I will parry everything to become the greatest adventurer! - Chapter 32
Chapter 32: A conversation with the dragon
Translator: LERL
Editor: TipToe
I thought I was dead for sure.
After Rin sent me flying towards the castle, I fainted for a few moments from the sheer force my body had experienced. The next thing I knew, I was seconds away from colliding with the castle walls.
Although I had only just regained my consciousness, I immediately understood the situation.
I knew that if I maintained this speed, I would likely die immediately upon hitting the wall, and if I somehow managed to survive the initial impact, the damage done to my body would likely be enough to kill me shortly after.
At this point, I was flying only slightly above the ground, so I tried to plant my feet firmly on the stone pavement, hoping to slow myself down before I reached the castle.
However, my efforts were in vain. I realized I wasn’t going to be able to slow down fast enough to have any chance of surviving the impact.
Knowing this, I reallocated all my strength to my feet, jumping high above the ground and into the air to avoid the collision.
This worked, but now I faced another problem.
I had just unknowingly sent myself flying straight towards the dragon. Now, instead of colliding with the stone walls of the castle, I was about to collide with the dragon’s scaly body.
I had to act fast.
Taking out the Blackened Sword, I aimed towards a bright light that seemed to be coming out of the dragon’s throat.
“Parry!”
An enormous amount of rubble and dust flew around us as we fell from the sky. The next thing I knew, both me and the dragon were in the city square, staring each other down.
Still dizzy, I picked up my sword and began preparing for a fight.
This dragon was enormous.
It looked exactly like how I envisioned it when I read all those fairy tales as a child.
I remembered how I told Rin that I could buy some time if I got to the castle quickly.
What a foolish idea.
The power disparity between me and this monster seemed insane to think about.
This thing looked like it came straight out of a fairy tale.
It looked much more ferocious than I had imagined, and it definitely seemed much bigger than when I had observed it from a distance.
Going up against such a freak of nature, most people would have probably felt terrified.
Most would probably have been paralyzed in fear.
But, for some reason, I felt none of these things.
Was it because I almost died just now? Maybe I was just happy to be alive.
The dragon’s movement felt extremely slow to me.
I saw it attempting to fly high into the sky, preparing to use its gigantic claws to crush me.
However, due to its size, it moved extremely slowly, allowing me to come up with a plan.
Raising my sword above my head, I waited for the dragon to swoop down towards me.
“Parry!”
As my sword collided with the dragon’s claws, I was surprised – they didn’t feel as strong as they appeared to be.
Of course, it was much stronger than the cow and goblin I had fought previously.
Although I was only barely able to parry its attack, I was surprised that it wasn’t able to demolish me immediately.
And, in terms of the strength of the impact, I felt like Rin’s blast was much more powerful.
Maybe this dragon wasn’t anything to fear.
It grew frustrated, repeating several of the same attacks over and over again, hoping they would work. However, knowing that I was able to survive Rin’s spell, I was able to keep a calm mind.
This gave me much more room to analyze my opponent’s movement. In order to prevent any exhaustion, I used the least amount of energy possible, finding my own rhythm after a while. Parry the attack, evade any rubble or dust, repeat.
Every once in a while, the dragon would try to spit out a strong light from its mouth, but like its other attacks, I was able to block it quite easily with my sword.
This went on for quite a while, until it happened.
As I was healing any wounds I had received from the fight, getting ready to parry the next attack, it just suddenly… stopped.
It had stopped attacking altogether, calming down and placing itself at my feet.
It was as though it had become tame.
I was quite confused but also relieved since my physical strength was just about to reach its limit.
As I stood there panting, tired and exhausted, I began to wonder.
What had happened, really?
This dragon’s posture…
It was almost like a member of a wolf pack submitting to the leader of its herd.
It sat there defenseless as if he was giving me the choice to spare it or not.
Its neck was right there in front of me…
Although I was still very confused, I began to think.
Maybe this was the chance of a lifetime.
In the fairy tales I read as a child, the hero that had cut off the heads of evil dragons were praised and became known as a dragon slayer.
The scales, claws, fangs, and bones of the dragon were used for extremely strong and high-quality weapons and armor, bringing great prosperity to the land.
My father often read such fairy tales to me when I was young.
I remember how much I wanted to become like those heroes.
All I had to do now was to kill this dragon… and I’ll be a hero.
But…
Staring at the dragon, I shook my head.
