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CHAPTER 10: MY HERO~

As soon as I resurrect on my bed, I scramble to the edge of it and swipe at the mirror to make it display the inside of the throne room. All the while, tremors shake the tower, as if someone was using a giant hammer to try and topple my temporary residence. That must be one heck of a battle going on down there.

Good thing this place is enchanted.

I’m actually a bit afraid of what will happen if the curse gets broken.

Suddenly, lightning explodes right outside my window. Momentarily distracted from the mirror, I blink away the white spots in my vision.

…Was that a tribulation lightning?

More like a bad foreshadowing lightning.

“…Eh.” I shrug and turn back to the mirror.

The first thing I see is a black blur speeding across the image. It is followed by another tremor. The crystal chandelier sways, casting moving shadows around the room, and some dust even trickles from the ceiling.

Damn.

Agreeing with my inner voice, I control the mirror to change the angle of the…the camera, I suppose? How do you call an omnidirectional magical invisible spying device?

A magic drone?

…fair’nuff.

I manipulate the viewing angle of the invisible magic drone and zoom out to get a better view of the entire throne room. Of course, the one I noticed first is Kalameet. The Soul Dragon is standing proudly on its summoning circle, at the end of the central aisle, gigantic and translucent. But don’t let its ethereal appearance fool you. This creature is more than capable of dishing out a mean punishment. Having been on the receiving end of many of its tail-whips, I can attest to that.

Thankfully, that means he can also be armed through mere physical means. Even though…I wouldn’t recommend going against any dragon, of any kind, without at least a magical swor— armou— tank. I’m not speaking about the role “tank” in a party. I’m talking about an actual, armoured, military assault vehicle.

Personally, I use a mecha…or used. I can’t cast that giant holy armour spell in this body. Not only is my holy magic locked, but I’ve tried taking out holy items from my inventory.

I died.

…

Turns out vampires are very sensitive to holy magic.

Who knew?!

…

But enough about me.

Seeing as the dragon hasn't been unsummoned yet, its opponent should still be alive...somewhere. I search the piles of rubble that fill the room. They really did a number of the architecture.

This pisses me off. Why am I the only one left out of the fun?

Movement catches my attention in one corner of the room. This should be where that blur went flying earlier. On the floor, there is a pile of large rocks, presumably fallen from the wall where a large person-shaped hole has been imprinted. A gauntlet punches out of the heap and shoves the largest piece of stone aside.

From that action alone, I can guess the strength of that person. I try to make a rapid mental calculation of how many attribute points would need to be invested in the [Strength] stat to reach that kind of shoving power, but I quickly give up. Mental calculation is not my forte. Suffice to say…a lot of points.

Did this guy single-mindedly invest all his point in a single stat? That’s a bit extreme, isn’t it?

You’re one to talk, Mrs Ultimate Glass Cannon.

Not by choice, Brainy. Not by choice…

The rocks continue to fly left and right, and soon the body of this surprise challenger—whom I still have no idea where from he popped up—emerges out of the rubble.

I let out an appreciative whistle. “Huuuuge~”

Hehehehehe…

Not. Another. Word.

This guy as to be close to eight feet high. Nothing lower than seven-and-a-half feet at the very least. His whole body is covered in a dented and blackened armour, helmet included—I can’t see an inch of skin—and in his hand is an imposing tower shield decorated with the face of a sleeping woman. The ancient stone floor cracks under the weight of the shield when the man uses it as a crutch to pull himself up.

Each of his movements is slow and powerful and exudes a feeling of heaviness that sends shivers down my spine. The mere thought of standing next to such a behemoth… On one hand, I’m itchy to fight against him in my former body, on the other hand… I’m not sure what’s on the other hand…but it’s doing weird things to my body.

Hehehehehe…

Will you stop giggling?!

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

Also, his slow and heavy movements partially confirm my guess he did focus all his points in [Strength]. And maybe [Vitality], judging as he seems relatively fine after being thrown across a room and crashing into a stone wall. A pure tank. I wonder what his class is.

His armour, however, while impressive, looks to be on the cheaper side. I can see it’s on the verge of falling to pieces.

My mind wanders to the suit of armour stored in one of the rooms of this tower. I had intended to take it for myself for when I regain my original appearance, but maybe I could gift it to this guy? I can always make myself a new armour, and my equipment tend to get broken fast. I have to admit it would be a shame to destroy such a fine piece of gear.

I put that idea on a mental post-it. That’s only food for thoughts as long as he hasn’t defeated Kalameet. I return my focus to the battle.

I watch as the dragon watches the slowly approaching player—I assume—who watches him right back.

The armoured warrior stops a few paces away from the giant beast. For a few seconds, all three of us, the two opponents and the unseen peeper observer, remain tensed and unmoving.

Then dragon lets out a deafening roar—well, I suppose it’s deafening because I’m still hearing nothing—and charges forwards. Immobile as a rock, the player only slightly lifts his shield in response. I’m confused. Even I can see there is just no way this shield will stop the humongous beast. But at the same time, I can’t look away. There is something strangely fascinating in seeing a duel with such overwhelmingly unbalanced odds, and where the disadvantaged party isn’t pissing their pants in fear.

I stare with more focus that I remember ever gathering, expecting against expectations for some miracle to happen and that the shield-wielder will somehow succeed in blocking the dragon.

But the miracle doesn’t occur.

