"Shion!" The heavily-armoured axeman calls out to me right before taking the heavy impact on his legend-class greataxe: «Geronimo».

—but that didn't even last a moment.

"Guha—!" His lifeless avatar flew back ten metres into the surrounding forest.

"Diax16! Shit!"

The wingless dragon slowly brings its massive tail back to prepare for the next strike.

What now?

«Chromaflare»: keeper of the seven secret swords. The enemy we came here for was patched in with the update three days ago, but it hasn't been defeated even once. Of course, there are other monsters with higher stats, but those are in raid missions that allow multiple parties.

To put it simply, this «Hidden Light Dragon Subjugation» is currently Archsky Revive's most difficult quest. Despite coming from different guilds, some of the top players eventually took the initiative to team up, but that six-man party has nearly been wiped out.

…and the boss still has a quarter of its health.

Shit…what now!?

Thanks to everyone's sacrifices, I've gotten used to its timing and pattern, but I didn't put any stat points in Health, and my armour is mostly magic resistance…

Think…think…

The dragon's eyes shifted slightly to my side.

Huh? It's as if—

I turn to my side and see a black phantom dashing out of the forest.

What the—!?

The phantom collides with the dragon's tail with a metallic sound, bounces off, and lands about three metres beside me.

…

«Totally black» was my only impression. Everything was hidden under a black cloak except for the two black longswords he was holding.

"Who are you?"

"More than that, how about finishing him?" He points to Chromaflare whose HP wasn't even scratched by his surprise attack.

Wait…that voice…another girl?

"Unfortunately, we can't win."

"Ho—? You seem sure."

"Even a legend-class greatsword like my «Clarent» can't cut off the body parts of a wingless dragon. Only a greataxe can get rid of that tail."

"You make it sound like the tail is the only problem."

"Just look at it. It's bigger than its body, and faster than we can see. Even with max agility, you can probably dodge it while advancing at most only once. It would just instantly hit you from behind."

I recall my party members' deaths. The tail alone killed all five of ASR's top players. Multiple players can aggro the tail enough for others to damage the main body, but that strategy wasn't enough even for us to beat it.

"It's decided then." The phantom girl lifts her identical swords.

"Huh? Hey, weren't you listening?"

"I was. You just need me to draw the tail's attention right?"

"I already told you it can't be done…"

"It can. Just watch."

"*sigh* Okay okay I don't care anymore. Let's do this, phantom girl."

I can't see her face, but I feel like I can see her smiling under that hood.

She takes a moment to breathe in the virtual air.

"!"

—before soundlessly dashing toward the giant.

What? No signal?

I catch up and maintain a distance of one step behind her. The dragon raises its colossal tail to the side—

—it's now or never.

My temporary partner looks up at the enemy. What's this? I can feel her confidence from here. Maybe we can win this!

"«Physical Burst»"

Huh?

PART2

"«Link Out»" I whisper weakly, and the mountain village around me dissolves into the familiar bright lights and then into the slightly less familiar white room.

"…"

I stare at the poster on the ceiling, a screenshot of my global net avatar, for a while before shifting my eyes down to the time displayed at the bottom of my interface—it's just a little past nine. I take a deep breath without being able to lift my body from the fatigue…

"Two hours...huh?" My voice, no, my entire body lacks strength even after a short dive of only two hours because of the intense battle with the wingless dragon that lasted almost since the beginning, but…

At the end…what was that?

The phantom girl kept muttering, no, it was definitely a command, but that wasn't any magic I knew of even at the highest level. Every time she said that, she could dodge the dragon's godspeed attack…or almost every time. In the end, she was overwhelmed from a dead angle, and facing Archsky Rising's peerless boss alone, I joined my comrades in less than thirty seconds.

I tried to look for that phantom girl in the village, but even my original party had already linked out.

She didn't even say her name…

"After all…just what was all that?" I say with the last of my energy.

Right…I still have school tomorrow…

Without noticing, my eyes stayed closed.