Soleil hit the wall with a dull crash.

The undead drake released a guttural roar as half of its head was shattered from her kick. Taking advantage of the momentary lapse in its attention, Matthias drew close and attempted to sever its foreleg with a diagonal slash infused with various magical enhancements. His blade sliced through its rotten skin easily. But, it could not go past its bones.

“Tsk.”

He leaped backward to put some distance between him and the boss. His hand that held the sword was shaking violently. There was a large chip on the blade as well.

Another thunderous sound echoed. Soleil exploded from the wall and shot herself towards the giant undead, leaving a trail of dust and rubble behind. However, unlike the many low-ranked zombies and skeletons that roamed the outside corridors, the undead drake possessed a modicum of intelligence. It knew to protect its severely-damaged head and even tried to counterattack with its razor-sharp claws. But, like the mythical unstoppable spear, Soleil broke through the drake’s claws instantly. The momentum of her charge carried her through its arms, annihilating its entire appendage before crashing once again on the ground.

Even from a distance, Matthias felt the ground tremble in response to Soleil’s actions. Each of her moves carried so much power that even the hard bones of a drake couldn’t withstand it. Their enemy, despite being undead, was far from fragile.

A drake was a lower A-rank monster. Basically, it was a dragon that had exchanged its wings with stronger limbs. Similar to real dragons, they had the ability to breathe fire, scales harder than steel, brilliant intellect, and extraordinary strength. They also possessed extremely long lifespans; the oldest drake ever recorded was over a thousand years old, and served as a guardian deity to both the dwarves and the elves.

They were the closest things to true dragons, who have been expelled from that world by the gods many thousands of years ago.

But when they became undead, they became significantly weaker; an entire rank weaker. Though they retained their powerful limbs, they could no longer breathe fire, their scales had rotted away, and their minds have deteriorated into that of mere beasts. However, perhaps due to the powerful vitality contained within their blood when they were still alive, their undead forms possessed the absurd ability to recover from any injuries within mere moments. This made them incredibly difficult even for experienced and powerful adventurers to face.

And they were able to bear witness to its recovery first-hand.

As Soleil slowly walked out of the crater she had made, she watched in frustration as the damage she had dealt to its head and forearm quickly healed. The large fragments of bone on the ground floated back to the fractures and reattached themselves, while the missing pieces of flesh grew from the monster’s body, enveloping the bones once again. All of that happened in under ten seconds.

“How impudent,” she muttered. “If I beat you down, you should just stay down.”

Matthias, on the other hand, was frustrated for a different reason. He looked at his sword again, focusing on the damage it had suffered. There was no way it could do anything to their enemy. The bones of a dragon might not be as hard as their scales, but continuing to attack it with a regular sword would only result in a broken weapon and no progress.

Unlike him, Soleil stood a chance. It was at that moment that he realized that she wasn’t around his level; she was far beyond that. While not wearing armor, her body could withstand the impact of colliding with boulders; while not wielding a weapon, her punches and kicks were strong enough to shatter dragon bone; while unable to cast any magic, her augmentation spell turned her entire body into a weapon. A feeling of inferiority, a sense of jealousy, a seed of hate; various negative emotions dragged his thoughts into a state of confusion.

Wasn’t he the party leader? Wasn’t he the hero?

…

He laughed.

“When was the last time I felt like this? It’s pretty refreshing,” he thought. As he bit his lips hard, the taste of iron tickled his tongue.

“Soleil! Keep it busy!”

She didn’t face him. She simply raised her thumb in reply and focused on the towering undead. Then, she exploded toward the enemy again.

Matthias ran as hard as he could to the other side of the dome. On the ground lay the apothecary’s friend, still unconscious from earlier. Carefully, he picked her up and tried to wake her.

Despite Soleil’s physical superiority, there was no way she would be able to defeat it with only kicks and punches. Unless she could completely gouge the earth and bury the drake underneath the rubble, they would have to think of another way. And for that, they needed to take their chances with the girl.

