Chapter 66
The Mother of the Dragonkin
I flew through the starry sky with Rosso-san pulling me along by the hand.
Though it was night, it was unnaturally bright. Houses and vehicles were burning here and there. The area around what appeared to be a police station was especially bright.
Surely her... the house where she had lived with her family was somewhere around there.
Without saying a word, Rosso-san released mana from her black wings and flew toward the source of the roar we had heard earlier.
If she had nothing to say right now, then there was nothing I needed to say about the fire, either.
About ten minutes had passed since we took off from the shelter. By the time the police station's flames were behind us, I spotted an inhuman shadow silhouetted against the full moon.
It was about the same size as a close-combat Zmeu. However, both its arms were more powerfully built and long enough to reach its ankles.
Another pair of arms sprouted from either side of its massive body. Each arm, the same size as those of the mage-type Zmeu, held a rifle.
It wore a loincloth and a roughly wrapped leather belt around its waist, with several magazines tucked between them.
A long tail swayed behind the monster, and its most prominent feature of all was a pair of enormous dragon wings spread wide.
Its vertically slit pupils stared at us. With a grating sound, the monster bared its fangs.
'GGGGUUUUUOOOOOOOO────!!'
'Scorpia.'
The mother of the dragonkin, a monster possessing both wisdom and martial prowess. A genuine inhuman being said to have been more than a match for even the heroes of the Age of the Gods in single combat.
It let out a roar that seemed to reach the moon.
The roar was deafening and accompanied by a shock wave. An ordinary person's eardrums would have burst even at this distance, but within that roar—
"Let's go."
I could hear her voice clearly.
"Yes!"
The instant we let go of each other's hands, Rosso-san accelerated. At the same time, I extended a telekinetic arm toward her great scythe.
Scorpia advanced as Rosso-san charged with her weapon raised, firing wildly from the guns in its side arms while drawing back its right claw.
"Ooooooooooh!"
Even as rifle rounds tore into her, Rosso-san flew forward and swung her scythe with all her strength.
Scorpia narrowed its eyes at the slash, delivered before Rosso-san had even entered its range.
But it immediately thrust out its right arm at Rosso-san as she flew toward it at high speed.
"Shii...!"
I evaded the claw aimed precisely at my face with a barrel roll. I continued past it and swung my sword at the gun on its right side.
The barrel crumpled and fell toward the ground. Scorpia glanced at me for an instant as I passed, then immediately raised its left arm against Rosso-san, who slashed at it.
Scales like several layers of thick iron plates covered its forearm and stopped the blade of the great scythe. Sparks and a thunderous clang raced through the night sky, but the monster's arm did not yield in the slightest.
The use of magic ended 'Levitation,' and I began to free-fall. I flipped my body around, extended a telekinetic arm toward Scorpia's wings, and pulled myself toward it with all my strength.
As the distance between us closed again, the monster tilted its upper body slightly and aimed the gun in its left-side arm at me.
Then it fired without taking aim. I envisioned a future in which I was riddled with bullets, so I hastily released the telekinetic arm and evaded. I raised my blade in front of my face as a shield.
"Guh...!?"
"Haaaaaaaah!"
Rosso-san pulled back her great scythe and this time swung it in a horizontal sweep. But Scorpia knocked it aside with its left arm, then thrust a spear-hand from its right toward her heart.
"!"
She twisted her body at the last moment, but her left shoulder was gouged deeply. To prevent a follow-up attack, I pulled her toward me with a telekinetic arm, and a thick tail passed through the spot where her neck had been moments earlier.
Rosso-san took me by the hand again, and we flew through the sky.
"Air combat really is a disadvantage...!"
As she muttered bitterly, Scorpia released a vast amount of mana from both wings and charged toward us at tremendous speed.
'GOO...!'
"Tch!"
I let go of Rosso-san's hand at once and activated the scroll on my sword belt with my right thumb. I activated 'Levitation' and slashed at Scorpia.
The future was visible to me. I evaded the monster's right-handed spear-hand by rolling along its arm. At the same time, I closed the distance and aimed my sword at its neck.
But before I could, the arm at its right flank swung a backhand. My reaction was too slow, and it struck me in the chest. My armor groaned and cracked.
The impact crushed my lungs.
"Gah...!?"
It's fast. Even though I can see its attacks, I'm being overwhelmed by its physical abilities...!
As Scorpia sent me flying diagonally downward, it aimed a gun at me. Rosso-san slashed at it to stop the attack, but Scorpia slid backward through the air. Immediately after evading, it fired its rifle wildly.
"Ngh...!"
"Damn you!"
I tried to close the distance, but I was too slow. 'Levitation' was not a scroll capable of producing enough speed for aerial combat in the first place.
As Scorpia changed magazines with the arm at its side, an unknown language came from its mouth.
An incantation. So it could use magic too...!
After only a few phrases of the spell had been woven, a gigantic fireball appeared above its head. The instant Rosso-san saw it, she changed course and flew toward me.
Scorpia narrowed its eyes at that action, but still pointed a finger at me. A mass of flame roughly three meters in diameter descended, intending to burn the two of us to death together.
────That was what I had been waiting for.
