817: Red Dragon

『Just die already, you fake dragon!』

「Gryaaaah?!」

I launched thunder and flame magic from both sides, trying to limit the dragon’s movement.

But the red dragon made no attempt to evade, or even intercept my spells. They landed a direct hit.

A flash of electricity and an explosion of flames covered the dragon. But nothing happened.

I guess it has a powerful resistance to magic, since those spells didn’t cause a scratch. Even though it was more of a feint, my spells should still be pretty powerful.

Maybe it can nullify magic? What a nuisance!

After inwardly raising the threat level of the red dragon, I activated my telekinesis. I tried grabbing it by the neck, but…

The dragon leapt to the side, easily dodging me. Those movements showed how perfectly it knew the range of my telekinesis.

It must be very talented at sensing mana. I do remember hearing that the higher level antidemons could sense mana from kilometers away.

I guess these high level beast-types were especially good at sensing the mana around them.

Let’s see how it reacts if it’s not a direct attack then.

At exactly at the moment the dragon landed, I used land magic to make a hole underneath, but that didn’t work either. It avoided the pit with an aerial hop. That meant it could read my intentions from the minute movements of mana.

『I’m not done yet!』

You aren’t getting away from me!

I stubbornly activated my morphing. My decorative strings split in an instant, becoming countless threads that flew from all directions. Nearly a thousand threads covered the red dragon, as if it were wrapped in a metal cocoon.

The only way to escape from this would be teleportation.

Then we’ll take advance of the pause to deliver a decisive blow. That’s what I had in mind, but this powerful antidemon didn’t move the way I wanted it to.

「Giiiryii!」

「!」

『What the hell is that?』

With a high-pitched roar, the cocoon exploded from the inside. Reddish objects had broken through the threads and flew outwards.

Upon closer inspection, the objects turned out to be the dragon’s scales. It had shot out arrowhead shaped scales from its body, and that’s not all.

Those red scales continued floating around the red dragon as if they were unaffected by gravity.

「Gyiirr… Yiiiyaaa!」

The red dragon roared and rushed towards us, as if saying it was their turn now. At the same time, the scales floating around it assailed Fran with tremendous force.

The scales launched towards Fran from all directions, each moving at a different angle.

When Fran tried to cut them down with her sword, they dodged me as if they had a will of their own. The red dragon clearly had full control over them.

If we only needed to concentrate on the scales, we could easily deal with them one by one. But right now, Fran was in the middle of a fierce battle with the red dragon.

「Haaah!」

「Gyiiiii!」

The black cat and the red dragon entered a furious dance, switching places at high speed and unleashing deadly blows at each other.

The dragon made full use of its fangs, claws, and tail, not losing to Fran in terms of intensity and speed. Those fangs were especially powerful, as even a slash from me could not easily scratch them.

This was a formidable foe. It would be difficult to deal with the scales while fighting him at the same time.

『Fran, you can concentrate on the dragon! Leave the scales to me!』

（Okay.）

For the time being, I’ll use a max power barrier to block the scales, but they continued their onslaught with tremendous force. If the barrier continues getting blasted at this rate, we will soon run out of mana.

『These damn scales! Do you think you’re funn*ls or something!?』

Next I tried throwing a combination of storm magic and flame magic around us in order to blow away the scales. However, the scales ignored my magic and continued to fly wildly around us.

It seems these scales inherited the dragon’s trait of repelling magic.

That’s really nasty! What can we do?

Magic won’t work, and there’s no way I can’t stop all of them with telekinesis. Then I guess I’ll have to solve things physically!

『You broke through my strings earlier, but I won’t lose again! I’ll show you the true power of my strings!』

Just stretching the threads everywhere to try to entangle the scales won’t work. The scales were sharper and heavier than my threads.

My threads would lose if I challenge the scales to a head-on collision, just like what happened earlier.

Then what can I do?

That moment, a light bulb went off in my head.

If I made the tips of my thread sharp like the dragon’s scales, maybe I could match them?

In the first place, I should stop thinking of it as a thread. Make it sharper and more aggressive――Yeah, like an arrowhead. Let’s try imaging an arrowhead attached to each string and transforming it that way.

Of course, it would still be a bad idea to clash with the scales head-on.

But what about from the side? The tips of the scales may be sharp, but their sides were not. What happens if I hit that dull side with my sharpened arrowhead threads?

Strength and durability are important, but this is where precision comes into play.

No matter how strong my new threads were, it would be meaningless if I can’t get a hit in.

I started viewing them through my Heavenly Eye, the same way I used appraisal earlier.

To achieve what I was trying to do, I needed to have a perfect grasp over all the scales.

I would catch the irregular movements of those scales and predict their next location. That would take an advanced calculation, as if I was a super computer. But I can do it. My instincts told me I could pull it off.

『…Look at them. All of them… Then activate morphing… I have to strike the moment I calculate those movements, or I won’t make it in time. Fast, sharp, and precise…』

I began feeling a dull pain. Sophie’s magic concert had strengthened me considerably, but it seemed I was still pushing myself too far.

『Guh…』

《The stability of the transformation is decreasing. Please focus on the activation of Heavenly Eye, Morphing, Parallel Processing, and Magic Sense.》

『Thanks, Announcer-san… Gurgh…』

I follow the movements of the scales, trying to hold back the pain. Then came the moment when I grasped everything.

『I see it!』

I activated morphing at exactly that moment. Even I was surprised at how smoothly the skill activated.

My decorative strings instantly transformed into hundreds of arrows assaulting the scales. They all caught the dead center of the scales and pierced straight through them.

I managed to capture and destroy all of the red scales flying around Fran with my thread.

『And here’s a bonus!』

I had already created countless arrows, so it would be a shame if I didn’t make full use of them. I gathered them all back up and sent the threads flying toward the dragon.

This time, there was no escape.

And sure enough, the dragon used teleportation to move a short distance into the sky. It got away once again.

But that was enough to distract it from Fran for a brief moment.

「Hah! Heavenly Judgment!」

「Gyah?」

Fran had sensed the teleportation destination and already dashed behind it as it was activating the spell.

Right when the dragon realized its failure, the blade slammed into its neck.

Facing certain death, the dragon was not content to simply be beaten.

「Hmm?」

The moment the dragon realized it couldn’t escape, it detonated all the mana inside itself. What a sore loser!

The high density mana raged wildly, causing a huge explosion from the inside of the dragon.

Since Heavenly Judgment had so much force behind it, it would be impossible to cancel on the spur of the moment. Nor could Fran put up a barrier while still in the middle of executing her slash.

However, there was no surprise on Fran’s face. She knew that an enemy of this level would not be so easily defeated.

Besides, Fran had me. That’s why she wasn’t panicking. Now I just have to live up to that trust!

『Daargh!』

I activated telekinesis, wind magic, and my barriers to deflect the explosion. It was still quite powerful, but much easier to handle if I deflect it instead of suppressing it.

The explosion generated a tremendous magical light that flew 100 meters above the battlefield. But when it subsided, the only one left there was an unharmed Fran.

「We won.」

『Yeah, their secret weapon was strong indeed.』

Without Sophie’s performance and Tzaluta’s support, we would have had a rough time. We might have even been forced to use Sword God Transformation to end it quickly.

『Nice job.』

「Nn. But more importantly, is everyone okay…?」

Fran’s expression of joy quickly faded as she turned her attention to our companions. The look on her face was not that of a lone warrior, but that of a commander in charge of her troops.

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