I took the cart that leads to the village nearby the area. It was actually in the western forest, near the hills.
What kind of monster lives in the hills? I understand if bears do. But what predator eats a bear?
Bears are supposed to be one of the apex predators in the wild. How come it gets eaten?
And the other three adventurers... Ahh I could do this on my own. Why am I even accepting it?
The path to the west is all rough. The carriage often gets bumpy along the trip, and the people inside are hurling. Please don't puke.
And we finally arrived after being on the bumpy road for one and a half hours! Yay.
The guy who hurled before puked right on the side of the carriage. I just walked away and pretended I didn't see anything.
From the village to the hill will take twenty minutes, fastest. But I don't mind. Walking in the forest is good for your eyes and lungs.
The birds are chirping, hissing snakes, the sounds of grass being stepped on by me... Ahh it's all so beautiful. Even the roars of the bear-
Wait, bear?
I just entered the god damn forest, how is there a bear here?
"ROAARR!!!"
It's coming from my right, far away. I ran towards the bear. My mission was to hunt the bear after all. And if I'm lucky, I will find the thing that hunts bears.
But, how dumb I am for believing in that.
"Careful! Watch the claws!"
The claws didn't hit. But the guy with the black hair jumped way too far. He didn't look where he stepped, as a result, he stumbled on a tree root. He fell on the ground, the sword gone from his hands.
The bear approaches him and roars.
"Wahh!!!"
As the guy screams, a blast of light comes from the right. When the light is gone, the bear's head is no more.
"Oh... Why did it took you so long to shoot!?"
"Haha... Sorry... Haha... Your face..."
"Bahahhahah!!!"
His friends fell on the floor, laughing. His friend nearly died and they laughed.
"Dude, I almost died!"
"Yeah... I... aHAHahah!"
Those laughs... Why am I having a deja vu?
Ah... Right. The guy with the blonde hair, the one with the spiked hair, and the guy with the metal gloves. These are the adventurers that were in the cart from this morning.
Don't tell me these three are...
"Okay, enough laughing. Now we just need to put the bear as a trap."
"But will the predator come? I mean, it did chomp on the bear, but it didn't eat it completely."
"Well let's just see and wait."
The blonde guy is totally the leader. His words made his friends follow him. And he can use light magic. That laser was pretty cheating.
Bah, what am I doing? I ain't working with these assholes. They may be Green or Purple ranked, but I still won't work with them.
"Hmm?"
"What is it, Cane?"
"Nothing. I just heard footsteps."
"Could it be our backup?"
"Probably. Let's just focus on our thing."
The blonde guy, Cane, took out the ropes from his ring and tied up the bear. The three continued to create a bait for the real monster to come out.
But I don't work like that. I just simply walk around in the forest, waiting for the real monster to come out. Using my super senses and hearing to spot them.
I have been walking for minutes now, but my senses aren't picking up anything.
Could the predator have run away already?
As I walked on the bottom of the hill, I started to feel something. This much pressure... Could it be the predator?
I started to approach the pressure. And I can see it.
It's... a dragon?
No, it's way smaller than what a normal dragon is. Then it's a lesser dragon. A yellow ranked beast.
"What in the world..."
The lesser dragon is attacking a cave. It tries to claw the cave out, even burning the insides. But what's in the cave?
I couldn't see it very well because I looked from the side, behind the trees in the forest.
Whatever. All I have to do is kill the dragon, right? Can I kill the dragon? Am I strong enough?
I'm not sure about those questions myself. But now that I learned to enhance my sword, it should be easier than it should.
I came out from my hiding spot, approaching the dragon. The dragon is grey scaled, while his four wings are folded on his back. It turned its head and looked at me.
A very heavy pressure just attacked me.
Calm down. It's only a lesser dragon.
ROARR!!!
It roars. But it doesn't sound like a roar. Because it wasn't.
I jumped to the right before the wall of flames could hit me. When it realizes I moved, it follows me. The wall of fire moves to the right, where I am at.
