Ealdred Crow’s top five parties, all wearing Red-thread Fire Coats, waited for their turns to exit the defensive perimeter of the barrier, while Rook stayed inside with three other Summoners and had yet to make a move.
A large number of Magic Stones had been piled up in front of the four Summoners, and now, one last Large Magic Stone was carried over and added to the pile by a brawny man. The Dwarf girl from the Magic Stone Exchange checked her list, then informed Rook that everything had been delivered.
“All right, let’s do this!” Rook said and smiled, and the other Summoners nodded.
They then stood in their positions: Rook in front of the Red Largest Magic Stone, and the three others in front of the Green, Purple, and Blue ones respectively. These Largest Magic Stones were extremely valuable, dropping only rarely from even the monsters on the levels of Layer Bosses.
Underneath the Largest Magic Stones were arranged piles of countless other Large Magic Stones, both of the Colorless and colored varieties. They had been stacked together in pyramid-like formations.
“<<summon queen="" spider="">>.”</summon>
On the Summoners’ first cast skill, the Green Largest Magic Stone and the countless other Magic Stones around it started to melt away. The mass of liquid then rose up as if to cover the Green Large Magic Stones around it, and then gradually formed into a shape.
A gigantic spider then landed on the ground with its eight legs, its thin yet strong main thread extending from the tip of its abdomen. Its soft, feather-like hairs swayed on its pristine white body. This monster was the Queen Spider, the Layer Boss of the Swamp.
“<<summon demi-lich="">>.”</summon>
On the next cast, a Skeleton in a black robe appeared, its whole being surrounded by an ominous aura. It was a manipulator of the undead, which would appear after one destroyed enough of the infinitely-respawning Skeletons in the Graveyard of the Wasteland layers. The Demi-Lich wielded its Bone Staff and started summoning one of its skeletal subordinates after another.
“<<summon crab="" shell="">>.”</summon>
The summoned giant crab raised both its arms and let out an ear-piercing cry. The ores and crystals on its shell reflected the light of the sun, giving its body a dazzling sparkle as it quietly lowered its arms. This was the Shell Crab, the Layer Boss of the Beach.
“<<summon dragon="" fire="">>.”</summon>
And lastly, the red Dragon kicked the ground and ascended into the sky. It let out a fiendish roar and got ready to leave the barrier, flapping its wings to stay in position as if waiting for its orders. This was the Fire Dragon, the Layer Boss of the Valley, truly a creature born to rule the sky.
Four Layer Boss monsters had been summoned inside the barrier. Unlike their usual iterations, however, they were willing to even kill themselves if the Summoners ordered them to do so. The Fire Dragon slowly descended to the ground at Rook’s command, and then all four monsters lowered their heads in the presence of their Summoners.
The people cheered loudly at this unprecedented sight, and the staff of Solit Company captured the scene with their Photographing Machines. The nobility and the soldiers operating the anti-monster magic tools had already known of these monsters’ summonings; nevertheless, they too were overwhelmed once they saw the real deal with their own eyes.
Once the four monsters were done pledging their obedience, Rook waddled up the air onto the Fire Dragon’s back. He was able to do so thanks to a White Mage casting <<fly>> on him beforehand, but the way he went about it made it look like he could fly himself.</fly>
To summon monsters on the tier of Layer Bosses, one needed not only a Largest Magic Stone, which dropped rarely from defeated Layer Bosses, but also a large quantity of both colored and Colorless Magic Stones. The cost was so immense that it was impossible to use them in normal Dungeon exploration.
Since this Stampede was an unusual one, however, it was worth it to expend all these Magic Stones. As such, the four Summoners were quite elated to get to summon monsters they would never be able to otherwise. Rook in particular was having so much fun that he was now rubbing his cheeks against the Fire Dragon’s red scales.
“All right then, here we go!”
“Man, it must be so nice up there! You gotta let me ride it too, if it lives through the whole fight!”
The Summoner carried by the Demi-Lich looked enviously at Rook as the latter rode on the Fire Dragon. Rook raised one hand to the man and tapped on the Fire Dragon’s back, prompting it to flap its wings and ascend into the sky.
The nobility disengaged a section of their barrier magic, letting the four summoned Layer Boss monsters exit and head toward the crashed enemy Fire Dragons. Ealdred Crow parties #1 and #2 split into groups of ten to pick off the injured Fire Dragons, while the Summoners, seeing that the situation was stable enough, split into groups of two each.
