**Two weeks after departure**
We were about a day out from our destination, and the five of us had wandered into some deep, abandoned ruins.
"Fire in the hole!" Rex shouted as he shot two massive blasts out from a section we had been trapped in.
When the rocks had been detonated, there was only a cliff from where we were, leading down to giant crystals far below that glowed a plethora of colors leading deeper into this Keeperforsaken place.
"Fuck!" Snow shouted.
"What is it, guys? My shields will only hold for so long!" Zeno replied as he desperately held his hands in a hand sign, and in front of him was a blockage of his Shadowsteel pillars, and behind them…
The sounds of gnawing and ungodly noises came from behind. They rang in our ears unendingly as his impenetrable Shadowsteel pillars began to crack.
Zeno clicked his tongue and shouted, "Guys!"
"Fuck it! Jump!" I yelled.
"No way!" Rex yelled back as I pushed him and pulled Snow along with me. And we were off.
Ryo and Zeno were still there. Ryo shouted, "Come on!"
Zeno clenched his teeth as he released his hand sign, and his Shadowsteel pillars broke immediately from the push of the horde of unknown monsters behind them.
The monsters dashed as they moaned and clacked; their steps like the sounds of an army of skeletons as they burst through.
Ryo and Zeno ran like hell as they jumped off the cliff and into this new area we found ourselves in. Behind them, the monsters fell off one after another, revealing their undead and skeletal selves.
From below us, a massive beast emerged, with multiple mouths along its body, standing upright to look at us falling from above. It waited until we drew near and opened one of its mouths directly under where we were free-falling.
"Goddamn it, Greed!" Snow yelled.
"I DON'T WANNA DIE! HOLD ME!!" Rex cried as he flew next to me, grabbing onto my arm.
"Let go, you fuck!" I shouted at him.
"HELL NO! DON'T MAKE ME LET GO, GREEDY!!"
"Fuckin' hell," I said as I looked back down to the massive beast waiting patiently for us to fall into its mouth.
Ryo and Zeno then flew in past us, headfirst, leading their charge.
"Zeno! The rest of you—follow my lead!" he said to him.
"Aye!" he replied.
"Aye!" the rest of us said in suit.
Right then, Ryo whipped out both his claymores from his pouch and chanted,
"Firebolt Magic: Mana Fusion: Zeus and Hades Tempest!"
His aura engulfed him, and his hair turned white, covering him in his high voltage, blue flame armor as he flew further down ahead of us like a rocket.
He looked like only a flash in our eyes as we fell closer and dreadfully closer into the monster's gaping mouth. And then through the gales of the roaring wind,
"Firebolt Magic: Titans Clash!"
Zeno clasped his hands together right as he said this. And right then, from within the massive monster's mouth, explosions set off, coursing throughout its entirety from its enormous head all the way down to its feet.
Rex screamed as we headed down into the endless explosions, and that's when Zeno chanted,
"Shadowsteel Magic: Ashen Black Shield!"
From the walls where we fell, Shadowsteel pillars shot out from below us, intertwining into each other until they clanged into a sheen black floor, which we landed aggressively on.
Our landing was not graceful. And it wasn't over.
When we looked up, some of the nearby undead skeletal soldiers that fell with us began closing in as they rained from above.
Right then, Snow shot steam out from his boots and large steam gauntlets formed over both his fists and forearms. He raised one of his fists as if to strike the ground, and he chanted,
"Steam Magic: Steampunk Inferno!"
His fist burst the steam hovering over the black floor, and geysers shot out like a violent spring onto the falling undead, burning and blasting them all at once.
Zeno's black floors cracked from the pressure.
"Rex! You're up!" I shouted at him as he still held on to my arm.
"I DON'T WANNA!" he yelled, doing it anyway, as he released me upward, and a green string of aura emanated from his hands, linking him and myself together.
I shot upward, still holding on to the glowing green aura.
When I rose above Snow's geysers, there were more undead falling, coming in like a flood above us, moaning and crackling with the sole purpose of gnawing on our flesh.
I repositioned myself away from them all, from the bottom of my boots upward, as if to push back down from nothing but the air.
"NOW, REX!" we all shouted frantically.
