Chapter 99 – Wood Dragon Gilmunabal

Though Gilmnabaal faced Grace, he ignored her entirely. He began moving toward Theodore, who was engaged in combat with Luceriage.

“Who are you looking at?”

The axe and chain released from Grace’s hand wrapped with fighting spirit, tracing a large arc as they coiled around the demon’s body. By that time, Grace herself had already shattered the cobblestones with an explosive step and charged forward.

“You… are in the way.”

Gilmnabaal’s response was to intercept her right there. However, he didn’t even turn around.

His face and posture remained oriented toward Luceriage. While his overall form resembled a human, there was an unnatural discomfort in the skeletal structure beneath his black robes.

A massive arm burst from his shoulder, wreathed in miasma, and descended from above to crush Grace.

Grace responded with raw power, swinging her axe overhead in a high stance to strike head-on. The axe wrapped in fighting spirit clashed with Gilmnabaal’s arm shrouded in miasma. Impact. Sparks that seemed ready to explode.

They repelled each other, and the giant arm retracted into the black robes.

In its place, a slender arm shot out through the gaps in the chain. Grace released the chain binding him and pulled it back to her hand, then charged at Gilmnabaal.

Dual axes and withered branch-like arms collided violently. Fighting spirit and miasma clashed, scattering countless sparks.

The moment Grace was knocked back, Sheila slid in silently from behind Gilmnabaal, who had taken a pursuit stance. As she passed by, she slashed with her reverse-gripped dagger. Only the trajectory of her slash attack, imbued with fighting spirit, left a pale blue afterimage.

Just as Sheila’s cloak seemed to emit a faint light, it blended into the surrounding scenery. It was a cloak made from Lunaworm silk. Not a defensive enchantment, but rather an illusion effect incorporated through light magic.

“Clever… little…”

“——!”

Gilmnabaal didn’t even turn around. A slender arm shot out from within his black robes, extending straight to capture Sheila.

It was Irmhild’s arrow that blocked it. She fired consecutively at the extended arm and the demon’s body.

Gilmnabaal generated miasma to create a shield. However, Irmhild’s arrows weren’t ordinary.

The arrows carrying a cursed melody interfered with magical power, causing malfunctions. If they hit a living creature, they dealt mental damage, and if one tried to block them with magical power or miasma——

“What…?”

The miasma barrier scattered, and the arrow struck the demon’s body. By the time it reached the main body, both the cursed melody and the arrow’s force had been canceled out, but the demon seemed somewhat taken aback.

“It’s not over yet!”

Seizing the moment of his flinch.

A fierce blizzard mixed with ice shotgun pellets swallowed the demon.

Simultaneous magic activation by Ashley and Lavigne. The two worked together to create and fire ice bullets. Through synergy, the cold intensity and firing force were far more powerful than if done individually.

As it passed, Grace flew into his chest.

With just the strength of her stomping legs, the cobblestones shattered. Putting the twist of her entire body into a single axe strike, the slash attack wrapped in fighting spirit caught the demon’s torso.

The demon’s body bent into a V-shape from the impact. Yet, while feeling the sensation of a critical hit through her axe, it was Grace who felt the discomfort.

“——Heavy…?”

It should have been a perfect strike. But she couldn’t follow through. He didn’t get blown away.

A strangely heavy sensation, unbefitting his small frame.

Where did that giant arm come from——and where is it now? More fundamentally, why does this demon, despite being a demon, engage in ground combat——?

“Everyone! Get away from the ground!”

Grace warned them and leaped back far.

After a brief pause, countless spear-like tips shot out from the ground across the plaza.

They precisely pierced upward from below the positions of Grace and Sheila who were nearby, Ashley who was standing at a distance, and where Irmhild had been floating.

But Grace’s warning had come slightly earlier. Everyone leaped into the air and escaped harm. For the demon, everyone escaping into the air must have been unexpected. Gilmnabaal’s attack, aimed at catching them all in one net, ended without achieving any results.

“——Missed, did I.”

He didn’t seem particularly disappointed. The demon muttered in a flat, hoarse voice.

Through the gaps in his blown-back black robes, what looked like withered branches were visible.

Gilmnabaal must be a half-human, half-tree demon.

The previous attack must have come from roots spread out like rhizomes.

What Luceriage expected from Gilmnabaal was the extermination of grouped humans. In other words, a demon skilled in ground combat. That was the kind of selection.

That said, it would be wrong to assume he couldn’t fight in the air.

Looking up at Grace and the others who had escaped into the air, Gilmnabaal’s entire body began to creak and groan as it swelled and enlarged.

He was still fundamentally a demon, different from a dragon, but…

A dragon with red eyes and a body of intricately intertwined withered wood… that was Gilmnabaal’s true nature.

From the dragon’s forehead, the upper body of a young man sprouted. The tips of the intertwined branches and vines also had jagged, torn mouth-like openings.

