Chapter 37 : The shield your father gave you!

Unlike his words about his father, his current form was that of a middle-aged man.

‘He must be at least adult-class.’

The advantage of provocation is that it clouds the opponent’s judgment while allowing me to remain calm.

A minor drawback is that it greatly angers the opponent, inducing fury?

Truly a trivial disadvantage.

Wow, if I hadn’t dodged, I would have definitely been split in two.

The man instantly leaped into the air and brought his sword down.

The sword, imbued with a dragon’s fury, easily split the floor of the lair, made of hard ore.

Is it a type of sword ki?

Just striking down with the sword caused this much damage; he was overwhelmingly stronger than any monster I had seen so far.

“Whew, why do you keep doing that?”

Amiter, who had grabbed me by the scruff of the neck, questioned me accusingly, but I had made a wise judgment in my own way.

Trespassing into someone else’s lair was already a major crime, and he was secretly performing a ritual inside.

There was no way he would let witnesses live.

He even blabbered about sacrifices himself.

There’s a saying: when a fight is unavoidable, start it advantageously.

“It’s okay, he’s more manageable than I thought.”

No matter how much of an adult dragon the opponent was, we had several advantages.

First, the fact that we were inside an underground cave.

No matter how spacious the lair, it was still insufficient for an adult dragon in its true form to rampage freely.

Therefore, it would be difficult for him to dispel his polymorph and transform into his true body.

Second, his father’s remains were right beside him.

Although Dragon Bone is said to be harder than mithril, using large-scale, powerful magic would still be burdensome for him.

Lastly, there were three of us.

Ganging up is always the truth.

With the power of love and friendship.

“Preparation complete.”

It was time to land a blow.

As soon as the man pulled his sword from the floor, he charged again with terrifying speed.

Incredibly fast and overwhelmingly intimidating.

But this time, I didn’t just stand there dodging.

I brought my hands together and thrust my palms forward.

“Pierce, Harpoon Trap.”

Tough, durable mana threads, tied to the ends of magic missiles, split into five strands, rushing towards him like a net.

It was a simple combination of basic magic, but the damage was not negligible.

The mana harpoons spiraled towards the man.

Without any change in expression, the man parried and dodged all the incoming harpoons.

Two with the sword blade, one with his armor, one with footwork.

Having done their job, the mana harpoons lost their form and instantly returned to mana.

However, the last one grazed his side, unprotected by the armor.

A few drops of dragon blood trickled down his body onto the floor.

‘It grazed him.’

Of course, since it was a part the armor didn’t need to protect, the wound was light.

His hide was so tough that the few drops of blood quickly stopped flowing.

But the important thing was drawing blood.

In a one-versus-many battle where morale is crucial, this was encouraging.

“Dragon blood is red too, huh.”

Although that blood might have various other effects, its color was red like anyone else’s.

I deliberately covered my mouth and chuckled as if provoking him further.

However, perhaps the provocation no longer worked; the dragon, who had been agitated, seemed to calm down upon seeing blood.

“Is this all?”

When you gain momentum, you have to maintain it.

Chang!

The man, who was touching the rapidly healing wound, hastily twisted his body to counter Amiter’s claws.

Her specialty, hiding in the shadows—a technique that had caught me off guard before.

The cave trembled slightly, and thin stalactites fell.

Unfortunately, the surprise attack didn’t inflict a significant wound.

At most, it slightly reopened the existing cut.

As soon as her attack was blocked, Amiter quickly retreated.

She looked towards us and shouted.

“Teperi, support.”

Teperi was as knowledgeable in spirit arts as she was in magic.

Though calling it spirit arts sounds fancy, it’s basically asking spirits to do things, but in situations like this, having any option is important.

Spirits slithered up from the ground and gathered around her.

At her gesture, an energy like a gentle breeze flowed into Amiter.

It was a basic buff using spirits.

Teperi didn’t particularly hide her spirit arts from me, unlike her magic.

