As if hurt by the harsh words from the race he treated like pets, a look of annoyance flitted across Wingian's face.
"This wretched thing, just because it has a mouth..."
"Um, excuse me... you're mimicking the appearance of that wretched thing."
As I teased him, Wingian flinched.
It seemed he had just realized he was polymorphed into a human form.
Wingian, struck in the sore spot, fumbled and stammered an excuse.
"Shut up, the only reason I polymorphed into this form is because the Lake Kingdom is built to accommodate human bodies..."
"Just stop with the endless excuses, man. You’re just making yourself look worse."
"Shut up! This isn’t an excuse—"
"Saying it’s not an excuse while making excuses only makes you look worse, man! It’s even more embarrassing for me, so just stop!"Of course, if I could live in the post-World War III Earth as a dog or cat, transforming into a Welsh Corgi or a Munchkin cat and enjoying my time meowing and barking, I probably would.
Just enjoy it if you're going to do that anyway! It's less embarrassing that way!
As I danced the "Enjoy this vibe~" shoulder dance, Wingian's lips twisted and he clamped his mouth shut.
"I was foolish. There was no need to engage in this lowly verbal spat with you..."
Wingian shook his head in dismay and snapped his fingers.
"The banter ends here. I’ll kill you."
Click! Click!
Suddenly, a horde of monsters poured out from all over the museum, surrounding us in an instant.
Following the Dullahan and Banshee, various monsters glared fiercely at us, each aiming their own weapons.
Evangeline, who had already pulled out a shield and a cavalry lance, chattered at me.
"If you could defeat monsters with words, you would have saved the world a long time ago, senior."
"You can say that again. It would have been so much easier."
But since that’s not possible, we have to fight to win.
The best I can do is figure out how to get hurt as little as possible.
"Damien."
I turned to Damien, as I had prepared beforehand, and said.
"I'm counting on you."
"Leave it to me."
Damien, too, had already placed all his magic guns on the ground. A white flash sparkled in the boy's eyes between his curly hair.
"Do it."
Thwack-!
Wingian snapped his fingers again, and the monsters surrounding us all charged at once.
And at the same time... Damien threw his magic guns into the air,
"-Target acquired."
Click!
Spinning in the air, he reached out his arm, caught the guns, and began firing in all directions.
Tatatatatatatat!
[Ultimate Move].
Damien's ultimate skill unleashed a barrage of magic bullets on every target.
The magic bullets penetrated the monsters, striking the "feathers" embedded in their bodies.
Not just any feathers, but the black feathers embedded in the bodies of all Wingian’s controlled monsters, Damien precisely targeted and destroyed these feathers with a dazzling display of his miraculous, no, divine skill.
It’s all been nonsensical, the things he’s done up till now, but this is truly insane...
"What..."
Wingian opened his mouth slightly as he witnessed only the feathers in his minions' bodies being precisely shattered.
"This power is unbelievable...?!"
"You getting it now, old dragon?"
I cackled, mocking him.
"Humans nowadays have quite the temper, huh?!"
Huff-
When Damien stopped using his ultimate move.
The monsters that had been overwhelming us also halted, looking puzzled at their own bodies.
"This is..."
The leader of the Dullahan legion grimly examined his body.
Where once many feathers had been embedded, Damien had left not a single one intact.
"Has the mind control... been released?"
"Chk-?!"
Wingian let out a startled groan, spreading his arms. As he did, feathers burst forth from the hem of his coat, poised to shoot out like arrowheads.
Screeech-!
But, well-prepared, Junior's tornado erupted, intercepting and shooting down all the feathers attempting to cross through the air.
"You guys...!"
Visibly flustered like never before, Wingian gritted his teeth.
"How did you know about my mind control technique...!"
How did I know... It’s because I’ve been killing you over and over in the game...
'Wingian is a Yinglong.'
A dragon with the wings of a bird, a Yinglong.
Wingian's body is covered in feathers for about half its length, and these feathers are the medium for his mind control and disruption abilities.
