61: The Hall of the Luminous, Part Twenty-Six

The Hall of the Luminous, Part Twenty-Six

"I take it you are familiar with that thing, then?" Erin asked. 

"Just from stuff I've heard... If any of it is true, though, then yeah, we're kinda fucked."

As the healer made that statement, the dragon roared up ahead. Slowly, confidently, it began crawling toward them. 

"Would you like to share some of this information with me?" The lamia's tone was casual, though she did not take her eyes off the opponent. 

"So, for one, uh... They're very durable," Neve stated. "It's going to take a lot of hits to kill this creature. And, ehm, they're also immune to paralysis which is nice."

What she meant, which she could not say directly as Erin could possibly not understand, was that dragons had 2 passive effects Neve had seen mentioned in forums, both of which were likely to make this fight much more troublesome. 

One, all damage done to them was reduced by 50%. Completely arbitrarily, apparently. It didn't matter where one struck them, the damage was reduced. 

And two, dragons were immune to immobilizing effects, in general. 

Such effects, unfortunately, included paralysis which was one of the main ways in which Neve and her summon had managed to secure their victories so far. 

"Lovely."

Erin's tone grew a tad darker. Maybe she was beginning to fully grasp the reason why Neve was feeling so discouraged. 

Setting aside the dragon's immunity to immobilization, which was just wonderful, the problem was that Neve's damage output was pitiful. This meant that anytime Erin wasn't out on the field, against this opponent, all Neve would be able to do was run and wait until she could resummon her friend. 

And, even then, Erin's damage was being reduced by 50%. 

It really was, very likely, the single worst matchup possible for the duo. 

The only bright side to all of this was that, if by some miracle they actually managed to win, they wouldn't have to face this thing again during the last set of waves. 

Though, Neve wondered what could possibly be worse for them to fight that the Forces That Be were holding onto for waves 21 through 25. 

[No point in thinking about that right now, though. You have a dragon to kill. God, I am so fucked.] 

"Do as much as you can," Neve told Erin. "And, uh... In case we end up dying, I just wanna say, I liked having you with me. I know you don't exactly feel the same way, but, yeah. Not just as a summon, by the way. Just... in general." 

For some reason, her words earned a glare from the other woman. 

Neve really didn't think they were going to make it, though. She was just being honest.

The dragon delayed itself no longer. 

Flames poured out from its maw, aimed at Erin. The lamia circled the dragon, slithering around it to avoid the fire, and got closer. 

Neve coughed up some blood, checking her mana. 

MP: 220/900

[Erin's got around 25 seconds left. I hope she can-]

As Erin drew closer to her opponent, she leaped up, looking to stab her blades into the dragon's back. 

And the dragon snatched her right out of the air. 

Neve's jaw hit the ground as the dragon trapped the woman between its teeth. It bit down, of course, and Neve watched a gruesome scene play out, with the upper half of Erin's body falling to the dirt before she unceremoniously disappeared. 

[... Never mind.] 

The dragon wasted no time in targeting its next opponent. So, Neve got to running. Holding her stab wound, the healer tried as best as she could to move her panicked little legs across the barren field. 

The same fire that chased after her ally now followed her. Neve, however, decided that she wasn't about to rely on her meager 40 speed. 

Gulping down one of the Potions of Medium Agility, Neve boosted that Speed to 50 and kept her sprint going. 

The dragon chased after her, taking brief breaks between breathing flames to watch her as it drew closer, almost mockingly. 

MP: 260/900

[Come on, come on, come on...] 

Suddenly, the dragon leaped into the air and glided to Neve's position. 

Gasping, Neve stopped herself, just before she could get crushed under one of its hands.

As Neve's torso screamed with pain, due to the wound she hadn't yet healed, the dragon went to breathe more fire, feeling like the shortened distance would probably mean quick victory. 

Neve went under it, though, avoiding the fire and popping out from behind it. It took a second for the dragon to register what had just happened, which Neve greatly appreciated given that all she was doing was stalling until her mana was back. 

It was worth noting that all of Neve's movements right now, made harder by the sharp pain of her stab wound, were only possible due to reflex. Her legs were practically moving of their own will. 

Finally, Neve's mana reached 300 again, just as the dragon turned to follow her. 

She resummoned Erin and quickly reached into her inventory, ignoring the sharp pain that came with reducing her mana to 0.

"ERIN!" 

The lamia half-turned toward her and caught one of the Potions of Bloodlust Neve threw. 

Given that this enemy had an arbitrary damage-reducing effect, Neve saw it fitting to counter it with an arbitrary damage increase. 

