The Lizard Lord

“I’ll give the briefing.”

Having arrived at the boss room, I turned to the party and laid it out.

“The boss waiting ahead is the Lizard Lord. Appearance-wise, it’s not all that different from the Lizardman warriors we saw yesterday—just massively bigger. About three or four times the size?”

“So he’s just a giant sandbag, then~♡”

“No. You saw the shamans yesterday, right? The Lord can use the same Lizardman-style sorcery they do, only he’s better at it than most of them. He’s already huge, his scales are rock-hard, and his durability and raw strength are ridiculous—then he buffs himself with sorcery on top of that.”

That was exactly why the Lizard Lord was considered a pain even as an early boss. In the early game, even a strong character was still underdeveloped; stats were low, so punching through that defense was already hard, and then the thing started stacking self-buffs…

“So the key is to finish it before the Lizard Lord can stack too many buffs. Speed-clear it.”

“But you said it’s tough. How?”

In theory, ending it before the buffs stacked was simple. In practice, early-game stats made that impossible—which was precisely why the Lizard Lord was a problem.

“It’s fine. That was the general case.”

That was true when you were playing the game. Looking at these girls’ status screens now, they were nowhere near early-game stats.

“Erinn, with your strength you can cut straight through the scales and into the flesh.”

A Strength stat of three hundred meant Erinn’s sword could shatter the Lizard Lord’s scales and slice the meat underneath.

Maybe the moment this place became real, some kind of adjustment had happened between the game’s displayed stats and actual reality. Either way, the party now had the specs to punch through the Lizard Lord’s thick hide without much trouble.

“And before the buffs stack, its magic resistance and holy resistance are pretty low. Letisia, Freya—you two handle fire support.”

“Yes.”

“Understood.”

“Allen, then what about this Noonim?”

Ser-Aria took another swig of booze and asked. I looked at her.

“You do what you always do—support Erinn. Keep the Lizard Lord locked down as your primary mark.”

“Mm, good! Leave it to this Noonim!”

I turned back to Letisia, who I’d already assigned fire support.

“The Lizard Lord will keep summoning minions throughout the fight. Those are for you and…”

I glanced sideways. The thief was standing next to me, listening with a slightly vacant expression. The moment my eyes landed on him, he looked straight back at me.

“Thief, you intercept every last one of them.”

“……Okay.”

“Understood.”

I continued.

“The rear line stays inside Freya’s barrier. Front and mid fight outside it. So Freya—put your blessings on the front and mid liners.”

“Of course.”

As Freya walked over to Erinn at the front and Ser-Aria in the mid line, her hips swayed with deliberate little twitches. That exhibitionist. There wasn’t even another man around to look, yet she still walked like that. Terminal case.

And she claimed she was a virgin? I couldn’t believe it. Same level of credibility as Ser-Aria swearing off alcohol.

Still, as a saintess chosen by a god, her power was the real deal. A powerful blessing settled over Erinn and Ser-Aria, and both of their stats spiked instantly.

Combat-related stats—Strength, Agility, Stamina—had all jumped by sixty to eighty points. A modest bump to Holy was a free bonus. A Hero’s Holy power was the strength of the Holy Sword itself, so the blessing meant the sword would hit even harder.

One blessing had just added roughly my entire stat total as a free bonus.

One blessing equals one porter…

“…Unbelievable.”

“What is?”

“Nothing. Once we’re inside, if there’s anything else to brief I’ll call it out on the spot.”

“Got it!”

Finally the end of the line. I’d told them everything I could… but I still had worries.

The Lizard Lord itself shouldn’t throw any curveballs. The real problem was ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠why we’d come to this dungeon in the first place—the traces of the Demon King’s army. Anyone who’d ever played an RPG could roughly guess what that kind of plot hook meant.

…There’s another boss after the Lizard Lord.

Exactly. A hidden boss.

The Hero’s party had been sent because Demon King army traces had been found. Of course there wouldn’t be nothing waiting. Whatever showed up, I needed to start sketching countermeasures in my head. That was an orderer’s job.