"OKAY, OKAY, OKAY! STOP YELLING AT ME!!!" he yelled, screaming down as he pulled me back with all his might—his green aura roaring with immense pressure.
From where I was in the air, I kicked both my legs as if pushing off solid ground, and the pressure blew a blast from behind me, scattering the army of falling undead back up and away.
I blazed back at an intense swiftness as Rex pulled me back, and when I arrived, my sheer speed disintegrated the black floor.
In slow motion, we fell through, and Zeno, whose hands were in a hand sign all this time, shifted his hands and created a new one, chanting,
"Shadowsteel Magic: Ashen Black Meteor!"
Right then, the shattered pieces of his Shadowsteel began collecting onto us, covering us like scales until we were all collected within the clump of falling black steel.
The explosions from below still commenced as we shot through it, and it raged upward into the massive hole we fell from, catching the rest of the falling undead army from above in its devastating wake.
Our ride down shook us from within the Black Meteor. Traveling further and ever further down into the vast ruins and lightshow of crystals below. Wherever Ryo was, we were going to meet him very, very shortly…
We braced ourselves from within the black covers as we felt it near the ground, and before we could even feel the impact, it opened, and we were filled with light from this enormous place.
Feet away from the ground, we would all crash into it if we kept going like this. But then…
"Trajectory Magic: Path Weaver!"
Rex chanted. And in an instant, we all shifted to another direction entirely as large chunks of debris fell over where we last were.
We flew sideways over the ground, and from the growing smoke of the crash, Ryo shot out—gliding through the air behind us like some jet.
"Where are we going!?" I shouted at him.
"I have no idea!" Ryo shouted back.
Then, as he looked ahead, he saw a massive stone wall with what looked like light beaming out from the cracks. It seemed to be the inside wall of the mountain ruins.
He maneuvered to the front of us while still maintaining his speed with ours and drew his claymores back, chanting,
"Firebolt Magic: Ignis Hell Slash!"
From his cross slash, a wicked storm of fire and lightning roared in the form of two beam slashes, landing in an X-fashion atop the massive stone wall. The explosion coursed through it, echoing the powerful strike.
But as we neared and the smoke subsided, the thick, massive wall was only cracked, and we were still heading right into it.
"Rex, move me forward!" Snow shouted.
"Keeper! Give me a break! Rex do this, Rex do that!—"
"Just fucking do it, you worthless idiot!!" Snow shouted back angrily.
"Okay! Keeper,"—he shot out that same green aura string from earlier and effortlessly moved Snow to the front—"now what!?"
When he was positioned there, Snow threw his hands into a hand sign. "You watch." Then chanted,
"Steam Magic—"
Steam then enveloped him and began trailing to one area—his fist. It did this constantly as we drew closer and closer to the massive wall, making it look like we were going to collide into it.
"HURRY UP, FISH BREATH!!" Rex yelled.
When the steam had completed its becoming, Snow held a giant light blue and gray gauntlet in the air that shadowed us all. It was only then that he completed his incantation,
"—Scalding Smokereaver!"
When he finally shot the massive gauntlet forward, it hummed like an airship, like it was a being of its own, and then crashed into the wall, obliterating it.
It opened out, forming a path for us to fly through, the storm of debris and smoke following us after we flew out and into the sky from these enormous mountain ruins. We were met with the evening sun, and far below us was a massive, abandoned city.
Rex whipped his fingers in another direction, and we all flew that way, sideways, downward, sideways, downward, and then downward some more. The skin on our faces was pushed back by the zooming wind all the while. And then finally…
Our momentum stopped, and we all fell gracefully on our asses from only a few inches off the ground. Ryo flew in, digging his boots into the ground to stop himself from his intense speed, meeting us perfectly where we were as he dispelled his Mana Fusion form.
We all inhaled at the same time, but before we could exhale, a harsh gust of smoke and debris blew past us, covering us in soot.
We let the dust storm pass as it coursed through and down the outside of the mountain we found ourselves on.
The smoke waterfalled out from the hole Ryo made and then out into the orange skies as we waited patiently for the smoke to clear around us, still holding in our breaths.
The rays of the setting sun finally peaked through as the smoke left us. We found ourselves on the side of the mountain ruins that overlooked the massive, abandoned city below and in the distance.
That was when we heard a burst of joyous laughter, "haha… HAHAHAHA!"
