In Another World with JUST MONIKA Chapter 121

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I dropped to the ground and then boosted forward again. And then there was only time for fire and screaming.

The dragon began swoop and set the village roofs aflame with its fire breath. People began running in panic all over the place. "Secure their evacuation!" I shouted to the delegation guards as I rushed by.

"Dammit," I breathed out. "This is my fault. If we didn't seek to go into the village for cover…"

/"Don't be so arrogant as to claim responsibility for all catastrophes. You're not at fault here, Player. That was reasonable enough decision for all of us because we believed the dragon wouldn't be actually so malicious as to attack a village and was only looking for easy prey. But if it is so monstrous as to want to kill and burn for its own amusement, then clearly it wanted to burn and eat this village anyway."/

Monika shook her head sadly. /"Your attempt at diplomacy playing up to its ego was also reasonable, considering what we expected out of dragons."/

"Then the only thing we can do now is to fight and win." I turned around while still moving forward on hover-boots sliding around like a Dom Tropen.(1)

"HEY YOU OVERGROWN LIZARD! STOP THAT!" I pointed my index and middle fingers upwards.

Thoom.

A bolt of lightning shot up towards the dragon. And narrowly missed as it was just swooping down again to burn another swath of the village.

Fine. Thoom. Thoom. Thoom. Thoom. Thoom.

Lightning shot forth from my fingers alternating between hands, my elbows jerking back and forth in approximation of anti-air artillery. The blue streaks stitched a line in the sky until the last few actually managed to clip the dragon by the belly.

It roared in pain, but obviously not in real injury. I sighed. Of course. Dragons are most at risk from other dragons, so their hides should be mostly fireproof and nonconductive.

"I'M OVER HERE! FIGHT ME!"

"{INSIGNIFICANT INSECT! YOU DARE?!}"

I reached into my fanny pack and brought out a fistful of iron pellets, each one one about the size of my thumb or a 20mm shell. I magnetically levitated the pellet between my palms, with my first two fingers still held outwards. I extended an invisible magnetic channel to about six meters out and –

SHRAK!

The pellet lanced out at about one and a half times the speed of sound.

The dragon roared as the magic railgun shot punched it in the snout.

SHRAK. SHRAK. SHRAK.

I flicked my thumb up and down to 'load' ammo into the magic railgun. Unlike magic lightning which I could cast as fast as I could gather what I thought was an appropriate amount of energy, firing the magic railgun was two seconds between shots. This was because due to the inherent way railguns worked – I needed to build up the charge for the field and each time I fired the opposing magnetic fields threatened to push away and rip apart my outstretched arms.

SHRAK. The dragon roared in frustration and spat a fireball at me. I slid backwards, and got off one last shot that went into the fireball and not out the other side.

Ugh. fine.

I aimed at the wings this time. The slugs punched through the soft flesh and cartilage and… while it caused it, did nothing to inhibit its flight other than make some little holes half an inch wide. I winced.

Because railgun slugs still operated via KE=mv2. Just like plywood used as a backstop for gun targets in a shooting range, bullets would just punch through easily leaving the rest of it undisturbed because there is no resistance whatsoever to transmit force.

These pellets were about fifty grams of ingot iron. At the speed I was throwing them out, they were about twice as powerful as the 7.62x39mm rounds used by an AK-47, which was already known to punch through inches of trees and wooden walls. (2) This was something I was willing to use only in an anti-air role - for ground attacks I'd have limited the velocity to just around the speed of sound and more like heavy machinegun rounds.

For the dragon to just shrug these off - I suppose that only made sense. Dragons are huge and have claws and if your natural armor and rubbery internal organs is tough enough to withstand other multiple tons of dragons clawing at you in flight or dropping from a great height, the tough scales + resilient underlying muscles would dampen enough of the kinetic energy to make anything less than anti-materiel rounds worthwhile.

That was somewhat a'required secondary power' for any great beastie that expects to fight while in flight, the same way super-strength actually requires some degree of personal invulnerability so that your own muscles don't rip themselves away from your bones.

