“If we want to win, speed is all we have.”
At Eugene’s assertion, Noan nodded.
“Even if she receives mana sharing from the Vice Commander, there is a limit to the output the commander can produce. If the fight continues, we won’t be able to overcome that vast mana, but at the point before she has raised her mana, there is an opening we can pierce through.”
“I know. The first move will decide the match.”
“Right. That’s all we have. The problem is how we break through that defense with the opening blow…….”
It had been a month since they began sparring with Algina every morning.
The victory condition for Eugene and Noan was to break through Algina’s defense even once and land an effective blow on her.
But the two had yet to meet that condition.
“So…… let’s go with this.”
“……In the end, there is no other move. Understood.”
But today was different.
As they had continued the research group and absorbed each other’s techniques and individual strengths, the two had thought hard and finally devised an answer to the assignment Algina had given them.
And now, the two had decided to bring that idea into reality.
That morning.
The sparring began again in the Order’s parade ground.
Eugene and Noan took their positions as they had discussed.
“Mm.”
Seeing the two of them, Algina’s eyebrow twitched slightly.
The subtle afterimage of mana hovering over the two.
Algina realized that magical formulas had already been loaded onto their bodies.
It was a technique of drawing magic circles and the like on the body to shorten casting time.
It was a simple trick, but because it was more efficient than one might expect, many combat mages used it.
Some even embedded formulas as tattoos on their bodies outright.
Originally, only Noan had used it.
But now, fragments of that mana could be felt from Eugene as well.
Algina smiled.
‘It seems they have figured out the meaning behind my assignment.’
Algina, receiving mana sharing from Zeta.
To land an effective blow on her, Eugene and Noan ultimately had only the first strike to aim for.
And in order to succeed at that, they needed Noan’s power in the end.
Because within the Dragon Knight Order right now, there was no mage more specialized in high-speed casting than Noan.
Though she might not seem interested, Algina had continuously received reports about what happened to the rookies during training.
Naturally, she knew that Eugene and Bella, the Twinstella duo, had shown ridiculous results.
And she also knew that Noan’s performance had continued to decline after repeatedly losing to Eugene.
By creating an assignment where speed was the solution, she reminded Noan of his own strength.
And by making Eugene learn it, she allowed them to stand on equal footing with one another.
That was why Algina had given them this assignment.
Judging by their current posture, it seemed giving them the assignment had been worthwhile for now.
‘But that alone will not satisfy the condition.’
Something beyond what she intended.
If they were people who would only realize one thing after being taught one thing, then there would have been no need for Algina to teach them in the first place.
Algina looked at Eugene and Noan with stern eyes.
Show me, then. The growth I failed to anticipate.
“Then shall we begin?”
“Let’s.”
“Understood.”
The two nodded.
Zeta, standing beside Algina, held a round pocket watch.
Tick- tick- tick-
The instant the second hand passed twelve o’clock.
“Begin.”
Flash-
Mana swelled.
Power surged from the bodies of the three mages.
Formulas were woven with the air as a canvas, assembled with rapid clicks, and the spells were completed.
Then they were fired.
The match was decided in an instant.
“Haaaaaah!”
Noan, weaving his formula with such concentration that veins bulged on his forehead, stretched out his hand first.
Lightning sparks flew from his body.
Lightning that rose from every direction crossed in the shape of a cross for a moment.
[Heavenly Net of Myriad Thunder]
It was a spell Noan had newly developed by applying Eugene’s multi-casting technique.
He had split the offensive spell known as Thunder God Spear into tiny pieces and manifested them all at once, spreading them out in the form of a net.
Krrrrrrrrrang-
With a strange ringing sound, strands of violet lightning overlapped one another and flew forward, drawing the shape of a net.
The lightning strands that swept across the ground and stretched out carved black trails into the surface.
The net of lightning flew like that and collided with the tidal wave Algina had raised.
KRAAAAAANG!
The high-temperature, high-pressure lightning net and the massive volume of the tidal wave collided, and an eerie sound rang out.
The sound of water evaporating, the shock wave bursting from high-pressure objects striking each other.
And even the lingering echo raised by the raging hot wind.
