Live Dungeon!
chapter-31

Tsutomu and friends landed on a vast, shallow basin-like terrain. The trio could see a large cliff that was splitted open because an axe stabbed through it in the distance, and valleys of various sizes were surrounding them.

“Fly, Protect, Haste.”

Tsutomu swung his white cane and applied the supporting skills to himself and his comrades. Garm and Camille unsheathed their weapons from their back and held the weapons with both of their hands. Soon after, something red jumped out of the large cliff’s valley.

In an instant, it made a loud roar which reverberated into the sky. The ground shook and a lot of pebbles shattered, while some rolled down from the cliffs due to the strength of the roar.

Garm and Camille’s body immediately stiffened as if the roar stabbed right into their hearts. Their bodies tremble, and they fall into the illusion that their mouths suddenly become dry.

The overwhelmingly strong creature flapped its huge wings and reigned over the sky. It was the fire dragon which roared in anger when someone entered its territory. Camille was unable to move the sword she had prepared to use in advance. The dragon made her realize how small she was.

Camille was called ‘The Goddess of Dragonewt’ because of her similarities with a dragon, but she was just something diminutive before the fire dragon’s eyes. Now, even her knees shook so much she might collapse. Her arms turned cold and trembled.

Camille held the yearning and challenging desires while she first saw the red dragon on the monitor, since she was the Dragonewt. But now that she was confronting the fire dragon by herself, she realized that it was a mistake. [Impossible. There’s no way I could get close to that creature. No one would be able to win against that dragon. And there are only three of us!]

While Camille was seized with panic, Garm was in a great dismay that his body froze. He had the fear of being the weak person who was about to fight an enemy much stronger than him. His instinctive feeling made him unable to do anything but stood still.

“Ah, the dragon is going to use its Breath. Please prepare yourselvesー”

Tsutomu instructed the two with his usual voice. Even though he was directly faced with the ancient fire dragon’s roar, it was only harsh on the healer’s ears.

Then, Tsutomu noticed his two comrades who stood still and froze in place. He tapped on their shoulders, but they gave no response. When the fire dragon lifted its slender neck, it noticed the three. Then, it began to move its wings as it made an offensive stance.

Tsutomu firmly grabbed Garm’s black tail which suddenly jutted out of the fire attires.

“Gah!?”

Garm jumped up in response to his tail being grasped by Tsutomu. He looked at Tsutomu with confusion written all over his face. Tsutomu looked back at Garm with a surprised look.

“Please don’t be nervous and move now. It’ll come soon, you know?”

Garm couldn’t calm down upon being ‘instructed’ by Tsutomu’s scornful glare. He gazed at the fire dragon gliding through the air as it wiggled its body like a snake. Then, Garm moved his seemingly frozen hand to cover himself using the fire attires’ hood and twirled his tail inside it. Next, Tsutomu poked the still motionless Camille’s cheek.

“Camille?”

“…This is impossible. We won’t be able to win.”

She seemed to have spilled these words absentmindedly as she sank down weakly to the ground. Tsutomu was flustered when he saw Camille, who was usually full of confidence, suddenly turned into a scared town girl.

“Eh? Wait, what happened to you? You’re certainly not that type of person, right!?”

“…We won’t be able to do this with just three people.”

“Ehhh!? Please at least give it a try! Don’t you feel like some kind of a warrior when you do this!?”

“…”

Since Camille was a ‘half-baked Goddess of Dragonewt’, her heart had already been in distress when she instinctively realized that she would not be able to win against the fire dragon. [There are only the three of us. I won’t be able to defeat the fire dragon by myself. Moreover, there’s no way that Garm alone could hold that monster down.] These words were all jumbled together inside Camille’s heart.

Even though Tsutomu had shook her shoulder, she didn’t give any reactions. Thus, Tsutomu quietly let go of his hand from Camille’s shoulder.

[This is unexpected. She has never been this timid before.]

Tsutomu never imagined that Camille, who had always been brimming with confidence, would become this frightened. He immediately wrapped Camille, who was still crouching down with the fire attires.

The fire dragon had come down from the sky as its throat glowed red. Tsutomu took out the radiating bottle from the Magic Bag as he exclaimed.

“I’ll throw the radiating bottle now! Breath!”

Tsutomu stood before the approaching fire dragon, which almost breathed out the flame from its mouth. Then, he shook the radiating bottle as much as he could and threw it at the dragon. The fire dragon spit out blazing fire which seemed like it could burn the ground into ashes.

