Daryl, a little out of breath, responded appropriately to Xeno’s call-out, reducing the aggressiveness of his own attacks while still keeping the Fire Dragon’s attention on himself. Xeno unleashed all the skill needed to draw the Fire Dragon’s aggro, and after a while, the monster turned to him.
Xeno’s silver armor, the parts of which were visible through the gaps of his red coat, looked as if it was enveloped in light due to the effect of the Paladin skill <<Ember Aura>>. The skill was a buff that mitigated the deterioration of abilities as a result of environmental effects, with a side effect of producing a shining aura.
The Canyons had no environmental effects that would warrant the skill’s use, however, so it was technically useless — though it did make Xeno stand out quite a bit to the crowd spectating through the Monitors.
“Now! Come at me!”
At Xeno’s exclamation, the Fire Dragon rushed straight at him, and the God Eye followed it, relaying the footage to its Monitor. It had been known that God Eyes would follow Explorers’ directions to a certain degree, so this time it was showing what Xeno wanted the audience to see.
Just about anyone would tremble in fear if they had to face the mighty Fire Dragon alone. Even Daryl had been so scared that he could not move his body properly during his first attempt against it, being knocked around awkwardly and sustaining serious injuries for a good few moments.
“Harder! HARDER! You’re still too weak to knock me down!”
Xeno, on the other hand, was doing just fine, quickly recovering his balance each time he was blown away as a result of blocking the Dragon’s kicks with his buckler. Each blast of his radiant silver <<Combat Cry>> did more than enough to keep the monster’s attention on him.
The word ‘fear’ did not exist in Xeno’s dictionary — All he had was confidence, more confidence, and even more confidence.
Still, even when his confidence allowed him to draw out the full extent of his abilities, he was having difficulties due to this being an enemy he had not yet beaten. After all, his latent capabilities were far from Garm’s level — which was fair, since the latter was practically the only Tank-type Explorer who had maintained his relevance in the scene through the period when Tanks started being featured less on the front lines.
Still, Xeno had been exerting an extraordinary deal of effort. Thanks to his wife’s advice, he had managed to get his level up to the current cap of 70 — an achievement that had been impressive for Attacker-type Jobs, and thought to be near-impossible for Tank-type Jobs, especially those who did not belong to the major Clans.
And in fact, Xeno had never been affiliated with any of the major Clans before. He had joined mid-tier Clans on several occasions, but his egoistic personality had not been well-received, most of the time resulting in him being encouraged to leave.
In his early days, almost no one had acknowledged him, and whenever he said something, people would scoff back more often than not. Despite all that, he had always managed to reach greater heights for himself, struggling against all odds as a Tank on his path to becoming as accomplished as Garm the Mad Dog.
Then, at one point, he attracted the attention of a woman named Pico who, by a twist of fate, turned out to be a fellow scholar from back when he had been enrolled in an academy at the Royal Capital. At the time, she had been making ends meet doing odd jobs as a Dungeon Maniac, and started giving advice to Xeno out of worry about his reckless tendencies.
The first two pieces of advice Xeno had been given were to increase hunting efficiency by working with other Tanks, and to save up more Gold by joining a Clan that distributed their earnings among their members. He had refused to do so in the beginning, however, as he felt strongly against taking yet another detour, considering how long it had been since he left the Royal Capital to find work in Dungeon City.
But then Pico proceeded to lay out the big picture to him, forcing Xeno to understand just how bad his situation was, which left him with no choice but to relent. Since then, he exerted even more effort as if to vent his frustrations. He gathered some available Tanks he could find and formed a small Clan, and together, they spent every single day polishing their martial arts while charging their way through the Dungeon.
Busy day after busy day passed, and at one point, Xeno and Pico married. To help stabilize their new household’s income, Pico taught him the art of journalistic writing, and after that, she gave him more advice on leveling up more efficiently.
By the time he was making a decent earning with his articles, Xeno looked to polish his skill level up yet another notch. Hiring some party members with the money he had saved up and some support funds from his wife, he made many attempts at defeating the Fire Dragon.
That was why, despite having never gone past layer sixty before, he was perfectly calm now — and had the confidence to pull the others up with him. It was all the effort he had exerted that allowed him to stand tall against all odds.
