Chapter 34 (1/2)

It's Me vs. Gram, but…

After I talked with Ellie, I headed for the training field where Gram is waiting at.

The moon will s.h.i.+ne upon us tonight.

A full moon at that.

At last, I arrived at the field.

In the middle of it was Gram, standing imposingly with his hammer sunk into the ground next to him.

He's bathing in the moonlight, creating a long-stretching shadow.

“You're here at last.”

“Yeah.”

We don't have much to say to each other.

Both of us had our reasons to fight.

Both of us had our reasons to kill.

And that was more than enough.

We don't need to talk much with someone we're about to kill.

“Why don't you join my ranks?”

Gram asked as he pulled his hammer out from the ground.

“Sorry, but I have a teacher, and I have no plans in being apart from her.”

I, too, lowered my back, readying myself to unleash my spells at any time.

Meanwhile, Gram did the same thing.

He lowered his body and gripped his hammer with both of his hands.

“Hm, that's a shame.”

And thus, our opening exchange ended.

What comes after this is just a deathmatch.

“—HERE I COMEEEEEE!!!!!”

He kicked the ground powerfully, roaring as he quickly accelerated.

Using his magic, Gram coated his body with flames and approached me.

In just mere seconds, he closed his distance.

“——kh!”

In response to that, I raised the ground to make a wall.

But I didn't do it vertically; I built it diagonally towards my direction.

Because of that, the ground pushes me away, opening some distance between me and Gram and making a protective wall at the same time.

Yet Gram obliterated the wall immediately with a swing of his hammer.

(—that's the first step)

I created some distance away from Gram, and sent a volley of flares, scattering them toward the air.

Those flares was able to generate heat that even a dragon's breath couldn't compare.

As those flares s.h.i.+ne bright red, I launched each one of them toward Gram.

I shot the flares with the temperature several dozen times hotter than that of a dragon's breath like lasers.

Its power would be somewhat reduced by the time it reached Gram, but it would still disintegrate a normal human the moment they made contact with it.

“—Guh!”

I aimed them true without any intentions of missing, but the moment it was about to hit Gram directly, Gram unleashed a blast that managed to repel my flares.

The repelled instead lasers struck the ground and dissipates.

Gram saw the ground around him reduced into magma, and he raised his eyebrows.

(…didn't work.)

But I didn't plan to reduce the concentration of my attacks.

I continued to fire my flares, up to over a dozen per second, each one of them launched to burn the enemy.

Yet Gram kept repelling them with his blasts.

Gram himself was unable to move from his position.

He was trying his best to repel and hold out against the power and number of my attacks.

And several seconds after the battle started, the situation changed.

CRAs.h.!.+

“—Ugh!”

Perhaps he's about to reach the limit of his mana capacity, Gram's blasts weakens, and the hammer he used to defend himself breaks.

Perhaps deciding that it was no longer an option to stay in the same place, he threw what's left of his hammer and retreated back.

I deflected the sc.r.a.ps with my flares.

“—As expected of the disciple of the Violet Sorceress. You can utilize the firepower of Fire-attribute and the defensive power of Earth-attribute magic…it's not an everyday sight for someone to be able to control two attributes at once”, said Gram in admiration.

“…”

On the other hand, I replied to him with silence.

I don't need to say any more to fight.

I only need to kill him.

That's all that I'm thinking of.

“…This means I need to unleash my full strength soon, eh!”

As he declared that, he ripped his s.h.i.+rt open with both hands.

And then—

“—UUURRRRRRGGGHHHHH!!!”

His body wriggled in the darkness.

Slowly, his body transforms itself into a form far way different than his original body.

Splat! Slice!

There was a discomforting sounds of flesh tearing, as if cut into pieces.

Along it, Gram was transforming into something grotesque.

—After a while, the transformation stopped.

“Grrrrhh…how many hours has it been since I last took this form…”

In his place now is something that couldn't be called a human anymore.

It had a splendid mane,

a pair of golden eyes that gleams in the darkness,

large, sharp fangs, and similarly sharp claws,

and lastly, a large, tough body.

Its arms, torso and legs were twice the size of a human's.

He looks like a monster, made by combining a man and a lion.

“—RRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!”

The lion-like monster let out a war cry, seeming joyfully confident of its own power.

Meanwhile, I merely continued to [Observe] it.

“…you monster.”

—but if he's in this form, it means that I don't have any reason to hesitate anymore.

I can kill him without feeling guilty.

“…Veil of the Dragon Blood¹.”

I closed my eyes and silently thought of an image of a dragon.

Its overwhelming power,

its enormous energy,

its powerful limbs, jaws, wings and tail.

I imagined all of that.

Its arm would cut up and crush everything.

Its jaws would bite down and swallow everything.

Its wings would destroy everything with the wind pressure it creates.

Its tail would swipe over everything, so strong that no people can try to sever it.

—And then, I open my eyes.

I've deployed a layer of armor.

On both of my sides were two gigantic dragon arms.

On top of me was a set of enormous jaws

Suspended mid-air behind me was a pair of wings,

and below that was a long, thick tail.

“Let's do this, you monster.”

Replying to the me who transformed into a humanoid dragon,

“You ain't one to talk.”

The lion laughed pleasantly.

That moment, I hit my fists together.

Veil of the Dragon Blood.

It's a spell that combines the Earth, Fire and s.p.a.ce attribute magic, one that only I can use.

Its strong scales are made through Earth attribute magic,

Its overwhelming destructive firepower is created using Fire attribute magic,

And finally, I used s.p.a.ce-attribute magic to control the scales and the destructive firepower.

The result is something that had tremendous defensive and offensive power.

Perhaps if I also used Wind and Water attribute in its creation, it would have better mobility and regenerative power.

But since I couldn't do that, I'll have to make do with a combination of 3 attributes.

—but this is enough.

I'll definitely win against a power-type like him.

“—GGGGRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!”

“—RRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!”

Gram and I charged at each other, sticking our fists forward.