The Black Dragon (2)

Ored Ghad, having slipped past the empowered Gaze of Horror, made no move to attack us. He simply held his distance and watched.

Until the moment he'd evaded it, there had been an arrogant air about him — but now there was none at all. He was on extreme alert, against us. Against me, rather.

Every twitch of my wings, the angle of my head, the auxiliary organs swaying faintly in the wind, and even the Monster's Tentacles gleaming purple and green — his eyes tracked them all.

I don't get it.

His gaze was locked onto the tentacles, as if he somehow knew they posed a threat to him.

Black Galagons don't have espionage traits.

Galagons possess nothing like Clairvoyance, which gathers information about their surroundings to see through objects hidden underground or behind walls, nor Insight, which analyzes an opponent based on their appearance to deduce equipment and traits. Not even the Red Galagons, who appear only in events, have such abilities.

Galagons are perfect creatures — bodies sturdy enough to survive in ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠open space, overwhelming psychic power, long lifespans, and even the social intelligence to hunt in packs alongside their kin. There was simply no evolutionary need for espionage traits on top of all that.

Well, no. That's not certain.

Adhai alone had shown herself to be different from ordinary Galagons. Ored Ghad might not be a typical Black Galagon either.

Let's try Insight.

I had used it on Adhai once, back when we went hunting the Hellside Hornet. It hadn't helped much, since nothing special came up. The odds were high that nothing new would surface from him either, but nothing ventured, nothing gained. I beat my wings to close the distance.

[Zzzzzz zzzzzzz zzzzzz (I'm going to get close to him. Cover me.)]

｢Okay.｣

I'd been saving the combo attack of Color of the Abyss and No. 26 as my trump card, but that ship had sailed. No. 26 had been holding back to conceal her strength, but there was no longer any need.

I drove forward, wings slamming hard against the air. The moment I closed in, Ored Ghad's horns lit up violet.

Far above my head came the low growl of a tiger. The psychic storm of the Maelstrom was about to break loose.

Purple lightning poured down behind my tail, and a waterspout more than a hundred meters across barred my path. The vortex, gulping down the air around it, cut my flight speed sharply. In that opening, just as the psychic lightning lashed toward me, No. 26 stepped in.

｢Uuuuh!｣

Have you ever seen a lightning bolt frozen in mid-strike? The kind of thing that only exists in photographs was happening right above my back.

I could feel it through my auxiliary organs. Thousands — no, so many I couldn't begin to count — of filaments burst from No. 26's body and seized hold of the lightning. And the taxidermied psychic power, moving at her will, gathered into a single point in the empty sky.

｢!｣

Ored Ghad, the very caster of the Maelstrom, belatedly tried to reclaim command of the lightning — but it was too late. The psychic power No. 26 had stolen was already a violet arrow, hunting for his life.

Like an arrow loosed by a god to slay an evil dragon, the psychic power tore through the storm clouds. Ored Ghad, his control lost, beat his wings and twisted aside. The arrow curved to chase him, but it couldn't keep up with his erratic movements.

｢Big Baby, this is hard. Can't do it much longer.｣

[Zzzzz (It's okay.)]

Thanks to her buying me time, I could close in on him without facing any interference at all.

[Zzzzzzz zzzzzz (Help Adhai.)]

｢Okay.｣

Right then, the small-framed White Galagon Adhai was hammering Ored Ghad at close range. No. 26 steered her stolen psychic power to support Adhai's energy shots.

｢Vermin! All of you!｣

Ored Ghad let loose a telepathic wave thick with irritation and began spewing Psychic Breath. While Adhai evaded the heat beams firing at supersonic speeds, I activated Insight.

...I see.

Having confirmed him with Insight, I activated Psychic Breath. Unlike its usual violet shimmer, a strange light now wreathed my body — green and violet mingled with a dozen other pigments.

Psychic Breath, empowered by Color of the Abyss. Bubbles of ruination, tormented by endless hunger, gathered at the tips of my tentacles.

The bubble-formed breath flew to swallow him whole. The moment Ored Ghad laid eyes on those bubbles, he hastily withdrew — he had been about to strike Adhai.

