“Uwaa~argh!!”

Nell kicks the ground and rushes at me.
That was a big leap he just did. It’s as if he’s weightless.

He’s by far the fastest person I’ve ever met, but I’m still faster.
It’s true that it’s hard to move when I’m using〖Human Transformation〗, but that doesn’t mean I can’t overcome his speed.

Nell kicks the ground again and jumps to my diagonal side.
From there, he turns around, landing his feet on the wall, and jumps again, aiming at the back of my diagonal side.

“〖Godspeed, Flash〗!”

Nell points his sword forward and speeds up tremendously.
There it is. It’s that skill again.
It seems to be a skill that temporarily boosts the user’s speed.

However, it looks like he only uses it for straight frontal attacks. If he can’t use it for anything else, it’s not a threat.
Since I’m bursting with plenty of power, I can take the hit and dish out a counter.
I enlarge my dragonified claw and aim the back of my hand at Nell, who’s diagonally behind me.

In response, Nell retracts his sword and spins in the air vertically.
He steps on the back of my hand, using it as a foothold, and jumps over my head.
I hastily turn around and see Nell positioning himself in midair, upside down.
He got ahead of me.

“Gu~uh……”

This is bad.
He didn’t use〖Godspeed, First Step〗to attack me directly, he used it to get out of my line of sight.
I’m completely wide open now.
Even if I counterattack right now, I won’t be able to make it in time and his attack will reach me first.

I crouch down and dragonify my scales back to its original hardness.
This should be better than getting hit by his attack with my bare body.
It’s better to shift to defense than to launch an attack where you know you’ll miss.

“〖One-Thousand Dragon Strikes〗!”

After Nell’s chant, powerful impacts collide on my body.
They’re all sword strikes.

“Guh……”

If each hit only deals this little damage, then I can still……
Or so I thought, but the sword strikes only get faster and faster around my head area.
They were so fast, I lost count to how many hits I received.
The shower of blades hitting my head moves to my back and finally stops after reaching my tail.

Looking at Nell, he crouches down and jumps away, creating distance between us.
He doesn’t have his sword with him, but instead, he’s holding a knife.

Looking back at my tail, there’s a sword stuck on it.
It seems that Nell stuck his sword on my tail and he couldn’t pull it out so he just left it there and decided to go for a knife instead.

Still, that was some skill he just used.
Apparently, Nell was jumping back and forth on my back to position himself again in the air and continue the blazing attacks while increasing his speed.
Since he made no progress attacking my head, he attacked my back and tail instead, until he got his sword stuck.
The skill seems to be more effective when used against a large opponent, such as a monster like myself.
And, since Nell has a small body, he can bring out the full power of the skill with his speed and small size.

But, he might’ve pushed himself too far this time.
Nell is having difficulty breathing.
That skill must be tiresome to use.

I also suffered quite a bit of damage, but they’re not serious.
I’m glad I strengthened my scales and upped my defense, otherwise, I’d be bleeding heavily by now.
One-Thousand Dragon Strike, a befitting name for the skill. If I were still a Plague Dragon, that attack would’ve finished me off.
But with this, my victory is assured.

“I, I can… still fight……!”

Nell positions his feet on the cave wall.
He plans to jump from the wall and accelerate again.

I swiftly hit the ground with my tail.
The whole cave shakes.

“… ~!”

Nell, who already jumped from the wall, loses balance and tries to land with his hands.
He managed to land, but he couldn’t handle his weight and still fell down.
I take this chance and attack Nell with my tail.

Nell responds by jumping up, pointing his knife in front, and sticking it to my tail.
He must’ve wanted to reduce the damage by jumping into the air while also dealing damage to me with the knife.
And, just like that, my tail hits Nell along with his knife.
Nell curls his body into a ball as my tail overwhelms him.

Nell gets tail-whipped to the other side of the cave wall.
Dust and smoke cover the area, and when it cleared, Nell’s feet were covered in blood.
Your proud legs are unusable now.

