AbyssRaven Take this with you! Rawr
“Come, follow my voice
The dark, scares you, too.
I’ll be your guide
Oh, I won’t leave you alone.
.
Come, sing with me
Collide our voices
To break through this silence,
Till morning arrives. ”
.
Sparkle, sparkle. Attract them all. Little bit more light there, a few fire sparks. Don't overdo it with the [Spark Flame Veil].
Keep up the volume. Sing clear and with power!
.
“Autumn’s breeze and the falling leaves
Signals, winter’s come
I see red, I see yellow
The last colors of the year.
.
Stockpile your food, eat your fill
There is no time to rest, now.
For these last sun rays of the year
Might be your last.
.
The approaching storm
Transforms our world into white and black
The falling snow
Will not shy, to bury us in it. ”
.
Over a week has passed since we began operation “Make Saori an Assassin.” Once she evolved and recovered, I explained to her my plan was to turn her into the best assassin ever. And to speed this process up, since random encounters could kill us if we weren't ready, it involved me being bait to lure in monsters, while she tried to sneak up and kill them.
Which caused her to ask “Why would anybody believe approaching you is a sensible idea?” A question I would’ve personally rephrased before saying it aloud ‘cause that actually stung a bit.
Anyways, I was aware that my dragon form was a rather intimidating sight, so smart monsters would usually flee instead of trying their luck with me, a problem I could easily fix with [Humanize] and [Noble Aura].
I could turn myself into my cute, innocent-looking dragonewt form and activate [Noble Aura] to look more, uhh, appetizing? Naturally, this would mean my stats would be halved, but that was not an issue with my defensive spells and skills.
Mana and Intelligence were my forte. I didn’t believe a common monster would be able to beat me in this aspect, at least, inside this area. The idea was to activate all my defensive buffing spells, including relying on [Draconic Barrier] and [Sanctuary]. The last spell was critical to this plan.
Find an area with a ton of trees, cast the buff spells I needed, activate [Draconic Barrier], and then create a platform with [Terra Wall]. The result of this was a performance stage with a dome to protect me. Put on some music with [Aerokinesis] and the show could begin~
"So, you wern’t excited about helping me, but instead, were more excited about the prospect of having an impromptu idol concert for monsters?" Saori accused me off after I finished this explanation.
I was offended! Well, not really as it had a piece of truth in it, but the idea still came about due to Saori. I still made this plan with her growth in mind. Anyways, after having Saori learn [Stealth], [Silent Casting], and [Presence Killer], we executed the operation.
I sang as best as I could to make this plan succeed on my end. I was a bit nervous about actually doing this, but I figured this wasn't anything like a real concert. It was only a performance before monsters. Compared to humans, they were neither the audience I wanted to cater to nor did they really know if I was good or not, in the first place.
Despite constructing a believable concert stage, I knew this was more or less the same old training I always did since I started out as a trainee. I knew that but it was hard to actually start performing. Stage fright, I guess, which was terrible to have as an inspiring idol.
My legs shivered, my hands were sweating, and I was even having trouble getting my voice to work properly. It would have been even more disastrous, were my parallel minds not the ones in charge of using [Aerokinesis] to reproduce the music.
Saori was nervous, but I was having a mental breakdown over here… on a fake concert stage. It was embarrassing to think back on that. I eventually did it, but I only sang. I wouldn't say I was bad with dancing, but I was not confident in showing it to everybody. Not a bit…
Inevitably, this meant my performance was less flashy. It didn’t have that more extravagant taste of Eastern concerts, like from South Korea with their amazing stages and well-done dance choreography. Mine was plain and simple.
I sang Western pop and rock songs, in addition to a few anime ones. I chose them ‘cause the powerful lyrics and music were what I needed to keep myself focused and ignore my beating heart.
Well, enough about my melodrama. The operation started out a bit shaky with Saori not being able to kill monsters fast enough. It even got to the point where I was nearly overrun by the horde, forcing me to stop singing to use a [Draconic Roar] to scare them off. It made me self-conscious of how harmless my humanized form looked to a monster.
However, with a few more tries, Saori seemed to have gotten the hang of it. Not only her skills but her own abilities were improving rapidly from all of this. She stopped being sulky, reverting back to her usual behavior as she gained confidence in herself. She was motivated to improve even further. I couldn’t help but smile at her renewed vigor!
.
“Don’t fear the cold
My flames burn bright
Seek, now, my voice
As if, I’ll let you freeze!
.
Stay close to me
Listen to my voice
To fight against the cold,
Till morning arrives. ”
.
Unfortunately, this led to a tiny problem.
“Let’s call it a day, Saori. Phew, I’m tired.” I stretched and massaged my throat a bit, despite knowing healing magic could heal it up if I had damaged it.
[“Thank you for your hard work. Your voice was angelic as always.”]
“Flattery doesn’t faze me,” I said without being able to hold back a smile. “I guess you leveled up, again? The number of monster bodies is, well, it will last us for a bit. How is your SP?”
[“Most of the monsters were only F and E rank today, but it was enough for one level. I currently have 2450 SP. Now that I have [Humanize], I was thinking of spending them all for a [Humanize Lv. 5] or [Humanize Lv. 6].”]
Besides upgrading skills and acquiring the “capacity” and “enforcement” skills, she also used her SP on getting [Humanize] for that mentioned 700 SP. Saori, just like me, would love to return to a more familiar body, but unlike me, she was impatient.
She told me this quite a few times during the first month of our travels that she hated her fur. Well, not hated, more disliked. And the reason for this was it got dirty quickly, especially when she had to go to the toilet and it would become sticky and gross. I could understand why she wanted her normal body quickly, but that was still a lot of SP invested.
“Wait, you can upgrade [Humanize] by just using it. There is no need to use SP for that.” I interjected.
[“I was just joking.”] Fortunately, I got bamboozled. [“I have already planned to buy [Space-Time Magic] or [Wind Magic] for the agility improvement spells, but admittedly, I am also on the fence to follow your example of fully upgrading the abnormal status resistance skills. I will just buy the base skill first.”]