Xeno, seeing a faint, momentary glow inside of the Fire Dragon’s neck, threw on his Fire Coat and defended against the fire breath that followed moments later. Then, gracefully dodging the monster’s front legs, he thrust his short sword at one of its fingers, aiming at the flesh right under its claw.
“FWAHAHAHA!! Hurts, doesn’t it!?”
The Fire Dragon let out an irritated groan at Xeno’s taunt, and crawled forward in an attempt to trample him down. Xeno dodged it easily enough, however, spinning right around and sprinting away.
The Dragon gave chase on all fours and stretched its neck to try and bite Xeno, and he avoided them just fine — but then the monster swung its long neck like a whip, forcing him to block with his buckler. The impact sent him flying like a baseball hit by a metal bat, but it did not seem to deal any significant damage.
All the while, Diniel took shots at the monster’s scales to weaken its defenses, while Melchor used Colorless Magic Stones to boost the power of his strikes, dealing massive damage.
Each of Melchor’s punches busted right through the Fire Dragon’s hard scales, causing it to cry out in pain. This was not all good, however — Melchor was not yet used to the three-role team composition, so he sometimes ended up overdoing it. Still, whenever the Fire Dragon turned toward him, a gigantic silver aura would burst forth behind it, pulling its attention right back.
“Now, no looking at the others. I’m the only one you need!”
Xeno was still perfectly calm — in fact, he was so abnormally calm that perhaps even a reasonable person would want to attack him out of pure annoyance. Whether or not that was the intended effect, the Fire Dragon started focusing its attacks on Xeno once again.
“You know,” Diniel spoke up. “Maybe you shouldn’t use Magic Stones for now.”
“I suppose that’s true. I’ll be able to hit as hard as I can then.”
Doing as Diniel told, Melchor stopped crushing Magic Stones and started attacking the Fire Dragon with his unboosted gauntlets. Even like this, he was able to output as much damage as an above-average Attacker, so this was indeed strategically better for the team.
“<<Taunt Swing>>!”
Xeno bashed the Fire Dragon’s front leg with his light-clad buckler… and was sent flying when the monster swung its tail at him. Despite being blown away quite far, he regained his defensive stance quickly enough and proceeded to shoot a quick, weaker blast of <<Combat Cry>>.
Despite using his skills more often than Daryl normally did, he was far from exhausting his mental energy. The main reason was his MND being two ranks higher, but his training — especially when he practiced his skills under his wife’s thorough supervision — also played a big part. Although making his skills shine a bright silver was functionally a waste of energy, he was pretty much perfect at optimizing his mental energy usage when it came to all other aspects.
“Korinna! I have…! A suggestion…! Will you hear me out!?”
“W-what is it?”
“Can you… Increase the frequency… of <<Blessing of Recover>>…!? You can do that, right!?”
“U-understood!”
Korinna nodded to Xeno as the latter shouted his demand while constantly under attack. She then proceeded to adjust the frequency of her Blessing casts accordingly.
Xeno’s voice, resounding from the megaphone in his hand, was fit for both a military leader calling the shots… and a master entertainer. And now that he was working with a team that adhered to the principles of the three-role composition, his strategic prowesses could shine like it never had before.
“Come on! Entertain me!” Xeno shouted, holding up his short sword in front of him.
And the Fire Dragon answered with a mighty roar.
――▽▽――
The battle raged on with Daryl and Xeno taking turns Tanking, while Korinna fulfilled her Healer role quite competently all the way through, surprising even herself that there had not been any casualties yet. The two Attackers dished out tons of damage, and in the end, the Fire Dragon was defeated in just a couple of hours.
“…Wow,” Daryl muttered as he watched the final moments of the battle.
Once the Fire Dragon’s movements were interrupted by the final <<Stream Arrow>>, Melchor infused his fist with Lightning Magic stones and threw a punch so explosive, it almost looked like an actual lightning strike. The Fire Dragon let out a cry of desperation, and then it turned into light particles and faded away.
“You didn’t have to do that.”
“Hohoho. I just wanted to get some practice in. The Lightning Magic Stones are especially difficult to control, you see.”
