“And … why …” The butler said in front of me, riding on the same horse I was on while giving his best to keep the last bit of his honour. “do … I have to … come with you?”
I didn’t answer his question for quite some time and rather enjoyed his misery as we rode towards the next village at breakneck speed.
Only as we were at a fork in the road did I allow him to get down from the horse and catch his breath.
“I need someone to read the map for me.” I admitted, grabbed into my backpack and retrieved the map of the area.
“You … you can’t do that?” It almost sounded as if he was making fun of me, which was why I glared at him angrily right away. My right hand was already at my sword, ready to strike him down with the meagre strength I possessed during the day. “I’m sorry …”
The reasons for my inability to know where I had to go were a lot, most of which I didn’t understand myself. The only place I knew where I was and where I needed to go was purgatory. In the world of the living though, my inner compass seemed to be messed up completely. Additionally, I couldn’t use the compass at this point because heading straight towards them would be slower than taking the roads. As such, I had to rely on someone else which was part of the reason I took him with me.
“Let’s get going again.” But even then, our progress was slow. But we did have the luxury of travelling through day and night alike by switching horses at nearby towns by either handing over money, or by convincing them I was the saint.
The only issue was that the horses had troubles during the night and I needed to wake up the butler from time to time, but at least we managed to get to the city in time. Or rather, before our heroes arrived. As soon as we rode over the last hill and looked at the still unharmed city though, I knew we were in a lot of trouble.
A massive red scaled dragon was on the horizon coming from the east, flying towards the town at a rather leisurely pace with no one in sight to oppose it.
“I never thought the demon king would gain control over a dragon.” Sebastian admitted while I admired the hundred metre wingspan of that monstrosity. The only way it must have kept its massive body afloat was though magic, but sadly not the one I could interrupt.
“They are an old race, living on islands far off the coast of the continent. I really do have to wonder what he offered them.” I mumbled, kind of agreeing with the butler. “You know where your sister is? Get her out of the city towards that small forest over there.” Pointing towards west, I made sure he could climb off the brown horse and looked at the compass which was moving slowly. And then, I pushed my heels into the flanks of the horse to make it gallop eastwards towards the dragon. Drawing my silvery sword, I pointed it at the dragon as I rode towards it bravely.
But alas, he completely ignored me and flew over my head unimpressed.
“Woah, my reputation apparently didn’t reach your home yet. Come down right this instant!” I shouted angrily and to my surprise, the dragon really did dive down in a spiral and landed in front of me. His thick feet sank into the ground and the earth shook violently which made my horse stir up scared. It threw me off within seconds and inelegantly, I landed on my butt. Standing up slowly, I stared into the dragons wide open mouth with great interest for a second, until flames erupted out of it, incinerating everything in its path, myself included. My whole attire was incinerated, my skin burnt to ashes and even the sword in my hand melted away. I died quite quickly, even though being burnt alive was quite the pleasurable experience.
“You know, I thought you could speak …” I muttered inaudible for anyone and reconstructed my body and attire within thirty seconds or so. Snipping at the wide eyed dragon once, I winked happily and picked up the molten piece of metal. Shrugging quietly, I quickly threw it behind me and faced the dragon once more.
“I don’t care about that lump of metal, but I do not have the time to die again. You can talk, right?” I asked, pointing at his nose while placing my other hand on my hip.
‘I c…n.’ Sadly, he could only use telepathy which had the unwanted side effect of being drowned out by all the level up messages.
“What? You have to talk a bit louder!” I shouted at him a bit annoyed.
‘I can talk.’ His voice boomed in my head far too loud which was why I shook my head to get rid of the pain he caused.
“Why are you screaming?” I shouted back and rubbed my head a little.
‘You told me to be louder.’ Well, I did, but not this loud.
“Fine … okay, I don’t have any time for this, so why are you here exactly?” I asked with a hint of interest in my voice while swinging my index finger in a circle.
‘To burn this settlement down.’ How unexpected. And there I was, hoping he would tell me he searched for the philosophers stone like the one before him.
“No … why are you on this continent. You are the first dragon to be sighted here for hundreds of years.” I explained, a bit weirded out by his presence. For all I knew, dragons didn’t fly to the continent and especially didn’t submit to others.