As the lamia drank the potion, and the dragon locked eyes with her, accepting the woman as its enemy once more, Neve fell to her knees. 

She coughed up some blood but still refused to heal herself. 

[I need to squeeze every bit of value that I can out of {Rorvan's Spirit}. It's basically the only way I can win this. Stay injured, let Erin get some damage in, run around when her timer runs out, resummon her, and repeat that until this fucker dies.] 

Breathing heavily, she snuck a glance at the fight going on behind her. 

With a better sense of the dragon's Speed, Erin took a different approach. Neve watched as the woman waited for the creature to attack, slamming a massive hand down next to her. 

Erin then stabbed it and slithered away, waiting for another opportunity. 

Neve chuckled. 

"... Honestly," she muttered with a raspy, choked-up voice due to the blood threatening to spill out of her mouth. Laughter bubbled up amidst her words. "If she had been put in my shoes, if I was her summon and she was the one tackling the Final Challenge, how much easier would things be? I don't deserve-" she coughed.

MP: 80/900

Casting {Rorvan's Spirit} once again brought her back down to 30, with 30 seconds left to go on Erin's timer. 

Neve got on her knees, then, letting go of her staff and setting it to the side. It was a brief respite, but she needed it before she could get back to running away, which was what most of her highly optimistic plan consisted of. 

For a little while, she couldn't hear anything but her own breathing. Up ahead, Erin and her opponent danced soundlessly, with flames occasionally pouring out from the enemy's maw in between Erin's quick and scarce attacks. 

Her own heartbeat soon joined her breathing as the two things she could hear. 

Words appeared over her head. Not that she read them, though, but they said:

{Trait Activated!} 

The Undying Coward

{Focus increases with low HP}

She'd experienced this once before, so, although she wasn't sure, even without looking at the message, she felt she could throw out a guess as to what this was. 

A reminder. 

[Right...] She thought, as those seconds ticked down and Erin disappeared all of a sudden, up ahead. The dragon appeared confused, searching around it for its missing opponent before deciding that where Erin went didn't matter. [I'm still here. Might as well give it my all.] 

So, she grabbed her staff, pushed herself back up to her feet, and started running in the opposite direction. 

She wasn't stupid enough to think she could outrun this thing, she knew it would only be a matter of time before the dragon caught up. Especially with her running while being wounded like this. But, it didn't matter. She just needed to buy as much time as possible. 

The field they were in seemed endless but Neve ran slightly off to the right just in case it wasn't. Bouncing off an invisible wall and getting snatched by the dragon would be a fairly pathetic way of bringing all of this to an end. 

As inevitably as fate itself, the dragon caught up. 

Neve went to dive under it as she had before. 

But the dragon had no intention of using its fire breath. Nor did it move to bite down on her, which Neve may have been able to dodge, given the current angle. Instead, it smacked her with one of its hands. 

And Neve flew through the air majestically as a result. 

Saying that she "flew" was barely an exaggeration. She was in the air for a while. 

Eventually, she landed. Feet-first, no less. 

That was not good, given her current momentum. It meant that, as she finally hit the ground, she broke both her legs instantly.

She tried to scream but the wind had been knocked out of her, so she couldn't even do that much. 

Still, she was focused. Unnaturally so, thanks to that trait. 

As soon as she stopped rolling, the first thing she did was check her MP. 

MP: 150/900 (100% regen)

[Oh,] she thought, remembering how {Rorvan's Spirit} worked. [Am I dying?] 

Though her legs didn't work anymore, her hands still did. So, she brought out two of her Minor Healing Potions, both of which fell on her face as though adding insult to injury. At the same time, as the dragon found where exactly it had tossed its prey, she also brought out another Potion of Medium Agility. 

All three flasks were delivered to her bloody lips by her shaking hands, all as the dragon began crawling quickly at her again. 

MP: 180/900 (75% regen)

Using that 75% as an indicator of her current HP, Neve checked and found that her legs were working again. So, she stood up and got back to running. The problem was that now she needed to get her damn staff back, which was about thirty feet away to the right. 

So, she sprinted in that direction and grabbed it, before continuing to sprint. 

All thoughts of fear and panic left her mind as she carried on with that somewhat leisurely run, allowing her mana to regenerate until the dragon caught up. 

Once again, she went between its legs. 

It tried to do the same thing, but a quick dodge to the side prevented Neve from taking flight again. 

And so, after a long, long amount of doing absolutely nothing but running away, Neve resummoned Erin. 

