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“Hey, I think you should switch out, I’ll distract him for a bit!” A high-pitched shout echoed through the forest. It was the concerned voice of the fox girl, seeing how Suzaku had continued pulling aggro during the entire fight, and his HP was being chipped away.

Suzaku himself knew he would not last much longer. Many parts of his equipment had run out of durability and were gone, and his sword seemed like it would shatter the next time it struck something.

“Don’t worry about me! You two are far stronger than me so just focus on attacking all you can!”
“But you can’t last much longer..?!”

There was another loud shout from the distance, coming from the sniper who would land heavy shots whenever the dragon used its breath on Suzaku, as well as smaller laser beams at other moments.

Suzaku had always been a solo player, so he had the mentality of doing everything himself. Thanks to that, he could use some healing magic, and also knew how to act like a tank.

The downside of that versatility was that he could not bring out the most of any of those roles when fighting in a party.

So, all he could think to do was to serve as a decoy while someone else who could deal more damage focused on attacking. Luckily, the Unrelenting Strength buff also raised his defenses enough to help with that.

“Ugh…ghah?!”
“…Are you okay?!”

Suzaku deflected the dragon’s claws with his blade, which made the dragon stomp right next to him, making the earth shake violently. The energy of that sent him flying back, and after rolling on the ground to absorb the momentum, he stood up again.

‘It’s finally reaching its limit.’

He had heard an audible crack when he deflected the claw earlier, so he knew his trusty sword was about to break.

“Stop, you’ve already done more than enough!” The fox girl was clearly worried about Suzaku, but the dragon was attacking again, so he started running in the opposite direction from her to distract the dragon.

“Huff…huff… I’m fine, don’t worry. Just keep attacking and avoid getting hit!” He reiterated what he said earlier.

While it was possible to respawn, they would appear with a debuff called Drained that lasted ten minutes, which weakened their power.

But unlike his build that made him halfway decent at everything, those two girls were clearly superior players, and their ability was far more useful to the rest of the players than his own. So he did not want to waste their power.

He was ready to sacrifice himself if it meant those two would stay alive. That was the best course of action for him, so after a deep breath to remind himself of that, he reaffirmed his grip on his sword.

‘It’ll be fine, I know my Suzaku is the best.’

“…What?” Almost like a hallucination, he heard a voice that should not be there. He looked around just in case, but she obviously was nowhere near him.

‘I need to focus. That looks like a bad attack is coming.’

After getting distracted by the voice he thought he heard, he looked at the dragon again and noticed that the third eye on its forehead was glowing ominously. The issue now was that he had no way to do anything to it.

The only one who realistically could do something would be the sniper girl, but because of Suzaku’s insistence on pulling aggro, she was on the opposite side of the dragon.

The dragon also raised one of its legs, ready to swing down at him.

‘I guess this is it..?!’

Dodging the claws was difficult enough, and now he had to worry about the glowing eye too, so he was inundated with a feeling of hopelessness.

‘You can do it Suzaku. I know you can, you’re my hero!’

«Skill Accelerated Thought acquired»
«Skill Quick Future Prediction acquired»

“..?!”

The moment the claws swung down, a set of notifications popped up in his peripheral vision, and at the same time, everything around him seemed to move in slow motion.

On top of that, he could see a faint outline highlighting exactly where the dragon’s claws would pass through. At the same time, he could see a clear path leading him to the glowing eye, which he had considered impossible earlier.

Feeling like something was showing him the way, he dodged the claws at the last possible moment, and then jumped back to avoid the shockwave.

Then he ran forward, going up the dragon’s leg that was like an enormous tree, jumping up at the highest point, reaching up to the dragon’s head. The third red eye was glowing bright, showing that whatever attack was coming was about to activate, but Suzaku thrust his sword into it with all his might before that happened.

GRYHAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!

That was the first cry of pain let out by the dragon. Fresh blood gushed out from the pierced eye. And there was a high-pitched clink as the sword finally broke apart. His hair, the clothes that girl forcefully picked for him, and all of his equipment was bathed red by the dragon’s blood.

«Skill Dragonblood Hero Siegfried (approximation) acquired»

That notification popped up for an instant. And then his body was assaulted by a sudden feeling of weightlessness. The sharp pain had made the dragon shake its head in agony, sending Suzaku flying up into the air.

Then, the Corrupted Dragon Fafnir opened its enormous jaws, right below Suzaku who was falling down.

SNAP!