Tsutomu promptly turned his body around and kept himself wrapped in the long-sleeved fire attires and sustained the Breath while holding Camille, protecting her properly from the Breath.

The sound of Breath cut through the air. Tsutomu’s back felt a bit hot. And he could also feel the blinding light when he turned around as he closed his eyes. Breath finally stopped after Tsutomu resisted it for nearly ten seconds.

The radiating bottle successfully exploded before the fire dragon’s eyes. After the fire dragon’s eyes had been temporarily blinded by it, it flapped its wings and stayed in the sky as it moved its long neck left and right and stayed on alert even though it closed its eyes.

Looking at the still crouching and unmoving Camille, Tsutomu decided to take out the iron mallet from the Magic Bag and approached the fire dragon by himself.

Tsutomu approached the fire dragon, whose body was slender overall. It has a long tail and neck like that of a snake. It has four legs, each with three black nails. Small, red scales were attached evenly on its slender body. Tsutomu swiftly approached the fire dragon’s face.

Its wide mouth looked like it could swallow a person entirely. Realizing that it was about to spurt Breath again, Tsutomu went past the fire dragon and froze its spine, then he discovered a small crystal on its forehead. Tsutomu built up the power on the iron mallet he was holding with his right hand.

However, it was quite difficult to aim for the head because it kept on swaying back and forth. Tsutomu decided to prepare himself by climbing on its head and breaking the crystal rather than approaching it directly as seen on the monitor. If he failed to break the crystal while Camille was still unable to move, the fire dragon will keep flying in the sky freely and become completely untouchable.

Tsutomu casted Haste on himself again as he made up his mind. Then he swiftly headed towards the fire dragon’s forehead.

He landed on the dragon’s forehead on his knee. Tsutomu promptly lifted the iron mallet with one of his hands and swung it down. When the iron mallet hit the center of the crystal, the fire dragon’s loud roar struck Tsutomu. Tsutomu lost his balanceupon sustaining the loud noise. He jumped to the dragon’s back as he was being blown away from the dragon’s forehead.

Then, the fire dragon turned to its back and opened its wide mouth as it snarled. Its mouth was filled with sharp teeth that seemed to be able to smash rocks into pieces easily, and they gave a ‘warm welcome’ to Tsutomu. Tsutomu swung his white cane towards the dragon’s mouth.

“Air Blaze!”

Tsutomu casted Air Blaze with the strongest force to its mouth. He immediately prepared to slip back to the ground after making a shallow cut on the fire dragon’s mouth and making it flinch.

While grazing its greasy body, Tsutomu went away from the crystal as he waited for the fire dragon to glide towards the ground. As he covered his ears and staggering on his feet, he landed on the ground clumsily and sprained his ankle as a result.

“Ugh!!”

Tsutomu let out a shriek of agony and rolled down to the ground. He was unable to get up and his senses became weakened temporarily even though he could still hear his surroundings.

“Warrior Howl.”

Garm struck using his large shield. The dragon, which already had the crystal on its forehead smashed completely and lost its ability to fly. The fire dragon was lured by the sound of Warrior Howl and shifted its sight towards Garm.

Tsutomu shook his head after the buzzing in his ears was finally gone, then casted Heal on his ankle which got hurt when he landed. After that, he rushed over to Camille, who hadn’t recovered. There wasn’t any abnormality status for being in dismay in the game, but this was similar to when Camille went frantic because of dragonification. Tsutomu casted Medic on her just to be sure.

Soon after, even though he wasn’t sure whether the spell worked, Tsutomu felt that Camille’s eyes had begun to have its vitality again. He tried to speak with her in a cheerful voice.

“Are you alright?”

“Y-yes, I am.”

Camille picked up the large sword she dropped, her foot shook like a fawn when she stood up. She wasn’t in the condition suited to fight. Tsutomu supported Camille on her shoulder as she forced herself to get up, then tried to calm her down again.

“Protect. Well, you don’t look alright at all. For now, let’s guard against Breath and observe for a while.”

“Um, I–”

“I want to do some warming up. I won’t be able to follow you if you suddenly transformed into your dragon form.”

Upon saying so, Tsutomu put the fire attires on Camille, then casted Protect on Garm. He smiled, trying to put Camille, whose lips keep quivering, at ease. Then he approached Garm, who had floated in the air using Fly and stood in the opposite position.

Camille couldn’t resist the feeling of dismay she experienced after a long while. And yet, she found it hard to trust her two companions. These thoughts overlapped with each other and made her body hardened like a stone.

Even though Garm had been seized by fear at first and stiffened as a result, he placed his trust on Tsutomu. Which was why, even though he was exposed before the fire dragon’s eyes, his body didn’t stiffen because of fear anymore.

The fire dragon stood with its two (back) legs and made its long tail into a whip. Garm sustained its attack using his large shield with both of his hands, but he couldn’t withstand it and was sent flying. Perhaps it was because Garm was scraped with the rocky ground that he wasn’t knocked out.

“Shield Slow.”

Garm threw the large shield. The shield hit the fire dragon’s left hind leg, then it turned back easily to Garm’s hand. The dragon came towards Garm and prepared to exhale Breath.

“Breath!”

Tsutomu shouted simultaneously as the fire dragon fired a scorching hot breath from its mouth. Garm turned around as he protected himself using the fire attires. The flame struck Garm as if it’s burning him.

The fire dragon continued to exhale the flame for about fifteen seconds. It was halted when the dragon did something like biting off the flame. The fire dragon expected that the intruder would have turned into ashes and devastated, but it seemed that things were going contrary to that.

“Combat Cry!”

A red fighting spirit came out of Garm as he turned around and flapped the fire attires he wore. The red light shrouded the dragon’s feet. As a result, a loud and enraged shriek emerged from the fire dragon.

“Heal.”

Tsutomu restored Garm’s whole body using Heal from a distance. The fire dragon with its feet fixed to the ground approached Garm by crawling. Its black nails, which were attached on four of its feet, scratched the solid ground.

Garm recalled that Tsutomu warned him not to directly receive the slashing or snapping of its nails. He sustained the slashing when the dragon swung its forefoot and its sharp nails approaching him using his large shield.

Garm was blown away like a pebble being kicked by a person. His iron shoes scraped the ground and made a loud noise. After he rolled around, Garm tried to regain his posture, then confronted the fire dragon again.

The dragon struck him using its whip-like tail and kept scratching the ground using its forefoot. Garm parried all the attacks using its large shield and kept getting blown away repeatedly. However, he never fell down. After being blown away, he always regained his posture and immediately went to confront the fire dragon again and again.

Garm got blown away numerous times. Then, the fire dragon let out a roar of fury because of the little human who had the nerve to keep on confronting it. The dragon swung its forefoot, wanting to shatter the human into pieces, but the little human avoided its stomping.

Tsutomu kept on casting Heal and Protect to Garm. If the dragon shifts its gaze to Tsutomu, Garm will use Shield Slow, Combat Cry, and some other skills to attract its attention.

They keep repeating that pattern for some while. Garm avoided the dragon which snarled at him by ducking its long neck and flinging it like a spear. He resisted against the raging flame of Breath by covering himself using the fire attires as Tsutomu shouted Breath.

After repeating the actions for about ten minutes, Tsutomu took out a water bottle from the Magic Bag. Then, he approached Garm and applied a skill from the sky.

“Barrier.”

A transparent, wall-shaped Barrier stretched out and intervened between Garm and the fire dragon. The dragon flinched because of the barrier that appeared out of nowhere. But if the dragon attacked the Barrier, it’ll be destroyed just by a blow.

But then, if they could prevent it from attacking, Garm could have some time to take a breath. Tsutomu gave Garm water after they got some distance away from the fire dragon. Noticing that Garm’s breath was getting irregular, Tsutomu applied Medic on Garm.

The fire dragon broke the Barrier like a piece of paper by slashing it using its nails. Garm threw the water bottle back to Tsutomu, then he patted Tsutomu’s shoulder as if encouraging him before facing the fire dragon again.

[It’s alright. Garm won’t collapse under this condition. I’ll have to keep up with the recovery skills.]

Garm had fulfilled his role as a Tank. Unless Garm or Tsutomu make mistakes, they won’t be defeated. But they won’t be able to win, either. Garm alone didn’t have enough fire power, and if Tsutomu shifted into offense, it’d be more difficult to control the aggro, and they’ll have to consume more blue potions. They can’t win without an Attacker.

Tsutomu shifted his attention to Camille. She was flying over him while holding her large sword. She felt reassured upon seeing the two fighting against the fire dragon for several minutes.

“Camille! Are you alright now!?”

“I’m sorry. I let you see such a cowardly side of mine.”

“Hm? Ah, seems like you’re not sleep deprived anymore?”

“…Yes!”

Camille bowed her head in response to Tsutomu, who gave her a spiteful smile. She replied with her voice full of confidence like usual. Tsutomu felt relieved seeing her energetic eyes. With this, they held all the cards. Now that they’ll continue the match, Tsutomu glared at the fire dragon like a hunter.