Magic of the Wind, Roar of a Dragon, Slayer of Dragons
‘How much further? Can you sense it?’
‘It’s about two thousand meters or so ahead. Thunder and lightning has been coming down non-stop – it looks like the lightning spirit has encountered a very powerful enemy.’
Honestly, a humanoid spirit’s attack power has to be at least five times that of a special cla.s.s spirit. In other words, what he had encountered has to be a demon of the superior cla.s.s, maybe of an even higher cla.s.s…
Hm? Hasn’t the lightning begun to strike less often now? The spirit couldn’t have been suppressed, could it? I have to hurry up and get over there!
The moment I thought about how that spirit could have been killed, I got this awful feeling in the pit of my stomach. It should be because that spirit-con, Freed, was inside my body, right?
‘Erm… actually, I am not interested in humanoid spirits… You know, they are humanoid… so it would be Yalide who likes them. What I like are animal-shaped spirits. That dreadful feeling you have should be because of Yalide…’
I didn’t answer Freed because I didn’t want to get distracted by our conversation.
‘Bwoom!!!’ Another lightning bolt stuck. How many times has it been? … Strange, what had happened? Why is there no more lightning all of a sudden? Could it be…
No, it’s alright, it’s alright. Maybe he managed to escape.
‘Kid, hurry up! It’s about one thousand meters ahead. That spirit’s aura is getting very weak, he may not make it.’
d.a.m.n it! I was just trying to make myself feel better, why did you have to go and ruin it?
On the other hand, if even Yalide said so, then I really didn’t have any time to spare, ‘Do you… do you know of any way that can make me run faster? I have to save that spirit!!! I don’t want to see any more spirits who lose their families showing a devastated and anguished expression like Silent Water did back then!!! I don’t want to let anyone else get heartbroken, even if they are spirits!!!’
That’s right, everyone in this world has a family. The pain of losing one’s family was hard to bear. I did not want anyone else to suffer as a result of losing someone they love.
‘…kid, what you have said really moves me. I am a child of light – I am light. Since I am light, then you can imagine how fast I can be…’
‘Even if you were fast, you are already dead! What’s the point of telling me this now?’
Freed, I know that you were incredible, but at this juncture, could we stop talking about unnecessary nonsense?
‘Kid, calm down. This is the second time that I have to tell you to calm down. I understand your feelings – you are anxious and you are nervous… But the more dangerous the situation is, the more important it is for you to remain calm. Listen, the level you are at right now, you won’t be able to attain that light speed of mine. However, you should be able to get to wind speed. All you need to do is to convert our dragon power into wind type spiritual power… do you think you can do it? You have to hurry though, there isn’t much time left…’
On Freed’s advice, I tried to put out that burning fire in my heart.
‘Even though I don’t know what that is, I will give it a try.’
‘Then, listen up! What you need now is to compose yourself and calmly get a feel of the breeze that brushes past you. Then, imagine yourself as a gust of wind…’
I closed my eyes… then tried hard to catch the feeling of the wind… and to create that image…
‘Wow!!! Fast, very fast!’
All of a sudden, I could feel my body becoming light. In that instant, I could see the scenery around me pa.s.sing me by in a flash. At this moment, I was like a gust of wind, moving at an incredible speed. Within 5 seconds, that red light was already only a short distance away from me. After running a little bit more, I could see some ancient woods, fallen down from the fighting from before and still burning. They had formed a circle and at the center of the circle, there was something that looked like a piece of rock. That piece of rock was holding onto the head of a blond haired girl.
That girl had fainted. From the looks of it, that piece of rock was planning on bashing her head in.
“Let her go!”
I rushed inside the ring of fire, and the surrounding flames were dragged along by my high speed, following right behind me. I took advantage of the gale force and with my momentum, punched the piece of rock that was grabbing onto the girl’s head with everything I had.
The moment I felt my hand getting a bit numb, I heard a loud noise, “ba-dum”, followed by the demon’s scream, “Ouch!”
Meanwhile, because of my high speed, I ran into a tree…
It was no time for me to be in a daze from my concussion, I had to hurry and save that girl from the demon.
I shook my head vigorously, trying to clear my head. With my hazy vision, I saw the demon clutching that rocky shoulder of his, staring with shock at a rock arm, which was once attached to his shoulder but now lying on the ground.
From the looks of it, I must have broken his arm off. So, he was a superior demon, of the earth attribute? In that case, the demon would be a physical attacker type. I would be no match for him. If I had to save that girl, I would need to take this opportunity when the demon was still in a state of shock and hadn’t yet regained his composure…
With my speed comparable to that of the wind, I ran towards the fainted girl on the ground. Then, I reached under her arm, lifted her up, and ran away as fast as I could, towards an unknown destination.
Everything happened so quickly that I couldn’t even believe it myself…
‘Kid, you can stop now… You have to hurry up and stop! This lightning spirit needs magical power. You have to release your wind-like state and replenish her magical power.’
When I heard what Freed said, my brain froze.
‘What do I do now?’
‘Now, you just need to imagine yourself as a gust of wind, but the wind dies down.’
‘No can do, I don’t get it.’
‘f.u.c.k! Then we are in trouble! If you continue like this, you will use up all your dragon power, and the lightning spirit will die for sure.’
‘What should I do?’
d.a.m.n it, was it too late already? Why couldn’t I be quicker, then that way…
‘Don’t be too hard on yourself. Let’s quickly find a cave or something. Hey, you d.a.m.n pervy-dragon, you know of any places around here where we can hide?’
