Behemoth of Thunder

POOF.

A shock ran through the dome wall upon which my head rested.

A small shower of snow dust fell from the ceiling.

The somewhat loud noise had woken me from my jovial slumber.

Clicking my tongue and rubbing my head I picked myself up and headed for the entrance of the dome.

Taking Black Rose along the way.

What was going on now?

I had been overcome with irritation and had lost the enticing sooth of sleep.

As my head peeped around the edge of the snow-dome entrance I found a sight that stopped my thought process in an instant.

Frila stood, dumbfounded and frozen.

Her hair had ran over her face like an ivy infestation and her adventurer clothes looked like funeral garments as she stood in a veil of thick umbra.

Charging from the sky, was a... mammoth?

It had aspects of a mammoth but more.

Possessing a luminescent coat of heavy, prickly hazel fur that seemed to be similar in terms of spikes to the coat of a hedgehog the creature before myself and Frila seemed to be far more than a mere mammoth.

On its back was a huge skeletal rib cage that had been structured to defend it against attacks from above. 3 legs on each side were connected to the rib cage and a huge boney tail, covered in spikes swung wildly behind the being.

Two rageful eyes crackled with fearful yellow thunder as they drove themselves into Frila's mind.

The entire body of the mammoth was decimating with huge whips of blundering yellow lightning and the mammoth had been illuminated with a gruesome yellow hue.

As if it was charging up for a move, it was still in its dive to crash through Frila.

My figure was paused as I saw the sight.

My subconscious acted for me.

From years of instinct, a source of world energy formed by my feet.

The lotus step.

As this source of world energy swirled and formed faster than the illustrated mammoth could fall, my spirit had been ignited despite my ignorance.

A pulse ran through me so fast that Its feeling was gone in less than a heartbeat.

Gripping, green flames now flared behind my body like haunting ghosts.

My eyes glistened with a deep red.

Ignorant to the rattling and emerging pain in my left arm that acted as a warning, my body went through with the process.

I didn't even need to adjust my stance to an effective position as the aura and world energy worked as one to instantaneously rocket me forward.

My mind could only briefly catch up on what was happening before my body was struck with innumerous chords.

Boom.

The Thunder-Glistening Mammoth slid through the snow with two legs, leaving behind a crumpled trail.

A lightning after-image soon decimated itself into thousands of yellow strands.

Proof of its charge ability.

The only sound was that of fur on snow skidding as it underwhelmingly lost momentum and its eyes tore backward in shock and misunderstanding.

Lightning pounced off it in disappointment.

It hadn't a clue how its lightning charge had failed.

But it was certain that no impact had been made and therefore that the girl was still alive.

It stood dumbfounded on 4 legs as its tail stood erect, stopping its senseless writhing for answers.

The white landscape around it stood silently.

In my arms was Frila.

Her eyes were that of confusion and sheer solemness.

Was she ready to accept death?

My left arm felt like a hellscape as it burned and quickly became sore and purple. Such was the price for using so much world energy.

But I had only used... one lotus step?

I then noticed the tenacious green flames that slowly crept down from around my body.

I had activated aura?

Looking back, I saw a trail of fluorescent green that had wavered and become faint in the air.

It stretched from the entrance of the snow dome to Frila's position.

A distance that I would never even fathom doing with one lotus step.

I then realized the connection.

I had completed the lotus step with aura.

Everything had gone by so fast and so unknowingly to me that my mind had to connect dots and fix holes that had formed.

Faster than lightning.

My head then instantly jerked over to the mammoth or whatever it was.

It was up to the brim with thunder-power and was even more dangerous than before.

I didn't have the capabilities in me to dodge another one of its thunder dashes.

Luckily, I didn't require any capabilities.

Like a miracle of god, I felt my feet get swept up by a mysterious source.

It was white. And tangible.

Frila too rose with the source.

And then I realized that Vigar was here.

And that he was now drifting us away.

The mammoth-like creature roared in a spiteful outburst.

Yellow lightning zapped around its figure as we only got further and further away from it.

The wind brushed past us as I allowed myself to relax.

Recently it had either been deathly boring or deathly exhausting.

A resentful mix of two.

Maybe it was time to just vanish.

But my mind was soon brought back from its philosophical wonders by Frila's now painfully knowledgable voice.

"We need to go lower."

The wind hushed her voice yet I could understand what she was trying to say.

"Why should we do that?"

The further we got away from that thing the better.

We didn't know anything about its range or speed so going near the ground could be our demise.

Vigar seemed to be concentrating on keeping his form physical lest we were to plummet to our deaths.

Frila's voice was rushed and impending as she tried to explain everything as fast as possible. Not even questioning the Phantom she was being flown away via.

"Because of that thing. The Behemoth. It's going to use Thunder-Screech in approximately 10 seconds. If we stay this high then we'll get hit. Unless you're confident that you can take hits from a lightning-light-based attack that will directly counter your Phantom Counterpart and probably crash right through it, then we need to head down. Thunder-Screech is a move that travels up over time, with this distance we can be fine as long as we stay down."

Her words were so fast that they became mumbles and the rapid rushing wind did not help my hearing.

But I understood that the Behemoth that Frila had named it, would soon use a move in correlation to our escape. A move that would decimate us through its light nature if we were to be hit.

