Drake's Roar and the Hero's Sudden Chills
Abel burst forward.
“GO!!!”
The soldiers followed right behind him. Celine stared in shock at the blessing clinging to Abel.
*The Blessing.*
It was the strongest blessing among the four tiers of blessings, one that even the entire world could wield, granted to extremely few. Currently, only the Popes of each sect were said to be able to use it, since the true Saint had not yet appeared.
Celine could obviously not use it. But she could tell at a glance that Estelle had cast the Blessing. The amount of divine power infused into Abel during the casting had been enormous.
Celine stared at Estelle with a dazed expression.
“…Did Her Majesty truly choose you?”
Estelle answered with a gentle smile. That alone was more than enough of a response. Celine asked with deep reverence welling up from the bottom of her heart.
“But why keep that secret?”
“…If it were known, there would be far more work involved. I wanted to live as a nun for quite some time.”
“…Did the Church not object?”
“It was a request personally made by Her Holiness. There was some resistance, but Her Holiness resolved it.”
Estelle added one more line at the end of her answer.
“…Still, I feel like I want to quit being a nun soon.”
“…What?”
“Nothing at all. We’ll follow the Hero as well.”
Estelle mounted up. Celine pondered for a long time before realizing her true intent and looked at Abel.
*The Hero is receiving the Goddess’s love, no different from that…*
#
Abel charged toward the monster wave, eyes fixed on the monster that looked exactly like a crocodile at the very front.
*A middle-class monster?*
It was enormously large and carried an oppressive aura that made it impossible to view as merely middle-class. The monster gazed at Abel and opened its jaws wide.
Abel stared at the crocodile-like maw and gripped the Holy Sword in his right hand, tracing a Rune Character in the air with his left. The Rune he drew was the character for *Ice*.
Abel completed the Rune and chanted.
“Ice Spear.”
A razor-sharp ice spear materialized and shot straight into the monster’s open mouth.
*Thud!*
“—!!”
The moment the spear pierced the throat, the monster let out a blood-curdling scream. It began thrashing in agony.
“Oh, good.”
The massive body thrashed wildly, smashing into its own kind. Abel sent it a thumbs-up.
However, because of its enormous size, the thrashing posed a threat even to the soldiers.
Abel quickly jumped high to sever the monster’s head. He had intended to mount its back.
“Eh!?”
He jumped even higher than he expected. The body strengthened by the Blessing possessed far greater athletic ability than Abel had anticipated.
“Uwaaaaa!!!”
Abel frantically stabbed the Holy Sword downward. Luckily, the sword pierced straight through the monster’s neck with a *thud*.
Abel withdrew the sword from the monster’s throat, legs trembling as he muttered.
“…I should have jumped higher.”
The moment Abel defeated the monster, the soldiers’ morale skyrocketed.
“The Hero has slain the Crocodile!”
“Follow the Hero! He will lead us to victory!”
‘…Crocodile?’
Abel wondered if the name of the monster he had caught was really ‘Crocodile.’
*No way. It can’t be that it’s named ‘Crocodile’ just because it looks like one.*
Abel pulled out the Holy Sword. Blood spurted everywhere, splattering his face and armor.
“…Ugh.”
Abel wiped only the blood on his face and leapt forward again. Unlike ordinary Heroes who would wait for the soldiers to deal with lesser monsters while aiming for the stronger one or the final target, Abel did not. As long as the soldiers didn’t get hurt, he cut down the monsters threatening them from the front.
The Abel who had received the Blessing was nothing short of a rampaging berserker. Low- and middle-class monsters were no longer opponents. Every swing of the Holy Sword brought one or more monsters crashing to the ground.
“Oh! Hero!!”
“We can’t lose! Fight with everything you have, give your lives!!!”
‘Is he actually a true berserker!’
Instead of protecting the soldiers, he was the one charging at them with even more fervor. Abel shook his head.
Suddenly, Celine approached him.
“Hero-nim.”
“Celine, what is it?”
“Do you see that?”
Following the direction Celine’s finger pointed, Abel’s eyes sparkled.
“Oh, it’s a dragon!”
“It’s not a dragon. It’s a Drake. A monster that resembles a dragon, as you said, but without wings. Given its red skin, it’s a Fire Drake.”
“Ah, I see.”
“It’s a high-risk monster on the Wyvern level. If left alone, the soldiers could be swept away by the Drake’s ‘Semi-Breath.’ Could you handle it?”
Abel gulped. But he realized that no one else would do it if it weren’t him and replied.
“I’ll give it a try.”
“Yes, thank you.”
As Abel charged ahead, Celine glanced at Estelle and asked.
“Will you not fight at all?”
“…I’ll only prepare for any unexpected situation. I’m not like the ideal Hero.”
“…Surprisingly cold.”
Celine said this while thinking Estelle’s judgment was correct. She watched the Heroes battling the Amon-class monster from a distance.
If those Heroes failed to exterminate it, the only one who could resolve the situation would be Estelle. It was only natural to conserve strength for that moment.
“Then I’ll fight hard.”
