"GRROOAARRRRRRRRR!"

At the sound of the roar the ground began to shake, and at the entrance the ground began raising, revealing where the beast was hiding. Once out of the ground the beast was seen to be black and bear-like, with a large horn on its head, and was a little bigger than a modest house.

"Shit, I can definitely see that thing wiping out a team that size," Adam stated as he re-enforced his body with more mana.

"What is it?" Claire asked, with a tinge of fear in her voice.

"I have no Idea," Helen replied, her eyes wide as the burly beast shook the dirt from its body and it blocked their exit.

Arthur's eyes were locked right on the beast, more specifically the horn, as he remembered the times this past year he had seen and heard of this feature. His body shook, but not with fear, but rage as he remembered the condition he found Lance Alea in and everything she had told him.

"Alright everyone keep calm, this beast may be big, but size isn't everything. If we work as a team we can beat it and all make it out of here," Helen said in an effort to not only quell everyone else's fear, but also her own.

"Grrooarrrrrrr!" The beast roared again even louder than before, but it wasn't facing them.

"GGRRRROOAAAARRRRRRR!" Another beast roared in reply.

The ground began shaking again, and a little further into the chamber two more of the same beast emerged from under the ground, even larger than the first.

"You've got to be kidding me!" Curtis yelled in a terrified shock. "How the hell are we supposed to fight three of them?"

Helen's eyes shifted from one beast to the next as she weighed her options, before her eyes fell onto her party. More than half of them were still technically children, none even adults yet, all with so much time ahead of them. Helen refused to let them die.

"Alright everyone listen up! Twin horns, we're attacking the one by the exit. We'll keep its attention on us, while you kids escape!" Helen ordered.

"What?!" The younger members yelled, as the rest of the twin horns internally agreed with Helen's plan, and were ready to die to give them a chance.

"Like hell we're leaving you all!" Theo protested.

"We're adventurers too, we're staying to fight!" Claire argued.

"Listen to me. These things could very easily be S rank or higher. Either way, we don't stand a chance against three of them," Helen argued. "Arthur, back me..." Helen stopped speaking as she and everyone else felt an incredible pressure.

They all looked to see that the pressure was coming from Arthur, as his hair turned white and golden runes began showing on his body. Then a dark light glowed, as Sylvie took on her full sized dragon form.

"So this is Arthur's beast will Jasmine told us about. Gods, I can feel it, so much power. I can definitely see how he was able to single handedly defeat an S ranked beast," Helen thought to herself as she and the others looked on in awe.

"Helen," Arthur said, breaking her from her thoughts as he looked over his shoulder, showing his now purple eyes. His voice ringing with the authority of a king, no, something greater. "You all take the small one, Sylvie and I will take these two."

"RROOOAAAARRRRRR!" Sylvie roared, sounding even more powerful and intimidating than the massive bears.

"Looks like can't talk when she transforms," Curtis commented.

"No, sometimes a roar is just a roar," Jasmine replied.

"Alright everyone you heard them," Helen called out, getting everyone's attention, as she felt a surge of strength and confidence from seeing Arthur and Sylvie transform. "Durden,Tessia, I want you two restricting its movements. Lilia, Angela, Kathyln you three are on defense. We don't know what these things are capable of, so be ready to cast large scale defensive spells to protect everyone. Feyrith, Elijah, you're with me on ranged attacks. Adam take Theo and Claire, Jasmine take Curtis and Grawder, attack in teams and come at it from different angles. And Claire, use that communication scroll and get your uncle to send that recovery team!" Helen ordered, then pulled back an arrow on her bow. "NOW ATTACK!" Helen yelled as she released her arrow, and the teams went to work.

As everyone began their attacks, Claire pulled the two way communication scroll from her dimensional ring and opened it. "Kaspian Bladeheart."

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Back at the outpost Kaspian was working on mind numbing paperwork, feeling a bit envious of the adventurers diving into the dungeon. Suddenly the communication scroll on his desk begins making a high pitched noise.

