“Aaaaaaaaahh!!”
The roar of a dragon roared across Terra Ruale, which had become a dead city. It was like a wind blowing through a valley, filled with the stench of death.
In the midst of this terrifying sound, the voice of a girl shouting in anger interspersed with the roar.
Behind Erminio and the others, who were sprinting down the stone passageway, a wyvern zombie with silver scales, a silver mane, and silver eyes pursued them.
Wielding wings made of nothing but bone, the wyvern zombie smashed down walls and spread out with a force that was hard to believe from its appearance.
It smashed the ceiling with its sharp-edged head, covered with hard scales and horns.
“What is this!? Is this the ‘Rose Princess of Hellrage’!?”
“Damn it, it doesn’t work!”
While running away, Edgar shot backwards with all the magic items he had on hand.
However, neither fireballs nor thunderbolts could stop the silver dragon’s onslaught for even a second, as the silver scales bounced them away.
Amidst the incessant sounds of destruction, a bellows-like sound could be heard.
“Breath is coming!”
Edgar warned in an urgent voice.
There was no escape amidst the narrow paths.
Trying to move forward, trying to turn at some corner.
They would get caught in the middle like smothering insects.
Breath was generally produced by magical means, but it was not just magic.
They were often half … or fully materialized using secretions and other substances that accumulate in the body. For example, a breath of flame was not a “virtual flame” as in the case of fire elemental magic, but a real flame.
It could not be prevented by purely magical means, such as protective charms, and would require separate countermeasures…
“What!? What is this thing spewing!?”
“I don’t know!”
If it breathed fire, counteract it with water magic. Or use magic to defend against fire.
But there were too many options when it was unknown what was coming.
“Then… wind! Loretta, get the “Wind Flower Fan”!”
“≪Storage Box≫!”
Loretta’s chanting was almost a scream.
Breath was only an attack that sprayed something with breath. Wind protection was a versatile, if not a perfect, countermeasure.
Loretta herself could use wind magic, but only rudimentary. She could not use the kind of magic that would blow back the breath of such a large creature, and had to rely on magic items.
She grabbed a single fan out of the void. It was a fan that would create a storm when she raised it.
But.
“No way…”
The fan was broken in half and the surface was shredded.
When Loretta had taken it out of storage earlier, it had been hit by the rotating saw trap.
“Not good…!”
A reddish-black flame flickered in the mouth of the silver wyvern zombie.
The Breath was a breath of “Miasma”, a life-threatening noxious air that contains “evil energy”, which was essentially elemental, contained in dust and other substances and made into poison.
If exposed to it, their bodies would become burnt and necrotic, leading to death.
No defense could suffice.
The moment the Breath was released.
“I won’t let you do it!”
Something fell from the collapsed ceiling.
It was a knight in armor with the holy seal engraved on it. He was holding a short sword in his mouth as a secondary weapon.
The left half of his body had countless arrows sticking through the gaps in his armor. A large number of short, thick arrows, like those used for a blowgun or a trap bow. If examined closely, the sides of the armor also had numerous small dents, and his left hand was just hanging from his shoulder without any strength.
Although holy magic was good at healing, magic that instantly healed wounds consumed a great deal of magic power. This state of affairs seemed to be the result of the knight’s unwillingness to consume magic power, and his decision to apply only minimal treatment and conserve the remaining magic power for attacking.
The hand-me-down Holy Knight clasped the wyvern zombie’s neck with his single right hand. He then straddled the wyvern zombie’s neck, propped himself up on his feet, and picked up the sword he had been holding in his mouth.
The wyvern zombie shook its head noisily, but the holy knight resisted.
The pale, shining blade was probably the result of adding more “Consecration” to a blade that had already been subjected to «Consecration».
The holy knight, which was attached to the neck of the wyvern zombie, crawled up to its face and pierced its mouth vertically.
“Gub!”
The wyvern zombie’s mouth was sealed shut.
The sword, clad in multiple layers of holy energy, pierced through the silvery-white scales.
The Miasma spilled out through the clenched fangs.
“Oh, boy! Run for your life! “
‘Well done, Etre! … No, Alfonso?”
Erminio was running without even a pretense of helping the holy knight.
Incidentally, Erminio could not distinguish between Etre and Alfonso, who were wearing helmets. He could probably tell them apart by their voices, and if he looked closely, he could tell them apart by the scratches on their equipment and the quirks in their gestures, but Erminio wasn’t that interested in the two.
The wyvern zombie whose breath had been blocked, however, did not cower, but head-butted the nearest wall as hard as it could without batting an eyelid, as if it had suffered no damage.
The dungeon shook.
