“…”

The people on the dragon’s back looked at one another, then all made the same face: “I think there’s something seriously wrong with you.”

“Whoa… Is this guy serious? He says he doesn’t want to be our enemy, then gets the first hit in.”

“Come to think of it, that old man’s the mage from the team that attacked me back then.”

“Oh! You mean that dragon-slaying party? The ones we saw at the festival last night.” Tiran remembered those unlucky souls, forced to attend a fan meet-and-greet because they’d signed a truly awful contract.

The two of them peered over Antikas’s back, sizing up the old man who’d flown several thousand meters into the sky with a flight spell. He’d really pushed himself. Even a high-level mage’s flight spell was nearing its limit at that altitude.

“Hey, hey, human. Even by your own standards of etiquette, ambushing someone isn’t exactly something to brag about, is it?”

Antikas hadn’t heard Aya and Tiran whispering. That golden-and-emerald fireball wouldn’t have seriously hurt him or Ruko, but he still put his wife completely behind him. With a body over twenty meters long and even larger wings, he looked every bit like the final boss from some legendary tale.

“He’s probably this hostile because you just caused a tsunami, right? Something that sudden must’ve terrified all the ordinary people down below,” Aya reminded him.

“Tch, what a pain. They’re only humans, anyway… Besides, I guided the seawater properly. Not a drop of what I drew in even touched the buildings on shore.”

Antikas narrowed his eyes. The huge golden pupils in his dragon form contracted into vertical slits, and an intense sense of danger closed around the two members of the dragon-slaying party like a hand reaching up from the abyss and gripping their throats.

“And I still have to settle the score with you for nearly hurting my wife.”

They were going to die.

As top adventurers, Domingosen and Byron hadn’t felt this way in a long time. Hard work alone wasn’t enough to get where they were. Every member of the Dragon Slayer Adventurers’ Party was a renowned genius in their own field, and together they’d rarely met an opponent they couldn’t handle. Battles that put them in serious danger were rarer still.

—Even the first time they fought a dragon, they’d relied on their excellent teamwork and a whole pile of prepared items to wear down the wounded dragon and kill it in the end.

But this one was in a league of its own. Nothing they’d faced before came close.

“This is even scarier than I expected…”

Domingosen had cast a courage aura and a spirit-stirring spell on himself, and at last managed to withstand the dragon’s aura, which Antikas released instinctively in his anger. Byron, meanwhile, used a battle cry to send his blood surging and cancel out the aura’s effects.

“Ransel, the original plan probably won’t work. Get the others up here right now. We’ll fight in the sky and draw the dragon out to the open sea, or somewhere with fewer people.”

They’d had little time and even less information, but Domingosen had still drawn up two plans in advance based on what they’d managed to learn.

The first principle was to avoid fighting in the sky.

Even if they used flight spells and had trained at flying, wings made of magic could never match creatures born to fly. And their opponent was a monster capable of causing a super-tsunami. Fighting under those conditions, with both the environment and their enemy against them, would be suicide.

So Plan One was for Domingosen to provoke the target and lure it down to the ground—or at least close to it. The other three, lying in wait in the low clouds, would attack the roots of its wings and force it to the ground, where it would have to face the Dragon Slayer party in a direct fight.

As long as they could bring the battlefield down to the ground, they’d still have Byron’s [Giant Transformation] as a trump card. A monster capable of bringing down siege-class beasts would have a chance against a Dragon, too.

But under the suppressive force of the dragon’s aura, both Domingosen and Byron realized it was probably impossible to lure their opponent down for a battle near the ground. So they promptly switched to Plan B.

Provoke the dragon by any means necessary.

“We may not be an army, but don’t underestimate our teamwork! It’s a hero’s duty to take you down and protect the citizens—though I’m not fond of that title.”

“That’s right! Don’t underestimate the Dragon Slayer party, you big lizard!”

But the moment those words left their mouths, both Domingosen and Byron clearly felt the dragon’s aura surge several levels stronger.

“Sorry to interrupt, you two humans.”

Antikas opened his mouth and asked in a low voice, “Did you just say you’re the ‘Dragon Slayer party’? Heh. If that’s true, then I can’t let you go.”

Byron reacted a split second before Domingosen. He raised his axe and shield and stepped in front of the old man, pouring all his Chi into his weapon. It spread out from the edges, turning into a gigantic mirror in an instant.

Antikas moved at the same time. His massive, twenty-meter body burst into astonishing speed. There wasn’t even a trace of space being torn, yet Dad appeared behind Domingosen as if he’d teleported, the tips of his dragon fangs stained red.

“Byron!”

In Domingosen’s sharply constricting pupils, he saw the tall warrior’s chest burst with blood. The breastplate, made from top-quality materials and enchanted to resist physical and magical attacks, and the axe and shield reinforced with Chi were both torn apart with ease by the dragon fangs that shot out as they passed.

But Byron had managed to take the blow for Domingosen. His whole body was instantly drenched in red, yet he gave a relieved smile.

“You did well… Byron.”

After quickly casting a healing aura and a Feather Fall spell on Byron, Domingosen let the berserker plummet.

“Damn it!”

[Divine Guardian Barrier] [Golden-Emerald Blaze] [Flaming Vortex] [Burning Chariot]

He cast a defensive spell on himself to keep from being killed at close range, then unleashed several great, blazing spells all at once. At last, Domingosen was giving it everything he had.

His psychic tendrils caught the shift in the wind behind him. The next moment, Antikas whipped around and slammed his tail into the Divine Guardian Barrier.

The pure-white barrier flickered twice, but in the end, it barely held.

Unfortunately, the other great spells didn’t have their intended effect. Antikas dodged them with ease. The only one that caused him any trouble was the fire vortex, whose spinning force pulled things toward it.

“Where’s the dragon? Why’s it disappeared again?!”

Domingosen was freaking out.

He was completely locked onto them with psychic power. If he got hit by another attack like that one, the Divine Guardian Barrier would definitely shatter.

In the end, Domingosen couldn’t bring himself to keep facing Antikas. He canceled the flight spell on himself all at once, then rapidly cast a wind spell in the opposite direction of his fall to propel himself away from the dragon as fast as possible.

But—

“You’re not getting away.”

Antikas dove. His massive body streaked past at an unbelievable speed, and blood sprayed a second time. This time, it stained the old man’s beard and robes.