Astral Online: Cursed by the Demon Lord to Become the Strongest Beautiful Girl, I Rapidly Grow and Dominate with Cheat Skills Despite Being the Weakest Profession - Chapter 137

Chapter 137: The Battle in the Dragon’s Garden (Part 1)

The pitch-black dragon took the full force of the massive explosion magic cast by Shin, now in ?Angel of Fire? mode, and plummeted straight into the center of the vast garden in front of ?Fafnir Castle?.

The impact was immense, and even though everyone braced themselves, a few nearly stumbled and entered a ?Knockdown? state. If someone enters the ?Knockdown? state, they can’t get up for 30 seconds, making it something to be extremely cautious about.

Sora knelt on one knee, steadying himself against the shaking ground, his eyes fixed on the raid boss before him.

The ?Demon Dragon King?, having taken what was undoubtedly the highest-damage magic they could currently muster, along with fall damage from the great height, had its first of three HP bars reduced by about 60%.

Black smoke rose from its back, and with its golden eyes glaring at us, it seemed to be saying, “Are you the ones who did this?”

Ideally, they would have hoped to completely wipe out one HP bar, but since it wasn’t a weakness-hit attack, expecting that much would’ve been unreasonable. For now, they were simply grateful that they managed to shave off 60%.

The massive dragon, clad in scales as black as armor, slowly rose to its feet.

Its form resembled the textbook image of a dragon often seen in manga or anime—muscular limbs with large bat-like wings sprouting from its back. However, the wings had been severely damaged by ?Explosion Nova?, and judging by their condition, it likely wouldn’t be able to fly.

Next, Sora used his ?Insight II? skill to reveal the enemy’s level.

The ?Demon Dragon King? was at level 100.

Its attribute, unsurprisingly, was fire, matching the map’s characteristics. Its weakness was water.

The official name of this enemy was ?Pride Belial Kingdrache?, the ?Demon Dragon King? and one of the Seven Great Calamities.

Born from the mythic ?Fire Dragon? that was once defeated by the Archangel, this dragon inherited the ?Pride? of the fire dragon, believing itself to be the strongest, and was one of the seven disasters threatening the world.

The demon dragon let out a powerful roar and then slowly pulled out a rugged, black scythe from thin air, with nothing but a blade and a handle.

“Whoa, is that massive thing really going to use a weapon?”

“That shape… Could it be a scythe!?”

The members of the knight squad froze, gasping in shock. Seeing this, Shino immediately snapped them back to focus.

“Don’t panic! We’ve dealt with giant monsters using weapons before, like the ?Leviathan General?. Stay calm and we can handle it!”

“Understood, Captain!”

“Y-Yes, understood!”

The members of ?Hell and Heaven? and ?Hunters of the Twilight? nodded nervously at Shino’s words.

Sora, watching as Shino kept the morale high, took a deep breath as well. The scythe wielded by this first-time boss monster was unexpected, but at least Shin’s magic had succeeded in bringing it down into the garden as planned.

Around them, four teams of six knights were positioned as tanks, while three squads of adventurers, mostly selected as main attackers, were centered around their mages. One additional helper, participating for the first time, was also present.

Considering the enemy’s level and size, the total of 43 elite members made for more than sufficient firepower.

The knights were all granted 5 slots of ?Defense Power Boost Enchantment V?, and the mages were given 5 slots of ?Attack Power Boost Enchantment V?.

The other members received a generous set of five buffs: ?Water Attribute Enchantment IV?, ?Attack Power Boost Enchantment V?, ?Defense Power Boost Enchantment V?, ?Speed Boost Enhancement V?, and ?Jump Power Boost Enchantment V?.

As Sora and the others completed their battle preparations, Belial, as if signaling “Here I come,” stomped hard on the ground with its right foot and charged forward, scythe in hand.

“It’s coming!” Shino shouted, signaling the start. As planned, the knights of “Squad A” moved forward first, using ?Provoke? to draw the enemy’s attention and deploying ?Phalanx? to halve the incoming damage.

However, just when they expected the enemy to engage, the demon dragon completely ignored “Squad A”, avoiding them despite the ?Provoke?.