“I can’t be a hero…”
This dragon was definitely evil.
It had just destroyed more than half of our royal capital, and it most likely has killed many in the past.
But right now, it was just allowing me to kill it.
There was no sign of resistance.
I was feeling a wide mix of emotions.
I didn’t want it to happen like this.
I didn’t want to kill a helpless dragon.
“I… can’t.”
I had no problem killing helpless animals in the past—quite the contrary, in fact. I had gone hunting in the forests countless times before.
But this time… it was different.
This dragon… it felt like it was loyal to me.
I loosened my grip on the sword.
But, there were still many questions left.
Why did it suddenly stop attacking me?
It was almost as if something had ordered it to do so.
As I lost myself in thought, I heard footsteps coming up from behind me.
“Oh!”
Turning around, I finally understood what had happened.
I saw Rin, Ines, and Lolo.
Lolo had calmed the dragon.
“Thank god you guys are here!”
Seeing them almost made me cry.
Lolo was the real hero.
I was almost embarrassed at how much credit I was giving myself just earlier.
“Sensei! Are you okay?”
“Yup. Thanks to Lolo! If he hadn’t showed up—”
“…Huh?”
Lolo looked at me strangely.
“What’s wrong? Wasn’t that you? That calmed down the dragon…?”
“…Eh?… That wasn’t me!”
Lolo was shocked, desperately shaking his head as he denied the statement.
“Wait, really? Was it someone else?” I asked, still confused.
Lolo only continued shaking his head.
What…?
How was this possible?
If Lolo didn’t do anything…
No, impossible.
I was sure that Lolo was probably just trying to hide his power.
I remembered how he had explained to us how some people were afraid of their own power.
Maybe he didn’t want other people to know his true strength.
Maybe he thought others would be afraid of him.
But, he couldn’t really hide it forever.
Right now, it was pretty obvious.
Even if he didn’t want to admit it, I still had something I wanted to ask him.
“Lolo, I have a request for you.”
“…Request?”
“I want you to bring that dragon back to where it came from.”
“…Eh? That dragon?… Impossible!”
“Hey, don’t be afraid. We’re not scared of you. Right, Rin?”
“Huh? Oh, yeah! For sure,” Rin said.
That dragon would surely die if it stayed here like this.
“But… this dragon is too magical to be manipulated by my power!… I might be able to talk with it…!”
Lolo stopped speaking and looked at the dragon.
“I don’t want this dragon to die. I hope I’m not pushing it but, could you at least try?”
“…Ok, but… I don’t know if it can be done…”
Lolo moved towards the dragon.
All this time, he maintained his same anxious demeanor. I gotta hand it to him though, the kid was a great actor.
He had such an amazing amount of talent, but he never let that get to him.
A boy of that age would be trying to prove to everyone he met how strong he was.
It’s really amazing how he maintained such a humble attitude at all times.
However, this degree of humility also made me a little suspicious.
Maybe it wouldn’t hurt to be a little more… imposing.
“…Come… Let’s go…”
Lolo continued to slowly approach the dragon, talking with it softly as he neared it.
The dragon let out a loud groan.
“…Eh!!”
Lolo screamed in surprise.
“What happened?”
“The dragon!… It’s -“
Lolo seemed extremely surprised.
“It just said… it will listen to anything its ‘Lord’ says…”
“Wow…” I said, speechless.
No way, this child really was something else.
For the dragon to submit itself to him almost instantly… what power.
Did he simply have that much natural charisma?
“Then, can you tell the dragon to leave?” I asked.
“…No…”
Lolo turned to the dragon and closed his eyes for a moment.
It felt like they were communicating somehow.
The dragon let out another loud roar and immediately lifted its huge body from the floor.
“…Uh… it worked!”
The dragon flew up into the sky, leaving behind large gusts of winds that almost knocked us over.
“Wow, that was amazing!” I exclaimed.
I turned towards my companions.
Rin and Ines were also quite amazed at the dragon.
So was Lolo, of course.
We just stood there for a while, admiring the beautiful creature and being thankful the entire ordeal was over.
Or at least, we thought so…
Suddenly, a strong flash of magenta light ran across the sky, turning our vision a bright red.
“What?” we said in unison, shocked.
As we stood there in horror, the dragon was suddenly burned by the lights, falling back towards the ground.
Comments for chapter "Chapter 32"
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edcace93
Thank you! I loved!