CH38 — Struggle To The Bitter End

「 Don’t be an idiot and try to resist Renald! 」Dae Sho shouts, with a tinge of mocking,  「 we’ve outnumbered you ten to one. I would like to settle this peacefully. 」

He says so, but action always speaks the loudest, and what it's showing is the opposite. Their hands are not withdrawing away from their swords, gripping tightly to it, their posture ready and on high alert. They are not going to hold back.

I keep moving behind, creating as much distance as possible from them.  I whisper my chant. Then my long-awaited minions' arrival comes.

In this evening light, where the sun slowly falls down, leaving the sky with a tiny glimpse of the faint sunlight. Darkness comes sooner than natural.

Rows of my shadow minions come to form, inhumane soldiers ready to fight as ever in position. Spears aligned pointing straight at them. A total of around twenty shadow minions has been summoned.

My ego and pride rise to the sky-high, as I see the twist of turns their expression has now become.

「 Wh-what?! 」

「 Dear Goddess! What kind of demonic magic is this?! 」

Their minds overloaded, seemingly trying to comprehend this absurd summoning of the unknown hostile beings.

「 Calm down, men. 」Dae sho hands race to the air, halting his underlings. Chin raised high,「 my father has always taught me to never underestimate my opponents, even if they are weak humans. Now, I can see his lesson has come to fruition. Fascinating indeed, this magic of yours. 」

He moves forward, taking his time as he steps to the front.

Why is he so confident? Wait, don’t tell me… He’s going to cast a spell?!

All of you spread out to the sides!

In a split second, I roll to the other side while catching a glimpse of a magic circle hovering over Dae Sho’s hand.

『 Fen! 』

A devastating burst of white fire comes out. Enlightening the field. As if napalm was dropped. Fire brighter than the sun. Larger than what I’ve ever seen before, leaving nothing but dust and ash. Only six of my shadow minions survived. Shit.

「 Don’t give the human any breather, all of you deal with the monsters! 」

「 Go get’em lads! 」Shouts one of the adventurers.

Calm down, Renald. Even with more than half of my shadow minions decimated, the situation is still salvageable, I mus-

『 Zan! 』

A streak of white sword’s slash trail comes at me in a flash from quite the distance. My body Instinctively tries to parry it, its razor-sharp flash signaling its menace.

*clang!*

An unexpected force hits the sword and knocks me off out of balance. Even in this considerable distance of ten meters, it can reach out to me. Does that mean it is some sort of long-range sword slash? It’s even much more powerful compared to a normal sword slash.

Dammit, I’m not given the time to arrange their fights in an effective formation. All of my attention that should’ve gone to the shadow minions is forced to be put on Dae Sho.

『 Ig—

『 Zan! 』

I stop my chant and dodge to the right. Its slash naked to the eye, as I feel an excruciating pain flowing in my cheek. A graze or wound to the cheek. My unoccupied hand goes to feel the cheek. It’s wound half a centimeter deep, and blood flows as much as its sting.

Fuck I need to focus. I almost got myself killed.

『 Zan! 』

Another from the left, my body and sword tilted to the left.

『 Zan! 』

Another from the right, my body and sword tilted to the right.

『 Zan! 』

A quick horizontal slash from the right, sweeping to my abdomen. I jump behind quickly. Almost losing my balance.

『 Yen! 』

My mind, body, and sword already prepare for another magical sword slash, yet what comes is a darkish purple magic beam, seemingly corrosive with its mystical nature, sprouting out from his hand that hovers a magic circle.

『 Sapelo! 』

A small golden invisible magic barrier appears right in front of me. Barely in the nick of time to cover me from the burst of the darkish purple corrosive magical beam.

「 Haah… Haah… Haah.. 」

Everything goes by so quickly. I’m out of breath already.

In this short amount of time, fighting foolhardy, I’ve finally come to understand Dae Sho's way of fighting, his fighting style — an unrelenting speed and constant pressure.

Not good on my side. I need to deal with him as soon as I can. I can’t even see the condition of the battlefield with all of my attention placed on him.

「 Out of breath already, human? 」

His katana lowers to the ground, smiling mockingly. His hand sweeps his somewhat long hair, letting out a smirking smile as his chin rises up high, as he belittles me naturally with his lowered gaze.

His haughtiness radiating from his body is at an all-time high now.

My shadow minions without my lead won’t hold out for much longer, I need to do something to finish this quickly!

It’s all or nothing.

『 Ebrest! 』

Faint small white clouds surround his head, engulfing his attention to it, obscuring his sight. Flickers white stars, then, appear, indicating that he’s fully distracted. Can’t believe I’m using wits magic for offensive usage.

