Floor 16, The Battle of Pogoren Fortress (5)

Ha Heijeong's second run, Floor 16. A community of the dead.

The fears I'd carried with me into Floor 16 had become reality. From the start, there had been two possibilities to worry about: the red dragon might have a child held hostage like the last one — or the token might not work at all. Izerion turned out to be the second case.

Honestly, I'd half expected it. The token was only said to raise the odds of a dragon being friendly. No one had ever promised that every dragon would be. In any case, it was time to do what we'd prepared for and get to Ha Heijeong.

"What happened? You said there was a way to fix this!"

"Erendil, I'm sorry. I really thought I could. It worked on Floor 14, but... not this time."

"You said you were sure! You lied to me—"

"Honestly? I didn't think you'd go."

Erendil's face twisted at my words, making no effort to hide her displeasure. Cold eyes turned on me. But it was the truth. However strong her soldier's spirit, no one wants to walk into certain death. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠That had been Erendil's reaction from the beginning, after all — and she knew it too, which was why she didn't argue.

"It's all right. There's still a way. This time we're heading to the fortress center — command headquarters."

"You said that before, too."

"That was the peaceful option. The second method is an assassination."

"...And you're certain you can kill that thing?"

Erendil gave me a doubtful look — the price of the lie I'd told earlier. I answered evenly.

"You got a better option than trusting me? Leave that dragon alone and the fortress falls. It's only a matter of time."

It was an unassailable fact, so Erendil simply pressed her lips shut.

"You saw my friend's teleportation just now, and my speed too. Obviously we can't win head-on — but we've got one chance left."

Erendil didn't answer. Instead, she veered the broom left to avoid an incoming wyvern, and for a while we drifted across the battlefield's sky. She dropped magic bombs without a word; I speared wyverns out of the air with thrown lances and lightning.

About thirty seconds passed like ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠that. Just as I was thinking we should go collect the other Witch of the Night, Erendil — apparently having made up her mind — finally spoke.

"Fine. I'm fighting ready to die anyway. If we lose, everyone dies — so the dragon has to go. Let's do it."

"This time I mean it. Trust me."

"Hmph."

Erendil blew a rough snort through her nose, but the broom banked toward the fortress center all the same.

On the way to Ha Heijeong, I turned my eyes to the left wall to check on my party members. With my superhuman vision, I spotted them in the distance. Fierce fighting raged along the left wall as well.

They're holding. Good.

Hosu and Alexei were planted on the battlements, swinging sword and axe at the lizardmen scrambling up them. Cole loosed arrow after arrow without a breath's pause, while Harin and Dobby clung behind Handrake, chanting holy spells with everything they had. Being Earth's first- and second-ranked parties, they'd apparently coordinated to anchor the center of the left wall. My party was fighting well without me or Heijeong, and that put my mind at ease.

"Hey! Look out—!"

At Erendil's strangled cry, I whipped my gaze toward the fortress center. Normally Ha Heijeong would have spotted me and come over first — but she clearly had no room to spare a glance my way.

On top of the central gate, Ha Heijeong was locked in a standoff with a lizardman unusually small in stature.

So that was the assassination attempt on the commander.

He must have seized the moment when everyone's attention had turned to my conversation with the dragon.

Katley Monaka lay sprawled behind Ha Heijeong, her left forearm sliced long and deep. Three officers lay dead around her — it must have been a brutal fight. The blood seeping through her torn plate armor was blackish-red. Looking closer, the arm itself had darkened all the way to the elbow.

We'd both prepared antidotes for exactly this contingency, but it seemed she hadn't managed to drink hers yet. Probably too locked in the standoff to find the time...

Kujo Tuy moved at terrifying speed. Ha Heijeong was barely holding him off, wand flashing, spells stacking one atop another without a moment's rest.

"Dropping! Hold on tight!"

After warning Erendil of the sudden drop, I leapt straight off the broom and immediately triggered Flash Step, kicking off empty air to close the distance in an instant. The assassin's dagger had just been deflected off Ha Heijeong's wand — and before Kujo Tuy even registered my presence, I buried my axe in his back.

Time snapped back, and with it came a belated death rattle.

"Gahk—!"

"Katley!"

"Th-thank you!"

Leaving the collapsing assassin where he fell, I tossed the antidote straight to Katley. It was the universal cure I'd paid a steep price for — with her arm slashed, she wouldn't die now. I turned to Ha Heijeong. There was no need to discuss the assassination. She'd held well, and we'd killed him clean. All that remained was the dragon.

"You saw it didn't work."

"Yeah. I was hoping, but no dice. Do it now?"

"Go."

Simple, clean exchange. At her nod, I climbed back onto Erendil's broom, and Ha Heijeong drifted up through the air to hover beside us. But first, I had to brief Erendil.

"Erendil, listen carefully. We're teleporting above the dragon's head. Then I'll use Flash Step, like before, to kill it. You'll need to handle the broom precisely."

"Huh? Flash Step? Uh... okay. Got it."

Then I tapped the mimic and pulled out the two vials Ha Heijeong had handed me back in the Waiting Room.

Potions prepared for the sole purpose of killing a dragon. I downed them in one gulp, and smeared what remained of the Dragonslayer's Scent across my axe.

Three seconds. The moment the potions took hold, I activated the Shadow Monarch skill, its veil spreading over the three of us. From this moment, no one on the battlefield could see us.

"Erendil, fly straight for the dragon's head. I'll drop from about twenty meters above it. After that, evade on your own."

"...Understood."

