Butterfly (4)

Bone Dragon.

Similar to the Draizen of the Dreaming Waterfalls, this special boss monster can be found in the Dragonbone Mountains.

Honestly, I can’t quite believe it.

Not only did I face Draizen just a short while ago, but now I’m actually seeing this guy with my own eyes!

‘My luck is really in the gutter’

A sigh escaped me, but what can I do?

The situation is already upon us, so we just have to deal with it somehow.

Fwoooooooooosh—

The scorching breath that had been hitting my shield finally died down.

“Bro, you okay?”

Baek-ho grabbed the back of my neck, pulled me back, and whispered in a low voice only I could hear.

“Yeah, I’m fine.”

Fortunately, the Bone Dragon’s breath is a narrow, straight beam like a laser.

If its breath attack had spread out in a wide cone like a normal dragon’s, the damage would have been beyond what my shield could block.

[Rooooooooooooooar!!]

Looking at it, I asked Baek-ho one question.

“Did you calculate it?”

“Calculate what?”

“The petrification time. Did you calculate it and come to rescue me at exactly the right time?”

“No? I came with a pure heart. Even if I couldn’t save you, I came just to be with you.”

So he did calculate it.

Well, what explorer would charge into the center of a breath attack when there’s no visible way to survive?

“It’s fine” I said, managing a smile as I pulled Baek-ho’s hand away from my neck.

Whether he calculated the timing or not doesn’t change anything now.

“Thanks. For coming to save me.”

“……”

Seriously? I give him a rare word of thanks, and he can’t even reply?

Is he… embarrassed?

“…Why were you so slow in the first place? If everyone just ran when they were supposed to, none of this would’ve happened, right?”

…Yeah no, he’s embarrassed.

Feeling awkward myself, I pushed myself up from where I’d been half-crouched.

“Do you have a plan for what to do next?”I asked Baek-ho

“No. I just charged in with the thought of saving you first.”

Hmm, is that so.

“Still, would running really work? Everyone was hit by Dragon Fear.”

Why does it feel like he’s trying to make this my fault?

I don’t know. But I immediately started defending myself.

“Even if we hadn’t been hit, we wouldn’t have been able to run anyway. It appeared from the sky. We already had aggro the moment it appeared.”

“But if we maintained distance and pulled ba—”

Whoa! Look at him talking back!

“I’m telling you, it wouldn’t have worked.”

“…….”

“Still, I took its first hit and even forced out its breath attack. So I’d say I saved two people.”

Thinking about it, maybe I should be the one receiving thanks.

“Ahh! That’s enough, just look ahead!”

At Baek-ho’s shout I looked forward and saw black spheres forming in the air around the Bone Dragon’s sixty-foot body.

[The Bone Dragon has cast[Blessing of Dark Magic]」

It was an active skill shared by all dragons.

The others just had Blessing of Magic rather than Black Magic, but it had the same function: a top-tier defensive buff.

As the saying goes, the best defense is a good offense.

Like now.

Whooom—!

The black orbs orbiting its body flashed, then fired beams of mana toward us.

「Defense successful.」

I blocked one coming from the front.

Baek-ho shattered one flying in diagonally with a straight punch.

Kwaaang-!

‘So how do we get out of this…’

The goal is simple.

A Dragon Raid?

The rewards are huge.

Though since this isn’t a labyrinth, we can’t expect an Essence drop—but dragon byproducts are worth far more anyway.

Dragon Bone. Dragon Heart.

It didn’t have dragon hide, of course. Its body was nothing but bone.

If we succeed, we get raid achievements, and I can also gain one stack of the Blessing of the Earth Dragon thanks to the secrets I learned from the Dragon tribe.

But—

‘A raid is something you do when you’re actually prepared.’

Right now, we cannot kill it.

So there is only one thing to do:

“Have you thought about it? How are we going to get out of here?”

How to safely escape from the Bone Dragon that already has max aggro on us?

As I thought about this, I took command of the battle.

“We will help too!”

“One by one! Don’t all come close at once, enter one by one!”

First, I had the members who weren’t affected by Dragon Fear enter one at a time to minimize the risk. If multiple people were hit by the debuff at once, it would be much harder to protect them, and…

[A difference in level has been detected. Rek Aures is Petrified for 10 seconds.]

Entering sequentially like this will reduce our disadvantage when the passive triggers a second time. After all, Dragon Fear is a passive that reactivates after a certain amount of time has passed.