“I see. Well, that is good to hear. Now… I have to ask… can I fight tomorrow?”
[“We have talked about this already. I will leave you all the C ranks, but you told me explicitly that killing anything below rank C would lead to reduced experience gain, right? You told me it was more efficient for me to kill them. I know you are impatient, but just let me rush this! I will catch up in levels soon.”]
Now here was the problem. This whole week… I haven't fought nor killed a single monster!
I think Saori had finally gotten addicted to the taste of freshly acquired experience. I knew this ‘cause I went through this phase myself, and, boy, was it a great time.
As much as I can relate to her, this is not a fun time for me. Honestly, it was also my fault since I gave her that speech about being efficient about it and how her killing monsters below C rank would benefit her more than I would. I just didn’t think she would take that seriously; she was fully focused on killing things!
As in, whenever I tried to pick something off, Saori already had detected it with her superior scouting skills and would [Shadow Dash] over there for the kill. No matter how fast I can process information, it is worthless if I can’t get the information first.
Even worse, she was growing more accustomed to our strategy, to the point her anxiety before a fight disappeared and she could execute monsters like those garms I met! One moment, she was this caring and pragmatic woman who could make some, mwah, fantastic consommés, but when it came to fighting, her eyes became razor-focus like a cold killer. It reminded me a bit of her garm mother with how intimidating she could be.
This huge personality shift made me ponder if it was a mistake to turn her into this. She was showing some scary amount of affinity for this whole roguish fighting style. I really wondered if this was some repressed side of her or part of her garm genetics influencing her behavior. I heard hormones had strong effects on your personality.
“Saori, I’ve told you this already, but I need to have some kinda fight. Compared to you, I can’t survive without having a good fight once in a while, due to my [Battle Frenzy] being a constant annoyance for me.”
[“I know that, but—”] She once again ignored my complaint. [“— you wanted to focus more on getting the rust off your idol skills, right? You do not need to waste your time on the D and E ranks. Once that C rank comes over, I will make sure to give you the whole fight alone if you want.”]
After seeing me sigh deeply, Saori continued, [“Can I ask? Has [Battle Frenzy] appeared yet?”]
“No, but I’m feeling it. It’s rising from my chest, and I’m getting the urge to fight. You know, like an unsettling omen or something like that. See this?” I raised my hand for Saori to see clearly. “It’s slightly shivering. I’m not a battle junkie, but, please?”
I was not lying. The urge to fight and this aggressiveness was swirling inside me, on the verge to break out and explode in a lust for battle! The patience that was required when I was in that cave, so I wouldn’t attract the orc, was miraculous. It was, honestly, nail-biting.
[“It’s okay, it’s okay! I get it, sorry.”] She began patting my head. It was a bit infantilizing, but I didn’t dislike it with how she was trying to soothe me. After she evolved into a [Young Darkness Garm], she became the size of a tiger, almost equaling my humanized form’s height.
After she was done, she hummed a bit as she contemplated on something. [“Hmmm, then, how about this — if it gets to the point, let us have a spar.”]
“Hmm? Where did that come from?” I was slightly flabbergasted at what she said. It came out of nowhere.
[“I am making you unfairly wait because I really, really do not want to be a liability again. I hate this feeling of being useless, something I despised even on Earth. But, I know I am selfish about it, so I would like to take responsibility for it.”] She sighed and shook her head after admitting that to me. [“So, let us spar. Reflect on how we did and improve. I am only used to surprise attacks, so I still do not know how to transition my ambushing skills to a real fight.”]
My eyes widened, now able to see her side of the issue. I still didn’t like that she wasn’t willing to give up the current killing plan, but honestly, I was surprised to hear her being brave enough to ask for a fight with me. I liked that idea, really. Killing and self-reflecting probably had a limit on my growth, so why shouldn’t we try sparring?
“Sure, that sounds interesting! Hiehie, I’ll make sure to hold back with my fire attacks.”
[“That would be very kind, thank you.,”] she immediately said, sounding a bit nervous from this sudden realization. After we laughed over some more small talk, she suddenly brought my attention to my [Aerokinesis]. [“Hmm, may I ask why you are still playing your music?”]
My [Aerokinesis] was still playing, acting as a stereo and background music. “Well, I thought it would be nice to have a bit of music while we’re wandering. Music heals the soul, after all.”
[“Sure, but will that not attract unwanted guests?”] Saori said cautiously.
“That’s not my intention but I wouldn’t mind.” I mumbled that last bit, confident that she couldn't hear it.
[“I heard that.”] Well, maybe “underestimating” was the correct word. Saori’s hearing was cheat-like. [“Okay, okay, I get it! The next thing you find, you can just—”]
“… Huh?” Noticing Saori’s movements stopping, I turned my head around. “Saori, why are you stopping? Is something… oooooh!”
[“Are you kidding me? What is my role in life? A jinxer? Why do these things always come when I say something!”]
“You’re the best, Miss Jinxer! That’s a flag, alright!” I formed a wide grin as I looked into the sky.
According to my [Detection Sensor], three targets were approaching us from there. Appearing before me, what I saw was not a bird nor a beetle, but two giant reptiles with wings. Scales completely cover them from the top of their heads to the ends of their tails, with two limbs shaped to the form of wings.
Identify.
“Hey, hey, Saori, you want some experience, right? How abou—”
[“Stop teasing! Yours!”]
Miiiiiiiiiiine!
With excitement overflowing inside my body, I transformed back into a dragon. “Kraahhh…”
A group of wild wyverns has appeared!
< [Battle Frenzy (Minor)] inflicted on [Young Spark Inferno Dragon, Hestia Atsuko]>
[“Hold on, you actually want to fight all three of them?!”] Saori asked in panic, noticing I had transformed back and changed the BGM to a more actiony sequence to suit the situation.
Draconic Roar!
“Kraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!”
