CH 25

Following that, I land near where everyone is gathered. 

Immediately retrieve from my storage magic tool a necklace with a processed magic stone attached and hang it around my neck. 

“Selma, I’ll be taking that guy on as an opponent, so, together with the Officers, please protect the beginners with all you’ve got. The beginners may be scared, but get them to stay still. I’ll definitely protect them!”

“H, hey! Orn–“

Selma’s trying to say something, but I ignore her. 

The Black Dragon raises its head. 

I slowly distance myself from everyone by running counterclockwise around the Black Dragon. 

The Black Dragon moves its face along with my run, fixing me in the centre of its field of vision and not letting go. 

I’m probably earning its attention. 

Without changing my leisurely pace, after I reach about one-third counterclockwise, the Black Dragon starts to move. 

Growing tired of my movements, it fires the same flame bullet as it had just after it appeared. 

“You think that kind of simple attack will work on me!”

While facing my left hand towards the direction of the Black Dragon, I flow mana into a formula I had previously constructed. 

Then, an original magic activates.

“[Reflective Barrier].”

In front of my left palm, a translucent grey wall appears. 

After the flame bullet touches this wall, the flame bullet flies back at the Black Dragon like it’s fighting against a current.

[Reflective Barrier] is magic that forcibly changes the direction of any force that touches the wall in a perpendicular direction. 

Well, in short, it causes things that touch the wall to bounce off. 

At the unexpected phenomenon of its own flame bullet being returned, the Black Dragon cannot react and the flame bullet directly strikes its head. 

“Eat your own flame.”

While the Black Dragon’s view is blocked by the explosion of the flame bullet, I put my left hand on the ground.

Build the formula for another original magic, and let the mana flow.

“I don’t know whether there’ll be the opportunity to use this, but I need some insurance.”

Remove my left hand from the ground and stand. 

The black smoke in front of its eyes clears, the figure of Black Dragon appears. 

The Black Dragon’s face was unscathed.

“I did know it was going to be like this, but wouldn’t it have been good if you were just a little bit hurt? Isn’t that your signature skill? Hah… I need to be prepared to use this… Ah… I really don’t like it… “

While muttering, I build a formation and supply my mana to activate magic. 

“…[Status up]. [Quintuple]! “

[Status Up] refers to the six basic types of support magic, [Strength Up], [Vitality Up], [Magic Up], [Resistance Up], [Dexterity Up], and [Agility Up] constructed in parallel and activated at the same time. 

Rather than the name of a magic, it’s closer to a shorthand for activating them all at the same time. 

The difficulty of activation increases, but since they are activated at the same time, the buffs have the same duration and become easier to manage.

And [Stacking].

This is the other magic I developed through using a bug and cheating.

Usually, support magic will only reset the buff duration if you cast the same buff on someone already buffed. 

My support magic can only raise abilities by about double.

However, with [Stacking], as the name suggests, the abilities that are doubled… can be further doubled. 

In other words, four times.

[Quintuple] then, repeats the same thing three more times, producing a multiplier effect of thirty two times. 

For me in this state, even in a scenario where Oliver were to receive Selma’s support magic, I would be strong enough to easily handle him. 

However, there are demerits.

For some reason, I couldn’t use this on other people. 

When I was in the Hero Party, I had tried several times, but not once did it succeed on someone else other than me. 

Next is that it places a huge burden on the brain. 

[Stacking] also involves parallel construction, and what’s more the magic is pretty much activated simultaneously. 

Therefore, just now, to buff myself, I had to build a total of thirty formulae at the same time. 

Formula construction requires a massive amount of mental calculation.

Overuse of magic is in short, overuse of the head.

If you use too much, the brain starts to cry, and headaches erupt. 

Using magic in that state will leave you temporarily unable to stand. 

The duration effect of my support magic is just three minutes.

To have to repeat this every three minutes means that it’s not sustainable for long battles. 

This battle too, must be decided in the short-term. 

By the time I finish buffing, the Black Dragon moves its centre of gravity forward as though to brace its front legs. 

When I see that, I immediately jump vertically in place, moving a number of metres up into the air. 

……As I’d thought. Even though my physical abilities have increased more than thirty times, I can quickly adapt.

I can almost mistake my current condition for my usual condition, there’s no sense of difference. 

Is this really also due to being a “jack of all trades”?

――Well, for now let’s concentrate on the battle. 

Immediately after I jump, at the place I was previously, a black shadow cuts through at high speed. 

As I had anticipated, a tail attack. 

This guy’s tail swing attack is quite quick, and it would have been difficult to evade by reacting to it after seeing it. 

It’s a pretty nasty attack, but it’s easy to avoid if you don’t miss the tell. 

While I am in mid-air and unable to manoeuvre, the Black Dragon looks like it’s preparing to pursue me with a flame bullet. 

I show the Black Dragon the palm of my left hand.

