The Strongest Adventurers’ Mental Caretaker ~ Somehow I Ended Up Involved with Every Beautiful Girl in the Hero’s Party ~ If You Have Time to Fight Over Me, Please Go Save the World - 11

Chapter 11: The End of the Two-Headed Dragon

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Whether they were celebrating their reunion or not, the roars of the Two-Headed Dragon as they thrust their heads against each other resounded throughout the area. Having undergone mental care on the way, “Valkyrie” displayed a refined battle worthy of an S-rank party. However, in the face of the Two-Headed Dragon, they lacked a decisive blow.

The Two-Headed Dragon’s ability was not a mere regeneration ability. It was an abnormal recovery speed that allowed it to grow back an entire neck.

“Hehehe… It is useless. That thing is immortal.”

I could hear the imperial mage, who had been watching from the entrance, murmuring with a sneer mixed in.

“We were also pushing it back at first, you see. No matter how much we injured it, one neck would go into a cover position to buy time, and it would regenerate during that interval. …It is truly an infinite loop.”

Certainly, their cooperation was ironclad. If the right neck shifted to attack, the left neck turned to defense. It was a fortress commanded by a single will.

(No, is that really the case?)

While staring at the battlefield, I was feeling a sense of discomfort. Their movements were certainly coordinated. However, one head did not do anything like sheltering the other head. It was strictly as if they were making use of each other as tools…

Memories of my time at the brothels in the red-light district resurfaced in my mind. That prickly air when customers who disliked each other teamed up based solely on a coincidence of interests in order to win over their respective target courtesans. What I felt from the current Two-Headed Dragon was precisely that.

(I see. Just as I thought.)

I could see it. The emotion that surfaced on the left neck the moment the right neck was bitten off. It was not sadness from sharing pain. It was a ruthless egoism that would relentlessly kill the other half if it meant surviving itself.

(That thing is not a single living creature! They are two different living creatures sharing a single torso, competing with each other for dominance.)

That was precisely why, the moment one exposed a fatal opening in the form of paralysis, the other chose to cut it loose to prevent falling together. The fact that the neck regenerated completely was nothing more than a retrospective outcome. The perfect cooperation that was their strength was built not on trust, but on a fierce struggle for survival. That roaring was not sharing the joy of a reunion. The two necks were arguing with each other, telling the other not to pull them down.

(If that is the case, there is only one strategy. I just need to turn their egoism against them.)

“…Pfft.”

A smile spilled from me naturally.

(This battle, we can win.)

Taking a step forward, I raised my voice toward them as they stood frozen on the battlefield.

“—Do not panic! I have figured out the trick!”

At my voice, the three of them snapped their heads back. There was no color of despair in their eyes. There was only absolute trust in me.

“Cain! What should we do?!”

“They are not of one mind and body! It is like two brothers who hate each other being forced to live in the same room! They are merely fighting together to protect the torso they share!”

“T-Then what should we…”

“It is simple! Corner both of them simultaneously into a situation where they can only handle their own necks!”

Pointing at the Two-Headed Dragon, I barked out precise instructions.

“Freya! Luminara! Strike the left neck with all your firepower! You do not have to kill it, just do not give it a single moment of freedom!”

“The left one, right! Understood!”

“…Mm. I will turn it into a beehive…”

The two of them reacted instantly. Freya’s “Kagerou” attacked the eyes of the left neck, and Luminara’s “Yatagarasu” kept unleashing a ceaseless barrage of all attributes of magic. The left neck was completely on the defensive, with no room to worry about the right neck.

“Aeris, now! Slam ‘Onigumo’ into that wide-open right neck once more!!”

“Oh!”

Aeris charged forward again. With the left neck pinned down by Freya and the other, it could not enter a cover position. The right neck spewed a breath to intercept her on its own, but Aeris deflected it with her shield and slipped inside its guard. When “Onigumo” scored a direct hit, the right neck stiffened once more and stopped its movements.

Normally, the left neck would have devoured the right neck here to reset it. But…

“Giyeee…?!”

The moment the left neck opened its mouth to devour the right neck, Freya’s shadow wolf bit into its jaw, and Luminara’s magic burned its eyes.

“Like we will let you!”

“…No time to be looking away.”

The left neck let out a scream. It was all it could do to protect its own body, leaving no room to process the right neck. The right was paralyzed. The left was completely on the defensive. The cycle of regeneration had completely collapsed.

“Now! Stop the left one as well!”

“Yeah!”

Aeris turned around instantly and slammed “Onigumo” into the left neck as well. The next moment, the Two-Headed Dragon that had been so noisy stopped moving, and silence filled the boss room.

“Well done. The rest is to finish them off simultaneously on both sides, along with the torso!”

Those words of mine became the signal for the execution of the Two-Headed Dragon.

“Devour it completely! 『Kagerou, Zetsuei』!”

“Shatter! 『Onigumo, Dokuga』!”

“…Turn to dust—『Yatagarasu, Soutei』.”

A simultaneous attack from three directions. Freya’s wolf swallowed the left neck whole, Aeris’s shield pulverized the paralyzed right neck, and Luminara’s volley of attack magic evaporated the torso. The Two-Headed Dragon vanished into the light in an instant. A complete annihilation, leaving no time to regenerate. What remained afterward was silence and the trophy Artifact that came rolling to my feet.

“…T-They defeated it. That monster…”

“Hehehe… This is unexpected, isn’t it…”

Behind us, the heroes of the Empire were falling back on their posteriors.

Brushing up my bangs ruffled by the blast, I welcomed the three beautiful women celebrating their victory. Their faces were shining with the exhilaration of battle and their infatuation with me to the absolute maximum degree.

“Good work. …It was a perfect job.”

When I smiled, they leapt into my chest as if they were competing with one another for me.

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