‘I have made a pact with the demon king … and nothing can stop me from fulfilling my end of the bargain.’ He explained which seemed to be the truth. His soul was unwavering as he inched closer and breathed hot air at me.
“Kay … thank you.” I answered and smiled happily.
‘That’s … all?’ The dragon asked stunned.
“Yeah?” I replied, suppressing a yawn already.
‘You won’t try to fight me? Even though you do have the capability to do so?’ No, I did not want to fight him. Maybe that town would survive the attack and I couldn’t have anyone explaining how they felt like dying when I blasted that dragon.
“Nope … you can burn down that town now.” I thus explained and shrugged a little. One town more or less wouldn’t make any difference, would it?
‘Okay … you are a weird fellow. What’s your name?’ The dragon asked, stepping closer until he nearly looked straight down on me. The heat from his breath alone was enough to make my set fires on my attire which I quickly extinguished by slapping that place with my bare hand.
“Lucy. L.U.C.Y. And yours?” I asked after he distanced himself a little bit once more.
‘It doesn’t matter. Are you attempting to buy time?’ Was I? Probably. But honestly, I just wanted to mess with that guy.
“Oh no … you got me!” I explained and placed my hand in front of my mouth. Abruptly, the dragon flapped it slowly wings, sending me flying through the air while I laughed happily. While I hit my nose on a rather sharp stone, the dragon lifted itself up into the air rapidly, aiming straight for the town.
Sitting upright, I put my glasses properly onto my nose and raised my eyebrows.
“How the fuck is he able to use spacial magic?” A crack ran along the right side of my vision, straight through the right lens and beyond. Only as I looked around further did I realise that there wasn’t a crack in space, but rather that my glasses had been damaged. “How did …” Not once before did that happen. They always repaired themselves in an instant and being the result of godly alchemy, I kind of expected that.
For them to get damaged was odd, to say the least.
“Hey! Come back!” I screamed at the dragon fiddling with the glasses on my face a little before giving up. At least they still allowed me to see during the day, so their usefulness wasn’t diminished by that much. I still needed to know how he did that, but it didn’t seem as if I would ever get the chance for that.
The dragon spit out fire onto the town, incinerating it as quickly as me. Not many managed to get away from that place quickly, but my hope was that my butler and his sister were amongst them.
Stomping onto the ground angrily, I went over the damaged glass with my fingers and felt the crack on them.
“Was that your doing Aska? Do you want me to get blind during the day once more? Jokes on you! I’ll be extra careful from now on!” I screamed in no particular direction and balled my hands to fists. While the dragon landed in the town and trashed around, I showed the skies the middle finger and glared towards the dragon.
Ten minutes later, he lifted himself up into the air again, leaving a completely trashed and burning town behind. There were still some screams coming from that direction, but they were dying down slowly already. Finally though, my heroes were getting closer and closer, already circling around me quickly going by the compass in my hands.
“Hey! You! Are you colluding with Aska? And how the fuck did you damage my glasses?”
‘I do not know what you are talking about … but I will take you to the demon king now.’ That was an offer I found rather tempting, but I also didn’t like to be trapped. Even I would have troubles fighting all the demon generals and the king himself on my own.
“I do have my doubts about that.” I growled aggressively and looked into the wide open yaw. Saliva was dripping out of it as he threatened to bite me, but at the last second, a barrier forming all around me saved me from that fate.
Throwing the compass onto the ground, I quickly made a dash towards the four idiots running towards me.
“Lucy?” Schwarz shouted out, dashed past me and swung his sword at the dragon and gave him a rather deep wound right away.
“Quick! We need to exterminate it!” I shouted out, stopping only as I stood beside a very surprised, but also shocked Sofie.
“He … the dragon … he…” Oh wow. So a complete and utter shock was the result of trying to stop a dragon from rampaging, but failing miserably. But I knew the proper medicine for that. Violence.
Punishing her belly slightly, she immediately snapped out of it and stared at the dragon with anger and a lot of resentment in her eyes. Turning around, I stepped back a little as the dragons fury erupted in a wide fire breath with nothing in its path but Ellie’s barriers.