Magic railguns were also a function of *length*. The further away and the longer I set the magnetic field channel, and with the corresponding length of time to build up the charge, the more velocity onto the ferromagnetic slug which could hopefully build up enough velocity to create an appreciable shockwave as it passed or the equivalent of at least a .50 BMG anti-material round.

Which would not be viable here because

-a the target was moving

- b) time I spent aiming and building the charge would give it more time to burninate innocent people, and

-c ) because it's a function of length, that means I would need to be far enough away with clear line of sight.

I had [Aqua Cutter], which could work, but the ice blade had a ballistic trajectory and it would cause much damage falling into the village. It was also somewhat slow, tumbling through the air unless I could somehow tempt the dragon to get down on the ground. [Blade Tornado] was out for the same reason.

Anything [Fire] related was probably completely worthless too.

So victory and saving all these people relied upon being so SUPER ANNOYING that it would choose to chase me out into the open where we might more easily fight it instead of wrecking the village even further.

"YOUR MOTHER WAS A HAMSTER AND YOUR FATHER SMELLED OF ELDERBERRIES! *I CAST [FIST]!*"

THOOOOM!

I punched up and sent a long, sustained bolt of lightning at the black dragon, enough to push it away in the air from a stream of crackling electric fury.

The dragon's head snapped back, but it managed to stay aloft with furious flapping of its wings. Then it glared balefully down at me, and noticemed my attempt to get out of the village. It opened its maw and hot power gathered between its jaws. Then it swept down at me, throwing a focused fiery blast out of its maw like some sort of draconic doomlaser.

FAHCK.

I clipped to the right, just as the dragon beam passed by and cleanly bisected a stone house. I heard someone scream from inside.

Crapbaskets! I followed through and punched through the walls as well. As the roof started to collapse down, I punched upwards and blew it away with a [Rising Tornado Uppercut]. A spiraling gout of wind blew apart the whole roof, exposing the night sky outside and the glow of uncontrolled fires.

A woman was still kneeling on the ground trying to shield her child from the danger. Both of them stared up at me with wide, frightened eyes.

"Run!" I hissed, then with a burst of wind, I shot upwards and into the sky.

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The village was a sea of flames. People were running, screaming and stumbling in panic. The guards waved and urged them to take a common paths between the cover of taller buildings. "Prioritize saving the civilians!" Garm shouted. "Carry those who can't move to safety!"

"You heard him, men! Let none be left behind!" Lyon ordered. The Belfastian knights helped carry people to safety, picking up children in their arms so that their parents can run faster.

THOOOOOOOM.

"I AM VENGEANCE! I AM THE NIGHT!"

I bounced up and down, shooting at it before dipping back under cover, the dragon not knowing behind which outer area house I would appear from next like some sort of demented whack-mole. At least this meant the dragon would be focusing on only one quarter of the village if it could not be tempted to chase me.

"{RAAARGH! ANNOYING INSECT! YOU DARE CHALLENGE ME IN THE SKY! DIE! DIE! DIE!}"

"I AM THE POPTART OF MY SHADOW CAT GAUSS RIFLE BUILD!"

The [Air Shield] didn't work so well against dragonfire – temperature would just leak through since the [Air Shield] worked mainly through deflection. I set up a more solid shield of air, and that focused stream of dragon fire was deflected off to the side, but enough to force me away on the opposite direction.

I slammed back-first onto the second floor walls of a house. Fortunately it was made of wood, so I didn't break my spine with the inherent durability applied by the [Reinforce Physical] spell. That spell was originally created to save Monika the headache of needing to assign cores just to [Amplify] my durability and instead spend more of her attention monitoring the battlespace, and right now goes save people, perform triage, and issue orders for evacuation.

Unfortunately, it was made of wood, so it splintered inwards from the impact and now I was stuck halfway into the wall. Oh no.

The dragon landed own the clearing in front of me and gave a dark, satisfied chuckle. It opened it mouth and roared, sending a flood of flames my way like a flamethrower. It didn't want to kill me. It wanted to cook me.

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"[AQUA SHELL!]"

A spinning blue shield of ice appeared in front, repelling the fiery assault.

"Mister Zah!" Linze cried out from below.

