Chapter 18: Earth Dragon

We pushed open the massive doors and stepped inside—sure enough, it was a grand hall. It had to be at least 60 meters (196 feet) in diameter. And at its center, a colossal monster sat in wait.

The beast lifted its body and glared at us. It was an Earth Dragon.

Over 20 meters (65 feet) long, and standing upright it exceeded 10 meters (32 feet) in height—a massive dragon.

Its scales were incredibly tough. Its main forms of attack were razor-sharp claws, a high-temperature breath laced with poison, a long, powerful tail, and the ability to use earth-elemental magic.

Without question, it was an S-rank monster.

Being stared down by the Earth Dragon, its sheer presence alone was overwhelming.

“Kazuya, it’s an Earth Dragon. Let’s go!”

I called out to Kazuya and began by reinforcing my body and deploying a barrier to protect against impact.

“Got it. Thanks.”

Kazuya answered and rushed in. I followed close behind.

With a roar, the Earth Dragon sucked in air—almost like it was saying hello—and unleashed its breath attack.

A purple, smoke-like mist erupted from its mouth, spreading so wide it covered half the hall.

Neither Kazuya nor I could avoid such a widespread attack, and we got caught in the blast.

I hadn’t expected it to use its breath right off the bat. That hesitation cost us.

As a burning heat scorched my body, I quickly cast a heat-resistance barrier on both of us. I followed up with antidote and poison resistance spells on Kazuya.

That should at least neutralize the breath for a while.

After that, I kept supporting Kazuya and myself with healing and buffing spells, mixing in some offensive magic while monitoring the situation.

About thirty minutes into the battle.

Kazuya was clearly struggling.

Even with his mithril sword, he could barely scratch the Earth Dragon’s hardened scales. And his specialty—lightning magic—had no effect at all.

The breath itself wasn’t hurting him anymore, but the purple mist still blocked his vision. It delayed his reaction time, and he was occasionally struck directly by tail attacks. If not for the barrier magic, those hits would’ve done serious damage—maybe even ended things.

The Earth Dragon was a poor matchup for Kazuya.

I had been attacking with fire, ice, and various other spells, but none of them seemed to be having much effect.

Maybe it just had natural resistance to magic?

As I debated what to do next, the Earth Dragon seemed to decide that Kazuya was no longer a threat and began focusing its attacks on me. I was forced to pour all my energy into maintaining strong barriers, leaving no time to cast any high-tier magic.

As I layered barrier upon barrier, searching for an opening, one idea came to mind.

There was one spell—but I didn’t like using it. It was, to put it bluntly, incomplete.

An ancient spell that conjured blades of vacuum—razor-sharp edges of compressed air. The chant was short, and I could get it off in time.

The spell cut with pure force—a literal blade of vacuum. Its slicing power was tremendous. I was fairly sure it could pierce even the Earth Dragon’s scales.

I deployed a powerful defensive shield, completed the ancient incantation in seconds, and unleashed the spell.

From the tip of my staff, a crescent-shaped vacuum blade shot out, arcing through the air and slicing into the Earth Dragon’s body. Its scales split, and it let out a guttural cry.

It looked like it finally took some real damage.

Now that its attacks had briefly halted, I launched another vacuum blade. Some struck the Earth Dragon, while others vanished into the air without hitting.

The problem was, the spell was overly specialized for cutting—hard to control, with an unstable duration. And on top of that, it consumed a tremendous amount of mana. It was, by all accounts, an unfinished and unwieldy spell I’d rather not rely on.

The Earth Dragon finally paused its assault—but that was only because it had been chanting.

It completed a spell, and spikes of earth burst from the ground, rushing toward me.

I raised a magical barrier and managed to withstand it, but at that moment, the Earth Dragon’s focus shifted entirely to me.

It wasn’t like Kazuya was just standing by. He kept attacking, but his lightning spells didn’t work, the scales blocked his sword, he got knocked away by the tail, and constantly forced into the mist. He wasn’t landing anything decisive.

As for me, while the vacuum blades worked to an extent, they drained mana far too quickly and weren’t enough to turn the tide. I was still expending mana for barriers, healing, and enhancements. At this rate, I’d run out of energy, and we’d eventually be wiped out.

But even before that happened… the moment came.

When we first got hit by the breath, I’d felt that searing heat and hurriedly cast the resistance spells on Kazuya and myself.

That spellcasting wasn’t a problem when I wasn’t being attacked—but now, under concentrated fire, the time it took to cast was fatal.

A barrage of attacks came without pause. My barrier couldn’t withstand the tail strike. It shattered—and the force of the blow sent me flying.

“Miki!!”

I heard Kazuya’s voice shouting.

Thankfully, I managed to throw up a last-second protective shield, just enough to stay conscious.

But I hadn’t absorbed all the impact—my body was seriously injured.

If I could get a breather, I might be able to heal over time… but realistically, that wasn’t going to happen.

The Earth Dragon was walking toward me. It clearly intended to finish me off.

I couldn’t read its expression, but somehow… it looked triumphant. Almost pleased.

