Reincarnated as a Dragon's Egg

The taotie’s physical abilities have increased with [Flames of Antipathy]… It’s troublesome, but in exchange, its HP and MP face a constant drain. The taotie is the one with more to lose in the long run.

So long as I continue to refrain from creating distance, I have nothing to fear from the taotie’s flashy skills. I can spot the wind-up movements and evade them, or cut off their activation by attacking.

Even though it’s gotten stronger, I shouldn’t have any reason to change my strategy. The attacks I should worry about are the swift reaching tentacles, the [Hungry Curse Orb] that can be used as a time-lagged attack, and… [Extreme Poison], I guess.

Speaking of what’s different from earlier, it’s probably just whether he will continue to freely use [Flames of Antipathy] and consume its HP and MP as time goes on. I’ll focus a little more on defence, but mostly fight as I have. There shouldn’t be any problem with that.

“OOOOOOOOOOOOOh!”

The taotie bellows as it leaps at me.

…Its speed has increased more than I expected. But I’m still faster.

Flying backwards in an arc, I maintain the same distance from the taotie, and fire a [Dimension Claw] into a gap in its guard. Its tentacles shear off and its flesh is gouged out.

Its defence has become lax, perhaps because it’s worried about the consumption of [Flames of Antipathy]. Even though this fighting distance has been difficult for the taotie, it hasn’t attacked in such a simple manner until now. If anything, it's gotten easier to fight.

『I’ll bring it to a quick end…!』

『[Heavenly Father’s Rage]!』

The sky lights up. A bolt of lightning flashes down, targeting me.

I dive down while tucking in my limbs, then kick off the ground to accelerate even further. Lightning pierces down right behind me. A large crater is carved out of the ground.

…The time between skill activation and effect is way too fast. Somehow, the time before activation has gotten even shorter since [Flames of Antipathy] was used.

If so, I might have made a grave mistake in assuming that I didn’t have to pay attention to the taotie’s large-scale attacks. With this activation speed, I’ll be blown away if I slip up, even in this mid-range battle.

“OOOOOOOh!”

The taotie raises its front legs up high. That skill is coming again…!

It’s difficult to handle such a wide-range attack in this posture. I aim for its raised arms and send in a full-strength [Dimension Claw]. Deep claw marks bury themselves into its arms.

That should stop it from activating the skill… Or so I think, but the taotie continues holding its arms up high.

『Y-you’re joking…?』

…[Flames of Antipathy] doesn’t just elevate its body’s capabilities.

【By surrendering to anger, the user’s physical abilities become much more powerful, and their body becomes tougher.】

It’s become difficult to stop it from activating skills by attacking it during their wind-up movements, too.

『Tch!』

Since I threw an attack, it’s completely too late for me to evade. It’s impossible for me to correct myself and focus on dodging now.

Leaning into the twisting of my body from firing off the [Dimension Claw], I use the momentum to curl my body. I land on the ground and switch to [Roll], accelerating forwards.

『[Earth Mother’s Lament]!』

The surroundings quake violently. A giant shockwave approaches me, but I evade it by the skin of my teeth. I then kick off the ground and take to the sky, ending my [Roll] and switching back to flight.

Nice… I evaded it! It’s good enough that I managed to evade, but the taotie should have spent an absolutely ridiculous amount of MP. It should be painful for it to have missed me with that string of attack skills.

However, I know now that it’s not realistic to continue running from the taotie in its current [Flames of Antipathy] state. Unlike before, even if I constantly keep vigilant and maintain a favourable distance, I can’t handle [Earth Mother’s Lament] and [Heavenly Father’s Rage] completely. A single small slip up would result in me eating that absurd firepower.

Bringing it to an endurance match of tag isn’t advantageous for me… I’ve no choice but to exhaust it by slamming it hard with powerful counters whenever I can while focusing on evasion.

[Curse Knight]… No, now that the taotie has gotten better at taking hits, it won’t even flinch from a projectile attack of that level. Apparently it’s not just its attack and speed that have risen but its defence as well.

[Curse Knight] is convenient, but it’s not likely to deal a decisive blow against its absurd endurance. That’s even more so considering its current state. If I use [Curse Knight], it should be as a basis for setting up a different attack, but the current taotie will probably just push through it. From the start, its thick defence and sturdy flesh armour were troublesome enough, but now weaker attacks have even less significance.

[Dite] is too slow as well. I’ll be hit with [Heavenly Father’s Rage] if I so much as give it an opening by creating and releasing flames.

Hence, I should be using [Cocytus] here! Even if I don’t manage to hit it, I should be able to hinder its movements and create a favourable situation.

I create a magic circle next to the taotie while circling around it in the air.

『[Heavenly Father’s Rage]!』

The sky lights up.

Here it comes…! I use all my strength to change position.

At the same time, I hear the taotie kicking off the ground. It seems to be coming at me with the intention of close combat, now that my movements are shaken by the lightning attack.

There’s no way I can win in a fistfight with the taotie as it is now!

A moment after the [Heavenly Father’s Rage] lightning hits, a mass of [Cocytus] ice appears. It inserts itself between myself and the taotie.

With the taotie needing to evade [Cocytus] to close in on me, this should have bought me a little more time.

I can do this… The [Cocytus] strategy is usable. If I activate it at crucial moments using magic circles prepared beforehand, I’ll be able to obstruct the taotie’s movements and cover my openings. Even if its large-scale attacks come flying at me, this should still be quite a reliable way of dealing with them.

With this, even without trying to force through attacks, I should be able to win by waiting for it to exhaust itself from [Flames of Antipathy].

――――And, it looks like the taotie has arrived at the same conclusion that I have.

“OOOOOOOOOOOOOh!”

Without evading the mass of ice, the taotie brings one of its forelimbs crashing down onto it. It seems like it’s planning on shattering the ice and using that momentum to punch through to me. It’s a brute force method, but it probably decided that it wouldn’t be able to catch me without resorting to such measures.

But I had predicted this.

『[Gravity].』

Black light unfolds around me. The taotie’s shoulders drop slightly from the increased gravity.

“OOh!?”

Its claws rake into the mass of ice. However, it doesn’t manage to break through the wall of [Cocytus]. It wasn’t able to put strength into its forelimb because of [Gravity].

At the same time, I swing around the ice mass and close in on the taotie.

Its left foreleg is stuck in the [Cocytus] ice prison, leaving its chest fully exposed. I’ll slam in one solid blow while it can’t move.

『I’ll end this now, taotie!』