Danmachi: the Great Devourer

C14: Axel Versus The Juggernaut

Word count = 1900 on 1/2/2024

Just a small pre authors note to say that I will be trying to respond less to comments unless someone has a really simple one or they are completely confused on what I'd happening. Ill still be reading comments and giving likes where they are due

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In a hidden Location.

Within a deep dark cave illuminated simply by various torches. Sits an elderly looking man within a chair. Yet the chair is not some simple chair but a throne…one that belongs to Ouranos, the first god that descended upon the world and ensured the dungeon was sealed many ages ago. The old man who is the god Ouranos sits contemplatively at his faithful servant. A cloaked figure standing just below him.

"It has appeared again" Ouranos simply says.

"What has?" The cloaked figure asks

"A monstrosity that the dungeon creates to ensure death."

"What monster? Why?" the figure asks in confusion. Unaware of the history that took place. The history of how the Astrea Familia was all but wiped out.

"It has shown up in the upper floors, adventurers of that level arent able to create much damage there but someone or something has which caused 'that thing' to appear once more"

"Then, my lord, should a response team be sent out to subjugate this creature?"

Ouranos thinks of a proper response before nodding his head, "Ensure the team has at least level 3s, no lower. We might still be able to save some people."

"By your command", the cloaked figure is about to head out when Ournaos continues.

"Ensure news of whatever is revealed during this expedition is suppressed. We can't let other adventurers learn of 'its' existence or they may run in fear of the dungeon."

"What is this creature?" the follower can only helplessly ask again as their curiosity is tingled by the gods words.

"We have taken to calling this monstrosity the Juggernaut, a few early immortals when the pact with the dungeon was still unsteady discovered it and they have kindly kept quiet about it to not shatter the hope of adventurers."

"The Juggernaut?!! We?" The cloaked figure says in awe of the name before saying in confusion.

A third voice suddenly sounds out which seems to surprise both Ouranos and the cloaked figure. "Take heed Sage, do not hurry in your task but do not delay either. I have divined this event and it shall pass in peace but a hint of chaos lies beyond. A precursor to a new age. A new legend." The cloaked figure simply nods and heads off to get the necessary team on behalf of the guild as they can't actually show themselves to normal people.

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After the half hit he gave to the Juggernaut, he retreated just in time to dodge its tail as it is rapidly brought towards him with it's non spine side

"Shadows of the Abyss, I AM the Endless, Rapture of Power" Axel calls out but pauses 3/4ths of the way through when he already feels the skill become active even though he didn't fully finish the chant. Luckily his first skill can run by itself for roughly a minute before being reactivated if he doesnt focus on the skill. This gives him the chance to focus more on the strengthening skill.

After dodging the tail, he moves forward again to strike at its head, only to meet its claw head off, the impact sends the claws back but Axel also got a small injury on his hand. But the pain in his hand isn't the worst of it. When he absorbed part of the monster's strength in that collision just now. He felt the same when he absorbed a monster core. He waves his hand to try to shake off the pain. The two begin to collide a lot more, Axel loses his vambraces in the process as they are damaged while committing their duty to prevent his arm from being cut off (more than can be said for bell).

But in the process, Axel has found that he is taking less damage from the Juggernaut due to its decrease in speed and power. Anyone else would have thought the monster simply got tired or something, but only Axel knows that he is draining more of the monster's power. Though his body is getting wracked in pain, it's as if his whole body fell asleep whilst still being awake, so every movement is fuzzy and painful. The wrong step could make him fall over, crying in pain. Yet Axel does not relent, staying focused as he changes his body, twisting the naturally sensitive nerves, skin, and muscles around each time to counter attack against the Juggernaut.

Unfortunately a few minutes in, his body falters and he receives an injury on his cheek that is quite deep and likely to scar but in response to getting hurt so badly and almost losing his head, he had absorbed more strength to wrench the claw out of his face. His next punch inflicts a crack inducing sound from the Juggernaut's arm. It roars out in pain before redoubling it's attacks by merging claw swipes with tail swipes and then also trying to bite but Axel simply jumps up into the air and then uses the roof to move again and counter attack with a heavy strike on its head.

Axel attempts to get away from the beast but due to the close proximity his leg gets stuck on one of the juggernaut's teeth and thus ends up in it's mouth. He quickly uses his full force to enhance his leg so it's not bitten off when the teeth come down and dig into his leg.