Black Wolf Dance, Second Form.

Fierce claws carrying killing intent swung towards the man.

A sharp and rough attack that would wound ordinary people just by getting close.

The man blocked or dodged Amiter’s attacks with a rather surprised expression.

“Impressive!”

Although there were no significant hits, the attacks were meaningful enough that the two were exchanging blows.

Both focused on conserving stamina by defending against the opponent’s attacks rather than inflicting damage on each other.

“Keep going!”

If I could, I would cast buffs on her too, but directly buffing others is extremely dangerous for both parties, making buffs, along with debuffs,

the exclusive domain of priests.

Instead, while she bought time, I prepared another spell.

It felt like a long time since I last chanted for an attack formula.

Manipulating mana with both hands, drawing the formula in my head.

The words from my mouth are my wish, or perhaps the will of mana.

“Mistake calls forth coincidence. Coincidence calls forth discovery, discovery calls forth civilization.”

Hundreds of mana threads rubbed against each other, creating friction.

Thus heated, a single magic missile glowed hotly and spun increasingly faster.

The mana arrow, heated until its tip turned red, was heavier than a battering ram and faster than a bullet.

The wheels of the Hwacha turn.

“Dodge on your own!”

Though no bowstring existed, the arrow flew towards the man faster than anything else.

A faint sound of something shattering could be heard.

The last thing I saw was the man’s hardened eyes.

Soon, a massive explosion roared, and the entire lair shook, showering dust.

Damn it, is this place going to collapse?

Grabbing the staggering Teperi’s wrist, I pulled us into the passage we came from.

The explosion lasted for several minutes before subsiding.

Confirming it was safe, I went back out.

“Ami, are you okay! Say something!”

I saw she wasn’t hit by the arrow, but the still-falling rocks worried me.

Despite the chaos, the Dragon Bone still stood tall in its place.

“Puhaa! Cough, cough!”

As the dust settled, Amiter emerged from the debris of rocks.

Fortunately, besides some scrapes, she seemed unharmed.

Coughing, she looked around and asked.

That man? Don’t tell me we finished him…

I covered her mouth as she was about to say the jinxed line and replied.

“No way, a Gold adult wouldn’t die that easily.”

He had fought us purely with his physical body, without any particular magic or dragon techniques.

If he died from an explosion of this scale, he should discard the name of dragon.

“Teperi, you come too. Maybe he fainted…”

A roar louder than when the cave shook echoed.

The two, who weren’t shielded from the sudden noise, collapsed onto the floor.

Did they lose consciousness?

I groaned, looking towards the source of the sound.

“Dragon Fear…!”

“Impressive.”

The man looked unharmed, just as when we first met, but the belly part of his armor now had a hole blown through it by my arrow.

Despite the armor showing traces of numerous battles without a single crack.

The man fiddled with the punctured part of his armor and muttered.

“You are the second one to pierce the armor made from my mother’s bones.”

I had unintentionally become the wench who pierced his mother.

“Did your mother tell you to make that? You degenerate bastard.”

Do dragons even understand human curses?

I gave him the middle finger, but there was no reaction.

They say dragons are transcendental beings.

Given that he was sitting on his father’s skull, this guy seemed to have little connection with K-Confucian dragons.

He didn’t seem bothered by my tone.

In fact, his face looked pleased.

“I am of the Gold Dragon clan, said to be the wisest. The third claw of the Lord. Orquiel. And you are?”

Their intelligence seems pretty similar, so I don’t understand why they’re called the wisest.

I replied curtly with a sullen face.

“Trea Ludbeck. A mage.”

“I will remember.”

A dragon, who lives its entire life without forgetting, said it would remember me.

My name, and the fact that I’m a mage.

It didn’t particularly make me feel good.

“And perhaps, today, I’ll become an unplanned Dragon Slayer.”

The dragon, halfway transformed into its true form, and I grinned at each other, baring our white teeth.