Chapter 164: Fierce Battle Tree Dragon Suddenly Encounters Lv5 Strong Enemy (Patreon)

"Scatter!" Everyone scrambled to dodge.

Where the dragon's breath hit the ground, a sharp hissing sound of corrosion followed, and the air instantly filled with a sour, bitter stench.

"Corrosive poison!"

But that wasn't even the real problem.

A ring of pale green light flared up around the Tree Dragon's body. The ruby embedded in its forehead flickered faintly.

Then, within seconds, the withered, charred vines nearby began growing back in a frenzy.

The thick branches writhed as if alive,

transforming into whip-like cords in the blink of an eye, lashing out at everyone from every direction.

Even as slow as Natsuka could be, he caught on the moment he saw it.

This wasn't an ordinary Tree Dragon.

This was a rare subspecies leaning toward magic — the kind that fought with spells rather than brute force.

Ordinary Tree Dragons were mostly just physically powerful, with maybe a bit of dragon breath thrown in.

But this one could actually cast spells.

That was an ability only a handful of special monsters possessed.

The most typical example was the Dragon Girl.

"Get airborne!"

Natsuka shouted without hesitation.

Flame burst from under his feet — the vine coiling around his ankle didn't even get the chance to tighten before it was burned to ash.

Shadow and Yuuki had already switched into their Three-Dimensional Maneuver Gear, using gas-jet propulsion to shoot into the air.

But Lefiya and Kaori Miyazono weren't so lucky.

Three arm-thick branches suddenly wrapped around Lefiya's ankle, yanking her upside-down into the air.

Her skirt flew into disarray.

"Ahh—!" Lefiya panicked, one hand clamping down her skirt, the other clutching her staff, her face burning red.

Natsuka nearly blurted it out — At a time like this, cast a spell to get free first! Is your Arcs Ray just for show?!

Grumbling to himself, he didn't slow down for a second, dashing over at once.

Meanwhile, Kaori Miyazono was under attack too.

But she gritted through it and kept playing, her spell's poise effect briefly holding off the vines' grip.

Still, they kept whipping her.

She kept playing even as blood slowly seeped from the corner of her mouth.

"I never imagined..."

"...that the first time I'd ever push through an injury to keep playing would be in a place like this."

She managed a smile despite her pale face, but her hands never stopped.

Even with her body giving out, she wanted to finish the piece.

"As long as I live, I play."

Natsuka caught a glimpse of this and shouted immediately. "Kuroneko! Cover Kaori!"

Black mist surged up around Kuroneko at once.

"Plants, at the end of the day, are still just plants."

The moment she spoke, the frantically regrowing vines withered the instant they got near her.

Entire clusters of branches and leaves crumbled to dust and scattered.

She stood there like a true queen ruling over life and death.

Inside the reach of the black wind, everything fell dead silent.

Outside it, the green still ran riot.

As if with a single thought, she could decide the fate of every living thing.

Once he confirmed Kuroneko had the support line stabilized, Natsuka raised his fire-wreathed, rust-scarred blade and charged toward Lefiya.

One sweep of the blade burned through the root wrapped around the little elf, severing it instantly.

He scooped her down and carried her over to Kuroneko, speaking fast.

"Just keep yourself safe for now."

"We'll worry about backup later."

In the few seconds that took, Shadow and Yuuki had already closed in using their Three-Dimensional Maneuver Gear.

More and more vines wove and coiled around the Tree Dragon, nearly sealing off the entire airspace around it.

Four or five thigh-thick branches wound back and forth, wrapping it into a tight cocoon.

But the speed from the gas propulsion was far beyond what the vines could keep up with.

In the blink of an eye, the two of them broke through the blockade and closed in on the Tree Dragon.

As they neared the Tree Dragon beating its wings in midair, the grapple hooks at their waists fired in unison.

The claws bit hard into its scales, the recoil yanking both of them forward violently.

Wind roared in their ears.

The scenery streaked past in a blur.

Two sharp swishes.

Two blades grazed the Tree Dragon's body, one on each side.

The result: two shallow scratches on the surface of its scales.

Yuuki and Shadow's stomachs both dropped at the same time.

This defensive strength was nearly on par with Goliath's.

The Tree Dragon was clearly none too pleased about the two pests.

It let out a furious roar and beat its wings hard.

The violent gust sent the pair clinging to it flailing wildly.

Yuuki reacted fastest, letting go and dropping, using her gas jets to reopen the distance.

Shadow gritted his teeth and held on, forcing his way forward against the pull.

But his mana and stamina were already nearly spent, and in the middle of his high-speed charge, he blanked out for an instant. That single instant was all it took.

The Tree Dragon whipped its tail and caught him square on, sending him hurtling toward the ground like a cannonball.

"Hey!" "What did you do to my adorable junior, you bastard!"

Seeing this, Lyra kicked off an incoming vine and shot upward against the flow.

Small as she was, her movements were absurdly fast — she treated the enemy's attacks like stepping stones.

As she charged, she flung five bombs at the Tree Dragon in quick succession.

Boom, boom, boom—

The flash of fire swallowed the Tree Dragon's entire body on the spot.