He saw through it again.

His retreat bought me a brief respite, and I turned the freshly gained information over in my mind.

He has some special ability.

It was plain from his Status. He was clearly under an enhanced state with something more than just Dragon Power.

Every Galagon of Black rank or above possesses the innate skill Dragon Heart. When an ordinary player acquired it, it granted Dragonification; for Galagons, it manifested as an enhancement called Dragon Power.

The problem was the second enhancement listed after Dragon Power. A normal Black Galagon should have had that one effect alone — but this creature was carrying two.

That added enhancement was very likely tied to his unknown ability.

The pity was that Insight hadn't revealed everything he possessed. It didn't display an opponent's full complement of equipment, skills, and traits — it showed a random selection.

I wanted to close in and use Insight again, but that wouldn't be easy. Having dodged my attacks one after another, he was now guarding against me with total vigilance. He was a clever one; he wouldn't let me approach again.

I should count myself lucky he's fighting so passively.

I don't know how Ored Ghad learned about my traits, but because of it his movements were restricted. If he'd come at me aggressively, this fight would have been far harder.

I need to change my strategy.

I sent a short psychic pulse to Adhai. Startled, she hesitated — but when I pulsed again, harder, she finally relented.

｢Big Adult｣｢Body｣｢Careful｣

With only those words left behind, she flew off in the opposite direction.

Whether Adhai fled or not, Ored Ghad kept his eyes fixed on me alone. He knew that even if Adhai attacked him, she couldn't land a meaningful blow.

He thinks if he takes me down, this ends easily.

It was a perfectly rational judgment on his part. Of course, I had acted this way precisely because I expected him to judge exactly that.

And so the battle resumed. Perhaps thanks to No. 26, he kept the Maelstrom's domain adjusted so that no lightning fell near him.

Instead, he multiplied the waterspouts descending from the clouds to obstruct my movement. His intent was obvious: keep his distance, intercept me, and slowly bleed me dry.

Just as predicted, he held the gap between us as wide as he could and rained down breath after breath.

No. 26 had once deflected even Ham Ort's heat beams, but Ored Ghad's breath was beyond her control. So now she assisted by nudging the breath's trajectory just slightly askew, making it miss — as she was doing at this very moment.

Even that much is a huge help.

The truth was, I still had one trick up my sleeve.

If Ored Ghad had been weaker than I expected — or dumber than the Black Galagons I knew — I would have used it already.

There was a trait I'd obtained back when I hunted the Skywhale. A physical-type fusion trait, born from merging with Synthetic Scales, the body-related trait I already carried.

Mimic Scales was similar to Metal Absorption — which let me eat metal and reflect its properties onto my body — yet fundamentally different. As the description said, Mimic Scales copied an enemy's energy attack and granted my body a resistance to that type of energy attack.

If, say, a Plasma Launcher hammered me continuously, Mimic Scales would activate and my defense against plasma-type attacks would climb dramatically — to the point that a plasma weapon couldn't shatter so much as a single scale.

It was an excellent trait that boosted Amorph's survivability by leaps and bounds, but it had a drawback.

Once I gained resistance to one type of energy, I couldn't immediately acquire resistance to another. Immune to plasma, I could not also become immune to psychic power on the spot. To gain psychic resistance, I would have to wait for the existing immunity to fade away first.

That's why Cult players used to cycle through different weapon types.

Of course, in my current situation this wasn't much of a weakness. Galagons primarily attacked with psychic power, after all.

The real problem was that activating Mimic Scales required me to endure the enemy's attacks continuously.

Against an enemy like Ored Ghad, who poured out attacks my body couldn't withstand, the effect was nearly impossible to acquire — because I'd be dead before Mimic Scales ever kicked in.

If the plan hadn't fallen apart, I could have made proper use of it.

The original idea was to build up Mimic Scales' resistance while hunting the White Galagons. Their Psychic Breath was more than survivable.

I should have prepared in advance if I'd seen this coming.

With Adhai and No. 26 at my side, it would have taken time, but I could have activated Mimic Scales. I'd been careless — I simply hadn't imagined he would come crashing down on us this fast.

