Chapter 194: CHAPTER 194(Divine True Ice)
Please read the author's notes. (Examples and explanation of moves and appearance+ Monster Sources)
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CHAPTER START---
"You know I really really hate this," Thalie says.
Currently, she was being carried by Yang over a massive pit of acid with a few Black Dragons resting below. Beside them, Welf was keeping up using Mosoka to rocket himself forward.
"I thought you weren't afraid of heights anymore..." Yang points out.
"I'm not, but I don't like being carried. If Welf would just make me a pair of wings or something this would be solved," Thalie points out.
"Hey!" Welf calls out beside them as they approach the other side of the pit. "I can't just 'Make wings' like that, honestly I don't think you guys appreciate how hard it is to make our gear. Plus at least Yang carrying you is a smooth ride, I can't fly like that with just Mosoka," he points out.
"Well, make a second sword and dual wield," Yang casually suggests.
"Yeah, of course," Welf scoffs. "Just make another miracle sword when I can't even figure out how this one was made, why didn't I think of that?" Even in his helmet, they could tell he was rolling his eyes.
"Alright let's focus up," Yang says as they arrive on solid ground.
Raising his right arm he sends a massive pulse of magic out and maps the remainder of this floor and some of the following floor. The hologram map showed that they were only a few hundred feet from the tunnel down to floor 91.
With a quick check of their equipment to only encounter two more Black Dragons before entering floor 91.
"I didn't think Acid would be this annoying," Thalie says as she flicks the acid off Liberty as they exit the tunnel.
"Yeah well anything below Durandal and you would find it more than just a little annoying," Welf reminds her.
"I always just assumed Adamantite was acid-proof," Yang admits. "I mean honestly the deeper we go the more worthless it seems...but I guess most people don't even get to floor fifty so it's pretty much all they need huh."
"Yeah," Welf says. "Besides the vein of ore we collected a few floors back is the purest adamantine I've ever ----ACH!" he suddenly finds himself choking on his words.
"Welf?!" Yang yells out in concern. Looking over to Thalie he sees the woman gesturing to her throat as well, struggling to breathe. "Are you choking?! What's going on!"
"C-cold..." Thalie forces out in a hoarse tone.
A steady stream of warm air immediately begins flowing around them, both adventurers find themselves on the ground greedily gulping down air.
Removing his helmet Welf immediately sees his breath visible as a white cloud with every exhale only to be immediately dissipated by the warm air.
"You guys ok?" Yang asks, not quite sure what's going on.
"Yeah just, one minute." Thalie removes her helmet to take a few deep breaths. "Cold air was suffocating us, felt like I was a kid training on a mountain again," she says.
"Felt like death," Welf adds as he stands up and puts his helmet on.
"Well whatever it is, it's coming this way," Yang raises his weapon and puts his back to his allies. The massive switch-axe ready for whatever he could feel shaking the ground with each step, about to enter the chamber.
A cavern only the size of a football stadium may not be ideal for whatever was coming at them, but it'd have to do.
As they all get ready they see ice spreading throughout the entire room, in a few moments, a thick layer of frost completely buries the grey stone walls, floor, and ceiling.
A deafening roar causes the ice to tremble, before they could even lay eyes on the enemy a wall of mist pours out, hiding their target.
"Ice dragon?" Welf asks as he readies Mosoka, the flame construct ignites and forms a massive buster sword. For a moment the smith looks down at the weapon to see it flicker before becoming solid again. The drain on his magic was palpable this time, for the first time without actively doing a large attack. He could see pieces of flame break apart and dissipate in the air, moving toward the mysterious cloud of ice. "Uh, I think something's wro---"
Before Welf can draw their attention to his weapon a powerful beam of ice is shot at them. Unlike the blizzard ice breath of regular White Dragons, this was like a blinding white laser beam of pure cold.
Instinctively Thalie jumps to the side and avoids the beam.
Seeing it coming directly toward him, Welf reacts as he usually does when faced with ice attacks, by countering with Mosoka. Instinctually raising the weapons and releasing a pillar of flame almost as dense, but certainly not as powerful.
