A single Moon Waltz used stamina equivalent to only a single step and a single swing of the weapon. Meaning, among all of my skills, it had the lowest consumption by a wide margin.

And to add, among all the skills I had shown so far, it was also the best against the current opponent.

The basilisk was a giant snake monster with tough scales. Normal attacks would barely affect it, even if the level gap didn’t exist. As such, damaging it was a difficult task by any conventional measure.

But Moon Waltz had one property that hadn’t been emphasized during our previous fights at all. It was that the attack it traced was a straight zone, damaging anything the light passed through.

Yes, exactly.

This was an attack that ignored the enemy’s tough outer defenses entirely!

If not for its scales, the basilisk really was a "soft" monster.

It had low vitality for a boss, and the defense of its internal organs, muscles, and meat was basically nonexistent. A glass cannon wrapped in armor it didn’t entirely deserve—that was the basilisk, when you stripped away the intimidation of its size.

If the girls could also use Moon Waltz stably, then I might’ve employed their help in the fight directly. But right now, they were still lacking in the ability’s mastery, reliability, and speed of execution.

But although I hadn’t let them come close to the monster, it’s not like they needed to stay out of the fight entirely.

After my tenth attack, the basilisk lost its grip and fell, crashing against a column and causing it to collapse with a sound like a thunderclap rolling through the whole chamber.

"Now!" I commanded, signaling to the girls.

The next moment, they held various items in their hands and—

"Eiii!"

"Take this...!"

"Hup!"

Threw them toward the dungeon boss.

When they landed on the monster’s body, colorful bars appeared right under its HP bar. Indicators like what we saw when we were under the effect of the Plague Rats’ plague.

Plague, Bleed, and Poison.

With three girls and three androids throwing one each, all of them reached 50% immediately—each throw of the said item adding 25% to the progress.

"Alright, wait for the cooldown and throw again!" I said as I dodged an incoming tail swipe, then followed it with another Moon Waltz. "Let the first three debuffs tick...!"

About 30 seconds later, the usage cooldown of the miscellaneous items finished.

Timing it perfectly, I used Moon Waltz toward the basilisk’s face, cutting straight through its eye and brain. This should’ve been a fatal attack in the real world, but this world was still a game. Just a big damage number popped up, along with the snake staggering to the ground once again.

The girls threw the second batch of items, successfully pushing all three bars to 100%.

[The Basilisk is afflicted with Plague! Damage is 0.1% every second. Speed is reduced by 20%.]

[The Basilisk is afflicted with Bleed! Damage is 1% every 10 seconds. Damage increases the less HP is left.]

[The Basilisk is afflicted with Poison! Damage is 0.2% every 2.5 seconds.]

Without delay, three notifications appeared in a flash. Of course, I didn’t bother reading their obvious contents and just closed them with a swipe. Then, taking advantage of the weakened serpent, I rushed over and used Moon Waltz three times in succession. 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

"Phew...!"

It had only been a couple of minutes since the fight started, but the boss’s HP was already down to 80%. Taking into consideration the DOT of the three debuffs, this fight might end faster than I expected.

"HISSS!"

Of course, it’s not like the basilisk would go down without a fight.

As soon as it received the combined tick damage, it flicked its tail, swiping at me once more. Of course, I quickly moved to dodge—only to notice a small mistake.

"No...!"

I stopped dodging and instead waved my halberd, calculating the center of mass of the incoming strike in the span of a heartbeat. Then, with a powerful thrust, I targeted it without deviation.

PERFECT PARRY!

The green popup appeared, notifying me of the successful defense.

But at the same time, I was sent flying backwards from the impact. I couldn’t redirect it downward so suddenly, so I was flung away like a ragdoll.

BAM!

"Urgh!"

My back crashed against a nearby column, hard enough that cracks spider-webbed up its surface. At the same time, my HP took a sharp dip, reaching 25% in one go.

That attack, even after I had parried it, left me with only a quarter of my HP.

"Great Heal!"

But with Eri at the ready, my HP returned to full in a blink. Danger averted... almost.

"FleetingCloud, move back! If I hadn’t blocked that tail, you would’ve been hit!" I shouted.

Right.

The reason I had tried to block the attack in the first place was because Miyabi was standing within the range of the basilisk’s tail swipe. If I hadn’t countered it, she would’ve been struck and died in a single hit.

