Chapter 33: Dragons
After accepting Shea's confession, she has become clingier, not like I mind that. But this is not the time for that.
"Shea"
Shea Hearing looked at me with her azure eyes filled with affection. "We are here for a job. We need to finish it."
Shea processing my words, said with an apologetic smile "Ah, yes, I almost forgot".
We then started to search near the river. It didn't take too long to find some clues. A few meters ahead of us were sure indications of a fighting could be seen, torn and burned trees, a few broken swords and armour, and blood splatters. But not a single body.
Just then a telepathic link was sent by Hajime, "Rihito, we are near your location, hold your search until we regroup ourselves.
"Alright", I responded. In the sky, I notice an 'Ornis' passing by.
…
Hajime and his group took about 30 min to reach us. He came close to me and incurred about what I found. Then I told him about the broken tree and the blood splatters. Hajime had a pensive look upon hearing that.
…
While we were discussing what to do, Aiko and the others were fatigued because they had been walking for so long without a break.
"Huff, huff… how are they so fast", Aikawa mutters slumping down.
"Hey how strong do you think Hajime and Rihito are to walk so much and not even sweat", Yuka asked the others. Standing beside her huffing, Nana said "I don't know, let's take a break…"
…
While Hajime and Rihito were discussing, Shea went to Yue. Yue noticed Shea and asked, "You look a lot happier. Did something good happen?"
Shea hearing that smiled "hehehe… yes, Rihito has accepted my confession and now I am officially his girlfriend."
Yue hearing that gave her a thumbs up "Good". Yue nodded.
In the middle of our talk, Hajime suddenly looked at the direction of the upstream.
Seeing his serious look I asked, "Did you find something".
"Yeah," he nodded.
I shouted at others "All right everyone! We are heading deeper inside this forest so make a formation. Hearing me Aikawa and others taking Aiko as a centre formed a formation.
Then we headed towards the upstream. On the way, we found a few weapons, broken trees, and more blood. they were probably from the same party as our target.
Aiko's group seeing all this blood looked even more pale, so they tried to avoid looking at it as much as they could.
Shea, walking beside me, suddenly jumped ahead when she noticed something and grabbed something hidden under the tree leaves. It was a pendant.
Shea then handed it over to me. I use my magic to remove the grim and dirt from it. After it was clean, we noticed it was not a pendant, it was a locket. I opened it, and inside it was a photo of a woman. Hajime speculated it might belong to one of the adventurers.
Afterwards, we found more articles about the deceased or so we called them, but they only collected items that would allow one to identify their owners. Having searched around for a while, eventually, the day was slowly turning into night, and the time for setting up camp was approaching.
While we searched around these mountains, we still haven't found any sign of life. Hajime seeing this frowned, he even checked it with 'Ornis' in the immediate surroundings there was no monster in sight. I also noticed this and spoke, "From what was said about crossing the mountains, usually, we should have encountered one or two monsters. But until now we face none."
"Yeah, I was thinking the same." Hajime after pondering said, "Maybe a very strong monster is nearby, from which all the weaker monsters ran away", He spoke with uncertainty.
"Possible"
After a while, the 'Ornis' found a location with abnormalities. There were leftovers of destruction about 300 meters to the east. Hajime urged everyone to rush to that location.
We then hurried to the location, it took us about half a minute to reach to the place. In front of us, there was a big river. A small waterfall could be seen upstream, and the volume of water was immense, with a violent current. Originally, it was likely to flow straight towards the foot of the mountain, but currently, there was a large and small river branching along the way. It was as though it was gouged by a laser or something, from the flank.
The reason they had such impressions was because the gouged part was a straight line, while the surrounding trees and ground were scorched. Furthermore, as if they had received a big impact, a lot of trees were partly broken and thrown tens of meters to the side. On the riverside, big footprints were measuring more than 30 centimetres.
"It seems the real combat happened here. These footprints were of large bipedal monsters." Hajime then looked at me, "Do you think it is done by those monsters called Brutal beyond the second mountain after this."
Hearing his conjecture, I denied it "Sure this footprint might be explained but what about that? I pointed at the gouged part of the river. There no way a brutals had an ability that could do this much damage, and in the off chance it does, we need to put it down or who knows how much damage it will do after we leave."
Hajime sighed hearing me, "I know, I was just hoping it would be less troublesome."
Then I used <Mana Sence> again to check whether there were some survivors nearby. I have been doing this periodically, but to my concern, I have not found any sign of life till now. Suddenly, I sense a life signature near the waterfall.
"Hajime", hearing my voice he looked at me, and noticing the serious look he followed me. Yue, Shea, and Aiko's group also did the same.
We stood before the waterfall. "This is it," I said with certainty.
"Yeah, I can sense it now," Hajime said.
"Did your <Sign Perception> skill pick-up"
"Yeah." he nodded and it was not just him, even Yue also did the same.
