Cockroach
Cockroach
Just by inhaling deeply and exhaling, flames erupted.
Just by swinging its massive tail, walls shattered, and just by unsheathing its claws, the floor tore like paper.
Such things were possible precisely because it was a dragon. But even while wielding such overwhelming power, what Krumelia felt was desperation.
[Die!]
The flames she spat were blocked by spirit arts, her tail was slashed half to tatters, and claws that had seemed unbreakable were lopped off in chunks by a single sword stroke from that damned Eldmia. She felt her strength draining away as she regenerated the gaping wounds, her heart rapidly weakening again, but it was already an irreversible situation. Krumelia, who had thought only of crushing the bugs before her eyes as fast as humanly possible, felt her mind begin to grow tangled.
Should she go up, wreak havoc on the human city, and replenish her power? When was the penalty for breaking the contract coming? Was her heart going to be alright?
The emotion of rage quickly subsided. If she had killed them all, only relief would have remained, but she had nearly been rendered helpless twice by the bizarre techniques Eldmia displayed, and the situation had not improved in the slightest. In a situation now no different from having nothing but a time limit without knowing when she would die, Krumelia had no choice but to feel as though she had returned to her defenseless childhood when she first became self-aware and began to move.
Threats surrounded her on all sides, and she could not see a single way to avoid them.
◈
"What that thing is shooting is just fire! Saintess, focus on your divine protection! Flames of that level can be penetrated! Sheryl! Follow me!"
What came to mind was the saying that weight class is the real boss, and that just as you don't use a cow-slaughtering knife to kill a chicken, using a chicken-slaughtering knife to kill a cow made the situation completely fucked up.
Having quickly confirmed things with Magic Sight and relayed it, I pushed forward without even a spare moment to marvel at the spectacle of Siegfried using his greatsword horizontally to block the massive tail swung by the demon. Whether it was to conserve Magic Power or not, the demon's frequency of using magic had drastically decreased while mimicking a dragon, so I had to exploit that gap to confirm whether that thing was just a fine-looking shell or truly in a state comparable to a real dragon.
"Hind leg!"
Thank god it was Sheryl with me. That audacious little brat wasn't intimidated even in front of something that, while a fake, was still a dragon, and the two of us had experience fighting together countless times, so we didn't need long conversations to share opinions. Who would have guessed that the unidentifiable sense of kinship we always expressed through complaints and calling each other insolent would shine here like this?
My sword, aimed at the massive hind leg whose movement had slowed as a trade-off for swinging its tail, precisely struck the scales where the Achilles tendon would be on a normal creature. Even without wrapping it in Magic Power, the dragon's scale, said to be as hard as steel, split and fell away, and Sheryl's attack followed accurately into the wound that was created.
[Aaaagh!]
The horizontal slash, delivered with her entire body's weight since she was fighting a monster and not a swordsman opponent, struck the muscle precisely but could not sever it completely. While I exploited the creature's massive body stiffening in pain to land a similar stab on the opposite side, Siegfried swung his greatsword wide, aiming for the neck of the fake dragon that had lurched forward.
Thanks to that, seeing it frantically twist its body away instead of stubbornly relying on its physical strength alone, my conviction solidified.
"Even if its ability is transformation or alteration, it seems it's nothing but a poor imitation."
As I retreated, dodging the tail being swung recklessly, Sheryl too reached the same conclusion and muttered. Outwardly she appeared utterly composed, but her voice trembled slightly, likely from some tension. Finding it newly amusing that even she got tense, I patted her shoulder and nodded in agreement with her opinion.
The reason dragons were terrifying was because their very existence was magic.
Their breath could be anything from ordinary flames to an attack spell piercing through mountains, and their hide and scales boasted a strength that could chew up most common metals. High dragons or aged ones weren't satisfied with just that and could simultaneously fire all sorts of spells. This demon bitch couldn't do any of that, which made her a fake dragon.
Maybe, if she had fully incarnated, her heart would have been here, allowing her to wield that vast Magic Power and imitate a dragon more closely, but she couldn't do that now, so it was a meaningless assumption. The problem was that because the thing had gotten so huge, fighting like this meant we couldn't cut its neck.
I spoke to Sheryl as I checked the demon's recovery speed, which was noticeably slower compared to the beginning.
"We're going one more time. This time, as soon as you cut, run toward Hero without looking back. And tell Hero to get ready. Even if he doesn't understand what I mean, he'll figure it out immediately."