Erinn stepped forward and opened the door to the boss zone. Just like any RPG boss, the moment you set foot in the designated area, the reaction came instantly.

“Who dares disturb my slumber.”

“Whatever rat bastards you are…”

“Don’t even think about walking out of here clean!!”

The first boss fight had begun.

“We open exactly like I said! I’ll adjust the detailed orders on the fly!”

“And the rest we play by ear~?”

“Right!”

Erinn gripped the Holy Sword in one hand and kicked off lightly. With a burst of Gale Sword footwork she closed on the Lord in an instant, then spun in a wide, fluid circle.

KRAAAANG!!!

The Lizard Lord’s massive axe smashed down into the spot where she’d been standing a heartbeat earlier. Erinn’s spin flowed straight into an attack.

Seok!

Erinn’s Holy Sword carved a half-moon arc and sliced through the Lizard Lord’s scales and hide.

Damn, her sense for this is ridiculous…

The Lizard Lord tried to keep her from following up, but it couldn’t. Our mid-liner had serious disruption power of her own.

KWA-KWA-KWANG!!

The moment Ser-Aria’s arrow touched the Lizard Lord it detonated. The tough hide absorbed most of the blast, but the scales couldn’t hold and melted away.

“Insolent──!!”

The message flashed and I barked immediately.

“Buff! Aria, keep disrupting so it can’t focus!”

“Got it—leave it to this Noonim!”

Ser-Aria pulled three arrows from her quiver at once and nocked them.

Pa-pa-pak!!

All three slammed dead-center into the hide where the scales had just melted. No skill message appeared—just pure marksmanship.

“Aria! Right side!”

KRAAAANG!!!

Ser-Aria lightly slipped the axe swing on my call, and the big motion opened a natural gap that Erinn immediately drove into.

From the side, a chant rose.

“Spirits that dwell in nature. In accordance with the pact between us, fulfill the duty of that contract.”

Letisia began summoning. Four elemental spirits took shape. She cracked her whip against the floor with a sharp snap and said,

“Kyahat, time to work~!”

“Letisia, send the salamander straight ahead and have it spit fire.”

“Understood. Fufu♥ You heard that, salamander?”

Snap!!

“I’ll whip ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠you nice and hard, so you spit those flames with everything you’ve got~!”

The salamander advanced on Letisia’s order, maw filling with searing flame.

FWOOOOSH!!!

The instant the message appeared, a torrent of fire blasted from the salamander’s jaws.

The Lizard Lord was forced into a binary choice: the Erinn diving in from the side, or the wall of flame coming straight on.

It chose to smash its axe down at Erinn while roaring. Erinn dodged, of course, and the Lord took the salamander’s fire full in the face for the privilege.

Then—

“Come forth! My army!!”

Standard boss minion-summon pattern. Lizardmen of various classes appeared ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠around the Lord; a few of them were immediately swallowed by the salamander’s flames and burned to ash.

In exchange the Lizard Lord took less damage—only some of its scales melted.

Using its own subordinates as meat shields.

Typical monster. No hesitation about that kind of thing.

“Letisia, clean them up!”

“Fufufu, leave it to me~!”

“Thief—shamans. You know what to do?”

“……Okay.”

“I’m counting on you.”

The army summon had brought a few shamans with it. If they stayed up, Letisia wouldn’t be able to run her spirits properly, and if they started stacking buffs on the Lord its defense would ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠skyrocket into the absurd.

So I needed our competent thief to handle them.

With the skill message, the thief’s hand darkened like a shadow. At the same time, matching shadows bloomed across the chests of the Lizardman shamans.

I’d never seen this skill before. Heartburst Assassination? Some kind of curse technique… While I was still wondering what it actually did, the thief stabbed his own hand with a dagger.

“Keeaaak!”

“Kwieeek!!”

Blood erupted from the shamans’ chests and they collapsed. The other Lizardmen nearby reeled back in shock at how fast their casters had dropped.

What the hell did he just do?

Remote heart detonation? There was an ability that ridiculous?

“……Allen. Done.”