But, I can just keep on jumping. I jumped from the right to the left. Faster than his flames. After a while, he gets tired from burning the trees. It stopped spewing flames.
Now's my chance. Time to use that technique. Luckily I can use all my strength this time. Unlike at the arena when I held back.
Yes sir, I actually did hold back. It's not my fault the doll and the walls are weak.
I took out the orcish sword from my space ring. A sword and a dragon crest scabbard was summoned to my hip. I unsheathed it with my right hand. I focused the energy on my grip, then let it flow to the whole blade. When my sword was all glowing blue, I moved it upwards to the right.
The dragon saw the intensity of the energy on my sword. It immediately shoots fire again.
Sorry, but I won't dodge.
With this one slash, cut the wall of flames.
SLASHH!!
The slash of the boomerang shaped wind cuts the wall of flames in half, all the way till it reaches the dragon.
BRUSHHH!!!!
Direct hit to the dragon's face. My assumption would be that the slash cut off his face. But...
Reality is often too hard.
And in this case, it's his face. The scales on his face must be that strong. Because the slash from my full power only scarred him a little bit.
"ROAAAARRRRRR!!!!!"
The roar vibrates the entire ecosystem. It was so loud, it even made the cliff nearby crumble.
The dragon unpacked its wings and started flying. It flew all the way to the top of the mountain. The cave that he was trying to dig just now is nearly closed out. But it's big enough for a person to enter.
Now that the dragon is gone...
I can start my shivering.
Holy shit, that last roar scared the shit out of me. I don't know how, but somehow... It's like my very soul was getting screamed at.
I must have lost a lot of my energy thanks to the sword slash that I just did. So now I can barely stand.
I sat down at the ground, recharging my energy. As I tried to calm down, I looked at the cave that the dragon was trying to rip out.
What is inside the cave that the dragon is so interested in?
My senses just got something. Footsteps?
Oh great, it's them.
"Wha...?"
The blonde guy looked around at the battlefield. Marks of flames everywhere, trees getting burned down, a cave in the distance nearly destroyed...
And a red haired lady sitting on the ground.
"Hey... Ehh..."
"Well, hello there, lady!"
The blonde guy got cut off by the spiked hair. He immediately approaches me.
Ugh... Here we go again.
"Say, are you our backup? Because I will be happy to have you back me up!"
That is one shitty line. I can give you an even better one, but maybe I won't.
Why am I even doing this? Oh right. I can't stand up.
Fucking dragon shouted at me, now I can't stand. How does that even make sense? Did it somehow cursed me with its roar
"Can you not?"
I simply replied with that one line. And his face turned sour immediately.
"Fine! We won't help you."
Spike finally left me. But I have the feeling his friends, especially the blonde won't.
"So, you are our backup?"
It's his turn now. He sat right next to me. I held my head with my right hand. How did it come to this situation?
"Yes. I came here just a while ago."
"Then, you must be the one I heard in the forest before."
He sensed me? I guess I wasn't being too stealthy.
"... That must be me."
The spiky haired guy is pulling the other guy while pointing at the blonde who is talking with me. Somehow, that annoyed me.
"Tell us. What was that... Loud roar?"
Now that I know it's a dragon, I have to be very careful. Which means, I would have to accept an alliance with these guys. Whether I liked it or not. Else, the dragon would attack the village.
Hell, this is very near to the village. If we don't kill the dragon sooner, the people there could get attacked. That just gave me a reason to work with these asses.
"It was a dragon."
Spike stopped pulling the other guy.
"Dragon? Here?"
The blonde looked at the battlefield. All the burn marks, the burning trees, even the claw marks at that cave. He understood after looking around.
"I see. What type of dragon is it?"
"It's a lesser dragon. It has four wings already."
"Hmm... Usually when a lesser dragon has grown four wings, it has the possibility to evolve..."
"Hey, evolve into what?"
Spike asked the Blonde.
"Into a regular dragon. A White ranked disaster."