Chương 98: Reborn as the Dragon — Chapter 98 - Get Out of the Dragon's Nest

Say what you will, but compared to the timid and indecisive Yamaguchi Mura Chicken, the ruthless Mei Magogoko was built to lead. She'd come in with intelligence gathered in advance, yes, but that boldness, that decisive snap of authority, was entirely her own. The male players needed no further convincing. They surged toward the Dragon's Nest in a wave: over seven hundred in the first push, another five hundred or so lined up behind them for the second charge. Most were warriors.

A few fanatical mages had thrown themselves into the mix. Even the female players, mostly mages, mostly unbothered by Mei Magogoko's speech, were still casting shields onto the men charging ahead. Practical, if nothing else. The monsters manning the Flame Arrow Towers stared as the humans came screaming toward them, a howling, swarming mass like a locust plague with a death wish. For a moment, they just froze.

It was like hundreds of charging maniacs had hit the defense line at once, and the towers simply couldn't process it. Where do we even shoot? There are people everywhere. Then the U-shaped layout of the Dragon's Nest did exactly what it was designed to do. The players were funneled together, packed tight, no room to scatter. The monsters stopped needing to choose. They aimed at the entrance and fired. WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH, the flame arrows shrieked through the air and punched into the crowd.

Explosions chained down the line. Anyone without a shield died on the spot. Anyone with one gritted their teeth and kept running. This was Sakura Island No. 6 Starter Village's first real look at the Dragon's Nest's defenses. The exploding arrows hit harder than anything they'd imagined, and the confusion in the ranks was thick.

"Baka! Why do these monsters have firearms!?"

"This is an unequal war! We are still in the cold weapon era!"

"Don't stop — keep charging!" The momentum took a beating. The terrain worked against them at every step, easily defended, brutally hard to crack, and the entrance itself was a wall of Brotherly Inferno Rabbits and Cockatrices packed shoulder to shoulder. At the rear, Mei Magogoko watched it all. She felt the anxiety creeping in. Dead players teleported straight back to the World Plaza. Respawn meant starting over at No. 6 Starter Village, thousands of miles away, completely out of the fight.

Every player she lost was gone for good. If the Flame Arrow Towers kept this up, she'd burn through her entire raiding force and be left with nothing. She turned to the two highest-level warrior players behind her.

"We move forward. See if we can knock out those five towers. You two keep me covered."

"Don't worry, Gougouzi-chan. We'll protect you, absolutely."

"Hehehe~" One of the warriors said it while palming her backside with zero shame, his eyes wide and unabashedly feral. Gougouzi didn't even flinch. She leaned into it, shot them both a slow, deliberate look, and let the moment hang. The two warriors nearly vibrated out of their armor. They fell into position in front of her, Archmage-level shields crackling to life around them, and began the careful approach toward the Dragon's Nest. This story originates from a different website.

Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. Already within range. The Flame Arrow Towers hadn't noticed them yet. Mei Magogoko kept low behind the warriors and began to chant. At her current level, Archmage, she could condense four Explosive Fireballs at once, and no more. Push past that threshold and she'd lose accuracy, lose control. She didn't stop moving. She needed to be closer. She needed maximum impact.

Only when she could clearly make out the firing ports on the nearest tower did she halt. She locked on. The first fireball flew. Then the second. Third. Fourth. BOOM. BOOM. BOOM. BOOM. The explosions rolled through the air in sequence. Smoke billowed up, then slowly cleared. Mei Magogoko's face fell. The Flame Arrow Tower had barely taken any damage. A few scorch marks on the stone. Otherwise untouched. Should she try Frost? Longer chant time, but maybe,"Long live Gougouzi-chan!"

"I love you, Miss Gougouzi~" Cheers erupted across the front line. As it turned out, while Mei Magogoko hadn't destroyed the tower itself, the concussive shockwaves from four back-to-back Explosive Fireballs had rattled through the interior. The monsters inside, none of them above level ten, had been stunned. They couldn't operate the controls. The tower went silent. One tower silenced was enough. The players didn't need a second invitation.

The warriors who'd been absorbing punishment all this time surged forward in a single push, broke through the defensive line, and crashed into the monsters crowding the entrance. Sakura Island's players were leveled higher than No. 1 Starter Village's crowd, they'd been grinding normal monsters, building proper EXP. It showed. The moment the melee started, the monsters buckled under the pressure. These weren't the Dragon's Nest's core defenders, and they fought like it. Casualties mounted fast on the monster side.

Only the Harpies stayed safe, wheeling overhead and occasionally heaving boulders down into the crowd.

"Hold on — we've pushed this far in and the black dragon still hasn't shown itself?"

"What if it already ran?" Mei Magogoko's stomach dropped. She yanked out her tracking array and checked. Still pointing at the Dragon's Nest. She didn't understand it, but there was no time to think it through. They were here. Time was burning. She'd throw bodies at this until something died, specifically the dragon. She was done fighting the doorstep. She ordered the warriors to hold the monsters back, took point herself, and led the remaining players through the entrance and into the Dragon's Nest.

Inside, the light dropped. The space was vast and dim. Every pair of eyes found the same thing at once. The enormous creature coiled at the center of the chamber.

"How..." Mei Magogoko's voice came out barely above a breath.

"It's already that big." Shock and something close to fear moved through her face. Last time she'd seen this dragon, it had been crouched low, no bigger than a small bus. Now, coiled at rest, it was the size of a military transport truck. Body length, at minimum, ten meters. Wingspan, she estimated, somewhere around fifteen. For players, that was a genuine monster. She raised her hand and cast Appraisal. The status read back at her. Advancement Slumber. For a full second, nothing moved on her face.

Then it broke open.

"No wonder — no wonder! HAHAHAHA! Yoshi! Even the hardest quest has a crack in it somewhere. There it is. That's the opening!" The flush rose to her cheeks before she could stop it, a hot wave of excitement and relief washing through her all at once. Her whole body felt lighter. This was so much better than those magic discussions with the players. Why had she been dragging so many of them into magic discussions in the first place? Because they finished too fast, every last one of them.

She'd had no choice but to embrace quantity over quality.

"Get out of the Dragon's Nest." Soft. Trembling. But the fury underneath it was real. The Sakura players turned. There, standing directly in front of the black dragon, was a girl, small, delicate, carved from porcelain and moonlight. Easy to miss with the dragon dominating the room behind her. The two monster leaders, Chicken Bro and Chicken Too Beautiful, flanked her on either side. Anna's face was flushed with anger, eyes bright with it. Her hands were shaking, but not with doubt.

Behind her, elemental orbs drifted and spun. Water Ball. Light Orb. Threaded together, layered, stacked, more than a dozen already formed, and still growing. Still pulling in power, waiting to be released.

[Author's note: I've always felt it was a bit anticlimactic for a dragon to be throwing around Explosive Fireballs and Ice Lances like a regular mage. DnD doesn't spell out dragon magic in much detail, but from what I've read, it really is quite different from ordinary spellcasting. I'd rather go a different direction, I've always liked the idea of dragons wielding something closer to Word Magic, or the Dragon Shouts from Skyrim. Power rooted in rule and law, not raw elements. That feels far more fitting than anything a mortal mage could do.] ➤ Next: Dragon's Eyes