Chapter 62 [Dragon 2 - Interception]
Immediately, everyone moved to Crevasse. We prepared for interception. As Crevasse's team is still uncertain in terms of abilities, the initial attack will be carried out by my group and the Cave team. Crevasse's team will be the second wave.
The dragon descended to the ground, glared at us as if mocking, and roared. In light novels, roaring is depicted as causing shivers, but in reality, it doesn't. The dragon's roar does have an intimidating effect, but Crow and the Cave team, with their absurd magical powers, remained unaffected.
The dragon's roar could make enemies cower, even though it was a young dragon. Crow and the Cave team, oblivious to the potential threat, approached carelessly.
If we had realized Crow's group's capabilities at that moment, we might have had a chance against the young dragon. However, reality proved harsh for the foolish.
"As expected... a young... dragon."
"Yes, and ignorant. Approaching without any caution. Educate them."
At my command, Keen's fireball appeared in front of the wretched dragon—more like it would engulf its head at that size. Caught off guard, the dragon roared—or - rather, screamed—in surprise and pain. Rocks struck the dragon's body in the opening created. Though sturdy, the dragon suffered minimal damage, but it couldn't retaliate immediately.
Shaking its head like mad, just as it opened its mouth to breathe fire, Rai's high-speed water jet pierced into the dragon's mouth. Rai's water flow easily cut through rock, and the dragon's mouth wasn't covered in tough skin. It reached not only the mouth but possibly the throat. The dragon spewed blood from its mouth.
The dragon's eyes revealed anger, resentment, or perhaps fear. After staring at Crow's group for a moment, it spread its wings and took off, intending to create distance.
The edgy dragon ascended into the sky and adjusted its posture. It planned to counterattack from a position out of our reach. However, if you plan to fly, we have a trick up of our sleeves as well.
We had been contemplating tactics against dragons. The main issue was that, despite having the highest magical power, I couldn't use any offensive magic. While my subordinates had become stronger, hunting a dragon—without letting it escape—remained challenging. The dragon likely had a longer attack range as well.
To hunt a dragon, it was crucial to disable its flight and mobility early on. The idea of me using flight magic for a direct assault was quickly dismissed. I wasn't too fond of that strategy either.
Instead, we came up with the idea of a dive bombing—launching a projectile with the energy of a rapid descent. However, after careful consideration, this was also rejected. Dive bombing required occupying a position much higher in the sky than the enemy, and hitting a freely moving dragon was deemed nearly impossible. When I suggested that a falcon hunting a small bird might be a comparable scenario, I was met with skepticism due to my lack of confidence in agility.
Next, the proposal was to project a projectile using wind magic. However, this, too, was discarded after experimentation. While wind magic could provide the launch energy, sustaining propulsion was impossible. At least with my current wind magic, maintaining a continuous wind force to keep up with a fast and evasive opponent was unachievable. The aim quickly deviated.
Certainly! Here's the edited version:
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Then, how about I hold it and fly to the middle of the flight, and let go of it in the middle of the flight? If I alone transfer during the flight, the mass of the kinetic body will be reduced while the kinetic energy remains the same. According to the law of conservation of energy, the energy to move the lost mass should be used to increase the velocity of the projectile. With my disappearance, air resistance will also decrease rapidly, and the velocity will increase rapidly. It should be possible to catch me off guard.
Just... how much effect will the disappearance of one person's mass really have? If my mass is small compared to the mass of the bullet, I think the effect of the disappearance is within the margin of error. In other words, if we expect a rapid increase in velocity, the bullet body must be small and light, which means that the striking force will be small. Considering that the bullet would fly at high speed, the timing of the transition is also expected to be quite severe, and this idea was also shelved.
The final conclusion was that the bullet body should be made of dungeon walls, and its unique ability should be utilized.
The unique ability of dungeon walls is that they can instantly absorb the energy applied to them and neutralize the attack. While experimenting with flight magic, I noticed that when using the "Broken Dungeon" skill to create a dungeon wall, I could specify the type of energy to be absorbed. Just as the default setting was to not neutralize gravitational force, there is no problem using the dungeon wall as a bullet body if it is set to not absorb physical impact. Apparently, this is the specification for using dungeon walls for attacks.
