Kranol Wizar suffered from Madness.
It was a horrific disease that struck at irregular intervals.
Whenever an attack came, blood flowed and excruciating pain overwhelmed him.
‘But it has an advantage as well.’
It allowed him to wield rampaging magical power.
Naturally, doing so was not recommended.
One wrong move could cost him his sense of self and drive him completely insane.
However, his opponent was a Dragon-Tooth Soldier that had appeared three years ahead of schedule.
It could never be defeated through conventional thinking.
“ROOOOOAR!!!”
“Mister, you are really good at grilling meat!!!”
Madness tormented its victims through a disorderly assortment of symptoms.
However, Kranol knew one consistent rule.
Loud noises triggered an attack of Madness.
“Urgh!”
Sure enough, Chubby and Plumpy's shrieks directly beside his ears provoked a reaction.
Kranol's eyes became bloodshot, and a skull-splitting headache assaulted him.
His face turned pale, and his body staggered.
Blood flowed from his nose and soaked the skin above his upper lip.
“Rrah?!”
“Mister, are you all right?!”
“Keep…… going.”
Kranol Wizar covered his bleeding nose with one hand.
Then, with his other trembling hand, he searched inside his clothes.
This time, he did not take out an herb.
He pulled out a shriveled heart.
‘Rot Dragon Girognal's Heart.’
It was a Unique item he had obtained after hunting the Boss Demonic Beast.
Kranol chewed and swallowed it along with his own blood.
“SKREEE!! ROOOOOAR!!!”
“Even though you are weak, you are definitely going to survive, Mister!! I will protect you no matter what!!!”
“You are noisy, obstacles standing in my master's way.”
A massive leg bone descended upon them.
At this rate, they would be crushed into pulp.
Kranol felt the little ones on his shoulders trembling.
However, they clung tightly to him and refused to flee.
It was as though they could not bring themselves to abandon the man who had saved them.
Beneath the descending shadow, Kranol gestured with his hand.
KRA-KOOOOM!!!
Meanwhile, the people watching from a distance squeezed their eyes shut.
Every one of them expected Kranol Wizar to die.
That was why the sight that soon unfolded before them left them astonished.
“What?”
“W-wait. What was that?”
“Kranol…… Was that man not an alchemist?”
They stood there in a daze.
An impossible anomaly had occurred before their eyes.
Kranol had survived.
Moreover, he had even shattered part of the Dragon-Tooth Soldier's leg bone.
“……!”
Magical power struck the Bone Giant with a tremendous roar.
The impact landed upon the area that had already been fractured, deepening the crack.
The enormous Bone Giant lost its balance and fell to one knee.
Buildings collapsed, and fragments of bone rained down.
The red light within its eye sockets glared fiercely at him.
“I thought you were insignificant…….”
The Dragon-Tooth Soldier fell silent for a moment.
Then, it asked in disbelief.
“……So you were a giant masquerading as an ant. Why does a monster like you exist in such a feeble city?”
Kranol Wizar did not answer.
More accurately, he could not.
The children on his shoulders were too loud.
“ROOOOOAR!!!”
“M-Mister!!! H-how did you just do that?!!! Are you really human?!!!”
“……That is enough. Both of you, lower your voices.”
The Dragon-Tooth Soldier clicked its jawbone in displeasure.
“You are still weak. However, you are a spark that will grow into a great flame if left alone.”
It raised the knee it had placed upon the ground.
The Bone Giant looked down at him with a different demeanor than before.
Its arrogance vanished, replaced by vicious murderous intent.
“I will eliminate you in advance. For my master's sake.”
The Bone Giant moved once more.
This time, its arm bone descended with far greater speed.
Kranol merely waved a bloodstained hand, his hollow eyes fixed upon it.
KRA-KOOOOM!!!
Once again, part of the Dragon-Tooth Soldier's arm bone exploded with a deafening roar.
Two segments of bone shattered and flew beyond the surrounding buildings.
