Chapter 40 - A Castle on Sand, a Throne in Flux, Part Four
"Wha—?!"
A pillar of light erupted in the distance with a deafening boom. Before I could even process it, the battlefield began to transform at a staggering pace.
First, the great serpent's behavior changed. The beast, which had been seething with rage, suddenly tensed up and began to warily scan its surroundings. It was no longer stubbornly trying to reach the seventh scale, nor did it show any signs of attacking me as I stood nearby.
Then there was the sandstorm that had been tormenting me. Not only did the damaging cloud around the serpent vanish, but all the sand that had been whipping across the battlefield was blown away, clearing up around the pillar of light.
And most importantly, the massive tower of flowing sand that served as both the landmark of the [Great Flowing Sand Cavern] and the stage for this boss fight—began to collapse.
"We did it… I think?"
With such a clear shift in the situation, even I could figure it out. Sora must have succeeded in destroying the seventh scale.
And that meant—
"Alright… I'm going in blind from here on out."
It meant that from this point on, I'd have to rely completely on improvisation.
First, I needed to quickly identify what kind of pattern would follow the gimmick's completion, and then—
"…………Huh?"
As my mind raced, a questioning sound escaped my lips unconsciously.
The thing is, as the tower of flowing sand collapsed from the top down, a deep rumbling that resonated to the pit of my stomach had started—and, uh, it's still going?
Even though the tower of flowing sand has already crumbled into nothing.
"…………The hell?"
And this rumbling, this feeling of the desert vibrating—I recognize it. I'd experienced it very recently, while being chased by it, and I couldn't help but remember.
Then, a cry echoed nearby.
I looked over and saw the [Dusty Worm, Great Serpent of Dust], its aura of absolute dominance gone—cowering in fear.
My sense of unease grew.
I had expected that once all the scales were destroyed, a cutscene would trigger and the fight would end. Or, perhaps, the serpent would be significantly weakened, and we'd have to fight it again.
Both were common scenarios for this kind of large-scale boss fight… but something felt very wrong.
There's no background music in Arcadia. But right now, a certain BGM was blasting at full volume inside my head.
What was that song again—ah, I remember. It was from that rather gruesome movie I watched with my dad behind my mom's back when I was a kid…
"—A monster panic movie, I think?"
A bizarre scene that could only be described as "the desert exploding." And from beneath it, red emerged.
Red, red, red, red, red, red, red—a literal sea of it, the dark red of dried blood.
A massive horde of [Desert Serpents] poured in, as if to close the circle of the battlefield, which had lost its walls of flowing sand.
Their target seemed to be a single point: the great serpent next to me, which had finally started shrieking in a frenzy. I had no idea what their objective was, but one thing was certain in this situation.
I was going to get run over, no matter what.
And that was even more true for—
"Sora—!!"
—the girl who was likely at the epicenter of that pillar of light, somewhere between the center and the outer edge of the arena. She would be hit first.
I unceremoniously tossed my straight sword into my inventory and kicked off the sand with all my might. The AGI I had poured excessive points into exploded underfoot, sending sand flying.
The pillar of light was long gone, but I remembered its direction. A straight-line dash wouldn't take long with my agility.
The effect of [Idaten] was rapidly decaying, and the sandy terrain threatened to trip me up. If I slipped at top speed, my durability-less body would be grated into oblivion. But I couldn't slow down now.
I cursed myself for freezing up for those few seconds. Who would reach Sora's presumed location first, me or the moray eels? It was going to be a close call.
"Nngh—…!!"
My super-high-speed dash, covering several meters in a single step, was less like running and more like bounding. The unnatural gait, something impossible in reality, began to mess with my brain's ability to control my body.
Even with [Idaten], five seconds. That was the limit I could control my body at the top speed my 430 AGI afforded me, including equipment bonuses. And—
"Gah—?!"
As if to say, "I told you so," my heel dug into the sand at the wrong angle, and I lost my balance. There was no correcting a slip-up that happened in a fraction of a second. In a motion far more violent than a simple fall, my body was flung diagonally upward.
For a moment, my thoughts blanked. No, bad, this is bad—as my brain started spewing useless words, my body, left behind…
"—[Quick Change]."
…moved almost automatically.
I summoned the [Distorted Iron Lump Hammer] to my empty hand and—the next instant, the super-heavy weight, normally too much for my strength, registered. I grit my teeth against the brutal impact that felt like it would rip my arm off, and watched as my HP, which had been below twenty percent, dropped by another seventy percent of what was left.
Pulled by a weight far exceeding my own, my wildly spinning body was forced into a single, arcing rotation—and then, Quick Change.
