by Hiro Ainana
Individually, they were pretty weak, but if that many of them descended on the town, everyone would be in danger.
Luckily, the Crimson Cane was currently with the pyro noble headed to the constable’s castle on the side of the western mountain, so as long as they were dealt with quickly, they shouldn’t cause any harm to the town.
I threw a spear at the fire-eater naga above us as it turned to head toward the castle, bringing it down midflight.
“Liza, I’m leaving you in charge here.”
“Understood!”
The beastfolk girls rushed toward the fallen fire-eater naga.
I couldn’t blame them. The soy-roasted naga we’d eaten before was delicious.
“Sir Gargaolon! Deal with Dazaress’s attendants!”
“Tch, fine. But I’ve got a score to settle with that bastard.”
“All right! Once I catch him, I’ll let you give him one good punch.”
“Heh. Looking forward to it!”
Gargaolon and company started to follow me at first, but I had them stay behind to deal with the rest of the outlaws.
It would be harder to dispatch the monsters quickly if they came along.
I headed toward the castle under cover of darkness.
Passing through the streets, I headed up the slope. In the distance, I saw the drawbridge of the constable’s castle rising.
One fire-eater naga landed on the castle gate, then another.
It would probably be too noticeable if I took them out from a distance with Remote Arrow, so I threw some pebbles to take out most of the monsters that were approaching the town. I left a few alive just to harass the pyro noble, Dazaress.
Let him sweat a little, since he’s responsible for this whole situation in the first place.
The castle was fortified against monster attacks, so as long as he stayed inside, he probably wouldn’t be killed.
The nagas who’d been chasing the fire-eater nagas descended on the castle walls and ramparts like an avalanche, breaking through the areas that were less structurally sound.
Ah, that damn idiot. Making my way up the slope, I cursed inwardly as I noticed movement on my radar.
Dazaress and his retinue had come out into the courtyard of the castle to fight the nagas.
His flames engulfed a group of them on the castle wall.
Seeing this, the rest of the nagas swarmed toward Dazaress and company.
I wasn’t obligated to help them, but I didn’t enjoy watching people get killed, either.
Diving into the forest next to the slope, I did a “Quick Change” into Nanashi. No Illusion effects this time, since it would’ve been too much of a pain.
Then I used “Warp” to arrive at the castle gate in an instant.
Just as I got there, a pillar of fire rose up from inside.
Huh?
The nagas that were trying to flee from the castle were sliced to pieces by a narrow, laser-like flame.
One of them managed to escape, only to be caught by a giant flame-covered hand and dragged back over the castle wall.
The situation became clear to me as soon as I leaped onto the top of the gates to check it out.
An intermediate demon, wrapped in flames, was slaughtering the nagas.
Shining on his forehead was the jewel from Dazaress’s Crimson Cane.
I should’ve known when I heard that he had “Count Bobino’s support.”
Count Bobino was a patron of the demon lord–worshipping cult Wings of Freedom. He must have given Dazaress a long horn, an item that turned someone into an intermediate demon.
I wasn’t sure whether he himself understood exactly what using the long horn meant, but that didn’t matter anymore.
Having finished off the last naga, Dazaress—no, the demon—spread his four wings and took to the sky.
I didn’t want to risk burning myself by getting too close, so I decided to defeat him with magic.
A blast should be able to put out a fire, right?
I picked out Implosion from the magic menu.
This spell caused an inward explosion effect in a sphere-shaped range, so it did less widespread damage than most other intermediate magic.
That being said, using it from this position would probably destroy the castle in the process, so I used all 120 Magic Hands to hurl the demon into the sky.
Just then, my “Sense Danger” skill reacted to something far south of here.
Again…? Come on—this isn’t a wanko soba restaurant. Don’t bring me seconds I didn’t ask for.
I turned around with a sigh and was greeted with a blinding flash of light.
The light evaporated the intermediate demon instantly and disappeared into the sky. A red shard of light fell into the river next to the town.
An enormous flapping sound and a powerful blast of wind blew down on the castle and the town of Puta alike.
And a blue dot appeared on my radar.
Fighting to raise my head, I squinted up at the peak behind the castle and saw a black dragon spreading its wings.
GWROW, GWROW, GWLOROOOOOURGH!
The dragon roared.
It must have been more than a mile away, but I still felt the vibrations prickling on my skin.
On the map, my party members’ status conditions all changed to Fear.
Same for the rest of the people in town.
But since I could understand dragon language, the roar that struck fear into the hearts of others sounded like this to me:
“WEAK! SO WEAK! I CAME ALL THE WAY DOWN FROM THE MOUNTAIN FOR THIS?!”
I guess it was disappointed that its battle with the demon ended so quickly.
