~~~Fragments from the Past to Present~~~
[Total War Against Dragon]
“—!”
The Sword Saint Sanuki Shoichiro’s consciousness was roused awake at the incoming, despair-inducing, sense of death.
Luckily, his beloved ōdachi ‘Nadegiri Hibami’ was still in his blood-covered hand.
“Kieryaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!”
With an inhuman scream, Sanuki made flames cover his ōdachi before swinging out with it.
One death was repelled with each of his swings, so fast it appeared like a hailstorm. The sword-slash barrier neutralized the deaths.
The ‘deaths’ that had been coming after Sanuki were slashes unleashed from a total of eight claws on both hands of a dark green dragon.
Each of the claws contained extremes of swordsmanship that the dragon had learned through observing Sanuki.
One of the techniques it had learned was, ‘Range Extension’, which as the name suggested, extended the range of one’s attack.
In swordsmanship, the technique was used to manifest a ‘flying slash’.
Sanuki had used the technique to carve a huge gash into the dragon’s chest, and now it was using the same technique to send one flying slash after another by bending its claws.
Every time its claw moved, a slash was generated that would be enough to instantly kill Sanuki upon direct hit.
Long, large, colorless, and transparent. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call it a spatial slash.
Picking up the sound of the slash that easily broke through the sound barrier with foresight-like super intuition, the ‘Sword Saint’ repelled it with a slash of his own that was boosted by a burst of flame.
“Graaaaaaaaaaaawwwrr!!”
“Goryaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!”
The dark green dragon and the ‘Sword Saint’ screamed, their slashes clashing.
The dragon, standing on its two legs while wielding its claws, boasted a huge body of 320m (approximately 1,050ft) in height.
Its strong limbs were connected by mountains-like pectoral muscles, and on its back grew out wings so enormous they could envelop its torso whole.
Its entire body was covered in draconic scales that were strong and malleable like orichalcum and could repel most magic, and its tail was so strong that it breaks the ground and creates a shock wave every time it struck.
However, the dragon was now exhausted to the point where it had to fight the ‘Sword Saint’ with bare hands.
Both of its wings had been blown away by 11 anti-dragon spiral-type guided magic bullets fired by the 250-strong magic unit and spiral-type super-large golden cannons created by the ‘Preceding King’ Manuel von Knaust.
Its tail had been torn off by the stake-shaped offensive barrier created by the knight unit led by the ‘Saint’ Raymond Tyner.
The dragon’s scales had been slashed apart by Sanuki Shoichiro’s sword techniques, and the subsequent attacks from the vanguard unit had made it bleed from all over its body, creating a red lake on the ground.
‘The Lone Wolf’, ‘The Calm’, ‘The Great Warrior’, ‘The Evil Vanquisher’, ‘The Spirited One’, ‘The Unbroken’.
Those were but a few of the other famous heroes and elites that had unleashed raging attacks at the dragon. After being exposed to them, there were no more unscathed parts on the dragon’s body.
That said, mankind’s attacks on the dragon were only effective so far because the dragon was still shocked, having been surprise attacked mid-flight. When the dragon had begun to fight back for real, the situation was instantly reversed.
“Gaaaaaaaaaaagogaaaaa—!!!”
The dragon had released a heat-ray-like breath, which the ‘Saint’ Raymond Tyner and the knights tried to block to protect the subjugation force at the cost of their lives, but despite their sacrifices, the breath still turned a part of the subjugation force into stains on the ground.
The ‘Preceding King’ Manuel had jumped into the dragon’s mouth and destroyed its heat-generating organ in its throat with a point-blank shot. The resulting explosion had extinguished his old body from existence.
In its fury, the dragon had jumped over the vanguard unit, trampling and annihilating the magic unit in the rear. The impact had smashed the ground and sent rocks hailing down on the vanguard unit, crushing anyone upon hit.
Furthermore, to the ‘Sword Saint’ Sanuki’s shock, the dragon blocked the hole in his throat that had been opened by the explosion that occurred when the ‘Preceding King’ had destroyed its heat-generating organ and sucked air into its chest.
