It was on the ropes; though the wounded dragon attempted to swing its claws and use its tail to dwindle the numbers of those attacking it, the united effort of Gunter's defense and Vildren's impeccable skill with the sword to deflect such strikes, allowed the others to continue their assault unimpeded.
"Do it…!" Vildren shouted from the top of his lungs.
At that moment, the perfect opportunity was found as Jett invoked [Burst], granting himself enough agility to run up the dragon's body at a vertical angle, scaling it within a moment as he leapt up, looking down upon it, meeting those harsh eyes with his own.
As it tried snatching him into its jaws, the dragon's attempt was shut down as the flaming greatsword belonging to Jiao pierced through the left of its mouth, the enchanted blade of Edith stabbed into the right, and Alex landed on its snout, slamming his blade down through its nose. The united effort of his loyal familiars completely locked down the beast from any attempt to breathe out its lethal breath or snap its jaws.
"Do it, Master!" Edith shouted.
Jiao was grinning, though strained as he held his greatsword to keep the beast from thrashing free, "--Show 'em hell!"
"Ghh…!" Alex struggled not to be thrown off.
There was no clearer shot for him as he gripped both of his weapons tightly, landing down atop the head of the black-scaled dragon.
It was up to him; the deciding blow was just that—deciding. The very nature of battle was so; perhaps if another moment was taken, people would die, perhaps the beast would launch a counterattack.
However—
Jett Levine did not leave such things to "chance", instead invoking everything he had in that moment to guarantee victory.
[Burst] enhanced his body, igniting his internal mana like nitro to his body's engine, supercharging himself before he slammed both of his weapons down.
SQUELCH
"RAAAAAAARGH—!!!"
Having its flesh so viscerally pierced, the Abyss Dragon did not accept it without a fight, thrashing about as it knocked some of the warriors to the side.
"Ghh—!" Vildren winced, finding himself being flung back, "Jett!"
Atop the colossal beast's skull, he kept his blades lodged into its head, finding that he didn't pierced deep enough quite yet for a lethal blow.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm getting there!" He muttered.
It was a feeling in his heart that had been forming from the very moment he arrived from the Transport Crystal, but then, at the climax of it all, it flourished in a passion he had never felt before.
Seeing others of this world, talking to them, seeing them fight with everything they had–the world that felt foreign now felt close to his heart; it was real, and he wasn't going to let anything happen to it.
[Lesser Bolt!]
The electricity coiled around his arms before traveling down his enchanted blades and driving into the beast's head; both frost and lighting embedded themselves as destructive elements within its flesh.
—Finally, it stopped as the elements struck it from within, dropping down as the others around it dispersed so as not to be crushed beneath its mountainous weight.
[EXP: + 3000]
[Level Up]
[Level 20 -> Level 23] [250/3000]
[ATK: 27 | DEF: 27 | MAG: 39]
Silence followed the slaying of the grand beast; all eyes watched the rookie as he plucked his weapons from the head of the beast before slowly returning to his feet.
It was once he held up his leaf-made sword did the silence finally break with resounding cheers; the celebrations both of life and victory filled the basin valley.
'...This is my introduction to Fantasia! Wherever you are, 'Reverse King', I'm sure you'll hear about the rookie who slayed a dragon!' He thought.
After a life spent scraping the bottom of society, doing nothing of substance and living only day-to-day, what flooded through the body of the exhilarated man was a sensation he hadn't felt as far back as he could remember: standing triumphant amidst the resounding cheers, he felt alive.
Looking back, most of those below were busy celebrating–either jumping up and down, hugging one another, or profusely crying that they were still alive–though all of his faithful familiars watched him proudly.
A thumbs-up was given to them before he found himself suddenly being joined atop the dragon by Vildren, who was beaming with joy.
"Jett Levine, my friend!" Vildren said, embracing him, "--It's because of you that we were able to defeat this beast without tragedy."
"I don't know about all of that, you kept the morale up," he bashfully responded, though scratched his cheek as he looked at the man, "Still, were you serious about talking to the Guild about a potential promotion for me?"
"Of course! Bias aside, there is no doubt a bronze rank is not only a disrespect to your prowess, but an extreme oversight by the Guild, seeing as your skills could be put to much better use as a higher-privileged adventurer," Vildren told him.
"I see…If that's the case, then I can't say no!" He said, hardly hiding how badly he wanted the promotion.
–
The cleanup was left to an entirely different quest, which allowed non-participating adventurers to handle hauling the corpse of the dragon down the colossal mountain for verification, studying, and selling.
As for Jett, he returned to the cave, having to continuously assure Edith he didn't require healing, even if it did make her pout. The Transport Crystal was being used in order by adventurers seeking to return to the Merdlum Guild, which he stored his familiars before using it for himself. It was always quite the odd sensation witnessing all of his familiars be stored into the [Void Inventory], though he learned from asking a few of them that it was a pleasant experience for them–like a beauty sleep they couldn't achieve normally.
"Transport!"
It was that odd sensation once again, as if all gravity removed itself and his body was carried upon subtle ripples of space. There was nothing to do but stay with his thoughts through the brief process of being transported magically.
'I wonder how much they'll bump me up–that shaky guy, Johannes, I think? He said he was silver and one rank higher than me. I'd definitely kick that guy's ass any day of the week, so I better be promoted higher!' He thought.
–Just like that, once again, he suddenly found himself standing there in the back of the Guild Hall of Merdlum, blinking a few times as a tingling feeling was left throughout his body as a side-effect of the transportation.
"...That's definitely going to take some getting used to," he mumbled.
"There you are!"
He found himself suddenly hounded by a pair of unfamiliar faces; they were clearly adventurers from the Raid Quest as their leather-and-steel gear was dirtied and scratched, as was their skin, though he didn't recognize them.
"I saw you out there–that's some mean summoning magic you got there! Not to mention some crazy magic!" The left adventurer said, an energetic, short man with fuzzy, orange hair and a chipped tooth.
The right adventurer was tall and built broadly with a stomach that could hardly be contained by the armor he wore, nodding his head, "A bronze-rank taking out a dragon? The bards of Merdlum are going to be singing their hearts out tonight!"
"Err, thanks," he bashfully accepted their kind words with a chuckle.