“Now’s our chance! Push forward!”

Under Bolgruk’s orders and with him leading the charge, the morale of his forward raiders swelled as they clashed with the stunned Mizera. Though the beings coated in writhing dark miasma are without true physical substance, the bandits’ weapons were able to harm them and even easily destroy them. This was all thanks to Glenn.

Before the fight began, Glenn provided the bandits some of the Healing Waters that Camus gave him. He knew how precious the Healing Waters were, but he also knew that defeating the Mizera was more important, even if what they attacked was a bandit camp.

After explaining the effects of the water, they soon coated their weapons with it. Glenn then asked them if they knew if there were any hidden entryways into the stronghold, and requested a small team to help guide him in.

Once inside, he threw some flash bombs that were also provided by Camus to blind most of the Mizera. In the chaos, Glenn and the group opened all the gates leading into the stronghold and the fight began. Armed with weapons of their bane as well as disoriented by the flash bombs and traps, the raid was successful until they once again laid claim to the stronghold.

“Hmph. I lost a majority of my men, but as you promised, you were able to help us reclaim our base. Now… tell me… what is it that I have that you want?”

“…”

Glenn was silent at first, unsure if the other side would take him seriously, but now that he was here there was no turning back. Once more, he was resolved to do what he must.

“… before I answer, I’d like to know… why did you become a bandit?”

Bolgruk was surprised. He certainly didn’t expect such a random question. He was suspicious, but didn’t think it was anything important.

“… why do you want to know that? What does it matter to you?”

“I just feel it would help me make my request if I knew.”

At this, Bolgruk simply shrug his shoulders. After all, what does it matter to a boy if he told him his past in the wastes.

“It’s not hard to figure out. When my brother and I arrived here, we wanted to work in Orgo, but somehow we were thrown out. I don’t know why but we were refused jobs at every turn and we were even denied entry into the Adventurer’s Guild. In desperation we became bandits, simple as that. We gathered men who had similar situations and here we are.”

Glenn was surprised. Orgo was a frontier town, so one’s race at most times didn’t matter as long as one could provide labor. In the past, criminals were even hired without a care for their background since the town sorely had a lack of hands while it was still being developed. As Glenn pondered about it, the more he realized how strange it was.

If Glenn were still his past self, none of this would have mattered and he would have taken rash actions, but his time with Camus and the Titan’s Hammers opened his heart and his mind.

Thinking about the situation, he made his decision.

“Bolgruk… what I want… is my father’s sword… and the opportunity to challenge you to a duel.”

“What?”

This request may have surprised Bolgruk, but he was able to hide his expression since he could feel the determination from Glenn’s eyes.

“… Your father’s sword? Then it means that you are the son of one of those whom I’ve defeated… I’m afraid you’ll have to wait your turn. I have already prayed to my ancestors that I wish to fight with the Scalekin, Camus. Once fulfilled, I’ll be able to fight you then.”

Orc combat rituals were sacred to them, so even if another warrior wishes to challenge them, they won’t accept a duel if they’ve issued a challenge themselves to another individual. That is why they present a talisman of challenge to those who they wish to fight. Ignoring this talisman after accepting it or taking it from the challenged is equivalent to being cursed by spiritual magic called Curse of Dishonor, becoming a beacon and being hunted down by any and all orcs from the clan of the issuer. However, Glenn wasn’t backing down.

“… that won’t be a problem. After all, I’m currently first in line.”

“? What do you… !!”

This time Bolgruk couldn’t hide the shock from his face. He currently saw that Glenn held the talisman he was to give Camus. But what was most surprising was that the curse hadn’t activated. In fact, it glowed an eerie white that signifies one was the receiver of the challenge.

“How can this be!? Who are you?”

“… don’t you remember? When I was young… you said to me and my dying father… that should I ever grow up to challenge you, you would welcome the challenge.”

Bolgruk was shocked further. He would never make promises to a dying man unless… he was a warrior he would truly recognize. And there was only one such warrior he remembered ever fighting a grand duel that satisfied him… Glenn’s father.

“You… are the son of Galai? The Thin Blade?”

“That’s right… and you said it then… that if I ever grew up to challenge you, you would welcome it.”

Bolgruk was stunned. This was something he never expected even in his dreams. Galai was a renowned swordsman who was said to have hailed from the far eastern reaches of the continent, the mysterious land of Yatamayanu, the Kingdom of Twin Suns. He was especially renowned for his skill in using a strangely thin but very sharp long sword that had an edge on only one side.

Bolgruk fought him in a great duel that would have ended in his loss if his own men didn’t sabotage it. Shamed by the actions of his men, Bolgruk slew the perpetrators, but could not prevent Galai’s mortal injury. With his pride as a warrior, Bolgruk made a promise that he would spare Galai’s son along with his village, but also claimed he would welcome the boy’s challenge should he ever seek him for revenge.

