Chapter LVII - Heat (part 2)

Hod walked forward just a little bit in front of us. He unsheathed his sword and pointed it at the flying dragon. I immediately called, wondering if he is still sane.

"Hod?"

"We take its ability to fly, just like the usual. Then we take the ability to move. Just like usual."

Everyone else grinned at his words. They have been with him for a long time, and he knows exactly what he meant.

This dragon is no different than the other monsters they have slain so far. A high Yellow ranked or not, this beast is still a beast.

And we all have slain tons of beasts before.

"Finally, we take its ability to breathe."

Hod lowered his rapier and put his hand forward instead. With a single breath, large spikes of ice were conjured out of thin air and shot at the dragon at an incredible speed.

But the dragon didn't even move an inch.

The spikes of ice bounced off its skin completely and cracked. It fell to the ground without making a single dent on the dragon's scale.

Seeing the awkward scene, I accidentally coughed.

"Pfft..."

"I was just testing the waters!!"

Hod turned to me with a red face. Everyone else is also trying to hold out their laughter.

Such cool words were spoken, but a little bit too early. He can't even deal a dent to the beast.

Well, at least now, nobody is tense or afraid.

"Then... let's do it for real this time."

I stepped forward.

I lowered my body while forming a stance, and put both of my arms and swords on my right, preparing for a huge slash. I enchanted my swords in intermediate fire magic and heavy magic energy, just like usual.

Then with a single leap from my enchanted leg muscles, I spun in the air as I slashed the air, creating fire slashes and energy slashes.

The dragon, who was previously looking down on us, didn't expect such a powerful attack coming at its way this sudden. But it was already too late to dodge.

It blocked the attack with its wings and exploded.

BLARRR!!!

Smokes came out from the dragon. When the smoke clears, the dragon is still flying, but a little bit of its wings was burned. And it looked very displeased.

"Take the wings. We kill it once it reaches the ground."

I said to the others. And without hesitation, Valey prepared three incendiary arrows and shot them towards the dragon's wings.

The dragons dodged them and dived straight to us.

Everyone jumped out of the way when the dragon landed on where we previously stood. It created a huge crater when it landed.

"Or... The dragon came down by itself."

I mumbled and grinned as I dashed towards the dragon.

The dragon felt my presence and unleashed a heavy black flame at me. I simply dodged to the left and right, until I finally arrived at its legs.

I sliced my leg without enchanting my swords with plenty of energy, and now the leg is simply bleeding.

"Tch! Too shallow."

I jumped backwards when the dragon fired its wave of black flames again. The colour of a dragon's flames wasn't the same as fire magic tiers. The black flames in this case are counted as a dragon flame. 

Dragon flames had multiple colours, but they all had the same level of power. In the end, what differentiates the flame's strength is the dragon's level. For example, a lesser dragon's flame is much weaker compared to a normal dragon's flame. And that is because the amount of energy a normal dragon has is completely on a different level than a lesser dragon.

And in this case, the flames had turned black where previously it was blue. This dragon indeed was going through evolution.

The dragon glared at me using its menacing eyes. I returned the glare with a similar one, then tilted my head towards its left.

The dragon was too late to realize my signal, because Cony was already on top of its head.

.

"Cony! Wash yourself, please!!"

Valey cried as she tried to stay as far away from Cony as possible. Barett is doing the same, while Hod and I stayed neutral. Though we both tried our best, in the end, Cony really needed to wash up.

She was the one who sliced the dragon's neck, spraying a ton of blood into her entire body. In the end, the dragon died due to lack of blood, with its head still barely intact.

And now Cony, fully covered in red from hair to toe, is just standing there awkwardly. I recalled when Hod mentioned that she was extremely odd when it comes to these things.

In the end, she refused to clean up until Hod showered him with the water he conjured on top of Cony. She was pretty pissed that she forgets Hod can use water magic too, but Hod had no choice. There's no way the carriage owners will let a person bathe in blood inside their carriage.

Valey and Barett bow at Hod in gratitude while Cony frowns. I simply chuckled from the sides.

Yes… this is the kind of thing I want.

We walked back to the village (which took years) and went inside the carriage that will take us back to Mazino. I have been in this village a few times already since this village is at the edge of the kingdom's territory. 

For an adventurer, coming to villages at the edge is already like a habit. Most of the problems came from the sides because the more centred the location of any town or village, the less issues there are.

For example, the mission where I had to hunt demonized beasts as a Red/Grey ranked is counted as those minor possibilities. Beasts do exist, but they often take evolution to a whole new level, creating demonized beasts. Which is why the kingdom overlooked this issue. 

I mean, who the hell is going to hunt all those bears? There are way too many of them, and the kingdom can't afford that much energy just hunting down animals.

I looked around to see the vast forest we drove past. The area we went to previously was not a forest, but more like a mountainous area with a bunch of giant stones. Looks good for practicing, but it's quite far away.

The sun had already dropped quite far down. Guessing randomly, it should be around two hours until the third bell, so it's somewhere around 4 pm.

This kind of life... I wonder how long I can keep this up. I won't lie when I say this is a good life. But in the end, nothing lasts forever.

I was looking around the path we just took when it just hits me that Hod is looking at me like a fucking creep.

"What do you want!?"

"N-Nothing. It's just... You seem brighter now."

"Haah!?"

Everyone else chuckled but Valey seemed to nod.

"W-Wait, I didn't mean it like that! I mean ever since you got your magic back."

Hod quickly explains himself before I chopped his head off. Why would he say that? That's weird, bro.

"I mean, back then, you were always so gloomy and silent. It's like you are hiding your true intentions and goal. But now, it feels like you have... Let things go?"

Hod turned to the others and they all nodded in agreement. Even Valey did, and I guess what he said wasn't wrong. They all turned to me to see my reaction.

"Ow... Well..."

The reason for that is quite simple. It's because I am enjoying this before I disappear. But they haven't heard about it, so I guess while we are still on the road, it's a good time to tell them.

"I think this is the perfect time to tell you guys."

I told them about everything I learned at the meeting. How I will leave the kingdom. And I only have one week before going out.

As expected, they were surprised. They just got me back after all, after two weeks of isolation from magic. And now I have to go away again, because the Office sends me on a suicide mission.

Hod let out a sigh.

"What the hell was that master thinking… How long will the mission last?"

"Valon's rough guess... More than two weeks?"

Everyone else grumbled. That was far too long.

"But I guess, if master Valon picked you, then that means there isn't anyone else better at doing this than you."

"Do you trust him?"

"Who? The master?"

He kept saying the master.

"Somewhere around I will follow him everywhere, but not to hell. He always had good eyes for many things. He is smart, and I guess you can trust him, Rize."

"I'm not exactly sure if I wanted to, but thanks for the idea."

I stretched my hands and landed my head on Valey's shoulder. Valey grinned knowing that she won't be able to move her shoulder at all for the whole ride. I dozed off just after a minute.

Yep. This is just peaceful.

Why can't it stay like this forever?