An agonized shriek tore through the sky.

Natsuka arrived just in time to catch Shadow before he hit the ground.

"Hang in there, buddy." "At least die after you've cashed in your stat update."

He dragged the unconscious Shadow back to the rear, handing him off to Kuroneko to watch over.

Then he twisted the gas valve again, turning himself into a streak of fire and blasting skyward.

Every vine that got in his way burned through the instant it touched the flame.

In under two seconds, he'd broken through the blockade and circled around behind the Tree Dragon.

"Get down there!"

His fire-wrapped fist slammed down from above.

A heavy boom.

The blow drove the Tree Dragon's back down, sending the whole beast plummeting from the sky to the ground.

Dust exploded outward.

Roaring, the Tree Dragon struggled up, its whole face practically written over with rage.

It opened its mouth and spat a wide spray of venom straight at Natsuka in midair.

"Now!"

Kuroneko shouted and flung out a beam of black light with a flick of her hand, striking the Tree Dragon's back with pinpoint accuracy.

The corrosive black light began eating away at the scales at the base of its wing.

"Aaaaaargh—!"

Yuuki leapt high from the side.

With a furious roar, she cut a swathe of purple sword-light.

Twenty-two sword afterimages, nearly all at once, struck the exact same point.

On its own, any single strike of Yuuki's wasn't particularly powerful.

But twenty-two strikes landing on the same spot in a row was an entirely different matter.

The purple light punched through the corroded scales, then tore into flesh and drove into bone.

As a burst of light flashed like an explosion, one of the Tree Dragon's wings finally drooped limp.

It was wounded.

And badly wounded, at that.

"Beautiful!"

Riding the momentum, Natsuka spun around, and even as the venom sprayed toward him, he reached down and clamped a hand on his own ankle.

The surface of his combat boots flashed with a streak of electricity, then began to shimmer with dazzling colors.

"Setting four."

His focus sharpened to a razor's edge in that instant.

His body dropped straight down with gravity.

He forced every flame of [Crimson Stitchwort] to compress onto his right leg, condensing into a blinding golden glow.

But that wasn't all.

"No-Self Realm! Hundredfold Hammer!"

The next instant, spiritual force erupted violently through his whole body.

[Hundredfold Hammer: Apex] activated, pouring every ounce of strength in his body into this one kick.

His Strength stat began surging wildly.

Six...

Eighty-four...

Ten thousand...

Still climbing...

All the way to sixteen thousand eight hundred!

Watching from a distance, Kuroneko raised her hand, framing it like a camera, then narrated with dead seriousness.

"Bang."

"Uh-oh, the scouter just broke."

Even as she gritted through the pain to keep playing, Kaori Miyazono couldn't help but chime in.

"Just where did you dig up a Super Saiyan from?"

In that moment, Natsuka pushed every muscle in his body to the absolute limit.

The power behind this one strike had clearly surpassed Lv4, pressing right up against Lv5.

He fell like a shooting star, crashing down against the dragon's breath.

"Rider Kick! Flame Blossom!"

Fwoosh—

He tore through layer after layer of branches trying to shield the Tree Dragon.

The gold flame on his right leg flared, like a meteor tearing through the night, and slammed brutally into the Tree Dragon's neck.

The flames burst apart.

The Tree Dragon's neck bones visibly twisted and deformed.

Natsuka rode its neck, dragging a long scorched trail across the ground, before finally managing to stop himself.

The Tree Dragon twisted its neck; the massive burn wound had nearly crippled its ability to breathe.

It glared at Natsuka with venomous hatred, as if bracing for one last desperate strike.

Then the eerie green light flared up around its body once more.

The ruby on its forehead blazed with a blinding, unnatural glow.

Countless plants around it converged frantically over its head, twisting in an instant into a giant hand that slammed down toward Natsuka.

Crouched low, catching his breath, Natsuka still raised his hand and flung a kunai toward the Tree Dragon.

An instant before the giant hand came down—

his whole body dissolved into starlight and vanished.

When he reappeared, he was already right up against the Tree Dragon's face.

He slowly raised his leg, fire igniting on his foot once more.

Looking into the Tree Dragon's clearly dazed eyes, he spoke in a flat tone.

"Dumbfounded, huh."

"Old man's got Flash."

"One strike!" Bam!

A [Divine Dragon Tail Sweep] landed square on its already-nearly-broken neck.

The Tree Dragon's head was kicked clean off, tumbling across the ground several times before it stopped.

With its source of power gone, all the frantically overgrown plants withered away at once.

The surroundings returned to that post-battle desolation.

When Natsuka landed, his body still swayed involuntarily.

Forcing out two consecutive [Hundredfold Hammer] kicks in a row had pushed him into a brief state of exhaustion.

The price of doubling his strength was that most of his other organs' vitality got drained away all at once.

His movements would slow, and his stamina would burn through violently.

For an ordinary body, doubling one's strength would be, at most, a bit of a strain.

But Natsuka's body was already Lv4-grade.

Doubling on top of that naturally magnified the side effects just as much.

"Looks like this move..." "...really does max out at one strike."

