83 Episode 82 Dragon and Fire Ball




 He charges the dragon again at full acceleration.
 However, its speed is naturally much slower than the first attack.
 It's not the same as when he was able to get above it unnoticed and accelerate as much as he wanted.
 Even so, the distance is enough to make the dragon look like a pea, but it's not long enough to travel at the speed of sound, and besides, you can't take advantage of the slight effect of gravity.
 I would have been very grateful if the dragon had just sat back and watched, but of course that didn't seem to be the case.
 Even though I was slower than at first, the time it took me to reach the dragon was only a few seconds at most.

 It seems to have decided that I don't have time to hit it with my breath, so it fires a large number of fireballs at me almost without motion.
 Rather than shotgun shells, the fireballs looked more like a flock of giant birds that I had seen on the news.
 The speed must be less than the speed of sound, but since I'm approaching the dragon myself, the relative speed must be several times higher.
 It's not like I'm in a shooting game, but I don't really feel like running into something like this.
 Inevitably, you'll have to slow down and make a large detour to dodge the swarm of fire at once.
 There's nothing but sea and grass around me, and it would be easier if I could just breathe out some breath.
 The dragon, however, seems to know that even though I've slowed down, I can still reach it quickly by accelerating straight away, so it just fires a series of similar attacks at me.
 Fortunately, the dragon doesn't currently use deviation fire (a technique that predicts the enemy's future position and attacks it instead of the enemy's current position), so there's no problem in approaching the dragon in a circle.
 Furthermore, the closer you get to the dragon, the narrower the area where the bullets are scattered, making it easier to dodge in exchange for increased damage when hit.
 When the distance between you and the dragon is reduced to about a fifth of the initial distance, you can even fly almost straight towards the enemy.

"Gyoaaaaaah!

 The dragon roared.
 Unlike the small dragon, it was a wild, earth-shaking roar.
 The dragon's roar was different from the smaller dragon's, and it was a roar that shook the earth.
 The dragon, perhaps frustrated by my inability to take the fireball, changed its attack even further.
 This time, it scattered fireballs about a meter in diameter in all directions.
 There was no way to get around it, and it would be difficult to put away my weapon and leave at this distance and speed.
 The density of the barrage is greatly reduced instead of the range, so I manage to dodge them.
 I can't do anything if they keep firing at me, so my path itself is mostly toward the dragon.
 Of course, this also increases the relative speed of the fireball.

 The few seconds it takes to reach the dragon feel like minutes.
 The distance was getting closer, and the intermittent fireball was impossible to dodge calmly.
 It was pointless to go around in a big circle, so I accelerated mainly to the dragon's side, and only slightly to the direction that seemed to be less dense somehow.
 At first I was lucky enough to avoid the fireball, but of course such luck cannot last forever, and when I was almost to the dragon, I was hit one after another.
 As soon as the fireball struck me, or more accurately, my magic armor, it immediately exploded, shaving off a large amount of my magic armor.
 The power of two fireballs is equivalent to a single Saryu's breath.
 With its current magic power, it would not be broken, but if it had been in the last battle against the mini-dragon, it would have been cut down and it would have been hit straight away.
 So, even with her magic diminished, she reached the dragon and thrust her sword with all her might.
 The result was nothing short of disappointing.
 The dragon was almost unharmed.
 He hadn't paid attention to it before because he had enough acceleration, but even though the sword and magic absorption would allow him to attack the dragon to a certain extent, it wasn't particularly effective, and it was probably just as effective as a normal sword against other hard monsters.
 At any rate, the dragon was almost completely unaffected by the attack.
 The sword, which would normally be torn to shreds, was only slightly damaged this time, confirming that it was not an attack at all.

 And now I'm in a situation where I've lost speed at close range of the dragon. It's the dragon's turn.
 The first thing it fired at me after I was shaken off using my tail was a fireball.
 It was the same as the first one, a fireball with a high density in one direction.
 I put away my weapon and tried to avoid the fireball by accelerating in the direction of distance, but I was still hit by a large number of fireballs all at once.
 The distance was too close for the fireballs to detonate, which reduced the number of direct hits, but even so, the amount of magic power lost was probably ten times greater than when I was hit on the way to the target.
 To be able to endure this much, I've become quite sturdy.