I used “Skyrunning” and “Warp” to approach the black dragon.
“GWROO…”
Damn, that’s hard to pronounce.
“
It was all but impossible to speak Dragon with human vocal cords, so I managed to do it with the “Ventriloquism” skill.
This skill definitely didn’t work the same way as regular ventriloquism.
“”
“
“
“
The black dragon lowered its voice as I requested. It was surprisingly accommodating.
“
…Huh?
“”
With that, the dragon picked me up in its claws and took off into the air.
“
“
Wow, it didn’t even deny it.
I continued protesting over the loud wind in dragon language, but the black dragon just roared happily and circled around above Puta.
“
“
The black dragon nodded lightly.
“<…If I kill humans needlessly, I may never hear the end of it from the sky dragon of Mount Fuji.>”
Ignoring that particular name for now, did that mean there was a dragon monitoring other dragons like a human supervisor?
The dragon’s flight leveled out.
I couldn’t believe how fast we were moving.
It felt like we might break the sound barrier at this rate.
The wind flying into my face was hurting my eyes, so I used Canopy from the magic menu to protect myself from it.
Really, if I had a choice, I would’ve preferred to ride on its back instead of being carried around like prey.
Since I’d left town without saying anything, I sent Arisa and Liza a quick message with the Telephone spell: “Gonna hang
out with a dragon. Back in a few.”
Both of them were still in the Fear state, so there was no response.
Meanwhile, the black dragon didn’t slow down. In an instant, we left the Ougoch Duchy and entered a new area: the Black Dragon Mountains.
I used my long-neglected “Search Entire Map” skill to gather information about the place.
There were a few small villages among the mountains.
I added markers to the villages so I wouldn’t hit any by accident, along with the flag icons for quests. I’d never used them before, but they worked just fine.
When we arrived at the snow-covered peak of the tallest mountain, I could see an enormous forest on the other side of the range.
I couldn’t say for sure, since it was on a different map, but it was probably Bolenan Forest, the location of Mia’s hometown.
I could see a thread-shaped World Tree in the center, like the one we’d seen from a distance before.
I continued to gaze at the stunning scenery until the black dragon spoke to me.
“
“
Once I answered, the dragon slowly opened its claw, so I hopped away with “Skyrunning.”
Once the black dragon saw this, it descended onto the peak with a loud bang, sending a cloud of fresh snow flying up around it.
“”
The black dragon spread its wings, looking excited as it declared its warlike intentions.
I definitely felt obligated to fight it now.
Judging by the difference in our levels, I didn’t think I would lose, but I didn’t want its “Dragon Breath” to burn up my good robes.
“”
Once I’d given a brief response, the dragon breathed in deeply.
I put some distance between us with “Skyrunning,” then produced the max amount of thirty-two Flexible Shields in front of me.
A flash filled my vision, and a thunderous roar crashed through the mountains.
I dodged right away with “Skyrunning,” but two of my Flexible Shields still disappeared.
Judging by how that felt, I was pretty sure seven or eight of them could protect me from even a direct hit, but I still activated my “Magic Power Armor” skill just in case.
The attack that had just missed me melted the ice on the peak, and the boiling-hot stream of muddy water began to cause an avalanche.
Behind me, no less than two ridges crumbled to pieces.
“
The black dragon sprang into the air with just its rear legs, accelerating to top speed in the blink of an eye as it charged toward me.
The roar just before the speed increase must have been some kind of dragon magic.
The rapidly approaching dragon’s horns bore down on me.
I fired a Lightning spell from the magic menu.
But it vanished almost immediately.
The spell had somehow dissipated before it even reached the dragon’s scales. It came nowhere close to paralyzing it.
I avoided the black dragon’s horns by a hairbreadth and smacked it point-blank with an Air Hammer spell to the back of the head, but that disappeared, too, before reaching its target.
The black dragon must have been able to negate lesser magic, just like that demon lord.
Still, using intermediate magic would be dangerous. Those spells made short work of the giant monster fish, which was much higher level than the black dragon.
I couldn’t just murder what might be one of the last living dragons.
As I was watching the back of the dragon’s head while thinking about these things, I suddenly felt a “Sense Danger” reaction behind me.
The tail.
To be precise, the spike on the end of the dragon’s tail was fast approaching.
I used “Skyrunning” to accelerate in a downward slant, narrowly avoiding the giant spike.
However, the “Sense Danger” alarm didn’t let up.
Behind me, I saw the black dragon twisting around in midair.
Come on, what about the laws of aerodynamics?!
The centrifugal force sent the tail flying toward me like a whip, right in my blind spot.
Judging that I couldn’t possibly dodge it, I quickly crossed my arms in front of me to block the tail.