“……!”
For an instant, Algina was surprised. Noan’s technique had blocked the tidal wave she had unfolded.
Instead of focusing on one point and piercing through like his previous attacks, it was a technique made to hold something in place?
‘That means the axis of attack is not Noan, who specializes in a single strike, but rather…….’
By the time she realized it, Eugene had already finished casting his spell.
“Grrrgh!”
Eugene groaned.
A blue muzzle dropped into place before him.
It was not the previous enormous cannon. It was far thinner and longer. A considerably lightened mana cannon.
[Eye of Ruin Conversion Formula - High-Speed Deployment]
The size of the muzzle, the pressure of the gathered waves, and even the crystallization of the warhead had all been simplified compared to the original.
But its deployment speed was incomparable to before.
BOOOOM!
The mana cannon fired the warhead.
The shell pierced through the wall of air and jumped between the tidal wave and lightning net, which were still locked in a contest of strength.
A large hole opened in the middle of the tidal wave.
“What……!”
There was no time to be surprised.
Before Algina could even notice that the shell Eugene had fired was not the usual streamlined shape, but carved into a spiral to pierce a wall of water, the shell burst against her body.
A protective barrier rose around Algina’s body at the same time an explosion erupted.
FWAAAAAA!
As the collision of mana subsided, spray rose everywhere.
Sunlight poured down, and a rainbow shone through it.
Algina walked out through the falling spray.
Behind her, her artificial spirit floated, deploying a barrier.
Algina smiled.
A smile of satisfaction.
“Well done, you idiots.”
It was the moment their month of hardship ended.
Realizing that, Noan let out a gasp and sat down.
It must have been because he had consumed tremendous stamina and mental strength by rapidly expending a vast amount of mana in a form he was not accustomed to.
He lay spread-eagled on his back in a way that did not suit his neat face and breathed roughly.
“Hoo.”
Eugene was just as tired.
Using Eye of Ruin at high speed, and in the middle of that, changing the shape of the warhead into one specialized for liquid penetration.
He had overworked his head so much that it felt hot, as if his brain would cook, but he did not collapse like Noan.
Because the total amount of mana he had gained thanks to the Pure Refinement Bracelet, and the training Bella had continued drilling into him, had greatly increased his stamina.
He still had some leeway left. Enough to run his mouth lightly as usual.
“If you’re going to praise us, don’t just use words. How about giving me a kiss on the cheek?”
“Hmm?”
Algina’s eyes widened.
It was not that she let the nonsense flow past her. It was the expression of, What did this boy just say to me?
Could it be, he means me……?
She seemed to be seriously worrying about it.
Ordinarily, that was not the sort of reaction one would show.
“What……!”
Zeta, who had heard Eugene’s nonsense together with Algina, froze with an expression like ice.
Only then did Eugene realize that his cursed mouth had caused trouble.
He laughed awkwardly.
“N-no, what I mean is…… it was a joke. Please do not mind it.”
“…….”
“It was an insensitive remark that failed to consider the commander’s current situation. I sincerely apolog……”
He hurriedly tried to patch things up, but what he faced was the face of a wounded old maid.
Together with Algina’s furious roar.
A tidal wave flew.
With a sound like a pig being slaughtered, Eugene was slammed into the wall of the parade ground hard enough to leave cracks.
Then he was carried back to the mansion, where he had to listen to Bella’s scolding so long that he could not even sleep that night.
***
“Twinfaker, Dark Thunder. Mission.”
Yung Percival, the rider of the Dragon Knight Stone, said as he entered the waiting room.
Called by him, Eugene and Bella, as well as Noan and Henri, nodded.
Twinfaker and Dark Thunder were the call signs of the two Dragon Knights.
They had not yet been awarded Dragon Divine Armaments, but even as probationaries, they were still Dragon Knights.
So a call sign was needed to refer to them collectively.
By custom, call signs were given by classmates of the same cohort.
Noan and Henri were given the name Dark Thunder.
Originally, it was going to be Black Thunder, but Alex strongly insisted that was too cool, so the name was changed to Dark Thunder.
And Eugene and Bella’s call sign was decided unanimously.
