352. Tarnix (2)
352. Tarnix (2)
- 1 -
Kwarreureung ─ !!!!
The sky split in two.
Black and red.
The black dragon Tarnix's breath, laden with pitch-dark venom, and Shue's densely seething crimson mana.
Two colossal forces clashed head-on, unleashing a destructive roar that seemed to shake the entire island.
Kwadeudeudeuk ─ !!
The shockwave spread in all directions, convulsing the atmosphere.
An impact strong enough to uproot trees near the epicenter.
Tree roots and leaves, accompanied by clouds of dirt, flew everywhere as if caught in a storm.
Kung ─ !
Before the aftermath of the two forces had even subsided, the spot where Shue had been was deeply cratered.
She vanished, leaving only a crimson afterimage.
The airborne Shue tore through the air, leaving afterimages behind like a blood-red flash itself.
Kwaang!!
The black dragon's lethal breath, capable of killing most things it touched, and claws that struck like lightning.
She evaded all those attacks by a paper-thin margin, her attacks exploding against its scales.
The sight of the massive creature's leg being knocked away and its whole body staggering was, given the mood, slightly comical.
One might say it resembled a clumsy puppet show unfolding in the sky.
- You rat-like thing!!
A ferocious blaze erupted in the dragon's demonic eyes as it realized it had staggered so disgracefully.
- 「Killing Intent」!
A simple declaration of will. But the result was anything but simple.
Kkeugeugeugeung ─ !!
Black flames and oil that clung like tar. Green fire and virulent poison.
Beyond that, all manner of magic and mana swirled and gathered over its two wings, then were fired indiscriminately in all directions.
An ear-splitting noise.
A storm of mana filled the entire surroundings.
"... Hmph."
But Shue did not take a single one of those attacks.
It wasn't because she was fast.
「Roaring Laughter」
It was because she was strong.
As Shue's fist struck the empty air, a semitransparent red force rippled outward in concentric rings and immediately caused a powerful explosion.
Kwakwakwakwang ─ !!!
A wide-area explosion blanketed the area.
It swept away all attacks heading toward Libertas beyond Shue, far too simply.
- Noooom ─ !!
Kung!!
The dragon's fury exploded. In the literal sense of the word.
However, the beast could not focus solely on Shue.
While Shue and Tarnix dyed the sky in red and black, the others on the ground were not merely idling either.
"「Stream of the Styx」."
Sonia rose into the sky and spread both hands toward the black dragon.
A windless current swirled.
Her black robe and skirt swayed eerily.
A gray 'stream', a mixture of darkness and water, was drawn up from the shore and crawled toward the sky like a grasping hand.
- Do you think such a paltry curse will work on me!!
Tarnix instantly recognized the reality-altering magic and roared.
Kung!!
The manifestation of its formidable will deflected Sonia's curse just like that... but Tarnix's face contorted.
Seuseuseuseu...
Because Sonia's curse did not burst and dissipate; it continued to attack persistently, like a gnawing parasite.
Even though by all rights, a shoddy curse like that should have shattered instantly against his power.
Before he could project his full strength to break the curse.
Kwajik ─ !!
Terrible pain wracked his head.
While his attention had briefly been directed downward, Shue's leg, tracing a crimson afterimage, had driven into Tarnix's head.
- Keuaaack ─ !!
Tarnix involuntarily let out a cry of shock and a scream, righting himself in the air, but the women did not miss the opening.
"「Six Tails Guidance, Crossing, Seven Tails, Demonic Mist of Strengthening, Emergency Decree」 — "
Yuran muttered in a strange voice.
The golden and violet flames burning on Yuran's six tails intensified in an instant, and at last, a seventh flame ignited.
The seven flames vanished immediately.
Leaving only the result behind.
Sseuaaak ─ !
The violet mist that suddenly appeared enveloped Shue, Sonia, and the soldiers on the ground from the island's sky.
The essence of Foxfire Sorcery: burning the enemy's strength and mental energy to convert them into mana, and simultaneously granting that to allies.