The heat-less breath released from the dragon’s mouth had blown violently, and Sanuki felt as if a wall of air had slammed into his body.
It had given him the illusion as if his body was breaking apart, and the sand and pebbles that had come flying along with it gouged out the flesh all over his body.
“Guh, guuu!”
‘Pebbles’ might not be the most accurate description to describe them, as most of them were the size of a fist or larger, and they hit him one after another with violent speed, boosted by the breath.
Each one of them was like a shell, strong enough to blow apart the frail body of a human.
Even the ‘Sword Saint’ had lost consciousness for a moment when his head got hit so many times.
Still, Sanuki had managed to hold on, though the ground around him was now riddled with holes that appeared as though to have been made by fallen meteorites.
In the meantime, the dark green dragon had approached Sanuki and attacked him with the spatial slash it had learned. It had roused Sanuki’s consciousness and so he began to trade slashes with it with his ōdachi.
(The difference between the number of our slashes is way too big. I heard that dragons are smart, but learning sword techniques just by observation and this quick, to boot? That’s crazy.)
Moreover, since it used its claws to perform the sword technique, it almost seemed like it was only toying with the ‘Sword Saint’ Sanuki.
8 claws vs 1 ōdachi. Sanuki was clearly at a disadvantage when it came to the number of slashes that could be performed at a time.
What’s more, the dragon could dish out 20 slashes per second. Yet, Sanuki was somehow able to deal with them. That fact alone made him abnormal, but even so, Sanuki couldn’t find a way to break through the stalemate.
Furthermore, the dragon’s blood began to pool up under Sanuki’s feet, hindering his movements. Sanuki could only grit his teeth.
(But it has been weakened, too. Weakened to the point that it has to rely on my sword techniques it just learned.)
Even as he was slashing away, Sanuki thought that the dragon before him was close to dying, and it was the truth.
It had flown over smelling the bait when suddenly both of its wings were torn off, its tail got severed, its throat was pierced through, and its whole body mangled.
Its blood had dyed its own dark green dragon scales black, and its strength was continuously leaving the dragon’s body.
Due to the raid of the mankind elites, the dragon no longer had even the stamina to swing its fists.
“Rraaaaaaaa, graaaaaaa!!”
So, the dragon kept screaming to keep itself conscious, endured the severe pain wrecking its body, put its remaining strength into its claws, and continued to use sword techniques.
If it didn’t fight, it’d be killed. Killed by the small creatures swarming it.
The thought alone drove the dragon mad.
That and to survive, it had to kill the man in front of it before the ones he had blown away with its desperate breath returned.
The dragon understood that this human was a blade that could kill it.
Because he, the ‘Sword Saint’ was the only one who managed to cut through its dragon scales, whereas others could only widen the wounds.
It was sure that if it could just kill him, it would survive.
Thus, the dragon wanted a breather.
If it could just get a moment of respite, it’d be able to move its limbs instead of just claws.
And that would be enough for it to kill the human.
However, the dragon had no way to create room for breathing.
It already took it all it had to move its claws to use spatial slashes to hinder the ‘Sword Saint’. If it gave him even the slightest opening, he would surely pry it open and deal it a fatal blow in an instant.
And because the dragon could no longer move as quickly because of the injuries its massive body had sustained, it knew that it’d never catch the ‘Sword Saint’ again once it lost sight of it.
(I can’t possibly wait to see which one of us will run out of stamina first. Are the others still alive? I don’t even have the leisure to look. What do I do? Should I just risk it?)
The ‘Sword Saint’ Sanuki, on the other hand, was also trying to find a way to break the stalemate.
Although it had learned the technique hastily, the dragon’s hail of spatial slashes could be fatal if he failed to parry so much as a single blow.
He was sure the dragon had been weakened, but humans’ and dragons’ amount of stamina couldn’t be compared in the first place, and the caved-in ground where Sanuki stood had begun to be filled with the dragon’s blood.
The gradually raising pool of blood hindered the movement of his legs, and over time it would reach his knees, waist, and even chest. In such a situation, it would be difficult for him to swing his ōdachi.
