Ch.95Chapter 95 – A Wild Dragon Appears. (3)

The dragon’s attitude had changed.

It was clearly different from before.

Suddenly, the dragon began to roar and charge at me while shouting something like a name.

[Why do I sense Pia’s energy from you!]

“Who is that?!”

[What exactly are you, that I can sense her energy from you?!]

I quickly lifted Sera and jumped backward.

The dragon began to chase after me, swinging both claws as if determined to kill me.

‘So this power was related to dragons after all.’

Somehow, many people had predicted that dragons and I would be connected.

What did those cultists do to my body?

I wanted to confront them about it, but this wasn’t the time.

The dragon was now swinging its claws and baring its teeth at a much faster pace than before.

If earlier it had been playing around, now it was attacking in earnest.

“Master!!”

Looking toward the voice beside me, I saw Christina running over with the Haven party.

Seeing her frantically waving her staff and pointing at Eina, I understood what she meant.

“Sera, I’ll apologize later!”

“Mr. Kay?!”

I quickly picked up Sera and threw her.

While dodging the dragon’s attack, I saw that Eina had caught Sera, who then pushed herself away from Eina and stood up.

“Mr. Kay!”

She threw a bomb that hit the dragon’s face, and Christina also began shooting Holy Arrows.

However, the dragon had long since lost interest in them.

It was focusing all its attention on me.

[Answer me! Was it you?! Did you kill her?! What cowardly trick did you use?!]

“I don’t know! Go ask the Holy Kingdom!”

I’d heard about it before.

There was a dragon that had invaded the Holy Kingdom.

That dragon must have been the one called Pia.

‘If that’s the case, why come here to cause trouble instead of going there?’

Of course, even if I argued like that, this creature probably wouldn’t listen.

It seemed to have completely lost its mind, refusing to acknowledge my answer that I knew nothing about it.

Instead, I saw red sparks spreading around the dragon in addition to the blue energy, as if it was determined to kill me.

‘Ah, seriously.’

It was a spark I’d seen before.

The familiar red lightning.

[You damned insect! Tell me before I tear you apart!]

“How would I know?!”

I dodged the dragon’s swinging claws.

The red lightning and blue energy merged, destroying everything around them.

They were so powerful that I could feel the two energies spreading even after the attack ended.

‘Why is it so angry?’

What kind of relationship did this creature have with that dragon called Pia?

The good thing was that its anger had created quite a few openings.

Thanks to that, I got a chance to counterattack.

“Opening!”

I brought down my halberd with all my might toward the dragon’s arm.

The scales where I struck shattered, and blue energy spread out along with blood.

For the first time, I had inflicted a real wound on the dragon.

[You…!]

As soon as I counterattacked, the dragon tried to bite me with its teeth, so I quickly pulled my body away.

And without realizing it, I brought my arm to my heart.

-Thump, thump, thump

‘My chest… it hurts a bit.’

The sound of my heartbeat began to grow stronger.

I unconsciously started to frown.

My heart was beating so fast and strong that it felt painful.

It was a powerful pounding that reminded me of an engine going out of control.

It was beating so rapidly that I could barely hear any small noises around me over my heartbeat.

‘First that incredible strength when I was pinned down, and now this. What’s happening now?’

From that moment, I felt like my heart was racing out of control and the red lightning was growing stronger.

This power was related to dragons.

And my opponent right now was a dragon.

‘Is that creature the cause?’

As if affirming my thought, my heart beat even harder.

Enduring the pain, I grabbed my halberd and charged at the dragon.

Nothing else mattered now.

As long as my attacks were effective against it, the condition of my body didn’t matter.

I continued exchanging blows with the dragon.

I dodged its attacks as narrowly as possible and swung my halberd widely whenever I saw an opening.

At some point, I felt like I had lost my reason as well.

I was simply swinging my arms, moving my body, and cutting down my enemy with my weapon.

Against the dragon that was attacking more fiercely than before, I continued the close combat decisively.

As I swung my halberd widely to aim for its head, the creature suddenly jumped far back.

“Mr. Kay, be careful! Dodge!!”

Snapping back to my senses at Sera’s screaming voice, I saw the dragon preparing to shoot a breath attack at me.

Looking quickly behind me, I saw no one there.

It wasn’t trying to hit everyone at once—it was aiming solely at me.

[I’ll burn you to ashes right now!]

I quickly racked my brain.

Ways to survive.

What I could do.

The help I needed.

“Christina!!!”

I shouted loudly, hoping my thoughts would be conveyed to her.

And at the moment when flames filled my vision…

“‘Protect the young lambs!'”