As soon as he stopped though, Schwarz dashed ahead and evaded a claw attack right away. The earth shook and dirt flew all around us, but Schwarz was able to get past him and jump onto his back.
He ran all across his back once, dragging my insanely sharp sword through the dragons flesh right away. Suddenly though, the dragon threw himself to the side, sliding across the earth for a little until he came to a halt once more – without Schwarz on his back.
“Ice storm!” A blizzard enveloped all of us in an instant, shortening our vision, but also saving the fallen Schwarz from a direct attack. But Gregory was rather crude in his magic if I was honest. I wasn’t even sure he did any damage to the dragon, but he certainly managed to cut me several times with sharp ice particles.
“Stop that!” A green light appeared in Sofie’s hand, piecing through the snowstorm and healing her allies … except me. My wounds were still bleeding.
Sadly though, Gregory paid no heed to Sofie’s warning and rather intensified the snow storm even more.
“Tail!” I screamed already throwing myself as a scaled tail swooshed through the storm, crashing though the barriers Ellie put up with ease and slammed into her. I only heard the sound of metal biting metal and then I couldn’t see her anymore. My damaged glasses didn’t help in finding my way in this snowstorm, so all I could do was to sense my sword in that mess and make my way towards it.
“Fucking idiots.” I whispered angrily and evaded a dragon foot that came out of nowhere by hair’s breadth. Ignoring the rampaging dragon for the time being, I balled my hands to fists and stomped onwards. “Do I have to do everything or what?” I mumbled, grabbed the black haired unconscious teenager by his collar and went to retrieve my sword.
I didn’t activate it in any way though as I didn’t see the need to help them out right away. Rather, I dragged Schwarz through the mud away from the dragon and out of the waning blizzard.
“Hey … stand up.” I demanded, slapping his cheeks a little before letting go of him. His whole arm was broken for some reason and I didn’t have any potions with me, there was really nothing I could realistically do. Well, at least he woke up and looked at me in delirium.
“Stay down for now and wait for your chance.”
And so, I gripped my sword and rushed back towards the dragon who was still facing the battered trio.
“Hey! Old man! Over here!” I shouted and waved the sword in the air. I certainly did get his attention right away as I was probably the most dangerous one of all. In his eyes, I was capable of resurrecting myself and holding the sole weapon capable of cutting through his scales. If he know I didn’t have the strength to do what Schwarz did though, I was sure he would have reacted differently.
Bracing myself for his next attack, I got ready and scanned his every movement. And there it was, a twitching in his right front leg which quickly swiped across the ground, targeting me, and only me.
And this time, I couldn’t bet on Ellie’s help as the dragon blocked her vision with his body. Grabbing the handle of the sword like a spear, I leaned backwards a little, made a step forwards and threw the sword as fast as I could.
His front animalistic hand slammed into my body a mere second afterwards, breaking several bones in my arm right away and flung me sideways out of his reach. Crashing onto the ground like doll, my vision spun rapidly as I skimmed over the the snowy grass repeatedly.
But my sole attack seemed to have been a success. The dragon roared loudly in pain as I came to a halt, somehow on my own two feet while giggling quietly. My whole right arm had been turned useless, but at least I still had my left one.
It did seem as if I didn’t need it though as black clouds appeared on the sky quickly which forced me to limp away from the scene. It didn’t look as if the sword had done too much damage to the dragon. It certainly did less than Schwarz had done, but it still served our needs.
Lightning stuck the sword repeatedly as Gregory used his thunderstorm spell and Sofie funnelled her mana into him. Roaring filled the area and I opened my eyes wide as the first raindrop hit my face.
“No … no.” I wasn’t scared of any monster … but water … that was too much. Rubbing my face in fear, I increased my pace as much as I could while lightning struck the sword time and time again, funnelling deadly electricity into the dragons brain and body. He was dead within mere seconds, but Gregory didn’t cancel his magic at all. Instead, he increased its intensity even further and as a side effect, rain started pouring out of the clouds.
“This … is … why I hate … working with others.” I pressed out, my throat contracting violently and my skin itching in pain. Thunder resounded through the area as I collapsed in a little hollow. Opening my eyes wide, I noticed the spiderweb on my right glasses and fell unconscious immediately afterwards.
