Chapter 344: O Dragon, O Dragon! Part 9

Author's Preface
Trying to come up with DeepThro's lines has a thrill similar to walking across a steel beam suspended high in the air, and it's a real problem.

The red monster we encountered, and the scarred Emperor. Despite being in different categories, the two monsters connected by their ties to "Dragons" bared their fangs and confronted one another.

On one side was the Raid Monster "Devouring Great Crimson Clad." Opposing it was the Three-Headed T-Rex... If I recall correctly, its name was "Draclus Dinocerberus," right? It has a proven track record of genuinely wiping out numerous multi-player parties.

In the Forest-folk village, which was rapidly taking on the appearance of an MvM battleground, us fragile humanoid species—now numbering three, including the returned Tottori—were holding an emergency countermeasures meeting. The location was our usual abandoned house. It was already starting to feel like the "usual spot" where high schoolers gather at a family restaurant after school...

"Soh." (Premature)

"Areadbhair."

"Wait, hold up, Sunraku-kun, my HP is seriously low right now, give me a break."

Are you kidding me? This is the perfect chance for a clean annihilation. But well, I guess this isn't the time for that.

"Anyway, Tottori went and dragged back something completely outrageous... In any case, since he's joining the frontlines, I need to share the information we have with him."

Then we hold the strategy meeting. There's way too much we need to verify regarding this third phase.

"...Well, the most suspicious things are definitely those crystals, you knooow."

"In the end, it really does come down to that."

Simultaneous with the start of the third phase, mysterious crystals sprouted all over the Forest-folk village. A bit too wicked-looking to be praised as jewels, one of them was currently sitting right next to us as we planned our countermeasures. Or rather, the fact that they even sprout indoors makes searching for them a massive pain.

"I mean, no matter how you look at this, it's definitely growing right out of the ground, isn't it?"

"There's something inside it."

"If it's not coming out on its own, the premise is that players are supposed to break it, right?"

" " "........." " "

A set of multiple-spawning objects practically screaming, "Please break me."
A mysterious biological silhouette clearly trying to say, "There's something inside me."
The overwhelming stench of a combat flag insisting, "Something will happen if you break it."

Is that lazy-coloring bastard trying to tell us to step on the landmine even though we can clearly see it?

"We need to taste-test it ourselves first, if only to see whether the Elves (Forest-folks) can actually handle these things, you knooow..."

"Judging by the silhouette... a bird?"

"No, it's a bit too weirdly shaped to be a bird..."

───At that moment.

"Looks like our three-headed friend has started his fight too."

"I don't really care either way, but if that thing's a female, simple math says she could take on about seven guys at once."

"Seven guys...? No, she easily fended off not just seven, but fifteen people."

"Seriously, stop turning everything into a dirty joke even in a situation like this..."

"Eh, was that a dirty joke just now?"

"Eh."

"Eh."

Deep Slaughter's mouth curled into a slimy, wide grin. T-This bastard...!

"M-Meme contamination...!?"

"Sunraku-kuuuun... You perv..."

"Kuh... I'm begging you, purge me with fire, Areadbhair!!"

"Ababababababa!!"

Dammit! Are you trying to tell me that when you gaze into the abyss, the abyss also gazes into you...!? Impossible, dammit, maybe I really should just kill her and go stand under a waterfall...!!

"Dieee!!"

"Here's my barrieeeer."

Slipping smoothly around to the back of It, Deep Slaughter used it as a shield. Fool, as if that level of hardness could possibly withstand Areadbhair's thermal energy... Ah.

"........."

"........."

"........."

While it didn't quite cut it completely in half, the blood-colored crystal—which had been cleanly melted halfway through its thickness—began to tremble silently.
Without saying a word, us (+ Emul) stepped out of the abandoned house with the exact same casualness of walking to the cash register with the receipt after finishing a long chat at a family restaurant...

"Tottori! How dare you make Me act as such a dangerous decoy—"

"Qigryyyyyyyyyyyyy!!!"

"Kyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!?"

Screw this, emergency evacuation!!
Following the Tsundere (Hesh), who had opened the door in full tsundere mode only to instantly turn tail and flee at top speed as the blood crystal popped, we evacuated the abandoned house.

The next moment, the already crumbling roof was blown entirely off from the inside. And the red mass that had likely caused it spread its large wings and soared into the sky.

"QyaLaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!"

It was a monster with wing membranes distinct from both birds and insects. If its entire body had been black instead of red, the coloring would have been perfect.
Or wait? If you associate it with "blood," perhaps this color is actually the most appropriate?

"Look at that, Sunraku-kuuuun. It has six wings. It's a Seraphic Bat, you knooow?"

"Please no flying monsters, please no flying monsters, please no flying monsters..."

"Ah, Short and Small (Melee)..."