"It looks like one of the survivors is behind this waterfall," Yue said.
[So, this is the place where it will happen.] Thinking that I asked, "Shea keep your ears open, if you hear anything abnormal immediately inform us."
While I was giving instructions to Shea, Yue used Wind Magic to split the waterfall from the middle creating a passage. Aiko and others seeing this dropped their jaws in astonishment.
"..."
We then went through the passage. Inside the cave about a few meters ahead there was a boy passed out. Aiko seeing the boy passed out says in worry and panic is he alive.
"Yeah", Hajime said grabbing the boy's collar. He then used his other hand to make a finger-flicking gesture and flicked his middle finger in between the boy's nose and forehead.
"Guwah!!"
The boy screamed as he woke up, the young man writhed while covering his forehead with both hands. Aiko and her students shuddered because of the powerful and merciless forehead flick. Hajime ignored Aiko and the students and approached the young man with teary eyes to ask his name.
The boy disorientedly asked, "Who are you". But instead of answering Hajime grabbed him and asked "Are you 'Will Cudeta'." 'Will', still disoriented answered, "Yeah."
Seeing 'Will' alive my thoughts were of relief, [Finally, we found Will, then next should be…] Just when I thought that, Shea voiced in a serious tone bringing out her 'Drucken'. "Rihito, Hajime, Yue there are somethings in the sky that are coming towards us. I don't know what they are."
At that moment, Will remembering something grabbed Hajime's collar and shouted in a panic "We have to get out of here now or every one of us will die."
Hajime seeing Will so much in panic asked, "What is coming."
"Dragon!!! We have to get out of here now." We then hurried out of the waterfall basin. [If it is really a dragon as Will says it will be troublesome fighting it from there. I will let Hajime deal with the dragon.]
"GUuRURURURU"
A roar echoed through the sky as a jet-black dragon fixed its golden-eyed gaze upon us, unfurling its wings.
"..."
When Will saw the dragon, he started to shake in fear. The trauma of losing every one of the adventurers that protected him had hit hard.
Just when we were about to face the black dragon, another even more furious roar was heard. I hurriedly looked back in the opposite direction, above the waterfall, there we saw a green dragon, even bigger and bulkier in size compared to the black dragon. Seeing this, I was flabbergasted and thought, [Is this the butterfly effect I heard in the novels?]
"..."
"..."
Seeing the second dragon, I instantly used telepathy not looking away from the dragon. [Hajime, Yue, Shea you three take on the black dragon, and I will deal with the green one.]
Shea hearing my battle plan said in disbelief, [No I will fight with you. let Hajime and Yue deal with the black dragon.]
I instantly denied Shea's suggestion, [No, you can't, from what I am sensing the black dragon is very strong, and the green dragon is even stronger. If you want to even stand a chance against it, you three need to work together.]
Hajime who was silent till this point spoke up, [What about you? As you said Green Dragon is stronger. How will you deal with it."]
I said the next word in an assured tone, [Don't worry about me, with my speed I am not worried, even if I am not strong enough to beat it, I am still fast enough to avoid its attacks. So, my chances of survival are pretty high.]
["Fine"]. Hajime replied back in slight worry, finishing the conversation". the whole conversation took about 8 seconds.
Hajime then gave clear orders for everyone to follow "Yue, Shea standby and ready to support me at any time. Rihito you will deal with the Green Dragon.
Before the battle, Hajime said, "If you die, I will hunt you down, you got that." he said in a threatening tone and prepared to fight the dragon ahead.
Shea also looked at me with slight tears "If you die, I will also follow along, you get that." She then looked back focusing on the fight ahead of her.
Yue also looked and said, "Don't die".
I then used Barrier Magic to create a dome-shaped barrier on top of Will, Aiko and the students and then used my skill <Enchantment > to give the barrier properties like magic resistance, shockwave absorption, and physical damage absorption.
While I was finishing the enchantment Aiko asked, "What about us". I then replied in a serious tone "You guys will stay inside this barrier and protect Will. We can handle the rest." Aiko hearing my response wanted to protest, but my sharp look silenced her.
After the barrier was done, I looked at the bulky green dragon and released my <Bloodlust > at full power and my intent to fight. As I expected, the green dragon sensing my intent looked at me and roared.
"RAARAAAAAA"
I then jumped using <Superhuman Leap> and kicked the green dragon with <Speed Strike>.
"Bang!!"
My attack had sent the dragon flying backwards, to which I followed along with the dragon.
…
"Chapter end"
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Author note:
What do you think when Mc finally tries to figure out the process to travel to other worlds? Should I make it so he mistakenly travels to a dark version of Arifurata, the so-called dark worlds?
Vote:
Yes
or
No
(If you like my story please comment and give me power stone. It will motivate me to write more. Thank you.)