106 Dragon - Part 3 (1/2)

I nod. ”Yeah. From video games.”

”Why are their eyes glowing red? How cliché,” Roxanne comments.

”It's certainly not a monster. Its presence felt similar to a Living Armor,” Alissa says.

”And it didn't look like there was anyone inside that armor, so I think I agree with you,” Hana says.

”So it looks like I'm mostly useless,” Alissa comments with a wry smile.

”You can still, uh… 'distract' it with [Illusion Magic],” Ciel comments while cringing.

Alissa scratches her fox ear awkwardly. ”So, I'm bait, huh…?”

”You're kind of the nimblest of us. I'm bad at turning,” Hana says.

Totally not feeling hurt at being ignored, I say, ”With [Telekinesis] I can dodge nearly everything.”

Alissa frowns and says, ”But if things go wrong, you can use [Bind] to pull me out of danger. If you get yourself into a bad spot, then there's nobody that can help you.”

Now I am the one who frowns. ”[Gate] still works and Ciel's [Holy Spirit] can keep itself latched onto me.”

”That's still risky,” Ciel warns a little worriedly.

”But… how are we even going to fight it?” Roxanne asks.

”There's no guarantee that it'll behave like a Living Armor if we 'stab' it,” I say.

Lina hands me her switch-axe, currently in its hammer form. ”Then we turn it into scrap metal,” she says.

”That'll take a while. We need to find its weak spot,” Hana says.

”Joints: knees and elbows,” Lina says.

”But what if it moves like Jarn? If it does, then even if we destroyed the joints, it would still use some form of [Telekinesis] to stay upright,” Roxanne ponders.

”So… no weak spots?” Hana asks and we glumly nod.

Something tells me that there's a blood symbol inside it at the neck area, but I'm sure that the girls won't appreciate another reference…

”I still have to study the Uspidor acid and the Symbol of Decay's goop,” Roxanne says.

”The Symbol of Decay melted the armor off of the metal dragonoids that I summoned, so maybe we can use it,” I say.

Roxanne claps her hands, making a loud noise. ”Ohoho! It's time for me to shine!” She exclaims with a manic smile as her glasses gleam.

”Make sure you're protected; those things are toxic,” I say and grasp her delicate hand.

She smiles proudly and fidgets in excitement. ”Yes, yes. To calm your tender and worrying heart, I'll make sure that my perfect body remains pure.”

My expression goes a little stiff and I release her hand. ”Yes… do that…”

--

I pull out the Symbol of Decay donut and we quickly cut off a tentacle, then I store the rest back in my ”Items” so that no more blood is wasted.

So… how do you contain something that corrodes everything? By making it float in the air.

Even though there's no vacuum enchantment yet, the gloves and glass window protect her against spills and fumes.

”This goop is not an acid, but it's definitely magical since there's no known physical substance that corrodes things as fast as this does,” she comments.

”Can we replicate it somehow and weaponize it?” I ask.

”We can replicate it easily with [Alchemy], but weaponizing it would be much easier with [Alchemicism],” she says the last few words with a sour face. ”But make no mistake, if you want 'repeatability,' and by that I mean, to be able to manufacture things with any reliability, then [Alchemy] is the answer.”

”What's the difference between them?” Alissa asks.

She adjusts her glasses and acquires a stern demeanor. ”[Alchemy] is simply magical chemistry. We analyze the properties of matter and how it interacts with itself and with mana. [Alchemicism] is the utilization of the abstract concepts of mana-rich matter to transmute one 'thing' into another, and that includes transfer of 'abstract concepts,' so the transmutation can get very complex. The problem with that magic school is that you never really know what you are getting until it's done. Each mage practices [Alchemicism] a bit differently, so it's unreliable.”

”I see. So, for improvising something on the spot, it could be useful? And can I learn it?” I ask.

”Exactly, but I don't know enough to teach you and I'd prefer that you didn't blindly test it with your Gift.”

”Agreed,” Alissa says with a nod.

”We don't need a perfect weapon to use this stuff, we just need a container that will last long enough for us to spread the goop on the Living Armor,” Lina says.

”Right, yeah, that's doable,” Roxanne says.

--

She tests a variety of materials on the goop and it seems that steel really is the most resistant to it, but it's still too expensive for us to use that as a consumable.

”What if we used a weaker material for a container, then stored it in our [Item Box]es until it was time to throw it?” I ask.

”Cover the container with something sticky, then we can be sure that the goop will end up covering the Living Armor,” Lina says.

”The Uspidor's tentacles are quite sticky,” Alissa says.

”I collected some of the tentacles from the one we turned into giblets. I meant for us to eat them later, but I guess we can part with a few,” I say with a wry smile.

”Wolfy, put a point in [Alchemy] for me so that I can learn [Transmute],” Roxanne requests.

”Can't you use [Extract Pus] to… extract whatever mana signature it is that's corrosive?” I ask.

”There are quite a few, so it's just easier to copy everything rather than test them one-by-one.”

”Alright, but don't you have a magic tool for [Transmute]?”

”Actually knowing the spell helps with its efficiency.”

I nod and fulfill her request. She now has five points in [Alchemy] and the spell [Transmute] appears in her ”Magic” tab.

She pulls out an MP potion and the [Transmute] magic tool, then she holds the potion close to the floating glob of goop while keeping the magic tool in between them.

”Ted, you'll be responsible for holding the goop in place after I transmute it, okay?” She asks.