MP: 0/900 (75% regen)

This time, she grabbed 2 Potions of Bloodlust out of her inventory. 

One for Erin and one for herself, along with another Minor Healing Potion, as Neve gave up on regenerating mana. 

The reason was that Neve realized they needed to kill this thing here and now. If they didn't, it was very likely Neve would fuck up in some form or fashion and she'd end up as a pile of severed body parts, or ashes depending on what the dragon had in mind. 

So, she needed to go in with Erin, with her trusty, makeshift baseball bat in her hands.

It wouldn't be easy, but, at the end of the day, this dragon was still level 60, not 100. Even if it took 50% less damage, mitigated by the potions, it still had the HP of a level 60 monster. 

As Neve tossed Erin a potion, she saw Neve walking up and quickly tried to stop her. 

"What are you doing?" Erin asked. 

"Trying not to die, mostly," Neve replied quietly before running toward the dragon with a head full of steam. 

Erin followed after her, moving past Neve in an effort to be targeted by the enemy instead of her host. Neve appreciated that, but she was still going to have to get in harm's way to come out on top here. 

The dragon roared, raised its head up, and let out a stream of flames. 

Neve and Erin ran in opposite directions, avoiding the fire and collapsing onto the monster from the sides. It didn't know who to focus on, in this situation. 

Erin reached it first and, after she stabbed one of its hands, the dragon tried to swipe her away like it had done with Neve, but unlike the healer, she dodged. Neve then raised her staff up and slammed one of the dragon's legs, backing away just as the monster saw her. 

By no means did they do a lot of damage, but it was clear the dragon had no clue what the hell they were doing. The duo challenging it head-on like this had clearly not been something it had expected. 

Before long, Erin thought of something. 

"Neve!" 

"Yeah?" 

"If you insist on being suicidal like this, can you at least hold its attention for long enough for me to kill it?" 

The dragon did an almost full circular sweep with its tail as the lamia made that request. Both of them jumped over the attack before Neve replied:

"I'll try." 

She didn't question how Erin would go about killing it, but she figured that, at this stage, Erin had done more than enough to earn her trust. It was likely she knew what she was doing, so Neve went along with it. 

She walked right in front of the dragon. 

Shocked by her audacity, the dragon took its attention off Erin completely. But, the lamia did not move in to strike yet. 

No thoughts went through Neve's mind. Even as The Undying Coward wore off thanks to her healing potions, she just stood there. It was simple. Erin needed her to do this, so she was going to do this. 

The dragon crawled forward. Both Neve and Erin watched. 

It raised a hand up in the air. Neve prepared herself to dodge, her heart drumming intensely in her ears. 

Then, it slammed it down on top of her. 

Neve managed to dodge the attack at the very last second.

And, Erin climbed the dragon. 

Positioned along its lower half, Erin wrapped her snake-like body around it. The dragon noticed and quickly tried to shake her off, but Erin was securely tied to it. 

As soon as the lamia knew she couldn't be thrown away, she began using {Rorvan's Flurry}. The dragon roared furiously as Erin became a mist of blades on top of it. Though, with how she was positioned, it might have been more accurate to think of it as a saw, grinding its way down the dragon's back. 

Neve understood what she was doing and smiled, collapsing to her knees once again.  1

[You're joking,] she thought, smiling as she understood what Erin was getting at. 

Simply put, {Rorvan's Flurry} would only cancel once an attack was missed. Erin, however, was wrapped around the dragon's body, on top of it, making missing any attacks literally impossible. 

Meaning that, although the dragon took 50% less damage, Erin managed to put herself in a situation where that didn't matter. Her attacks would continue, on and on, until the dragon died regardless.

Checkmate. 

The dragon did try to get Erin off of it, though. It flapped its wings hard, breathed flames reaching back with its head and, when that didn't work, it took to the air in hopes of shaking the woman off. 

None of it got Erin off of the monster.

Neve wasn't quite sure how long it took, but soon, the dragon, which had been flying, hit the ground. A massive string of dark near-violet blood traced the path its body took as it crashed. 

It still wasn't dead, though. This meant that Erin kept going, and going, and going, until, a great deal of time later, finally, the dragon perished. 

EXP Gained: 1400

EXP: 1400/580

Level Up!

WS Tokens Gained: 1800

WS Tokens: 14510

As soon as it did, Erin disappeared, unable to celebrate what she'd just pulled off. 

A wind wrapped itself around Neve, blocking her vision. In half a second, she was right back at the temple. 

Wave 20 was done, and there were just 5 more waves to go. 

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