Chapter 20: Goliath
Chapter Twenty: Goliath
"All right everyone, the Goliath room is just ahead, but he shouldn't emerge for a little while yet, so we can go ahead to let you all safely get in position and rest before the battle" Bell addressed the gathered Familia before him; they had marched down to the end of the 17th floor with Ryu and himself doing most of the fighting so the others could conserve their strength. Still, after their journey down, a short rest would put them in optimal shape for the trial ahead, "All right, Lili, you're up. I know you can do it, everyone; we're rooting for you!" he raised his clenched hand as the others cheered, amping themselves up despite their nerves as he gave over leadership to his friend.
Lili took them in to find that the Goliath had still not spawned, so they took a break before she directed them into their first positions. As she did, she wondered at the whole situation; it was one thing to lead a party through typical monsters, or even a crisis like a pass-parade or monster party. It was something else entirely to take on a monster rex, but they had managed to survive several encounters with them, including the Amphisbaena, and an enhanced Goliath. Even if she was leading this attack alone, she was confident enough that her own nerves were chased away.
As deep cracks sounded out from the Great Wall of Sorrows, her voice was clear to everyone, "Welf, Mikoto, Oriana, stay forward in the vanguard after the initial attack; Karen, Emma, Iris, make sure to pull back and around, harry it from all sides, but let the others take the Goliath's attention. Everyone else stay ready!" it was a known tactic to push the attack on the Goliath as soon as it spawned, as it was stuck within the crystalline wall for a short time before it forced its way out, leaving itself partially vulnerable. They weren't strong enough to kill it, but their battle cries sounded out as Hestia Familia lashed out and damaged the giant significantly before it could even begin the battle properly.
"OoooooOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!" with an earsplitting roar and a shower of rubble, Goliath finally emerged from the wall covered in light wounds as some of its more vital areas were exposed, but it could now fight back against them. Under the eyes of the monster, but also their own captain and first-class members, they attacked.
"Now Primo!" at their leader's command, the young elf used her magic~
"Lumine Pleiades!" ten beams of shining light impacted the Goliath's face in a booming explosion, knocking it back against the wall.
"Vanguard attack it's feet, bring it down! Karen, Emma, Iris, help them out!" Lili sent out another order, still keeping Gina, Gita, Love, Lucia, and Leo in reserve. Two for if Emma needed to use her skill, and the other two to protect them.
Luckily, the tendons in the giant's feet gave to the weapons constructed by Welf, as he and the others focused their attack on both of its feet, and the monster rex fell to its knees. Instead of falling to its knees and hands, it collapsed totally onto the ground, shaking the room. Still, they couldn't waste the opportunity they now had.
"Attack, Emma, use your skill; Haruhime boost yourself, Welf, Mikoto, and Oriana with your foxfire!" Once more the attackers went in, trying to do as much damage as possible. Karen in a position where her skills made her almost as effective as a level 2 adventurer, and Emma drawing on two of her friends to put her at nearly level 3 power. At the same time, Oriana went straight for its face to try and keep the Goliath's aggression on herself, knowing her own skill was putting her defenses on an incredible level. Still, despite their preparation and ferocity, the rex weathered their assault and began to lash out in retaliation.
Lili pulled them back to regroup, giving the frontline a break while the reserve ran distraction. Emma was drained even after the short use of her skill, and was put with Haruhime and Primo; she was meant partially to guard them, but it was also to keep her out of the main fight now. Lucia and Love had been her support in Rhapsody, but were both able to continue fighting well enough while Lili organized the rest to fan out around the Goliath's torso. When she shouted the go ahead, Primo launched another attack at its head, then the others went in for another assault. This time, nearly everyone was furiously hacking and stabbing at it, dealing heavy damage in total to the monster until it had enough.
Raising its hand, the monster rex slammed it straight down into the ground, cratering it and sending out a shockwave that knocked most everyone to the floor of the room. With another roar, it tried to swipe them sideways across the ground, but was stopped by Oriana who had remained standing, as she blocked the sweeping limb as close to the shoulder joint as she could get. Welf then managed to disable the outstretched arm with his magic sword, and Primo sent one more a magic attack that landed home on its head, while Haruhime boosted Karen, Leo, and Mikoto with her fire magic as they lead another charge, bringing the monster down to the ground once again.
