The key to party combat is the defender.
Their role is to draw the enemy's attacks, allowing the rest of the party to focus on their own duties.
Right now, it seems the black dragon only has eyes for me.
At this point, the defender's job is more than half accomplished.
Ideally, I'd block its attacks too, but that would divert resources from offense—so that's out.
That leaves me no choice but to become an evasion-type fighter.
I concentrate all its attacks on myself and dodge every single one. That way, I can dedicate everything to attacking and even aim for counters.
I told Caroline it was impossible, yet here I am imitating that very style...
Next, the most important role in party combat after the defender is the supporter.
They handle healing injuries and applying situation-appropriate buffs to allies.
Luna, the other supporter in the hero party, relies on her unique ability, so I can't replicate her exactly.
Still, her movements are basically healer-like, so I'll set her aside for now.
If attacks don't hit me, there's no need for healing anyway.
As for buffing as an enchanter—it's so ingrained in my body that I can do it unconsciously. No issue there.
Finally, the star of the party: the attacker.
No explanation needed. Their job is to attack and defeat the enemy.
In the hero party, we had Oliver as the vanguard attacker and Aneli as the rear-guard attacker.
Both were excellent attackers capable of unleashing high-damage strikes continuously.
For Oliver's role, my current abilities surpass what he had during our previous black dragon fight—so no problem.
For Aneli's role, I can't spam attack magic quite as rapidly as she could.
But by combining my original magics, I can activate multiple high-damage spells—so that's reproducible too.
(Alright! I can do this!)
Finishing the mental simulation in an instant, I activated [Fire Bullet] again. Using the explosion to block the black dragon's vision, I closed the distance.
With [Mana Convergence], I created footholds, adding vertical movement to my previous forward-backward and side-to-side dodging.
I circled the black dragon at high speed in three dimensions without slowing down, slashing with my sword each time I passed by.
This time, I deliberately did not activate [Instant Capability Super Rise: Impact].
The black dragon's mist deformed into various shapes to attack alongside it, but I evaded every single one.
I slashed the black dragon dozens of times, yet none were decisive blows.
—But I knew that full well.
The slashes this time were just incidental.
The real reason I was darting around the black dragon was something else.
I landed on the black dragon's right flank with my back to it.
Seizing the opening, the black dragon transformed its mist into long, spear-like shapes and thrust several at me.
"You always go for that attack when it looks easiest to hit, don't you? But I've seen it plenty of times already!"
Having baited it into using that move, I evaded every thrust with minimal movement.
"Now it's my turn!"
Declaring that to the black dragon, I poured mana in.
Over forty magic circles appeared, enveloping the black dragon.
This was why I'd been leaping around it earlier.
Every time I changed direction midair, I'd planted attack magic spell formulas at those spots.
Now, pouring mana into all of them at once activated every magic.
Fire, water, wind, earth, lightning, ice—attack magics of every attribute fired from all directions, engulfing the black dragon in a massive roar and thick smoke.
Within the smoke, the black dragon's silhouette lightly folded its wings, then spread them wide with force.
The resulting gale blew the smoke away.
I could feel the black dragon glaring at me with clear displeasure.
The attack seemed to have dealt no damage at all.
Wearing a fearless grin, I said,
"Power too weak compared to the number of spells? Of course it is. I can't even use advanced magic or higher. Plus, to conserve energy, I used only beginner-level spells this time. But are you sure you can afford to relax?"
As I spoke, magic circles appeared around the black dragon once more.
This time, however, I hadn't poured any mana in...
This was the work of my original magic: [Amplification Chain: Raise Repeat].
[Amplification Chain: Raise Repeat] is a placement-type magic used in conjunction with [Mana Convergence].
When an attack magic passes through the placed spot, it copies that magic.
Then, automatically drawing in surrounding mana, it amplifies the power and fires the same attack magic again.
Spells with power several levels higher than before assaulted the black dragon.
This time, damage clearly went through—the black dragon let out a near-scream.
While [Amplification Chain: Raise Repeat] continued bombarding it, I used [Mana Convergence] to gather surrounding mana onto my sword blade.
