CHAPTER 199(Breaking Limits -III-)

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---

"Grand Eruption!" Yang cries out with his fist buried into the stone floor.

Two city blocks wide the floor of the dungeon immediately becomes molten, not from him generating heat.

No, he forcefully created more and more mass into the already dense floor, increasing the density and containing it to build pressure, thus forcing the stone floor to become hotter and six times tougher.

Effectively making the floor a pool of molten stone as dense as Tungsten.

Safi'Jiva immediately begins to sink into the floor, a heart-wrenching roar shakes the room as the dragon beats its wings against the air.

Seeing immense amounts of Dragon Energy being sent into the wings, from the main bones to the membrane and far tips, Yang cracks a sinister smile.

"Grasping Hands," he commands while reaching out with both his hands as if he were trying to strangle the air.

Immediately dozens of massive stone hands, each as large as a small house rise out of the floor and begins to snake around the dragon's limbs before the fingers get a firm grip on the beast.

The monster struggles endlessly causing Yang to stomp on the floor with his foot while keeping his hands forward.

"Earth trap," a pulse of magic causes the liquid stone to begin dragging the monster into its depths with the help of all the hands.

He sees Safi'Jiva beat its wings more and more, he sees Dragon Energy wafting off like a light mist.

'So the further it goes from the source in his chest the weaker the energy is,' he confirms his theory as he sees the wings constantly draining more power. Carrying the titanic monster was already a feat in itself, but now with all the extra weight and with its limbs and tail being dragged into the floor, he wasn't even sure if he'd need the next step in his plan at this rate.

Feeling sweat pouring down his face Yang scrunched his face as the strain begins to take hold of him. Having six elements leaves him with more versatility than anyone else, but this comes with a cost.

Creating gaseous elements such as Fire and Air from magic was easy, they came naturally to him. Creating a liquid such as Water took some more effort but nothing he couldn't manage. But to create or manipulate stone, that was an entirely different problem.

The density of the object he's trying to either create or manipulate determines how much magic is needed for the effect he wants. On the surface he could wave his hand and move a house, but in the dungeon, things were different. The deeper you go the denser the environment gets. The floors become tougher and take more and more magic to manipulate.

The monsters get too strong for most slow earth attacks and the density needed to actually make a difference in fights costs so much magic that it would never be efficient, until now.

Now he was dumping more than half his magic into this set of attacks to force SafiJiva to burn through all his Dragon Energy. Now his other elements couldn't help and he was trying to get the enemy to a point where it was so pissed off it would start wasting energy in rage.

"Shit," he mutters quietly as he sees his plan working, Safi was pissed. The fact that it was channeling massive amounts of power to its head was a dead giveaway just before it opened the toothy maw to release a beam of energy.

Not wanting to move from his position and waste so much more Magic to reconnect with the superdense stone Yang instead drops his right hand and forms a fist before performing an uppercut.

As the beam is about to fire a particularly massive hand of lava copies Yang's uppercut motion and reaches out to grab Safi'Jiva by the face.

"Aaargghhhh, C'MON!" Yang streams as his veins bulge and his eyes widen, pushing more and more of his magic into this one particular arm to grab the dragon's face and slam it into the ground.

His other arms that are holding the dragon in place attack the wings, taking advantage of its large surface area and the limited Dragon Energy they hold it in place long enough for him to slowly drag the monster into the floor.

Seeing his plan working the Dragon Energy in the monster becomes slightly dimmer and less apparent. The webbing between the bone of Safi's wings is torn and pulled apart before being instantly healed over and over.

Allowing a small smile to form on his lips Yang feels his magic quickly burning out as the monster continues to struggle. Not feeling the monster tiring he grits his teeth and releases a deep grunt as he focuses more on restraining it in the floor, until its frustration reaches a breaking point.

The grunts and roars go silent, Yang can see the molten stone shifting and flowing but can't hear it anymore.

Safi'Jiva pulses once in blue light before releasing currents of Dragon Energy. Once against like a powerful mist rushing out the dragon charges up the Sapphire Star of the Emperor, head raised high as it roars to the sky.