The fake Twinstella who had betrayed the dreams and hopes of the young.
Thus, the name they received was Twinfaker.
It was the call sign they would hear until they were sick of it from now on.
As Eugene followed behind Yung Percival, he asked,
“What kind of mission is it? I hope it ends quickly.”
“Unfortunately, it’s a business trip mission. There is a report that a pack of Verde Wolves is rampaging in the Sandara region. If we are to deal with their den and all the remnants, it will probably take several days.”
The Dragon Knight Order’s mission range was the entire Dragon Empire.
To be blunt, it was not greatly different from the work Eugene and Bella were doing by taking requests through the Mercenary Guild.
The only difference was that the requester was not an individual, but people connected to the state, such as administrative institutions or local lords.
Stone, Twinfaker, and Dark Thunder. The three Dragon Knights flew to the Sandara region, which had requested the mission.
The one who had requested the dispatch of Dragon Knights was the mayor who managed Hamutz City, a small city in the Sandara region.
Seeing the three dragons descend from the sky, the mayor looked as though he might faint.
He shook hands with Yung Percival and spoke uneasily.
“Well now…… To think three pairs of Dragon Knights would come. I did not request something on that large a scale.”
“We only brought the rookies along for educational purposes. You need not worry too much.”
It was natural for the mayor to be surprised.
High-grade personnel such as Dragon Knights usually moved alone, or with two teams at most.
More Dragon Knights than that gathered only when an armed operation close to war was needed, or in very special circumstances.
Fundamentally, this mission had been given to Stone, so Twinfaker and Dark Thunder had nothing separate to do.
The two rookie Dragon Knights merely rolled their eyes in the back and listened as the mayor explained this mission to Stone.
“The first damage occurred around two months ago. On the road coming here from Toat City, a merchant caravan was attacked by a pack of Verde Wolves. Three guards and five porters died…… but at the time, we did not think of it as serious, since such things often happen when monsters appear.”
“You must have requested a hunt through the Mercenary Guild.”
“Of course. But the mercenaries who went to hunt them were all defeated too. One party was wiped out, and a survivor who returned from another party told us the number of wolves was too great.”
“Approximately how many were there?”
“It is not exact…… but he said the ones he saw numbered more than twenty.”
The mayor sighed deeply.
“At any rate, after that, the Mercenary Guild demanded too much money…… and the guard force can barely protect the city hall building and the city gates, so we could not move. But perhaps because the wolves’ pack increased, they began expanding their range of activity. In the end, even attacks on homes in the city outskirts occurred as they targeted livestock, so we ended up requesting help from the Dragon Knight Order like this.”
There were other minor details, but that was the basic situation.
After the story ended, Henri lightly tugged on Noan’s sleeve and asked,
“Um, what are Verde Wolves? Are they different from ordinary wolves?”
Because of the circumstances of his birth, and because the time he had spent in the Dragon Temple was short, Henri lacked quite a bit of basic common knowledge.
Even though he lived with books, he mostly read popular novels for interest, so his knowledge was inevitably skewed in one direction.
Because of that, instead of scolding him by asking whether he did not even know that, Noan calmly answered while pushing up his monocle.
“Verde Wolves are monsters, not beasts. Because they evolved by accepting mana, they are far larger and stronger than ordinary wolves. They are said to have green fur unlike ordinary wolves, so once you see one, you will easily know what is different.”
“Mm…… But how did dozens of monsters like that suddenly appear? He said they weren’t there two months ago.”
“This Sandara region has poor geology and a harsh environment, so monsters and wild animals are more numerous here than humans. And monsters continue fierce competition with one another in places human eyes do not reach. There is probably some monster…… a territorial animal somewhere that can threaten them. The Verde Wolves must have fallen behind in that competition and fled here.”
“Fled?”
“Yes. Not only that, but there are also cases where the surrounding environment changes due to some other factor, or food disappears. It is not that rare for territorial animals to move their territories.”
As Noan said, this mission was not one that required deep thought.
They merely had to deal with the monsters that had suddenly appeared and were harming people.
“Now, now. Enough chatter. Let us talk business.”
