Dungeon Clear: Boss Battle

A black-and-white dragon sat enthroned in the wide stone chamber.

The kind of composition Rokuko would love, I thought, even as I sized up the threat in front of me.

Light and Darkness. The dragon, possessing both attributes, was overflowing with magic power.

The thing that had deflected my [Elemental Burst] earlier was probably some kind of magic-power wall. The Demon Country had its share of folks with that sort of technique too.

But it wasn't impossible to get through. Hammer it enough times and the wall would give out eventually.

This was the last time I'd be using Kyou's appearance, and especially this version of it that borrowed Nerune's looks. In that case, I might as well go all-out for the final hurrah.

"Judgment Ray!! Judgment Ray!! Judgment Ray!!"

"!? Kyou-sama, isn't that way too much, all of a sudden!?"

Saintess Alka couldn't help but speak up at my [Elemental Burst] barrage.

"This is the last fight! Just hurry up and beat it, I'm not stopping!! Judgment Ray!!"

"Y-yes! Narikin-sama, let's go!"

"Mm! We can't let Kyou-dono's covering fire go to waste… no, more to the point, at this rate Kyou-dono's going to take all the glory for herself!!"

"Do your best, Narikin-sama!"

"Saintess-sama, don't lose to Kyou-sama!"

"Go for iiit, Kyou-chaaaan! Edge out the Saintess and become the First Wife!"

That ain't happening!?

So went the wild cheering on the stream. The camera, by the way, had been switched to fixed-position for now. Sticking close to Narikin in serious combat was dangerous, and first-person view made people motion-sick and was hard to watch anyway.

"Here I go, haaa!! Narikin Slash!!"

"Whoaaa! There it is! Narikin Slash!"

"That's huge damage to the neck!"

It was just a downward swing. Gakin, only a small crack in a hand-sized hard scale at the dragon's neck. Then again, landing an attack at all on a two-attribute dragon might be impressive in its own right.

…Well, it was the kind of power that could comfortably crush a Lizardman painted red.

(The name was crowdsourced through the stream.)

"Tch, dragons really are tough!!"

"Switch with me, please, haaa!"

Saintess Alka thrust her spear precisely into the crack Narikin had made. The scale split with a baki and fell away in fragments.

"—Ooooh!"

"Did we get it!?"

"No, wait! It's healing!"

A pale light enveloped the broken scale, and it grew cleanly back into place.

"So 'light attribute' isn't just for show, huh."

"! It's coming!"

A ball of darkness formed in the dragon's mouth with a koh.

"This time it's dark…!?"

From that black ball, a huge volley of small, spear-like black bullets rained down!

Basu basu basu basu, they buried themselves in the stone-paved floor. …? They just stuck there, nothing happening?

"…A bluff, perhaps?"

"It's dangerous, Alka! Kyou-dono, please sweep them away with Judgment Ray!!"

"Y-yeah! Judgment Ray!"

Just as Narikin instructed, I fired Judgment Ray, that is, [Elemental Burst], sweeping it along the floor. Narikin and Saintess Alka leapt clear — and a massive explosion erupted.

A black, ball-shaped void materialized from each of the embedded black spears.

"Whoaaaa!? Wh-what the hell was that!?"

"That's a Gravity Bomb… a Ruler-tier Dark-attribute spell! And there were that many of them!?"

Gravity Bomb. A spell that crushes its target to death under sheer gravity.

Th-this thing was unreal!?

"! Kyou-dono, aim for the mouth!"

"Ele- Judgment Ray!!"

At Narikin's words, I spotted the dragon forming another dark-colored ball in its mouth and intercepted it.

Bachin, the ball in its mouth burst, canceled out and dispersed, and the dragon pulled its head back.

"Haah… no catching our breath with this one."

"This looks like it's going to drag on. How to defeat a dragon… hmm, Alka-dono, you wouldn't happen to know anything, would you?"

"…You can drop the honorific like you did earlier, you know? Dragons have a weak point called the reverse scale. If you stab it just once… maybe?"

Reverse scale: the famous bit of dragon lore. The one weakness, the spot you couldn't touch without sending the beast into a rage.

"Argh, whatever, I'll just keep attacking! I'll jam its dark-bomb breath too, so the rest is on you two!"

"Understood. Let's go, Alka-dono!"

"…You can drop the honorific like you did earlier, you know?"

"Just hurry up and kill the damn dragon already! If you actually pull it off, I'll at least get Narikin to drop the honorific for you!"

"Oh my. You've said it now, haven't you? Hehe. Now I have something to look forward to."

Should I mix in something other than [Elemental Burst]…?

…No, if I switched off [Elemental Burst], I'd run out of MP in no time. Being able to disguise it as Judgment Ray was an important factor too.

It was faster and stronger than something like Fireball. There was no reason to use any other spell.

So I just kept pummeling away with magic.

The dragon was angling itself nicely to take the attacks, deflecting them off to the side. But by doing that, it couldn't also dodge Narikin and the others' attacks, and ended up taking those as they came.

"…So, Kyou-sama's attacks are the most effective, huh."

"In that case, shouldn't we be the ones assisting so the dragon can't dodge Kyou-dono's attacks?"

"Then I'll go left. Narikin-sama, take the right!"

"Got it!"

Narikin and the Saintess split off to flank the dragon.

The dragon was alone, and it had only one head. With me added to the mix, it couldn't deal with attacks from three directions at once and stayed locked on me, the front threat.

"Haaa!! Narikin Slash!!"

"Chains of earth, bind that one — [Rock Bind]!!"

It blocked the side attacks with its wings while still cleverly tilting its neck to deflect mine.

"Kyou-dono, get in close!"

"Tch, you're asking ridiculous things of a mage!"

I broke into a run. Even while running I kept firing [Elemental Burst], and as the distance to the dragon closed, my angle shifted from "shooting forward" to "shooting upward," until at last I caught the dragon's jaw and snapped its head up.

And then a beautiful white throat stretched out with a gwan. Inside it, hard to spot but unmistakable, sat a single scale set the wrong way.

"Narikin-sama, I'll use the Hammer Pickaxe! Finish it!"

"Right, I'll drive it in! Do it!"

The Saintess flew in from the side and slammed the pickaxe against the reverse scale at the throat with a gachin.

There wasn't much momentum behind it. A blow that didn't even crack the scale. But.

"Uooooh!! Narikin Slaaash!!!"

Narikin used her sword to forcibly drive in the flat hammer-side of the pickaxe.

Bakin, zuburi, the pickaxe sank deep into the throat.

"Goa—"

"Bonus!! Tri Judgment Ray!!"

I fired three more [Elemental Burst]s simultaneously, blowing a massive hole through the dragon's throat.

It went well past piercing; it tore the throat clean out and sent the dragon's head flying.