The headbutt meant that the holy knight attached to its head would be caught between it and the wall.
“Ghaaa…!”
Blood spurted from the full-face helmet.
Furthermore, the wyvern zombie rubbed its head against the wall without removing its head.
Cracking the wall, the holy knight was grinded, shaken off, rolled on the floor, and then trampled. The claws of its tough legs, covered in silver scales, pierced and sewed through the armor.
“He’s already dead, what are we going to do!?”
“Shut up, I know! Do something, anything to counter…!”
Leaving the holy knight behind, the three of them fled at full speed.
Behind them, they heard something metallic rolling on the floor. It seemed to have pulled out the sword that was sewing its mouth shut.
“… Huh!? Hey, master!”
“What!”
“I don’t know why, but the building’s magic defense is gone!”
Suddenly, they noticed that when they looked at their surroundings through the “Craftsman’s Lens”, the flow of magic that had been running in all directions, like some kind of pattern, had completely disappeared.
“If that’s the case…!”
Without Erminio’s needless remark, Edgar took out a light green gemstone from his pocket.
“Shichiri Stones”. A set of two gem-like magic items, one could be placed as a beacon, and the other could be broken to instantly teleport.
Unlike other magic items, such as the “Seven-step stones” which had similar effects but a shorter transfer distance, this was a very valuable item.
“Doraa!”
Edgar slammed the “Shichiri Stone” onto the floor with force.
As soon as he did, everything twisted.
*
The moon was shining overhead, and a cold wind was blowing through the air.
The three stood in the open air.
From the viewpoint of the royal capital, the place was hidden by the undulations of the terrain. This was the place where the “Decisive Drolette” had been resting until a few hours ago.
Edgar had left one of the “Shichiri Stones” here. In order to escape like this in case of emergency.
Although there were few means to achieve medium- to long-distance teleportation, it was still customary for advanced adventurers to be prepared to escape somehow.
Of course, just because they were prepared didn’t mean they would be able to escape in one piece.
“Thank God … we’re saved…!”
“Not yet, Miss.”
Loretta almost slumped over with relief, but Edgar was still undeterred.
First, he took out a small chic black lacquered bottle and uncorked it. A dimly glowing cloud-like substance billowed out and dissolved into the air. It was “Mirage Deceptive Fragrance”, which enveloped the surroundings in an illusion and hid its appearance.
The three of them were then joined at the waist by a “Secret Forest Binding Chain” that muffled the sounds and presence of those connected to them, and “Ninja Perfume” was sprayed on them to muffle their smells.
“How long will it last, Edgar?”
“…This extravaganza won’t be enough for the magic stones, so expect to be for at least two hours. In the meantime, we just need to get as far away from here as possible.”
Edgar said as he stuffed the magic stones into a box for loading fuel that was connected to one end of the “Secret Forest Binding Chain”. The chained people could talk to each other, but no one else would be able to hear them.
Even a powerful magic item would consume a large amount of magic stones, but if three people were using it, the consumption would be tripled. It was obvious that if they continued to fill up on magic stones along the way, they would run out of fuel before reaching a safe area.
Worst-case scenario, Edgar wondered for a moment if he had the option of abandoning Erminio.
If he did not bring Erminio back, he would not be rewarded, but life was the only thing that mattered.
More than anything else, the reason Edgar followed Erminio into the capital again was not because he was worried about Erminio, but because he was worried about Loretta. If pressed to the brink of death, Edgar would choose to keep Loretta alive rather than Erminio.
“It’s tough …, but if we can dazzle our pursuers for that long, we’ll be a long way off.”
“Miss, is the carpet safe?”
“…≪Storage Box≫”
Loretta awkwardly chanted a spell, and crimson rags fell to the ground.
It was the remains of the “Flying Carpet” that had been torn up. It seemed to have been damaged earlier when it was caught in the trap.
Erminio stared at Loretta with burning eyes, and Loretta gently looked away.
Edgar lifted it up to test it, and only a few of the chopped and carved pieces of fabric emerged.
Unfortunately, it was too small to even sit on, though.
“I guess we’ll just have to hold on and fly away… This is faster and we can’t leave any footprints.”
“All right…, we will now move forward.”
Almost at the same time as Erminio gave the order.
A hail, the sound of the wind.
“Eh?”
An arrow flew right next to Edgar’s head.
A number of shadows loomed in the black sky.
The sound of flapping wings could be heard like a circular chant.
A huge body with a shining silver outline, bearing a hazy moon at its back, was dancing in the night sky.
Skeleton riders, riding hippogriff zombies with bows and throwing spears, were approaching to surround the silver flying dragon.
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