I Am a Villain, So What?-Chapter 122: Dungeon Competition [End]

[Two Hours Later - The March to the Fortress] 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

The combined forces moved out. Valerius took command naturally, his charisma turning the ragtag militia into a disciplined unit.

I rode in the rear, keeping my distance.

"He knows," I whispered to myself.

He might not know I’m Lucien Ashborne, but he knows I’m a high-ranking participant. He was testing me back there.

Suddenly, a notification pinged.

[System Alert] [Anomaly Detected in Dungeon Matrix.]

I frowned. Anomaly?

[The Difficulty is being forcibly adjusted.] [Reason: High-Performance Participant Intervention.] [Level 4 -> Level 4 (Hard Mode)]

The sky above us flickered. The purple hue darkened to a bruised black. Red lightning began to crackle in the clouds.

"What the..."

Up ahead, Valerius stopped his horse. He looked at the sky, his expression hardening.

"The mana density is rising," Valen shouted, his horse rearing. "This... this isn’t normal weather!"

RUMBLE.

The ground shook. But this time, it wasn’t an earthquake.

From the ground in front of the Fortress of Dawn, massive skeletal hands erupted from the earth.

Not human skeletons.

Giant Skeletons.

"Necromancy?" Bardon yelled, drawing his sword. "The Osius Empire uses Dark Magic?!"

No. This wasn’t in the history books. The Founding War was a war of ideologies, not undead.

I narrowed my eyes.

"Someone tampered with the dungeon settings."

And I had a pretty good guess who.

[New Boss Monster Detected: The Undead Warlord (Level 45)]

A massive figure, clad in black jagged armor and wielding a scythe wreathed in green flame, rose from the ground in front of the fortress gates.

It roared, a sound that made the militia drop their weapons in terror.

[Global Announcement] [Princess Rumina has activated the ’Nightmare Protocol’.] [Message: "Too boring. Let’s make it interesting."]

I slapped my forehead.

"Of course she did."

Valerius looked at the massive undead giant, then at the notification in the sky (visible only to participants).

He didn’t look afraid. He looked... annoyed.

"Sister," he sighed, drawing a sword of pure light from thin air. "Must you always break my toys?"

He turned to the army.

"Change of plans!" Valerius’s voice boomed like thunder. "The objective has changed! We are not capturing the fortress!"

He pointed his sword at the Undead Warlord.

"We are slaying the Monster!"

He glanced back at me, his golden eyes burning.

"Well, Shadow? Can your gun kill the dead?"

I smirked beneath my mask, racking the shotgun bolt this time.

"Only one way to find out."

****

[The Fortress of Dawn]

The Undead Warlord didn’t wait for introductions.

SCREEECH!

The massive entity swung its scythe, unleashing a wave of emerald green necrotic fire. The ground turned black where the flames touched, and the air smelled of rotting flowers.

"Shields!" Commander Valen roared, stepping forward.

The Holy Knights formed a phalanx, their white shields glowing with Divine Force to block the wave.

BOOM!

The impact shattered the formation. Knights were thrown backward, their divine barriers cracking under the Level 45 Boss’s raw power.

"Weak," Prince Valerius murmured.

He didn’t retreat. He stepped through the broken line of knights.

His sword, a construct of pure golden mana, hummed.

"If the dead wish to walk, I shall burn them until nothing remains but ash."

[Solar Arts: Dawn’s Judgement]

Valerius swung his sword upward. A pillar of concentrated sunlight erupted from the ground beneath the Warlord, engulfing the giant in blinding flames.

ROAAAAR!

The Warlord shrieked, its jagged black armor glowing red from the heat. It took a step back, shielding its face.

"Now! Attack!" Bardon screamed, leading the militia to flank the distracted giant.

But the Warlord wasn’t done.

It slammed the butt of its scythe into the ground.

[Skill: Grave Call]

Rattle. Snap.

From the scorched earth, hundreds of skeletal hands shot up. They grabbed the ankles of the charging militia, pulling them down. Then, bone warriors clawed their way out of the dirt, swarming the living.

"Damn it! It’s summoning minions!"

The battlefield turned into a mosh pit of chaos. The militia were bogged down fighting the skeletons, leaving Valerius isolated against the Boss.

The Warlord raised its scythe high, aiming for the Prince.

Valerius parried, but the sheer weight of the giant forced him to one knee. The ground beneath him cracked.

"He needs an opening," I whispered, watching from a ruined siege tower about 200 meters away.

I rested the Winchester on a wooden beam.

The Warlord was armored heavily, but every armor has a joint. Every construct has a fulcrum.

I activated [Detection].

The red grid overlaid the Warlord’s massive frame.

’There.’

Under the right armpit, where the armor plates shifted to allow the scythe swing. A small gap, exposing the dried, grey flesh underneath.

I inhaled.

[Marksmanship: Vital Strike]

Thwip.

The silenced bullet flew true.

It bypassed the chaos, threading the needle between two fighting skeletons, and buried itself deep into the Warlord’s armpit joint.

CRACK.

The bullet was tipped with a [Mana Disruptor]—a nasty little upgrade I had crafted using shards from the previous floor.

The Warlord’s arm spasmed. The downward swing of the scythe faltered, missing Valerius by inches and burying itself in the dirt.

Valerius didn’t waste the split second. He didn’t look back to thank me. He knew I would be there.

He lunged forward, stepping onto the shaft of the scythe. He ran up the weapon’s handle, his golden eyes burning with intensity.

"You are slow!"

Valerius slashed across the Warlord’s helmet.

CLANG!

A deep gash appeared in the black metal, leaking green smoke.

