“Urgh?!”
This humanoid creature has a combination of dragon and fishlike features.
And I just sliced off one of its arms.
“Damned child!”
The…draconic merman…? waves his remaining arm around.
A torrent of water whirls through the air in sync with his movements, attempting to engulf me.
I fling a knife-size exploding sword at it.
The resulting explosion collides with the gushing water.
There’s so much water that one small explosion was only enough to slow its momentum for just a moment.
But that moment is all I need.
I use it to close the distance between myself and my opponent, aiming to slice off his head.
The creature avoids my slash by ducking out of the way, and my sword only nicks his skin.
Good thing I’m a dual-wielder.
I thrust my other magic sword toward his chest, aiming for his heart.
Just as it’s about to hit its target, a cascade of water slams into me, forcing me away.
Dammit.
I guess I should’ve expected no less of an ancient dragon. None of my usual moves are enough to take him down.
Still, he’s lost an arm and is wounded all over.
This is one of the ancient water dragons that’s attacking the Upper Stratum of the Great Elroe Labyrinth.
Sophia managed to hold them off at first, but obviously she couldn’t defend the entire Upper Stratum of the world’s biggest labyrinth all on her own, which is why I came running to belatedly join the fight.
The narrow, winding passageways of the Great Elroe Labyrinth are far from my ideal battlefield.
My greatest strength is using exploding swords and other magic swords to inflict damage on a wide area at once, which isn’t the best idea in the Upper Stratum, where it could easily cause a cave-in.
As much as I would have preferred to let Sophia handle this alone, this is hardly the time to be choosy.
Thanks to the multitude of ancient dragons attacking all at once—not to mention all in different places—to open up holes that let the ocean flood into the Upper Stratum, the entire Great Elroe Labyrinth is starting to get submerged in water.
Considering the sheer size of this place, it’s not likely to get totally flooded anytime soon. Even so, it’s not the kind of problem we can just ignore, either.
The best solution would be to take out the water dragons ASAP.
Unfortunately, they’re all ancient dragons.
Dragons are powerful enough as it is, to say nothing of the ones that have lived an especially long time and grown even stronger accordingly.
It’s going to be tough to take them down—in fact, I might even get killed in the process.
Or so I thought…but so far, that hasn’t been the case at all.
“Damn it all…! I won’t lose to a mere human…!”
“Sorry, but I’m not actually human.”
I’m an oni, to be precise.
Evidently taking my words as a challenge, the water dragon lets out a roar and raises more water.
I charge forward in response, clashing with my opponent.
The water dragon’s head goes flying.
Immediately, the wildly moving water he was controlling drops back to the ground with a splash.
I watch the dragon’s corpse sink beneath the water, then move on to find my next target.
Water dragons are strong.
They reign as the apex predators of their ecosystem, turning the ocean into a territory that no one else can cross.
They’re certainly nothing to sneeze at.
But that strength is now working against them.
They’re actually too strong.
Since they were unopposed for so long in their home field of the ocean, they’ve probably grown accustomed to destroying their targets with little to no resistance.
Which means they don’t have much, if any, battle experience.
They’ve always been able to just sink their foes into the ocean without having to fight at all.
Strong as they are, they’re used to wielding that strength in the simplest way possible.
That makes them much easier to deal with.
On top of that, this isn’t their usual ocean territory.
Unlike the ocean with its endless supply of water, this is land, albeit land that’s starting to get submerged.
They have to keep their powers in check here, just like I do.
And their usual forms as dragons are probably enormous.
All the water dragons I’ve seen have been in human form.
While most dragons can transform into humans, their powers definitely shine brightest when they’re in their original form.
With all these constraints and their lack of battle experience, it’s only natural that they wouldn’t be able to beat me.
Honestly, I feel a little bad. They’ve lived long enough to be called ancient dragons, and now I’m bringing their lives to an end without them even being able to fight at their full strength.
But I wouldn’t say their deaths will be in vain.
The holes they created linking the Upper Stratum to the ocean are still open.
Sophia can freeze the water to cut off the flow, at least temporarily, but all I can do is destroy things with fire and lightning.
There’s nothing I can do to close up a hole in the ceiling.
It certainly makes me wish I’d studied Earth Magic or something, although there’s no point in complaining about that now.
I feel foolish for only being able to destroy things, even though I chose to build up my strength in that direction.
At any rate, we have to take out the water dragons as quickly as possible and seal the holes they created.
The only one of us with the ability to do the latter is Sophia.
Which probably means that I should take over her battle against the chief of the water dragons, freeing her up to go around sealing those holes.
That’s why I’ve been making my way toward Sophia, defeating any water dragons I encounter along the way…except those two keep moving around as they fight.
I’m barely getting any closer, even though I’m chasing them as fast as I can.
All because the chief of the water dragons is keeping away from Sophia as they do battle, prompting Sophia to get annoyed and go after her.
She’s pretty good, that water dragon chief.
I’m guessing she’s realized that she can’t beat Sophia and is stalling for time instead.
She’s trying to survive as long as she can, in hopes of putting us on the ropes, even if she likely won’t manage to drag it out until the Great Elroe Labyrinth is sunk completely.
Sophia must realize that, too.
But she still can’t finish her off.
It wouldn’t be wise to just let the water dragon chief run free, either.
If such a powerful enemy was left to her own devices, I’m sure she would open another massive hole somewhere, flooding the place that much faster.
That leaves Sophia with no choice but to keep chasing after the chief, even knowing that she’s only stalling for time.
…At least, I’d certainly like to think that Sophia is not just getting wound up and chasing her around.
Ideally, I was hoping Sophia and I could catch the water dragon chief in a pincer attack and make short work of her, but clearly it’s not going to be that easy.
The fact that the two of them are moving away from me as I go after them means that the water dragon chief has already sensed my presence and is acting accordingly.
She’s quick at assessing the situation and making smart judgments.
This is going to be tough.
I have to get to Sophia as soon as possible, even if we can’t pull off a pincer attack.
Except water keeps blocking my path.
I’ve entered a zone that’s already completely submerged.
The Upper Stratum is already hard enough to navigate at full speed with its narrow, winding passages, and now parts of it are underwater as well?
Talk about frustrating.
On top of that, I already sense another water dragon obstructing my way forward.
Fighting will take up more time, making it even harder for me to catch up to Sophia.
Still, I can’t just ignore the water dragon and keep moving, either.
“What a pain…”
I groan aloud despite myself.
I’ll just have to take out this frustration on the water dragon blocking my way.
But just as I’m bracing myself for a fight…
Four shadows speed past me and attack the waiting water dragon.
Aren’t those the puppet taratects?
Why are they here instead of guarding Miss Ariel?
No, I guess that’s a silly question.
Miss Ariel must have seen the current situation, decided that we needed backup, and sent them in to help.
Honestly, I am grateful.
But what about Miss Ariel’s safety?
The enemy could easily launch a surprise attack on the Lower or Bottom Stratum while we’re busy here in the Upper Stratum.
As strong as she was before, Miss Ariel can barely even fight anymore.
Will sending her guards away work out in her favor, or against her?
I’d hate to see Miss White’s reaction if something happens to Miss Ariel…