Perhaps wary from the earlier [Reflective Barrier], it ends up not shooting the flame bullet. 

Once again, it shifts its centre of gravity forward, and looks like it’s trying to time another tail attack with my landing. 

“Your choice would be correct. If your opponent wasn’t me!”

I use [Magic Convergence] to converge the mana at my feet and create an instant foothold.

[Magic Convergence] is a Talent that only Oliver and I can use.

Talents are supposed to be unique abilities by nature. 

However, for some reason, Oliver and I have the same Talent of [Magical Convergence].　

Oliver uses this as a killing blow, but there are many different ways of using it.

Land on the mana foothold, kick it and plunge at the Black Dragon. 

When kicking, release the mana that makes up the foothold, let it expand and turn the impact into a tailwind, further increasing my movement speed.

The Black Dragon seems like it had thought that was its chance to attack, and it reacts slowly.

In the time before I reach the Black Dragon, I apply the buffs [Sharpness Up] and [Durability Up] on my sword. 

As we pass each other, I add [Impact] and slash its neck. 

The sword I swing with all my might crushes the scales of the black dragon and inflicts a cut.

Land behind the Black Dragon, slide on the ground to kill my momentum while taking distance from the Black Dragon. 

The Black Dragon roars.

Unlike the first time it appeared, I can feel hostility. 

Looks like the Black Dragon has finally recognized me as an enemy.

Around the Black Dragon, I can see some kind of an aura-like ominous purple haze. 

“Tsk! In the end it wasn’t that much damage after all huh… I wanted to accumulate some damage while it was still in its wait-and-see state.”

While muttering, I make more distance between me and the Black Dragon.

Immediately after that, the purple haze turns into something like a whip as it lashes at where I just was.

As you could tell from that giant body, the Black Dragon does not move very fast.

The main attacks of the Black Dragon are high-speed attacks with flame bullets and its tails, and physical attacks using its giant body.

In the first place, attacking using its own body would normally not be that threatening. 

However, since its entire body is protected by hard scales, that attack alone is sufficient to make it an annoying enemy. 

In addition to that, the Black Dragon has this purple haze.

This haze, sometimes like a whip, sometimes like a spear, can transform into various shapes to attack in all directions. 

It’s likely that this is magic that uses the mana in the surroundings, similar to [Magic Convergence]. 

Even just one is a hassle to deal with, previously in the Hero Party’s subjugation, that Black Dragon had ended up using ten at the same time. 

In other words, this Black Dragon hasn’t gotten serious yet.

While the Black Dragon attacks with its haze, it keeps turning its body to keep me in its sight. 

As I evade the haze, I activate attack magic.

“[Fire bullet]!”

The [Fire Bullet] I shoot is easily blocked by the purple haze. 

[Fire Bullet] produces a small explosion, and the smoke erases me from the Black Dragon’s vision.  

Having escaped from the sight of the Black Dragon, I again approach the Black Dragon, slashing its right forefoot to make a shallow wound. 

The Black Dragon does not overlook the opening made from me having to slow down to swing my sword, and the haze once again attacks like a whip. 

I catch that in my peripheral vision, and dodging the haze, I dive under the Black Dragon’s stomach. 

Like that I slash its belly, but this also ends up being only a shallow cut. 

“Seriously, your whole body is tough!”

From the right side of the Black Dragon, the haze transforms into countless needles that come towards me. 

“[Rock Wall]! “

Raise the ground into a sharp tip.

The erupting ground attacks the abdomen of the Black Dragon while also blocking the needle attack.

I move towards the opposite side of where the needles are coming from to take distance away from the Black Dragon. 

As I slip out from below the Black Dragon, the tail chases me with great momentum.

“su!? [Reflective Barrier]!”

Instantly activate [Reflective Barrier].

The tail that touches the wall bounces and flies off in the opposite direction. 

(Dangerous…, I’m glad I prepared the formula for [Reflective Barrier] in advance just to be safe.)

◇

After that, this offence and defence continued several times.

While dodging the Black Dragon’s attacks, I’ve slashed the Black Dragon many times, but I can do nothing but make shallow wounds. 

It’s been almost three minutes since my buff. 

I take a big distance from the Black Dragon, and once again cast the thirty spells to reset the buff duration. 

(Because I got a grasp on the movements of a Black Dragon from my previous battle, I can evade its attacks. However, I can’t land any decisive blows. I have no choice but to do things a bit more recklessly… Damn! If only those guys were here now, I keep unintentionally thinking about that…!)

In that previous Black Dragon battle, Derrick and Luna dealt with the haze, so Oliver and Aneri were able to make full use of their firepower to defeat it. 

However, right now, not a single one of those members are in this place. 

(Nothing good can ever come from wishing for something that can’t be done. Then in order to beat that Black Dragon, I just need to fill in for the roles of all those guys in the Hero Party! That’s my ideal as a Swordsman!)