Chapter 34
When I leaned out over the roof and shouted, everyone looked up at me with startled expressions.
"Reiji!!! What's the estimated time of arrival!?"
"Not even a few minutes!!!!"
"!?"
Fast. Far too fast. That speed had to be well over a hundred kilometers per hour. I didn't want to keep watching. But watching was my job.
"Adventurers!!! Evacuate the residents!!!"
At Josef-san's shout, the adventurers snapped to attention, shouted, "Right!" and sprang into action.
"Ducal soldiers! Evacuate the staff inside the building!"
"B-but... wouldn't it be safer to stay inside the building?"
"Reiji! How big is the dragon!?"
"It's far bigger than this building!"
"Damn it!! —Did you hear him!? Staying here will just get us crushed!"
"W-what!?"
"The only thing people without weapons can do is run!! Hurry!"
"B-but the ducal capital is huge..."
"This is the most dangerous place of all!! Just get moving already!!"
"Gh... all right!!"
Wow, Josef-san had steamrolled right over him!
Once it came to this, the ducal soldiers moved quickly, too. They rushed into the building and began calling out to the staff.
"Uh...? W-what am I supposed to do...?"
I made eye contact with the ducal soldier in the outside passage on the third floor.
"Um... shouldn't you join up with the others inside, for now...?"
"Y-yeah, let's do that. You come down quickly, too."
I returned to the roof.
Whoa, it's getting closer and closer.
The dragon was already about to fly over the outer wall of the ducal capital.
But then it tilted its body and began circling—the ducal soldiers stationed on the wall started raising a huge commotion.
(Wait, could this be...)
I suddenly thought of a worst-case scenario.
What would happen if the dragon fired the kind of long-range attack I'd seen that night at the ducal capital from outside the walls? Wouldn't that actually be the most likely thing to happen? If the dragon was intelligent, it would blast away from a distance first to see what happened, right...?
"I have to draw its attention! Something, something... what was it...? Uh, uh, uh..."
Assuming the dragon can sense Talent Jewels.
What kind of Talent Jewel would interest a dragon?
"Ah..."
Could it sense a Talent Jewel with a large number of stars, even from there?
While I was thinking, the air around the dragon seemed to begin warping. Was it about to use magic?
"Damn it, there's no time to hesitate!"
I placed a hand over my chest and focused hard on the 【All Creation】 Talent Jewel. I felt something being dragged out, as if power were being pulled wholesale from the center of my body—No, this really was power leaving my body...!
A pitch-black Talent Jewel pushed its way out of my chest. I lost the power of 【All Creation】—and at the same time, every Skill I'd learned up to then vanished.
(Damn it... I thought I was using my Skills, but had I actually become unable to live without them...?)
Kneeling on the roof, I held a pitch-black Talent Jewel with a rainbow light swirling at its center.
Roooooooar...
I heard the dragon's roar.
Ah, my guess had been dead on. The dragon was facing this way. No, it was staring at me... No, at the 【All Creation】 Talent Jewel.
With a flap of its wings, the dragon began flying straight toward us. It easily crossed the outer wall it had hesitated to breach, accelerating toward us with every beat of its wings.
"Crap, I need to run!"
I took 【All Creation】 back into my body. At the same time, the lethargy surrounding me cleared like fog, and a sense of omnipotence filled me. Ah, this feeling is addictive! But I absolutely mustn't let it become a habit. Even if I use Skills, I must never let them control me.
Thankfully, once I returned 【All Creation】 to my body, all the Talents I'd learned came back, too.
I used 【Sprinting】 to run across the roof and leaped in one bound. The neighboring building was only two stories tall, so I landed on its roof on all fours. I could see Dantes-san and the others right there.
"It's coming!!"
Dantes-san asked neither what it was nor how it was coming.
"Got it!!"
Ah, he trusted me. We'd only known each other for a few days, but this man already... Seriously, he was too kind.
I had no time to bask in that feeling, though.
