It lands and, with some MP recovered, starts increasing the number of bridges again.

The flaming earth seems to chase me higher and higher.

The heat from the flames alone threatens to decrease my HP.

Then those flames start to attack me as if they have a will of their own.

Araba’s fire magic lights up the air as if to close off any chance of escaping.

You’re supposed to be an earth dragon!

How come you can use fire even better than a fire dragon, huh?!

Without any space to fight back, I run around fleeing from the pursuing fire.

A bit of flame brushes my body, and I catch fire.

I immediately produce medicinal water with Medicine Synthesis, putting out the flames.

At the same time, the medicine recovers some of my HP.

That’s right—I don’t have to douse myself in poison and cause damage to my own HP anymore!

Plus, even after reaching the Upper Stratum, I’ve been practically bathing in magma to increase my fire resistance!

I’m still weaker to it than any other attribute, but still!

Oh, the ceiling.

I’ve finally reached the ceiling, the literal end of the road.

Araba’s flames are covering the ceiling now, too.

I’ve got nowhere left to run.

I glance at Araba’s stats.

Not yet. It’s still not quite there yet.

I’ll have to face off with Araba in this cage of burning earth.

Araba starts to attack.

Gathering my resolve, I avoid Araba’s attack and land on a bridge.

With nowhere else to run, this is my only option.

In the next moment, Araba brings a breath attack down on me and the bridge alike.

I dodge it.

Behind me, I hear the sound of the bridge collapsing.

But I have no time to worry about that.

Flames burn my body mercilessly.

Even with Rapid Recovery, my HP is going down at a pretty fast rate.

I want to put it out immediately, but Araba refuses to give me a chance to do so.

Avoiding the dragon’s attack, I start Medicine Synthesis, but Araba bears down with another attack right away.

As if our positions have now been reversed, I half jump, half fall down between the bridges, with Araba chasing close behind.

I plunge my way through the burning earth, the fire scorching my body.

While I dodge Araba’s attacks desperately, I resign myself to being hit by the rest of the flames.

I activate Medicine Synthesis to try to heal my wounds and put out the flames, but the fire immediately spreads across my body as if mocking my efforts.

Crap. I’m freaking out.

I can’t focus enough to use Teleport in these circumstances.

This is bad. My HP’s going down.

My Satiation stock runs out.

But Araba’s attacks still don’t let up.

My HP reaches 0.

Perseverance activates.

My MP starts to decrease little by little.

Thanks to the combination of HP Rapid Recovery and the MP recovery effect granted by Height of Occultism, the damage I take is reduced somewhat while Perseverance is in effect.

Still, my MP’s definitely going down.

Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap, oh craaaap!

But just in the nick of time, it’s working!

Araba’s movements rapidly deteriorate.

The strengthening skill it was using comes undone.

Its momentum from moments ago is totally gone now, its movements slowing to a stop.

The poison I’ve been preparing all this time has finally put Araba’s life in checkmate.

The poison known as Sloth.

<Sloth: n% of the power to reach godhood. Drastically multiplies the amount of decrease in surrounding system numerical values, excluding the user’s. In addition, the user will gain the ability to surpass the W system and interfere with the MA field.>

In other words, the decrease of HP, MP, and SP have increased for every living thing in the area except for me.

HP and MP have automatic recovery.

But there’s no such thing for SP.

The more Araba fought against me, the more it used up its strength and the faster its SP decreased.

Since fighting in midair requires constant use of Dimensional Maneuvering, and having Mental Divinity active continuously consumes SP, it was easy to make Araba fall victim to Sloth.

And without Appraisal, Araba had no way of noticing.

Only when it’s gone so far that the body begins consuming itself has the dragon finally recognized its own starvation.

Araba has almost no SP left now.

The battle is over.

I destroy the burning bridges around me with Black Bullets.

Then, keeping away from the flames surrounding me, I activate Medicine Synthesis to put out the flames on my body.

Araba can’t move anymore.

It has no strength left to move.

Its HP hasn’t changed yet, but if it runs out of SP, its HP will run out, too.