"Claire, is ever..." Kaspian starts as he unrolls the scroll, before he's cut off.

"Uncle we need the recovery team now!" Claire yells.

"What?!" Kaspian replies in sudden shock.

"They're at least S rank. Arthur and his bond are holding off two of them, but the rest of us still have to fight off the third," Claire informs him.

"Get out of there!" Kaspian orders urgently.

"We can't, one of them is blocking the exit," Claire replies. A roar and yelling can be heard in the background.

"Hang in there Claire, help is on its way," Kaspian yelled as he dropped the scroll.

Kaspian burst out of his office, knocking over the man working behind the desk with the door. Kaspian jumps over the desk, knocking several adventurers out of his way as he made it outside. He grabbed a rope that was attached to a fairly large bell at least ten feet off the ground and began pulling, causing the bell to begin ringing loudly. Throughout the outpost everyone stops what they're doing as they knew what this meant, this was a call for the recovery team to assemble.

Kaspian was rushing through the outpost, weaving through adventurers and shops, knocking some over as he ran as fast as he could to the dungeon entrance. As he arrived he could see the twelve member team, three of which were emitters, making last minute preparations as they awaited him to inform them of the situation.

"Kaspian sir, what's the situation?" The team's leader, the augmenter with the round shield and mace asked with a military like barring.

"The team that went down the new fork in the A ranked tunnel is facing off against three beasts, each at least S ranked," Kaspian quickly explained as he removed his leather armor vest from his dimensional ring.

"Three S rank?!" The leader repeated in shock. "Shit." He then looked to see Kaspian dawning his armor and securing his sword to his side. "What are you doing?"

"My niece is part of that party, I'm going with you," Kaspian replied as he tightened a leather bracer onto his forearm.

"These are S ranks, and the party left yesterday. Even if we run the whole way, it's going to take a few hours to get to her," the leader explained.

"One of her party members single handedly defeated an elderwood guardian last year." The recovery team gave shocked expressions, as Kaspian finished putting on his armor. "I don't know if they'll survive, but if we're lucky, he'll be able to hold them off so everyone can escape."

"Ok," the team leader replied in acceptance.

"Also, you won't be leading this party," Kaspian told him.

"What?!"

"She will," Kaspian said pointing behind them.

They all turned around to see Lance Aya standing behind them wearing a black cloak.

"Lance Aya!" The leader said as he and his team began to kneel.

"Stop that, we don't have time for this now, let's go," Lance Aya ordered as she turned around and began running into the dungeon, the rest of the party following right behind her.

—————————————————————

"NOW ATTACK!" Helen yelled as she released her arrow.

With those words Arthur and Sylvie charged in to their targets too. Arthur was in a dead sprint as Sylvie flew low to the ground. As Arthur got closer he was able to tell these two were both significantly more powerful than the elderwood guardian he faced as Note, but he was also significantly more powerful.

"Sylvie, let's try and finish these two quick, and get back and support the others!" Arthur told her.

"Right papa. Mama and the others might need us," Sylvie replied.

Wanting to finish this quick, Arthur prepared to use Absolute Zero, his ultimate ice attribute move, leaving his left hand appearing to be engulfed in a white flame. The massive beast swung one of its mighty paws at Arthur, much faster than one could expect from such a large beast. Closely dodging, Arthur grabbed onto the fur on the back of the beast's paw. The fur began to freeze, but to Arthur's surprise its progress was slow. The beast tried to bite down on Arthur with its massive jaw, but Arthur saw this coming and jumped out of the way, and landed on its head where he tried Absolute Zero again, but with the same results.

"Do these things have a resistance to magic?" Arthur wondered as he jumped off the beasts head, as it tried to ram itself into a wall to get him off.

"Fine, if magic won't work, I'll just have to cut you up," Arthur commented, then charged in with dawns ballad pulled back to strike.

—————————————————————

"Rrroooaaaarrrrr!" Sylvie roared as she collided with her targeted beast.

