It didn't take long before the sounds of
roaring echoed out into the valley, and tension grew among the adventurers, the
weapons in their hands gripped ever so tightly. Just any moment now, and the
raging monster would come bursting out the entrance.
They could already feel slight tremors on
the ground, and the doors of the dungeon visibly began to tremble just ever so
slightly.
If the undead Naga were to appear, it would
come barging into view from the right side of the door frame. This meant that
the adventurers would have little to no time to react, not to mention that
firing their spells recklessly upon sight might hurt the person luring the thing
out.
As such, there was to be a leader in charge
of timing their attacks. It wasn't Zhang anymore due to his plummet in
popularity after the whole Crimson Menace fiasco. It wasn't the Crimson Menace
herself either, as she was still slightly under suspicion. As such, the task to
lead had fallen upon the one and only… Heather.
"Uh… who was she again?" An adventurer in
their midst called out.
Well, she wasn't a bad leader by any means,
just not very well known, especially when compared to Zhang and the Crimson
Menace. If reputation couldn't help you, then it would have to be first impressions.
The thing is, her party consisted of only three people, which could be
interpreted as a lower capacity to lead. Regardless, the responsibility still
lay on her shoulders, and she wasn't about to disappoint.
By the way, her blessing allowed her to
selectively harden parts of her body, which allowed her to become very durable.
It was a type of metal magic, which was very common for the people born in
Dragonsteel, but her ability to use it had reached the next level.
She could harden her nails to become
weapons, harden her joints to prevent them from breaking, and was incredibly
acrobatic and agile to boot. And that only scratched the surface of what she could
do! Unfortunately, she had a weakness, which was coming up empty-handed in the
ranged attack department, something that Zhang had her beat. In the upcoming
battle, she would have to fight on the front lines.
Ezekiel, who was positioned towards the
back, suddenly perked up. He shouted to Heather in a hurry.
"I hear it! It's coming!"
Heather didn't miss a beat and quickly
ordered everyone to begin charging up their attacks. The adventurers didn't disobey,
despite their doubts, and did what they were told.
"Heh. She's trying to copy me."
Ezekiel raised his eye at Zhang, who had
just taken a jab at Heather's leadership ability. He didn't know what this
guy's ability was, but as ranged attackers, they had been grouped together at
the back.
"Uh… you the past leader or something?"
Ezekiel eyed the eastern man curiously.
Zhang didn't say anything in reply to his
question, but he was sure he could hear it. There was a slight frown forming on
the man's face.
'Guess he doesn't want to talk about it.'
Crash!
"It's here! Hold your fire!"
Sweat could be seen dotting many faces as
they anxiously waited for the order to fire. Almost everyone present had
already faced a giant skeleton, and many of them have hears stories of what an
alive Naga was capable of. Combined, they didn't know what to expect.
Over at the entrance, Kayden emerged
looking unscathed and beautiful. Yes, he was back to looking like goddess
incarnate, but the air of elegance around him wasn't present any longer.
"Uurk! My… stamina… hasn't improved!"
"[Right. To improve your stamina, you have
to increase your Endurance stat instead.]"
As he haggardly ran outside and tried
descending the steps as fast as possible, he heard a loud crash come from
behind him. Turning around, he could see the head of the Naga peaking out the
gates, its massive, slithering body just barely the right size for it to fit
through the entrance.
'It's close! Fffffffu—'
With a leap, he quickly skipped over half
of the staircase and urgently stepped to the side. For now, his job was
complete.
"Fire!"
An ear-splitting explosion that rocked the earth
resounded throughout the valley, and the undead Naga was blasted to the heavens
beyond. Kayden knew that this one volley wouldn't be enough, many more would be
needed to ensure its defeat. He then took this opportunity to silently slip
away.
[Total combined damage: -243!]
"Yikes. Glad they didn't hit me! Let's get
out of here."
With a snap of his fingers, he turned
invisible and easily snuck out of the battlefield. The sounds of massive explosions
over the chants of hymns of adventurers threatened to blow out his ears, but the
farther he got, the more soothed his ears. After all that running, he wanted to
find a safe place to catch his breath.
He immediately spotted a nice spot some
distance away, and eagerly ran ahead to sit himself on a smooth rock. Kayden
sat down and quickly collected his thoughts. There has to be some sort of way
for him to get the final hit.
"Operation Kill Steal isn't looking very good
at the moment. I don't have any hyper-offensive skills…"
"[Well… maybe you can just use that other
ability of yours…]"
Kayden waved it away.
"Out of the question. It barely works on
the undead, anyway."
"[If you say so... By the way, I do have an
idea, but it's quite dangerous. You'd probably die if you do this wrong,
though, so are you in?]"
Kayden was intrigued and motioned for Hel
to continue. Giggling, she began to propose her idea.
"[It's simple, really. Transform into a
bird, fly high above the Naga, and then transform into the heaviest animal you
know. Let gravity do the work for you!]"
Kayden was speechless.
"D-do you want me to die? Falling to the
ground as a bird knocked me out! Now you want me to fall as a… I don't know… a
thousand-pound bear? Besides, I'm not sure if I can transform into one without
looking at the real thing."
"[Hey, there's no time like the present! If
you really can't transform, I'll bring you to the realm of consciousness and
show you some footage.]"
Kayden had his mouth agape in disbelief. We're
really doing this?
"What happened to our lives being tied
together or something? Aren't you afraid that I'll die?"
"[Not really no.]"
Seeing the sour look on his face, Hel
cleared her throat before continuing,
"[Let me explain. Remember the time you
fell down as a bird? Well, it seems that only some damage carried over from the
injuries you suffered as a bird. Dying as an animal does not actually kill your
body, though of course, some injuries are to be expected.]"
