Chapter CLIII - Motivation (part 2)

While I was busy thinking about what food I should share with everyone, the dragons in front of me were glaring fearsomely at me. They all fired another round of fire breaths at me.

"Oh, aren't you guys cute?"

I lifted one hand, and a small ball of dark purple fire conjured on my hand. The ball's lid was opened, turning into a large and powerful dark purple fire blaze. 

VWOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!

The purple fire blaze eats away the dragons and completely eradicates two of them in an instant.

Fran and the others watched from the ground in awe. But, they have an enemy of their own.

The green nearly evolved Lesser dragon is alone on the ground, and it looks surprised when the puny humans are approaching it. It screamed loudly at the squad and attacked, but the squad was also quite ready.

In fact, more than ready.

They are hyped…

And for a good reason.

"For the new menu!!"

"""For the new menu!!!"""

Fran shouted the war cry and everyone followed her. Brod moves forward as the vanguard and taunts the dragon. The dragon got baited by the taunt and quickly moved in to attack Brod, but Fran is lightning fast.

SRESHH!!

SHREESSHHH!!!

Two slices at the two right legs of the dragon, the dragon fell to the right in an instant from Fran's lightning movements.

Emily casted her strongest fire magic, the magic that I just taught her. She was able to conjure a fire blaze ten times stronger than a normal one. 

The technique is similar to making a firebomb, and I was quite shocked when she did it at the first try. 

The fire blaze's egg shell was pushed down until it was very small, and when the force inside is already powerful, simply letting a part in the direction you want open and the fire inside will shoot out at high speed, creating a fire blaze ten times more powerful than normal.

VWOOOOOMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!

The giant fire blaze casted by Emily quickly cladded the whole dragon in red flames. When the flames stopped, the dragon was thrown a little bit further away, and its whole body was smoking non-stop.

"That was… insane, Emily!"

Fran complimented her, but Emily shook her head.

"Rize taught me that. She said it was a teaching from the academy."

"That's interesting, indeed."

The dragon looked very weak now. Everyone noticed it, but immediately an arrow flew past them at bullet speed.

ZINGG!!!

A powerful arrow quickly flew at high speed towards the dragon's head, and it went through the skull into the brain. The dragon died right away, with a glowing arrow stuck on the head.

"Oh, now you don't miss!?"

"I was panicking before!"

Fran asked angrily, because Rath was missing so many shots before. Before the two can argue some more, a heavy wind force begins to swirl right above Emily. 

BOOOOMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!

A lesser dragon landed next to her, and it looked very angry.

"Emily!!"

Fran screamed, but even with her highest speed she couldn't make it in time. She can only watch when the dragon swung its gigantic arms filled with sharp nails.

SHRESSHHH!!!

Blood suddenly sprayed everywhere as the dragon's head fell to the floor. Emily moved away just in time before getting herself bathed in blood.

Standing on top of the dragon's standing corpse, is me with my giant shadow scythe.

"Sorry… this one escaped me… hehe…"

I was watching them fighting the green dragon, so I wasn't paying attention to my own enemies. Oops.

While I said that, the dragon's dead body fell to the side with a thud, showing the scene that is far behind the dragon, on the other side of the pit's edge.

Dead corpses of all the other dragons are on the side of the pit, far behind this dragon's corpse. Their corpses are either charred to coal or sliced to pieces.

Emily and Brod were used to this already, but Fran and Rath just saw it. The pure raw strength that is otherworldly.

"Y-You killed those… dragons??"

Rath asked as I placed the scythe on my shoulder.

"Yeah? Why?"

"N-Nothing... Nothing at all…"

Fran slowly walked to me while trying to recognize me. But then she somehow laughed.

"Can you tell me what happened at the academy later?"

My eyes turned wider, because I was not expecting such a question. No one from Mazino has learned about the things that happened in Xyphon, and I never really planned on telling anyone.

But if she wanted to know…

"What's wrong?"

Ah… she noticed my expression.

Fran can see the pained expression on my face, and she was able to recognize what I was thinking. Not sure how she noticed this, but I will have to change the topic.

"Nothing, nothing. Speaking of which, that guy has not been moving at all."

I pointed at the single White ranked regular dragon sitting on the pit, studying us. It has not moved an inch while I massacred its comrades, even now when all the dragons are dead.

Certainly… an abnormal dragon.

I leaped towards the dragon and landed on the dead body of one of the dragons, in the middle of the lava pool. Even when I am this close with that thing, it still didn't attack. The dead body is merely ten meters away from the dragon, it could have attacked me so easily, and yet it didn't.

It simply stared at me, in silence.

"Why aren't you attacking?"

I asked the dragon.

From afar, it might seem that I am crazy, talking to a dragon. But dragons have a really high level of intelligence. A simple evolution of this guy, and he will be able to talk.

Not sure how I know about that… But…

The dragon opened its mouth slowly, and I was right to talk to it.

"We… are running… away…"

It spoke. 

It actually spoke, and I understand it!

"Rize!! What are you doing?"

Fran shouted from the side of the pit, but I simply lifted my palms to them, as if saying that it is all right. To them, it does look like I am talking with the dragon, but the dragon is not saying anything. 

They can't hear the dragon…

But I can.

"Running away… from what?"

"From our… fake god…"

Despite having the intelligence to communicate, this dragon speaks like a five years old toddler. It can't completely finish a sentence properly, like a child that just learned to talk.

"You guys are runaways??"

Suddenly I felt a heavy guilt. These dragons are runaways from their homes somehow, and I just killed all of them.

"Yes… We wanted to turn this into… a dragon home…"

"A dragon home? But this place is our home."

"Yes… we were planning to… kill all humans… and take over."

…

I take that back. They were planning to wipe us humans and take our land as theirs. At the end of the day, they are still our enemies.

I let out a sigh.

"So are all of you my enemies?"

"Yes… We are…"

"Then, am I your enemy?"

"Yes… but I chose not to fight you."

"Why?"

"I believe you… can kill our god."

H-Huh??

"K-Kill your god?"

"I see your power… you can kill our god."

My mind tried to process it, but it just doesn't make sense. Why would I fight the god of dragons? It's not like I'm their enemy, and I don't even know if there is a god of dragons. The books in Xyphon never mentioned anything.

I don't care about that. But, there is something I'd like to know…

"I have a question. All those dragons that came to this land, were they like you? Runaways?"

"No… they were their children… sent by god to wipe out… wipe out everything.

They were sent… to kill everything."

I see.

That much information is enough.

I don't know if I can trust this dragon, but it is saying a lot of things I am totally unaware of.

Dragons can be runaways too? That's news to me.

There is a dragon god? Definitely new.

And it's fake? Huh??

I don't know what this dragon is talking about, but the fact that it is still not moving despite being in front of death, I will fully trust it. Even in the face of death, this dragon is still very much faithful to its belief, and decided not to fight anymore.

A good dragon… too bad it is still my enemy.

"Kill me… and promise that you… will kill the fake god."

In the end, this dragon was resolved to die. I don't get it, the other dragons are fearsome and fought to the end, and why didn't this one attack like them?

I'm so confused, but one thing is clear at this very moment. 

This dragon… is still my enemy.

"I see. Then I have to apologize."

I lifted my scythe high to the side, and the dragon nodded at me.

"No need… you have my gratitude."

I swung my scythe at high speed, not letting the dragon feel any pain at all. The dragon's head fell to the lava, and for a split second, I was able to see its face as it was still falling in the air. 

It looked like it was smiling.