Black-shafted arrows smothered the sky, blotting out the sun as they carved a deadly path through the air. They arced downward, like a mass of flesh-eating locusts descending on their prey.

It was a massed attack that was on the scale of devastating. Any army would have been annihilated by the hail of arrows as their armor-piercing arrowheads reflected the light of the noonday sun.

Unfortunately, it was an attack that was wholly directed at me.

I removed one of my hands from my jacket pocket and swung my fist in a backhanded arc toward the falling arrows.

An enormous gust of wind buffeted my surroundings as the air around me practically exploded from the force of my swing. The arrows struggled against the sudden gale for a moment before becoming overwhelmed, shattering into a drizzle of splinters that fell harmlessly to the ground before me.

Standing around five-hundred meters away from me were the enormous group of archers positioned behind a set of stone walls that protected them from ranged assault and made it difficult for any would-be assailants to approach them.

Such a position no doubt inspired confidence in those archers, but my keen vision could see no more trace of that confidence in their expressions. Instead, what I saw was panic and fear.

Soldiers poured out from the tunnels behind me, flooding the area rapidly even as the archers’ commanding officer began shouting frantically in an attempt to hasten their reload. There were no soldiers in between us and the archers’ position, and the only soldiers who were on the wall had already been eliminated by me.

In another moment, we would overrun them and finally move on from this two week delay. I nodded with satisfaction as I advanced, leading the charge.

“...!”

Suddenly, the sky above me roared loudly as if the heavens themselves were being torn asunder. The ground trembled and the wind howled like the herald of an apocalypse. Gritting my teeth, I looked up.

From the skies, a flaming comet in the form of a person descended. They shot toward me with such speed that even my heightened vision had trouble truly comprehending how fast they were moving. If this were the true form of divine punishment sent from the heavens, I wouldn’t be surprised.

There was no time for me to dodge. Instead, I raised both of my arms upwards in a clumsy attempt to block the incoming strike from the sky.

BOOM!

The ground beneath me shattered, and the allied soldiers who were standing next to me were all thrown back by the rippling force of the mysterious assailant’s attack colliding with my arms. Flames wreathed the entirety of their cloaked body, spreading onto my arms and singing the sleeves of my jacket.

My spine groaned in misery as I struggled against my opponent, desperately pushing against their fist. It was as I was pitting myself against an unstoppable force destined to continue onward and burrow through the ruined ground beneath my feet until it penetrated through the other side of the planet.

“Gah!” I grimaced as my assailant continued to bear down on me, their strength greater than even the blazing flames that licked around their body.

Another explosion of force burst out from our point of contact, flinging back more of the soldiers who had gathered to watch this legendary clash. Those among the braver attempted to aid me by throwing javelins at my opponent, but they were all uselessly shattered before they could even approach our position.

Although I felt like we were evenly matched, it was clear that they had the advantage thanks to the force of their momentum combined with their already formidable power all crashing down on me at once.

Damn it! 

I couldn’t let myself expend all of my energy on this one clash, so instead of continuing to push back, I slid my feet backwards and pushed myself away. In an instant, the ground before me exploded and I was sent flying backwards as my opponent’s strike connected with the earth,  completely ravaging it and sending an enormous cloud of dirt and dust into the air.

I dug my feet into the ground as soon as I landed, preventing me from being flung any further. I couldn’t exactly see what the condition of the battlefield was like thanks to the dirt cloud, but I didn’t need to. An attack like that would’ve no doubt reshaped it entirely.

“Everyone, get back!” I shouted, sensing another attack incoming.

Thankfully, the soldiers responded almost instantly, their years of training immediately taking over their bodies as they scrambled back toward the wall and where the tunnel laid.

It wasn’t a second too soon. Mere seconds after giving my order, an impossibly fast blur appeared in the edge of my vision, forcing me to block once again. The attack was nowhere near as fast as the initial meteor dive, but it certainly wasn’t easy to keep up with.

I winced as the mystery attacker’s blow connected with my forearm. It had been quite a while since anyone had actually managed to overwhelm me like this, even momentarily. Not even Archbishop Taunes’ second phase was comparable to the sheer speed and power that this person exerted.

They directed several more lightning-fast attacks toward me, all aimed at various angles. My arms were numbed from deflecting them, but at last, I could see their form clearly as they now stood several feet in front of me, still and unmoving.

They wore a long black cloak that covered the entirety of their body loosely, hiding their form and movements. Similarly, they donned a simple black shirt and pants underneath. High-heeled boots colored in the same palette completed the ensemble, but the part of their outfit that stood out the most was their mask, stylized into the form of a dragon.

“...Very impressive. It certainly has been centuries since someone has matched me in strength.” The voice that came from behind the mask certainly wasn’t what I expected. What I thought would have been a gruff, threatening sound was actually rather feminine and pleasant to the ears. In fact, the light yet authoritative tone reminded me of wind chimes.

My breath was heavy, but not ragged. Not yet, anyway. “Yeah? And who the hell are you supposed to be?”

The laugh that punctured the air was high-pitched and rhythmic, like the sound of spring wind rustling the branches of a tree. It was a confident sort of laugh.

“Oh, that? You can just call me Dragon.”