He could immediately tell that he would lose this clash, thankfully he isn't the only fire user on his team.
A larger blue flame pillar, far more magical power but nowhere near as concentrated joins his own. Blood red flames mix with the bright blue and clash with the beam of cold.
Or at least that's what they expected.
Before their very eyes, the Cold Beam parasitized the fire attacks, somehow adding their power to itself and more than doubling its strength as the beam slammed into both adventurers, knocking them against the wall and trapping them in a massive ice spire.
"Yang! Welf! You awake in there?!" Thalie cries out through their helmets as she lays eyes on the enemy.
Within the ice Yang was fully awake, equal parts surprised and hurt. He could feel his ears ringing with every word Thalie spoke, "I'm awake. What the hell hit us?" he groans as he tries to move, only to realize that he was frozen in ice, completely immobilized in his armor.
He could see the golden glow of Thalie's magic and spear through the thick ice, as well as beams of blinding blue-ish white being shot at her by...something. Shifting his eyes he notices Welf beside him, in the last moment before the attack he'd tried to block the smith from most of the force, but it seems that was still enough to knock the man out, and judging by how cold Yang was currently feeling, frostbite would be setting in soon even within all the insulated armor.
Yang immediately begins cycling through his elements while talking to Thalie, first starting with Fire to try and melt the Ice. "Tell me what you see Thalie! I need info!"
"Uh, it's an Ice Dragon," she begins talking as he barely makes out her golden silhouette fighting the monster. "Not that big, maybe like a small house. Ice beams, lots of ice beams, and... FUCK!" she cries out as he sees her retreat beyond his range of vision, unable to even more his head in any direction because of the ice.
"THALIE! THALIE!"
"I'm ok," she rapidly responds.
"What happened?" Yang asks as he focuses on building more and more magic still, noticing the ice wasn't melting at all.
"It made ice, out of nowhere. Dropped spikes above my head."
"Fuck," Yang immediately groans.
"That sounds bad, what is this thing?" Thalie asks in a much more concerned voice as she rushes back in. Yang sees gold and white attacks being sent back and forth, what he assumed was her throwing Liberty only for a glowing tail to smack the spear to the ground.
"Does it have spikey ice armor on it?"
"Yeah."
"That's Velkhana," Yang immediately stops building his magic and focuses on his physical strength instead. As he tries to brute force his way out of the ice Thalie can hear the strain in his voice, "Elder Dragon, heat vampire basically. Consumes heat, mixed Dragon Energy, and makes it into cold."
"So no fire," Thalie immediately realizes. "Lightning?"
"Pure Water and Ice are insulators, we need to brute force it."
"Finally a plan I can get behind," she cheers.
Moments later the ice prison shatters as Yang forces his way out of it. Breaking out of an ice prison fueled by the combined magic of an Elder Dragon, Welf and himself was not something he ever planned for, by comparison, Adamantite looked soft.
Looking at the battlefield he sees rows of ice on the floor, waist-height walls left in the wake of Velkana's breath attacks, he sees Thalie with one frost-covered arm, not frozen but clearly not completely fine.
"Tag out!" he orders, Thalie immediately rushes over to his position to tend to her arm and Welf while Yang charges at the dragon. Finally laying eyes on the final story boss of Monster Hunter World: Iceborne.
It was both underwhelming and intimidating. Just as Thalie said, Velkhana was far from the largest monster they'd fought, and certainly not a massive dragon. Only the length of maybe two busses from snout to the tip of its tail, a slender build that one could be forgiven for assuming was 'frail' by the standard of dragons.
But he knew better, the bright grey skin covered in spiked white ice armor. The tail with an ice spear at the end, already coiled like a scorpion's as he approaches. This was called the Divine Ice Dragon for a damn good reason, the chill left on his body from its first attack was proof enough, Dragon Energy and monsters that could use it must never be underestimated.
Charging forward he swings his Switch-Axe, using wind element he transforms the weapon into the greatsword form mid-swing, the now glowing green blade moving impossibly fast toward the monster. Only for it to strike out like a viper with its tail, the two spear-like icicles at the end clash with his blade and shatter, only to be reformed by the time he adjusts for another swing.