...Regret can wait.

I wrapped my wing-arms around my body and spun. The incoming heat beam grazed the surface of my wing by the width of a sheet of paper.

No good after ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠all.

I'd considered tanking his breath head-on to trigger Mimic Scales, but that was out of the question. That black-violet heat beam was not something my body could block.

I can't take the risk when I don't even know what his ability is.

Whether I used Mimic Scales or anything else, I had to learn his ability first before I could mount an effective counter.

It's not an information-reading ability.

Come to think of it, the odds of him knowing about Color of the Abyss — an effect even players didn't know — were slim.

Which leaves one possibility.

An ability that senses danger in advance.

Like my own Predator Sense, he too could analyze his surroundings and work something close to prophecy.

That's the more likely answer.

He had read my plans in advance and moved accordingly, without receiving any report whatsoever. More than that — among the twelve White Galagons, he had flown to aid precisely the one I was targeting. These were actions only possible if he had seen the future.

And yet a doubt remained. As far as I knew, no ability existed that could peer across a domain that vast. Even Predator Sense only showed me the mortal danger immediately at hand.

If he could read the future perfectly, there was no way for me to win.

No. That can't be it.

If such an ability existed, he would have killed me long ago. There had been chances aplenty — the moment I first arrived on this planet, for instance, or after my fight with Jason, when I was weakened.

The reason he hadn't was simple.

His future-sight has limits.

What mattered was where exactly those limits lay. Only by finding that boundary could I crack him open.

Time to find out.

And the ones who would help me run the experiment were rising toward this place even now.

｢Black kin｣｢Support｣

Two Galagons, large and small, their scales shining white, closed in behind me. Adhai and Nel Germa.

Ored Ghad seemed to believe Adhai was playing bait while I stayed behind — but that wasn't the case.

She had feigned a retreat, then swung around on a wide arc to help Nel Germa. Thanks to that, the two of them had finished off the White Galagon with the broken wing and climbed back up to us.

Ored Ghad's cold eyes fixed on the three of us.

｢Nel Germa｣｢Did you kill Zer Garuda｣

｢Correct｣

｢Ored Ghad's mate｣｢What ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠was lacking that you betrayed｣

｢Ham Ort｣｢Speaks｣｢Ored Ghad｣｢Liar｣｢Tyrant｣｢Weak kin｣｢Abandons｣｢Kills｣｢Agreement｣｢Impossible｣

Faced with Nel Germa's rebuttal, Ored Ghad fell silent.

After a brief stillness, he released a telepathic wave.

｢A pity｣｢Unrepentant traitors｣｢Death is all that remains｣

｢Nel Germa｣｢Will not die｣｢Death｣｢Belongs to liar｣｢Ored Ghad｣

｢The Great Ored Ghad｣｢Does not die｣

So saying, he turned his gaze from Nel ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Germa and looked at me. In those eyes — brimming with wariness only moments ago — there was now something entirely different.

Mockery?

｢The Great Ored Ghad does not retreat｣｢No matter how strong the enemy｣

Hardly a position of leisure, and yet he was sneering at me.

In that instant, it struck me like a bolt of lightning to the skull.

The moment I understood, Adhai and Nel Germa also sent urgent telepathic waves my way.

｢Big Adult｣｢Over there｣｢Kin｣｢Felt!｣

｢White kin｣｢Approaching｣

I couldn't see them yet, but there was no question — his pack was coming.

The Maelstrom! He used it to call his pack!

Not many beings on this planet could conjure localized weather anomalies.

None, in fact, except the black dragon in front of me.

It was true that he'd been wary of my attacks — but he'd had a hidden plan of his own all along.

｢The Great Ored Ghad｣｢Strong foes｣｢Dangers｣｢Has defeated them all｣

He sent the telepathic wave in triumph. But beneath the words, his true intent was plain: stall for time, run and dodge, until his kin arrived.

Don't make me laugh.

Strong foes. Dangers. Defeating them all — those words applied to me too.

I, too, had clawed my way through every powerful enemy and every mortal danger this world had thrown at me.

Don't think you're the only one who can call for friends.

This time was no different.