He couldn’t let the battle get withdrawn, as a battle of attrition would be overwhelmingly disadvantageous for him.
Which left him with only one option, ‘while preparing to get a fatal injury, broke through the dragon’s spatial slashes by force, climbed up its over 300m high body, and attack it with his secret technique’.
It wasn’t a bad plan, honestly.
As for whether or not it was feasible, he was sure he could climb up the dragon’s body by himself, but to make his secret technique count, he had to aim the hole in the dragon’s throat previously created by the ‘Preceding King’.
There was a catch, however. Using the secret technique would leave him wide open. And in that period, the dragon would surely counterattack.
Naturally, it would be a ‘death counter’.
The dragon, now having an understanding of swordsmanship enough to see through most sword techniques, would definitely not miss the opening left by Sanuki using his secret technique. If the dragon were to attack him at that moment, the ‘Sword Master’ Sanuki Shoichiro would definitely die.
Strangely enough, Sanuki and the dragon had the same dilemma.
Their only two options were to risk trading a kill for a fatal injury or to wait for something to happen to break the stalemate, which might not even happen at all.
“Grooogaaaaaa!”
“Tch.”
Sanuki sensed the dragon slowing down the pace of its slashes.
The density of its attacks was such that it could escape if Sanuki were to choose to risk everything while minimizing the consumption of its stamina. This proved that the dragon had chosen a ‘battle of attrition’.
As mentioned earlier, a ‘battle of attrition’ was overwhelmingly disadvantageous for Sanuki. Thus, Sanuki chose to—not risk everything.
(Hah, regretting life this late in the game?)
If it was before, he would have risked everything without hesitation.
That wasn’t to say he didn’t believe his comrades would survive and come help him. But if he could take down the dragon in exchange for his life, that would be well worth it.
He would have risked everything and traded his life for the dragon’s.
But at this moment, a certain boy crossed the mind of the ‘Sword Saint’ Sanuki Shoichiro.
He had bid the boy goodbye, saying that he had nothing left to teach him, but he still couldn’t shake the boy’s maniacal smile off his mind.
Although he personally thought it was not good, the desire to see the future of the boy was tugging at the back of the ‘Sword Saint’.
It made him hesitate to rush to death.
And that hesitation changed his fate.
“—————!!”
An arrow shot from far behind Sanuki along with someone’s shout.
The arrow ripped through the air and flies straight toward the dark green dragon’s eye like a meteor.
It had been fired from a strong bow drawn with inhuman strength, no doubt.
However, it was but a single arrow.
Even if there were dozens of such arrows, it would still be impossible to pierce through the semi-transparent nictitating membrane covering the dragon’s eyes.
The strong archer who had shot the arrow knew that as well. Even so, he had put his everything into that single arrow and fired it knowing that his already tattered arm would be torn apart by the recoil.
The arrow flew and reached the dragon’s eye. The dragon took notice of it and covered its eyes with the nictitating membrane.
The arrowhead stabbed into the nictating membrane. It failed to pierce through the nictating membrane that protected the dragon’s eye and the wound from the arrow could be said to be nothing but a small scratch at best. The dragon immediately shifted its focus from the arrow to the ‘Sword Saint’.
But then, the several ‘tags’ tied to the arrow simultaneously burst into light
“Giggoagaaaaaa?!”
An arrow couldn’t hurt a dragon.
Therefore, the archer and the survivors who had gathered around him had opted to put their all to blind it.
“Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!”
Blinded by the sudden burst of light, the dragon reflexively swung its arm wide to where the arrow had come from.
It was nothing but a reflexive action to pain.
However, coming from a dragon, the world’s apex predator, the result was disastrous.
With the swing of its arm—the claws of which each released a spatial slash—the air itself exploded, creating four canyons between the dragon and the archer.
Those who were caught up amid the cataclysm caused by the dragon were either ripped apart or dragged to the bottom of the earth one after another. None of them would survive, but they managed to create an opening.
Still, Sanuki couldn’t move.
