Chapter 357: O Dragon, O Dragon! Part Twenty-Two

The old-battlefield warrior has to finish two chapters and two parts in a single day.

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Great Red Devourer: "VyarararararararararararaaaaaAaAaAaAAAAAA!!!?"

A scream—a massive volume of sound that could only be called a scream. Even the Great Red Devourer shrieks when four of its heads get thoroughly well-done...? No. That's not it.

Sure, it boasts cheat-level regenerative power. But that resource probably depends on its total numbers as a colony. The attrition every time it changes phases, and then using that cyclops... Its total numbers—in other words, its HP—are already starting to show the bottom. No, that's not it either.

That scream came from something more fundamental. Not emotion, but a clear threat to its life leaking out through instinct... Not the heads. To it, brains are replaceable parts. If so, the cause of the scream isn't Scarred, but...

Sunraku: "...You dodged just now, didn't you?"

The Great Red Devourer had basically never cared about taking hits, offsetting damage with even greater recovery. But when Severing Divide was about to land, it definitely took several steps backward.

As if trying to avoid a slash that could reach all the way into its mouth...

Sunraku: "Don't tell me... you have a 'weak point'?"

You've gotta be kidding me. I was fooled this whole time by something this... this simple? Sure, it had attacked with that huge mouth several times. And even if a raid monster had an exposed weak point, I'd never imagine it would attack with the weak point itself... But don't tell me...

Sunraku: "That giant mouth... no, deep inside it... there's something there?"

Aaaah! Right, Phase 1!! In Phase 1 it was basically moving the corpse around as-is. Which means that form was directly connected to the "cause of death"!!

Sunraku: "You can tell just by looking at it...!"

At the very least, in the Great Red Devourer's Phase 1 form... no, in Eldranza's corpse, the deepest wound was the damage to the chest, gouged out so badly that the ribs were exposed.

In other words...

Sunraku: "Something that was missing from that corpse—something that is... that was in the torso—was restored starting in Phase 3 too?"

It's all connecting now, like pulling up a whole string of sweet potatoes. The questions I've been carrying around are linking together all at once.

Repair, reinforcement—were those really nothing but benefits? That serious mode called Origin Reversion: Primal Revolve repaired the Great Red Devourer's missing parts and then reinforced them. Doesn't that mean things that weren't there were newly created too?

Come to think of it, the chimera offshoots and the monsters generated from the tornado were the same. If it were truly displaying the full viciousness of a colony monster, there was no way it should go down while leaving its body intact. It ought to be the kind of thing you couldn't kill without incinerating every last cell.

Yet cutting it and punching it kills it. Doesn't that mean it also reproduces the physical vulnerabilities of the monsters it copies?

Sunraku: "Which means...!"

Beyond that huge, wide-open mouth, in the darkness... I can see a bright red sphere. That's it. That's the weak point.

It feels like a rope called "strategy" has finally connected to the far side of a cliff I'd thought was impossibly distant. Someone once destroyed Eldranza; I'll recreate that battle with human hands.

Though, when I think of aquatic monsters that could stand against a dragon, the only thing that comes to mind is that orca... No, don't tell me there's a Unique Scenario gimmick where it gets taken out by a normal monster that isn't even a Unique Monster? I could believe it.

Sunraku: "Anyway, fall back for now... OI, YOU ASSHOLES! EVERYONE, REGROUP!!"

Scarred-kun, now fully healed, is raring to go, so I dump the Great Red Devourer on him and retreat for a moment.

With Emul on my head, sniffling while pretending nothing is wrong, I half-glare at the two idiots I'd hurriedly gathered together.

Sunraku: "We're short on time, so let's do a quick review session. First: you, die."

Deep Throater: "Yaaay, harshness!!"

THUNK!!!

Deep Throater: "Ah, wait, that's a genuinely lethal kind of dea—ahfn."

If I smack them on the head with the blunt part of Memento Mori, I can shut them up before the dirty jokes come out... I see. So this is what they call practical wisdom.

Sunraku: "Next, Tottori. I'm not trying to deny the hero thing, but could you pick either the boss fight or NPC babysitting and focus on one?"

