"Well then, I guess it's time for me to start attacking too."
Rei muttered as he watched Vihera and Set attacking the Queen.
Right now, the Queen was being devoured and burned from within by multiple Flame Serpents that Rei's magic had unleashed.
Screaming in agony from the pain, the Queen was now on the receiving end of follow-up attacks from both Vihera and Set.
The gigantic mass of flesh was slashed apart by the Magic Claws extending from Vihera's Hand Gauntlets and the blades on her heels, while Magic Impact Palm dealt direct blows to the interior.
As for Set, he was using his Power Crush skill, slamming strikes into the Queen's body—his already formidable physical abilities further reinforced by a Magic Item.
Under that barrage, the Queen kept screaming in all directions while the tentacles extending from her gigantic mass of flesh flailed about wildly.
At first, the tentacles had been aimed carefully at Rei, Vihera, and occasionally Set, but by now they were no longer targeting anyone. They were simply thrashing about, as if to distract herself even slightly from the pain she was feeling.
To Rei, the sight looked like nothing so much as a child who had been struck, crying out in pain and flailing its arms and legs.
Though, considering her position as the Queen, she's probably never experienced anything like pain before, so maybe it's only natural.
For humans, the pain of childbirth was said to be incredibly intense. But in the Queen's case, even though she gave birth to Dragonias, her method was different from a person's.
Producing many at once—scores at a time—the Queen had never felt any pain from the process. And with so many Dragonias surrounding her, there should have been no one who would dare attack her. Well, there may have been those who tried, but all such beings would have been devoured by the swarm long before they could reach her.
In that sense, this battle was likely the first time the Queen had ever experienced pain.
Thinking that, Rei twisted his body and poured all of his strength into the Twilight Spear in his right hand, swapping it out for the Death Scythe as he hurled it forward.
Boosted by the physical abilities enhanced by the Flame Emperor's Crimson Armor, the Twilight Spear pierced through the air—or rather, it became a strike that seemed to pierce through space itself as it flew toward the Queen.
The moment he thought he had released it, a gigantic hole was torn open in the Queen's flesh, punching clean through her body so thoroughly that he could see through to the other side.
"GIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!"
The Queen let out a scream more massive than any she had raised before.
Even with a powerful Regeneration Ability, having a hole punched through her body so that the other side was visible must have brought unbearable agony.
There was no doubt that the last strike had dealt damage that intense to the Queen. But as Rei pulled the Twilight Spear back to his hand, the hole in the Queen's body closed up before his very eyes.
Even as he watched that sight—one that could only be described as regeneration—a smile formed on Rei's lips.
It was certainly disappointing that his attack had been so effortlessly nullified, though he wasn't sure if that was exactly the right word. But even so, she had been dealt a wound that let you see through to the other side, and she had recovered from it by forcibly relying on her Regeneration Ability.
Thinking about it normally, it was easy to imagine just how much power—stamina or magical energy or the like—would be consumed to recover from a wound of that magnitude.
In other words, it was an undeniable fact that the strike Rei had just unleashed had forced a significant drain on the Queen.
"Vihera, Set, keep attacking at this pace without giving her a moment's rest! If we do, the Queen should reach her limit eventually!"
At Rei's words, Vihera and Set's attacks intensified all at once. They must have been convinced that their attacks were clearly having an effect.
In reality, there was still no sign of the Regeneration Ability weakening at all, and no one could know exactly how much damage would need to be dealt for that to happen.
"Anyway, it looks like my attacks are the most effective in the current situation. In that case... one more time."
Saying that, the moment he tried to throw the Twilight Spear again, several holes suddenly opened in the Queen's body.
Naturally, those holes were not the kind that let you see through to the other side like the one Rei had just created. What was visible at the bottom of the holes was only darkness.
Those black holes moved as if searching for prey, and the instant he saw that movement, Rei shouted almost reflexively.
"Fall back!"
A single, short word. But within that voice was a desperation dire enough that Vihera and Set found themselves obeying before they knew it.
"Magic Shield!"
He activated the Magic Shield skill with the Death Scythe in his left hand—the same hand that had been holding it in preparation for throwing the Twilight Spear.
There was a limit of once, but a shield of light that could block an enemy attack was generated in front of Rei, and Vihera and Set rushed to his side.
The instant they reached him, Breath was fired simultaneously from the holes that had opened in the Queen's body.
"Tch! I knew it!"
As long as she possessed the black-scaled Dragonias's Regeneration Ability, it wouldn't have been strange for her to also have the special abilities of other colored Dragonias. He had anticipated that much, but he still never expected her to fire Breath in this manner.
The only fortunate thing for Rei was that the timing of all the Breath impacts hitting him was synchronized.
Normally, that could hardly be called fortunate, since all of the Breath attacks landing simultaneously meant that their combined power was that much greater.
To begin with, Rei honestly wondered how the Queen—assailed by intense pain from both inside and outside her body—could possibly manage to synchronize the timing of her Breath impacts. But the very fact that she could do such a thing made it easy for Rei to imagine that she truly was a being that stood at the apex of all Dragonias.
"Guh... still, this is tough."
