"Yang get over here!" Thalie calls out, waving the man over to the drop items from Teostra that she'd gathered.

As his friends deal with the loot Welf calms down enough to look over Mosoka.

A crack running a few inches long was slowly forming on one of the prongs of this tuning-fork-like weapon.

'Every time I use those flames it's like you're crying...' he thinks to himself while running a finger along the crack of his weapon. 'You were made to carry us to the end, just endure,' he thinks with a grim expression, not sure what he'll do if this weapon fails...

END CHAPTER---

I'll get my act together and have us back on schedule for Monday-Wednesday-Friday lunchtime uploads eventually, kinda in a rut at the moment :/