The room was in terrible shape. The desert breath had gouged out wide sections of the floor and walls. The sand blasted by the breath must’ve scraped them away. A human who took an attack like that might’ve vanished without even leaving behind a single bone.
With red mana rising from the dragon in its outraged state, its attack power seemed to have increased.
How’s the duo? I looked over to see that miraculously, the destruction hadn’t reached them. But that might not have held true next time. I had to make sure the attacks didn’t fly their way.
The dragon, having shown off its tremendous destructive power, looked around. It finally realized its breath hadn’t gotten Kuro.
In that moment, Shiro and Kuro moved.
“Mya-myah!”
Shiro’s magic struck first with a brilliant flash of white. It was flash magic, which had no attack power—just a ball of light shining intensely. A normal opponent would’ve been blinded for a while if they’d looked at it directly, but the dragon had strong eyes too. Not only were its eyelids tough, it could stare into the light without flinching. Still, it clearly didn’t have time to close its eyes and should’ve gotten a look at the light.
“Then this,” said Kuro.
Kuro cast Shadow Bind, a spell where tentacles born from shadows wrapped around the enemy, binding it. Several black tendrils coiled around the dragon’s limbs.
“Grrrrrr!”
“Didn’t wooork.”
Kuro had poured in plenty of mana, but the dragon shook off the tentacles instantly. Its physical power was immense.
“Then how’s this?!”
I used a combination of water spells. The base was Water Sphere, but the water itself was conjured with another spell: a spell called Water Barrier, which reflects mana and prevents inner and outer mana from mixing. Without it, certain materials would let mana leak out.
By combining the two spells, I’d created a Water Sphere with reflective properties. Instead of throwing it, I conjured it in an unusual spot: right around the desert dragon’s head.
The dragon started bubbling underwater. Even a dragon needs to breathe, and since the barrier reflected mana, a bit of the dragon’s mana didn’t blow it away. Hopefully, this’ll make it panic—
Slurrrrp.
Gulp.
It swallowed all that water! Y-Yeah, I guess a dragon could easily drink that much water.
I tried to use the water the desert dragon had swallowed to attack it from the inside, but it was no use. Its mana was too strong, repelling mine completely so that I couldn’t reach the water inside its body.
The dragon let out a brief roar.
It even looks kind of satisfied! Did the water taste good? But I feel like the dragon’s red mana weakened a bit. Maybe drinking some good water calmed it down?
I have a guess about that mana—well, just that it’s the same red mana I used when I fought Ares and stuff. Or at least, it’s probably something similar?
Dragons released that mana when their reverse scale was provoked, and the first time that mana awakened within me was when I’d grown furious while fighting Ares. Even in the battle with Geos, anger had seemed to trigger it naturally.
Instinctively, I touched my own neck. Even through the bandages, I could feel that smooth, strange object. Maybe dragons have the same thing beneath their reverse scale, possibly an organ for controlling mana. Does that mean calming a dragon’s anger would calm its mana too?
The dragon howled.
“Myah!”
“Shiro!”
Shiro had circled behind it to attack, but the dragon noticed. Its long tail whipped toward her. She leaped away, but it was too fast to dodge.
It’s gonna hit her!
But the next moment, Shiro flew backward unnaturally, as if punched by an invisible fist, narrowly avoiding the desert dragon’s tail.
I’d seen her practice that kind of move before, where she used wind magic to hit herself and forcibly accelerate. I thought she used it for attack speed or direction changes—I didn’t know she could use it for emergency escapes too!
I saw her slam into the wall behind her, but that was probably better than taking the dragon tail head-on. She winced, but she was already moving again.
“Shiro, are you all right?”
“It doesn’t hurt anymore!”
Her abnormal healing ability made the wound on her cheek recover instantly.
“Huh?” Wasn’t that too fast?
“Good condition” wasn’t a good enough explanation. It was probably another effect of her dragon body. It was even influencing the parts of her that didn’t look transformed.
“Check this out!” I said.
If you liked the water, then how’s this?
Determined to try everything, I made my next move.
“Here!”
I pulled some meat from my storage and tossed it right in front of the desert dragon: a slab of magical beast ribs, which I’d planned to turn into spare ribs later.
You liked the water, didn’t you? Then how about some hell chimera meat? It has your name written all over it!
“Grrr?”
The dragon sniffed the meat, its forked tongue flicking out for a taste. After apparently confirming the ribs weren’t poisonous, it snapped them up, crunching loudly.
The dragon seemed to really follow its appetite. The red mana around it visibly thinned.
So eating something tasty really did soothe its anger. Then how’s this? I threw over a piece of deadly horn thigh. That’s a prime cut that even we haven’t tried yet.
