Ep 64. Get A Life, Will You? (4)

 

Hunting ice golems with Ilias was teaching Patrick lots of things.

For starters, he’d realized that he can comfortably cast Snow Claw now; it wasn’t as apparent before, but the growth of his mana reserve was extremely noticeable in combat. Though he would’ve struggled to handle even one golem on his own before, the enforcer now found himself well and fine after hunting three.

The second thing he was learning today was that, apparently, ice can catch fire – which didn’t make all that much sense, but eh, what did he know.

Patrick watched as another chunk of the golem’s torn ice armor crashed into the frozen ground, soon dissipating into bits of mana. Bits of snow pelted at his face, drenching the mage in water.

‘…Right. THIS is what actual dragons are like.’

When Raizel and Ilias had fought every single day back at their lodge, Patrick had thought them to be oddities for punching and breaking things. Serenis, who always seemed calm and collected, came across as a typical dragon to him.

However, what Patrick hadn’t fully perceived was that Serenis, despite her identity, was currently human; she possessed her former heart, but not the rest of her former body. Naturally, the dragonlord’s physical prowess wasn’t anything remarkable.

Simply put, Raizel and Ilias were normal. Serenis was the weird one who always relied on magic.

Patrick narrowed his gaze once more. In the distance, an innocent youngling was seemingly having the best time of her life.

Ilias was attached to a golem’s arm, her laughter echoing throughout the snowy field. She plunged her blazing hand into the monster’s chest, melting through the frozen armor with a violent sizzling noise.

The golem groaned, stumbling left and right in pain while trying to tear off the tiny dragon with its other arm.

In all fairness, Ilias was barely the tenth of the golem’s size in her human form: it seemed all too easy of a task to tear off the tiny youngling from its body. But instead, the golem’s arm would never make it to Ilias.

Noting the towering arm behind her, Ilias swung her tail to cleanly break off the limb reaching for her. A massive, arm-shaped block of ice was pitched across the sky; hopefully, it’d dissipate before crashing down unto a poor tree.

Ilias let out another playful laughter as she continued to ‘hunt’ the golem. Though, Patrick could swear she was torturing it on purpose.

‘It’s almost like watching a cat playing with mice…except the sizes are reversed.’

Soon, the dragon climbed the golem to its shoulder, poking her finger into its head. The monster began to panic as molten hollows formed on the side of its frozen helm from the dragon’s heated fingertip.

Unfortunately, predators rarely cared for their prey’s panic.

Finally driven to its wit’s end, the golem pulled back its head and slammed it into its own shoulder, breaking off its remaining arm in entirety – shoulder and dragon and all.

As soon as Ilias was off, the armless golem immediately turned and began to flee.

The red dragon landed onto the snow beside Patrick, brushing the bits of snow that had splashed onto her clothes.

“Wow, he’s smart! Even knows how to run away.”

“…Ilias, I don’t think you realize how terrifying it is to have a dragon attacking you.”

“But Raizel attacks me all the time though. Violently, too.”

“You know what? Never mind. Look! It’s getting away!”

“Oh! Right!”

Ilias pulled back her right arm, her fingers curling into a claw-like shape. Three streaks of fire sparked into blazing spears above the red dragon, readying themselves to be thrown.

When she swung her arm in a throwing motion, the flaming spears launched themselves straight across the air – towards their fleeing target.

The golem had never made it far, given its usual slowness and the snowy terrain. The blazing spears cleanly struck its back, skewering the monster completely before exploding from within to reduce the golem to smithereens.

Its hulking figure crumbled apart, soon dissipating into faded mana. Only bits of white crystals were left in the explosion’s wake.

Ilias excitedly ran over and picked up her prize. She momentarily admired the flake-like crystals before waving them towards Patrick.

“Got two more! This is fun!”

“…Yeah. Sure was.”

Patrick made an audible gulp as he swore never to cross Ilias in his life. Ever.

 

✧   ✧   ✧

 

Light was skipping forward in lightened strides back towards the cabin. Serenis and Karas followed behind her, with Serenis occasionally sparing worried glances toward the professor.

Karas was busily rubbing the feathers on his head, shriveled from all the pulling and poking that had happened only moments ago. It was a sorry sight, to say the least.

“You could’ve defended yourself, Karas.”

“…Unfortunately, that only results in worse consequences in the future.”

“Worse consequences?”

