[Dungeon Boss, 'Manticore' has appeared!]
[The boss's location is displayed on the map.]
[Lower monsters are affected by the boss. Intelligence
70%, Attack Power
30%, Defense
10%, Health
10%, Agility
40%, Grade
1]
[The boss is affected by lower monsters. Critical Damage
20%]
[The boss is not affected by physical attacks.]
[When the boss's health drops below 5%, a self-healing skill activates.]
The ground shook and a boss with a human face wearing a bizarre smile and a lion's body appeared. Unlike at Mabelwood, Esperanza didn't look excited at all. She didn't have the leisure to feel such pleasure.
"This is troubleso..."
There are bosses you can catch by running hard and beating them up, and there are bosses whose health decreases when you hit them but require fulfilling other conditions to completely defeat them. The manticore was the latter, and was even one of the most powerful monsters among those Esperanza had faced, ranking within the top ten.
Not only did it have strong health but it even had a self-recovery buff, so to properly clear it you had to endure until you shattered the core. Since an already strong bastard even had an annoying clearing thod, who knows how much users complained about needing a balance patch. And the ga company simply reduced the manticore's appearance rate. Thanks to that, it had been a full three years since seeing a manticore.
Cackle cackle cackle cackle, sharp laughter like a strangled throat filled the chapel. At the sa ti, monsters dripping green pus rose from beneath the boss's feet. About ten monsters that covered nearly half of the giant boss's body. And right now there was no manpower to deal with those ten.
She had to finish them all at once.
Esperanza pulled out a scythe from her inventory and gripped it. She swung the scythe horizontally, mana rippling along the blade.
Kraaaak! With rough screams, nine out of ten bodies were cut in half. After blowing away the last one's head with gunfire, Esperanza caught her breath for a mont. As mana drained out completely, she felt dizzy enough to stagger for an instant.
"Are you okay?"
"I'm okay."
Having to face the boss without ti to rest was burdenso, but it wasn't unbearable. More than that...
"This. Take it."
Esperanza, who had poured out armor from her inventory and placed it in Cider's hands, ran out with her gun shouldered and said.
"Do all of that! And search the chapel for scriptures or holy objects, anything you see, and shoot them!"
The manticore used the most precious thing, most cherished thing, most sacred thing as its core. So that even destroying it would be agonizing.
So if a manticore appeared in a place like a museum, you could consider the strategy ruined. You'd have to spend all day touching cultural artifacts one by one to check. You'd often accidentally destroy perfectly fine cultural artifacts. You didn't need to pay for them, but you'd feel sorry even after clearing the dungeon.
But fortunately this was a chapel, and the space wasn't large. That also ant the possibility of the manticore attacking civilians was much higher, but finding the object that beca the manticore's core beca easier.
Anyway, anything sacred would do. Just objects small enough to destroy alone, making it more agonizing because they could be destroyed. It couldn't not be a sick hobby.
Cider, who had received the instructions, moved without delay. The manticore let out sharp cries while swinging its claws and tail. Each step made her limbs heavy as if sinking into a swamp, but thanks to the armor it was bearable.
The earth tilted and people gathered at the back of the chapel poured to the left. Cider stepped on the pouring monster corpses like Esperanza had done and approached the front where the manticore was holding its ground.
He had seen scriptures under the lectern where he had been standing earlier. That was the only holy object in this room that could be destroyed or disposed of alone.
When the manticore opened its mouth, black poison flowed out. Deadly poison that seed like it would lt flesh spread widely toward the people gathered behind Esperanza.
I really hate area attacks!
"Ah, co on!"
Esperanza, who had swung a scythe held shorter than before to strike away all the poisonous energy within range, left her back to the combatants who could still move and grabbed her gun.
She stepped on corpses, stuck the gun muzzle into the mouth spewing evil things, and fired. There wasn't even ti for the manticore to bite through the gun barrel. Graceful movent like dancing. However, all of it was a tower built piece by piece for destruction.
"Your Highness, please hold that side."
The duke, who had hidden the injured in the safest possible place and was guarding in front of them, raised his head.
"Ah, right."
Inside this small chapel, that place alone was isolated as if in a different world from war. The manticore that had dominated the entire chapel was eventually pushed back, struggling to handle just Esperanza alone.
Daria and Cyrus had possessed this kind of power too. It was the sa as Osdern's mana that made trains run and airships fly, yet seed like a completely different type of power. Not only that, but they handled it freely as if drawn from their own bodies, producing military force comparable to warships single-handedly.
'Would even warships be stronger than that?'
Power that couldn't be controlled by authority. Destructive force that would beco uncontrollable if greed was harbored. The royal family had no choice but to be wary of it. Even a non-ruling monarch was reigning by traces of contracts their ancestors had made with subjects long ago. When personal feelings mixed with such public justification, wariness quickly turned to contempt. That point couldn't be denied.
But...
"Be careful!"
Having sohow found an opening, the manticore swung its long claws. With a whoosh through the air, it seed like it would pierce through the injured in one hand. The duke and others fired mana bullets to prevent it from approaching. However, the mana bullets just bounced off the thick hide. Bodies were pushed back by the wind pressure. The cackling sound circled in their ears, making them feel like they'd go crazy. Vision blurred and Esperanza's figure distorted.
Damn, it was dividing space. Just like when it had split the stairs and divided paths.
It was the mont the duke gritted his teeth and loaded his last remaining bullet. A large sword that flew over cleanly cut off the manticore's foot. The sword imbued with bright blue heat stuck deep into the floor. The space that had been divided like water and oil soon returned to its place. The duke straightened his heavy body and raised his head.
