Published: January 22, 2026
The key to party battles is the defender.
Their role is to draw the enemy’s attacks and allow the other members to focus on their own roles.
At this point, it seems the black dragon only has eyes for me.
With this, the defender’s job is more than half done.
Ideally, I would block the enemy’s attacks, but if I did that, I wouldn’t have the resources to attack, so that’s out of the question.
That leaves me with no choice but to be an evasion type.
I’ll focus all the enemy’s attacks on myself and dodge every single one. That way, I can allocate my resources to offense and even aim for counters.
Although I told Caroline it was impossible, I ended up having to imitate that very style...
Next in importance in a party battle is the supporter.
They handle healing the injured and applying buffs based on the situation, supporting the allies.
The other supporter in the hero party, Luna, relies on her supernatural ability in a way that can’t be replicated.
Still, since her actions are basically close to a healer’s, I’ll exclude her from consideration this time.
If the attacks don’t hit, there’s no need to heal.
As for the enchanter (buffer), I’ve practiced so much it’s become second nature — no problem there.
Finally, the star of the party: the attacker.
No explanation needed here. Their role is to attack and defeat the opponent.
In the hero party, there’s Oliver as the frontline attacker and Aneli as the rear attacker.
Both are excellent attackers capable of unleashing consecutive high-powered attacks.
Regarding Oliver’s role, my current abilities surpass his when he defeated the black dragon before, so no issue there.
As for Aneli’s role, I can’t spam attack magic as easily as she does.
But by combining original magic, I can unleash multiple high-powered spells, so I can replicate that as well.
(Alright! I can do this!)
After instantaneously finishing the mental simulation, I activated the fire bullet again, using the explosion to obscure the black dragon’s vision and closed in.
I used mana convergence to create footholds, adding vertical movement to the previous side-to-side and forward-backward motions.
Moving rapidly and three-dimensionally around the black dragon without slowing down, I slashed with my sword as I passed by.
This time, I didn’t activate the instantaneous ability super boost (impact).
The black dragon and the mist attack in various transformed forms, but I dodged them all.
I slashed the black dragon dozens of times, but still no decisive blow.
— But I knew that all along.
Those slashes were mere side effects.
The reason I was flying around the black dragon was for another purpose.
Turning my back to the dragon, I landed on its right side.
Not missing the opportunity, the dragon transformed the mist into elongated spear-like shapes and thrust multiple at me.
“It uses that attack when I’m in a relatively easy-to-hit position. But I’ve seen that many times already!”
I had baited it into using that attack and dodged everything with minimal movement.
“Now it’s my turn!”
I told the black dragon as I channeled mana.
Over forty magic circles appeared, covering the black dragon.
This was why I’d been hopping around the black dragon earlier.
Each time I changed direction midair, I placed a technique for attack magic on the spot.
As mana flowed into all those techniques, the magic activated.
Fire, water, wind, earth, thunder, and ice—various elemental attack magics burst out from all around the black dragon, enveloping it in thick smoke with a loud roar.
The dragon’s silhouette in the smoke folded its wings lightly, then spread them wide with force.
The strong wind generated blew the smoke away.
It seemed like the black dragon was giving me a displeased glare.
That attack did no damage at all.
With a confident smile, I said,
“You think the power is weak compared to the number of spells? Of course. I can’t use magic above advanced rank. Also, those were all basic spells to conserve energy. But do you think you can relax now?”