Though he’d driven the spiked bottom of the shield into the ground, the force was still enough to slowly push him back. Hajime transmuted spikes into the bottom of his shoes as well, then cast Diamond Skin once more. He pushed his left arm a little further out, while supporting the shield with his right as well.
Hajime’s shield was made with a mixture of taur and shtar ore, and layered with an outer coating of azantium.
Since he was a Synergist, he could withstand an attack powerful enough to melt even azantium. So long as the ore bought him a few seconds, he could always transmute it back to perfect condition. And even if someone did manage to somehow break past the azantium layer, they’d then have to contend with the shtar layer underneath. As shtar’s hardness was proportional to the amount of mana poured into it, so long as Hajime had mana left to spare, it would never be broken.
Since it took the breath more than a few seconds to melt through the azantium layer, the dragon had no hope of piercing Hajime’s shield. However, it did possess enough strength to blow him away along with his shield.
Even Hajime, with his superhuman strength, was slowly getting pushed back. There were deep divots in the ground made by the spikes he’d transmuted into the shield and his boots as he’d been forced back.
Hajime, with his inhuman stamina, his shield, and his Diamond Skin ability wasn’t in any real danger of taking damage, but the people behind him would be incinerated by the dragon’s breath, leaving not even ashes behind, if he was blown away.
As he was fretting over what to do, he suddenly felt something soft at his back.
“Nagumo!”
“Nagumo-kun!”
He glanced back in surprise. To his utter amazement, Yuka and Aiko were trying to support him by pushing his back with all their might. It looked like they’d finally returned to their senses, saw Hajime being pushed back, and had come to help.
Aiko simply looked desperate, but Yuka’s face, illuminated by the red and black fireworks display that was Hajime’s mana colliding with the breath weapon, was deathly pale. She was trembling, not because of the force crashing into them, but because the trauma of what had happened in the labyrinth was still haunting her. The fact that she was still trying despite that was proof of her courage.
Seeing those two brought Atsushi back to his senses as well. With a spirited yell, he ran up to Hajime, and a second later Taeko, Nana, and even Will followed suit.
The barrage showed no signs of stopping. The heat had long since evaporated the river water, so the force of the impact kept sending half-melted stones flying out of the riverbed.
Hajime could no longer tell how much time had passed. It felt like an eternity to him, but in reality scarcely 10 seconds had gone by. He grit his teeth in determination, and at the same time, he heard the long awaited voice of his salvation.
“Heavensfall.” A whirling black sphere that was about four meters in diameter appeared above the black dragon’s head. Its darkness was so absolute that it felt as if one would be sucked into it if they just stole a glance at it. That ominous black sphere fell to the earth, crushing the dragon beneath it.
“Graaaaaaaaaah!?” The stream was interrupted as the dragon roared in pain, grounded by Yue’s sphere, but her spell was far from done. It pressed down on the dragon with even greater force, enough to create a dragon-sized depression in the ground.
This was the gravity spell Heavensfall. One of Yue’s newly acquired spells. That whirling black sphere increased its gravitational force in proportion to the amount of mana poured into it. It could also change the gravitational orientation of its target, making it a very versatile spell.
When used on oneself, gravity magic required surprisingly little mana. However, when used on other objects, the air, or other people, it required exponentially more. Even Yue had needed ten seconds to cast it. Plus, it drained an alarming amount of her mana. Though she still hadn’t completely mastered the skill, so it was likely she’d be able to cut down the cast time and mana cost the more she trained.
The ruler of the skies had been forced to the ground, and it didn’t take kindly to that. It mustered all of its strength and rose to its feet. However, before it could do anything else, Shea came hurtling down toward it, Drucken at the ready.
“Here’s the finisher!” Shea yelled, rabbit ears flapping wildly in the wind. She used numerous shotgun blasts to accelerate her fall, swinging her hammer down at the dragon’s head.
There was a thunderous impact as she landed.
The force of her blow created a crater so large that it looked like the area had just been bombed. Her smash had been a magnitude more powerful than the one she’d used on the Miledi Golem.
