O Dragon, O Dragon! Part Twenty-Five
Soooo loooong! Finally I can move oooon to the neeext oooone!!
It's several times better than chickening out in the rear until the very end, but I still think the elves who come charging forward the moment they see the enemy has weakened could stand to retrain their nerves.
Still, that's that. Even if their firepower is low, that high accuracy can make a huge contribution at this exact moment.
The arrows flying without pause are almost all drawn straight into the giant maw now exposing its weak point, steadily driving the Great Red Devourer into a corner.
The anguished cries of a creature without emotion, yet unable to hide the screams of its own flesh, are proof enough.
Sunraku: "Go, go, go! Go, go, go! Keep firing until you're out of arrows!!"
Between the opening left by that earlier mass breath attack and the stagger caused by concentrated fire on its weak point, this instant is our biggest chance.
Sunraku: "Emul! Shoot, shoot, keep shooting!!"
Emul: "Hai naaa!!"
Can we do it? Can we finish shaving it down? No, it's recovering!!
Sunraku: "Cease fire! Everyone, fall back!!"
What now? The recast still isn't over. How do we hold out until we can attack again?
Sunraku: "Emul, how's your mana?"
Emul: "J-just a sec, I'd like a little time to recover, wa..."
Okay, so she's no help right now. In that case... Oh, I see. You're going to do it for us. Then I'll put my faith in that.
Sunraku: "Tottori."
Tottori: "What?"
Sunraku: "Have your maximum firepower ready just in case. I'm going to make that thing flinch one more time."
Tottori: "Got it... Hey, what about Deep Throater-san?"
Sunraku: "She's dead. Maybe we'll call her over later and hold a funeral with her."
Tottori: "O-oh... oh?"
Let's make it one hell of a parade. Well, whatever. Time to go.
The Great Red Devourer's resources are exhausted. Its body can no longer recover; all it can do now is fight with whatever body it has left.
Even so, it is still every bit a monster. And if that's the case, then we powerless humans will use absolutely everything we can to seize victory... which means I'll gladly lend a hand to another monster that wants that bright-red monstrosity dead just as much as we do.
Scattering huge damage effects from one of its heads, "Scarred" charges forward, burning with greater fury than at any point in this battle.
The Great Red Devourer turns its necks toward the rampaging three-headed beast to intercept it, but before it can switch to the attack, my interference with Areadbhair Rebuild in one hand steals its attention.
Maybe the elves finally realized which monster they needed to keep alive in order to kill the other. A rain of arrows launched from the rear drives into the Great Red Devourer and makes it flinch, and "Scarred" does not miss the opening.
Scarred: "Gorurururwooo!!"
Great Red Devourer: "QeeaaaaaaaaaAAAAAA!!?"
With astonishing leg strength, "Scarred" stomps the Great Red Devourer into the ground. The Great Red Devourer struggles to escape the pin, but "Scarred" is faster.
Sticky bodily fluid vomited from its mouth coats both the foot pinning it down and the Great Red Devourer's back. It isn't melting anything, but I know full well that fluid does a lot more than merely cause discomfort.
The Great Red Devourer knows it too. Realizing what will happen a few seconds from now, it thrashes harder and harder, but "Scarred" puts even more strength into its leg as if determined not to let go no matter what. With me getting in the way on top of that, escape is hopeless.
What is this feeling? We aren't in a party. We aren't even friends. In the first place, we're a player and a monster, an absolutely hostile relationship... and yet, somehow, there's this strange sense of trust.
It's not as though I could entrust my back to it. I just have this certainty that "this guy will get it done"... which is why the words I give it are simple.
Sunraku: "Light it up!!"
Ignition.
A blast wave carrying both impact and heat tears across the whole area like a surging tide. Naturally, the Great Red Devourer takes massive damage, and the strength drains from its struggling body. And right in front of me—while I used the Great Red Devourer's own body as an umbrella against the blast—is the red orb, left completely exposed.
Sunraku: "Great Red Devourer... no, Eldranza... this is the end!"
Areadbhair, clad in the light of Severing Divide and loaded with every strengthening skill I can currently use, catches the red orb.
The sphere has a texture like densely packed rubber, somehow both hard and soft at once. The blazing sword cuts through it like cheese.
Divine retribution... no, that's not right. This is vengeance by humans, for humans. In that case, there's only one way to finish it.
Sunraku: "Human retribution!!"
As if reading the mood, I flick Areadbhair aside with a sharp pyi, drawing a trail of flame as I strike a finishing pose.
Nailed it. There's no question I got the last atta—
Great Red Devourer: "QeeaaaaaaaaaoooooOOOOAAAAAAAAAA!!!"
Sunraku: "Gweh."
I didn't finish it? No. It's already dead. Then this is its final struggle—a death spasm in the instant before death, its last dying scream.
Where did a dying body even find that much strength? Pouring everything it has into its hind legs alone, the Great Red Devourer rises up... and then topples forward. In other words, directly on top of me.
Sunraku: "Well, at this poi—ngwoh!?"
I-I twisted my ankle!? A maximum-effort screwup on this board!? Damn you, randomness by the name of fate... Ah, yep, I'm dead, waaa?
At that moment, a single hyun! cuts through the air.
Deep Throater: "I-I can't believe I'm being made to clean up after someone screwing around..."
An arrow drives into the red orb, already split by a fatal crack. After one instant of silence, it erupts in an explosion every bit the equal of "Scarred's" napalm breath, completely obliterating the Great Red Devourer's red orb as the monster collapses under the physics engine.
Great Red Devourer: "Q... Qoooo..."
That was the final cry of the Great Red Devourer... the raid monster.
As though nailed in place in space itself, the Great Red Devourer's body suddenly stops. The red matter forming its body begins crumbling from the edges, breaking apart as though turning to powder.
On a whim, I catch some in my palm. Its true form is... a locust. But even that crumbles into dark-red powder in my hand, then disappears into the wind.
The crimson frenzy of blood has been felled here. And yet the bloodline continues unbroken...
Monster Assault (Raid)... Clear!
Subjugation Target: Great Red Devourer
Raid Battle has ended.
Participants: 3/45
Next Raid: Will be unlocked as the World Quest progresses.
Supposedly, in the Bible or something, the devastation caused by a locust plague was compared to the fangs of a lion. In this game, they were the fangs of a dragon... Anyway, since this thing is a raid monster, surely that doesn't mean we'll never be able to fight it again.
Now then, what kind of monster will this thing come back as next time? Honestly, it was such a pain in the ass that next time I'm perfectly happy just hearing about it secondhand.
Sunraku: "Hey, hero. If you took the last attack, you can handle the victory cry too."
Tottori: "M-me!? Uh, um... Victory is ours!!"
Sunraku: "What is this, a sim game?"
My muttered comment vanishes into the cheering. It's not worth going out of my way to say it again, so I don't. Just like Emul, who's whooping it up on top of my head, I join in with the elves' celebration.
...And if things had ended there, it would have been your run-of-the-mill happy ending. But, dear elves, haven't you forgotten something important?
If you haven't noticed, I'll point it out for you. "Scarred" has curled up into a ball and is trembling...
Actually, uh... it kind of looks like it's about to use all that power it's been storing up for some kind of rank-up or something...
Crack.
Sunraku: "Ah."
Tottori: "Huh?"
Emul: "Waa!?"
I-it molted!?
Huh? Scarred's condition is...?