“Th-Thief! Can you use that on the Lizard Lord?”

“……No, sorry… If the curse resistance is high, it won’t work…”

“Ah… You don’t need to apologize.”

…Yeah. If a broken skill like that worked on everything, it would be its own problem. You could just delete the Demon King with it.

Still, thanks to him the shamans were cleaned up before they could land a single buff.

“Nice work.”

“……Okay.”

I praised the thief and immediately issued the next order.

“Letisia, keep clearing the Lizardmen with your spirits. Erinn and Aria stay on the Lord!”

“Understood~! You heard that? Time to work hard again, kyahaha♥”

“Yeah~.”

“Good, good!”

“So you’re the commander!!”

The Lizard Lord had figured out I was the orderer and came straight for me—but I wasn’t stupid enough to stand somewhere dangerous.

JEOOOONG!!!

The Lord’s axe slammed into a powerful holy barrier and stopped dead. Freya, who had kept me safe, looked over and gave me a soft little smile.

She looked like she wanted praise, so I gave her some.

“Nice one, Freya.”

“It’s nothing.”

She said it and immediately refocused on the Lizard Lord’s movements. Apparently she was the type who got hungry for compliments. Hopefully that wasn’t also why she dressed so obscenely.

KRAAAANG!!

Erinn and Ser-Aria’s attacks landed clean. The Lizard Lord staggered under the impact but still didn’t go down.

“You lot…”

Realizing every one of its attacks was being blocked while damage just kept piling up, the Lizard Lord scowled. That meant the pattern was about to change. I issued a new order at once.

“Erinn, fall back!”

“What~?”

“Just for a second!”

Thankfully Erinn listened and put distance between herself and the Lord. Immediately after, the Lizard Lord triggered its berserk pattern.

Its eyes rolled back. With those blood-red berserk eyes it locked onto the subordinates still scattered around it.

“Ki-kieek! My lord?”

“Kiik, why are you…?”

The Lizardmen sensed something and stared at their lord in terror, but it was already too late.

The Lizard Lord opened its jaws wide and slammed its head down. In one motion it clamped several Lizardmen in its mouth and swallowed them whole.

“Cannibalism…?”

Freya watched with wide, startled eyes. The more intelligent a creature was, the less likely cannibalism became. Monsters were high-intelligence lifeforms, so cannibalism almost never happened among them.

Yet the Lizard Lord was cheerfully eating its own kind, so Freya’s shock was completely reasonable.

In truth, until you entered Extreme difficulty the Lizard Lord didn’t even appear, and other bosses never showed this kind of behavior either. It was an Extreme-only addition, and a lot of players had been pretty shaken by the pattern the first time they saw it.

The Lizard Lord had already been three or four times larger than a normal Lizardman; after finishing its meal it looked closer to ten times the size. With the bulk came more strength and higher durability.

“Now it really starts. In that state it’ll try to swallow anything it catches, so be careful, Erinn.”

“That monster wants to eat a cute girl like me~? That’s just bad taste♡”

Even looking at that thing, Erinn still giggled.

Being able to laugh meant she still had room to spare. Good—she wasn’t tense.

“Just because it got bigger doesn’t mean the strategy changes. It’s faster and stronger than before, that’s all—watch for that. One clean hit and you’re in real trouble.”

In its berserk state a single blow from the Lord was stronger than you’d expect. Even a barrier Freya planted herself and poured everything into would only just hold.

So even with the blessing up, taking one bare…

“Puhaha, this is so unfair!”

Ser-Aria said it, yet she still set an arrow to the string.

The way they treated even this kind of absurd situation like it was familiar was exactly what told you this insane party was the Hero’s party.

I spoke to them all.

“…Phase two. Let’s go.”

The berserk Lizard Lord wasn’t just stronger and tougher—it was faster too, and it started slamming its axe down in wild, indiscriminate arcs. Every single swing was so threatening I felt my own nerves fraying.

But Erinn and Ser-Aria were dodging that monstrous assault with ease. As a result, the Lizardmen that failed to get clear of their own lord’s hyper-fast swings were getting torn apart instead.

