Chapter 445: Dragons, O Dragons! Part Twenty-Two
???: “Sorry. Your cheek looked easy to punch.”
Deuredhowl: “Ghh... Nghuaa...?!”
In the end, the flames of fury and resentment unleashed across the burning night sky did not consume Skull Azuchi.
Just before Deuredhowl fired its breath, someone had landed a clean punch directly against its cheek, knocking its aim slightly to the left.
As a result, the hateful flames narrowly missed Skull Azuchi and burned through nothing but empty space.
???: “Deuredhowl... You’ve caused my brethren quite a lot of trouble. I’ve come to repay you for that.”
He held no weapon.
His “wing” was clenched tightly, and that fist was what had struck Deuredhowl across the cheek.
Trembling with rage at having its ultimate attack thrown off course, and with humiliation at being slapped by a mere insect, Deuredhowl roared through a breath mixed with flame.
Deuredhowl: “You bastard... That form... You damn winged insect!!”
???: “I’m a Birdian. I’ll beat that fact into your boiled, empty head so even you can remember it.”
Deuredhowl: “Groaaaaah!!”
Deuredhowl’s trump card, Great Eruption of Wrath: Volkeville, was not merely an extremely long-range attack. It also significantly strengthened Deuredhowl itself.
Its whole body was covered in cracks, and it rampaged while spewing flames and smoke from them.
Some distance away, that appearance was currently being used as material to tease a certain player, but this Birdian had no way of knowing that.
Birdian: “Hey, comb-head! Looks like our friend there is seriously pissed off!”
Birdian: “Perfect! Hakuji-kun, let’s hit him with something flashy!!”
Hakuji: “Good grief... You lot were intimidated until a moment ago, and now listen to you.”
Using maple-leaf-like hands far harder than a human’s, Hakuji straightened the comb that had become slightly rumpled during the fierce fighting.
Hakuji: “Listen up, you bastards! That old elder sent us here, so don’t show him any pathetic faces! We’re charging in!!”
White feathers and a red comb.
The man was unmistakably a chicken Birdian.
Voices rang out in response to the proud cry of Hakuji, the Fistfighting Rooster Desperado.
They possessed wings yet could not fly. Instead, they clenched those wings into fists.
One of the players watching the Birdians quietly muttered:
Player: “They sound like characters from a delinquent manga...”
The players were inspired by the sight of the mysterious red monster-player severing one of Deuredhowl’s arms and the chicken Birdian confronting it head-on. Their defense transformed into an all-out offensive.
The fact that Deuredhowl had a personality that grated on the players’ nerves certainly contributed, but an even greater factor was that it had been the first of the Color Dragons present to reveal its trump card.
With such a spectacular announcement, the players could tell that this was not merely a vicious final form.
The battle had entered its closing stage.
This was SLF, where poking into the smallest detail could cause some Unique element or hidden feature to emerge. It would not have been strange for there to be some special reward attached to the honor of landing the Last Attack on a Color Dragon powerful enough to qualify as a raid monster.
Furthermore, perhaps in retaliation for being targeted, Skull Azuchi granted a “Damage Up” buff against Deuredhowl.
Even with its stats strengthened by its final form, the red dragon was about to be struck by an overwhelming violence of sheer numbers that it could no longer withstand.
Psyger-100: “Forward! Forward! Keep moving! It has played every card in its hand! As long as our base remains intact, we can recover from anything! Use everything we have too!!”
Psyger-100’s shout spread across the battlefield.
The voice of a leader from one of the major top clans was answered by the medium-sized clans, then by the smaller clans. For that instant, the intentions of the players became unified.
Organized volleys of magic struck Deuredhowl, mixed here and there with spells cast independently by individual players.
When the dragon’s massive body sent players flying, healers indiscriminately restored them, whether they were party members or complete strangers—like wandering cutthroats who healed instead of slashed.
Deuredhowl: “Ghuaaaaa! Damn it! Damn it!!”
No matter how misshapen it was, Deuredhowl’s basic skeletal structure was ultimately close to that of a four-legged beast.
It could not cover all 360 degrees at once.
Its remaining HP steadily dwindled toward zero.
Deuredhowl: “N-no! I can’t... In a place like this... Someone like me... I...!!”
Kusamochi: “From what I’ve heard, you’ve earned quite a lot of resentment from the NPCs, Deuredhowl... In that case, allow me to offer you these words.”
Under the direction of the Master of the Sword, the performance of the blades began.
One leading blade.
Six supporting blades.
Seven Sworvants in total tore through the air and descended upon Deuredhowl.
Kusamochi: “You reap what you sow!!”
An attack filled with the mingled light of Skills and buffs struck Deuredhowl directly between the eyes.
And then—
Deuredhowl: “Agh... Gggh... Gboah...”
The flames pouring from Deuredhowl’s body vanished.
Its enormous body convulsed once—
And collapsed.
[As of this moment, the defeat of Deuredhowl the Red Dragon has been confirmed. The Last Attacker is Kusamochi.]
A roar of celebration rose from the battlefield.
With the first Color Dragon finally slain, not only the players but the NPCs as well gained a sudden surge of momentum.
Perhaps because they had let their guards down, several players were attacked by lesser dragons. Even so, with one of the battlefield’s bosses defeated, the previously divided forces began to gather together, if only slightly.