If the energy of gravity is absorbed and nullified, it is possible to shrug off gravity's control and fly out into space. The earth rotates at a speed of about 0.47 kilometers per second. The Earth's rotation speed is about 0.47 kilometers per second, or 170 kilometers per hour, or about Mach 1.4. As far as the length of a day and gravity are concerned, this world is probably similar to the earth. An indestructible shell given that much speed should be enough of a threat to dragons.
I was relieved that this would work... but then I thought about it and realized that the rotation velocity would be that much greater at the equator. The climate here is similar to that of Europe, so it is considered to be at a reasonably high latitude. The radius of rotation is smaller by that amount. In other words, the speed will also decrease. It is becoming doubtful whether an effective blow can be delivered.
We thought about having the bullet absorb the energy of the orbital motion, but even if we cleared the troublesome problems of the inertial system, the earth's orbital speed would be about 30 kilometers per second, or more than 100,000 kilometers per hour. Considering air resistance, no matter how small the bullet body is, it could generate a shock wave that would be unfashionable. I mean, the most dangerous person is me in the shooter's position. I would not do such a dangerous thing, even if it is an experiment.
We were at a loss at first, but after examining the capabilities of the dungeon wall in detail, we discovered that it can also release the energy it has absorbed. However, this is really only an emission, and it does not seem to be able to direct the energy in a certain direction. The only exception to this was gravity - or rather gravitation.
Perhaps due to the nature of universal gravitation, it was only possible to specify the direction and target of the energy when manipulating the gravitational energy. In short, a homing missile. This would not miss, but the problem was speed and striking power. It absorbs the potential energy of the projectile, converts it to kinetic energy, and sends it flying... After trying it several times, it seems to be accelerated in the same way as free-fall. If I recall correctly, the speed of an object falling 50 meters would eventually reach more than 100 kilometers per hour if air resistance is not taken into account, and more than 80 kilometers per hour if the object falls 30 meters. In reality, it would probably drop slightly because of air resistance, but if a speed of nearly one hundred kilometers could be achieved, it would be manageable because of its tracking performance.
The material of the bullet body is a dungeon wall, so I can set the density and weight at will... suppressed, although it seems that the laws of physics are being disregarded at this point to begin with... don't think about it.
... Oh, this is not the time to get lost in reminiscence.
I used my "broken dungeon" skill to create five dungeon walls and shaped them into a sphere the size of a volleyball. The sharpness of the walls may increase their penetrating power, but compared to the dragon's massive body, they are still just small caliber bullets. Rather than aiming for penetration, it would be more effective to strike it with all of its kinetic energy as an impact without allowing it to penetrate.
After aiming and neutralizing the gravitational force and using wind magic to increase the initial velocity, the five shells flew toward the dragon while accelerating. The dragon was unable to evade the bullets and was hit by the five shells. The impact of the collision was not neutralized and penetrated the dragon's scales. One shot to the base of the right wing, one to the left wing, one to the left flank, one to the knee of the right leg, and one to the dove tail in the solar plexus. This took away his mobility. All that remained was to hunt the dragon as it crashed to the ground.
The falling dragon opened its mouth as if it were going to spit out a breath. But suddenly, the dragon was sprawled out, breathing fire as if in agony. Keane has created a fireball in the back of its throat. Even a dragon can't stand that. The breath doesn't come from the back of the throat but from the front of the mouth. The back of the throat should not be resistant to fire.
As if in pursuit, red water flows out of the ears. Did Rai shoot a high-speed water stream into the ear? At the very least, it's in the inner ear and possibly the brain, too. The rock barrettes hit the eye, the tip of the nose, and the wound like a storm. It must be Slay and Winn. I wonder if Haifaa's alter ego, the one who split her stock in the dungeon at Crevasse, is in the mix, too.
The two of them are in the dungeon in Crevasse! Make it easy on them!
Under my command, the Crevasse forces that had been holding back until then joined the attack. A wild dance of fire magic, water magic, and earth magic battered the dragon like mad. The dragon, which had stubbornly resisted the attack, was unable to hold back when it was seared by the fire from the inside of its belly and eventually sank.
...
The dragon was so exhausted that he could no longer hold back as the fire seared his belly. Let's have a party with fresh meat right away. We'll dungeonize this place and store it away before the humans notice, so go back to Crevasse for now.
"Master, ... Crevasse is too small to hold ...