Danmachi: the Great Devourer

C26: Axel versus the Goliath, Level up

Word count = 2690 on 1/25/2024

A/N: Music Recommendation for the fight portion of the story: MGR: R Rules of nature song is the preferred vibe for the fight. Unless there is another battle song yall like such as veggies theme It's what i'm listening to as im writing for better content. Enjoy

I should note that I don't care about stones. I'm just leaving the option available for yall to get more info and chapters early. We are currently at 56 stones. If we reach 100 before next chapter in 2 days then I'll continue with my previous offer (aka extra chapter, +10 stones above goal for info on one next ability. +15 for info on two I have set up and a poll to be able to get rid of one or the other and replace with most liked)

********************************************************

"Thanks for waiting, time for round 2" "Shade that I am" Axel first speaks out to the goliath before he calls out the new skill chant that he just acquired. A pitch black shade appears on his left, a peach red colored shade that looks like a series of blades and noodles appears on his left and the blue elvish copy appears behind him. All 3 merge back into his body as he rushes forth at the half black goliath.

ROARRRR. Axel's body releases a bit of light from each of the shades when the goliath finally moves and the first thing it does is roar and then slams its hand into the wall. It parts to reveal a giant club of metal being pulled out. As Axel nears, the goliath swings its new club at him but Axel hops over a small rock and the blue elvish glow is heightened and his speed increases before he reaches the wall and begins to quickly climb. Once he gets high enough, he jumps onto the Goliath and it tries to swat him away with it's hand but through a combination of parasitic body and the fleshy colored shade, his body pierces straight through the hand and he lands on the goliath's shoulder once more.

Axel utilizes all 3 shades at once now as he releases a flurry of blows upon the goliath's face. The first to hit is Axel's fist itself, followed by a combination of fleshy and blue as one cuts up the goliath's face and the other releases a powerful shockwave like what blew Axel away before but more controlled. The last manipulates the blue shockwave, tainting it black as it returns to Axel. Elevating his strength further, as if a condensed attack method of his original gluttony ability.

The goliath releases a shockwave roars and Axel is blown away but he could tell that it has roughly returned to what its original strength was. Axel can even see that the goliath's face has shrunk a bit, but only the face, the rest of its body, still retains the same power focused body. Especially so when the Goliath lets out another lighter roar as it charges forward at Axel. It swings its giant blade at Axel but he backflips over it and gets a speed boost again to dodge the next few following strikes.

Axel knows he won't be able to get a repeat of the previous rampage on the goliath's face so he settles for releasing the shockwaves of gluttony upon the goliath's legs, destabilizing it as he goes. It takes him roughly 5 minutes of doing this before it finally falls over as it's atrophied ankles can't support its own weight.

BOoooom. The collision of a 23 ft tall monsters cant be underestimated, especially after it had received a dungeon buff that bulked it up further. Axel is bent over his own knees breathing hard as sweat covers his head. He has a bit of blood dripping from his ears as the goliath's voice has been hurting him all this while. His body returning to its previous bulky state as veins can be seen on them. His strength beyond incredible as he takes out chunks of flesh with each punch but the goliath regenerates it all the same. The various speed boosts drain a lot of his stamina and he has been maintaining this for over 5 minutes to knock it down. It is only the absorption property of his gluttony that allows him to stay standing.

Can't say the same for his equipment. His gauntlets are ruined from his own attacks and nothing more than scrap metal now. His greaves are cracked all over from the leftover shockwaves and his leather armor is ripped up as he was kicked by the goliath at one point while running between its legs.

He was able to negate most of the deadly force but the collision of axel and the goliath's flat foot shredded his armor. But he isn't down for the count just yet. He moves forward once again, climbing onto the goliath's leg and over before making his way to the giant sword that belongs to the goliath.

"You like swinging this shit so much, let's see how I use it against you asshole" Axel yells out at the goliath as he uses parasitic body to elongate his limbs to wrap around the giant sword handle, grunting as he slowly lifts it up.