Considering there was a violent battle occurring in the background, it didn’t take long for Matthias to wake her up. All he needed to do was to splash some water on her face and pinch her nose. Fortunately, the girl didn’t just start breathing through her mouth and continue sleeping.

She blinked her eyes repeatedly, and after a while it regained clarity. She looked over to Matthias and asked, “Who are you?”

Matthias smiled. “We’re the idiots trying to save your life.”

The cave shook violently. Soleil had charged through the monster’s left side, destroying both of its legs along the way. Losing its balance, it fell to the ground with a loud crash. The girl, startled at the sight of the monster, tried to scream. But Matthias quickly covered her mouth in fear that she might attract its attention.

It took a while for her to calm down. All Matthias could do was wait. He looked at Soleil and saw her distance herself a bit before downing a full vial of holy water.

The enemy was a type of high-ranked zombie. Unlike skeletons that could only hurt them physically, zombies could infect living beings and turn them into one of their own. Matthias assumed that her drinking the vials meant that she had been hurt. They didn’t have the luxury of time.

“We need your help,” Matthias hurriedly told her. “You’re a priest, right? Do you know the spell that enchants weapons with the holy attribute?”

The girl nodded anxiously. It appeared like she still hadn’t fully recovered from the ordeal yet. But that didn’t matter; she should still be able to cast magic. Unlike mages that required prior knowledge of magic systems to manipulate their mana, clerics and priests only needed to pray. The gods were the ones who worked out the specifics. The strength of their spells only depended on their faith.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

“Then, cast it on my partner’s gloves and boots. She fights barehanded. We can’t get out if we don’t defeat that thing.”

He pointed towards the entrance of the boss room. There, a densely-packed crowd of zombies and skeletons stood waiting.

The boss rooms of dungeons were peculiar in a way. Though they always contained a few to several powerful monsters, for some reason the monsters from outside couldn’t enter. It was as if the boss room was exclusively for the floor’s most powerful monsters. That was why they were safe from being overwhelmed by sheer numbers at that moment.

Of course, that wasn’t the only entrance to the boss room. Every one of those areas should have at least two access points; one was an entrance from the same floor, and the other would be the path that gives access to the lower levels. Some dungeons allowed the boss rooms to be accessed from more than one place or had a couple or more paths to the lower floors, but they were relatively uncommon. In particular, that room had a total of four access points, three of which were sealed with a huge set of stone double doors. If he wasn’t wrong, then those were all sealed until a conclusion was reached in that room. And even if it wasn’t they did not have the time to try opening them while a high-ranking boss was on their tails.

“Huh?”

Suddenly, the girl made an awkward noise. She had already stood up on wobbly legs and had brought her hands together. Holy spells, unlike magic spells which were cast using an incantation, were manifested through prayer. But similar to magic spells, the more complicated the spell was, the more time was needed to use it. Admirably, the girl had only taken a couple of seconds to perform the spell, which was made apparent by the dim glow of her outline. But then the glow disappeared, leaving the girl with an expression of shock and confusion.

Without any explanation, the girl closed her eyes and bowed her head again. The same heavenly glow enveloped her body – for a few moments before it, once again, abruptly disappeared.

The third time did not work either.

“What’s wrong?” Matthias asked, alarmed.

The girl looked at him, almost teary-eyed from her mental turmoil, and said, “It’s not working!”

“I tried three times, and… nothing happened! But I’m sure the blessing descended! At least… it tried?”

“Calm down. What do you mean by “it tried”? Maybe it’s because you don’t have any mana?”

Matthias reached for his pack to pull a blue potion out but stopped when the girl frantically shook her head.

“No! It did work! I don’t know why but… It’s like… it’s like your friend rejected the blessing!”

They looked towards the violent battle. Soleil clearly had the upper hand in terms of purely physical strength and speed, but it was obvious that none of her attacks were able to deal any lasting damage. The undead drake simply healed itself within moments and continued the attack. Even when its head was completely blown off by a kick, it still got up mere seconds later.

But even when faced with this hopeless battle, Soleil looked undisturbed. She even looked like she was enjoying herself.

Matthias suddenly had a terrible idea.

Did Soleil want to defeat the drake by all herself?

