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Chapter 374: Bad Team Composition VS. Boss. [Release Version]
🕑 Added 2022-12-04 01:53:58 +0000 UTC<[Battle Frenzy (Minor)] inflicted on [Young Sunfang Dragon, Hestia Atsuko Kargryxmor]>
<Mana Release activated. Aura used as control unit: [Draconic Aura Lv. 4]. Territory [Magmakammer] has been established>
<Proficiency requirement fulfilled. [Territory Release Lv. 1] evolved into [Territorial Release Lv. 2]>
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Name: Hector Radagan Level: 91 Race: Taz Dwarf Age: 71 Years
Jobs:
Main: Ronin Duelist
Secondary: Soba Master
Unique: Locked
Information Blocked
__________________________________________
__________________________________________
<Name: Varglaf Luedbrumdar Level: 103 Race: Inko Dwarf Age: 45 Years
Jobs:
Main: Samurai Gokeni
Secondary: Journeyman Gemsmith
Unique: Locked
Information Blocked
__________________________________________
??? What are those Secondary Jobs!? [Soba Master] and [Journeyman Gemsmith]?!
Putting aside those weird Jobs, the rest of their Profiles were, unfortunately, blocked from me. They probably had those [Identity Blocker] items, just like many of my recent enemies. For goodness sake, could I please get the chance to appraise someone completely?! Was that so unreasonable to ask for? I wanted information to gain advantage with to make fights easier!
Then again, knowing their levels did make me more cautious. Aside from the Edgesworns’ boss and the Luedbrumdar helper, the other dwarves were around the lower rank Bs or higher rank Cs—so in the level range of 50 and 75. This did make them pretty strong, but there were only five of these armored men.
And now, just like in an RPG, these seven dwarves had to fight a level 27 rank B [Young Sunfang Dragon], equivalent to level 107 for humanoids. Of course, if I were a dragonewt, the 103 dwarf would be pretty comparable … but I was going to fight in my dragon form. And I had fought people far stronger than him already.
This wasn’t going to be an easy battle since I couldn’t appraise their Profiles fully. Even their armor and weapons were slightly obstructed, making it hard for me to predict anything. Well equipped and also state of the art tech. How annoying.
“Shield wall!” the dwarves shouted, activating their [Defensive Rune: Auracoil] in response to the heat wave I was exuding. Their barriers and the walls and floors of the building began to flicker blue.
“Kraaaaaaaaaaaah!” I roared out while I activated [Humanize], increasing my body temperature with [Dreadflare Aura] and containing everything with my [Draconic Aura]. As the blue veils protecting the building began to break down, my Territory was established.
“Dammit! Move back!” the Edgesworn boss cried out as the mana mist started to dissipate and my true form was revealed.
My increased mass pushed pieces of the building away, but since I was melting everything into light purple, glowing lava—technically magma, I suppose, since we’re underground—already, everything felt more-or-less like liquid. I grabbed the remnants of the semi-solid wall and threw it at the dwarves, using [Volcanic Blaze] to turn them into obsidian spears.
With a resounding shatter, two of the dwarves’ barriers broke apart, letting the spears lodge themselves into their armor. However, the blows were too shallow, as the spears immediately fell off. However, as long as these dwarves were inside this Territory, I had enough resources to take them all on, no matter how strong they were. Fortunately for me, the magma had already enclosed this entire place.
Again! I grabbed some magma and threw it at them, turning them into obsidian spears mid-air. However, instead of letting one of the shield-bearers take the hit, the Luedbrumdar samurai stepped in front of them and slashed forward using his katana, slicing everything into two with impeccable reflexes.
Immediately afterward, the blue seams on his body turned green, before two runes on his boots began to glow. He unsheathed his blade and took out his bardiche, before closing the distance between us in a matter of a second. Taking me by surprise, he swung his polearm at my neck.
I arched it back, avoiding the hit, where I noticed he was reading another hit. Dodging any further would just put me at a disadvantage, so I sent my floating glaive to block his attack. With my catalyst inserted, I could control it through mana.
