Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!! Shit, shit, shit, shit shit shit! Noooooooooo!!!
One minute after encountering the massive-ass dragon, I was booking it across the mountainside like a bat out of hell.
Up I went, and down I went, unleashing the chain to help me vault over dead trees, dashing across the Luna Mountains without a moment’s rest.
Because, well, if my legs hesitated for even half a second...
“GROOOOAR!”
With a deafening crash, the ground on which I’d just been standing on moments ago was torn apart.
The enormous dragon kept swiping at me with its massive claws, flying low, relentlessly coming at me.
“GRRR! GROOOOAR!” the beast bellowed, apparently enraged, yet also seeming to enjoy the chase.
I felt like a cockroach being chased around by a cat. My face was pretty much frozen in fear. I was only staying silent so as not to waste oxygen, because otherwise I would be screaming all over the damn place.
“Hey! Muramasa! Are you sure we’re gonna be fine?!” I asked the stupid sword, still in its sheath.
Running away hadn’t just been my choice (not that there had been another choice). Muramasa had wanted to do it too. Since the intentions of both puppeteer and puppet (the latter, sadly, was me) happened to coincide, I felt a lot lighter. And so, somehow, I’d managed to keep evading it, but...
“I’m talking to you, dammit! We’re gonna get ourselves cornered at this rate!”
“SOUL! SOUL! SOUL FOUND!” Muramasa shouted out suddenly.
As I wondered what the hell it was going on about, I saw a large monkey-like aetherborn just ahead of us.
“Ooh, ah?!” the ape shrieked, scared shitless of both me, running full speed straight at it, and the black dragon chasing after me. (Sorry about that!)
I think it was called a “shoujou” or something like that. And why was Muramasa going after something else while we were in the middle of being chased by a dragon, anyway?!
As I pondered this inexplicable mystery, my hand reached for the sheath at last.
Huh?!
And in a flash, with one powerful motion, the ape, crying out in confusion, was bisected at the waist.
With a face full of fresh blood and monkey torso, the dragon let out a shocked roar. Distracted from its game of cat and mouse, it took a surprise direct hit to its eyes and writhed in agony, creating an opening.
Wait, is this what Muramasa was going for?!
What incredible combat tactics! Hats off, sword! Even if it only ever thought about satisfying itself without a single care for how much it wrecked my body in the process, it really did come through during combat, huh?
“COMMENCE COUNTEROFFENSIVE!”
My body turned sharply around and lunged at the dragon!
“Haaaaaaah!”
“GROOOOOAR?!”
Leaping onto the black dragon’s back, I began stabbing it in a frenzy. Its scales were unbelievably tough, but after repeated thrusts with the tip of the blade, finally, an arc of fresh blood gushed forth.
“GRAAAR!”
The dragon frantically spun in a cone, trying to shake me off—to no avail! Anticipating this maneuver, Aethon the Sable Tormenter shot out of my left sleeve. The black chain coiled endlessly around the dragon’s neck and held me firmly in place, like a mounted soldier.
Next, my daggers—crafted from Dáinsleif, the Dark Thirst—came flying out of my coat pockets and plunged into the various stab wounds Muramasa had left. The dark blades absorbed the dragon’s blood, giving me a surge of power, thanks to Dáinsleif’s ability to use the blood of its enemies to transfer strength to its wielder.
“GRRRRRRRRR!” the dragon growled, the sound taking on a different tone.
It was like its perception of me had changed. Until now, it’d treated me as a pest, a nuisance, but now it saw me as a foe capable of killing it, regarding me with such rage that it sent chills down my spine.
Um, Mr. Dragon? I’m just saying, but I’m not actually doing anything, okay?! All my movements are Muramasa’s doing, and the chain and daggers also just came out on their own, okay?! So don’t be mad at me! Think of it as a child’s prank, be a dear, and die, all right?!
Which it didn’t, of course. Instead, it just shot a murderous glare my way.
My pants wouldn’t survive much more of this unscathed.
“Muramasa! Hurry up and finish this! We can’t fight this thing forever!”
“YES. IMMEDIATE OBLITERATION!”
This overwhelmingly favorable situation was nothing short of a miracle. Thanks to the surprise attack blinding the dragon, I’d managed to position myself somewhere its claws couldn’t reach and continue my assault.
Still, it wouldn’t last forever. Muramasa knew this and pulled Arash, the Death Shot, from its holster.
Its recoil was staggering, and it was far too eager to try and make me kill myself every time. But in terms of firepower, there was nothing greater.
Pointing it at the dragon’s back, I readied my finger over the trigger—
“GROOOOOOOOAR!” the black dragon bellowed, taking off into the skies.
With a single flap of its wings, it soared hundreds of meters, and the second flap lifted it close to the clouds.
Such extreme acceleration sent my body slamming into a wall of air.
“Ugh!” I groaned as every bone in my body began to crack. My flesh was crushed, my veins torn, my organs twisting beneath my skin.
Blood gushed forth from beneath my eyes, painting my vision a deep red.
What? Huh?
It’d taken but an instant.
All the dragon had needed to do was flap its wings with all its might. And I, attached to it via the chain, had turned into a lump of meat.
That was how vast the gulf was separating it from ordinary creatures. With my body torn, I fully comprehended just how little of a chance I’d ever stood.
“VESSEL?!” Muramasa’s scream reverberated in my soul.
Wow, it sounds so worried about me. Would be nice if it did that more often.
That dazed thought marked the beginning of my personal hell.
“GROOOOOOOAR!” roared the king of the skies, furious at me for daring to defy him.
It took off flying in an erratic pattern, at super speed. I groaned, my every sense assaulted by the wild, deadly acceleration.
Again I crashed into the air, and the bones on my face, bearing the full impact, shattered.
My organs reached their limit, and a sickening squelch like water balloons popping echoed underneath my skin.
The catastrophic wounds nearly drove me unconscious, but at that moment the pain of another organ tearing open forcefully jolted me awake.
Every time the dragon abruptly changed directions, severe pain shot up from my left shoulder where the chain linked my body to the beast’s, as my flesh and joints were stretched into a bloody mess.
“GROOOOOAR!” it bellowed again as it suddenly dropped.
The sounds of something popping and snapping assaulted my ears.
Ah...
Just like that, the pain on my shoulder was gone, and everything went black.