Bastard Homunculus: Reborn in the Corpse Pit

"Get behind me!" Exclaimed Raven as the large, three-headed dog Monster unleashed blasts of flames from all three of its jaws, before he swiftly shot forward as he fully transformed, opened his jaws wide and burst out a wide, blazing wave of his purple flames, a surge of heat erupting as his flames collided with the Monster's.

The air between them shimmered violently, as Raven strained to maintain his output, slowly starting to lose ground against the Cereberus's flames...

"[Explosion Bomb]!" Chanted Celia, forming a sphere of explosive energy and flinging it up and over the mass of clashing flames, a fierce explosion erupting ahead as Raven's flames petered out, a cloud of smoke bursting out as the Explosion Spell hit the ground in front of the Monster.

Raven coughed slightly as he tried to catch his breath, before stiffening as a feral roar rang out, right as the Monster shot out of the smoke cloud, unleashing sharp bursts of flames at Raven from its jaws.

Raven swiftly unleashed a powerful sonic screech in response, the flames coming to a stop before sharply wavering and dissipating, before the Monster shot forward, Raven's sonic attack dazing the right head, but it wasn't enough to slow the creature down.

As the Cereberus closed in on Raven and swiped its claws at him, he quickly spread out his wings and took off into the air, narrowly evading the slash of the Monster's claws, right before Celia fired off a barrage of small, rapid explosive projectiles at it.

A chain of explosions erupted in rapid succession as her projectiles peppered the front of the Cereberus's body, sending it stumbling back right as Raven unleashed his eye beams at full power, the purple beams shooting down with rapid, penetrative force and hit the middle of the top of the left head, piercing through its skull and drilling into its brain.

Deafening roars rang out from the two remaining heads as the left head slumped lifelessly, blood trickling out of the holes in the top of its skull, before Celia unleashed more explosive projectiles at the Monster.

As her projectiles closed in on it, it quickly leapt several meters straight up into the air, several explosions bursting out across the ground as the Monster evaded the projectiles, before turning its gaze up as Raven came rapidly swooping down towards it.

He drew back his right fist and coated it in intense, crackling lightning as he closed in on the Monster, swerving across as the right head snapped its jaws at him, evading before driving his fist towards the side of the right head.

His fist slammed onto the side of its jaw, cracking and knocking out several teeth before his eyes widened in alarm as the Monster swung its left front paw across towards him.

He quickly turned across and crossed his arms in front of himself in alarm, the paw slamming onto his arms and sending him flying across the air with immense speed, before he crashed onto the front of an old, rundown building, the wall collapsing in immediately upon impact.

As the Monster plummeted back down and closed in on the ground, it quickly swing its right front leg up in alarm as a massive sphere of explosive energy came shooting towards the right head, but it was too slow to react.

The explosive sphere struck the right head on the full, a devastating explosion erupting upon impact, triggering a powerful shockwave that sent Celia flying back several meters as a thick cloud of smoke burst out around the Monster.

Celia shifted her center of gravity to maintain control of herself as the shockwave faded, managing to land on her feet and maintain her balance, her feet skidding back a bit as she landed, before her blood ran cold as a deafening, bone-chillingly vicious roar rang out.

She turned her gaze forward as the smoke cleared, the Monster charging to her in an immense rage, smoke billowing out of the stump where its right head used to be, before it leapt towards her and drove its left front leg forward, thrusting its claws towards her furiously.

"I won't let you!" Snapped Raven, as he came zipping out of the collapsed building with immense speed, eliciting a sharp roar of pain from the Monster as he slammed his fist onto the middle of its leg before its claws could reach Celia, before unleashing a burst of lightning from his fist, singing the fur around that spot and burning its skin.

The remaining head snapped towards him and opened its jaws as its leg sharply stiffened up, before it unleashed a concentrated burst of flames at Raven, blasting him away several meters as the flames crashed against him, before he gritted his teeth and sharply spread out his wings to halt himself before he could crash onto something, right as Celia got the Cereberus's attention by firing off an explosive projectile at it.

The Monster quickly tilted its last head across, the projectile narrowly missing it before it shot towards Celia as she swiftly sprang back, and as its left front paw landed on the spot she'd been standing on, a powerful explosion erupted from the ground, a howl of pain ringing out as the force of the explosion broke the Monster's paw, chunks of rubble flying out.