"So that means…"
"[Yes. The plan is very feasible. Think of
transforming as gaining a new set of health points. While excess damage might
carry over to your human form, as an incredibly bulky bear, I doubt the excess
damage would be severe enough to kill you.]"
Kayden picked himself up from the ground
and stretched his limbs.
"Fine, I'm convinced. Just as a precaution
though, I'm going to ask for some help. I doubt that dropping out of the sky as
a bear would make for a very accurate attack. Tying down the Naga before I do
that would ensure I won't pancake immediately upon doing this suicidal attack. In
the meantime, I'll be trusting you with the calculations and timing!"
"[Right.]"
Turning invisible once again, Kayden ran towards
his allies.
***
After spending a few minutes chasing after
his scattered party members and explaining things to them, Kayden wasted no
time and quickly got to scaling the mountain. Though he would never forget the
strange looks they gave him when he explained his request. Now, all of them
thought he was some kind of suicidal weirdo, and his cheeks couldn't help but
burn up.
Thankfully, they all agreed to his weird
request, probably as thanks for all he had done. The strategy was simple. Aisha
would temporarily lead the adventurers to lure the Naga to a specific spot for
Kayden to target. Now all that was left for him to do was to dive-bomb the
undead.
The mountain he was scaling was steep but
didn't serve much of a challenge for a master acrobat like Kayden. Though getting
up there did take a toll on his stamina, his breath getting increasingly
haggard the closer he got to his destination.
Eventually, he reached a point on the
mountain where a somewhat flat surface lent him some well-deserved respite.
Looking down from above, the adventurers looked no bigger than a bug from his
point of view, bugs that swarmed all over a snake.
He estimated that the spot he was in should
be high enough to cause some serious damage. Both to the target, and himself.
If it wasn't high enough, he could simply fly high enough as a bird.
'Man. That thought is terrifying.'
The more he thought about it, the more he
got scared, so he quickly put it out of his mind. Now, he had to send a signal
to alert his allies that he was ready. With a finger gun, he shot an illusory red
flare into the sky, which should be visible enough for Ezekiel to see.
He had briefly considered replicating the
fireworks that Alice had made, but it was just a huge waste of mana to do so.
It probably wouldn't look as cool with this daylight anyway. And speaking of
mana…
"Hmm? I wanted the flare to be bright red,
but it's a dark crimson for some reason."
"[I see that. Looks like the mana poisoning
is kicking in. Using mana potions in this kind of environment is like playing
with fire, you know? I won't stop you since it's not life-threatening, but keep
in mind that this isn't the worst of it.]"
Kayden nodded and didn't say anything after
that. He was trying to gauge how the adventurers were faring against the Naga,
and his position up high on a cliff certainly didn't help. It's not that he was
afraid of heights, but rather, his vision had been rather blurry lately…
'W-woah…'
He blinked once, and that blurriness didn't
go away. He blinked again, but it remained stubborn and refused to clear up.
He began rubbing his eyes vigorously to no
avail before finally giving up and sighing.
"Nevermind… Hel, just tell me when to
jump."
"[Yeah.]"
And so for the next few minutes, Kayden
simply sat there, enjoying the mild breeze and the spectacle below. Just as
expected, the Naga was slowly but surely moving in his direction. A slew of
magical attacks blasted it from a single direction, forcing the Naga to back
into a corner, the agreed-upon spot for him to land on.
It blew a jet stream of poisonous, green
gas at the adventurers, trying to break their formation. Unfortunately for it,
the gas was very easily dispersed with various kinds of wind magic spells. If
this had been within the confines of the dungeon, it wouldn't have been nearly
this easy.
Any moment now, he would have to jump, and
it honestly felt like a coin flip for whether or not he was going to land
accurately.
Suddenly, a moment of clarity hit Kayden.
'Uh… why am I doing this again?'
Boom!
An earth-shattering sound resounded from
the bottom of the cliff, like a massive explosion had taken place. In fact, it
probably was an explosion. Kayden could feel the tremors and shockwaves even
from up here, and the small seed of worry in his heart began to blossom.
'What the heck was that?'
And things were about to take a turn for
the worse. For him.
"[Okay. Jump.]"
"Huh? What? Now?"
"[Yes! Now! Go!]"
Faced with no other choice, Kayden hurled
himself off the cliff with a small running start. The abruptness of the whole
thing made him not jump as far as he would have liked, but it was too late to
change anything now.
Shutting his eyes, he quickly thought of the
same bird he had transformed into before, and when he opened his eyes, he was met
with surprise.
'I did it!'
Unfortunately, there wasn't any time for
him to celebrate.
"[Bear. Now.]"
Kayden let out a deep breath… as a bird. It
came out sounding like some kind of weird squawk.
Having fought bears before, even killing
one or two, Kayden was familiar with its size, weight, looks, and even what the
meat tasted like. Surely, that would be good enough for him to transform.
He shut his eyes once again, and then
opened them. This time, he was a fully-grown bear, with fur the same color as
his hair. Its teeth and claws were sharp and menacing, but they certainly
wouldn't help here.
Before Kayden could regain his bearings,
like an anvil, the speed of his drop increased drastically until he looked like
a brown, blurry missile shooting straight toward the ground.
"[Kayden! Don't shut your eyes! Aim
yourself!]"
His new-found beady eyes snapped open, but
unfortunately, it was too blurry for him to see much. Everything just spun, so,
much. Not only that, with his body performing somersaults and flailing wildly
in the air, he was starting to get very sick.
'Urrrrgghhhh!'
BAM!
…
[Skeletal Naga has been killed! You gain 42,465
EXP! (Kill)]
[You level up! (Gain one stat point)]
[You level up! (Gain one stat point)]