When the feathers are shot into a target's body, they act like antennas, receiving Wingian's magic power and disrupting the target's mind.
For those with low resistance, a single feather is enough, and even for strong legion commanders, their minds gradually become disrupted with each feather until, after about dozens, they are completely dominated.
If you meet him unknowingly, you will be affected. But what if you meet him knowing?
You can cope with it as much as needed!
"...How long has it been since I've tasted such freedom."
"Kuhuhuh, huhuhuhuhuh!"
Joy spread in the grim voice of the Dullahan legion commander, and the Banshee legion commander also sobbed strangely, seeming pleased.
"Wingian, this damned winged dragon...! You have enslaved us for hundreds of years...!"
"Uhuhuh, huhuhuhuhuhuhuh!"
"I've been waiting for the day to thrust my sword into your arrogant winged back, and today is that day!"
"Kuuuhuhuhuhuhuh..."
"Ah, just shut up! You're noisy!"
As the Dullahan legion commander recited his fiery declaration of revenge, he eventually could not stand it anymore and smacked the back of the Banshee legion commander's head.
The Banshee legion commander looked utterly wronged, but honestly, she is noisy... I can’t even understand what she's saying...
"Brothers and sisters! The time of suffering has ended! It's time for revenge!"
As the Dullahan legion commander shouted on behalf of everyone, the monsters who had once been under Wingian's command roared in unison and raised their weapons.
"Let's repay all the grievances and anger we've endured! Kill the dragon—!"
Kraaaaa-!
The monsters that had surrounded us turned their direction and charged toward Wingian.
I was planning to cast "Gaze of Command" on these monsters and have them attack Wingian for a while.
But it wasn’t even necessary. The monster legion, having been mind-controlled and forced to serve under Wingian for so long, instantly turned traitor and attacked with their swords.
"These filthy and disgusting monsters..."
Wingian looked around at the once-guardians now rushing at him with weapons drawn and laughed hollowly.
Immediately after, the golden eyes of the dragon emitted a terrifying glare.
"Forgetting the grace you’ve been shown, you dare—!"
Wingian’s body soared up as he kicked the ground, enveloped in light, and then...
Flash-!
He unraveled his polymorph and transformed back into his true form.
It was a dragon with giant bird's wings spread wide to either side.
The face was generally reminiscent of a typical dragon, but the mouth area had a hard keratin-like a bird's beak.
The body, legs, and the long tail were more bird-like, particularly resembling the mythical "phoenix", and where there were no black feathers, black scales emerged without a gap.
"...Wow."
Honestly, by its actions alone, it seemed like nothing more than a mid-boss level enemy.
But its true form is truly impressive. It has a more intimidating presence than most of the major boss monsters we've encountered...!
In his true form, Wingian inhaled sharply,
Kyaaaaaak-!
He unleashed a Dragon Roar.
The sharp, bird-like shriek echoed all around.
Not only the monsters charging to kill Wingian, but also us humans preparing for battle clutched our ears in pain. And then,
Clang-!
Boom! Bang!
Various artifacts displayed in the museum lobby could not withstand the pressure and shattered into pieces.
Junior's eyes flipped.
"Wow! That precious thing!"
"Now's not the time to worry about relics, get ready!"
Wingian, hovering in the center of the lobby, gathered his strength, and his chest heaved as if inflating like a balloon.
Seeing the enemy leader resort to his most sinister pattern from the start, I yelled.
"It’s a breath attack! Dodge-!"
The next moment, a torrent of magical energy shot from the mouth of the evil dragon and struck the ground.
Flash-!
Kooooong!
A blinding flash of light, heat, and a whirlwind ensued... and wiped out the monster legion gathered in the museum lobby.
***
Thump, thump-thump...!
The museum is collapsing.
This place, which had once been a palace of the Lake Kingdom and had become an ancient palace over the years before being repurposed as a museum, and which had maintained its structure for hundreds of years beyond that, was returning to its original form of stone and sand.
Wingian's spastic breath not only burned the rebelling monster legion but also scorched his own lair to the ground.
