# 028 An Unexpected Strike
# 028 An Unexpected Strike
The leader of the mercenary group 'Black and White,' Sage Time, was a mercenary with many years of experience.
He primarily used the sword, and over his years as a mercenary he had traveled to truly countless places, carrying out commissions and earning money.
And now.
As a member of the Black and White mercenary company, he had entered a dragon's lair with the intention of grabbing one last solid fortune.
"Chief, isn't this dangerous?"
"What's dangerous about it?"
"It's a dragon's lair, all the same."
"Hey. It's not like we've never caught a dragon before. What are you so scared for?"
Sage clapped his subordinate on the back and burst into a hearty laugh at the man's worry.
"Don't go worrying about stuff like that. How much did all the equipment we're carrying cost? But are we the kind of guys who fight relying only on gear? No."
As Sage said, Black and White had crossed countless life-or-death lines.
Out of the twenty mercenary group members who had entered the lair, including Sage, five were S-rank, and the rest were all A-rank.
They had effectively brought the full combat power of the mercenary company, and Sage had come here to hunt the legendary dragon.
"They say if we just take out the dragon, the Goddess Church will give us a huge reward. Think that's all? You'd be treated well enough to receive at least a count's title no matter which country you go to."
A reversal of fortune.
The reason adventurers and mercenaries deliberately went into dungeons and raided dragons' lairs even in the face of mortal danger was simply money.
Because they could rake in such an immense amount of money that they could comfortably buy ten houses in the capital and still have plenty left over.
The secondary honors and power that came with it would be every bit as potent as the wealth and treasure they'd obtain.
"We are definitely going to kill the dragon and get rich. You got that?"
"Well...."
One subordinate cautiously opened his mouth.
"What if we just kept selling drugs and living like we used to?"
"You're saying we should turn back now that we've come all this way?"
"They say no one has ever survived leaving a dragon's lair."
"Hey. How long are you gonna live doing slave-trader shit? A man's gotta dream big."
The Black and White mercenary company had dabbled in a truly wide variety of businesses.
And among those was the buying and selling of drugs, people, or demihumans.
The money earned through adventuring wasn't much different, but outside of adventuring they bought and sold all sorts of goods as a kind of side job to secure a fixed income.
"And besides, if we give it our all here, the church will turn a blind eye to us, won't they. Right now our business operation is one step away from being smashed to pieces."
"Ngh...."
The reason the mercenary company had come together with the Goddess Church was partly voluntary, but there was a measure of external pressure as well.
-If you render aid in exploring the dragon's lair, your sins shall be absolved and an indulgence bestowed upon you.
Rather than risk their lives on dungeon expeditions or mercenary work once their steady income disappeared, they would be better off taking this chance to wipe their slates clean once and for all.
"We cut off the dragon's head and start a new life! You got it!"
"""Ooh!!"""
The mercenaries cheered at Sage's rallying cry and raised their weapons.
Still, as befitted a mercenary company fairly famous across the continent, the lighthearted atmosphere began to grow serious the deeper they went inside the lair.
"...It's a little strange."
Sage pointed forward with his chin, and a single thief stepped forward first to examine the state of the path.
"Nothing."
"What? That's impossible. No traps...?"
"Chief, there really aren't any traps. It looks like this path is the enemy's regular transit route."
"Hmm...."
It had been about twenty minutes since Sage's mercenary company had entered the lair.
Excluding the unicorn at the entrance, no matter how slowly they had walked, the complete absence of even a single monster fit for a dragon's lair was definitely odd.
"Did he move out, maybe?"
"Wouldn't that be a disaster? We're supposed to bang the women the dragon captured."
"You're saying shit like that in here?"
Sage snorted a laugh at his subordinate's lewd joke.
The situation aside, the story that the black dragon had selected only beauties and locked them away in the lair's prison was already a widely circulating rumor.
If that turned out to be true, they could kill the dragon and enjoy themselves with the women they rescued.
-Die, dragon!
-Kyaak!
-You've come to rescue us, Sir Knight!
-Rise, my lady. In commemoration of your rescue, let us have sex.
-Yes!
"Heh, hehehe."
The mercenaries each wore a greasy grin as they carefully proceeded inside.
The end of the long corridor.
The space, which didn't even have a door, was a wide, rectangular open area.
The ceiling was well over a minimum of ten meters high, and the flat floor and surrounding space were reminiscent of a training ground.
"This place is...?"
"Wait. There's something over there."
Clack. Clack.
The sound of heels echoing from the distance.
"High heels...?"
A woman?
Shaaa.
Bright light shone inside the training ground.
The magic stones embedded in the ceiling began shining a white light down like the sun, and at the far end of the training ground stood a single human figure.
"......Damn."
Black hair.
A red mask.
Gold eyes glittering beyond the mask.
A body so provocative that none of that even mattered.
"Fuck me, I've never seen tits like that before."
"Is she a demon? Showing off a rack like that, seems demon to me."
The woman, who boasted a breast size that could rival most any high elf, was dressed indecently on top of it.
Black clothing that clung tightly to her body from her shoulders to her thighs.
The outfit, which exposed her entire figure and even perfectly revealed the shape of her large breasts, was so lewd that even brothel whores couldn't hold their heads up before it.
