“Anyway, you’re saving me, right?!” As pathetic as he knew it was, Hanakawa was more than happy to grasp at any lifeline thrown his way.
“Yes, that was my intention,” Sora replied with a bright smile. Confronted with that calculated, perfectly refined smile, Hanakawa’s heart began to race.
He had no idea what had happened, but for now, the dragon had stopped moving. He quickly scurried to Sora’s side. The dragon’s right leg had been shredded. With a leg suddenly missing, it had lost its balance and collapsed. But even now that leg was starting to regenerate. It didn’t seem like any magic was being used, so it must have been a natural property of the dragon itself. Enormous, fast, breathing fire, and capable of healing most wounds, it was clearly a creature to be feared.
“Umm, your class is Idol, right, Sora? I cannot imagine it is one with much combat ability...but are you actually rather strong?” Hanakawa asked, uneasy. The dragon had been injured, and he could only imagine it was thanks to Sora, but she didn’t appear to have much in the way of combat strength.
“Of course not. Idols don’t fight, so we’re not strong at all.”
“Huh? But did you not do something to that dragon?”
“I only came because I heard someone calling for help.”
Hanakawa stared back at her. He was starting to get a bad feeling about this. Sora was certainly cute, and as much as it ill-suited this dungeon, her stage outfit had been quite well put together. But in this situation, it hardly felt like she’d be saving him from much of anything.
“So you will save me?”
“That was my intention...but how are we going to do it?”
“Uh, I must ask, what skills does the Idol class actually afford you? I would imagine something like singing and dancing, thus perhaps the ability to charm enemies? Well, even if you cannot make them into allies, something that would make them lose interest, or some sort of hate management would be perfectly acceptable here!”
“My main skill is Oath. Making a vow to me grants you a wish, and if you break that vow, you’re punished. Ah!” she suddenly exclaimed. “Why don’t you make a wish to get us out of this, Hanakawa?”
“Er, I am not quite sure we have time for that!”
The dragon, having finished regenerating, was now glaring at them. It seemed the creature didn’t understand what had happened either, so it was still on guard against them, but it wouldn’t hold back forever. Hanakawa couldn’t imagine it would stand idly by while he made his vow.
“Umm, by the way, do you have any quick ideas for a wish you could grant me?”
“Hmm. If your vow is something like ‘if I use my right hand, I’ll die,’ then it should give you a good power boost.”
“I have no wish to commit so flippantly to such a heavy contract!”
The dragon could attack at any moment. He didn’t have the time to think of a balanced vow.
“I feel like things will work out regardless,” Sora said, not the least bit afraid.
Hanakawa realized they were suddenly surrounded by people. From young men with Japanese fans dressed for an idol concert, to middle-aged men in business suits, to young girls in school uniforms, the crowd contained people of all ages, genders, and professions.
“What is this?” Hanakawa asked.
“I do have another skill. It’s called Fanatic Fans. Fans of mine always seem to appear out of nowhere, ready to help me at any moment.”
“Quite literally appearing from nowhere in this case! We’re in the middle of a dungeon in another world here!”
The legion of fans rushed at the dragon. The dragon swung its right leg, crushing a chubby young man to a pulp. It seemed the fans weren’t especially strong...or so Hanakawa thought until the dragon’s right leg exploded. The creature recoiled. As it did, a man in a suit leaped onto its left leg and detonated.
The dragon roared, a mixture of pain, confusion, and perhaps even fear in its cry. It was bewildered. Humans with no fear of death were continuously rushing in and self-destructing. With no understanding of what was happening, it was only natural it would be afraid.
“So...is that how you saved me earlier? And yet you acted as if you had no idea what had happened?”
She had even acted as if she didn’t know what they were going to do next.
“Unfortunately, I don’t have any control over this skill,” Sora explained. “They appear on their own and do whatever they want. I don’t think I can really say I’ve done anything.”
“I see...” In other words, she wasn’t taking any responsibility for the actions of her fans. “But a suicide attack?”
“The word ‘fan’ is derived from ‘fanatic,’ isn’t it?” she said. “I think my most passionate fans would be capable of this.”
“They aren’t being summoned from our world, are they?” Hanakawa asked.
“Of course not. If they were, I could never ask them to explode like this. I believe they’re illusions made from magic.”
Though that didn’t seem accurate to Hanakawa, he didn’t argue further. If that’s what she wanted to believe, he was happy to leave her to it. The dragon had lost all interest in him. No matter how many humans it killed, no matter how many it trampled, there were always more appearing out of thin air. Though they weren’t individually strong, the explosions they caused, while individually small, quickly added up to something significant.
As resilient as the dragon’s hide was, it was clearly being injured by the explosions. Although it could regenerate rather quickly, it wasn’t quick enough to deal with the succession of blasts. Beyond that, regenerating those lost body parts had to be costing the dragon something.
“This reminds me of seeing honeybees cluster around a wasp to kill it with their body heat...”
As the dragon’s movements slowed, the fans stopped exploding. Instead, they swarmed over it, smothering it under their weight.
“I think we should probably step back a bit,” Sora said, turning away from the dragon and starting to walk.
Glancing back from time to time to check on the situation, Hanakawa followed her. After a short time, an enormous explosion shook the dungeon. Despite how far they had walked, they could still clearly feel the shock wave from the blast pass over them, followed by a huge rush of mana.
Mana was what the Battlesong system used as “experience points.” When monsters died, it was released into the air, which could then be absorbed to make you stronger. This mana dissipated quickly, so being close to the source was important to maximize the benefits of defeating the monsters. Normally, the distance they had put between them and the dragon would cause them to lose out on most of the benefits, but the sheer amount of mana the dragon expelled as it died meant that it still reached them. Despite doing almost nothing, it was an unexpected windfall of growth for Hanakawa.
With confirmation that the dragon had been slain, the two returned to the scene of the battle. The creature was totally unrecognizable. Huge amounts of blood and flesh painted the floor, walls, and ceiling of the corridor. There was no way it would be regenerating from this state.
“That is...incredible...”
“I’m glad it worked out,” Sora said.
It had been at the sacrifice of countless numbers of her own fans, but Hanakawa didn’t bring that up. As Sora had said, they must have been born from magic somehow. It seemed like there were plenty of human bodies mixed in with the parts of the exploded dragon, but Hanakawa decided he was just seeing things.
“So, are you intending to clear Cavern Quest as well, Sora?”
“Technically I’m more interested in talking with Takatou, but I need to get to the final area to reach him, so it’s more or less the same thing.”
“I am looking for nothing more than escaping this place. Would you perhaps mind if I accompanied you?”
Hanakawa hesitated a little to ask. He had the distinct impression that he shouldn’t get involved with Sora, but even so, there was no way he was getting through a dungeon as dangerous as this one alone. If he wanted to survive, he needed friends.
“Of course. We’re classmates, so we need to help each other.”
“Then...I suppose we should head towards the next gate? Actually, do you have a Philosopher’s Stone?” Hanakawa recalled the scene at the beach. There had been plenty of players there, but he didn’t remember seeing Sora. There were only a limited number of original Philosopher’s Stones, so it would be difficult for her to get her hands on one of those. It was almost certain she had gotten one of the fakes made by the witch.
“I got stuck when I entered the prison area, but luckily, someone was willing to give me theirs.”
“I...see! How lucky!”
A single party only needed one stone to pass through the gates, so if they had extras, they’d have no reason not to give them away. Hanakawa decided not to think about the issue any further.