Chapter 359: O Dragon, O Dragon! Part 24

Author's Preface
Whenever I look at dead settings and lore, I get the urge to write a new story. It's quite troublesome.

Three consecutive clashes. The impact slammed into the shield, violently pushing my body backward.
But I will not fall. I will not yield. I will not break. As long as there is someone behind me to protect (even if I am extremely unwilling), my Guardian Heart will absolutely never shatter!!

The skill "Guardian Heart" is a shield-class skill. If there are party members situated behind the user, it applies a stat correction to STR, VIT, and others during a guard. Furthermore, it also provides a reduction to stamina consumption and the chip damage sustained while guarding, boasting truly phenomenal defensive capabilities.

However, if the shield breaks, the effect ends. An unpleasant cracking sound began ringing from the Mirror Shield of the Nether-King (Dis Pater), its durability already heavily chipped away from repeated abuse. But even so, I had to do it. After all, this shield was the very breakwater holding back the three rays of light laced with certain death.

"Ku, oooooooh!!"

Even without looking, the sensation transmitted through my hand told me that the Mirror Shield of the Nether-King was already at its absolute limit. Although it hadn't suffered fatal destruction just yet, if I used it to defend against anything else, the mirror would undoubtedly shatter.

".........Time to counterattack."

But looking at it another way, despite being pushed to that absolute razor's edge, this shield undeniably managed to completely catch the attack.
If so, it is my duty to prove that its current, heavily cracked state is a proud testament to that result.

Plunging Memento Mori into the ground, I drew the bladed, crystal-embedded knife in its place and drove it into my torso and thigh, shouting the words to activate the true power dwelling within the Mirror Shield of the Nether-King.

"【Convert (Absorption Conversion)】!!"

The crimson magic the mirror swallowed was transformed into flames. No, that's not quite right. It would be more accurate to say that the sheer power, unable to maintain its form, shifted into the shape of flames.

Watching a woman dressed in mourning clothes—who should be the one mourning the dead—engulfed in flames as if she were the one being cremated evoked a rather indescribable feeling. But considering the fact that my body was already cracked and broken during the initial setup, and I was actively electrocuting myself on top of that, catching on fire at this point probably didn't make much of a difference.
Both I and the Mirror Shield are covered in cracks, but if you think we're fragile, you're dead wrong. Actually, we Are fragile, but all I have to do is casually smash a hundred million damage into you and kill you before you can deal a single point of damage to me.

"Hey, if you leave that on for a long time, will your clothes eventually burn off?"

"If it's to turn your HP into cinders, that'd be easy enough."

"Oh my, oh my, please make it a passionate kiss and a hug, won't you...?"

"A hundred slaps it is."

"What a reward..."

I suppose silencing her with a straight punch would have been the correct answer.
Perhaps getting distracted by an idiot was a bad idea, or perhaps it was genuinely infuriated that its all-out triple volley had not only been blocked but actively utilized. This time, almost every single head—including the tail-head, which forcibly turned my way despite taking attacks from Tottori's group—glared directly at me.

"Qiiiiiiiiiiiaaaaaaaaa!!"

Its entire body contorted. An incredibly biological traffic collision, realized by operating the massive volume of muscles packed into that colossal mass at absolute maximum capacity. Since it's intentional, does that make it an incident?
The crimson lump executed a charge straight toward me. Perhaps its initial acceleration was inferior, or perhaps its overall speed was just garbage, but the pursuing "Scar" showed no signs of catching up to the Devouring Great Crimson Clad.

I could dodge it, but... let's just accept that charging force right here.
As if to carry Memento Mori on my back, I plunged the tip of the greatsword into the ground and tilted it diagonally, using my back as a pillar to form a "Path" of an oversized blade with my shoulder acting as the apex.
And running straight up that path, a single rabbit landed right on top of my head.

"Emul!"

"Yes, sir! 【Full Counter Reflection (Perfect Reflection Formation Mirror)】!!"

A barrier of conditional absolute defense deployed around me. The Devouring Great Crimson Clad's charge did not stop, even though it should have clearly witnessed it. Did it fail to comprehend it, or did it plan to smash through the barrier along with us while fully understanding it...? So naive.
This wall isn't fragile enough to shatter from Merely being rammed by a massive object. Right?

"This might actually be pretty tough, desu waー!?"

