Isagi had some experience when it came to fighting Great Dragons.
The most annoying thing about them was that they could fly. It often turned the battle into a situation where, halfway through the fight, the opponent would just fly up and start performing.
Then, he would be left running around foolishly like an idiot, with zero gaming experience to speak of. This was what one would call a "Performance Type" Boss.
The scene might look spectacular and grand, but for the player, there was actually nothing they could do except watch from the sidelines.
A city burning fiercely; colors so crimson they scorched the eyes.
That substance falling from the sky—rather than calling it fire, it was a liquid with a temperature so high it reached an extreme, better described as "magma." It erupted from the Infant Dragon's mouth, turning everything into charred crystals that drifted away with scattered sparks.
The town of the Goblins was completely destroyed.
The Infant Dragon's colossal body plummeted down once more, obscuring all vision. Fortunately, there were no invisible walls in the Dungeon, so he wouldn't be squeezed into a corner unable to see anything. And unlike in games...
No one made a rule that he couldn't run up onto the opponent's back!
He stabbed his Greatsword directly into the Infant Dragon's body, using it as a handle or, in a sense, a "steering wheel." Isagi then took out the Blade of Ten Thousand Bones and began unleashing a barrage of attacks on its wings.
However, also unlike the game, this guy actually twisted its head around and breathed fire directly at him while he was on its back! Its dark dragon scales seemed completely immune to its own damage.
Forcibly, he was compelled to leave, but this wasn't a problem! The Hook Claw was a truly convenient item, especially when facing large Monsters. Whether distancing or approaching, it allowed for rapid positional adjustments.
He leapt straight up. In mid-air, he utilized the Hook Claw again, embedding it into the Infant Dragon's incomparably hard inner scales, executing a direct one-hundred-eighty-degree swing.
"I'm leaving!"
"I'm coming back again!"
"I'm leaving again!"
While Isagi was having the time of his life, he never expected that this Infant Dragon would also stop playing by the rules—
Crash!
The Infant Dragon actually initiated a freefall from the sky, deliberately landing on its back in an attempt to force him off. It could even do that?!
Its colossal body smashed into the town, turning the entire block into part of a small crater. Isagi naturally bailed out at the last moment. Moreover, seeing this guy's behavior, he suddenly thought of a good idea.
When the Infant Dragon climbed up from the ground and prepared to flap its wings to take off again, he continued to use the Hook Claw to get onto its back.
Subsequently, he swapped the Puppet Prosthetic he was using; it transformed into a [Divine Mechanism] capable of burying landmines. Like a pile driver, the mechanical arm, under the young boy's operation, delivered a "tu-tu-tu" barrage of output against the Infant Dragon's back!
One small landmine after another was buried inside its colossal body. Following this, it fell from the sky once more, attempting to crush him to death!
Isagi ran even faster this time. He had to be fast, because next came a—
BOOM!!!
Accompanied by a sound that shook the earth and mountains, the entire cavern trembled thoroughly. There was also a small plume of smoke rising like a mushroom cloud.
Isagi didn't know exactly how many mines he had just driven into the Infant Dragon's body, but looking at it now, the effect seemed quite good. The fellow crawling up from the smoke had a back that was a bloody mess. Those golden, narrowed eyes stared deathly at him, looking resentful to the extreme.
Then, it actually charged over like a massive truck. Tsk. He regretted not bringing Ais's prototype "Hunter Greatsword." Otherwise, he could have attempted a True Charged Slash to stop the dragon's charge!
For now, it was better to run. He began to sprint wildly through the town, leading the Infant Dragon's colossal body along. Meanwhile, only the two young girls, Tiona and Ais, were left chasing continuously from behind.
In the distance.
Riveria, standing on the city wall and watching all of this, felt that something was amiss. Speaking of which, she should have been very familiar with battling "Great Dragons." From the first time she left the Royal Forest, she had encountered an Enhanced Species "Tree Dragon."
Of course, Monsters on the surface could not be mentioned in the same breath as those in the Dungeon. Back then, having just become an adventurer, she cooperated with Finn, who was also Lv.1, and eliminated it with a single magic bombardment.
However, during her later travels across the world and after coming to Orario and entering the Dungeon, she fought more and more Dragon-type Monsters.
If nothing else, the Monster Rex located on the 27th Floor, the Two-Headed Dragon Amphisbaena, was a guy that every high-level adventurer would inevitably experience fighting. Dragons were a symbol of power.
Even at the same Level, they were comprehensively stronger than other Monsters. And most importantly, they possessed extremely exaggerated "destructive power." Just like this "Infant Dragon" that Isagi and Ais were facing right now; it had destroyed the Goblins' city almost effortlessly.
If Monsters were a "Natural Disaster," then Dragon-type Monsters were the most powerful and feared existence within that "Calamity," capable of turning a country or an entire land into a barren wasteland where not a blade of grass grew.
This was no exaggerated metaphor, but a fact. Outside of Orario, the terrifying events that countries on the continent inevitably faced every year were the "Visiting Dragon" disasters brought about by Dragon-type Monsters that occasionally escaped from the [Dragon Valley] where the Black Dragon was sealed.
But speaking of which, the guy Isagi and the others were facing now was just an "Infant Dragon" of the Upper Floors, right?
