The world went crazy.
Fifty-three dragons flew forward as one, a living wave of scales, claws, and rage. Their roar shook the ground so much that Lucian felt it shake his bones.
It was a sound so basic and powerful that it made him feel sick.
"Fucking hell...!" Lucian screamed in his mind. "Can I have a break for a second here?!"
"Here they come!" he yelled, and Glacielle's power filled his body as they all moved in time. Ice magic flowed through his veins, making his muscles stronger and more tense.
"Formation Delta!" Glacielle shouted as she moved to stand back-to-back with him. "Take care of your quadrant, Master. I'll take care of mine!"
"Gotcha!"
The first wave hit hard, like a freight train. Ten Forest Drakes dove down from different angles, mouths open and claws out.
Lucian could see the purple control seals on their necks glowing and pulsing in time with Corvus's crystal orb.
"Frozen Bulwark!" Glacielle slammed both fans into the ground.
A huge wall of ice, thirty feet high and several feet thick, burst out in a circle around them. The diving drakes hit it with bone-breaking force, giving them a few extra seconds.
"That won't last long!" Lucian said as he gripped his sword, which was covered in frost. "What's the REAL plan here...?!"
"Kill as many as you can before the wall breaks!" Glacielle was already on the move, running along the inside of the ice wall. "Let's attack the injured ones! Don't let them get away and regroup!"
The wall started to crack almost right away. Dragon claws broke through the ice, and flames melted parts of it into steam.
It broke into pieces three seconds later.
Seven drakes came through, growling and spreading out to surround them.
Lucian didn't think twice. The synchronization had given him all of Glacielle's fighting instincts, and his body moved before his mind could catch up.
He aimed his frost ring at the closest drake and sent all of his energy there.
"Ice Lance Barrage!"
A dozen ice spears appeared and shot forward, piercing the drake's softer underbelly. The creature screamed and fell to the ground, where black blood pooled.
One is done. Six more to go...
Glacielle was a storm of death. Her frost fans cut through the scales of the dragons like they were paper, leaving trails of ice on their bodies after each hit.
She ducked under a claw swipe, turned around, and drove both fans into the throat of a drake. The ice spread right away, freezing the dragon all the way through.
Two more are gone.
A drake jumped at Lucian from the side. He rolled over, came up swinging, and hit it in the eye. The beast pulled back in pain, which gave him a chance.
He stabbed up, pushing his sword through the soft tissue under its jaw and into its brain.
Three more down...
"Master, left side!" Glacielle shouted just before a drake's tail hit him.
Lucian instinctively threw up an ice wall. The tail broke it, but it lost most of its speed. He still got hit and flew through the air, hitting the ground hard enough to see stars.
[Shared Damage Detected! Master HP: 75%]
[Glacielle HP: 80%]
"Master!" Glacielle shouted while holding her own pain.
He made himself get up, even though he was bleeding. His ribs hurt like they were broken. "D-Don't worry... I'm fine! Keep going!"
Glacielle had already started to fight the tail-whipper, and her moves were too quick to be real. She jumped on its back, ran up its spine, and drove both fans into the base of its head.
The drake shook once and then stopped.
Four are down.
The other three drakes attacked at the same time, working together to hit their targets. Lucian and Glacielle fought together, using ice magic and steel in perfect harmony.
The fighting was brutal and desperate, with no room for mistakes.
They were both breathing hard when the last of the first wave fell.
"Six drakes gone..." Glacielle said as she looked up at the sky. "Forty-seven left... and the next wave is coming."
"Goddamn it, I really need a training montage after all of this!"
Lucian looked up, and his stomach dropped. Fifteen drakes were flying in a perfect circle above, clearly waiting for orders.
They weren't attacking at random anymore. Corvus was giving them strategic orders.
Lucian said, "Holy shit... w-we can't keep fighting in the open," and his gaming instincts kicked in.
"T-This was like a fight with a raid boss! You didn't win by using brute force against a lot of them!"
"You used the terrain, choke points, and mechanics!"
He looked over the rocky land. They were on a plateau, but he could see narrow canyon paths cutting through the rocks nearby.
And it's just right for what he needed.
"Glacielle! Make an ice slide to that canyon! We have to funnel them!"
She knew right away what the plan was. "Limiting their attack vectors, huh...? That's actually smart."
Her fans came in a wide arc, and ice covered the ground in a smooth, sloping path that led to the nearest canyon entrance. "Go!"
They slid down together, and the fifteen drakes that dove after them made them go faster. Corvus's mocking laughter echoed through the valley.
"Running already?!" he yelled, clearly having a fantastic time. "What a brave thing to do!"