Erendil answered in a taut voice. I gave her shoulder a light pat. I'd already confirmed her flying skill; threading a dive through Flash Step wouldn't be hard for her. Erendil would do fine.

"Going."

With Ha Heijeong's word, we blinked into open space fifty meters above the red dragon Izerion's head. The teleport took less than a tenth of a second — and before I could even call her name, Erendil had already nosed the broom toward the ground.

Inside the world slowed to a standstill, the broom descended at full throttle, and matching its plunge, I drew the essence of lightning within me to its absolute limit.

"Now!"

The words were barely out when Erendil wrenched the broom into a hard, violent break — in the opposite direction from her usual, carving out the space for me to drop clean. A small kindness I hadn't asked for. I released my grip, and from the hips up I came free of the broom, carrying its momentum as I hurled myself at the dragon.

Good.

I wasn't planning to attack on the broom's speed alone. Inside Flash Step, I used Flash Step again. Impossible under normal circumstances — but the doubled Agility and Strength propped it up. Running through empty air at a speed even greater than before, I counted my footing.

Kashatum's sky shoes — two steps on the air. That's all.

One step: seven meters of fall. Second step: knees bent, gathering thrust. At the same instant I raised both shoulders and hauled the axe back behind my head as far as it would go. Thirteen meters of leap followed — no, of bombardment.

The red dragon filled my vision. I drove the axe into Izerion's skull.

Kwadeudeudeuk—! Pajak—!

The sound of solid scale caving in rang through my bones, the grinding of the axe's edge layered on top of it. And the world snapped back to its original speed.

"Kreeeeaaagh—!"

With a grotesque shriek, the dragon plummeted from the sky toward the earth. The velocity-driven blow had caved in its head, and the beast couldn't even right itself. Dragon and I fell together, meteor-like, hurtling toward the ground.

Pulling the axe out and dodging never crossed my mind. This thing had to die beyond any doubt. I laid my hand on the axe's spine and pressed down with everything I had, letting the shock of the fall drive the blade deeper — clean through the skull.

"Kieeeek—!"

With the wyverns' belated screams tearing across the sky behind us, we smashed into the earth.

KWAAANG—!

The ground shuddered like an earthquake, and the impact slammed through my whole body. But my hand never left the axe. Kwadeudeudeuk—! At last the blade buried itself entirely inside the dragon's skull. The fall had forced it in brutally deep; blood welled up through the mangled, split scales.

Make certain.

Ha Heijeong had told me: never, under any circumstances, get careless with a dragon. Dragonslaying is not a thing done easily. I shouldered past the dull concussion ringing through my body and let go of the axe — then drew the dagger at my hip, split it into its two blades, and stabbed wildly into the dragon's head with a weapon in each hand.

Thuk— thuk—! Thuk—!

Being a Unique-grade relic, the dagger bit with a different feel entirely from the axe. I could hear every scale splitting. Each new hole punched into the dragon's massive skull sent blood gushing harder, spraying until it soaked me from head to toe. Now and then viscous brain matter and flesh clung to my cheek and hair — there was no time to care. How many times did I drive the daggers into that skull? At last, the dragon breathed its last.

Through my numbed ears, the climbers' roar came crashing in.

"WOOOOAAAH! KWON SUHYEOK! WOOOOAH!"

"HE KILLED THE DRAGON!"

Only then did I come back to myself, and the shock of the fall hit me all at once. My whole body trembled like I'd been run over head-on by a dump truck. And layered over that shock, a searing heat washed over me. Ha Heijeong — a solidly woven curtain of flame, holding the wyverns back so they couldn't reach me.

She pushed through her own fire wall and came toward me with a pained look on her face. Hm. If Heijeong is making a face like that, I must look like absolute hell.

"Whew. You got it... You went through a lot."

For some reason, the face she turned toward the dragon looked almost relieved. Had she pushed past a little of her old trauma? I couldn't tell — but there was no time for trading impressions.

"It's just starting. Don't celebrate yet."

Floor 16. Unless you did something about the dragon, this floor was a guaranteed wipe. Only after killing it could a proper defense of the fortress even begin. This was merely the first step.

"Your body?"

"I'm fine."

"You don't look fine."

"Dobby can patch me up. Honestly, Dobby's healing is ridiculous, you know?"

At my breezy dismissal, Ha Heijeong snorted a laugh.

"First, let's grab the dragon's corpse."

Huh? Grab the dragon's corpse?

"How am I supposed to grab that?"

"You've got the mimic."

"That thing can hold it? Did you not see it puke on Floor 9?"

At my question, Ha Heijeong instead went wide-eyed, flustered.

"Oh — I never told you, did I. That was because I stuffed it with cheap junk. It likes expensive things. Even a baby like that can swallow an impossible amount, as long as it's worth something."

"...Seriously."

A disbelieving laugh burst out of me. I couldn't for the life of me understand how the quality of what went inside decided what the mimic could hold. Wasn't more just... better? Still skeptical, I tapped the mimic — and from the tiny box, a vast black darkness erupted outward, wide enough to swallow the dragon whole. In less than a second, Moongchi gulped the entire corpse down. It was a sight I saw with my own two eyes and still couldn't believe.

"UOOOOOONG!"

And then, with a monstrous howl, the earth itself began to shudder. I whipped my head around — charging through the lizardman army came a beast over six meters tall, flames wreathing its body.

Heading straight for the fortress gate.

"To Dobby! Now!"

I shouted at Ha Heijeong, and before the words had even left my mouth she'd seized my hand. Treatment first. It had to be.