The air crackled with magical energy as the dragon focused its attention on me.
“G-great, now you have made it angry,” Terasia mumbled, her legs visibly shaking.
I shot her a bemused look.
“Wait, don’t tell me that you are actually afraid of dragons?”
“Isn’t that quite a normal reaction to have? We are talking about dragons here!”
“But aren’t you the Demon Lord?”
“That does not mean I fight dragons?!”
A low, rumbling snarl interrupted our exchange.
In an instant, a sudden wave of heat pricked my skin—and both of us instinctively leaped to either side as the dragon unleashed a fiery onslaught. The space where we had stood moments before burst into searing hot flames, kicking up a tempest of sand and embers.
Inhaling sharply, I planted my feet into the shifting sand and spun around with a swift motion, my sword swinging out in front of me. A quick glance confirmed that Terasia had managed to evade the dragon’s scorching breath by ducking behind a large sandstone rock.
“I’ve put up a shield around us!” she yelled, hugging the side of the rock for dear life. “G-go and kill that overgrown lizard now! I’ll, uh, try to do something too!!”
Flicking my sword down to my side, I faced said “overgrown lizard” squarely with an amused smile.
“Well, you heard her. I’m afraid I can’t go easy on you now.”
A guttural growl reverberated in its throat in response.
If my memories of my master’s teachings still hold true, then there is an easy way to win this battle.
Dragons are smart creatures by nature.
There is a good reason why these formidable winged beasts, with scales as resplendent as polished armour and eyes that shimmer with the brilliance of arcane magic, haven’t been wiped off the surface of Eltshion despite centuries’ worth of efforts by countless knights and dragon-slayers.
Skill and talent alone is not enough to guarantee a win against a dragon.
Not only are they one of the strongest and most powerful monsters in existence, their cunning intellect can only be matched by their insatiable pride and greed. It has been well documented that dragons, unlike other monsters, possess an extraordinary ability to discern their enemies—with enough time, they can learn and memorise the moves of an opponent, utilising that knowledge to counter their attacks and strike their weak spots with uncanny accuracy.
In other words, you must outsmart the dragon before it outsmarts you.
I shifted my stance, fingers curling around the hilt as my sword poised at the sand dragon.
The first step is to be unpredictable. Dragons, with their acute perception of their surroundings, excel at recognising and anticipating most common attack patterns. But this also exposes a crucial weakness—if they think they can read your moves like an open book, it is easy for their pride to cloud their better judgement.
‘Looking at its size, I bet this sand dragon has already fought and defeated quite a number of dragon-slayers, don’t you think so?’
The corner of my lips lifted slightly.
‘Then, if I trick it into thinking that I’m just another average dragon-slayer…’
I approached the dragon from the side with a deliberate confidence, adopting an unconventional weaving movement similar to that employed by most dragon-slayers.
An erratic pattern of attack, in theory, will confound a dragon’s senses and disrupt its ability to anticipate the attacker’s trajectory. But when all your opponents employ the same strategy, it is only natural that you become used to such amateur tactics.
Which is why the dragon was caught off guard when I abruptly switched my stance and sprang forward in a direct charge.
But at the same time, an unexpected jolt of pain shot through my back, and I almost lost my grip on my sword.
‘Damn, I forgot that I’m still Avery…this body isn’t trained for combat at all!’
There wasn’t enough time to shift into Stefania’s form, so I had to make do with pouring magic into my protesting legs to give me the burst of speed I needed. A thunderous roar shook the earth as I darted towards its exposed belly—its biggest weakness, but also the most dangerous. If it is able to recover from its initial shock in time, I will be at the mercy of its full attack range. Besides, it wasn’t at all uncommon to hear stories about dragons crushing their enemies beneath them with their sheer weight.
Biting down a wry smile at that thought, I forcibly twisted my body in between its front legs and barely dodged the torrent of scorching fire surging at me. My arms shot out at the same time, swinging my sword with both hands over my head.
It was a perfectly executed feint and strike right under the dragon’s very nose.
But just as the tip of my blade connected with something soft, the dragon snapped its wings open, launching itself backwards into the air. My sword barely made a cut before the resultant gust of wind violently knocked me away.
“?!”
Frantically summoning the sword’s magic to cushion my fall, I braced for impact as I hit the ground at a speed that could have broken some bones if my reaction was a second slower. The magic within my agonising body wore off, and like a whiplash, the delayed pain slammed into my temples.
“Tch—n-now!” I shouted, gritting my teeth to stop the tears. “Bring it down!”
Step two: always have an ace up your sleeve.
