A Dragon Idol's Reincarnation Tale - Chapter 357: But not Outgunned.

Chapter 357: But not Outgunned.

The most common type of grimgarian were the goblins and kobolds. Ogres, trolls, even orcs weren’t as often seen on human soil mainly due to the hunter’s guild targeting those grimgarians, as they were more threatening than unintelligent monsters.

A nest of goblins left unperturbed could grow into an entire colony within weeks due to their rapid gestation period and, coupled with their ability to grow similar to humans, even G rank goblins could prove dangerous to a village. Not to mention how trolls and ogres had a base rank of C, making even a single one of them more than enough to decimate an entire town.

This is without accounting for how grimgarians could also gain Jobs and also evolve like normal monsters. Kobolds evolved into echikobolds and then, with a further evolution, into a gnoll. The more they evolved, the more the common grimgarians would be able to escape their weaker base rank, eventually becoming equal or even superior to humans, beastmen, and elves in certain fields.

However, even if their form changed, it was hard to change the personality they grew up with. In this case, goblins, no matter how strong, were still cowards.

In this case, a single hobgoblin scout was frozen in place, unable to move as [Terror (Major)] had frozen his brain and muscles. He was one of the grimgarian army’s most prominent rangers, being responsible for reconnaissance since the beginning of this invasion.

Their goal was clear: conquer the Divide of the Five Princes in one fell swoop. Years had gone into preparing this plan, even before the main forces from the Ogre King had arrived on this side of the continent. Tunnels were established, all to accommodate the invaders. Once it was time, the army was snuck into the country with the help of the demonkins and their network of sympathizers and supporters amongst the human race.

With the navy readied and the “rats” in place, the first stage of the grimgarian invasion was executed. A two pronged attack from land and sea, launched far too fast for the humans to react in time. While Hestia’s involvement had saved Artorias from the full brunt of this plight, the other countries along the coastline weren’t as lucky. This included the Kingdom of Yeos.

As such, the morale of the grimgarian army was sky high, in addition to being fueled by religious fervor. Despite some inconveniences at the start of the invasion, as in the destruction of multiple battalions and even a B rank being killed, the army still arrived in time at Yeos’s capital, Elyonda.

With a combined pincer attack from the navy and army, even the usually cowardly goblin foot soldiers thought it was decisive victory. They held an overwhelming advantage over the enemy in number and strategic options, to the point the goblins even joked how they wouldn’t have to act as fodder. They were so confident, they thought a majority of even the G rank goblins would survive! Their commanders had boasted how this siege would only last a single day.

It was joyous! … Oh, woe to them, for overconfidence had blinded them. Their wishful pride, eager and already accepting of the bright illusions of victory, was easy to break and crumbled into fire and blood.

This hobgoblin saw all the dominoes fall. Mighty magic decimating the entire fleet in one go, killing five B ranks in the process. Although the ancient SS ranked monster Karhalentheel was freed just as intended, the sudden emergence of Melloxtressa had only driven the scout down into despair. Still, he held onto hope that Kronnaz’s chosen would lead them to victory.

Unfortunately, when he saw those sent to the port being pushed back by giant water dinosaurs and a giant serpent in the sky, the hobgoblin’s only thought was to flee back to the main army. When he arrived, his feet were paralyzed. His eyes stared at the hell unfolding before him,

A decisive victory? What a joke. A close victory would already be embarrassing with their clear number advantage, but what kind of victory would they actually get? Only a strategic, or maybe, a tactical victory? At least they would fulfill their goals, even at the cost of massive casualties. There was still honor there, right?

So, why did this feel like it would lead into a pyrrhic victory at best? To the point they wouldn’t even be able to take over the territory?

Why did this thought flash in the hobgoblin’s mind?

“I descend on Earth with Wings of Death! ♫

A Storm of Fury ♫

Creating Ash and Dust ♫

I am the Incarnation of the Sun ♫

I shine so brightly, I bring your death ♫

My lineage belongs to the God of Dragons! ♫

Despair, color the sky crimson! ♫

Earth scorched by rain of undying flames ♫

Hope born from misery! ♫

Quash it all, you are facing me! ♫”

To some, it was the voice of an angel. A perfect pitch fluctuating around with the notes and musical instruments, bringing life and character to this opera-style remix. However, to the grimgarians, this voice sounded nothing like that … To them, it felt like they were facing something beyond their comprehension. As if they weren’t worthy of being in her mere presence.

