Mistress Of The Evil Forest

Case 72: The holy country of Neveah – Dragon Slayer.

As Aurora stares at the creature in front of her, she notices that the burns in its mouth caused by the previous explosion have already been healed.

[Super Regeneration: Enable the user to recover MP and HP at a rapid rate] [Legendary]

This is the boss dragon's main card. Not only does it have a ridiculous attack power, but it is also 'stupidly tanky,' as Chloe says. When the system displays 'rapid,' it really does mean it. Even if one manages to cut off this thing's head, it will find a way to reattach it in mere seconds.

In the game, the player has to utilize a limited-use item that can bypass its debuff nullification skill to inflict a ban on the regeneration one briefly, thus giving them a window to deal damage. Although near immortal, the dragon still has some weak points, ones that the player can attack to deal permanent damage.

The item itself is a set of curse-imbued darts that can be crafted using the materials obtained from the previous scenario or, more specifically, from the ancient basilisk's body. 

Aurora gently taps the side of her left thigh under the robe, where a bump can be felt. After securing the item once again, she pulls out the Blackstar and begins to channel her mana into it.

''Hah...''

'Let's do it.'

In an instant, Aurora shoots herself forward with [Flight], making a supersonic 'boom!'

GRAHH—!!

Her opponent responds with an arrangement of spells constructed at lightning speed around its head. With unparalleled precision, Aurora swiftly dodges the myriads of projectiles shot at her, leaving them flying out of the city instead.

BZT—!

''!!''

As soon as she notices a lightning current running in the dragon's dreadful red eyes, she propels herself forward once again. Immediately after, a sky-splitting lightning strikes right where Aurora was just at; the sheer energy escaping the bolt terrifies the people.

Nevertheless, Aurora keeps flying; her head never turns back. Soon, she has come close to the dragon's enormous body, close enough to really feel the ridiculous size of it. At this point, the creature swings its body abruptly and rams its head toward Aurora.

Calmly facing the train of death in front of her, Aurora smirks under the mask.

'Got it.'

The mistress of West Zircon, instead of running away, points her index finger at the creature. Some with keen eyes can instantly feel it—a cut has just been made in the fabric of space itself. Soon, the cut forms a small circle in the air, opening up a gate to another dimension before it starts to expand. The portal grows at an exponential rate, shortly becoming a massive disk in the sky, casting a distorted shadow onto the ground.

WHOOSH—!

The city of Neveah watches in awe as the gigantic dragon's head is swallowed whole by the gate, vanishing into nothingness before their eyes. Then, like a beast who has just caught its prey, the portal begins to tighten, mowing into the creature's scales and flesh, preventing it from pulling out.

As its overly long body squirms around in panic, Aurora raises her left hand.

As the owner of the Backrooms, Aurora can make an entrance to it anytime, anywhere, and the size of it isn't a problem as well. She can make the entrance appear and disappear whenever she wants... But what happens to those who happen to be caught between the two different dimensions?

They will be cut. Cleanly.

This method of using the Backrooms as a giant blade has proven to work wonderfully well, especially when Aurora tried to chop up the corpse of the ancient basilisk. Now, this 'feature' will shine once again.

snap—!

A crisp snapping noise reverberates through the space as the gate abruptly evaporates. Less than the time it takes to blink, the dragon's body has been chopped up into two halves—one missing, and everybody can see the cleanly cut intersection of the body left behind.

A spine—a golden flow surrounded by a thick metallic sheath at the middle of the body, with colorful cords extending out of the main tube, eating into the creature's pale flesh like tree roots.

Even though the people below have little knowledge of divine creatures, just one look at this scene is enough for them to realize that there is something strange about this thing. It is as if... It has been artificially modified.

''Wait, we need to get out...!''

At this point, numerous people have already escaped the city, a large portion on the run. The academy's side also has the majority of the students evacuated. The only brave souls left are the battle maniacs of classes A and B, alongside professors and staff who can fight decently well.

BANG—!

When everybody is lost in their thoughts, a loud sound from the sky catches their attention again. 

''That purple current...''

''What now...?''

Looking up, they see the figure in the sky holding some sort of metallic tube; those with keen eyes can even see smoke coming out of it. Instead of making darts for this occasion, Chloe decided to go a step further and commissioned a full-fledged gun from her contracted private blacksmith.

Being an avid FPS gamer and a gun nerd, Chloe naturally memorized some gun blueprints.

In Aurora's hand right now is a generic revolver, one holding rounds of cursed bullets. One such round has just been nailed into the flesh of the dragon, and immediately, an ominous purple current spreads across its long body.

After confirming its regeneration skill is turned off, Aurora puts the gun back and flies closer to the intersection. As she wills her mana to infuse her sword with freezing-cold ice, an immense aura is released from her body, sending those on the ground chill down to their bones.

CRACK—!!

With all of her superhuman strength, Aurora raises her sword above her head and slams the blade into the golden flow—the marrow of the dragon. A huge blast of icy cold air escapes the contact point as the headless body squirms around, and soon, the deadly glaze surges forward, freezing away the golden marrow from top to bottom with incredible speed.

From the outside, frosty patches can already be seen forming on the scales of the body, growing.

[HP:78/355]

''Phew...''

Even though Aurora poured almost eighty percent of her mana into this attack, it doesn't quite seem enough yet. However, it should be over soon.

For good measure, Aurora pulls out the pistol again and shoots the dragon once more, making sure it does not regenerate ever again.

'Now, we wait.'

Aurora calmly exhales, her breath white.

In another dimension, one with perpetual structures repeating itself and spanning millions of kilometers.

''Are we done yet, gentlemen?''

''Almost, friend. Almost.''

A man in Doctor Plague's costume paces around excitedly. In front of him is the full head of a colossal dragon. His boss promised him that he would get this one for research once he had done his part. Although he prefers human subjects, to get his hands on such a rare one is nothing short of a miracle.

To safely access it, though, the golden marrow in the middle of its 'spine' needs to be removed. He heard these would explode once the creature died. This is why Slenderman and Skely are currently digging them out and dumping them into a container. 

Well, it's a good thing he disabled most of this one's brain functions, or else it would shoot all of them to death.

''Over!''

Soon after, the two finish carving out the marrow. Skely swiftly teleports the container out of the way, not before leaving 049 an 'okay' sign.  Right then, the man in black presses his hand on the golden scales and activates his skill.

''I did as you said, Miss Aurora. For now...''

Meanwhile, in the night sky of Neveah.

As soon as Aurora sees the system's windows pop up, she hurriedly pulls out the sword and retreats far away.

BOOM—!!

BOOM—!! BOOM—!! BOOM—!! 

A chain of explosions promptly blows away the long body of the late dragon, leaving fine pieces of flesh and metal parts raining down the city. The sight, especially with the sparking shards of the golden scales, seems more spectacular than any fireworks show.

As Aurora silently checks her harvest, she grins under the mask, feeling a new surge of power in her body.

'This is amazing... Well, time for the real fight.'

The raid is only getting more intense from now on.