Chapter 34

While enduring the wind pressure, we stood in awe of the giant dragon that had landed.

A white flash burst forth.

By the time I realized it, a large hole had opened in my side.

"…Huh?"

Before I could react, following a bad feeling, I leaped to the right, and a fireball with a diameter of about two meters passed by.

"This is insane…!"

"Kyaah!"

"Rou…!"

As I took a defensive stance to absorb the shock of the small explosion upon impact, I heard Rou's scream. It seemed that an attack similar to the one I had received was also aimed at Rou. Perhaps distracted by my earlier attack, even Rou, who had much higher stats, was blown away without being able to properly dodge. Although he didn't seem to be dead, unlike me who managed to take a defensive stance, Rou, who was blown away helplessly, would likely not be able to rejoin the fight for a while.

The dragon named Apocalypse, perhaps having made the same judgment, glared at me with its golden eyes, filled with hostility. The True Dragon of Reason. I didn't understand the meaning of those words, but the pressure I felt was overwhelmingly immense. Simply put, the entity before me seemed to be a named boss monster. However, was the entity before me really that simple?

Because, the level is invisible. It's not that there is no level, but this is the first time I've heard of it being invisible. There's a possibility that the level difference is too great, or that it's an event battle. However, either way, it's a hopeless situation. The HP bar of the dragon in front of me exceeds ten.

"Less than a minute left…"

The damage from the recent attack didn't seem as severe as it looked. From the HP bar, it seems the remaining time for the "Famine Wolf" skill is over two minutes. Fortunately, I don't feel much pain, but I do feel a hollow sensation. However, due to the loss of a part of my abdomen, there is bleeding and slip damage. Since I was already worn out from the battle with Rou, and the slip damage is doubled by the "Famine Wolf" skill, the time I have left is very limited.

Alright, let's organize the situation.

There's no way to win.

The remaining time is very short.

There are no allies.

And the enemy is just that guy.

"Don't think I'll die that easily."

Aiming a golden bat at the pitch-black true dragon that was looking down at me with a testing gaze, I muttered with a sense of desperation.

☆

I understood within two seconds of the battle starting.

I, and this guy, are not compatible.

He is the worst possible opponent for me.

To put it simply.

The True Dragon of Reason, Apocalypse, is a magic-type dragon.

"This is too much of a game!"

While dodging the machine-gun-like barrage of fireballs, each about half a meter in diameter, by relying on my enhanced agility from equipment and skills, I realized that the number of fireballs was about five per second. They were fired precisely to block my path, and I had to dodge them by moving in all directions with varying speeds. Given my current HP, even a graze would be fatal. This fact heightened my concentration.

Apocalypse, despite making a grand entrance, had hardly changed its posture since landing. It no longer used the mysterious flash it had used initially, but the fireballs occasionally mixed with fireballs were extremely troublesome, as if mocking my desperate attempts to dodge.

It was clear that I was being toyed with. Although it was annoying, I had no time to complain, and all I could do was run.

"…? What… oh!?"

After dodging for about 20 seconds, the appearance of the magic circle of fireballs that Apocalypse had been maintaining changed. What emerged were spears of light. The moment I saw one of them aimed at me, I instinctively pulled back my right side.

At that moment, with a "whoosh," the spear of light passed in front of me. I see, that flash was used to launch this spear at high speed.

"This isn't the time to think about that!"

Coincidentally, there were ten spears. That was the number of spears Apocalypse aimed at me. Dodging the first one was purely by chance.

"Damn it!"

I couldn't dodge them all. I would definitely be killed. After making such a bold declaration, to lose without even putting up a fight was frustrating, and I couldn't help but shout. At that moment,

The world lost its color.

When concentration reaches its limit, time can feel stretched due to the extreme acceleration of thoughts. A sensation as if the world has slowed down, a sense of omnipotence covering the entire body. Once in this state, it's impossible to stop even if you want to.

In sports, this phenomenon might be called "the zone." Or it could be something else entirely. But that doesn't matter now. The important thing is just one thing.

"Ah…"

The nine approaching spears were clearly perceived by my consciousness.

They weren't all launched simultaneously.

They came in succession, with slight delays.

I deflected the first spear aimed directly at me with the golden bat.

The second one aimed at my neck. The third one prepared for me to crouch. The fourth one aimed to pierce through the gap.

I couldn't dodge left or right. The fifth and sixth spears blocked both sides. I could only deal with one of them.

I threw the golden bat to cancel out the fourth spear and performed a backflip to slip through the middle, letting the fifth and sixth spears pass.

I dodged the seventh spear aimed at my landing point by twisting my body with my hands on the ground, but the eighth spear, aimed to prevent any further dodging, was about to pierce me as I was momentarily suspended in mid-air—just before that moment.

The incoming spear was deflected by a lance, and I managed to land. At the same time, I completely abandoned dealing with the last spear and touched the menu.

As expected, just before the last spear pierced me, Rou, who had flown in like a gust of wind, sacrificed his arm to deflect the spear.

At that moment, I thought I saw a slight look of surprise on Apocalypse's face.

"Go."

Yeah, I understand.

That's why I was preparing.

Believing that Rou would buy me a few seconds, I changed my equipment and used all my stats to leap.

Using the golden bat, which had been deflected by the fourth spear and was suspended in mid-air, as a stepping stone, I adjusted my angle and shot through the sky like a red bullet.

Of course, I don't have a skill to run through the sky, but it's just a metaphor.

Gripping the end of the double-handed staff firmly with both hands, I spun around once.

(Sorry, Haruru. Please forgive me.)

In the extremely stretched-out thoughts, I felt apologetic while choosing one art, almost in a desperate manner, and I played my strongest card.

"Finisher!"

A maximum strike that destroys the weapon itself.

Pouring the centrifugal force of the spin into it, I struck Apocalypse's horn with Haruru's double-handed staff with all my might.

☆

With a tremendous "Gin!" the entire body of the true dragon shook.

One dot. No, less than one dot, but a definite gap appeared in Apocalypse's HP bar.

The moment I confirmed it, my concentration completely broke, and all my strength drained from my body. I had used up all my energy in the brief, intense battle.

The disadvantage of the Famine Wolf, slip damage.

And there's also the damage from falling.

Either way, I was going to die, but I was satisfied to have landed a hit.

Deciding to die honorably, I noticed that there was no sensation of falling.

I was floating. Or rather, "stopped" might be a better description.

Both Rou and I, and the world itself, were fixed in a state where we couldn't move, as if bound by a spell.

In this shocking phenomenon, an even greater shock hit us.

"The flow of time in space has been stopped. Now, your bodies are free from the interference of time."

The dragon in front of me spoke.

Well, it's not surprising that monsters, like the red wolf, have AI, but whether I can communicate with them is a different matter.

I was extremely surprised, but in the frozen space, there was no way to express it.

In the world where everything was stopped, only Apocalypse was moving.

The voice was not a sound that shook the air but a strange, direct resonance in my mind.

The true dragon, with a gentler gaze than before, suddenly sent a dark magic circle into the sky.

"Children of humans and demons. As a reward for shattering a fragment of my horn, I will show you a glimpse of the magic of reason, the 'True Magic.'"

The dark magic circle in the sky gradually expanded, split, and overlapped, transforming into a layered magic circle that eventually covered the sky like a lid hundreds of meters wide. With a creaking sound, Apocalypse quietly released the magic circle.

"Fall Down"

With the dragon's words, time resumed.

To describe the magic in one word:

The sky fell.