Chapter 107: The Targeted Dragon Emperor
Having divided the horde of monsters with the walls created by magic, I gave instructions to the Golden Dragon to take the next action.
“Golden Dragon, I’ll fight down below, so could you cover the humans fighting to protect the gate?”
“GRUOOU!”
Hearing my request, the Golden Dragon roared as if to say, “Leave it to me!”
“Then I’m counting on you!”
I jumped off the Golden Dragon and descended to the battlefield to pincer the monsters from outside the encirclement.
◆
“It’s a chance!”
I was watching.
The figure of the Dragon Emperor separating from the Golden Dragon and starting to act alone.
“Send all monsters capable of flight to interfere with the Golden Dragon and the Silver Dragon! Direct all remaining monsters towards the Dragon Emperor. We will finish off the Dragon Emperor for sure right here!”
“ROGER!!”
Aiming at the Dragon Emperor who descended to the ground, my brethren headed towards him, scrambling to be first.
Fuhahaha! To think he would become alone by his own choice! What a foolish king!
No matter how strong a dragon is, if its master is incompetent, even the strongest dragon is a treasure left to rot!
“Regret becoming alone out of conceit!”
With a simultaneous attack by a total of 50 brethren participating in this operation, we will bury him without leaving a speck of dust!
◆
“Huh? The pressure of the monsters’ attacks seems to have decreased…?”
Fighting outside, I noticed that the pressure from the monsters suddenly weakened.
“What is it? It suddenly became easier.”
It seems Jairo, who was fighting nearby, also noticed and tilted his head.
“Did they give up on taking the town?”
Mina, who had been providing magical support from atop the rampart, came down.
“From what I saw from above, the monsters on the ground seem to have stopped targeting the gate and are gathering at a single point outside the encirclement.”
“At a single point?”
“Yes, at a single point.”
Why do such a meaningless thing?
For some reason, I have a bad feeling.
And it seems I wasn’t the only one who felt a bad premonition.
Norb and Meguri, who seemingly sensed the change in the battle situation, joined us.
“Thinking normally, it would seem like they pulled back temporarily to reorganize their formation, but I don’t understand the meaning of pulling back such a large army. Moreover, instead of pulling back while maintaining the encirclement, gathering in one spot is such a meaningless act…”
You’re right, even from another person’s perspective, it feels that way.
“I think if they kept attacking while maintaining the encirclement, they could have exhausted us in the long run. Just by being surrounded, we can’t escape and get mentally exhausted, plus they have the freedom to decide whether to attack or rest.”
“Yes, I agree.”
As expected of being trained by Rex, they can see the situation clearly even in this chaos.
It’s hard to believe they are rookies who just became adventurers a few months ago.
I wonder if I could see the situation this calmly when I was around their age?
“If I had to name a possible reason for the monsters making such strange movements…”
Just then, we looked at the sky.
There, the figures of our allies, the Golden Dragon and the Silver Dragon, were engaged in a fierce battle with the flying monsters.
“I wonder if those two… or rather, two dragons are the cause?”
If I think of a quick reason, that’s about it.
Of course, Rex is an existence outside the norm, but that’s irrelevant to monsters who don’t know him.
In that case, monsters would feel more threatened by existences visibly outside the norm like a Golden Dragon and a Silver Dragon.
“Ah.”
At that moment, Meguri noticed something and raised her voice.
“What’s wrong?”
Meguri looked at us with an indescribably subtle expression.
“…Rex wasn’t riding the Golden Dragon.”
“Eh?”
What do you mean!? Rex was supposed to be riding the Golden Dragon to disrupt the monsters surrounding the town, right?
“Or rather, how can you tell from this distance!?”
The dragons are fighting at tremendous speed up in the sky.
We can fly with magic too, but fighting while flying at that speed is impossible.
To be able to confirm if a person is riding on the back of a dragon moving at such speed—what kind of eyes does this girl have!?
“I concentrated magic power in my eyes using Body Enhancement Magic and saw it.”
Then Meguri casually gave an outrageous answer.
“Eh!? Body Enhancement Magic can do that too!?”
I concentrated the magic power of Body Enhancement Magic into my eyes as Meguri said and looked at the sky.
However, I couldn’t confirm the back of the flying Golden Dragon as she said.
“I can’t see it?”
“I can’t see it either.”
“I can’t see it either.”
As expected, Jairo and the others can’t see it either.
“Umm… Probably, isn’t it because the attributes and usage of Body Enhancement Magic are different? Since Meguri is a thief, her role as a scout is important, so I think she excels in observation skills.”
Norb deduced the reason why only Meguri could confirm the Golden Dragon‘s back.
“I see. Come to think of it, our Body Enhancement Magic has different attributes for each of us.”
