Chapter 176: The Green Dragons of West Ridge

* * *

"Big news! Really big news!!"

It was around noon when the jovial green dragon Toreta Kan Toredeta came flying back to the West Ridge nest, laughing boisterously.

"Shut up! You, Kan! Can't you fly more quietly? I'll kill you!"

Those were the scolding words from the brood leader Samezan Same Sazamezama that greeted the noisily descending Kan.

He was a battle-hardened warrior who ruled over this unruly brood of green dragons through sheer might alone.

His massive frame was a size larger than the other green dragons whose bodies were already the size of small huts, and an old scar running from his forehead across his right eye only amplified his imposing aura.

That scar was a point of pride, an injury from when he had challenged and gloriously defeated the previous brood leader to claim his position.

"Hehe, my apologies leader! But really, it's huge news! Even you will be surprised when you hear it!"

"Then just spit it out already. If it ends up being pointless drivel, I'll crush your throat so you can never screech again."

Samezan glared menacingly at Kan.

However, Kan seemed entirely confident about this so-called "big news", unfazed by the intimidation.

"Yes, well then, allow me to report! You know that pale pinkish old hag in the east? Well, incredibly......she has finally! Kicked the bucket, it seems!"

"......What did you say!?"

Told that report with exaggerated gestures and fluctuating tones, even Samezan was genuinely surprised as Kan had claimed.

Kan grinned as he watched Samezan's reaction.

Annoyed by his expression, Samezan slugged Kan first.

"Ow! Why'd you hit me, leader? That's harsh!"

"Shut up. Continue your report. Are you certain about this?"

Wiping the blood from his mouth and spitting out a broken fang, Kan continued with a pained expression:

"Yes. It's certain. First, that old hag's magic power that was scattered to the east has completely vanished. Looking from a distance, her nest is empty with no sign of her. More than anything, that whole area absolutely reeks of her blood! There's no doubt, she must have died!"

"Hmm......"

Samezan began pondering as he dexterously scratched the back of his head with his wings extending from his back.

The pale pinkish old hag Oka was a mere nuisance to Samezan and his brood coveting dominion over the Nanga Mountains.

Despite her ludicrous coloring, she was a formidable foe capable of driving away entire broods of green dragons single-handedly.

That old hag had died.......

"Did you confirm her corpse?"

"No, I could not......but that blood stench was definitely hers. Even if she's still alive, there's no doubt she's grievously wounded on the verge of death."

"Hmm......hmm, hmm, hmm......kukuku, I see, I see, well well!"

Samezan couldn't help but let out a chuckle.

At first, he had suspected this could be a trap by the old hag to lure them.

However, she had never resorted to such methods before.

She would be unlikely to employ such underhanded tricks now.

She must have truly died or be on death's door.

"Alright, all of you! I will head to East Ridge now! I'll go confirm the old hag's corpse myself!"

Samezan bellowed those words.

"Eh!? You're going, leader!?"

"There's no need for you to go in person!"

"Yeah! Leave such menial tasks to us youngsters!"

The young dragons in the brood began clamoring, but Samezan roared them into silence.

"Shut up, you fools! Didn't you hear what Kan said!? That old hag might still be alive, albeit grievously wounded! Don't you know the saying 'A cornered Chiwanwan will bite a dragon's throat'?"

"We don't know......!"

"As expected of our leader!"

"The leader is so wise!!"

"Of course I can't endanger you youngsters! I'll find the old hag's corpse myself. If she's lingering on death's door, I'll kill her! You lot just wait obediently in this nest for my triumphant return!!"

"Leader......!!"

Showing consideration for the young dragons' safety!

And hints of profound wisdom (?) In his words!

The young dragons were deeply impressed, falling completely silent.

However, as he watched their reaction with a wry smile, Samezan actually held no such regard for the youngsters.

The real reason Samezan wanted to personally confirm Oka's corpse was because he planned to devour her body and absorb her magic power, adding it to his own strength.

In other words, Samezan simply aimed to monopolize the power he could take from Oka.

If Oka was still lingering on death's door, even better.

Killing her in that state would be easy.

By slaying the long-standing enemy who had tormented his brood for years, Samezan's prestige as the leader would rise as well.

It was an all-around boon.

Or rather, even if Oka was already dead, Samezan could just claim he killed her himself through battle.

Yes, he would do that.

Cunning scenarios began rapidly assembling in Samezan's mind......!

"Hehe, well then leader! I leave it to you!......Actually, I have one thing to confirm?"

"Hm?"

Here, the brazen Kan approached the grinning, scheming Samezan, lowering his head nearly to the ground in an exaggerated display as he addressed him.

"Of course I'm asking you to defeat the old hag, leader, I have no objections about that. But could you perhaps give us youngsters a chance to play a part too?"

"......What do you mean?"

Annoyed at the interruption to his plotting, Samezan asked Kan.

Further lowering himself prostrate with his head, wings, arms, and chest all touching the ground in a show of submission, yet still grinning, Kan said:

"Well! That old hag kept humans as pets, didn't she? So how about letting us take care of finishing them off?"

"Is that all......do as you wish."

Hearing Samezan's words, cheers erupted from the young dragons!