Then, raising its massive tail high above me, it swung down to crush me.

My body didn’t move. I couldn’t even react. All I could do was register the thick, enormous tail bearing down on me and shut my eyes.

I’d braced myself to be crushed by the tail… but that moment never came.

CRAAACK!!

I heard that sound, and a moment later—

“Kazuyaaa! Are you okay!?”

Someone called out to me.

Trying to understand what had just happened, I fearfully opened my eyes.

—And there he was. Kazuya.

But the impression he gave was completely different from before.

A shimmering golden aura surrounded his entire body, giving off an almost divine presence.

The mithril sword clutched in both hands was also enveloped in that golden aura, crackling with electricity, sparking with lightning.

Then, with a thud, something massive crashed to the ground behind me—it was the tail of the Earth Dragon that had been right in front of me just moments ago.

When I looked, I saw the Earth Dragon’s tail had been cleanly severed.

Could it be? Had something triggered Kazuya to awaken a powerful new strength… allowing him to close the distance in an instant and slice the tail off?

No way. That’s too convenient to be true… but it had just happened, right before my eyes. I couldn’t deny it.

“Miki! Stay back and watch!”

Shouting that, Kazuya dashed toward the Earth Dragon and leapt into the air.

The Earth Dragon retaliated with a breath attack, but Kazuya seemed unfazed—my earlier spell must have given him resistance to it.

He swung his sword down toward the Earth Dragon’s head, but from where I stood, I couldn’t see through the purple breath that clouded my view.

From within the violet smoke, I heard the Earth Dragon’s roar—and Kazuya’s own battle cry.

“Kazuya!”

I called out without thinking. What happened? Did he defeat it?

Soon after, the purple haze began to clear, and I could finally see.

There stood Kazuya—barely on his feet, having lost his sword—and the Earth Dragon, one of its horns broken off at the base.

The golden aura that had cloaked Kazuya moments ago was gone.

He looked like he could barely stand.

The Earth Dragon glared at me. It ignored Kazuya, who had cut off its horn and tail—and set its sights on me.

Was it really planning to finish me off this time?

It raised its claws and brought them down toward me.

I still couldn’t move. And Kazuya, in that state, likely couldn’t either.

This really was the end for me.

I glanced over at Kazuya one last time.

If nothing else, I wanted to etch his image into my eyes before I died.

He was looking at me too—his eyes filled with sorrow. And yet, I was glad. I was glad we could look at each other one last time.

But then—his eyes changed. Determination burned in them. As if drawing on his last ounce of strength, his body briefly flashed gold.

In the next instant, I was shoved out of the claw’s path.

And just like that, Kazuya was standing where I had been moments before.

The Earth Dragon’s claws came crashing down.

I couldn’t understand what had just happened.

Just a second ago, the claws had been aimed right at me. Then Kazuya pushed me away.

He saved me. That much, I could grasp. Kazuya had risked his body to protect me.

But what happened next—was even more unexpected.

“Well now, I was trying to swoop in and save a cute little elf girl at the last second—so how’d I end up trading places with some dude?”

A silver-haired man with a flippant air had appeared, deflecting the Earth Dragon’s claws with his sword.

Then he casually kicked the collapsed Kazuya and muttered:

“Tch… seriously? Guess I’ve got no choice. I don’t make a habit of rescuing dudes, but I’ll throw him in as a bonus. Be grateful.”

With that, he scooped up both Kazuya and me, carrying us under each arm.

He moved us to a spot near the door—close to three women, probably his party members. He roughly dumped Kazuya on the ground, but carefully lowered me down with both hands.

“Maria, handle the elf girl’s healing. Alice, hit me with a buff and debuff the Earth Dragon. Monica—keep it busy.”

At his command, the three women began casting their respective recovery, support, and offensive spells.

“See ya later, elf girl.”

With those parting words, he charged straight at the Earth Dragon.

He blocked its claw attacks and countered, his strikes piercing the dragon’s scales—bit by bit, dealing damage.

“Tch, this is gonna take forever. Monica! I need a hand here!”

“Got it! But I can’t stall it for long, okay?”

“Yeah, yeah, I know!”

With that, he closed his eyes, re-gripped his sword, and began to focus.

While he stood there unguarded, Monica launched a flurry of attacks, skillfully drawing the Earth Dragon’s attention to herself.

Once she confirmed it had fully shifted its target, she used blinding spells to cleverly buy time.

Soon after, the man’s aura changed.

A white radiance shimmered from his entire body—different from Kazuya’s gold, but just as overwhelming.

“Alright! Monica, now!”

He called out to Monica, drawing both her and the Earth Dragon’s attention toward himself.

As the dragon brought its claw down, he met it with his now-glowing white sword—cleaving the claw clean off.

The Earth Dragon reeled in pain.

Seizing the moment, he leapt up onto the beast’s back, swinging his sword in a wide arc toward its neck.

“Radiant Blade! Flash Sever!!”

The shining blade sliced clean through the Earth Dragon’s neck.

“And that’s that!”