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 80
Chapter 80: The Lesser Dragon Attack
The ?Dragon Crystal? is a special crystal located within the royal castle of the Hephaestus Kingdom, known for its power to suppress volcanic eruptions.
Since it is not generally open to the public, no adventurers have ever seen it.
Given that such a thing is now a target, it feels like something significant will happen once this emergency quest is completed.
With a premonition in his heart, Glen, holding a crimson one-handed sword, activates the water attribute skill, ?Ice Slant?, obtained from the skill shop. [1]
He slices through the dragon’s neck, dealing critical damage that reduces the remaining HP to zero.
The dragon disperses into particles of light and vanishes.
After a brief moment of rigidity, Glen stands up and lets out a deep sigh.
“Ha… Truly.”
This must be what they mean by bad timing.
Most of the main members of ?Hell and Heaven? are currently not logged in due to relocating from America to Japan.
Additionally, the members of the ?Hunters of the Twilight?, along with Vice Leader Shio, are exploring distant lands without teleportation gates, trying to find a way through the path blocked by flames.
Leading a small elite group, Glen, the vice leader of ?Hell and Heaven?, charges towards the next pitch-black evil dragon with motivated adventurers.
“Uooooooooh!”
Three knights, with shields raised, block the enemy’s claw attacks and brace themselves against the impact.
Taking advantage of the slight moment of enemy rigidity caused by the block, Glen and two swordsmen dart in from the side and activate ?Sonic Sword III?.
Leaping high, the three swordsmen’s strikes intersect in a diagonal line across the dragon’s massive 7-meter-long body.
‘Ggyaaa!?’
The dragon emits a cry of pain and flaps its wings to retreat into the sky.
The attack significantly reduces the dragon’s HP, leaving it with about 60% of its durability.
“Just a little over half left.”
Exhaling, Glen fixed his gaze on the enemy they were facing.
With thick limbs, a long tail, and wings larger than its own body, the dragon’s face gave a fearsome, dinosaur-like impression to the players.
To put it plainly, its form resembled a template dragon from a fantasy game, and its entire body was uniformly jet black.
Its name is ?Lesser Dragon?.
Flapping its large wings to gain distance, the dragon glared down at them from the sky.
Even though its HP was down to half, Glen knew that it wouldn’t use any major attack skills like raid bosses or mid-bosses.
This was their second encounter with the Lesser Dragon.
The other members seemed to have adjusted from the previous battle, as the knights took on the dragon’s next attack—a horizontal slash called ?Dragon Claw?—with their shield using the ?Provocation? skill.
Taking advantage of the brief moment when both sides were slightly delayed, another adventurer stepped forward, delivering a skill attack with a spear or sword.
The dragon’s HP dropped to 40%.
“Hmm, we’re making steady progress.”
While its size is smaller compared to Leviathan, the main issue is the number of these dragons.
Reports from clan members scattered across various parts of the Hephaestus Kingdom indicate that there are at least 50 of these evil dragons.
The only saving grace is that the HP is that of a single mid-boss level, rather than two.
“We’ll push through. Just watch out for its breath attack.”
“Got it!”
Though it was a hastily assembled party, they had managed to organize four groups of three knight players each, making it possible to rotate shifts.
Suddenly, the Lesser Dragon ascended to a higher altitude and took a stance for another aerial assault.
Just like before, it was an attack from above.
Sensing danger, Glen warned the knight squad.
“The dragon is diving down. All units, evade!”
The descending dragon launched its high-speed attack skill, ?Dragon Dive?, targeting the knight squad that had just used ?Provocation?.
Judging they couldn’t avoid it, the knights quickly reinforced their shields and applied the ?Phalanx? skill, which reduces damage once, preparing to face the dragon’s massive body head-on with their shields.
A deafening impact sound.
The knights were pushed back by the massive force of the dragon diving from the sky, struggling to hold their ground but were thrown backward.
Despite using ?Phalanx?, the damage was severe enough to reduce the level 40 knights’ HP by half in one hit.
Having fallen onto the ground on their backs, they fell into a temporary level 1 stun state.
It would take them a few seconds to get back up.
Seeing the Lesser Dragon preparing for a follow-up attack, Glen immediately activated the ?Provocation? skill.
He forced the dragon’s attention onto himself.
