She widened her eyes, her face full of shock and disbelief.
Impossible!
Only now did she recall the warnings from her father and master—the current Sword Saint—back when she first began her training:
“The Sword Saint class doesn’t have high base attack power. But because the class comes with built-in bonuses to critical hits and critical damage, it can deal excellent damage with a high enough crit rate. However, never engage enemies with high physical defense! Unless—”
“You can guarantee that every strike hits a vital point and triggers a critical hit!”
Those words, ingrained in her since the beginning of her training, flashed back into her mind—words she hadn’t thought about in two and a half years.
She’d nearly forgotten what it felt like to miss a vital strike… to not land a crit.
Why now, of all times, was she failing to hit vital spots and land criticals?
Why?
Even the feeling of that last strike had felt off—at the time, she had dismissed it as her imagination.
But something was wrong!
Without critical hits, the Sword Saint class had no real damage output!
She saw the dragon open its mouth wide, crimson flames gathering at its throat, like the gaping maw of hell ready to swallow everything whole.
‘I can’t dodge this!’
Serena’s mind went completely blank.
Just then, Lejliv rushed forward, raising her shield just in time to block the searing flames from reaching Serena.
“You okay, Serena? What the hell was that back there?”
Lejliv barked at her, glancing from the corner of her eye at their “magic DPS”—who was now gasping for breath, bracing herself on her staff with not a single drop of mana left.
“That didn’t look right. That slash of yours should’ve ended that monster in one hit!”
Serena turned her head away and muttered, “I just… missed. I’m still not used to the feel of this weaker gauntlet…”
The effect of the super-enhancement buff was fleeting, and cold sweat beaded on Serena’s forehead.
For some reason, Helga’s mana was completely drained—without MP, a mage was basically useless.
Rosweisse wasn’t in any better shape either—having burned her buffs in the wrong order and popped her ultimate too early, her mana pool had probably run dry as well.
And now… Serena’s own critical hits weren’t landing.
Her attacks weren’t dealing the damage they should. What was she supposed to do?
‘How did things end up like this?’
‘No way… there’s no way this is happening! This is nothing like how battles used to go! I’m strong— I’m strong enough to one-shot monsters like this with just one vital strike and a critical hit—so why can’t I do it now?!’
“Eileen?”
Suddenly, the image of her childhood friend flashed through her mind.
She softly murmured her name.
At that moment, the Blackrock Dragon had already approached, its mountain-sized body casting a massive shadow under the moonlight, engulfing Serena in darkness.
Yet the Blackrock Dragon merely glanced in her direction—then turned and charged off in the opposite direction!
It completely ignored Serena, who was paralyzed in fear.
As the dragon receded into the distance, Serena actually felt a wave of deep relief wash over her.
She collapsed to her knees, gasping for breath.
“Wait, that’s the direction of the town!! Duskvale is right at the foot of that mountain!”
The guild staff uncle ran up in a panic, shouting at Serena and the others.
‘What?!’
*****
Eileen, who had studied the Monsterology Encyclopedia thoroughly, knew all about this kind of creature—called a Heavy Armored Blackrock Dragon.
They liked to stay deep in the wilderness, especially in caves—mines were their absolute favorite.
“So then, why is a creature like that, normally holed up deep in the mountains, strutting down a kingdom highway and charging toward a town?!”
This type of dragon wasn’t fast and couldn’t fly, but because it fed heavily on metallic ores over time, its armored body had become unbelievably tough—its physical defense was nearly impenetrable.
And as a dragon-type creature, it also had naturally high resistance to magic—particularly against elemental attacks like fire, water, earth, and lightning!
So how do you fight something like that?
Eileen had read in her books that these dragons loved to sleep.
The recommended method was to sneak up on it while it slumbered and strike a critical blow at one of its weak points.
Engaging it head-on?
Monsterology Encyclopedia strictly advised against it!
Blades couldn’t pierce it.
Magic couldn’t break its defense.
So what could be done?
Coincidentally, Eileen had once researched this creature’s weak spots out of sheer boredom—and she actually knew how to defeat it, even though the book had only briefly mentioned the tactic, since it was deemed highly impractical.
Luckily, she had just the right teammate to make it work—she subtly glanced at Layla beside her, a sharpshooter with near-perfect accuracy!
The whinnying of panicked horses broke her train of thought.
Captain Ansel’s face had gone pale, and the guard soldiers around them were in a state of chaos.
Even if it was just a subspecies, a dragon’s aura was terrifying.
“M-Milady… we—we need to fall back! If we don’t move now, we’ll end up running straight into that thing!”
That towering, mountain-like body—even just running made the earth shake.
If it crashed into anything, the outcome would be something along the lines of a “tornado ripping through a parking lot”—utterly catastrophic.
Eileen stood firm.
“Captain Ansel, just ahead is the new Duskvale. If we retreat now and let that thing charge into town, won’t your conscience be weighed down with guilt?”
Ansel’s conscience? Honestly, not really.
A town getting attacked by an S-class monster was already considered a natural disaster.
He might be a seasoned warrior in the military, but his level barely scraped the threshold of A-rank.
How could he possibly be a match for that kind of monster? Still, standing in front of the young lady, he couldn’t say that aloud.
The knight’s emblem on his chest was glowing with a blinding light.
To abandon others in danger—that was clearly a violation of the knight’s code.
Layla chimed in, “So, what you’re suggesting, Milady, is that we defeat this monster with our current party?”
Ansel nearly fainted from fright on the spot.
Beside him, Clarette’s face had gone ghostly pale, and in her heart, she slapped a bold label on Eileen: crazy woman!
‘What? Fight an S-class monster? Seriously?!’
Facing the pale soldiers and Captain Ansel, Eileen gave a firm nod and said solemnly, “That’s right. We’ll defeat this monster here. Don’t worry—we’ll win.”
We’re so screwed!
Ansel screamed internally but couldn’t voice it.
All he could do was ask, “Truly worthy of being the young lady… may I ask, do you have a brilliant plan?”
Both maids turned to look at Eileen.
She cleared her throat, then pointed at Ansel and said, “Captain Ansel, to change the Blackrock Dragon’s path, I need you to use Taunt on it.”
Thunk!
Ansel dropped to his knees before Eileen on the spot, snot and tears streaming down his face.
“Milady, I have elderly parents and young children at home. I beg you, have mercy!”
Layla coolly added, “The death compensation payout is quite generous.”
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Tftc!