As I grew larger and larger, my entire body was enveloped in purple scales. My fangs and claws thickened. In moments, I was no longer an Oneiros—I was a Diabolos.
I cast Ideal Weapon again to make my Oneiros Mallet larger to suit my new, wider frame. In this form, my attack stat increased by thirty percent.
All right. Now I’m ready to spend every last bit of MP smashing this statue to bits!
Part 3
AS THE SAME DRAGON SPECIES as my father, Eldia, I swung my Oneiros Mallet down at Hecatoncheires hard. He took the blow in his torso again, then returned the blow with his greatsword.
In this larger form, I was a much easier target to hit. I still took about the same amount of damage, but my new form meant I could counterattack immediately without getting knocked out of position.
I slammed my hammer down on Hecatoncheires as he slashed at me. We exchanged several blows before his blade sliced across my jaw.
The longer we fought with weapons at close range without using skills, the more Hecatoncheires’s true abilities shone. But even if he’d already used some MP to recover, I was definitely doing damage.
I checked Hecatoncheires’s status again, just to make sure, only to find…he still had most of his MP. Shouldn’t I have been doing a lot more damage now? My Oneiros claws only did around two hundred damage each. After Dragon Mirror, that should be closer to five hundred—more than twice what it originally was. What’s the deal?
…It’s not enough. The realization crashed into me like a tidal wave. Even ignoring his recovery skills, I’d have to hit him over twenty times in a row to kill him. It just wasn’t going to work.
I threw my Oneiros Mallet at Hecatoncheires. It slammed to the ground, then dissolved into a million shards of light and faded. While the Oneiros Mallet’s defense and physical resistance negation was effective, it wasn’t good enough to defeat Hecatoncheires.
I used Ideal Weapon to create a new weapon. A large, blue-and-purple sword appeared in my paw.
Oneiros Reisszahn: Value L (Legendary). Attack: +240. A greatsword that glows with a faint bluish-purple light. Made with a fang from the Dream Dragon, who rules over the world of dreams. It is said that whoever is cut by this blade will lose their grip on reality and eventually be drawn into the dream world. Temporarily reduces opponent’s Illusion Resistance.
Reducing Hecatoncheires’s Illusion Resistance wouldn’t do much against his Debuff Immunity. But I had another skill—one that required a sword to use.
Normal Skill “Dark-Dispelling Flash.” Channels holy light into user’s sword to cut down one’s enemies. In the wake of this flash, all forms of deception will be rendered meaningless. The sword deals massive damage that ignores damage reduction from Resistance Skills, Special Skills, Normal Skills, and Status Conditions.
Because this skill ignored both Hecatoncheires’s max Physical Resistance and Halved Physical Damage skills, I could use it to deal some major damage. His high defense was one thing, but those two Resistance Skills were even more important to bypass.
However, this skill had two major problems: The holy light it bathed me in made my weapon much, much heavier, and to prevent it from being a crazy cheat skill against some enemies, it drained a lot of MP. Even if I managed to hit Hecatoncheires with it, it would take a lot more than three or four hits to bring down his HP.
Okay. Let’s see how this goes.
I approached Hecatoncheires. When I raised my sword, however, he dissolved into the shadows and reappeared further away.
H-he used Shadow Dance? To avoid a direct frontal attack?!
I was stunned. Shadow Dance was a powerful skill, but that meant it had to cost a lot of MP. He didn’t seem fond of using it unless necessary, so the fact that he used it now felt encouraging. With his Shadow Dance, Hecatoncheires darted behind me to escape my huge swing. Again, I used Dark-Dispelling Flash, and again he used Shadow Dance to avoid it.
Seems like he’s doing all he can to avoid getting hit with this spell. As a former Hero, I was sure he was intimately familiar with the strengths of Dark-Dispelling Flash.
The light of Dark-Dispelling Flash began to weaken, and I replenished it with more MP. Damn it! I’m the only one burning through MP here!
‹Even after the Divine Voice took everything from you…everyone you wanted to protect! It used you and made you guard this tower for thousands of years…and you’re okay with that?!› I shouted with Telepathy, then swung at Hecatoncheires a third time. Again, he used Shadow Dance to evade me.
‹I…I-I…›
I hadn’t been expecting any sort of response to my frustrated Telepathy shout. But after a moment, I felt the whisper of a telepathic message pass through my mind. It had to be from Hecatoncheires. Did he…still have some trace of identity left?
‹I have…a duty to uphold.› Hecatoncheires changed his stance, used Shadow Dance to avoid my fourth swing, then darted around to my blind spot.
Crap! I thought he was gonna avoid the next one too! But I’ve still got time to block him!
‹You may not enter this place.› As he reappeared, Hecatoncheires’s blade thrust cleanly past my Oneiros Reisszahn and pierced my chest.
“Gaagh!”
Oh man. I’d thought he was good with a sword before, but he was on a whole different level now! The Mad God must have dulled his senses. In this burst of clarity, he’d regained the sword skills befitting a Hero of old.
I hadn’t expected my frustrated yell to backfire like this… I wasn’t sure how it worked exactly, but despite gaining some of his sense of self back, he still believed it was his duty to guard this place.
Hecatoncheires’s headless, multi-armed frame made an odd silhouette, but when he stood straight with his sword raised and his arms spread evenly behind him, he had an air of elegance. If I could only just get through to him!
‹What’s your duty? To be the Divine Voice’s loyal dog? Give me a break!›