The collision knocked the beast onto its hind legs before it fell onto its back. Sylvie tried to go for the beast's throat and rip it out with her teeth, but the beast pushed her head back with its paws. Sylvie then settled for its paw, deciding to just rip that off first. Sylvie bit down on its leg right above its paw and tried to rip it off, but instead only fur and some flesh ripped away as Sylvie fell back, ultimately using far more force than what was needed. Using her wings Sylvie steadied herself as she spit out the pieces of the beast while gagging.

"What is going on here? These beasts taste rotten!" Sylvie thought as she licked her own scales to get the taste from her mouth.

The beast was back on its feet now, and began charging towards Sylvie.

"That's fine, I don't need to use my teeth," Sylvie commented to herself, and took flight charging right at the beast.

The beast may have been considerably larger, but bigger doesn't mean stronger. Right before they collided, Sylvie brought her front right claw up, and smashed it across the beast's face, knocking it into the ground. Sylvie then landed on top of it, and followed up with a stream of fire unleashed right in its face.

—————————————————————

Helen's arrow flew and struck the beast in the snout. It let out a roar, but before it could charge, courtesy of Durden and Tess, two stone hands rose from the ground and grabbed the beast by its front legs, as a series of roots erupted from the ground and grabbed its hind legs. Before it had time to react to its restraints, it was hit in the face with a sphere of water, followed by a series of sharp stones from Feyrith and Elijah. The ranged attacks didn't appear to do much damage, but they did end up providing a good distraction, as Jasmine, Curtis, and Grawder were charging in from the left.

Not wanting to take any chances against the S ranked beast, Curtis had already activated his beast will, allowing him to easily keep up with Jasmine and Grawder as he ran. Curtis and Grawder pulled ahead, and with his swords ablaze with a bright yellow flame, Curtis struck the beasts left knee with both swords as Grawder slashed it with its claws. The beast roared as Jasmine slashed away hunks of flesh as she spun in with her two blades swirling with wind mana, making it look as if she was at the base of a tornado when she struck.

A split second later Adam was up in the air, coming down to slash the beast in the face with his spear. The spear struck the beast, splicing downward over its right eye. The attacks more so enraged the beast, causing it to break free of the stone hands. Chunks of rock flew out, a large piece was going straight for Theo, but he used his gravity magic to lighten it, then punched it, sending it right back at the beast's face. Another chunk was coming towards Claire, but a sudden blast of wind from Lilia erupted underneath it, sending it up and over Claire. Using Gale stomp, Claire rocketed up into the air towards the beast, and with some concentration she ignited her sword in a blue flame. Landing on its snout Claire unleashed a furious assault on the beast's right eye, before using gale stomp again leaving the beast blind out of its right eye.

Fully enraged the beast ripped free of Tess' roots on its hind legs, and charged after Claire. Being mid air there wasn't much Claire could do as Fayrith fired a blast of water at the beast, but it ran through it unphased. The beast swung its right paw, hitting Claire as she spun around to fire some fire bullets. Claire flew through the air, colliding with the cavern wall, then falling to the ground in a motionless heep as blood began flowing from her head. Theo raced to Claire, and immediately checked for her pulse.

"Still alive," Theo said with a sigh of relief.

"THEO BEHIND YOU!" Elijah yelled at the top of his lungs.

Theo turned to see the beast bringing its large paw across towards him. Theo firmly planted his feet as he held his arms out in front of him, and weighed himself down with gravity magic to help make sure he didn't get moved, knowing if he dodged Claire would no doubt not survive the strike. The beast struck Theo's arms, his gauntlets taking the initial brunt of the attack, as both his shoulders dislocated. Theo clenched his teeth as he grunted in pain, but he kept focused and refused to move.

A series of ice spears collided with the beast's back side, taking its attention from Theo, and locking it onto Lilia and Kathyln. The beast then took off leaving Theo and Claire. Theo breathed a sigh of relief as he fell to his knees, his arms hanging limply with cracks spider webbed throughout his gauntlets. He looked back at Claire and gave a weak smile as he could see her breathing.