To him, this situation stirred his warrior’s heart, but he was also afraid that the boy wouldn’t be up to par with his father. Regardless, he has no choice but to fulfill his promise. An orc’s word was his honor, half-blood or not.

“Very well. I accept your challenge, Glenn, son of Galai.”

…

Hrmm… where?

… ah… I remember now… I was fighting that giant…

It caught me… but I wasn’t worried… I needed its help to turn… but…

I remember… seeing Ellen… where? …ah, there she is… in my hand…

… She looks terribly hurt… I should heal her… there we go…

Now… where is… ah… there… in front of me… did it do this to Ellen? …

I’m tired… but if it hurt Ellen… then it can just die…

Now go… remove it from this world… for now, I’ll sleep…

Wake me… when you’re done…

…

“T-That form! Y-You can’t be!? From the murals!”

Merik’s consciousness could barely control the Avatar of Tyrannos, but he soon found that his mind was no longer pressured by the god’s mental presence. At first he thought that it finally allowed him control, but he soon found that the responses were slow. After some time he realized… that the reason the body could hardly move… was because the consciousness of the god was actually afraid of the being before it.

Wondering what could make the avatar of the Savage God fear another entity, he thought the creature before it was another god-like being or another avatar. But if that were the case, the avatar would simply grow incredibly cautious of it and treat it as an enemy in level with its own power. However, he couldn’t believe that the avatar was actually so afraid that it surrendered complete control of its accessory body to Merik.

Merik thought back to what his Superiors once showed him back in the Emperor’s castle… it was an old mural that was preserved… on it showed the image of a golden being with magnificent wings and a mighty tail… he was told that the being on it was once worshipped by a civilization… and feared… by even the gods.

“Y-You are the Golden Winged Destroyer! The bane of kings and the devourer of gods! H-How can it be!?”

When he heard the words coming out of his own mouth, he unconsciously took a step back.

Seeing this, the golden dragon’s tail struck like lightning. It happened in but an instant, even faster than the time it would take a person to blink. Coiled in the tip of its tail, was one of the Avatar’s legs.

“GAAAAAAAAAH!!”

As the Avatar fell over in pain, it turned its body during the fall to make it face the ground. Catching itself with its last two arms, it threw away all of its dignity to try and crawl away hoping to preserve its life as long as it could, making it a pathetic sight.

Unfortunately for it, even if it still had all its limbs, running was a futile effort. The tail once more moved in a flash as it tore the giant along with the earth reducing it into a lump of torso with its head still attached.

“AAAAAAAARGH!! WHY DOES IT HURT SO MUCH!! WHY WON’T MY BODY REGROW!?”

Pain resounded throughout its entire body like it was being burned alive. Tearing its limbs off didn’t just result in the stump hurting, a searing unfathomable pain flared throughout the entirety of its flesh once it received direct damage from the creature.

While reduced to such a state, the tail skewered it through its head to pick it up like meat on a stick. The giant, having to experience such hellish pain, could no longer form coherent words as it frothed black blood in its mouth.

The beast looked at the lump of meat in contempt and wanting to erase it entirely, it charged up another ball of energy within its mouth. As the energy filled enough, it fired the beam-like breath attack at the dangling flesh angling it towards the sky while reducing it to nothing.

Almost nothing remained, but a small black blotch the size of a man floating in the air while gradually fading like ashes. The golden beast started to gradually shrink as it gently cradled a woman in one of its claws. Once fully reverted, there stood Camus with the unconscious Ellen in his arms.

…

… It’s over I see. No… it seems a little bit of it still remains.

My body felt stiff. This is probably the third time I’ve transformed. During the time I was living with my dad, Nabolros actually once attacked us since I got careless when I was in the middle of training on how to fly after I grew my wings. I got seriously injured and we almost lost our lives back then, but when I became unconscious, I felt something surge within my body. I’m not sure how to describe the feeling, but it somewhat felt like I was finally unrestrained without a care in the world.

According to dad, I turned into a great bronze dragon that was over 3 meters high. I lost my consciousness back then, but he said I was able to drive Nabolros away and then changed back once the danger was gone. He told me that High Dragons possessed a ‘Dragon’ form and that probably was my true dragon form. He wasn’t sure if I had one since he’s never seen a Dracovian become ‘Dragonized’ but it was a fact that all the High Dragon races were able to turn into a true dragon.

Unfortunately, the second time I tried transforming into it I lost control and destroyed a third of the lake. I even seriously hurt dad.

From what I could figure out from the process was that I both needed to be seriously hurt and had the urge to destroy the enemy. When these two conditions are somehow met, I can then choose to let the transformation take over. Since the second time was simply me almost drowning because I was completely crushed under a rock, there was no target for the destructive impulse to focus on, ending up with me losing control due to my panic. Hence, I decided I wouldn’t try to use it until I understood the process by asking the Dragon Gods once I meet them.