Seeing the dragon charging straight toward them, Shin’s face stiffened.

“Of course… it’s coming after me, isn’t it!?”

This was somewhat expected.

Shin had used powerful magic to knock the dragon down, and he had managed to reduce more than half of one of the three HP bars. As a result, his presence was definitely the highest among everyone present.

On top of that, due to the recoil from using a high-tier strategic spell with his angel skills, Shin was now in a state of paralysis for a certain period.

Judging by how Shin looked utterly drained from the backlash of casting the spell, it was clear his paralysis wasn’t going to end anytime soon.

“Shin, how much longer until the paralysis wears off?”

“Uh, about 500 seconds or so.”

During that time, Shin wouldn’t be able to move or do anything at all. He was basically a sitting duck. The knight squad could protect him, but defending someone who can’t move is difficult when they still didn’t fully understand the enemy’s capabilities.

So, the solution we chose was…

“It’s my time to shine!”

A muscular, tall, transvestite in a rare protective suit appeared happily and hoisted the limp Shin over her shoulder.

Her name was Emma.

She’s a counselor and professional gamer who belongs to ?Valkyrie?, the pro-gaming team led by Shino. Emma had recently moved here from America.

“Oh man, if I’m gonna be carried, I wish it was by a beautiful lady…”

“Oh, you’re such a rude handsome boy. If you keep saying naughty things like that, I’ll give you a big smooch until your paralysis wears off.”

“I-I’m sorry! I apologize, please don’t do that!”

Shin begged for forgiveness, trembling as goosebumps covered his entire body.

By the way, while any player can carry another character, once you start moving, it adds to your carrying weight, which usually makes it impossible to even take a step.

The reason Emma could easily carry Shin around is because her main profession was the recently discovered profession, ?Courier?.

As the name suggests, a ?Courier? specializes in transporting things.

Emma had proven invaluable when Shino’s team attacked several of the ?Demon Dragon King’s? followers’ strongholds, rescuing fallen members hit with stuns or other incapacitating effects. That success led to her being brought in for this raid battle.

“The scythe skill’s sweeping charge is coming! Everyone, dodge!”

The massive scythe, raised high, swept horizontally across the battlefield.

While most people ducked low to avoid it, Emma, carrying Shin, evaded the attack with a swift backstep, dodging by the narrowest of margins.

Amidst the chaos, Sora, unlike the others who stayed low, leapt into the air, releasing a blue light from his blade.

“Hah!”

The ?Ice Dual Nail V?, a double slash, cut deep into the dragon’s side.

As Sora landed, slicing off about 10% of the dragon’s HP, Shino, sprinting across the ground, drew the sword sheathed at her waist. In a flash of godlike speed, she performed a slash, carving a large wound on the opposite side of the dragon’s torso from Sora’s strike.

“GRRRAAARGH!”

Despite losing 20% of its HP in an instant, ?Belial? kept its focus on Shin. The dragon then inhaled deeply, a clear sign it was preparing a breath attack.

Its target, of course, was Emma, who was still carrying the immobile Shin.

Sora and the others frantically tried to delay the attack, but immediately after the dragon inhaled, it opened its mouth wide and unleashed a massive torrent of flames.

“Emma!”

“I got this!”

Emma sprinted straight for the shelter of a large tree.

Normally, a tree would be incinerated in one shot from a fire breath, and anyone hiding behind it would be burned alive.

But the tree Emma took cover behind wasn’t just any tree.

Right in front of everyone, flames engulfed the area where Emma and Shin had hidden behind the tree, completely shrouding them in a sea of fire.

As the flames weakened and eventually disappeared…

The giant tree, which had taken the full force of the dragon’s flames, stood completely unharmed.

“If this were an open space, we’d be in serious trouble, but things are different here in this garden.”

The trees, plants, and flowers here are special varieties cultivated by the ?Wind Spirit? using the ?Refractory Flower?, a plant that feeds on magma. These plants have the unique ability to completely negate any fire-based attacks.

A wicked grin spread across Sora’s face as he turned to the Demon Dragon King, who was baffled by Shin and Emma’s unscathed condition.

“Demon Dragon King Belial. Your breath attacks won’t work on us in this place.”