by Okina Baba
Araba acquired them for the sole purpose of defeating me.
After spending such a long time piling up these skill points, the dragon used them all on me.
And on top of the ones acquired with points, there are the skills Araba’s gained in the process of our fight to the death.
[Concentration LV 1] [Prediction LV 1] [Parallel Thinking LV 1] [Arithmetic Processing LV 1] [Heresy Resistance LV 1]
Araba must have been thinking very intently about how to get out of this crisis alive.
Of course, there’s no way those skills will evolve all the way up to my golden combo of Thought Acceleration and Foresight over the course of this battle, but that doesn’t change the fact that Araba just became a lot more dangerous.
With the addition of Heresy Resistance, too, it might be safer to assume Heretic Magic won’t work at all now.
Rend Soul might be different, but I don’t think I dare to use that.
This is bad. I mean really bad.
Up until now, I’ve faced enemies with an advantage over me several times.
But I’ve never had one come up with a countermeasure specifically for me.
Araba was already a strong opponent with various advantages.
And now that opponent has taken countermeasures against me.
The thread binding Araba burns away.
Inferno Magic level 1, Scorched Earth.
It’s a wide-range spell that covers the ground in flames, transforming it into a hellscape.
Since it’s been activated in midair, Araba’s body is being treated as the ground instead, flames surging across it.
In the center of those flames, Araba isn’t exactly unharmed.
Unlike a nullification skill, resistance doesn’t mean you won’t take any damage.
Even if it’s from your own spell.
Flame Resistance is the evolved form of Fire Resistance.
It’s impressive to have gained such an advanced skill so quickly, but that’s still not enough to reduce the damage to zero.
Now, Araba is literally on fire as it seeks a chance to attack me.
Thanks to its Rapid Recovery skill, its HP isn’t going down very quickly.
But still, its body is slowly being burned by the flames.
Maybe if I keep running away, Araba will eventually just destroy itself?
Nope. I know it’s not gonna be that easy.
The fire disappears. That’s inevitable, since Araba probably canceled the spell.
Araba’s HP starts to rapidly recover.
Over the course of our fierce battle, the dragon’s HP Rapid Recovery skill has leveled up, too.
Now its HP’s getting restored so quickly, it makes you wonder if Healing Magic is involved.
Ugh. Growing in the middle of a battle like this? Who do you think you are, the protagonist?
Only the protagonist is allowed to have such a cool moment of development like that, you know.
No fair! This is totally cheating. Seriously, gimme a break.
Araba puts one foot on the wall.
A moment later, the wall is burning up.
Flames spread across the walls of the pit at a frightening rate.
It’s like the entire hole is on fire.
Araba runs along the burning wall.
Rapidly arriving at a spot diagonal to where I am in the air, the dragon charges right at me.
Bringing the blazing wall along with it.
A chunk of the blazing wall detaches from the surface.
Excuse me! Why would you cause a natural disaster like that so casually?!
I escape upward, but below me, Araba’s created a bridge of burning earth.
I guess since Araba can make spears of earth, it’s only natural it can increase the scale of that to make a bridge…?
Yeah, right!
Seriously, what the hell?!
Araba runs around the walls, building one bridge after another.
As if closing off my escape routes.
Burning earth is starting to fill the air.
The structure is almost like a spiderweb.
I never thought an enemy would use my own strategies against me.
Araba sprints at a high speed across the countless burning bridges.
Despite the extra weight I’ve been inflicting on the dragon with Repellent Evil Eye, it doesn’t seem to be moving a single bit slower.
Araba runs across the bridges and leaps into the air. Claws at the ready.
There’s nowhere I can go below me. My only choice is to flee higher.
Araba soundlessly lands on another bridge and starts to charge again.
It jumps at me from another spot. I dodge.
It lands and, with some MP recovered, starts increasing the number of bridges again.
The flaming earth seems to chase me higher and higher.
The heat from the flames alone threatens to decrease my HP.
Then those flames start to attack me as if they have a will of their own.
Araba’s fire magic lights up the air as if to close off any chance of escaping.
You’re supposed to be an earth dragon!
How come you can use fire even better than a fire dragon, huh?!
Without any space to fight back, I run around fleeing from the pursuing fire.
A bit of flame brushes my body, and I catch fire.
I immediately produce medicinal water with Medicine Synthesis, putting out the flames.
At the same time, the medicine recovers some of my HP.
That’s right—I don’t have to douse myself in poison and cause damage to my own HP anymore!
Plus, even after reaching the Upper Stratum, I’ve been practically bathing in magma to increase my fire resistance!
I’m still weaker to it than any other attribute, but still!
Oh, the ceiling.
I’ve finally reached the ceiling, the literal end of the road.
Araba’s flames are covering the ceiling now, too.
I’ve got nowhere left to run.