The storm of slashes the dragon had unleashed before it had swung its arms remained. He needed to overcome it first before taking any action.
Overcoming the slashes, rushing to the dragon, running up its body, driving his secret technique into its throat. Would the dragon just wait quietly in the meantime?
He had to rush out now or never.
It might mean exposing himself to the slashes, but he couldn’t let the opening that many of his comrades-in-arms had sacrificed their lives to make go to waste.
(Anything goes as long as I still have one arm remaining by the time I reach its throat, I guess. It’s now or never.)
The moment Sanuki made up his mind as he faced the colorless and transparent slashes and put a lot of strength into his legs, a shadow jumped over Sanuki.
“Oooooooooooooooooo!!!”
“‘Gale’—!”
A giant man clad in the ‘Idaten Hagoromo’ who was said to be the fastest man in existence broke through the rain of giant slashes by force.
Though the sonic boom generated by his arrival repelled some of the slashes pouring down on him, they still got half of his face and both of his signature legs. However, he succeeded in delivering the people on his back safely.
“‘Sword Saint’!”
Two people leaped out from the back of the collapsing ‘Gale’.
One of the two, owner of a superhuman body, muscles of which filled with divine strength despite their slender form—the Princess Knight, also well known as ‘The Destroyer’, she lowered her waist in front of Sanuki and placed her hands on top of each other.
Her meaning was clear. She intended to become the launcher to quickly send the blade that was Sanuki to the dragon’s vital point.
“I-I will c-clear the p-path.”
And the other one, a man with long black hair and reddish-brown skin leaped toward the dragon.
The stuttering man was the Sword Demon, second only to the Sword Saint in the way of the sword. He confronted the spatial slashes with his two-handed sword in hand.
(A-a-although I’m said to be second only to the ‘S-S-Sword Saint’, t-t-there’s a huge gap between m-m-me and him. B-b-but even so—!)
Backed by his deviant slaughter instinct, the Sword Demon picked up the slashes in his perception, and he released a counter-slash with his unique greatsword.
The moment he made a direct hit, the part of the blade that blocked one of the slashes exploded and both of his wrists supporting the sword shattered.
The force sent him flying into the ground, but the Sword Demon managed to dissipate one of the dragon’s spatial slashes and created a path of hope for humanity.
At that instant, the Princess Knight launched Sanuki Shoichiro with her divine strength, sending him flying through the opening amid the storm of slashes.
Sanuki could hear the roar of dozens of slashes slashing the earth as he passed by.
The kicked-up soil and sand reached Sanuki, speaking of the power of the slashes.
“Kaaa!”
Overcome, rush out, run up, and slash.
Of the 4 steps, the first two had been successfully omitted. The dragon had yet to regain its posture after the slash, too.
By the time the dragon regained its vision, Sanuki was already running up its torso and jumping near its neck.
Taking a deep breath, the Sword Saint prepared to swing his ōdachi. From his right shoulder to his back, he twisted his body taut.
The ‘Sword Saint’ was now ‘charged’ to unleash his technique.
Kiiiiiiiiiiiiiii! A high-pitched woman’s scream then resounded.
The scream came from the ōdachi, ‘Nadegiri Hibami’. The contours of its polished blade began to blur and become dyed in golden red.
“Zan.”
The technique contained the concept of one of the ultimate sword techniques, ‘All is the Same Under the Blade’—slashing everything uniformly.
A technique to slash iron, orichalcum, a scrap of paper, plant, dragon scale, meat, and bone, all of them in half as if they were the same.
An ultimate slash with which one could find a single line where everything could be cut by understanding the hardness, properties, and every other factor on a deeper level than instinct.
“Ka.”
The technique contained the concept of one of the ultimate sword techniques, ‘Range Extension’—delivering a slash to a place unreachable by the blade.
It could be used to send a flying slash or to extend the length of the blade.
An ultimate slash with which one could reach any target, transcending physical limits.
“Ryo.”
The technique contained the concept of one of the ultimate sword techniques, the wondrous and mysterious ‘Synchronous Omnipresence’.
