I spotted a forest in the area. We didn’t walk through an area where trees appeared here and there with increasing density, but instead there almost seemed to be a line where the field ended and the forest began.
“By any natural course of time, this kind of terrain shouldn’t exist.”
“...Right,” I answered, lacking any sort of energy.
As Tiamat had predicted, we arrived at the forest the morning after we departed... Which meant that the previous night we had slept under the stars. On the ground.
My whole body hurt. No recharging had been done. I couldn’t even tell if I had slept at all.
There may be some person out there who could sleep like a baby in the darkness illuminated by nothing but the moon and starlight, without a bed or even a sleeping bag, while all sorts of beasts could be heard in the distance. That person, if they did in fact exist, was not Eiji Kazama. The fool by that particular name instead spent the whole night clinging to Tiamat out of terror.
“Nothing to be ashamed of. You know that you can’t do anything in combat, so you relied on me, who could do something. That’s all there was to it.”
The almighty dragon laughed without a care in the world. Sure, she hit the nail on the head, but even I had a semblance of pride. There are some things in this world that men still take pride in.
“It’s not the be-all-end-all. You’ll just get in the way if all you can offer is some macho bravado with nothing to back it up.”
“You’re right, of course...”
“What you should be ashamed of is assuming that you had physical capabilities comparable to the inhabitants of this world. You had plenty of time to see that you don’t.”
“...Uncle.”
I was a feeble, modern-day man accustomed to living the easy way. There was no way for me to walk as fast as Mister Garish had expected, and my endurance was nowhere near his. When I stayed the night in Lishua I should have realized at least that much.
I suspected that Tiamat didn’t give me prior warning on purpose. This was something I had to learn the hard way, she must have assessed. She was neither a tour guide nor a babysitter. Who was I to expect white-glove service?
At the same time, I was sure that she would be kind enough to give me advice if I were to ask for it after thinking it over on my own. In the example of my current predicament, if I had asked her whether or not she thought it possible for me to adhere to Mister Garish’s ETA, she would have told me ‘no.’ By cutting that tiny corner I had left the city without the necessary preparations to keep me from sleeping under the stars. My luck had it that this was only a couple days’ trip for me, but if it had been a more long-term endeavor I could have ended up dead.
“Moving forward, I’ll make sure to ask for your advice on most things.”
“Hm.”
Tiamat nodded. I remember the dragon’s expression resembling a smile, somewhat.
We were in the forest when I began to notice shadows in the distance peeking in and out of my vision. They were considerably large, and I pegged them to belong to magibeasts. These weren’t stray cats, after all. Not a lot of wild beasts would easily show themselves to humans.
“Even on Earth, those on the top of the food chain don’t hide in fear. Same logic applies here.”
“Gotcha.”
Perhaps there was some truth to that. In the case of humans, we simply grouped together because we couldn’t hide or camouflage ourselves very well. That was our ticket to the top of the food chain on Earth. In the wild, though, it was each creature to their own. As a result the stronger individuals would be more keen to show themselves.
“I wonder where the gagd lies on the food chain. If it’s too up there, it’s not going to be easy to hunt.”
“It would be easy for me. Difficult to gauge that for humans, though.” Tiamat said, crooking her neck.
Although small in stature, she was a dragon. The tippy-top of the chain, and belonging in another dimension entirely than feeble, groveling, mortal humans. A falcon soaring in the sky and a worm crawling on the ground would naturally have different points of view. How could those who have it all sympathize with those who don’t?
“What’s with the self-pity, all of a sudden?”
Tiamat glared at me side-eyed as I was moping on.
“It’s a staple.”
“Idiot. I’m not talking about the difficulty of the hunt. You humans can’t eat your prey whole, can you?”
“Me eat you whole.”
“I am in your care.”
“So what do you mean, exactly?”
“I appreciate the lack of acknowledgment. We dragons can eat them raw, but you humans need to perform various tasks like skinning them, picking out the edible body parts, etc.”
She had a point. Come to think of it, I was sure that any wild-spirited people who would eat magibeasts alive were in the minority. Our methods of hunting differed to begin with.
“But we have ‘killing them’ in common, don’t we?”
“True. No sense debating whether hunting one is feasible or not. Let’s try it.”
Tiamat squinted. I followed her gaze to see a giant silhouette in the distance.
“There’s one. A gagd.”
“That’s not close to the size of any boar I know.”
It was easily four meters long and two meters tall. It was just, so big... And it even had some vicious-looking fangs. The creature was leaps and bounds above my expectations; it looked like it belonged in an anime. I was in a fantasy world, after all.
Could I hunt it? Not a chance.
“I want to go home...”
“No can do. It noticed us too. It seems it deemed us hostile.”
The gagd slowly turned towards us. Tucking its head down, the creature kicked the ground a few times with its forefoot. Even I, without any knowledge of wild animals whatsoever, could tell that it was about to charge.
In an instant the gagd began dashing towards us with thunderous stomps that felt like they were shaking the very ground below my feet. It came towards us, knocking down some small trees. Its red eyes glowed with aggression. I estimated that we were about 250 meters apart; at the speed it was going, it would reach us very soon.
“W-W-W-W-What are we going to do!?” I yelled, scared out of my absolute mind.
“I don’t know what kind of attack will kill it. I’m sure tearing its head off in close combat would do the trick.”
In complete contrast to me, Tiamat observed calmly. Yeah, we didn’t need to be doing any kind of analysis here.
Can’t you do something, already? Like, please??
I could almost hear the magibeast’s breathing. With every moment, the gagd appeared to grow in size. It was a trick of the mind, caused by my fear and the fact that the beast was approaching. It already appeared to be as big as a semi to me.
This is bad. Super-duper bad.
I was sure that I would die on impact.
“It may not be wise to let it struggle so much that it flattens you, Eiji.”
Well, yeah. Very unwise indeed.
But if you stand there and do nothing, that’s what’ll happen anyway. Don’t you see that? Hello? Miss Tiamat??
“A breath attack then, I suppose. I can’t really gauge this thing. Let’s try it with maximum power.”
The little dragon sucked in some air, and her bluish or greenish scales began to glow silver-blue. She opened her eyes; the roaring sound came a moment later. What I was able to see was a blinding light. Laser Breath. That was the name that came to my mind as I closed my eyes from the sheer brightness. I couldn’t help but feel like it was overkill. Carefully, I opened my eyes.
“I went a little too far.”
Tiamat was scratching her chin with her short forelegs. I was impressed that she could do that. If the scene in front of me hadn’t required my devoted attention, I would have addressed the matter. But in front of me was a straight line that must have stretched two kilometers where there were no longer any trees or anything else that used to be there. It looked as if a certain giant, god-like warrior had come through.
Naturally, the gagd was nowhere to be seen. I assumed it didn’t flee but was evaporated. Without a trace. This end result didn’t seem like where we should wind up on a hunting trip. ‘Obliteration’ was a word that better suited the picture.
“What are we going to do about this...?”
“Let’s see. We can play dumb, or just run away,” Tiamat said, looking to the distance.
I understood her sentiment, but why would we flee the scene?