[“… I’ll take that as a yes.”] Saori said with exasperation, sounding like her anxiousness just disappeared with my roar.
[“Saori, go hide and let me gain their attention. Strike when you think it’s right.”]
[“Hmm, huuuuu! Hai, Hestia Oujo-sama!”] (Yes, Princess Hestia!) With only a small hesitation, she steeled herself, activating those stone-cold eyes she always had when she fought.
Saori practically vanished from my sight upon command, delving right into her shadow. Her [Shadow Dash] was getting smoother with each [Chant Revocation] level.
Now, with my wings being unusable, I wasn’t able to confront our opponents in the sky, giving them a very annoying aerial advantage. I couldn’t just stand here and let them attack me, so while they were still stunned by my ear-piercing roar, I had to first create some distance and divide the group.
I turned around and cast both [Haste] and [Swift Winds], accelerating myself, and began running. I could probably outrun them, but fleeing wasn’t the goal here, as my [Battle Frenzy] was demanding me to enjoy this fight as much as I could. My battle junkie side woke up.
Snapping my head around, I confirmed the wyverns were chasing me, which was a relief as I could interpret this as them trying to pick a fight with me. With that said, I should probably take them down from the sky and into the forest.
Petal Flames x6. Parallel minds keep shooting that spell up into the sky. Force them to fly lower!
The forest was dense and a perfect place to divide a team up into tiny pieces. It seemed like these wyverns weren’t from here according to their descriptions — no super high mountains were close by — as such, how about we welcomed these intruders in the Belzac forest style?
Game face on! Let’s do this!
Up in the sky, the wyverns were struggling with avoiding the multitude of flaming petal-shaped fireballs, but none of them had been hit yet. Using [Inferno Blast] or [Blazing Twister] would be better, but it wouldn’t be too ideal to burn the forest down… again! Which meant I needed to resort to something else.
Wind Blast!
The spell [Wind Blast] shot a large, concentrated wind gust towards a target. The idea was not to hit them, but to disrupt the flow of wind around them, ruining their balance long enough so one of my more powerful spells could hit them.
“Krouuuhhhhh!”
Oh, wait, I hit one? Bless [Accuracy Correction]!
A wyvern unexpectedly got hit by one of the shots, losing his momentum and started tumbling down, prompting its companions to come to its aid. Once the landing was prevented, they proceeded to continue flying closer to the ground. If they got hit, the landing wouldn’t hurt so much.
Welp, time to burn down the forest again… No trees were harmed with [Petal Flames]. I thought it was inevitable for me to hit a tree or two if I continued with my fire spells..
As such, I stopped the [Petal Flames] barrage and ordered my parallel minds to perform the next task.
I began casting [Terra Wall]. The plan was to construct walls to block their view from me, while simultaneously slowing their pursuit and widening the distance between each wyvern. These walls had to be tall enough to use the forest itself as an additional obstacle. Those wyverns must believe flying around everything was faster than over.
And, looking at the [Detection Sensor], my plan was working perfectly. A single wyvern was further ahead from the others and it was closing into my location.
Hmm, am I too fast, or why haven’t they attacked yet? Then again, their profile had no breath attack or any other projectiles.
[Aerokinesis] ready. Transform the air into a cone. Compress the air particles around it and also the two ends.
Air was a wonderful thing. It kept me alive and it also allowed sound to travel through it. Now, what would happen if I knew a way to amplify my voice? Taking a deep breath, more than a normal human could ever possibly take in, I was ready to give this wyvern a loud surprise. All I needed was the timing.
Wait for it…now! Air megaphone boosted Draconic Roar!
“Kraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!”
“Kri…krack…krieeeeeeeeeeeEEEEEEEEEEEEEHHHHHHHHH!”
With the sound of an exploding eardrum, leaves and branches broke off the trees in the angle of my attack, blowing away in a twister into the horizon. The power of this acoustic attack made me confident that the wyvern was stunned, giving me plenty of time to use [Spark Claws] to decapitate it.
Now, my roar amplified by my [Aerokinesis] megaphone probably busted its brain but waiting for it to die was not my style. I put the wyvern corpse inside my storage and checked on where the other wyverns were.
““Krouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuh!””
Loud roars of anger, enough to make me flinch a bit. It seemed the wyverns noticed that their friend just died. Well, that was my cue to start the next act.
[Humanize], transform back into a dragonewt. [Sneak] and [Presence Killer] on. Silent cast all buff spells.
From reading their profiles, I could tell these wyverns were C ranks who I could beat, like that grizzly bear or those chameleons.
The grizzly was nothing but muscles. The chameleons were well adapted to the forest and their strengths — teamwork and poison — made up for their inferior stats. However, it meant nothing in the face of overwhelming power and immunity to common toxins.
These wyverns, on the other hand, were fast. Not faster than the garm leader, but they do possess the omnidirectional movement of flight on their side. Which told me rather than winning through sheer status alone, I should probably use the many skills, abilities, and items I was hiding under my sleeves to corner the wyverns and extinguish any chance for them to win.
After all the fights I fought up until now, that was the plan I formulated in my head.
Slipping through the forest, I waited for the rampaging wyverns to arrive at my former location and took out one of my poison mixtures. I used [Aerokinesis] to form a sort of capsule to hold a dose of this concoction and readied a barrel made out of air, inserting the capsule in it.
Now, I wasn’t too proficient with [Aerokinesis] to the point I was doing this with zero problems. It was hard to maintain and control wind like this for an extended time since it was hard to visualize wind as tangible. I was holding concentrated wind in my hand right now, but my brain was having a hard time thinking like that.
Wind Blast. Minimize size by condensing the air with [Aerokinesis]. Maximize mana cost for push strength. Fire!
Tightly condensed using mana, the wind bullet filled with poison shot out of the air gun. It left a jet stream in its path and crashed into the eye of one of the wyverns.
“Krouuuh!”
Bullseye!
