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Chapter 54 : This is why I hate dragons

The sword wraps its blade in a sword aura.

Then, it channels the momentum of its run and slices through the eyelid.

“Ugh!”

Swish—!

Just by taking away one side of their vision in battle, the advantage already shifted to her side.

Therefore, Elia swiftly moved between the dragons, cutting off the eyelids of the dragons before they could even react.

“AAAH!!!”

“GRRRAAA!!!”

The dragons began to thrash around, spewing harsh fiery breaths from their mouths.

“Ahh!”

Without distinguishing friend from foe, Elia cut through the breath that came flying at her, confirming that the first step had been successfully completed.

“Good. With this, the vision interference is a success.”

Originally, if the goal was simply to kill, she could have gouged out their eyes and struck with a thrust.

Furthermore, in a situation like now, where Nella’s drug was enhancing her, she could have decapitated them with the sword aura.

But Elia’s mission was to capture the dragons without injuring them.

These dragons were all going to be used by Nella as materials for her magical experiments.

Although the request didn’t specify that they needed to be captured without injury, since Elia took on the task in place of Kael, she had no intention of handling it carelessly.

“Next, I’ll target the scales on the front that have low value and low hardness.”

She could either crush them with the sword aura or push the sword between the scales to inflict a fatal wound.

Of course, the important materials like the dragon bones and dragon hearts had to remain unharmed.

“It’s a bit difficult, though.”

The scales on the back were hard to pierce with the sword aura, and the scales would be damaged.

The eyes couldn’t be directly stabbed, and the wings couldn’t be cut, and the claws or bones couldn’t be harmed.

There were a lot of tricky conditions, but because of them, the difficulty of the request seemed to have increased just the right amount.

If Kael and Ruina had heard this, they would have awkwardly laughed, saying she was truly her father’s daughter.

With that thought in mind, Elia gripped her sword again, which had just cut through the dragons’ breaths.

“Phew, then let’s go again.”

Her face, which had shown only a subtle expression, momentarily flashed with a warm, glowing smile before it disappeared.

And with that smile fading, Elia once again rushed toward the dragons.

To complete the task Kael had entrusted her with.

“Ah… I see. It seems like monsters are affected negatively by this. A dragon with a dragon heart isn’t that much different.”

Meanwhile, in the east, at the point where Elia began facing the dragons, Nella was testing the drug on a dragon.

Without a chance to intervene, she watched as the dragon died, and she quickly scribbled in her notebook with her quill.

It was a regeneration drug made from the blood of demons found on the bodies of the riot leaders who exploded.

Nella, who had been fascinated by it for several years, had independently improved it and extracted a drug made from pure mana. However, unfortunately, it did not work on any lifeforms other than humans.

She had hoped that it might work differently on dragons, which were at the top of the ecosystem, but seeing the corpse with even its tough scales slowly dissolving, it seemed that wasn’t the case.

And Nella partially knew the reason for this phenomenon.

“I’ve learned it for sure now. It’s structured perfectly for humans only…”

The drug, which Nella had named ‘Centrixer’, was based on the structure of the drug made from the demon blood.

When asked why, it was because the structure of the drug was something a genius with talent for research and invention, who had spent several years or even decades working on it, had created.

So, by simply using the same structure, Nella only needed to change the contents a little to avoid major differences.

That’s why Nella was able to create Centrixer in just a few years.

However, there was one problem: the structure of Centrixer was identical to the drug it was based on, so it only worked on humans.

It was as though it had been designed solely for humans… humans to achieve a perfect, 200% harmony.

Simply looking at it, you could tell how obsessively and passionately it had been researched.

“I’d really like to see the face of the person who made this.”

If it were possible, Nella would have wanted to meet the creator of the drug and have a deep discussion.

They must have been pretty insane, but through conversation, Nella was sure she could learn something.

“Well, for now, I’ll be satisfied with realizing today that it’s impossible to use on other lifeforms.”

She had even tried adding more versatile materials to see if it could work, but when injected into another species, the result was that the body would melt away without even leaving a corpse.

Nella hastily scribbled this in her notebook before putting it back into her pocket and looking up.

