Nightmare Fantasy Online

"Rolf, get us up and close to that thing!" - Garami

"Roger that, ma'am!" - Rolf-Prix

The Albino Arachnid went into overdrive as it ran through the forest of the Season Guardian dragon. The beast ignored the other contenders in favor of facing us, an action I hope will make us popular with the player base after this. You can never have too many gains. 

The dragon opened its gigantic mouth and a light started to appear in there. A dragon breath!? The old-time classic dragon move?! 

"No, you don't!!" - Rolf-Prix

Rolf forced the car off our collision course with the dragon, just barely avoiding the most classic of all dragon attacks. I turned around and saw that most of the forest that was hit by the breath was still standing. A little scorched, with some blots of electricity sparking in between the flora, but it was not mowed down.

"Is the attack weak when it comes to direct power, or can the dragon not destroy its own 'area'..." - Garami

"If these woods are to be a hindrance to us, it makes sense for its attacks not to harm them too much." - Palug

Catching onto my mutterings, Palug gave his word of wisdom. The conclusion is that we shouldn't rely on the idea of tanking that attack head-on. Not that any of us are exactly tank-materials in the first place. 

"You two done playing pretend-to-be-the-battle-master yet?" - Rolf-Prix

"I'm done." - Garami

"So am I. Let us slay this dragon!!" - Palug

Palug jumped on top of the car's front with his little sword aimed at the giant dragon. Infected by the rabbit's eagerness for battle, Rolf pushed the Albino Arachnid up to the next gear and accelerated. 

The dragon wasn't just flying around though. When it saw us coming at it for full speed, it started to manipulate the roots in the ground to cause them to increase in size, turning the already-difficult-to-drive-in jungle even worse. 

Not to be outdone, Rolf upped his game and started to drive around the roots, sometimes daring himself to use them as tunnels, and I think we mowed down some when the Albino Arachnid got sawblades for wheels a moment there for some unexplained reason. 

Seeing that his green thumb (he has thumbs, right?), the dragon Season Guardian changed his tactics and started to release lightning from his horns. 

"Too predictable! [Metal Stake]!" - Rolf-Prix

Rolf produced metal stakes (duh) from metallic-colored orbs of light and shot them at various trees. The lightning bolts changed their direction and headed toward the stabbed plants like a dog going after the mailman. The lightning struck the flora, which seems to have canceled the whole "crazy forest" effect. 

"Yes! I knew picking up [Lightning Rod] was a good investment!" - Rolf-Prix

"I suspect that we do not need to hear that skill's effect. However, if you had something like that, why did you not use it on the floor before!? - Palug

"And waste MP seeing my stakes penetrate through those flimsy clouds? That and I was too busy getting the hell outta there before those lightning bolts struck us." - Rolf-Prix

True. Sorry, Bones. Your death could not be prevented. 

"Focus on the present. We're almost there!" - Garami

The dragon was so close that a long-range mage could start blasting it now. Unfortunately, we don't have anyone like that here, so we gotta go up close and personal. 

Probably guessing our plan of action, the dragon countered us by starting to ascend. That bastard, I bet he has a pure mage build, seeing all the madness he did before and how chicken he is to put up his fists! Despite that big body of his! Game logic can be weird sometimes...

Not planning on letting the dragon escape, Rolf used one of the giant tree roots that had stopped moving as a ramp and started the turbo. 

"YAHOOO!! I CAN FLYYYY!!" - Rolf-Prix

"...Uh-oh. Abandon ship." - Garami

"I agree." - Palug

"Huh? BWA-WA-WA-WA-WA-WA-WA-WA-!!" - Rolf-Prix

Aaaand there goes the Albino Arachnid. Struck by lightning, it flashed and disappeared as quickly as the very same thing that scorched it black. And then it came crashing into the ground. I could swear I heard a silent "ouch" from a certain speed addict when the car face-kissed the ground. 

The Albino Arachnid is done, but we're not out of the "race" yet. The condition for losing is to "touch the ground without a vehicle", so if you're in the sky, or riding something, even if it's one of the Season Guardians, then you're still in the game!! 

Though, I'm not as much "riding" that giant dragon as I'm using it as an anchor for my web line. 

Using the line, I swung myself onto the dragon's back, saving me from being expelled from the game. Damn, this guy's big. And where did Palug go to? 

...Found him. Or, I think he did. Because there's a gigantic weasel-looking something over there made entirely out of creepy winds, and it's duking it out with the dragon now. Hey, stop that! It's difficult enough to keep my balance on this wild rodeo of a dragon already, so stop, seriously! 

Palug and the dragon's fight lasted for a few minutes, I decided to do some slashes on the dragon's unguarded back in the meanwhile, but that came to an abrupt pause when Palug's transformation(?) suddenly disappeared. 

"Ugh! I am not done yet!" - Palug

Uttering the last of his strength, Palug tried to do a dive attack with his sword, but it didn't work. The dragon decided to headbutt the rabbit across the field. And do I have to remind everyone that the dragon is GIGANTIC while Palug is itty-bitty tiny? Yeah, poor rabbit. When he went flying, I could hear my second silent "ouch" today. 

Now with nobody else on the floor than the two of us, the dragon turned his attention and aggro toward me. I had used the time Palug had bought me to not only deal some damage of my own, but I also crossed a lot of distance to get close to the dragon's head. 

There was something in the two kaijus' brawl that I found funny. The dragon always evaded whenever Palug's strikes got too close to its horns. If my gamer experience is right, then those have to be some sort of weak points. 

The dragon may be thinking what I'm thinking because its face is turning pale. Or maybe Palug's monster form dealt way more damage than I first thought. Being able to run on the wind AND survive being defeated in that mode? What a cheat! 