What a relief. She'd been tasked to help with evacuation, putting out fires and shoring up structures. Now that she was around I knew that there were no more civilians in danger inside the village.

I waved, as much as I was able, with my arms still halfway in and my butt hanging out the inside of the second-floor wall. "Hey."

"I CAST [FIST!]" Elze yelled as she sprang out from a dark side alley and punched at the dragon's face.

Sproonng. There was a ringing metallic sound as the dragon's massive head snapped around.

Then it roared in pain as Yae leapt from the other side and jabbed one of her katanas into one of its surprised eyes. It shut its eyelids and twisted its head back, ripping her sword out of her hands. It swept away with its clawed arms and Yae ducked under them. She didn't have as much luck with the curtain of fire billowing out its mouth accompanying its pained yell.

Yae slammed into the ground and began rolling to put out her pink kimono on fire.

"[AQUA SHELL!"] Linze put another ice shield in front of me. Not herself.

"LINZE STOP!" I shouted down.

Enraged to madness with one of its its eyes lost – I could still see Yae's sword stuck in between the closed eyelids, the dragon began throwing fireballs and blaze flows all around.

Elze tackled her sister out of the way, and the twins rolled on the ground as a fireball swept past overhead. The Aqua Shell dropped to the ground, its magic no longer fixing it in space with the loss of attention from its caster. The fireball exploded under me, shattering the rest of the house and fortunately also freeing me at the same time as perforating me with flaming splinters.

I dropped down and looked up just in time to see Elze and Linze come to a stop beside a wall. Elze slumped, her right arm clearly broken.

"What…" I whispered.

"Sis… your hand…!"

Elze let out a little 'heh' and lifted the green metal gauntlet "FACEPUNCHER". Blood welled out from between the cracks.

"Ahaha... That thing's hide… is tougher than it looks." [Boost] normally protected her from the effects of her punching, but for the first time she suffered recoil from the dragon's flesh – instead of just cracking its scales, deforming inwards and then rebounding, sending the force right back at her.

The dragon huffed, and cast its baleful gaze around with its one remaining eye. It saw me and then Elze and Linze.

Thoom.

I threw a lance of lightning that splashed against its face. It turned away from me.

And it chose to kill them instead because it knew by instinct that that would hurt me more.

No.

YOU DAMN DRAGON.

I stood up and stumbled back down, because a long piece of wood had punctured into my thigh. Armor cloth could only go so far. Like silk used in backing armor, holding shut around the arrowhead while the flesh gives way.

"Hiyaaah!"

Yae screamed and leaped at the dragon aiming at its other eye. The dragon moved its head slightly, her sword meeting its cheek. Her sword shattered. Then the dragon backhanded her out of the air.

Then it turned back towards Elze and Linze.

"[Aqua Shell!]" Linze managed to yelp out, just as the dragon sent a flow of burning crimson at them, flowing up and around the ice shell.

Watching from the side, I could see Elze grab her twin sister and tried to shield her with her own body. The Aqua Shell wouldn't last for much longer.

Thoom. I raised one arm and threw another bolt of lightning at the dragon's face.

"FIGHT ME!" I screamed at the dragon.

Vrooosh! It kept the fiery pressure on.

I took off my gloves, ripping the white gloves off with the magic stones stitched into the fingertips. Damn things were useless. Useless! Useless! I clutched at the ground, helplessly scratching up dirt. Against a real dragon we are but worms.

Worms.

/"Player. Is it time?"/

Blood thundered in my ears.

/"I see. It is time then. No more holding back."/

I heard only thunder.

/"We shall be the one thing they fear."/

The village around me was in flames.

The sight – the sound – the smell – the feeling of it boiling under my skin. Screaming. I could hear the crack-crack-crack of many spellform crystals breaking.

Blood and fire.

I threw my head back and roared at the sky. "[STRUN.] [BAH.] [QOH!]"

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And the skies obeyed me. The stars hid behind the clouds, and there was rain.

There was thunder.

And there was fury.

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AN:

(1) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hk1HrP2ellU

(2) https://cdn4.explainthatstuff.com/bullet-energies-compared.png

Chapter end