Chapter 11: That Is NOT a Fire Drake

After the party returned to town of Angis, they started their adventurer work as usual.Taking smaller quests, days passed. After 2 silver level beast subjugation - they found it's easier after they upgraded their equipment and spells. And so they decide it's time to take higher rank subjugation quests from now on. There's one posted on the board.Gold level beast, a fire drake.It was sighted near Ashen village by a villager and there were many witnesses seeing it flying far above the sky of the forest. Although it didn't injure or harm anyone yet, they are worried. Fire drake, although unable to use dragon tongue magic unlike true dragons, it can shoot fire balls that are really dangerous.Aside from that, it's not that noteworthy. The beast can fly, and the party definitely has no way to prevent it from flying and running away except injuring its wings.But they don't have to think about that problem because magical beasts are... slightly insane. They are hateful. If they see a human, and get provoked enough, it would definitely stay around and have its revenge.The minds of magic beasts are corrupted because of some negative energy and curses they are born with - at least that's what Kyubey theorised. They are aggressive and would be more likely to actively attack people. But they still have the inner instincts of an animal.Trevor should be able to tank fire magic from the dragon. He got a better-quality shield - a 10% Adamantite alloy anti corrosive and anti conductive materials. It's far weaker than a pure Adamantite armor or shield in terms of magic resistance - but it's still close when it comes to its durability and has a certain effect to reduce magical attack damage.Elvis got himself a stronger enchanted longbow made from iron-tree back in the capital. Its heavier, slower and requires more power to pull the string back.But its power is very high.He thinks he lacks high attack power when it comes to injuring big and tough-skinned beasts so the bow solves that problem.Elvis does a short discussion on how to tackle it on the way to the village. It's the usual strategy. Trevor tanks, Wain would attack when he had chances, Elvis just shoots, and Amber will chant her ultimate move. Lisa would watch their back, and use earth wall to block the monster movement if they charge the backline or to protect if it shoots projectiles at them.But Lisa shows her grief in not being able to use her newest magic Earth Golem this entire time because it consumes most of her mana.The team really needs someone to watch their backs. One direct hit led to death. It's that easy to just die. They can't play around.But upon seeing Lisa sad, Fay told Elvis not to worry since this time he will watch their backs and make sure to keep them safe.Lisa clasped Fay's hand thanking him. Fay will become the team's pure support for now, or at least most of his focus will try to keep the team safe. She can't wait to see her Earth Golem in action. Fay too is curious to know how the Earth golem would fare against a fire drake.Trevor may not have to worry much because he's heavily armored. And Wain, who fights at melee range is agile enough to dodge and hide behind Trevor.The party rode the carriage to the village. Fay can only use his portal to places he had already gone to so they can't just use that. They reached the village at night after crossing another one village before it.While the fire drake can still attack the village, but it's known to be diurnal so they all slept at a house village chief pointed to.The next morning, they all venture deep into the forest led by a villager to direct them a to the general direction of the drake.Fay has zero worry because his true power can chop any beasts like vegetables from all directions. If anything, he is the true trump card for the party. But his party never saw his offensive power. They know he can use a portal to move across vast distances. That's already mind boggling. If they see him with tens of swords rotating and slashing monsters through tens of portals at the same times they would faint.But space magic has become quite boring for him now.He wants to train his ice magic. Fay figured his mana is on the very high end because his body is artificially made through Kyubey magic.He barely used any of his wind and water magic because it felt insignificant compared to his space magic. And it felt kind of boring for him. Wind and water magic just don't hit his soul. Like it has a bland flavor.But ice... That's so cool! And so cold! Not to mention it's very rare and made him feel like the main character. Of course, he doesn't count his space magic. It's a bit too easy to use and too OP. Of course, not every magical girl is as powerful. It's just that Fay type of magic is a cheat itself. Although he doesn't have explosive pure magical power.If you compare it to Homura, a magical girl who can stop time, he had the same level of power. Fay's