"Breath attack incoming!"
Rei shouted the warning, and Spira was the first to react.
"Leave it to me!"
In an instant, a wall of ice rose between us and the dragon. A heartbeat later, the roar of incinerating flames reached our ears. Blocked by the frozen barrier, the dragon’s breath failed to reach us. It struggled for over ten seconds, but unable to melt through the thick ice, the monster eventually relented. Seeing the opening, Spira dispelled the ice wall. Lowell lunged forward with perfect timing.
"Ha!"
A flash of purple lightning streaked through the air. The lightning-clad slash carved a deep furrow into the dragon’s massive right arm.
He didn't stop there. Lowell’s sword flashed several more times in rapid succession. With every swing, the dragon's wounds deepened until, finally, its right arm was severed entirely.
—GYAGAAAAAAAH!
I couldn't tell if the cry was a shriek of pain or a roar of fury. Either way, the dragon fixed its gaze solely on Lowell. That was exactly what he wanted. He stepped back nimbly, evading the snapping jaws.
The dragon appeared unable to pull itself free from the wall. It thrashed and strained its neck, trying desperately to sink its teeth into him, but Lowell had gauged the distance perfectly; he stayed just out of reach. He purposefully kept close to draw the monster’s aggro. Preoccupied with him, the dragon failed to notice two figures closing in on its left side.
"Hah!"
"Deryah!"
Mil and Rei’s blades bit into the dragon’s left arm. While the wounds weren't fatal, they dealt a significant amount of damage.
The dragon hoisted its head, preparing to deal with the new pests, but we weren't about to let it.
"Burst Bullet!"
A sizable fireball impacted the tip of the dragon’s snout. A sharp explosion followed. Startled, the dragon lost its balance, and its head slammed into the floor with a heavy thud.
There was no way we were letting this chance slip by. Without needing a signal, everyone moved as one. It was an all-out assault.
Lowell, Mil, and Rei’s swords hacked at its neck. Spira launched ice spears into its nostrils, while Halfa peppered it with light arrows. Shiroru and I called down lightning strikes, aiming straight for the dragon’s eyes. I had the Petit Golems watching our backs, but it looked like this would be over before any reinforcements could arrive.
Lowell delivered the finishing blow. A magically extended lightning blade cleaved the dragon’s neck in two. Immediately, the dragon’s body and the section of the wall it emerged from began to crumble. It was a bizarre-looking creature, but it was still a dungeon monster; once defeated, it dissolved into smoke like any other.
I thought it was over... and that was my mistake.
—Gi-gi-gi.
The dragon’s severed head let out a strange cry. It wasn't loud, but it was eerily reminiscent of laughter.
"M-Master! The walls!"
At Allen’s panicked shout, I looked at the wall to our right. A moment ago, it had been an ordinary stone wall. Now, it was shimmering and rippling, as if resonating with the dragon's laughter.
I whipped around. The opposite wall was doing the same thing. The shimmering surfaces began to transform, the rugged stone smoothing out into a sleek, unnatural material.
"Fall back! The walls are changing!"
Before the words even left my mouth, everyone was already running. We managed to make it back to the Petit Golems before the transformation finished, narrowly avoiding being pincered—or so I thought.
"Tort! This wall is shaking too!"
"You're kidding!"
Following Halfa’s gaze, I looked at the wall right beside us. It was subtle, but the surface was definitely undulating.
"What happened to that head?!"
"The dragon head vanished! But we've got fresh company!"
Rei shouted back. I looked toward where we had been standing and saw new monsters emerging from both sides of the corridor. One was a giant snake with a body several times thicker than a human, and the other was a massive lion's head.
"Here they come!"
Lowell’s voice was sharp. A split second later, the snake lunged.
"Whoa!"
"Halfa!"
I pulled Halfa toward the wall just as she was about to be swallowed whole.
"Is everyone okay?"
"Pino's been eaten!"
"No way!"
This was bad. Pino was a golem, so even if his body was destroyed, we could just move his core, but replacing one of those life-sized bodies wouldn't be easy. They were custom-made by an artisan.
"We have to get him out, fast!"
"Caution. Risk of collateral damage."
Shara restrained the frantic Milly. If we attacked blindly, we might kill Pino inside the beast. Shara was right.
"Oh, look here! It's shaking! He must be right here!"
Shiroru had used her Giantization skill to pin the snake down. She noticed the area right next to her front paws was bulging and pulsing from the inside. If anything was in there, it had to be the swallowed Pino.
Now that we knew his location, we just had to attack while avoiding that specific spot. Fortunately, the snake wasn't as tough as the dragon. Trapped and subjected to a focused assault, the giant snake died in a matter of seconds.
"Whew, I'm saved~"
As the body dissolved, Pino emerged, looking surprisingly unfazed by the ordeal. However, my attention was immediately pulled elsewhere—to the snake's head.
—Gi-gi-gi.
"Damn it! Silence that thing!"
"On it!"
Rei, who was closest to the head, reacted to Lowell’s command. He slammed his shield into the snake's head, causing it to melt away. The laughter grew quieter... but it didn't stop.
"Why is it still going?!"
"Ah! It's the other one!"
Spira pointed toward the remaining lion's head. Apparently, that creepy laughter wasn't just a death rattle. As the sound echoed through the hall, the ripples in the walls, which had been like small waves, grew violent.