Luckily for me, I have a cheat as well. Super-high stats thanks to [Demon Lord]! Using them, I ran up the dragon's neck before it could shoot its lightning bolts at me. My defense is horrible, even if I'm prolly one of the most durable Scouts out there now thanks to my beefed-up stats alone, but I doubt I could tank draconic lightning. 

Seeing it couldn't get a good aim with its lightning bolts thanks to my speed, the dragon made a split-second decision and tried to shake me off instead. Hmm, is this the case where too many thunderbolts could damage the dragon? 

In any case, the dragon is trying his best to throw me off, so why resist? As the dragon twisted its body, I created slippery poison at my feet with the [Poison Slide] skill and diligently flew off the dragon's back.

The overgrown reptile looked shocked as it saw me fall, not expecting that I would give up so quickly. The shock was so great that it didn't notice that I had made a thin, yet durable web-line and attached it to the dragon's left side. I'm on the dragon's right side now, FYI. 

Using the web line, I spun around the dragon's body to reach above it again. The dragon seemed to prepare a set of lightning bolts, but I summoned Nala and had her dive-bomb onto the dragon's face. The shock of the sudden octopus landing on its face caused the dragon to stop its attack in confusion and panic, giving Nala a valuable moment to stab her spears into the dragon's horns. 

The dragon let out a scream of pain just as I spun around it and landed on its back again. So they ARE its weak points! Go get 'em, Nala! Ah, what are those sparkies? ...Fried octopus, anyone? 

And there goes Nala. It's a good thing I was already preparing to replace her before I landed. I had summoned Nyx and Luna as a team of rider and jouster, even if the knight in shadowy armor is barehanded, and had them go ahead. Nyx jumped off Luna's back and started to slash at the dragon's left horn with her claws. Luna decided that the right horn would be a delicious snack and started to chew on it. 

I don't think I need to mention how the dragon felt about my two demons. Two lightning *booms* later and my two partners were as charcoal-ed as Nala. 

HOWEVER! They bought me enough time! 

I jumped at the dragon's horns and slashed each of them with my Erebus Scythe in the hope of it being enough to dwindle the dragon's HP (that I've already confirmed through [Identification]), but it wasn't enough!! The dragon shook its head in pain and the sudden movement caused me to slip. 

Grr, but there's just a little left! The dragon must be feeling the same, as it's preparing that gigantic dragon breath attack it used before, but not today, Sonny! 

From my inventory, I produced several giant chains, specially bought last night after we encountered that gigantic boss-like thing on the last floor of the Darkland Fort. The chains were bought from the port town and were used to keep ships chained to the docks.

The chains cost me a pretty penny, not to mention they literally killed all the space I had in my newly evolved [Inventory] skill due to them being too big for a normal inventory slot, but who cares at this point?! Besides, I bought them specifically for a situation like this!

Now go! [Trap Expertise] boosted by [Gloom Hell Prison] allowed me to control the chains to wrap them around the dragon's mouth. My experience with [Thread Control], the fact that chains are common things among the traps of [Gloom Hell Prison], and my vastly enhanced MP-pool allowed me to brute-force the skills to control the chains that should be impossible to manipulate with my current level. 

The dragon quickly stopped its breath attack, ruining my attempt to have it blow up in its face (literally). Tch. And then it tried to escape the chains, but you're too slow. I captured it and used absolutely every point of my MP to force the chains to drag the dragon down to the ground with a "DON!". Like, for real. Horns-first into the solid ground. Isn't this kind of overkill after all the beating the dragon got from Palug? 

However, mission accomplished! I could see the dragon disappearing into the common black particles in the same fashion as the monsters outside the event. Does this mean...

Yup. I'm falling. No more dragons to use as a platform after all. And the threes...are wilting faster than my houseplants back in the days when I tried to develop my green thumb. 

Oh well. I managed to finish our "quest" so Palug and Rolf shouldn't be so disappointed. Can't say the same for Bones who went out on the first floor. And man, the dragon sure went up high in the sky. This is gonna-

*Neck-breaking crunch!!*

-...hurt...ouch.

---

Meanwhile in the audience seat:

"Hey, did you see that?!"

"She wrestled the dragon, a Season Guardian, to the ground..."

"What the **** was that skill!? [Chain Magic]!?" 

"No, no, there was no magic circle or chants or anything with that move!" 

"Hey, you with the whip! What Combat Arts did that demon girl use?!"

"Don't look at me! There are no chain-type Combat Arts in my skill tree!"

"You guys, are you forgetting about that crazy slime's even crazier driving skills?"

"Yeah, you need to have come from some of the hard-core racing games if you want to do those moves..."

"And that giant wind beast from before the Demon Queen's rampage was incredible as well!!" 

"I know that guy! He's playing as a courier for coins, but role-plays as a knight!"

"Despite being a rabbit!?"

"...Hey, are we really dubbing her the 'Demon Queen'?" 

"OBVIOUSLY!!" - All the other members of the audience

"She even has that nasty dragon-looking shadow guarding her Fort."

"It's even doubtful if she's a player like the rest of us and not the game's Last Boss."

"I mean, her avatar looks too similar to Terra Sol AS' CEO to be a coincidence." 

"Hey, I get what you mean, but there's one thing you're wrong about." - A member from the Verification Hunters

"Hmm?"

"What's wrong?" 

"It's not only that girl who has a nasty shadow guarding her Dungeon." - A member from the Verification Hunters

"Hmm?" 

"There's news from the other races that those shadow giants have been spotted in all the other Dungeons as well." - A member of the Verification Hunters

"...Huh?" 

"At this rate, it wouldn't surprise us if there will be one such titan acting as the last line of defense for all the Dungeons from now on." - A member of the Verification Hunters

".........eh? (sound of many potential Dungeon divers' hopes being crushed)"