The fight started exactly as planned - after a series of debuffing spells and barrage of offensive magic, Tagar threw Naofumi straight into the dragon mouth so he could use his seismic blast skill in point blank range targeting the dragon nostrils.
The main objective of that action seemed to be achieved - Naofumi had the undivided attention of the dragon as after the ears shattering cry he rushed straight at the Shield hero.
Enforcers and death dealers followed with the attacks on the legs exactly as planned but the creature ignored them in its pursuit of the hero's head.
Both the hero and his shield survived its first attack, but unfortunately the ground he stood on did not. Being momentarily covered to his hips in the ground surprised Naofumi and cost him two seconds and prevented him from preparing for the followup attack. Even if the beast was surprised that the target was still alive it didn't show it. Instead, it used the opportunity and bit the head of the hero to quickly decapitate him and take care of the rest of the vermin that were attacking it from all sides.
The distance between demi-humans and Naofumi was too great to help him before the large fangs would close and separate the head from the rest of the hero's body. Commanders of the Hands of asura watched in horror as the jaws of the dragon closed. There was no sign of the hero - only an empty hole in the ground.
Before anyone managed to react the beast started to cry in pain and spit blood from its mouth. Its movement was erratic and unstable - all parts of its body shaking as in the greatest of pains. As quickly as this bizarre show started it also came to its conclusion. After a few more seconds the beast fell on the ground and besides a few convulsions stopped moving entirely.
Suddenly Raphtalia heard her master's voice.
Those 2 seconds nearly cost the hero his life. When the jaws almost closed on him, Naofumi had to resort to his last line of defense.
"Freeze time."
Naofumi took his time to get out of the hole and survey the results of the battle. The beast's legs and tail were covered in the slashing and puncturing marks but none of them seemed to be deep enough to actually incapacitate the dragon. The upper regions looked like a torched pin cushion with all the burn marks and tens of arrows sticking from it, but similarly to the attacks on its lower regions seemed to make no real damage.
"Let's see if I can use the appraisal shield on you."
Tyrant Dragon Rex level 400
Base statistics:
Defense: 3,000 / 4,000
Attack: 5,000 / 6,000
Agility: 2,000 / 3,000
HP: 14,800 / 15,000
MP: 1,000 / 1,500
SP: 700 / 1,000
"Holy shit, you are one though bastard, aren't you? All those debuffs and hundreds of attacks and all we did was to take less than 2% of your hp. It would take hours to even make a dent."
Naofumi was racing his brain to find a solution.
'There is no way we will be able to avoid all its attacks for hours. Sooner or later someone will make one and a final mistake.'
'It would seem that all those attacks have barely punctured it's skin...hmm.'
On the face of the Shield hero appeared a vicious grin, when he looked at the dragon and stopped his eyes on its open jaws.
"That was one though bastard"
Raphtalia turned around and finally noticed Naofumi sitting on the ground just behind her.
"Are you alright master?"
"Besides being tired as never before? I'm fine."
"What happened? One second I saw a dragon eat you alive and the next...this."
Being dead tired Naofumi tried to formulate a somewhat comprehensive response.
"I stopped time and checked how we can make damage to this drake. It was much stronger than I expected. The initial attacks only scratched him, so I decided to attack him from the inside. Still, it was hard to make any damage, so I needed to refill SP form potions and continue attacking."
Hero made a brake to take a breath.
"To be honest it took 45 SP regeneration potions and 11 hours. In the end I was so tired I decided to just put inside him all the 60 hitters, set them to max temperature and count for the best. Basically I just made the biggest drake chop ever."
Smiling at his own joke Naofumi decided to rest just for a moment and asked Raphtalia.
"I need a 15 min break, wake me up, ok?"
Not waiting for an answer he closed his eyes and immediately drifted into sleep.
Although 15 min long past, Raphtalia had no heart to wake up Naofumi whose head was on her lap for the last hour…
Next day in Lute during breakfast.
Although the dragon was more powerful than expected, killing him also provided more experience to his forces. All villagers immediately reached level 40 cap and Hands of asura got 60 levels as well. As for Naofumi… the situation was somewhat different.
"Holy shit." Naofumi was processing the information provided by his HUD.
Shield hero level 356
Base statistics:
Defense: 11416
Attack: 2040
Agility: 4021
HP: 7153
MP: 3938
SP: 4023
"What happened master?" Raphtalia noticed that he was looking into the void without moving.
"Something weird has happened. I need to check the shields I've got lately."
General's shield (not mastered) 1/15: Level progress: 6%, Boost + 0
Energy level 1/10
Rarity: Very common
Enchantments: ?
Status Rating:
Defense: 0
Attack: 0
Agility: 0
HP: 0
MP: 0
SP: 0
Passive skills: General acquires 1 level for each 40 levels his troops gained
Equip skills: ?
'Not so broken as others but I've got an idea how to abuse it like crazy.' A new plan was forming in the Shield hero's head along with a wide grin.
"Raphtalia, thanks to this shield I just got 264 levels and currently I'm level 356."
The number was so ridiculous she was barely able to comprehend it.
"For a good measure this dragon was level 400. If we ever find another one like it, all I have to do is to equip one of the shields with auto counter attack and wait till it kills itself."
"That's amazing, but how is this even possible? Gaining new levels supposed to be harder the higher you go, is it not right?
"It is exactly as you say, but this shield gives me bonus levels in ratio 1:40 for each one my party acquires. In normal circumstances it wouldn't amount to much, but with over 200 people and the huge number of levels everyone got it proved to be quite on the super useful side."
"So what are the plans for now? Find more people and grind levels?" Raphtalia clearly saw the benefits of this new opportunity.
"Not quite. I think we are high enough - level wise speaking - for the 2 or 3 more waves before us, so now it's the time to make some changes. And by some I mean: to change the world."