/
—A few minutes before the Rotten dragon had moved out.
On the south wall where Reito was, the adventurers used the ice disks as substitute stairs and were on the grassy plain.
“Oraa!! Small fry!!”
“This is for earlier!!”
“This is our city!! We are going to defend it together!!”
“Grah…!?”
The undead were being exterminated one after the other by the adventurers.
Reito and Gonzo had already defeated the stronger undead. All that was left were the kobolds and blood bears.
“Grahh…!!”
“Oraa!! Too slow!!”
“Do you think you can beat us with those rotten bodies?”
The undead blood bears tried to attack the adventurers, but they were severely rotten and couldn’t move fast. In their living form, they were fierce villains, but they weren’t very threatening as members of the undead.
Dain was surprised at Gonzo fighting them with his bare hands.
“Wow, Gonzo!! You might be even stronger bare-handed!!”
“I use the club as a workout.”
“It was just a weight!?”
On the other hand, Erina ran through a group of kobolds with her bowgun and accurately pierced their head.
“Random Shooting!!”
“Grahh…!?”
Kotomin was behind her and had Suramin at the ready, pointed at a blood bear.
“Water gun… Revision, “Water Buckshot.”
“Bwah!?” it roared.
Suramin fired a wide spray of bullets at the blood bear and shut off its field of vision. It was a weak attack, but it made the opponent afraid.
Dain took advantage of the pause to use his shadow magic and swept the bear’s legs.
“Shadow Slip!!”
“Grah!?”
The blood bear was dripping wet and fell over.
Gonzo took his chance to ax-kick the blood bear’s head.
“Helm Dropkick!!”
“Graah…!?”
“Woah, that was nasty…” Dain said.
Gonzo’s heel smashed the blood bear’s head, sending blood flying everywhere, while Dain put a hand over his mouth.
They managed to stop the hoard of the undead, but they lost sight of their other opponent. The adventurers were breathing heavily as they realized they had defeated the undead. They looked at each other and cheered in celebration.
“We did it… We beat them!!”
“Hooray!! We won!!”
“We saved the city!!”
“Don’t let down your guard!! There might be a few of them left… Get back on the defensive!!” more experienced adventurers warned the others as they scouted for enemies. Reito reminded the celebrating humans that hadn’t spotted the Rotten Dragon yet, so they tightened up and prepared to defend the wall.
Afterward, they noticed something strange.
“W-, Wait. The ice Reito made is disappearing?”
“What are you talking about?”
“It’s not just melting with the passage of time?”
“Speaking of which, where is Reito!?”
The ice disks that Reito had used in place of a staircase had suddenly melted. Reito was also out of sight.
The adventures rushed to find him but couldn’t spot him in their surroundings. Everyone looked at his friends.
“H-, Hey!! Where is your friend? We wanted to say thanks…”
“True. If he wasn’t here, the wall would have been destroyed ages ago.”
“That big fella sure helped, but if that kid hadn’t been here…”
“Um… H-, Hey! Has anyone seen Reito?” Dain looked at his friends and said worriedly. But, all of them had lost sight of Reito during the battle.
“How about you ladies?” he asked Erina and Kotomin, but they both shook their heads.
“I don’t know, but he took Hitomin with him,” Kotomin said.
“We were together until he went down into the plains,” Erina added.
“What!! Are you saying he ran away!!” Gallow provoked, to which Dain yelled.
“Reito is not the type of guy to run away!! He would never leave his friends behind!!”
The other humans didn’t think Reito ran away either. But they were suspicious he had gone off somewhere.
One of the humans timidly raised his hand.
“Um… I haven’t seen Reito. But there’s something else that’s bothering me.”
“Mina?”
The spearman Mina had raised her hand. She told everyone what she witnessed in battle.
“Um, I saw Reito run off with Ullr in that direction. Someone was riding on his back.”
“Are you serious!?”
“He couldn’t have…”
“There’s no way!! No way he would have run away with Ullr!!”
“I didn’t say that, did I!?”
The adventurers were uneasy at the prospect that Reito would run away.
◆◆◆
The adventurers’ predictions were half-right. Reito did run off with Ullr into the plains at the beginning of the battle, leaving the front lines.
He was dashing through the plains with Ullr. He had Hitomin on his shoulder and had Kagemaru following him.
“… There’s no need for you to follow me,” Reito said.
“I can’t just stand back and watch my master’s nephew die.”
“Purupuru.”
Reito looked at Kagemaru skillfully grasping onto Ullr and sighed to himself.
He had no plan to wrap Kagemaru up in his plan. Before he headed to the South Gate to tell Maria of his plan, she ordered Kagemaru to follow him. Because it was Maria, Reito allowed it.
Reito was bringing Kagemaru to the location of the Rotten Dragon.
After a while, Airis’s voice rang out in his ears.
『It moved out.』
『Oh no.』 Knowing the enemy had moved out, he looked in the distance cautiously.
A few seconds later, he heard a roar that made his hairs stand up. He looked up and saw an enormous beast flying in the sky.
“Rooooooar…!!”
The rotten dragon had made its appearance with a blood-curdling scream.
Reito was in a cold sweat, and Hitomin scrambled inside his clothes to be safe.
The Rotten Dragon’s body was enveloped in dark energy. Reito communicated with Airis.
『Airis.』
『Holy shit. That’s not looking good, bro.』
『Why are you talking like Erina!!』
『 That’s what the situation calls for, bro.』
『 Don’t call me bro, bro.』
Airis’s voice was so surprised that she didn’t sound like herself. Reito could tell the situation was bad from her voice. However, he planned to follow the strategy he made with her — he couldn’t turn back now.