“A cease in my precious supply of coffee beans. Compared to that, a scratch or two is nothing.”

“…”

Serenis then stared at light, who seemed to have been somehow energized after lecturing (or, torturing) her professor about why he shouldn’t use magic on his students. She’d poked and pulled on his feathers countless times in the process – seemingly out of fun – though the half girl had insisted it was to reprimand him.

Hopefully, it was in good spirit. Hopefully.

After awkwardly clearing her throat, Serenis changed the subject at hand.

“So, Karas. Were you a hunter before? You seemed rather accustomed.”

“Not…quite. I learned the practice from…”

Silence befell as the professor trailed off. His eyes drifted towards the half girl up ahead, gazing into her figure for quite some time before he answered Serenis.

“…An old acquaintance.”

“…? Does that acquaintance happen to be Light?”

“Haha, no, not at all. She’s since passed away.”

Serenis opened her mouth to inquire further, but soon closed it back. She couldn’t bring herself to say anything with the somber look drawing over Karas. They walked the rest of the way in silence, with Serenis reflecting on the professor’s drive for reincarnation research.

When the three finally made their way back, Light swung the cabin door open with a hearty greeting. She quickly scanned the interior to find Otoka stirring the cauldron’s contents once more.

“We’re back! Mr. Lairaff, I got your leaves!”

“Hmm? Ah…fine timing.”

The archmage momentarily stopped his stirring, beckoning Light over to his side.

“My back was just starting to hurt. You can take the ladle again then.”

“Bye!”

An immediate response came from Light, actions following suit. She dropped the basket in hand and took a few steps back, slamming the door shut behind her. Serenis and Karas awkwardly remained standing, looking towards the closed entrance.

‘…Well, that was quick.’

Slowly, the professor likewise reached for the knob – before he’d get dragged back to work too. However, vines sprouting from the floor wrapped around his ankles to drag him towards the cauldron, with Otoka giving a rather menacing glare towards the crow.

“…She can leave, but you need to stay. I’ll need the fire again soon.”

“…Of course. I wasn’t thinking about leaving. At all.”

The dragonlord watched the professor being dragged back to work, wondering if it’d be better for her to replace him. However, the last time she’d offered, the archmage had adamantly refused – mostly because Aldrid had looked at the old man with a I-dare-you-to-make-her-work glare when it happened.

This time, Aldrid’s eyes were pressuring for a completely different reason. The deity was wearing a sullen expression as she weakly greeted the dragonlord’s return, beckoning her over.

“Lord Serenis, could I speak to you for a moment? In private.”

“…? Of course.”

After exiting through the backdoor to gain sufficient distance from the others, the deity apologetically lowered her head.

“Sorry. There might be a problem.”

“Has something gone wrong in the craft?”

“No, that’s proceeding apace – making the ward won’t be a problem. It’s just…I haven’t been able to locate Master Felicir at all.”

Serenis’ expression hardened at the news.

“You sounded rather certain that you’d be able to find him before.”

“I did. I can normally find him quite easily. Wherever he goes, deaths tend to occur through rather…unnatural means. If I but focus, I can sense such loss of life quite easily. But recently…nothing like that has happened.”

“…”

The deity of life had been the only lead she had in locating this ‘Felicir’; even Iris hadn’t sounded like she knew where her brother was. If Aldrid couldn’t locate Felicir, then there basically wasn’t any lead as to where their target may be.

However, Serenis couldn’t afford to let her disappointment show. Not when Aldrid had been of substantial help already.

“Raise your head. It’s nothing to apologize for.”

“But…I promised I’d help you, and…”

“You’ve been plenty of help already, child. Once the ward is completed, I can simply look for him myself.”

When Aldrid raised her head as told, she could see a reassuring smile on the dragonlord’s lips – which only made her feel sorrier for the failure.

“I cannot say for certain, but it may be that he’s with the other deities. There really isn’t much else that would occupy him...”

“Is it not a good thing if he’s too occupied to kill lives as he pleases?”

“Well…you see, when the others call for Master Felicir’s presence, it’s usually to consult him about strange individuals – ones that they deem a threat to themselves, necessary for removal. Like…”

Aldrid audibly gulped as her eyes filled with worry. She hoped that it wouldn’t be the case, and she even knew that Felicir had no way of knowing about Serenis’ return yet – but somehow, she couldn’t shake off the ill feeling that the deity of death was already alert and aware.

“…You.”