After dropping off the children at the training grounds—an action which was only interrupted once, by the sound of an explosion I pointedly ignored—and leaving them in the head instructor’s care, I had the somewhat startling realisation that, despite it being well past noon, I had not had lunch.

Thus, I sent the head chef a telepathic message to make me a meal. Although I felt fine for the time being, I had no particular desire to experiment with my new form’s hunger tolerance. Then I sent telepathic lunch invitations to Davna and Navillus—I figured the other Demon Generals were preoccupied—and turned to Lady Entropy.

“Will you perhaps be joining us, too?” I asked, trying to keep my voice and expression as neutral as possible.

As always, [Poker Face] was a reliable ally.

“You mean lunch? With all of you?”

I nodded.

“Nuh-uh. Impossible. Walking with you is one thing, but… that night, after I came to meet you at the gates, I lay awake, all night.”

“You have told me before you do not sleep.”

“You know what I mean,” she said, turning her head away in dissatisfaction.

“... I see. Don’t force yourself.”

I quietly mussed her hair.

Although stealthy, she pushed her head into my hand.

I finished up my meal and decided to address a certain dragon.

“Davna,” I said, walking over. She lifted her blood-covered maw from what was essentially a giant dog bowl and turned to face me.

Once more, I realised just how much bigger than me she was. My thoughts were interrupted by a curious rumble accompanied by a tilt of her head.

“I trust your training has been going well?” I said, eyeing her sharp teeth and massive claws. I found myself unable to prevent half a smirk from playing across my mouth.

«Yes, Master!» she said, a certain excitement in her tone. Almost as if she were anticipating something.

She probably was.

“Then, shall we go test the results of your training?” I said, my smirk warping into a grin.

The look of happiness on her face was indescribable—perhaps in part because it was the face of a lizard.

For the second time in a single day, I strolled onto the training grounds. They were not particularly interesting to look at—drab, beige dirt for the ground, a number of training dummies of various shapes, sizes and materials scattered around, and a single, large tree, off to the side.

Of course, given my party currently consisted of the nation’s top soldier and marshal of its army, Davna, and its ruler, we turned quite a few heads. It seemed many of the soldiers had elected to take a break from their training to watch us.

I gestured to the area around the training dummies, and soon, the area around them was vacated.

“If you can wipe out the training dummies in half a minute, I shall spar with you,” I said. “Of course, your original form is forbidden, and if you damage Lizei’s tree, you will have hell to pay.”

“Got it, Master!” she said, raising both of her hands up into the air.

I stepped to the side and, by coincidence, ended up next to the head instructor. I did not see the children—they were likely off somewhere, resting.

“Then, begin.”

As was perhaps the natural result, it was an overwhelming victory.

“Ten seconds, is it… You are getting faster, Davna. That took you twenty seconds last time.”

Almost gently, the head instructor spoke up. “Um… Lord Astaroth, if she could clear this trial last time, why did you present it to her again…?”

“Nevermind that,” I said, shaking my head. “More importantly, how is the children’s progress? It has scarce been an hour, but…”

“Ah, that’s going rather well,” he said, nodding. “They are very in sync with their equipment—it is as if they can talk to it. Of course, they’re not at any kind of proper level, but… they have potential.”

“As if they can talk to it… well, that is because they can,” I said, chuckling to myself. As I stepped away, I quite enjoyed the head instructor’s expression.

“Master!” Davna said as I approached her, “I did it, right?”

“Indeed you did. Congratulations, Davna. You have gained the right to duel me. That said, we cannot duel without rules…”

“Last time, we just had to keep our human forms, right?” she asked, canting her head to the side.

“Certainly, but we have both grown stronger since then. A single stray [Darkness-Attribute Magic: Dark Blast] or [Dragon’s Breath] could eradicate an entire group of bystanders, and we cannot have that…”

I walked past Davna and approached the tree. After a moment’s consideration, I gave it a light knock. “Wake up. Work is calling.”

After a few moments of silence, a girl crawled out of the tree. Not from the leaves or the branches, no—she crawled out right through the bark.

Her skin looked more like tree bark than actual skin, and numerous small twigs and leaves littered the green mess she called a haircut. These characteristics, combined with the branches sprouting from her back, marked her clearly as a dryad.

Dryads. A group of races that generally lay between the third and fifth grades, with the occasional sixth-grade outlier. They were born in forests, and often lived in a particular tree. Common powers included nature manipulation and healing magic.

Although this Dryad’s eyes were currently closed—she was likely still half-asleep—I knew them to be dark green, almost brown.

I spared a thought for the apparent youth of many of the people around me, but soon decided I had better things to think about.

“Lizei, I need you to create a barrier.”

“Barrier? A’ight. Can do? Can do! How big, mashter?”

Although her speech was slurred and basic, she was still understandable. As if I were talking to a young child.

“The dueling ground. Leave the audience outside, of course.”

“Gotcha! Trees, trees, grow, grow~! Become big, big, big~!”

Her eyes still closed, she raised her hands into the air and cast a spell in a manner that was… slightly different from how one would usually cast a spell.