However, words were just words, after all. It was just unfortunate her words translated also into action, as her song brought down dragon-formed flame meteors. In addition, giant rocks were falling from the sky, large hurricanes ripping through the land, and giant balls of lightning sizzling anybody drenched and freezing in this monsoon-blizzard combo.

This was nature’s terrors made manifest, brought about the power stored within flesh and blood, summoned by the wellspring of this world—mana. It wasn’t the keen blade before them which scared a soldier, but something they could not stop. The unseen arrow, a warrior of unstoppable might, and a mage free firing grand magicks.

To the fleeing goblins, the being flying in the skies could not be compared to the white dogs of Aurena they had faced in the past. No, this was a being which left nothing but fear in their hearts. Those flame-like hair, crimson clothes, and the steam from all the rain and snow boiling from her body temperature alone; to them, it looked almost as if the God of Fire, Danterno, had personally descended onto the mortal realms in the form of a woman.

“Graaaaaah!”

“Graaa! Graak! Graaaa!”

The first to flee were the lowly goblins and kobolds foot soldiers, far too terrified to continue fighting even with the mages and orcs screaming for them to stop. This caused the giant blob fighting against Hestia, Fargryneill, and Larent to dwindle.

Up next where the evolved hobgoblins, echikobolds, and D rank orcs. With so many dead from Hestia’s spells, Fargryneill’s mana blasts, and Larent’s swordsmanship, they couldn’t rally when their commanders ordered them to. To the woods, the cravens fled. To live another day.

The undead and tentacles spawned from Karhalantheel’s Territory were also quickly taken out from this chaos. To see their allies destroyed so easily and their numbers falling like flies, the usually stouthearted C rank orcs began to fear the inevitable. The B ranks, knowing disaster would strike if the morale were to plummet even further, tried to roar and reinvigorate everybody, but Larent, the seasoned army man, aimed for these moments with his blade. A moment of hope was quickly turned into despair.

The screams quickly spread to the forces at the walls. The grimgarians saw their brothers and sisters-in-arms flee from their stations, drawing their senses towards the fight happening behind them. It was then when they finally heard the sound of the devil’s voice singing in their ears, and with it, the sound of meteors falling onto their heads.

In a panic, they rushed up the walls, pushing down anybody in their way as they tried so desperately to cling onto their lives. To see these flame dragons dropping down from the sky awakened a primal instinct in them. But, this was all the newly-appointed commander of the walls was aiming for.

“Archers! Fire!” A knight in feathered armor waved her wind flag around, accelerating the force and speed of the arrows released from behind her. This tailwind surged, accompanying the projectiles, almost as if the Goddess of Wind had blessed them.

Numerous grimgarians fell from this attack, blocking the wall off from others as these meteors crashed against the large earthen walls and army. Cries of despair rang out, only hastening the destruction of this plan. They had no way to flee, so the grimgarians fought and moved even fiercer to find some inkling of hope.

Unfortunately for them, whether it was outside or inside the city, nowhere was safe. Outside, meteors would rain down while their kinsmen would trample each other to death. Inside, roots would sprung up from the ground, trapping the grimgarians for easy pickings. Even if assassins and mages snuck by with [Shadow Dash] through… conveniently placed crevasses, adventurers would await them there with wide grins.

“Rita, I need you to cast over there and there. Use those roots to open some holes in that wall over there, too!”

“Arck, Renee, you’re overworking me like crazy! I’ll die from arcane corruption at this point!”

“You and I both know you can’t, so stop complaining and cast! We need to win this or we will all die! Soldiers, listen to the winds! This monsoon has nothing against us!” She waved her flag once more, calming the winds within this area of the battlefield.

This can’t keep on going! We need to do something!

It wasn’t an exaggeration to say this siege had been turned on its head by a single person. It wasn’t Larent, a war veteran with more medals than most soldiers could ever imagine, or the Champion Tehmrayn, who had challenged and killed many arrogant Champions from the other gods of the Water Pantheon. No, it was a lone dragoness with the third highest amount of mana in this entire battle. And it wasn’t even a contest.

