Chapter 461: O Dragon, O Dragon! Part 38

"Let's go! Formation Full Burst!!"

"A part of me wants to stall a bit longer!"

"But it looks too hard to hit Siegwurm with this, right?"

"Fair point!"

"Then this is the only place we can do it! Let's do this flashy!!"

The backbone of SF-Zoo: five tanks standing tall to protect the ten rear-guard members. While they couldn't match the "Defense Holder" Josette, they possessed extremely high physical defense power, coordination among the five of them... and one more "trump card."

"Heeey! Everyone take cover behind us!"

"You'll get dragged into it!"

The five players scattered. It was a somewhat uncool look with their lower halves completely exposed, but their contribution as they ran without hesitation was known to anyone who had joined the battle against Bryreinyego.
By the time the five tanks had set up a formation surrounding Bryreinyego and the small dragons, all the other players had successfully escaped to the outside of the encirclement.

"The signal! Uhh, when the Director isn't here... right, throw the smoke up!"

"Smoke is up! 5!!"

"4!"

"3!"

Through the brilliant aggro dispersion of the five surrounding Bryreinyego and the others, the small dragons were trapped inside the encirclement like a swirling vortex.
And the moment the countdown of the five reached zero in unison.

"Here we gooooo...!!"

"""""Retaliate!!"""""

If 【Thermopylae】 was the result of pushing magical defense to its absolute limit, then "Retaliate" was the absolute zenith of maximizing physical defense—the highest class of Counter skill currently known among all skills.
Whether it is returning received damage as is, paying it back double, or strengthening the user based on the damage taken... While there are many passive skills predicated on receiving attacks from enemies, the reason Retaliate is hailed as the highest class lies precisely in its 'range.'

『Nha... gugea!!?』

"Push 'em back, push 'em back!!"

"No matter how you look at this, it's gotta be magic!!"

"Ogogogogo! If I let my guard down, I'm gonna get blown backwards...!"

"Fugyaaa!"

"I'm already getting blown baaaaack!!"

The shockwaves released from the shields raised by the five players engulfed even the small dragons, compressing Bryreinyego in the center from five directions.
Retaliate is a counter skill that releases a shockwave from the shield based on the "total damage amount taken from the start of combat to the moment of activation." Because of that, this excessively long battle spanning several hours... and more importantly, the ruling that due to the special combat state of the decisive battle phase, players remained in a combat state even when logging out, had actualized an extreme level of power that even the five tanks hadn't anticipated.

The shockwaves were far too strong. Driven by a recoil akin to holding up a jet engine, they were blown backward one after another.
But even taking that into account, the tremendous impact of the compression pulverized the small dragons—or dealt damage close to it—and significantly stalled the main body of Bryreinyego.

『Do NOT mock meeeee!!』

However, it was not an enemy fragile enough to be finished off by a mere five people. Flexing its frog-like hind legs, Bryreinyego leapt high into the sky, out of the shockwave's reach.
Just as all five tanks interrupted or ended the activation of Retaliate—partly because the target escaped into the air, and partly because they couldn't fully control the shockwaves—Bryreinyego's massive body landed back on the ground.

『UnforgivabLe...! FivE, tHere wEre fIve of yoU... I wiLl finD you anD deVouR youuuu...!!』

"You're stupid, Bryreinyego. Trampling your own children is beyond saving."

『GeroRoro! I can juSt maKe moRe children... Ah?』

"Non-non. Smashing your own pawns just now is what makes you stupid. Ketzo! Need a countdown!?"

"I'll match you, and you can match me, right...!!"

Being able to produce an inexhaustible number of small dragons and being able to produce them right this second were two different problems entirely.
Furthermore, although Bryreinyego had turned into a mass of flesh, the fact that its actual sensory organs were located on the upper half of the dragon fused with the tongue proved to be its undoing.

"Out of stock! Let me serve you one last hit before closing time!"

"Leaving your tongue hanging out like that was blunder number two!"

Their startups were disjointed, but by the time they closed in, the two Destroyers—having perfectly synchronized their timing—unleashed their fists, their legs—their respective weapons of choice capable of outputting their maximum power.