Such a thing cannot be allowed!

"O-Oh, sorry!" Miyabi shouted as she ran back toward the rest of the group.

In the first place, why had she come so close...?

She would’ve been perfectly safe staying at the back, near the wall, where everyone else was. Their throwing job was already complete too. The status effects on the boss would only fade after five minutes, and it should be long dead by then.

"..."

No, I couldn’t think about that right now.

First, I needed to handle this long-ass snake in front of me.

Of course, while fighting, my SP would drop fast. All kinds of movements consumed SP, after all—there was nothing I could do about that. But thankfully, we were already level 40. Meaning...

"Stamina Charge!"

Eri’s new skill had arrived.

Stamina Charge was a simple healing spell that added 50% of her SP to the target. Of course, it didn’t cost her SP at all—it was a simple measure for the spell’s effect. As a Saintess, her Stamina was pretty low, however.

Her Stamina Charge barely recovered 20% of my SP.

Considering the cooldown duration and my speed of consuming SP, I’d still lose 5% every ten seconds. Considering the DOT and my own damage output...

"Barely within reach!"

With my calculation complete, I didn’t hold back anymore.

I moved faster, sharper, stronger. Each Moon Waltz leaving long, luminous streaks across its body. The longer the line, the higher the damage reached—and I was starting to feel out its rhythms now, the slight telegraph before each lunge, the way the tail dragged half a second before it swung.

The longest streak I managed was the complete five-meter length of Moon Waltz drawn clean across its back, which dealt a grand total of 4,000 points as a critical. Though it was mostly luck, since the attacked part wasn’t even a vital area.

On average, I could deal roughly 50k points of damage per minute—about 10% of the dungeon boss’s thick HP. Thus, after just 60 seconds, the boss entered its second phase—50% health remaining.

On reaching stage two, it suddenly released an AOE attack.

A wave that would petrify anything it hit. Thankfully, it had a short range of ten meters, so the girls were safe.

Me?

I just used Moon Waltz to break straight through the "wave" and attack at the same time, barely losing seconds from the combo. Dodging backwards was just a waste of SP and time, after all.

After a short while, after an intense exchange, my SP was now down to 25%.

The boss’s HP was also down to 25%.

It was basically a race now. Would I run out of SP first, or would this damned serpent run out of HP first? Honestly, even I couldn’t tell anymore. Even in my calculations, it was cutting close—closer than I liked.

Upon entering the third phase, the basilisk changed its attack entirely.

Instead of physically approaching—

"HISSSS!"

—it loosened its scales and fired them off like rockets.

The scales flew with tremendous force, covering all directions at once. There was almost no way of dodging it cleanly.

Miyabi and the rest already knew of this from the briefing and had evacuated from the cave, hiding just outside the entrance until the attack ended.

As for me... of course, I hid behind a pillar.

Even with my abilities, dodging all those bullet-like, fast-flying scales was near-impossible. If I had a lighter weapon there might’ve been a chance, but a halberd wasn’t so easy to wield when it came to deflecting projectiles from every direction.

That spinny-spinner you normally see from spear-users doesn’t really work as portrayed, either—unless you can spin the shaft a full rotation by the time the projectile traveled the thickness of your shaft.

As such, you still needed to time the spin and the incoming projectiles to intersect the shaft—it wasn’t just twirling and hoping for the best.

Ten seconds later, the scale attack ended.

All that was left was a naked basilisk, visibly weakened after spending itself on its own attack, lying splayed across the ground like a collapsed rope. Its breathing, if you could call it that, had grown heavier—shallow and ragged compared to the thundering hiss from when we’d first walked in.

"Everyone, now!" I called.

Of course, this was in the plan too.

After using its third stage ability, the basilisk would lose strength for fifteen seconds.

It was short, but more than enough time for us to wipe the remaining 25% in a jiffy.

Miyabi and Kiki used Moon Waltz to close the distance fast, attacking without mercy, swinging hard, dishing skill after skill without bothering to conserve anything. I didn’t lose out either, waving my halberd like it weighed nothing.

5 seconds—19% remaining.

10 seconds—8% remaining.

14 seconds—1% remaining.

"LAST!"

And with a final thrust toward the monster’s forehead, its HP finally ticked its last.