Becoming the Wasteland Overlord With My Harem System!-Chapter 260: A Fight That Could Be Avoided

Axel’s back shivered as the voice echoed in their heads.

Right, it wasn’t ringing in their ears as a sound, but rather, as a thought straight to their heads. A mysterious feeling that was quite different from listening to someone speak.

"...!"

All of them turned around in a flash, brandishing their weapons and standing at the ready. At the same time, Maria and Cherry moved close to the door, far from the dragon behind them.

The dragon that was supposedly dead.

Crack!

Began squirming, standing up, and turning its head straight at Axel’s group.

[Humans, an elf, and... A wolf? To think Fafnir’s curse of Greed would affect other races as well... It seems like its power is increasing once more.]

The voice echoed inside their heads once more. This time, clearer, and with emotions attached to it completely.

Slowly, the black dragon stood on its hind legs, chains clanking as it moved.

[It’s a pity, but I must eliminate any threat planning to release the seal on that evil dragon.]

Then, at that moment—

[W-What is this?!]

Nina’s curse took hold of it.

As it was "revived," it automatically activated the setup magic circle. Instantly, twenty-one curses bound the dragon’s body and soul.

Seven curses that hampered its senses: sense of sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch, sense of balance, and even its voice.

Seven curses that reduced each of its stats by at most 50%.

And finally, seven curses that inflicted spiritual pain on the dragon.

Pain that would make any normal person beg for death, to be freed from the torture. Pain that could turn them insane when subjected to it for over a minute.

"No good!" But Nina, as the one who cast it, realized that something was wrong. "The curses didn’t hold full strength, but weakened!"

"By how much?!" Axel asked as he gripped the sword in his hands.

"About 75% reduction!"

It was quite a big loss, but Axel just nodded. "That means it’s still weakened 2x more than expected. Let’s proceed!"

He wasn’t optimistic about the curse taking effect either way. As such, having 25% of its effects latch on was already too good in his opinion. Furthermore, judging from how the five Enfeebling Chains were releasing a purple glow, it was obvious that they were also working properly.

Even if the dragon’s status panel was uncheckable, he could tell that it was greatly weakened!

"RAAAAGH!"

Before Axel even gave the order, Fenrir had already rushed ahead.

She jumped forward, appearing right below the dragon’s chin, and waved her hand—covered in a blood-red aura of her wolf form’s claw.

The dragon’s golden eyes opened wide as it tilted its head to the side, dodging. Then, without delay, it swung its claw toward Fenrir in a counterattack. It was just as fast as her attack, causing the gray wolf to jump back, bending down at her waist to dodge.

Fenrir flicked her wrist, sending a punch to the dragon’s torso, landing squarely. However, it was followed by a tail sweep, catching Fenrir off guard. She couldn’t dodge it, so she crossed her arms before her chest, blocking the attack.

BAM!

"Take this...!"

While the two were engaged in a brief exchange, Arianne took advantage of the opening.

Maximizing her body strength, she swung her blade, planning to decapitate the enemy. However, the dragon still managed to take a step back, avoiding the slash entirely—and even landing a powerful claw at Arianne too.

Thankfully, she managed to use the flat of her blade to block, but it still sent her flying toward the nearest wall, crashing.

[Tsk!] The dragon clicked its tongue, backing off a bit. [What underhanded creatures...! To think you’d try and weaken me with traps...!]

BANG!

Eve’s rifle spewed flames as a bullet shot forth. A holy bullet.

The bullet flew several times faster than the speed of sound. However, it was still too slow to handle an enemy at the level of gods.

No...

Ting!

Rather, the bullet couldn’t even penetrate the dragon’s scales, bouncing off harmlessly.

Seeing that her attack was ineffective, Eve frowned. Among them all, she was the one who could feel her limits the fastest!

"Good job, Eve!" 𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂

But even though her attack was ineffective, it was still usable as a distraction.

The loud sound, the bright flash, and the fast, small, moving projectile. It was a setup that would force the dragon to focus its attention on the bullet, even for a split second!

SLASH!

And taking advantage of that short lapse in attention, Axel boosted his Overdrive to 100% and waved his blade down.

With just one swing, he managed to cut a foot-deep wound on the dragon’s side, through its tough scales! A wound opened up, and from within, blood gushed out like a small fountain.

"...!"

Axel gasped, backing off fast.

He wasn’t expecting blood to come out, since the enemy was supposedly a "zombie" or something. It was already dead, so long dead that it looked dried up. But now, fresh blood stained the ground.

[Gahh...! Damned spawns of Fafnir, back off...!]

The dragon groaned in pain before waving its wings, pushing Axel back.

Everyone present in that small cavern was forced to kneel down to avoid getting blown away! Of course, that was excluding two: Axel and Fenrir.

Axel quickly "cut" the air rushing toward him, gaining a foothold, and then jumped forward, closing the distance. Fenrir simply opened a crack in space leading to right above the dragon’s head.

Two attacks from the top two most powerful beings in the Axevaria Kingdom landed at the same time!

But just as their attacks—a blade and a claw—were about to land, something weird happened.

[Oh world, halt!]

The giant dragon’s figure vanished as soon as it finished chanting something.

That wasn’t the end, however.

Crash!

"Argh!"

Fenrir ended up slammed into the ground, spewing blood from her mouth.

Above her, the dragon that was supposed to be "below" was seen. It had its claw stretched, following on the after-motion of a full swing. The dragon landed a solid hit on Fenrir!

[Oh world, halt...!]

It repeated the chant, making Axel open his eyes wide.

From the words, he figured out what the attack could be. And to prepare for it, he raised Overdrive’s output... to 1000%. it was a quick moment of activation, boosting his kinetic vision by a large margin.

However...

"Ugh...!"

A claw still hit his stomach, causing him to fly toward a wall, embedding into it. Even with him going past full output of Overdrive, he failed to see the attack coming!

Thankfully, boosting his output did also increase his defense, so he was mostly undamaged. However, this proved his guess... A pretty bad situation.

’This dragon... controls time!’