However, the person who had actually thrown the sword didn't have the leisure to look that way, being busy firing noisy bullets to divert the manticore's attention that was now trying to head toward Cider.
She could tell without looking at the status window. Her health had dropped sharply. She didn't know how many debuffs were currently applied. Due to the sharp crying sounds disturbing her ears, even ntal debuffs were applied, continuously dropping her concentration. Pain in her thigh that she didn't know when she'd been stabbed also interfered with concentration.
'Still, not much left.'
While the manticore attacked the injured, Cider reached the platform where the lectern was. Esperanza drew the monster's attention with more noisy and brilliant mana. Cider's cane gun touched the scripture.
Using the mana contained in Esperanza's blood as fuel, the parts inside the gun began turning roughly. In an instant, three magic stones were completely emptied.
Bang!
Black energy flowed out from the scripture. The manticore writhed in pain.
Now! The mana that exploded from Esperanza's gun muzzle filled the chapel in bright blue. Blinding light and a trendous explosion. The manticore, whose core and body were destroyed almost simultaneously, let out screams like a broken instrunt and faded away.
[You have defeated dungeon boss 'Manticore'! Rewards are being accumulated.]
Ah. It's over. White sunlight entered through the broken stained glass of the chapel. And a shadow fell over the giant monster's corpse.
A black-haired woman standing on sharp glass. White mana rippled on the greatsword in her hand. Esperanza's eyes narrowed. Just before shooting, she had seen it in a corner of her vision. That woman had entered just before the dungeon clearing ended.
A hunter?
No, it's that woman from back then. The queen's blackmailer. And... the very person who created this dungeon. The very person who tried to bury dozens of people in Pinent House just to kill one duke.
"Who are you?"
The woman asked. Esperanza read wariness along with dismay in the woman's face visible from a distance. Why had she co this far? To confirm if the duke was dead? Or to save him, even if late? Either way, what the woman intended had failed. Esperanza shrugged her shoulders slightly and answered.
"You don't know ? I know you. I won."
Sparks flew from both won's eyes simultaneously. Esperanza shot toward where the woman had been. Almost simultaneously, she stepped on the manticore's corpse and jumped high, breaking through the remaining window and bursting out.
"Esperanza!"
Cider, who had exhausted half his energy breaking the manticore's core, was shocked seeing Esperanza's back as she jumped from the third floor and went outside the chapel.
Outside the chapel was peaceful as if there had never been anything like a dungeon, and not a person could be found. All the people who hadn't reached the chapel at that ti were dead. However, Esperanza was too fast to dwell on that chilling truth.
"Where on earth are you going? Your Highness, what's the fastest way from here to the main gate?"
"...The stairs at the end of the left corridor."
Without even a word of thanks, Cider also disappeared. With the two heroes of the dungeon clearing gone, what remained were only the ruined chapel, injured people whose situation had worsened compared to before, and employees who weren't injured but wanted to collapse imdiately. At tis like this especially, he as the commanding authority had to pull himself together.
"Henry, call doctors. As many as possible. And workers too. After calling them, you rest too."
Henry Bayman moved hesitantly, and the duke, Mrs. Kirkfield, and relatively intact people moved the injured to safe bedrooms. Due to insufficient beds, even the duke's bedroom was mobilized.
While people inside Pinent House moved busily for their respective reasons, Esperanza had almost escaped the palace. Crossing the elegant garden, the two people ca close enough for their limbs to intertwine, then moved far enough apart that swords couldn't reach. The woman's sword hit the gun barrel, making a sound like scraping tal plates.
She had exchanged moves with the woman only three tis like that. Those three tis were enough to know. This woman was trendously strong. She might be the strongest in the world of thirteen years ago.
'Still, not as much as .'
She calculated that while it wouldn't be easy, she could win. And when she t the woman's eyes, she could tell the woman had reached the opposite conclusion.
There was a main road in front of Pinent House. Unlike the hesitant Esperanza, the woman was unhesitant. When steam carriages racing down the main road blocked the path, she pushed, knocked over, and finally broke through them. After crossing the road like that, she instantly jumped onto a large building. The second-floor balcony the woman had used as a running start couldn't withstand the impact and broke.
Esperanza gritted her teeth. She couldn't chase after her. There were too many people on the main road. Unlike Mabelwood, Nine Holder was full of obstacles. She couldn't knock down everything blocking the way like that woman, could she?
Her vision went white. When prey escapes, just watching isn't a hunter's way. Since Pinent House had already been completely destroyed, wouldn't it be okay if the road got turned upside down a bit? She had broken through Santa Giuliana in a straight line too, so one shot would be enough. Such thoughts even occurred to her.
"Stop!"
At that mont, a sharp and firm voice from behind brought her to her senses.
Just now, was she trying to break through that? She must be crazy.
Steam carriages were running on the eight-lane road, and ladies with parasols and gentlen with umbrellas were screaming while looking at the wreckage of broken steam carriages. Four-story buildings were lined up. Among them, the building whose second-floor balcony had fallen was a hospital. A hollow laugh burst out.
"I lost her."
Esperanza said, blankly looking down at her palm.
"It's okay."
She had thought he would say that. A smile ford on her stiff lips.
"But I know who it is."
She only said she knew, not saying who it was, but Cider seed to know too. The conclusion that could be drawn was that they had now beco aware of Esperanza's existence. It wasn't a very good result.
"I was going to suggest we go ho now... but let's hear the detailed story from the duke."
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