The reason being that of all the improvements Hajime had added to Drucken, chief among them was enchanting the compressed azantium that made up her hammer with gravity magic. However, instead of neutralizing Drucken’s weight, he’d multiplied it, so it could grow even heavier depending on how much mana was poured into it. As it was, Drucken resembled the hundred ton hammer from a certain famous manga.
Anyone or anything that took that head on would likely be annihilated. If they took it head-on, anyway...
“Graaaaaaah!” A fireball hurtled toward Yue from amid the dust surrounding the dragon. Yue adjusted her gravity so that she “fell” to the right and avoided it. However, she had to cancel Heavensfall in order to do so.
As the dust settled, Hajime could see that the dragon had managed to avoid Drucken by a hair’s breadth. It had pulled out every last ounce of its strength in order to do so.
The dragon circled in place, swinging its tail angrily at Shea.
“Wawawa!?” Shea managed to just pull Drucken out in time, and use it as a shield. At the same time, she leaped into the air, deadening the impact, but sending her flying backward through the trees.
Having regained its footing, the dragon rest its golden-eyed gaze on Hajime... or rather right past Hajime and at Will.
Hajime quickly returned the shield to his Treasure Trove and pulled out Donner and Schlag, firing them as fast as he could.
A barrage of bullets slammed into the dragon, leaving a trail of red streaks in their wake. Unable to dodge such a fast attack, the dragon was blown backward into the river. A massive spray of water rose into the air as it fell.
Realizing it was dangerous to keep the fighting near Will, Hajime charged after it. He reloaded Donner and Schlag as he ran, firing a second barrage soon after.
The dragon rose from the river with a roar, sending another wave of water splashing everywhere. It ignored Hajime entirely and fired another fireball at Will.
“Ah!” Hajime had launched this series of fierce attacks to draw the dragon’s attention to him, but it appeared that it had eyes only for Will.
“Yue!”
“Okay— Liquid Barricade!”
Will let out a very unmanly shriek and shrunk back. However, before the fireball could hit him, a giant wall of water rose up to protect him. The fireball dissipated as it slammed into Yue’s Liquid Barricade.
“W-We’ve gotta help them!”
“Y-Yeah!”
Barely able to keep up with lightning pace of the battle, Yuka pulled out her artifacts, a collection of legendary throwing knives. There were twelve of them and they had the unique ability to attract each other, so as long as Yuka kept one in her hand, she could recall all the others. She wrapped her knives in a wreath of flame and threw them at the dragon.
At the same time, Atsushi pulled out his twin shamshirs and swung them down. His job was “Arabian Kirito” and his artifacts let loose razor sharp blades of wind every time he swung them.
However, Yuka’s flaming knives and Atsushi’s wind blades didn’t even so much as scratch the dragon’s jet-black scales.
Dismayed, Yuka and Atsushi nevertheless dutifully readied their knives and shamshirs once more. Seeing them struggle so desperately, Noboru, Akito, Nana, and Taeko all found their courage and started firing long-range
attacks from behind the safety of Yue’s water barrier.
“Gwaaaaaaah!” This time their attacks didn’t even reach the dragon, as its roar blew all the projectiles away. The ferocity of the roar and the intensity of its glare left them trembling in fear once more, and Taeko and Nana even fell over.
“Tch! Sensei, take those fools and get out of here!”
“But... Nagumo-kun...”
Their spirited display of courage had ended in vain, leaving the students shivering in terror. Hajime could tell they’d be of no use, so he urged Aiko to take them somewhere safe.
However, Aiko hesitated. No matter how he acted, Hajime was still one of her students, and she was loathe to leave him behind to fight such a powerful monster alone.
Meanwhile, the dragon had finally risen out of the river and flown back into the sky. It unleashed a torrent of fireballs at the ground below. As always, its target was Will.
Hajime was bombarding it with bullets, but he wasn’t able to attract its attention in the slightest. The dragon’s scales were as hard as the scorpion Hajime had fought in the past, and even his full-power railgun shells did little more than dent them.