A holy shield appeared in front of me.

The shield began to crack as it blocked the flames.

Beyond the gradually crumbling shield, I could barely see the dragon spewing fire as if determined to burn me by any means necessary.

In these flames, even a dragon wouldn’t be able to spot me quickly.

I ran toward the shield.

Perhaps because it was made of holy power, the shield wasn’t heating up, but it looked like it would disappear at any moment.

-Crash!

The shield was finally collapsing, unable to withstand the heat.

I thrust my halberd into the shield and quickly twisted it upward to launch myself into the air.

The heat momentarily engulfed my body, and the armor I was wearing absorbed the heat for that brief moment.

During that split second, my body escaped from the flames.

Suspended in the air, I looked down at the dragon.

[What…?]

Perhaps it couldn’t freely turn its head while breathing fire.

The dragon’s eyes widened slightly.

“That’s fortunate.”

I could withstand it for a moment, but if I had remained in the fire continuously, I would have been burned to death.

It would have been dangerous if the dragon could freely turn its head while breathing fire.

I raised my halberd above me, spinning it as I fell toward the dragon.

“Take this!!”

I brought down the halberd with all the force I could muster—rotational force, gravity, body weight, everything.

The black dragon’s eyes began to widen slightly.

Its eyes trembled as if in disbelief.

-Thwack!

-KRAAAAAAAA?!!!!

The halberd slashed its eye.

The dragon was bleeding.

It raised its front paw to cover its eye and stop the bleeding, then began to twist its body frantically.

[Damn you, insect! My eye, my eye!!!!]

The dragon roared.

Whether it was determined to kill me right away or simply couldn’t think straight from the pain, it began to devastate the surrounding area using its entire body.

“Mr. Kay!”

After landing, I saw Sera and Christina running toward me.

“Hey, what should we do about that…!”

“Oh my goooood!!!”

Haven’s party and Eina, who was screaming comically, also quickly ran over to us.

Since the dragon had lost an eye and was now rampaging blindly in pain, it probably couldn’t properly target us even though we were grouped together.

“What should we do, Mr. Kay?”

“What else?”

I reached out toward Sera, who was at a loss for what to do.

As I answered:

“We need to hit it with one more big attack.”

Looks like the time is up.

A massive magic circle appeared around the dragon’s feet.

Looking ahead, I saw Beatrice kneeling on one knee with both hands pressed to the ground.

“You bought enough time, Helmet!”

Beatrice smiled at me with a face that seemed certain of victory.

The wind picked up slightly, causing Beatrice’s hair to rise momentarily.

[This…is!]

“Too late, you goddamn miserable lizard!”

Beatrice shouted with curses that would earn her all sorts of reprimands from the mage tower’s wizards about blasphemy or breaking taboos.

Soon the ground split open, and a massive black sphere emerged from below.

A protective barrier of some kind formed around our group.

“It’s called Gravity Sphere! Get crushed for a bit!”

The black sphere began to suck in everything.

Trees, rocks, and other objects were pulled in and shattered.

[With…something like this…!]

Even the dragon’s massive body began to be dragged toward it.

Though it managed to spread its wings with difficulty, that was all it could do.

Its neck also tried to turn toward us but was being pulled toward the sphere.

It seemed unable to move its mouth easily, as it couldn’t even make a sound.

A magic circle briefly appeared on the dragon’s face but quickly disappeared.

The powerful gravitational pull from Beatrice’s magic and the pain from the eye I had slashed were likely disrupting the dragon’s concentration.

“Worth the long casting time.”

It was worth risking my life to buy time.

“That won’t last long! And if it regains its senses and casts Dispel before then, we’re screwed, so hurry up and tear the scroll, you idiot!”

“I was going to do that anyway, idiot!”

Beatrice and I exchanged insults.

Meanwhile, Sera placed a scroll in my hand, having found it.

As soon as I tore the scroll, a warp gate appeared.

[Se…ra!]

The dragon called out in surprise.

“Just because you say ‘stay’ doesn’t mean I will.”

I looked at the dragon with a victorious smile, though it wouldn’t be visible through my helmet.

The dragon began to make enraged noises.

[I swear, I swear I will hunt you down and destroy you! I will never overlook what you’ve done to my kind!]

“I told you it wasn’t me.”

I threw myself toward the warp gate, leaving the struggling dragon behind.

[You, Yuto, I will kill you no matter what!!]

The dragon’s final roar echoed behind me.

The sound gradually faded as I had already entered the warp gate.

A moment later, the swirling surroundings changed into a street in the Kingdom of Mikea.

We had successfully warped to safety.