“And … why …” The butler said in front of me, riding on the same horse I was on while giving his best to keep the last bit of his honour. “do … I have to … come with you?”
I didn’t answer his question for quite some time and rather enjoyed his misery as we rode towards the next village at breakneck speed.
Only as we were at a fork in the road did I allow him to get down from the horse and catch his breath.
“I need someone to read the map for me.” I admitted, grabbed into my backpack and retrieved the map of the area.
“You … you can’t do that?” It almost sounded as if he was making fun of me, which was why I glared at him angrily right away. My right hand was already at my sword, ready to strike him down with the meagre strength I possessed during the day. “I’m sorry …”
The reasons for my inability to know where I had to go were a lot, most of which I didn’t understand myself. The only place I knew where I was and where I needed to go was purgatory. In the world of the living though, my inner compass seemed to be messed up completely. Additionally, I couldn’t use the compass at this point because heading straight towards them would be slower than taking the roads. As such, I had to rely on someone else which was part of the reason I took him with me.
“Let’s get going again.” But even then, our progress was slow. But we did have the luxury of travelling through day and night alike by switching horses at nearby towns by either handing over money, or by convincing them I was the saint.
The only issue was that the horses had troubles during the night and I needed to wake up the butler from time to time, but at least we managed to get to the city in time. Or rather, before our heroes arrived. As soon as we rode over the last hill and looked at the still unharmed city though, I knew we were in a lot of trouble.
A massive red scaled dragon was on the horizon coming from the east, flying towards the town at a rather leisurely pace with no one in sight to oppose it.
“I never thought the demon king would gain control over a dragon.” Sebastian admitted while I admired the hundred metre wingspan of that monstrosity. The only way it must have kept its massive body afloat was though magic, but sadly not the one I could interrupt.
“They are an old race, living on islands far off the coast of the continent. I really do have to wonder what he offered them.” I mumbled, kind of agreeing with the butler. “You know where your sister is? Get her out of the city towards that small forest over there.” Pointing towards west, I made sure he could climb off the brown horse and looked at the compass which was moving slowly. And then, I pushed my heels into the flanks of the horse to make it gallop eastwards towards the dragon. Drawing my silvery sword, I pointed it at the dragon as I rode towards it bravely.
But alas, he completely ignored me and flew over my head unimpressed.
“Woah, my reputation apparently didn’t reach your home yet. Come down right this instant!” I shouted angrily and to my surprise, the dragon really did dive down in a spiral and landed in front of me. His thick feet sank into the ground and the earth shook violently which made my horse stir up scared. It threw me off within seconds and inelegantly, I landed on my butt. Standing up slowly, I stared into the dragons wide open mouth with great interest for a second, until flames erupted out of it, incinerating everything in its path, myself included. My whole attire was incinerated, my skin burnt to ashes and even the sword in my hand melted away. I died quite quickly, even though being burnt alive was quite the pleasurable experience.
“You know, I thought you could speak …” I muttered inaudible for anyone and reconstructed my body and attire within thirty seconds or so. Snipping at the wide eyed dragon once, I winked happily and picked up the molten piece of metal. Shrugging quietly, I quickly threw it behind me and faced the dragon once more.
“I don’t care about that lump of metal, but I do not have the time to die again. You can talk, right?” I asked, pointing at his nose while placing my other hand on my hip.
‘I c…n.’ Sadly, he could only use telepathy which had the unwanted side effect of being drowned out by all the level up messages.
“What? You have to talk a bit louder!” I shouted at him a bit annoyed.
‘I can talk.’ His voice boomed in my head far too loud which was why I shook my head to get rid of the pain he caused.
“Why are you screaming?” I shouted back and rubbed my head a little.
‘You told me to be louder.’ Well, I did, but not this loud.
“Fine … okay, I don’t have any time for this, so why are you here exactly?” I asked with a hint of interest in my voice while swinging my index finger in a circle.
‘To burn this settlement down.’ How unexpected. And there I was, hoping he would tell me he searched for the philosophers stone like the one before him.
“No … why are you on this continent. You are the first dragon to be sighted here for hundreds of years.” I explained, a bit weirded out by his presence. For all I knew, dragons didn’t fly to the continent and especially didn’t submit to others.