"AGHHHHHHHH" Axel cries out in pain before cold calculative rage takes over and since he is given such free contact with the Juggernaut, he starts to deliver heavy blows to it's face.

ONE PUNCH, TWO PUNCH, THREE, FOUR, FIVE, SIX, SEVEN.

EIGHT. On the 8th punch the juggernaut releases Axel's leg as he has manually pried open the beast's mouth to free his heavily bleeding leg. Axel is panting as his body screams for him to stop absorbing the energy of the juggernaut as the pure dungeon energy flows through his body, his veins on the verge of popping, his concentration constantly breaking due to random pains but he has nailed down the timing of his new skill to ensure that he changes his body at the last possible moment to get the hit in, dodge or block the Juggernauts attacks. Yet now with his busted leg, he can barely do half of those actions now. The juggernaut itself has a long hairline scar on it's head due to the power released by Axel.

It releases an earth shattering screech before moving quickly, trying to get behind Axel to slice him up but with all the power boosts Axel has gotten from the Juggernaut, he can now keep up and executes a backhanded fist to knock it's claw away before he suckerpunches it again but unlike last time, it's not fast enough to barely dodge, A second hairline scar appears on the bottom of it's head. Yet Axel doesnt stop, the previous rage takes hold still and he continues to wail on it, knocking the giant skull head around with each impact as it tries to stop Axel's barrage of punches with its claws or tail but those get knocked away too.

The juggernaut can only gradually get weaker and weaker and Axel stops caring about it's attacks as it slows down the juggernaut's death when he blocks them. So he just allows various cuts to accumulate on his body which only drain the monster more before both sides. Axel suddenly falls to his knees but as he does, he delivers one last punch which stops the juggernaut's own last attempt to skewer Axel.

The juggernaut's body collapses and gradually splits apart or explodes into dust. No magic stone is found but the juggernauts own skull and bits of its claws still remain as part of the drops. Axel himself has passed out for various reasons.

"Oy, Baros. Look, someones there" a person that is the scout of a team of high level adventurers who were returning to Riviera after completing a trade with the merchants on the surface. They were enlisted by the guild to explore the 5th floor for any strange activities or circumstances. When they were exploring, they found that halfway through the floor, a punch of holes are opened up and arent being fixed by the dungeon. Around the same area, they found a bunch of corpses that were cut up into chunks and then as they kept exploring, they found a bloody figure kneeling down with their fist outstretched and a deer skull and giant spikes lying next to him. They checked if the person was alive first which they were surprised was the case due to how badly their leg was mangled and the various injuries all over their body that would drown any other man in their own blood.

The deer skull itself is especially creepy to this group as it reminds them of certain stories they heard from other adventurers about the 'deep floors' and a certain monster called Skull sheep that appears there. The spikes and deer head match but that both unnerves them as well as confuses them as a deep floor monster shouldn't appear on the 5th floor of all places. They had gotten testimony from others on the 3rd and 4th floor that a bunch of shaking had occurred roughly half an hour ago before a bunch of screeching rang out and only stopped just a few minutes ago as they arrived on the 5th floor.

The group splits up as one or two of the group stays to watch over the kid or even bring him back to Orario if he was the one responsible. While the rest of the group scouts out the rest of the 5th floor. Yet even after half an hour of exploring the floor and looping around a bit, they still didn't find anything else except the unconscious kid so they just brought him back while remarking over how they were scared for no reason. They hoped that they got an easy payout if the kid was actually responsible.

A short journey later, they return to the guild and deliver the injured kid to them. Illya quickly recognizes him and uses her authority to use a common potion to heal his wounds which stops most of the bleeding except on his cheek and leg and It was decided that he would need the treatment of the Dian Cecht familia, more potions would be enough for the cheek injury but the leg would require more extensive healing to repair the bone or what remains of it. The adventurers hand over the deer skull (it's smaller than it's default size, like an actual deer skull level size) and spike. The cloaked figure who watched over the entire situation could only return to report to ouranos who verified the juggernaut had been slain. Moments later he also got a report on who it was that slayed it and understood immediately why the 'other' voice spoke up. He burned the papers, putting it out of his mind.