“Now then… huh?”

As she looked up, a creature appeared in her view.

The creature was flying in from the direction the dragons had descended from, and Nella couldn’t help but wonder.

“What is that?”

At first glance, it looked like a dragon, but if that were the case, there would have been no reason for it to descend separately from the group.

Nella focused her attention on the creature, and it didn’t take long to realize that it wasn’t a creature at all, but something else entirely.

An Undead Chimera?

Upon enhancing her vision, what she saw was undoubtedly a chimera, created by messily combining corpses reeking of sinister energy.

Reeking with foul energy, it flew straight toward the five dragons and Elia, who were battling at the center.

“…This might be a bit dangerous.”

She didn’t know where it had suddenly appeared from, but it was a chimera that seemed incredibly powerful.

Even if Elia had been enhanced with her own drugs, the chimera looked like a tough opponent for someone lacking battle experience.

Above all, if that chimera joined the fight while Elia was still dealing with the dragons, her life could truly be in danger.

“In that case…”

This was a situation that called for someone other than Elia to step in.

As she thought this, Nella turned her gaze—and saw Zenre, who had already taken down two dragons and was staring at the chimera as well.

Moments later, Zenre, perhaps thinking the same thing, turned toward Nella and locked eyes with her.

Even though they were several kilometers apart and their voices couldn’t reach each other, they had spent a long time together as children.

Despite being polar opposites who didn’t get along well, in times like this, they didn’t need words to understand each other’s thoughts.

‘Should we take care of that thing?’

‘Yeah. No need for the two of them to get involved.’

With a glance, she could see Kael drawing his sword and Ruina pulling back her bowstring.

There was no need for those two to get involved—it was something the two of them could handle.

It would’ve been a difficult opponent alone, but together, they could manage.

The exchange of glances was brief, and the agreement came in an instant.

“Teleport.”

Fwoosh!

Muttering the short spell name and swinging her staff, Nella instantly teleported next to Zenre.

“Ready, Zenre?”

“Of course. Let’s go.”

With Zenre already cloaked in sword aura as if fully prepared, Nella nodded and swung her staff again.

“Teleport.”

Fwaaah—!

The teleportation magic engulfed their vision in light.

The moment they blinked, a completely different scene spread before Nella and Zenre.

No longer looking at the chimera from afar—they were now hovering above the massive creature from the sky.

Larger than even a dragon, perhaps one and a half times bigger, Nella frowned at the size but lowered her staff toward it.

“Let’s try dropping that body first.”

Gravity magic.

A huge amount of mana gathered into Nella’s staff, releasing pitch-black gravitational force.

Ruuuumble—!!!

“Kyaaaah?!”

The chimera let out a cry, seemingly startled by the sudden gravitational pull from above.

“Alright, let’s keep this up… Huh?!”

THOOM—!!!

But in the next moment, about half of the gravity magic rebounded with elastic force, making Nella widen her eyes.

“What is this? Did they mix in dragon corpses too?”

“Judging from that magic rebound, it seems so.”

It wasn’t as strong as an actual dragon, but that level of rebound meant dragon corpses were definitely part of the chimera’s makeup.

If she kept pouring in more magic, she could probably still drag it down—but using magic against something with such high resistance was foolish.

So, Nella landed on top of the chimera, which had paused mid-air due to the magic, and sighed as she brushed her hair back.

This is why I hate dragons. Blocking convenient magic like this so easily… now I’ve got to move myself. Sigh…

Magic was her preferred method—just recalling a formula and moving her mana.

But against such a powerful opponent, with this level of magic rebound, even Nella was being forced to consider non-magic options.

If she had any drugs left, she might’ve fed one to the chimera, but unfortunately, the only ones she brought today had already been used—Elia took one, and the other was used for the dragon experiment.

So, Nella gripped the handle of her slender staff and drew a sword from within.

Swoooosh

A sword slid out from the thinner-than-average staff.

And as she held the sword, she summoned a stronger, more vivid sword aura than Zenre’s.

She adjusted her grip lightly and spoke.

“Can’t be helped. I’ll have to use swordsmanship today.”