Of course, the spell properly activated. In response to her words, from the ground rose up ramrod straight pillars of wood in a vague circle around the dueling ground. Soon, a complex lattice of magical patterns extended between the pillars and formed a rough dome around the grounds.

“Barrier~ Done! Mashter? Did well?”

“Yes, yes,” I said, briefly stroking Lizei on the head.

She broke into a full-faced smile.

“For now, you can go back to sleep,” I told her, “but I will call on you once more in a little while to replace the broken training dummies…” I directed my gaze to the dragon girl looking at me, impatience in her eyes, “... and to heal Davna’s injuries.”

Davna’s smile was rather different from her usual upbeat, innocent, almost childlike expressions. She was practically brimming with fighting spirit, all due to a single, extremely simple provocation.

I could feel myself getting equally excited, so I parted from Lizei and stepped into the barrier. “As for the rules… No complete transformations, no direct attacks on the barriers, no lethal blows, standard surrender rules, be careful with your fire… Ah, and nothing that could leave an unrecoverable injury. Well, it is not like you have any such attacks. Apart from these rules, try to last with all your might.”

Surely, the expression on my face was entirely unsuited for looking at a child.

“You got it, Master!” Davna undid [Humanisation] on both her arms, allowing them to transform into dragon’s claws covered in scales, complete with her sharp, dark red nails.

“Then,” I said, a sneer on my face, “let us begin!”

Davna’s eyes glowed yellow, and a chill crawled up my skin. But that was all, and I deftly dodged her as she rushed at me and aimed her claws at my heart.

“Too easy,” I said, “[Dragon’s Glare] only works on your ‘prey’. Those weaker than you.”

I chanted a spell, which took me perhaps half a second.

“[Darkness-Attribute Magic: Dark Storm].”

Several dark purple magic circles appeared behind me, and in each appeared a ‘hole’. From each of these ‘holes’ emerged what looked almost like a spear, except completely black.

Dark Storm. A spell which activated several instances of Dark Bolt—in other words, an area-of-effect suppression spell. The spears distracted Davna, and several times, she used her [Dragonsbreath] or a quick fire-attribute spell to burn one.

This bought me the time I needed to activate [Darkness-Attribute Magic: Purple Magic Guard].

The more reckless fighting style this permitted managed to injure Davna a few times, although not in any serious capacity.

“Is this all you have?” I asked, a vile sneer on my face. For a few seconds, a thought surfaced about how I should not be treating a child this way, but I decided to pay it no mind.

Unlike what I expected, although she did grow more excited, she did not lose control. She shot a number of fireballs my way using [Fire-Attribute Magic: Flame Rain], positioned such as to prevent me from dodging, and then once more charged me with her claws.

Of course, I simply used the defensive force of my Magic Guard to crash right through her fireballs.

Still, I could not deny this was a rather tactical move, considering her usual style.

“You have improved, Davna!”

“Hehe~ You think so, Master?”

Eventually, she made some kind of judgment and flapped her wings, taking to the skies. She continued pelting me with fireballs, but this time from the sky.

Of course, I simply unfurled wings of my own and gave chase, dodging between the balls of fire.

“Did you think you could run away that easily?”

“M… Master, that’s unfair!” she cried out, but her face showed she knew well how nonsensical that accusation was.

“Is it, now.” I raised my arm and once more chanted a spell.

“[Darkness-Attribute Magic: Dark Rain].”

A single magic circle appeared behind me, perhaps a dozen metres across. It glowed dark purple, and—from countless black ‘holes’ barreled countless instances of the spell Dark Bullet.

If Dark Storm was an area-of-effect suppression spell, Dark Rain was a wide-area extermination spell.

“Wah- Wai- But-” Davna stammered as she frantically dodged every bullet she could.

Of course, as a Red Dragon, her base abilities were frighteningly strong. Her dynamic vision and speed would likely allow her to dodge most of the bullets.

But not all. Every bullet that so much as scraped her caused an injury, though minor, and thus she became covered in scratches even as she continued pelting me with fireballs.

But I was not satisfied. I channeled mana into my newly acquired ring. As though by instinct, I understood nigh every spell I could cast with it.

After a short chant, cast a spell I did.

“[Earth-Attribute Magic: Gravity Well]!”

A seemingly unremarkable piece of earth appeared before Davna, where it remained stationary in the air. Yet unremarkable it was not—it was clear it was giving her trouble flying. Although she flapped her wings in resistance as hard as she could, she got closer every second.

“I can’t dodge like this!” she cried out, appealing to me with all her might.

“That is the point, Davna.”

Despite her best efforts, she could not dodge all of my attacks, and every passing moment, her injuries got worse.

“I… I give up…”

I snapped my fingers and both spells disappeared. Due to the sudden disappearance of the Gravity Well, which had essentially been controlling her movements, she lost her balance, so I caught her and set her on the ground.

For a moment, she looked at me in silence. Then she broke out into a full-faced, innocent smile.

“Master, you’re really strong!”