The saurian spirit reaches the player, destroying a nearby column in its charge, and it violently head-butts the comparatively smaller body.

I must say, while seeing a dragon head-butt anything is already a spectacle, what’s even more phenomenal is the speed at which its target went flying. In fact, if not for the cloud of smoke which erupted at the other end of the room and the tremor which once again shook the tower, I would have sworn armour-dude teleported. One instant he was there, and the next, he wasn’t. I can’t help but cringe sympathetically. This must have hurt.

But this lack of sound is really starting to bother me. “How did I mute things in the first place, again?” Looking away from the mirror for a second, I fiddle with my interface in search for the sound controls. When I find them, I quickly push the icon to unmute the game.

“KILL THEM ALL!! DRINK THEIR BLOOD!! BATH IN THEIR BLOOD!! CURSE THEM!! HATE!! DEATH TO ALL OF THEM!! KILL!! KILL!! KILL!! SLAUGHTER THEM TILL THE LAST CHILD!! STRANGLE THEM IN THEIR SLEEP!! DRAIN THEIR BLOOD!! KILL!!”

Oh, Jesus, I had almost forgotten about her.

“AMBROSE BE DAMNED!! BASTARD!! OATHBREAKER!! RASCAL!! TRAITOR!! SMALL PENIS!! TRAITOR!! YOU WRETCHED LOWLIFE OF A SLIMY LOUSE!!”  

Well, not that this isn’t entertaining, but…

“GOAT FUCKER!!”

“WILL YOU SHUT UP?!?!?!”

“………”

“Ahhh… Better. It’s already hard enough to hear myself think with one voice in my head. I don’t need another with volume-management issues.”

“…......kill?”

“Yeah, sure, sure. We’ll kill whoever you want later. But please keep quiet for a while, okay?”

“………………death.”

“I’ll take that as a ‘yes’, tentatively?” I wait for a good minute, but the voice of the demented princess doesn’t come out again. Eh. Was it that easy?

Seems like it. Good riddance.

What? Don’t like having a roommate?

That’s not how it works. I’m really in here. She’s just a gimmicky sound effect with an AI behind it.

You have no sense of romance.

…Were you not watching the fight?

Oh! Right!

Leaving aside the superfluous consideration of what’s real and what’s not, I return my attention to the battle ongoing on my mirror-screen...just in time to see the armoured player being sent flying once again, crashing through several columns this time. “Ouch.” I wince. It seems even more painful with the sound on.

I sit cross-legged on the bed, one elbow resting on my knee and my cheek resting on my fist, while I resume pretending to eat popcorn.

“I really can’t figure out this guy’s strategy,” I comment after seeing him get once more propelled across the room.

Does he even have one? Looks like he’s just taunting the dragon to me.

Seems like it.

What I can’t wrap my head around is that I haven’t seen Kalameet use its fire-breath once since the beginning.

That’s easier. Most tank classes have at least one skill that forces the enemy to use only physical attacks.

Yeah. But those usually have a very short duration, right? Plus the cool-down time. It would work only against monsters that have a very low attack rate.

Like…only attacking every few minutes or so…?

“Yeah…But where do you find a boss that does that?” I scrunch my eyebrows, trying to come up with more strategy than I am used to. “Hypothetically, there would be a need to strictly manage the monster’s aggressiveness, by seeming threatening enough that it wouldn’t just trample you, but not too threatening that it would panic and try to finish you off right away.”

There are skills for that too.

“I know there are skills for all this!” I throw my hands up. “But they all would have different effects and cool-down times. That’s just a recipe for headache.”

So you say…there is no way someone could force a monster, let’s say, for example, a dragon, to stay in one place and only head-butt them every once in a while to pace the damage rate with the regeneration rate of their own Health Pool while they think of a winning strategy?

I explode in laughter. “HAHAHAHA!! Right! As if that would be pos…si…” I blink slowly, then swivel my head so fast towards the mirror I’m surprised I didn’t lose HPs from whiplash. “No way…”

Yes way.

Finding nothing to retort to my inner voice, I stare in bemusement as the armoured player—now with his armour really in tatters—once again comes standing in front of the Soul Dragon, which once again had made no move to attack while its opponents calmly made his way to his current spot.

“No fudging way…” I repeat pointlessly.

Yes bloody fucking way.

After another few seconds of staring contest, the dragon, as if snapping out of a trance, roars again and rushes forwards, knocking off columns in its stampede. You’d think, by now, it would have run out of columns to topple.

Only when I think this do I notice that the player isn’t actually standing at the same spot as it was the previous time. I frown. Is there a meaning to this?

I can’t exactly remember when was the last time I did this, simply sitting down to try and seriously analyse someone else’s moves and strategies. I usually just go with the flow, using my rather heteroclite arsenal of spells, artefacts and random gizmos to get by. There is just no point in hurting my brain trying to guess what the enemy is planning. I know they can’t be prepared for everything I have in stock. There has to be something that will catch them off guard at some point. And, honestly? It’s funnier for me that way.

But here, I can feel a doubt creeping in my mind. If there really is a player who can manipulate something like a dragon—a freaking dragon—to such an extent, and if this isn’t just a fluke or some kind of skills combination that is only useful in this very specific situation…could I beat such a player? I’m less than sure.

This is a bit depressing.

Yeah…

So depressing.

Nick.

Hmm…Yes?

You’re smiling.

......Am I?

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