Black Blade Member: “Man, that took forever! What do we do next, Leader...? Leader?”
Psyger-100: “The Last Attack was stolen from us... Damn you, Kusamochi.”
Black Blade Members: “Damn you, Kusamochi...”
Kusamochi: “W-wait, hold on! In a chaotic battle like this, the Last Attack is basically a lottery! There’s no way I could deliberately steal it!!”
Psyger-100: “It was a joke. But one of the Color Dragons has fallen. If that prediction was correct...”
Psyger-100 looked up.
Black, gold, and a small streak of red danced through the sky.
With Deuredhowl’s death, the real main event of the Decisive Battle Phase was finally about to begin.
◇
Rust: “...Akitsu Akane!”
Akitsu Akane: “Leave it to meee!!”
Glosswing Suzaku avoided a breath resembling a cannon shell rather than a beam of light. Rust immediately kicked aside the golden hand reaching toward her and forcefully hurled the fox-masked ninja.
Akitsu Akane: “Let me borrow your back again!”
Siegwurm: “Kukaka! How dutiful of you. But can you truly keep up with my movements?”
Akitsu Akane: “Whaaaa?!”
Rust: “...Tch.”
Siegwurm spread his wings wide.
That posture was the preliminary motion for a powerful flap.
Rust’s role was to hold him in place so they could slam the firepower known as Noirlind into him. She could not allow that movement to go unanswered.
Clicking her tongue despite herself, Rust addressed the mechanical bird surrounding her.
Rust: “Suzaku! We’re doing it!!”
Suzaku: “Understood. Activating Arahabataki.”
Her will and voice served as the trigger.
The mechanism that made Suzaku what it was began to operate.
Its steel wings breathed fire.
Under normal conditions, only the main boosters were supposed to function. Arahabataki, however, activated all of the hundreds of steel-feather sub-boosters that normally remained dormant.
It literally created “great wings of flame.”
Siegwurm: “Oh, this is...!!”
Rust: “...You’re staying right there!”
Arahabataki was a special mechanism that converted the propulsion powerful enough to send a human and a steel beast racing freely through the sky into an attack.
Glosswing Suzaku spread its wings like a bird of prey and charged toward Siegwurm.
Siegwurm attempted to evade, but a sniper observing him from the ground timed a shot to match his movement and struck him.
Rust: “The tip of a flame... is the hottest!!”
Siegwurm: “Gwooh!!”
The wing swung with a roaring howl like a blade.
The tip of the flaming wing swept toward Siegwurm’s neck as though trying to sever it, and even the golden dragon groaned slightly beneath its firepower.
Rust: “Not... yet!!”
Answering Rust’s reckless demand, Suzaku’s wings pointed in opposite directions and erupted with flame.
Ordinarily, it would have needed to travel a reasonable distance before turning around. Instead, the flaming wings forcibly spun in place and struck Siegwurm repeatedly.
Akitsu Akane: “W-wait, that’s hot!!”
Rust: “Avoid it through sheer determination.”
Akitsu Akane: “D-determination!!”
Siegwurm: “Oh, flames from a distant age! Power born from the wisdom of humanity! Excellent! Show me more of that brilliance!!”
Rust: “Kgh...!!”
Rust avoided his claws and fangs, dodged his whip-like tail, and used a flaming wing to block one of the individual breath attacks he fired in rapid succession.
Beneath the machine shell, she wore a bitter expression.
Arahabataki was undeniably powerful.
But that very power also made it far more difficult to control.
Rust: “...I see. This really could turn me into a ‘stain on the wall’...”
She wondered whether this was what the Overflow Sunraku so often complained about felt like.
Even so, Rust accepted the strain being placed upon the machine and continued striking Siegwurm.
Ultimately, damage was unnecessary.
All they needed was enough knockback to keep Siegwurm trapped in place.
Deuredhowl fell at that exact moment.
Siegwurm: “—Hm?”
Siegwurm stopped moving.
Despite his humanoid form, his neck was still appropriately long for a dragon. He turned it downward—
Noirlind: “You left yourself open!!”
Siegwurm: “Nghoh?!”
Akitsu Akane: “Wait, am I getting caught in this toooooo?!”
Rust: “Wai—oh, come on!”
Noirlind’s jaws descended in a surprise attack from above and clamped onto Siegwurm, dragging him down toward the earth.
Akitsu Akane was still clinging to Siegwurm and therefore fell with him.
Hearing her voice fade into the distance, Rust spread her wings and followed them toward the ground.
[Teasing Sunraku by comparing him to the red dragon.]
Pencilgon: “Sunraku-kun! Its body is cracking apart and it’s moving strangely. Could it possibly be a member of your family?!”
Sunraku: “Don’t casually include ‘moving strangely’ as something we have in common. I’m fairly certain I don’t have any dragons among my relatives.”
Pencilgon: “No, you never know—”
Sunraku: “Yes, we do. We’re different species.”
Pencilgon: “Maybe—just maybe—it could still be possible!”
Pencilgon: “Look closely, Sunraku-kun! Reach back into your distant memories!”
Sunraku: “...Big brother?”
Mold: “Pffbuh?!”
[In the end, Mold was struck by the conversational stray shot.]