I’ll say it outright: brace yourselves for around fifty of these.
(Dead-eyed.)
Are you prepared? I am.
Chapter 424: Dragons, O Dragons! Part One
At the end of October, on a Sunday with autumn well underway and the first signs of winter beginning to show, the first wave arrived like a surging tide.
[Unique Scenario EX “Come, Heroes - My Destiny Spans the Ages” has entered the Decisive Battle Phase.]
[Clear Condition 1: Defeat the Unique Monster “Siegwurm the Sky Ruler.”]
[Clear Condition 2: Defeat Deuredhowl the Red Dragon, Blockentreed the Green Dragon, Bryleinyego the White Dragon, Noirlind the Black Dragon, and Eldranza the Blue Dragon.]
A window suddenly appeared before every player who had reached the New Land.
Before anyone could dismiss it, it closed automatically.
And as though that were the signal, they appeared.
Chit-chit-chit-chit-chit...!!
???: "W-what is that!?"
???: "Ants? No, they’re white, so termites?"
???: "No, that’s wrong... They’re dragons! Tiny dragons, and there are so many of them...!?"
Masses of young dragons rushed the frontline base, their six legs and disproportionately swollen heads and abdomens making them look exactly like ants.
Their disturbing cries overlapped.
The white tidal wave looked grotesquely out of place amid the green of nature, and it showed no sign of stopping.
Though caught off guard by the sudden attack, the players readied their weapons and began fighting back.
Then—
???: "I see... This truly is a fine place. It is a little too open for my taste... but yes. It is perfect for us to make our home."
A strange voice echoed through the area.
It was low, yet high.
The words were carried on a beastlike growl, but their tone was feminine.
The owner of the voice calmly evaluated the frontline base—and then revealed itself.
Bryleinyego: "Yes. All that remains is to crush the maggots infesting it... Fufufufu. Go, my beloved children. Trample everything underfoot, maggot nests and all!!"
Calling it a dragon felt almost incorrect.
If it was the mother of those antlike young dragons, then the resemblance made sense.
But its form was grotesque: a massive abdomen, even more swollen than those of its offspring, with the upper body of a dragon fused unnaturally to it.
Rather than a conventional dragon’s body, it looked closer to a centaur—something halfway between a human and a horse.
Most eye-catching of all was its abdomen.
Several strange onion-shaped growths protruded from the back of the body supported by more than a dozen legs.
From those growths, young dragons crawled out endlessly, covered in slime, and joined the white tide.
???: "Bryleinyego the White Dragon...!"
The name muttered by someone was correct.
The pure-white swarm-dragon roared as it produced enormous numbers of child clones in an instant.
It was as though this were the opening salvo of a dragon calamity war.
???: "Leave the main body for later! Crush the young dragons first!!"
That order may not have been aimed at anyone in particular.
But several players heard the sense in it, and that impulse spread through the crowd.
Not everyone moved in perfect unity, but most players began thinning out the young dragons.
???: "I’m taking the first strike!!"
Naturally, some players rushed Bryleinyego itself, determined to become the hero of the moment.
But one of the young dragons crawled from the white dragon’s back, leapt, and intercepted the attack.
The next instant, countless young dragons swarmed over the player until the figure disappeared.
???: "Hiiih! Is this a splatter movie!?"
???: "I’m firing a wide-area attack!"
No one knew which clan they belonged to, but a group that apparently included many magic users unleashed spells all at once.
Having apparently decided that a little friendly fire was unavoidable, they launched attacks across a wide area.
Several players and many young dragons were sent flying.
???: "Good! Individually, they aren’t that strong! We can wear them down!!"
???: "That is not good! You shot the tanks from behind! Are you insane!?"
Ignoring common sense produced predictable problems.
Players who had nearly been caught in the blast—or had been caught in it—raised angry voices at the attackers.
The battlefield was beginning to turn into a chaotic mess.
Then a clear voice rang through it.
Psyger-100: "This is not an order! But if you are willing to follow my instructions, listen!!"
The source of that voice was a woman carrying a golden sword and accompanied by five floating blades.
Psyger-100—the woman known as the Master of the Sword—raised her voice again.
Psyger-100: "First, thin out the young dragons! In the worst case, if the research vessel or major facilities are destroyed, the EX Scenario itself may fail! Magic users, stop attacking for the moment! Gather around Black Blade and Knights Tempura, then coordinate your timing!!"
The players were nothing more than a disorderly mob.
Some hated being ordered around.
Others wanted someone to give them directions.
There had probably been some discussion before this moment.
A flag bearing a sword design on a black field and another bearing a shrimp-tempura design on a white field were raised high.
Psyger-100: "Clan leaders, come too if possible! This is an all-out battle! We need to get coordinated before the other colored dragons arrive!!"
Most players changed how they moved.
Tanks and physical combat classes pushed forward, while magic users and others capable of wide-area attacks moved toward the rear.
A considerable number still acted independently, but a faint sense of coordination had begun to appear in the battlefield’s chaos.
Then it happened.
A tree large enough to use as a battering ram was blown away.
A great mass of “green,” far larger than Bryleinyego or the white young dragons, appeared with a roar.
???: "Where is the insect called Tottori!?!!"
Tottori: "Huh? Me!? And Blockentreed!?"
The shouted personal call left Tottori momentarily stunned.
The enormous figure emerged while shattering trees, its immense body illuminated by the midday sun.
It looked like a turtle.
No—it looked like a mountain itself had begun moving.
Even compared with Bryleinyego, it was nearly twice as large.
Most striking of all, despite its lumbering appearance, were the dozens—no, perhaps hundreds—of thornlike tentacles writhing like the limbs of an octopus or squid.
They grew from its abdomen and legs.
When they stabbed into the earth at the giant creature’s command, effects appeared that made it obvious they were drawing something upward.
Then—
Blockentreed: "Hmph!!"
The effect gathered by the thornlike tentacles converged into its right foreleg.
Cracklike patterns glowed greenish white, as though that foreleg had burst from within.
Then the raised limb smashed into the ground.
???: "W-wait—"
???: "Hold on—"
???: "What the hell!?"
???: "What did you do, Tottori!?"
Tottori: "I don’t knooow!!"
An explosive quake.
There was no better description for the tremendous shaking that spread outward from the impact point.
Because the attack had come immediately after Blockentreed emerged from the forest, there had fortunately—or perhaps unfortunately—been no players directly beside it.
Green effects raced across the ground.
Every player and every young dragon inside the affected area was literally blown away.
The players watched everything within an estimated fifty-meter radius fly through the air, damage increasing the closer one was to the center.
For the first time, they understood what it meant for every colored dragon to gather in one place.
???: "No way... This is impossible..."
The system of Shangri-La Frontier seemed to laugh at the words that had likely appeared in the minds of the overwhelming majority.
As though saying:
You call this level of chaos? How laughable.
Blockentreed: "I smell it. I smell it... The stink of that child-crazed white bastard...!!"
Bryleinyego: "...You senile old relic. Are you trying to disturb our peace...? My children, kill that thing!!"
Who ever said that enemies had to be allies with one another?
The swarm of young dragons shifted its target to Blockentreed the Green Dragon.
The green dragon likewise bared its hostility toward the other dragon and took one heavy step forward.
???: "This is too chaotic... But it is our chance! We are establishing a battle line! Clan leaders, gather here!!"
Unique Scenario EX “Come, Heroes - My Destiny Spans the Ages” had begun its decisive battle in a distorted form.
As the first arrivals—white and green—clashed, the pioneers began to move.
All of them held the same certainty:
The still-unseen red, black... and gold would bring even greater chaos.