rapier is only stronger and sharp than standard sword.But he lacks the 'nuke'. Take Homura who can stop time, she can't defeat Walpurgisnacht with thousands of bombs and C4s. But Madoka, a magical girl who had become a God, can one shoot the same Walpurgis with a single magical arrow nuke.Fay definitely can't one shot it. Because he doesn't have strong pure magic nuke.He did have a trump card. He can bait and make beasts enter a portal and close it - dissecting them through the force of spatial closure. It's just that he had to bait monsters to walk into it.He can't create portals around or into solid matter. When he creates a spatial portal, air particles are pushed to make a vacuum space where spaces can be cut and connected.The force from the closing of space connection has nothing to do with his power - but simply the physical law returning space to its original state. It consumes zero magic to cut beast using the closing of the spatial portal.Can Walpurgis body withstand the closing of space? He doesn't know. He never fought it with his space power.Right... He shouldn't bother about Walpurgis. There's no Walpurgis here, probably (hopefully). And there's something worse, something that can even devour the whole planet, the Witch Kriemhild Gretchen. He's sure he can't do anything to it and can just watch and wait for his death even with his current power level.Coming back to the forest, wain and Elvis who are experts in tracking lead them. While Amber also uses Mana Detection spell once in a while to detect high mana signature.They eventually reached deep into the forest. Half of the light is blocked by the trees.'It's at the front'. Amber finally detects an abnormally large mana signature.She had doubts... It's too large. But she never fought a fire drake so she just shrugs it off thinking that's normal.Elvis nodded and ask everyone to prepare their usual formation. Trevor led their party to the front. He can aggro with monster with his taunting skill.They reached an area with clearings and only sparse tree. Wain can smell fresh blood somewhere.Elvis looks carefully across the trees and saw it.3 to 4 meters tall, and 10 meters in length. Its wings are still folded. It's munching on large elephant like beast.Suddenly it stopped munching.It turned its head sideways and its slit eye contracts looking directly at Elvis.!!!'It noticed us! Prepare to engage!'.Everyone hurriedly gets into their own formation.Lisa runs way back and starts to chant her Earth Golem spell.Trevor charged slightly forward and bang his shield to attract its attention. Wain unsheathes his sword from his back and hold it with his two hands. He chanted the spell for the Blue Fire enchantment.The fire drake flapped its wing and flew straight at them at lower altitude avoiding trees in an abnormal speed. Fierce wind comes at them as it flaps its wings.It opened its mouth slightly as if speaking. And hymns and grunts and unique voices can be heard. Magical runes appear around the fire drake.'That... That...'.Elvis exclaimed in shock!That is NOT a fire drake! That's a damn young true fire dragon!!!"That's a dragon!!!".Fay also saw it and is prepared to counter attack.The dragon landed at the ground 10 meters away from the party, it clawed its feet and wings to the ground preparing a very large attack.'Dodge and block!', Elvis shouted in panic. Anyone can see it's preparing a big attack.Kyubey immediately reminded Fay.'Fay, prepare to create a wall. It's attacking'.It took a deep breath for 5 seconds. Deep red fire fills the slightly opened mouth, and a triple runic magic circle is building up its form.Fay definitely isn't ready for this! He needs to transform to be able to create more than one portal at a time and also use larger sized portals. And the AOE of the attack seems so large he is not confident!Fay quickly uses his enhanced brain to chant and cast the biggest ice wall he could use.Lisa and amber too stopped their chanting seeing this and chanted their water wall and earth wall immediately.Trevor stood his ground with his big shield at the front while lowering his body to try to block its attacks. Wain hides behind Trevor, hoping to defend against it and hoping the magic walls are cast in time.Magic circles form around the mages. A very large ice wall is created from the ground - spanning 10 meters length and 6 meters high that cover their view as clear ice wall forms. The water wall added to it makes it thicker and it got supported with the earth wall from behind.Somehow accidentally combined their walls. Setting aside their surprise that Fay can use Ice Magic, which he never tells, they are in panic!The dragon finished its charge! An extremely hot fire breath shoots out of its mouth in a wide cone shape, along with 3 large fireballs from the magic circles!BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!The 3 large fireballs hit the large fused wall at the same time and a constant stream of fire from its