“Gaaah!”
Nice, it took the bait! That should buy us some time!
Still, what a waste of good meat!
“Arf...”
“Myah...”
Don’t look so heartbroken! It’s way more important that we win! I get how you feel, but deal with it!
I shook off my own sympathy for them and threw more meat at the dragon. Higher-tier monsters prefer food rich in mana, so I prioritized hell chimera and deadly horn meat. It was a huge, huge waste, but we had to buy time.
Meanwhile, working as quietly as possible so the dragon wouldn’t notice, we gathered our mana.
As for me, I couldn’t quite get to high-tier magic. I kept losing my focus, probably from using my storage too much.
Shiro and Kuro are chanting too, but who knows how far mid-tier magic will go...?
“Gaaah!”
He sure is enjoying his meal, though.
The dragon’s chewing was strangely loud. It even narrowed its eyes, almost like it was savoring it.
I’d used so much mana in so short a time that I was getting hungry too. That meat was starting to look real good.
“Graaar!”
The hell chimera’s small intestine would be amazing grilled with yakiniku sauce! If only this world had beer, I could drink buckets of it with that stuff! Gosh, and I was thinking of deep-frying the deadly horn thigh later too! That juicy meat would be so good fried!
“Gah!”
And hell chimera heart would be amazing grilled on skewers! But look at you, just chowing down on all our meat! You know how many large gold coins that stuff would be worth?!
“Myah...”
“Arf...”
Shiro and Kuro were on the verge of tears. Watching the amazing meat get devoured right in front of them must have torn them up inside.
I totally feel you guys!
“Shiro, Kuro, don’t cry.”
“But...”
“Meeeat...”
“Listen. If we beat that thing, we’ll get more tasty dragon meat, so we can fill ourselves up with that.”
Their eyes flew wide open in surprise, and they immediately turned to stare at the dragon with burning intensity. They must’ve remembered how good heaven dragon meat tasted. This one was way below the heaven dragon, but a dragon’s a dragon. Its meat had to be delicious.
“I see,” said Shiro.
“Dragon meat,” followed Kuro.
Slurp.
Sluuurp.
“Grrr?”
Gosh, now I’m starving too.
Shiro and Kuro held their stomachs and stared at the dragon’s belly and legs. They were definitely imagining how its meat would taste.
Maybe that was why their mana suddenly surged. They hadn’t been able to concentrate because of hunger, but they snapped to attention.
“G-Grrr...”
Huh? The desert dragon’s looking restless all of a sudden.
It stared at us with a strangely troubled expression, still munching away. Looking at the dragon, all I can see is a big hunk of mea—
“Ga...”
The desert dragon began backing away. It looks kinda scared—what’s going on?
It kept retreating until its tail bumped against the wall, but even then, it didn’t stop. Pressing its body against the wall, it tried to put even a little more distance between us.
Fine by me.
If it wasn’t attacking, I could chant properly. Keeping my glare fixed on the desert dragon, I slowly gathered mana.
“Become our nourishment.”
“Grr...”
The advanced spell said to burn even dragon scales—Shadowflame Annihilation Circle—was a high-firepower spell strong enough to cook dragon meat.
Cringey name or no, I’ll use this spell to burn your neck, reverse scale and all!
Among the advanced spells, this was one of the easier ones. As strong as I was now, I could definitely activate it with the time I had.
“Reduce all to ashes, shadowflames of hell!”
The dragon let out a panicked roar.
But just before I finished chanting, something happened to the desert dragon. Black mana spilled out from its body, its brown scales turning black in an instant as its entire body was engulfed in darkness.
Maybe I should have waited to see what was going on, but I couldn’t stop now. I unleashed the spell.
“Shadowflame Annihilation Circle!”
A complex magic circle formed beneath the dragon’s head, black flames roaring upward. At first glance, it resembled Shadowflame Formation, but its power and heat were on a completely different level—I’d even narrowed the range to increase its firepower.
It hit the dragon square in the head. Even the reverse scale should have—
“It’s...not dead?”
Even after the black flames had died out, there still stood a jet-black dragon. The black mana covering its body must’ve blocked my spell. Its face was badly burned, but that was all—and the burns were already healing.
“Grrrrrr!”
It glared at me, eyes crimson, showing not a hint of restraint, or of sanity.
Black mana... I’d encountered it enough times to know how dangerous it was. I didn’t know what it was, but those who awakened to this mana were granted tremendous power.
The black dragon started roaring uncontrollably, opening its mouth wide.
The desert breath!
“Crap!”
I dodged it by a hair, but was that faster than before? If I let my guard down, I’m toast!