“Parrying Strike! Galene, cover the other side!” Diving from above, the dragon swiped with one arm at the floor before being stopped by Iroha’s sword. Didn’t stop the dragon itself, who just flew above her, ready to pounce with his other claw.

  “I can’t reach him in time… Carol, Hecate, it’s coming for you.”

  “What would you do without me? I’ll stop him. Don’t worry.” The big weapon next to the girl fired, and the subsequent explosion pushed the dragon back.

  The walls of the coliseum were quickly becoming riddled with holes, but it was a miracle that the rest of the city was still unharmed. Such a big fight going on right in front of her, and yet, there was nothing Bea could do to help. It was no place for a princess… If Flanne or her father were there, they would have been able to help somehow, but she could only rely on the kindness of this group that wasn’t even subordinate to her.

  “How’s it going, Ririna? Is there anything I can do to help?”

  The alchemist was one of the people they were buying time for. Bea didn’t know anything about alchemy, but realistically, this was the only way she could make a difference. Helping Ririna finish even a second faster.

  “Uhhh…” Ririna was sitting on her knees, hunched over a piece of cloth she placed on the floor as an impromptu workshop. Without sparing Bea a glance, she mixed materials with each other into vials and containers, then containers into vials, and vials into containers. She was fast… Too fast for Bea to keep up… “Is it fine if I am rude to you…?”

  “Today’s an exception. I’ll allow it. How can I help?”

  “It’d really help me if you didn’t speak to me right now!” She raised her voice as one of her concoctions almost spilled.

  Complete rejection… Bea stepped back in a hurry not to interfere anymore. She actually liked girls her age being casual with her, but… That one stung a little… She was completely useless here…

  Coming in for another attack, the dragon actually landed on the wall this time. One swipe, two swipes… Parrying Strike, Parrying Strike! It’s rough just standing my ground, but not impossible… As long as he doesn’t suddenly start breathing fire on us…

  We should consider ourselves lucky that we were attacked by a dragon like this… His thinner body and longer limbs give him a lot of reach and make him mobile despite being an undead, but it’s miles better than having to deal with a breath attack.

  I stopped his two swipes, but the dragon wasn’t done.

  He raised both arms to slam them down together in sync. Physical attacks are his strength, so all of his attacks are incredibly powerful… A simple swipe is almost ten times worse than blocking the king’s slab of metal, so a smash with both arms and full strength… No shot…

  Burst Dash.

  The claws struck the walls with enough strength to make the ground tremble.

  “What the…” The impact raised a small dust cloud, then the dragon’s face appeared right in front of me. Right… It’s not just the limbs that are long… The neck is too!

  He opened his mouth with two massive, scythe-like teeth at the front… Smelled like the worst trash can I’ve ever come across.

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  His mouth got close enough to my head, and he chomped!

  “Guhhh!” I didn’t even have time to use a skill… I bent backwards as much as I could and got out of the way of the bite. His teeth went lower and stabbed into my belly, actually punching through my dress and tearing through the side.

  “Whew…”

  Using Burst Dash again, I managed to put some distance between us. What ridiculous power… Did he seriously rip through my dress? The side of my belly is exposed.

  [Bonded Partner has acquired the skill Alchemy – Omnidirectional Reasoning. A unique Bond Skill is now available]

  Hmm? Ririna?

  [Bond – Perfect Specimen (Cost: 0 Skill Points)]

  [Perfect Specimen – Ideal testing grounds for an alchemist’s experiments. Makes all of the Omniscient Alchemist’s creations doubly effective.]

  “It’s done! Iroha!” Hehehe… We win…

  Ririna called out to me from behind. She had one of her hands raised with a single bullet between her fingers.

  “Celebrate while you can, dragon… You’re gonna pay for that.”

  [Skill – Perfect Specimen acquired.]

  Burst Dash! I shot in Ririna’s direction and jumped over her. I stretched my arm while upside down and took the bullet from her hand. *Skrrrrtt…*

  “Good job, Ririna… *Chu~*” I chambered her round after a quick peck on the cheek.

  If I’m getting this right, this new bond skill will double the power of the bullet… That already ridiculous shot is now that much stronger…

  “Everyone, help me out! It’s time!”

  Not sure if the dragon realized something was up, but as soon as I returned, he took off into the air.