This poison was made with paralyzation and Health damage in mind, hazardous enough to cause a moderate effect at the very least. This poisoned wyvern was now twitching uncontrollably on the ground, neither giving out cries of anguish nor roars of anger. The fluid seeped through the opening of his eye, necrotizing the once healthy-looking organ into a black, mushy ball of dead cells.
I was slightly taken aback when I saw it, my stomach turning at this horrendous sight. The concoction was a big success, but the results were honestly revolting enough that I was considering restricting its usage.
I should start testing this stuff before using it!
Recovering from watching the results of my own concoction, I noticed that the other wyvern discerned my location and was flying towards me. At the speed the wyvern was going, it gave me no time to reload and shoot another poison capsule. Magic was the best option now.
Can’t help it, Shine!
Dispersing the air rifle, I covered my eye and activated the spell [Shine] when the wyvern got close enough. However, at the same time, multiple black tendrils erupted from the shadows of the beast and captured it in their grasp.
Unfortunately, due to how [Shine] interacts with dark elemental spells, the tendrils evaporated at the mere touch of this holy light, freeing the wyvern and blinding it at the same time.
I quickly dodged out of the way of the flailing monster to cast [Earthen Shackles] to finally trap it.
[“That was terrible timing. I am sorry!”] From my shadow, Saori appeared with an apology.
[“Oh, Saori. Yeah, we still need to work on our teamwork.”] The number of times where we fought together could be counted on one hand. Our synergy was currently not ideal.
Well, it wasn’t terrible enough to ruin this fight. With both wyverns unable to defend themselves, I turned back into a dragon to quickly end their lives by chopping their heads off, relishing the feeling of leveling up.
With the corpse cleaning also finished, I worked over to Saori to thank her again for her help.
[“The timing was the problem, but otherwise, that was a good cast. Thanks.”] It was my honest evaluation.
[“Yes, I could have done better there, but maybe it will get better as we fight more together. Anyways, may I ask how you are feeling after that battle?”]
[“Revitalized and happy. It was a great fight and I was happy that I could finally use some of the poison I made, so… are you mad? Why are you mad?”]
A chill ran through my spine, my instincts warning me of an impending doom. I checked my skills, but none of them were responding.
[“Mad?”] Some… kinda aura was surrounding Saori, as she smiled at me in her garm form. [“I could not possibly feel angered at all when my adorable, little princess is enjoying her win. I feel fulfilled that you are satisfied, but I do admit that I am quite irritated that one of my ears is currently deaf.”]
Deaf? Is she mad about that? I can cure her ears with [Moderate Heal]. How did she become deaf… oh boy! The roar. The freakishly loud roar!
Oh, scheiße…
[“OMG, I’m sorry! I forgot that you’re sensitive to sounds. I’m really sorry! I didn’t do that on purpose”]
[“I accept your apology, Hestia, but I believe we cannot fight together like this when you are not willing to watch out for friendly fire. We are a party, and we must be able to cooperate well. I believe we need to talk, Hestia Atsuko-chan”]
H-Her face was smiling but I could see the shadows over her eyes. What was this pressure; why could I feel cold sweat and why were spectral horns growing behind her head?!
[“Uhh, help…?”]
…
After curing her deafness and listening to her lecture, I learned that she gained [Terror Aura Lv. 2] instantly. Scary.
While Hestia was enjoying an intensive scolding, a certain god was pondering the result of the fight he just witnessed.
“Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!”
Kargryxmor, the God of Dragons, the one who plotted to escort Hestia to dragon territory for her own safety with the aid of these, now, deceased wyverns. His shout was filled with despair as his plan was ruined by a single dragon girl.
“No, no. This is inconceivable! Why did she slay all three of them?! Why did she even engage in combat with them, at all?!”
"My lord, I believe I may have an answer to your questions."
The one who spoke was one of the many "angels" that Kargryxmor personally chose to aid him in his task of fulfilling his duty. These "angels" were actually dragons who once lived during the time of Kargryxmor’s reign as the Black Tyrant of the Skies, who ascended with him to his divine realm.
“You may speak.” The god of dragons commanded.
“Yes, thank you. Considering she shares your blood. wouldn’t you expect a Kargryxmor, a spawn of yours, to relish in the same feeling you did back then? That constant thirst to best others and battle. I think you should know best.”
“You do not mean she was under the effects of [Battle Frenzy] now would you?” Indignant at what he heard, Kargrymor’s mood worsened, prompting the angel to soothe him before he began speaking again.
“Unfortunately, that might have been the reason, my lord. She clearly challenged them to battle with her roar.”
“Impudent!” His anger returned for a second but quickly vanished, resuming calmness. “I seem to have made a mistake by sending young wyverns to escort her back. You are dismissed. Your advice was helpful.”
“By your will.”
With the angel returning back to its duties, the God of Dragons had to reevaluate his plan as a smile crept up on his snout.
“She has grown strong.” Those words lingered in his mind as something in his chest started to grow. Was it affection or pride? Regardless, Kargryxmor right now would never admit to any sort of sentimentality towards this young, still unproven dragon whelpling.
“Hmm. It also surprised me how she was able to construct those curious instruments with her [Aerokinesis]. Was she able to retain her memories? No, that is impossible. I am sure that the process of her reincarnation should have erased most of her memories, keeping only enough for her to gain the [Otherworldly Reincarnator] title.”
Strange. Somehow, I don’t feel so angry at all… Not even a year old. Right. Hehehe, enough contemplation. The dragon laughed as he made up his mind on how to handle this properly.
“But… so many things have already gone wrong. What if she did retain her memories? In that case, she might be reasoned with. I shall now send older and more experienced wyverns with the [Telepathy] ability. That should ease introductions and should be able to prevent any escalation into a battle, hopefully.”
Once again, Kargryxmor made himself active, undeterred of how his plan would be affected by the flows of fate.
AbyssRaven Song for today came from Fire Emblem Three Houses: The Edge of Dawn Link: Rawr
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Thank you for reading this chapter.
