But now, the situation seemed out of his control. More and more adventurers and residents gathered, packing the open space and streets near the city gate so tightly that not a drop of water could trickle through.
“Open the city gate! I am the Adventurers' Guildmaster, and I possess royal authorization.”
Suddenly, a middle-aged man's voice carried over from the back of the crowd.
Then a figure flashed directly over the crowd's heads, landing right in front of the guards.
“Y-Yes, Guildmaster.”
...
A few breaths later, the cables lowered the drawbridge, the city gates swung wide open, and the crowd filed out in a steady stream, fleeing the city.
Time to run, boys.
...
In the southern part of the city, inside the small wooden cabin where the witch resided.
A crystal ball floated in the middle of the room, displaying a scene of the red dragon fighting in the city center.
Kael watched quietly from the side.
He just wanted to say, this red dragon was seriously cool!
“Little guy, your mother has come looking for you.”
Elise was also looking with great interest at the red dragon spewing dragon breath.
“Mother?”
But there was only a male red dragon here.
Immediately after, Elise tapped gently, and the crystal ball rotated slowly, freezing the image on a half-beastkin girl.
Kael's mind filled with question marks.
Mother? Polymorph spell?
Could it be?
Bam! Kael struck his own head with a claw. Don't overthink it.
The half-beastkin girl stood outside the collapsed walls of the Viscount's manor, quietly watching the one-sided slaughter inside.
...
“Teleportation scroll, quick! There's no way we can fight this!”
The swordsman leader shouted at the high-tier mage, who was frantically dodging dragon breath.
Hearing him, the mage hurriedly retrieved a magic scroll from his dimensional bag and began chanting the activation spell.
This scroll was made from high-grade spirit-tanned vellum; ordinary parchment could never withstand the surges of magic power from a Seventh-Tier Teleportation spell. Only this kind of paper could stably hold the runes of a high-tier spell.
The leader leaped in front of the mage and yelled, “Quick, everyone gather near me!”
The party members began gathering toward their leader, but naturally, the dragon breath from the airborne red dragon followed them as well.
The shield warrior moved in front of everyone, the magical glow on his tower shield having dimmed considerably.
The battle qi inside his body surged down his arms and into the shield, deploying a solid silver-white barrier across its face.
"Shield Wall"—a must-learn martial technique for shield warriors. Planting the shield into the ground provided a wide-area defense and damage reduction, continuously strengthening as the user's tier increased.
The dragon breath collided with the tower shield. In less than a moment, the battle qi barrier shattered, and the shield's surface began to melt. As this burst of dragon breath—which lasted noticeably shorter than before—ended, the shield warrior quickly discarded the shield that was on the verge of melting into liquid iron.
The team was now completely out of defensive options, but the mage was nearly finished chanting his incantation.
Just as relief and excitement began to show on the party members' faces—
“Urgh!”
A tragic cry cut off the chanting.
Emerging straight through the mage's chest was a small, blood-red fist.
Before the others could even shift from excitement to horror, another bloodcurdling scream rang out.
This time it was the priest's turn, his heart pierced through by a single punch just the same.
Seria didn't even need to use any martial techniques to claim the lives of the two spellcasting practitioners.
“Defend!”
The leader roared.
The shield warrior channeled his remaining battle qi into his arms and crossed them over his chest, shielding the elven archer behind him.
"Covering Block"—a skill commonly learned by front-line practitioners to intercept attacks for allies, its effectiveness tied directly to the user's physical attributes.
In the next instant, the Eighth-Tier swordsman's pupils shrank. Battle qi surged along the blade of his greatsword as his hands suddenly flipped, carving a fierce arc toward the space behind him.
"Spinning Counter"—a high-tier martial technique for the warrior class. Its purpose wasn't to block or defend, but to proactively interrupt a sneak attack with a strike while inflicting damage on the attacker.
With a loud clang, what echoed back from the greatsword was not the wet sound of slicing flesh in two, but a clash against something rock-hard.