  “You probably don’t need cover anymore, right?” Hecate shot ahead of the dragon, causing him to slow down. “We’ll pin him down for you instead.”

  “Thanks. That will do.”

  “Here goes a big one, then!” Carol followed it up with an artillery shell. The dragon had barely taken off the wall, and now he was struggling to go anywhere… Just what I needed.

  Burst Dash! I rushed after the dragon until I got under him. Now… Impact Round!

  The recoil was insane…

  The heat was insane…

  Ririna’s bullets are insane…

  The pistol is going to turn into a piece of junk at this rate! My precious pistol!

  A beam of red stretched through the air and hit the dragon. A cracking noise even more visceral than the previous shot was heard from the place of impact.

  “The barrier broke! Hit him now!” Abby was the one who detected that, and the next second…

  *Boooom!* Carol’s next shell opened a hole in one of his wings. The dragon couldn’t maintain his trajectory, which, unfortunately for him, brought him down, closer to Galene. The moment she noticed, she pulled her sword back, charging it with a white light.

  “Alright… Leave it to me…” She waited and waited… Just a little more… Just a little closer!

  “Mailucene!”

  Her sword hit the dragon and released a pillar of light that stretched from earth up to the heavens. The glow was so powerful that we couldn’t see what happened, but a second later, we heard a crash from the direction of the arena.

  “We… We did it!”

  The light faded, and our vision slowly returned. We could finally see him… The dragon crashed into the arena. Not dead yet… Whoever was controlling him tried to force him to stand up, but his limbs failed and he fell back down. It’s over…

  “Yes! We’re gonna be famous!” Abby’s hat almost fell as she jumped with joy. “Oh… This is great… Mind if I take the heart? I helped defend against his attacks, so I deserve that much…”

  “Huhhh…? You greedy girl!” Sarasa immediately butted heads with her. “You don’t get to call dibs on anything. The heart should obviously come to me- I mean… to Iroha, since she was the one who landed the big attacks! If you call yourself an adventurer, you should know how these things work, you know?”

  “Ehh… But, but… If you follow that logic, shouldn’t it be Galene’s since she dealt the killing blow?”

  “Uhh… No? Duhh… The dragon is still alive. No killing blow has been dealt yet, so that rule doesn’t apply.” Sarasa’s totally bullying her… With a grin too… Now’s when we see what kind of person Abby truly is… Will she get sad? Or does being bullied by someone she admires make her happy? Which one is it going to be?

  “Wawawa… what have you done?! Th- this wasn’t the plan…”

  “Ahh… Lythea…” We all slowly turned to the side… Took her a little longer to join us, and she stood there nervously biting her nails. She looks like a wreck already… What do we do? “Right… We were supposed to just buy time, right? We may have gotten a little carried away… And forgotten about it… Sorry.” Maybe a little smile will soothe her?

  She immediately crouched away from us and curled up into a ball. Her finger drew circles on the floor, and she started mumbling depressingly.

  “Hehehe… Forgot… Forgot about me… Of course… I’m so pathetic that even remembering my existence is too much of a favor to ask… How could I have forgotten? I’m the one who got carried away. Sorry… Why did a pathetic worm like me think she could be of use to anyone, even for a second? This is how it should be… It’s just natural…”

  The smile didn’t work, huh…? What a pain… Adorable, but a pain…

  Makes me want to do bad things to her seeing her like that… Then I’ll hug her right after. I believe there have been rumors of me possibly being a masochist or turning into one, but… She may be the beginning of my sadist arc.

  “So, ignoring that loser for a second…” Very casually, Carol delivered the nastiest blow so far. She’s worse than me… Or wait… Maybe’s actually evil! We have to stop her after all! “We can’t leave the dragon writhing down there forever. Are we finishing him or what?”

  “Carol… You’re playing with fire…” I gave her a warning. Her reign of terror is not going to last forever. She just frowned, confused. “But you’re right. Should be easy now, so let’s jump down there real quick.”

  They all nodded, and we took a step towards the arena. Unaware of the appearance of a figure sitting on the ledge of the coliseum’s walls.

  Right behind us…

  “No… I won’t let you...”

  Twisting back her head to look over the shoulder, a sweet yet maddening voice stopped us.

  *Ding…*

  Then a bell announced the arrival of a shadow. Expanding and rushing my way. And in an instant…

  The world went dark.