“Sure, I’ll save you,” Navie said. And then—
“—I think I shoved him into a monster nest after that.”
There was no way a newcomer who hadn’t been a duelist for long, who hadn’t received any decent combat experience since coming to the city, could properly take on monsters.
“Right, right, that was the best! ‘Save me, save me please!’ The sound kept coming from the hole like a broken record! All those other rebellious kids got all quiet all of a sudden; it was just what I needed. I sure as hell felt saved.”
He chuckled, speaking of his terrifying deeds with pride.
“But hey, I diiid step in and save him around the time the monsters had eaten through his arms and legs. Gave him medical treatment and everything. Unfortunately, he was completely broken from the shock, so I had to sell him off to someone who was into that sort of thing. Those kids are valuable merchandise to me.”
Like that, the little brother had died. Not as a lifeform; his dignity was trampled into the ground, his spirit rotted away through fear and pain. He had died as a duelist, as a person.
“...Sold him off, eh,” Haring repeated, sticking a hand into his pocket.
Once upon a time, the girl asked Haring, “Why are you doing this to us?” to which Haring replied, “I’ll do any job I’ve been paid for.” So the girl made a plea.
“I’ve...put this job off for quite a long time.”
Her hand quivered as she handed over the copper coin that day. A coin she had desperately searched for, her younger brother in mind.
She entrusted Haring with two requests. The first: she wanted to save the captured children. And if he wanted to carry out the other one, he would first need to see the children saved. Once the children were extracted, their safety secured from the threat that was Navie, he could finally carry out that request.
However...Haring’s comrades had taken over that part of the job.
“Looks like I can finally get to work.” Haring flipped the coin high into the air. “I’m here to beat the shit outta you, Navie Ionesca.”
The moment he said that, Navie’s cheeks nearly burst from laughing.
“Oh, oh I see! So that’s why you called me out to the dungeon.” He jovially hit his hands together again and again.
If they were temporarily away from the duel city, in a situation which would leave no evidence or witnesses, death could be written off as the result of a monster attack. An accident.
But that was all within Navie’s expectations.
“You sure are stupid...Haring. When I’ve used similar methods to murder idiots before, there’s no way I came here alone.”
Those words as the signal, silhouettes emerged from the dark behind Navie. One, two, three...more than ten of them. Navie’s tag-alongs circled around to cut off Haring’s path of escape.
“Now then... You came all the way here to rant at me. You’d prefer it if I took you on directly, wouldn’t you?”
His arms spread out, Navie smiled.
“It’s time to play—Nix Negate.”
The shadow that stretched out behind him squirmed. Bit by bit, it gained a definite outline and mass, creeping up in the shape of arms. Two massive shadow hands.
This was the Demon Tribe’s Tribe Skill: Familiar. An ability to create faithful servants who lived off the mana of their wielder.
“How about a game of tag?”
The massive arms launched at Haring, but Haring managed to react before they got the chance.
“That garbage attack ain’t gonna work!”
Haring smacked the ground, causing a mass of earth to form right before his eyes. This was an application of Dragonification.
The fundamentals of the Dragon Tribe’s Dragonification wasn’t simply to transform one’s self into a dragon. It was grounded in manipulating and reforming the basic elements. Dragonification was little more than the application of this concept to reform oneself as a dragon.
Haring chose to transmute an earthen wall to defend himself. However, a shadow arm appeared right in front of him like it had slipped through his wall entirely.
“What!?”
He reflexively raised his arms to guard, but the weight of the blow caused his large body to stagger back.
“Dammit...! They’re just as slippery as their master...!” Haring groaned as he held back the shadow hand that wouldn’t stop forcing its way towards him.
He had definitely erected a wall to block. But the arm had crept up from the shadow of the wall. A Familiar that could freely move within shadows.
“What now? What’s wrong? You like arm wrestling more than tag?”
The pushing arm was growing stronger, and Haring’s braced legs were sinking into the ground.
“I ain’t here to play around!” Aiming for the moment the hand grew stronger, Haring twisted his body. Having lost its oppositional force, the shadow hand shot off behind him. But, not a moment later, a different arm stabbed him in the back.
“......!?”
Without any proper means to block it, Haring fell flat on the ground.
“Hey, hey, heeey! Did you forget I showed you two of them at the start? Just how idiotic can you be, Haring?” He boisterously drummed the two hands against the ground, as if to rile Haring up.
By no means had Haring forgotten about the second hand. When he dodged, he made sure to keep wary of it.
“Nix Negate loves to play in the shadows...and it doesn’t care whose shadow it is.”
No matter how experienced a fighter was, there would always be a blind spot in their field of vision. It wasn’t easy to deal with attacks that came from right behind.
“Tsk... No wonder they call you the Tormentor.”
His opponent used attacks that slipped through defenses and attacked from blind spots. It wouldn’t be wise to take him head-on. But that much wasn’t a problem.
“...I got a feel for the strength of your Familiar.” Haring smiled and smacked his gauntlets together. “That puny hit ain’t enough to damage me.”
The stalwart bodies of the Dragon Tribe were not just for show. Their characteristic steel bones covered in hefty muscles were made to take a hit.
“Dragonification.”
With a quiet murmur, Haring’s body was cloaked in sand. He remained small. While his arms had swelled under their metal protectors, he was smaller now than he had ever been, the way he stood on two legs truly fitting of the term dragonkin.