I landed smoothly right near the spot where the others had clustered together.
Without hesitation, I pulled a necklace set with a processed magic stone from my storage magic tool and slipped it over my head.
"Selma-san, I’ll handle this guy. You and the other instructors focus everything you've got on protecting the rookies. You guys might be terrified, but stay put. I promise I’ll protect you!"
"H-hey! Orun—"
Selma-san started to protest, but I ignored her.
The Black Dragon raised its head. I began to run counter-clockwise around the beast, slowly drawing it away from the group. The dragon’s head followed my movement, keeping me locked in the center of its vision. It wasn't going to let me slip away.
Good. I’ve definitely got its aggro.
Without changing my steady pace, I circled about a third of the way around the dragon. That was when it finally lost its patience. It spat out a fireball, the same kind it had used the moment it appeared.
"You think a simple attack like that will work on me twice!?"
I aimed my left palm at the dragon and flooded the spell formula I had already constructed with mana. My original magic surged to life.
"Reflective Wall!"
A gray, translucent barrier materialized in front of my palm. When the fireball struck the surface, it didn't explode—it rebounded, flying straight back toward the Black Dragon as if the trajectory had been reversed.
Reflective Wall was a spell that forcibly redirected any force hitting it, snapping the vector perpendicular to the wall’s surface. Simply put, I’d created a wall that bounced back anything that touched it.
The Black Dragon, never expecting its own flames to return, failed to react in time. The fireball slammed directly into its face.
"Have a taste of your own fire."
While the dragon’s vision was obscured by the blast, I pressed my left hand against the floor. I constructed another original formula and infused it with mana.
"I’m not sure if I'll even get the chance to use this, but it’s better to have insurance."
I pulled my hand back and stood up. As the smoke cleared, the Black Dragon emerged from the haze. Its face was completely unscarred.
"I figured as much, but you could’ve at least taken a scratch. That’s your signature move, isn't it? Sigh... I guess I really have to go all out. God, I hate this..."
Muttering under my breath, I constructed the formulas and poured in my mana.
"...Status Up: Quintuple Stacking!"
Status Up wasn't a single spell, but rather the simultaneous activation of the six basic types of support magic via parallel construction: Strength Up, Vitality Up, Magic Up, Resist Up, Technical Up, and Agility Up. It was more of a collective term for the combined effect.
While it was incredibly difficult to pull off, activating them all at once meant the buff durations were synchronized, making them much easier to manage.
And then there was Stacking.
This was a technique I had developed by exploiting what was essentially a bug in the system. Normally, if you cast a support spell on someone who already had that buff, the effect wouldn't increase; it would simply reset the timer. My standard support magic could roughly double a person’s capabilities.
However, with Stacking, I could take those doubled abilities and double them again. That made them fourfold. With Quintuple Stacking, I repeated that process three more times. The final result was a roughly thirty-two-fold increase in my base stats.
In this state, I was strong enough to toy with someone like Oliver even if he had Selma-san’s support buffs active.
But it came with heavy costs.
First, for some reason, I couldn't use this on anyone else. I’d tried it several times back when I was with the Hero Party, but it never worked on anyone but me.
Second, the mental strain was immense. To achieve Quintuple Stacking, I had to use parallel construction to trigger everything nearly simultaneously. Just now, I had to hold thirty distinct spell formulas in my head at once. Constructing formulas required massive amounts of mental calculation. Overusing magic was, in essence, overusing your brain.
If I pushed too hard, my brain would start screaming, triggering agonizing headaches. If I kept going past that point, I’d reach a state where I could barely even stand.
The duration of my support magic was exactly three minutes. Since I had to refresh the stack every three minutes, I wasn't cut out for long, drawn-out battles. I had to end this quickly.
The moment I finished buffing, the Black Dragon shifted its weight forward, bracing itself with its front legs. Seeing the tell, I immediately leapt straight up, soaring several meters into the air.
...Just as I thought. Even though my physical stats had spiked thirty times over, my body adapted instantly. It felt so natural that I could almost trick myself into thinking this was my true power. Maybe I had my 'Jack of all Trades' trait to thank for that.
Focus. The fight is just starting.
An instant after I jumped, a black shadow whipped through the space where I’d just been standing. As I suspected, it was a tail swipe. The dragon’s tail moved with terrifying speed; reacting to it by sight alone was almost impossible. It was a lethal move, but as long as I didn't miss the telegraphing, it was easy enough to avoid.