mouth engulfs the whole wall as the fire even passes through the gap above their heads creating a roof of flame. The explosion cracks the wall, but it maintains its form as the ice melts under the constant stream of endless fire breath.Just as the wall of ice gets very thin. The dragon finally stops its breath.The trees around them are set ablaze as they are now trapped in a sea of flames and burning trees.What the f***.Sweats already profusely drop from their body due to heat and panic. Who the hell said it's a fire drake? They will sue the adventurer guild!They would probably be dead if they didn't cast the wall just now. Where to dodge? Everything is burnt to crisp!Fay takes the chance to transform into his magic form immediately. The elegant silver armor is adorned as his hair turns white. The gem in his Tiara shines brightly.He summoned tens of rapiers, floating around him. He used his magic to slowly move the rapiers as it accumulated momentum.He disintegrated the ice wall, now giving a full clear view of the young dragon.After making such a big attack, it seems to be catching its breath and coughing.Fay takes the chance to control 10 of swords spinning fast around him to slash it through portals towards the dragon body.The tough true dragon scale barely pierced and the blade can't reach deeper. multiple small cuts and bruises forms on the dragon body. Some of his rapiers even had their momentum stopped due to how hard the scales are.Fay needs to regain control over some of his rapiers to do this kind of attack. He didn't expect the true dragon scale to be so tough it can stop his rapier from continuously slashing unlike the gold beasts he had taken down.The dragon roared in anger and flapped its wings outward, pushing all the swords away. One of them flew straight to Trevor but it entered a portal and flew back to Fay's side.Crazy. He was confident in his magic before and thought the chimera and black mamba was so easy. But who knew the Adamantite level creature has scales so tough.But he's still confident in winning. The dragon, can never reach him.The dragon flapped its bloodied wings and rushed to the party to do a melee attack.Trevor used his taunt skill and gained the dragon hatred. It flew towards him and used its claws to pierce him.Trevor prepares his shield. Wain readied his sword to counter attack. Amber, Elvis and Wain who had regained the composer each prepared their attacks while Lisa prepares to make Earth Wall just in case.As its legs almost reached Trevor, Fay opened a portal at the right time! A portal appears right in front of the dragon approaching legs and claws, and another portal appears right next to the dragon.The dragon felt like he stepped into an unmoving hole as its whole legs got stuck inside the space portal, and his lower legs that entered the portal came out of another portal, dangling right next to the dragon. It's a bizarre confusing sight.It struggles to claw out of the space as its feet dangling on its side scratches the portal. The portal loses its stability and closes forcefully.The sheer force of spatial closure instantly dissects both its legs clean with no resistance due to physical law of the world correcting the space itself!The dragon leg that dangled in the air is cut and dropped to the ground with a loud thud.The dragon dropped to the ground in pain as dragon blood flow out from its amputated feet.Everyone is shocked at the bizarre use of magic.But regained their composed because the dragon isn't dead.The dragon flapped its wings again in hatred. It used its front claws and its wings as support. It flapped sending a huge gust of wind to the party and created some distance.Its instinct is screaming as it got injured from an unknown attack.Amber is still chanting her magic while a large amount of water is gathered above her head.Elvis shoots the arrow he readied coated with Piercing Gale spell, and managed to pierce the arrowhead into its chest!Lisa only shoots a few stone bullets, but it leaves barely any scratch.The dragon got angrier. But it's afraid to charge in directly after it got heavily injured by strange magic. It has some level of intelligence after all.It opened its mouth as strange hymns and noises vibrate in the air as runes once again appear in the air. Fiery breath gathers inside the dragon throat. Lisa immediately chanted Earth Wall, ready to block it.Amber wanted to stop her chant to cast a defensive wall but she decides to trust her party to keep her safe while she's focusing. They need the spell to completely kill it.Of course, Fay won't let the dragon charge up.He summons few more swords and slashed at the dragon head and body.It got interrupted as more light cuts appears on its neck and head and even slashed one of its eyes. It screamed in anger. It stopped making strange noises and runes stopped appearing but it still take a deep breath and shoots a smaller breath of fire in cone shape. Fay and Lisa already prepared