Tottori: "N-no, but, I mean..."

Sunraku: "Shut it. Anyone with no DPS has no human rights. That isn't just an SLF thing... Firepower isn't everything, but half-assed contributions can be fed to that thing over there. Okay?"

Tottori: "Gh..."

I won't stop him if he wants to focus entirely on evacuating the elves. They're what you'd call political bargaining chips... I need at least some of them to stay alive.

Sunraku: "And me: I held too much back and boxed in my own thinking. Sorry."

Tottori: "You're reviewing yourself too...?"

Self-reflection is important. Improving work efficiency starts by carving the workflow into your own brain.

Sunraku: "Review session over. From here on, it's a strategy meeting... Not that the plan is complicated. Its weak point is deep inside the giant mouth on its torso."

Tottori: "It has a weak point?"

Sunraku: "Until just now, it was fighting with no guard at all. So where's the one place it suddenly feels the need to dodge?"

Deep Throater: "Erogenous zone! Gubeh!"

You really don't learn... Whatever. I'll just treat it like the sound of cicadas or something.

Sunraku: "My theory is that the Great Red Devourer can be killed by attacking its weak point after its resources are exhausted. And right now, the tornado on its back has shrunk to practically nothing, and it hates having that weak point attacked."

Tottori: "So now's our chance?"

Sunraku: "Chance... more like the final stretch."

Just three of us. Just three, and we've made it this far... If it's come to this, I'm not holding anything back either.

Sunraku: "So who's left here: three players... plus Emul, and three elves."

The one I pinned down when we first met, the tsundere, and Aryur... Somehow we kept running into one another, so I'd actually remembered the third one's name.

Sunraku: "At this point, we can't worry about roles. Everyone, stay alive and keep moving. When an opening comes, we all attack at once. Target the red orb deep inside the giant mouth."

Deep Throater: "I see. So the red ball, yeah."

Under review... Contextually safe, so no reaction. Wait, why do you look disappointed?

Sunraku: "...So why are you casually standing next to me?"

Deep Throater: "Well... despite appearances, I'm a close-range magic job, y'know? Gotta be on the front line..."

Sunraku: "........."

Scoot scoot. (Three steps away.)

Scoot scoot scoot scoot. (Four steps closer.)

Sunraku: "Gh... I thought Achilles could never overtake the tortoise...!"

Deep Throater: "Zeno? That one? The tortoise and Achilles are both turn-based, and Achilles isn't allowed to move ahead of the tortoise—that's one hell of a restriction challenge... all because it's a tortoise, huh!?"

Sunraku: "I know a game like that."

Games where you lose if the NPC doesn't win are pretty much all like that.

Sunraku: "Anyway, cut the dirty jokes already. I'm gonna file a harassment report."

Deep Throater: "Ohh, there you go saying that again... The fact that you actually react means you secretly like them, don't you...?"

Sunraku: "No, not really."

Deep Throater: "Huh?"

Tottori: "Huh?"

Wait, did this idiot seriously think I liked dirty jokes?

Sunraku: "There's a lot I could say, but... all that can come second. If possible, fight your ass off and then blow yourself up."

Deep Throater: "Apparently self-destruct magic really exists. Fire-element type."

Sunraku: "Seriously?"

Hmm. Is finding self-destruction romantic a kind of death wish? In mecha stuff it's practically an eight-times-out-of-ten staple, and even outside that, sacrificing yourself to take down the enemy does have a certain romance to it.

Deep Throater: "More importantly, Sunraku-kuuun... that greatsword's got me curious..."

Sunraku: "Secret weapon."

I say nothing more than that. With one hand, I give Memento Mori a light swing and settle it back onto my shoulder.

Sunraku: "Don't slow me down, all right? Deep Throater-san, with a kill score of zero?"

Deep Throater: "Ooh, harsh... I'll go deep after its weak point, just like my name says. Keep your eyes on me..."

Kept you waiting, Scarred. The meeting is over.

And...

Kept you waiting, Great Red Devourer. I'll make this place your grave and drive a gravestone into it, so brace yourself.