No matter how clever and sharp-witted the dragon was, there was unfortunately no way it could have realised that I had been communicating with someone else in my head the entire time. Besides, it was so distracted by the fight between us that it had completely forgotten about the other person’s presence in the first place.
Perching on the rock, the Demon Lord’s aquamarine eyes gleamed emerald as she drew a magic circle with her outstretched fingers and activated the prepared spell.
My logic was simple—if she could use “gravity-reduction magic” to reduce the weight of objects, then the reverse shouldn’t be impossible for her to do as well.
And once you remove its ability to fly, a dragon is truly nothing more than an oversized lizard.
“Gɾɑvitum vinkulum, pɔtɛntsiɑ tɛli,” Lukterasia commanded. “Infɛɾnum dɾɑkɔnis, ɑd tɛɾɾɑm dɛduk!”
As her words resonated through the air, the atmosphere around me inexplicably shifted. Ripples began to run through the sand beneath the dragon’s colossal form, as if being stirred by an unseen force.
The airborne menace, which had poised itself for an offensive, suddenly froze.
And the next moment, it plummeted.
I hastily blocked the incoming wave of flying sand with my free hand as the dragon succumbed to the overwhelming force of Lukterasia’s gravity field, the impact sending violent tremors through the entire desert. Its defiant snarls turned into strained roars of exasperation when it realised that it was trapped; its claws scrabbled against the sinking ground, seeking purchase in a desperate yet futile attempt to fight against the relentless pressure that bound it to the earth.
With each passing moment, its movements became increasingly laboured. A series of ominous crunches and snaps filled the air as its once-majestic wings buckled under the strain; it let out an anguished cry when its limbs finally gave way, joints fracturing and bones shattering all over its body. Eyes filled with hatred locked onto Terasia as its feeble struggles ceased, the last of its strength slowly draining out of it.
With a final mournful groan, the sand dragon collapsed unmoving onto its side, and a solemn silence washed over the desert.
I blinked the sand away from my wide eyes to make sure I was seeing things right.
“Are you alright?” Lukterasia’s worried voice snapped me out of my shock. “Stay still for a bit, I’ll cast a healing spell on you.”
“D…did you just crush it to death?” I managed to utter after the pain had subsided.
“Am I not supposed to?” Lukterasia asked, tilting her head to the side. “It looked too tough to be killed with a sword, so I figured giving it the cockroach treatment would work better.”
“But dragons are supposed to have the highest magic resistance among all monsters…never mind, we’re talking about your magic, after all.”
Shaking my head with a smile, I approached the dragon’s corpse.
“Anyway, I wonder what is it doing out here in the first place,” I said, examining it with my blade. “Sand dragons are usually nocturnal creatures because it’s too hot to hunt in the day, so unless they sense danger nearby…”
“Forgātī̆f ich, buÞ Ich beseech thee bihofþe waiÞ ain moment!”
A strange-sounding voice halted our footsteps. Turning around in surprise, I noticed a man emerging from behind a nearby dune, striding purposefully towards us.
Tall, with length auburn hair tied into a tight ponytail and dark-grey eyes that were almost black. He was dressed in a set of lightweight armour, with a red cloak billowing behind him and two quivers of arrows slung across his right thigh. In his left hand was a broken crossbow, the string slack and one of its limbs splintered.
“Who’s this guy?” Lukterasia questioned, exchanging a bemused look with me.
“Judging by how he speaks, I’m guessing that he is one of the beastkin,” I murmured. “But with that said, he is speaking in a very weird accent, so I can’t quite make out what he is saying…”
“Verilī thou artificie speaketh sooth,” [Yes, you are correct,] the man replied, offering a nod of acknowledgement. “Mine own namæ is Mysyn, ain Raven erranÞ commissiede unto riede the Hinterland ophe the evil which yæ havæ slain. Even buÞ now, I wasÞ ain witnesſ bihofþe thy stupendouſ duel ‘gainsÞ the dracọ̄nia. Prithee tell, how didsÞ thou vanquish it hollow?” [My name is Mysyn, a Raven errant commissioned to rid the Hinterland of the evil which you have slain…something ‘witness’ something…how did you kill it so easily?]
She scratched her head in a troubled manner. “Huh?”
“Uh, let me give it a shot,” I said, stepping forward. “Aɹ juð ə dɹˈæɡən:slˈe͡ɪɚ?” [Are you a dragon-slayer?]
The man who introduced himself as Mysyn froze suddenly.
“Is something wrong with him?” she whispered.
“I don’t know—”
“You…you speak the tongue of the former Republic?” he questioned, regarding us with a wary eye. “It’s rare to find someone who is fluent in it, especially around these parts. From whence do you hail?”