Before he can take another step forward, Velkhana shows its smaller size has a purpose. With speed he's never before seen from any monster it swats him away like a bug in the divine presence of an Elder Dragon.
He feels his ribs almost crack, forcing himself to tighten his grip on his weapon just so it doesn't go flying across the battlefield as he bounces across the floor.
"Argh!" he gets the wind knocked out of him as he tumbles and skids in a crouched position. Looking up just in time to see a Cold Beam a few meters away from his face.
Instinctively he blasts directly upward like a rocket on blue flames, he avoids the attack, but his flames immediately dissipate and are absorbed by the dragon. All just in time for the beam to begin rising upward.
In less than a second, the beam carves a path through the air as the dragon adjusts its head, luckily Yang used his wind magic to push himself out of its path just in time.
As he lands on his feet and is about to charge again, Thalie's voice calls out to him. "Yang look up!" she says.
Following her instruction he sees massive blocks of ice forming in mid-air before plummeting toward him. Chunks of ice as big as two cars rain down from the sky.
Deftly avoiding the blocks he looks over to see Welf treating his frostbite with an elixir off to the side, well hidden behind a rocky protrusion. "Thalie, we need to rush it."
"Alright, when?" she asks as she quietly gets to the other side of the monster.
Looking up Yang sees one massive chunk of ice, almost the size of an entire bus about to fall onto his position and decides their plan. "Now!" he says as the block is only one story above his head.
With his weapon in his left hand he raises his right hand, the Chaos Mark blooms bright red, showing through his jet black armor even as the bright green wind magic was flowing between the plates and into his weapon.
He raises his hand and not only catches the massive chunk of ice with one hand, but sinks his fingers in and with pure shoulder strength alone, hurls it like a baseball toward Velkhana.
The dragon was seemingly so surprised it couldn't react fast enough to avoid the massive block of ice flying toward its face.
As the ice makes impact the dragon is sent tumbling across the floor, the ice armor on its skull now shattered and already reforming as both adventurers charge its position.
For almost twenty minutes the adventurers slash away at the monster, the Ice Armor proving to be a serious issue, as well as the absurd strength of the monster. Needless to say, if it could put the hurt on Yang, they made sure not to let it grab onto Welf or Thalie.
After a long and grueling fight, it finally came time to end it all, Yang had long devolved into a battle-crazed mess, his Adrenal Rush and Chaos Mark taking their mental toll over the long and stressful fight.
Giving him just enough direction, Thalie and Welf formed their plan. All they would have to do is get Yang to the monster's core, this has proved to be a serious problem, but after twenty minutes most of the armor was currently broken off. They just had to deal with the fact that Velkhana, unlike most dragons, actively fought with eight 'limbs'. Four legs, two wings, one lethal tail, and a serious bite.
"Go!" Thalie signaled as she broke into a full sprint.
Beside her, Welf was using his unnamed greatsword. Seeing pockets of dense mist forming all over the battlefield they made sure to avoid them. The moment they'd get close those areas of mist would suddenly form into massive ice spikes before exploding, sending shrapnel everywhere.
As they get close enough, Thalie pours more and more magic into her spear, with her magic armor already active she leaps up toward Velkhana's head. as expected the monster strikes out with its tail, she deftly parries with the shaft of her spear and instead of counter-attacking. She grabs onto the end of it.
Caught by surprise the dragon takes a second to understand what's going on.
The exact second Yang used to rush across the entire battlefield and deliver one massive swipe at the monster's back. Carving into both the wings and the back of the dragon before slamming into the far wall, unable to properly stop himself after using that much strength to move forawrd.
As the monster cries out in pain, red blood splashing everywhere, Yang readies for his final attack as Thalie's distraction comes to an end. Raising her hand up she slams down onto her spear and shatters the ice spikes at the end of the tail.
Falling through the air she sees the monster about to snap at her with its powerful jaws, only to feel the flat of Welf's unnamed greatsword slam into her back and knock her out of the way.