"She's definitely the demon dragon's lewd bitch. Wearing an outfit like that, no way she isn't a bitch."
What's more, over the black clothing her breasts were fitted with a protective guard that looked as if a lich, reduced to bare bones, was clutching them, and on her lower abdomen was embedded a 'Dragon Emblem' shimmering in vivid crimson.
Her legs were fully bare, with only killer heels.
While the twin swords in her hands were somewhat incongruous, her appearance was one that made you want to beat her down on the spot, shove your cock between her tits, and spray it across her face.
However.
It was impossible that the masked woman they had met in the lair after defeating the unicorn was an ordinary being.
The proof of that.
Shiiing.
From the twin swords the woman was holding, black Aura surged out simultaneously.
At the Aura Blades that instantly enveloped the swords, Sage hurriedly assumed a combat stance.
"Be careful! She could be Grand rank!"
"......."
The woman said nothing.
She simply stood still, her swords hanging loosely to either side.
"Don't think she's just one woman! Form up! Group A first, charge!"
"Whoaah!!"
A huge man and three lithe young men ran toward the woman.
The man with animal pelts wrapped around his body clad his two fists in green Aura like gauntlets and dashed at the woman at breakneck speed.
"We hit first and ask later!"
The leaping man's fist strike.
The attack, aimed precisely at the woman's chest, at her face—
Thwuuunk!
"...Huh?"
It never connected, because the man had been intercepted midair by an iron sword that had flown in from somewhere.
The iron sword was lodged in the man's heart, and he dropped straight to the floor and crumpled sideways.
"W-what...?!"
"Where'd that sword come from?!"
Slice, slice.
No time even to be shocked.
Another sword appeared and slashed the shoulders of the other two young men.
The two young men collapsed, spraying fountains of blood, and only then was Sage able to grasp the identity of the enemy that had attacked his allies.
"Living Swords...?"
Above the woman's head, two swords were floating weightlessly.
At the swords' movement, which defied the laws of physics, Sage couldn't help but recall dungeons where spectral entities often appeared.
A dual-sword woman and a ghost swordsman.
That was the most common-sense conclusion.
"Team B and C, attack those floating Living Swords! The rest of you, target the woman!"
The moment Sage and the mercenaries were about to disperse.
"Heh."
The masked woman stretched both hands out to the sides, the swords she had let hang low—
She let them go.
"What—"
The swords fell perpendicularly toward the floor, and—
Swaaaak!!
At terrifying speed, four swords flew at the mercenaries.
"Hyaap!"
Claaang!
Sage frantically swung his sword and intercepted the incoming blade.
It was clearly just a thrown sword, flying through empty air, but it was too heavy.
It was as if he were facing a tremendous swordsman—
"?!"
Claaang.
His body moved on instinct.
At the killing intent he sensed from the side, he raised his sword without realizing it, and before him was the woman's sword, precisely aiming for the space between his eyebrows.
Shaaa.
The woman began to move both hands elegantly.
Like a conductor leading an orchestra, she was moving both hands leisurely.
No—she was swinging swords.
Left and right, with both hands.
Each individually.
"Be careful!! Right now, every sword flying through the air is a sword that woman is swinging!!"
* * *
A sword technique that flies through the sky.
If I were to express this suitably in an Eastern term, would Flying Sword Technique do?
'Let's just call it by its original name, Seven Swords.'
There were only four flying swords, but I just had to move the swords fast enough that they seemed like seven swords flying through the air.
"Gyaaaaghk!!"
One by one, the mercenaries failed to overcome the swords I was swinging and fell.
Because Sharia was watching, I wouldn't kill them, but I still sliced them only in places that would hurt like hell if cut.
'If Sharia had been the one who invaded my lair, I'd have sliced her up plenty.'
Normally, any virgin who succeeded in entering my lair was made to endure all manner of hardship on her way deeper into the lair.
I'd have her clothes dissolve from slimes, have tentacles stir up her whole body, pass through the botanical garden that emitted aphrodisiac gas, and then get through succubus traps that forced wet dreams, several times over, before she could reach me.
'I really am putting in all this effort to look good for Sharia.'
Even so, I was doing my best for Sharia's sake and cleaning things up moderately.
What I wanted to show her was the destination point of the way she fought, not the image of a mad entity brutally slaughtering enemies.
'Come back.'
I retrieved the four swords that had been flying through the air and attacking the enemy, gathering them behind me.
Drawing a cross, the swords converged into one and began spinning in a clockwise circle in the air. I grabbed the center and swung them forward.
"Th-this is unforgivable!!"
The one who looked to be the mercenary leader drew a conspicuously white sword and leveled it at me.
From the blade to the sword's grip, the whole thing was white, and a peculiar decoration like snake scales was attached to the back of the blade.
"D-die!!"
A strange mana attack came flying from a distance.
At the massive amount of white Aura, I felt something familiar.
"...No way?"
"Dragon Emperor Death Beam!!"
Kwaaaaaaaahhh——!!
From the white sword aimed at me, a dragon breath of a familiar energy erupted.
The breath of the one who had once.
Been called the Dragon Emperor, the worst dragon in history.