I swing my sword to the bottom right, aiming at his shoulder, putting all of my energy into it, desperately hoping that this one attack will finish him which leads me a step closer to surviving this hostile encounter.

At last, rather than the sense of cutting flesh, a hard wall stumps the sword’s impact. Fuck! There’s hardened steel armor beneath his slim figure?!

「 Ughh, well struck, human. But you should’ve aimed for the head! 」

「 AHHH! 」

A wince of pain unconsciously comes out of my mouth. Shortly following with excruciating pain in my hand.

My sword flew out of nowhere, escaping away from my grasp.

Its strong momentum causes me to lose my balance and ultimately fall to the ground.

I look at my hand and although it’s still intact in one piece, a wound in the palm where all of the pain is centered. A deep slash with white bone on the bottom. Blood trailing down to my arm.

My sight unconsciously darts towards the rest of the battlefield, showcasing how grim the situation is.

His dragonkin bodyguards are still in decent shape with small wounds here and there. And that one magician is surprisingly still alive unscratched, but the other adventurers aren’t so lucky. None of my shadow minions are standing, only small patches of black dust are what’s left of them. Their death causes me to lose hope.

I can’t die like this. I haven’t repaid my debts to my mother!

There’s got to be another way. Can I summon more shadow minions with the lives of the recently defeated adventurers?! Wait, no, I need to be the one who personally takes their lives.

「 Quite a shame, human. I expected a better fight than this. 」He walks slowly at me, really taking his time.「 Especially with those shadow underlings of yours that you had. But that unsurprisingly doesn’t change your fate, as your superiors — the dragonkin — tramples the lowly human race, even to this age. 」

He brandishes the sword so close at me — toying with me.

「 Now then… Where are the ancient swords?! Spit it out! And I might actually consider sparing your worthless life. 」

The tip of his blade digs into my neck. Its stinging pain flows as much as the blood that seeps out from it.

I ain’t fucking giving up. I need something. Another spell cast. One last chance.

「 Just accept your fate already, human. Don’t be stubborn. 」

He moves another step, stepping heavily on my moving hand.

I wince in pain once more, grimacing that my last chance to direct a spell at him failed.

『 My Master. My Creator. Please Summon Your Dragon. 』

A sudden desperate plea comes to my mind, that of the dragon.

「 Ancient history dictates that us dragonkin is the superior being even in our current humanoid form as power and strength run in our very blood. If it gives you small comfort, I don’t feel any gratification from winning this fight. As it is natural for me, a dragonkin to win against a human. Lest I would shame my great ancestors if I lost to a mere human. 」

My only choice is the dragon now, but should I really use such a nuclear way?

No, I must survive. Screw the consequences.

「 As your one and only lord; heed upon your creator's call… I summon thee…『Naga』 」

『 My Master. Promise Me. That No Matter What I Do Next, You Will Continue Treating Me The Same As Before. 』

「 I promise... 」

A thunderous earthquake shakes the earth, startling everyone including me. Dae Sho especially, his eyes darts everywhere to the surroundings. He must have felt how absurd this whole thing is.

A faint surge of power surrounds the area, tensing everyone with its dominant pressure.

「 Wh-what’s… happening. What did you do, human?! 」

A massive magic circle appears out in the sky, hypnotizing the spectators to pay attention to this never-seen-before spectacle. An unknown and bizarre phenomenon, causing the start of all kind’s biggest fear — the fear of the unknown.

『 AT LONG LAST I DESCENT UPON THIS GODFORSAKEN WORLD 』

The voice that came is another earthquake, a thunder that strikes out of nowhere, something primal with inhumane malice, trembling them as it ignites their deepest subconscious fear.

『 TO REMIND ALL OF YOU WHO’S YOUR ONCE TRUE SUPERIOR 』

The dragon’s head emerges first from the massive magic circle. Bestial and Demented. None of its once elegant features is apparent. Its eyes threaten to kill as its eyebrows lower as it can get.

『 WHERE DRAGONS COWER IN THE WAKE OF MY WRATH 』

The rest of the body comes out, hovering up in the sky. Its purple lilac scales cover the body combined with its gleaming crown lights even brighter that pales the honeyed evening light, bewitching people with its archaic divine aura that contains unmeasurable power. A divine, ancient, and almighty being.

『  I AM NAGA. GOD AMONGST DRAGONS. 』

Its long wavy serpentine body moves just a little, but that alone is enough to release a powerful freezing wind of the winter, giving me the chills. Asserting them that the dragon didn’t come out for a friendly chat.

『 AND I HAVE COME FORTH TO OBLITERATE YOUR, PITIFUL, INFERIOR, EXISTENCE. 』