"NO!" Yang releases a panicked shout, shifting positions he drops both hands, the restraints suddenly slacken before he thrusts his hands forward to grab the air between them and crush it between his armored fingers.

With another pulse of his magic he moves all the molten hands to grab onto the monster's face and neck, they instantly obey and dogpile onto the dragon before Yang pushes his hands downward, causing them to exert extreme force on the dragon's head.

The impact and sudden attack causes the perfectly balanced release of Dragon Energy to become slightly unstable, in the muted silence a great blue explosion of energy pushes outward.

Another crater is formed as the premature attack devastates and scorches the ground, a crater the size of a football stadium is formed behind Yang as he rockets away as fast as he can. Much smaller than the initial fully formed attack they experienced, thankfully, and this time Yang even managed to stay awake.

"Fuck..." Yang gasps as he lands on the ground, vision slightly blurry and a headache forming, the first signs of Mind Down encroaching.

As he opens his hands to remove an Elixir, the vial begins to form before something flies out of the aftermath and slams into him.

A small blast of Energy knocks him off his feet and disrupts his concentration.

"Argh!" he groans before bouncing on the floor once, only once because before the second bounce can happen another blast hits him, then another, then another.

Rapid-fire person-sized orbs of energy wrack his body with pinpoint accuracy pushing him for hundreds of meters.

Finally rolling to a stop as the monster relents Yang lays face down on the stone floor, eyes barely open and his head to the side to look at the source of his pain.

Seeing him on the floor Safi'Jiva flaps its wings twice, noticeably less Dragon Energy flowing through its body at this point.

'Maybe half empty now? Maybe less?' Yang assesses as he sees the dragon's face reforming, the left side of its skull had apparently exploded with the power of the Sapphire of the Emperor.

Yang barely got to see the final part of its regeneration as the jawbone and teeth reformed before his eyes.

"Guess, we-Arghhh! Fuck!" Yang groans as he holds his side and rolls over in pain, raising his head slightly he sees his chest riddled with shrapnel from his armor, the entire torso now destroyed aside from the gauntlets on his arms.

As if sensing his vulnerable state the monster begins charging a powerful beam attack once more. Aimed directly at the adventurer Yang knows what comes next and forces himself to move. With a pained groan, he manages to roll over onto his shoulder to face the monster before trying to adjust himself to stand.

"Can't use magic because Mind Down is close, this is a damn nightmare!" he grits his teeth and focuses on his own body, focusing on his Chaos Mark.

With pained deep breaths he flares the mark to life, glowing across his body it gives him the strength to rise to his feet even with all the shrapnel stabbing him.

"C'mon!" overwhelmed by a sudden surge of adrenaline he foolishly shouts a challenge to the dragon as it releases the beam.

Seeing the attack coming Yang prepares to doge, but never gets the chance to.

A narrow wall of black flame appears between him and the monster to do what his flames couldn't, canceling pure Dragon Energy.

As the flames eventually dissipate Yang sees the familiar figure of Welf standing between him and Safi'Jiva. Mosoka held tightly in his right hand and a Wind Magic sword in his left. While the Wind Magic sword had a small tornado around it, Mosoka was completely blanketed in Void Black Flames, unlike his usual constructs they were wild and untamed. Not appearing like fire imitating a solid object but simply a raging black inferno on a stick in this case.

CRASH!

Looking over to his right Yang sees Thalie just landed a few steps away from him with Liberty in hand, already moving to give him an Elixir. A quick glance to Welf sees him staying at range to avoid Safi's insane physical power and constantly matching the dragon in ranged attacks while moving around.

While using Mosoka to cancel any blasts and beams the smith was using the Wind Magic sword to assist in leaping across the battlefield.

Yang's Chaos Mark disappears and he loses the strength to keep himself standing as Thalie arrives beside him. She gently catches him and sits him down on the floor before glancing over to Welf.

"He'll be fine, drink this," she hand him an Elixir before staking Liberty into the ground. Kneeling beside him as he downs the drink she inspects the shrapnel across his body.

"We need to get into the fight," Yang says as he finishes the vial and withdraws another Elixir from his inventory, his magic now restored enough that his senses weren't fuzzy.

"You need to sit and let me take these out," Thalie rests a firm hand on his shoulder to stop him from getting up. "If I don't get these out properly and you fight one could end up in something important, like your heart..."

Giving her a disgruntled look Yang quietly sits back down and grits his teeth as she works, taking out more Elixirs to assist his skills in refilling his magic.

"What took you guys so long?" he asked as she removed the first piece of metal.

"We were trying to call you, didn't think your helmet would get destroyed, no wonder we couldn't get in touch."

"Well, Elder Dragon, you know how it-ah!" his calm demeanor was interrupted as she pulled a particularly large piece of metal from his side.

"Yeah, you've almost been fighting this thing solo for twenty minutes."

"Felt like an hour...felt like two," he says with a small smile.

"Yeah well, good thing we're here, what's the plan?"

"Keep making it use ranged attacks to drain the energy it has. Healing drains it too but the more it has the tougher its body is, I already got it to about half with my last trick but it drained me completely," he explains.

"You got that Welf?" Thalie asks aloud.

"Got it!" he confirms as a voice in her helmet.

"Welf, stay at range," Yang says. "Even if your flames can hurt it, one good swipe and you're dead, thing hits like a freight train...I mean, it hits harder than me on my best day," he corrects himself and gives an analogy they'd actually understand.

"I'll be with you in a minute Welf," Thalie says as she continues to remove the shrapnel.

"Just go, I can handle the rest myself, it's only the big ones left anyway," Yang says as he looks down at his chest.

Thalie gives him a cautious look, "you also---"

"Need time to heal, I know, I can't get back into the fight until I down at least five more Elixirs anyway, now go earn your keep or Welf is never gonna let you hear the end of this," Yang chuckles as he withdraws another case of Elixirs.

"Yeah, you're right, can't let him get one up on me," Thalie rises to her feet and readies her weapon. As she moves to enter the fight she pauses to look back at Yang. "You know the smart move would have been retreating then coming back here, right?"

"I can feel them Thalie, we're close...I just want this done," he says in a quiet voice.

'That makes one person atleast,' she thinks to herself before giving him a small nod and running off into the fight.

Sitting back and drinking Elixirs, Yang does something he doesn't usually have the luxury of this deep into the dungeon, he enjoys the show.

'Those black flames are insane,' he thinks to himself. 'Void Flames, transcending beyond heat to simple erase matter and energy...if Welf were physically durable enough, or had enough control after some more experience, he could probably one-shot anything if he has enough magic since nothing can defend against it.'

He cast a glance to the smith who was playing defense from another beam of Dragon Energy. 'For now, he needs to focus on negating enemy moves rather than going on offense, he just isn't durable enough to get close to these monsters. Maybe when he levels up it'll be enough...after this expedition he should be level six, plus some ranks for all this higher leveled Excelia...'

Moving his eyes away from the Void Flame user, Yang sees a golden champion blitzing across the battlefield constantly making quick but powerful strikes against the dragon.

Every so often one of Safi's attacks would connect and send Thalie flying, but she'd just get right back up and immediately get back into the fight.

'She's like the terminator, just relentless...' Yang admits as he drinks another Elixir.

Eventually Yang was finally restored to the point where he could rejoin the fight. Withdrawing his Switch-Axe he charges past Welf and joins Thalie at the very front.

Like a well-oiled machine, the Trifecta constantly digs into the dragon, every piercing stab from Thalie leaving holes and cracked bone that heals up. Every swing of Yang's weapon causes massive gashes in the dragon, both draining the Dragon Energy in its core by the second.

But most importantly, Welf stayed at range, constantly moving while canceling all the Dragon Energy ranged attacks.

Eventually, after more struggling, Safi'Jiva tried its signature move once more. Hovering just above the ground while channeling massive amounts of Dragon Energy into its head.

"We need to stop it!" Yang commands.

Before he can even spring into action Thalie beats him to it, leaping up toward the monster she pierces its left eye with Liberty, burying the entire spear into its skull.