“Keeaak!!”

“M-my lord… kwieeeek!!”

Somehow the Lizard Lord had started doing Letisia’s job for her.

“You little rats──!!”

Whether it noticed or not, the Lord was too busy trying to catch the rats darting around in front of it. Aside from the fact that those rats occasionally bit back hard enough to hurt like hell, the feeling was about the same.

KRAAAANG!!

“Yap♡”

In that moment the Erinn who had been weaving away leaped up onto the descending axe. Instantly her body flared with mana and she shot forward like a bolt.

“Hyaaaap!”

A shockingly girlish battle cry rang out, completely at odds with the force behind it. For a second my brain refused to accept whose voice it was—obviously it was Erinn’s.

It clashed hard with the image she usually projected toward me… but yeah, she did look like a girl.

And her voice is pretty cute, I’ll give her that…

With that adorable shout, Erinn’s sword thrust forward. The Lizard Lord couldn’t track the movement as she raced up its arm in a blink.

KWAJIIIK!!!

The Holy Sword sank deep into the creature’s left eye.

The Lizard Lord swung its free hand down in a panic to crush the Erinn perched on its arm, but she simply released the Holy Sword, kicked upward off the blade, and slipped free.

Chwaaak!!

Then she grabbed the sword still buried in the eye and ripped it free.

“KRAAAAAAGH!!”

A roar thick with pain, and sorcery activated.

“Aria! Aim for the eye!”

“Leave it to me!”

Ser-Aria sprang into the air with fluid speed. With an almost supernatural motion she twisted her body mid-flight. Her posture inverted, yet the arrow stayed locked dead on the Lord’s eye.

She drew the string.

Dense mana flooded the arrow.

The taut string slipped free of her fingers.

Paaang!

The string snapped back to rest and a single powerful arrow spun through the air, cutting the wind.

And it struck true.

TU-KWAAAAANG!!!!

It punched straight through the Lizard Lord’s eye. The arrow didn’t lodge—it bored clean through and out the back of the skull.

By the time Ser-Aria flipped upright and landed, the Lizard Lord was clutching its eye and staggering.

Got it.

Even a berserk Lord was finished now. I gave the party the final order.

“Now! Everyone on the Lord! Finish it!”

“Allen only ever says the obvious~♡ We already know~?”

Erinn, Letisia, the thief, even Freya—every one of them unleashed skills, driving in the finishing blows.

KWAANG! KWA-KWA-KWA-KWA-KWAAAAANG─────!!

Merciless finishing blows hammered the Lizard Lord.

Smoke and dust billowed up from the explosions and impacts. This was the moment. While they poured everything into ending the Lord, I quietly slipped out of the barrier and moved sideways.

The Lizard Lord was almost completely disabled, but burning through that massive HP pool would still take a little time.

In the meantime I needed to grab the hidden piece. I had to get in and out while the party was distracted.

“Around here…?”

I ran my hands over the bricks until something clicked under my fingers. I pressed it lightly and a section of wall rumbled open with a low grind.

The sound wasn’t exactly quiet, but the thunderous noise from the fight was still rolling, so no one seemed to notice. I slipped into the room, closed the door behind me, and looked around.

“That is…”

There it was. A treasure chest that couldn’t have looked more like a treasure chest if it tried. I cracked it open carefully…

“Oh.”

A glittering orb-like stone lay inside.

Roughly translated: the Ancient God’s gemstone. That was the idea.

As you could see, it could grant magic even to characters born without any, so grabbing it early and feeding it to a character with zero magic but outstanding physical stats was incredibly efficient. Efficient enough that you could keep using that character all the way into the late game.

I was a Magic 0 myself. If I ate this, gained a full hundred Magic, and picked up two magic-related traits at the same time… from that point on I’d actually be able to use and train magic.

“I was worried it might not be here… Glad it was.”

“Oh, congrats, Allen! Is that what you were looking for?”

“?”

A voice I absolutely should not have been hearing. I turned my creaking neck to the side.

“But what is it?”

There stood the alcoholic, drinking and watching me.