Feeling a faint numbness in his right foot, he took a couple of breaths, then walked over to the Tree Dragon's severed head, deftly dug out the Magic Stone, and carried his spoils back to the group.

By then, the others were already standing in the blast site, now a bare crater, tallying up the loot.

Seven figures in black robes stood in a circle — the sight looked more than a little like some bizarre cult gathering.

Lyra worked fast, sorting through the haul and calling out numbers as she went.

"A Dragon Orb with exceptional Magic Conducting properties."

"One Lv4 Magic Stone." "About fifty drops' worth from Lv2-ish monsters."

"Three hundred Magic Stones."

She did a rough tally at the end.

"Total value..." "Around forty thousand valis, give or take."

The most valuable piece, of course, was the Dragon Orb dropped by the Tree Dragon — its magical core.

This whole gamble had been a big one, but the payoff was definitely worth it.

And as for what came next—

Lyra suddenly raised her voice, calling out to the seemingly empty surroundings.

"You've been watching long enough." "Don't you think it's time to come out?"

Silence hung in the air for a few seconds.

No response.

Natsuka thought silently to himself.

Senior, that trick doesn't seem to be working too well.

But Lyra didn't give up.

She simply yanked down her hood, baring her face, her tone like she was talking to an old friend.

"...Been years since I've seen you."

"Aren't you going to come out and take a look at your old friend?"

This time, there was finally a response.

From behind the shattered tree wreckage on the other side of the ruins — knocked flat by the shockwave — a young man slowly stepped out.

He wore sunglasses and carried a crimson spear with a lightning-bolt-shaped tip, walking with an arrogant, swaggering gait.

Ten companions trailed behind him.

Every one of them wore a grin that was plainly up to no good.

At a glance, none of them looked like decent people.

But Natsuka's gaze fell even faster on what was behind them.

Hidden in the shadows of the ruins was a pitch-black cage.

He knew that design far too well.

And that made sense.

Because it was exactly—

Dix Perdix.

Lv5.

Captain of the Ikelos Familia.

A descendant of the Daedalus bloodline.

Also one of the key figures responsible for capturing monsters for the Man-Made Labyrinth, Knossos, and funneling funding to Evilus.

For generation after generation, the Daedalus family had carried an almost curse-like obsession bound into their blood.

Their whole reason for living was to keep expanding the labyrinth.

It was basically an isekai version of the old fable about a foolish old man trying to move a mountain.

To ensure their bloodline continued, they'd even kidnap women, caging them up as breeding tools.

Dix and his older brother Barca were themselves products of that twisted practice.

Just thinking about it made Natsuka's stomach drop.

"This is going to be a pain."

Dix hauled his spear over his shoulder and walked until he was about fifty meters from Natsuka before stopping.

He looked him up and down, then let out a cold snort.

"New faces, huh." "Newcomers?"

As he spoke, his gaze suddenly landed on Mamenosuke, and his eyes lit up with excitement.

"Looks like you've got your hands on quite a rare specimen."

"How about it — care to make a deal?"

"Sell me that cat you're holding."

"I'll trade you something stronger for it."

He'd clearly already witnessed the scene of Kuroneko and Mamenosuke talking.

A talking monster was worth far more to him than an ordinary one.

After all, only prey that could beg and scream made torturing them any fun.

Natsuka stood with his hands in his pockets, looking outwardly calm.

"Sorry." "That's our family."

"You'd better drop that idea."

Hearing that, Dix let out a scoffing laugh, like he'd just heard a joke.

"Family?" "You actually treat some disgusting monster like family?"

"How would Thanatos ever take freaks like you into his Familia."

He waved a hand dismissively, contempt filling his eyes.

"Never mind." "You might be a little confused."

"I'm not asking for your opinion." "I'm giving you an order."

Natsuka slowly drew his sword.

Those two extreme bursts moments ago had left him feeling a bit drained.

But in front of an Lv5 like Dix, even with his gut sinking, he absolutely couldn't let it show on his face.

No matter how weak an Lv5 was, it was still an Lv5.

The tension snapped taut in an instant.

Just as both sides were about to make their move, a faint ripple suddenly spread through the air.

Asfi slowly appeared, pulling the mask from her face.

She glanced at Dix first, her tone icy.

"Which Familia are you from?" "Capturing monsters — what are you after this time?"

[Perseus] had finally shown herself.

Dix's expression darkened visibly.

His business smuggling monsters up to the surface could never be exposed.

He'd been about to shoot a look at his "own kind," signaling them to move together and take the woman down.

But the next second, once Asfi got a clear look at Lyra's face, her expression changed completely.

"[Cunning Rat]..." "Wait, no." "Who exactly are you?"

See.

Just as expected, the bait had worked. And they'd hauled in an extra catch besides.

Lyra shot Natsuka a sidelong glance, then turned back to Asfi.

"No time to explain right now." "Let's deal with this bunch trying to smuggle monsters illegally out of the Dungeon first."

Only then did Dix finally realize—

This group in front of him, dressed head to toe in black, sneaking around in secret, and who'd just blown up an entire floor—