“The Incursion is over, thanks to the great effort of everyone here.”

The projection of a misshapen baby addressed the people in the command room. Most of them were clearly suffering minor or major wounds from the battle.

Viers was crossing his arms on his seat, nodding in agreement. Dia sometimes peeked out from his pocket to steal a look at the unusual races.

“But the crisis is not over.”

That’s for damn sure, Viers thought.

There was a rampaging blue dragon shown on the new magic screen. This dragon was tearing everything apart with its mighty claws and water magic. The problem was, the dragon wasn't tearing some random tunnel in the middle of nowhere but Abby’s Dungeon body.

“The invaders left a vicious parting gift. The dragon must be dealt with as soon as possible.”

The faces of the chiefs were colored by unwillingness.

“Lady… I’ve agreed to help you for the Incursion and…”

“I want to help but my tribe has suffered terrible losses.”

“It’s different from our previous discussion. Blood was asked and has been paid.”

The orcs and goblins were spouting excuses. The truth was, they simply didn't want to face the dragon.

The Rank 4 dragon.

Because the Incursion was over by the virtue of all the invaders being dead, the Rank 4 dragon had no System limitation on it. The System washed its hands.

As Level 3s and 2s, they thought fighting the dragon would be a suicidal act and they weren’t wrong.

In this situation where every second was precious, Abby moved to persuade them. She needed them all together to repel the dragon, or so she thought.

“I’ll go.”

Everyone was silenced by the words and eyes went to the speaker.

“I have some responsibility for unleashing the dragon in the first place. Of course, I’ll need your support, Abby.”

“Tanael, you-” Abby had a complex feeling. “Can you repel it? I only need it to exit my body and I can immediately close the way.”

Abby didn't say kill, only chasing it away. She didn't have the delusion of killing the mighty beast.

“...It will be difficult,” Viers said with a stern expression. “But I’ll try. I hope you’ll take note of my contribution.”

“If you can drive the dragon out, I’ll give you all the Nutra that I have!” Abby said.

Gotcha!

Viers striked a winning pose inside his mind but on the outside, he closed his eyes, seemingly weighing a heavy decision for a while, and gave a firm nod.

“Oooh! The mighty human definitely can do it.”

“You are a warrior amongst warriors, Tanael.”

“May the fortunes of war be with you.”

The chieftains vomited praises which Viers ignored. His eyes were fixed on the projection of the beautiful, beautiful draconic. That mighty power, those regal horns, those sharp teeth, those shiny scales, that sleek body, and so on.

As long as it was a water dragon, Viers wasn't going to be picky about its form. He would hunt the monster. But as luck would have it, the dragon’s body type resembled the oriental dragon. His preference.

Even without Abby’s incentives, he would face the water dragon but he would not be Viers if he didn't try to squeeze even more benefits first. Perhaps it was because of the urgency of the situation, Viers got a massive amount of Nutra waiting for him.

“I’ve called for a reliable helper. He’ll be here shortly.”

***

Dragons were the top dogs among monsters. The guardian of House Glaz was a Rank 4 dragon. Viers was only a Level 3 and for all intents and purposes, weaker than any full-fledged Rank 4 monster, let alone Rank 4 dragon.

Since he didn't plan on dying anytime soon, it was safe to say Viers had some measure of confidence to prevail against the dragon.

There were actually three reasons. The first reason was his assets.

Viers stood in front of the rampaging dragon whose roar rivaled Godzilla’s. Viers stood his ground despite the wind pressure and Dragon Fear.

“Remember. We are strong. Together, we’ll win this.”

“Loud lizard is going down!” Chibi-Dia gave a thumbs down to the dragon while standing on top of Futon and beneath Faiya.

“Fuu!”

“Ya!”

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The second reason was the dragon’s state. It was not in its right mind. The dragon was crazed, mindlessly rampaging. At most, it might have possessed animal cunning but that was it. Human-level sentience was out of the picture. In his short soul search of the Glaz siblings, the dragon had some kind of complications from the start and that was before the younger sibling gave the wish for it to decimate everything.

But it was no concern of Viers. He wanted the dragon’s body and soul, not its mind. If anything, the battle would be somewhat easier.

“Boys and girls, we’ll eat ice cold dragon sashimi for breakfast.”

Viers transformed into a massive crab, the Gigadia Crab.

“GRAAAAWL!”

“Shululululu!”

Uwoooh! Come get some!

A house-sized dragon crashed against a bus-sized crab, the mass and speed heavily on the dragon’s side. Viers felt like a regular human getting trampled by a tank.

But his objective was not to win a monster sumo match but to pin down the dragon for a short while. If he could do that.

“Initiating transfer! Volcanic Wasteland!”

Abby could move the battle to somewhere favorable. While Viers' water abilities were similarly debuffed as the dragon, he decided it was more important to reduce the potency of the enemy.

Now’s the time!

The third reason was…

A masked figure held a shimmering blue crystal in his hand.

Arte - Aldebaran Shadow.

