This Novel is not my Novel

The monster lost control of its body and collapsed.

Under normal circumstances, we would have rushed in and launched a fierce assault, trying to seize the advantage.

Unfortunately, the current situation was far from normal.

When the massive Boss Monster, nearly ten meters tall, toppled over, the cafeteria building collapsed, burying its body beneath the rubble.

There was no way we could locate the power mechanism containing its magic core now.

And that was not the only problem.

Struggling to free itself from the pile of debris it had crushed beneath its body, the Boss Monster thrashed its heavy limbs wildly.

Boom! Bang, bang, bang!

The ground shook all the way to where we stood, making it difficult even to remain upright.

Worse still, fragments of the shattered building were flying everywhere, making it far too dangerous.

Unable to even dream of approaching the Boss Monster, I was focusing entirely on keeping my balance when...

"Karvaldr! Earlier, you threatened me, saying, 'You had better destroy the magic core in a single blow.' But when I actually failed and got discouraged, you comforted me?!"

The protagonist of someone else's novel approached me with a deeply moved expression, then shouted this utter nonsense directly into my ear.

"Who said I was comforting you?! I merely explained an objective and obvious fact!"

"But you said it before that 'fact' became obvious, didn't you? If that wasn't an attempt to comfort me... was it insight bordering on foresight? Karvaldr, your insight truly is extraordinary!!"

"Must you spout such nonsense even at a time like this?!"

"Yes. It reminds me that you're here with me, which makes me feel reassured and safe."

"What in the world are you...?!"

Unbelievable.

I already knew Reisir was a serial offender when it came to stirring emotional moments, but I had not realized he was this incapable of choosing an appropriate time and place.

I shoved away Reisir, who had pressed close to me, but at that moment, the Boss Monster stopped thrashing.

The deafening crashes ceased, leaving only the patter and clatter of small stones rolling across the ground.

"Would you use that remarkable insight of yours to predict what will happen next?"

His words rang clearly in my ears.

What an utterly absurd request.

...Surely the original author hasn't dumped this on me because she never planned what happens next, right?

Whether I ought to call it fortunate or unfortunate, I could not say.

I did not even know how to define it, but in any case, the thought that had just occurred to me appeared to have been nothing more than wild speculation.

Before I could open my mouth, the Boss Monster rose to its feet.

"Whew~! It has shrunk tremendously!"

Pret whistled in admiration.

Just as he said, the Boss Monster, which had once stood a full ten meters tall, had visibly diminished and was now only around six meters tall.

An ordinary golem was approximately three meters tall, so "enormous" was still an appropriate description.

It certainly looks a lot less intimidating.

Was that why?

Confidence surfaced not only on Pret's face, but on everyone else's as well, as if they were all thinking, We might actually be able to handle this.

"Everyone, prepare for combat! It may be larger than an ordinary monster, but the only difference lies in the size and number of its stones! Fight according to our original strategy, as we did before resorting to that trick, and locate its weakness!"

Fjodora shouted, rousing the lax spirits of the special Awakened class students.

The Boss Monster had just kicked off the ground hard enough to shake the earth and begun charging toward us, so her advice could hardly have been more timely.

Except for the fact that I joined midway through and have no idea what their original strategy was...

I did not know whether Fjodora or the original author had overlooked that detail.

In any case, I doubted their strategy amounted to charging in blindly.

For the moment, I retreated and carefully observed how everyone else moved.

Ríolíkin looked thoroughly frightened and intimidated, but true to his role as the tank, he raised his shield and stepped forward.

At the same time, he activated 【Armor of Protection】, but the Ether armor manifested in a different form than usual.

Decorative elements had been added to its plain, crude design.

The embellishment was extremely slight, but the difference between having no decoration at all and having even a little was surprisingly substantial.

"W-Wow...!"

In reality, adding decoration to armor would only impair its functionality, but this was a fantasy world inside a work of fiction.

Here, magnificence and defensive power were directly proportional. Such was the law of this world.

Seeing the enhancement effect of 【Encouragement】 with his own eyes, Ríolíkin exclaimed in amazement.

By contrast, Vigdís's 【Ironblood Body】 was not a skill that produced a visible effect.

It was impossible to tell by sight whether anything had changed—or even whether she had activated the skill at all.

My guess was that she herself probably did not feel any obvious difference either.

She always tested its durability by taking attacks directly, after all...

Even so, Vigdís lowered her stance, preparing to spring forward at any moment.

That made me deeply uneasy.

Still, she was at least standing behind Ríolíkin, so she apparently had no intention of serving as a tank. I could only assume she was preparing to attack as a damage dealer.

As if confirming my deduction, Reisir took position beside Vigdís.

