The dragon was just burning everything around it without targeting anyone.

I didn’t know why it was doing such a thing, but it almost looked like the dragon was getting stronger every time it burned an area.

What if those flames were forcefully drawing energy from the earth and trees?

‘Let’s finish this before the dragon notices us!’

‘Yes!’

I didn’t know how long this situation would last.

And so I rushed towards the dragon without slowing down.

The closer we got, the more powerful the dragon’s breath became.

However, the ‘Magic Transfer Barriers’ that the 10 slimes kept creating, shielded us from all of it.

And then—we arrived. We were now under the dragon.

It was floating up in the sky, nearly 50 meters above my head.

‘Yuji. Can you fly?’

‘No. If there is any magic that I can use…it’s this. … ‘Jump Boost."”

And so I used magic called ‘Jump Boost’ and lept into the air.

As the name indicated, it boosted your ability to jump.

And just when I was about to lose momentum, I created an ‘anti-physical barrier’ below me to land on.

I was able to rise about 5 meters with every jump.

This was not very efficient, but I really had no other way to do it.

After coming to this world, I had encountered slimes in an abandoned shack full of magic books.

All of the magic I had now was from those books.

And there were so many books.

Even I didn’t know just how much magic I had.

However, magic to fly… Or even, magic to reach high places… Well, it was almost shocking how little I had.

Among them, this ‘Jump Boost’ was the most decent.

Jump Boost allowed me to leap forward dozens of meters on flat ground, but it wasn’t exactly suited for flying upwards.

Did the person who left all of those books hate the sky?

I wanted magic books that would allow me to fly, but apparently, they were incredibly rare in this world.

-While thinking about this, I continued to jump off of barriers and raise my alt.i.tude.

As I was waiting for the right time, the dragon did not attack me as I jumped.

And then finally-I reached the same height as the Blue Dragon of Delight.

And yet, the dragon still didn’t react to our presence.

And so I stabbed the Shortsword of Keshis into its head and chanted.

‘—h.e.l.lfire of Death!’

When I was finished, the tip of the sword grew red with heat, and flames began to burst from the blade.

It looked like normal fire, but this had all the power of h.e.l.lfire of Death. Magic that could destroy one-hundred square meters of land in a second.

My ‘Anti-heat Barrier’ had protected me from even feeling the warmth from the dragon’s breath, but I could feel intense heat now.

And it was these flames that easily shredded the dragon’s skin and boiled the wounds.

The armor that resisted the flames of h.e.l.lfire of Death melted away like ice when the flames came through the sword.

And when about 80% of the dragon’s head was ravaged, the force of h.e.l.lfire of Death began to die down.

I was sure that this was a fatal wound, but I didn’t let my guard down.

My MP was already below 0, but I would probably be able to use h.e.l.lfire of Death one more time.

It was with this thought that I tried to use h.e.l.lfire of Death once again before the effect died off.

‘h.e.l.lfire of—’

However, just as I was about to activate it—my vision suddenly turned red.

In the next instant, I could hear the barriers being torn apart as I was thrown into the air.

As my sight had been taken from me, I had no idea what was happening.

Even the senses of the slimes and the magic around me was so unstable that I could not make sense of any of it.

…And then a few seconds pa.s.sed.

I felt that I was being thrown onto the ground, and at the same time, I finally understood what was happening around me.

The dragon was above me in the sky, about 1 kilometer away.

So that meant I had been blown away for a whole kilometer.

While it was just one hit, I didn’t know what kind of attack it had been.

As for my numerous barriers, only one remained.

I would have to set them up again.

And since I had no MP left, I could feel my HP dwindle with every new barrier I made.

It seemed really odd having to sacrifice your HP in order to protect yourself.

Job: Tamer, Sage

Skills: Taming, Light Magic, Shadow Magic, Fire Magic, Water Magic, Earth Magic, Thunder Magic, Wind Magic, Time-s.p.a.ce Magic, Special Magic, Great Magic, Familiar Magic, Support Magic, Altering Magic, Ultra Combat Arts.

Attributes: None

HP: 998/1926

MP: -150021/4526

———————————————————————————

My HP had gone down quite a lot. If this had been before my stats went up, I would have been dead already.

So killing the Earth Dragon saved my life.

…But were the slimes okay?

‘Are you guys alright?’

‘Yes. Somehow…’

‘The dragon is really mad…’

The slimes talked as I brought up new barriers.

Apparently, they had all been protected by the barriers as well when I was thrown.

However…things were really bad now.

“GIIIIIIIIIIAAAAAA!! GGGAAAGGHHH!!!”

The Blue Dragon of Delight let out an unearthly roar.

About 90% of its head had been destroyed already.

And in spite of such a wound, it was still flying in the sky.

But what was worse, was that it was clearly flying towards us.

That meant that the Blue Dragon of Delight had finally recognized us as an enemy.

…I wasn’t happy about that.

‘Yuji. What are you going to do?’

‘…I have no choice. We’ll just have to block its attacks and wait for it to die.’

With so much of its head ruined, it was hardly going to survive.

It was swaying and seemed unstable as it flew.

It was quite likely that it would lose all of its strength before I died.

…But then again, I had already used up all my MP with h.e.l.lfire of Death, so I wasn’t in the best position.

‘Can’t you just use it again?’

‘You mean h.e.l.lfire of Death?’

‘Yes!’

‘…I could do it at least one more time. But…I can’t reach it. It would be different if I had magic that could drag the dragon to the ground.’

Normal h.e.l.lfire of Death would be meaningless.

But now that the dragon saw us as enemies, it would be nearly impossible to attack it with the Shortsword of Keshis.

Unless I could somehow get close to it…

I tried using Jump Boost to gain some height, but then the dragon flew up into the air as if to escape me.

“I thought so.”

The Blue Dragon of Delight now knew that I was dangerous.

As it was a mythical dragon, it was smarter than most monsters.

“GRRRAAAA!!”

It screamed.

And then it launched a torrent of fire that was much faster than any of its previous attacks.