Well… I had to make an exception though… otherwise, it would have been a long and risky fight. I wasn’t sure if it could turn people as well as animals into those monstrosities, so I didn’t wanna risk it by fighting him with my regular weapons. Who knows what other tricks it had under its sleeves. After all, a cornered rat would fight the hardest, so I wanted to end the fight without giving it a chance to use any trump cards.

I feel guilty for Ellen though… I know I worried her when she saw me getting caught and having my wings torn, but I really wasn’t in any great trouble. She did however grant me the time I needed for the full transformation, so I’m happy for her help. If she wasn’t there, I might have had to endure more of my limbs getting ripped off or my body being immediately torn in half. Granted that more damage would have sped up the transformation process, but it would have left me feeling more like hell afterwards. That’s why I was hoping it would give me more time. Thanks to the time bought by Ellen, the post transformation only left me feeling stiff right now.

Now… only one more job remains.

I flew up towards the floating human shaped black mass. I see that World Breaker is sticking out of it.

Heh. I knew it’d take more to get rid of that sword.

The dark matter that's resembled ashes finally gave way to Merik's irritating mug. When he opened his eyes, I'm surprised to see he looked quite calm.

"... I have lost."

Too calm... didn't he say he hated me to the core? I guess being at death's door must have made him change his outlook.

"... tell me... before I finally fade into nothing... how did you find out... that everything was done by me?"

Huh. He must be curious about why I knew he was the one pulling the strings behind everything. Well, I'll humor him then since he's about to die anyway.

"To be honest, I didn't. I simply smelled the miasma coming from you was more concentrated when compared to the ones being controlled. It was almost as if you were a Wretched, but then you wouldn't have looked the way you are. However... the biggest thing that made me wary of you... was what you said to Glenn when we first met."

"Oh? What I said to him?"

"That's right... when I saw Glenn come over to thank you... you said he was 'saved'...now, how did you know he was saved when everyone else thought he got done in by the bandits? Or that everyone who saw him only thought he was able to escape? As I recall, you were only able to return to the town that day and Glenn only mentioned he was saved by me to the people close to us. That means, you could have only known that he was saved from others who were at the scene... namely, the bandits."

Truth is, it was mainly the miasma. There are probably many loopholes to my deduction right now, but there's no way I'm passing this opportunity to look like some smart detective.

"I see... hm hm... so that's how it was..."

Oh? Looks like he bought it. Phew.

"Who would've thought... that at the last minute... I became so careless... now none of that matters anymore..."

Hm? He's actually fading away like some ghost...

"Looks like it's about time... tell me, Camus... what are you?"

"... a Dracovian."

"!? ... ...I see.... goodbye then... Dracovian."

And thus he faded away. I then caught World Breaker as there was no longer anything it was stabbed to.

Heh. That guy. To the last, he's nothing but a cunning weasel... or a lying snake...

Did you think I wouldn't be able to detect that you were trying to buy time and learn information from me while you were transferring your thoughts to that black dot in the distance? It seems you've once more forgotten that I can sense the movement of miasma and mana even at miniscule levels.

I take Ichaival from the storage once more and gently held Ellen with my tail.

I took aim... sucked in a breath... and released the bolt...

...

In the distance, far from where Camus and Ellen were, a black purple eyeball with bat-like wings, tiny horns, a mouth with tiny serrated teeth, and a rat-like tail was flying towards the north as if in a frenzy. In a shrill voice, it was cackling like mad.

"A Dracovian! A Dracovian! The legends are true! They do exist! Grand Magister Anzelmas will be so thrilled! Once he grants me a new body, he'll immediately send the Unua Espada to capture that lizard! He'll be so thrilled to have a sample while I'll finally have my revenge!"

It spoke in maniacal glee, but soon it shivered when it sensed incoming danger.

"I-It can't be! B-But how!?"

As it turned, it saw it. An incoming massive ray of destructive light was heading towards it.

"Gaaah! Nooooo!"

It flew even more madly than before, but it was all for naught.

"Gaaaaaah! Curse... you... Cam... us... Hel... migh..."

The massive beam soon reached it and incinerated it into nothing. Not even ashes remained.

...

Hmph. About time you finally got done in. Now stay dead this time you miserable roach.

I snorted when I saw that it was finally over. At this time, Ellen also started to stir.

"Hngh... Camus?"

"Good to see you awake, Ellen."

Contrary to what I expected, she didn't respond in a coy manner and instead proceeded to hug me. Damn... now I feel even worse for what I did...

"I'm so glad... I thought..."

"It's fine Ellen. It's all over now."

I eased her as much as I could while gently hugging her back. After some time, she finally went back to her good old self and even started to act embarrassed with her recent actions.

We looked for Fenril, patched him up, and rode him home. He was happy I was alive too, but I could feel he was upset for being treated as an afterthought and as a means of transport. I'll give you a present when we get back so please stop trying to knock me off your back.

The rest of the party met us along the way as they rode horses. Seeing me and Ellen being ok made them erupt into cheers.

We all rode back to town and seeing everyone in a celebratory mood, I can finally say... that the fight is finally over.

... wait... where's Glenn?