Twitching the corner of her mouth, Riveria thought that if she remembered correctly, Infant Dragons didn't even have "wings." One could only say they were Monsters similar to Great Dragons. Although they were indeed powerful, and the breath from their mouths could easily wipe out a Lv.2 adventurer party, no matter what, it shouldn't have turned into this...
And not only that.
What made it even harder for Riveria to accept was that while the Monster becoming stronger was somewhat understandable, what was going on with Tiona and Ais right now?!
Although she knew the two of them had changed quite a bit after adventuring with Isagi, training was training, and actual combat was completely different.
Take Tiona at this moment, for instance. The girl's figure was like a fierce god; even looking from afar gave one a terrifying sense of "lingering fear." The erupting deep red blood aura mixed with flesh tones almost completely covered her slender figure, as if she had donned a layer of bizarre armor. It resembled both treacherous, undulating clouds and surging, unstable ocean waves.
Blood color churned.
The weapon Tiona wielded—composed of two greatswords combined together, which the girl herself called "Great Dual Blades"—whipped up vast swathes of scarlet color. It was extremely heavy, like a substantial curtain falling from the sky, always carrying an unstoppable momentum as it landed heavily on the Infant Dragon's colossal body.
Terrifying!
The sound of constant, pounding vibrations like beating war drums even caused her own heart to tremble along with it. But this wasn't even the scariest part.
From a distance, Riveria could sense that within the scarlet clouds Tiona was wrapped in, something seemed about to be birthed—a more frenzied and terrifying... Beast?
Regardless, Riveria could sense that the Amazon girl at this moment was far from her final form. It was truly hard to imagine what this fellow would turn into in the end. The difference between her and her sister was too big—no, the gap was already huge now!
On the other side, Ais's changes were also caught in the Elf woman's eyes. Perhaps because she was more familiar with her, the golden-haired girl currently holding a Tachi, spiraling in the sky, constantly waving it and leaving wound after wound on the Infant Dragon, felt even more unfamiliar to Riveria.
However, looking at the battle before her, even she had to admit that if one wanted to slay and crusade against a Monster with a physique far exceeding normal humans like a Great Dragon, such a gigantic weapon was indeed much, much better than the previous "longsword."
With the comparison, it even gave one the illusion: "Was the girl fighting with a 'needle' before?"
Ais, swift as the wind, held a long blade that similarly emitted a deep crimson glow. As it swept past, it always brought up large splashes of blood. The Infant Dragon's scales, comparable to armor, seemed to possess absolutely no defensive ability, easily sliced open and cut apart, revealing large chunks of flesh underneath.
The long blade waved in the girl's hands like a fluttering butterfly, beautiful yet lethal. That huge semicircle flashing past from time to time was a handsome move called the Spirit Roundslash.
And what was even more unbelievable was that the girl suddenly stepped onto the Great Dragon's colossal body, kicked up, and after leaping high, slashed down abruptly. The blood-colored blade edge was like cold thunder falling from the heavens.
A few seconds later, the Infant Dragon's colossal body suddenly burst open. Countless blade lights crisscrossed, flaying its skin and flesh.
This is—[Spirit Helm Breaker]!
Under Isagi's tutelage, the incomparably talented Sword Princess had mastered almost all the "Techniques" of the dragon-hunting Tachi in just a few days and rapidly integrated them. And this was merely "a small part" of it.
Riveria recalled the giant "Hunter" weapons Ais had described to her before, as well as the combat methods and so on. She had only felt it was a fantasy, but she didn't expect it to be real?!
What exactly would the girl become in the future?
Rubbing her forehead. At this moment, she didn't know if the boy was doing it on purpose, but set off by the two girls, he appeared somewhat inconspicuous instead. But the woman wasn't stupid! She knew clearly exactly who was responsible for Ais and Tiona becoming like this!!
Now, Riveria could roughly understand why her "daughter" was so clingy to the boy. The two of them seemed truly well-matched—no, it was that they would naturally become intimate!
While thinking this, the Elf woman didn't forget her other goal, which was...
She heard from Ais that to enter that [Dark Hall] again, one had to come to the Dungeon to crusade against Monsters to "charge" or something. Riveria didn't quite understand the specific meaning, but anyway, killing Monsters would work, right?
As long as enough Monsters were taken out, she could enter that world again. Since that was the case...
Before her eyes, the Goblin city had completely fallen into a sea of fire and destruction. But there were indeed still quite a few Monsters existing in the city. Especially because of the Infant Dragon, they were staying far away, fleeing from that guy, and had instead gathered together.
Riveria, standing on the towering city wall at this moment, saw this particularly clearly. Since that was the case. The woman narrowed her eyes slightly and raised her magic staff, then began to chant her magic...
...
The battle with the Infant Dragon went much smoother than imagined. She didn't know if it was because Ais's Skill was putting in great effort, but she always felt that in the girl's hands, the power of the Tachi was amplified many times over.
When the corpse of the Great Dragon—which was shattered, with wings, tail, and even a thick hind leg chopped off—was finally disemboweled to seek out the Magic Stone inside, Isagi also took off his armor with some exhaustion.
Moving his body, he first chugged two mouthfuls from the Healing Gourd, then threw the rest entirely to Tiona.
The result.
Before he and the girls could even tidy up a bit, he heard an even more terrifying sound coming from the distance. Subsequently, uncountable gray ash surged towards him. For a moment, it made Isagi think another accident had occurred—
____
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