"Back to the camp, full speed!"
Within the labyrinth that consisted of Floor 51, the two Quest parties ran back towards the camp at full speed.
They had encountered a swarm of monsters appearing and ambushing them, but the biggest outlier was the direction the Virga they had encountered was coming from, towards base camp.
As the group ran back at full speed, they quickly reached the entrance to Floor 51 and the moment they exited, they exited, they all paused.
"The camp?!" Tione cried out as looks of apprehension and shock grew on everyone's faces.
They could see hundreds of the Virga climbing side of the plateau towards the top where the base camp was. Looking past the swarm, they saw plumes of smoke rising up into the sky from the top but from their distance and angle, they couldn't see the state the base camp was in.
"Awaken. Tempest."
"Aiz?! Wait-!"
"AIRIEL!"
With the chant Aiz, body exploded with a gust of wind forward, kicking up dirt and grass behind her as she flew towards the base camp.
'Dammit, couldn't stop her if I tried' Finn gave himself a self-deprecating smile before quickly running forward, "Tione, Tiona, Bete!! Let's go!" He commanded the fastest members of their party, running after Aiz's back.
However, all of them quickly paused, including Aiz who had stopped a fair distance away from them.
A large shadow was cast over the swarm of Virga, as numerous red orbs congregated above the plateau, stretching from the top to the edge where the Virga were crawling out from.
"W-What the hell is that?" Bete uttered, eyes widening at the sight.
"... Is that… From Yuji?" Tiona voiced out to herself..
Finn thought back to the fight the previous day, the red beams that had saved them flashing through his mind. The orbs he was looking at held the same color.
"I think so." Finn said quietly.
Right after he answered, the red orbs exploded all at once with a crushing violence. Each orb that exploded shot out multiple thin red beams straight down, piercing through all the Virga present and digging deep into the ground beneath them.
The sound of the beams impacting flesh and the hard surface of the floor reverberated throughout the Floor, like a series of loud fireworks striking all in quick succession.
A large amount of dust was kicked up from the sheer impact the beams shot through the Virga and into the ground, quickly obscuring the base, side and top of the plateau.
"Lets keep moving, we can't afford to waste time standing here and watching." Finn quickly said, kickstarting the others' brains as they resumed their run back up.
Aiz stood stock still for a moment, her eyes engraining the sight in her eyes, ranging from the scene of the mass of red orbs to the resulting aftermath. She quickly got her wits back and rushed forward, still under the influence of her boost.
She quickly passed by the cloud of dust that started to slowly settle back down, running up the side of the cliff face and jumping towards the flat top.
Coming to a landing, the first thing she noticed was Yuji standing on top of the flag that held Loki Familia's emblem.
She then noticed how quiet everything was, as everyone kept their eyes on, where she assumed the fight had been taking place.
Riveria was the first to notice her arrival, turning to see her, a look of relief on her face.
Aiz moved towards the group, looking over the injured and towards Yuji, who put his hands back in his pockets and hopped down. "Did he…?" She asked Riveria, who knew what she was asking.
"...Yes. Thanks to him, we were able to hold out." She looked over to Yuji, before stepping towards him. "Thank you. It appears the worst is behind us, but with the injured we have… This failure is taken upon me, as the one in charge of defending the camp."
Yuji nodded at her, looking towards the wounded and after a moment, sighed. "Well, don't want gramps being disappointed." He whispered to himself, but Riveria caught his words. Before she could inquire what he meant, Yuji strode towards the person closest to him.
Crouching down, the man was laying back as a supporter held him up, bandaging his head and arm, a grimace on his face as blood was leaking out from the stump where his right hand had been. He was hit by the dissolving liquid right as he was about to swing his sword down, dissolving both the weapon and his hand promptly.
Yuji held his hand out and before anyone could say anything, a wave of blue energy flowed and stretched out from his hand and covered the man's body as he utilized reverse cursed technique on him.
At a visible rate under their eyes, the main body that sported cuts and bruises were quickly being healed. Yuji quickly reached out and tore the bandage that covered the man's stump.