”Understood,” Ted answers.

She activates the magic tool, and something oddly similar to a soul starts to seep out of it. It's so similar that my [Sense Soul] itches but doesn't detect anything. Then the pseudo-soul splits into two. One of them envelops the goop while the other envelops the MP potion.

Roxanne feeds a large amount of mana to the magic tool and the glowing blue liquid turns white, then disappears. In its place, more of the goop replaces it and immediately starts to corrode the glass flask of the potion.

Ted casts [Telekinesis] on the new goop and combines it with the glob.

We repeat this a few more times until we have a sizable amount of goop.

”That cost you a lot of mana and potions,” I comment.

Roxanne shrugs and responds, ”Better than using the corpse of the Symbol of Decay and wasting more of its ingredients. I can still use [Redirect Mana] to replenish myself, and we can easily replace the potions back in town.”

We wrap ceramic pots with Uspidor tentacle skin, making them quite sticky, then we fill the pots with the goop and immediately store them in our [Item Box]es and my ”Items.”

”Now we just need a strategy to distract it while we throw our little gifts,” Hana says.

”I'm bait,” Alissa says, without hesitation.

”I'll fly around it and throw the pots at the more vulnerable spots,” I say.

”I can do that, too,” Hana says with a frown.

”You yourself said that you lack the turning speed to dodge it in mid-air. I can do it,” I repeat.

”Well… I think he can,” Lina agrees, a little apprehensively. ”We can't all go wasting these pots just randomly throwing them at the Living Armor.”

Alissa sighs. ”Fine, let's do it like that, then,” she finally accepts.

”I'm not that fragile, mom,” I say and pout at Alissa.

She narrows her eyes and sends me a side-eyed glance. ”We'll see about that.”

Aoi holds a pot in her hand a little precariously. ”I don't want to throw these things. I'll miss,” she says.

Ciel looks at the pots with uncertainty, too. ”Yeah. Only Hana and Lina should try to throw them, we aren't confident that we won't just waste them,” she says, and Roxanne nods along.

I grab the [Holy Spirit] and it shrinks, then it crawls up my chest, slips into my helmet, and stays near the back of my neck. It feels like a warm, watery cushion that tickles me once in a while.

”We're ready, let's go,” I say.

--

We open the stone double door and see the Living Armor standing still, in the same combat stance as before. It has no decorations, making it rather plain, except for the two glowing red balls floating right behind the slit of its sallet's visor. But it doesn't need decorations to look menacing when its size dwarfs even Hana and its sword effortlessly plows through the air as it gets ready for a strike.

It's too big to be called a sword. Massive, thick, heavy, and far too rough. Indeed, it's a mass of raw steel.

Gih.

I'm sure the girls wouldn't want to hear a reference right now, so I'm grateful for your appreciation of culture.

I put ten points in [Throw], then Alissa transforms into a fox and we march forward.

Ciel, Roxanne, Aoi, and the golems wait behind the door, safe from the Living Armor; Lina stands ready at the doorway, prepared to retreat if the Living Armor targets her; Hana will circle near the edge of the platform, far away from the Living Armor; Alissa and I charge the middle, but I let Alissa reach the Armor first to grab its attention.

As soon as Alissa gets in range, the Armor strikes downwards and the platform trembles from its stupidly high raw strength. Alissa easily dodges the attack and circles around the Armor.

Its sallet silently turns in a creepy manner so that its red glowing eyes can remain staring straight at Alissa. It lifts the sword and we see a large groove left in the stone platform that was caused by the previous strike.

It swings the sword horizontally and Alissa jumps out of its way.

I get in range and cast [Discharge]. The sallet immediately turns backwards to face me and [Battlefield Perception] triggers. I jump back as its body spins with incredible speed to strike at me one-handed.

[Discharge] didn't cause any damage, so I stop using it.

Alissa runs in and tackles its leg, making it momentarily lose its balance. The sallet immediately spins around again to face her, with its body continuing the spin to strike down at the nimble fox.

She dodges sideways and another groove appears in the stone platform.

I pull out a Decay pot and throw it at the back of its sallet. The pot breaks and coats the helmet with goop. Thanks to how sticky the pot is, both it and the goops stay on the helmet and hardly any of the goop flies off.

The sallet spins back around to face me and its sword arm swings backward. With [Telekinesis], I dodge to the side and my legs shake as the lump of steel impacts the platform beside me.

Can this thing hold? Will the platform get destroyed by the Armor?

Before my mind can arrive at an answer, the flat part of the thick blade slams into my flank as the Armor tries to launch me off of the platform. I grab the rough blade and easily manage to resist being batted away.

Hana throws a pot that hits its sword shoulder and Lina throws one that hits its thigh. The Armor decides to turn to Hana and then kicks Alissa away as she comes in for a tackle. Since she's in her fox form, she doesn't feel any pain and gracefully lands on her paws a few meters away.

The [Holy Spirit] heals the small amount of pain in my flank, and I release my grip on the blade just as the Armor decides to swing the flat part down to try to flatten me against the floor.

With [Telekinesis], I float in the air and ready another pot. The sallet immediately turns to face me, and my pot hits the sword's blade as it swings at me again. As I was almost out of its reach, just a little nudge with [Telekinesis] is enough for me to dodge this slash.

”IT CAN SEE WITHOUT LOOKING AT YOU, BUT THE RED EYES SHOW WHO IT IS TARGETING!” I yell.