The Warlord roared, thrashing to shake the Prince off. It swept its free hand to swat him.

Thwip. Thwip.

Two more shots.

One to the wrist joint. One to the elbow.

The hand jerked uncontrollably, missing Valerius.

Valerius landed on the Warlord’s shoulder. He smirked.

"Good timing, Shadow."

He drove his sword downward, aiming for the neck.

But the Warlord was cunning. Its chest cavity suddenly opened like a ribcage maw, releasing a cloud of poisonous gas.

"Tch!"

Valerius was forced to backflip away to avoid the toxin. He landed gracefully next to Commander Valen.

"It’s protecting its vitals with poison," Valerius noted, not even out of breath. "And it regenerates as long as there are corpses nearby."

He pointed to the skeletons. Every time a skeleton fell, green energy flowed from its bones into the Warlord, healing the cracks in its armor.

"We need to stop the regeneration," Valen said, panting. "But there are too many undead!"

"Then we remove the source," Valerius said calmly.

He looked up at the tower where I was hiding.

He tapped his ear, signaling a magical communication channel.

"Shadow. Can you hear me?"

I tapped my own earpiece—a standard tournament issue item.

"Loud and clear, Your Highness."

"I’m going to prepare a Grand Magic to incinerate the entire area. I need 30 seconds."

"That’s a long time in a boss fight."

"Can you buy it for me?"

I looked at the Warlord, who was currently pulling its scythe out of the ground and looking very angry.

Then I looked at my Benelli M4.

"30 seconds," I replied, switching weapons. "Don’t make me wait."

I jumped from the tower.

I hit the ground rolling, the [Shadow-Weave Suit] absorbing the impact.

"Hey! Over here, you ugly pile of bones!"

I racked the shotgun.

BOOM!

I fired a slug directly into the Warlord’s kneecap. The impact blew a chunk of bone armor off.

The Warlord turned its glowing green eyes toward me.

[Aggro Switched.]

It ignored Valerius, who had closed his eyes and begun chanting in Ancient Imperial.

The Warlord charged at me. For a giant, it was terrifyingly fast.

SWISH.

The scythe cut the air horizontally.

I slid underneath it, the wind pressure ruffling my hair.

BOOM! BOOM!

I fired two shots into its stomach as I slid past.

The Warlord spun around, slamming its fist down.

I activated [Movement Arts: Flash Step].

My body blurred, appearing five meters to the left. The fist smashed the ground where I had been standing.

"Twenty seconds!" I shouted.

The Warlord screamed, summoning more skeletons to block my path.

I didn’t stop. I switched to melee.

I drew a combat knife—not just any knife, but an artifact I looted from the Tutorial Dungeon.

I slashed the throat of a skeleton, kicked its skull into another, and vaulted over the pile of bones.

The Warlord opened its mouth, preparing another breath of necrotic fire.

"Oh no you don’t."

I pulled a small glass vial from my belt. [Ariana’s Flash-Freeze Pot].

I threw it.

The vial shattered inside the Warlord’s open mouth.

CRACKLE.

The necrotic fire froze in its throat. The giant choked, clawing at its neck as ice crystals spread across its face.

"Ten seconds!"

I was running out of stamina. My [Adrenaline Surge] was on cooldown.

The Warlord, enraged, abandoned its weapon. It simply threw its body at me—a tackle that spanned the width of a house.

I couldn’t dodge this. The AOE was too big.

I crossed my arms.

[Armor Active: Kinetic Dispersal]

BAM!

The impact felt like being hit by a train. My vision went white. I was sent flying backward, crashing through a wooden barricade.

"Ugh..."

I coughed, tasting blood. My HP bar had dropped by 40% in a single hit.

But I checked the clock.

30 seconds.

I looked up.

The Warlord was looming over me, raising its fist for the finishing blow.

Suddenly, the world turned gold.

"Begone."

Valerius opened his eyes.

Above him, a massive sphere of golden mana—a miniature sun—had formed.

[Solar Grand Magic: Wrath of the Sun God]

He pointed his finger at the Warlord.

The sun fell.

FWOOOOOOSH!

The Warlord didn’t even have time to scream. The beam of light disintegrated the roof of the fortress, the skeletons, and the Warlord itself.

The necrotic energy was purified instantly.

I shielded my eyes as the shockwave of heat washed over me.

When the light faded, there was nothing left of the Level 45 Boss but a pile of ash and a single, glowing black crystal.

[Boss Defeated: Undead Warlord] [Dungeon Cleared!]

Valerius stood amidst the steam, his white uniform unblemished. He lowered his hand.

He walked over to where I was lying in the debris.

He looked down at me.

"30 seconds exactly," he said, extending a hand. "You have excellent time management, Shadow."

I looked at his hand. This time, I took it.

He pulled me up.

"And you," I grunted, dusting off my coat. "You’re terrifyingly flashy."

Valerius laughed. It was a genuine, boyish laugh that didn’t fit the battlefield.

"It is the burden of royalty. We must shine, or the people lose their way."

He leaned in closer, his voice dropping to a whisper.

"You fought well. Better than any Knight in my retinue."

He stared into the eye-holes of my mask.

"If you ever tire of living in the shadows... the Sun is always looking for a moon."

I froze.

Was that a recruitment offer? From the Crown Prince?

Before I could answer, the world began to dissolve.

[Tournament Ended.] [Teleporting Participants...]

"Until next time, Shadow," Valerius said, releasing my hand as his body began to fade into light.

I watched him disappear.

"Yeah," I whispered, touching my bruised ribs. "Until next time."

But next time, I thought, I won’t be the sidekick.