Left Behind

No doubt about it, the little girl sitting on the ground in front of me is no other than Ajagar? Wait, no, it's a girl. Ajagara? Velios showed visual confusion on his face. He didn't know himself what had happened. "Ahh! Vadh, emerge, emerge!" Velios didn't know what had happened or why the giant dragon had transformed into a tiny girl with many times more magical power than before, almost leaking out of the body as if to say the amount was so huge it couldn't be kept inside the body.

If anyone knew what had happened to Ajagar, then hopefully Vadh, a fellow monster would know what had happened. "Uhh... Who is this child?" Vadh was equally as confused as he was summoned. It had only been a few hours, and they were at the exact same place, with the only difference being the time of day and the fact that a random little girl was crying on the sand right besides him. "Hey, Velios, psst. Who is this child? What did you do when I was gone?" Vadh was whispering for no apparent reason as the girl easily heard what Vadh had said.

The girl stopped crying and looked up at Vadh, who was sitting besides her and staring back. "And what do you want, huh?!" The tone of her voice had changed drastically from how she was talking to Velios. Vadh was shocked but immediately started arguing back. "Do you even know who you are talking to, you little brat?!" They continued to shout at each other as if that was the only way they could talk. "Yeah, I know who you are! You're that little weak monster who easily got defeated by me." Vadh hadn't even heard what she had said. "Yeah, and you're-" Vadh had stopped after realizing what she had said. It was at that moment he had realized the massive pool of mana the little girl possessed, realizing just who she was. "Are you... that dragon?!"

"Velios, I keep asking you, what in the world did you do for it to evolve?!" Velios tried not to look guilty. "Do you want me to break your leg? No shouting. And I don't know what you are talking about; I didn't do anything." Vadh knew that Velios knew exactly what he had done. "I mean, all I did was to give her a name." Vadh almost fainted after hearing that. Vadh knew, but Velios didn't know just how impressive it is to give a dragon a name. The requirements are the sufficient amount of mana required, which is out of this world. The fact that the dragon managed to evolve from Velios just naming it was almost even more impressive. Giving names to monsters often evolves them, but when it comes to high-ranking monsters, especially intelligent or strong ones, it is much harder to evolve at all.

"So you're saying that you gave a name, to a dragon, and it worked?" "Yep." To Vadh, it had meant that he had lost to a little child, but also that his master was now the master of a dragon and a superior one at that thanks to the evolution. "Oh yeah! Moving on, remember when I said that I had a stronger one?" Vadh just nodded as a yes, knowing that he was not ready to see what Velios had brought back. He's probably joking, right? Even before she evolved, Ajagar was still an inferior dragon. There's no way he met a stronger monster and successfully killed it in the same time period. Osiris? No, so what is it? "Too bad, I can't summon it. My mana is still too low." Velios just walked away as if he was bored. He didn't look too bothered, and it was clear he just wanted to train. "Huh? Wait, Velios, is too low on mana to summon a monster?"

"Vadh, come here for a bit." Vadh was standing completely still. He didn't know how to react. Velios was perfectly capable of summoning Ajagar, although she was still an inferior dragon. For something to be so strong that Velios couldn't summon it straight up meant that there was a stronger monster that Velios had managed to kill. "Vadh? Hey, Vadh, wake up." Vadh suddenly snapped out of his train of thought. Realizing that he had begun to sweat from just thinking, he looked over to listen to what Velios had wanted to tell him. "Hey, Vadh. At what point are you going to become strong? You're weak. Why should I keep you if I have two perfectly capable monsters to train with, much stronger than you. When are you going to start training seriously?"

Vadh was left speechless as Velios had stared him down before walking away to train. He didn't know how to respond to what Velios had said nor did he know what it meant for him. What was he supposed to do? He wasn't a naturally good learner like Velios nor was he good with magic and mana manipulation. His usually overwhelming and terrifying speed and strength were much weaker than Velios and the other two monsters. Was this his fate? Was this what he had amounted to? All of the training he had done himself during the last few months just to get beat by other monsters who were naturally gifted, born with extreme amounts of power. He found himself deep in thought but unable to focus at the same time. He simply did not know what to do.

At the same time in many different parts of the world, news had spread like wildfire. Newspapers were earning more than ever before, and the amounts of people convinced that the strongest player actually existed had skyrocketed. The news read: "Chaos at tournament, strongest player steps in to solo defeat a dragon saving everybody, enduring zero casualties. Proof of the existence of the player far surpassing everybody?" These news had effectively spread around the whole planet in the span of a few hours. The people who were there, the people who had to experience the events that followed that day were riding in carriages, looking around them with eyes that looked lifeless. A thousand-yard stare.

"Yotsuya?" Arthur and Yotsuya were among these people, riding to the closest city on carriages, wrapped up in bandages. "I'm fine, Arthur. Trust me, I've been through much worse at one point in my life. Much worse." Yotsuya could never seem to escape the memories of his friend, the sole reason he was still alive to begin with. That day in the dungeon, he cursed himself every day following, wishing that he was stronger, that he could do something but all for naught.

"We'll be arriving in the city soon. I heard that they prepared a huge batch of healing items for when you arrive if that's anything you would want to know." The driver of the carriage had himself seen the scene that was left behind. A giant city completely in ruins. Fires that didn't seem to stop burning and countless dead and severely injured. "Thanks for the information." Arthur was the only one who responded. He was also the only one to still be in good spirits as every other person there was still seeing the terrifying beast which was the dragon, right in front of them. The only hope that they had was to arrive in the city and distribute medication before someone tries to take suicide, since it was not rare to see adventurers who have experienced terrific events take suicide as the only option realizing how weak they are.

"S-Screw this!" One of the adventurers rushed to grab a knife before slicing his neck open before anyone could stop him. Arthur, who had his arm stretched out in hopes of hindering the young adventurer's attempt failed as he watched the blood fly everywhere around him, including on his face. He was left equally as speechless as Yotsuya, who had seemed to finally have woken up from his thoughts. Yotsuya noticed that his arm had reacted in the same way as he found it lifted up in the air. "Damn it!" Arthur was noticeably angry. It was not the first or even the second time for him something similar had happened. Although with the similarity that he could never stop them. Frustrated at his own weakness, he remained quiet for the rest of the journey.