It was from Rex when we looked back at him. And then, surprisingly, Zeno began laughing next, then Snow, then Ryo, and finally.
I laughed out of sheer tiredness and adrenaline as it petered out. The four of us were sitting on the ground as Ryo fell over and continued laughing on his back.
"Holy fuck…" Rex said. "I thought we were gonna fucking die."
It was then, amidst the seeming calm, that an enormous beast skyrocketed out from the mountain behind us.
We all turned our heads to it with eyes of disbelief as it flew out and landed before us.
"Oh, come on—!" Rex uttered as the beast bellowed a horrible roar.
"Behemoth…" Zeno said under his breath as I walked past him and toward the beast with such a slow pace.
"Uh…" Snow spat, "You sure you got that, Dweeby-boy?"
I stopped as I continued to let the wind blow and looked back at him sidelong. "You're joking right?"
"I wish I was!"
"You remember Havoc, right? From the Guild Meeting?"
"Yeah, what does that have to do with anything?"
Ryo laughed and stood up, eyes closed as he put away his claymores. "He trains with a 'Behemoth' on the daily." He said as he opened his blazing yellow eyes.
Snow blinked as I faced away and back to the heaping monster arriving with a dreadful silhouette behind the smoke. Its glowing red eyes glinted as it caught sight of us—its prey.
"Wait…" Snow shouted. "That kid is a Primal Behemoth!?"
As he said this, the Higher Grade 2 beast revealed itself, cracking the ground with its roar. It was the first time I had seen one of these in the wild. I only knew of this creature thanks to Havoc. If it weren't for him, this face off would have been more enticing. For Behemoths were the apex among apex Grade 2 monsters. It could even defeat that Grade 2 Sentinel that Ryo obliterated back there, despite the size difference.
Havoc always called it 'the King of Grade 2's', and I had always thought he was just being vain. But standing before a real one now—
Its massive horns slammed the ground as if doing so would intimidate me, and its vicious teeth looked as if it grinned at me. And I grinned back, matching its ferocity with something others would call psychotic.
—I understood the moniker of the beast.
It bolted faster than I could see. For a beast its size, it was disorientingly fast.
I grappled with its tusks as it managed to push me back and my feet dug into the ground, turning it to mush.
"That sprint always gets me!" I said to it inches away from me.
I managed to adjust my stance and raised one of my legs in the air, then slammed it into the ground, and then the next to lock it in.
My muscles flexed through my jacket and my jaw clenched as I began lifting the beast. I couldn't help but utter a guttering growl as I raised the fucking thing from the ground, up and above me.
In my peripheral, I saw Rex maneuver the others away to avoid its landing, and it crashed there, back first from my suplex.
The ground cratered and the place shuddered from it as I rolled upright in time to witness the thing charging a blast from its mouth seconds away from my face.
When the charge shone through its teeth, it ignited the path before it like a raging cannon and me within it.
I just knew Rex and Snow cringed from that.
The Behemoth rolled upright and shook once, aggressively, shaking off the debris, roaring as if it had won.
It then faced the others and Rex and Snow peeped at the things gaze.
"Hey!" I shouted through the smoke. The wind blew and revealed me, sauntering back to the beast with my vantablack coating disappearing from my forearms and fists. "Did you think you won!?"
Its focus was mine once again as it prowled to the side and I did the same but the opposite way.
"Need help, Dweeb?" Rex shouted from the sideline.
"No." I responded, eyes still locked on the beast.
"Kay-kay!"
The Behemoth and I dashed toward each other and clashed, recoiling from our collision. It swung a claw and I spun to lead it away, leaping over it with an axe kick downward to its snout. It was quick to recant as it reeled back itself with an open row of machete sized fangs about to chomp onto me. I leaped up and backward as it snapped its deadly bite, and then it spun to meet its massive tail with me there in the sky.
"Good one!" I said to it as it smacked me down diagonally and I flew like a swatted fly onto the ground.
"He needs our help, doesn't he?" Snow asked to no one in particular.
"Even if we were to barge in, he'll just get mad at us for interfering. Such a stubborn Captain." Zeno commented.
"Hella cringe bro!" Rex said.
"Shut up, Rex!" I shouted back as I whipped the debris away with my hands and bolted back to the Behemoth.