Yung Percival stepped forward and said that.
As a fifth-year Dragon Knight, he had done monster extermination missions like this until he was sick of them. He quickly divided the work among the current three Dragon Knights.
Two teams would track the pack of Verde Wolves from the ground by following their traces.
And the remaining team would patrol the air, search for the monsters directly by sight, and when the ground teams sent a signal, help them by attacking from above and annihilating the monsters without letting any escape.
It was a simple operation in which two teams focused on tracking, while the remaining team handled reconnaissance and support.
Henri asked,
“How do we find the wolves?”
He had whispered while pulling at Noan again, but the one who answered him was Yung.
“How else? You have to find them.”
“……Eh?”
Henri put on a foolish expression.
But Yung’s words were not a joke.
In this kind of monster subjugation mission, the main axis of tracking was not the riders, but the dragons.
They had merely been pushed aside by humans due to lacking social power. Considered as individual beings, dragons were the apex predators of the Pernia Continent.
They were born hunters, and even without being taught by anyone, they instinctively possessed the ability to pursue prey and hunt it.
The two dragons present, Bella and Luohan, stuck close beside Henri.
“Now, Henri. This is how you do it. Expand your sense of smell. Try smelling it. Then, while doing so, move little by little and determine whether there are any similar traces nearby. If you find a trace, you follow it and track backward.”
Bella held the severed foreleg of a Verde Wolf, which Yung had received by asking the mayor, and sniffed it.
“…….”
It had been preserved to prevent decay, but that did not mean it was in good condition.
The severed cross-section had curled inward and rotted black, and the dried-out leg gave off a gaunt, rotten stench.
Henri looked utterly disgusted, as if asking how one could possibly put their nose to such a thing.
“……I search with mana. Watch.”
Luohan said that and stared blankly off to one side.
He seemed to be explaining in his own way, but it was a method so unclear that Henri had no idea how he was supposed to imitate it.
“Just look carefully. Then you can see.”
“……??”
Although there were some problems like that, Bella and Luohan somehow succeeded in helping Henri grasp the sensation of tracking monsters.
Before beginning the mission, Yung gave them a warning.
“This area is close to the border with Baifun, one of the states of the Sixth Federation. Dragon Knights like us crossing the border may be considered an act of invasion, so the flight team must be careful not to cross the border.”
“How do we tell where the border is?”
“Use the ridgeline of that mountain range over there as the standard. Just do not even go near that ridge. That will be enough.”
Thus, the monster extermination mission began.
The work went smoothly.
Though they were monsters that had caused great harm to people, Verde Wolves were weak monsters that were not even a mouthful of a snack to dragons.
The only problem was that the bastards also knew how to use their heads, and the moment they realized they had become the prey, they scattered in all directions.
Because of that, just as Yung had said at first, the three Dragon Knights had to chase down and catch the scattered monsters one by one over several days.
On the third day.
They were tracking the few remaining Verde Wolves.
This time, Twinfaker had decided to take the air.
Eugene rode Bella and flew through the air, waiting for the tracking teams’ signal.
“This is getting tiresome too. I want to finish quickly and go soak in a hot spring.”
“You have become completely addicted. Was it that good?”
“Yeah. It was nice. I also liked how you stroked my head like my mom.”
“What kind of bullshit is that?! Do not say such horrifying things.”
They were killing time while exchanging idle chatter like that.
Then, at some point, Bella, who had been disgusted by Eugene’s joke, closed her mouth.
“……What’s wrong?”
Sensing something strange, Eugene’s tone lowered.
“……Over there.”
“Over there?”
“There are Gongha Trees. And not just one or two.”
“……!”
He felt as though his blood had gone cold.
“Which direction?”
Bella turned her snout and pointed to one side.
And Eugene discovered it.
On the ridgeline of the mountain range to the right.
Between an ambiguous canyon where tall peaks overlapped one another, he could see a mass of densely rising purple leaves, mottled in red.
“…….”
At a glance, it looked like a mass of Gongha Trees numbering well over dozens.
And it was clearly beyond the border of the Dragon Empire.
It stood within the territory of Baifun, one of the states of the Sixth Federation.