Learning about the differences in each other’s magic again, I wondered if the magic I learned could also be used differently from everyone else.
“…But right now, that over there is the bigger problem.”
Pulling myself together thinking that’s not what I should be thinking about now, I looked at the dragons flying in the sky again.
“Come to think of it, even though the monsters on the ground retreated, the dragons are still fighting.”
What does this mean?
If the monsters on the ground retreated, isn’t it natural for the monsters in the sky to retreat too?
Or are they daring to make the monsters in the sky fight the dragons?
And Rex isn’t in that sky…
Then where on earth is Rex?
It was when I thought that.
BOOOOOOOOOOM!!
With a tremendous roar, a huge explosion occurred at the place where the monsters on the ground had gathered.
“…It’s a coincidence, right?”
Monsters just happened to gather there, and actually Rex was there and the monsters were rushing him or something… there’s no way it could be such a stupid reason…
“Could it be that Rex happened to be at the place where the monsters gathered by chance, and caused a huge explosion with magic?”
“It seems so plausible that I’m at a loss for words.”
Norb couldn’t deny Mina’s deduction, smiling wryly.
Yeah, honestly, I also feel like that might be the case.
“Well, thinking normally, the humans capable of using such grand magic are limited…”
The possibility that an S-rank mage happened to come to town by chance isn’t zero, but even I think clinging to that hope is being a sore loser at this point.
“In that case, does that mean that explosion was caused by Rex after all?”
While we were talking like that, monsters caught in the explosion were blown towards us from behind.
“For now, since heading towards that explosion seems dangerous in various ways, shall we go around finishing off the monsters that were blown here?”
“Right, that sounds good.”
“Wait, from Rex‘s perspective, he probably just thinks he’s lucky that the monsters approached him on their own, saving him the trouble of going to them, right?”
“Yes, I think so too. No mistake.”
And so, we went around finishing off the blown-away monsters to fulfill our original role of guarding the town.
◆
The monsters swarm the Dragon Emperor.
Hiding in their shadow, my brethren head from all directions to finish off the Dragon Emperor.
But the Dragon Emperor is fully occupied dealing with the monsters and shows no sign of noticing my brethren approaching at high speed while hiding their presence.
Considering the unlikely event that the Dragon Emperor‘s action was some kind of diversion, I alone refrained from attacking the Dragon Emperor and remained vigilant of the surroundings, but it seems it was a needless worry.
The great achievement of taking the Dragon Emperor’s head will be taken by them, but hey, I was the one who formulated the plan.
If I consider that it happened because of my proposal, my achievement won’t waver.
After that, we just need to display the defeated Dragon Emperor‘s head to break the humans’ fighting spirit, take the town residents hostage, and force the Dragon Knight commanding the Silver Dragon to surrender.
Maximum results with minimum effort.
That is precisely my way.
“Now then, it’s about time the Dragon Emperor‘s head falls… nu?”
It happened at that moment.
Suddenly, a dazzling light was born from the place where the Dragon Emperor was.
“Wh-What is… !?”
A tremendous light and roar drowned out the words I tried to say.
“UUWOAAAAAAAAH!?”
Furthermore, a shockwave assaulted me, lagging behind the light.
“Nuoh!?”
I braced my legs with all my might so as not to be blown away by the shockwave.
And when the shock finally subsided, I slowly opened my eyes.
Wondering what on earth had happened.
“……!?”
What entered my vision when I opened my eyes was a desolate wasteland where not a single person was standing.
“Th-This is!? What on earth!?”
No, that’s wrong.
There was someone standing.
Just one person stood there as if nothing had happened.
“Man, the monsters approached me on their own, so it was super easy.”
That person spoke as if he hadn’t even noticed he was being attacked by a horde of monsters.
Far from that, even the fact that his life was targeted by dozens of Demons…
The Dragon Emperor hadn’t noticed.
“Phew, I guess I’ve defeated them all for the time being? Next is supporting Ryune and the others fighting in the sky.”
“!?”
At those words, I realized it.
I realized it!!
We weren’t cornering the Dragon Emperor; we were lured out by the Dragon Emperor!
When!? Since when did he realize we Demons were targeting him!?
No, far from that, are you saying the Dragon Emperor, knowing that, still made himself a decoy!?
Convinced that we would attack!?
Knowing his own life would be threatened!?
“No…”
That’s right, no.
No!
Did the Dragon Emperor… did the Dragon Emperor not care about us even a fragment!?
Because he was convinced he could deal with us alone, he dared to take independent action!?
“Everything was in the palm of his hand…!?”
“Huh?”
Hearing someone’s voice realizing something, I returned to my senses and realized the Dragon Emperor was staring straight at me.
“…”
“…Ah, a Demon.”
“GYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!”
I ran away with all my might.
