I watch as Eldia gets crushed inwards by the black cube of light.
And then, I bow.

…… Before I leave, I wanted to at least thank this old dragon.
Although it was short, he taught me a lot, and he’s also my father.

But, I can’t ignore the fact that he’s a subordinate of the Demon King.
He’s lived for hundreds of years waiting for the new Demon King to rise.
Couldn’t he have found a different way of living in all that time he had?

Partner nuzzles her cheek on me.

【“I see yer thinkin’ about stuff again. Don’t ye ever get tired of that?”】

Sorry, there’s just too many things to keep up with at the moment.
I look at the slowly compressed Eldia.
Something doesn’t seem right.

“Uhm…… pardon me for interrupting your moment together, but I don’t suppose you received any experience points yet, have you?”

Lilyxila says as she struggles in maintaining her staff raised at Eldia.
I can see nerves on her forehead.
She’s having trouble.

Wait, experience points……?
Now that you mention it, since no notification showed up, that must mean Eldia isn’t dead yet.

“My apologies…… but, I don’t think I can maintain〖Gravihedron〗any longer. I’ve never really used it this long before……”

Ehh?

The light from the black cube slowly begins to fade.
Eldia’s body, which was supposed to have been compressed and crushed, is steadily expanding. The surface of his body, his scales, and his joints all gush out blood.
His eyelids open but no eye is seen and a stream of blood leaks out of it.

As that happened, Eldia’s wounds begin to heal too and the cracked parts of his body regenerate as well.

【“It is a terrific skill, but how unfortunate. It is not enough to kill me”】

Eldia’s eyeballs then start to reform and restore itself.
He’s regenerating at such a fast rate.
Of course…… before he got hit with〖Gravihedron〗, he was using〖Self-Regeneration〗, so he’s been continuously regenerating himself even as he was being compressed.

However, his body still remains tattered.
His wings look too crippled and squashed to use.
And, whenever Eldia moves his body, I can hear bones cracking inside him.
He’s not yet fully recovered.

If I attack him now, he won’t be able to fight back.
I jump off from my branch and glide down towards Eldia.

【“I don’t prefer long-range attacks, but you’ve left me with no choice. I may have underestimated those humans a bit”】

Eldia glares at Lilyxila, as if ignoring me.
Then, tramples the branch of the Great Tree with his hind legs.

“Gu~uru~ooooo!”

Accompanied by Eldia’s roar is a powerful blast of light that I felt throughout every inch of my body.
The light was blinding.
I was blown away by the blast.
I tried to brace myself for the attack but I couldn’t react on time and now I feel numb all over. I couldn’t move properly as I crashed into another branch, still feeling tingly.

I was able to at least hold on to the branch before I fell, but I still can’t move the rest of my body right.
I noticed the branch got burnt to cinders when it was hit by the line of attack.

W-Was that supposed to be…… Eldia’s〖Lightning Strike〗skill?
It was too fast, I didn’t think it could be activated almost instantly.
No, we should be able to see it coming if we watch Eldia’s movements carefully, but still, I don’t think even a monster with a speed of 10,000 can react to something that fast when it’s fired.
That’s such a cheat skill.

Looking at Eldia, an energy ball of fire is being charged inside his mouth.
It continues to grow bigger and brighter.
This feels like déjà vu. If I remember right, that looks just like the skill that Tallmann’s subordinate used when he turned himself into a dragon, the〖Drago Flare〗skill.

It was crazy powerful when he used it.
The thought of someone as strong as Eldia firing that skill at me with intent to kill is horrifying.
Eldia lightly shakes his head to add momentum as he opens his mouth wide and releases it.
The laser beam of imminent death heads my way.

I force myself to move out of the way despite the numbness and just barely manage to fly away out of range.
The crimson red beam of〖Drago Flare〗passes by below me.
The tip of my toe wasn’t so lucky and it got vaporized by the beam.
The pain was excruciating even if it was just a toe.

The beam of fire hit the trunk of the Great Tree.
There is now a semi-spherical hole carved at the side of the Great Tree, and from there, the fire from〖Drago Flare〗spreads.

U-Unbelievable.
When Tallmann’s subordinate used it on me, it was quite powerful too, but this one…… this one is an actual death beam.
Its range is far, and its firepower is ridiculous. I definitely don’t want to receive a direct hit from that.

Damn, Eldia’s just busting out skills after skills, without a care in the world about his MP consumption at all.
Surely that must’ve used up a lot of his MP reserves.

I look at Eldia’s current condition.
His scales are still crushed and his wings are still ruptured.
Looks like he stopped using〖Self-Regeneration〗.
We managed to force him to use a ton of his MP, so he must be near his limit by now.
Just a little more.

“Ku~uooon!”

The Holy Dragon Seraphim seems to have recovered herself again, and now she’s jumping from branch to branch, heading our way, and lands on a branch parallel to mine.
Then, she looks down and stares at Eldia.
It looks like she’s waiting for the right time to attack.

Alright, I’ll match my timing with Seraphim and attack when she does too.
Seraphim gives me a quick glance and nods.
Our ideas align then.

Just when both me and Seraphim were prepared for another close-range slugfest, Eldia’s mouth glowed red again.
Once again, he fires a second red laser at us.
T-Two〖Drago Flare〗in a row? Seriously?!

Eldia fires the beam all around.
We do our best to evade its line of trajectory, but it’s slowly getting difficult to maneuver with many branches being burnt to ashes, making us run out of footholds.

In the end, I abandon using branches as footholds and decided to just fly.
Honestly, I should’ve done this from the start.

Seeing me resort to flight, Eldia aims his〖Drago Flare〗at me.
I do everything I can avoid getting hit until Eldia runs out of breath.
But just when he does, he fires another one.

I thought Eldia was a high-powered melee type after looking at his insane stats, but I couldn’t have been more wrong.
He’s more deadly as a long-range instant-kill type of mass destruction.

【“I'm not done with you yet!”】

Say it ain’t so!
This time, after he ran out of breath firing〖Drago Flare〗left and right, there was an eerie pause which made anxious.
I turn around to see what Eldia is up to, only to find myself blinded by a dazzling light, and the next thing I knew, the branch behind me was already charred.
Oh great, now he’s alternating between〖Drago Flare〗and〖Lightning Strike〗! I can’t even get close to him now.

“Irushia-san! The enemy hasn’t completely regenerated its wings yet! It shouldn’t be able to fly very well! Now’s our chance to escape!”

Turning towards the voice, Lilyxila and Alphys are seen riding on Seraphim’s back in the distance.

She’s right, Eldia is too strong.
A maxed level Rank A is just too much for us right now.
Since he’s continuously firing〖Drago Flare〗at us instead of healing himself, this can also be seen as a chance.

I fly up the Great Tree to retrieve Alo and the others who are surprisingly still safe inside the nest despite the branch now gone.
Eldia halts his〖Drago Flare〗barrage.
Lilyxila, who is riding on Seraphim, points her staff at Eldia again.

“〖Holy Spear〗!”

Five spears are conjured out of thin air and are shot at Eldia.
Eldia jumps and avoids them, but the spears cut through the branch that Eldia is perching on, and with his wings unaccounted for, he falls down the Great Tree with a frustrated roar.