abcnovels
Chapter 172: The Dragon's Scales
Chapter 172: The Dragon's Scales
Chapter 172: The Dragon's Scales
- The Dragon’s Scales
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“…………Looks delicious.”
With those words, the murderous aura Emi had been indiscriminately emanating until then converged entirely on Oka in one concentrated burst!
(Ugh!)
Inadvertently letting out a groan at its ferocity, Oka took several steps back!
Her heart pounded loudly as cold sweat trickled endlessly!
Oka clearly, vividly felt the emotion woven into Emi’s murderous aura.
It was elation.
The elation of a predator confronted with the massive flesh that was Oka!
She had not been targeted with such an emotion since her fledgling days as a small hatchling.
It had truly been hundreds of years.
As such, when assailed by that murderous aura, Oka had completely forgotten how she had managed to survive such situations back then.
(Insolent……Insolent, isn’t it!? A puny human daring to challenge me, Okachan!)
Oka grew enraged!
Suppressing her fear with anger, instead of fleeing like when she was a fledgling, she chose to fight.
It was because her long years living as the village guardian dragon, the experiences of being revered by the villagers, had nurtured a tremendous sense of pride that was now severely wounded!
Dragons were meant to be massive, powerful, wise, revered beings.
Yet to be told “Looks delicious” in the face of such a dragon!
It went beyond mere disrespect!!
She could not forgive this!!!
(?Scale Bullets?!!)
Oka raised countless scales and, using magically generated wind, began firing them at Emi.
Though around the size of human fingernails, a dragon’s scales naturally differed in make from a fish’s.
Their sturdiness allowed overlapping them to forge armor, and fired at tremendous velocities, they held the power to slice through trees and pierce rock.
Gagagagagagagah!!!
The scales gouged the surrounding rock, producing deafening sounds!
However, they did not strike Emi.
With superhuman reflexes, Emi leapt sideways to dodge the barrage before rolling along the ground, immediately breaking into a wind-like dash.
Following her trail, the scales plunged into the rocky terrain with violent impacts!
(Muu! How annoying, going after such a tiny fry!)
Having intended to riddle Emi like a pincushion with her opening ?Scale Bullets?, Oka could not hide her vexation!
Yet as a long-lived dragon, even amidst that vexation, she did not discard level thinking.
Her relentless barrage was not a senseless volley of misses – she was setting the stage for her next attack.
Driving Emi away with ?Scale Bullets?, luring her into Oka’s attack range, and then……!
(There, now! ?Dragon Tail?!!)
Oka swung her elongated tail in a horizontal arc toward Emi at blinding speed!
Far swifter than the strike she had used on Gonpeter earlier!
Emi, completely oblivious to this unexpected attack, failed to fully evade and took the blow to her flank, sending her tumbling away!
“……Ffshuu!”
Though her ?Dragon Tail? had landed cleanly, Oka exhaled a pinkish mist with dissatisfaction.
It simply lacked impact.
Any ordinary person struck by that should have been cleaved in two, killed instantly.
Yet for some reason, that girl had merely been “blown away.”
Now she silently landed against a jagged rock wall she had been sent flying toward.
Lacking knowledge of such techniques, Oka did not understand, but Emi had just performed Mana Conversion.
She had instinctively converted the impact from ?Dragon Tail? into mana, dissipating it!
Then, using the tail’s swinging momentum to put distance between them, she tried to regain control of the combat flow instead of being led by Oka’s tempo.
However, no matter how proficient Emi was in Mana Conversion, her response this time was an improvised emergency measure.
Not all the damage could be nullified, and the residual pain caused Emi to flinch for an instant, leaving an opening.
……An opening Oka did not overlook!
(?Scale Bullets?!!)
Oka resumed firing her scale barrage at Emi clinging to the large boulder!
This time, taking care to prevent evasion by leaping, she spread the scales over a wider area.
(Ahaha! This will finish it!)
Convinced of her impending victory, Oka smiled.
……However!
“……I’ve already gotten used to that!!”
With that shout, Emi began deftly catching each scale fired at her with astonishing handspeed, her arms blurring as she snatched them up!
(Eeeeeeeehh!?)
Oka inadvertently opened her eyes wide in shock.
Moreover, Emi would periodically bring the scales accumulated in her palms to her mouth, greedily crunching them down!
While her scales would regrow, Oka did not have an infinite supply.
If they proved ineffective, firing them was a waste.
Oka halted her ?Scale Bullets? barrage for the moment, watching to see Emi’s next move.
Dismounting from the rock wall, Emi took a fighting stance with fists raised, yet her cheeks were stuffed full of Oka’s scales like a hamster as she chewed them, crunching sounds echoing across the rocky area.
After a few seconds of silence punctuated only by that munching, Emi swallowed the scales with an audible gulp before remarking:
“Like cornflakes. Fairly tasty.”
A taste review!!!
(Just what is this thing!? What the hell is this thing!!)
It was then that Oka began feeling renewed dread toward this bizarre young girl.
In her fledgling days traveling everywhere as her master’s contracted beast, her adolescence dedicated to harsh training after her master’s passing, and her time as Yamaok Village’s guardian dragon……
Oka had encountered all sorts of humans over her long life.
Yet the humans Oka had met, the humans Oka knew, would never attempt to devour a dragon with their own bare flesh and blood.
Remaining unfazed after taking a ?Dragon Tail? was already strange enough, but eating her ?Scale Bullets? like snacks with relish was utterly absurd.
Was that thing really even human?
No, it could not be.
It was……a monster donning human skin!!
(?Dragon Mist?!!!)
The very moment she reached that realization, following the warning bells of her instincts, Oka expelled a pinkish mist from her mouth at full force!