Solarbloom.
A golden flower that absorbed sunlight and fired a powerful destructive beam.
The first plan the players came up with to fight it was to form a party of those with agility-oriented traits that made evasion easy.
The second was—
“Is everyone ready?”
“Yeah. We just have to go in.”
“Good. Then let’s move.”
To attempt the raid at night, after the sun had fully set.
They thought that without the blazing sunlight, the destructive beam’s power would weaken.
And if it had no energy source to charge from, it shouldn’t be able to keep firing indefinitely.
Of course, that didn’t mean they were without anxiety.
Because of the name of the dungeon they were in.
‘The Garden of the Sun. It’s not impossible for sunlight to appear all of a sudden.’
In particular, the first opponent they had faced, the Venus flytrap, had possessed a gimmick that drew sunlight toward itself.
In the case of the rose, there had been no gimmick related to sunlight, but there had been one called bloodsucking.
There was no guarantee that Solarbloom wouldn’t have some special gimmick like that as well.
This was a world inside a game.
Even if the sun rose in the dark of night, it wouldn’t be strange.
So they would not let their guard down.
Especially Ian, who was leading everyone; she did not loosen the thread of tension in the slightest.
‘This time, I’ll keep everyone alive.’
She would absolutely not let anyone die.
With that resolve, Ian stood before Solarbloom.
Sensing Ian’s party, the drooping Solarbloom lifted its head.
At the same time, the women gripped their weapons.
A brief silence.
Ian raised her sword.
“Let’s begin the raid.”
At the very front, Ian was the first to stamp forward.
She closed the distance to Solarbloom at high speed.
Its wide-open petals aimed at her.
A golden shimmer rose around the flower.
Powerful heat gathered from its stigma.
And then.
—Ziiing!
A destructive beam poured toward Ian.
—Kwaang!
The spot where she had been a moment ago burned bright red.
But Ian was no longer there.
Before anyone knew it, she had leapt high into the air and brought her sword down with all her might.
“Slash!”
Ian’s blue sword strike exploded against the golden flower.
An armful of petals were torn away and fell to the cold ground.
But Solarbloom immediately raised its head and once again spewed a destructive beam at Ian.
A scorching ray of light split the dark air.
As Ian threw herself aside to avoid the beam, she made a vow.
‘I can’t let it go down there, no matter what.’
She had to draw it as high as possible, toward herself, so the others wouldn’t be harmed.
To draw its attention, Ian began sprinting across the golden petals.
“She’s doing that again.”
Watching Ian from afar, Naira clicked her tongue.
She still didn’t know what was driving Ian so hard, but no matter how many times she told her not to overdo it, Ian never listened.
In the end, to save her friend walking a dangerous tightrope, they had no choice but to take down the enemy before them quickly.
Naira drew her bowstring and gave instructions to Aya beside her.
“Aya, use the strongest skill you can.”
“Understood.”
The two of them created a shower of arrows that filled the sky.
“We’re going too.”
Veronica, Lily, and Jolla dashed after the arrows.
“I’ll go up!”
“Then I’ll hit the stem with Veronica.”
While Veronica and Lily headed for the stem, Jolla followed Ian and leapt up onto the petals.
Ian frowned at Jolla’s sudden appearance.
“Why did you come here?”
“Two are better than one, aren’t they? Don’t worry. I won’t get in your way.”
“…Just run for now.”
Though she said that, Jolla’s joining was a great help to Ian.
Unlike before, when she had been focused solely on evasion, she now had room to attack.
Meanwhile, Veronica and Lily’s attacks struck Solarbloom’s stem.
“Double Accel!”
“Double Attack!”
Solarbloom staggered.
Its head lowered toward Veronica and Lily, who were striking its stem.
Ian shouted.
“Jolla! Follow me!”
“Roger!”
Scorching heat gathered in its head.
And in that instant—
“Sword Rush!”
“Earthquake!”
Ian’s sword and Jolla’s fist, both launched from high in the air, slammed into the calyx.
The head shook violently, and the destructive beam once again cut through empty air.
A similar pattern repeated.
Ian and Jolla drew aggro on top of its head. Naira and Aya’s arrows supported them.
And Veronica and Lily focused on dealing damage.
‘We can win.’