AbyssRaven Take this with you! Rawr
“Come, follow my voice
The dark, scares you, too.
I’ll be your guide
Oh, I won’t leave you alone.
.
Come, sing with me
Collide our voices
To break through this silence,
Till morning arrives. ”
.
Sparkle, sparkle. Attract them all. Little bit more light there, a few fire sparks. Don't overdo it with the [Spark Flame Veil].
Keep up the volume. Sing clear and with power!
.
“Autumn’s breeze and the falling leaves
Signals, winter’s come
I see red, I see yellow
The last colors of the year.
.
Stockpile your food, eat your fill
There is no time to rest, now.
For these last sun rays of the year
Might be your last.
.
The approaching storm
Transforms our world into white and black
The falling snow
Will not shy, to bury us in it. ”
.
Over a week has passed since we began operation “Make Saori an Assassin.” Once she evolved and recovered, I explained to her my plan was to turn her into the best assassin ever. And to speed this process up, since random encounters could kill us if we weren't ready, it involved me being bait to lure in monsters, while she tried to sneak up and kill them.
Which caused her to ask “Why would anybody believe approaching you is a sensible idea?” A question I would’ve personally rephrased before saying it aloud ‘cause that actually stung a bit.
Anyways, I was aware that my dragon form was a rather intimidating sight, so smart monsters would usually flee instead of trying their luck with me, a problem I could easily fix with [Humanize] and [Noble Aura].
I could turn myself into my cute, innocent-looking dragonewt form and activate [Noble Aura] to look more, uhh, appetizing? Naturally, this would mean my stats would be halved, but that was not an issue with my defensive spells and skills.
Mana and Intelligence were my forte. I didn’t believe a common monster would be able to beat me in this aspect, at least, inside this area. The idea was to activate all my defensive buffing spells, including relying on [Draconic Barrier] and [Sanctuary]. The last spell was critical to this plan.
Find an area with a ton of trees, cast the buff spells I needed, activate [Draconic Barrier], and then create a platform with [Terra Wall]. The result of this was a performance stage with a dome to protect me. Put on some music with [Aerokinesis] and the show could begin~
"So, you wern’t excited about helping me, but instead, were more excited about the prospect of having an impromptu idol concert for monsters?" Saori accused me off after I finished this explanation.
I was offended! Well, not really as it had a piece of truth in it, but the idea still came about due to Saori. I still made this plan with her growth in mind. Anyways, after having Saori learn [Stealth], [Silent Casting], and [Presence Killer], we executed the operation.
I sang as best as I could to make this plan succeed on my end. I was a bit nervous about actually doing this, but I figured this wasn't anything like a real concert. It was only a performance before monsters. Compared to humans, they were neither the audience I wanted to cater to nor did they really know if I was good or not, in the first place.
Despite constructing a believable concert stage, I knew this was more or less the same old training I always did since I started out as a trainee. I knew that but it was hard to actually start performing. Stage fright, I guess, which was terrible to have as an inspiring idol.
My legs shivered, my hands were sweating, and I was even having trouble getting my voice to work properly. It would have been even more disastrous, were my parallel minds not the ones in charge of using [Aerokinesis] to reproduce the music.
Saori was nervous, but I was having a mental breakdown over here… on a fake concert stage. It was embarrassing to think back on that. I eventually did it, but I only sang. I wouldn't say I was bad with dancing, but I was not confident in showing it to everybody. Not a bit…
Inevitably, this meant my performance was less flashy. It didn’t have that more extravagant taste of Eastern concerts, like from South Korea with their amazing stages and well-done dance choreography. Mine was plain and simple.
I sang Western pop and rock songs, in addition to a few anime ones. I chose them ‘cause the powerful lyrics and music were what I needed to keep myself focused and ignore my beating heart.
Well, enough about my melodrama. The operation started out a bit shaky with Saori not being able to kill monsters fast enough. It even got to the point where I was nearly overrun by the horde, forcing me to stop singing to use a [Draconic Roar] to scare them off. It made me self-conscious of how harmless my humanized form looked to a monster.
However, with a few more tries, Saori seemed to have gotten the hang of it. Not only her skills but her own abilities were improving rapidly from all of this. She stopped being sulky, reverting back to her usual behavior as she gained confidence in herself. She was motivated to improve even further. I couldn’t help but smile at her renewed vigor!
.
“Don’t fear the cold
My flames burn bright
Seek, now, my voice
As if, I’ll let you freeze!
.
Stay close to me
Listen to my voice
To fight against the cold,
Till morning arrives. ”
.
Unfortunately, this led to a tiny problem.
“Let’s call it a day, Saori. Phew, I’m tired.” I stretched and massaged my throat a bit, despite knowing healing magic could heal it up if I had damaged it.
[“Thank you for your hard work. Your voice was angelic as always.”]
“Flattery doesn’t faze me,” I said without being able to hold back a smile. “I guess you leveled up, again? The number of monster bodies is, well, it will last us for a bit. How is your SP?”
[“Most of the monsters were only F and E rank today, but it was enough for one level. I currently have 2450 SP. Now that I have [Humanize], I was thinking of spending them all for a [Humanize Lv. 5] or [Humanize Lv. 6].”]
Besides upgrading skills and acquiring the “capacity” and “enforcement” skills, she also used her SP on getting [Humanize] for that mentioned 700 SP. Saori, just like me, would love to return to a more familiar body, but unlike me, she was impatient.
She told me this quite a few times during the first month of our travels that she hated her fur. Well, not hated, more disliked. And the reason for this was it got dirty quickly, especially when she had to go to the toilet and it would become sticky and gross. I could understand why she wanted her normal body quickly, but that was still a lot of SP invested.
“Wait, you can upgrade [Humanize] by just using it. There is no need to use SP for that.” I interjected.
[“I was just joking.”] Fortunately, I got bamboozled. [“I have already planned to buy [Space-Time Magic] or [Wind Magic] for the agility improvement spells, but admittedly, I am also on the fence to follow your example of fully upgrading the abnormal status resistance skills. I will just buy the base skill first.”]