Melchor shook his fists, swiping the yellow-colored energy auras out of his gauntlets, then laughed happily as he stroked his white beard. Diniel had intended to follow her initial calculations and finish the fight with three more volleys of <<Stream Arrow>>, but then Melchor had wrapped everything up instantly with one hard punch. She was not at all happy about that.
“Hmph. Success was guaranteed,” Xeno said as he removed his now-tattered Fire Coat.
“……”
Korinna was so dumbfounded that she could not hear anyone else — not even Xeno just now. Although the Fire Dragon was no longer as much of an unbeatable layer boss as it once had been, with the stronger mid-tier Clans starting to be successful in defeating it as of late, it still was a much more powerful adversary than everything that preceded it. This victory was so easily achieved that, to Korinna, it did not even feel real.
Daryl gave her a light tap to call her back to her senses, then he proceeded to collect the Large Fire Magic Stone before looking around at everyone.
“I think we should call it a day now. Thank you for your hard work, everyone.”
“Mm-hm, hard work, indeed. I didn’t expect to progress this much in just one week.”
“Oh, not at all, Sir Melchor! It’s thanks to you helping us as well!” Daryl bowed to Melchor.
The team proceeded to enter the Black Gate, and then teleport back to the Guild. Once there, Daryl asked Melchor to confirm,
“By the way, you will be busy with work from tomorrow on, yes?”
“That is so. I must head to the Royal Capital, and will be away for a week or so. I will call upon you again when I get back.”
As the commander of the nobility’s private military, Melchor was pretty much under the control of House Babenberg. Moreover, the annual martial arts tournament was coming up in a few months, so Melchor would often be summoned by those in power somewhat often due to being the reigning champion.
“Yes, we understand, sir. Let us meet again at the Guild, then.”
“Mm-hm. My time of return is still uncertain, so I’ll send a messenger when I have the particulars down.”
“Yes, sir! We look forward to resuming this mission!”
Seeing how energetic Daryl was, Melchor smiled, then he turned the other way, walking out of the Guild white tapping his lower back with his fists.
“A whole week off. Finally,” Diniel said, sounding refreshed.
Although the exploration so far had taken relatively little effort, working a whole week in a row was still a big no for her.
“Just three days, actually…”
“Wait, what?”
“It’s Sir Xeno and Miss Korinna’s first time in the Volcano layers, you see. We have to help them get used to it before Sir Melchor comes back!”
“…Huh.”
Diniel seemed disappointed but did not object to it, and was still looking forward to the three-day vacation that was right in front of her.
Xeno and Korinna nodded in acknowledgment of Daryl’s statement.
“Hehehe… Layer sixty-one, at last! This is where my legend begins! Ahh, I can hardly contain my excitement!”
“G-good for you, Sir Xeno. But we’re not diving back in right now — all of our equipment needs fixing, after all.”
“Yes, of course! And now that you mention it, I’ve noticed that your armor is quite sturdy!”
Daryl only had one piece of armor broken during the fight, compared to Xeno’s three. That was despite the fact that Daryl took more hits overall, because Xeno had put a good bit of emphasis on his armor’s appearance, resulting in lower defense.
Hearing Xeno praise his armor, Daryl felt proud as if he had crafted the pieces himself.
“These are some of the best works to come out of Sir Dorren’s workshop, after all! A Fire Dragon doesn’t stand a chance!”
“Oh-ho, the same workshop that Garm frequents, I see. Their products’ performance is guaranteed, true, BUT they are lacking in glamor — which is a crucial aspect when it comes to things I’m willing to wear.”
It was true that Daryl’s heavy armor was on the more utilitarian side, and did not look all that impressive especially compared to Xeno’s. However, the crafting process involved the use of the dedicated Dwarf craftsmen’s best techniques, resulting in some of the highest-quality armor in Dungeon City.
“Leaving that aside, your performance was quite impressive, Daryl. I used to think you were simply some boy who Garm took pity on, but you’ve shown that that is not the case at all. I wouldn’t consider you to be superior to me just yet, but you ARE on the right track, I daresay.”
“Ahaha… Thank you very much.”
Feeling no sarcasm whatsoever from Xeno’s words, Daryl could not help but answer with a dry chuckle.