This time, Welf and Mikoto scale the monsters back as Haruhime goes into the battle to fill the gap the leave, Emma staying behind to protect Primo. They climb to the cleft between its shoulders, and further until they can target the base of the neck. With a simultaneous attack and matching screams, they land final blows on the spine, killing Goliath as the rex went still and ending the battle as it began to dissolve into ash. In a hurry, Welf and Mikoto tumbled from atop it as their footing vanished; when the reality of the battle registered, a cheer went up from the tired adventurers. Despite the short time, the stressful situation had seemed to last hours.
Lili sighed from her place by Primo and Emma as everyone went straight to a loose group to rest once more, while Bell and Ryu collected the large magic stone and tooth the Goliath left behind.
"Very excellent job everyone; I'm not sure how the results will pan out, and I have some critiques, but that can wait for now. Hey captain!" Aedan walked over to Bell, putting a hand on his shoulder to draw him in and mock whisper, "What do you say about everyone getting a nice view of the Under Resort since we're here? It'll be the first time for most of 'em"
Smiling, Bell nodded in agreement, "I think that's a great idea, and the 18th would be a much better place to rest anyway" he moved to help Emma and Lucia to their feet, the pair of them particularly exhausted. Lili stepped over to help him walk the girls onward, "Come on everyone, I know you're tired, but you'll wanna see this!" Dragging themselves up to follow, the others did so. Welf, Mikoto, Haruhime, Ryu, Aedan, and Alfia brought up the rear, of course having seen the 18th floor numerous times.
They came up to the energizing sight of the expanse of the Under Resort; the crystal ceiling shining brightly in its imitation of daylight. Most of the group was stunned silent, with a few gasps of awe and surprise as they observed the view from their vantage point. The sea of trees spread out around rocky crags and outcroppings, hills, streams, and crystal clusters was breathtaking. In the distance, they could even barely make out the Dungeon Town Rivira; its ramshackle fortifications long gone in favor of more sturdy stone ramparts and towers protecting it on the small rock of an island in the lake they could see on the far side of the floor.
"I would guess this level is nearly the size of Orario" Haroeris said, "In time, we will return to map it when we continue, but I think we can enjoy a break for the time being" they moved close to where Bell and the others normally stayed when they came to the floor, an area near where Loki Familia made their campsite on the 18th, as luck would have it…
"Oh! Loki Familia is there; they're back from their expedition!" Bell took notice of their surroundings with his enhanced senses, and noticed some of their friends and their Familia up ahead. Still, they kept their pace as they approached the camp, the others seeing them on the approach.
"Rabbit Foot? Then this must be Hestia Familia! Please wait a moment and I'll go get one of our superiors" a human man who had been guarding the camp spoke in a hurry before dashing off.
"I didn't recognize him" Welf said, lacking in any sense of sensitivity or decorum as the other camp guard deadpanned at him in silence.
"We haven't exactly met their whole Familia, Master Welf; though I do think the camp is much bigger than when we stayed with them as guests… maybe they brought the full force with them on this trip? They were gone for a while longer than their last long expedition"
Bell silently took note and agreed with Lili's assessment; it was clear that Loki Familia had come down in force. Whatever the case, it was impressive. Loki Familia had gone up the ranks quickly after coming to Orario, setting records for their Dungeon expeditions and leveling up among numerous of their members. According to the records, Only Zeus and Hera had managed to go deeper in the Dungeon than they had, but even that may no longer be true.
His thoughts were interrupted as a group of four walked their way from the main camp area, led by the guard from before. It took no time to recognize them, as Riveria, Lefiya, Tiona, and Aiz.
"Thank you for informing us, Arcs; we can take care of things from here" the man nodded in respect, and walked with the other guard along to another area of the camp's perimeter to give their executives some privacy with their guests, "Welcome guys; were you the ones who were bustin' up Goliath? We heard you from all the way down here!" Tiona greeted them enthusiastically, her spirits obviously high.
"Yes, that was us" Bell nodded, "Well, I should say that it was them" he gestured to most of his tired companions, "We sat the battle out since we're levelled so much higher now, we didn't want it to affect the excellia of the others. They were able to take it down on their own just fine, though" he gave a bright, close-eyed smile in his plain happiness and pride. It unknowingly captivated most of his Familia and charmed the ones who had come to greet them.
"That is very impressive" Aiz said simply, though she was staring at Bell when she said it, not those actually responsible for the feat.
"Indeed… to my knowledge, none of you are level 3 or higher; even for a group of your size, that is no small thing. Well done" Riveria added. Ryu nodded, but Primo- having been a part of the battle- nearly fainted at such words coming from someone she idolized.
