CHAPTER 24: TANK BUSTER

SERENA MAIZONO 

2 ½ YEARS AGO

“Activating Partial Dragon Form.” 

Senpai whispered in my ear. I felt his warm hand gently touching my heart, and a golden light glowed upon my body. My angelic white-and-blue wings and long lizard tail spawned from my back. 

Senpai has inhaled chemical gas, so I knew the purpose of why he activated my Partial Dragon Form. I slowly raised my body and flapped my wings, blowing the white phosphorus smoke away from us. Since this is a narrow hall, the chemicals only cycled on the other side of this tight space. All my wings did is to make the air a little less dense.

“Motherfucker! No wonder Zac fucking Schneider is guilty of war crimes!” Alphonse revealed his chains, and his dragonoid Z readied a magical kata stance, all while covering their nose and mouth with a handkerchief. “Destroy that tank!”

“Wait!” Senpai cried. “The air will ignite if we use any attack magic!”

“Huh!? Then how are we supposed to destroy that tank without magic?” Alphonse asked. 

Without magic, we are merely humans. Using the Vesryn Pulse in this tight hallway would pose more problems since we won’t have mobility if I and Z turn into a giant dragon. Of course, breathing fire or using other elemental magic is suicide in this situation. Using Forge magic would also make sparks that would probably ignite the white phosphorus in the air.

Senpai finally stood up and offered his hand to help me stand. I drew a handkerchief from my pocket and covered my mouth. However, Senpai used his sleeve to breathe through the unclean air. I want to nag him for not bringing his own handkerchief, but that would come later. 

“Hey, answer me, prick! How are we supposed to deal with that tank!?” Alphonse shouted again with his muffled voice.

Senpai took a step forward and slammed his shield on the ground. Suddenly, two hilts popped up on the top edge of his shield. He held those hilts with each of his hands, pulled it away from each other, splitting the shield into two like a twin popsicle ice cream. The two halves of the shield spawned sharp blades on its other sides, making it a set of sharp buster swords. My dragon knight slammed his giant weapons to the ground and made the broken pieces of tiles dance in the air.

“Brute force, Alphonse. Brute force.” Senpai said with a confident smile.

Suddenly, there was a loud clunk, followed by a cannon’s roar. The tank fired another explosive shell again, directed to us. If another set of chemical air explodes in this area, the whole place will be filled with poison.

“Haaah!” 

In a blink of an eye, with proper timing and precision, Senpai swung one of his buster swords to slice the gigantic bullet in half. He managed to slice off the trigger of the chemical inside the shell, so it didn’t explode white smoke like before.

Without wasting any time, Senpai charged forward while holding his breath. In just a matter of two seconds, he closed the distance and finally made it to the tank. Senpai is using his magical energy to fortify his muscles and lighten his bones from the inside, which makes him as agile as a surging falcon.

“Seeeeeihaaaaa!” 

Senpai jumped forward like a slam dunk champion and slammed his two buster swords straight to the tank’s core. The tank was split into three pieces like a cake, revealing its machine interiors. Because of the impact, the tank, or what’s left of it, was pushed backward, shattering the wall to the other side. The air from outside vacuumed the white smoke, making this tight hall free from toxicity.

“Fuck...” Alphonse had his jaws hanged, together with his dragonoid Z. They were so amazed at my dragon knight’s performance. “You converted your internal magical energy to brute strength!”

“You’re amazing, Senpai!” I clasped my hands as I cheered out loud. You can be cool, but you will never be a dragon knight dual-wielding a buster sword cool. 

Senpai climbed on the ruined tank and pulled off the operator of the war machine, which is apparently, a dragonoid. It’s not just a dragonoid, but it’s a boy, about ten years of age. Senpai mercilessly grabbed him on his head.

“Guuuuh!” The child cried as Senpai’s grip to his skull becomes tighter. He made a series of hammer fists to Senpai’s arm, which rendered no effect.

“Senpai, don’t!” I cried out loud as I ran towards him. Sir Alphonse and Z followed.

There are two other child dragonoids inside the tank, which are completely armed like a full-fledged soldier. One is a girl who is armed by a rocket launcher, and the other is armed by a light machine gun, and they all pointed their weapons to my cold dragon knight.

“Let go of him, human!” The dragonoid girl with the RPG launcher cried. He is literally crying out of fear.

“Try it, bitch!” Alphonse pulled his chains and enhanced it with five elements. Z also readied her hands to cast elemental projectiles, aiming at the dragonoid child with a gun.

