Well, at least there’s no way this is ending in four chapters. (An extremely calm judgment.)

Chapter 469: Dragons, O Dragons! Part Forty-Six

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Araba: "Friend, you look awful... Are you all right?"

Sunraku: "Yeah, I’m fiiine, I’m fine... ugh."

Araba: "You don’t even have enough energy left to fake being fine... So, which way?"

Sunraku: "That waaay."

With Araba, who I happened to run into, lending me a shoulder, I push on toward a certain spot. Looks like the Pescorians joined the final-battle phase too, though they were mostly helping from the rear. Araba himself was apparently fighting right on the front line, though.

Ah, crap. I feel about as dead as I did after pulling two all-nighters in a row while grinding. Takeda Ingen gave me a pretty serious lecture that time. Feels nostalgic now... But the RNG was bad, so what was I supposed to do? Though Takeda Ingen’s solution was pretty suspicious too: "Then just shut it off once and switch RNG tables!"

Araba: "...I’m sure you’re about to do something completely ridiculous, but... what exactly are you planning?"

Sunraku: "Hmm... Just calling something over."

Araba: "???"

Was it around here? Oh yeah, I hear it. I hear it.

Araba: "What even is that, anyway? A weapon?"

Sunraku: "—A whistle, I guess."

◇

The time limit is getting close. After Siegwurm loudly announced that he was going to blow himself up, almost every player is now trying to attack him.

But no matter how much he is slashed, stabbed, burned, or pierced, Siegwurm does not fall. Even though he wants to be defeated, he stands there proudly as if daring everyone to try it. The sphere of light he has poured everything into keeps swelling larger, and now shines as brightly as the sun.

Akitsu Akane: "—His reverse scale."

Noirlind: "His reverse scale?"

Akitsu Akane: "When I got this scar on my face... my attack happened to hit Siegwurm-san’s reverse scale by pure chance... and Siegwurm-san himself told me what it does."

He had said that his reverse scale was a key point in the flow of his magic. Piercing it would not kill him, but it would temporarily stop the flow of magic through his entire body.

Noirlind: "I see... But what are you going to do? Can you get through all of that and reach him? You, specifically."

Akitsu Akane: "Well... um... with enough guts...?"

Noirlind: "Even if you could do it someday, if you cannot do it now, then no amount of struggling will make it possible. Give up on that one."

Akitsu Akane: "But..."

He was right. Even so, Akitsu Akane was the kind of person who simply could not—did not want to—give up. Noirlind stared at her as she looked down... and then made a suggestion.

Noirlind: "Now that I’m like this, couldn’t you use that thing of yours?"

Akitsu Akane: "Huh?"

Noirlind: "That thing. The one you were complaining about because you could not figure out the conditions for using it."

Akitsu Akane: "How to use it... Ah! That thing!"

Like Dragon Breath, which was becoming one of Akitsu Akane’s signature moves, it was another spell given the title of "Secret Technique" within the Blade-Hiding Art.

When Akitsu Akane unlocked her level cap, a new Secret Technique had appeared in an item she possessed as a ninja called Secret Teachings: Tiger Scroll.

It was the ultimate transformation technique: becoming one in body and mind with a nonhuman being whose heart had come into sync with the user’s.

Akitsu Akane: "But that one was... Wait. Huh? I can use it!? Why!!?"

Simply becoming friends with a monster was not enough.

It required a hidden parameter called Wildness, which showed how much influence the user had over that monster.

That was exactly why this "trump card" could only be unlocked through actual battle.

Akitsu Akane: "Um... Are you sure I can do it?"

Noirlind: "The longer you stand there worrying, the closer his self-destruction gets."

Akitsu Akane: "Oh! Right... Then I’m doing it!!"

Blade-Hiding Art techniques did not use chants. Touch the target—Noirlind—form a simple hand sign with only the index and middle fingers raised, then shout. That was all it took to activate the technique.

Akitsu Akane: "Blade-Hiding Art... Secret Technique!!"

Chance or fate? At that exact moment, a laser fires from the sphere of light Siegwurm created and heads straight toward Akitsu Akane and Noirlind. The players who had been making way for the strange pair rushing through the battlefield dodge so they will not get caught in the blast, and then see Akitsu Akane and Noirlind standing there without trying to escape...

Akitsu Akane: "Super Transformation!!!"

An explosion.

???: "A direct hit...!?"

???: "No, I think it barely missed to the side."

???: "Wouldn’t they be dead either way...?"

???: "No, wait!"