"...? What about you?"
"I'll do what I have to do."
I wanted to leave it to Siegfried, but... with this fake dragon turtling up and making us come to it, that probably wasn't going to work.
A war of attrition was not a good idea in a situation where there was no telling what other tricks that thing might pull, so after just catching my breath, I dove in once more. Even though its posture had been greatly twisted trying to evade Siegfried's greatsword, the demon noticed our approach and swung its tail wide, but when Siegfried's spell struck its flank, it convulsed and the tail missed widely. Not only the covering fire from magic, but also thanks to Siegfried stepping forward once more to aim for the neck, the task of closing in to the exact same spot as before was far easier.
Swinging my sword to target the wound, I could tell this time the blade definitely bit deeper into the muscle. If I'd wrapped it in Magic Power and slashed, it would have been cut through instantly, but I wasn't in a situation so leisurely that I could spend Magic Power on non-fatal attacks either. We could always sever it through coordinated attacks with Sheryl anyway.
Just as expected, not betraying my expectation, when Sheryl's precisely swung sword severed the hind leg's Achilles tendon, the muscle losing its anchor and curling up alone produced a chilling sound that echoed through the corridor.
[Aaaagh!!]
The demon's scream was just a bonus on top.
"Run!"
At my shout, Sheryl sprinted with all her might toward Siegfried as instructed, and I took a deep breath, watching the tail come swinging at me even as the creature collapsed.
"Still, having more surface area than a greatsword, this is doable."
Then, using all the Magic Power I could muster, I reinforced my body and drove my sword in to meet the swinging tail.
-BOOM!
Boom? Thud? Was that really the sound it made? In that instant, I think I might have heard Siegfried and Sheryl shouting my name, but I couldn't be sure. I had no time to worry about such things right now anyway, so in the floating sensation that arrived after the intense impact, I decided to do what I had to do first.
What a human hanging by a single sword from a swinging tail could do.
◈
Sheryl ran without a moment to spare to marvel at the fact her own sword had severed the muscle of that giant creature, reaching Siegfried and Teneasi in a near-sliding motion and shouting.
"Hero! Prepare yourself!"
"Prepare? For what?"
It was Siegfried, revealing his puzzlement as if he had no idea what she was talking about, just as she'd suspected. But since Eldmia had already spoken about this part too, Sheryl wasn't particularly worried. He must have had certainty to give such an order.
"I don't know either! Eldmia said you'd know immediately when the time came..."
Hurriedly correcting her stance to prepare for attacks that might follow, Sheryl was shocked speechless by the sight unfolding before her eyes, unable to even finish her sentence. Then, with a sinking heart and her mind gone blank, she screamed on pure instinct alone.
"Eldmia!!"
The dragon's tail, swung with full force in its agony, had struck Eldmia directly.
A deafening roar rang out, a sound so immense it was unbelievable as the noise of a human being hit by something. Reason and instinct shouted all sorts of assumptions and words, paralyzing her thoughts, and even Siegfried beside her was appalled.
"Little brother?!"
Even Siegfried, having witnessed with his own two eyes that Eldmia had failed to dodge that attack, could not believe it. That attack just now had been sufficiently avoidable. It wasn't a matter of speed but of simplicity. That demon was not accustomed to a dragon's body. It had merely insisted on a form certain to protect its own neck. Of course Eldmia would have been able to predict it, so why...
...Predict? Prepare? Would know when the time came?
"Tha... that crazy bastard, that!"
Though curses left his mouth, Siegfried could not control the corners of his lips rising in both shock and admiration.
Seeing Eldmia not sent flying by the tail strike but clinging to it, he was certain. And the moment the fully swung tail paused briefly at its apex and Eldmia leaped onto the dragon's body, Siegfried, understanding what that crazy human had been aiming for, gripped his own sword in reverse and roared, as if throwing a javelin.
"Eldmia! Catch it! It's a new sword!!"
The greatsword, launched with the Hero's full strength, flew like a bolt from a ballista and embedded itself deep in the dragon's shoulder. Even after seeing that, Sheryl could not understand what was happening.
"Huh?"
The only thing she could understand was that she herself was crying. Full-on, blubbering crying.
[N, No! No!!]
It was unmistakably Eldmia who had been hit, yet for some reason, the demon's wails echoed out. Only then sensing that the situation was bizarre, Sheryl hurriedly wiped her tears and stared at the dragon.