‘I am not sure. I am not too familiar with this area; but no matter, I am the great…’
‘You! Just hurry the h.e.l.l up!’
This d.a.m.n Yalide! How could he even start talking about what a great dragon G.o.d he was at a time like this? Once he got himself started, he would end up with a never-ending stream of nonsense.
‘So I’ll just stop talking about it, what’s the big deal? No need to be so mean. Hmm… Based on what my detection ability tells me, there really is a cave nearby. It is northwest from here, three kilometers away.’
‘Understood!’
Northwest direction! Three kilometers!
…
I felt like I was riding a train, and in just a short while, I arrived at the cave that Yalide had mentioned. The cave entrance was hidden by the trees growing in front of it. If I didn’t know to look for it, I would have just missed the cave altogether.
‘Quick, lay her down by that rock over there. Then, take a deep breath, and let it all out.’
‘Hwoffffff… Haaaah!!!’
After I put the girl down, I followed Freed’s instructions and took a deep breath. But when I let it out, it felt like some sort of energy came flying out together with my voice. At the same time, my voice sounded really loud and explosive, so much so that I could feel the whole cave shaking.
‘Oy, what is going on?’
I could see that the ball of energy that I let out knocked down a tree … and made all the trees in the surrounding area shake violently…
‘What you let out just now is called a “Dragon Roar”. So long as you are a dragon, you would be able to make such a roar. And through your deep breath just now, you released the dragon power that had previously converted into wind type spiritual energy. Since you have emptied yourself of the wind energy, the remaining dragon power in your body will stop being converted. Now, let’s take this chance to quickly replenish the lightning spirit’s magical power. If you don’t hurry, she will disappear soon.’
After hearing what Freed said, I didn’t bother to ask him all the questions I had in my mind. It would take up too much time. Instead, I quickly gave the girl a hug, and in the instant that I felt her soft body in my arms, I got the sensation that my power was flowing into her… It lasted for about a minute before the transfer stopped… I gently put her down by my side.
The amount of time the girl needed to replenish her magic shocked me. It was fifty seconds longer than what it took Silent Water to replenish her magic when I first met her… What was that about? Strange…why? Why do I suddenly feel so… tired…
A sudden and extreme fatigue came over me; my eyelids felt like they weighed a ton… then everything in front of me became pitch black…
“Kid, you were amazing! I didn’t think that you are such a fast learner… Ugh… when I said fast learner, I was referring to your ability to grasp how to convert dragon power into wind magic and your ability to pick up the Dragon Roar. But that certain part of your brain is still not all there…”
“Err… thank you for your compliments, I guess?”
Huh? What? What exactly is Freed talking about?
“The expression you have on your face – you have questions?”
“Of course… Who could understand what you were talking about?”
“… That’s fair. In a dream, I cannot tell what you are thinking… Now, let me explain. Dragon Roar isn’t something that just any person can pick up easily. For a purebred young dragon, it would usually take at least a hundred years for it to learn the fundamental breathing rhythm for it.”
“Um… so what you were trying to say was that I was really awesome?”
“You can understand it that way. From the looks of it, there is some truth to the saying that human beings are well suited to learning the Dragon Roar.”
“What do you mean by that?
“In your Human World, there is a super race that specializes in hunting evil dragons. People call them the Dragon Slayers. As you know, dragons are enormous. Let’s ignore the enormity of their body for a second and just consider their ferocious roars – the roar alone would be sufficient to destroy that school of yours.”
“How can that be possible? A simple roar alone could destroy that huge campus of Pillar Nofu Academy?”
“Of course. When a dragon roars, the dragon power inside its body erupts through its roar, and the destructive power within that instant of eruption cannot be underestimated. At the same time, those dragon slayers have the capability to learn the Dragon Roar; that is why they have the ability to counter the dragons. Just think about it, human life span is but a mere hundred and five years, and they manage to learn the Dragon Roar, something that would take a dragon a hundred years to learn. Wouldn’t you say that it is proof that human beings are well suited to learn the Dragon Roar? Of course, when I say ‘human beings’, I am referring to those with a special type of const.i.tution, and a special type of anima – the Dragon Slayers… Meh… Never mind that now. People and things like that, you probably won’t come in contact with anytime soon, so I won’t bother you with the details now. If you have the opportunity to come into contact with these types of people in the future, I’ll tell you more.”
“No, I am really interested. Just tell me now.”
“With your forgetfulness? Don’t worry about it. That’s right, kid, since you can’t learn magic, why don’t you learn the Dragon Roar, and use the Dragon Roar to supplement your lack of magical power?”
“Learn the Dragon Roar? For real? It sounds awesome! I wanna learn, I wanna learn! Hurry up and tell me how.”
“Actually…”
“Slaaap!” I could feel a searing pain on my face. It was so painful that it woke me up.
When I opened my eyes, I could see the lightning spirit that I had saved earlier had her face all red, and glaring at me angrily. Meanwhile, I was laying on top of her chest… sleeping?
“Sorry, sorry!” I quickly got off her and backed away a few steps.
Meanwhile, with her head still hanging low, she slowly stood up. Her hands, with their pale white skin, were abuzz with electrical current. Then, she slowly lifted up her head, and said to me in a monotonous voice, “Give me a reasonable explanation, or you are dead.”