"Hey, brace yourself!?"

A thunderous roar. The Devouring Great Crimson Clad's body warped unnaturally as it crashed into a wall that shouldn't physically exist. After all, it was essentially the exact same thing as violently colliding with an identical mirror image of yourself traveling at the exact same speed. Please, writhe in absolute agony... We're good, right? I'm acting all confident right now, but we aren't going to get run over, are we?

However, it seemed I successfully managed to avoid a completely comical death right at the finish line. Still, the Devouring Great Crimson Clad wasn't just going to writhe in pain.
Even the simple act of that massive body rolling around was a mass weapon in its own right. And above all, after being made a fool of to this extent, regardless of whether it possessed the emotion of anger or not, it would absolutely try to finish me off. But are you really sure about that? Turning even your last remaining head toward me...

"You're late, Big Bro."

"Hole?"

"At least call it a bond."

Catching up to the Devouring Great Crimson Clad's back, "Scar" sank its teeth directly into the completely defenseless tail. Since they shared the same torso, the final output should have been equal, but perhaps because "Scar" had three heads, its pulling force was superior. The Devouring Great Crimson Clad, despite clearly bracing its legs, was dragged backward.

"Ssha."

Scooping up the discarded Areadbhair with my right hand, I shifted back into my distorted dual-wielding style.

"Let's end this here."

Raising the greatsword, I swung it two or three times before pointing the tip straight at the Devouring Great Crimson Clad, which was currently being physically swung around by "Scar."
I wonder if Tottori heard that? Rather than hoarding our resources and regretting it, let's empty the tank and regret it later. In any game... even if it's a trash game, the ecstasy of burning your resources down to the absolute bottom of the barrel is the greatest feeling in the world. After all, the catharsis of achievement is impossible without a little waste!

"Emul, and Deep Slaughter too, get your firepower ready... I'm going to inflict Flinch (Large) on this guy."

"Yes, sir!"

"You can't swallow the spit you've already spat out, you knooow...?"

Layering skills one upon another, elevating a single strike to its absolute peak. Countless acceleration skills enhanced my physical body, mobility skills turned the impossible into the possible, and the weapons in my hands harbored effects that shimmered like multi-colored flames.

"Oh, that's right, Sunraku-kuuuun..."

"What is it?"

Turning around, I saw Deep Slaughter floating a frivolous smile. With an entirely casual, almost nonchalant air, she asked me a simple question.

"───Are you having fun right now?"

"Can't you tell just by looking at me?"

I won't look back anymore. My legs, clad in black lightning, felt as though they would trip over their own sheer speed if I let my focus slip for even a second. But I could compensate for that with the eyes observing the "Waves of Attack" erupting explosively outward, centered entirely on the two monsters.

Dragging Memento Mori behind me—carving a harsh line straight into the earth with a grating screech—and carrying Areadbhair Rebuild, whose flames seemed to burn even more fiercely as if sensing the climax of a dragon hunt, a single human leaped directly into the collision zone between two massive forces.

"It's not a Twin Sword skill. It's a Dual-Wielding Skill."

Perhaps because I constantly hoarded twin swords and double-bladed swords as my trump cards, the only two skills I currently know that utilize two swords are both explicitly usable during dual-wielding.
What does that mean? It means I can use them right now.

"Tag team, brother!!"

Taking a direct hit from an ultra-thick combined breath attack formed from four heads directly to its left head, "Scar" violently lurched backward and rolled away. However, blowing away something with that much mass meant it inevitably exposed a proportionate opening. The Devouring Great Crimson Clad, frozen in the ending lag of its attack, was already within my striking range.

"Yoooooo... ssha!!"

Hekaton Slash activated. Charge forward, Areadbhair!

First strike, one flash. A line of scorching heat was carved into the Devouring Great Crimson Clad's body, immobilized by the ending lag of its major attack.
First strike, two flashes. The oversized greatsword was swung with just one hand. A heavy blow—completely contradicting the lightness of its movement—scattered two distinct effects across the red hide.
First strike, four flashes, eight flashes, sixteen flashes, thirty-two flashes... From Memento Mori, heavy effects fitting of its weight burst open, and from Areadbhair Rebuild, flames capable of incinerating dragon-kind raged violently.

"Well, well. Being welcomed by all your heads is quite the honor..."