"Come on you guys; if you just fought the big lug, you probly wanna rest now, right? Let's go!" Tiona had grabbed Bell's hand to pull him- and the rest of them by extension- into the camp.
"W-wait Tiona!" Lefiya tried to slow her down, but the Amazon wouldn't be stopped and simply grabbed her friend's hand, too, pulling her along with Bell after her as the others simply followed; Riveria sighing as she did so, pinching the bridge of her nose.
"Quite the spirited ones you have under your care, young Riveria" her eyes snapped to the man beside her as she tensed for a moment, but relaxed almost instantly.
"They are all good children, for the most part, but yes… they can be quite 'spirited'" she noticed that unlike before, Alfia wasn't sticking with him, but rather was following her captain at a short distance alongside the blonde elf, whom she recognized with surprise as Miss Lion from the Hostess.
"The whole camp seems in a good mood; was your expedition successful?" she looked at him again, trying to gauge his aim, but ultimately it seemed that he was just being curiously polite.
"It went quite well, actually; we managed to reach farther than ever before. We began the work of finding the main route through the 64th floor before we had to pull back"
"The 64th you say? Now that is impressive… you nearly made it to the next safe zone on the 65th, too. Ah, did you, Finn, and Gareth manage Balor, by any chance?" he turned to look at her when he noticed she had stopped, realizing that she was staring at him, "What?"
"You… did you say safe zone? One on the 65th floor; how do you know that?"
He looked baffled by her question, "Well, I've been there, obviously"
"Obviously… right" she held her forehead with a hand, remembering back to their first meeting after he and Alfia returned, "What precisely did you mean when you said you 'plumbed the Dungeon's depths'?"
"Ah, I suppose your Goddess didn't tell ya yet, eh? Well, it might not be my place to say, then… tell you what though Riveria: if you can get Lady Loki to arrange an agreement between herself and my Goddess for me to train you all again, I'll tell you everything before we get started" the request threw her on guard, bringing flashes of the hellish training he had put them through before. To think that he would offer to provide that to their juniors…
"I will see what I can do" she still had to admit that it was a valuable opportunity. The man beside her had trained the best of numerous familia across multiple decades, apparently. Though she had her own surprise, "Oh yes, and as for Balor, we were able to best him; I suspect before long you and Ottar shall not be alone as Orario's level 7's" she gave him a coy smile, basking in a rare bit of indulgent pride at admitting their accomplishment, and he smiled widely at her.
"I knew you three could it" reaching out, he ruffled his hand across the top of her head, making her freeze in shock as he put her neat, jasmine green locks out of their usual neat order, "When we get back to the surface, let me congratulate you all properly; though I should mention that once Balor is reborn, Ottar will be making an attempt for level 8"
His words made the now slightly red-faced elf snap out of her stupor.
'Of course he would! With the announcement of Horus- or Haroeris- being level 7, naturally that man wouldn't sit on his laurels…'
"Be that as it may, I feel confident in our own power; we should all be level 7 now, and our juniors are almost entirely first-class. Ais, Bete, Tiona, and Tione are level 6, at that; I don't think we'll fall behind. Besides, he had attempted to solo Balor before you returned, but didn't manage it; though with our battle, I can understand why"
"Actually, I'll be accompanying him so that he can give it his all, without worries on the way there and back. I doubt he will fail this time"
"What!?" she rounded on him, "You're aiding him, Freya Familia! Why?"
"It's simple, really: he requested further training from me, and it allowed me a most valuable favor from him, so I accepted with my Goddesses permission" she gaped at his answer for a moment, taking in the base meaning and its implications.
'He is only personally helping Ottar, not as a direct favor to Freya, but it will still help her, too; it has earned him an unnamed favor from Ottar, as well, but the fact that he even went to him for training at all… this confirms that something is off about the Guild announcement. Ottar is a level 7 on the edge of continuing to level 8; what reason would he have to seek training from a fresh level 7, beyond perhaps some techniques?'
"I see, well, you should have about a month before you need to worry about his fight with Balor, at least; do you have any plans for the interim?" she continued polite conversation, but she had just had her priorities rearranged in a moment.
"I do; we have finished our mapping project to the 18th, and with the battle against Goliath, our young members will need some time to acclimate, so I'm going to spend some time studying"
"What is it that you plan to research?"