‘I have made a pact with the demon king … and nothing can stop me from fulfilling my end of the bargain.’ He explained which seemed to be the truth. His soul was unwavering as he inched closer and breathed hot air at me.
“Kay … thank you.” I answered and smiled happily.
‘That’s … all?’ The dragon asked stunned.
“Yeah?” I replied, suppressing a yawn already.
‘You won’t try to fight me? Even though you do have the capability to do so?’ No, I did not want to fight him. Maybe that town would survive the attack and I couldn’t have anyone explaining how they felt like dying when I blasted that dragon.
“Nope … you can burn down that town now.” I thus explained and shrugged a little. One town more or less wouldn’t make any difference, would it?
‘Okay … you are a weird fellow. What’s your name?’ The dragon asked, stepping closer until he nearly looked straight down on me. The heat from his breath alone was enough to make my set fires on my attire which I quickly extinguished by slapping that place with my bare hand.
“Lucy. L.U.C.Y. And yours?” I asked after he distanced himself a little bit once more.
‘It doesn’t matter. Are you attempting to buy time?’ Was I? Probably. But honestly, I just wanted to mess with that guy.
“Oh no … you got me!” I explained and placed my hand in front of my mouth. Abruptly, the dragon flapped it slowly wings, sending me flying through the air while I laughed happily. While I hit my nose on a rather sharp stone, the dragon lifted itself up into the air rapidly, aiming straight for the town.
Sitting upright, I put my glasses properly onto my nose and raised my eyebrows.
“How the fuck is he able to use spacial magic?” A crack ran along the right side of my vision, straight through the right lens and beyond. Only as I looked around further did I realise that there wasn’t a crack in space, but rather that my glasses had been damaged. “How did …” Not once before did that happen. They always repaired themselves in an instant and being the result of godly alchemy, I kind of expected that.
For them to get damaged was odd, to say the least.
“Hey! Come back!” I screamed at the dragon fiddling with the glasses on my face a little before giving up. At least they still allowed me to see during the day, so their usefulness wasn’t diminished by that much. I still needed to know how he did that, but it didn’t seem as if I would ever get the chance for that.
The dragon spit out fire onto the town, incinerating it as quickly as me. Not many managed to get away from that place quickly, but my hope was that my butler and his sister were amongst them.
Stomping onto the ground angrily, I went over the damaged glass with my fingers and felt the crack on them.
“Was that your doing Aska? Do you want me to get blind during the day once more? Jokes on you! I’ll be extra careful from now on!” I screamed in no particular direction and balled my hands to fists. While the dragon landed in the town and trashed around, I showed the skies the middle finger and glared towards the dragon.
Ten minutes later, he lifted himself up into the air again, leaving a completely trashed and burning town behind. There were still some screams coming from that direction, but they were dying down slowly already. Finally though, my heroes were getting closer and closer, already circling around me quickly going by the compass in my hands.
“Hey! You! Are you colluding with Aska? And how the fuck did you damage my glasses?”
‘I do not know what you are talking about … but I will take you to the demon king now.’ That was an offer I found rather tempting, but I also didn’t like to be trapped. Even I would have troubles fighting all the demon generals and the king himself on my own.
“I do have my doubts about that.” I growled aggressively and looked into the wide open yaw. Saliva was dripping out of it as he threatened to bite me, but at the last second, a barrier forming all around me saved me from that fate.
Throwing the compass onto the ground, I quickly made a dash towards the four idiots running towards me.
“Lucy?” Schwarz shouted out, dashed past me and swung his sword at the dragon and gave him a rather deep wound right away.
“Quick! We need to exterminate it!” I shouted out, stopping only as I stood beside a very surprised, but also shocked Sofie.
“He … the dragon … he…” Oh wow. So a complete and utter shock was the result of trying to stop a dragon from rampaging, but failing miserably. But I knew the proper medicine for that. Violence.
Punishing her belly slightly, she immediately snapped out of it and stared at the dragon with anger and a lot of resentment in her eyes. Turning around, I stepped back a little as the dragons fury erupted in a wide fire breath with nothing in its path but Ellie’s barriers.