A pitch-black aura darker than the black dragon's mist wrapped around the blade.
(It always looks like something a villain would use... I wish mine was a soft gold like Oliver's.)
Oliver's converged mana was a warm light like morning sunlight illuminating the world.
Mine, in contrast, was a cold darkness symbolizing a lightless night.
The effect should be the same, yet the appearance is complete opposites.
When the [Amplification Chain: Raise Repeat] barrage stopped, the black dragon blew away the surrounding smoke again.
The revealed black dragon was visibly more wounded than before—damage was unmistakable.
An unprecedented killing intent radiated from it, yet it still retained its composure.
It focused warily on the mana gathering on my blade.
"Still got some leeway, huh? Then let's go straight into the third wave—no pause!"
Magic circles appeared for the third time, unleashing attacks with power surpassing even the second wave.
Even if they were weak beginner magics, amplification upon amplification had raised their strength to just shy of special-grade level.
The black dragon's scream echoed throughout the entire boss floor.
As the barrage ended, I readied my sword wrapped in pitch-black aura.
This time, the black dragon did not blow away the smoke.
Slowly, the smoke cleared, revealing its silhouette once more.
I aimed at its wings and unleashed the pitch-black slash.
"Heaven Flash...!"
The black slash flew straight toward the wings.
Right before impact, I naturally activated [Instant Capability Super Rise: Impact]—intending to obliterate the wing.
—Or so it should have been.
The black dragon blocked my slash with its own tail.
The tail naturally dispersed from the mana shockwave, but the power was far lower than anticipated.
[Instant Capability Super Rise: Impact] can only boost power for less than a second.
Because the dispersion happened earlier than planned, the attack ended before the impact could fully activate.
(How did it know I was targeting the wing!?)
It had been shrouded in smoke— it shouldn't have seen the slash.
So it wasn't reacting to something it saw.
Unless it knew in advance that I was aiming for the wing, that movement would have been impossible.
(This individual should be seeing Heaven Flash for the first time. So why...)
In the instant I faltered, the black dragon flapped its wings and ascended into the air.
The boss area was dome-shaped, so there was a ceiling.
The black dragon hovered about fifty meters up near the ceiling, looking down at me.
"...Damn it, I couldn't stop it from flying."
If I'd severed the wings, it couldn't have gotten that high.
Fighting while it's airborne is extremely disadvantageous.
I can manage some aerial combat with [Mana Convergence], but ground fighting is far easier.
I wanted to avoid fighting on its terms, but staying on the ground meant taking one-sided fireballs and mist attacks from above.
As I prepared to dash upward, I sensed a flow of mana—someone from "Silver Rabbit of the Night Sky" was about to cast magic.
Most people can't sense mana.
But thanks to my [Mana Convergence] ability, I can detect it to some degree.
(Don't pull too much aggro from over-attacking and hit me by mistake... or misfire on me...)
I thought that, but then realized it was Selma-san preparing the magic.
(I know from the joint subjugation before that Selma-san doesn't have attack magic effective against that black dragon. Which means—support magic for me!?)
My current state already exceeds what Selma-san's support magic could provide.
Moreover, [Layering] is an extremely unstable state—like walking on thin ice.
Adding a third party's support magic would definitely shatter it.
In this fight, that kind of opening would be fatal.
Reaching that conclusion instantly, I acted.
Using an application of [Mana Convergence], I disrupted the mana around Selma-san to prevent inflow and interfere with her magic activation.
Selma-san's magic activation stalled.
"I don't need support magic! It throws off my senses! Prioritize protecting yourselves!!"
As I shouted at the "Silver Rabbit of the Night Sky" members, a fireball rained down from above.
I immediately dodged away from the spot.
Using [Mana Convergence] to create footholds, I moved randomly in all directions to avoid giving it a fixed target.
Each direction change, just like before, I planted beginner magics paired with [Amplification Chain: Raise Repeat]—half set to activate immediately, the other half on standby for mana inflow.
Firing various attack magics upward, I dashed all the way up to the black dragon's position fifty meters in the air.