"Looks like you have a problem with anger management..."
The moment he used his breath, we immediately ran out of the museum. Thankfully, we were safe.
Seriously, a dragon roar-flight-aerial breath pattern? That"s just conscienceless.
How do you deal with a wide-area stun and beams firing from the air? Most likely, the nearby monsters were all killed.
Rumble, rumble, rumble...!
Eventually, all that was left of the museum's pillars and beams crumbled, and the stone ceiling collapsed with a crash.
And, from within that dust-filled ruin—
Swoosh!
The Yinglong soared up in a whirlwind.
With giant wings unfurled, black trickery streamed out like boosters from an engine, aiding its terrifyingly fast maneuvers. This isn't even Earth's jet, what the...
"You would have said you underestimated me, guardians of this realm..."
Wingian growled as he slowly circled above our heads in the air.
"I'll let you die regretting your pitiful judgment...!"
I smiled with trembling lips.
I was throwing jokes around, deliberately provoking and ignoring him, trying to lighten the mood so our allied heroes wouldn't tense up unnecessarily, but I must admit—
It burns.
My hair is standing on end, and I'm getting goosebumps. I trembled in the face of his overwhelming malice and sinister energy.
This is a true dragon.
'Still!'
I laughed.
You are not invincible, and there is a strategy to defeat you!
Nothing different from what I've been doing. I believe in my strategy...
I kill monsters.
I protect people.
That’s it.
"I'll trample you—!"
Wingian soared to an immense height and then dove down at us with terrifying speed.
The furious breath that Tustivian had been spewing was a special case; normally, dragons have a cooldown on their breath usage.
Wingian was no different. He had just nicely played a tune, so he wouldn’t be able to use his breath for a while.
Then the alternative pattern he would use—
Screeeetch!
Air glide followed by a bombing run!
His massive body swiftly closed in, and from Wingian’s widely spread wings—thousands of feathers shot out like machine guns.
The sound of the air tearing apart as thousands of black feathers poured down over our heads was deafening.
Each feather carried the force of a large-caliber bullet, and even surviving a hit would subject one to his mind control.
It lacked the intuitive destructive power of a breath, but it was a dreadfully strong pattern nonetheless.
However.
Knowing the "pattern" means naturally having prepared countermeasures and strategies...!
Click!
Dusk Bringar rushed forward and stood in front of us.
"Phew..."
Dusk Bringar gathered strength with her eyes closed,
Whirring!
The halo part of her helmet heated up in a bright red glow.
Her newly donned armor—[Lord of the High Tower]—responded to her magic, and the dark coat turned red in an instant.
Her red magic and the armor"s original dark color overlaid... Her figure resembled flickering flames.
"High Tower."
Dusk Bringar extended one hand forward and uttered the activation word.
"Deploy."
Whirrrr!
The chain coat she wore disintegrated from the hem, and the chain pieces spread out wide in the air.
The chain pieces connected with each other through magic in the air above our heads, forming a massive vortex.
"Hmph!"
As Dusk Bringar focused, the halo on her helmet emitted an even stronger red light...
Swoosh!
Suddenly, a barrier unfolded within the chain vortex above our heads.
The barrier was large enough for dozens of our side's heroes to safely take cover, and it perfectly blocked Wingian's feather barrage.
Drum, drum, drum, drum...
It sounded like rain.
The sound of feathers raining on the barrier.
With the barrier deployed like an umbrella, Dusk Bringar turned to look at me casually, as the enemy leader's attack was effortlessly deflected.
Her armor had disintegrated and deployed in the air, leaving Dusk Bringar in her favorite red sleeveless dress with only her helmet on.
She sparkled like the sun with her red halo and smiled mischievously.
"This armor, this is how you use it, right?"
I silently smiled back. And thought to myself,
‘Man, that’s scary...’
That armor, I should have given it to the Dragon Lady a hundred times over...
--TL Notes--
Hope you enjoyed this chapter. If you want to support me or give me feedback, you can do it at /MattReading