I glance at Araba’s stats.
Not yet. It’s still not quite there yet.
I’ll have to face off with Araba in this cage of burning earth.
Araba starts to attack.
Gathering my resolve, I avoid Araba’s attack and land on a bridge.
With nowhere else to run, this is my only option.
In the next moment, Araba brings a breath attack down on me and the bridge alike.
I dodge it.
Behind me, I hear the sound of the bridge collapsing.
But I have no time to worry about that.
Flames burn my body mercilessly.
Even with Rapid Recovery, my HP is going down at a pretty fast rate.
I want to put it out immediately, but Araba refuses to give me a chance to do so.
Avoiding the dragon’s attack, I start Medicine Synthesis, but Araba bears down with another attack right away.
As if our positions have now been reversed, I half jump, half fall down between the bridges, with Araba chasing close behind.
I plunge my way through the burning earth, the fire scorching my body.
While I dodge Araba’s attacks desperately, I resign myself to being hit by the rest of the flames.
I activate Medicine Synthesis to try to heal my wounds and put out the flames, but the fire immediately spreads across my body as if mocking my efforts.
Crap. I’m freaking out.
I can’t focus enough to use Teleport in these circumstances.
This is bad. My HP’s going down.
My Satiation stock runs out.
But Araba’s attacks still don’t let up.
My HP reaches 0.
Perseverance activates.
My MP starts to decrease little by little.
Thanks to the combination of HP Rapid Recovery and the MP recovery effect granted by Height of Occultism, the damage I take is reduced somewhat while Perseverance is in effect.
; Still, my MP’s definitely going down.
Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap, oh craaaap!
But just in the nick of time, it’s working!
Araba’s movements rapidly deteriorate.
The strengthening skill it was using comes undone.
Its momentum from moments ago is totally gone now, its movements slowing to a stop.
The poison I’ve been preparing all this time has finally put Araba’s life in checkmate.
The poison known as Sloth.
In other words, the decrease of HP, MP, and SP have increased for every living thing in the area except for me.
HP and MP have automatic recovery.
But there’s no such thing for SP.
The more Araba fought against me, the more it used up its strength and the faster its SP decreased.
Since fighting in midair requires constant use of Dimensional Maneuvering, and having Mental Divinity active continuously consumes SP, it was easy to make Araba fall victim to Sloth.
And without Appraisal, Araba had no way of noticing.
Only when it’s gone so far that the body begins consuming itself has the dragon finally recognized its own starvation.
Araba has almost no SP left now.
The battle is over.
I destroy the burning bridges around me with Black Bullets.
Then, keeping away from the flames surrounding me, I activate Medicine Synthesis to put out the flames on my body.
Araba can’t move anymore.
It has no strength left to move.
Its HP hasn’t changed yet, but if it runs out of SP, its HP will run out, too.
And now, if the dragon moves even a tiny bit, it’ll use up the last of its SP.
At this point, I can basically do whatever I want to Araba.
Heh-heh-heh. It was a lot harder than I was expecting, but it still ended just the way I planned for.
I knew from the beginning that it would be impossible to reduce Araba’s HP to 0.
Dragons’ magic-canceling scale skills are extremely inconvenient for me.
And if I tried to physically attack Araba, I feel like I’d just hurt myself more.
Araba’s defense power is far, far higher than my attack power.
Besides, Araba is a hardened warrior who can avoid all my attacks with ease.
So I gave up on the dragon’s HP altogether.
If I couldn’t reduce its HP, I’d just have to reduce its SP.
And the key to that was Sloth.
The fourth broken skill I’ve acquired.
I picked up Sloth as soon as I evolved into an Ede Saine.
Honestly, I didn’t really understand the description, so I didn’t think much of it at first. But when I got it and tested it out, I was surprised by what a perfect skill it was for me.
With Jinx Evil Eye, not only HP but all other stats go down more quickly.
That didn’t have much effect on Araba, but for any opponent without Status Condition Resistance, I can basically win with this nasty combo alone.
Even against enemies that it won’t work on so easily, if I just get them to fight me with their full strength, it’ll eventually become a powerful disadvantage.
It’s only because Araba fought so desperately that the dragon used all its strength and I managed to make its SP go down so quickly.
If Araba had been more relaxed, the outcome might’ve been different.
The fact that the dragon never paused or let down its guard is exactly what led to its downfall.
A pretty dirty strategy, if I do say so myself.
On top of that, forcing it to use Spatial Maneuvering made its SP go down that much faster.
I didn’t just choose this pit as the site of our battle so I could keep Araba from using the earth as a weapon. It was also to force the dragon to expend more SP.
Although, thanks to Araba’s unexpected resourcefulness, that first part ended up failing regardless.
Anyway, now that Araba can’t move, I can fire as much magic as I want.
Will I run through its HP first, or will it run out of SP first?