"The great chosen one is running away with his tail between his legs!"
"Shut the FUCK up! No one asked for your trash opinions!" Lucian yelled back, even though he knew it was pointless to talk to the bad guy.
They went full speed into the canyon, and Glacielle used ice magic to steer them around tight corners. The passage was only about fifteen feet wide at most.
The drakes chasing them couldn't fit more than two at a time.
"There!" Lucian said, pointing to a part where the canyon walls rose sharply. "Set the trap!"
Glacielle went to work right away. Ice spread up the walls of the canyon, making them smooth and slippery like mirrors.
She made icicles that were as sharp as razors along the ceiling. Each one was as big as a grown man and was held in place by thin ice threads.
"When they get to the kill zone, I'll drop the ceiling spikes," she said. "You freeze the floor, and they'll crash and get stuck at the same time."
"Got it!" Lucian raised his thumbs.
...
The first two drakes barreled into the canyon at full speed. As soon as they hit the icy floor, their claws lost grip.
They slid forward, unable to stop or change direction.
"Now!" Glacielle cut the threads of ice.
The spikes on the ceiling fell like the blades of a guillotine. Both drakes were stabbed in the back and died right away with gurgling roars.
Six down from this wave.
"Hell yeah!!! It's working!" Lucian felt a rush of hope. "Keep going!"
They ventured deeper into the canyon, setting up trap after trap. Ice slides caused drakes to crash violently into the walls.
Frozen walls shattered into fragments upon impact. Spike pits lay hidden beneath a thin layer of ice.
The drakes kept coming, and they kept dying. Eight more fell into the canyon traps before the survivors figured it out and stopped going into the narrow passage.
[Running total: Fifteen drakes dead. Thirty-eight remaining.]
Lucian and Glacielle took a break in a sheltered alcove. Both were showing signs of stress.
Glacielle's ice armor had cracks in it, and Lucian felt every hit she took because they both had damage.
[Master HP: 60%]
[Glacielle HP: 70%]
"We're doing it," Lucian said, letting himself feel hopeful for a moment. "We might... really survive if we can keep this up."
It was difficult to tell what Glacielle was thinking by the way she reacted. "Master... all of this has been going too simply for us..."
"Too simple? We just fought off fifteen dragons! And that's a normal thing for someone like me who's been in this world for two days."
"Exactly... Corvus has been messing with us. "Glacielle said while keeping a lookout. He could have sent all fifty-three at once and overwhelmed us with numbers."
"Instead, he's sending controlled waves." Her blue eyes met his. "He's putting us to the test... almost looks like he's looking into what we can do."
Corvus's voice echoed through the canyon, as if by magic.
"Bravo! Bravooooooo~! Very smart use of the terrain!"
"You're more fun than I thought, Bikini Master Boy!" His voice went from happy to angry. "But I'm getting tired of this foreplay..."
"Let's fucking move on with the real show, okay?"
The ground shook. Not from the steps of a dragon, but from something much bigger.
Lucian and Glacielle emerged from the canyon to see Corvus descending from the sky, riding atop a massive creature that made the Forest Drakes look like housecats.
It was an Obsidian Wyvern, easily fifty feet long from nose to tail. Its scales were black as midnight and seemed to absorb light rather than reflect it.
The yellow eyes glowed with evil intelligence, and when it roared, Lucian's ears rang.
RAAAAAAAAAAGGGHHHHH!!!
Lucian covers both of his ears. "What the fuck...!!!"
[Obsidian Wyvern Detected!]
[Level: 50]
[Status: Tamed - Corvus's Personal Mount]
[Threat Assessment: EXTREME]
Corvus stood on the wyvern's back with his arms outstretched in a dramatic way, as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
He said, "Let me properly introduce myself...!"
"Hi, hello, salute, good morning... I'm Corvus Blaaaacckkkthooorrrnnnn~!" He said with a sinister voice that it made Lucian's body shiver.
"The MASTER... of the Exotic Monster Gacha System! And you're in for a treat to find out why both quantity and quality are important!!!" Corvus said while pointing at both of them with a sinister smile.
He snapped his fingers, and twenty of the drakes that were still alive stopped attacking right away. They made a living barrier by forming a circle around the wyvern to protect it.
Corvus smiled and said, "You thought I'd just send mindless minions at you forever?"
"Oh, fucking please~! I'm a gacha master, just like you!"
"I know how to make the best teams and use strategy and synergy!"
He raised his other hand, and Lucian saw another crystal ball appear. Around it, purple gacha windows started to appear.
"Let me show you what REAL gacha power looks like!"