Its focus was completely on Will. It was almost as if it was being controlled by something. A robot obediently following out its orders. Only attacks powerful enough to interfere with its efforts to kill Will could grab its attention, and even then only temporarily.
Hajime had no idea why whoever was controlling this dragon wanted Will dead, but it made his job easier. He shouted out his plan to Yue.
“Yue, focus on protecting Will! I’ll get the dragon!”
“Okay, got it!” Yue instantly swapped her gravitational orientation to Will, zoomed toward him, and righted herself just before colliding with him. She was mildly annoyed at the fact that Aiko and the others couldn’t even get out of the line of fire, but considering their level of skill, she realized it was to be expected.
“If you don’t want to die, get behind me...” Yue had zero interest in the students, but as Aiko was someone Hajime seemed to respect, she at least made a token effort to protect her. Besides, it would just make her life harder if they started moving around, so it was easier on her to keep them quiet.
Taeko, Nana, Noboru, and Akito all scuttled about in a helpless panic, but Yuka, Atsushi, and Aiko at least had the presence of mind to retreat behind Yue’s ice barrier, cursing their helplessness all the while.
In truth, they were at least a little stronger than this. However, even after learning Hajime had survived, even after finding the strength to stand up once more, the trauma they’d experienced that day wouldn’t disappear so easily. The day they’d nearly been slaughtered by the Behemoth and the Traum Soldiers, the day they’d seen Hajime “die” had been imprinted firmly onto their minds and hearts.
And even if they could fight at their full potential, the dragon’s strength was on a completely different level. They wouldn’t even be able to scratch its scales. All they could do was watch the battle unfold as they hid behind Yue’s beautifully crafted ice wall.
Knowing that Will was safely under Yue’s protection, Hajime was finally able to go all out.
The dragon was still wholeheartedly focused on tearing down Yue’s barrier. Realizing fireballs wouldn’t be enough, it once again arched its head back and began concentrating its mana.
“Hah, this is the first time I’ve been ignored even after shooting at something... Well, I’ll just have to make sure you won’t be able to ignore me any longer!” Hajime holstered Donner and Schlag, then pulled Schlagen, his anti-materiel rifle, out of his Treasure Trove. After that, he activated his Lightning Field. Red sparks started shooting down Schlagen’s barrel.
Realizing whatever Hajime had up his sleeve might be fatal, the dragon finally turned its gaze to him. As expected, it couldn’t ignore something so dangerous.
Hajime fired the same instant the dragon unleashed its breath. A single red streak and a cloud of black death collided with each other, creating an explosion of crimson and black.
The resulting shockwave was so ferocious that it uprooted nearby trees and sent them hurtling through the air. In terms of power, Hajime’s bullet and the dragon’s breath were about equal.
However, there was a fundamental difference in the composition of the two attacks, which was the decisive difference. The dragon’s breath weapon was a continual attack, while a Schlagen was designed to pierce through a single point. That was why the bullet was able to come out the victor.
The bullet slammed into the dragon’s head from below, making it snap backward. The full metal jacket bullet had packed quite a punch even after making it through the cloud of death.
However, it was nowhere near a fatal wound. That being said, with the breath’s trajectory so abruptly changed, the dragon didn’t have time to stop the outpouring of mana in time to prevent it from losing a few teeth and one of its wings.
“Graaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!” Roaring in pain, the dragon fell to the ground in a spectacular tailspin.
Hajime quickly used Aerodynamic to avoid the breath, and then used it again in the air, along with Supersonic Step. His foot slammed into the dragon’s unprotected stomach, powered by both the accelerated speed of his fall and the strength of his Steel Legs skill.
The dragon’s body doubled over as his kick collided. The force of the impact sent cracks running through the ground. It let out another agonized roar, but clearly hadn’t actually taken that much damage. After all, its scales were tough enough to fend off a railgun.
