Dragon

“Gyaaaaaaaaaaooh!?”

“Gugaaaaaaaaaah!!”

Apparently, quite a lot of monsters had been packed near the entrance, and an absurd number of screams could be heard.

Then the monsters came, stepping over the corpses crushed by the iron plate, iron plate and all.

“Those are… Red Lizards, Flare Slimes, and Dark Wisps… Just as reported, all of them are fire-attribute monsters. Their strength is around D-rank, but there are a few strong ones mixed in.”

“Got it. Nadja, I’m counting on you when the time comes.”

“—Yeah!”

As we were talking, a rumbling sound shook the ground.

Now that the dungeon entrance had opened, the monsters that had been held back until now were probably bursting out.

Seeing that momentum and that army of grotesque creatures, I froze for an instant without thinking.

The one who eased my tension was Aira, who took my hand.

“—Fire!!”

At my signal, the first row of Dark Wood Golems fired Black Projectiles.

“““Gyaaaaaaaaaah!!!”””

There was no point in hitting corpses or monsters already on the verge of death. So I divided them into several groups and had them attack with a time delay, trying to reduce wasted shots as much as possible.

When the last group in the first row of Dark Wood Golems fired their Black Projectiles, I checked the situation.

There were no living monsters. And monster drop items were scattered here and there.

Honestly, I was grateful that no corpses remained.

“Second row, ready—”

I had the second row of Dark Wood Golems fire Black Projectiles, and for the time being, finished off the monsters.

While having the other Wood Golems collect the drop items from the monsters as needed, we kept sniping from long range.

Once the second row finished firing Black Projectiles, the first row and second row of Dark Wood Golems swapped with the ones in the back.

I sent them to the very rear to recover a certain amount of mana.

“All right, aim for that wyvern—fire!”

As we swept the monsters down and kept defeating them, at last, a monster appeared that could not be defeated by ordinary Black Projectiles alone.

Against ones like that, I treated them to the Black Projectiles of the Dark Wood Golems concentrated on the left and right.

Even the wyvern covered in bright red scales could be defeated without issue by concentrated Black Projectiles.

Fire, fire, pick up, then fire…

The monsters coming from the depths of the dungeon through the cave fell one after another before the Black Projectiles and turned into drop items.

And while picking those up, the Wood Golems finished off the monsters that were on the verge of death.

Some of them had been hit by friendly fire, but those individuals were properly healed by the Holy Wood Golems, so the damage was limited to only a few units.

“What… am I watching right now…?”

“Mm-hmm, I know how you feel. We felt the same way at first too.”

While patting the dazed Vis-san on the shoulder, Lulu-san, also known as the Fashion Boss, nodded with the expression of someone who understood everything.

And a little distance away, Miria-san was also nodding vigorously.

As we watched, the monsters were being defeated at an incredible pace.

The cave that had become a dungeon seemed to have tremendous hardness, and no matter how many Black Projectiles were fired into it, it did not budge in the slightest.

From the dungeon entrance to the foot of the volcano where we were, it was a completely straight path.

Thanks to that, the monsters did not make any unexpected movements.

There had been flying-type monsters like wyverns darting out here and there for a while now too, but if we focused the barrage on the entrance, we could defeat them without issue.

Drop items kept piling up beside me.

Red Lizard scales, and this was… a flame sac, maybe?

On top of that, the spears and shields carried by Firemen, humanoid monsters whose heads were burning, were piling up in tremendous numbers too.

There seemed to be a certain pattern to the drop items.

Oh, so there were also items that came out already tanned as leather.

…Oops, this was no time to be doing that.

Wood Golems possessed mana, just like us.

And when they did nothing, their mana recovered, even if only in tiny amounts.

So we repeated the process of having them fire a few shots each before immediately retreating, defeating the monsters while suppressing consumption even a little.

We had begun at noon, and it took more than three hours before the number of monsters started becoming sparse.

The mana of the first wave of Dark Wood Golems had already become unreliable, so I had them swap with newly taken-out Dark Wood Golem units.

But somehow… it looked like we would manage.

At last, monsters stopped coming out, and just as I was relieved that the end was finally in sight—

“Guoooooooooooh!!!”

An unbelievably loud roar came from inside.

And beyond the broken door, I saw a dragon so large that it clearly could not fit inside the cave.

Crack… Crack, crack. Cracks began appearing in the cave, which had not even budged no matter how much it had been attacked until now.

And then—crash!

The dragon smashed through the cave and descended onto the ground.

Perhaps because it lived in the volcano, the surface of its body was red.

From the gaps between its sharp exposed fangs, small flames flickered in and out of sight.

“Guoooooooooooooooooh!!!”

I immediately changed the Dark Wood Golems into a concentrated formation.

Then I had them fire strengthened Black Projectiles.

“Guoooooh!?”

The dragon that was hit by the concentrated Black Projectiles let out a cry of agony.

It looked like we were dealing damage, but… yeah, we definitely lacked firepower.

“Nadja, please!”

“Yeah—Miria, Lulu, follow me! It’s time for a dragon hunt!”

The flying slash Nadja unleashed flew toward the dragon.

“Grrr!”

The dragon tried to avoid it, but Nadja’s attack was faster.

With a slicing sound, a wound was carved into the dragon’s body.

“Let’s go, Lulu!”

“Leave it to me, Miria-chan!”

Miria-san and Lulu-san also fully displayed the physical abilities boosted by body enhancement, and their figures vanished.

By the time I, who had lost sight of them, noticed, they had already closed in on the dragon, and both of their strikes dealt damage to it.

Perhaps because they wanted to keep at least some distance against a dragon, they were using katanas and beautifully dealing damage.

I kept firing concentrated Black Projectiles while being careful not to hit them.

Especially when the dragon changed its posture to fly and escape into the sky, I focused our attacks to interfere with its flight no matter what.

As expected, when it was hit at the moment it tried to fly, it could not take off properly, and we were able to keep fighting while pinning the dragon to the ground without letting it rise into the sky.

Once we sealed away the most troublesome ability of a flying monster, its power of flight, the rest was a battle of pure combat ability.

And when it came to combat…

“Guo… ooh…”

There was no one who surpassed my fiancée, the Sword Saint.

With a heavy thud, the dragon collapsed to the ground.

Then the dragon vanished just like that, silently.

In the place where its body had been until just now, a single sword lay.

“Ohh, this is an amazing masterpiece!”

Nadja groaned as she drew the dragon sword, which even came properly with a sheath.

It was a sword that appeared after defeating a dragon, so it was certainly an extremely valuable item.

Nadja had wanted a new weapon after seeing Miria-san and the others’ swords, so I really hoped she would use it.

And so, we successfully managed to subjugate the dungeon monsters.

Quite a few Wood Golems ended up being destroyed, but… we managed to get through it without any human casualties.

Now, at last, it looked like we would be able to welcome the dwarves to Wenti.