One pair was the Fire Dragon and the Demi-Lich, and the other was the Queen Spider and the Shell Crab, each taking on one of the two remaining Fire Dragons. Rook, riding his summoned Fire Dragon, headed over to support party #4, facing off against one of the Fire Dragons.
The Fire Dragon Rook had summoned was slightly larger and stronger than the one he was up against. Additionally, the musical support effects from the band applied to allied Eidolons as well, increasing all non-LUK status ratings by one tier. With that sort of boost, his Fire Dragon was bound to be incredibly powerful.
As such, the injured enemy Fire Dragon stood no chance; it was easily pinned down, allowing the long-ranged Attackers of party #4 to safely attack it. Additionally, the smaller skeletal monsters summoned by the Demi-Lich also worked to gradually peel the monster’s scales off.
The Demi-Lich and the other skeletal monsters seemed to be weak to sunlight, however, as apparent from how they were not able to exert much power. Still, just Rook’s Fire Dragon was enough for the job; as the battle between the two Fire Dragons raged on, the members of party #4 got to watch from a safe distance.
On the side of the Shell Crab and Queen Spider, however, they were not able to pin down their Fire Dragon as easily as Rook had. Still, the fitting combination of eight-legged monsters eventually managed to overpower the Fire Dragon all the same. After the Queen Spider shot its fire-resistant threads out of its rotund abdomen at the Fire Dragon, the Shell Crab chipped away at the enemy monster with its gigantic pincers and compressed water blasts.
The Queen Spider with its AGI boosted was faster than it ever had been, and it also used its main thread to help the Shell Crab pull off unpredictable maneuvers, messing with the Fire Dragon’s ability to react. Whenever there was the opening, the Queen Spider would bite the Fire Dragon, melting its scales and flesh with the venom its fangs spewed.
At one point, the Shell Crab got hit by the Dragon’s fire breath… which resulted in it giving off quite a delicious smell. Fortunately, a White Mage was quick to heal it, preventing it from turning into a roasted crab.
In the end, the four Summoners successfully subdued and killed two Fire Dragons. Ealdred Crow’s first two parties had already defeated Fire Dragons in God’s Dungeon on a regular basis, and now, they were backed by additional members; that had no difficulty here at all, and the Fire Dragons’ injuries from crashing to the ground only made things easier.
After they were done with their four Dragons, Ealdred Crow took stock of the situation and went to the aid of the other groups, with their four Summoners being the primary force.
――▽▽――
Alma, dressed in a black robe and carrying her Black Staff, cast <<meteor stream="">> three times to intercept the Dragons. Seeing that the Black Dragons and the Lightning Dragon had not taken as many hits as she would like, she scowled at them while drinking some Blue Potion.</meteor>
“Alma, you finish off the ones on the ground. I’ll take the ones over there.”
“W-wait a second! I can also–“
Weiss, the Clan Leader of Scarlet Devil Squad, wore an all-black armor, and his black hair, the length of which was quite long for men’s standards, swayed nicely in the wind. He ordered one Healer to follow him as he headed toward the barrier; seeing him run off, Alma secretly clicked her tongue out of annoyance.
Weiss behaved this way only because he had what it took; for those who could not, facing an Ice Dragon alone on their first try would be equal to suicide, and the people around them would have prevented them from doing so. For Weiss, on the other hand, people allowed him to do what he did, with the subconscious belief that he could win.
It was because he had a unique skill. Skills that manifested only in those who were chosen by God, few individuals in this world possessed one, and Weiss was one among them. The one he had was called the <
“Hurry and patch her up,” The blond man said with a reassuring smile.
“Y-yes, sir!” The White Mage promptly replied, blushing lightly… despite being a man.
The Ice Dragon looked around, searching for the target it had missed, while also moving closer and closer to the barrier. Leon, the Clan Leader of Golden Tune, looked at the Dragon in the distance, seemingly enjoying the sight.
Other Golden Tune Clan members — all women — appeared from inside the barrier and surrounded Leon. Unlike the Scarlet Devil Squad’s formation, none of them were Attackers, all being Tanks boasting high VIT.
“All right, let’s get ready to hunt us a Dragon or two!”
“We still haven’t won against a single Fire Dragon, though…”
“Hey, we don’t talk about that here!”
Leon and his crew threw around some light-hearted banter before drawing their weapons, readying themselves to face off against the Ice Dragon.