A clash of metal erupted as my glaive and his bardiche dueled, allowing me enough time to recover and have [Halo of Consecration] blast a white flame ring out. The samurai retreated, switching with the ronin, who bisected my flames in the process, before sending his five tanks to obstruct my movements.
With their armor glowing blue, they charged in with unprecedented speed, just like the earthquakers I witnessed before. They slammed their shields against me, trying to push me back while relying on their mana barrier to survive. Two of them, though—the ones I had broken the auracoil of—had to endure the heat of my attack full-on. Looking at the red glowing rune on their chestplate, they probably had some heat resistances, considering dwarves mined a lot.
The [Magmakammer] had closed off the area with the entire building’s molten stone, and while it trapped them inside, it also meant I had barely any room to move. I couldn’t use my [Hellblade Dragon] attacks effectively. I could only rely on spells and flame breaths … or so these dwarves probably assumed.
[“See ya!”] I taunted them as I turned my [Unheilige Engel] into an obsidian drill, before jumping up and drilling my way through the molten ceiling. I quickly manipulated the magma, having it close up the hole before activating my stealth skills.
Sure, I might have told them I would fight them, but, honestly, we needed to get the hell out of here! The moment the city guards and soldiers arrived en masse, then our escape route would be closed out. We would be trapped. That was what those dwarves were planning, stalling until help arrived. Since I rescued the prisoners, all we needed to do was to— [Danger Perception] activated!
Woah!
I snapped my body and the drill to the side, as a mana slash pierced right through the magma, opening a section of it open. I looked down, seeing the samurai standing there in a slashing motion. He then sheathed his blade, and like those overdramatized anime samurai, did an “iaido” slash with a blue glowing katana.
Controlling the magma, I used it to push myself out of its trajectory before closing things up. Well, my fleeing plans just went poof. If I didn’t take care of them now, that samurai would chase us down. We wouldn’t be able to flee into the subspace with him around. Kazumi wouldn’t be able to outrun him and the hold would be too high of an alarm for me to escape. I didn’t even know where the exit was!
Can’t help it. Dreadflame Breath.
If I had to fight, then I had to increase [Magmakammer]’s size first. Increase its volume to the point I could swim and appear anywhere like the training I did in my Obsidian Orchestra. As such, magma burst from my mouth, filling up everything as I swam and dodged the attacks of that samurai.
His attack speed was fast, but my Agility made it possible for me to continue. Even though he was an experienced fighter, so was I. It was as hard for me to predict him, as it was for him to predict me. After all, I also had spells and my glaive on my side.
The moment he would open up the magma, I would dodge and prepare my spells, keeping them readied with [Delayed Spell]. The more my magma room grew, the more spells I had readied. I was running on timer, but so were they. If they didn’t come up with anything until then, then it would be my win!
‘Original Mind, temperature rising and rising! No core means we can overheat, so don’t delay this for too long. Our body can only endure so much!’ Manager Mind informed me before my arrogance took over my decision making.
I know! Trust me! Keep it up!
Ten magic circles. 20 magic circles. How about five more! The potential damage increased even further, and when the next slash happened, I noticed it. I noticed the samurai’s arm slowing down by just a tiny bit. The rhythm he was keeping up was delayed, nearly costing me some scales as I mistimed my dodge.
Now!
And the moment the next slash happened, I hardened up the area where he shot his mana slash into solid obsidian, nearly blocking the entire attack. I had full control over my magma, and I meant it! Cooling and hardening a concentrated area into obsidian wasn’t a problem for me, nor was opening up the areas where I had stored the magma spells!
“Is this the fated battle, the light shines ♫
It’s blinding my sight ♫
But I’ve gotta hold on, the stage calls ♫
The cries of a thousand, the flames of war will descend ♫”
<[Music Resonation (Moderate)] inflicted on [Young Sunfang Dragon, Hestia Atsuko Kargryxmor]>
Just as the spells blasted forth, sending down lightning, wind, and holy attacks, I played [The Will to Fight and Survive] to increase my fire and holy damage by 10%. The dwarves activated their auracoil, protecting the samurai who was readying his attacks. The barrage of spells, however, were too much for the dwarves to endure as barriers left and right broke apart, to the point the dwarves had to act like meat shields.