As soon as he stopped though, Schwarz dashed ahead and evaded a claw attack right away. The earth shook and dirt flew all around us, but Schwarz was able to get past him and jump onto his back.
He ran all across his back once, dragging my insanely sharp sword through the dragons flesh right away. Suddenly though, the dragon threw himself to the side, sliding across the earth for a little until he came to a halt once more – without Schwarz on his back.
“Ice storm!” A blizzard enveloped all of us in an instant, shortening our vision, but also saving the fallen Schwarz from a direct attack. But Gregory was rather crude in his magic if I was honest. I wasn’t even sure he did any damage to the dragon, but he certainly managed to cut me several times with sharp ice particles.
“Stop that!” A green light appeared in Sofie’s hand, piecing through the snowstorm and healing her allies … except me. My wounds were still bleeding.
Sadly though, Gregory paid no heed to Sofie’s warning and rather intensified the snow storm even more.
“Tail!” I screamed already throwing myself as a scaled tail swooshed through the storm, crashing though the barriers Ellie put up with ease and slammed into her. I only heard the sound of metal biting metal and then I couldn’t see her anymore. My damaged glasses didn’t help in finding my way in this snowstorm, so all I could do was to sense my sword in that mess and make my way towards it.
“Fucking idiots.” I whispered angrily and evaded a dragon foot that came out of nowhere by hair’s breadth. Ignoring the rampaging dragon for the time being, I balled my hands to fists and stomped onwards. “Do I have to do everything or what?” I mumbled, grabbed the black haired unconscious teenager by his collar and went to retrieve my sword.
I didn’t activate it in any way though as I didn’t see the need to help them out right away. Rather, I dragged Schwarz through the mud away from the dragon and out of the waning blizzard.
“Hey … stand up.” I demanded, slapping his cheeks a little before letting go of him. His whole arm was broken for some reason and I didn’t have any potions with me, there was really nothing I could realistically do. Well, at least he woke up and looked at me in delirium.
“Stay down for now and wait for your chance.”
And so, I gripped my sword and rushed back towards the dragon who was still facing the battered trio.
“Hey! Old man! Over here!” I shouted and waved the sword in the air. I certainly did get his attention right away as I was probably the most dangerous one of all. In his eyes, I was capable of resurrecting myself and holding the sole weapon capable of cutting through his scales. If he know I didn’t have the strength to do what Schwarz did though, I was sure he would have reacted differently.
Bracing myself for his next attack, I got ready and scanned his every movement. And there it was, a twitching in his right front leg which quickly swiped across the ground, targeting me, and only me.
And this time, I couldn’t bet on Ellie’s help as the dragon blocked her vision with his body. Grabbing the handle of the sword like a spear, I leaned backwards a little, made a step forwards and threw the sword as fast as I could.
His front animalistic hand slammed into my body a mere second afterwards, breaking several bones in my arm right away and flung me sideways out of his reach. Crashing onto the ground like doll, my vision spun rapidly as I skimmed over the the snowy grass repeatedly.
But my sole attack seemed to have been a success. The dragon roared loudly in pain as I came to a halt, somehow on my own two feet while giggling quietly. My whole right arm had been turned useless, but at least I still had my left one.
It did seem as if I didn’t need it though as black clouds appeared on the sky quickly which forced me to limp away from the scene. It didn’t look as if the sword had done too much damage to the dragon. It certainly did less than Schwarz had done, but it still served our needs.
Lightning stuck the sword repeatedly as Gregory used his thunderstorm spell and Sofie funnelled her mana into him. Roaring filled the area and I opened my eyes wide as the first raindrop hit my face.
“No … no.” I wasn’t scared of any monster … but water … that was too much. Rubbing my face in fear, I increased my pace as much as I could while lightning struck the sword time and time again, funnelling deadly electricity into the dragons brain and body. He was dead within mere seconds, but Gregory didn’t cancel his magic at all. Instead, he increased its intensity even further and as a side effect, rain started pouring out of the clouds.
“This … is … why I hate … working with others.” I pressed out, my throat contracting violently and my skin itching in pain. Thunder resounded through the area as I collapsed in a little hollow. Opening my eyes wide, I noticed the spiderweb on my right glasses and fell unconscious immediately afterwards.
