Chapter 341: O Dragon, O Dragon! Part 7

Currently, the Altar of Awakening hasn't been confirmed to exist anywhere other than this Forest-folk village. If... if the range of the Devouring Great Crimson Clad's red puddles were to reach the Altar of Awakening...

"Deep Slaughter, is there any chance the Altar of Awakening is an indestructible object?"

"It'll probably break, you knooow... This game compensates for important flags and such by creating new substitutes, sooo..."

Oi, oi, oi, oi. We supposedly stayed behind to protect the Forest-folks, but now we've been forcibly job-changed into the final defense line to protect the level-cap release for all players?

"...Will it buy us some time if the aggro source moves away from the direction of the Altar of Awakening?"

"Ultimately, it depends on the limits of its erosion range, buuut... if all the heads and fins are facing the opposite direction, the chances of it being destroyed should decrease, you knooow."

It's easy to say, but both Deep Slaughter and I know just how dangerous the actions required to fulfill that premise actually are.
Namely, executing a flawless stall right in the dead center of enemy territory... and doing so under conditions where the time limit is unknown and even healing is difficult.

"Guess I have no choice but to brace myself..."

"With a tortoise shell bondage tie?"

"What is your deal? Do you just love turtles?"

"Turtles are amazing, aren't they? Both their shells and heads are erotic parts, you know? A creature whose identity is eighty percent comprised of eros is basically the ultimate lifeform..."

"If a turtle heard what you just said, it would shed tears even if it wasn't laying eggs."

I was an idiot for demanding this person to tighten up their focus, but we don't have time, so I have no choice but to deploy this pervert with absolutely zero restraint.

"I'll chop them all down, take your pick!!"

"Is this a harem AV!?"

Slash, dodge, slash, slash, dodge, dodge, dodge, dodge, dodge............

"Sheer numbers!!!!"

It was a cry from the soul. A shout so filled with soul that I could consciously feel it.
I should have chopped off about ten heads by now, but just estimating by eye, double that number of heads have sprouted.
At the very least, it seems safe to touch the "Red" that has taken form as parts of the dragon corpse, so I'm mercilessly stepping on them to aid my evasion, but even so, there are just too many.

"Are you alive, pervert!"

"I'd really appreciate it if you didn't give me pleasure in the middle of combat, you knooow!?"

"You are alive. What a shame."

Stepping on the nose of the dragon corpse that thrust its neck at me while scattering red vomit from its mouth, I leaped, and using the necks that tried to bite me out of the air as stepping stones, I ran further upward.
I can't exactly leap dozens of meters into the air, but jumping even five meters is enough to get a full view of this hellscape.

"The erosion range is... just barely holding the line."

The borderline between the Devouring Great Crimson Clad's red and the grass's green was just barely holding steady at the residential area. It seems Deep Slaughter and I going on a rampage away from the Altar of Awakening wasn't a waste after all.
Oh, Deep Slaughter just flew past my eyes after getting homerun-batted by a proliferated tail. Is she dead? Dead?

"Yaa, a shooting staaaaar striking straight through your heaaaart..."

Tch, she seems energetic... Or rather, she's way too damn stubborn. Hasn't she taken fatal damage about eight times by now?

"Oh, thanks for the warm welcome (Landing Punish)."

Sliding down the dragon corpse's neck like a slide—its scales being similar to fish scales and thus having few protrusions—I swept my gaze over my surroundings to calculate my next move.
In front of me was a massive finned front leg like a billboard blown away by a typhoon. Vomit beams from the left and right. Behind me was the neck I just used to slide down... Yep, evasion is the only option.

"Goddammit... As if I'd just let myself get ganged up on!!"

The sky is the only escape route, but my skills haven't finished their cooldowns. Just because the recast time is halved doesn't mean it's zero.
I didn't want to use it (mainly because the pervert would get annoying about it), but I guess I have no choice but to use an Inventoria Escape.

Waiting for the exact timing... Right here!

"【Transfer: Storage Space】!!"

『Cannot be used as there are hostile monsters within a five-meter radius.』

"Eh."

Eh.

"Aaaamachiiiiiiaaaaaaah!?"

A sense of desperation hit me as if greasy sweat had erupted from my entire body. The disguise known as composure was ripped away, leaving nothing but a half-naked man waiting for death... Kuh, as if I'd let myself die before that pervert!!

In a fleeting fraction of a second, faster than my consciousness could even approve it, my mind deduced the only method to escape this situation.
Using the high-speed window operations I've been honing ever since I started this game, I accessed Inventoria... and pulled an item out of the Inventoria, which had been downgraded from an ultra-broken accessory to just a broken accessory in this silent patch.