Just as the word victory surfaced in their minds while they dodged the dangerous destructive beams and poured out their skills—
“Wh-what the! I’m slipping!”
The golden flower bloomed completely.
A blinding golden light burst out, and Ian and Jolla fell to the ground.
“Watch out! Something’s coming!”
Everyone instinctively knew that phase two had begun.
But Solarbloom’s head was not turned toward the players.
“What is it trying to—!”
The place it was facing was the dark night sky.
—Ziiing!
The destructive beam gathered in its head became a single ray of light and split the night sky.
And the sky churned.
“Th-that’s…”
“Rain?”
The sky split open.
What emerged from within was the destructive beam Solarbloom had fired moments ago.
Brilliant light that drove back the darkness became rain and fell to the ground.
The players’ eyes filled with shock.
“D-dodge as much as you can!”
Whether they could dodge it or not didn’t matter.
Each and every drop was a beam with powerful piercing force.
They had to avoid it by any means necessary.
To escape the falling rain, the players rolled across the ground in disarray.
Even so, avoiding it perfectly was impossible.
The arms and legs of the players, who had barely avoided fatal wounds, were covered in piercing injuries as if they had been shot through by bullets.
But that was not the end.
—Ziiing!
Solarbloom once again fired a destructive beam toward the sky.
The rain of destruction split the night sky and poured down once more.
Ian quickly looked over Solarbloom and the players.
‘Just dodging won’t solve anything.’
In the end, she had to make a decision while they were still in any condition to move.
Because everyone was waiting for Ian’s choice.
In truth, the answer had already been decided.
Even amid the chaos, Ian had been able to find a way through.
But her mouth would not open easily.
She did not have the confidence to bear everyone’s lives with a single word.
Faces she did not want to recall surfaced in her mind.
She bit down hard on her lip to pull herself together, but all that came out was innocent blood.
While she lost herself, the rain of destruction swept over the players once again.
And Solarbloom sent a third destructive beam into the sky, and the third rain began to fall.
“N-no…”
She had to say it now.
Because she knew the answer.
Because all she had to do was say it.
“I, I’ll…”
She would stand at the front, so follow her.
But that one sentence simply would not leave her mouth.
It was then.
—Slap!
Naira, who had somehow reached Ian, slapped her hard across the cheek.
“Ian! What are you doing? Get a hold of yourself! Hey!”
“N-Naira?”
“Is this the time to be spacing out? We have to do something!”
Ian could see her.
Naira, reduced to rags and panting for breath.
Three rains had already fallen.
The fourth destructive beam had risen into the sky, and there was no guarantee they could withstand a fifth or sixth.
Even so, Naira had desperately come to Ian’s side.
With wavering eyes, she grabbed Ian by the collar and pulled her close.
“Then tell me. You know the way, right? What do we do?”
At Naira’s question, Ian raised a trembling finger.
The place she pointed to was Solarbloom’s stem.
“There… We just have to get there.”
“You really make it hard to get words out of you, seriously.”
It was a narrow space, but unlike the ground devastated by heat, the soil there was intact.
Naira shouted to everyone, who were all staggering.
“Everyone, run under the flower!”
“Got it!”
Everyone was in tatters like Naira and could barely run properly, but they desperately avoided the rain and ran beneath Solarbloom.
And there, at least, the rain of destruction did not reach them.
The raid afterward was not difficult.
No longer needing to dodge, they poured every skill they had into the stem.
Trails of light made by swords, gauntlets, and arrows struck the stem again and again.
And at last—
“Huaaaap!”
Veronica’s sword cut through the thick stem.
The Destroyer of Durigarda collapsed amid a cloud of rough dust.
“W-we won…”
Drained of strength, they sank down where they stood.
Rather than rejoicing, everyone was too busy clutching their chests in relief at having survived to even laugh.
At that moment, light settled into everyone’s bodies.
A level-up from defeating Solarbloom.
The wounds covering their bodies healed all at once.
While everyone was feeling the reward of clearing the raid—
“Hey! Where are you going?”
Naira shouted at Ian, who had suddenly risen and begun walking away.
“Sorry.”
She spoke in a low voice.
“I’ll head back first.”
Unlike usual, Ian’s back looked far too small.