“Well then… Kagemaru. No, allow me to call you Mr. Kage with love.”
“Wh, why?”
“Ullr and I are planning to challenge the Rotten Dragon. We are going to lure it to a designated location. I’m sure that woman will get in the way, though.”
“Her…” Kagemaru looked at the woman flying in front of the Rotten Dragon.
It was Kirau with her green wings sprouting out. She was gracefully flying in the skies.
As he scouted her appearance, she was giving off an aura of being a battle-tested veteran. He figured this would be a tough battle. He was ordered to assassinate her if the opportunity showed itself. But he didn’t dare make the attempt.
But, he had a chance to win.
“Leave her up to me… I have been given permission to use my katana by my master,” Kagemaru said and pointed at the katana on his hip.
“What?”
“It’s the bewitched sword Muramasa… It’s a sacred treasure used by the first generation of heroes. My master picked it up while she was still an active adventurer.”
To be able to put up a fight against Kirau, Maria gave him the magical sword. It was shaped like a Japanese katana.
The bewitched sword Muramasa wasn’t like an ordinary holy sword, it was designed for heroes to be able to pull out their true strength. It had less functionality than an ordinary holy sword. Still, in the right hands, it could wield incredible power, and as such, it’s been dubbed a “sacred treasure” and is feared as a “bewitched sword.”
“But, how is she flying? Is it spirit magic?”
“I’m not sure, but I think it’s some kind of magical device. She isn’t just flying on her own.”
“What do you mean?”
“Look, there’s something massive over there,” Kagemaru pointed at the Rotten Dragon before it jumped into action.
Reito pet Ullr’s head.
“Okay… Let’s go!!”
“Woof!!”
“Purupuru…”
“Hitomin, stay out of sight.”
“I pray for good fortune in war.”
Reito used his storage magic and drew his longsword.
Kagemaru got off of Ullr’s back and looked at Reito. Reito was looking at Kirau flying in the sky. He shouted to draw attention to himself.
“AGHHHHH!!”
“WOOOOFFFF!!”
Reito and Ullr’s barks overlapped, and Kirau and the Rotten Dragon took notice.
Reito didn’t let the moment pass and shouted again, “I’m the one who killed Gain!!” The moment she heard his voice, Kirau turned toward Reito.
Gain was the only man Kirau had ever had any feelings of love for, even if it was in a perverse way.
“Rooooaaarrr…!!” a few seconds later, the Rotten Dragon was ordered to swoop down.
Reito didn’t have time to be happy that his strategy had worked. He had Ullr run.
“Run away!!”
“Wooff!!”
“Raaaahhh!!”
When the Rotten Dragon landed, there was an enormous vibration. The dragon increased its speed from when it was flying in the air and pursued Reito.
“…Kill!”
“Raaaahh!!”
Kirau had commanded the Rotten Dragon.
She had no evidence that Reito had been the one to kill Gain. But the use of his name alone made her think he knew of their relationship.
She wanted to check if that was true, but she didn’t have time, so she opted to kill him instead.
“Wooff!!”
But Ullr was faster than she had realized, and she couldn’t catch up.
She aimed her wand at Reito from the skies, “Dark Flame…!”
“As if!!” A kunai came flying toward Kirau.
She was surprised at the unexpected attack, but she merely dodged the knives.
“What!?”
She looked forward finding another man soaring through the sky clad in all black.
Kagemaru could use the skill “Mail Carrier” to fly through the air. He wasn’t actually flying but running. A shockwave from his legs kept him afloat.
“Test Strike!!”
“!!”
Kagemaru approached Kirau and swung his kodachi. Kirau stepped back to dodge it, but Kagemaru managed to hit her wand.
“Ngh!!”
“Sh-!?”
Aquatic magic burst from the magic stone in the wand. Kirau made a sour face and flew further in the sky. Kagemaru was faster, but he wouldn’t be able to travel in a straight line with his “Mail Carrier” skill, so she had greater mobility.
Moving further up than Kagemaru, she fired ballistic magic at him.
“Dark Bolt!!”
“You’re slow.”
Lightning Magic had the highest speed magic of all magics. Kirau had set up a deadly attack pairing dark and ballistic magic, but Kagemaru moved quickly to avoid it.
“Tsk.” She was burning through a lot of magic energy, just controlling the Rotten Dragon alone. She wasn’t able to use particularly potent ballistic magic.
She decided to ignore Kagemaru and go after Reito.
“I won’t let you get away!!” Kagemaru said and approached her from behind. He pulled not the kodachi from before but rather his bewitched sword.
Her eyes opened wide at the sight of the red sparks coming from the bewitched sword.
“That can’t be…!?”
Kagemaru grasped the bewitched sword, and his pupils glowed red.
Kirau felt a sense of danger and cast a spell. She ascertained he could dodge any low-skill attack, so she used an elf-exclusive spell.
“Magic Arrow!!”
“Ngh!?”
A number of magic bullets were fired from the tip of her wand.
Kagemaru intercepted five of the shots with his bewitched sword before using his assassin-exclusive skill.
“Shippuken!!” He swung his sword with incredible velocity, slicing through all the magic bullets. Ordinary weapons wouldn’t be able to put up a fight against the bullets, but the bewitched sword was able to.
Kirau glared at the bewitched sword in frustration. She fired another ballistic magic spell.
“Dark Flame!!” A black flame burst from the tip of her wand.
The attack radius was greater than ordinary ballistic spells. Kagemaru resigned himself to taking the shot.
“Parry!!” An ordinary human would have been swallowed up by the black flames. Still, Kagemaru spun his body to deflect the attack with his sword.
“You’re really annoying… puny human!!”
“Don’t underestimate us humans!!”