Roooooooar!!!!!!!
A thunderous roar drew near, and a creature of tremendous mass slammed into the drab building of the Talent Management Bureau. Even though the building was made of stone, fragments of its walls went flying as if someone were breaking apart blocks.
"Aaaaaah!?"
I was on the roof of the second floor, but the shockwave and gale blew me off it. Oh no—I was sure I was about to hit the ground, but someone caught me before I did.
"Good job, you little shit."
Rikila-san, who had been running at tremendous speed, slammed on the brakes after catching me.
Then, as he set me down, his eyes remained fixed straight ahead on the monster reigning atop the building reduced to rubble—and he said,
"Now it's our turn. Let's fucking kill that dragon."
The dragon's presence was overwhelming. It had crushed the building, then destroyed the two buildings next to it as if one wasn't enough, and now lorded over the ruins.
Not a single scratch from that hard landing marred the surface of its yellow scales, which shimmered with magic power.
The area was filled with screams. Most people fled shouting, while others collapsed where they stood or burst into tears.
Half the adventurers had completely lost the will to fight. They merely stared blankly at the dragon with pale faces.
But the two men at the front of that group were different.
"Anyone who can't fight, help evacuate the residents!"
"Ducal soldiers, call for reinforcements immediately!"
It was Josef-san, wielding a Battle Axe so large it was too big to wield even with both hands, and Dantes-san beside him with a greatsword like an iron slab.
"...Seriously, you're really using a greatsword instead of a greatshield?"
"I told you my petrification makes me slow. I can't carry both a weapon and a shield."
"Can't be helped."
"Yeah, it really can't be helped."
Neither of them took their eyes off the dragon for even a moment. After landing on the ground, the dragon seemed to recognize the two men in front of it as enemies and stared them down.
"Let's go, Greatshield!"
"Hah!"
Josef-san ran to the right, while Dantes-san went left. Even with his sluggish movements, Dantes-san could move far faster than I could run at full speed with my Skills active, which was terrifying.
—!
"!!"
"!!"
A flash of light ignited in the dragon's mouth. At that moment, Josef-san leaped forward. A yellow flame immediately poured from the dragon's mouth, burning the spot where Josef-san had just been. The flame swept toward Dantes-san on the opposite side.
"Dad!"
I heard Non-san's anguished cry, but Dantes-san drove his greatsword into the ground and used it as a prop to lightly dodge the sweeping flames.
Amazing... And to think Dantes-san didn't even have an acrobatic-type Talent. He got through that using his natural athletic ability alone.
"Tch, it's not going to let us get close that easily!"
Josef-san cursed as he retreated from the dragon. The dragon looked down at its feet as though it had no interest in either Josef-san or Dantes-san.
There lay the collapsed building of the Talent Management Bureau. Hm...? Something was glowing amid the rubble. Was that... a Talent Jewel?
"...No way."
The dragon opened its mouth and softly breathed out. It wasn't a fiery breath, but a glittering golden one. It seeped into the Talent Jewels, which split apart with a popping sound.
"Ugh! Isn't that a four-star red one!? What a waste!"
"Several blue ones broke over there!"
The adventurers cried out in voices almost like screams. The words "red" and "blue" referred to the colors corresponding to the properties of the Talent Jewels. "Physical Traits" were "red," "Magic Traits" were "blue," and "Unique Traits" were rainbow-colored.
When the Talent Jewels broke, I saw an energy resembling soft magic power vanish into the air—perhaps I could see it so clearly because I had 【Visual Enhancement】.
After breaking the Talent Jewels, the dragon slowly scanned its surroundings, as if searching for something. What was it looking for? ...Oh, there it is—the dragon turned toward us and stopped.
Of course it did. It was me, wasn't it!? I was the one who taunted it from the roof just now, wasn't I!? If it intended to destroy a rare Talent Jewel, it would target me, right!? Except I don't have it! It's already inside meeeee!