"Did you know the heroes are setting out to slay the evil archdragon?" A perplexed voice sounded in the cafe.
"What! That monster? good riddance! It will no longer harass us." Another voice spoke as the hall became very loud with people praising the heroes.
The hall was filled with people, but aside from all of them, there were two people who were eating some hot bread and sipping tea at the very edge of the hall, with hoods covering their heads.
They were ignoring all others and were solely focused on eating the bread and drinking the tea. After they finished their meal, they stood up and went to the counter to pay.
"How much?" The male asked, and the lady on the counter caught a glimpse of his face and blue eyes. She was captivated by such light eyes.
Slightly flushed by the sight of such a cute and handsome face, she said, "It's on the house!" She said it with a shy smile.
The man was about to open his mouth to speak, but he couldn't, as before he could say anything, the other person with him suddenly caught his hand with hers.
"We can't do that; so please take these," she said as she placed two silver coins on the counter and quickly dragged the man with her.
She had luscious black hair that went past her shoulders, but it was such a shame that her face was covered by a mask.
"Karna, do you really want to take this quest now? We might not be strong enough to kill an archdragon." The lady asked her partner, who was now addressed as Karna.
They were walking through the forest in search of the archdragon that was lurking here, harassing human civilizations and destroying multiple hunter groups that went to slay the dragon.
"We can do it; with your sword and my bow, we can kill it with some difficulty, and we can also use 'that' if needed." Shizue nodded as she walked along with him. It's been two years since they became friends and then partners; they've been killing monsters and training hard.
-------* Karna pov* -------
It was a quest from the hunter's Association. I learned a lot from these two years of my life in this world.
There are beings called true dragons. These are the supreme beings who are at the top of the food chain. One of them was sealed by a hero 232 years ago; the Hero was also the one who trained Shizue, and she also said that the Hero gave her the mask she was wearing.
Then there are the demon lords, the Ten Great Demon lords; all of them have great influence over the western continent; the Eastern continent was ruled by an imperial Emperor; and the Eastern Empire was protected by the True Dragon, Velgrynd, the scorch dragon.
I also found out that I can't just freely use my Unique skill to control spiritrons without care because Holy energy is different from spiritrons.
We researched what spiritons are and found out that spiritons are used to cast spells like disintegration, a high-level holy magic. Only Saints, the Luminaries from Lubelious, the holy empire can do it currently.
"I have no problem with it, but aren't you taking this too lightly? This is an archdragon we are talking about." Shizue said that as we reached a mountain, I looked from the top and saw the place where the archdragon sleeps.
"I am taking this seriously; that's why we are doing this together; if I was not serious, then I would have come alone. I believe in you as a friend and as my teacher." Yes, that's right, teacher. She taught me a lot in these two years, and I've implemented a sword in my battle style for close-quarter combat.
She also taught me a spell called "Spatial Storage," which is, as the name suggests, a small dimension that can be made with magic and connected to the user, where the user can store stuff like weapons, money, or even food. It would go stale after a few days, but a few days is better than nothing.
We saw the dragon; it was currently curled up in itself as it was sleeping. I outstretched my hand, and a black bow appeared, it was the magic of "spatial storage" at work.
Nodding to Shizue, I took aim as a golden arrow appeared. I put in my holy energy, which was purer than magicules. Using my extra skill "Magic sense" to the minimum, I calculated and regulated the amount of energy supplied from me to the arrow.
Normally, using "Magic sense" is harmful and extremely dangerous to a human, but I had regulated the magic sense range to only three meters around me as well as using magic to ease the pain in my head.
Anyway, I released the arrow, which created a thwacking sound along with a small shock wave from the amount of power.
Once the arrow was directly above the Dragon, the arrow split and began to multiply; there were at least a hundred of them.
The energy inside the arrows began to fluctuate slightly, and I understood that this dragon had magic resistance. We had fought some monsters with "magic jamming" and "magic resistance" in these two years.
