"Damm it! We are dead!"
Iglin's annoyed voice rings out from within a swarm of imps. The twelfth floor of the Dungeon was covered in a white mist. Reaching the last of the upper levels, the 3rd Squad, AKA the worst squat, yet again, finds itself in a difficult struggle.
"Try harder and take the dragon down already!" Iglin spoke, with a frown on his face.
"Can't…tired," Lego replied with her usual lazy voice, but this time there was a hint of tension there.
"Even as superstrong as I am, I think we're outmatched! Sorry, everyone!" Chris announced before we all started running.
The third squad was currently trying to defeat the infant dragon on this floor. A task, if completed, would give them enough points to rank among the top spots for their test ranks.
And also something that I suggested they should go for.
Surrounded by a huge number of imps, the party was staring down a small dragon measuring four meters and lurking deeper in the mists.
"OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!"
The infant dragon was a rare monster on the upper floors. Our unusual opponent roared, shaking the 3rd Squad and the ground alike. Its long tail, covered in sturdy scales, suddenly lashes out, knocking over several dead trees and a couple of imps in the process.
The three frontliners manage to leap away from the swipe, but their movement was clearly less sharp than earlier.
"Swaying stem, breath of white. Sing of flowers, and of the pristine hill—Magia Kris!"
What looks like a pure white flower petal is actually a fragment of white magic that envelops the vanguard.
This was Nina's healing magic.
Standing in the back lines with her staff thrust forward, she is supporting the three of them, but it was just not enough. With their stamina returning, they should have been able to escape the dragon's follow-up attack, but they were visibly still exhausted.
"We are retreating! Everyone fall back! Head for the room in the south we decided on before!" I commanded.
"""Yes!!!"""
Came the synchronous reply.
Except the dwarf tried to argue, but wasn't able to finish his sentence. He was the one putting himself in the most danger and fought the longest out in the front.
And if he continued fighting like that, a mistake would inevitably happen.
Like if a swarm of monsters appeared in this room.
I thought while an evil chuckle escaped my lips.
"Bghoooo!"
"Whoa! Orcs! They're hideous! I don't want to fight them!" Chris cried, recoiling in disgust.
"...A tactical retreat. There's no choice." Legi muttered as she backed off.
Seeing four orcs approaching like a wall, Chris and Legi quickly switched to flight mode. Iglin cursed but followed suit.
Nina was beside me as we rushed to safety.
________________________________________________________________________________________________
"Dammit!"
Iglin slammed his broken helmet onto the ground—the crash echoed in the quiet room. No one said anything.
Everyone, even Nina, was completely out of breath.
"That's already the fourth try! I couldn't finish that dragon off this time, either...!"
It was already the fourth day since the Dungeon Practical began and their third time taking on the eleventh and twelfth floors, and the 3rd Squad still hadn't gotten past the infant dragon that the School District set as a grade requirement. Without the required drop item, they can't go past this floor.
After reaching the seventh floor on the very first day, the 3rd Squad's glorious charge had completely petered out.
"Other than those asshole elites in the 7th Squad, we were the first to reach the twelfth floor...! So how have all the other squads passed us?!"
The reason was quite simple. It's because they weren't working as a party. The 3rd Squad was inefficient.
That's why this situation is just perfect!
"The dragon isn't the problem," I said, earning a surprised look from them. "And the other squad isn't better than you guys either. Some of them are even weaker, I would say. But do you know why they already passed you guys?"
"...Why?" Nina asked on their behalf.
"Because they communicated properly. …I have been watching you guys for the past few days, and there is little to no communication between you guys. You guys find your opponent and fight them, which isn't necessarily wrong. In isolation, that would be good even. But right now you aren't in isolation. But in a party."
I let that sink in before speaking further. "Four people fighting their individual battle is no different than putting four strangers in the same room to fight their enemies."
Their eyes widened at my words. And I realized that I might have spoken too much.
"Rest for thirty minutes, and then we will fight the dragon again. I have a plan."
"And why should I trust you?!" Iglin yelled, which made me frown.
Had I been too gentle with them? I thought, ready to beat him into shape, but before I could do that, Lego spoke up.
"Tell me your plan," she said, who had been silent thus far. "I'm listening."
"Wh-what are you even saying?!" Iglin lurched to shoot down the very idea, but Legi responded calmly from behind her black mask.
"He is the record breaker…his direction had been good too, way better than a stupid dwarf shouting..."
While Iglin reeled from that stinging comment, Chris looked back and forth between all of us, and then, for some reason, put his fists at his hips and puffed out his chest.