Dust swirls around them. No—that is not it. It grows stronger until it can only be called a tornado. Things that look like black flower petals mix into it... and then the whole thing bursts open from the inside.

Akitsu Akane: "..."

Standing there was what had once been a girl.

Her skin was not just pale blue. It was blue. Scales covered her arms, legs, and chest like armor. The fact that only parts of her chest, stomach, and thighs were left uncovered made it hard not to feel that somebody’s questionable tastes were involved, but normal humans did not grow scales in the first place.

More importantly, she now had a pitch-black tail, wings... and even horns, giving off an unmistakably nonhuman presence.

Akitsu Akane: "..."

When her eyes slowly opened, they looked as though the colors of the whites and irises had been reversed. When she opened her mouth, every tooth seemed to have become a fang, and a forked tongue could be seen inside.

So, basically...

Akitsu Akane: "...Oh. I can’t fly like this!"

A being that still had a female, human shape but could only be called a "dragon-human" stood there with the player name Akitsu Akane above her head.

Akitsu Akane: "Umm... Oh, I still have a window... Hmm. Maybe I should just learn by moving around!!"

Akitsu Akane spent a little while pointing into empty space and operating something, but apparently decided that learning through actual practice would be faster.

BAM!

She kicked off the ground, beat her wings, and launched herself forward at incredible speed in a leap that was practically flight.

???: "...What the hell was that?"

???: "Transformation magic? No, fusion magic?"

◇◇

Her body felt light. Akitsu Akane had better-than-average leg strength even in real life, but running with jumps so huge they were practically flight let her feel a kind of wind that even a long jump could not compare to.

Akitsu Akane: "S-Sorry! Coming through!!"

???: "W-What the hell!?"

???: "Oh? Black where the whites of her eyes should be, blue skin... a demon-type dragon girl."

???: "How the hell did you see that much detail...?"

???: "Come on, she’s not even that fast compared to Tias-tan."

???: ".........Ugh!? You’re one of those Dress-Up Squad guys!"

???: "Wahaha! Leave your heads and your lives behind!!"

Akitsu Akane lands in an open spot among the noisy crowd and immediately jumps again, closing the distance to Siegwurm in one burst.

Akitsu Akane: "Whoa, I can jump in midair too!"

No answer comes back. Akitsu Akane feels just a little lonely about that...

Noirlind: "—I’m here."

Akitsu Akane: "My mouth moved on its own!?"

To anyone watching, Akitsu Akane’s expression suddenly turns a little cocky, almost as if her whole personality has changed, and her mouth starts forming words on its own.

They are unmistakably Noirlind’s words...

Noirlind: "It seems you have control. I could finally speak only when you relaxed your guard."

Akitsu Akane: "Um, could we talk without actually speaking? My throat is the only one getting tired."

Noirlind: "(Like hell we can!!)"

They could.

Akitsu Akane had just learned that when Super Transformation was used with a monster capable of speech, the two could talk to each other mentally if they tried.

Akitsu Akane: "We can!"

Noirlind: "(Grrr... Never mind that! We need to pierce his reverse scale at once! This form surely cannot last forever!)"

That was true. Super Transformation had a time limit based on the strength of the monster fused with the user. But...

Akitsu Akane: "But this says we can fight for about ten minutes."

Noirlind: "(...Ten. Is that long?)"

Akitsu Akane: "Um, pretty long."

The reason was Noirlind’s current form.

Shadowless Emotion: Remote Emote normally confused enemies by creating several clones and having the core move from one to another. Because of how it worked, the exposed core had to function inside a body made from only the bare minimum number of cells.

In other words, it had the usual weakness of this kind of "moving main body."

Noirlind still kept his rank as a raid monster, but his actual stats in this form were low. That strange mismatch was what made a full ten minutes of combat possible even after merging with Noirlind the Black Dragon.

Akitsu Akane: "We should be close enough for Siegwurm-san to hear us soon. Is there anything you want to say? Want to take over?"

Noirlind: "(Hmm... Yes...)"

Arthur Pencilgon: "Wait, is that Akitsu Akane-chan? What’s with that!? A transformation? Big sis never heard about th—"

Noirlind: "...Hah? What do you want?"

Arthur Pencilgon: "Eep."

Arthur Pencilgon was, in fact, pretty seriously scared.

A junior who shines a light on very specific tastes. (Now a little darker.)

The hidden parameter "Wildness" is separate from affection. A relationship like Sunraku and Scarlet Scar is roughly what it looks like when Wildness has gotten high.

The basic idea is closer to Ninjitsu Art of Super-Transformation than Super Polymerization.