The arrows struck its scales, and the beast roared in extreme pain, even if it was only 1/10 of the attack I sent, as it was weakened a lot by its "magic resistance."
The monster opened its eyes and stared directly at me and roared once more. I was alone at the moment.
Shizue was not with me currently, as we had planned this as a backup plan; if something did not go according to plan, she was the one who came up with the backup, as she knew elemental magic and had incredible fighting prowess.
I was still standing on top of the mountain, and Shizue was using flight magic to fly above the monster about 300 feet, and her sword was already flaming with her magic and was ready to strike.
"Flame burst" My body was covered in powerful flames; it was an art that I developed with the help of my extra skill, "Control Flames." It increased my physical abilities, but it also sapped my magic more quickly. Currently, I can only use this for about five minutes before I run out of energy.
Putting my bow in my spatial storage, I took out my sword. It was a katana, but it was made with magisteel. We bought it from Dwargon last year, and I could use my fire to cover the blade as I fought, which made it incredibly useful.
I signaled to Shizue with "Telepathy," a skill that allows the user to use magicules as a medium to communicate with each other.
'Let's go!' We both rushed to the dragon as it tried to defend itself from the extremely hot flames that were melting the ground and burning the air. It roared, and a massive shockwave pushed us back. I pushed my boots into the ground and gritted my teeth as I was slowly getting pushed back.
'Even after using Flame Burst! We could not beat it, huh? I was a fool to think we could fight this! but we can use that!'
"Let's do 'that'; please buy me some time!" I shouted to her, took out my bow, and readied my arrow. Using almost all of my holy energy, I made the arrow as compact as possible, squeezing every bit of energy into the arrowhead, and I was ready to fire.
While I was preparing my ultimate attack, Shizue was getting pushed back more quickly because it was only her and she did not want to unify with Ifrit. We were trying to find the spirit's den so that we could free her from its hate and give her freedom.
"Now!" I shouted as I prepared to launch my attack, and she jumped behind me just in time as I released my arrow.
"Disintegration!" The arrow became a blink in the sky and struck the beast with nearly the speed of light, puncturing its physical body along with its spiritual one.
The shockwave from the released arrow pushed both of us back; we were sent hurling backwards to a tree, with me turning around to shield her from it with my body.
"Urgh." I hit the tree, and I felt some of my bones breaking. I fell down, with Shizue on top of me. In my arms, safe and sound. Her mask was blown away, and her eyes were red, and the temperature around in the atmosphere was rising at an alarming rate.
'Shit! If I let it take over, I'm doomed. Even with the "cancel flame attack," spirit magic will bypass resistance from a weak human in their standard.'
"Shizu! Don't let him take control!" I said desperately as I saw her hair was about to be caught on fire, Damn you Ifrit!
"P-please R-run!" Shizu somehow gained control for just a moment and begged me to run, but I couldn't let him take over and let her go on a rampage so that she would set the forest on fire. I've made up my mind about what I'm about to do.
She doesn't deserve this fate; she was such a kind woman; she even took care of me even when I was nobody to her, so I would do whatever was in my power to help her.
"Please... run, or..Or else I will kill someone I c-care about a-agai-hmpff." Her eyes went wide as her lips were sealed shut by another. I looked directly into her eyes as I kissed her.
Her eyes gained clarity as we continued kissing for some seconds; the heat began to cool down to normal; the flames in her hair vanished; and Ifrit was suppressed.
Slowly, I released her from the kiss as she was back in the real world. Her face exploded with a gorgeous blush as she buried her face in her hands.
"I'm sorry, suddenly I kissed y-" Before I could say anymore, her hand blocked my mouth as she looked around like someone would hear us.
We stood up and went to the half body; the archdragon's first half was erased from existence along with its spiritual body and soul.
We looked around and saw the destruction our fight and my attack had caused, trees were toppled and ripped from its roots and the ground was also scorched and melted.
"Oh, Holy Shit!!"