 As he accelerated further and tried to get some distance, the dragon's movements changed.
 It's familiar--a preliminary breath motion.
 I immediately gave up on my breakaway and began to orbit around the dragon.
 And the breath fires in the direction I expected.
 I've seen this before with sub-dragons and small dragons, so I guess I've gotten used to it.
 But when I avoided the breath and saw its trajectory, I was astonished.
 It was nothing compared to those of the smaller dragons and sub-dragons.
 It had a range of kilometers, and even at that range, it was so thick that its shape did not change.
 If that range is supported by firepower near the root, even the current me would be vaporized in a matter of seconds.
 I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to do that, but I'm sure I'll be able to do it.
 ......, but now is not the time to think about that.
 The breath is a big move for the dragon, and its movements are fixed.
 If it doesn't hit you, it won't matter, so it's a good chance to get some distance.
 By the time the dragon unleashes an additional fireball at me, I've already surpassed the speed of the fireball.

 I managed to break free.
 I'm back in the game, but things are not looking good.
 At any rate, if I ran straight into it, it would attack me, but if I slowed down to avoid the attack, it wouldn't be able to attack me.
 This is not a boss that is designed to be conquered, unlike in games, and even ancient civilizations that mass-produced magic swords were destroyed, so it may be natural, but it is unreasonable.
 There is no option to retreat, and considering the damage caused by a single breath from a small dragon, it's obvious what will happen if you let this thing run wild.
 But that's not to say there aren't any hints.
 We just found it. It's a bomb.

 There's only one strategy.
 Since there's a chance I can't catch up to the dragon, the worst thing that can happen is that it loses sight of me and goes to attack somewhere else. So the distance I can get is limited.
 In order to maintain speed within that range, a straight line trajectory will be taken.
 Since it would be useless to take all the bullets, I will try to intercept the spell itself by flying it in front of me.
 Naturally, the magic you cast must be faster than mine, so you can hold two blades at once.
 The speed that is still lacking will be made up for by constantly putting magic power into the wand blade, but it will only be a small consumption at this point.
 It's not a good strategy, to be honest, but it's the only way to go.

 I made up my mind and started the assault again.
 The dragon must have been gathering magic from the surrounding area while I was preparing, but thankfully it didn't close the distance and attack me.
 Even so, as soon as the dragon sees that I'm in range, it shoots a fireball at me, just like last time.
 It's met by the spears of rock that I'm firing in rapid succession.
 The first group of fireballs collided with the rock spears, causing a series of explosions.


 Perhaps the fireballs are spreading out due to the distance between us and them, but there is no large scale induced explosion.
 There didn't seem to be any holes in the cluster of fireballs, but I couldn't turn back now.
 I continued to fly straight ahead, hoping to avoid being hit as much as possible.

 But to my surprise, I didn't get hit by any of them.
 Perhaps because I was firing my rock spear straight at the dragon, it was as if the bullets were only dodging around me.
 Now the fireball cannot reach me.
 The dragon may have noticed this, but it is already at a distance where I can reach it faster than I can hit it with my breath.
 I then use a series of acceleration spells. By the time of the clash, I had activated three of them.
 I put away the blade staff I had been using for defense, and aimed precisely at the same position where I had first slashed.
 The effect of the acceleration spell was so great that I could feel the sword gouging through the dragon's flesh at once, even though it was damaged.
 I put more energy into it and pushed the sword in.
 Crack!
 I let go of the sword, knowing that if I tried to resist it, it would stop moving completely and I would become a target this time.
 The sword is completely destroyed, and from the wound that is now visible inside, something like metal or bone is peeking out.
 With such hard armor and bones, there was nothing he could do. It would be impossible to cut off its head.
 In desperation, I let go early enough to maintain the speed I had been able to maintain, and barely managed to break free.
 But then, bad things happen.
"Gaiiiiiiiiiii!
 The dragon screams.
 And unlike before, it chases me with its wings. And at an uncanny speed.
 This meant that the dragon, which was more than enough of a threat even in its fixed turret state, had gone into battle mode.
 The speed and power of the dragon left me helpless, and I was blown away for several kilometers while clawing at it.

 It hurt like hell. I feel like my body is broken in many places.
 I was able to heal my injuries quickly with magic, but I was nearing the end of my magic power.
 In the first place, even if I had magic power, I don't have any proper means of attack anymore.
 It's physically impossible to cut the dragon unless you use its bones, and magic has no effect on dragons.
 There are no examples of dragons being defeated physically, even if we refer to ancient texts.
 Find another weakness: ......

 I've never attacked a demon stone before, but I wonder if it could be a weakness.
 In comics, it is common that such an easily recognizable core is a weak point.
 In the case of the small dragon, I believe it came out of its head.
 When I looked at the dragon, it seemed to be trying to physically chase me, and was just turning towards me.
 I guess we're kindred spirits.
 I pull the Dragon Killer's massive main gun out of the item box and fire off a round. Hopefully it will actually kill the dragon.
 I have 10 and some acceleration tools left. I'll put all of them into this acceleration.
 If this doesn't work, I'll run out of magic and it'll be game over. It's time to close the store.