Now that things have come to this, I have no choice but to steel myself.
I max out the synchronization level of Parallel Will.
With that done, I have the magic specialist activate the spell.
The shadow I'm hiding in shifts its form, stretching out like a spear and closing in on the Fire Dragon's body.
It's a combination of Shadow Magic LV4 Morph Shadow, LV5 Solidify Shadow, and LV6 Manipulate Shadow. I'm calling it Shadow Spear.
Morph Shadow reshapes the shadow into a spear, Solidify Shadow hardens it to give it a physical presence, and Manipulate Shadow moves it at my command.
What surprised me was just how unwieldy Shadow Magic turned out to be—it can't even serve as a proper offensive spell unless you combine the skills up to level six.
It's fuel-inefficient and effectiveness is poor.
A disappointing magic with barely any practical use.
But right now, that very spell saved my life.
The Fire Dragon dodges the incoming Shadow Spear without breaking a sweat.
In that opening, I escape from within the shadow.
I put distance between myself and the Fire Dragon.
The Fire Dragon and I face each other.
Honestly, I don't feel like I can win.
Its stats are decisively higher than mine.
On top of that, the elemental matchup is unfavorable.
What's most troublesome is the Fire Dragon's Status Abnormality Resistance skill.
As the name implies, this skill increases resistance against status abnormality-type attack attributes.
When you add this skill on top of its already high base resistance, you'd be best off assuming its defenses are formidable.
I specialize in status abnormalities.
In that sense, the matchup is bad for me.
To make matters worse, its skills are airtight.
I've been fighting Monsters with higher stats up until now, but I always had the edge when it came to skills.
However, while I may have more skills in number, the Fire Dragon's skills are either the same or better in performance.
Some are the same skills I have but at a higher level, and a few have even undergone Skill Evolution.
Higher stats, superior skills.
Plus an unfavorable matchup.
There's not a single factor in my favor.
But I have to fight.
If I can't win, I die.
I steel my resolve.
It's not like I have zero chance of victory.
But the likelihood of defeat is still higher.
I might die.
Death is scary.
But no life goes on forever.
So, as I've said before, why not live like a raging flame and go out with a bang?
I have absolutely no intention of dying, but if death does come, I refuse to meet it in a pathetic manner.
Fire Dragon, are you going to kill me?
Then come at me with the resolve to match.
I'm not so naive that I'll let you kill me unscathed.
The moment I make up my mind, I switch back on the intimidation I had deactivated.
I release the Evil Eye at full power.
Demon Arts, Ki Arts, and Dragon Force—all activated simultaneously.
Construction of the spell begins.
Did it read my resolve? The Fire Dragon cloaks its body in flames.
The Fire Dragon's skills are an evolved form of the Fire Drake's skills, apparently.
Naturally, it can use the effects of the Fire Drake's skills as well.
One of them is Flame Cloak, learned at Fire Drake LV8.
An upgraded version of Heat Cloak, learned at Fire Drake LV2, it literally wraps the body in raging flames.
On top of that, the heat boosts physical performance.
It seems the Fire Dragon now recognizes me as a formidable opponent it can't afford to underestimate.
Neither of us will be careless or overconfident.
A serious battle begins.
The Fire Dragon spits out a Fireball.
Not a serious blow—it's a probing attack.
Even so, given how weak my fire resistance is, a direct hit could reduce me to a pile of ash in a single shot.
After all, even that casual attack carries power equal to the Fire Drake's full-power Fireball from before.
I dodge with everything I have.
Thanks to the combo of Accuracy and the Probability Bonus, I can't even dodge it easily.
A casual attack, yet I need a triple enhancement stacked on top of the power of my evasion skills just to barely avoid it.
I push Thought Acceleration and Foresight to their limits.
At the same time the Fire Dragon launched its Fireball, it closed the distance.
A real attack is coming, using the Fireball as a feint.
It flexes its long, serpentine body and swings its massive tail down at me.
A devastating physical strike already, made even more lethal by the flames—a death sentence for me.
I barely manage to dodge this one too.
The trailing flames graze my body.
My HP drops slightly from that alone.
If I hadn't detected the approaching Fire Dragon with Thought Acceleration and read its actions with Foresight, I would have been done for.
So far, my evasion combo is managing to stay just barely ahead of the Fire Dragon's combo of Accuracy and the Probability Bonus.
But the situation isn't good.
No matter how much time passes, the Fire Dragon shows no signs of being paralyzed.
As for the Curse, it's chipping away at HP slightly, but it's barely having any effect on its stats.
Both are being resisted by its high resistances.
If I had enough time, the Evil Eye's effects would eventually wear it down—but the Fire Dragon isn't going to sit around waiting for that.
I barely avoid the Fire Dragon's body tackle followed by a fluid claw strike.
The Fire Dragon, even wary of me after I dodged that, pulls back to create distance.
The Fire Dragon lets out a roar.
A sense of urgency wells up inside me.
The Fire Dragon's skills are almost all superior versions of the Fire Drake's.
Naturally, it can use the skills the Fire Drake had.
Which means—the skill that the Fire Drake used to overwhelm me with its sheer numbers.
Command.
A higher-tier skill of the Fire Drake's Leadership.
A skill that grants stronger control over subordinates.
My Detection begins picking up the silhouettes of Monsters gathering one after another.
I wasn't overconfident.
I recognized the Fire Dragon as a superior enemy and steeled myself for death.
But the Fire Dragon wasn't overconfident either.
It came at me with everything it had to bring down someone weaker.
There's nothing cowardly about that.
My chances of survival just got even lower.