Arsène injected Viers’ Victa into the Rank 7 bull monster core, creating a projection of the demigod bull that let out an earth-shaking cry.

Abby’s eyes almost bulged out of her sockets. She was the only direct observer of the fight and the feeling consumed her like a tsunami.

Dark clouds gathered in the sky above the Dungeon and lightning drummed. The bull’s cry shook the cores of men and monsters who heard it. Every soul in Ebon Wall City and five other neighboring cities got implicated.

Viers didn't know it but around twenty people died from the shock.

The condition in the Carfax Peninsula in range of the Arte was an absolute frenzy. Monsters panicking and running away from the epicenter, creating a chaotic situation.

Viers last used the technique in the Book World, against the Devadom Orca prior to its consumption. Viers had polished the technique’s effectiveness even further, turning it into a functioning Arte. He’d never tried it since, because flaunting or utilizing a Rank 7 monster core was very risky but he had no choice in the matter.

As the main target, the dragon felt the effect of the Arte more than anyone. Dragon or not, the bull was a Rank 7. The hierarchy was clear and so it got suppressed.

While the dragon was stunned, Viers decked the dragon’s face with his heavily mutated pincer. He heard a satisfying sound from the punch.

Now, the true fight can begin.

Viers had more or less weakened the dragon to the point they stood on the same arena, Level 3.

“Shulululu!” Crab-Viers frothed bubbles.

So far so good. The next step was grinding it down. Even in the debuffed state, the dragon was still a strong monster. Viers suspected its HP bar would be very high, like those bullet-sponge bosses. Compared to Pathseekers, monsters were hardier after all.

The plan was the Gigadia Crab trading pound for pound while the trio familiars chipped its HP and Arsène acted as the overall support. Abby would also send her Dungeon creatures to help.

The plan went awry immediately.

The blue dragon recovered from the shock faster than he thought. Utilizing its long serpentine neck, the dragon bit Viers’ shoulder and savagely tore it away from the rest of his body. Gigadia’s carapace was like soft wood for the dragon fangs.

From his mental connection, the familiars were showing concern for him but they were in the middle of attacking, as per the plan so they couldn't move to assist. Arsène’s action was also delayed after casting the big Arte.

Viers got the oh shit moment when he saw the dragon’s mouth glowing with energy.

The hulking body of the crab was unsuitable for dodging, so he fortified his defenses using every measure he could in the short time available.

Every dragon kind’s powerful technique, the breath, hit Viers almost point blank!

It's suppressed, but still so much force? Uuooooh!!!

Hit by the Dragon Breath, the Gigadia Crab got huge chunks of missing flesh. The Breath was not fire but water, but while the element might have differed, the deadliness was not at all behind.

Arsène’s heart beat like a drum. If it was a normal monster, his other self’s state was certainly at the state of death. They both had underestimated the dragon!

“Eh?”

“Holy shit! My life’s flashing before me.”

From the remains of the crab monster’s corpse, Viers' regular human-sized body emerged.

“How?” Arsène asked with his mind.

“It seems monster form counts as an extra life! It’s super but now’s not the time. Continue the attack!” Viers replied to the telepathy call.

What would happen if he died in the monster form? Viers had thought of this question for a long time but he had no answer. It wasn't on purpose and he preferred to never know it but now he did.

If each of my renewable monster forms can act as a death shield each… Ohmygod. Am I actually closer to immortality than I previously thought?

Apparently his monster transformation ability hid an amazing feature that had eluded him.

“Ah! It’s Kin! Kin is alright!” Dia pointed out for her siblings.

But enough thinking. Viers had a battle to win.

“Alright, you three, stick to the plan! Show me the fruits of your training!”

There was the holy trinity of damage, tank, and heal in games. Viers’ party never lacked in damage but he fell short on the other two. Now, Viers had to act as the tank and Arsène as a makeshift healer.

Dia, Futon, and Faiya were attacking the dragon’s middle body.

Futon zapped with lightning and Faiya summoned a fireball. They both struck the target. At first glance what they did was not any different from before, however, something happened at the struck area. A secondary explosion occurred, further wounding the scaled body.

“My turn. Hyah!”

Dia’s tiny blast of vibrant green energy from her hand dealt very little damage on its own but the patch of green energy lingered.

Futon was about to follow but Arsène was faster, a flying water slash landed. It peeled off a single scale but that was not the true intent.

The result was a floating green fruit.

After a few seconds, the fruit of energy exploded violently, with a force stronger than the power of the previous two attacks combined.

Eheheh… Heheheheh… Khukhukhu- DWOAH!?

Viers’ concentration wavered a bit after seeing the sweet result of the tiny sprites’ training. His joy almost made him lose half of his body, again.

But now it couldn't be denied that they had finished the homework that Viers gave them, to find a way to synergize their different elements. Viers had given them clues but it was up to them to make it work.

And what they showed him just now was Electro plus Pyro to create Overloaded and Dendro plus Hydro to create Bloom.

Viers got the inspiration from a game that had made him open his wallet a few times.

Now that’s what I call chemical reactions!