and casted their magic wall together, completely blocking the attack. The ice wall remains somewhat thick as it's less powerful than before.Fay disintegrates the wall down to get clear view of the dragon. The dragon looks truly tired as it coughs more and more.Trevor actually went it dash in front of it. Followed by wain. The dragon can't move properly due to its amputated legs and can only flap it's wing, and use its front claws and use bites to attack Trevor.Trevor remained unmoving as it scratched his shield and armor. Wain took the chance to coat his blade in a fiery hot blue flame. The fire dragon is magic resistant but it's still can damage it. He does a heavy slash at the dragon. It leaves quite a deep wound on its chest.The dragon gets angry and attack Wain with its claw but he already stepped back as Trevor covered his front blocking it with his shield. Elvis continuously shoots enchanted heavy arrows to its body, head and wings, piercing the arrowhead into it. Wain do more and more slashes while kiting the dragon. The dragon gets tired and tired.'Step aside!'.Amber screamed out. Trevor and Wain hurriedly move backwards in different directions. The dragon charges its head at Wain, but a white portal appears in front of it.The dragon learned from mistake and stop its movement. It also noticed the large amount of water constantly gathering and spinning on Amber.It tried to drag its body to move feeling its instincts crying.Fay sends his swords to stab at the dragon and chanted the spell, Ice Prison! Large light blue magic circle appears below the dragon as ice formed locking its body in ice.It struggles to move as more and more ice crack and breaks.Hyper Water Jet!Large volume of concentrated water above Amber's head spins and shoot a very high-pressure water at the dragon.It directly pierces the chest deep, the sheer force and pressure pushing the dragon body backward as it falls on its back even destroying the ice surrounding him!The water jet still moves diagonally cutting a large deep wound on its entire chest and entirely amputated one of its wings!"Raaw...".The dragon let out his last cry and closed its eyes.The forest fire around them had already been extinguished leaving only charred trees and dead ground around them.The ground around the body of the dragon had few chunks of ice and was flooded with water mixed with red blood.Silence prevails.1 second.3 second.10 seconds.Everyone finally can process what that thing is, and confirms it's dead. They all let out a sigh of relief and wiped their sweat away."Damn. What the hell...".Trevor felt like it was the first time he felt closest to death. He had taken beatings before, but to see that large fire that covers the whole area he's very sure he would be roasted alive in his heavy armour.One thing after another. And he didn't expect a young true dragon would be this terrifying. Although its physical abilities are actually manageable except for its hard scales, and it really is just Gold rank if you only count it's physical ability... But its true threat is on its magic and fire breath. You would need full Adamantite armour and shield to withstand it.Fay also realised he overestimated his rapiers made of magic. After all, the gold ranked beasts he had killed so far don't have such a hard scale and he could still leave a deep wound on the chimera and the giant snake easily. He will need to solve this lack of heavy firepower- unless he's able to abuse spatial closure to decapitate the dragon directly. But it's difficult to use and requires precise timing and relying on the beast being dumb.Amber finally sat down on the ground. She used all her mana in that one ultimate move. She smiled a little bit feeling proud because her spell definitely can kill the dragon even at its full health if it hit the vitals. It even cut its wing clean.Lisa also sat on the ground. That's so terrifying. And she starts to regret spending her money on an earth golem. She should have bought the Greater Earth Wall spell instead. If Fay hadn't used his ice wall, they all would have been roasted alive. To tackle such a beast, they needed a large-scale defence technique.Elvis lay his back into a tree and took a large deep breath. 'Fuhh....'.Wain, Trevor and Fay, seeing the others drop their guard also did the same.Fay cancelled his magic form. He recharged his dimmed soul gem with a magic crystal and went to sit next to Wain.Everyone is sitting in the ground to rest from shock except Elvis."Hahaha... So scary".Trevor laughed out of relief.'Fay, why didn't you tell us you can use ice magic?'.Wain suddenly speaks."I just recently learned it back in the capital".'That's definitely not a fire drake, isn't it?'