Mighty spells ravaged the battlefield before the [Shadowtouched Hobgoblin] shaman. She was a B rank mage who had access to [Tenebrous Magic Lv. 5] spells, making her the leader of the shamans and mages of this army. She knew her role in this battle was to take down enemy mages, to prevent them from causing terror onto the bulk of the army. As such, when she saw the dragon responsible for the destruction of the navy, she understood she had to challenge her.

Although anxious, since she wasn’t sure she could win, she had to for the sake of vengeance and victory. She thought she could conjure up a trick or two, using her catalyst and potions to tip the scales, believing victory wasn’t out of hand already. Although a mage could control an entire battlefield if trained enough, they could easily die from attacks if they weren’t careful, even if that mage were a B rank dragon. After all, she had B rank ogres on her side.

A mage’s most frightening enemy was arcane corruption, as even the strongest archmages had to stop casting otherwise their bodies would crumble away from this corrupted mana. Even if the dragon had restored her mana from a level, she should still be weakened and feeble from the [Heaven’s Sword] and giant dragon-fire she had conjured to destroy the fleet. That was what the hobgoblin thought.

She thought she had a chance.

How is this possible?!

The reason for Hestia’s mana dropping so quickly during the navy attack was due to overkill. She had invested too much mana into [Dragon Fire]’s singular blast and even recklessly used [Purple Flash] on her [Heaven’s Sword]. While it did make casting the spell instantaneously, it also tripled the mana cost of the level eight [Sacred Magic] spell. If Hestia hadn’t had more mana than a normal dragon of her rank, this wouldn’t be possible.

She would have exploded like a balloon from overusing her mana so much. Or, the [Mana Stress] and [Arcane Fever] would have knocked her out of the battle entirely. It hadn’t been too long since the nuclear option.

However, behold, for the dragoness was consuming dragorade like crazy. Normally, she wouldn’t be able to cast her grand spells in this chaos, since the B ranks, mages, and archers were all aiming at her. Her casting spell of the high tier spells wasn’t fast enough, forcing her to use [Purple Flash]. Fortunately for her, this would only be the case if she were alone.

“Come at me, you bastards! You stinking rats, get yourself back into the fight, I’m not done turning all of you into compost!” Fargryneill shouted like a madwoman as she not only decimated waves of grimgarians but also protected her sister from anything endangering her. Hestia didn’t even need to use her scales for protection in this case.

Like the classic RPG party composition of Tank-Mage-Healer, the trio of Larent, Fargryneill, and Hestia were doing something similar.

Larent led every attack diving into the mix with his swordsmanship, Fargryneill kept a proper midline defense by supporting him and her sister, while Hestia kept both of them alive with her white flames and by culling the weak with her massive spells. In this formation, Hestia could cast spells unperturbed while in the air. A supporter and damage dealer in one package with eleven minds to cast spells with — a sure-fire plan to horrify the shamans who very much understood what this meant.

I can’t beat her!!!

In a pure magic duel, even if she had the time and space to cast six tenebrous spells at once, the hobgoblin shaman understood this meant nothing to Hestia. She could just cast faster to counter them. Even then, as the dragoness just mentioned — “This is war now. I’m not playing fair!” — there was a high chance that the floating glaive would slice her up in a one-versus-one fight.

Mother Goddess, give me strength! GIVE ME STRENGTH TO CHALLENGE THIS MONSTER!

She prayed in her mind as she cast the level five [Tenebrous Magic] spell [Eldritch Hand], summoning a long arm with a single-floor-sized hand from the magic circle. The hand swung at Hestia, but the girl blocked it by casting [Sanctuary], before blasting it into pieces with her scale-dust and [White Flames].

The spell, however, wasn’t over, as the pieces simply fell onto the ground and returned to the circle, reforming the hand in a more grotesque figure. It continued attacking until the barrier broke, but that was when Hestia reappeared right behind her. The flames coming from her wings were still warm while a veil of lightning was around her body, evidence of her using [Overload] in conjunction with her boosters.

The B rank ogres around her swung their weapons at the dragoness’ sudden appearance, trying to protect their mage, but another barrier formed around the girl — [Gloria Ascendence], the unbreakable level seven sacred spell. Hestia grabbed onto the hobgoblin mage before she could escape, and with a smile, detonated her scale-dust with [Dreadflare Aura].