"Wait, that's dangero- huh?" The supporter helping the man was quickly left speechless.
Nerves, muscles, tissue, blood vessels, bone and skin quickly grew out from where the man's stump was, before forming a completely brand new hand, as though no injury had ever taken place.
Finn and the others had arrived right at the end, witnessing the tailend of Yuji's healing magic.
"Wha- This… It feels… normal? Like, like a good normal! I don't feel any pain whatsoever!" The man became more and more animated, looking over his entire body and flexing his right hand, twisting it left and right.
"No chant… Unprecedented healing magic as well…" Riveria whispered quietly to herself as Finn walked up next to her, watching Yuji and the man sporting a wide grin on his face. 'Who are you, Yuji Itadori?'
"Bring the others to me, I'll heal them all one by one. For ones that can't walk, lead me to them." The supporters in charge of looking after the injured quickly complied, bringing forth the rest of the injured, who were each promptly healed one by one.
It took only 5 minutes for everyone to be completely healed. The only indication that any injury had ever occurred was the slight scarring left behind from cuts or gashes. Limbs that were fully dissolved fully healed with no scarring left behind.
The Loki Familia's supporters who had dragged crates out of the camp and supplied the forward fighters with weapons were happily embracing and celebrating the victory.
"Do you need a rest? You should be pretty low on mind after healing that many people in a row." Finn stepped forward and asked with a worried tone.
"It's fine, this much is nothing to me." Yuji reassured him, looking over the smiles and gazes of appreciation the people he helped heal gave him.
Yuji quickly turned to the side, pushing past the group of people and standing on the edge of the plateau, his gaze locked onto a point of the forest.
Riveria was the next one to notice, quickly moving after him. "What…is that…?!" She could see the presence of something large and quick, burrowing its way up from the deeper floors straight up towards the Floor they were on.
Noticing how alert Yuji and Riveria were, Finn quickly ordered out, "Everyone, move back to the middle and away from the edges! You guys, with me." He indicated for the members of the previous Quest party to follow him as they gathered besides Riveria and Yuji.
"Whatever it is, it's moving fast for its size."
Yuji glanced down at Finn out of the corner of his eye. "I hope you have enough of that water for your quest."
"We do, there's no need for us to-!!"
Finn was interrupted as the ground beneath them rumbled, similar to an earthquake as the entirety of Floor 50 was shaking back and forth, the trees swaying along and creaking from the pressure.
From the middle of the forest ground, a large winged caterpillar towered over the forested floor. Its large green body sported what looked like canon appendages along the length of its body. It has 4 wings, 2 on either side of its body. Its round head had no eyes, but long purple tentacles flowed and tangled between each other behind its head.
"... Did that come up from a lower Floor too?" Tione was the first to react.
"Destroying everything in its path… Probably?" Tiona responded back with the same stunned look on her face.
"Don't be stupid…" Bete quipped back to the two.
The new monster had to be at least 60 meters tall. It was at least twice as big as the largest of the monsters they had been fighting against.
Raul was looking shaken as the accumulated sweat on his body turned his shirt a dark, damp shade.
"Is that a person…"
Most of its body was shaped the same as the caterpillar monsters, with the exception of one major difference. On top of its head at the forefront of its face was a distinctly human torso and head sticking out.
It held no eyes, instead sporting bright purple spots where they would have been on a human face. The curves of its human torso was distinctly female, its arms and legs having been fused behind its back in the rest of the large caterpillar's body. The belly didn't appear round enough to be considered as pregnant, but the skin around it was pitch black and pulsating.
"Those sacs… Some of the monsters we fought had similar features, if we didn't kill them fast enough, they exploded. If we killed something of that size like the others…" Raul spoke up as his voice shook with each word uttered.
One thought echoed in everyone's mind. If something of that size were to be killed, all of the dissolving acid it had in its body would flood the area. Their eyes locked onto the numerous, large sacs that contained enough of the acid to turn the rest of the Floor into a bubbling swamp.