What’ll it be?
Mentally wearing a smug smile, I look down at Araba, still lying on a burning bridge beneath me.
Araba slowly raises its head.
Our eyes meet.
I can’t believe it.
Its eyes are astoundingly clear. Calm, even.
What’s with those eyes?
I beat you, you know.
At least act frustrated about your loss!
As if in defiance of my rage, Araba slowly lays itself down on its side.
Only its head stays in place, looking straight at me.
Then, something strange happens to Araba’s status as I Appraise it.
The text displaying its skills starts to turn gray.
That can only mean Araba’s turning off its skills.
If you turn off a skill that’s normally activated, it turns gray in your Appraisal results.
Araba’s skills turn gray one after another.
The Divine Scales skill that caused me so much trouble.
All its resistance skills, too.
Still surrounded by flames, the rate of Araba’s HP reduction rises sharply.
“I’m not going to resist,” is that what you’re saying?
What’s up with that? Seriously…what is this?
Who said you could just decide to be satisfied?
“I fought my hardest, so I have no regrets,” is that it?
Is that what you’re trying to say, huh?
Don’t give me that crap.
Come on, get desperate here. Beg for your life or something. Struggle a little.
How can you just throw away your life so easily?
Once you lose your life, that’s it. You know that, right?
I know that might not be convincing coming from me, since I’ve been reincarnated and all, but normally, when you die, that’s it.
How can you face your own end with such dignity?
Why am I struggling so hard to refuse to let it end, then?
Or could it be you know that in this world, dying doesn’t mean the end, and that’s why you can be so calm about it?
If that’s the case, that just pisses me off even more.
Ugh, forget it already.
I’ll kill you if you want to die so badly, then.
I activate all my Evil Eyes.
Jinx, Inert, Repellent, and…Annihilating.
Araba’s body crumbles into dust and disappears, without the slightest hint of resistance.
The Divine Voice (temp.) announces my leveling up, but it rings hollow in my ears.
I finally won against the opponent I was so eager to defeat, but it left a terrible aftertaste.
THE DEMON LORD’S MEMORIES OF THE EARTH DRAGON
“Balto, have you ever encountered a dragon?”
The sudden question makes me tilt my head quizzically even as I answer.
“I have not. A wyrm, yes, but not a dragon.”
“Right, of course.”
The Demon Lord seems content with my answer.
Slouching in her chair with her feet up on the table, she isn’t exactly the picture of class.
But I doubt anyone alive would be able to tell this one off, so I have no choice but to pretend not to notice.
White sits quietly in one corner of the room.
Unlike the Demon Lord, she’s quite well behaved, but because of her already eerie nature, her perfect posture only makes her seem that much more mysterious.
“Did something happen to prompt such a question, My Lord?”
I regret the question as soon as I ask it.
It’s not as if this is the first time she’s asked somet
hing so spontaneously.
Why would I ask a question when I want this conversation to wrap up as quickly as possible?
“Hmm? Oh, I was just doing a little thinking about the past, heh. I’ve actually fought an earth dragon and stuff, y’know.”
To be honest, that doesn’t really surprise me.
Dragons are particularly special, even among monsters.
Normally, just seeing one is rare enough, but the Demon Lord just casually remarked that she’s fought one.
From anyone else, that would be preposterous, but for her, it’s alarmingly probable.
“Earth dragons are a pretty proud bunch,” the Demon Lord remarks. “Those guys definitely have the blood of samurai in their veins.”
That’s all well and good for you, but what exactly is a samurai?
I’m curious, but if I ask about it, this little chat will only get longer.
Just talking to the Demon Lord can shorten your life span, as far as I’m concerned.
I must restrain myself from asking questions that would prolong the conversation.
“I’ve seen lots of different dragons, but thinking back, earth dragons were probably the most decent ones.”
The Demon Lord offhandedly drops another bombshell statement.
Lots of different dragons.
Is that true?
The scary part is, since it’s the Demon Lord saying it, it might really be so.
Again, I’m intrigued, but it’s probably better not to ask.
“Whoops, sorry. Listen to me rambling on.”
“Not at all.”
“So, can I count on you to prepare for the attack on the elf village?”
“As you wish, O Demon Lord.”
I’M GOING OUTSIDE!
It’s been several days since I defeated the earth dragon Araba.
Now, I’m out underneath a blue sky.
For the first time since I was reborn as a spider, after a great deal of time and effort, I take in the sun’s rays.
It’s thanks to the four humans who ran away after that encounter.
I used the markings I put on them to finally navigate to the labyrinth’s exit.
A lot has happened in this dungeon.
I can’t say most of those memories are good ones, either.
Like the time I almost died, or the time I almost died, or the OTHER time I almost died!
So now I finally get to say my good-byes to this awful place!
Farewell, not-so-beloved birthplace!