Mother—?! Her last thought went unfinished.

Health and Mana fully restored. Levels up. Another B rank down.

“Bye bye, boys!” She crackled as the ogres desperately tried to cool down their burned bodies, before she entered a portal and escaped from that position. Once on the other side, she took out her [Crystal of the Divine System] and changed her secondary Job into [Dragonkin Fighter].

At the same time as all this was happening, an explosion erupted in the distance, causing some of the fleeing grimgarians to stop and watch as smoke rose to the cloudy skies. Although some weren’t aware of the importance of this, the B ranks fighting against the trio knew exactly where the smoke was coming from.

The artillery camp!

Larent instantly noticed the change in the ogres’ behaviors and told Neill and Hestia to hold back their attacks for now, letting some of the B ranks rush over to the camp. Some were left behind to delay the trio, but seeing over half of their commanders suddenly leave only caused the morale of the attack force to drop into the negative.

After all, unless they all shouted together from the bottom of their lungs, normal voices couldn’t pierce the sound from the spells and weather chaos all around them. However, even if they did inform the army about it, nothing good would happen. They were struggling against three fighters, and now their artillery was in danger? The main component of their siege plans?

Regardless of whatever they did — being silent or being transparent — everything would lead to the same mess. A single rout wasn’t too problematic, but Hestia’s [Dragon Fire] song had already scared many away. It was a chain-reaction which escalated into the army loss.

“Urgh, damn…” Fargryneill fell onto one knee as she saw the enemies waver and break. She was on the precipice of naturally reaching [Battle Frenzy (Moderate)] and felt aches all around her body from fighting nearly nonstop the moment she and her two allies were encircled.

“Up, lass, this isn’t over.” Larent helped the girl up before handing her a dragorade to drink. “Three B ranks here, three left. Two more at the camp, probably.”

Larent looked at the two ogres and presumed the annoying archer was still around, hiding in the woods. He readied his blade and looked up at Hestia.

“Lass?” He squinted his eyes. Even in the darkness, he could see Hestia’s face turning blue.

She downed an entire dragorade in one go while massaging her temples, feeling the effects of attrition on her mind. Her parallel minds quickly identified her body was accumulating too much arcane corruption. Despite just leveling up from killing the B rank shaman, she had only recovered her Mana. Arcane corruption could only be dispelled over time.

“I can still go on. Your plan?”

Hestia believed around 30 minutes had gone by since this fight had begun, although her perception of time was thrown off thanks to [Haste]’s effect and how her brain was slowing down everything with [High-Speed Calculation] and [Thought Acceleration]. In truth, about 21 minutes had eclipsed.

However, 21 minutes of nonstop fighting against seven B ranks would obviously tire out two B ranks, namely Hestia and Fargryneill. While the former had arcane corruption problems, the latter was struggling with her Stamina.

Understanding his companions needed a break urgently, Larent readied his sword and steadied his breath. He assessed the situation just as the ogre ranger shot an arrow at Hestia, causing her to swerve around in annoyance. It took them 21 minutes to take down one exhausted mage, but that didn’t mean the other B ranks were tired.

In fact, since all of them were warriors of some kind, they had high amounts of Stamina. Unlike the trio, they had plenty of time to take a breather in between trading blows. Now, these three just had to hold on until the rest returned from the artillery.

“Princesses, the ranger now, and then Alistar! I will handle these two!”

““Got it!””

He fought solo against four B ranks, then fought against an army, and now he wanted to fight two B ranks alone. Truly, this was Auegor’s Blade. The two ogres standing before him couldn’t help but give their respects to this man, whose armor was slowly falling apart from all the damage he took from the 21 minute fight. If Hestia hadn’t been around to heal, he would have fallen already.

This isn’t the time for me to stop yet. I still need to avenge him! GHORUSH!

[Bloodoathed Avenger], Larent’s current Main Job, caused the flare up from its Job skills. Having heard who killed Arlond from Hestia, the man felt reinvigorated. He now had a target for his Job, and with it, a sudden burst in stats for this singular goal. It was a one-time use Job with barely any long-term benefits, plus it had a pretty damning detriment of sealing his Job slot permanently once the target was taken down.