Off to the distance Welf is standing shell shocked and even Daisy has come back over as they watch the awe-inspiring fight between mortal and monster. Yet they start to wonder which one is the monster in this situation.

Axel is struggling to lift the blade, so he uses the elf shade to release a series of shockwaves that knock it up bit by bit until it's vertically lifted. The weight of it tips it backwards into the wall but Axel gets an idea as both black and blue clones jump up to the wall near the edge of the blade. They begin to release strike after strike with the full purpose of the shockwaves itself to knock it forward while the parasitic shade is on the opposite wall and extending tendrils to pull the blade forward. It had also turned most of its body into spikes and hooks to cling to the wall as it tried to pull the blade

"AGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!" Axel swings the blade forward as the goliath also responds with its own seemingly fear stroked roar. It tries to block the blade with its hand but it's directly cuts halfway through the extended arm before stopping but Axel and the shades all move up thr blade while the parasyte is still trying to pull it down. Axel and 2 shades begin to wail upon the giant blade again. Each impact sending thr blade down invh after unch until it finally cuts through the arm. Axel assimilated the 2 shades and uses them both on top of his strength to send a powerful impact that sends the blade shutteling down at the Monster rex as it is sliced nearly in half with even its core being chipped which was enough to kill it permanently as otherwise it would have just lost a limb or two which it would have slowly regenerated if the quickly recovered fingers were any indicator. The rex explodes into a cloud of dust as the giant blade is left behind along with patches of black skin falling on the ground and naturally it's monster core.

Axel drops off the blade before he himself bends his head as if looking down but both Daisy and Welf can tell that he is under an intense 'mind down' right now. What unnerves them a bit though is the full on grin that remains on his face even though mind down should 'reset' his facial expressions as he is essentially unconscious. Once they are closer, they notice that his bulky arms are bleeding from the heavily overexerted muscles and possibly even broken bones. Afterall, they have never heard of anyone who could do what he just did as the sword is almost as big as the goliath itself at 20 ft long and who knows what metals are in it.

The duo help set down Axel so he can lie down but the open cloudy eyes and grin on his face is truly off putting. While they are recollecting themselves, the blocked pathway is broken open as a dwarf makes his way in with a sizable hammer on hand. This is Gareth Landrock of the Loki Familia and following behind him is a pair of beautiful amazoness. One wields a long blade while the other is unarmed and even further back is a group of 4 made up of the beast man Bete Loga, elf Riveria Ljos Alf, Pallum and captain of the Loki familia Finn Deimne and the 'human' Ais Wallenstein.

"Ah, the goliath is missing. But who fought it?" They all observe the situation and one of the amazonesses from the two points out that the goliath is missing due to the broken nature of the crystal wall. They quickly find the group of three as they tend to Axel. Finn's thumb aches badly as he looks at Axel, for some reason he feels a sense of threat from the unconscious adventurer. For good reason too as his eyes occasionally flash to red and then back to blue every once in a while. Finn originally wants to maintain a calm stance between their two groups but this is quickly broken by the hothead of the group.

"Oi, where is the goliath? You two barely look like you've fought. Where is the bastard that killed it."

Welf responds by stabbing his spare magic greatsword, one that he was saving to save Axel if he got in trouble before he was told to leave, in front of him. "I don't appreciate you calling my friend a bastard. Asshole."

"HAH. you telling me that the piece of trash lying down there took down the Goliath alone"

"I AM. WHAT ARE YOU GONNA DO ABOUT IT. Can't you see the damn sword" Welf points to the massive sword which is hidden behind a thick veil of dust that was knocked up when it fell but as the loki familia finds the cracked monster core, they realize the shadow that envelops it and how it's coming from a gigantic sword.