It was simply a technique to release dozens of slashes perfectly at the same time, that was it. In Sanuki’s hand, the technique could release dozens of slashes in one ‘slash’.
The high-pitched woman’s scream coming from the ōdachi was the sound of dozens of slashes colliding with each other, waiting impatiently for the moment of release.
By sublimating the wondrous technique into the realm of supernatural power, he cut off even the continuity that should have been.
“Ran.”
The three ultimate techniques that Sanuki had attained.
All of them were in his secret technique.
Its name was ‘Zankaryoran (lit. beheading flames bloom)’.
“Cheryaaaaaaaaa!!”
Along with the all-out cry, the secret technique produced a golden-red flash that seemed to divide the sky in two and disappeared as if being sucked into the hole in the dragon’s neck.
After which, the dozens of slashes contained in the flash ‘burst off’.
“Gra—graaaaaaaaaa!”
It appeared as if fireworks went off.
Each firework was a slash that Sanuki had put into his secret technique, and the fireworks going off in the dragon’s wound scattered in all directions, smoothly slicing their way through the dragon’s skin, flesh, and bones.
The effect was more a butchering than bisecting.
The neck that connected the head and torso was instantly chopped into mince and popped off with the slashes. It truly looked like a display of fireworks.
The dragon’s cry gradually faded, and the head, which had been supported by the neck, fell together with Sanuki.
Right next to each other, Sanuki coincidentally met with the dragon’s eyes mid-fall. Its lifeless eyes were red and cloudy from the blood that flowed from the inside.
“—?!”
Due to a momentary sense of discomfort, Sanuki immediately swung his ōdachi in the air despite his unstable posture.
At the same time, the Sword Saint’s slash collided with something crimson. It was an arrow of blood fired from the dragon’s eye using the eye muscles.
Even though it was dying.
No, because it was dying it was obsessed with not letting the winner live.
The dragon tried to kill Sanuki until the last moment when its consciousness disappeared.
“Ghh!”
Although caught off guard, Sanuki succeeded in intercepting and repelling the arrow of blood.
However, the recoil threw his ōdachi off his hand. With his unstable posture, there was no way he could properly handle the blow that could have easily penetrated through a large rock.
The dragon’s death counter wasn’t over, however.
Its now headless torso jumped with a start.
It was due to the kinetic energy created by the relaxation of tense muscles throughout the body, as if a stretched rubber band were to contract.
Sanuki couldn’t believe his eyes when he saw the phenomenon it caused.
After all, the headless torso jumped straight toward him.
“What?!”
Its arm was clenched into a fist.
Because it had lost its brain, the fist went beyond the limit of its muscle strength. It smashed through the dragon’s head, sending grey matter, blood, and pieces of its skull flying everywhere, as it approached Sanuki.
Having lost his ōdachi, Sanuki was left with only the sword on his waist.
Clenching his teeth, Sanuki pulled out the sword while feeling the time around him slowed down.
‘Recollection of Ainsworth’.
It was a replacement for the sword he had entrusted to his disciple. A magic sword from the royal vault provided by the royal family.
The blade was made of hematite, which emits a strong metallic luster that might make those who laid their eyes upon it fascinated, and in the center of it was inlaid a rod-shaped opal that glittered in rich colors.
It was created a long time ago by a man whom people referred to as the ‘Sage’ despite him being a jeweler.
The magic sword had the power to ‘remember’ the magic cast on the sword and reproduce it according to the will of the wielder.
Following Sanuki’s will, the ‘Saint’ Raymond Tyner’s barrier spell recorded in the magic sword was instantly activated.
It was no exaggeration to say that it was the hardest defensive spell that a human could wield, and it enveloped Sanuki’s body just before the dragon’s fist landed on him.
“Gh—!!”
In the next moment, at the same time as the sound of the barrier breaking echoed, Sanuki’s vision flickered and shook.
The impact of the direct hit was so strong that his brain immediately cut off the connection with his five senses.
When he came to, Sanuki had been smashed into the ground.
The magic sword in his hand shattered, leaving the handle behind, the blade had disappeared somewhere.