Rosso-san moved behind me and supported my back. I released my sword and directly loaded a scroll into the staff's chamber with my right hand.
I gripped the device beneath the staff's tip and activated two spells.
'Scroll: Magic Expansion'
'Scroll: Water Bullet'
We hadn't discussed the fire along the way, but... We had made at least a rough plan for everything else.
The Agency for Supernatural Affairs' publicly released information on monsters included a small amount of information about this creature as well.
"Rosso-san!"
"Do it!"
Five masses of water flew to intercept the approaching fireball.
The fireball had greater raw output. But if the concepts imbued in the magic clashed...!
Even supernatural phenomena produced by extraordinary abilities are bound, to some degree, by the laws of physics. In other words—
An object carrying an enormous amount of heat collided with a large volume of water. Vast clouds of steam enveloped the area.
'GRRRRR...!'
I heard the monster's growl. With her back still pushing against mine, Rosso-san flew toward its location.
As expected, a cloud of searing mist greeted us. Even keeping my eyes open was difficult. Though we would pass through it in only a few seconds, excruciating pain assaulted my entire body.
Even so, relying only on the sensation in my fingers, I loaded a new scroll into the bottom of the staff's tip and held it out in front of me.
Scorpia met us head-on as we broke through the steam. It held itself steady in the air with its gun aimed at us.
With my regenerated eyes, I saw it—even the moment its scaled fingers squeezed the trigger.
So I activated my magic at the same time.
'Scroll: Telekinesis'
What appeared was not an invisible arm. A semitransparent oval shield unfolded at the tip of my staff.
The rain of bullets pouring straight at us was deflected like pebbles thrown into a flash flood.
'GAA...!?'
For the first time, Scorpia's eyes widened in shock.
This shield would last only ten seconds. But—
"Ooooooooooh!"
That was more than enough time for Rosso-san, who was roaring behind me.
I twisted my body and released Rosso-san's hand. Immediately afterward, the great scythe she swung caught Scorpia's torso.
The blade swept from its left shoulder down to its right flank. A red line appeared, and then a tremendous spray of blood filled the air.
'GAA, AAAAAA────!!'
The dragonkin's scream echoed through the night sky. Even so, the monster swung its powerful arm and sent Rosso-san flying.
As she was flung away, I wrapped a telekinetic arm around Scorpia's arm. Pulling myself with all my strength, I moved above the dragonkin.
I leaped onto its back as it curled up to protect its wound and stamped on the back of its head.
'GYY...!?'
"Fall...!"
Between its wings, I pierced the much thinner scales compared to those on its forearms and fixed the beak-like tip of my staff in place. Immediately after I replaced the empty magazine, Scorpia began thrashing.
The world flipped upside down again and again, and its long tail lashed like a whip, striking my head. I endured it while gripping one of its horns with my right hand.
"Guh...! Enough already...!"
I pushed the staff's tip deeper beneath the scales and activated magic with my left hand. 'Fire Bullet' shot out and burned the monster's flesh.
I continued cocking it one-handed and fired three shots, burning Scorpia's back—and my own left leg along with it.
The agony made my hand slip from the monster's horn. Immediately afterward, a powerful blow from its tail smashed me into the ground. My chestplate shattered, sending golden fragments tracing arcs through the air.
But Scorpia also rapidly lost altitude. It dropped toward the ground in almost complete free fall.
A few meters before it slammed into the asphalt, Rosso-san flew in from the side. She caught me in her arms, and together we crashed into the branches of a roadside tree.
We broke through the branches and fell diagonally toward the ground. We rolled across the road together, then Rosso-san's hand came free and we ended up face down separately.
Every part of my body hurt. The agony was too much even for the brain's narcotics to mask. The wounds hurt so badly that I couldn't even lose consciousness, and feeling them heal from the edges inward was nauseating.
"Guh... uhhh...!"
"Gah...!"
Amid my wavering vision, I somehow stood up. As my sight cleared, I saw Rosso-san getting up as well, using her scythe for support.
"Nice catch..."
"You've got some guts yourself..."
After that oddly casual exchange, I shook my head lightly and somehow managed to clear my mind.
Then I reconstructed my sword inside its sheath. I immediately drew it with my right hand and readied it again.
In the direction we were looking, Scorpia stood in the center of the four-lane road.
The dragonkin had its heart and one lung cut through and suffered severe burns across its back. A large amount of blood and a small amount of smoke leaked from its mouth. Even without the damage from the fall, it already had fatal wounds.
Its wings were folded, and it presumably could no longer fly. In a few more minutes, it would surely turn into black mist, leaving a magic stone rolling on the ground.
'GGGGGGGAAAAAAAAAAAA────!!'
How much of the city would it turn into a burned-out wasteland during those few minutes?
The monster roared toward the heavens and leaned forward. Its eyes glared straight at us.
We readied our weapons as well.
It was too late to retreat now. I could not imagine Scorpia's leg strength being inferior to its arm strength.
The full moon overhead said nothing as it looked down on us, while the flames consuming the surrounding buildings crackled as though applauding.
After the tree we had used as a cushion creaked and groaned, it toppled onto the asphalt.
At almost the same moment, everyone sprang into action.
The second round began.