The spear gripped in his hand was saturated with golden Ether, but unlike usual, it remained quiet without emitting a single crackling spark.

The rain pouring from the clouds summoned by my baby dragon had stopped long ago.

However, the ground was still drenched, and water continued dripping from the golem's body.

It seemed Reisir had decided against using 【Lightning Dominion】, since one wrong move could electrocute the others.

The golem is made of rock anyway. It won't suffer any status effects from electrocution, and there would be little point in merely shattering the rocks that make up its body...

Like Reisir, Sveinn used a spear as his weapon, but he did not stand in the same line.

His spear skills were not sufficient for him to step forward and confront the Boss Monster directly, so he apparently intended to remain in the rear and provide support with his Ether Attribute Ability.

Perhaps he was holding his spear merely as a precaution, because he had not infused it with any Ether.

He was focused entirely on gathering the rainwater Yor had scattered across the area.

I did provoke him quite thoroughly by sarcastically saying I couldn't wait to see what an impressive contribution he would make, but...

What possible use could there be in pouring water over a rock?

He might be able to knock the enemy down with a high-pressure stream, but I could not expect anything more than that.

Perhaps he could not generate enough water pressure, in which case even that would be impossible.

Lausa created arrows of wind and aimed them at various parts of the Boss Golem's body.

Fjodora, the spirit beast's master, nocked a single arrow and compressed a tremendous amount of Ether into it.

Lausa would first fire wind arrows at random, observing which part of its body the Boss Monster defended to determine the magic core's location.

Then Fjodora would fire her arrow and pierce it.

It would be nice if Fjodora's arrow could reach the magic core before the Boss Monster moves it...

Of course things would not be that easy.

If Fjodora, like Lausa, had first prioritized locating the magic core by creating and firing a large number of wind arrows...

If she had then discovered that the Boss Monster could move its magic core and resolved to pierce it the instant its position was identified...

Then, according to the unspoken rules of fiction, her chances of succeeding would have risen dramatically...

But the situation was precisely the opposite, so the likelihood of failure had only increased.

My wise baby dragon must have deduced the same thing.

Still, perhaps judging that she could not simply stand by and do nothing, she created far more Ether arrows than the number of wind arrows Lausa had formed.

Finally, Helga and Pret made a somewhat unusual move.

Rather than running forward or falling back, the two of them sprinted to the right and left.

For a moment, I was puzzled to see them suddenly running in opposite directions, but I soon understood their intention.

Several strands of wire extended from Helga's gloved hand—or, more precisely, from the rings she wore over her glove—and were held in Pret's hand.

With her current ability, Helga could not possibly withstand the Boss Monster's strength, so restraining it was out of the question.

They intend to trip it.

For reference, I had never seen the gloves and rings Helga was wearing before.

Back in Chapter 286, Fjodora had promised to give Helga wire and the auxiliary tools required to wield it as a weapon.

It appeared the presentation had taken place while I was away.

Wire isn't exactly a commonly used weapon. She found some remarkably quickly.

To you, dear readers, that promise might feel like something from the distant past, but not even twenty-four hours had elapsed within the story.

At this point, the only reasonable conclusion was that Fjodora had prepared the equipment in advance, thinking she would give it to Helga someday.

Then, when the Demon Realm appeared and they found themselves thrust into actual combat, she must have taken it straight out of her Inventory and handed it over.

Before the two people connected by the wire could put enough distance between themselves, the Boss Monster drew near.

To halt the enormous rock golem's charge, the arrows created by the two spirit beasts shot through the air.

Because they had prioritized quantity over quality, the arrows did not contain much power.

But perhaps the golem had been programmed with a command to protect the power mechanism that housed its magic core at all costs, because it abruptly stopped, raised its arms, and covered its head.

Then, in the next instant, the rocks forming the golem gathered around its head and formed a sphere before returning to their original, limbed shape.

"What... was that just now?"

When I temporarily deactivated 【Character Analysis】 to give my mind a rest, I heard the original protagonist's bewildered voice.

What else could it be? It moved the power mechanism containing the magic core somewhere else.

The thought occurred to me, but I did not voice it immediately.

There was no way to deduce that from what we had just witnessed alone.

I decided it was still too early even to offer it cautiously as speculation.

Sure enough, the moment the golem lowered its guard, Fjodora released her bowstring without hesitation.

Swoosh—!!

The arrow, imbued with teal Ether, tore through the air in a violent gust and pierced the exact center of the golem's head.

The golem swayed, its body tilting backward—

"D-Did we get it...?"

—only for Sveinn to utter what amounted to a resurrection spell.

The golem's body, which had seemed ready to fall, straightened once more. Scattered fragments of rock flew toward it and filled the hole in its head.