Finn shakes a bit in realization as he grips his thumb in his fist while the others are mesmerized by the sword. The most intrigued are Gareth who places his hand against it to feel it up along with Riveria who does the same only to retract as she says, "It is dungeon made. It's some strange combination of magic metals. I can't identify any single one as they are seamlessly fused together unlike anything I have ever seen before." Welf tucks this knowledge away for later as he is not worried that anyone but Axel could possibly wield this blade at all. It's far too big to even take outside due to the sword itself being taller than even the height of the walls in the upper floors.

"Hey hey, Tione, doesnt that guy look like the person we met on the upper floors when we were hunting down those minotaurs a few weeks ago. And then again at the hostess when he grew before our eyes' ' ' Tiona Hiryute speaks to her sister but she doesnt hide her voice and the others including Axel's group hears.

"Yea, the record breaker, Brawler" Tione confirms as she has a frown on her face at the absurdity of the situation.

Gareth finally speaks up as he has finished his examination, "the sword is at least a few hundred lbs heavy, I don't even know if someone like Otar can lift this. I wonder how this kid did it." Gareth gives his analysis but there is a tone of admiration for the implied feat as the shockwave of the blade landing was felt even in Rivira which is why they can believe it. Especially since there is not blood anywhere except near the monster core where it's believed the goliath was killed and then the few drops that are falling from Axel's own body. Daisy had splashed a potion on him but his body rebroke again.

While the group is discussing the situation, a white haired woman is standing off to the side as she simply takes it all in. her face is emotionless though there is a sense of competition as she believes that Axel would reach level 3 from this. The gap between them is closing rapidly. She was told by others about how someone broke her record of one year less than 3 weeks ago and now they have done it again. She herself had hoped to fight the Goliath by herself as part of her desire to level up but she can only find another worthy target or wait for 2 more weeks for the Goliath to respawn.

Finn proposes to help Axel be brought to Rivira until he recovers. It's not like the sword will go anywhere. They will also send a notice out to Tsubaki, the captain of the hephaestus familia to come have to look at the sword and if it can be broken down at all. Bete smacks his lips as he walks away while the two amazoness, mostly Tiona, who seeks out to help carry him as Tiona herself is curious about Axel and his power. Tione's interest on the other hand is by the fact that she is also a close combat fighter and wonders if he knows some sort of technique that she could share to help her grow stronger. All in hope that her new strength would allow Finn to finally notice her efforts and accept her affection.

The loki familia explains the situation to the adventurers of Rivira which then quickly spread to Orario about how a variant goliath spawned with a giant sword that was left behind. It is still in the boss room so everyone quickly notices. Some raise worries about how new goliaths could use it against adventurers but nobody can move it and the goliath is already dead so they have 2 weeks before they need to worry about it.

Raikou herself has rushed into the dungeon and deep into Rivira upon hearing that Axel was unconscious, she is unworried about the wrath of the dungeon as long as she doesnt use her mana at all. Granted with her sealed level 3 strength, she can easily reach Rivira. She lays witness to the giant sword and pride sparks her face and she smiles before moving into the dungeon city. She quickly finds Axel. Welf and Daisy explain the whole situation from entering the boss arena, the path being blocked and Axel fighting the goliath before both were stunned and underwent changes. The goliath became half black while Axel gained some new ability that allowed him to beat up the new goliath before he took the sword for himself to cut down the Monster Rex.

Raikou has a bright smile from hearing the recollection as she can tell that the reason why Axels muscles keep exploding is because his body is rapidly adjusting to the stats he absorbed from the half black Goliath. She has brought a hundred potions with her and takes over the care of her child. She splashes the potions on his body which heal his body and then it breaks. This process repeats for the next 3 days as Raikou had to buy more potions from the dungeon city as she had run out on the 2nd day. The modification process gradually slows down on that third day and Axel is now truly recovering.

She flips him over to finally scan his status as she is sure that his body must have gained tons of excellia through this fight. It's likely that it surpassed what he had when he leveled up the first time around against the juggernaut.

She looks forward to the change of her precious child.