"Well, a lot happened while I was gone, and I only had one source for some of it, and that source was with me for the second half of that time. I think I'll call on Fels to fill me in on the goings-on while I've been living under the rocks. I also want to see if I can discover the locations of the remaining Harbingers, Divine Artefacts, and see to looking at potential allies for aid in our next imminent quest"
"That… sounds like you have quite the full plate, don't you?" She asked, not really understanding his meaning, "An imminent quest, as well; one would think you would slow down with how much has happened since you returned"
He chuckled, "I've lived a slow life for far too long; changing gears has been good for me, so far. Hell, I would even go so far as to say I've changed quite a bit; Alfia, too, now that I'm thinking about it"
"Truly? She still seems quite… terse, to me at least"
"She's just overprotective; I can promise that she is much more mellow than she would have been without this change. Despite how much she disliked her old goddess, she and Hera were quite alike, and by that I mean that Alfia used to be damn near psychotic"
"I wouldn't go that far"
"I would; if she had met Bell when he was a baby and he had cried, she may have taken her anger out on him by gouging out his eyes, since they are so much like his father's"
"!" Riveria was stunned by the statement, and the casual way he said it, glancing at the man and finding no sign of it being a lie or exaggeration, "That is… beyond psychotic, it's deranged! Yet you feel comfortable leaving her to go about freely now?"
"As I said, she's changed; we both have. It would have been easy to excuse her previous mindset as a result of her sickness, but she still carries it with her, and is much calmer despite it"
"I see… Well it's good to hear that, if nothing else"
"Don't be so hesitant; I'm saying this to tell you that she won't bite if you want to try and be more friendly with her" that at least got her to huff a quiet laugh to herself.
"Really now? Trying to set up playdates at our age, Horus?"
"Let it not be said that I don't look after my juniors" he smiled, "I also don't want the two of you on bad terms should my new captain get more involved with your own charge"
"So you've even noticed that? Nothing escapes your sight, it seems; for my part, I welcome them growing closer. Aiz has brightened tremendously since he came into her life. Even more so than anyone else in our Familia, he has been able to break the shell her single-minded goal has built around her heart"
"Yeah, he seems to have that effect on people…" she looked at his eyes as his face softened, a small smile growing as his gaze tracked up to the crystalline ceiling of the floor, "I would welcome it, at least, and I hope to get his new 'mama bear' to agree; though I will say both Alfia and you may need to bear in mind that the boy has a great many young ladies who seem to hold a good deal of affection for him"
Riveria sighed at that, "I am… mostly aware; at least I suspect a few of our own girls have some level of that sort of interest in him. I can understand why, at least, but I don't want any of them to end up hurt"
"Hm… at this rate, Bell is potentially shaping up to be another successor to Zeus in the same vein as Zald and some of that perverts other kiddos"
"… What do you mean by that?"
"What, don't you remember that Zald was involved with a large harem of women in his day? Even I remember that, and I didn't care about my own familia all that much back then; he was hardly the only one like that, too. Actually, pretty much all of Zeus' boys were of that type; from what I recall, even the boy's father was a skirt-chaser until his set his eyes on Meteria"
"Please do not speak of Bell making a harem of our own Familia's ladies, Haroeris, it's uncouth"
"To be fair, it would be far more than just some of the girls of your familia, if it did happen that way; it doesn't seem like he has that disposition, but Zeus did raise him from infancy~"
"What of yourself then, hm?" Riveria interjected, seeking to change the subject even a little, "Were you not also a part of Zeus Familia? Perhaps you would claim to be the only one who wasn't a womanizer?"
"Ah, well…" he looked away from her, speaking lowly, "I'll tell you a little secret, I suppose. A very long time ago- before I was even given my falna- I was married; I had a family with a lovely wife and two young children: Aethelwyn, Elric, and Aelfmyr. They were taken from me- killed- far before their time, and it eventually led me to Orario. I haven't had a mind to pursue that sort of love again since; I'm not sure I will ever be able to take another wife, after her…"
"I… I am very sorry about that, Horus" Riveria blushed in shame, not noticing her slip, "Just before I was calling you uncouth and then went and said something like that"
"Peace, young Riveria" he smiled again, if wanly, "Speaking frankly, it was a fair question; I have to ask, though" his tone turned to teasing, "What would you do if I was a womanizer?" he chuckled as her only answer was to stumble as her blush spread rapidly across her neck and ears. Clearing her throat, she shot a mock glare at him.
"Keep our maidens away from you, obviously, with what a menace of a flirt you clearly seem to be" his genuine laughter dispelled any awkwardness that remains as her own laughter joined in.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone