Live Dungeon!

Three hours had passed since Camille had successfully gained control over the Dragon Form. Her mind clear and focused, she was now able to step on the > pick-ups as they popped up, tremendously increasing her speed and firepower efficiency.

In these past hours, the Fire Dragon had gotten its wings riddled with holes and its face sliced open from its left eye down to its mouth. A few of its black claws had been broken, and a layer of flesh had been blown off its flank. Driven berserk by its injuries, the Fire Dragon now unleashed its attacks repeatedly and indiscriminately.

Tsutomu and Camille could guard against its breath attacks with their Red-thread Fire Coats, but Garms’s coat was tattered and filled with holes from him taking hits and dodging around. Although the fire breaths were not fatal, Garm would suffer burns every time he was hit, and Tsutomu would have to hurry and heal him.

And the breath was but one attack from the Dragon’s arsenal; it frequently attempted to crush the three under its gargantuan body, and also relentlessly slashed them with its remaining black claws, each easily able to shatter boulders. The most troublesome was its bite, telegraphed by its neck squeezing in then streaking out like an arrow; not only was it fast, it was so powerful that even Garm would likely die instantly if he were to be caught. To top them all off, now that it’s attacks were indiscriminate, the three could not afford to let their guards down.

Camille, in Dragon Form, stepped on Tsutomu’s > pick-up before approaching the berserk, tattered Fire Dragon. She tried sneaking in from the direction of its crushed eye and going for its neck with her greatsword, but got caught when the Dragon noticed her on the way.

The Fire Dragon was now extremely wary of attacks targeting it faced, so destroying its other eye would be quite difficult. Moreover, Camille’s movements had been gradually growing sluggish, perhaps due to her repeated uses of the Dragon Form. Having just taken a heavy blow, she was now receiving treatment from Tsutomu.

It had already been eight hours overall since they had come to the fifty-ninth layer and started fighting the Fire Dragon. Even Tsutomu, who hadn’t moved much, had built up quite a bit of fatigue.

And Garm, who had been working alone as a Tank, was not in good shape. Despite having Heal and Medic, eight straight hours of combat had greatly dulled his concentration. It was evident in the increased number of hits he was taking.

He had already switched out his busted equipment three times, but now his tower shield looked like it was on the verge of breaking again. Although Tsutomu had prepared plenty of spares, he would need to put up a Barrier each time they had to be replaced.

Having expected the Fire Dragon battle to be a long one, Tsutomu regularly put up a > every thirty minutes to allow Garm at least a ten-second break, keeping the latter’s load down. He would also use > and other situational support skills on these occasions, but not to the extent that would generate excess aggro.

Despite taking in Tsutomu’s > and >, one did not simply cure mental stress. Although > cured status effects, and there did exist a status effect called ‘Fatigue,’ > shots couldn’t simply cure one’s fatigue that had accumulated over the past eight hours.

Moreover, it had already been two hours past the six-hour window in which the team had planned to finish the job. Camille’s initial setback had cost them too much time, further burdening Garm. Now, Tsutomu regretted that he had curbed the team’s overall firepower a bit too much; he had thought that if Camille were to be attacked by the Fire Dragon, she would break down again.

Eight hours of exposure to the Fire Dragon’s attacks had greatly drained away Garm’s physical and mental conditions; he had already gone far past his limits.

[This isn’t looking good,] Tsutomu thought to himself, though he didn’t let it show on his face as he shot a > for Garm. The Fire Dragon stayed stubborn as ever, while Garm was just about out of steam; Tsutomu was utterly bewildered by the unexpected turn of events.

Tsutomu had tried doing some calculations as he had always done in the original video game, subtracting Camille’s attack power from the Fire Dragon’s life force. Initial setbacks had thrown the estimates out of whack, but Camille’s firepower ended up being more than enough to make up for it after she had regained her Dragon Form.

And according to the calculations, the Fire Dragon must have been almost completely exhausted by now, but it still showed no signs of giving out; it was as if it had an unlimited supply of stamina. It had bled again and again over the course of the fight, and each time, it desperately seared its wounds with its own fire. That was what had kept its blood loss to a minimum, in turn preventing its energy from being exhausted.

It was obvious that the Dragon was weakening, though; its breathing had grown extremely faint at this point. Since its movements had not slowed down much, however, the team could not afford to let their guard down. Considering Tsutomu’s VIT rating, he certainly would be gravely injured by a single hit no matter which of the Dragon’s attack it was, so he had to be especially careful.

As much as he would like to finish off the Fire Dragon as soon as possible — for the sake of the team’s hard-working Tank — it still was uncertain whether an all-out-attack would be enough to bring it down. Thinking numerically, Tsutomu had absolute confidence that it would; the uncertainty came from how alive and active the Fire Dragon still seemed.

Tsutomu was at a loss here; should they keep up the same strategy, or have everyone go full offensive? First thinking he would ask the two others for their opinions, he cast > on Garm. But then…

Tsutomu turned pale, his eyes pried wide. Garm suddenly collapsed, dropping his shortsword and crashing right onto the ground.

He had neglected to watch his footing for a second, and as a result, tripped over a gash in the ground — a gash previously caused by the slashes of the Fire Dragon’s black claws.

“GARM!!”

A gigantic foot-shaped shadow loomed over Garm.

It was the Fire Dragon’s front foot — it stomped down, erasing Garm’s figure under its massive size and sinking in a hole in the earth.

As soon as the Fire Dragon raised its foot, Tsutomu waved his staff.

“>! Camille! Attack its front leg! >!”

While the Dragon had its foot up, Tsutomu shot > bullets at Garm… But then it stomped down again. And again, and again, each time letting out a deadly cry, as if it was exerting all the energy it could muster. Tsutomu kept on shooting Heal at Garm in between each of the three stomps.

Camille, under Tsutomu’s direction, spread her wings and closed in on the Fire Dragon, prompting it to raise its front foot in a frenzy. She streaked her greatsword across as she passed the leg, drawing blood from its forefoot.

The Fire Dragon flinched and screamed. Tsutomu rushed to peer into the newly-stomped hole in the ground, checking to make sure that no particles had dispersed from it. Garm was right there, covering his head with his tower shield.

After confirming that the Fire Dragon had turned its hostility onto Camille instead, Tsutomu set up a > pick-up in the direction she was heading.

“Camille!　Focus on dodging it!　Don’t die!”

After giving his instruction, Tsutomu used > and descended down the hole to get Garm.

Garm was coughing up a lot of blood. Tsutomu, deducing that Garm’s organs had probably been crushed, put his hands on the latter’s abdomen and cast >. Then, he pulled out the Green Potion bottle from his belt, uncorked it, and had Garm chug it down.

Garm’s recovery completed a few moments later. He pulled his arms out of the ground, then slowly unstuck the rest of his body.

“A-are you all right?” Tsutomu asked, nervous from the sight of the state he was in.

In response, Garm coughed violently, puking out more blood, staining his silver armor a deep red, and then spat out a broken tooth.

“I think we should switch to an all-out offensive. You don’t have to push yourself to Tank anymore.”

While Tsutomu suggested to him so, Garm bent his left arm — which had been bent the wrong way — back into shape, and he did the same with the dislocated fingers on his left hand. Tsutomu cringed away from the painful, cracking sounds.

Garm then reached for a potion on his belt, but saw that even the impact-resistant bottles had been broken, its contents leaked onto the ground. Tsutomu offered Garm a Green Potion from his own belt; the latter readily accepted, immediately chugging half of it down. He then handed it back to Tsutomu and proceeded to spin his arms and wriggle his fingers around, re-calibrating his senses.

“Well then, let’s get going,” Tsutomu said before casting > for both himself and Garm.

But then, when he was about to ascend, Garm grabbed him by the shoulder, pinning him down with greater strength than > lifting power.

“Why would I need to stop Tanking now?”

“Huh?”

“Let me see this through to the end.”

Tsutomu almost screamed upon seeing the ghastly look in Garm’s eyes. Garm then released his hand from Tsutomu’s shoulder and proceeded to ascend, blood dripping from his armor all the while.

“I’m wide awake now. You can leave the Tanking to me.”

“O-okay…”

“And I’ll leave my back to you.”

As soon as he finished saying that, Garm leaped up and exerted the most willpower he could into his >, enveloping the Fire Dragon with provocative energy as it chased after Camille.

“COME ON!!” Garm shouted, his voice slightly gurgling as if he still had some blood in his throat.

In response, the Fire Dragon broke its attention from Camille, turning instead to Garm and raising its voice in opposition.

The Dragon was certain that it had stepped on him. Now, it wondered how he was still alive.

Confused, it then alternated its line of sight between Camille and Tsutomu, the latter of whom had just climbed out of the stomp hole; that moment, the pointy end of Garm’s tower shield pierced into its crushed eye, as if to gouge it out. The shield, still vibrating under the effect of >, vehemently shook the Dragon’s head.

“You’re up against me!”

As his tower shield returned, Garm caught it with his left hand. His mouth crooked in twisted amusement, producing the look of a hound cornering his prey.

The Dragon was disturbed; the tiny, insignificant creature in front of it was now intimidating in its eyes. It landed on all-fours and charged at Garm.

Camille, who had been doing her best dodging the Fire Dragon’s attacks in mid-air, landed beside Tsutomu. Although she hadn’t been under fire for long, she was sweating profusely.

“Garm sure is amazing, isn’t he? Well, I did think he was already quite strong to begin with, but…”

“He’s the best Tank we could ever ask for.”

Tsutomu pointed his chin and puffed up his chest slightly, to which Camille gave a dry smile before turning back to Garm, observing the latter as he drew the Fire Dragon’s aggro.

“You are amazing, too, of course!”

“Why, thank you… >.”

Tsutomu measured the effect duration of > as he spoke; once it was up, he shot another an earthy-yellow energy ball at Garm.

“Thanks to Garm’s efforts, I think we’ll be able to win this without casualty. We’ll keep up the same strategy… Just don’t go in recklessly expecting your next hit to take it down just because it looks weak, all right? I’m really going to lose my temper if you do that.”

“As if. I really don’t think I can take on that monster alone, anyway.”

“Hmm, good. Looks like you’re perfectly fine. Let’s get going, then — and please be careful not to build up too much aggro.”

“I got this!”

Camille held up her greatsword and flew away; Tsutomu placed a > pick-up in the direction she was headed. In a burst of speed, Camille slashed at the Fire Dragon’s hind legs.

For another thirty minutes, Garm baited the Fire Dragon, Camille attacked without generating excessive aggro, and Tsutomu kept on shooting his support and recovery skills.

Now the Fire Dragon was finally in a near-death state, all its four legs limping on the ground. Tsutomu waved his hand, signaling Camille as she flew in from above.

“…Go!”

“>!”

Camille, in her Dragon Form, covered her greatsword with blue energy, descended, then swung down on the Fire Dragon’s long neck.

The Dragon’s head fell down to the ground, severed. It landed in front of Tsutomu, its tongue sticking out.

Red particles dispersed from the Fire Dragon’s body. Then came a cracking sound… as the Black Gate emerged to greet the three.

“…All right!”

Tsutomu pumped up his fists, then turned to his side and raised both his hands to Garm, who had dropped his tower shield to the ground. Garm, knowing what Tsutomu wanted, cracked a smile.

“OH YEAH!!”

This time, Tsutomu and Garm properly high-fived… and then they both were tackled down by Camille, who had thrown her greatsword away and rushed in to hug them.