“Now’s your chance to recover your positions!”
Issuing the command, Glen faced the dragon aiming at him.
He quickly defended against a sweeping attack with his shield.
Although he was sent flying backward, he managed to avoid falling.
The dragon then rapidly reversed its direction.
From that movement, Glen could only anticipate one possible attack.
“Jump back!”
Upon hearing this, the experienced adventurers immediately reacted and performed a backstep.
In that moment, the dragon’s sharp tail streaked by at an incredible speed, aiming to strike all of them in one go.
The dragon’s posture slightly faltered after missing its tail attack.
Seizing the opportunity, Glen shouted to everyone.
“Now, full attack!”
The group, having blocked the dragon’s desperate fire breath with their shields, closed in quickly. Each member struck with all their might, unleashing a series of powerful skills.
Under the onslaught from the high-level players, the Lesser Dragon’s HP dropped to zero and it disintegrated into particles of light.
After dealing with the second dragon, Glen and his team observed other adventurers battling dragons in the vicinity. They decided to take a short break.
“Vice Leader, it seems like the other teams are handling things well. At this rate, it doesn’t look like the castle will be overrun.”
“Don’t let your guard down. Just because we have the upper hand doesn’t mean we should relax. The flow of battle can change the moment we let our guard down.”
“You sound just like the Captain.”
“Glen, you’re so obviously fond of the Captain.”
“Huh? Is it true that the Vice Leader of ?Hell and Heaven? is in love with the Captain?”
“Please, don’t say such strange things in front of random players!”
When Glen admonished them, everyone laughed seeing his normally cool face turn bright red.
It was during such a time.
As a professional gamer, Glen’s intuition, honed over years of competitive gaming, suddenly sensed a powerful aura of killing intent from above.
There was no time to shout a warning.
They had to evacuate immediately.
The only option he could swiftly choose was to use ?Phalanx? and leap back from the spot.
Only Glen, a top-tier adventurer from ?Hell and Heaven?, and a few others managed to react in time.
As they jumped back, a pillar of scorching fire descended from the sky and pierced the ground, engulfing all the teammates who couldn’t react.
No one survived.
The fire pillar reduced their HP by half, and the subsequent damage quickly depleted the remaining half.
The shocking scene unfolding before him sent a chill down Glen’s spine.
The firepower to instantly kill level 40 players…!?
Their levels and armor were among the highest in the current group of adventurers.
He had never heard of a monster, other than Leviathan, that could penetrate such high defense and completely deplete HP.
Before Glen could fully grasp his surprise, it descended from the sky.
A dragon with a massive 10-meter-long body.
It had armor-like scales covering its entire body and enormous wings in a crimson and jet-black two-tone. This dragon, appearing to be a higher tier than the Lesser Dragon, was called the ?Greater Dragon?.
The black-red dragon, from a distance, readied its right claw and launched a strike towards Glen.
“What was it?”
A flying slash, something he’d never seen in this game before, was unleashed upon him as he let down his guard, wondering what was coming.
The crescent-shaped slash, ?Crescent Freigen?, was released, cleaving through the air.
Caught off guard by this new technique, Glen’s reaction was delayed.
“This is bad, I can’t defend in time—”
Just before the blade was about to cleave Glen’s body in two,
A silver-haired girl descended in front of him.
She wielded a sword that glowed with the same brilliance as her hair.
The girl, activating ?Sword Guard IV? with her sword held low, waited for the right moment before swinging the blade in a reverse diagonal cut.
The Greater Dragon’s attack, which was originally a powerful diagonal strike from the lower right to the upper left, was redirected dramatically by the girl’s counter.
The crescent-shaped slash vanished into the sky.
Turning to Glen with a smile, the girl said,
“Well, that was close. Sorry, but we’re taking that one.”
“Sora-kun…”
Standing beside her were a top-tier spear-wielding mage, renowned in Astral Online, and an unparalleled shield knight.
And in the center was the silver-haired girl, the strongest ?Enchanter? in Astral Online, who had been cursed to change her gender.
She readied her silver sword and faced the formidable dragon.
“Now, you’re up against us.”
TL Note:
Just for your information, the original text uses (???), so I wrote it here as ‘water attribute,’ in accordance with the original text.
~ Little Tangerine (Translator)