His left half wouldn’t move as he wanted, and when he tried to force it, a terrible pain came from inside his body along with the sound of something being crushed.
“Koff, koff… koff…!”
He couldn’t breathe properly because something sticky was mixed in his lungs.
Sanuki laid on his right side, which was relatively unharmed, and secured his airway while coughing out a mixture of blood and saliva from his mouth.
It took ten-odd seconds until he could breathe properly. And then tens of seconds, or even minutes, passed while he laid still without moving.
It was the first time in Sanuki’s life that he had been so fatally injured in battle.
But he was fine with it. The reason being, the corpse of the dragon that he had happened to turn to.
“Koff… koff! Ah~… after all… that… we finally… did it.”
After its death, the dragon’s huge body fell down to the ground following the momentum of its death counter punch.
Even its torn wings and the base of its tail were within Sanuki’s sight.
Since he could make out its whole body, Sanuki could imagine just how far he had been sent flying by its last hit.
Sanuki let out a wry laugh at the fact that he managed to survive such an outrageous blow.
The dark green dragon sunk into its own pool of blood and turned black.
The blood flowed into the cracks in the broken ground and mixed with the corpses of the fallen warriors.
Mankind was able to defeat the dragon at the cost of many sacrifices.
But they had no time to enjoy their victory. Before long, monsters would swarm over like a tsunami, desiring the flesh of the corpses.
The silence of victory was only temporary.
They must move, gather the survivors, and go back home.
“It’s the ‘Sword Saint’! The ‘Sword Saint’ is over there!”
“Bring a stretcher! Anyone who can help, come!”
“Is there anyone who can use earth magic?! Or drive a carriage?!”
“Don’t let the survivors die! Collect the bodies that are still intact! Don’t let monsters eat them!”
“We’re going to make it back alive!”
The survivors started moving while shouting loudly to give themselves strength.
Their voices sounded muffled to Sanuki, as if underwater. Sanuki was slowly lifted into a magically crafted cart.
Sanuki saw other injured people being put on the cart and slowly crawled to the corner to make room for them, then he somehow sat up.
“S-Sanuki-san! What are you doing?! You’re so seriously injured that it’s strange you’re even alive, please lie down and rest!”
“Well, my right half is… still functioning well… I’m not gonna die… anytime soon… Anyway, a sword… Bring me a sword… Any sword will do…”
The adventurer stared at Sanuki while biting his lips before going away and then bringing back a broad curved sword, most likely one of the dead’s.
Sanuki had him tie it to his right hand with a strip of cloth so it didn’t fall out of his hand, after which the adventurer said something incomprehensible “If you die, I will haunt you for the rest of my life!” prompting a chuckle from Sanuki.
He felt a little energized thanks to the adventurer’s bravado. His right arm was still movable.
“Well then… let’s hold out… a little longer.”
As he hung his arm holding the sword out of the cart, the magically created cart began to move pulled by a similarly magically created golem.
It was a pain to turn his head, but he felt like there were fewer than 100 survivors.
They would most likely face monsters on the way back, how many people would be able to get back home alive? Would he be one of them?
Realizing how unusually timid he was being for him to think about such things, Sanuki smiled wryly and pulled himself together.
(Rather than thinking about such useless stuff, I better swing my sword.)
Muttering to himself, the ‘Sword Saint’ Sanuki Shoichiro raised his curved sword.
A slash flew out, and a bird-like monster coming in from the sky was slashed into two in the air. He smiled contentedly at the sight of the bisected monster.
—
Until the survivors met up with the rescue team dispatched by the nation, the ‘Sword Saint’ continued to swing his weapon although he was in a half-dead state.
On the way back, they were repeatedly attacked by monsters, but although many almost fell victim to the monsters, a flying slash would always come to save them. The figure of the ‘Sword Saint’ who continued to swing his sword despite his dimming consciousness was something that would never be forgotten by the survivors.
The contribution of the ‘Sword Saint’ in the ‘Dragon Raid’ was so high that Sanuki Shoichiro was recorded in history books as the strongest adventurer of his time, both in name and reality.
