Dragon in a Romance Fantasy (Pecking Order Established)
Dragon in a Romance Fantasy (Pecking Order Established)
"If you have flown even once, your eyes, while walking upon the earth, will forever turn toward the heavens."
These are the words of a genius ancient who was a painter, engineer, scientist, musician, inventor, and, well, had many jobs.
"I'll kill you, Trixie!!"
A white flame, gaining rotational force, grows increasingly massive inside the White Dragon's mouth.
Bbeep-
As soon as Ashtangite rises into the sky, I call the drone that was waiting nearby and board it.
Puhwaaaaak-!
I circle around Ashtangite in the air, dodging the radial pillar of flame.
"Ha! To think you're just running away helplessly like a fruit fly before such a massive gap in power, how pathetic!!"
"Thanks to endless curiosity and a spirit of inquiry, humanity achieved the impossible dream of flight. And now, we even know how to look beyond the heavens."
"You...! Focus on your destruction, Trixie! You insolent piece of scrap metal wearing a human skin! Stop spouting nonsense in the face of my supreme power!!"
Hwareureuk-!
The breath, burning with rage, is fired continuously, targeting me.
Even without direct contact with the fireball, the temperature is enough to turn an ordinary human into ash in an instant just from the surrounding heat.
Even though I can now utilize the three-dimensional space of the sky, moving away from the two-dimensional ground, it is not easy for a human to approach an opponent who breathes out such massive, ignorant flame explosions as if it were breathing.
"But I am no longer human."
Cheolkeong.
I stop circling and face Ashtangite.
I set my fully tuned black riot shield to the front, preparing to break through the incoming breath head-on.
"Ha! Have you finally recognized the difference in our stature and are willing to die obediently, mortal!"
Shield front magic-enhanced flame-retardant coating: Good.
Shield rear magic-enhanced insulation barrier: Active.
Shield body shape-memory elastic alloy shock absorption: Ready.
Let's go.
"I will burn you to your heart's content! Those who dare to defy the dragon's authority and disrupt the order shall be excluded from the world...!!"
Kwaaaaa-!
The most massively condensed energy yet is fired toward me.
Tat-!
I, too, kick off the drone that let me fly and leap toward Ashtangite's head.
The flames swallow me.
Gooooo..
All sound is cut off, and only the scorching roar swallows the surroundings in silence.
Ppajik, Kwajik.
The shield warps and bends, being shaved away by the mass of the flame explosion.
My form disappears within the violent explosion.
"The Ancient Dragon has finished it off!"
"No matter how much she blustered, she was just a mortal in the end."
The watching dragons were certain.
That it had been perfectly annihilated.
Even if her strength couldn't be underestimated.
In the end, she was nothing more than an imitation that couldn't escape the limitations of a human.
It felt as if the fact that no one in this world could challenge the divine dignity of a dragon had been proven once again.
However.
"Who is a mortal? I'm standing right here, alive and well."
Ssiik-!
As the remnants of the breath cleared, there stood a girl with a smile more vibrant than ever.
"W-what is that...! Why! How are you unharmed!"
"This cannot be. It's impossible. If hit by a breath fired at full power by an Ancient Dragon, none of us could guarantee our survival..."
Scorched and singed in places, but still looking neat.
The shield, which had clearly made unpleasant noises as it bent and broke, had also been neatly restored to its original form before anyone knew it.
Trixie's charge, far from being thwarted by the breath, had actually approached the very edge of the White Dragon's mouth using the momentum of her leap.
"Kuaaaaa! I'll admit you managed to endure it once with some skill! Let's see if you can be so relaxed after taking it twice-?!"
"No. There won't be a second time."
Kwaaaak-!
I grab Ashtangite's lower teeth and hang on.
He tries to close his mouth to chew me up, but I am the one who has pushed back the kicks of a house-sized dragon.
I easily withstand the fangs coming from above.
"Geuuu. This brat until the end! Fine, let's see who lasts longer!!"
Uuuuung-!
Ashtangite, seemingly fully intent on burning me to death even at the cost of an explosion inside his own mouth, prepares the breath again.
I watch the fireball, which is spinning and growing larger, with ease and declare.
"Do you know? The fact that breath is generated by complex chemical reactions inside the body that dragons themselves don't even realize."
If they shoot fire from their mouths, wouldn't they burn the roof of their mouths? Yet they shoot it just fine.
The research of Lunatium scientists started from that obvious curiosity.
As a result of studying the mysterious operating mechanism of breath, which seems like magic but isn't.
"My, you were walking weapons of mass destruction."
Hwiririk-!
I wrap my legs around his lower teeth and hang upside down, facing out of his mouth like doing a handstand.