Before his eyes, the swordsman's greatsword had landed right on the wrist of a beastkin girl. While the skin behind the wrist remained fair and delicate, the portion contacting the blade and everything forward had transformed into crimson dragon scales and razor-sharp dragon claws.
The greatsword only struck a few sparks against the dragon scales.
Gritting his teeth, the swordsman pressed down on the greatsword with all his strength, the blade held against the crimson scales on the girl's wrist. Yet no matter how much battle qi he poured into it, the blade could not advance a single fraction of an inch.
The beastkin girl's expression remained calm as she slowly raised her arm.
With a fierce swing!
A surge of overwhelming force traveled down the blade, sending the leader and his greatsword flipping backward into the air.
Forcing his body to twist midair, he used the backflip to dissipate part of the momentum. A split second before landing, he wrenched his hands down, driving the greatsword into the dirt with a loud thud to prop up his unsteady body.
The gap between a dragon and a human of the same tier was simply far too massive.
Even with solid foundations, human adventurers of the same tier had to form a party of at least five with exceptional teamwork if they hoped to hunt a dragon.
And that was only for white dragons and black dragons, which ranked at the very bottom among chromatic dragons.
Of course, geniuses among various races were exceptions. Furthermore, after breaking through racial limits to reach Transcendent Rank, this gap would narrow somewhat.
However, reaching Transcendent Rank required weak races to break past their own inherent limits.
As for dragons, simply growing up normally rendered reaching such a rank the most natural thing in the world.
The expressions of the remaining three party members had changed completely, shifting from panic to absolute terror as despair spread through their hearts.
They had already guessed the girl's true identity.
“Lesa, you're taking too long.”
Behind them, the beastkin girl spoke in Draconic, just as expected.
The members of the dragon-hunting party understood a bit of it.
“Aya, wasn't I just playing around with them a bit?”
Landing on the ground and folding its dragon wings, the dragon in the sky spoke apologetically to the beastkin girl.
One in front and one behind, two Eighth-Tier red dragons surrounded the remaining members of the party.
Viscount Cullen?
He had already departed ahead of them to meet his ancestors.
“I'll leave this to you. I'm going to take care of the rest of these bugs.”
Seria turned, leaped onto the courtyard wall, and vanished into the shadows.
...
“Little guy, do you want to come with Big Sister, or go home with your mother?”
Elise looked at Kael quietly, asking with a smile.
Kael knew he didn't have much time to consider.
Going with the witch might offer a good life, but her thirst for knowledge was far too intense. If he accidentally let something slip one day, there was no telling if he'd end up tied up and hung upside down for research.
Going home with the half-beastkin who was supposedly his mother seemed like a pretty good choice. At least after growing for a while, he could decide where to go on his own—though he might have to start eating dirt.
“Go home!”
Kael said firmly.
“Alright, what a pity. But Big Sister respects your decision.”
The witch looked at Kael with a regretful face.
“Little guy, I look forward to seeing you next time. When we meet again, I'll properly research your unique qualities.”
“Goodbye!”
With that, the witch, the bookshelf, the crystal ball, the carpet, and everything inside the room belonging to the witch vanished in an instant, popping like soap bubbles.
“High-tier space traversal magic? Isn't that something only those old scholars who spend their entire lives studying space spells know how to do?”
Having reached the southern part of the city, the half-beastkin girl muttered in confusion to herself.
“This is the place.”
That aura of shared bloodline came from inside this wooden cabin.
Shattering the wooden door with a single punch—a red dragon certainly wouldn't bother with manners.
Watching the half-beastkin girl breach the door and walk straight toward him, Kael's face was full of nervousness.
“Mother?!”
Without a word, the half-beastkin girl waved her hand, casting a spell on Kael.
He was hoisted into the air by magical power like a little chick, following the half-beastkin girl out of the cabin.
Rate on N.U.