.Trevor states the big elephant in the room.Elvis replied."It definitely isn't. It can even cast magic. That's a damn true dragon".'Ahh... I thought I would be burned alive"., continued Lisa."It's scales are so hard...". Fay also complained.His sword can't leave deep enough injuries. But of course, Fay thinks it's still killable because the dragon cannot touch him. He can use a portal shield for himself and remain unscathed while the dragon had to endure multiple cuts in a long period of time. But he isn't by himself and he can't afford to let his party members die.He can't protect everyone from that kind of AOE attack. Even its first full charged fire breath combined with fireballs were barely stopped.And it's only a young dragon. An adult one may even be twice as strong. It's estimated the young dragon is on the Mithril rank.After resting from shock, they take the courage to look at the young dragon body. its feet bizarrely chopped clean. And those feet are on the ground nearby. Trevor went to pick the very heavy feet. And put it down on the ground next the dragon body.They all is blank at what they are going to do next."Let's dismantle it". Elvis finally spoke.The scales are too hard it's really difficult. The knife they had barely put any scratch on them.Ideas spun around their head.Amber does have a spell for this situation as she had a smaller version of the water jet cutter but she had no mana left.'Fay, can you put it in your inventory space?', Elvis asked."Uhh... It's too large. I can't open a space opening big enough. But I can put them if we can cut its limbs off.'.Wain decides to enchant his longsword with his blue flame again. He put all force into his hand chop its head but it got stuck once it reaches the bone. He doesn't want to force it to be afraid of damaging the sword.Fay also decides to transform and use both his hand to chop its neck bone. His rapier only cracked. He scratched his head. What to do with this dragon body.'Fay maybe you can dismantle it', Elvis suggested."Uh... It would take a long time". After all, only Fay had a proper strength, proper sized and sharp enough blade to cut its scale. Wain uses a longsword and it's unsuitable. Fay can indeed dismantle it by himself; except the bones; but that's too much work.'How about I try my Earth golem?'.Everyone nodded and let Lisa chant for awhile. And soon a 3-meter Earth golem stood proud. it used its stone hand to life the dragon body. It lifted halfway before the golem rock hand fall off. The hands reattach themselves back. The golem is strong indeed but it can't carry the whole dragon.Kyubey made a comment.'You can put its limbs onto the portals and cut it'.Fay repeat Kyubey suggestion.Everyone looked at each other. They nodded.Fay transformed again and opened a portal. Another portal also opened a few metres away.Lisa controls her golem to roll and flip the dead young dragon body little by little, putting its head into the portal.Fay closes the portal and it gets decapitated clean.They repeated this multiple times for its limbs and body.While cutting the body, Trevor found a very large magic crystal, or also called as dragon's heart. Very high mana signature can be felt from it. It is the source of its power.Kyubey tells Fay he wants it but he had to refuse because it's the party's loot.The torso of the dragon is still too large to enter inventory space so the golem keeps pushing it onto a portal to make a few sections of the body. It finally fits the inventory space and all the dragon parts are kept with no waste left behind.'Fay, your magic is amazing! That ice wall saved our asses'. Everyone also nodded. They still feel surprised but don't have the time to make a comment.'I don't think it would hold up without Lisa and Amber's magic as well...'. His ice wall cracked and only left a thin ice after all that."And I feel like amber is more amazing. Her spell killed it". Everyone also nodded. While Fay tens of swords slashing at it is such a spectacular sight, and the ice wall is also great but amber's water cutter kills it directly. Amber only blushed a little.'It's just how the spells are', she let out an excuse which is somewhat true. Indeed, amber is their party's ultimate move. Has her strongest spell ever failed? So far not yet.Everyone leaves the scene where the withered and charred ground and trees stood.They all went to the village chief, explaining how it ISN'T a fire drake. The chief thought they were tricking him and instead of talking nonsense, Fay took out the dragon head and the dragon's heart. The chief is immediately shocked. He didn't know it was a young fire dragon.How would he know??? Don't they look the same?They can only sigh. Still, he signed the quest completion form with some comments and apologies.Fay transforms again and creates a portal directly to their room. Everyone takes a rest for the rest of the day before deciding what to do with the dragon's body.Fay rest in his room and cuddles with Wain as usual. He laid his head on his chest, his arm crossing over and firmly pressing him."It's so strong...". Fay complained to Wain.'Yeah. Thankfully we managed'. Wain also let a sigh of relief while wagging his tail feeling comfy and rested....