[Get oooooff!!]
At some point, Eldmia had climbed onto the dragon's back and was running across it to seize Siegfried's greatsword.
[Aah...!]
Whenever he seemed about to fall, he plunged the sword he was holding straight into the back to anchor himself, displaying movements no different from some acrobatic feat as Eldmia ran. With her thoughts paralyzed under the mortal threat running up her own back, Krumelia was horrified to find she couldn't even move as she wished, one leg no longer obeying her.
Roll on the ground? There was more than one enemy. Transform? Even as a dragon she was in this state, what else was there? Magic? The crazy human on her back was dispelling it through some unknown method. Breath? To fire that, before he climbed up...
[Fuuuuuck!!]
All that remained was a gamble. Reaching a decision, Krumelia spread the massive wings she had never needed to use before. And gazing at the waterway's ceiling, she mimicked a proper dragon.
[Kwarararara!]
A breath akin to a flash of light illuminated the underground. In that single moment at least, the strike imitating a true dragon's breath tore a massive hole in the corridor's ceiling. All kinds of regret began plaguing Krumelia's mind, but such things were not important now.
She had to flee. Even if it meant using nearly all her Magic Power, she had to escape this place and somehow gather sacrifices again.
[I will definitely! Definitely hunt down every last one of you and kill you all!]
A dragon required Magic Power even just to fly. But because of that, just a single flap of the wings was enough to soar from this underground up to the night sky above. That was why Krumelia was certain of her escape.
[Remember! The death soon to come for you! That death shall bear the name Krumelia!]
The dragon's wings flapped, and with a tremendous shockwave, the massive body was launched into the sky. Even as she felt her Magic Power rapidly draining and her heart weakening, Krumelia felt relief. The human clinging to her back could not possibly endure this speed. He would be torn off or fall to his death midway. Even if only that identity-unknown human disappeared, the next battle would clearly be far easier.
Realizing that the feeling creeping up was the relief and happiness of survival, Krumelia spread her folded wings the moment she reached the skies above the royal capital and laughed.
[Ha, hahaha! I lived!]
Drunk on the relief of survival, she looked down and saw the humans' lights glittering below, looking just like jewels. So many sacrifices. Just by firing her breath, which was nothing more than simple flames here, so many would die...
"Hey K, stop spouting bullshit and just give me your neck."
In that instant, she nearly froze mid-flap from sheer shock. Had she just heard a human voice?
'N, nonsense. That can't be.'
No. It was an auditory hallucination. It couldn't be. He endured that speed? A human? No, was he even human? Was I dreaming right now? No, how could this make any sense?
In the fleeting moment granted before an utterly unbelievable situation, Krumelia chose to escape from reality, and the tiny, tiny human voice reached her ears once more.
"Remember. That the name of your death was Eldmia Ega."
Only after the cold sensation followed and the world spun around her did Krumelia have no choice but to accept that this was reality.
In the spinning world, she saw the human hanging from what had been her own body. A human who had stabbed the sword he originally used into her body as a foothold, gripping the massive greatsword the Hero had thrown, staring straight at her.
Even as she fell, Krumelia faced the utterly horrifying human who was mocking her with his middle finger raised. She squeezed her eyes shut.
[At least YOU...!]
And she cast a curse.
In all her life, it was the first time she had been this furious at a human. No, the first time among all living things. Even if she returned like this, her life was in danger anyway. With luck she'd barely cling to life, and there was no telling if she could ever regain her original power.
Rather than accept that, she resolved to squeeze out every last bit of strength and curse that human to death, and the curse activated. Because it had been improvised, even a simple protection spell could dispel it, but during the fight below the saintess had placed no protection against curses on that human.
It would definitely land. The curse launched upward with that last shred of expectation...
[...Eh?]
The curse was dispelled almost anticlimactically easily and rebounded back onto Krumelia. While she could not understand what had happened, Eldmia, who had been flipping her off, looked at his gauntlet as though he had felt something strange. More precisely, he looked at the middle-finger section that had been pointed at Krumelia.
As if something were there.
Then, as if dumbfounded, he snorted and flipped her the double bird.
The meaning of that gesture was clear. That absurd human had even been hiding a curse-blocking artifact. Feeling the tears that spilled out riding the wind, realizing she could no longer maintain her incarnation, Krumelia thought her final thought.
You absolute fucking bastard of a human...