"I'm okay with it, too. Since it came from Mr, Arin, it's guaranteed to be good!"
That was strange logic, but whatever floated my boat was a good sign. Just then, Nina and my eyes met. She was aware of my intentions, as she spoke, "I want to hear your plan too."
Iglin, being outnumbered, grumbled before agreeing to hear the plan. And so I spent the next half an hour explaining the plan and answering any questions they had in between.
The 'plan' was nothing groundbreaking. All I did was put each of them in the right places.
Then, when they had properly rested and regained their strength, we started making our way to the infant dragon. This time, the third squad had bright expressions instead of the gloomy ones they had before.
And I did not doubt that they would win this time.
Something that proved to be real as they all attacked the dragon from all sides. The dragon sensed us before we entered the mist.
Its head swung toward the corridor entrance, a low rumble building in its chest—the same territorial warning it had given the previous four times. The imps scattered to the edges of the room, wanting no part of what was coming.
This time, nobody flinched.
"Spreading out," Legi said quietly, already moving left without breaking stride.
Chris peeled right, his movement surprisingly light for someone who had spent three days complaining. Iglin walked straight forward, axe loose at his side, drawing the dragon's eyes exactly the way we had discussed.
The dragon locked onto him with ferocity.
"OOOOOOO—"
Iglin was already repositioning, angling right, keeping the dragon's attention on him while staying out of its favored claw's reach.
"Tail," Legi said. "High, left."
Chris was already airborne.
The tail swept overhead, exactly where Legi said it would, and Chris landed clean on the other side, closing the distance to the dragon's left flank while its head was still tracking Iglin.
"Now's your shot!" Iglin roared.
Chris didn't need to be told twice. His spear connected with the joint beneath the dragon's left wing once, twice, a rapid combination that was less about power and more about targeting, hitting the same spot with precision. The dragon lurched sideways, its balance breaking.
That was the opening.
Iglin came in fast and low, driving up under the dragon's turned head, his axe biting into the softer scale beneath the jaw.
"Iglin, hold your position!" Nina's voice cut across the room as Legi closed from the left side, her blade finding the gap between the scales along the neck in one clean motion.
The dragon screamed—a different sound from its roar, higher and sharper—and thrashed hard enough to knock Chris back several feet. He hit the ground rolling and came up on one knee, winded but upright.
"Nina—" he started.
"On it." The white petals were already falling across her before she finished the sentence.
The dragon tried to reset, turning toward the largest threat, which was Iglin. Its head dropped.
"Breath—" Legi started.
"I see it," Iglin said, and stepped left instead of back for the first time in four days, letting the breath pour past him rather than retreating from it. The heat caught his shoulder but didn't stop him.
He was already inside its guard, and the axe came down.
The sound it made was nothing like the clean sounds from practice bouts or sparring. It was heavy, and the dragon's legs buckled under it, the rumble in its chest dropping into something lower and irregular.
Chris hit it from the other side a half second later, putting everything he had into one last strike at the joint we had spent thirty minutes discussing around a rough sketch drawn in the dirt.
The dragon's legs folded.
It went down slowly, its tail dragging a groove in the dungeon floor as its weight settled. The low rumble in its chest faded, and the yellow eyes dulled. Before it burst into ashes, leaving behind the magic stone.
Iglin was breathing hard, one hand on his knee, axe still in the other. Chris was sitting where he had ended up, elbows on his knees, staring at the place the dragon had been with an expression caught somewhere between disbelief and exhaustion. Legi stood with her blade at her side, her back straight, not saying anything.
Nina lowered her staff slowly, a small but unmistakable proud smile on her face.
"...We got it," said Iglin.
"We got it," Chris repeated.
"Obviously…" Legi said, very quietly.
The magic stone materialized near the place the dragon was. Nina crouched down and picked it up carefully, turning it over once before holding it up for the others to see.
Iglin looked at it. Then at his squad. Then at me, standing at the edge of the room where I had watched the whole thing without intervening once.
He opened his mouth but struggled to speak.
"...The plan was decent," he said finally.
"That high praise, coming from you," I said.
He grunted, turned away, and promptly ruined the moment by tripping over a stone. Chris started laughing, and after a moment, even Legi had a small smile.
After that, we started making our exit. I looked over them as they talked excitedly about how easy it felt, then all the previous time. I had no doubt these guys would become really strong one day.
Nina fell into step beside me as we started toward the exit. "Thank you," she said.
"For what?" I said, pretending to know nothing, earning a giggle from her.
One problem was taken care of. Now it's her turn.
I thought to myself as I looked at her smiling face.