However, to him, it was a worthy price to pay for revenge on a young knight he had great aspirations for. It was just lucky he now had two Job slots to spare.

“Woah! He’s getting away!” Hestia noted as the vulture squawked and warned its master, causing the man and bird to enter their shadows.

Clicking her tongue, she could only shake her head to her sister as she scouted the woods. No signals could be found outside of frantically running grimgarians. Considering those two would flee the moment Hestia blasted over to them, it meant she couldn’t play this head-on. They didn’t have too much time, so it was time to do this as efficiently as possible.

“Sis, go to Alistar. I got a plan!” Fargryneill gave her sister a thumbs up and vanished from the woods, before Hestia descended down on the ground and talked to her own shadow. [“You ready for some cat-and-mouse?”]

[“It’s hunting time, Master?”] A white-black virigress slowly emerged from her shadow with his mouth wide open, looking ecstatic. [“Rajah couldn’t hunt much, Master. Only scouting!”]

[“Then, have some fun.”] Hestia picked up a feather from the vulture and wafted it in front of her virigress’s nose. [“Take it down for me, Rajah.”]

[“Yes!”]

A sniper needed a spotter if they didn’t have some way to overlook to find their targets. Even with [Detection Sensor], Hestia usually needed some time to line up the perfect shot with her air rifle. The idea was to take down the target without compromising their own location. She could burn down this woods, but that would give the ranger time to escape. Considering how often he nearly hit Hestia with an arrow, it was prudent to solve this problem now before Alistar and the flying knights escaped.

Larent gave this order to the dragonesses, believing Hestia would understand this well.

And so, a cat-bird hunt began, with Hestia dampening her steps. Although not as densely packed as the Belzac Forest, this was still a woodland. Although she was a fire dragon, she felt at home in a forest like her birthplace. As such, she disliked burning down trees, no matter how often it happened inside and outside Belzac.

To the Belzac-born duo, navigating through the vegetation and trees was a non-problem, even with the rain and blizzard making it far harder to traverse. It was then Hestia noted some emergent signals. Rajah nodded and moved towards them while Hestia moved in a different path, trying to draw the ranger’s attention towards her.

Arrows began flying, but Hestia simply dodged them all. The ranger would disappear with every shot, and the vulture would move with him. With this happening five more times, the vulture had left its guard down, leaving it vulnerable as Rajah jumped out of its shadow and bit right into its neck.

Its thick plumage prevented a decisive blow, but using [Shadow Tendrils], Rajah kept the bird from flying away. With his long claws, Rajah dug right into the vulture’s body, injecting his toxins while avoiding the vulture’s own claws.

It squawked and tried to escape into its shadow, but Rajah kept the beast out of it with the tendrils. The vulture countered with its own [Shadow Tendrils] before summoning a [Shadow Clone] to attack the young tiger. In an encounter between two dark elemental monsters, it was clear both knew what the other could do. Only, the vulture didn’t know Rajah has a trick up his sleeve.

[“Smite!”]

Faster casting due to [Chant Revocation Lv. 10] since he had access to the SP System from Hestia as well as also [Holy Magic]. A direct counter against dark monsters.

“Squuueeewk!” The vulture’s clone popped into nothingness, surprising the bird, leaving it open for Rajah’s bite. Although it struggled and managed to hit Rajah a few times with its talons, it still breathed it last in the end. “Squuueee …”

[“Ouch, Moderate Heal! Master, I have bird for dinner!”] Rajah picked the corpse up and began heading back towards his master, looking like a happy cat after hunting a sparrow as an offering to the pack.

“…!” With the death of a tamed monster also came the tragic notification afterwards. To the ogre, time stopped… “Beakshell? No… Beakshell. Tsk… I need to- GUUCK!”

Whether it took five seconds or 20, the shock of losing his long-term partner caused the ogre to drop his guard for a moment, and this was all Hestia needed to make a bullet from her scales. Lock-and-loaded, the bullet shot through her wind rifle right into the ogre’s left shoulder, blowing it up.

The ranger tried to escape, but his abysmal casting time was further delayed by the fact his shoulder was messed up and had a crater. Hestia flew over to the ogre and kicked him away from his magic circle. She inspected the damage of her bullet, noting how it didn’t completely dismember him, before ending his misery with her glaive.