“Ha~ah…… ha~ah……”

As I pull my tail away from Nell, I sense a presence near the cave entrance.
It’s… not human.
This size…… is it a Manticore?
I’m pretty sure I killed it already, but then again, I wouldn’t be surprised if there are two of them.

Turning to the presence, a large lizard’s head comes peeking at us from outside the cave.

It’s large body is slightly smaller than my original size, and its ribs are showing.
It looked creepy rather than deficient.
Its body structure looks similar to that of a human.
Its skin is grey and some parts of its body look uneven.

From the top of its shoulder, it has a frizzled-looking wing that’s contracted on its back.
A dragon…… no, it looks more like a demon, or something closer.

“Uw~oo, ~o~ooo~oooooo……”

It suddenly shrieked a horrible cry.
I was stunned from it and I just stood there in a daze, but when I saw the powerful light gathering in front of it, I regained my senses.

I’ve never seen that skill before.
For some reason, it reminds me of the Giant Centipede’s〖Heat Ray〗skill.

“N-, No way……”

Nell watches the monster gathering light, as if astonished.

“You promised, the children would escape, whatever happens…… so, why……”

T-That thing is on their side?
I use〖Status Inspection〗on the dragon-looking monster.

‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
〖Azalea Arlmyne〗
Species: Earth Huma
Status: Dragonized Lv4, Berserk (small)
Lv: 56/85
HP: 162/298
MP: 298/324
Attack: 384 (256)
Defense: 302 (201)
Magic: 311
Speed: 22

Special Skills:
〖Demon Dragon’s Blood: Lv—〗〖Dragon Scales: Lv4〗〖Flight: Lv1〗
〖Automatic HP Recovery: Lv2〗〖Automatic MP Recovery: Lv2〗〖Grisha Language: Lv7〗
〖Swordsmanship Talent: Lv7〗〖Magical Talent: Lv7〗

Resistances:
〖Curse Resistance: Lv7〗 〖Physical Resistance: Lv6〗 〖Magic Resistance: Lv6〗
〖Fire Element Resistance: Lv2〗〖Poison Resistance: Lv5〗 〖Slash Resistance: Lv4〗
〖Confusion Resistance: Lv2〗 〖Falling Resistance: Lv3〗 〖Paralysis Resistance: Lv4〗

Normal Skills:
〖Fire Sphere: Lv8〗 〖Aqua Sphere: Lv4〗 〖Shadow: Lv5〗
〖Gale: Lv4〗 〖Gravity: Lv4〗 〖High Rest: Lv5〗
〖Resist: Lv6〗 〖Quick: Lv4〗 〖Summon: Lv7〗
〖Flare: Lv7〗 〖Dragon Transformation: Lv4〗 〖Drago Flare: Lv2〗

Titles:
〖Dragon Mage: Lv—〗 〖White Mage: Lv7〗 〖Black Mage: Lv7〗
〖Sword King: Lv7〗 〖All Rounder: Lv—〗〖Hungry Hunters Squad Commander: Lv—〗
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐

Wha-, what’s with that status?!
Dra-,〖Dragon Transformation〗?! Wait… Azalea Arlmyne…… that’s a human?!

The creepy-looking dragon…… Azalea, has his mouth wide opened and is gathering light inside it.
His mouth starts swelling and an evil light illuminates from his eyes.
I undo〖Human Transformation〗as I run outside the cave.

His mouth has opened wider than before.
Then, a blast of red light shoots out of his mouth, accompanied with a roar.
The red beam destroys the cave walls upon impact and Azalea turns his head around, trying to aim the beam at me.
The entire cave was collapsing from the constant tremors.

As I grow in size, my head hits the ceiling. [T.N: Ouch]
Partner appears beside me and we managed to get our front claws out of the cave, but we were hit by the red beam on our chest.
The beam and the roar continues to ring loudly.