Desperate Battle (2)
Coote's Point of View
Coote was consumed with rage.
(What is that? Is that really my lord? Did these people turn my lord into something like that?!)
Coote had grown strong—strong enough that he could defeat Alicetia in battle. A familiar bond typically fell into two categories: a pact of equals or a subordinate contract. Coote and Alicetia shared the latter—Coote was subordinate to Alicetia.
But Coote had changed. Enormous amounts of mana had flowed into him through his connection to Alicetia.
Coote was always an anomaly among monsters. Though he didn’t know it himself, tracing his lineage would reveal he wasn’t born from monsters but from a lineage of divine beasts. His kind had interbred with monsters along the way, which led to Coote being born as a monster. His father and grandfather were probably monsters too, and his divine beast ancestry dated back to ancient times.
However, the pure mana flowing from Alicetia had wiped away the monster traits within Coote, triggering a sort of ancestral regression. At that point, Coote stood as Alicetia's equal.
His ancestors were once known as Wolf Kings—a species that formed bonds of friendship with the Spirit King and perished alongside them. While they were a step below the Spirit King in rank, Alicetia currently couldn’t even wield ten percent of the Spirit King’s true power. Even with growth, as a human she’d be limited to perhaps fifty percent at best.
In contrast, Coote was born with a powerful body. The Wolf King species could use magic but were primarily divine beasts who specialized in raw physical power—true beasts. Coote, sharing this heritage, had no trouble wielding that strength.
Therefore, Coote was stronger than Alicetia. If he wished, he could have broken their familiar contract through sheer force.
Yet, Coote never did. He understood his power had been awakened by Alicetia. His life with her wasn’t bad either. He knew how hollow it was to lord over weak monsters atop a tiny mountain.
He also learned the terrifying strength of the humans he used to look down on. Though he only knew the world of beasts, this world belonged to humans now. Monsters were prey—he accepted that.
With his current strength, he could wreak havoc on humanity, but the thought never appealed to him. Life with Alicetia brought comfort. Living alongside her was fun.
He wished those days would last forever. Alicetia, being human, would likely live no more than two hundred years even if she reached the pinnacle of magic. He didn’t know exactly, but his instincts told him he’d live far longer. So, he thought, why not enjoy those two hundred years?
Then the war began. He understood the urge to fight—he’d fought over territory with other beasts in the past. Back then, he too had raged.
But now, something black and sinister had appeared in Alicetia’s heart. It grew stronger by the day.
Something was wrong. Yet neither Alicetia nor the nearby spirits seemed to notice. Helios was too dumb to sense anything. In fact, if Helios said something was wrong, Coote would probably dismiss it as his imagination. That’s how subtle the change had been.
Coote wondered if it was just him, but when Alicetia took to the battlefield, he was certain—something was off. And the cause was the fools in front of him, the so-called Imperial Army. He thought, maybe if he killed them all, erased them from Alicetia’s sight, that blackness would vanish too.
"Kill them!"
“Woof woof woof!!”
Enraged, Coote led his pack into a frenzied charge against the Imperial Army, showing no distinction between mighty knights or lowly foot soldiers.
He crushed them underfoot, tore through them with claws, ripped them apart with fangs. In perfectly coordinated movements, Coote’s pack began their slaughter of the Imperial Army.
Helios' Point of View
(... I want to crawl back into my cave and hide.)
That’s what Helios thought.
Dragons were supposed to be the mightiest beings—possessing tremendous mana, superior physical abilities, and the power of flight. Among them, Helios was an ancient dragon, one of the strongest.
Helios had taken pride in being of the supreme species, but that pride had been utterly shattered.
He could accept being shot down by Draconia, or losing to Alicetia. Draconia’s power made one question if he was even human, and Alicetia's mana surpassed his own effortlessly.
Against Coote, a beast that crawled on the ground, Helios felt he’d win—though he’d never fought him, and thus had no proof. So, he resolved not to fight him. Absolutely not. Helios had learned how to protect his pride.
But when his breath attack was blocked by the rabble calling themselves the Imperial Army, his pride was crushed once again.
(This is the worst. Memories of being mocked by everyone in the past are gnawing at my heart.)
Having his breath stopped by the human masses known as the Imperial Army reopened old wounds.
Once, Helios lived more closely among dragon society. But back then, he had been weak.
Even among fire dragons, where he had the most talent, Helios was weaker than his peers.
Crybaby Flame Dragon.
That was the nickname he’d earned in the past.
Helios was constantly bullied by other dragons whenever they met, and before long, he shut himself away in his den. Dragons lived by the law of the jungle—there was no place for the weak.
After suffering harassment attacks countless times, he repeatedly changed the location of his den, fleeing from his tormentors. Eventually, he built a lair in a certain mountain in Ostland, where over a thousand years passed. Perhaps the other dragons had grown tired of bullying him or had simply lost track of him—he didn’t know, but life had become peaceful. He even transferred the treasures he’d hidden in various places into his current lair to prevent them from being stolen.
At some point, he heard from spirits that most of his acquaintances had been slain by humans. Helios, who was poor at fighting humans, had survived. Eventually, he became an ancient dragon.
With his newfound status as an ancient dragon, his physical abilities and mana reserves had grown exponentially. Yet, due to past traumas, he avoided combat. He only hunted weak monsters, living a quiet and safe life while healing his old emotional scars and gradually rebuilding his pride.
That pride had been shattered again when he got cocky and attacked Ostland's capital, only to be beaten back by Alicetia.
(Oh, if only the Divine Dragon were still alive, life would be so much easier…)
Helios thought while breathing his destructive breath onto the Imperial Army's magic corps, inflicting massive casualties.
