They must have taken a short break in between, but they can’t be fully recovered.
With all those conditions lined up in our favor, this was the natural outcome.
…It’s strange, though.
There’s no way Dustin wouldn’t realize that we’d be guarding the pit, nor that Nguyen and Gohka are on the verge of exhaustion.
Even if the aim was to attack at the same time as Iena and overwhelm us, this still seems like a poor strategy.
I haven’t seen the other ancient dragon chiefs yet, and I have no idea why he’d keep them out of play at a time like this.
I’m sure Iena’s swift defeat must have been as much of a surprise to them as it was to me. Still, it seems downright reckless for Nguyen and Gohka to rush in like this.
Nguyen is a fire dragon, well-rounded and strong.
His attack and defense are both on a high level, and he has the extra advantage of being able to fight in the air.
But this also means he doesn’t stand out on any particular front, so while he can reliably defeat less powerful foes, he inevitably struggles against stronger ones.
He just doesn’t have enough firepower.
Which seems silly for a fire dragon.
So while theoretically he’s got the type advantage over a queen and should be able to handle it even though his stats are outmatched, the results are as you see now.
As for Gohka, he’s kind of a meathead, the total opposite of Nguyen.
His stats are incredibly high, maybe even the strongest of all the ancient dragon chiefs in terms of numbers alone.
In fact, his stats might be on par with the queen’s, or even higher.
His skills, on the other hand, are unpolished; he just uses his excessive stats to muscle his way through everything.
That’s not really a problem in itself, though.
The power of his stats is so simple that it’s difficult to counter.
If you tried to beat him with cheap tricks alone, he’d eat you alive.
Even with strategies that rely on traps and such, he could very well beat you using brute strength before you have time to lure him into them.
At the bare minimum, you’ve got to be strong enough that you wouldn’t die on the spot if he attacks you head-on.
He’s got that powerfully destructive lightning as his main attack method, and high enough physical stats to maneuver around quickly and tear apart enemies with his fangs and claws.
It’s a simple yet effective method that might rank him first among ancient dragons in terms of raw destructive power.
Although the trade-off for that high output is that he runs out of gas quickly, putting him at a relative disadvantage in longer battles.
That’s probably why fighting two queens in a row is clearly taking a toll on Gohka.
Even with a break in between, he didn’t have enough time to recover all his SP and such.
I can tell that his movements are already losing their polish.
That’s why he got caught in the queen’s web so quickly.
…Or maybe it’s just because he was jumping around without thinking, as usual.
Gohka is one of those fighters who uses his high speed and small frame for a repeated hit-and-run style of attacking.
Fighting in a pit with threads restricting his movements was never going to work out well for him in the first place.
I feel like Dustin would’ve thought of all that, too, so I don’t understand why he would send Gohka into a battlefield where he’d have a clear disadvantage.
It makes a little more sense with Nguyen, who at least has the advantage of fire being strong against spider threads.
But if he wanted to use Gohka to his full potential, he should’ve had him stay out of this fight and get some rest.
There must have been someone who would be better suited to attacking the pit.
If it were me, I probably would’ve picked Ice Dragon Mia or something.
She’d have the attribute advantage, since her ice can freeze threads, and her specialty is slowly wearing her opponents down with extreme cold and curses.
A strategy like that would force us to go on the move instead.
Which would mean most of the webs set up in the pit would go to waste.
If Nia had shown up, I was afraid I’d have to send in Sophia or Wrath to deal with her, to the point that it feels strange that they didn’t pick such an effective strategy.
Is she going to attack from another angle?
Maybe she’s even attacking already?
But I don’t see anything strange when I scan the entirety of the Great Elroe Labyrinth.
So maybe it’s going to happen later?
That timing seems way too slow.
We’ve already repelled Iena’s attack, and the queen is winning against Nguyen and Gohka.
The battle is clearly going in our favor.
I can’t figure out why Dustin wouldn’t send in the rest of the ancient dragon chiefs at this stage.
Am I missing something major here?
Sure, I’d be in trouble if I got hit with a surprise attack in the Bottom Stratum, since I’m alone down here at the moment.
But I don’t sense anything coming, and even if it did happen, I could summon the last queen who’s guarding the other entrance to the labyrinth right now. That would at least buy enough time for Sophia or Wrath to make it back to me.
No problems here…I think.
Things are going great.
So why can’t I shake off this strange feeling of anxiety?
Something has definitely gone wrong on our opponents’ side of things.
Since I can’t figure out why Dustin would be holding back on his resources this late in the game, the only logical conclusion is that there must have been some kind of change in circumstances that left him with no other choice.
Just like Iena, Nguyen and Gohka are far too valuable to use as throwaway pawns.
It’s probably safe to assume that he can’t make a move if I’m a sitting duck down here and nobody’s come after me yet.
Could this mean that the ancient dragon chiefs I haven’t seen yet actually broke off from Dustin’s side?
That would certainly explain why Nguyen and Gohka are attacking so recklessly.
If they’re his only game pieces left, he’d have no choice but to attack with them, even if it doesn’t make sense.
In which case, the reason he sent these two in not long after they defeated the first queen was probably because he figured he had to pile on the attacks while Iena was still alive.
Although in point of fact, Iena had already been beaten by then, rendering Nguyen and Gohka’s reckless attack on this front fairly pointless.
If Iena, Nguyen, and Gohka were the only ones who stayed with Dustin, they don’t stand a chance at winning anymore.