When he took human form, it was a mechanism where he would release these intertwined branches as needed.

Withered wooden arms writhed and lashed like whips from various parts of his massive frame. Shaking the plaza’s cobblestones, he assumed a stance as if rising up.

“Now then…”

Grace pondered how to deal with that.

If it were a giant serpent, crushing its head would probably kill it… but is that the human part or the dragon part? Or perhaps both?

And if it still didn’t die? That would be something to consider when the time came.

Grace narrowed her eyes. Her gaze was fixed on Gilmnabaal’s human part. Specifically, his flank. The wound from her earlier axe strike remained clearly.

The reason her previous strike didn’t finish him was obvious. The wound was too small relative to his massive body. And it wasn’t even a vital point.

So, assuming the weak points are the human part or the dragon’s head. What about that multitude of tentacles? How to slip past them?

“Grace.”

Sheila called out to Grace.

“What is it?”

“That guy. Why do you think

he sees

(

…

)

?”

“……That is”

That was probably a thought unique to Sheila, who was also a scout and had a friend like Irmhild.

Come to think of it, even when he first made contact with Grace, without even turning around, he accurately matched her attacks. When Sheila cut in, and during the previous attack from the ground——it was all extremely precise.

Since he has eyes, he must have vision, but——with just the head’s vision, it’s hard to believe he could perceive everything around that huge body. He probably has other sensory systems.

She glanced toward Theodore at the edge of her vision. He seemed immersed in his fight with Luceriage. Or perhaps, like with Zevion, he might be watching their situation closely——.

Her own job was first and foremost not to burden Theodore. What would he do in such a situation? He once said during training that fighting means thinking from the opponent’s perspective and taking action.

“——I’ve thought of a strategy.”

Grace briefly conveyed her idea, albeit roughly.

The fighting spirit of Ashley and the others hadn’t diminished in the slightest. They exchanged glances and nodded.

That was enough. They had fought together and trained extensively. They knew each other’s roles, desires, capabilities, and limitations.

“I heard from my master that with good luck, I could eat a lot. But those gargoyles were no good. I’ll feast on you all first.”

As Gilmnabaal rose up, Grace alone faced him head-on. The other comrades scattered to the four directions.

“Let’s go.”

She said quietly, a faint smile sticking to her lips as Grace stepped forward. A multitude of withered branches roared as they closed in on Grace. While fending them off with her dual axes, Grace maintained a certain distance as they exchanged blows.

Meanwhile, her comrades were engaging the demon’s huge body in various places.

Slipping past the withered wood and vines approaching wreathed in miasma, they slashed with daggers wrapped in fighting spirit, striking once then retreating. Shooting while falling back. Swatting with a mace. Slashing with ice blades as they passed by. None of these seemed to be decisive blows, or even clearly dealing damage. The difference in numbers was too great to press forward.

While handling multiple battles simultaneously, there was nothing crude about Gilmnabaal’s attacks. Against individuals like Sheila and Irmhild, he was fighting on equal or better terms all over the place.

Grace was also forced into a disadvantageous fight.

Branches extended to crush her escape routes, deploying like a cage, while countless whip-like bending branches closed in from other directions.

No matter how much speed she relied on her arm strength, Grace only had two arms. Even including the leg shields, there was a limit to how many she could handle. One blow slipped past her axe interception and grazed Grace’s head.

Red blood trickled down her white forehead. The scent of her own blood. Even her own——felt terribly violent, and Grace, in the midst of battle, smiled with a hint of self-mockery.

“——Really, I…”

She touched her collar. The defensive magic Protection activated, transforming her Lunaworm silk clothing into sturdy, flexible armor. It possessed powerful defensive effects, but because of that, it couldn’t be maintained for long.

While raising her defense power, she continued exchanging blows. Gilmnabaal’s branches still broke through her defenses, inflicting minor wounds on Grace. A direct hit would likely inflict damage her regeneration couldn’t keep up with——.

But Grace didn’t choose defensive options. She increased the density of the fighting spirit enveloping her axes. As if there was no retreat from here, she clashed with countless branches and vines.

Still, she couldn’t push back. Perhaps Gilmnabaal had determined that Grace was the enemy to be most wary of, and began placing greater emphasis on his fight with her.

And that was exactly what Grace wanted.

“Tch.”

Driven to the wall bit by bit by overwhelming numbers, it came.

A massive blizzard storm blew up from directly below Gilmnabaal, swallowing his head. Water Magic 7th Tier: Blizzard Storm.

For Ashley, this was a major technique among major techniques. Something Theodore had taught her.

But from within the blizzard, spear-like objects were spat out, flying straight toward Ashley.

Ashley herself had her eyes closed, gripping her mace, concentrating solely on controlling the magic circle. Aerial combat——let alone evasion or defense, was out of the question.