Once, after being half-killed by Cynthiana and barely recovering, the Divine Dragon had grown careless after Cynthiana’s death and was ultimately slain by Draconia.
Though to humans the Divine Dragon was a symbol of terror, to Helios, he was a good dragon who had cared for him. The Divine Dragon called destroying human nations a pastime, but every time Helios was bullied, he had protected him.
Now, Helios found himself a familiar to a little girl named Alicetia. He had no intention of rebelling. The food was good, and if he fought Coote, who was next to him, his spirit would probably be crushed completely.
But he couldn’t forgive the Imperial Army. To commit the foolish act of blocking even one attack from the supreme being that was himself—unforgivable. Dragons were bundles of pride, and their mentality was thoroughly battle-hardened.
Normally, he would have descended to the ground and rampaged with his fangs, claws, and tail. However, Alicetia had said, “If you do that, you’ll be beaten back, so absolutely don’t,” and thus, he refrained from descending.
Even if he did descend, the beasts crawling on the ground would overwhelm him, leaving his pride irreparably broken—so Helios endured. He was a dragon who could endure.
Thus, Helios shouted with a great voice.
“Card open!”
The card he had wedged between his claws emitted light and released its contents.
Out came a long-barreled 30mm Gatling gun. His body dipped sharply from the sudden weight, but he managed to stabilize himself with great effort.
Gripping the Gatling gun with both hands, ammunition was fed from a cartridge box on his back. The total weight exceeded 2000 kilograms.
Helios groaned under the burden but endured, keeping himself aloft. Before long, he got used to it. With the aid of magic, he could handle this much weight.
“Take this gift from me!”
In just a few short moments, the Gatling gun roared to life, spraying bullets wildly.
The ammunition was high-explosive rounds intended for anti-personnel use.
The explosive shells rained down like a storm, inflicting devastating damage on the Imperial Army.
However, the surviving members of the magic corps deployed magic barriers. Likely, they had thrown caution to the wind and were burning through their energy reserves. With only high-explosive shells, Helios couldn’t penetrate the barriers.
The spare ammunition stored in his storage card consisted entirely of high-explosive shells.
Helios gathered mana in his mouth. The Imperial Army noticed this and panicked, but the magic corps was fully committed to maintaining the barrier, and since Helios was flying, they couldn’t counterattack.
Within just five seconds, he had built up enough mana and unleashed his breath. Following the instructions he had been taught, he condensed his breath as much as possible, punching through the magical barrier and creating a searing dome of fire.
“A hole has opened!”
Helios swooped in on the magic barrier, pushed the barrel of the Gatling gun into the hole, and fired again. Between the scorching flames and the hail of shrapnel, the Imperial Army suffered even greater casualties.
After unloading ten seconds’ worth of fire inside the barrier, Helios obeyed Alicetia’s orders, soared upwards, and regained altitude.
(This is wonderful. With this, I could even get revenge on those who used to bully me! This exhilarating vibration in my arms is amazing!)
Helios was in high spirits. He felt no sympathy for human deaths; just as humans didn’t care about ants crawling on the ground, he was simply intoxicated by the power of the Gatling gun.
Without using his own mana, the destructive power was immense.
(My lord mentioned a thing called “armor-piercing rounds” with something called high penetration power… Could those even pierce a dragon’s scales…? Wait, doesn’t that mean I’m the strongest now with this weapon?)
Beaming with joy, Helios continued to rain down a storm of bullets.
Emperor’s Point of View
“What a foolish girl. Still, I need her intellect for my conquest of the continent! Relay this order to the entire army: secure that girl at all costs! I don’t care how many casualties we suffer!”
The emperor stood up from his palanquin and roared.
“P-please wait! If we send the entire army after her, we’ll compromise our encirclement of Arland’s forces! And our casualties are already too high. We should consider withdrawing…”
Moving with a speed belying his age, the emperor jumped from his palanquin and struck the protesting officer with his staff.
“Soldiers can always be replaced! Do you not understand whether expendable soldiers or that girl—who can create magic furnaces and airships—is more valuable?! This is an imperial decree! Use the entire army to capture her! The Arland forces, without their head, are no longer a threat.”
Though the beaten officer hesitated, he ultimately relayed the order to lift the encirclement and capture Alicetia.
Even though localized areas were suffering massive losses, the enticing rewards—being made a count even from a commoner, or marrying the emperor’s daughter and becoming a duke for nobles—lured many to rush toward Alicetia’s forces… only to be slaughtered.
The Imperial Army was taking grievous damage. At this rate, a reckless charge could shake the very foundation of the empire. Yet the emperor was convinced that so long as he captured Alicetia, the rewards would outweigh any losses.
Alicetia’s forces clearly relied on golems as their main strength. From a distance, their performance seemed average. But the weapons they wielded were extraordinary.
Magic guns did exist on the continent, but they were primitive, lacking rifling, and comparable in function to slightly faster-loading matchlocks. Their performance was poor, their cost exorbitant, and their production inefficient. No nation had deemed them practical.
However, Alicetia’s troops had mastered magic guns that overcame all those flaws. With an army of such golems, no amount of human casualties would matter—they could simply be replaced by mass-produced golems.
Magic furnaces, airships, golems, and magic guns—he wanted them all. Such a talented individual was wasted in a barbaric land like Arland. A person of her caliber should belong to a mighty and superior nation like the empire.
Fortunately, Alicetia was human. He figured she would be accepted within the empire if married to him or his sons.
Initially, Alicetia’s forces had the momentum, but they had begun a slow retreat. This meant the Imperial Army was advancing. Hidden in the grasslands behind their lines was a teleportation circle established by the Second Knights Order.
(The victory is mine.)
The emperor smiled, envisioning his future conquest of the entire continent.
What do you think about this chapter?
