“I am the Faraway Paladin, William G. Maryblood! Have at you!”
Naming myself like a knight in an old chivalric romance, I charged at the foul-dragon as old as the gods.
In the dim light of the Great Cavern, Valacirca swung his claws at me.
“Kah!!”
“Acceleratio! ”
With a Word, I accelerated straight towards the foul-dragon. I ducked his sword-like claws and his fingers which were each as thick as a human’s torso, and pressed forwards towards him. A low sound accompanied his tree trunk-like arm swinging above my head. That one attack could have taken my head off.
The stereotype of large creatures being sluggish is a falsehood. Large creatures are strong and fast just by virtue of their size. The length of each of their steps is on a different level, and each swipe of their arms covers an entirely different range. The same goes for their ability to withstand attacks. Being stabbed with a thumbtack would probably be a fatal wound to an ant, but do the same to an elephant and the tack would be unlikely to even break the skin.
In that sense, Valacirca was simply strong. When it came down to it, he was hopelessly physically strong. And I was well aware of it.
“Lamina! ”
Leaping in close, I extended a blade of mana beyond Pale Moon’s physical blade and thrust it towards what appeared to be an old wound on his side.
However, the dragon twisted, and my blade met resistance, blocked by the dragon’s scales.
Dragonscale…
— If you’re going to fight him, I’d focus on his old wounds. A dragon’s scalesare tough. I’ll tell you now, I doubt even Blood could have cut to the skinthrough dragonscale.
Gus’s words came back to me. Cutting through dragonscale would have been difficult even for Blood. But I wasn’t just going to follow in Blood’s footsteps forever!
I took a quick breath and roared. I made the muscles throughout my body work in concert, transferring force from my feet to my knees, then my thighs, twisting my body at the hips to transfer force to my shoulders, my arms, my wrists. Summoning every last bit of force as expertly as I could, I pushed my obstructed blade in harder.
“Gnng?!”
Valacirca groaned. I felt the unmistakable sensation of the blade piercing the dragon’s massive, tough scales. I kept going.
“Acceleratio! ”
A roar of surprise accompanied an arm lashing fiercely out at me. I avoided the strike as I accelerated with Pale Moon still embedded in the dragon’s skin.
Clutching my spear tightly with my whole arm, I ran alongside Valacirca, using my blade of mana to slice a horizontal wound into the dragon’s side. From there, I headed straight for a small gap between the rows of giant furnaces, hoping to escape, but Valacirca was not one to miss that.
“Hng… Hahaha… So you strike through the defense of dragonscale!
Perfect, bracing stimulation!”
Behind me, I heard him roar out and then draw in a large breath. He was surely about to unleash scorching miasmic dragonbreath. I was protected by several layers of magic and miracles, but if his breath hit me directly, it wouldn’t be surprising if I was burned beyond recognition or even melted. My heart leaped in panic. However, the lethal breath was never to touch my back.
“You’re not only up against Will!”
“Shh!”
Even without looking, I could tell it was Menel and Reystov. While I was charging in from the front, they had already spread out and made their way around to his left and right sides. The two of them were skilled enough to inflict serious wounds on the dragon.
Menel’s Silver-string produced several elegant notes. The radiance of mithril arrows cut through the darkness of the Great Cavern. Reystov’s nameless sword glinted as he drew it and slashed in a single lightning-speed motion. Engraved with Gus’s Signs, the sword’s slash extended like a twisting snake, closing in on the dragon.
Menel’s target was Valacirca’s golden eye, while Reystov had aimed at the toes on the foot Valacirca was putting his weight on. The arrow carried enough force to shoot through an eyeball, and the slash had the sharpness to chop off toes. Even an ancient foul-dragon like Valacirca couldn’t ignore them.
“Tch!”
He was forced to twist his neck and pull back his leg to dodge. With his posture disrupted, he couldn’t hold the aim he had before. I reached the gap between the furnaces and spun around. As the dragon swung its neck, breathing in random directions, I blocked the heatwave with my large shield.
The heatwave from his breath, thick like black smoke, held more than enough heat to roast a human whole. But with the defensive magic and the many blessings that were placed on my entire body, as well as my magic shield engraved with Signs to protect against heat and poison, I endured.
This was just the heatwave. If his breath engulfed me directly, instant death would be putting it lightly. When Valacirca said that my soul itself would be incinerated and I would vanish from the eternal cycle, he might have been telling the truth.
“Impressive teamwork… haven’t you?!”
With an effortless swing of his arm, Valacirca clawed huge chunks out of the stone floor, transferring momentum to countless stone pellets that were sent scattering towards Reystov. But Ghelreis’s Sword-smasher shield and armor knocked them out of the air. Valacirca didn’t care. He swung again. But this time, out of nowhere, an old wooden tower platform that had been built inside the Great Cavern came toppling down.
“…?!”
It was Al. With his Immense halberd, he had smashed the platform’s seemingly fragile supports, sending it toppling onto the dragon. Valacirca knocked it away, but broken pieces of wood fell everywhere and obstructed his vision.
It has to be now, I thought. I couldn’t see a long battle being anything but a disadvantage for us.
It was difficult to imagine a mythological dragon running out of stamina. It was probably best to treat Valacirca as having inexhaustible energy. The same went for his ability to withstand our attacks. He could probably comfortably withstand as many as we could deal him. That was why right this moment, he was enjoying the fight and testing us out instead of going on a serious rampage against us.
We, on the other hand, would be finished for good if even one of Valacirca’s attacks landed a direct hit. He would still have plenty of opportunities to attack no matter how many hits he took, whereas we would be done for if we took so much as one serious blow. I’d known this before I took him on, but just knowing it didn’t make these conditions any less ridiculously one-sided.
If we attempted to win in a straightforward confrontation, it would call for a strategy of offense and defense similar to passing through the eye of a needle.
We would have to make it succeed over and over. Then Valacirca would finally get serious, and we would have to repeat that feat at an even higher difficulty, at which point perhaps we could catch a glimpse of victory over the horizon.
It wasn’t a matter of it being difficult. It would be impossible. Our stamina wouldn’t last. Our concentration wouldn’t hold up. Even if we used up our entire lives’ supply of luck in a single fight, it still wouldn’t be enough. So I had to bet on this right now.