If this was when she fought her first high ogre, it wouldn’t have ended so quickly.

[“Master!”] Rajah strutted proudly before Hestia and placed the vulture corpse before her, wagging his tail, wanting his master to acknowledge him.

… He really is a cat. He’s even doing the bird thing. Hestia thought while stroking her virigress before storing the bird and telling him to hide back in her shadow. With the anti-air B rank down, it was time to help with the rescue effort.

She rushed over, following the smoke. While flying she noticed grimgarians fleeing from the area before noting the knights flying on gargoyles. Many of them were dodging mana cannonballs and arrows, while others kept attacking with spells. On land, she saw a couple of knights led by a familiar man and winged girl with a noticeable horn.

Before them was a troll, two orcs, and two ogres. All were B ranks and they were engaging them in a rather fierce battle. One of the knights was Alistar, and while he wasn’t down yet, he was struggling. On the other hand, the other knights were close to death from how their wounds looked. The only one hanging on was Fargryneill, but even to her, five B ranks were too many.

It would have been a different story if she were in her true form, though. Stubbornness was one quirk both sisters had in common.

Hestia glanced to the left, noticing more than ten mana cannons before preparing ten [Tornado Bullet]s. Shooting them out caught the attention of the B ranks, forcing them to either dodge or block them and delay shooting the cannons. Regardless of what they did, this gave Fargryneill the chance to stomp the ground, spreading her dragon paths to explode right in front of them.

She and the knights quickly dashed away, with them all getting back into the sky with Hestia providing cover fire. However, instead of retreating, the knights turned to the mana cannon. The two girls were flabbergasted at this, but apparently the cannons weren’t all destroyed yet. Seeing as this was the case, Hestia told them to focus on fleeing and to leave the rest to them.

“… All of you, retreat! Make it back to the walls. Lady Hestia, Lady Fargryneill, I’ll cover your retreat with spells!” Alistar stated.

With no complaints to that idea, the two sisters flapped their wings and immediately went on the offensive. Fargryneill, although tired, dove right into the mix of the B and C ranks to get their attention, leaving Hestia all the time to unleash her breath attack on the remaining cannons, scorching them all of them black until they exploded.

The cumulative explosions nearly blew away Hestia, but by twisting her body a bit, she began shooting spells again at the B ranks. However, this time, unlike when they had been taken by surprise, the B ranks blocked and countered by throwing either weapons or broken items at her. Some even cut themselves, using their blood as projectiles like the time Hestia fought Vul’grim Beastslaughterer, the high ogre responsible for the grimgarian battalion Aurora met in the Greenveil duchy.

[Enmity Axe], one of the skills of the Slaughter Blade techniques taught amongst this group of ogre berserkers. All of them knew Vul’grim. All of them understood what the hobgoblin shaman said before, and now they knew who killed their blood brother.

““NIAKASH BAAL’AK””

“Niakash go fuck youselves!” Unlike back when she fought Vul’grim, this time she knew how to deflect weapon abilities. Using her aflamed glaive, she parried both blows and sharpened her glare.

Always annoying when even warriors can use long-range attacks like this. They won’t let Sis escape at this rate.

However…

…Great, I’m turning purple now? Fuck. Would’ve been better if I were just blue, dabadee dabadie.

The arcane corruption was worsening. Flying with her boosters demanded mana, after all. She thought it would take a bit more for her condition to worsen, but looking at her mirror, she really had to slow down.

She stopped her boosters and landed on the ground, swinging her glaive to confront the B ranks. Fargryneill grimaced, understanding from her face she couldn’t hang on for too long. She needed a break. Fargryneill herself was tired, but neither exhausted or in danger of arcane corruption. While she knew her younger sister was a fantastic mage, her melee capabilities were still lacking compared to herself.

Hah, is this what you call being an elder sibling? Really feel anxious seeing her nervous like this. Putting yourself in danger for me, who do you think I am, huh?

Fargryneill took in a deep breath and invoked memories from her past, resurfacing these memories to jumpstart her heart and brain. Adrenaline pumped through her veins, hastening her blood to the point her body couldn’t stop trembling.

[Battle Frenzy (Moderate)].

“Hestia!”

“H-Huh?!” Hestia’s head darted over to her sister for a moment, before adjusting back to the B ranks. She couldn’t let her guard down.