Watching this through one of the slits I made, I threw my obsidian and glaive at them, forcing the dwarves to defend against them, only for my obsidian to turn fluid again while my glaive was made by Grimnir. As if it would break! Using this fact, the dwarves reacted too slowly when the [Unheilige Engel] slipped past their shields and lodged itself into the few gaps inside the armors, while my glaive continued attacking.
I couldn’t inject my toxin into their protected bodies, at least, it didn’t seem like it was possible from here. However, my magma’s second phase—corrosive slime mode—stuck onto their joints and limbs, and once hardened, would slow them down enough for my glaive to force them to focus on defending. The samurai, noticing his allies’ inconvenience, decided to strike my glaive, but outside of sending it flying, the blade stayed intact even after he unleashed an iaido slash.
“Again?” the samurai let out. I guess he thought that was some second-rate glaive, but that thing was made not only from my materials but also the skills of Grimnir!
I closed up all the holes in my Territory once the spells stopped, instead, having to use my [Unheilige Engel] and glaive to delay them. Still, they were good enough, as I now had their backs to the wall. With a [Flash Fire], I figuratively teleported from the ceiling side to the ground underneath them.
“Kraaaaagh!” I roared out as I resurfaced, successfully grabbing one of the dwarves in my jaw.
“Woooooraaaah!” he screamed.
Without delaying another second, I stomped down on two tankers with my front legs, pulling all three of them into the magma. I submerged just in time, as the samurai slashed forth, only for my glaive to obstruct him.
Now inside the magma, I crushed the armor they had on, causing them to ingest some of the lava. Thankfully, they were Taz dwarves, meaning they were far better suited to survive hostile temperatures like that of a volcano. Their bodies may have been born for this kind of environment, but letting them burn inside here would be murder. That would be harder to excuse later on.
So, once they were unconscious, I threw them outside the [Magmakammer]. One thing the dwarves probably hadn’t noticed, since they were trapped inside, was that through the expansion of the Territory through my magma breaths, this building had turned into a large ball. This was the only way for me to swim around without any problems, and none of the dwarves realized they were in a glorified hamster ball.
With three enemies down, I only had to take care of four more. Using this new environment to my advantage, [Magmakammer] was in full effect. Like a real [Volcano Dragon], I would swim through this place, attacking from random angles by either surfacing and trying to drag people into the magma or using my tail to slash at them.
Spells would be slung to distract them, or even outright dent their solid armor. Although I couldn’t use [Terra Magic] right now, I could still inflict terror by using the magma. I could change up the environment inside by melting the ground they stood on, scorching their legs until they used some rune to stand up on it. I could topple the ground, turning the whole place upside down. I could do so much!
But … as I said, they were running on a timer, too.
“Urgh!” The samurai finally dropped onto one knee!
The Edgesworns boss snapped his head around, leaving him exposed to my glaive to disarm his axe, throwing it into the magma where I snatched it away. He was worried about his ally, but he shouldn’t leave himself open either.
[“Hey, did you guys look around you? No one wondering why the magma is, you know, purple?”] I directed their attention away from the samurai and to the surroundings. [“I have a skill: [Corrosive Fire]. You Taz can endure the volcanic gas, but can the Inko?”]
The dwarves were hardy mountain people, meaning they could endure the toxic gasses of my [Magmakammer] far longer than the other races. However, even with their natural resistances, nothing could stop them from getting [Poisoned] and [Paralysis]. Of course, if I was planning to kill them, they probably would end up like the demonkin girl. I wasn’t, of course.
While a Taz was far more hardy, a surface dwelling Inko wasn’t. That samurai had that interesting distinction. So the moment he fell onto his knees and I managed to distract his allies, it was time for strike.
With my blazing tail, I pierced through the magma and slammed it right into the samurai. He blocked it with his auracoil and bardiche, but the weight dug his feet right into the magma. I pulled my tail back before forcing the ground to rumble and shake, breaking the dwarves’ balance. Now off-guard, I struck the samurai with my claw, sending him into the air. I then opened a small hole in the ground where I could peek my head out.
The samurai noticed this was his last attack and readied his bardich, but the falling liquid magma from the ceiling and all the magma he accumulated fighting on the ground started to harden upon my command. Obsidian now decorated his colorful samurai armor, restricting his joints and sticking limbs to his body from the slimy nature of its transitional stage.
It was all over.
Dreadflame Breath.
“Guek! Slipped pa—”
I fully enveloped the dwarf in my dragon breath, breaking through his mana barrier and scorching him and lighter armor, compared to the tanks. I then boosted myself up and grabbed him, submerging myself like a fish into the ceiling. Once the samurai was out, I threw him out of my Territory like a broken doll before I finished off the last three foes.
The dwarves might have had a lot of tech and equipment, but when it mattered the most, they didn’t have an answer to combat my Territory. Well, not like they had a chance, anyways. I didn’t even use [Flash Fire] that aggressively, now that I thought about it. [Battle Frenzy] was only mostly good for its stat increase, but due to my size, I couldn’t move around too well.
Once again [Flash Fire] was not a teleport, it was fast movement. Due to my size, moving around was far harder inside a small, closed up space. If I was in my dragonewt form, it would have been easier, but the stats I had as a dragon dealt with the dwarves without a problem.
Once it was all over, I stopped my Territory and jumped out of my magma ball. Too bad they only had melee fighters. If they had only had one or two water mages, things probably would have turned around. Being strong physically wouldn’t do you any good, if the boss could control the entire environment. Bad party compositions were the worst.
[“My lady!”] Once I landed, the wyverns spread their wings and welcomed me. Although, they did take a step back since, you know, I just took a swim in lava and probably was radiating skin melting heat right now. [“We are done with our part.”]
I looked at their faces, seeing some wounds here and there, but it didn’t look like they were roughed up too much. With [Halo of Consecration] still active, my white flames quickly healed them up.
[“Awesome, you guys did well, too. So, let’s ge—”] However, before I could speak, I noticed Kyouya, Tatsuya, and Kohaku appearing from under the wyverns as Shay spoke to me.
[“About that …”]
The wyverns lowered their wings, revealing that there were more than just the students behind them. In my decision not to just kill the dwarves, I had allowed too much time to pass for my perfect win. Bringing chaos to the city was a great distraction, but I guess the giant magma ball probably attracted everybody's attention.
After all, I could see numerous dwarves with a bearded mask surrounded by a cave’s entrance emblem on their chestplate—the Luedbrumdar’s clan crest. I was a bit too slow.
Walking out from the frontline of dwarven warriors, I could see one in a full set of gold and brown dwarven armor with a Japanese kabuto helmet. He strutted up, stroking his grey beard and its brown rock hair. His left eye looked larger, as if it didn’t fit inside his eye socket from his lack of an eyelid.
He snapped his fingers, prompting a soldier to hand him a rod from which he spoke into, “My name is Maagneil. Clan leader and patriarch of the Luedbrumdars. Princess Hestia, I presume, you are trespassing on—”
I knew it. Stupid talk again.
Instead of letting him monologue, I sat down in my dragon form and grabbed the leader of the Edgesworn and the Luedbrumdar ally he had. I then pulled them up, showing all the dwarves who I had just defeated, shocking a few of the soldiers as they snapped their heads up in disbelief.
I created a telepathic link to everybody before me—clan members and civilians. [“I heard enough from these two. I know your quarrel with my friend Daichi and Grimnir, but you had no excuse for harming my other friends! Nothing! This is an eye for an eye. Don’t you dare come at me with a speech where you paint me as the sole villain in this situation. Own up to your own mistakes, or will you put all the blame on me? A dragon whelpling?”]
“… You are a criminal who has trespassed into my land, created chaos inside my home, and attacked my people. You will answer for your crimes. As I expected from people associating themselves with a zuekluk! Surrender or we will bring you down like any other beast!”
Tsk, what? Bring me down? I hope that was just a metaphor or is he really trying to kill me if I refuse?
This was not good. I had planned to escape in time before they could come. Should I act? Would this still remain a personal thing, or would this derail into something political if I were to act? Then again, why should I even care? It wasn’t as if I was at fault here. Sure, maybe a bit, but I had as much of a reason to do something when my friends were in danger!
I looked down at the students. All three of them were looking like they were waiting for a fight, as if they were trusting my decision in this matter. Suffice to say, the same was for the wyverns. Still, if we fought, we would be outnumbered severely. I was also overheating slightly, to the point if I activated [Magmakammer] again, I would just burn myself. I couldn’t endure a long fight without my core, not to mention how much mana I would be using up to fight all of them.
Sometimes, you have to know when to fight and when to give up. In this case, it seemed we—
But before I could answer, a loud distant explosion drew everybody’s attention. There, in the sky, we saw something emerging, flying up before it stopped, spreading its wings out. Although, it was too far away for me to see clearly, it looked like a … demonkin?! A demonkin holding onto something bulky on their right and something smaller on their left.
In the next second, another explosion resounded from there as it launched the demonkin right at us. As I readied myself for a fight, the demonkin swooped up, dropping the bulky thing off. It was a dwarf, and a dwarf with what looked like a giant hammer.
“Bastard!” The dwarf dropped right into the ground in front of the Luedbrumdar, sending people flying away as a dust cloud erupted.
In the next moment, the demonkin graceful landed in front of us, dropping off K-Kazumi?! My eyes widened when I noticed this, snapping my eyes towards the demonkin, only to notice it had a female frame with bone wings and a three-forked tail. Her whole body was covered from foot to head in black armor-like carapace with two horns sticking from her forehead.
“Attack!” I heard somebody shout as two dwarven warriors came charging in.
With her head still turned away from us, the demonkin held up what seemed like a broken sword handle, only for a blue rune to light up. Just as the dwarves were about to attack her and Kazumi, sword fragments came flying towards her as she jumped over her foes, before something like a blue mana thread spread from the handle.
In the next second, the fragments attached themselves onto it, until the blade was reformed. In the next sword, the demonkin swung it, causing it to extend like a whip. With this length advantage, the demonkin quickly disarmed the warriors, allowing Kazumi to throw two small balls into their faces, causing them to explode.
That’s a whipsword! That’s Ellaine’s whipsword!
I stared at the demonkin, flabbergasted at what I saw, but the surprise wouldn’t end as a boisterous laugh woke me up. The dust cloud dissipated as that hammer from before waved it away, only for its head to open up, revealing a large gaping hole. As the weapon began to glow blue, the dust veil finally disappeared enough for me to see who its owner was.
[“Grimnir!”]
“Gahaha!” He turned his weapon towards the tomato-red faced Maagneil, to the point he was livid enough to probably bust a vein!
“Grrrrriiiiimniiiiiiiiir!”
“Broke your own promise, you bastard. You’re the damn zuekluk!”
And with mechanical sounds resounding from the weapon, it then unleashed a powerful mana blast at the crowd, blasting people away in a storm of dust and shouts. Once again laughing like a madman, the orange-haired horned dwarf turned around, showing off what looked like a new set of armor. He thumped his chest; a metallic sound echoed as I noticed a dragon-headed emblem on his breastplate.
With a big fat smirk, Grimnir’s eyes flared up as he saw us all. “Nice to see my mistress came to save her stupid retainer. Good to see you here, my princess!”
The demonkin girl also bumped her chest after sheathing her blade. [“No city can escape our party’s bad luck, right? The Aurora can’t get a single calm adventure.”]
Grimnir! Ellaine!
Comments
taxes are pretty hardy, you have to admit.
Diego Rossi
Nice chapter! "opening a section of it open." -> "opening up a section of it."? Generally, this kind of repetition is frowned upon when writing. While a tax was far more hardy, ->taZ , breaking through his mana barrier and scorching him and HIS lighter armor, I couldn’t around too well. -> go around? In the next second, the fragments attached themselves onto it, until the blade was reformed. In the next sword, the demonkin swung it, causing it to extend like a whip. - I suppose the "In the next sword," is meant to be "In the next second," but it is a bit of a repetition.
Only one more person for the full reunion
brunoid
Thanks for the chapter. Nice to see them together at last.
