“Now! Catch him! Catch Usato!” cried Nea, cackling with laughter.
She was grinning and clearly delighted by the chaos, but I was really sick of the girl. I put Aruku and Amako on Blurin’s back, then put a hand to Blurin and gave the grizzly a heal.
“No choice but to fight, then,” I muttered.
There was nowhere to run, but I wasn’t about to let Nea just have her way with me.
“Blurin, get somewhere far from the poison and look after Amako and Aruku. As much as I’d like your back-up here, we can’t leave them alone.”
Blurin nodded.
“Usato,” said Amako, her voice filled with worry.
“Don’t worry,” I said. “I’m just going to see if I can take that thing out with a good, solid punch.”
“Can you please stop solving all your problems through physical violence? Please?”
Wow, I didn’t think she’d choose now as the time to scold me so kindly. And I guess it is true that I make lots of my decisions based on whether I can hurt something or not. Maybe not a good sign . . .
Right then, the dragon let out another tremendous roar. It was done waiting. According to the record of the past hero that I’d read, there was no way I could take down this dragon. But I couldn’t avoid fighting it, either. If Aruku had been conscious, we might have been able to raze the sludge with his fire magic, but we didn’t have that luxury—not while he was still unconscious.
That meant it was up to me.
“But man, talk about scary,” I uttered.
Fear ran through me, just like it did when I fought the snake in Llinger Forest. Back when I was far less experienced, I’d come face to face with the snake after it killed a Grand Grizzly. It was the first time I’d been forced to truly confront death. Even now, I can’t forget the way my senses froze right through to the core of my very being.
“Just punch it, Usato,” I muttered to myself. “We’ll work out the rest afterward.”
In the end, it didn’t matter what I was up against. It didn’t change what I had to do. Yes, it was a dragon of pure evil, but it was a zombie now. I didn’t know if it was still as strong as it was in the record I’d read. So, as the dragon stomped toward me, roaring, I ran straight for it.
“Here we go!”
It was fifteen meters tall; that made it about the size of a four- or five-story apartment building. But it crawled along the ground in a sluggish manner, and its size and slow movements told me everything I needed to know—the dragon would give me openings. As I closed in, the dragon’s big, clawed hand came rushing down toward me.
“Size alone won’t help you!” I shouted.
With a stomp I dove out of the way of the dragon’s hand, which collided with the ground. The sound of the impact was deafening, and the earth ruptured from the shock.
I can’t let myself get hit by that!
The dragon let loose another roar. It was like a million bugs clawing their way out of the dragon’s throat.
“Ugh, that sound is so disgusting!” I said, wincing.
At the same time, though, it almost sounded like the dragon was laughing. Even though it was a zombie under Nea’s control, I felt a unique presence and will inside of it.
The dragon’s hand once again came hurtling down toward me.
“Whoa?!!”
I jumped backward, and the dragon’s claws carved through the earth where I had once stood. I felt a cold sweat beading on my neck. But the dragon wasn’t done yet. It began slamming the ground with both hands like a child throwing a tantrum. All I could do was leap and slide out of the way. My goal was to close the distance, but the force of the dragon’s attacks and the wind they created kept on pushing me back.
I jumped away to make some distance, then looked up at Nea, floating in the sky.
“Hey!” I shouted.
“Hm? Ready to give up?” asked Nea.
“Not on your life! Clarify something for me—is that thing really under your control?!”
Because it looks to me like it’s completely out of control!
“Hmph. Of course it is,” replied Nea. “Controlling dead creatures without souls is my power. And no zombie can defy my orders!”
She looked awfully proud of herself.
“So they have to obey you, huh?”
That meant that even though the dragon looked like it was going crazy, it was moving as Nea wanted it to.
Which means . . .
“Blinding Heal!” I shouted, launching a healing bullet right for Nea’s smug face.
It hit her right in the kisser.
“Wha?!” she cried. “Ah! My eyes!”
“Yes!” I shouted.
Aiming still wasn’t my forte, but I’d hit the mark when it counted most.
And with Nea down, the dragon will stop moving.
I watched as Nea was thrown all the way over to the manor roof, screaming the whole way. She sounded anything but ladylike. I turned my attention back to the now silent dragon, clenching my fist and filling it with all my power.
“Now’s my chance,” I said.
There was no need for healing magic now. I would hit this thing with everything I had. I pulled my fist back like I was readying an arrow in a bow and jumped at the dragon. The monster’s black scales drew close as I was reminded of the scales of the snake. But I was different now. I had trained. I had grown.
“Eat this!”
I launched my first right at the dragon, and it went straight through the monster’s chest.
“Same, hero . . . kill.”