The descending blow failed to leave even a scratch on Kranol.
“……You! How in the world are you doing this?!”
For the first time, the red light in the Dragon-Tooth Soldier's eyes visibly distorted.
This mighty creature was bewildered by a single tiny human.
Plumpy, who had witnessed everything from close beside him, could not close her mouth either.
“C-can you do that more than once? Mister, what in the world are you?”
Come to think of it, this was the first time she had seen him wield magical power during an attack of Madness.
“ROOOOAR!”
Chubby proudly raised her chin.
She seemed to be telling Plumpy to watch and see just how extraordinary Kranol was.
Meanwhile, blood continued pouring from Kranol's nose as his face remained deathly pale.
How much longer could he endure this?
[You have consumed the Rot Dragon's Heart and acquired a faint ‘Dragon Soul.’]
[You can maintain your sanity against various mental illnesses and Curses.]
[You can currently preserve your sense of self for up to 30 minutes during the Madness phenomenon.]
[Those who possess a Dragon Soul attract the attention of various dragons. Exercise caution.]
A faint Dragon Soul.
It was weaker than an ordinary Dragon Soul, but its effect was useful.
It allowed him to retain some semblance of himself while sustaining the attack of Madness.
‘With this, I can control my rampaging power for a short while.’
Taking herbs now would probably alleviate the attack of Madness.
However, Kranol intended to endure it for as long as possible.
To confront the Dragon-Tooth Soldier, he had to turn even his Madness into a weapon.
“You two. Carry me into the air.”
“Rrah!”
“All right!”
Chubby nodded and gripped his shoulder tightly with her feet.
Plumpy also unfolded the black-and-white wings she had kept folded beneath her clothes.
Held aloft by the two little ones, Kranol rose high into the sky.
“Haaah.”
Until now, he had used his power recklessly whenever his Madness attacked.
He had been so afraid of losing himself that he had always focused on desperately chewing herbs.
Even when he used his magical power, the best he could manage was a single momentary outburst.
However, now that he had acquired a faint Dragon Soul, things were different.
For a short while, he could freely wield the power of Madness that had once terrified him because he could not control it.
“I sense an unfamiliar presence within your soul. What in the world are you?!”
“I cannot answer. I am not sane.”
“GRAAAAAH!”
The Dragon-Tooth Soldier lunged forward, and Kranol gestured.
Another deafening explosion followed.
KRA-KOOOOM!!!
The one who fell was the Bone Giant.
Its skull split open, and the leg bone that had been damaged earlier shattered completely.
The creature fell backward, demolishing buildings and sending a cloud of dust into the air.
The difference in power was overwhelming.
“Th-this is impossible!”
“W-was the monster actually on our side?!”
“He is facing that mighty Dragon-Tooth Soldier entirely on his own……!”
The soldiers, alchemists, and dentists could not conceal their astonishment.
Unfortunately, Kranol's condition was hardly favorable either.
“Haaah, haaah……!”
He breathed heavily and wiped the blood-soaked skin above his upper lip.
Blood gushed from his nose, and his bloodshot eyes trembled.
As expected, he could not allow the battle to drag on.
Kranol was effectively fighting by shaving away his own lifespan.
That was also why he had reserved this method of combat as his final resort.
He could not waste this opportunity.
He had to finish the battle quickly.
“The Dragon-Tooth Soldier has been incapacitated! All forces, advance!”
Kranol gathered his strength and shouted, bringing his allies back to their senses.
“M-Mr. Kranol gave the order!”
“We have to hurry and assist him!”
“Let us finish it off before it gets back up!”
The commander and soldiers aimed their javelins and bows at the fallen Dragon-Tooth Soldier and opened fire.
The Chimeras also charged without mercy.
The mare with insect wing cases flew through the air and trampled the fractures with her hooves. The peacock used its fir-tree bark to protect the allies from flying debris, while the armored freshwater shark launched itself like a bullet and rammed into the cracked bones.
