She swung the two pieces of the broken staff, one gripped in each hand, at the dragon as if she were casting a rope about its neck.
Just as she’d hoped, black tentacles stretched out in an arc from the ends of the staff fragments and hooked around the dragon’s neck. Los used the momentum to hurl herself onto the creature’s back, then forced the black loop into its mouth like a bit.
“Th-That gave me quite the shock!” she cried out. “I thought for a moment thou hadst perished!” The Staff of Ludens trembled slightly in sympathy.
At last the meeting point came into view, and with it a fully prepared Hort, practically jumping out of her skin in anticipation.
“My, my─I underestimated thee,” Los exclaimed with a sigh of relief.
Hort looked every inch the witch, the expression on her face one of absolute conviction in their victory, to the point of what some might call arrogance.
“Let’s go, Sayb!” she shouted. “Full power, ’kay?”
For Los, it was a comforting battle cry.
“First, one of these!”
Countless vines sprung from the earth and shot up into the air, entangling the dragon, which flailed and squirmed in vain as it was pulled inexorably down to the ground. Los leapt off of the dragon’s back just in time to avoid being caught up in Hort’s spell herself.
“Then one of these!”
Hort thrust a clenched fist skyward, at which a sharply pointed stone pillar burst from the ground beneath the dragon, piercing its hard scales and skewering its heart. Los lightly waved the Staff of Ludens, creating an umbrella to shield herself from the rain of gore that exploded from the dragon’s body.
Hort and Saybil looked in disbelief at the broken staff clutched in Los’s hands.
“Professor Los?!” Hort wailed, turning pale. “Y-Y-Y…Your staff!”
“Indeed, ’tis broken.” Los gave a sheepish grin.
“S-Staff…snapped, then… Professor, y-you’re…gonna…die…aah…” His face as expressionless as ever, Saybil fell flat on his back in a dead faint.
“How now! This is no time to be playing at princess! Wherefore did the Dragon Conqueror King shoot past me toward the city without so much as a backward glance?! Explain!”
“Oh, that… Ghoda said Heath was just like, ‘Trust me.’”
“Haaah?” Los raised an eyebrow and looked back at the city from which she had just come. She waved the broken Staff of Ludens again, and its oozing black liquid spread out beneath their feet, rising into the shape of a giant dragon. Swept up onto the creature’s back, Hort hurried to ensure that the unconscious Saybil wouldn’t fall off.
“Well, what point is there in blabbering about it here─we may as well go and see for ourselves.”
“S-Sure, but…you’ll explain later, right?! About how your staff got broken and how come you’re still okay and everything?!”
Los smiled. “I can tell thee easily enough how the staff broke, but as for how I am still hale and hearty, well, I do not rightly understand it myself!”
+++
When Ghoda arrived at Kuravanuluox and saw the black dragon perched on the city wall, he understood why Heath had said to trust him: their foe was much smaller than it had been the last time.
Must have something to do with the two dragons we saw chasing Loux Krystas on our way here.
When the black dragon caught sight of them, its chest began to glow red hot. Realizing it was preparing to expel its fiery breath, Ghoda steered Heath toward the city, and the gatekeeper, unable to direct its fire at the place it was sworn to protect, released the flames into the sky instead.
“Aha, seems we should’ve chosen to fight that thing here from the start… Not that I much like the idea of using these folks as hostages.”
Heath roared as if to say he couldn’t agree more, then climbed high, high into the sky to ensure that their skirmish would bring no harm to the people below.
“…Heath. You know your teeth aren’t making it through that thing’s scales, right?”
Heath nodded.
“And you know better than anyone what we have to do to take the bastard down.”
Heath froze for a moment, then reluctantly nodded once more.
“What does that mean?!” Kudo shouted from behind, straining to be heard over the wind.
“Hmm… Now we’ve come this far you can’t go running off, so I might as well tell you.”
“Huh?! Tell me what?!”
“I’m goin’ inside that thing’s mouth.”
“…Huh?”
“I figure it’s gonna chew me to shreds─that’s why I brought you along.”
Kudo’s jaw dropped.
Ghoda was struck with the ludicrous thought that he could probably hop into the beastfallen’s mouth right now, too.
“Heath’s already on board with the plan. You take the reins.”
“H-Hold on a sec! Wait, wait, wait! Ain’t there some other way?! This feels like one desperate frikkin’ last resort!”
“Starting with the last resort means fewer casualties─here we go!”
“Ya know, I think maybe lookin’ up to you was a big mistake after aaaaaaall!”
Ghoda shook off the desperately screaming Kudo and let go of the reins, then began to sprint up Heath’s back, balancing above the void. The moment before Heath made contact with the black dragon, Ghoda leapt from his mount’s head. He would die if he fell from such an altitude, of course, but after long years of riding Heath through the sky, his fear of heights had completely evaporated.
The Dragon Conqueror King threw his arms around the black dragon’s neck, and it began shaking its head to try and throw him off─but before it could, Ghoda managed to get one foot into its mouth. The creature’s jaws instantly snapped shut, teeth cutting through muscle and bone. Intense pain shot through Ghoda’s brain, and he ground his already clenched teeth. He would not fall, however, and even in this situation, Ghoda’s strength was considerable. He drew the dagger from his waist and plunged it into the dragon’s nearby eye.
“Gaaaaah!” The dragon roared in agony, opening its mouth wide.
Have to get this done quick, before it starts breathing fire. Ghoda tossed a magic potion into the creature’s mouth, then, without a moment’s hesitation, drew his sword and severed his own leg. He was thrown off into the open air, only for Heath to swoop in and catch him on his back.
“Is everyone in the Church and Mage Brigade such a freakin’ monster?!”
“Just hurry up and fix my leg! Closing the wound is enough, you can regrow it later!”
“I’m gonna make sure we amend the rules of the Brigade to say that just ’cause you got a healer with you, don’t mean you can pull reckless shit like this!” Kudo screamed, casting Chordia on Ghoda’s leg.
A thin layer of skin stretched over the wound, and once the bleeding had stopped, Ghoda let out a small sigh. “I’ll take it under consideration.”
Several seconds passed─then there came the muffled sound of an explosion from within the dragon, its internal organs bursting from a hole in its abdomen.
And yet it still lived.
“That thing’s still flyin’?!”
“I expect it can regenerate unless the heart itself is destroyed─Heath!”
At his master’s call, Heath sped toward the black dragon, latching onto its neck with his teeth as it feebly tried to flap away. He dragged the black dragon through the sky, then swung it around with all his might before casting it away. Unable to right itself, the black dragon plummeted toward the ground.
Kudo’s scales turned white. “This ain’t good! That thing’s falling too fast, people are gonna get crushed!”
“No─on this trajectory, it should be fine.” Ghoda sounded unconcerned.
And indeed, the moment the black dragon broke through the clouds, its descent came to an abrupt halt. The great white tower that loomed up into the sky in the center of town had pierced the dragon’s heart, vile blood painting the white walls red. The beast clawed at the air with its forelegs a few times then went limp. In that instant the blood that stained the tower, the scattered chunks of flesh, everything turned to ash and floated away on the wind.
Ghoda breathed a sigh of relief and patted the back of Heath’s neck appreciatively before turning to Kudo. “Nice work. See, I wasn’t wrong about you.”
“H-Huh…?”
“I told you back in the Witch’s Village, didn’t I? That you’d be an asset to my battalion.”