Chapter 796: December 15th: Fear My Name, Be in Awe of My Roots
Author's Preface
Returning from the Ancient Battlefield, the souvenir is the announcement of the advantageous element and the month for the next Ancient Battlefield.
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Looking down, something was sparkling and scattering from the massive clump of steel in the twilight. The solid feedback transmitted from Areadbhair meant the melting-severance was a success.
"Now then... what do I do from here?"
Currently, by combining the gravity-direction-shift skill with the falling-speed-acceleration skill, falling completely upside-down had launched me high into the sky.
Naturally, once the skill's effect time runs out, I'll fall in the correct direction... meaning, down to the ground.
"Can I go for one more hit?"
Down on the ground, matching the destruction of its arm-blade, it seemed the rest of the gang was trying to shift to an all-out offensive at once. I couldn't see perfectly, but since I coincidentally had a bird's-eye view, I could vaguely grasp what was happening just by watching their movements... Hmm, looking at it like this, isn't Overwerke's burden insanely huge? ...I could see him firing magic off front and back like crazy, playing a two-front war all by himself.
Whoops, looks like Space Charge's effect duration is over. The floating sensation of falling upwards gradually vanished, and this time the floating sensation of falling downwards applied to my body. It's a pretty sickening feeling if you aren't used to it, but unfortunately, as an aerial eye-gouging spray battler, the floating sensation of a natural free-fall is terribly familiar to me.
By the way, "aerial eye-gouging spray battler" refers to a game called Gravity Graffiti—and its players (the PvP crowd)—which was supposed to be about competing for artistic points, but because they inexplicably added PvP elements, it underwent an extreme evolution in a bizarre direction where the first person to spray out the opponent's eyes wins, a game whose initial concept of "drawing pictures in the void with spray paint while skydiving from high altitudes" was already somehow bizarre from the very beginning.
No, seriously, that game was lost from the moment its gameplay was born until the day it died.
That said, regardless of the game, falling from high up usually means death. Like when I first broke through the Mud Digger, using the fall as an attack hitbox to aim for a lucky Guts survival is the better option, but... man, I really don't wanna maneuver around with 1 HP against Tomahawk.
That thing absolutely still has moves hidden, we don't even know what those slash marks are from in the first place, and I don't feel like we've cornered it at all. Nine times out of ten, it'll probably focus that full-body shockwave into its arm or tail and fire it off... but that'll probably just be treated as a standard attack.
The noob-trap moves a boss pulls out when cornered will probably be even more unreasonable, I reckon. To begin with, the name "Tomahawk" itself just gives off this double-meaning vibe...
Then,
"Nufwa!?"
An arrow of light flying from somewhere hit me right in the crotch—or rather, I noticed it at the very last second and twisted my body, so it hit around my right hip bone.
Instantly, an effect wrapped around my body... I see, fall damage mitigation. As expected, Overwerke's range wouldn't reach all the way up here, and this homing trajectory that feels like a pure obsession with my crotch... DeepSlo, huh.
"Screwing around in the middle of a fight..."
Wait, since she's always screwing around, is this just normal operation? Revoke her license, her license.
But regrettably, the only thing you can trust about DeepSlo is the performance of her magic, which is the most incorrigible part about her. Since I practically don't have to worry about the risk of falling to my death anymore, I should participate in the offensive with everything I've got.
"Areadbhair!!"
As I shouted the name of the sword burning with silver flames, Areadbhair shone as if its intensity had increased. I've suspected this for a while now, but isn't it reacting to voice authentication or something? I talk to it sometimes, but so far I haven't gotten a reply...
Should I aim for the head after all? I doubt if it's even a normal living creature, but there shouldn't be any creature that stays unscathed after having its head crushed... Probably. No, sometimes there's the type where the core is the main body and the head is just a decoy, so easy assumptions are dangerous, y'know~? Plus, Yashirobird is focusing his attacks on the head, so if I interrupt, there's a risk of friendly fire at worst.
I'm out of time. I'll yield the head to Yashirobird. I'm aiming for the upper body, which is hard for Survival and Ur Idim-shi to target from the ground!!