"Vigar, dive down but stay swift and steady."

My voice carved itself into Vigar's mind as the wind passing us soon became even more plentiful and invasive.

Frila covered her face with a hand as I took the wind head-on, looking at the Behemoth in distress.

Frila had been correct.

The roar that had emerged from the Behemoth had ensued from the moment we were swooped away.

I had thought that the Behemoth was just emotional but now it seemed far from it.

The quantities of lightning clambering over the Behemoth had increased majestically and a buzzing, gleaming thunder orb had formed.

Thunder currents were diving around it as it seemed to be around breaking point.

Our figures were still quite high in the white sky. Descending but slowly.

If what Frila had said were true then it might be inevitable to take a hit or two.

Judging Vigar's previous experiences I doubt he could take even half a hit from whatever rank the Behemoth was.

"Can we take a hit?"

My worries blossomed in my voice as Vigar concentrated on controlling our fall which seemed so slow in comparison to the lightning rumbling behind us.

Frila instead answered my question with strain in her voice.

"It depends. I don't know about your Phantom but Behemoth are creatures that specialize in defense and tenaciousness rather than offense. This one seems to possess the light element so it would rip your Phantom to shreds unless you have something up your sleeve."

She was clearly quite knowledgeable on the subject.

I looked back only to be blinded.

My eyes stung from high-intensity lights as a death sentence was released from the thunder orb in the Behemoth's mouth.

The thunder orb got smaller and thinner as destructive balls of thunder and lightning swooped through the atmosphere, leaving behind long and curved lines of luminous light trails.

Soon, a sea of light orbs had been unleashed, all curving onto our position.

We were still quite high up.

As we descended even faster now, to the point where holding on was taking a huge strain on my hands I realized a faint-golden hue surrounded our clothes.

The orbs were here.

Going straight down, we barely dodged a few orbs.

They trailed on past us, leaving deadly rays that would burn right through Vigar.

As our free-fall continued more and more light orbs slipped past us.

"Gah."

Frila looked my way as my teeth gritted and my face irked.

The right of my ear had been brushed ever so slightly by an orb of luminous light and burnt harshly.

It was red and like a disease as I strummed my hand past it.

Ignoring the pain I kept a watchful eye on my surroundings.

I could not look back, potentially due to my now half-phantom nature but looking straight into light burned my figure.

Blissful Light orbs loomed behind us.

A few had strayed past.

Although our situation was bad, above us was much worse.

There were at least 4 times as many light orbs above us.

Although we had dodged a good part of the light orbs streaming into us it was getting hard to hold on to Vigar's straight descending form.

The ground was zooming in as we got closer.

Holding on to Vigar with one hand was proving challenging.

After what felt like days, we stormed the ground.

The light orbs had grown so sparse that only a single orb would occasionally drift to our far right or left.

Vigar rapidly changed directions just before we hit the ground, changing from a swift descent into a steady forward drift.

Snow blasted into our faces as Vigar's surface scraped the snow.

Coughing, I felt awful.

But the sense of victory washed anything awful away.

We could no longer see the Behemoth.

It had disappeared.

Its only traces were the light orbs that had spread so far and wide that they now seemed like distant stars in the sky.

The white sky.

Now the only goal was to see how far we could stretch our distance.

"Vigar. How long do you have left?"

My voice had traces of both glimpsing hope and foreboding dread.

"2."

Vigar's flat tone was clearly exhausted and a 2 was all that broke out from the flickering Phantom.

Ah.

From Vigar's previous experiences then doesn't that most likely signify secon-.

Our figures slid into the snow and were soon covered in cold, crumbly white piles.

Wiping the snow off my face and body, I found myself staring straight upward into the sky.

By my side was Frila, similarly mirroring my movements.

I couldn't even despise Vigar.

The Phantom had saved us.

Pants broke out in rapid succession from our slumped figures.

Things that we had been holding in during the long and strenuous free-fall.

"Thanks."

Frila's voice slid into my ears.

I couldn't see what expression was on her face due to the fact that I was currently keeping my body perfectly still.

Lest I wanted to irritate my already purple and red left arm.

Although it had begun to go back to a healthy color it was still unavoidably alarming.

I responded in a similar fashion.

"Thanks to you too. I probably would've died anyways had I not saved you."

It was true.

Being caught in a storm of light lanterns and fireworks would be my and Vigar's blissful end.

Well.

I imagine it'd be quite painful now actually.

Excruciating even.

Frila merely let out an acknowledging hum as we continued panting hard.

I felt something hard spread behind my back.

Taking it out with my utilizable hand I found Black Rose.

Ah.

This situation wasn't amazing in all honesty.

No snow-dome.

No heat.

Just a fatigued Phantom, an injured Half-Phantom, an encyclopedia, and a cursed sword.

But I accepted it gracefully.

The end was now far.

Maybe a mile or two away.

Maybe more.

As long as it wasn't here, then I was content.

Because there were issues that had lined themselves up already.

Ignoring the fact that we needed Red Dragon to leave was a different matter.

I could probably search for him later.

Because right now?

A bit of peace was all I needed.

And then it would be back to wave-wiping.

Back to the -S- Rank Dungeon.