It threw a claw, and then another as I slid underneath it with an uppercut to its chest. The beast heaved from that. But I was not done.
I then began throwing a volley of punches from below, raising it in the air again. However, just as I was sending off punch after punch, the beast began to glow…
"There you go!" I said a bit too excitedly.
It began to transform, sensing its imminent death. A troublesome ability that for some reason only Leomantoises were able avoid most times.
Four out of five times in the wild, it could counter and defeat a Behemoth, but only because it is a beast that the Behemoth thinks it can best even though it is also a Grade 2. And with Leomantoises versatile elemental ability, it could catch it off guard and deliver a final blow. But it was always that one out of five encounter, when the Behemoth realizes it may die, where it can instinctively trigger its magic ability… This is especially true for opponents it knows are strong, or that it knows are stronger than it. Essentially, the stronger it senses one is, the higher the chance for it to activate.
It glowed brightly like some divine creature. Forcing itself upright and becoming a different hue than its normal gray one.
Its hide became white and its tail molded agonizingly into a blazing claymore; all while it was in the air above me.
"This is the kind of fight I wanted to have!" I shouted like some lunatic as it activated its Revival magic and turned into a Greater Behemoth.
Now… Now it was a Grade 1 beast. And a Higher Grade 1 to bat.
It flipped mid-air staggeringly fast and sent its blazing tail down onto me where a mighty eruption of earth and concocted magma burst forth.
It rose from the smolders as it beheld me, feet away and having dodged its landing and charged another beam—a more powerful one—in my direction.
It spewed out its immense spell, and the air made an inverted sound like the space around the blast dropped.
I unzipped my detachable sleeves from this new jacket Nash had made for me. Apparently, he took heed of my 'new outfit' comment back from the tournament, and now I sported that infamous sleeveless look he and Havoc always donned.
The sleeves fluttered away, revealing my heavily inked and toned arms. And as the blast came, I deflected it with the back of my forearm—wicked smile still etched on my face all the while.
The deflected blast shot a hole through an adjacent mountainside. And I heard the distant crumbling like an entire section of a Kingdom felling. And onward, still, I went.
It then grabbed its tail like some hilt and swung it upward, the massive greatsword like a beacon through the dust, and swung down, sending a scorching divide that trailed toward me.
I felt the ground tremble and the plates below it shift; to which I halted my advance and adjusted my stand, legs slightly bent and arms wide to the sides with palms straightened and awaited the severing trail of blaze.
All the while, the others watched like they were witnessing a show. The blaze arrived and I threw my hands in front of me to a single clap, causing a sonic boom.
The motion blew a gust so strong it hushed the roaring flames like a candle and surged past the Greater Behemoth.
It held its ground and met my gaze from the open field of gravel before us. Our glares met in endless rounds as we prepared ourselves for the finale of this duel.
It roared vehemently before it began to sprint, each step like an earthquake as it leaped and shadowed us all, blazing claymore of a tail in hand. And I crouched. Fist placed gently to the ground and legs squatted.
When I twisted my fist, the ground shook and the debris seemed to stop mid-fall all around me, resembling snow.
I was gone. The ground cratered. And all the others saw next was me appearing below the Greater Behemoth's core, and a fist lodged into its heart.
Its face gaped like it had choked, and its movements halted before flailing like a large banner swept by the gusts from this unknown land.
"Rest in peace." I said to it, as if I had become sentimental toward the monster. Perhaps it was because it was like I was fighting my friend, and I had delivered a blow I otherwise would not have delt.
What followed next could only be described as the vanishing of sand off stone, cleaning the air with the fading of its remains, fluttering into the ether forevermore.
I remained in the sky admiring the orange hue and fading soul of the beast I felled.
Below, I could faintly hear the cheers of Rex and Snow followed by the approvals of Zeno and Ryo. The debris around us wiped away and we were met by the setting sun again, at last, in the clear.
***
As night arrived, we scouted the area to make sure there were no more surprises. Eventually, we decided to make camp somewhere nearby for the rest of the day. And by the look of things—with the vast abandoned city as our view—we had already arrived.
"Well, there you have it boys," Zeno said as he set his belongings down and beheld the city there ahead. "Welcome to Lys Anima."