The force of being thrown through the manor roof and colliding with the floor had sent a tremendous shockwave through me. It took everything I had just to remain conscious. From underneath all the rubble, I looked up and realized I could see the sky. That dragon had really done a number on me. I ached all over. I could barely move.
The first thing I did was heal myself and get rid of all the rubble. Pain throbbed through my right shoulder. I couldn’t lift my arm.
“Ouch!”
It was agony just trying to move it. I must have dislocated it during the fall.
“Healing magic is no good for this kind of thing,” I muttered.
I’d experienced dislocated joints in Rose’s training several times. It was always the most painful thing to endure. I took my right arm in my left, gritted my teeth through the pain, and forced my arm back into the joint, immediately healing the area as I did. Only then could I let out a sigh of relief. Then I rolled my shoulder a few times and checked to make sure I didn’t have any other major injuries. I’d cut my head and was bleeding a bit, but other than that, there was nothing serious. In my training with Rose, I’d taken similarly powerful attacks, so this dragon wasn’t anything new. That told me exactly how horrendous her training regime had been. Not cool.
“Well, my body’s okay. Now to work out whether or not I can take that monster down,” I said.
The dragon’s poison was one thing, but the beast itself was also cunning. The moment I realized that my attacks weren’t effective, I knew I couldn’t win in a fair fight. My only hope was that the dragon had a weak point I could exploit.
“Then there’s the fact that it’s freaking terrifying,” I muttered.
I had never felt a sensation like the malice in that dragon. Perhaps part of the monster’s feelings came from the fact it had mixed me up with the heroes. But nonetheless, it looked at me with an overflowing hatred. It wanted to murder me, and the weight of that feeling wore away at my senses. It threatened to shatter my will and break my spirit. I wanted to run away, just like Amako suggested.
“But right now, nobody can stop that thing but me,” I stated.
If that dragon killed me, it would turn on Ieva Village. Then it would set its sights on somewhere bigger, like Luqvist or Llinger. Eventually, someone would stop it, but only after the dragon had feasted on countless lives. I had to stop that at all costs.
“Senpai . . .”
I clutched the omamori that Inukami-senpai had given me. I thought of her, and I thought of Kazuki as I looked up at the sky. I couldn’t die here. I had to survive so we could all meet again. I took a deep breath and felt my determination settle. I was ready, but I still had a problem: how could I fight the dragon? I couldn’t punch my way to victory, so I had to find another way.
“That reminds me . . .”
In the record I’d read, the hero had leaped straight into the dragon’s mouth and plunged his blade into the dragon’s heart. That was how he’d won. That meant that the dragon could be attacked from the inside.
“But now it’s a zombie. None of its organs will be working anymore.”
That, and its corpse had been left to rot over hundreds of years. For all I knew, its organs had crumbled away.
Oh, wait a second.
“But when I did punch the dragon, what was it I heard coming from within it?”
I have to check that out again. I have to make sure. It might mean I can defeat the dragon the same way the old hero did.
“Now to get back outside, asap,” I reminded myself.
I pushed the rubble off my legs and was about to head for a door when I knocked a suit of armor over. The weapon in its hands fell to the floor with a clang taking me completely by surprise.
“Oh,” I uttered, taking a closer look at the two-meter long spear with the axe blade at its end.
It was a halberd. You had to be big and strong to wield it because it was a hefty thing. Fortunately, it was just the right weight for me.
“I guess this is exactly the kind of weapon you need for a monster like that.”
That was when I heard something slam into the manor above me.
“What was that?!”
I ran into a nearby room and looked out the window. The dragon was right there. Beyond it I saw Amako and the others.
“Well, no time to sit here doing nothing!” I said.
I’m not going to let you lay a finger on my friends!
I leaped back from the window and gripped the halberd tight in my hands.
“No time to look for an exit either,” I muttered. “So I’ll just make one!”
I sliced sideways with the halberd, letting the momentum carry it. The blade collided with the wall and tore it open in a shower of broken glass and wood. But I didn’t wait for the dust to settle. Instead, I flew out of the manor and straight at the dragon. Before it had a chance to react, I swung the halberd at its jaw with everything I had.
“Consider that payback!” I shouted.
Several of the dragon’s teeth shattered and it tumbled to the ground. As soon as I hit the ground myself, I ran straight over to Amako and the others. I kept my attention partially on the dragon, but I still had to make sure she was alright.
“Are you okay?!” I asked.
For some reason, Amako’s face drained of color the moment she saw me.
What’s with that reaction?!
“You’re terrifying!” she exclaimed.
“I come to help you and that’s the first thing you say to me?!”
I couldn’t believe it, but nonetheless, I quickly turned back to the dragon. It was up on its feet again, and a poison gas wafted from its mouth as it glared straight at me.
“So you still live, hero,” it growled.
“Ha! You’re surprisingly eloquent for a would-be lizard!”