From the start of the battle, we need to ensure that people are disabled one by one in rotation.

“I should be fine.”

The surprising one here was Ruin Gramps.

‘So he is Level 10 too…?’

Mages and Priests can’t consume Essences, so their level doesn’t usually matter.

However, they still gain EXP.

And—

‘Only the warriors are getting petrified…’

The rest?

The surprising part was that, except for me and Rex Aures, everyone else ended up with the Level 9 debuff ‘Paralysis’.

「A slight gap in skill exists.」

「Layton Bright falls into a ‘Paralysis’ state for 10 seconds.」

Archer, level 9.

「A slight gap in skill exists.」

「Jayna Flyer falls into a ‘Paralysis’ state for 10 seconds.」

Karui’s Priest, level 9.

「There is a slight gap in skill」

「Yurven Havelion falls into a ‘Paralysis’ state for 10 seconds.」

Even the GM, who hadn’t entered the labyrinth in years, was level 9.

…Guess they really are the veteran party.

The thought that I needed to work harder in the future coexisted with the realization that, to do that, I first had to survive this moment.

The desire to work harder in the future and the desire to survive this moment existed together in my mind.

In that sense,

“Havelion, Ruinzenes. I have a question for you two.”

To carry out the plan I’d just thought of, I asked the two mages one question, and they both agreed.

“…It’s possible, I suppose, but…”

“Don’t tell me you’re planning to escape using that spell?”

Ah, of course, the answers were positive, but that doesn’t mean their reactions were. Not just the mages. Everyone looked uneasy.

“Um… but will that really work…?”

“Do you have any other method?”

“…….”

Don’t complain if you don’t have a better idea.

“What’s with you all? I don’t think it’s a bad idea. Do not misunderstand. We are not in a position to be picky.”

Thankfully, Baek-ho agreed with me, so the planning stage was complete.

Now it was time to act.

“Bethel, RAAAAAAA!!”

As soon as the mages started drawing magic circles, I let out a battle cry and charged forward with Baek-ho right behind me.

From now on, we have a single goal.

“Baron, you know, right? To do this, we have to reduce that bastard’s HP by at least 10 percent on our own.”

“I know.”

We must push the Bone Dragon through Phase One. And we must do it with only five people, excluding the two mages.

“And you know that if your plan fails, we’ll have to move to Plan B, right?” When I didn’t respond, Baekho added, “It’s fine. I’ve got Plan B ready.”

“…….”

I wondered what Baek-ho’s Plan B was. I’m… kind of curious, actually—

“In the worst-case scenario, someone needs to survive.”

…Suddenly, I don’t want to know anymore.

Well, if Plan A works, I won’t need to anyway.

“Lend me your shoulder!”

As we closed in on the Bone Dragon, Baek-ho stepped onto my shoulder and launched himself upward.

Fwoooosh—!

The black orbs floating around the dragon fired a flurry of beams at him in mid-air, but he kicked off like an acrobat and dodged the attacks.

Then…

Boom-!

He boldly landed an uppercut on the Bone Dragon’s jaw.

[Grooooooo-!!]

Unfortunately, the damage didn’t seem very significant.

FWOOO—!

The arrows shot from behind also didn’t deal much damage, and Jayna, our priest, was focused more on support than damage dealing.

‘Rek Aures is basically a pure tank to begin with…’

His damage output was so low we kept him in the back. His role in this raid was to block the long-range attacks aimed at the mages, archers, and priest with his body…

Baek-ho had his skill sealed off, too.

As the fight went on, the pitiful damage became more depressing.

Baek-ho had lost his skill, Star’s Annihilation. Realistically, our main damage dealers were supposed to be the mages, but they were busy drawing magic circles and couldn’t participate in combat at all.

Not that it would have mattered anyway.

Mages can’t deal damage before Phase 3.

The Bone Dragon was still a dragon, and all Dragons have that broken trait that made them completely immune to magic damage until phase three.

「Layton Bright has cast [Energy Convergence].」

「Layton Bright has cast [Tension Reinforcement].」

「Layton Bright has cast [Tension Reinforcement] again—」

So in reality, the only damage dealers were Baek-ho and Layton Bright.

‘Well, if you include me, that makes three.’

I then put my empty hand into the subspace.

And…

「The character has equipped No.687 Siege Slaughterer.」

「Total Item Level has increased by +2,800.」

I used the three-second subspace delay to equip the new weapon I had acquired recently.