The enemy were wary of the two, even more now that they could visibly see and feel a difference in Fargryneill. Her neon bright purple was glowing even brighter, her three horns emitted translucent mana, and a veil of black flames covered her form. They quickly understood this opponent was just hiding her real strength up until now.

“I’ll take the lead, okay? Follow my steps and attack. Just assume this is another part of your training, this time, to help you fight without relying on your spells and scale manipulation.”

“Urgh… arcane corruption sucks.” She readied her weapon and took the stance her two weapons teacher — Farron and Yorshka — had taught her. “Right behind you. Let’s do this and then escape!”

“Ha, you jester! I didn’t go [Battle Frenzy (Moderate)] for nothing! We’re taking these bastards out and then I’m changing my class you hear! These grimgarians think they can take on two dragons?! Ha, by father’s maw, this nightmare of theirs hadn’t ended yet! To evolve into an A rank, sometimes you just need to take a fucking leap of FAITH!”

“… You are crazy, huh? Then… how about becoming my retainer for the exp boost? Would help you out, right?”

“HA! What? Want to break my pride? Sorry, but I really want to act like a good elder sister to you, alright, and that means I need to prove you can do this without any random blessings. Curse you for having stupid Kramp’s blessing.”

[Bearer of Kargryxmor’s Blood] was a blessing, not a title naturally given to Kargryxmor dragon descendants.

“However, I’m not an idiot. I’ll do it after we’re done, but only if you manage to get more or the same amount of B rank kills,” Fargryneill said, despite knowing there were only five B ranks in front of her. She was confident she wouldn’t lose this bet against her own sister. “Alright, you ready? HEY, YA PUNKS! STOP STARING AT US AND GET YOUR WEAPONS READY!”

It seemed foolish at first, but both girls still had an ace up their sleeves — their dragon forms. With [Battle Frenzy] and their dragon forms, stats alone could probably solve their issues, but this meant losing experience for their Jobs. It was risky, but it was possible. At least, in Fargryneill’s mind, it was in the realm of possibility for a Kargryxmor.

“Now… Let’s go!”

“Gotcha!”

Both girls charged at the B ranks, their bodies poised to strike first. This would the the decisive blo—

“Ooooooh, that’s good form, auntie~”

“Truly magnificent, Lady Hestia. I could feel your lingering mana saturate the area to the point I was scared an A rank would spawn, even from up in the castle.”

“Hmm, but take a break, lass. Let us take over for now.”

[““Princess Hestia, we have returned. Your orders, fulfilled!””]

The girls stared in the sky as those voices echoed through all the rain and— No, now that they had time to focus, there wasn’t any rain or even snow falling on them. After all, a single mage fluttering in the sky with her butterfly-like wings was freezing anything, stopping them from falling onto her one and only mistress.

“T-Tasianna? Shay? Beth?” Hestia exclaimed as she saw her familiar fairy maid smile while forming a giant blade of ice with her catalyst, while two snow wyverns hovered over the B ranks, eyeing them as prey.

However, her surprise didn’t stop there as she saw two people she hadn’t expected to see standing in the air right now. No, she wanted them to be here, but she had mostly forgotten about it due to how hectic everything was.

“Yorshka? Farron? You guys made it time?”

“Family comes when you need them the most, right? And from what I can see, my little aunt seems to have an arcane corruption problem. So, who’s the big, bad green meanie who pushed you to this point? Is it those guys? Because I kinda have had it enough with grimgarians for one week…”

The allies from Griffonpeak had arrived, accompanied by a giant, floating fortress appearing from the dark clouds. It glowed red like blood and had the malignant appearance of a monster’s head. What was it, and why was it here with her friends and family? This was what Hestia thought.

However… to her sister, all of these random visitors only sent a chill down a spine.

Are you kidding me?! I was trying to look cool in front of my whelping sister! Fuck! I wasted moderate for this?! … Wait, nooo! I need to kill one of them! Come on, mo-

“Well, then I better pay these grimgarians a lesson. Tasianna, Shay, Beth! Look at them bullying our Hestia! Farron, let’s do this quick! Princess Neill seems to be in trouble, too! Nordor Style: Silver Dragon’s Skyfall!”

Stoooooooooooop iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit!

… Today, somebody lost a bet.