“U~ooooooo~oo!”

The half-dragon monster, Azalea, attacks me again.
He keeps aiming my vital spots while keeping his gaze locked onto my every move.

I respond by crouching low and brushing off his attack that was aimed below my neck with my claw, trying to shake him off.
It wasn’t particularly a fast move.
I just took advantage of my heavy body to swing it into a weird-looking motion.

Still, I couldn’t fully guard against it.
My legs feel heavy, I’m low on magic, and my vision is getting blurry.
I could barely stand.

My exposed, scarred chest gets slashed.
Pieces of my scales and blue blood fly in the air, followed by a sharp pain.

“Gru~oo!” “Gra~a~a!”

Me and Partner bare our fangs at Azalea together.
But, it easily read our movements and distanced itself, repositioning its claws.

He should be low on MP too.
Not to mention, looking at Azalea’s status, it might be a disadvantage of〖Dragon Transformation〗, but his health is continuously decreasing.
Apparently, a human is more susceptible to becoming a dragon than a dragon is to human.
So then, how is he able to stay standing like that?

My body is aching all over.
If I could just find time to delay this fight somehow, I could take the chance and heal myself with〖Self-Regeneration〗 but I don’t think the enemy will let me off that easily.
He should be reaching his limit from the dragonification by now.
That means he’s going to come at me with even more vicious attacks.

Wait a minute… don’t tell me it was his plan to bury the Lithuvar children and his subordinates inside the cave along with me from the start?
He’s an even bigger scumbag than I thought. I’ll make sure to beat the shit out of you.
He knew I was healing under the rubble so he came after me.
If he hadn’t come, I’d have bid my time healing myself.
Grrr… I want to go outside so I can beat him up already.

Ever since I turned into an Ouroboros, I haven’t encountered any life-threatening situations so far, so I may have become a bit timid recently and subconsciously prioritized the easy way out of things.
That sure backfired on me after all those consecutive wins I did with the other commanders.
In terms of battle intuition and experience, they’re years ahead of me.

Azalea bends his knees and readies his claw, preparing to attack me again.

“U~u, u~uuu……”

However, probably due to massive MP loss, Azalea falls on his knees.
I was relieved for a short while there that he ran out of MP first before me, but in the next instant, his eyes glow with life and he stands up again.

“U~ooo~oooooooo!”

He roars as if to boost his spirit.
That’s one heck of an iron will he has.
But, this should be it.
If I survive this next attack, he’ll run out of MP for sure.

Azalea jumps forward and greatly swings his right claw.
I drag my body, moving backwards.
Azalea then stretches his arm to reach out to me.
He’s not giving me time to spare. His movements are simple though.

“Gra~a~a~a~a~a~a!”

Partner bites Azalea’s right arm.
I follow after her and bite Azalea’s shoulder, shaking my head wildly.
The tip of Azalea’s shoulder gets torn apart. And then, Partner’s hold loosens and Azalea swipes his right arm away.

This battle is over ―― is what I thought until Azalea leans forward and prepares to swing his left claw under my jaw.
Since I assumed that the battle was over, I was completely caught off-guard.
Any more damage to me is bad.
Flustered, I use〖Self-Regeneration〗to try and block his attack with my own claw.

Azalea’s attack should’ve been faster.
But instead, his left claw… didn’t budge at all.
Azalea looks down and stares at his left arm in despair.
It was a rather striking scene to behold.

Then, Azalea’s body begins to shrink rapidly.
He must’ve run out of MP. As I was about to hit him with my claw and knock him away from me, Azalea faintly laughs.

“You chose a thorny path to live, monster. And here I thought I’d be satisfied with just one person who understands me”

My claw pierces Azalea’s body.
Azalea gets sliced in two. His upper half falls off from his lower half.

【Obtained 784 Experience Points.】
【〖The Walking Egg: Lv—〗skill gives you additional 784 Experience Points.】
【The Lv of〖Ouroboros〗went up from Lv 91→92.】

After that, I also fall down on my knees.
Now I’ll just…… let my HP and MP recover a bit.
If possible, I want to heal my feet and chest too, but…… I don’t think I’ll be in a condition to fly yet.

I then look at Azalea’s upper half.
I stare at his dead body for a while.
Azalea’s last words have me thinking.
He’s a talented person with high-grade skills unlike average people.
Maybe he was branded as a monster from his inhumane powers by other people at some point.

【”…… Waz rong?”】
[“…… What’s wrong?”]

Partner sends me a thought message.
It’s… nothing important.
After I responded to Partner’s question, I look away from Azalea.

Now then, the only thing left to do is to stop Tallmann from messing with the Feared God.
I can’t stay coped in here for too long. But, I also don’t know Tallmann’s current whereabouts.
So then, should I just wait until my〖Self-Regeneration〗 heals my wings-…… hm?

I notice a large smoke in the distance.
It’s somewhere within the forest.

W-Why is there a…… don’t tell me it’s Tallmann?
Is he trying to anger them by setting the forest on fire? Or, is there another reason behind the smoke?
I don’t know what they’re up to, but now that it’s come to this, I really can’t afford to bide my time here.
If I stay here any longer, I won’t be able to make it in time.

After healing myself a bit with〖Self-Regeneration〗using the little amount of MP I recovered, I walk back towards the captive children, cut their ropes with my claw, and carry all of them on my back.
They were all clinging on my neck and sobbing the entire time.
They must’ve been very scared.

I then glance at the Ferris Huma swordsman, Nell, who’s currently passed out.
When the cave was collapsing, he was the first to run to the children and shielded them from the raining rocks, but he was knocked unconscious after a big rock fell on his head.
I’ve already used〖High Rest〗on him, but he hasn’t woken up yet.

“Ryujin-sama…… that boy…… um, a-are you gonna kill him too?”

One of the children asks me hesitantly.
I quietly shake my head in response.
During the cave-in, he was the first to rush to the children’s safety.
I don’t believe he has any ill-intentions on harming them.

After escaping out of the cave, I put the children down.
I look towards the direction of the village and then towards the direction of the smoke.
The children were all anxious and frightened, but after seeing the smoke, they immediately realize that the fighting isn’t over yet and they shake their heads.
I really want to return them to the village, but I can’t spare any more time on my hands.

And so, I take a deep breath, gather magic power in my throat, and let out a loud “gru~uoooooooo!” at the direction of the village.
The roar echoes far into the forest.
This should be loud enough to reach Alo and the other Lithuvars in the area to take notice and come for help.
And, if any monsters heard that, they won’t be coming here at all.

After that, I distance myself from the children, slam my tail on the ground, and start rolling towards the direction of the smoke.
I’ll be knocking out trees along the way, but…… it can’t be helped. If anything, it’s better than the whole forest burning.
This way, I can just wait for my body to heal as I go. Even if my feet were injured by the cave-in, I still have〖Roll〗to make up for it.
By the time I arrive at the destination, I’ll have recovered plenty of HP and MP when I get there.

I would sometimes hit the ground with my tail to speed up. Many trees get knocked down one by one.
Looking back, there’s a straight line with no trees that I created from all my rolling.