With my other foot, I keep pushing away the upper teeth that are tightening.
Tak-
With my hands freed, I grab the dragon's lower jaw.
"I heard there's white phosphorus in the dragon's lower jaw glands."
"Keu. What are you trying to say? You!!"
White phosphorus.
Yes, the dangerous chemical white phosphorus used in white phosphorus bombs that ignites just by meeting air.
They store highly flammable white phosphorus components in their glands, and when they fire breath, they contract the lower jaw glands, causing the white phosphorus to leak into their mouths.
That white phosphorus mixes with the saliva and air in their mouths to become Dragon Breath.
In other words.
"The conclusion is that if you want to stop a dragon from firing breath, you just have to rip off the entire lower jaw. If you extract the fuel tank, how could it possibly ignite?"
"...Wh-what did you say...?"
Ashtangite, seemingly sensing what he is about to suffer, his voice, which had been confident until now, begins to tremble.
"Stop!! Just because I made a mistake in judgment and got a little excited, doesn't mean there's still room to resolve the conflict through dialogue! Even you wouldn't be able to make enemies of all dragons!"
"If you had suggested that before starting this fight, I might have been tempted."
Udeuk.
I put strength into the hands holding his jaw.
Kwadududududududuk...!
The unpleasant tearing sound of a giant jawbone splitting.
"Since you rushed to kill me first, prepare to die fairly."
"Aaah...! Aaaack, Keuhaaaaaack!!!!!"
Kwajjijijik!
Successively, the jaw is completely detached.
Kung...!
After a roar of pain that shook the earth, the giant body collapses to the ground.
"The Ancient Dragon..."
"Has been defeated...?"
The dragons were shocked, as if they couldn't believe the tragedy before their eyes.
The Ancient Dragon.
A dragon that has lived for thousands of years, believed to have existed since the earth opened and the sky rose.
Such a ruler of all things had just fallen.
It was not a hot-blooded young dragon who defeated him.
Nor was it an adult dragon possessing both cool-headed reason and the vitality of its prime.
Much less was it a chosen human born with the fate of dragon-slaying.
It was the small girl before their eyes who defeated the Ancient Dragon Ashtangite.
A creature forged by human hands had broken the pinnacle of the world.
And very unilaterally at that.
"Now. I've proven the overwhelming difference in our stature. Are there any other mortals who wish to challenge me?"
"...."
Jjuuk-
I stretch on top of the fallen Ashtangite's head.
Everyone, from adults to young dragons, is silent, paralyzed by fear.
It seems the sight of their boss having his jaw ripped off, leaving him with only sparks sputtering from his mouth like a lighter out of gas, and him fainting with his tongue hanging out, was quite a shock.
"Then, assuming there aren't any, I'll deliver the notices."
First. Don't get involved in conflicts between humans from now on.
Second. Don't touch Lunatium.
Third. If you break either of these, I'll rip your jaws off just like that.
"Of course, there must be someone here who is harboring secret thoughts of trying to harm Lunatium behind my back."
The blind spot of an order achieved through violence.
There is a structural problem where if you give even a little opening, you get retaliated against.
But then, I just need to make those flying lizards realize the overwhelming difference in our stature so they don't even think about climbing up.
I looked past the sky—higher than the sky where ancient humanity dreamed of flying.
"Elara. I know you're peeking from above."
[Huh? Eh?! The orbital satellite cloaking field is fine. What? How on earth did you know!?]
"There are ways."
Pachit-
Elara, surprised, calls me.
She is always terribly worried about my safety and tries to assist me in every move, so it's almost disappointing if she doesn't watch.
I ordered Elara.
"Forget it, calculate the coordinates here and strike with maximum output, appropriately, without hurting anyone. Since they all watched, I trust they'll take the hint and understand what I mean."
[Maximum output...! Understood, General Director! Orbital precision laser strike, executing with a bang!!]
The moment Elara finished the communication.
Jiyuuuuung-!
A golden gamma-ray laser shot down from the sky leaves a circular perforated line on the ground.
As the terrain is smoothly cut away and collapses as if carved by a giant knife, the dragons, whose retreat path is blocked, are shocked.
"Th-thunder! That person is wielding lightning! And it's lightning that stands straight in a line, which one cannot easily witness...!"
"How can such harmony be possible for a mere mortal."
"Is it true that she has surpassed us and reached the realm of the Creator...?"
No matter how long they live, fly, run, talk, and breathe fire, they are ultimately barbaric flying lizards living attached to the surface of the planet.
It meant their scope of thinking hadn't expanded enough to recognize space-based weapon systems.