An explosion of the size the monster carried might be powerful enough to completely destroy what was left of this Floor.
If they all attacked together, slaying the monster wouldn't be that big of an issue. The problem rose from the fact that everything else nearby would be in danger.
Gareth hefted his weapons, adjusting his helmet, "For something that big, I bet we'll need to hit the magic stone, it's lifeforce in one clean swipe."
"So where do we even start stabbing, huh?" Bete replied back with sarcasm, his eyes scanning over the monster's large body.
The human head of the huge monster faced Loki Familia from across the forested plains.
"..."
Its four wings opened wide as specks of light filled the air. Colors of red, orange, green and blue floated from the monster and spread out.
It released a kind of spore or pollen, the swarm of colors flowed across the forest and plains.
Years of training and adventuring suddenly warned everyone as a cold chill shot up their spines. All of the higher ranked adventurers took a step back instinctively, while Yuji remained standing at the forefront.
All at once, millions of tiny explosions went off at once.
"KYAAAAA?!" Lefiya felt the heat of the blast reaching all the way to their positions, causing her to scream out the top of her lungs. Splintered trees and cracked earth were sent flying and went up in flames in an instant.
"Those spores… Each single speck inside the cloud is a bomb." Riveria stated with a grimace on her face as she watched the smoldering forest below.
"All groups, full retreat!" Finn called out to Loki Familia, as the gazes of everyone immediately shot to his location. Finn however, was completely focused on the female worm.
"Break down the camp as fast as you can and start making your way towards the exit."
Everyone turned to look at the large distance they had to cover to reach the opening that led back up and out of Floor 50.
"What?! Come on, Finn! Are you serious?!"
"Are we just going to ignore that thing?!"
Bete and Tione each voiced their objections, their pride as first rate adventurers and a member of the strongest Dungeon dwelling Familia in Orario urged them to stay and fight.
The monster had made its way up to this safety point. There was nothing stopping it from going even higher, and the casualties that other adventurers would have to suffer would be catastrophic.
Finn clenched his fists, "I don't like this any more than you do. But we need to slay it and do damage control at the same time. Easier said than done. I know." Finn dreaded the orders he had to give out, he knew he had to do so, but it still pained him.
"Aiz, take it-"
"So, you're mainly worried about the fatal aftermath that could follow after killing that thing?"
Before Finn could tell Aiz to hold it back while the rest of the Loki Familia retreated to the exit, Yuji interjected, his eyes having never left the monsters.
Finn turned to Yuji, looking up at the profile of the tall man in silence.
"Yes… Do you have something to stop it from flooding the whole floor?" Finn didn't care about his pride as the Captain of the Loki Familia, their safety was his biggest priority. Even if it meant having to ask someone else to risk their life to save them, he would do so without hesitation.
"I do."
That was the last thing everyone heard as Yuji's body disappeared without a sound.
"What the- Where the hell did he go…?"
Bete looked around trying to see a trail or silhouette of the man.
"He's… On top of the monster."
Following Riveria's gaze, everyone directed their eyes to the top of the monster, and they could see Yuji standing on top of the thing, looking down at his feet.
"I don't know what the hell you are, but I have a way of finding out."
The female monster froze, feeling Yuji stand on its head. Its instincts screamed at itself to flee or fight back, but the feeling of dread crippled its movements, halting it in place.
Raising his right hand, Yuji slowly crossed his middle finger over his index, forming his teacher's sign.
Ryōiki Tenkai (Domain Expansion)
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Authors Note: You might be wondering why Yuji is performing Gojo's handsign for his domain. Well, first remember how Sukuna was also able to pop his domain by using Gojo's handsign? This shows that the handsign sorcerers use is not limited to what they are most familiar with, granted they have a really high mastery over Domain Expansions
Second, the most important tools that a sorcerer can have are their hands and mouth. Yujis handsign would use both hands leaving them occupied, so to be more efficient using just one handsign like Gojo's is more efficient.