As the beast charged at Lilia and Kathyln, Elijah took the opportunity and used his metal snake spell. The metal snake wrapped around the beast's left leg, and swung its sword like tail up, and pierced through the beast's lower jaw. The beast stopped and brought its left leg up to its mouth, and bit down on it, breaking apart the metal snake before taking off running again.

Lilia and Kathyln stood beside one another, and began casting spells. Kathyln cast another ice spear spell, while Lilia cast a tornado spell. The ice spears formed a few feet away, and the tornado formed right on top of them. The tornado spun the ice spears faster and faster, creating more momentum than Kathyln could on her own. Angela then cast a wind spell that forced the beast up, just as the ice spears left the tornado. The ice spears struck the beast in its exposed underbelly, then the beast fell forward back onto its feet.

Blood poured down the ice spear and where the beast bit down on its own leg. Everyone was ready for this to be over, and expected that to be the deciding blow. However the beast wasn't done yet, and gave a deafening roar to show it before charging at Lilia and Kathyln again. Durden, Angela, and Tess cast spells to try and stop it. It ran through Angela's wind spell, smashed through Durden stone wall, and ripped Tess' roots out of the ground, all on its charge towards the two female conjurors.

Jasmine and Adam attacked simultaneously, aiming for its throat. Adam lodged his spear into the beast's neck, but it swatted him away like a bug, leaving gashes in armor and chest from its claws. Jasmine managed to leave a long gash on its neck before it shook her off. It nearly stepped on her as she hit the ground, but managed to narrowly roll out of the way. Curtis was charging in and leapt up into the air as he unleashed his world howl move. Due to being mid air Curtis was pushed back, but he was close enough that the attack pushed its head into the ground and broke its snout.

When the beast lifted itself back up it looked more like a beast of the undead. Blood poured from ice spears in its abdomen, a section of its left leg where a chunk of flesh was missing, two gashes on either side of its neck, a sliced up eye, and it's broken snout, but despite all of this, the beast would not die or give up, as it began charging towards them again.

Curtis landed in front of Lilia and Kathyln, and as the beast charged again he held his swords at the ready, determined to do whatever he could to protect two of the most important people in the world to him. His feet were planted firmly, his swords ready to strike. As the beast was getting ready to collide with him, a condensed disc of wind flew over his head and collided with the beast, forcing it to stop. Curtis looked back to see Lilia holding her staff forward as she was using her most powerful spell to try and hold the monstrous beast back. Kathyln joined in and began firing back to back ice spears. Sweat was pouring from both of them as they gave these last spells everything they had. Everyone else was running over to help, but things were getting worse. Lilia fell to the ground grabbing at her abdomen where her core was, as she completely drained every last drop of mana from her body.

With her spell dissipating the beast began to move forward again. This time however Grawder got in its way, as he pounced on its face and began clawing as he ripped off flesh. Curtis was charging in himself to help his bond, when the beast swung its left claws at Grawder. Grawder was stuck on the claws, three of them puncturing his right side.

"GRAWDER!" Curtis cried out in horror.

With a flick of its paw Grawder was sent through the air, slamming into Curtis and pinning him to the ground. The beast ignored Curtis and Grawder and continued to Lilia. It raised its mighty paw to crush her, but Kathyln ran in and pulled Lilia away at the last second. However Kathyln was unable to avoid the beast herself, and received two deep gashes on her back.

As Tess ran to save her friends, she was also facing her own monster, guilt. Everyone was pushing themselves to their limits, but here she was with a beast will she couldn't use, and a core being held back by two stages. She looked beyond the rest of her party, and saw Arthur and Sylvie pushing themselves too, as she could see that they both had severed a paw from their respective beasts and looked like they were getting ready to go for the kills. As she was she didn't feel she could stand by Arthur, she was too far behind, too weak.

"If only I could control this damned beast will, I could have stopped this thing by now," Tess thought to herself.

She then made a decision. She grabbed the bracelet restricting her core, the two remaining charms representing each stage that was being withheld from her. She then steeled herself as she ripped it off her wrist, and the two charms fell loosely to the ground.