My vision was being painted red, all four directions completely filled with proliferated clones without a single gap. Even so, looking up, there was the moon, having passed its highest point...

"【Appooooooort】!!"

From a human perspective, five meters. From a god's perspective, a minuscule coordinate shift.
But even so, that minuscule shift saved my life.

Like whitecaps crashing against a breakwater and scattering into spray, the Devouring Great Crimson Clad's proliferated clones that rushed me from all directions damaged each other with their own kinetic energy.

With the Star Cloak of Lapistella fluttering in the wind, making sure not to commit the blunder of throwing away the life I just picked up, and simultaneously to vent the frustration of nearly dying due to a silent patch, I brought both my feet together while falling from above, bending my knees as if doing squats in mid-air and pouring strength into my legs.

"Drop deaaaaaad!!"

I call it: Plus Gravity Temper-Tantrum Air Drop...!
I see. So she messed directly with the activation conditions, huh... But you know, Amachi Ritsu, even if you slap a range restriction on it, the very fact that it can be used during combat means it's still undeniably broken. If I can instantly create a five-meter gap, I can perfectly evade even Siegwurm's breath attack. Even factoring the nerf in, its core utility hasn't been compromised.

"But that's a completely separate issue...!!"

I'll vent my near-death rage on the punching bag right in front of me!!
I extended both legs with all my might the moment of impact, increasing the force of the collision while simultaneously using it as the driving force for a jump.

"As long as I can reset the situation, I can deal with it...!"

Gravity Zero, activate! I brought the soles of my feet into contact with the proliferated neck biting at me, changing my gravity processing direction! Furthermore, I shaved off some health with Riot Accel to secure AGI! Controlling the soles of my feet touching the neck with precise steps, I fell, advanced, and climbed while continuously switching the gravity processing direction!

Cutting the application of Gravity Zero with a somersault, I dropped down, landing perfectly on top of the massive front fin that swung in a diagonal slash from below to cleave me. I leaped off it in a single step, finally using Flit Float—whose recast had just finished—to jump in mid-air.

"You're too naive!!"

"No, I'm pretty sure a hundred out of a hundred people would call that a checkmate situation, you knooow?"

"If it were my friend, she'd force a situation several times more fiendish and brutal than that."

"Sexual negotiation? A friendship predicated on sexual negotiation!? I wanna join toooo!"

Here's an Areadbhair.

"My left cheek meat is well dooooone!"

Should I burn you until you're nothing but charred meat stuck to the grill?
However, I suppose I should say it paid off to constantly participate as the ball in the Crystal Scorpions' ball-game tournaments.
Lately, those guys—maybe their AI has learned and evolved—have started blocking the upward escape routes too... I feel bad for the other players, but they would have ended up with the same result eventually. Come back after you get Inventoria.

"Now then... is it safe to assume we survived this?"

"It's convulsing, you knooow... Climaxing?"

"It's a convulsion closer to agony or writhing in pain."

"If it's a masochist, that's a reward..."

"Well, the person who made its behavior patterns is definitely a sadist, that's for sure."

"What's with that remote SM play? I'm totally digging it!"

Go dig a grave and die, barbecue meat.
But it's a fact that the Devouring Great Crimson Clad has initiated some sort of special action. For example, the domain of the red puddles that had spread to its absolute limit was gathering toward the Devouring Great Crimson Clad that had appeared in the center... That's an overly blatant motion.

"...Come to think of it, reaching the third phase with just the two of us is a massive achievement, isn't it?"

"No, no... You know exactly what's up, don't you? Sunraku-kuuuun..."

"Yeah, I know............"

It was far too easy. That was the conclusion both Deep Slaughter and I reached after experiencing the first and second phases.
Raid Monsters are designed with the premise that a large number of players will challenge them. In other words, it wouldn't be strange if it could wipe out forty-five players in a single strike if things went wrong.

There is absolutely no way it can be cleared this easily by just two people. Hell, fighting a horde of normal monsters would carry a higher chance of death. That being the case, the conclusion drawn is simple.

"Whether it's the third phase, or an even later phase... the real thing is coming."

"And it seems that moment is coming right up, you knoooow...!"

Like gathering a tissue paper spread out on the floor and crumpling it into a single sphere... Imagine if a mass larger than an elephant did exactly that.

With an indescribable squelching... How should I put this? It was like the sound of someone gargling amplified thousands of times and made incredibly viscous...

"Slime! This is the sound of slime...!"

"Seriously, shut up for a second."

Now then, the third phase... Does the real fight start here?

Author's Afterword
The first and second phases are a breeze? Well, obviously, they're basically just the opening cinematic.
The Devouring Great Crimson Clad is an endurance game from start to finish, but the real fight starts in the third phase.