*Divine Arrow*
Spiraling arrows of wind appeared. They sliced through the air and pierced the monsters’ joints.
“…You’re quite skilled.”
“I’m also a Saint, after all.”
It was a Divine-series Holy Technique. Given its size, it looked like at least a mid-level bishop grade.
*Divine Sword*
This time, a wind blade materialized and sliced the monster in half. The casting time for the Holy Technique was not slow, and it was appropriately helping the soldiers.
‘This should be enough help for the Hero.’
Estelle turned her gaze to Abel. He had already pushed inside to target the Drake.
‘…When did he get so bold?’
The speed with which Abel approached the Drake surprised even Estelle. He had ignored the horde of monsters in front of the Drake and cut them all down to reach it.
“…You’ve grown a lot, Hero-nim♥”
#
The Drake. Up close, it truly resembled the dragon Abel had imagined. Aside from lacking wings, as Celine had said… it was cool.
“Can’t I ride it?”
…This isn’t a game, so it wouldn’t work. The Drake noticed Abel and opened its jaws wide.
“KROOOOOO!!!”
Whoa… That’s noisy. This is basically noise pollution turned into noise terrorism.
“I’ll have to cut off its head because it’s too loud.”
The roaring Drake filled its mouth with flames.
“That’s what Celine mentioned, the Semi-Breath.”
A technique that wasn’t dragon-like but named after one. The raging flames confirmed that it would be difficult to survive a direct hit.
He couldn’t open his mouth.
Abel immediately traced a Rune Character with his empty left hand. The character he wrote was the one for *Seal*.
The instant the Drake tried to open its mouth, Abel shouted.
“Seal!”
Abel chanted and the Drake’s mouth was sealed with a mana rope. The Drake’s mouth was forcibly closed, and Abel immediately swung the Holy Sword.
*Whoosh!*
“Oof!?”
What is this… Ah, the front paw.
*BOOM!!!*
Abel was knocked sideways by the Drake’s front paw and slammed hard into the ground.
“Ouch…”
…I got distracted thinking about the breath and forgot the front paw.
Because of the Blessing, it didn’t hurt that much. If he had taken it bare-handed, he would have left this world right there.
Fortunately, the magic’s effect hadn’t ended yet. The Drake scratched its face with its front paw and struggled to peel off the mana rope.
“…Here I go again.”
*Thud*
Abel stomped the ground with his foot and charged toward the Drake, Holy Sword in both hands, aiming for its neck. But the Drake finally peeled off the mana rope.
“!”
A raging flame erupted from the Drake’s mouth. Abel kicked the ground with his left foot and twisted his body to dodge. He barely avoided it, but balancing…
…Found it.
He flipped the Holy Sword and stabbed it straight into the Drake’s front paw.
“Kwaaaak!”
Abel twisted the spear that had pierced the front paw and flipped his body backward. Gripping the hilt, he landed in the proper stance on the ground.
…Mom, I just did a backflip I’ve never done in my entire life.
The Drake, having lost one front paw, filled its mouth with flames again.
This time, don’t dodge.
Abel had learned it from earlier. He didn’t need to avoid the breath. The breath ultimately spat out in a straight line from the Drake’s mouth. That meant there was an opening in the trajectory.
The Drake unleashed the breath. Abel immediately dove into the gap that wasn’t in its path.
It was hot just from the heat, but not hot enough to endure with a body strengthened by the Blessing.
“That’s enough playing with fire, Drake!”
Abel sliced the Drake’s rear leg with the Holy Sword. The right leg that had been pierced earlier. The Drake had lost all support to maintain balance on one side, and the unbalanced Drake began to fall sideways.
Abel gripped the Holy Sword tightly with both hands and thrust it upward.
*Crack!*
The sound of bones breaking echoed. The Holy Sword precisely pierced the Drake’s spine. As he twisted the sword sideways, the bones shattered with a loud crack. Blood and bone fragments sprayed from the wound.
The Drake’s body, whose nerves had been destroyed, trembled violently. Slowly, the convulsions subsided and movement ceased.
“Huu…”
Abel looked at the corpse of the dead Drake in his hand and realized one thing.
…The Blessing is a cheat buff.
“The Hero has slain the Drake!!”
“WAAAAA!!!”
What the heck, when did you get this far?
The soldiers had somehow pushed the frontline close. Seeing that Abel had slain the Drake, they charged at the monsters with thunderous cheers.
“Kill them! If you don’t kill them, we’ll die!!”
“Waaaaak!!! We can’t lose! Fight with everything you have, give your lives!!!”
…Why are the soldiers acting so crazy here.
#
“Hmm.”
Estelle watched Abel’s battle with interest. She felt a little regretful that he had allowed a direct hit to the front paw by showing an opening, but the way he immediately identified and exploited the weakness of the Semi-Breath afterward was excellent.
*You really do have talent. You grow so fast.*
With this growth rate, she would soon…
“…The day I see the wonderful Hero I desire will come soon~♥”
Abel suddenly felt his whole body shiver.
“???”
The sudden chills made Abel glance around, tilt his head, and charge into battle again.