The acceleration from the fall alone will produce enough power; it's better to save my skills for maneuvering after landing. My stance is high overhead, but if I just swing it down like this, it'll just bounce off, so rather than slashing, I'll make it like a scratching motion... My target is the back! I'll carve a coward's scar into you and expose your shame!!
"Image-wise, it's like taking a kitchen knife to a fiiiiiiish!!"
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Tomahawk was thinking.
It was a course of action based on twisted logic and alien priorities, completely devoid of things like emotion or sentiment.
True Dragon Species are the materialized forms of the "fear" held by all living things, manifesting as their greatest enemy. Simply because the First True Dragon was based on the awe toward the Golden Dragon King, all subsequent "fears" merely took the shape of dragons.
───The essence of a True Dragon Species lies precisely in the "properties" a dragon possesses.
Just as the Fifth Dragon lurking in the darkness of the labyrinth had endless dark as its essence. Just as the Seventh Dragon, the new tyrant of the great sea, had overwhelming intimidation as its essence.
The essence of the Tenth Dragon is not the fact that it is a dragon itself, but precisely that its entire body is a sharp blade.
And one more thing: the name pointing to the existence of a True Dragon Species also holds meaning. For example, the Fifth Dragon, which possesses techniques patterned after a certain story—such as gigantification, shrinking, and magnetic generation—bears the name "Gulliver."
"Giiirirorororororo........."
Tomahawk. Its essence is an axe for cutting and.........
"Giiiririririririririaaaaaaaa!!!"
Even further before the Divine Age, or perhaps its very origin. A double meaning with the flying explosion core that appeared in the history of Earth's civilization.
At the same time as the roar of the dragon whose flesh embodies the fear of "flying objects" and "gouging and tearing," the blade-wings sprouting from its back—which could only be described as clumps of metal—... detached.
"Wha!?"
Whoever let out that voice of shock, it was faster than anyone could react to shift from a forward-leaning offensive to a sudden evasion.
"Gyarararararararara!!!"
Along with a roaring cry of dissonance that sounded like metal grinding together to the point of shattering, the guided blade wings "launched" from Tomahawk's back assaulted those challenging the dragon.
Everything was to prove the significance of its existence. To carve the fear of itself into all living things. Because that alone is the reason a dragon lives.
Author's Afterword
◇◇◇ ← Wings that look like multiple blades connected like this detached and were launched.
It might be easier to understand if you imagine the things on the back of that new guy who pushed back an asteroid base with pure guts. [*1]
・Cruising Autonomous Blade Wings
Dragonic Launched Cruising Wing, meaning tracking blade wings launched by a dragon.
The reason Tomahawk is Tomahawk and the symbol of the existence that makes Tomahawk Tomahawk.
The super-vibration driving its entire body and the accompanying physical heating are nothing more than a mere "shudder," and the attacks using the blade shell of its entire body are also merely utilizing its physical characteristics.
Tomahawk's essence is a composite of the terror of "something flying towards you" and the fear of the "pain of being pierced and torn apart"—in other words, in other words, it is fear itself toward a thrown blade.
Unlike the Fifth Dragon, the embodiment of the loneliness and frustration of being trapped in darkness, or the Seventh Dragon, the anxiety of disadvantage based on the difference between self and other, Tomahawk is a True Dragon Species whose roots lie in a rather civilization-leaning terror.
That is why it is bipedal, that is why it has arms instead of forelegs. That dragon was born from the fear of the act of "throwing" by bipedal lives possessing fingers and arms... It is a dragon holding a malice akin to humanity.
By the way, as for the game system reason, it's a dragon species reflecting the popularity of the Sword Saint among players.
Oh dear, because you lot wouldn't stop yapping 'Sword Saint, Sword Saint', a dragon that fires blades via remote control ended up being born.
Now, die.
Translator's Notes
- [1] Pushed back an asteroid base: A reference to Amuro Ray and the Nu Gundam pushing back the falling asteroid Axis in the anime film Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack. The "wings that look like multiple blades connected" is a reference to the Nu Gundam's Fin Funnels.
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