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Chapter 1 – 20
The Source of Calamity
The middle of the southern gate side had turned to rubble. There was debris all around, and the part directly struck by the beam had half melted away.
“What kind of power…?”
As if in response to my mumbling I heard several voices cry out, so I surveyed the area. There were those who had been grazed by the beam, and those that had been injured by the crumbling of the wall, all of them cowering. Those who had been hit directly had parts or entire sections of their bodies missing, as if they had vanished completely.
“Tenma!"
Just then I heard mother"s voice. I tried to search for it"s source, and she was among the rubble, about 10 meters away from the ruined gate, together with father.
“Mom! Dad! Are you both okay!?”
I called out as I approached, but as I got closer something was strange about father. His right leg, just below the knee was gone, and his left arm was bent the wrong way, with a lot of blood coming out.
“What happened to dad?!”
I asked mother while she was busy applying healing magic, to make sure of his condition.
“When that beam was fired, I was standing right at the edge of it"s range. Your father pushed me away to save me, but he ended up getting grazed himself. On top of that, he was blown away by the aftermath of the beam"s impact.” she explained.
“Okay, Mom please treat father and give medical attention to the other casualties. In the meantime, I"ll help to defend.”
I said and flew up above the gate. Zombies were still shambling toward the stronghold.
“d.a.m.nit, at this range I can"t use Fire Tornado!”
The zombies were closer than I had thought. If were to use my one trump card now, it"s very likely I would end up hurting my own allies or even the stronghold itself. For that reason, I decided to block up the gate with earth magic first. Next, I cast firestorm on the closest zombies one after another, and slowly created some distance that way. After some s.p.a.ce had been made, I worked together with the other mages to create a 『Fire Tornado』once again.
“We can win this!”
“Burn the zombies to the ground!”
“Drop dead you d.a.m.n zombies!”
Cheers arose all around. However, whenever the fire tornado reached further than 50m away, another beam would come out and kind of nullify it.
The beam wouldn"t completely kill the firestorm, merely weakening one of its waves. If the beam reached the wall, it would still put a hole through it.
We fortunately didn"t have any more casualties, but nevertheless a sense of hopelessness started to overtake us. Mother had finished healing and treating everyone just as the one responsible for shooting all these beams was finally revealed. It was more than anyone had expected.
“A zombie dragon……” Mother muttered.
Its true ident.i.ty was that of a zombie dragon slightly over 50 meters. Gramps also rushed over and said,
“I dare say that this is probably the "Ancient Dragon" but come alive again as a zombie this time.”
―~――~―――~―――~――~― This chapter was translated by Refulgent for [ FourSlimes . com ―~――~―――~―――~――~―
Dragons are divided into lower cla.s.s, intermediate cla.s.s, upper cla.s.s, dragon kings and finally ancient dragons. Lower cla.s.s dragons include creatures such as wyverns and young dragons etc. all possessing lesser intelligence. Intermediate and Upper cla.s.s are divided according to their intelligence and strength, with many dragons of both western and eastern style. Among them, one who becomes especially strong may be called a dragon king. Ancient dragons are those who have lived for over 10,000 years.
It"s said that their strength is unrelated to how big they are but, in most cases, the large ones are stronger anyways. Ancient dragons have the unique trait of being able to create large, almost gem-like metals that cover the surface of their bodies.
The zombie dragon that appeared right in front of us had a dark colored metal on both his shoulders, about 3 meters large each.
“It"s strikingly similar to the ancient dragon described in the literature from long ago. It was written that 300 years ago, an ancient dragon with dark element attributes appeared in the kingdom and destroyed numerous villages. When it appeared in the city, the knights and royal magicians managed to drive it away.”
“That"s why the zombies seemed to be smarter than normal?” I asked while firing off magic.
“If you defeat him, I expect that the other zombies will stop moving as well.” gramps replied.
All of the mages focused their attacks on the zombie dragon. With a single breath attack, the dragon nullified nearly all of their shots. Every breath that came near broke more of the wall, and the number of casualties was rising.
“If the situation stays like this, we"re going to be overrun. Tenma, we"ll attract it"s attention, so go and attack the dragon!”
Mother gave me the order to attack. The zombie dragon was about 500m away from the gate and was still approaching.
“Got it, I"m going.”
I flew high up, to right above the dragon. Around 50m overhead, I started casting my spells.
“Earth Needle!”
First, to stop it from moving by using continuous attacks from the ground.
“Wind Cutter!”
Next, slash all over the dragon"s body with wind.
“Fire Bullet! Fire Lance!”
Finally, use fire element magic with enough power to pierce it. Each time the dragon seemed like it would try to deal with me directly, mother and the other mages would interfere with even more magic attacks, letting me cast with impunity.
After the dragon received so many attacks, smoke was rising as far as the eye could see, blocking out my vision. 30 seconds later, the smoke cleared up and the dragon"s body was lying horizontally, twitched once, and then stopped moving altogether.
Around then some of the surviving villagers let out a cheer, and all the defenders rushed out to exterminate the last remaining zombies. After that was finished, everyone came down and crowded around me near the gate.
“Tenma, very well done!”
Mother hugged me close, while father came around being supported by gramps" shoulder.
“That was amazing, Tenma!”
“To take down an ancient dragon at such an age, and almost by yourself too! This is something that history will not forget!”
Following father and gramps, people one by one gave me their praise.
Only one person ran out to check on the zombie dragon"s condition. At that time, everyone had thought that the zombie dragon was dead. They had no idea that such carelessness could prove to be fatal. When the person who went to check on the dragon snuck a peek at it"s face, the previously lifeless eyes began to glow with a red light…
“GroooooOOOAR!”
“GyaaAAA!”
Suddenly a groaning roar echoed out, accompanied by our screams as we froze to the spot. The zombie dragon immediately sprung back to life and burst into motion. The lone villager that had checked was held inside the dragon"s mouth, killed instantly.
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The fact that we had stopped moving would become our doom. The dragon prepared its breath attack. Just when I realized how bad the situation had become, somehow my body was shoved directly sideways.
“Uugh–“
Before I could even process what I saw, father had pushed me away, and mother and gramps had put up a magic barrier, while looking my way and smiling. I realized by the shapes of their mouths they were all trying to tell me something.
“You must live!”
“Survive!”
“Live on!”
By the time I tried to say something back to them, they had been engulfed by the dark beam.
I was left standing there utterly shocked, and the only thing I could do was to watch.
[Author"s Note]
And with that, it turns out the boss of all the zombies was a zombie dragon. Worse than that, Ricardo and the others all at once were…
It"s a little different that what I had thought at first, but I went with the momentum of the story.
Chapter 1 will be over in two or three more chapters at the most. I"ll insert a spare chapter after that and then enter into chapter 2.
[Translator"s Note]
I have been thinking of picking up another webnovel to translate (on the side) lately, let me know if you have any good suggestions in the fourslimes . com comments!
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