“We’re alive…!”

I could see Haven’s party sprawled on the ground, catching their breath.

Eina was in a similar state beside them.

“Mr. Kay, are you alright?!”

Sera and Christina approached me.

Just as I was about to reassure them that I was fine…

“Cough!”

With a sudden feeling of nausea, I coughed, and blood stained my gauntlet.

At the same time, overwhelming fatigue began to envelop my body.

“Mr. Kay!”

“Master?!”

Sera and Christina cried out and rushed to support me.

I tried to stand on my own, but my legs began to give out as well.

“Helmet, what’s wrong with you?”

Beatrice asked with a worried face.

“I think I pushed myself too hard…”

“Mr. Kay?”

My head feels heavy.

My mouth feels heavy.

Realizing that my entire body felt heavy, I looked at my companions.

“I need to sleep for a bit…”

“Mr. Kay?!”

I could no longer maintain consciousness.

With Sera’s urgent voice as the last thing I heard, my consciousness faded away.

+

In one corner of the Emiris Order, there was a workshop that had been unused for a long time.

It seemed to have been a blacksmith’s workshop, but it had been abandoned after being relocated long ago.

And now, someone was in that workshop.

“Hmm, it turned out well.”

Somnus said with satisfaction.

On the table he was looking at, there were two prosthetic arms of the same design as the one he used.

A few days ago, Kay had taken his remaining arm, and after fighting with him, the prosthetic he was using wasn’t in the best condition, so he had made a new pair.

He inserted one into the socket where he had recently lost his arm, using his current prosthetic to do so.

With a clicking sound, the arm fit into place, and Somnus moved his fingers.

“The quality is quite good.”

Smiling with satisfaction, he removed the other prosthetic he had been wearing and inserted the new one.

Then he moved the fingers of both hands a few times.

“You’ve arrived.”

As Somnus muttered this, light suddenly began to appear behind him.

It was a warp gate.

Normally, it wouldn’t have been possible without a caster at the destination, but now it was possible because Somnus, the caster, was in the Emiris Order’s church.

Soon, a man with platinum blonde hair and gray eyes appeared first.

Behind him, a small woman with blonde hair and a young man with black hair appeared.

“Lord Idea, it’s been a while.”

Somnus bowed as he greeted him.

Idea nodded, accepting the greeting.

“That arm?”

“It was cut off.”

That was the extent of their conversation.

However, neither Somnus nor Idea seemed dissatisfied with the exchange.

As Idea simply nodded once, the black-haired young man spoke up.

“Ha, old man Somnus. How did you lose your arm?”

“It was bitten off. That was the first time I learned that an arm could be torn off like that.”

Somnus responded with a gentle smile, causing the man to click his tongue loudly.

Ignoring the man’s muttering about how it would have been better if his neck had been cut off instead, Somnus bowed to the small woman.

“Holy Maiden. It’s been a while.”

“……”

Golden hair and red eyes resembling Christina’s.

If Kay and Christina were present, they would have called her by the name “Kara.”

But now, her condition was strange.

She was staring ahead with blank eyes and her mouth slightly open.

“Why is she acting so stupid? She was talking quite arrogantly last time.”

“Hahaha, it’s because she was awakened not long ago. Having spares is good, but it takes time to properly restore her cognitive functions like before.”

Somnus said with a gentle smile.

Soon, he pushed Kara aside slightly as if she was in the way, causing her to stagger to the side.

The warp gate was still open, and several people were coming through.

Somnus looked at Idea.

“Did you call the Red Knights as well?”

“To guard the Holy Maiden.”

“An excellent decision.”

Somnus smiled at Idea, who only spoke when necessary.

“You can rest until news of the black dragon’s appearance spreads.”

“It seems it won’t take long.”

“Yes.”

Somnus said with a smile.

“Number 13 has made contact with the black dragon.”

Idea nodded.

Having no intention of continuing the conversation, he turned and walked out.

“How does old man Somnus know such things?”

It’s not like you followed and saw it.

To the young man’s question, Somnus replied with a smile.

“It’s a secret.”

Facing the young man who stood still with a dissatisfied expression, Somnus smiled kindly and said:

“When that day comes, you will know.”

“Always talking about ‘that day.’ Hah.”

The young man also turned and left the workshop.

“Personally speaking.”

As if suddenly remembering, Somnus looked at Kara.

Looking at her still blank eyes, Somnus said:

“I do hope Number 13 survives.”

With the words “because that would be more interesting,” Somnus also went outside.

Soon, only the girl standing like a doll and the Red Knights guarding her like dolls remained in the workshop.