12:00 AT, Day Thirty Two | Dragon’s Nest

  Everything is on fire. Columns of fire rain down from the sky, pushing against plasma shields. Rains of bullets fly up into the sky, striking the beasts that lurk in the skies

  I am forced to dodge around massive pools of fire that have gathered on the ground. Roasting bodies, both dragon and vessel. The horrific stench of burning metal and flesh fills the air. If it wasn't for my exosuit, the air would be completely unbreathable.

  I dodge a friendly bullet that almost hits me, only for it to fly past and hit a dragon right in its eye. People and dragons are everywhere, engaged in brutal displays of violence. Roars of pain and anger fill the air.

  “Ko! This is so much fun, we should go on dates like this more often!” Ray shouts through the comms, as her blades take off the leg of a minor dragon, spraying blue blood everywhere.

  “That sounds wonderful, but perhaps less dragons next time?” I respond, my spear sinking into the weak spot of a yellow dragon. At this point, I look like some sort of blue monster, completely covered in the blood of dragons.

  “Klack, this blood is gonna be a pain to get out of my hair and clothes. Ima smell like metal ions for ages.” Linda mumbles as her rifle fires, cleanly removing the head from a dragon.

  “Dont worry Lin, I'm sure we can find a nice hot spring once this whole thing is over. Nowadays they have special ones to help remove the stench of blood and death.” Emil says enthusiastically, his katana nothing more than a blur as he slays dragon after dragon.

  Rigar merely gives a grunt of confirmation. Their warhammer shatters the skull of a dragon with a sound that can be heard even over the chaos of battle.

  We are winning, slowly but steadily. Dragon after dragon falls to the ground, only to be collected as trophies. “Ray darling, we are gonna be rich!” I say.

  “Yipee! Does that mean we can eat cake all day and relax as our soldiers do everything for us?”

  “Perhaps, though maybe we should take a trip to eat cake on a battlefield, that sounds like fun.”

  “Ooo, cake amidst a field of fire and death, that sure does sound like a fun date. We could even add in some liquor for good measure.”

  My girlfriend is so cute, and smart, and cool and awesome, it's crazy.

  I slay a few more dragons, then I fly behind a large rock to take a small break. Dragonslaying isn't easy work after all. It seems I am not the only one with the same idea of taking a break.

  A man with blonde hair is sitting behind the rock, knees to his chest. A large anti-tank rifle slung over his shoulder, looking quite heavily used, must be one of the Avis. He is absolutely covered in blue blood and his eyes look completely bloodshot – I didn't even know vessels could do that.

  “Ahoy there, fellow warriors of this battlefield. How will things be on this fine morning?” I say, trying to sound friendly and speak in a manner that a normal person can understand.

  The man jumps up, grabs a hold of my shoulders and screams. “I want to go home! Free me from this hellscape, I didn't sign up for this shit. Fire, fire everywhere.” He says with much distress.

  How odd, a person that is afraid or something? I dont think ive ever met one of those. I thought everyone was a battle-mad fanatic. Then I come to a realization, “Ooooh, that's genius! You're playing to get a rise out of the viewers.” I give him a nice pat on the back, “Good work, soldier, keep it up!”

  “Are you bloody mad? Acting at a time like this?” He says, astonished but seemingly calmed down a bit, dropping his acting for some reason. “This is hell, how can you be so calm!”

  “Ha, bloody mad?” I say, lowering my voice, “That’s the understatement of the eon.”

  Then I fly back into the air, having finished my rest. Behind me, I think I hear some sort of explosion. Must be the guy getting back into action, a real go-getter for sure.

  I find a dragon of my own, engaging in a brilliant dance. A real beautiful one, its red scales shine brightly as it barely misses me with its flame breath. I identify its weak spot just behind its right foreleg and charge in, my spear sinking in.

  The beast roars in pain as I continue my assault. With one last roar and flame blast, it falls to the ground.

  I let out a laugh. Many might call it an evil laugh, but I call it a laugh of pure happiness and merriment. Perhaps I am a bit battle-mad, oh well, just means more explosions. Plus, if I get injured, then Ray treats me to some super special headrubs, which are worth any pain suffered.

  We have slain about four hundred of the smaller dragons at this point. Which seems to cause some sort of effect.

  The major dragon, a massive behemoth nearly three times larger than the others, has been seemingly asleep this entire time. But, it stirs.

  The colossal beast must be equivalent to one of the zone 2 legends, yet it's only a major. I am slightly terrified to think about what the legend for this biome will be.

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  With a mighty roar, the great beast wakes up and stands up. Its sheer mass creates veritable quakes with every movement.

  A strange voice seems to emanate into my mind. Who dares awaken Yusai, The Third Praetorian of The Great Queen? It says. It must be the dragon, the fact that it is named shows that we might've stumbled into something we should not have.

  Immediately, all of the other dragons let out what seems to be whimpers and quickly try to fly in the opposite direction of Yusai. Whatever he is, even the other dragons fear it.

