51 Volume 2 Chapter 7: Dragon Breath
The dragon raises its foot, roars angrily, and slams it on the ground with force huge enough that the surrounding people feel the ground they are standing on shake.
And Melon, who is getting around the battlefield by making steps in the air - as if mid-air is just another surface like the earth that one can freely walk on. She turns her body around, she dashed towards the dragon's waist with high speed, her balled fist smashing into the dragon scale with smells of gunpowders filling the air.
KABOOM! And with the sound of a giant explosion, the surrounding people caught the shocking sight of The dragon that is on fire!
"Heat up… and then…" Melon murmured, there is some smoke around her body. She steps up and thrusts again while simultaneously firing more and more gunpowder.
She already chucked her boots off, the scales on her feet shine purple, the unique color from the enchanted items in Minecraft.
"Cool down!" On the same spot, the lizard girl sent a strong kick onto the dragon's waist.
Because the scales around her feet are enchanted with the [Frost Walker] enchant, the ice starts to cover the dragon's body en masse.
Accompanied by the sound of multiple things breaking apart, Melon just broke its thick dragon scale with her powerful attack! The thrusts and the explosive recoil made her attack go deeper, and finally dealt direct damage to the dragon!
The sudden heat and cold managed to make the dragon's scale brittle.
The dragon roared out in pain and stepped back. This huge monster the size of the mountain just got knocked back by Melon, only with her fists and feet!
The white-haired princess with a spear is watching all these with shock, surprisingly so are those salamanders, they who should be attacking her are all frozen in shock.
WHO IS SHE? The princess had never seen anyone fight in this way. She is surprised that a person that strong is in the raid.
No one had ever fought monsters with only fists...! This is totally unheard of. She tried to remember every S-Grade adventurer in her country, but no one ever fights in this way.
Back to Melon, she is now moving around the dragon, and making holes on its body! No matter how the dragon struggled and tried to shake her off by swinging its claws, biting its jaws, or smashing with its tail, it still couldn't stop her.
Flames and ice rose and fell on its body, the punches of fire and kicks of ice landed over and over again. The dragon's scales are badly damaged, with blood everywhere on its body.
"HOAAAAAAA!" The dragon roars, and decides to twist its head around to chase Melon.
Melon thrusts herself in the midair with the explosive recoil of [The Bands of the Bold]. She had completely attracted the dragon's attention away from those adventurers!
Alright, now I just have to bring it far enough to buy them some time for their escape!
Melon is analyzing every part of its dragon, while dodging from the dragon's attack.
It has scales that are thick and huge, a jaw that can break rocks easily, some giant claws on front feet, and two strange bone plates on the back. Maybe they were wings a few generations ago?
If it can't fly, and has these body structures, then it must be very good at digging!
Also, it is huge, with high strength. But unlike those boss monsters in the forest, it is very slow.
It doesn't resemble the dragons in the stories, which are said to be very smart and cunning, but this dragon is like a crazy beast. She has no idea why it's lacking intelligence, but this fact would undoubtedly help her in this battle.
Unfortunately, even though Melon can deal damage, it still can chase her like nothing happened to it. If Melon can't find its weak spot, she will just be wasting her strength and bullets.
Master only gave me 6 stacks of bullets, 16 magazines per stack, which means there are only 96 magazines I can use.
96 magazines, with 100 bullets in each, so there are 9600 bullets in total. Every step I made in midair costs one bullet, attacks cost 10, and the Bands of the Bold on my hands and legs all need bullets… I've already used up 5 of my magazines from those attacks.
Ordinarily, as long as Melon is using her [Bands of the Bold], the boss monsters in the forest would quickly drop dead; she has never seen anything that can withstand five magazine's worth of damage and still survive!
I shouldn't have picked a fight with this kind of monster without proper planning. So right now I should keep this dragon as far as I can from the adventurers, and leave after they all escaped! Melon decided.
At the same time, The dragon raises its claws, and with a roar, he slammed it down on Melon!
At this moment, despite not having enough muscle on its face to make an expression, Melon feels with certainty that the dragon is smiling!
Bullet boosts her momentum, Melon makes a double jump, and dodges the attack. But different from a normal claw attack, a giant, yellow magic circle appears as its claws slam into the ground!
"Magic!" Melon was surprised. The spell had made a giant sandstorm, obstructing her vision, and blew Melon away.
While stuck in this sandstorm, Melon can't see anything. So she uses two magazines at once to make a large enough boost and get out of the sandstorm!
After she landed, the dragon was gone!
With her sharp hearing and improved senses from her skills, Melon heard some sound from underground, and that sound is moving towards those retreating adventurers very quickly!
I was too careless!
This is bad, the dragon was unexpectedly cunning. It actually got me chasing after it instead! Melon tried to chase it, but the digging dragon was way faster than on the ground!
If she can't hold this dragon in place, there is no chance that the others can escape!
On the other side, there are fewer salamanders now, plus the dragon was pulled away. The white-haired princess's work is getting easier as there is less pressure.
By the time she starts covering the adventurers, the ground rumbles, and a hole appears!
Amid the flying sand and rocks, the dragon started to launch attacks towards the princess.
"[Storm Thrust]!" The princess threw her spear, covered with blue lights, towards its chest without hesitation!
The spear exploded, the powerful mana wave made the dragon stumble back a little, but it soon attacked again.