The alchemists in the rear relentlessly threw Bomb Potions blended from various explosive compounds.
BOOM! KABOOM! KRA-KOOOOM!
Their attacks were not as powerful as Kranol's magical power.
Nevertheless, considerable firepower surged toward the enemy.
The areas coated in chocolate and fruit jam before being frozen were particularly vulnerable to damage.
“Everyone, gather here and combine your strength.”
“Ha! It has been a long time since I performed an improvised Golem transmutation!”
To an alchemist, even discarded rubbish could serve as transmutation material.
The rubble of various buildings formed new bodies, and a Golem Legion was born.
The countless Small Golems were not particularly large, but they courageously punched the Dragon-Tooth Soldier.
Meanwhile, the dentists divided into two groups.
One group stepped forward with iron forceps, while the other carried first-aid kits.
“Ha! I knew bringing my iron forceps was the right decision!”
“If destroying teeth is the task, then we are the experts!”
“Bring the injured over here! We can at least administer basic first aid!”
In this era, no one without strength could even extract a tooth.
Among physicians, dentists possessed exceptionally powerful physiques.
As the relentless assault worsened the Dragon-Tooth Soldier's countless injuries, the Bone Giant released a roar filled with rage.
“You powerless, feeble…… lesser species!”
The deafening shriek left the ears of everyone nearby ringing.
That was not all.
Their knees soon weakened, and their hands froze upon their weapons.
“W-what is happening?!”
“Its bones…… They are reconnecting!”
It was exactly as they said.
The countless fractures throughout the Dragon-Tooth Soldier's body closed.
Even the bone segments Kranol had destroyed were restored.
They returned in a form far thicker and sturdier than before.
“ROOOOAR!”
“M-Mister! What do we do?! That enormous thing keeps getting back up like a weed!”
The children holding Kranol aloft could not conceal their horror.
The Dragon-Tooth Soldier finally regained its imposing presence.
“You primitive creatures. I am my master's unbreakable tooth. Did you truly believe I would fall so easily?”
Its arrogant red pupils swept over the feeble humans.
It rose in an instant and trampled everything that displeased it.
A single stomp crushed and burst countless soldiers.
“Ghaaaagh!”
“N-no! All the Golems have been destroyed! Aaargh!”
“M-my leg! My leg has been crushed! Please save me!”
It had only taken one attack.
That alone transformed the allied battle line into chaos.
It possessed the power to restore its fractured bones instantly and reinforce them even further.
Kranol knew the source of that regenerative ability.
“Did the Black-Gold Dragon lend it the Regeneration Orb? I never imagined it would entrust such a treasure to a mere Dragon-Tooth Soldier.”
This was unexpected.
Kranol had originally intended to inflict enough damage to drive the creature away.
However, if it could recover in that manner, even forcing it to retreat would be impossible.
This was yet another unforeseen variable.
Kranol opened his mouth.
“This is better.”
“You boast when you have no means of victory. Your allies have been slaughtered. What could possibly be better?”
The Dragon-Tooth Soldier snorted derisively.
However, Kranol shook his head.
Merely allowing it to live and driving it away would only be a temporary measure.
If the Dragon-Tooth Soldier returned for revenge later, far more people would die.
It would be cleaner to settle matters decisively here and now.
“The Reward for killing you just became far greater. That means there is now a human I can summon.”
The Regeneration Orb was a rare treasure obtainable only from the Black-Gold Dragon's lair.
Since the creature had kindly brought it here, Kranol only needed to take it.
However, the Dragon-Tooth Soldier merely scoffed.
“How amusing! What could you possibly accomplish by summoning a mere human?”
“There is something he can accomplish.”
Kranol lamented with an exhausted gaze.
“That man is more terrifying than a Berserk Dragon.”
He had thought it would be impossible.
However, this unexpected variable had given him a secret plan.
Kranol intended to summon the human he wanted to meet least of all.
‘At last, I will see him with my own eyes.’
The protagonist of the original novel.