  The battlefield goes almost silent as people stop, their targets having flown away rapidly. Everyone looks to the mighty dragon even as commanders try to organize them. Thankfully, it seems we only lost around 300 of our troops, not bad at all. We truly have trained them well. The income from the trophies will easily pay for their replacements, and likely thirtyfold more.

  Intruders, you have slain my kin. Now, you shall burn.

  Yusai opens his mouth and the air seems to heat by several dozen degrees. Then, a massive wave of fire comes forth.

  The wave rushes over the entire arena, incinerating those who fail to fly out of the way.

  “Hey Ko, you up for a nice dance? It seems like we have a competitor that has entered the ballroom.” Ray says, rushing over to grab my hand, a devious smile on her face.

  “Of course darling, let's show that big fella what the Moonlight Duo is capable of. Oh, I guess the rest of you people can help a bit too.” I say, prompting a cheer to arise from the gathered soldiers. It seems we have finally managed to set up the real weapons, ready for some true dragonslaying power at last.

  Ray and I charge in. I prepare my {Rock Crush} and propel myself as fast as I can.

  My spear collides into the beast with a massive clash and a shockwave that would flatten buildings. The scale shatters with a massive cracking sound and an explosive force that throws me back several dozen meters.

  Foolish mortals, you dare to harm me?

  Ignoring the beast, Ray charges in, firing up her skills as her blades sink into the juicy opening I created. Her blades moving like a hypnotic dancer, nearly entrancing me before I remember that I am supposed to be fighting alongside her.

  The others join us quickly. Rigar’s warhammer makes quick work of creating weakspots, while long-range fire comes in from Linda, absolutely crushing any resistance.

  Emil and Yuin’s blades flash, cutting up the nice exposed flesh under the broken scales.

  After a while, the other melee fighters join in and do similar, though the weaker ones aren't quite able to break the scales themselves. Thankfully, our artillery cannons come online, firing massive shells meant to penetrate plasma shields. Turns out, they absolutely demolish dragons as well.

  No, this is simply not possible. You cannot harm me! Mere weaklings cannot stand against the mighty Queen’s praetorians. This is preposterous, stop your assault this instant, or you will face the Queen’s wrath.

  The dragon roars, trying to get us to stop. Unfortunately for him, we arent gonna stop just cause some queen is gonna be mad at us. After all, we are the Moonlight Alliance, and we are gonna win this whole trial. No dragon queen or pink haired lunatic is gonna stand in our path.

  With a great roar of pain, Yusai falls to the ground, unable to support his weight anymore. We renew our attacks, dicing the fella into many tiny chunks of tender dragon.

  No, this isn't possible. Forgive me, my queen, for I have failed.

  With one final breath of fire, Yusai goes still.

  Ray rushes up to me, still dripping with blood, and wraps me up in a tight hug. “Darling! We are so klacking cool! You especially, I saw you doing all that hard work breaking the scales.”

  “Oh stop, darling. You are far cooler than me, with your veritable whirlwind of blades slicing and dicing them into tiny pieces.” I say, wrapping my arms around Ray and squeezing tight.

  We separate and then I look over the battlefield.

  It's a hellscape, even more so that it already was.

  Piles of vessels and dragon corpses are surrounded by vast oceans of fire. The air is filled with a thick haze of smoke, making it impossible to see very far. A strong smell of smoke, metal and death hangs in the air, reminding us of what just transpired.

  Ray and I walk up to the major dragon’s corpse and pick it up. The whole thing quickly slides into the ground as the inventory system collects it. I wonder how much this thing is worth, must be at least a thousand ti, maybe fifteen hundred. Combined with all of the other dragon trophies, we are going to get some fancy new weapons and massively boost our troop count.

  It seems like Ray and I will be doing a lot of gacha pulls pretty soon, hopefully we get lucky with a lot of great-levels.

  Ray and I find a quiet spot in the camp, which has been hastily constructed by weary soldiers exhausted from the massive battle.

  Out of seemingly nowhere, Ray produces two bottles of Potanian liquor, a large smile on her face. “So darling, you up for a bit of celebration?”

  “Of course, nothing like a nice drink after a battle.” I say with a smile, kissing her and accepting one of the offered bottles.

  Emil, Linda and Rigar sit near us, bottles also in their hands. Linda is cozily wrapped up in Emil’s wing, seemingly very tired. Which makes sense, that anti-material rifle causes a massive strain on the user’s brain, I'm surprised she can even stand at this point.

  We clink our bottles together and I make a toast, “To prosperity and explosions.”

  Ray chimes in, “and don't forget the headrubs!” she shouts

  Everyone laughs and begins downing bottle after bottle. Laughing and being merry, despite the battle – which most would describe as horrific – that we just endured.

  With Ray and these friends by my side, I am sure that we will overcome anything. Plus we've got a weird girl-that-is-not-a-girl waiting for us outside the arena. I imagine we will have to fight this ‘queen’ quite soon, and to that I can only say one thing.

  Bring it on.

  End of Chapter 122

  Next: Chapter 123 | The Cinder Keep

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