Chapter 48

The Dragon Decapitator. A reenactment of the moment when Bash had previously defeated a dragon…was about to take place. But the game had not been won yet. The dragon must have realized it, too. That another blow to the neck would be fatal. Therefore, it protected its neck with everything it had. There was no way the dragon could have known Bash’s fighting style. Yet he sensed what Bash planned to do… And took defensive action. It must be instinct. Dragons are strong, resilient, and powerful creatures. Creatures that are experts in battle from the moment they’re born. If it had been any other creature, the battle would have been decided long ago. But this stalemate could not last much longer. The dragon’s fighting strength was weakened with every hit. Its lustrous shining scales were peeling off, and its whole body was tacky with the blood that was flowing from multiple wounds. It was no longer able to breathe its fire breath and was instead panting heavily with its tongue hanging out. On the other hand, Bash, while also breathing heavily, still had plenty of vigor left. “…” The dragon and Bash stopped for a few seconds, just staring each other down. Zell knew. Now was the decisive moment. But at the same time, Zell felt… Unease. Dragons were superior creatures. It wouldn’t be a surprise if this one had a secret ace up its scaly sleeve. No matter how exceptional Bash was as a warrior, there was no guarantee he’d be able to dodge a dragon’s secret attack if he’d never even seen it before. So Zell prayed. Please… Please let Bash have already seen the dragon’s trump card! Zell hadn’t heard anything about the Remium Plateau dragon pulling off a secret finishing move… But oh! If only there was some special dragon knowledge that only Bash had! The two opponents moved suddenly. The dragon’s upper body drifted to the left. Bash began to move to the right… The dragon’s blind spot. While maintaining a safe distance from the dragon’s breath range, Bash girded his loins and braced himself for the dragon’s attack. It glowered at Bash, fangs bared, steam hissing all over its body… Still so imbued with fighting spirit. Even a seasoned orc warrior would soil himself and cower if confronted with this sight. But seeing it, Zell knew… Bash was going to win. With the next blow, the dragon’s head would be chopped clean off. And perhaps the dragon knew this, too. Thus, it reared up to its full height, drew back to strike, and… “…?” …turned and dashed off deeper into the cave, its mighty footfalls shaking the walls as it went. “…Huh?” Did the dragon just…escape? Um, wasn’t that supposed to be the strongest creature on the continent? Ah, but it made sense. “…Well, dragons are living things, too, I guess.” So Zell shrugged, but Bash roared: “Don’t let it get away! After it!” “Ah! Right you are, Boss!” Bash sounded unusually lacking in chill… And Zell suddenly remembered something. Something the Boss had said. “If the dragon’s airborne, we can’t beat it.” If there was a way for the dragon to beat Bash…this was it. Retreat, get itself airborne, and attack again from a safe distance. Right… If the dragon got away now… Then it would come back to hunt them down. Like that demon army that fled the dragon’s nest and got wiped out before they could reach the Gije Fortress. Even a mighty Orc Hero couldn’t win while being chased across a bare snowy plain, with nowhere to hide, while a dragon blasted him from above with fire breath. Bash had been ferocious, and his opponent had turned tail and fled. It looked like a victory, but that wasn’t what was actually happening at all. This was the decisive moment. If Bash didn’t kill the dragon now, then he could never win. “Yeeee!” Zell shot through the air with the speed of a falcon. “…” But all that was visible was…a gaping hole. There was nothing but blizzard-swept mountainside, dragon-sized footprints, and bloodstains leading through the hole. Zell blanched. Ah, rats. The dragon escaped. But…the footprints and bloodstains continued faintly down the snowy mountain, through the blizzard. It looked like the dragon had tripped and fallen, tumbling down the slope. Only Zell could have spotted those subtle signs… Yes! The enemy’s trace! “Boss! It didn’t go airborne! It went down! It tumbled down, still escaping!” “Right!” Bash had caught up to Zell by this point. Zell latched on to Bash’s shoulder, and they both emerged into the snowstorm outside. The blizzard slammed into Bash. The piercing cold air gave him instant and painful brain freeze. But Bash did not falter. He doggedly pursued the footprints, not missing a single one. And Zell knew. At times like this, Bash never lets his prey escape… All right, for the sake of accuracy, he has let prey escape before. But it’s a rare thing, okay? Maybe just that one time with Houston. If he did it all the time, he probably wouldn’t be called the Orc Hero, would he? Bash was not the kind of man who drops the ball. And so he continued to slalom down the slope. It was as fast as falling. If he lost his footing for even a second, he’d go tumbling down like a cartwheel. But he could not hesitate. The blood spatter and dragon footprints would soon be erased by the snowstorm. Fall down or throw yourself down… Well, it’s better to self-actualize. “…Hmm.” There was an area where the dragon’s footprints had suddenly disappeared. And there, they spotted something. “…Another cave?” Not the same one as before. No, rather than a naturally occurring cave, this one looked more like it had been dug out by intelligent hands. There were remains of ice-crusted stone pillars, and upon closer inspection, the interior was also paved with cracked stone blocks. Ruins, in other words. Not that Bash and Zell cared. All that mattered was that the entrance, though far from vast, was big enough to accommodate a fleeing dragon. “Perhaps it ran in there?” Or it could have simply rolled down the cliff. Or it might have launched itself into the