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The Rising of Tanaka – 13 part 1

Pasifista

Dragon Slayer II

　The dragon subjugation group were running for their lives through the rugged terrains of the mountain ranges. And the one which was steadily closing the distance to the such a subjugation group, as it was chasing after them, was the jet black dragon.

From time to time, members of the subjugation group with bows and arrows would throw attacks to the dragon, but they seemed to be completely ineffective as the dragon didn’t cease to come after them in the slightest. Homura, one of the members of the subjugation group, while she was also similarly running for her life, she cooperated with the other group members to attack the dragon with bow and arrow.  Even as they were retreating, she was calmly analyzing the battle situation before finally reaching a conclusion. At this rate there was a high possibility for them to get wiped out.

As they were continuously being cornered by the dragon, she began to feel that the whole subjugation group was close to reach their respective limits. While they were retreating in such a situation, the two magicians, who seemingly had exchanged some words with each other, suddenly stopped their legs and casted seventh-order magic.

「Ice Storm!」

The dragon, as expected, ceased moving forward to defend against the powerful blizzard.

「Just leave us behind and retreat!」

The two magicians seemed to be thinking that they were slowing the group down. The two were without a doubt the slowest members of the group, and they were slowing down the group in their retreat. Thus, they both decided that betting their everything on this attack was better than getting the whole group wiped out because of them. It was very unlikely, but there was an off chance that they managed to kill the dragon with this attack, or even if they didn’t manage to, as long as they could seal its movements for even a short while, it would increase their chances of survival. At the very least, the two decided that this action held a higher chance of survival than simply continuing to retreat along with the other group members. The other members decided to continue in their retreat.

However, this jet black dragon was unexpectedly even more of a monster than the subjugation group thought. As it roared in the midst of the powerful blizzard, it made a body charge attack toward them with an unbelievable leaping power. The two magicians, who received the attack upfront, were instantly killed. While the others somehow managed to avoid a direct hit, they were still blown away by the impact of its collision with the ground during the attack.

The members of the subjugation group quickly regained their stance while suppressing their own injuries. However, the jet black dragon also quickly recovered from its collision with the ground, and suddenly stood up on its two feet before roaring as though announcing that the hunt was now over.

Homura was unable to do anything at all in the face of such an overwhelming presence that was the jet black dragon. She could no longer see any path of survival.

Her gaze suddenly met with the dragon’s, as it stopped roaring and began to look down on its prey. At that moment, Homura was resolved to die. The jet black dragon was about to make a move to kill Homura. That exact moment, however, something none of them would have ever expected suddenly occurred.

Just as she thought she heard an ear-splitting thunderous roar, the jet-black dragon, which had been showing off its overwhelming presence in front of her until just a moment ago, suddenly burst into pieces.

The subjugation group was blown away even more than the time when they received the charging attack of the jet black dragon. In their vicinity, pieces of the jet black dragon’s flesh, and rocks which were blown apart by the impact were raining down.

The members of the subjugation group were unable to understand what had just happened, and simply staring over the scene before them with dumbfounded looks on their faces. It was not until they were staring for some more time later that they finally realized that they had been saved.

◇ ◇ ◇

Tanaka was walking cautiously through the dense forest. Occasionally, he would turn toward the mountain ranges in the distance to check his direction.

At first, he was too absorbed in hunting the monsters around the hot spring resort. Eventually, however, he realized that he’d moved a little too deep into the forest. After that, he began to head toward the direction where he thought he would find a road, but there was no sign of things turning for the better.

Eventually, the feeling of the ground where his foot stepped on began to change ever so slightly. It appeared that he had found himself in the wetlands. Tanaka then tried recalling the geography of the surrounding area. He guessed that this was one of the wetlands which scattered between the hot spring resort and the mountain ranges.

「It’s not good. I guess I have no choice but to move to the opposite direction of the mountain ranges, while hoping to somehow find myself a road which leads to Nishi town….」

The monsters in the surrounding area were mostly around D rank. The best idea for Tanaka was to avoid fighting, and focus on running away. After deciding on his short term plan, he then began to move toward the opposite direction of the mountain ranges.

However, before he could even notice it, he had already encountered a monster. The monster looked like that of a frog, except for its protruding fangs. Its skin was also red in color around its tail.

「Guh, this is the worst possible opponent at the worst possible time….」

This monster was an opponent with a bad affinity for the current Tanaka. It was a D-ranked monster named Fire Lizard. It was totally not at all like the one which would be chosen as the first buddies by a boy and girl upon their journey. The fire lizard of this world was a monster that lived in a watery place while possessing an ability to spit fire, so it naturally possessed a strong resistance to both water and fire attacks.

The fact that Tanaka’s current main attack magic was Ignition and Water had turned this monster into a bad opponent which narrowed down his tactical attack. In fact, the flame of Tanaka’s Ignition possessed a firepower that far exceeded the fire lizard’s resistance, so he could easily incinerate it in an instant, however Tanaka naturally thought nothing but to run away as he was oblivious of this fact.

That was a natural choice for Tanaka, who prioritized his safety over anything, given that his opponent was of a D rank which was a level above his.

「Gerogero! Gerogero!」

The fire lizard began to let out strange cries that seemed to have rubbed Tanaka’s mind in the wrong way. Tanaka recalled the fire lizard’s tendency of calling out its friends, so he quickly unsheathed his sword and silenced it. In the blink of an eye, he killed the fire lizard by splitting it in two in a single strike.

「Hmm, I don’t want it to call out its friends, so I kinda killed it without thinking, but… it’s somewhat weaker than I expected. What’s going on?」