But you aren't fast enough to catch me. I'll shake you off... in an instant.

Skill "Limit Over Accel" activated. This skill, evolved from Formula Drift, was an absurdly non-standard acceleration multiplier that doubled both my AGI and DEX, albeit only for a few seconds. Using this in my current state was incredibly likely to result in a spectacular self-destruction if I made even a single mistake... But I had a firm conviction that I could control it with my current level of hype, and I fully succeeded in doing so.

Faster than the four necks could snap toward me, I shifted my position at godspeed, riding that momentum to unleash a single horizontal slash straight across its massive maw... Sixty-four hits.

If only. If only the Devouring Great Crimson Clad had been an AI equipped with cunning judgment. If it had been a player capable of analyzing the mechanics of an incoming skill.
It would have understood that the absolute best possible answer in this situation was to "take the next strike with an extremity."

But alas. The AI assigned to the Devouring Great Crimson Clad was programmed purely with inorganic, simplistic thought processes. Its emotions, its pain—all of it was nothing more than a superficial recreation... That was the design of its existence.
And because of that, it selected the absolute worst possible move: "Closing its massive mouth to protect its weak point."

"Thanks for going out of your way to make it easier to break!!"

Lethal Finishing Touch, standby for activation.
I stabbed Areadbhair straight down into the ground, kicked up the flat of Memento Mori held in my other hand, and "Set" it directly onto the pommel of Areadbhair, using it as a pedestal.

Dual-Wielding skills require the user to have a sword in each hand. Therefore, executing a thrust required prior setup—creating a launchpad and a warhead... no, a Blade-Head.

"Pierce through!!"

The heads are looking this way? Who cares. My escape route is looking questionable? There's no stopping now. Since it's come to this, even if I die as compensation, I'm going to slam this attack home. That pervert is recording a video anyway, right? Watching a video of someone standing alone against a Raid Monster will easily give me three days of entertainment.

Sliding it smoothly across the pommel of Areadbhair Rebuild, I thrust Memento Mori forward.
Swinging a massive slab of iron normally subjects it to immense air resistance. But if it's thrust forward aiming at a single, concentrated point, that blade will part the air itself and pierce the enemy.

The stamina expended to reach this point, the stamina consumed by the skills required to arrive here... A blade carrying the full weight of everything slammed into the distorted, intersecting fangs with a blinding flash of light.
In that instant, an immense pressure clamped down on the oversized greatsword I had thought was so light just moments before. Reinforcing my grip against an impact that felt like it would blow me entirely away... I witnessed two things.

One was the sight of the fangs of the massive maw, along with the ribs forming its skeletal structure, shattering into absolute smithereens, leaving the exposed red sphere trembling as it was exposed to the outside air.

And the other was the sight of the heads growing from its torso, the tail-head aiming at me from between its legs, and even the mouths on its wing-arms—which up until now had strictly limited themselves to close-range physical attacks—all gathering crimson light.

I see? It seems this is what people commonly refer to as "I will absolutely never forgive you." Before the Inventoria nerf, I could have managed this somehow... but whatever. I struck my blow. All that's left is to struggle Appropriately.

"If it's a Raid Monster, there'll always be a next time, right? I'll clear it without using a continue then."

"No, Now is the time for a No-Continue clear, Sunraku-kuuuun...!"

What?

"【Castling (Dual Coordinate Translocation)】!!"

My vision switched instantly. The Devouring Great Crimson Clad I was just looking up at subjectively, I was now staring at objectively from a distance.
And standing in the exact spot I was almost certainly occupying just moments ago, was a figure holding a long rod.

"Fufun... You're allowed to fall in love with me, you knooow?"

"You..."

No, I was standing right there just a second—

But before I could even point that out, a deafening roar echoed out, as seven flashes of light detonated simultaneously, sending a massive plume of dust into the air.

"Ku... Everyone, hit it with everything you have!!"

I have a lot of things I want to say, but for now, I'll prioritize avenging my own death! Hell yeah, Devouring Great Crimson Clad, nice kill!!

Author's Afterword
Castling, exactly as its name implies, is a magic that swaps the positions of the caster and the target.
Because it can be used for all sorts of devious schemes, it normally cannot be activated without mutual consent. However, if there is a massive disparity in MP between the caster and the designated target, it will succeed regardless.