I love the battle of 'words' here. Like when dragon reciting spell and will countera with 'liar'. Or when will about to cast thunderbolt, the dragon counter with 'fair weather' and then continue that with his own spell. It also shows how the dragon over power will in the use of 'word'. The dragon can chain counter spell and continue with his own spell while will only able to use 1 word counter spell.
One of the best action in this series. Man, this why battle combat against the dragon must like this. Fear, helpless, and heroic action can described in this chapter..
Overeater finally comes into play as Will's weapon of last resort, but unfortunately his enemy also has countermeasures prepared. That was his trump card and now he's truly at the end of his ropes. The situation can't get anymore desperate than this.
I don't know about the novel, but IMO this fight is so much better here in the manga than the anime. One thing that I really liked here is Will and Valacirca's back and forth between magic Words that even include counterspells and reflects.
That kind of exchange was sorely lacking in the anime, I don't even remember Valacirca pronouncing any magic Words even though he was also using magic; visually it was a much more typical fight against a more typical-looking dragon. It would have made the fight so much better if he and Will were also exchanging Words like this here.
What a great way to cap off the volume I've said this before and I'll say this again, the story depicts fantasy fantastically and the anime doesn't do it justice