“I see. Well, that is good to hear. Now… I have to ask… can I fight tomorrow?”
[“We have talked about this already. I will leave you all the C ranks, but you told me explicitly that killing anything below rank C would lead to reduced experience gain, right? You told me it was more efficient for me to kill them. I know you are impatient, but just let me rush this! I will catch up in levels soon.”]
Now here was the problem. This whole week… I haven't fought nor killed a single monster!
I think Saori had finally gotten addicted to the taste of freshly acquired experience. I knew this ‘cause I went through this phase myself, and, boy, was it a great time.
As much as I can relate to her, this is not a fun time for me. Honestly, it was also my fault since I gave her that speech about being efficient about it and how her killing monsters below C rank would benefit her more than I would. I just didn’t think she would take that seriously; she was fully focused on killing things!
As in, whenever I tried to pick something off, Saori already had detected it with her superior scouting skills and would [Shadow Dash] over there for the kill. No matter how fast I can process information, it is worthless if I can’t get the information first.
Even worse, she was growing more accustomed to our strategy, to the point her anxiety before a fight disappeared and she could execute monsters like those garms I met! One moment, she was this caring and pragmatic woman who could make some, mwah, fantastic consommés, but when it came to fighting, her eyes became razor-focus like a cold killer. It reminded me a bit of her garm mother with how intimidating she could be.
This huge personality shift made me ponder if it was a mistake to turn her into this. She was showing some scary amount of affinity for this whole roguish fighting style. I really wondered if this was some repressed side of her or part of her garm genetics influencing her behavior. I heard hormones had strong effects on your personality.
“Saori, I’ve told you this already, but I need to have some kinda fight. Compared to you, I can’t survive without having a good fight once in a while, due to my [Battle Frenzy] being a constant annoyance for me.”
[“I know that, but—”] She once again ignored my complaint. [“— you wanted to focus more on getting the rust off your idol skills, right? You do not need to waste your time on the D and E ranks. Once that C rank comes over, I will make sure to give you the whole fight alone if you want.”]
After seeing me sigh deeply, Saori continued, [“Can I ask? Has [Battle Frenzy] appeared yet?”]
“No, but I’m feeling it. It’s rising from my chest, and I’m getting the urge to fight. You know, like an unsettling omen or something like that. See this?” I raised my hand for Saori to see clearly. “It’s slightly shivering. I’m not a battle junkie, but, please?”
I was not lying. The urge to fight and this aggressiveness was swirling inside me, on the verge to break out and explode in a lust for battle! The patience that was required when I was in that cave, so I wouldn’t attract the orc, was miraculous. It was, honestly, nail-biting.
[“It’s okay, it’s okay! I get it, sorry.”] She began patting my head. It was a bit infantilizing, but I didn’t dislike it with how she was trying to soothe me. After she evolved into a [Young Darkness Garm], she became the size of a tiger, almost equaling my humanized form’s height.
After she was done, she hummed a bit as she contemplated on something. [“Hmmm, then, how about this — if it gets to the point, let us have a spar.”]
“Hmm? Where did that come from?” I was slightly flabbergasted at what she said. It came out of nowhere.
[“I am making you unfairly wait because I really, really do not want to be a liability again. I hate this feeling of being useless, something I despised even on Earth. But, I know I am selfish about it, so I would like to take responsibility for it.”] She sighed and shook her head after admitting that to me. [“So, let us spar. Reflect on how we did and improve. I am only used to surprise attacks, so I still do not know how to transition my ambushing skills to a real fight.”]
My eyes widened, now able to see her side of the issue. I still didn’t like that she wasn’t willing to give up the current killing plan, but honestly, I was surprised to hear her being brave enough to ask for a fight with me. I liked that idea, really. Killing and self-reflecting probably had a limit on my growth, so why shouldn’t we try sparring?
“Sure, that sounds interesting! Hiehie, I’ll make sure to hold back with my fire attacks.”
[“That would be very kind, thank you.,”] she immediately said, sounding a bit nervous from this sudden realization. After we laughed over some more small talk, she suddenly brought my attention to my [Aerokinesis]. [“Hmm, may I ask why you are still playing your music?”]
My [Aerokinesis] was still playing, acting as a stereo and background music. “Well, I thought it would be nice to have a bit of music while we’re wandering. Music heals the soul, after all.”
[“Sure, but will that not attract unwanted guests?”] Saori said cautiously.
“That’s not my intention but I wouldn’t mind.” I mumbled that last bit, confident that she couldn't hear it.
[“I heard that.”] Well, maybe “underestimating” was the correct word. Saori’s hearing was cheat-like. [“Okay, okay, I get it! The next thing you find, you can just—”]
“… Huh?” Noticing Saori’s movements stopping, I turned my head around. “Saori, why are you stopping? Is something… oooooh!”
[“Are you kidding me? What is my role in life? A jinxer? Why do these things always come when I say something!”]
“You’re the best, Miss Jinxer! That’s a flag, alright!” I formed a wide grin as I looked into the sky.
According to my [Detection Sensor], three targets were approaching us from there. Appearing before me, what I saw was not a bird nor a beetle, but two giant reptiles with wings. Scales completely cover them from the top of their heads to the ends of their tails, with two limbs shaped to the form of wings.
Identify.
“Hey, hey, Saori, you want some experience, right? How abou—”
[“Stop teasing! Yours!”]
Miiiiiiiiiiine!
With excitement overflowing inside my body, I transformed back into a dragon. “Kraahhh…”
A group of wild wyverns has appeared!
< [Battle Frenzy (Minor)] inflicted on [Young Spark Inferno Dragon, Hestia Atsuko]>
[“Hold on, you actually want to fight all three of them?!”] Saori asked in panic, noticing I had transformed back and changed the BGM to a more actiony sequence to suit the situation.
Draconic Roar!
“Kraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!”
[“… I’ll take that as a yes.”] Saori said with exasperation, sounding like her anxiousness just disappeared with my roar.
[“Saori, go hide and let me gain their attention. Strike when you think it’s right.”]
[“Hmm, huuuuu! Hai, Hestia Oujo-sama!”] (Yes, Princess Hestia!) With only a small hesitation, she steeled herself, activating those stone-cold eyes she always had when she fought.
Saori practically vanished from my sight upon command, delving right into her shadow. Her [Shadow Dash] was getting smoother with each [Chant Revocation] level.
Now, with my wings being unusable, I wasn’t able to confront our opponents in the sky, giving them a very annoying aerial advantage. I couldn’t just stand here and let them attack me, so while they were still stunned by my ear-piercing roar, I had to first create some distance and divide the group.
I turned around and cast both [Haste] and [Swift Winds], accelerating myself, and began running. I could probably outrun them, but fleeing wasn’t the goal here, as my [Battle Frenzy] was demanding me to enjoy this fight as much as I could. My battle junkie side woke up.
Snapping my head around, I confirmed the wyverns were chasing me, which was a relief as I could interpret this as them trying to pick a fight with me. With that said, I should probably take them down from the sky and into the forest.
Petal Flames x6. Parallel minds keep shooting that spell up into the sky. Force them to fly lower!
The forest was dense and a perfect place to divide a team up into tiny pieces. It seemed like these wyverns weren’t from here according to their descriptions — no super high mountains were close by — as such, how about we welcomed these intruders in the Belzac forest style?
Game face on! Let’s do this!
Up in the sky, the wyverns were struggling with avoiding the multitude of flaming petal-shaped fireballs, but none of them had been hit yet. Using [Inferno Blast] or [Blazing Twister] would be better, but it wouldn’t be too ideal to burn the forest down… again! Which meant I needed to resort to something else.
Wind Blast!
The spell [Wind Blast] shot a large, concentrated wind gust towards a target. The idea was not to hit them, but to disrupt the flow of wind around them, ruining their balance long enough so one of my more powerful spells could hit them.
“Krouuuhhhhh!”
Oh, wait, I hit one? Bless [Accuracy Correction]!
A wyvern unexpectedly got hit by one of the shots, losing his momentum and started tumbling down, prompting its companions to come to its aid. Once the landing was prevented, they proceeded to continue flying closer to the ground. If they got hit, the landing wouldn’t hurt so much.
Welp, time to burn down the forest again… No trees were harmed with [Petal Flames]. I thought it was inevitable for me to hit a tree or two if I continued with my fire spells..
As such, I stopped the [Petal Flames] barrage and ordered my parallel minds to perform the next task.
I began casting [Terra Wall]. The plan was to construct walls to block their view from me, while simultaneously slowing their pursuit and widening the distance between each wyvern. These walls had to be tall enough to use the forest itself as an additional obstacle. Those wyverns must believe flying around everything was faster than over.
And, looking at the [Detection Sensor], my plan was working perfectly. A single wyvern was further ahead from the others and it was closing into my location.
Hmm, am I too fast, or why haven’t they attacked yet? Then again, their profile had no breath attack or any other projectiles.
[Aerokinesis] ready. Transform the air into a cone. Compress the air particles around it and also the two ends.
Air was a wonderful thing. It kept me alive and it also allowed sound to travel through it. Now, what would happen if I knew a way to amplify my voice? Taking a deep breath, more than a normal human could ever possibly take in, I was ready to give this wyvern a loud surprise. All I needed was the timing.
Wait for it…now! Air megaphone boosted Draconic Roar!
“Kraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!”
“Kri…krack…krieeeeeeeeeeeEEEEEEEEEEEEEHHHHHHHHH!”
With the sound of an exploding eardrum, leaves and branches broke off the trees in the angle of my attack, blowing away in a twister into the horizon. The power of this acoustic attack made me confident that the wyvern was stunned, giving me plenty of time to use [Spark Claws] to decapitate it.
Now, my roar amplified by my [Aerokinesis] megaphone probably busted its brain but waiting for it to die was not my style. I put the wyvern corpse inside my storage and checked on where the other wyverns were.
““Krouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuh!””
Loud roars of anger, enough to make me flinch a bit. It seemed the wyverns noticed that their friend just died. Well, that was my cue to start the next act.
[Humanize], transform back into a dragonewt. [Sneak] and [Presence Killer] on. Silent cast all buff spells.
From reading their profiles, I could tell these wyverns were C ranks who I could beat, like that grizzly bear or those chameleons.
The grizzly was nothing but muscles. The chameleons were well adapted to the forest and their strengths — teamwork and poison — made up for their inferior stats. However, it meant nothing in the face of overwhelming power and immunity to common toxins.
These wyverns, on the other hand, were fast. Not faster than the garm leader, but they do possess the omnidirectional movement of flight on their side. Which told me rather than winning through sheer status alone, I should probably use the many skills, abilities, and items I was hiding under my sleeves to corner the wyverns and extinguish any chance for them to win.
After all the fights I fought up until now, that was the plan I formulated in my head.
Slipping through the forest, I waited for the rampaging wyverns to arrive at my former location and took out one of my poison mixtures. I used [Aerokinesis] to form a sort of capsule to hold a dose of this concoction and readied a barrel made out of air, inserting the capsule in it.
Now, I wasn’t too proficient with [Aerokinesis] to the point I was doing this with zero problems. It was hard to maintain and control wind like this for an extended time since it was hard to visualize wind as tangible. I was holding concentrated wind in my hand right now, but my brain was having a hard time thinking like that.
Wind Blast. Minimize size by condensing the air with [Aerokinesis]. Maximize mana cost for push strength. Fire!
Tightly condensed using mana, the wind bullet filled with poison shot out of the air gun. It left a jet stream in its path and crashed into the eye of one of the wyverns.
“Krouuuh!”
Bullseye!
