The Villainess and I, her Zombie

"(MASTER!)"

Baron shocked growl was heard by both Cranberry and Roan, the young dragon trembled, ready to pounce at the hydra many times larger than himself, but he stopped and glanced back at the two children.

Zombie very clearly ordered him to protect them, as such, the young red dragon spread his wings to make himself appear bigger - and to cover the two little humans behind him - and glared at the five-headed snake that just regrew one of its heads.

"Ssssss..."

The beast stuck out its tongues and hissed maliciously, staring at all three of them with hunger in its eyes.

"M-miss Pride, your undead...!"

Roan gulped down his saliva, glancing between the unmoving blue body on the far side of the barrier, the red dragon, and the red-haired girl by his side.

"He's fine, I did not get the system message about losing my familiar. Zombie is fine, he is fine. We need to take care of this thing before we can go and help him."

Cranberry's voice was calm but her hands shook as she clenched them so hard her knuckles turned white.

"What do you mean take care of it?! Have you missed how it regenerated or swatted your familiar like a fly?!"

The young prince was not happy with the suggestion, it was more than clear that his fighting spirit took just as huge of a hit as the little blue undead.

"You better change that attitude fast if you do not want to get killed, the only way to get out of here is to kill that monster."

Cranberry shrugged her shoulders and pointed at the hydra slithering towards them with a maliciously slow tempo as if it knew that they had nowhere to run.

...because they really had no convenient escape route from the red and black dome.

"Kill it...?! Are... are you mad?! How?!"

Roan gasped and shouted in disbelief.

"With that sword of yours for example."

Cranberry glanced down at the weapon that the blond prince dropped and smirked.

"You look awfully well for someone who got blown away through the entire arena... do you have an affinity or something?"

She added tilting her head.

"G-giant slayer... it increases the damage dealt to all opponents bigger than me."

Roan flinched and explained taken aback.

"You only remember that? Giant slayer increases your physical attack, physical defense, agility, and evasion, the more the bigger the beast is, actually. How come you only memorized the damaged part? Someone's been slacking off."

Cranberry laughed and tune away, looking at the approaching hydra from beneath Baron's wing.

"That thing is like... ten times bigger? Twenty? Anyway, it is big enough so that the giant slayer increased your DEF enough for the previous explosion to not even leave a scratch on you - which means that it should give you enough strength to damage that monster too."

"(Miss, my master asked me to protect the two of you, please do not try anything reckless.)"

Baron raised his head and looked back before complaining using telepathy.

"The best protection you can give us is killing that snake! End of the conversation!"

The red-haired girl shook her head and asked took a step forward.

"Roan, get out there, you and Baron will be able in charge of damaging it, I'll be right behind you. Baron, since it's a hydra with increased regeneration, the fire should be its weakness, that's a good matchup."

She commanded in a voice that did not leave any space for discussion her eyes and body began glowing with white light as she was already activating her skills.

"..."

"..."

Both the red dragon and the blond prince looked at each other in a moment of silent agreement and nodded at the same time.

Roan reached out for his sword and picked it up with much greater ease than he ever expected - which made him realize that the red-haired girl wasn't just all talk and actually knew the mechanics of his affinity - and he also activated his skills.

Last but not least, Baron dug his claws into the ground and his whole body began glowing with red light as he was preparing to attack.

"Sssss...?"

The hydra stopped a good distance in front of them and hissed mockingly, sticking its tongues out, as if it wanted to smell their fear.

"GO!"

*BOOOOM*

Cranberry shouted and the ground exploded under Baron's feet as the red dragon launched himself upwards at the sigil monster's heads.

*CRUNCH*

*RIIIIP*

"SSSSSS!"

The dragon's fangs and claws dug deep into the throat of the diamonds-covered head and ripped out huge chunks of black flesh - and without letting go of the beast hissing in pain, he unleashed a powerful breath attack burning the fresh wound into a burnt crisp.

"I'm here too!"

The blond prince was right behind it - shocking himself with how high he could actually jump, he swung his giant sword right at the rubies-covered head, and to his even greater surprise, he actually cut it off on that first try!

*BLAM* *BLAM* *BLAM* *BLAM* *BLAM* *BLAM*

As soon as Roan started falling back down to the ground, six fireballs exploded with a deadly accurate aim right into the gaping wound spraying blood all around, burning it into a crystallized mess.

"Good assis...! HUH?!"

The blond prince turned to the direction all the fireballs came from, expecting to see the red dragon, but the one he saw was the red-haired girl standing back on the ground.

She was holding her baseball bat in a reverse grip and the blue ribbon that the grip was wrapped into was unraveled, revealing an elongated ocean-blue magic stone, glowing with accumulated power.

"M-magic conduit...?! THAT THING IS A SCEPTER?!"

Roan gasped in shock as more fireballs followed the initial six with the speed only comparable to the burst fire of the semi-automatic guns from Zombie's original world.

"SHUT UP AND GET TO ANOTHER HEAD!"

Cranberry roared back at him, and suddenly the prince felt a surge of power filling up his body.

"A... a physical enchantment?! Wait, she really is a support mage?!"

He murmured to himself, shaking his head in disbelief before crash landing on the ground just to bunny hop right back towards the sapphires-covered head.

"SSSSSSS!"

But then with a loud hiss, the hydra threw itself back, shaking off the red dragon and getting out of the reach of the blond prince.

It was clear that the places where the fire hit it were not regenerating like the head that Zombie cut off before, so the trio's strategy was working.

But the younglings made the mistake of not pressuring the beast enough.

*CRUNCH*

Without wasting the perfect chance, the hydra used the three healthy heads to bite into the burnt spots and straight-up ripped the scabs away, causing a fountain of blood to erupt from the reopened wounds - the wounds that started bubbling up with the growing crystals that morphed into its lost parts, rendering all of the damage it suffered uselessly.

"Sssss."

It hissed mockingly before coiling itself into. A spring and launching itself at the young opponents with a speed unimaginable for a creature of its size.

Four of its heads attacked Baron, biting into his wings, neck, and torso, pinning him to the ground.

The last one went straight for the red-haired girl...!

"SSSS!"

The monster hissed furiously when the young prince turned out to be way faster than it anticipated and appeared right in front of the girl, and blocked the wide-open snake head by jamming his sword between its jaws.

"GUH!"

Roan groaned, gritting his teeth, giving his all to push against the giant monster with all his might.