And now, if the dragon moves even a tiny bit, it’ll use up the last of its SP.

At this point, I can basically do whatever I want to Araba.

Heh-heh-heh. It was a lot harder than I was expecting, but it still ended just the way I planned for.

I knew from the beginning that it would be impossible to reduce Araba’s HP to 0.

Dragons’ magic-canceling scale skills are extremely inconvenient for me.

And if I tried to physically attack Araba, I feel like I’d just hurt myself more.

Araba’s defense power is far, far higher than my attack power.

Besides, Araba is a hardened warrior who can avoid all my attacks with ease.

So I gave up on the dragon’s HP altogether.

If I couldn’t reduce its HP, I’d just have to reduce its SP.

And the key to that was Sloth.

The fourth broken skill I’ve acquired.

I picked up Sloth as soon as I evolved into an Ede Saine.

Honestly, I didn’t really understand the description, so I didn’t think much of it at first. But when I got it and tested it out, I was surprised by what a perfect skill it was for me.

With Jinx Evil Eye, not only HP but all other stats go down more quickly.

That didn’t have much effect on Araba, but for any opponent without Status Condition Resistance, I can basically win with this nasty combo alone.

Even against enemies that it won’t work on so easily, if I just get them to fight me with their full strength, it’ll eventually become a powerful disadvantage.

It’s only because Araba fought so desperately that the dragon used all its strength and I managed to make its SP go down so quickly.

If Araba had been more relaxed, the outcome might’ve been different.

The fact that the dragon never paused or let down its guard is exactly what led to its downfall.

A pretty dirty strategy, if I do say so myself.

On top of that, forcing it to use Spatial Maneuvering made its SP go down that much faster.

I didn’t just choose this pit as the site of our battle so I could keep Araba from using the earth as a weapon. It was also to force the dragon to expend more SP.

Although, thanks to Araba’s unexpected resourcefulness, that first part ended up failing regardless.

Anyway, now that Araba can’t move, I can fire as much magic as I want.

Will I run through its HP first, or will it run out of SP first?

What’ll it be?

Mentally wearing a smug smile, I look down at Araba, still lying on a burning bridge beneath me.

Araba slowly raises its head.

Our eyes meet.

I can’t believe it.

Its eyes are astoundingly clear. Calm, even.

What’s with those eyes?

I beat you, you know.

At least act frustrated about your loss!

As if in defiance of my rage, Araba slowly lays itself down on its side.

Only its head stays in place, looking straight at me.

Then, something strange happens to Araba’s status as I Appraise it.

The text displaying its skills starts to turn gray.

That can only mean Araba’s turning off its skills.

If you turn off a skill that’s normally activated, it turns gray in your Appraisal results.

Araba’s skills turn gray one after another.

The Divine Scales skill that caused me so much trouble.

All its resistance skills, too.

Still surrounded by flames, the rate of Araba’s HP reduction rises sharply.

“I’m not going to resist,” is that what you’re saying?

What’s up with that? Seriously…what is this?

Who said you could just decide to be satisfied?

“I fought my hardest, so I have no regrets,” is that it?

Is that what you’re trying to say, huh?

Don’t give me that crap.

Come on, get desperate here. Beg for your life or something. Struggle a little.

How can you just throw away your life so easily?

Once you lose your life, that’s it. You know that, right?

I know that might not be convincing coming from me, since I’ve been reincarnated and all, but normally, when you die, that’s it.

How can you face your own end with such dignity?

Why am I struggling so hard to refuse to let it end, then?

Or could it be you know that in this world, dying doesn’t mean the end, and that’s why you can be so calm about it?

If that’s the case, that just pisses me off even more.

Ugh, forget it already.

I’ll kill you if you want to die so badly, then.

I activate all my Evil Eyes.

Jinx, Inert, Repellent, and…Annihilating.

Araba’s body crumbles into dust and disappears, without the slightest hint of resistance.

The Divine Voice (temp.) announces my leveling up, but it rings hollow in my ears.

I finally won against the opponent I was so eager to defeat, but it left a terrible aftertaste.