It let out a snarl and gritted its teeth before whipping its right paw across, striking one of the chunks of rubble and sending it flying towards Celia, whose eyes widened in alarm.

She quickly crossed her arms in front of herself defensively, a stifled cry of pain escaping her lips as the chunk of rubble slammed onto her forearms, fracturing the bones upon impact before she scrambled to get out of the way as a wave of scorching flames came shooting towards her, gasping sharply as the flames struck her legs before she could get out of the way, severely burning her calves.

The Cereberus then swiftly sprang back as Raven fired his beams at the side of the remaining head, before he shot straight towards the Monster as fast as he could.

He swerved up as it swiped its claws at him as he closed in on it and began to charge up a fireball in its jaws, before he unleashed a burst of purple flames, the heat forcing the Monster to briefly close its eyes as the fireball in its jaws destabilized, before Raven moved quickly, flying around and landing on the back of the Monster's neck, straddling it tightly.

He then extended out his claws and drove them into the sides of the neck, a deafening roar of pain ringing out as his claws plunged through the large creature's skin.

It snarled as it arched its back and began to raise one of its hind legs ups, aiming to claw Raven off its neck, right before a rapid explosive projectile came shooting across and struck the side of its raised leg, knocking it away and deeply fracturing the bone as the projectile erupted fiercely upon impact, as Raven extended his claws as far as he could, about twenty centimeters, before giving them a sharp, violent twist.

The Cereberus howled in agony as blood poured out of its mouth, thrashing about to try and shake Raven off, but it was unsteady as it was unable to put its weight on the two legs that Celia had damaged with her explosions.

As it continued to roar in pain while desperately trying to shake Raven off, his claws just marginally short of piercing deep enough to be fatal, its body then sharply stiffened up as Raven coated his entire body in intense, crackling purple lightning.

"Get off, quick!" Called out Celia, Raven obliging as he pulled his claws out of the sides of the Monster's neck and flew up, right as a large explosive sphere came barreling towards the creature's open mouth.

With its movements still stiff from the electrocution of Raven's purple lightning, it couldn't react in time, the sphere shooting straight into its open mouth before exploding with immense force, the top half of its head getting blown off and flying off with a violent spray of blood.

The Cereberus's body then went limp, before falling over and crashing onto the ground, as Raven quickly swooped down towards Celia, her limbs trembling in pain as he landed beside her and knelt down, gently placing a hand on her shoulder as he reverted his transformation.

"[Greater Heal]...you okay?" He asked her with a look of concern, as the burns on her legs faded and the fractured bones in her arms healed, her expression easing as she let out a quiet sigh of relief.

"Yeah, I'm fine...it would've been a lot worse if you hadn't been here. You should heal yourself too, it landed a couple of strong hits on you," She replied as she glanced at him worriedly.

"No, I'm fine...that paw slap did hurt, but it didn't break anything, this body's pretty durable, after all. And its flames didn't burn me at all, it was just the sheer force of them that knocked me back. I guess I really am immune to damage from fire and heat, possibly lightning too," Surmised Raven, before adding as he finished healing her, "I am surprised that my clothes aren't damaged either though...the fabric doesn't have so much as a single burn on it."

"Aster probably requested burn-resistant material when he had it commissioned, otherwise your flames and lightning would damage it. Anyway, I'm just glad we both got through that alive. I see why the Knights consider Critical Level Threats to require a Captain-level Mage to deal with them...I suppose that means that, as a duo, we're Captain-level, huh?" Smiled Celia wryly.

"Maybe...I doubt I could've defeated that thing by myself, your explosions definitely made things a whole lot easier for me. I don't know about you, but I'm feeling a bit worn out after that...shall we take a break before we continue?" Suggested Raven, letting out a tired sigh.

"Yeah, sounds good...there's a fairly strong possibility that we'll run into more powerful Monsters further down, after all, we shouldn't run ourselves too ragged. Plus, you can detect the presence of Monsters in advance, so we don't have to worry about being ambushed and caught off-guard."

"Yeah, I'll stay alert. I hope the others are doing okay...this place is no joke, I'm not sure how many more Monsters of that level we can manage to take on..."

Meanwhile, up on the fiftieth level...

"[Telekinetic Slash]!" Exclaimed Aster, a roar of ringing out as his attack sliced off the left leg of a High Level Monster, a Manticore.

