I hate being in pain, so I think I'll make a full defense build

Itai no Wa 206

Defense Specialization and the Tower’s First Floor 3

After defeating countless monsters so that they could move forward…

Maple and Sally finally reach the Boss room.

Although she hasn’t sustained any damage, her ‘Bizarre Eater’ got completely used up after their repeated fighting.

“So that’s how the first floor is, huh? I haven’t seen any monsters do any piercing attacks.”

“I’m glad! I hope that we don’t see those on the second floor either…”

For Maple, things get more difficult when there are piercing attacks involved.

Since her Maximum HP is low, she can’t afford to take too many of those attacks.

“All right, let’s defeat that Boss quickly and head for the second floor.”

“Yeah, we’ve been doing great so far, why stop now?”

“That’s right! Let’s do this!”

Declaring that they will quickly defeat the Boss, they open the door to the Boss room and waste no time getting in.

Rugged rock walls and a cracked floor.

There are some places in the ground filled with quicksand, making it hard to walk freely in the room.

“Sally…”

“Yeah. It’s probably going to come from below the ground.”

Just as Sally finishes saying this, the sand on the ground begins to swirl, and a dragon covered in sand-colored scales emerges from the ground.

Its bright red eyes find Maple and Sally, and a loud roar echoes through the room.

“Maple!”

“Commence Attack!”

No one is talking about backing anyone up, as Sally rushes forward and Maple starts shooting.

Maple’s bullets and lasers fly towards the dragon.

However, the dragon sees the incoming attack, and letting out another roar, its body becomes completely covered with a transparent crystal, making all attacks bounce back.

“Ahh! ‘Super Acceleration’!”

After speeding up, Sally repelled all of Maple’s deflected bullets using her daggers, gracefully avoided the deflected lasers, and got back within the range of ‘Dedicated Affection’.

“Sorry, Sally!”

“Don’t worry, I’m fine. Let’s wait and see for now.”

“Okay, got it.”

When Maple stands in front of Sally, together they form a perfect defensive setup thanks to Maple’s big shield and ‘Dedicated Affection’.

Since Maple’s ‘Dedicated Affection’ cannot handle wide-ranged piercing attacks, the big shield must be set up properly.

As the two of them stand motionlessly assessing the situation, the dragon quickly beneath the sand.

“Be careful, Maple!”

“Well then! ‘Deploy Guns!”

Several weapons emerge from Maple, making a loud noise. Then, she holds Sally tight, and shoots herself towards the ceiling, leaving a trail of smoke behind.

The dragon jumps out of the sand in order to attack them, but cannot reach Maple and Sally’s height. Sand and rocks fall on the ground along with the dragon with each jump.

“This is so exciting!”

“At this rate, we’ll be separated from each other!”

The blast has made them soar into the sky, but it is fundamentally not going to do much for their landing.

Maple falls on her back, with Sally falling on top of Maple. The weapons, which had been surviving this suicide attack, finally break apart due to the fall.

“How can we attack it?”

Sally notices a black rock rolling on the ground. It must have appeared when the dragon jumped up to attack them a moment ago.

Maple shouts as Sally tries to put her thoughts in order.

“Sally! Something’s coming! Tsk… ‘Pierce Guard’!”

The dragon spouts a sand breath attack so as to silence Maple.

The powerful breath attack knocks them back from behind the shield and makes them roll on the ground.

Thanks to Maple’s prompt activation of ‘Pierce Guard’, the breath attack loses its piercing properties and makes it so that Maple can safely take the hit.

“Sorry, I wasn’t ready for that!”

“Don’t worry!”

The dragon’s roar cuts into their conversation.

At the same time, the black rock that had rolled onto the ground earlier explodes, making a loud noise.

“That’s it! Maple! I’m sure you can attack it with one of those rocks!”

“Huh?”

“Throw it into the dragon’s mouth as it about to use its breath attack! If it can deflect attacks from the outside, then maybe…!”

“Got it!”

They are very enthusiastic about that plan, but for now, all they’re doing is gathering their strength to prepare for a counterattack.

They begin to move as they wait for the dragon to scatter more of those black rocks.

“I’ll draw its attention! You take care of the rocks!”

“Sure!”

Sally gets outside of the range of ‘Dedicated Affection’ and attacks the dragon.

Those attacks are reflected, but Sally manages to draw the dragon’s attention and tricks it into attacking her with its claws and tail.

Sally is running around as if skating in midair, but there’s no guarantee that the dragon will try land a decisive attack on her.

“Okay, here comes the breath!”

Sally calls out to Maple, who had been collecting rocks behind them.

However, instead of using its breath attack, the dragon goes for a body slam.

“Ha!”

Sally is so focused that it seems that nothing is really a problem for her, and she easily dodges the dragon’s body slam.

Then, as soon as the torrent of sand and the thunderous roar are over, she turns to check on Maple, who is running towards Sally.

“Huh?”

With her weapons chock full of those black rocks, Maple arrives, making the sand around her dance and twirl.

And just as she arrives, she jumps into the dragon’s mouth, which was wide open.

“Haha! Now it’s our turn to attack! ‘Deploy All Weapons’!”

Even though Maple shoots the rocks one after another into the dragon’s mouth, exploding on contact, she doesn’t receive any damage. The dragon was trying to bite Maple, but the rocks get in the way.

And even if some of her weapons get broken, the dragon’s fangs cannot reach Maple.

“’Hydra’! ‘Commence Attack’!”

Just like that, Maple extends all of her weapons, stuffing the dragon’s mouth with guns, lasers, and a deadly poison.

No matter how hard the dragon struggles, it can’t spit Maple out.

Her weapons go off several times, but Maple is still around, even after several explosions.

Upon closer inspection, her HP seems to have been scraped off a little.

“Hey! Calm down! Wahh!?”

The dragon tries to hide under the sand while Maple is still in its mouth, but as soon as it thrusts its head towards the sand, a monstrous mouth goes through the dragon’s body.

Everything happens too fast.

The dragon turns into sand and disappears.

Sally runs toward the section of quicksand where the dragon disappeared and begins looking for Maple.

Then, she finds nothing than Maple’s head looking at her from under the sand.

“Need some help?”

“Please!”

And so, Sally’s last endeavor on the first floor was rescuing Maple out of the sand.