Dozens of mouths—or rather, they looked like mere holes—fired Breath that concentrated onto a single point, and the Magic Shield caught the attack.
Normally, Magic Shield could only block a single attack. But right now, perhaps because the Breath was landing at the same instant throughout the entire duration, it was apparently being recognized as one continuous attack, and the Magic Shield did not shatter.
It didn't shatter, but he was being pushed back along with the shield, and if he let up even slightly, he felt like he would be blown away backward.
For now, he was somehow holding off the attack, but how long it would last was something even Rei didn't know.
If Magic Shield were Lv.2, I wouldn't have to worry about something like this.
Rei thought that, but to begin with, monsters that possessed skills allowing one to learn Magic Shield were not easy to find. Rather, considering that Terrain Manipulation, which seemed to have an even higher difficulty, had leveled up, it was easy to understand just how hard it was to raise the level of Magic Shield.
That said, thinking about such things in this current situation was meaningless. All Rei could do now was pray that the Magic Shield would hold out even a little longer.
A few seconds. Ten-odd seconds. Tens of seconds.
Probably less than a minute passed before the Breath fired from the mouths on the Queen's body finally ceased, and at the same time, the Magic Shield faded away into light.
"Looks like we made it through somehow. Can you two keep going?"
Rei asked Vihera and Set at his side. Seeing that Breath just now, he had judged that a prolonged battle against the Queen was disadvantageous.
Perhaps because the Queen deemed Rei dangerous after the Twilight Spear throw, the Breath had been concentrated on a single point and fired solely at him. It was precisely because the attack was concentrated that the Magic Shield had been able to catch it.
If the Breath had been split into multiple separate shots, the Magic Shield would not have been able to block them at all. In other words, the fact that they had completely blocked that last attack was solely because of good luck.
That said, even if the Magic Shield had been broken, there were other means to deal with the Breath, such as the crimson mana produced by the Flame Emperor's Crimson Armor and the Dragon Robe.
"You're right. It doesn't seem like she can fire that attack in rapid succession, but still, as long as we don't know what other attack methods she might have, I agree that we should defeat her as quickly as possible."
Vihera nodded at Rei's words and immediately sprang into action.
"Gruu!"
Set too obediently acknowledged Rei's words, purring as he stepped forward.
With even greater intensity than before, he rained down blow after blow with his front legs onto the Queen's body.
Set's strikes were extremely powerful, enough to easily blast through even the Queen's body.
However, the Queen's Regeneration Ability immediately repaired such wounds.
Naturally, the Queen's Regeneration Ability was more adept at regenerating external wounds. When considering whether external or internal damage was more common, this was in a sense only natural. Methods like Rei's magic and Vihera's Magic Impact Palm, which dealt direct damage to the interior of the body, were unusual to begin with. It was only natural that she would be more skilled at regenerating the type of damage she suffered more frequently.
Whether Set was thinking that far and attacking accordingly was something Rei, watching from a distance, could not tell. But considering the attack power of that Breath just now, for Set—who was three meters long and clearly larger than Rei or Vihera—it wouldn't be strange for him to consider it even more of a threat. That was precisely why it was only natural for him to want to defeat the Queen somehow before the next Breath strike came.
That said, whether Set's attacks were actually effective against the Queen was questionable.
Earlier, the Queen had fired Breath simultaneously, timing her shots from mouths opened all over her body. But even now, she was still being devoured and burned by countless Flame Serpents inside her body due to the magic Rei had released.
It was undoubtedly an unbearable agony for the Queen, and the tentacles growing from her mass of flesh still showed no sign of being moved with any coherent intent. If anything, they were still thrashing about wildly.
That was precisely why it was impossible for those watching to understand just how much damage Set's strikes were actually dealing.
Though even if that's the case, stopping our attacks to observe the situation is something I absolutely can't afford to do.
Thinking that, Rei once again readied the Twilight Spear in his right hand.
"I'm going to unleash a Twilight Spear strike! Watch out!"
Giving that warning to Vihera and Set, Rei took a few running steps and twisted his body—ankle, knee, hip, waist, back, shoulder, elbow, wrist—making sure not to waste a single drop of the energy traveling through each of them. No, rather, with each part it passed through, the power increased, and then the Twilight Spear was released.
A strike loaded with more power than ever before.
That strike flew straight through the air, and when it pierced into the Queen's body, it effortlessly punched through, creating an even larger hole than before.
"GIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIH!"
The Queen's scream rose once again. Along with that scream, the tentacles her body was flailing about became even more violent.
Not only that, but black holes opened once again in several places on her body, and Breath was fired just like before.
However, that Breath was not aimed solely at Rei like before. It was an indiscriminate attack fired in all directions.
Whether out of extreme confusion or not, the Breath destroyed numerous tentacles as it was fired.
Looking at the Queen in that state, there was no doubt that this was not intentional. In that sense, Rei's thrown Twilight Spear had carried great significance—that much was certain.
"Alright, let's keep attacking one after another at this pace. However, we don't know what the Queen will do next. Make sure to stay on guard!"
Pulling the Twilight Spear back to his hand, Rei shouted those words.