However. Ashley, who should have been concentrating on her magic, left that spot at high speed. A moment later, the spears pierced through empty space. It was Lavigne. Clad in ice armor, with Ashley riding on her back, the werewolf and human united as one, racing through the sky.

“Even this won’t take you down?!”

As the blizzard swirled upward and subsided, Gilmnabaal’s form was revealed. Dense miasma swirled around his human part. It seemed he had used miasma to withstand the blizzard.

“Annoying!”

The dragon opened its great jaws. Miasma gathered within its mouth.

“Deep Mist!”

Ashley’s figure vanished into the thick mist that suddenly appeared.

And so——Gilmnabaal had lost sight of Ashley. The miasma breath he released cut vainly through the air, swallowed by the abyss below. Ashley and Lavigne, their entire bodies covered in ice, had already withdrawn.

“You——detect things outside your field of vision through temperature.”

Grace said this, narrowing her eyes.

Sensory detection beyond vision. There were various possibilities, such as sound reflection or temperature changes. The strategy would change depending on that detection sense, but.

The attack that accurately tracked Sheila when she vanished. The attack that precisely targeted coordinates outside the field of vision from the ground. The opening that appeared after he was hit by the blizzard.

When the demon tried to catch everyone in one net with his attack from underground, he was attacking with remarkably precise coordinates. Despite that, there was only one opponent he couldn’t accurately target.

Lavigne. He couldn’t grasp the precise position of the cold-imbued wolf, and attacked a slightly off position. Grace had clearly seen that when she issued the warning.

The ability to perceive temperature changes as a plant——though the principle might differ from Irmhild’s, in any case, the point of

seeing

(

..

)

things through temperature changes was likely the same.

If it were winter, human positions would probably stand out clearly, but inside the labyrinth, it was different.

“So what?”

Gilmnabaal snorted, as if to say he was still practically unharmed.

“Don’t you understand why we hit you with that ice storm?”

Behind Grace. An unnatural heat haze shimmered against the outer wall. The moment Gilmnabaal noticed it and his eyes widened. From there, something like a giant spear shot out, piercing deep into the dragon’s head.

“Gaaaah!?”

The figures of Irmhild, holding a massive bow, and Sheila, who had been supporting her while covered by a light magic cloak, appeared.

After being hit by Blizzard Storm, Gilmnabaal was, so to speak, like someone

dazzled

(

…..

)

by a brilliant flash.

At least near the head——he couldn’t see with senses other than vision. Once Sheila vanished with her cloak, Gilmnabaal had no means left to detect her.

As for Irmhild, who was facing him, she should also be unable to see precise positions from inside the cloak’s lining, especially right after the blizzard——but Sheila, who could perceive through other senses, compensated for that.

Grace, emitting a purple gleam from both axes, assumed a charging stance.

“Don’t mock me! I can see you!”

If that was your trump card, it wasn’t a fatal blow. They knew Grace couldn’t break through the tentacles.

Before Grace kicked off into the air, a blizzard from the side swallowed the area.

Simultaneously, dense fog pressed in from upwind. The work of Ashley and Lavigne.

“What!?”

Within the worsened visibility, figures scattered in disarray.

Gilmnabaal pursued. With his eyes, he pursued. The figures were Sheila and Irmhild.

The figure of Grace, who should be most wary of——was flying straight through the blizzard along the shortest path, faster than the previous arrow. As they passed by. The axe swung through, and Gilmnabaal’s head was severed with an expression of astonishment still on it.

Even that wasn’t a fatal wound? Gilmnabaal’s torso wriggled, and the dragon’s head let out a maddened roar.

Grace, having passed by, deployed a shield in her palm and performed an emergency stop relying on her arm strength.

She threw her axe upward, fixing it in the air. Pulling her own body up in one motion to gain altitude, she fixed her gaze on her prey from directly above with the gleam of red eyes.

Gilmnabaal also moved upward as if seeking the enemy who had beheaded him. But his movements were clearly less vibrant than before.

“Fu——”

Surrendering to the previous violent impulse. Grace smiled coldly.

That——position. She confirmed the giant arrow stuck in the dragon’s head.

With the spring of her entire body, she kicked off into the air, relying on gravitational acceleration and the momentum of her kick.

Perhaps sensing the temperature, the tentacles attempted to intercept Grace, but likely due to extensive damage to the main body, every strike lacked precision.

They grazed Grace’s body here and there—but.

—Such minor wounds were inconsequential. They would regenerate anyway.

Therefore, she paid them no mind.

She struck the giant arrow with her Fist, driving it deep into the Dragon’s skull. Then, gripping the arrow, she forcefully yanked it out while twisting it to widen the wound.

The Dragon’s body still writhed frantically, but it rapidly lost the gleam in its eyes and its buoyancy. Gilmunabal’s massive form plummeted into the abyss below—and along the way, it emitted a flash of light before scattering into fragments.