The force of the blow not only knocks her away but leaves the sword in her place, just in time for Welf to leap up and kick the handle of the weapon, sending it toward the snapping dragon.
As Velkhana lunges forward the blade pierces its left eye, but instead of reeling back in pain, it only opens its mouth to release a beam of cold once again, truly a relentless monster.
Again caught in mid-air, Welf simple pulls out Mosoka and propels himself toward the floor.
Keeping the monster off-center so it can't properly defend itself worked once again, as it was tracking Welf, drawn to the flash of blood-red flames. Yang makes contact for the last time.
Like a bullet cloaked in a green swirling wind, everything Ais wishes her Ariel could be. With the blood-red Chaos Mark showing through his armor and his greatsword-form weapon held forward a cone of swirling wind forms like a drill around him. Enhanced by the pure green Elemental Wheel at his back as he hollows out the entire chest of the monsters, passing between the wings and out the front, shattering the crystal and ending the fight.
After the battlefield calms down, Thalie and Welf walk over to where Yang currently was. A massive hole at the far end of the battlefield, once again unable to simply stop himself when fueled by that much Adrenaline and Magic.
Seeing him crawl out of the hole with his Switch-Axe already put away Thalie can't help but chuckle, "alright I'll admit. Kushala Daora didn't seem that great. But Velkhana...definitely worth the Elder Dragon title."
"Yeah, fuck that monster," Welf says bitterly. "Half the things down here already resist fire and this one eats it, just had to make my life harder," he scoffs as he sits on the floor beside Yang and Thalie.
"Told ya," Yang chuckles bitterly, "Elder Dragons are pretty damn awesome," he almost breaks out into a full laugh until he stops and holds his shoulder.
"You ok?" Thalie asks.
"No, I am very not ok. Think I dislocated my shoulder, and I'm really damn sore..."
"Let me pop it into place," Thalie immediately moves to set his shoulder. "We should have two more cases of frostbite medicine left if anyone needs, honestly assumed we wouldn't need any after the Xixecal, but the dungeon really is a bitch sometimes."
"Yeah," Yang says. "We can always restock from the cache on floor seven----ARGH!" he yells out as his shoulder pops back into place. "The cache on floor seventy. I spent like a hundred million on those caches, they have literally everything we could need."
"Do they have a hot bath?" Welf asks, "I could use one of those, also we should stop so I can check the seals on our gear. I didn't think that level of cold existed so we weren't that prepared for it," he says.
"A hot bath, some food, and maintenance, gotcha," Yang places his hand on the floor and begins hollowing out a campsite for them to hide from the monsters and gets some rest.
Seeing their campsite being prepared Thalie takes a look at the few dragon parts remaining on the battlefield, then glances at her tired teammates. They'd been fighting non-stop for what, days? Maybe a week? Only taking short breaks when they could. "You still think dragons are cool?" she asks Yang.
He turns to her as if she'd just asked if the sky is blue, "obviously. Even if a dragon ate me I'd still think they're awesome, and one day a dragon is gonna spawn on the first floor of the dungeon about the size of a dog, and I'm gonna keep it."
"You aren't getting a pet dragon," Thalie says for the millionth time.
"Mmmm, you're no fun sometimes," Yang grumbles as he continues preparing the campsite.
END CHAPTER---
I've been changing up a lot of stuff as I took this little break from writing while being sick, this was supposed to be 2 chapters but I trimmed the fat a lot, that process to a lot of time so it's a bit late sorry :/
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
keanu_eugene
keanu_eugene Have some idea about my story? Comment it and let me know.
Monster Source: Monster Hunter World:Iceborne
---Arch Tempered Velkhana
---Thalie still can't fly and Welf isn't that good at it...
---Velkhana eats heat to make cold. I gave her a massive buff just to make Yang's and Welf's life harder...
---Giga-Drill-Break! Was basically his last attack...
---They finally met a serious challenge and encountered what'd I consider a 'True Elder Dragon'...
---Resting on floor 91...
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone