Chapter 340 — O Dragon, O Dragon! Part Six
Eldranza the Blue Dragon is a dragon with many traits of an aquatic creature. Its forelegs, from the elbows down, are shaped like a whale's fins, and blade-like scales grow from those fins.
But now those forelegs have swollen until they're larger than Eldranza's torso, and despite that, they come at us just as fast as they did before swelling up.
Sunraku: "Whoa...! That's like a giant signboard getting blown at me by the wind...!?"
Deep Throater: "Well, it's a dragon... Can't really blame it if it wants to spew out all that surging pathos, can you?"
Sunraku: "I'd really rather not get a six-hit pathos barrage, though!?"
Deep Throater: "Pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pathos."
That was kind of funny. More importantly, though, every one of those extra heads has started firing breath attacks, and that's seriously bad. Well, calling them breath attacks is generous—they're basically puke beams... The point is, what it's vomiting out is part of its own body.
Red keeps leaking from its torn throat and fouling the ground of the elf village for what has to be the umpteenth time. If there's one thing that's different from before, it's this...
Deep Throater: "You know those things where someone uses clones or whatever to satisfy the Lincoln condition all by themselves? Doesn't that get depressing? You're doing it while surrounded by your own face."
Sunraku: "Do you die if you don't sexually harass somebody?"
Deep Throater: "Yep. It's my life's work."
Sunraku: "Then die!"
Deep Throater: "So you really are into necro, huh?!"
We both dodge the biting attack from the dragon corpse's seventh neck, sprouting out of the red pool, then break into a run.
Looking around, there are tails, fins, heads... standing up everywhere without any restraint—no, with no regard for the boundaries of its own body.
After emptying its stomach, now it's multiplying itself!? What the hell, goddammit!!
Sunraku: "Hey! You okay, Deep Throater!?"
I'm still fine. The red pool feels like a futon with all the air crushed out of it, so as long as I stay alert it won't catch my feet, and even with that handicap I've got the stats to keep dodging.
Deep Throater, though, is a magic class. Not even a magic warrior or anything like that, but the highest-tier class, Sage. In other words, the pinnacle of a pure caster: a squishy backliner that folds if you hit it.
At this point you could call the entire field hostile. There's no way I can keep all the aggro on myself. Even if I go completely wild and drag as much attention onto me as possible, some of it is absolutely going to Deep Throater.
And right now, the Great Red Devourer's attack-producing organs are multiplying so much they look practically inexhaustible. I'd love for the Great Red Devourer to drop dead right this second, but if Deep Throater drops out, I go from slowly losing ground to outright checkmate.
But the answer I get back isn't whining or resignation.
Deep Throater: "Oi, oi... Sure, I'm a magic class, but this isn't just some ordinary pure-mage build. You of all people should know that, Sunraku-kuuun?"
Sunraku: "Huh...? Wait a second."
Don't tell me Deep Throater copied more than just the look. Don't tell me...
Deep Throater: "Dual-wand style... And you know what? This game has magic-based ways to fight in melee too...! [Dual Spell]! [Magiterial Blade]!!"
The wands in Deep Throater's hands give off a magical effect, but instead of leaving the wands, it stays fixed perpendicular to the grips... exactly like blades.
Fwon. The two wands slice through the air, each fitted with a blade of magic. Seeing that stance gives me a violent sense of déjà vu and the unmistakable presence of a fighter at the same time.
Deep Throater: "And then... if I combine buff magic with skills I trained up in melee classes...! I get the Spell Creation Online version of my Sunraku-kun tribute build: the roleplay imitation, 'Front-Arts Magician'!"
The magical blades swing into one of the Great Red Devourer's proliferating necks just as it's about to attack Deep Throater.
That footwork is way too light for a backliner. It's exactly how the avatar I made back in Spell Creation Online used to move.
Sunraku: "Wait, you made a copy-build of me in another game...?"
Deep Throater: "I thought you'd just be impressed, honestly!?"
If Akitsu Akane did something like this, I might get a little embarrassed... but this is you, you know? It feels less flattering and more like somebody scraped my personal data. No, seriously, I'm creeped out.
Deep Throater: "...Weird... My technique isn't working..."
Sunraku: "I'm not the one you're supposed to be using that technique on—hah!"
Yes, Areadbhair. Whatever it has become now, the Great Red Devourer inherited the elemental affinities of its base body, Eldranza, so Areadbhair's flames work extremely well against it.
I can't split a neck cleanly in one slash, sure, but if I can take one off by myself in thirty cuts, that's plenty. The problem is what changed from before. For convenience, I'll call the earlier state Phase One and the current one Phase Two. Unlike Phase One, in Phase Two the Great Red Devourer's main body can move normally.
Great Red Devourer: "VaaaaaaaoooOOOOOOOOO!!!"
Sunraku: "Ghk... So you made your own water, is that it!? Fuck off! Don't go diving into a red puddle that's not even ten centimeters deep!"
Visually it looks like it's swimming, but in practice this probably isn't much different from moving a giant lump of muscle around. The annoying part is that we still have to deal with it like a monster ambushing us from underwater. Any monster that can retreat into a space players can't interfere with is fated to wear the crown of shit.
The Great Red Devourer bursts up from beneath my feet as if it were leaping out of water. But unlike before, it isn't doing that tablecloth-pull motion where the ground gets sucked out from under me.
If I can keep my feet planted, I've got options besides running. I clamp both hands around Areadbhair Rebuild, crouch, and drive it with everything I've got into the Great Red Devourer's abdomen as it passes over my head—an abdomen badly damaged by some kind of attack, just like its chest!!
Sunraku: "Ngh, guoooh!!?"
I didn't stab it in very deep. Even so, I resist with everything I've got against the force trying to drag my whole body backward and wrench the scorching Black Blade forward.
It's like splitting a raging current lengthwise with an oar: there's resistance, but the blade also slips forward with this weird, hard-to-describe smoothness. Areadbhair's edge finally comes free around the Great Red Devourer's crotch.
The wound is shallow, but I definitely managed to land a slash on the main body. From behind me, I hear some idiot yelling nonsense.
Deep Throater: "Ahhh! I think Eldranza's dick just became a two-piece set!"
From what I can see, though, this thing doesn't have any visible reproductive organs... Female?
Sunraku: "Well, I wasn't expecting one hit to be the finishing blow, but...!"
The Great Red Devourer dives into the red pool right behind me, throwing up a huge splash of crimson before submerging again. Technically, "re-fusing" is probably more accurate, but visually it's diving.
Sunraku: "Okaaay... What the hell am I supposed to do now...?"
Cut it, burn it, whatever—it just keeps multiplying. I'm starting to seriously suspect its stock might be infinite. So what's the answer here?
Great Red Devourer: "Verrraralalalalalalalalalalaaaaa!!!!"
Sorry. If Japanese is too hard, at least speak English.