The amount of Dragon Energy coursing through its skull forces her to abandon her weapon as the wound tried to heal around her hand before it knocked her off.

As she is sent hurdling away another massive explosion rocks the battlefield, Thalie is sent flying out of the blast zone by the monster as it reeled in pain from her attack, the same attack which broke its focus on the energy.

Welf holds Mosoka forward to create a barrier and defend himself from the flames as Yang is hit by the instantaneous blast head-on and ragdolled across the room.

"Raargh!" the dragon releases a painful, ear-piercing cry.

Welf drops his barrier to see the monster with half its skull deformed, shattered, and quickly mending as it soars high above toward the ceiling.

Now hundreds of meters above them Welf notices that the energy in this monster is barely a quarter of what it started with as it channeled it all into one final attack.

"Yang! Thalie!" he calls out, looking around only to see Yang pulling himself out of a far wall and shaking his head, but Thalie is nowhere to be found.

"Just a..." Yang falls to his knees as he withdraws another Elixir, "minute..."

"Shit," Welf looks between the dragon, then Yang, then his crying sword, Mosoka. Looking up he sees the final Sapphire Star of the Emperor about to drop and grits his teeth. Looking over to Yang once more he sees the man just about ready for action, but Thalie is still nowhere to be seen. "Can't run and leave Thalie," Welf says as he takes a deep breath and looks at the monster. "What does Yang always say again? 'You're in my way,' just you and me Mosoka!" he says before rocketing into the air on a stream of blood-red flames.

As he's ascending he feels another source of magic catching up to him. Glancing back he sees that even with his considerable head start Yang is about to catch up to him.

With a closer look, he sees Yang using his Elemental Wheel, Lightning, Fire, and Wind all mixing together and flowing into his absurd greatsword.

Falling into a silent plan from working together for so long Yang takes a wide arcing route to the right to flank the monster while Welf soars directly towards where the Sapphire Star of the Emperor will drop.

Completely ignoring the challengers Safi'Jiva focuses solely on his attack, his last-ditch attack.

As the star leaves the dragon's mouth Welf sees death only a few feet ahead of him. Gritting his teeth he pushes a pulse of magic into Mosoka and explodes forward even faster, as he's at his top speed he takes a deep breath and makes a full spin in mid-air.

As he twirls the red flames dissipate and Void Flames take their place, wild and unkempt as he slashes upward into the star.

As he makes contact he feels pain at the back of his head as if part of him was removed before a mix of black and blue flames mixed and everything went silent.

As both attacks connected they simply canceled each other out, attack power or physical material doesn't really matter after all in the face of the Void Flames, the undisputed strongest flames even if they don't provide any actual heat.

As both attacks disappear Welf begins plummeting to the ground, Mosoka still held firmly in his grasp and he succumbs to mind down.

Looking at the man in confusion the monster is still trying to make sense of what just happened, a perfect distraction for Yang's killing blow.

A moment too late Safi'Jiva turned its head, sensing his magic a moment before he slashed at the monster's neck, with most of its energy gone and him constantly chugging Elixirs he dumps most of his magic into this mighty slash.

Augmented by Chaos Mark strength, Lightning, Fire, and Wind Magic to improve slashing power, he seamlessly cleaves into the flesh behind the monster's head and completely decapitates the Elder dragon.

"Outta my way!" he cries out as the battle comes to an end, feeling the slight resistance the tired and weakened flesh provided was euphoric as his sword then cleaved smoothly through it.

The spray of blood that marked a momentous occasion didn't go unappreciated by Yang as his tired eyes struggled to stay open. Standing on flames in mid-air he stored his weapon away and watched the corpse fall to the ground. No emotions on his face as he comes down from an adrenaline high like no other.

"Almost there...almost," he mutters quietly as he descends toward where he could see Thalie holding Welf, although the damage he saw made his rather uneasy. And the grim look on Thalie's face only made it that much worse...

END CHAPTER---

Finally done with this damn fight. My gosh, I hate writing fight scenes, so much pressure. Hope everyone liked it :)

If you thought I was kidding those few times I mentions that Welf has the strongest flames...well now you've seen it.