This poison was made with paralyzation and Health damage in mind, hazardous enough to cause a moderate effect at the very least. This poisoned wyvern was now twitching uncontrollably on the ground, neither giving out cries of anguish nor roars of anger. The fluid seeped through the opening of his eye, necrotizing the once healthy-looking organ into a black, mushy ball of dead cells.
I was slightly taken aback when I saw it, my stomach turning at this horrendous sight. The concoction was a big success, but the results were honestly revolting enough that I was considering restricting its usage.
I should start testing this stuff before using it!
Recovering from watching the results of my own concoction, I noticed that the other wyvern discerned my location and was flying towards me. At the speed the wyvern was going, it gave me no time to reload and shoot another poison capsule. Magic was the best option now.
Can’t help it, Shine!
Dispersing the air rifle, I covered my eye and activated the spell [Shine] when the wyvern got close enough. However, at the same time, multiple black tendrils erupted from the shadows of the beast and captured it in their grasp.
Unfortunately, due to how [Shine] interacts with dark elemental spells, the tendrils evaporated at the mere touch of this holy light, freeing the wyvern and blinding it at the same time.
I quickly dodged out of the way of the flailing monster to cast [Earthen Shackles] to finally trap it.
[“That was terrible timing. I am sorry!”] From my shadow, Saori appeared with an apology.
[“Oh, Saori. Yeah, we still need to work on our teamwork.”] The number of times where we fought together could be counted on one hand. Our synergy was currently not ideal.
Well, it wasn’t terrible enough to ruin this fight. With both wyverns unable to defend themselves, I turned back into a dragon to quickly end their lives by chopping their heads off, relishing the feeling of leveling up.
With the corpse cleaning also finished, I worked over to Saori to thank her again for her help.
[“The timing was the problem, but otherwise, that was a good cast. Thanks.”] It was my honest evaluation.
[“Yes, I could have done better there, but maybe it will get better as we fight more together. Anyways, may I ask how you are feeling after that battle?”]
[“Revitalized and happy. It was a great fight and I was happy that I could finally use some of the poison I made, so… are you mad? Why are you mad?”]
A chill ran through my spine, my instincts warning me of an impending doom. I checked my skills, but none of them were responding.
[“Mad?”] Some… kinda aura was surrounding Saori, as she smiled at me in her garm form. [“I could not possibly feel angered at all when my adorable, little princess is enjoying her win. I feel fulfilled that you are satisfied, but I do admit that I am quite irritated that one of my ears is currently deaf.”]
Deaf? Is she mad about that? I can cure her ears with [Moderate Heal]. How did she become deaf… oh boy! The roar. The freakishly loud roar!
Oh, scheiße…
[“OMG, I’m sorry! I forgot that you’re sensitive to sounds. I’m really sorry! I didn’t do that on purpose”]
[“I accept your apology, Hestia, but I believe we cannot fight together like this when you are not willing to watch out for friendly fire. We are a party, and we must be able to cooperate well. I believe we need to talk, Hestia Atsuko-chan”]
H-Her face was smiling but I could see the shadows over her eyes. What was this pressure; why could I feel cold sweat and why were spectral horns growing behind her head?!
[“Uhh, help…?”]
…
After curing her deafness and listening to her lecture, I learned that she gained [Terror Aura Lv. 2] instantly. Scary.
While Hestia was enjoying an intensive scolding, a certain god was pondering the result of the fight he just witnessed.
“Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!”
Kargryxmor, the God of Dragons, the one who plotted to escort Hestia to dragon territory for her own safety with the aid of these, now, deceased wyverns. His shout was filled with despair as his plan was ruined by a single dragon girl.
“No, no. This is inconceivable! Why did she slay all three of them?! Why did she even engage in combat with them, at all?!”
"My lord, I believe I may have an answer to your questions."
The one who spoke was one of the many "angels" that Kargryxmor personally chose to aid him in his task of fulfilling his duty. These "angels" were actually dragons who once lived during the time of Kargryxmor’s reign as the Black Tyrant of the Skies, who ascended with him to his divine realm.
“You may speak.” The god of dragons commanded.
“Yes, thank you. Considering she shares your blood. wouldn’t you expect a Kargryxmor, a spawn of yours, to relish in the same feeling you did back then? That constant thirst to best others and battle. I think you should know best.”
“You do not mean she was under the effects of [Battle Frenzy] now would you?” Indignant at what he heard, Kargrymor’s mood worsened, prompting the angel to soothe him before he began speaking again.
“Unfortunately, that might have been the reason, my lord. She clearly challenged them to battle with her roar.”
“Impudent!” His anger returned for a second but quickly vanished, resuming calmness. “I seem to have made a mistake by sending young wyverns to escort her back. You are dismissed. Your advice was helpful.”
“By your will.”
With the angel returning back to its duties, the God of Dragons had to reevaluate his plan as a smile crept up on his snout.
“She has grown strong.” Those words lingered in his mind as something in his chest started to grow. Was it affection or pride? Regardless, Kargryxmor right now would never admit to any sort of sentimentality towards this young, still unproven dragon whelpling.
“Hmm. It also surprised me how she was able to construct those curious instruments with her [Aerokinesis]. Was she able to retain her memories? No, that is impossible. I am sure that the process of her reincarnation should have erased most of her memories, keeping only enough for her to gain the [Otherworldly Reincarnator] title.”
Strange. Somehow, I don’t feel so angry at all… Not even a year old. Right. Hehehe, enough contemplation. The dragon laughed as he made up his mind on how to handle this properly.
“But… so many things have already gone wrong. What if she did retain her memories? In that case, she might be reasoned with. I shall now send older and more experienced wyverns with the [Telepathy] ability. That should ease introductions and should be able to prevent any escalation into a battle, hopefully.”
Once again, Kargryxmor made himself active, undeterred of how his plan would be affected by the flows of fate.
AbyssRaven Song for today came from Fire Emblem Three Houses: The Edge of Dawn Link: Rawr
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