It was a creature with the body and head of a lion, with a tail that resembled the stinger of a scorpion. It had a row of upto nine spikes on the middle of its back, and sharp horns on its head, with reptilian wings on its back.

It was a creature that couldn't be defeated just by killing it once...the nine spikes on its back indicated the number of times it would need to be killed before it stayed down for good.

And it was currently down to two spikes, with Aster and Tacitus having killed it seven times already.

As the Monster began to back away unsteadily while snarling at Aster, it began to turn to its left as Tacitus raced across and leapt towards it from that direction, his hammer raised high before he swung it down with immense force, slamming the head of the weapon onto the back of the Monster's neck and breaking it with a loud, crushing crunch.

Blood poured out of the Monster's mouth as its head slumped before it collapsed onto the ground with a thud, one of the two remaining spikes falling off before it rapidly regenerated, whipping its stinger towards Tacitus with immense force, who narrowly blocked the swing with the handle of his hammer, his feet skidding back a few paces from the force of the hit.

When a Manticore resurrects, it gets a temporary power boost that lasts about ten seconds, during which its speed and strength approached that of a Critical Threat Level.

This ability serves as a defense mechanism, to avoid being killed instantly upon resurrection over and over.

The Monster then shot towards Aster with immense speed, leaping forward as it closed in on him and swiping its claws towards his head, before its upper body suddenly froze in mid-air.

As its hind legs strained to try and back away to no avail, with its head and the front half of its body within Aster's Telekinetic Zone, its head suddenly got crushed in the blink of an eye, the final spike on its back falling off as Aster killed it for good.

"You used your zone? Isn't that a waste of Mana?" Inquired Tacitus, as he approached Aster.

"It was only for a handful of seconds, so it's fine. More importantly, the next Relic Armament is right up ahead," He replied, as he began heading for the large doorway a few dozen meters ahead of the pair, with a look of anticipation on his face.

"I wonder what kind of weapon it is...I just hope there aren't any powerful Monsters in there like on the forty-fifth level," Remarked Tacitus warily.

"It's too bad Raven isn't with us, his ability to detect Monsters sure would come in handy right about now. At least we managed to avoid having to fight powerful Monsters near-constantly...the last few levels have been teeming with High Level Threats, we'd have been screwed if it wasn't for the Teleport Spells," Responded Aster, before pushing the doors open with his telekinesis.

"Okay, good, the coast looks clear," Tacitus sighed in relief, as the entered the room, before he stumbled a bit as he stepped on a tile that got pushed in, right as several arrows came shooting towards him from the left.

"[Telekinetic Push]!" Aster swiftly chanted, knocking away the incoming arrows before they could reach them, "Whew, close one."

"I really hate this place..."

"Well, on the bright side, once we've regrouped with the others and collected all the weapons, we won't have a reason to ever come down here again," Pointed out Aster with a wry smile, before approaching the middle of the room and opening the stone coffin.

"Looks like a large black sword," Mused Tacitus, as they peered in.

"Yeah, it looks pretty heavy. So it's not a weapon for a Saber, it appears to be better suited for a Pulverizer, like you. Or maybe it's actually really light?" Suggested Aster, as he picked up the stone tablet in the coffin while Tacitus reached for the sword.

"N-no, it's definitely heavy...a fair bit heavier than the weapons I currently use," Replied Tacitus with a slight grunt, as he lifted it out of the stone box, struggling to hold it up.

"Let's see here...it says 'Berserk, a heavy, crushing two-handed sword that can double in size by running your Mana through it. While it isn't very sharp, a direct hit with this weapon should one-shot most opponents'...signed, NaruGokLuffIchiGuts," Aster read out the text on the tablet, before glancing at Tacitus as the sword expanded.

"O-okay, this would be an incredible power, if the weight of the weapon didn't increase with its size," He responded with a grimace, his arms trembling slightly before he lowered the weapon, which began to shrink as he continued running Mana into it.

"Interesting...you channel Mana into it to expand it, and if you continue doing so once it reaches its maximum size, it'll start to revert back to its original size. Yeah, if you can get used to the weight of it, it should be the ideal weapon for you," Grinned Aster, giving him a pat on the shoulder.

"Ugh...that definitely isn't going to be easy by any stretch of the imagination. This sucks, I'm going to need to work out and build a lot more muscle before I can properly wield this thing, that's going to be so much work," Grumbled Tacitus, as he let out a sigh of dread...