air from here. In…? Or out…? “Zell, what do you think?” “Hmm… If the dragon got in, it seems odd that the icicles at the entrance aren’t broken off. But dragons are sly, Boss. If it crawled on the ground low, it might have been able to get in while leaving them intact…” Would a creature fleeing for its life be smart enough to think of that? Wasn’t it more likely that it simply tumbled down the cliff? Zell wasn’t sure, but… You couldn’t rule it out. “Actually, Boss, I’d wager it’s more likely it went a-tumbling down below!” “No…! Wait!” Bash glowered, straining his eyes to see inside the ruined cave. No traces on the stone floor or the walls or the roof. If a dragon had slid itself through here, surely there would be gouges… Scrape marks on the stone. So then it seemed unlikely that it had come in here, only… “I smell blood.” “…!” An orc’s sense of smell is unsophisticated but strong. There was a faint whiff of blood wafting from deep inside the ruin. Something was in there… Bleeding. “Inside! Let’s go!” “Yes, Boss!” Bash and Zell entered the ruin. Bash walked with greater caution now. If the dragon fled in here, it no doubt wasn’t just trying to escape. It was planning something. An ambush? Some sort of trap? There was no way of knowing what the dragon had planned. Still, Bash pressed on, moving as quickly as possible while remaining on high alert. The scent of blood was growing stronger. Bash followed the smell, certain the dragon was there. He tightened his grip on his sword. If a surprise attack was waiting, then every millisecond was vital. Bash could either inflict the fatal blow… Or fall to it. Making his way through the ruins, he encountered an ascending flight of steps. The steps, somewhat steep, were half-crumbled, making climbing difficult… And it was hard to see what lay ahead. Bash was down here, and the dragon was up there. There might be a blind bend or dark tunnel ahead, facilitating a surprise attack. Bash was at the disadvantage, to be sure. Bash grew more and more on edge. Eventually the stairs ended, and they emerged into a large open space. Warm air around his entire body… With the smell of blood stronger than ever. There was a glowing blue object visible in the back, forming a light source that cast shadows all around the ruins. And there were huge rocks and what appeared to be the remains of pillars here and there. Plenty of places for even a huge dragon to hide. “…!” Bash sensed something and dived into the darkness behind a rock. He lifted his sword to swing it into the darkness where the dragon no doubt lurked… “…?” But then he stopped. “A woman…?” There was a woman at the end of Bash’s sword. Pale skin, white hair. Two large horns growing from her head. Her clothing was rather old-fashioned, but it seemed well-made, showing that she was of aristocratic birth. What’s more, it was tight-fitting, facilitating a delightful view of her body. She was slim, and after he’d so recently viewed the voluptuous bodies of the succubi, Bash thought she looked a little scrawny. But she still had a very feminine form. Her face was good, too. The features were a bit too youthful-looking, but there was a strong will in her eyes. Speaking of the eyes, they were gold in color, large and wide and beautiful, and her plump lips, with jagged teeth poking out, were very cute indeed. But she was wounded all over. One of her big, beautiful eyes was horribly matted shut, and the wound on her neck seemed to be deep. She clutched at it with one hand, her chest heaving for breath. She was gazing at Bash with fear. The eyes of a cornered animal. Her teeth chattered, and she raised both arms, as if to protect herself, glancing back and forth between Bash’s sword and Bash’s face. But then she realized that Bash was not striking… And so she spoke. “Help…” Her words were halting, like those of a child just learning to speak. But she’d spoken clearly enough. She gazed at Bash with terror. “Help. Please, don’t kill me.” What was such a beauty doing in a place like this? Even Bash was confused, veteran though he was. “Ah.” But Zell knew. When Zell saw the scars on her body, Zell figured it out fast. “Is she a survivor of the hunting party, Boss?” “…!” Jerking, Bash suddenly realized it, too. Bash had been so focused on slaying the dragon, he’d gotten tunnel vision. Still, that intense focus had always served him well during the war. “So you retreated from the dragon and hid here?” “Nope, Boss! Look close! There!” Bash looked where Zell was pointing. The surroundings looked… Familiar. Shattered rocks, scorch marks on the walls and roof… Blood splashed everywhere. And in the back, molten rock… With a hole large enough for two people to pass by side by side. The hole through which Bash and Zell had come in. “This place is connected…!” “Apparently so, Boss…” This was the same place where Bash and Zell had fought the dragon earlier. The ruins had led right to the dragon’s nest. “Then that smell of blood earlier…” “Traces of the prior battle, Boss!” The dragon knew it… That was why it had rubbed its body through the snow to dampen the smell of blood and led Bash and Zell here, where the strong smell of fresh blood spatter still remained. To think a dragon could pull off such a trick… Still, some magical beasts were known to be cunning. This woman from the hunting party… Apparently, the dragon was keeping her here as an emergency snack or something. Or maybe the dragon knew that people tend to try to rescue others of their kin. And it kept the woman alive as a sort of bait. Something to use to distract raiders of its nest, giving itself a chance to escape. A tactic the humans often used during the war. Dragons were said to be very intelligent. It wasn’t impossible to imagine that it had been scheming like that. Anyway… “So the dragon escaped, then?” “…Looks so, Boss.” The dragon… escaped. As he realized this, the tension drained from Bash’s shoulders, and he dropped his sword tip to the ground.