892: Red-Scaled Dragonkin

「Doryaaaah!」

「Teyah!」

The red-scaled dragonkin and Fran collided within the bar of the Adventurers Guild. Considering the location, Fran was placed at a disadvantage.

Wide area attacks would get the surrounding adventurers caught up, so Fran needed to hold back while the dragonkin didn’t have to care.

In addition, his movements were terrifyingly fast. I fired off several spells at him, but he avoided them with a combination of evasions and parries.

With his tap dance-like footwork and jumping through the air off the walls and ceilings, we had a hard time following his tricky movements.

His techniques must have been perfected for indoor combat.

And if I cast stronger, harder to dodge spells, I would end up hurting the adventurers too.

But that wasn’t the only issue.

「Stun Bolt!」

「Heh!」

「Eh――?! Gyaaah!」

『That asshole! He just used someone as a shield!』

Much to our surprise, he pulled in a nearby adventurer and used him as a human shield. He may be an agile warrior, but his dragonkin strength could not be underestimated. I doubt a low-ranked adventurer would be able to break free.

Now it’s even more difficult to use magic.

In that case, Fran decided to close the distance instantly, delivering a powerful slash. However, this had an unexpected result.

Flames suddenly erupted from the wound on the red-scale dragonkin’s arm. They looked a bit stronger than a firecracker, so the flames weren’t particularly intense.

But the issue was the mana contained in the flames. Unlike a normal fire, these couldn’t be extinguished easily.

In a small room like this, it became particularly dangerous.

「Gwahaha! Wasn’t this a no-fire zone?」

The red-scaled dragonkin showed no sign of pain as the flames spread to ignite a nearby table. He simply smirked at the adventurers rushing to extinguish it.

『He’s got Pain Nullification and Superspeed Regeneration. Also, a skill called Dragonblood. It seems like he can use his blood to activate his elemental power!』

It wasn’t that his blood was made of fire, more like he’s activating a spell using his blood as the catalyst. The annoying part was that spilling more of his blood gave him more ammo for attacking us.

This was going to be a problem if we had to disable him without spilling any blood.

We couldn’t expect any backup from the adventurers. They were too busy with the other dragonkin to help us.

The only ones free to help were the weak adventurers who had fallen back after sensing the difference in abilities. If they tried to help, they would just hold us back.

Or even worse…

「Gwahaha! Seems like little goody two shoes can’t leave the weaklings behind!」

「Mrgh!」

The red-scaled dragonkin began aiming his attacks at the surrounding adventurers.

Even if he simply took a step towards the adventurers, Fran would have to move to prevent him.

This opponent was powerful enough that we couldn’t allow him to get any closer.

「Doruaa!」

「Haaah!」

Still, Fran kept up with the dragonkin, repelling his blade repeatedly.

It seemed like he couldn’t believe that Fran held her own in such a disadvantageous situation. His widened eyes quickly turned into a nasty smile.

「You really are pretty good!」

He looked genuinely happy to meet such a strong opponent. That he had enough composure to laugh must mean he didn’t think he could lose.

Fran would easily win in a one-on-one fight. But since the other adventurers were here, she had to constantly be on the lookout for them.

Moreover, slashing the dragonkin might spill his blood and cause the entire building to go up in flames. The fire from earlier even managed to ignite the stone floor of the guild, probably because of its magical properties.

That’s why we were forced on the defensive.

The adventurers made attempts to escape, but there was no way out because other dragonkin had the entrance blocked. In the end, all they could do was to hold up their weapons and try to intimidate their enemies.

Should we ignore the costs and use Awakening or Sword God Transformation to settle this?

That’s when Prear appeared.

He wore a leather robe covered in powerful mana and held a cane in his hand, also radiating mana.

For a moment, I had a bad feeling about him stabbing us in the back. However, my fears ended up unfounded.

「What the hell are you all doing? You’re just holding the girl back! Get outta here!」

「W-We can’t!」

「Tch! Damn weaklings!」

It seems Prear at least intended to back Fran up. He scowled at the low-ranked adventurers who didn’t have the guts to break through enemy lines and escape.

「Then move further to the side! You’re in our way!」

Prear barked at the adventurers before raising his cane. From the sound of his chanting, he must be using some kind of black magic.

A few seconds later, the dragonkin holding the entrance slowed down. It seems like they had been debuffed to dull their movements, but it’ll still take a while to get the entrance open.

That’s when I got an idea. They didn’t need to escape through the doorway.

『I’ll take care of it!』

（Nn!）

In order to get us out of this predicament, I aimed for both side walls of the Adventurers Guild and launched the fire spell Explosion.

This was where my intricate mana control came in handy. By adjusting the direction of the blast, I succeeded in concentrating the impact on the walls without damaging the interior.

Despite the deafening blast, the only damage to the room was a few broken chairs and tables.

The eyes of all the adventurers turned to the blast zone in unison. There, they found a hole big enough for a person to pass through.

If this were any other town, they could escape through there. But in this densely packed city, we could only see the walls of the neighboring buildings.

Well, I expected that one!

I fired Explosion at the walls one more time.

「Noooo! Girl! You better pay for the damages!」

「It’s an emergency. Deal with it.」

「Kuh…!」

「Hmph. You keep the dragonkin in check. If you move funny, I’ll cut you down too.」

「D-Don’t aim your intimidation at me, girl!」

「Shut up and move. I’ll let you live if you work hard enough.」

「…Fuck!」

Yeah, Prear! You can shut up and work your ass off for Fran! The damn guy suddenly stopped calling her by name just because we found the skeletons in his closet!

We’ll be having a nice long chat after we’re done with the dragonkin!

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