Still, fact was that Hajime hadn’t expected his kick to do much to begin with, so he swiftly raised his left arm. It let out a high pitched metallic whine. Then, he activated one of the gimmicks he’d installed into it, the high frequency oscillator, before bringing it down on the dragon.
“Ever feel what it’s like to get sucker punched?” There was a dangerous gleam in Hajime’s eyes and feral grin on his face. He mercilessly brought his fist down on the dragon, something that had pulverized a boulder in one blow.
There was a loud boom, which made cracks start appearing on the dragon’s scales, but with the way the impact had been transferred, Hajime was certain there must have been some damage to its internal organs as well.
“Graaaah!?” Blood spurted from the dragon’s mouth along with a roar this time. This was more pain than it had ever felt before. Its eyes were still glazed over with confusion, but it already realized it’d be dangerous to let Hajime remain near it. It poured an enormous amount of mana into its remaining wing and unleashed a gale of epic proportions to blow him off it before quickly returning to a standing position.
Hajime once again used Aerodynamic to leap out of harm’s way, but not before leaving a few presents for the dragon.
The dragon warily eyed Hajime, but was suddenly rocked by an explosion originating from its stomach. The blast was powerful enough to send the dragon hurtling through the air. Hajime had stuffed some grenades in the cracks in its scales before flying to safety.
“Kraaaaaaaaah!” The dragon doubled over in pain, letting out more of a whimper than a roar. Its head drooped over and blood dripped from its mouth. This time it had been grievously wounded.
Its attention was now fully on Hajime and not Will. It opened its jaws once more and let loose a torrent of fireballs.
They exploded at random, like a burst of anti-aircraft fire, but none of them even came close to touching Hajime. Using a combination of Aerodynamic and Supersonic Step, he nimbly wove through the barrage of explosions, leaving afterimages in his wake. He continued using hit-and-run tactics to whittle down the dragon’s strength.
He used Donner and Schlag to target its claws, gums, eyes, tail, basically any spot that seemed even mildly unguarded. Then, whenever he saw an opening, he’d close in and use his oscillator arm to pound the dragon’s head, flank, and any other vital areas he could reach.
“Graaaah! Gwaaaah!” The dragon was clearly in agony at this point. Its scales w
ere cracked everywhere, and blood was pouring from its mouth in great gouts.
“Holy shit...” Atsushi muttered in awe as he watched the battle behind the safety of Yue’s ice wall. Yuka, Aiko, and the others all silently nodded in agreement. Everyone’s eyes were glued to the spectacle unfolding before them. Even Will was watching with such unabashed excitement that it was hard to believe he’d been shuddering in terror mere minutes ago.
Halfway through the fight Shea had returned and had been about to join in, when she’d been stopped by Yue, who had guessed Hajime’s true purpose for fighting so savagely, so she was standing next to her as a spectator. She’d been blown away without a chance to strut her stuff, which left her a little dispirited, though. Her bunny ears were drooping over too.
The reason he didn’t finish the dragon off with Schlagen, Orkan, or any of his other heavy duty weapons was to show just how powerful he was to Aiko and the others.
He was using the dragon to show off different combat strategies. After all, while the dragon’s attacks were powerful, its huge frame made it an easy target, and its telegraphed attacks showed that as long as it was easy to dodge, a powerful attack meant nothing. The fact that he was practically using this fight as a lesson showed that he wasn’t even breaking a sweat fighting such a weak opponent.
He wanted to make an example of his power on the off chance that Aiko told the Holy Church, the king, or Kouki about his blasphemous remarks after they parted ways. He wanted to show her that there was nothing even an entire nation could to do stop him.
It might’ve looked like Hajime was just using the dragon as his punching bag, which he was, but its tenacity still impressed him. He had managed to crack its scales, but he still hadn’t been able to shatter a single one. Its stamina and defensive power were truly admirable. Out of curiosity, he had used Ore Appraisal on the scales, but there’d been no reaction, which meant that if the scales weren’t organic matter, they weren’t any kind of material Hajime could transmute.
Arifureta: From Commonplace to World's Strongest Vol. 3 Page 13