"───「Furious Vortex Combo Strike」!!"

"───「Demon Halberd Severing Kick」!!"

『Go, Giii...!?』

A flurry of blows unleashed from an unbroken, circular motion battered Bryreinyego's right cheek, while a roundhouse kick honed with the power concentrated into a single strike pierced into Bryreinyego's left cheek.

"Aim for the mouth!"

"Spawn-kill the small dragons as they come out!"

"The legs! Aim for the legs and cripple its mobility!!"

In Shangri-La Frontier, to put it extremely simply, damage did not equal stagger.
Because it had an incredibly outstanding AI capable of making decisions that made it practically indistinguishable from a real living creature, the mere fact of having both cheeks struck was enough to cause its massive body to freeze.
And then, prompted by the members of SF-Zoo running around the field relaying the order to stall it—which, even if they couldn't grasp the exact intention, the players sensed a "stall" was necessary—a unified barrage of attacks was slammed into Bryreinyego.

Even if it tried to open its mouth, magic was immediately blasted inside; even if it barely managed to spawn a small dragon, it was instantly crushed by an overwhelming amount of violence.

『Y-yoU baStarDs, you baStaRds...! GerereReeeee!!!』

"It jumped!!"

"It's coming down! Run!!"

Taking attacks from all sides, and with its tongue still hanging out, Bryreinyego's massive body leapt once again.
From the corners of its mouth, small dragons spawned at the worst possible timing spilled out, while the damage effects erupting from its entire body, bound by the game's gravity physics, trailed upwards, higher and higher.

『Dieeeeeeee!!!』

Writhing slightly in mid-air to correct its coordinates, the white mass of flesh fell, fell, fell, aiming for a trajectory that would guarantee crushing at least a few people underfoot...

"You fool... I have 'thirty seconds'."

『HaE?』

It didn't fall. Two gnarled hands crawled out slimily from the ground, catching the mass of flesh and squeezing tight.
It was something that grasps the living, something tinged with death, something that anchors any form of life right in place.

『GigeGegogOgoBoboaaaa!!!?』

"─── 【Hands of Tartarus】, I've bought the time!"

Giri-giri. With a vise-like grip, as if crushing a meat bun, the overwhelming power squeezed Bryreinyego. The tongue hanging out of the corner of its mouth and the dragon body fused to its tip screamed in agony.
Normally, Animalia's own will suppressed the tightening force as much as possible so as not to inflict suffering on monsters, but right now was different. Gripped by a sheer force that truly grasped at life itself, the mass of flesh shrieked and writhed in torment.

"So!? How exactly are you planning to finish this!?"

"Ufufufufu... The Rod of Actualization's effects don't apply to attack magic, you know... But the current me... fufu, the current me can pull off something like this...!!"

The Rod of Actualization activated. The mystic wand that elevated the user's magic to the power they desired multiplied a certain magic by "forty times." The name of that magic was... 【Add Spell】.
A simple "Magic Power Enhancement Spell" that any magic class could learn early on was activated with forty times the output.

"Just like a thunderous roar... 【Empyrean Cheer】!!"

A starlight-like brilliance released from the Rod of Actualization enveloped Deep Slaughter. Although it was a broad interpretation, the Rod's multiplication magic—which retained the properties of the original spell—took the effect of 【Add Spell】 exactly as it was and boosted the firepower of the next spell the user cast.

But, under normal circumstances, the recoil of using the Rod of Actualization, The Desire, would prevent Deep Slaughter from changing equipment. Furthermore, attack magic should have been unusable due to the restrictions of the Rod of Actualization itself... should have been.

"To think there was a use for this other than fondling three places at once..."

The "Hand of Crave" obtained by defeating the Raid Monster "Devouring Great Crimson Clad." Expanding the equipment slots themselves at the cost of accessory slots... Namely, the flame lit by a second Wand.

"Expanded Version 【Flame Arrow】... I'll insert this roughly for you...!!"

Coupled with a dirty joke, an arrow of flame that had swollen to several dozen times its original size was launched like an artillery shell.

Author's Afterword

Natsume-chan...