Sensing I was vulnerable in mid-air, the Black Dragon prepared to follow up with another fireball. I held out my left palm toward it. Fearing another Reflective Wall, the beast hesitated and held its fire. Instead, it shifted its weight again, timing a second tail swipe for the moment I would land.
"Good read. If I were anyone else, you might've had me!"
I used Mana Convergence to gather the mana beneath my feet, solidifying it into a temporary platform. Mana Convergence was an ability only Oliver and I possessed. Normally, an Ability was a unique power granted to only one person, yet for some unknown reason, we shared the same one. While Oliver used it for his ultimate attacks, it had plenty of other applications.
I landed on the mana foothold and immediately kicked off it, lunging straight at the Black Dragon. As I pushed off, the mana platform shattered, the resulting shockwave acting as a tailwind that boosted my speed even further.
The dragon had expected me to be the one on the defensive, and its reaction was a split-second too slow. In the heartbeat before we crossed paths, I applied Sharpness Up and Durability Up to my sword.
As we passed, I triggered Impact and slashed at its neck with everything I had. My blade, swung with impossible force, shattered the dragon's scales and carved a gash into its hide.
I skidded across the floor behind the dragon, killing my momentum to put some distance between us. The Black Dragon let out a deafening roar. Unlike the mindless fury it showed on the 50th floor, I could feel a directed, cold hostility. It had finally recognized me as a threat.
A purple, malevolent mist—halfway between an aura and a physical vapor—began to swirl around the dragon’s body.
"Tch. I figured that wouldn't be enough to do real damage... I wanted to draw more blood while I was still testing the waters."
I backed away further. An instant later, a lash of purple mist whipped out, striking the floor where I’d stood a second ago.
Despite its size, the Black Dragon wasn't particularly fast. Its primary weapons were its fireballs, its tail, and its sheer mass. Normally, those wouldn't be too hard to handle. But because it was covered in near-impenetrable scales, those few attacks were more than enough to make it a nightmare.
And then there was that purple mist. It could take any shape—a whip, a spear, a shield—and attack from every direction at once. It was likely a form of magic that utilized ambient mana, similar to my Mana Convergence. Even one of those tendrils was a pain, but when the Hero Party fought this thing before, it eventually deployed ten of them at once.
In other words, the dragon was still holding back.
As the mist lashed out at me, the dragon pivoted, trying to keep me in its line of sight. I dodged a tendril and fired off an attack of my own.
"Fire Bullet!"
The bolt of flame was easily swatted aside by the purple mist. It exploded on contact, creating a small cloud of smoke that masked my movement. I used the opening to close the distance again, carving a shallow wound into the dragon's right foreleg.
I had to slow down for a fraction of a second to swing my sword, and the dragon didn't miss the opening. The mist lashed out like a whip again. I caught the movement in my periphery and dove beneath the dragon’s belly to evade. I slashed upward at its underside, but again, the blade only left a superficial mark.
"Seriously, your whole body is like armor!"
On my right, the mist suddenly transformed into dozens of sharp needles, all pointed at me.
"Rock Wall!"
I forced the earth to surge upward in a jagged spike, using the rising stone to jab the dragon’s belly while simultaneously creating a shield against the needles. I scrambled out from under the beast, moving in the opposite direction of the projectiles.
But the moment I cleared its torso, the dragon’s tail came whistling toward me with bone-crushing force.
"Crap—Reflective Wall!"
I triggered the spell reflexively. The tail hit the barrier and bounced back in the opposite direction as if it had struck a rubber spring.
That was way too close... Thank god I kept that formula ready just in case.
The high-speed dance of offense and defense continued. I dove through the dragon’s relentless assault, landing strike after strike, but none of them were deep enough to be decisive.
The three-minute mark was approaching. I backed off to create a wide gap and reactivated thirty spells in one go to reset my buffs.
I know its patterns from the last fight, so I can dodge. But I don't have a finisher. I’m going to have to get reckless... Dammit, I keep catchng myself wishing the others were here!
In the previous fight against a Black Dragon, Derrick and Luna had neutralized the mist while Oliver and Anneri used their overwhelming firepower to punch through its defenses. But none of them were here now.
Wishing for what I don't have won't change anything. If I want to win this, I just have to do it all myself. I’ll play the role of every single member of the Hero Party at once! That’s supposed to be my ideal as a swordsman anyway!