This time, there is no weapon she can use to defend now!
However, thanks to that attack, she had bought enough time for Melon to get here. Melon's attack came from the sky, landing a heavy punch on the dragon's head from the back. That unbalanced the dragon enough to make the attack miss.
With a roll to shunt off the momentum from Melon's punch, the dragon quickly whirls around, facing Melon, and opens its mouth.
Huge amount of mana starts to gather in its mouth. At this moment, Melon has nowhere to dodge this.
A breath attack!
The dragon breath, like a beam of light, went straight upward and lit up the entire cave!
When it gradually dimmed, the entire cave quieted down. No sound was left except the wind.
The dragon turned around in satisfaction and readjusted its posture. It glanced over the stunned adventurers, with an almost human-like arrogance and satire in its eyes.
A scream from... someone, breaking the silence, became the last straw for the adventurers. Terror swept away the remaining reasoning in their mind and they panicked
Philip Rex and Rowendemay became de facto of the running sheeple, for they ran faster than anyone else.
The white-hair princess stayed at her position against the colossal dragon. Even with no weapon in her hand, she had no intention to flee, for she knew that to turn her back on the dragon is to give up the lives of the folks behind her.
Therefore, although making this last stand for the people would cost her her life, she would take this responsibility as a royalty.
The strange mix of Blue and Green colored wind-type mana circulated around her body, and she raised her fists up to her chest.
Though she knew that her fists couldn't do as good as the lizard girl, she would do her best to save some lives. Any single one counts.
Seeing the princess making her stand, the dragon raised a foot in disdain and dropped it against her. Suddenly, before they touched each other, a figure jumped in and blocked the giant limb with an explosion!
"Your opponent ... should be me!"
Melon landed and soon stood up. The [Band of the Bold] was reloaded as it generated some daka-daka cracking sounds. She turned her body to the monster with her preparation stance.
The dragon breath was so close to her that she used four cartridges on acceleration just to avoid being hit.
Nonetheless, escape by such a manner overloaded Melon's body, dealing massive recoil damage. She felt pain everywhere in her body and found it difficult to stay conscious enough to keep her [Physical Reinforcement] in effect.
She regretted underestimating her opponent.
Fortunately, she also figured out the dragon's weakness.
"HOAAAAAAAAAAA!"
The dragon roared in anger, for it saw an annoying fly that should have been eliminated reappeared in its sight.
The dragon did not hesitate to throw its claw against Melon, and Melon disappeared in a burst of ice, flame, and gravel!
She felt her fist growing heavy as it hit the dragon. Iron dummies and boss monsters were as light as feathers compared to the dragon.
Her wrist hurt as if it was burning, while the monster in front of her remained physically unshakable like a mountain.
Why? Why am I standing here? asked Melon herself.
The glow of the dragon breath blinded her.
Melon swings her fist instinctively, continuously...
*BOOM*
That uppercut punch resulted in a blast at the dragon's jaw and slanted the dragon breath up. However, Melon's hand made some cracking noise as if her body was crying in protest.
Melon found her mind separated from her body. She started to detachedly "observe" her own movements as if she was not controlling it.
In Melon's view, she unhesitatingly continued using the [Band of the Bold], which her master told her to try not to use.
What makes me fight this nightmarish creature even if I have to go against Master's will? asked Melon again.
She "saw" herself bypassing another claw swipe while accelerating, spinning in the air, and ending up with her right foot thrown upon the dragon's head.
This made its skin frozen. And then a blazing punch landed!
Heat and cold —and hence cracking!
However, the dragon countered by sweeping its tail at Melon, managing to land a powerful blow on her.
It hurts.
Why do I keep fighting even if it hurts so much? Why?
Such questions had remained unanswered since the very evening when Melon had her fists dancing crazily with the indefinite number of monsters in the forest.
She was asking the same question then, while she let her arms move mechanically all alone in the jungle of monsters.
But this time, when she was hit into the air by the dragon's tail, she noticed the frightened crowd looking at her. She started to realize something...
Ah ... could THAT be my reason?
If THAT's my motivation, everything is surely explained.
Again the dragon opened its mouth and gather mana toward its throat. Melon dodged by using another four cartridges without worrying about the load added on her body.
She kept swinging her injured fists and felt confidence from the smell of blood.
"I can do it."
She shut the dragon's mouth with a rising kick at its jaw, trapping the upcoming dragon breath inside.
She landed beside the dragon, bent her limbs, and held herself on the ground. Her next target was the neck, which was covered with the dragon's tiniest scales and was exposed whenever the dragon habitually lifted its head.
"What am I fighting for?"
Melon held her fists tight and was prepared to bring the fight to an end.
"Those people, their eyes filled with fear... Just like me in... that fateful night."
"Just like today, surrounded by darkness and monsters."
"Under the greedy eyes of wolves, there was a man who blocked the wolf king's flame and saved me."
All the cartridges exploded at once! They turned Melon into a shooting star!
"I was weak, but then I changed."
"I wish—I wish to be like you."
A pair of fists full of faith—unbreakable.
Unbreakable—thus unstoppable.
Splattering blood blocked Melon's view, then she penetrated through the neck as she expected.
"So, why do I do this?"
"For I want to reach you, so that I may stand beside you—that's all—my good, beloved master."
