Just This Once (2)
Vivid blue flames surged and crashed into the avalanche.
If one were to kindle a fire using cold ice as firewood, wouldn’t the flames rise in just such a brilliant blue?
Hissss!
Where snow met fire, the snow boiled for an instant and billowed upward as thick steam. Dense fog blanketed the surroundings until not even an inch ahead could be seen.
Yet it was no hindrance to Iver or Friga.
Iver’s vision was never the sort to be blocked by mere steam in the first place. Friga, for her part, still had her eyes closed because she could not control her own senses, so nothing changed for her either.
Kwaaaang!
From Iver’s widely opened maw, flames sprayed outward in a fan. The avalanche seemed to falter for a moment, but its bulk was far too massive to stop there.
Slowly, the avalanche began to push the flames back.
《Grrraaah!》
The flames were gradually forced backward. Iver strained with all her might to spew stronger fire, yet she kept being driven back.
"Hoo—"
Friga knew it was her turn to step in.
She rose to her feet atop Iver’s back and settled her stance. Her eyes remained shut, yet everything around her felt vividly clear. No—opening them would only get in the way.
By shutting out her vision, her senses had grown even sharper, catching the tiniest signals. Each one flowed across her skin like a tiny current of electricity and painted a complete picture of the surroundings inside her mind.
The steam rising from flames and snow, the hot wind that blew, the roaring explosion of the avalanche, and Iver’s subtle trembling—she felt it all.
With both hands she gripped the Dragon Hunter’s Axe firmly. The axe that linked Friga’s and Iver’s minds glowed brightly and trembled roughly.
Sensing that Friga was about to swing, Iver shouted.
《My friend! Not yet! Wait until I give the signal!》
She disliked the way the dragon naturally ordered her around, yet Friga waited in silence. This lizard was so clever it was downright irritating. She was clearly aiming for something.
Grit.
She waited. Even as Iver’s flames continued to be pushed back and the avalanche advanced relentlessly, Friga clenched the axe tightly, ready to swing at any moment.
…! It’s starting.
She felt Iver’s chest swell massively. Sucking in every scrap of surrounding air with tremendous force, Iver roared.
《——— ———!!》
Unlike the earlier fan shape, the flames gathered into a massive sphere. Immense heat seared the skin. Iver concentrated for a long while, compressing the fire. The huge sphere grew smaller and smaller until it was small enough to take in at a glance. The blue flames trapped inside struggled fiercely against their confinement.
The bright light radiating from the sphere was like looking at a tiny sun that had descended to earth.
"Nice! Hey, lizard! Throw that thing already!"
《No! Watch carefully! This isn’t for something so simple!》
Iver shot the diligently compressed fireball high into the sky. The flame, still in the form of a great ball, soared upward and shone dazzlingly like another sun.
Friga, who had naturally expected it to be thrown at the blizzard, stared blankly at the rising fireball.
"…Huh? No, you crazy lizard! What the hell are you doing right now!"
《Hahahaha—! Hold on tight! It’s going to get a bit hot!!》
Iver flapped her wings and soared high. In an instant she left the ground far behind. At the end of that fierce ascent waited the fireball she had thrown.
Realizing it, Friga’s face turned pale.
"Hey—! You crazy bastard! What are you doing! Turn your head around right now!!"
《Hahaha—! To think the day would come when I could finally use a technique I’d only been conceptualizing all this time!》
"What nonsense! Turn around right now, you madman!"
《I can’t do that! I shall show you the secret technique I’ve prepared over long years, my friend!!》
"Secret technique my ass!!"
Friga was now shouting almost as if she were having a fit. Why was this guy who’d been doing so well suddenly starting this nonsense? This was exactly why you should never trust a dragon!
Regret came too late. Charging at full speed, Iver threw her body like an arrow toward the fireball she had launched. Anyone watching would have thought it an arrow shot straight at the sun.
"Crazy— lizard bastard!!"
《Hahahahahaha—!!》
Kwaang—!
"Kyaaah!"
As Iver slammed her body into the sphere, a massive explosion erupted. Friga instinctively covered her face and torso with the flat of the axe and clenched her teeth against the heat that would soon engulf her, vowing that if she survived she would chop this lizard’s neck clean off.
But—
The heat she had anticipated did not exist.
"…What…?"
She carefully opened her eyes and looked around. Everywhere she could see was burning. Even her own body and Iver’s blazed with blue ghost flames. Yet she felt not the slightest heat.
"The flames…? No. Is this even fire? This— shit. What the hell is this?"
Surging blue flames covered Iver and Friga like armor. And still they were not hot at all.
As Friga, who had been all tensed up, slowly relaxed and surveyed her surroundings, Iver panted and burst into laughter. She laughed so hard that if she had been on the ground she would have rolled around without a doubt.
《Haha—! Hahahahahaha!! Seeing you scared makes you look like a proper woman for once! Were you scared? Huh? Just for a moment, but you were definitely scared, right?》
"Y-you! You dog-like lizard bastard!! Did you do that on purpose?! I’ll kill you for real!!"