The crimson light boiling over Shue's entire body blazed fiercer, even more ferociously, as she received Yuran's power.
"Heu..."
Red steam seeped from Shue's lips.
All her skin, save for her eyes, hair, and face, had long since been dyed the color of blood.
The concentration of mana surpassed its limit.
Right at that moment — Huk — Shue's body transformed into 'light' once again.
Kwakwakwakwak ─ !!
- Keuheok ─ !!
The massive body of the dragon Tarnix staggered pitifully in the sky.
- 2 -
I waved one hand idly.
Kwang!!
- Kyaaaack ─ !!
The drake that had just been about to snatch one of my subordinates into its mouth and chew him up was sent flying as if struck by an invisible shell.
Seeing the one I had helped about to bow at the waist toward me, I waved my hand as if to tell him to get back to what he was doing.
He was a rather absent-minded fellow. Understandable, as he had nearly died.
'Is it because they're a dragon's demonic beasts...'
I nodded slowly.
They passed muster.
'They are strong, at least.'
The moment Tarnix had first exploded in fury, as if the gates of hell had opened, all manner of demonic beasts poured out from within the island.
At sea, various marine monsters including sea serpents fought a fierce battle against Echidna's navy.
In the sky, a flock of venom-laced black wyverns flew in, darkening the air.
On the ground, demonic beasts led by drakes surged out like a wave.
'Their individual strength aside, their forces are nothing to scoff at.'
A formidable army.
It was enough to guess why Agares had granted this being the high title of Count.
Of course, unlike the relationship between a Dungeon Lord and their summons, there was no sign of contract or bond whatsoever — it was a relationship enforced purely through magic and mana subjugation.
But whatever anyone said, numbers can sometimes surpass quality.
Moreover, the quality of this monster legion wasn't bad either.
'Mostly Elite-grade demonic beasts.'
Like the time with Gertrude recently, these monsters were stronger than ordinary ones.
It was probably because they had grown by gnawing at the power of a Lord-level monster nearby.
But...
'My army is stronger.'
- Fire — !!
The head held in the Dullahan knight's hand screamed, its mouth gaping wide.
The knight aimed a bow toward the sky, and the rays of light serving as arrows streamed from the knight's mouth.
Pabababak ─ !!
Led by the mana arrows shot from the Dullahan's mouth, countless ranged mana weapons and spells were fired from all over.
Kwakwang ─ !!
- Kieeeek ─ !!
The black wyverns flying from the sky turned into rain showers of oil and blood.
Those charging on the ground were brutally crushed by the assault of undead warriors wielding heavy weapons, and even at sea, the pirate ships were skillfully pressing the sea serpents.
I leisurely twirled a parasol and gazed at the sky.
It was an ironic thing.
This place was clearly a battlefield reeking of blood, yet all I felt was a tranquility akin to appreciating flowers and butterflies in a summer garden.
Kwadeudeudeuk ─ !!
Right then, Shue was using her power without restraint, completely dismantling Tarnix.
Sometimes she rode up onto the dragon's back and shattered scales along its spine; other times, she received Yuran's power from the front and unleashed even more amplified mana to fiercely press the attack.
I watched this entire process while maintaining a transparent mana barrier that enveloped the entire battlefield.
In this battle, thinking only of defeating Tarnix would have been problematic.
Isolating the battle so the power of core forces like Shue, Sonia, and Yuran was not fully exposed to Agares was also extremely important.
Of course, I had enough leeway to intervene like I had a moment ago, but...
- You... you insignificant insects!!!
The same held true for Shue, Sonia, and Ran.
A dragon, said to be the mightiest creature on the surface.
And its moniker, 'Storm of Death,' that swept the south of Zenota.
Unbefitting of that renown, Tarnix was dying so utterly miserably.
- 3 -
- You dare wound my noble body!!
A cry that was like Tarnix's final desperate struggle.
Shue, who had traced a blood-red trajectory and burrowed under the black dragon's jaw, smiled coldly.
"Noble? You mean thin. Your era is over. Black lizard. This era... is my Master's era."
- This... white rat!!