「Strength +40%」

「Agility -80%」

I forced my sluggish body to swing the iron mace with all my strength.
.
At least for today—

「The character has cast: [Swing].」

「Strength stat exceeds 1,200.」

‘Enemies with more than 90% HP take double damage.」

I am the main damage dealer.
***

1 minute, 2 minutes, 3 minutes…

So far, it wasn’t that bad.

It just felt like exhausting, repetitive labour. It was like lifting a pickaxe and bringing it down on an unbreakable piece of ore.

But…….

As time passed, Dragon Fear activated again and Petrified me. I nearly died after taking several direct hits, and only survived thanks to the priest’s heals.

The hind leg of the Bone Dragon that I’d been targeting still looked fine.

10 minutes.

The archer, Layton Bright, who had been using skills non-stop, ran out of MP.

Fortunately, the mages had finished casting their magic circles and were now providing support magic, so Layton’s absence wasn’t too noticeable.

The Bone Dragon’s hind leg became slightly more tattered.

12 minutes.

Jayna’s resources were depleted, cutting off the healing coming to me and Rek Aures.

The good news? I was getting faster at swapping the mace in and out of subspace.

Now it only takes about 2 seconds.

Also, its hind leg was noticeably cracking.

17 minutes.

Rek Aures, who had been absorbing all the projectile shots with his body, finally collapsed.

The Bone Dragon realised that we were targeting its hind leg.

21 minutes.

I got petrified and Baek-ho got seriously injured trying to save me.

With the one splitting the dragon’s aggro now down, landing hits with my iron mace became several times harder.

But we were close. Really close.

22 minutes.

I failed to guard and took a huge hit. I thought I’d gotten used to its attack pattern, but the moment I let my guard down, it switched things up and caught me offguard.

23 minutes.

With Rek gone, the backline was unprotected and someone got hit—

Jayna, the priest.

A beam went straight through her abdomen. I don’t know if she’s alive.

24 minutes.

Baek-ho returned to the field after chugging potions.

The number of successful mace swings per minute increased.

From here on, I decided to focus on just one thing.

Swing the mace, put it in subspace.

And roll sideways with my lightened body to avoid the front leg.

Repeat this process, over and over.

25 minutes.

Lee Baek-ho mentioned his Plan B.

It was useless as hell.

He said that we had done enough and suggested the three of us escape with the Ruin Scholar. I kindly replied that this is exactly why you have no friends.

26 minutes.

Swing the mace.

It’s hard.

27 minutes.

Swing the mace.

I feel like I’m going to die.

28 minutes.

Swing the mace.

I think my MP is almost gone too.

Do we really have to use Plan B?

‘…What nonsense.’

Enough, just swing the mac—

‘Huh?’

For a moment, the impact in my hands felt different, and I watched the dragon’s back leg, already covered in cracks, finally shatter as it collapsed to the ground.

29 minutes.

At last, one of the Bone Dragon’s legs had been completely destroyed.

Our objective was achieved.

Four legs, horns, and wings.

In the game, breaking even one of these parts was treated as dealing 10% of its maximum HP.

So that means…

「The Bone Dragon has cast [Sovereign of Magic].」

Phase 1 is over.

「All magic cast within this area is amplified tenfold.」

I didn’t even need to give a signal.

The two mages, who must have been waiting for this very moment, activated the magic circle.

「Belbev Ruinzenes has cast Level 4 spatial magic [Mass Teleport].」

We have used this magic several times already, but there’s a reason why some things are used frequently.

Swaaaaaaaaaa-!

With [Sovereign of Magic] active, this magic circle lets us travel ten times farther than normal.

Simply put, it meant we could move all the way to the Primordial Land in one go.

At that distance, even this guy wouldn’t be able to follow—.

[Where do you think you are going?]

“…Huh?”

Did I mishear just n—

「The Bone Dragon has cast’Dispel’.」

No, wait a minute.

‘The Bone Dragon… is using Dispel…?’

This is different from the game…?

Thump-!

My mind went blank

[Belbev Ruinzenes’s Mana stat exceeds 1,000. The effect is weakened. Belbev Ruinzenes has resisted the Bone Dragon’s Dispel.]

Flash.

Somehow, the teleportation effect activated anyway, and a blinding light swallowed my vision.

「Incomplete Spell.」

「Your character will be teleported to a random location.」

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