《Hahahaha—!! Such a delicate scream! Ah, truly, it’s so fun it brings tears to my eyes! As expected, you never disappoint my expectations!》
Was what she expected of her nothing more than a clown’s antics? Friga trembled, face flushed crimson. Shame and the self-loathing of having shown fear mixed and swelled until they felt ready to burst.
She wanted to swing the Dragon Hunter’s Axe and chop Iver’s neck into pieces, yet a single thread of remaining reason held her back. Without Iver, stopping the avalanche was nearly impossible.
Hoo. Yeah, it’s not time yet. Not yet…
Friga slowly regulated her breathing and calmed herself. Then she clenched her fist and examined her body. The blue flames still covered her, burning steadily.
Grit.
"Power…"
Power overflowed. When she clenched her fist she felt strength as if she could smash the entire world. The source of that power was the burning flames themselves.
《Hehe. How is it? My secret technique! You’re the first to see it. It’s a technique that requires working together with a human in the first place.》
"…"
Indeed, her whole body was filled with power. If she swung the axe right now it felt as though she could split the sky. Friga readily admitted it. It was an amazing technique. She didn’t understand the principle, but—
"…Couldn’t you have just thrown that fireball at the avalanche earlier?"
The fireball had blazed like a small volcano. Wouldn’t it have been easier simply to hurl that at the avalanche?
《What absurd nonsense! That wouldn’t be fun at all!》
"Fucking hell."
《My friend, you may not know this, but for dragons, fun is a value that must be pursued.》
Living a life close to eternity is like walking an endless desert. The mind is worn down by the long years, and memories are slowly buried like pebbles under blowing sand. In that infinitely long time, memories are forgotten one by one until even oneself is forgotten. One merely exists, just breathing.
To prevent that, one pursues fun.
《It is to set markers in a life close to eternity. Like a great lighthouse rising in a dark sea. So that someday, when one looks back, one can reminisce and not forget.》
"…"
It sounded quite plausible somehow.
"You just did it because it was fun for you."
《…Ahem! Let’s leave the miscellaneous talk here.》
"Who said you could decide that— Whoaak!"
Iver folded her wings and plummeted vertically. The blue flames covering her body blazed fiercely, scattering sparks. She headed straight for the center of the avalanche.
Friga gritted her teeth with a crunch and gripped the axe handle. Responding to her burning fighting spirit, the blue flames burned even more fiercely. The ghost fire gave her power, and the overflowing power flowed into the axe.
The avalanche opened its massive maw as if to devour them both. As though leaping into a monster’s belly, the surroundings darkened beneath the avalanche’s shadow.
"Hup!!"
《Go, Dragon Hunter!》
Kwaang!
Without words they already knew what each other had to do. Friga kicked off Iver’s body and leaped high into the sky. Flames surging from her body trailed long behind her, drawing a brilliant trajectory as she soared until the avalanche lay far below her feet.
《Hahahahaha—!!》
Iver burst into maniacal laughter and spewed fire toward the avalanche. The fireball flying straight, shining blue, was like a beam of light itself.
When avalanche and fireball collided—
Kwaaaang—!!
A massive hole was punched straight through. In an instant the center of the avalanche became empty. Left alone it would simply have vanished naturally, but Iver did not leave it at that.
Kwaang! Kwaaang—!!
Twice, thrice. Like an axe smashing soft wood, Iver spewed fire and smashed the avalanche apart. Large holes opened in the wall of snow that had been like a massive fortress, and its momentum lessened.
But this was still not enough.
《Now!》
"Even without you saying…"
Crunch.
Friga’s teeth ground and cracked in her mouth. She twisted her waist with all her might and poured every ounce of weight into the axe. Uncontrollable power and ultra-vivid senses showed her the path.
It was time to finish this.
"I know!!"
Kwagagagak—!
She swung the axe horizontally. As if slicing the avalanche clean through from side to side, she cleaved the empty air. Following the axe’s trajectory, blue flames stretched out in a long, blazing line.
The surging blue fire shot along the path of the blade—from the rightmost end all the way to the left—crossing the land and drawing a horizontal line straight through the body of the avalanche.
The massive flames split the avalanche apart.
——— ——— ———!!
An indescribable roar shook the world. It sounded like the earth collapsing, or like the sky itself shattering. The flames that connected the ends of the horizon dug into the avalanche, smashing, burning, and splitting as they blazed.
Blue fire consumed the avalanche as it burned. Steam rose in thick clouds, covering heaven and earth. The avalanche that had charged forward like a mad bull slowly came to a halt—
"Ha, haha…"
—stopping with a deep gouge carved into what would have been its head if it were a living creature.
Friga, who had literally squeezed out every last drop of strength, could finally smile. And then she fell like a bird with broken wings.
The blue flames covering her body vanished, and the endlessly vivid senses disappeared with them. Exhaustion flooded every limb. She felt the weightlessness of falling through the air, yet Friga simply accepted it. The guy would come catch her.
《Well done, Dragon Hunter.》
Her hazy vision filled with blue light. The weightlessness vanished, and she felt a gentle touch catching her.
"Huu…"
In her flickering consciousness Friga raised an arm that felt as heavy as a thousand pounds. Even that light motion brought tearing agony, yet she moved it steadfastly.
Thwack.
Friga’s middle finger slammed squarely into Iver.