Tarnix's eyes blazed as if burning with fury and humiliation.
Thicker venom and darkness surged from his entire body.
He was wringing out his remaining strength to prepare a final death throes.
But Shue gave him no such opening.
Teop!
- This is...?!
Tarnix's eyes dilated with terror.
Shue, her body clad in power, leaped into the gaping maw of the dragon.
And Tarnix instinctively closed his mouth.
The moment he hurriedly came to his senses and tried to concentrate mana within...
- Keuaaack ─── !!!
Unimaginably immense pain overflowed from his insides.
Kwadeudeuk ─ !!
Shue burst out, tearing through the dragon's belly, and shattered its internal mana structure like a pane of glass.
The colossal dragon scattered black gouts of blood through the sky with a harrowing scream, plummeting as a massive lump of meat that had lost its life force.
Agares's powerful headache of a vassal, Tarnix, fell after a battle lasting merely a couple of hours.
The monster subordinates who came to their senses were also being helplessly suppressed by Libertas's elite soldiers deployed on the ground.
- 4 -
"Well done, everyone. Shue. You were truly outstanding."
At my praise, Shue blushed slightly.
"Mm..."
A faint sigh escaped with her short reply.
Regenerating the skin of her forearm that had melted slightly from the venom, she split open the giant dragon's chest and pulled out its still-hot heart.
Eujik!
The heart, which should have been hotly pulsating, was exposed to the world.
A heart with a far more hideous shape than a normal one, wrapped in bright red veins and blood vessels flowing with venom.
Crimson mana flowed from Shue's hand as she grasped it.
Huuuuk ─ !
Condensing gradually along with the blood covering Shue's entire body, the heart transformed into eight gemstones.
These 'Bloodstones' made from the heart could substitute for high-value magic stones, though not quite equal to a dragon's core, the 'Dragon Heart'.
"Here. Master."
"Thank you. Here, take these."
She offered the gemstones to me without hesitation, and I, equally without reservation, handed half of them back to her.
Shue's red eyes curved into crescent moons, and she immediately tipped them into her mouth.
The mana sensed from her increased a little more.
The other four were destined for useful purposes. Uses that, while not as valuable as giving them to her, might, with luck, create more broadly applicable value.
- Let's get started!!
- Whoa. Monster hunting is the most fun at times like this.
Other subordinates approached the dragon's corpse to begin dismantling it.
Flesh, hide, bones, entrails, and the core where mana was condensed.
Because the body was so large and each part had to be separated with minimal loss, it was a task that took quite a long time.
Sonia, who had been watching the process, spoke in a voice thick with regret.
"To think we must give a third of these precious things to Agares. The more I think, the more regrettable it is."
"It cannot be helped, Lady Sonia. There is the information-use fee this time, and originally, we might have had to fight his soldiers the moment we entered Agares's territory."
Ran gently soothed her and added with a smile toward me.
"Moreover... are we not gaining a far greater combat force than this?"
"Indeed, that is true."
Sonia nodded in agreement. Ran was right.
"My lord husband. I have brought tea and refreshments."
"Thank you."
We leisurely enjoyed tea and refreshments at a spot slightly removed, watching the spectacle of the dragon being dismantled.
Until only a giant graveyard of bones remained.
"Master! Everything is ready!"
Sonia, who had approached Tarnix's corpse and finished the final inspection, waved her hand and called me.
'She was pretty before, but now she's even cute.'
Since returning from the northern battlefield, her attitude toward her comrades and me had brightened considerably.
Like ordinary women her age.
Her appearance, which had become much healthier in comparison, suited that positive attitude quite well.
"How is it?"
"There's still quite a bit of mana remaining. As expected of a dragon."
Answering Sonia's question briefly, I looked at Tarnix's bones.
- I'll kill you...!
As I placed my hand on the skull, the resentment from before death and the lingering venom coiled coldly and stickily at my fingertips.
A smirk touched my lips as I murmured a single word softly.
"「Summon: Bone Dragon」."
Immediately after, Tarnix's massive bones were dyed in a dull ashen hue.