One of my Flexible Shields got destroyed, but that was the extent of the damage.
Normally, the enormous weight difference would be enough to send me flying, but my absurd STR stat and the secure foothold “Skyrunning” provided managed to prevent that.
Without losing its momentum, the dragon swung its right claws toward me next.
I could have dodged them, but I decided to parry instead.
They had less than half the force of the tail attack.
This one was no worse than the physical attacks of the black greater demon in Seiryuu City and was far lighter than the blows from the Golden Boar Lord.
If it hadn’t been for our vastly different physiques, I could have pretty much fought on an equal level with the dragon in terms of close combat.
I used “Skyrunning” to brace myself, then flung the black dragon through the air with the help of Magic Hand.
“
The black dragon roared with surprise as it tumbled backward, taking off chunks of the mountainsides as it went.
…This dragon would have had a good career as a stuntman.
The black dragon shook its head to rid itself of dirt and rocks, and its eyes glittered as it launched itself back into the sky.
As the black dragon flew toward me, it unleashed a single roar—and a flash of black lightning struck me from above.
> Skill Acquired: “Lightning Magic: Dragon”
> Skill Acquired: “Dark Magic: Dragon”
That must have been a spell of some kind.
That was the first time I’d acquired two different skills from a single magic attack.
It was pretty powerful, perhaps because it was a combination of two attributes. Even with my Flexible Shields in high-density mode, it managed to find a gap and reach me briefly. Only one of my Flexible Shields got destroyed, but my clothes got burned a little.
My skin tingled for a moment, but there didn’t seem to be any lasting effects.
Using the lightning as a distraction, the black dragon flung its left fist toward me.
I intercepted it with a fist of my own.
KABOOM!
With a sound like a wooden board cracking in two, a broken scale flew off the black dragon’s fist.
I quickly stowed the blood spraying from the wound in Storage, narrowly saving my clothes from disaster.
As before, I felt a slight resistance just before the scale broke, like glass cracking.
There must be some kind of magical defense field over the scales.
The dragon’s fist kept on flying toward me, so I blocked it with my Flexible Shields this time.
That way, I wouldn’t end up bloodying the black dragon unnecessarily.
As if to punish my arrogance, the black dragon threw a knee kick at me while I was stopped in place.
I was completely taken by surprise, since I’d never expected a dragon to do a kick.
I guess I’d been relying on “Sense Danger” too much.
The kick knocked me into the air, where a “Dragon Breath” attack followed close behind.
My Flexible Shields were getting destroyed one after another.
If this were an old-fashioned tabletop RPG, the dragon would only be able to use its breath up to three times, but apparently the real world wasn’t so forgiving.
Just then, I suddenly felt someone watching me.
; I recognized the sensation as someone monitoring me with Space Magic. It didn’t feel like Arisa, though.
As I dodged the breath with some careful maneuvering, I used magic to reel in the would-be watcher.
What I saw was a beautiful platinum-blond woman, somewhere in the direction of the World Tree in Bolenan Forest.
> Skill Acquired: “Reverse Sonar”
> Skill Acquired: “Sonar Blocking”
For now, I activated the latter skill, cutting off the beautiful woman’s view.
Now I could concentrate on fighting the black dragon.
After the “Dragon Breath,” I avoided the barrage of ultrahigh-speed fireballs that followed like a bullet-hell game.
When one occasionally came at me with a curved trajectory, I parried it with a Flexible Shield.
> Skill Acquired: “Wind Magic: Dragon”
So the dragon was manipulating the fireballs with Wind Magic… What a versatile fighter.
However, it was far too focused on firing at me.
When I was right above the black dragon’s head, I put up fresh Flexible Shields and took out a huge meteorite from Storage, holding it above my head.
Of course, I wasn’t going to hit the black dragon with this.
That would probably just kill it.
I used Magic Hand to press myself against the giant meteorite.
Then I kicked with all my strength.
The resulting high-speed hail and a few fireballs both hit me in the process, but I was fully protected by my diagonally arranged Flexible Shields.
Although I did lose half of them.
I pushed the remaining half against the black dragon, slamming it down on a mountain.
The tough bedrock cracked, creating a circle of rocks and dust.
I finally touched down on solid ground again and, with the help of Magic Hand, grabbed the dazed dragon’s tail and swung it around and around.
“GROWWWWWWWR.”
Ignoring its meaningless shrieks, I kept swinging the tail in giant circles.
The dragon struggled to stop the spinning, but its sharp claws worked against it, leaving deep scratches in the ground that scarcely slowed it down at all.
When I’d built up enough acceleration, I flung the dragon as far as I could.
The target was a particularly sturdy-looking ridge.