He knew that she was an arrogant individual. She took pride in the strength and skill she had honed. After talking to her earlier, he had also realized that she was very proud of her parents as well. But she should be aware that brute force did not solve everything. One cannot hope to “defeat” a bucket of water with a stick. Instead, turning the bucket over would do the trick.

… To be honest, Matthias also expected it somewhat. She was a musclehead.

“Shit,” he cursed. As he saw Soleil kick the monster so hard that its head was launched into the open passage, he turned to the priestess and yelled, “I’ll tell her to stop being a moron. You wait here.”

“What are you guys talking about?”

Before any of them became aware of her, Soleil was already standing beside them. The priestess squealed in fright, while Matthias held his head. As usual, she had no tact. Looking at her, who was smiling while carefreely downing another vial of holy water, he felt a slight headache coming.

----------------------------------------

The drake’s massive head was stuck on the entrance. The backward-facing horns on the top of its head prevented it from simply pulling it out. Soleil saw it as an opportunity to “request” some more holy water vials from Matthias, as she was already on the verge of running out.

But instead of supplies, all she received was an unjustified scolding.

“Reject? What do you mean? I didn’t reject anything.”

Her voice was indignant. The accusation was unbearable to her. Matthias continued regardless of her retort.

“Then how the hell did a priestess’ blessing not work? Do you think you can defeat that thing by just beating it up?”

Soleil’s mood instantly recovered. She placed her hands on her hips and proudly declared that she could.

“I’m the demon lord after all.”

The priestess’ eyes went wide in shock.

“Demon lor—”

“Don’t mind her nonsense. That’s just her delusions.”

“It’s not a delusion!”

They continued arguing with no results to show for it. Soleil denied Matthias’ accusations, while the latter thought otherwise. A priest’s blessing was the work of the gods, so there was no way for their spells to not work unless it was rejected by the recipient voluntarily. That was his idea of how they worked. Meanwhile, the priestess was in a state of panic. Her eyes went from the two people arguing to the giant undead monster that was trying to escape confinement.

“Then why don’t you take the blessing, then?” Soleil suggested in her vexation. “You can put magic into that sword, right? Then use that to defeat it. In the first place, I was trying to beat it down enough so you can deal the final blow”

It was Matthias’ turn to be confused.

“Huh? Don’t you want to beat it on your own?”

There was no way Matthias could defeat it with his abilities anyway.

“Well, fighting it is certainly fun and challenging. But it’s not like I’m a crazy battle junkie.”

“Liar.”

“Hey.”

If it were any other time, that kind of argument would look like friendly banter between two party members. However, Matthias was truly confused. He remembered that Soleil wasn’t the type to lie. If so, then why did the blessing not work for her? Did the spell just fail? However, the other party was a priestess; she should have had enough experience to not fail such a basic endowment spell. Also, there was Soleil’s claim that she wasn’t trying to beat it on her own.

“Umm! Can we please hurry? It’s about to break free!”

Cracks appeared on the drake’s mighty horns as it placed more force to free itself. It was only a matter of time before it did. Once that happened, they would be back to square one.

He looked at his sword. It was badly damaged from just one hit on the dragon’s bone. Perhaps it could take a few more hits, but there was no way it could do something as ridiculous as killing it. Even as a strong magic swordsman himself, if his equipment isn’t up to par, then all he could be was a mage without a staff.

Should they retreat instead? Once the drake frees itself, they would have a small window of opportunity to leave through the cave. The undead crowd there should have been thinned, crushed by its massive head.

“Well, if you can’t beat it, then just leave it to me. Easy!”

Those words caused something inside Matthias to suddenly snap. Easy, she called it. What made it even worse was that she seemed to be implying that he couldn’t do it.

“Okay, that’s annoying.”

He promised to live his life to the fullest. What kind of adventurer would he be if he didn’t take the big risks? All he had to do was blame Soleil if they failed.

There was no way they could die with a priestess behind them, right?

“Umm! Good luck! If… I mean, as long as you don’t die, I can heal you!”

His confidence fell. Suddenly, he wasn’t so sure anymore.