There was a loud sound as the jaws snapped shut, trapping Suzaku inside.

“What… No!”
“No way…did he actually get eaten?!”

The two girls watched in shock, realizing that Suzaku had been eaten by the dragon. But barely a moment passed before the dragon turned to look at them.

“We have no choice then…we have to do this.”
“Yes, we will. We have to avenge him.”

Hinagiku and Lycoris prepared themselves, knowing that the kind young man who had acted as a decoy for them all this time was gone. But then…

“Don’t just…kill me off like that!”

There was a shout, and then the dragon’s jaws were pierced from within.

GRHAAAAAHHHHH?!!!

There was another painful roar. The sword Suzaku wielded was not the same common one from before, but in short, it was a demonic sword, with an ominously black blade.

“Rahhhh!!!” With a reinvigorating shout, Suzaku emerged from Fafnir’s mouth, having forced the jaws open by repeatedly stabbing them. And for some reason, Suzaku’s hair was dyed red.

He slipped out and fell to the ground below, while Fafnir writhed about from the pain in its mouth.

“Oww…”
“Are you okay?!”

Suzaku landed on his back, so it took him a moment to get back on his feet. By then, Hinagiku and Lycoris had already run up to him.

“Umm…where did that sword come from?”
“I dunno. I found it thrust on the side of that dragon’s throat when I got swallowed.”
“What..? So it’s some rare item that can only be obtained by being swallowed by that dragon?”
“I can’t believe you were able to pick it up so quickly.”

Everyone thought Suzaku had died when he was swallowed, but he had managed to narrowly escape his death by grasping that sword. Hinagiku and Lycoris were baffled by his ability to survive such bad odds.

“Well…I wouldn’t know for sure. Either way, we can’t sit here and chitchat for too long.”
“Yes, he looks really angry now.”

By now, two of the dragon’s three eyes and its throat had been hurt, so it staggered back on its feet and glared with its remaining eye at the three players. Feeling that anger, Suzaku picked up the sword he had dropped in his fall, while Lycoris retreated to a safer position.

“Also…it seems we made it on time.” As Hinagiku held her tachi ready, she glanced back and smiled slightly. The other players had finally recovered from their fear, and had managed to rebuild their lines and march to the dragon.

“They’re alive!”
“All three of them made it this long?!”
“Thank you for saving us. We’ll take it from here!”
“We owe them everything. We can’t afford to falter again now!!”

The large army of players charged straight at the dragon while letting out battle cries. The one leading the tanks patted Suzaku’s shoulder as he passed by too. That reinvigorated attitude was polar opposite to how defeated they looked earlier. That change had been only possible thanks to Suzaku and the two girls’ determination, which inspired them to stand up again.

“So, are you going to take a break?”
“No one would mind if you just sit back and watch from afar now.”

Two swordsmen said that, seemingly feeling protective towards the three, but Suzaku just grinned.

“Heh, don’t be ridiculous. I bet you’re just saying that to snatch the last hit from us.”
“Ow, I guess you noticed.”
“We can’t let you three be the only ones showing off this time!”
“Hahah… Well, I’m not going to play along with your plan. I’ll keep going, I still have more in me.”

After some banter, Suzaku reaffirmed his grip on his sword.

“Me too. I can keep going.”
“Same here. I’m still in perfect shape to keep shooting, all thanks to him!”

The two girls also took their weapons just like Suzaku.

‘From here on we’ll be rivals.’
‘Yes, and I’m not losing.’
‘I’ll do my best to not fall behind you two either!’

Their gazes locked, transmitting that message, and then they all went to take positions in different places. And so, the large-scale raid battle that seemed like a failure at the start, regained some tempo and the second round began.

◇◇◇

Everyone in the battlefield had their eyes locked on the boss, fighting with all they had.

“Ahahah… Suzaku, you really are the hero I was waiting for… You’re such an obedient kid, aren’t you? Ahahahahah!”

There was no one who could hear that girl’s laughs, which were somewhat seductive but had a stronger mocking tone. No one, except for a pair of blood-red eyes piercing through the darkness, belonging to a Demon Lord watching from atop a tall tower…

Afterword:

“Hey, organizers? Would you mind revealing to me what that red eye would’ve done if it was allowed to activate? I promise I won’t get mad.”
“Sure, Representative. Let me see… Ah, according to the data, it would’ve cast a petrifying curse on everyone within a certain radius…”
“…Hah?” (in an intimidating voice)