Oi, I felt a deeply offensive nuance there.
But a few things are clear now. That crystal body... if you destroy the blood amber, which you could basically call the monster version of the Roenanva Amber Crystal, the monster inside pops out.
If it were just that, it would simply feel like a static symbol encounter... but despite the dirty-joke interference, it seems I'm actually on a roll right now.

"What are we going to do, Sunraku-kuuuun... It looks like carelessly feeling around in its Pocket makes a nasty Monster pop out, you knoooow... Yes, the monster lurking in the pocket───"

"Areadbhair Slap!"

"Nhii (Pleasure)!"

"Backhand!"

"Rameeh (Ecstasy)!"

Divine Punishment! (*Proper usage)
Ignoring Deep Slaughter, who was twitching uncontrollably with her HP under ten percent, I relayed the hypothesis derived from my lore-based observation to Tottori.

"Listen, Tottori. The thing that was rampaging with an empty stomach until you got here suddenly jumped to full power. It's hard to imagine this game would just brush it off as 'it's just an enrage mode'."

"O-Oh..."

"Judging from the lazy coloring of that six-winged bat, it's clearly an entity of the exact same nature as the Devouring Great Crimson Clad. We should assume it retains the same properties as the first and second phases."

"O-Oh...?"

.........Phew.

"Destroy them all and wipe them out, that's it."

"You should have just said that from the start."

You're lacking intelligence, Mr. Hero. But it's fine. Games throughout history have proven that as long as you pack muscles inside a human skull, things generally work out somehow.

"Come on, stand up, pervert. We've got a mountain of things to do."

First, defeat that six-winged bat.
Next, locate every single crystal across this entire area.
Then, defeat all of them as well.

And this is, in a way, even more important than destroying the blood crystals...

"The Three-Headed T-Rex needs nursing."

"If it dies carelessly and gets eaten, we'd be completely screwed, you knooow..."

When dealing with the Devouring Great Crimson Clad, we have to consider the possibility of an excellent blade being stolen. Sure, that scarred Emperor is probably strong, but its opponent is a Raid Monster.
What if the Three-Headed T-Rex loses? What if it gets eaten and ends up fighting on the Devouring Great Crimson Clad's side as one of its chimera clones?

"That would literally push the bullshit difficulty past its absolute limit. We need to carefully nurse it, just like carrying a parasitic player to a higher tier."

"We don't have the numbers for this, you knooow... Even if we use the Forest-folks to search for the blood crystals, if we have to include defeating them toooo..."

To be honest, the strength of the chimera clones varies wildly from individual to individual. The ones using T-Rex parts were tough, while the ones focused on raptors went down easily. The ones with pterosaur wings can just die and never revive again, those bastards.

"...Emul."

"【Magic Edge】!!"

Hmm, is she reading my mind? But it's maximum efficiency, so it's fine.
The flying blade of magic landed a direct hit on the face of the six-winged bat that had been acting all cocky, hovering in mid-air.
Now, let the battle begi—... n?

All the strength abruptly drained from its body, and as the six-winged bat plummeted to the ground, we fell completely silent for a moment.
Eh, don't tell me it went down in one hit... No, it's alive! Yep! I mean, obviously! Of course it is!

"Alright, time to die!"

However, despite only landing a follow-up blow to the six-winged bat's face with the Gilta Brille, the fact that it was already in a near-death state made a certain suspicion drift among us: "Wait? Is this thing actually weak...?" And when we saw its form completely collapse after taking an iron fist boosted by Airgetlam, that suspicion turned into absolute certainty.

"What's this? If it's only this strong, even I can defeat it!"

"No, wait, it's a bad idea to jump to that conclusion after just one..."

"Oh, just watch. The great Hesh-sama will defeat it gracefully for you!"

Ah, oi, setting up such a sturdy, solid foundation for a flag like that...

Thirty seconds later.

"Bmooooooooooooooo!!!!"

"Iyaaaaaaaa, help me, Tottoriiiiii!!"

"Amazing! You can't see someone fall from grace in under a minute in real life, you knoooow!"

"The Elves (Forest-folks) are really..."

"I'm kinda... sorry."

Watching Hesh being chased by a monster that looked like a mix between a bull, a lion, and a gorilla—or, in a word, a demon—we reaffirmed two facts: the specs of the spawning monsters are completely random, and the Forest-folks are hopelessly, undeniably cowardly.

Author's Afterword
A s-shitty, weak, arrogant, tsundere lunch pack...

In the third phase, if you don't defeat all the Poke... monsters inside these incredibly grotesque Monster Balls, something terrible will happen.

By the way, as for the six-winged bat... because its hearing was far too good, it took a direct hit from the scarred T-Rex's serious roar from far away and was half-unconscious, which is why it was shot down so easily.