The Dragon Valley, the School District was floating near a barrier of wind, one so large it dwarfed the mountain range which it contained. The strongest members aboard were currently engaged in combat alongside some others. What were they fighting? Just a few of the escaped dragons is all.
"Professor Leon, my buff, it's running out, I can't hold this one off any longer!" A woman with long braided blued hair shouted out, straining under the pressure.
"Hold on, Miss Thrud, just a little longer, I'm almost there!"
"You sure you're not just a slave driver!?"
"Hehe, positive."
Some magical bombardment came in landing on the dragon engaged with Thrud, causing it to stagger for a moment, and she took the chance, cleaving off one of its sickening black wings.
Leon's weapon broke, reforming into a new one, raising his stats just enough once more, and he went on the offensive… Slicing the dragon in half, and then he turned on a dime to help Thrud deal with her four legged and one winged dragon, ending it with a single slice, finally finishing the battle. Thrud collapsed to her knees, with a few members of her familia running over to provide some medical attention.
"I'll be fine, I'm just exhausted." She said, slowly rising to her feat, armor pieces falling off as she did. "Your magic is impressive, Professor. However, it's too damn slow."
"I know, I'm working on it. It's actually quite a bit faster now though." Leon said with a charismatic smile.
"Yeah, sure… Anyway, if anything else comes out, you got it right? I'm only level 5, I can't do that too many times you know."
"What are you talking about? There's only a few that escape each cycle, and we've killed three…"
Just then, as if the world was yet just another extension of the dungeon, a stronger dragon had just pushed its way through the barrier, it was larger, meaner and much more terrifying.
"What the hell is that?" Thrud's familia member shivered, and fell to his rear in abject fear.
The dragon was through, spreading its wings and shaking its neck, it let out a guttural roar so deep all who weren't level 5 or above, just lost the will to fight and passed out. The exceptions to this being anyone within proximity of a god. Once the roar finished, the dragon looked down at Leon, saliva dripping from its maw.
Leon had a moment in his past play out. "SEND FOR AID! NOW!" Leon ordered growing serious, without anymore of his jovial attitude.
"Right!? But who?"
"EVERYONE!" Leon answered, shivering. "This… This might be it…"
Leon wasn't sure but the fact his legs were shaking was enough to make him more wary than otherwise. Despite him being at his peak status of level 6, this monster before him shook him to his very core.
"Oh calm down Leon, that thing's just a little whelp." A booming voice carried through the air. "You should be able to take it down on your own… Hmm, you do seem injured, verywell, I'll help by healing you and miss Thrud. The two of you shall conquer this beast together." The source of the voice was revealed to be Ceraunius.
"You're serious? That thing?"
"Yep, don't worry too much, just go and have your adventure."
The hellish battle that followed left Leon, and Thrud injured, and bleeding from basically everywhere, Parts of the school district were destroyed. And out of all the two of them walked the field, Ceraunius picked Leon up, Gamelia took Thrud…
Once the two of them were returned to the floating ship, Baldr spoke.
"Thanks for coming." He sighed, looking at his strongest child sleeping it off soundly. "You let him do that so he'll level up, right?"
"Yep. We aren't stupid enough to think we'll manage taking revenge on our own. Help would be greatly appreciated." Gamelia answered with a positive nod.
"Personally, I couldn't stomach the idea of Ottar being the only other level 7 out there. He is so pathetically weak for a level 7. It's as if he was never properly trained. Or that ignored, well, everything." Ceraunius said his piece and looked over to see Thor sitting beside his captain, Thrud. "Is there something you want to ask, Lord Thor?"
"No, not really, I can already guess why you're here." Thor laughed. "I will wish you good luck."
"Thanks, we'll need it." Ceraunius smirked, obviously being a little prideful in his ability, though not arrogant enough to boast about it in front of a god of the same domain.
They had both come here for two reasons. The first was to use their own power to help strengthen the wind seal. Second was to find the equipment used by their old familia. Some of it was rather expensive, plus, it had always felt wrong to leave what little remained of their family to rot in a monster's den.
"Don't do too much…" Baldr tried to warn.
"No need to worry, we're not going to go too far inside. Just enough to gather some things. We've been practicing for a while now."
"That's right…"
A few hours later, Ceraunius and Gamelia returned from inside the wind barrier, completely different people.
"What was it like in there? And are you two alright?" Thor asked, worried about how the two looked.
"Huh, oh, yeah… About that, that dragon really is something else. Took my full power lightning like it was barely an annoyance." Ceraunius said, then clicked his tongue.
"I also tried my magic on it too, and it barely did anything. Even when we combined our spells in unison. It hardly took a scale off the dragon."
"I see, well, fortunately you managed to retrieve some of your familia's relics." Thor said with a sympathetic laugh.
"Big sister Alfia, and Uncle Zald were right, that Dragon is currently an impossible height…"
"What do you mean by that?"
"We decided to try one more thing before joining a new familia."
"You can always join mine, what do ya say?" Thor chuckled.
"Specifically one in Orario."
"And we've already made a promise to a goddess there that we would join them, after we get our status updated."
With all that needed to be said, done, the two began strengthening the seal, this time utilizing a direct contact with the creator's source. After that was over they just left, wanting to go back to the village and rest in the home with what remained of their current familia.
….