Twisting my body, I extended my hand, summoned a dagger beneath my feet, and kicked off it with all my might, breaking free from the forced rotation. My entire body screamed from the reckless maneuver, and my HP dropped even further—but I survived.
"Hells yeah!!"
Landing with enough force to blow the sand away, I immediately started running again, skipping any braking. The few seconds of lost time hurt, and honestly, I have no conscious memory of how I pulled that off, but I was alive and still running—good enough!
To reduce the risk of another accident, I lowered my leg turnover rate, which meant extending my jump distance and taking fewer steps. It looked more like I was leaping than running, but it gave me a sliver more control without sacrificing speed.
Alright, she should be close… there, found her! I've come to save you, princess!!
"Sora!!"
Even against the similarly colored sand, her golden hair shone.
The sudden and overwhelming situation must have wiped the thought of "running" from her mind. The girl, who had been standing frozen, staring blankly at the tsunami of Serpents, snapped her head around at the sound of my voice.
"H-Haru-sa—what, what is that…?!"
Her eyes were spinning as she desperately pointed at the horde, but unfortunately, there was no time for questions. I pushed her frenzy aside for later and reached out my hand as I ran up.
"—I'm counting on you!!"
Just those few words. Sora, whose ability to instantly grasp my intentions I trusted completely, responded in a flash once again.
"Hah, [Spectate—"
I pulled her small hand as it clung to mine and lifted her into my arms. Whether it was due to the situation or the desperate look on my face, Sora wrapped her arms around me without any of her usual shyness and…
"—Yell]!!"
…unleashed her trump card without hesitation.
Ignoring the phosphorescent glow enveloping my body, I looked up to see a writhing wall already upon us. Contact was seconds away—
"Hold on tight!!"
"Hah…!"
The feeling of her pressing against me, her body heat—sorry to say, but I had no time for that. Sora held on tight, and without a moment's hesitation, I leaped into the sky.
An AGI value of 430. With the twenty percent boost from [Spectate Yell], my effective value was over 500. The fastest of the top players currently pushing the frontiers of the game have a value of around 350. Simple math puts me at roughly 1.5 times that monstrous stat.
With a blast of sand from the force of my takeoff, our bodies soared high into the air—and easily cleared the top of the oncoming tsunami.
"We're fly—!!?"
Sora let out a cry of shock from my arms. And of course she would—hell, I was surprised myself.
"Are you serious…?!"
Somehow managing to control my body after jumping to a completely unexpected height, I held onto Sora tightly to make sure she wouldn't fall—it was less holding and more of a desperate hug at this point—and let out a panicked cry of my own.
Wait a sec, I jumped at least twenty meters vertically! Even with [Jumble Step (Jump Enhancement)], I was expecting half that at best and planned to use the Serpents' heads as footholds—
"...! Whatever, it worked…!"
I was shocked, but the result was that we had escaped the immediate danger. The Serpent tsunami wasn't that deep, so if we just flew over it and landed behind them, we wouldn't be run over.
"…Seriously, how are you supposed to beat this thing?"
I couldn't help but feel like I was doing something fundamentally wrong. I muttered in a daze, looking down at the hellish scene below.
"Hh…! Hh…!"
As we began to fall and the wind roared past us, Sora let out a series of choked cries. It's one thing for me, who willingly jumped into the air, but of course flying and falling would be terrifying for a normal person.
"Sorry, Sora, I'm letting go with one hand."
Aerial jumps required at least one free hand. Sora just clung to me even tighter without a word. Supporting her with my right arm, I contorted my body into what I can only describe as a bizarre pose and summoned a weapon beneath my feet.
After a few decelerating jumps, we landed back on the desert sand. I set down a dizzy Sora, who collapsed in a heap. She looked even more exhausted than the battered state I'd found her in.
"Yeah, sorry. I didn't expect to jump that high…"
If someone picked me up and jumped twenty meters into the air without warning, then dropped, I'd probably be in the same state—well, if we're talking about me before I learned to aerial jump, anyway.
When I bowed my head in apology, Sora looked up and shook her head vigorously. The next moment, just as she was about to speak, she froze.
Sora's gaze was fixed on something behind me… Hmm? Come to think of it, it's gotten noisy behind me—
"—Huh?"
Sora's expression was one I'd never seen before, as if she were looking at something truly horrifying. I followed her trembling gaze, and turning around, I froze as well.
I'll say it again, but this time without the question mark—this is a monster panic movie.
Where we were staring, dumbfounded—the great serpent was being eaten.