Senpai is not reacting, but his grip to the child’s head is getting tighter. He glared at the doomed kid with his cold emerald eyes, full of wrath. He’s furious that these kids tried to kill us four, and it won’t be far fetched if he kills the kid for revenge. I sensed his hand flowing with magic as he shouted.

“Forg-”

“STOOOOP!!!” I cried out loud. “Senpai, he’s just a child! Don’t kill him!”

“I’m not going to kill him. I just want to try if he can survive if I forge a sword inside his brain.” Senpai coldly replied.

“That’s the same as killing him!” I cried. “Senpai, that dragonoid is just a child! He doesn’t know what he’s doing, and he’s just raised to fight as a terrorist! Give him a chance to live!”

Senpai glanced at me with his cold green eyes that looked like the eyes of a dead fish. Lifeless. For two seconds, it stayed like that. But on the third second, I saw a faint glow on his emerald eyes. Sparkles. His eyes gained its glow on the fifth second. Then he uttered a loud sigh.

“Fine.” Senpai gently put the tortured kid down. 

“U...Uwaaaahhh!!!” The dragonoid kid cried out of fear. He thought that he would be butchered by a brutal dragon knight. Good thing I managed to calm Senpai down.

The other two dragonoid kids dropped their weapons and rushed to me, hugging me tightly. They also hollered, but they thanked me for trying to save them. They said “Thank you, big sis!”, “You saved our lives!”, “You’re our angel, big sis!” and other words of gratitude to me. 

To comfort them, I gave them gently head pats that calmed them down a little. “Everything is fine now. That scary big brother won’t hurt you anymore. Now go run and hide inside a rabbit hole and wait for the war to end.” I said with a gentle voice of an older sister.

“Big sis, take this.” The dragonoid girl presented me with a remote. “This is the switch for the elevator towards the top floor where Master Schneider resides. He told me to give it to a dragon knight’s dragonoid who has a kind heart.”

“Oh, thanks,” I said as I accepted the remote control. And then the three children exited the scene through the giant hole Senpai has created earlier when he shattered the tank.

I pressed a button on the remote control, and suddenly, the wall on our left opened. It is really an elevator. I was worried that it was some kind of chemical bomb that would try to kill us again.

“Looks like kindness can make this operation easier.” Z made a smug face as she looked at Senpai. “Maybe some dragon knight needs to learn from his dragonoid.”

Senpai didn’t reply. He just silently went inside the elevator.

“I have nothing to learn from you, stupid bimbo,” Alphonse shouted, mistakenly thinking that his dragonoid is badmouthing him.

“I’m not talking about you, dumb blonde idiot,” Z answered back as we three hopped on the elevator.

As the door closed, my eyes were fixated on Senpai, who is drowning in his own deep thought. He’s just staring at the ground with a blank expression.

It’s true that Senpai almost killed those dragonoid kids. It wouldn’t actually be a big deal if he killed them. This is war, and they are just dragonoids after all. In the societies of this world, dragonoid have the same rankings as livestock animals. Killing them would just be tantamount to killing a stray cat in a dark alley. Nobody would bat an eye for us if we died. 

I saw how Senpai sees those dragonoids. He looks at them without mercy, as if he just sees them as an ant who had bitten his foot. But Senpai is not at fault. Like those dragonoid kids, Senpai is raised in a society where oppressing dragonoids is normal, and where excessively punishing a dragonoid who has done wrong is a moral and ethical action to do. He is not to be blamed for growing like this.

Somehow, I understand why the terrorist group Arcadia is rebelling against humans. Dragonoids just wanted a better place where they can stand on the same footing as humans. They want freedom. They want rights. They want to honor. They want to live. But the society we are in is the biggest obstacle for us dragonoids to attain liberty.

Somehow, there’s a part of me that thinks that Arcadia’s ideals are correct.

When the elevator door opened, we finally found ourselves on the top floor. Unlike the ground floor, this top floor is a wide hall that is similar to a gigantic convention center. The ceiling is domed with various antiques and paintings that symbolize dragons and humans working together, living in equal standing in society. This place is rather beautiful.

At the far end and center of this hall, is a throne room. A man sits lazily in there, with his saint-like deep blue eyes and charismatic composure. His brown hair is clean, and his appearance is like those of an ideal prince.

“Welcome to the first castle of the Dragonoid Empire.” 

Duke Zac Schneider welcomed us with a smile.