"Did you hear that, you lot! The leader gave permission! We can kill the humans however we want!!"

Kan riled up the young dragons, turning toward them!

"Alright! Let's kill, let's kill! Massacre all the humans!"

"Let's swallow them whole!"

"Are you stupid? Tearing them into eight pieces is obviously better!"

"Let's smash them into a gory mess~"

The young dragons became excited imagining the slaughter, clamoring rowdily.

Samezan watched their antics while laughing through his nose.

(Hmph, what idiots. Even if they devour some humans, it won't grant dragons much power at all. You fools are always so easily led astray by fleeting pleasures, that's why you'll forever be third-rate.)

However, he did not voice such thoughts.

Samezan heartily laughed as he bellowed toward the young dragons!

"Alright! Are you lot ready!? Now I'll go old hag hunting if she's alive, while you all go human hunting! The time has finally come for us to stand at the summit of these mountains! Get fired up!!"

"Oooooooooohhhh!!!!"

Now, while Samezan derided the young dragons as fools, he was just as shortsighted and foolish himself, one could say.

Because despite receiving the information that Oka had died or was on death's door.

Blinded by his joy over that, he failed to consider a crucial point.

Just what had attacked Oka?

He did not even think to ponder that.

The possibility that some being surpassing even Oka had invaded the mountain.

He did not conceive of that potential.

......And soon, the price for that oversight would come due.

Paid with their lives.

* * *

Paan!

Suddenly, that sound rang out as one young dragon's head burst open!

With a heavy thud, the massive dragon body tumbled across the rocky ground.

From the severed neck, blood began gushing out in spurts.

Just as the young dragons were about to take flight for the human hunt, wings outstretched, that was when it happened.

"Eh......?"

Another young dragon watching the scene let out that bewildered voice.

Paan!

The next instant, his head was blown off in the same manner, killed.

"En-Enemy attack!? Enemy attack!!"

"Q-Quick, defensive formation! [Body Strengthening]!"

"It's a sniper! Where from!?"

"[Air Protect]!! [Air Protect]!!"

Belatedly, the young dragons began clamoring!

Among them, as the leader, Samezan remained the calmest of the green dragons.

"Look over there! That runt did it!!"

Samezan had clearly witnessed the moment the young dragon's head burst.

He had also clearly seen it was caused by a projectile stone, and grasped the direction it had come from.

That was why he was the first to understand their enemy's identity and location.

The young dragons all turned to look in the direction Samezan indicated.

There stood a human girl.

Black hair whipping in the wind, murderous intent blazing in her black eyes, she wore bloodstained clothes as she stood atop a large boulder across the ravine.

Stone projectiles gripped in both hands.

And then, the next instant.

A stone vanished from the girl's right hand.

She had used superhuman speed to unleash a [Stone Throw]!

"Hih!!"

One young dragon let out an involuntary shriek, but the thrown stone never reached them.

The [Air Protect] barriers raised by several of the dragons did their job.

The sturdy wind barriers generated by their immense draconic magic power prevented the stone from reaching the green dragons, making it fall to the ground.

"Heh......heheh! Trying to scare us, were you!"

"For a mere human to dare challenge us mighty green dragons!?"

"Let's teach her a lesson for killing our comrades!"

Seeing that, the young dragons immediately regained their bravado, clamoring noisily.

Meanwhile......Emi had confirmed her [Stone Throw] was ineffective and immediately transitioned to her next action without changing her expression at all.

Leaping from one boulder to another, pyon pyon, she kept jumping between the jagged rocks, steadily approaching the green dragons!

"Wh-What is that thing!? It's getting closer!?"

"A mere human daring to close for melee combat with dragons!?"

"Let's tear it into eight pieces! [Air Cutter]!"

"[Air Cutter]! [Air Cutter]!!"

Against the approaching Emi, the green dragons launched dispersed wind blade spells!

But they did not hit!

By the time their magic struck and shattered the boulders Emi had been on, she had already leapt to another one.

She was too fast!!

"You idiots! Predict her path and aim where she'll jump next!!"

"Oh, I see!"

"As expected of our leader!!"

Heeding Samezan's rebuke, the young dragons changed their magical aim.

The ravine separating Emi's initial boulder and the green dragon nest was wide and deep, with jagged spire-like boulders jutting up across it.

In other words, for Emi to reach the green dragon nest, she had no choice but to leap across those spire boulders, making her path extremely predictable to the intelligent green dragons.

"[Air Cutter]!!"

Thus, it became like this.

The boulders Emi tried leaping to were preemptively shredded by their magic, leaving her without a foothold as she fell into the deep ravine bottom.

Just one more jump and she would have reached the green dragon nest......!

"Alright! We got her!!"

"Heheh! Stupid!!"

"Gyahahahah!!"

Despite two of their slain comrades' corpses lying nearby, the green dragons roared with laughter.

To Samezan's brood, strength was justice, and even their own kin would just be meat if dead.

"............"

However, among them, only the leader Samezan frowned as he gazed uneasily into the ravine, gripped by a strange foreboding.

"Hehe, how do you think that runt got smashed?"

"Splattered from the head down~!"

"Let's go take a look!"

"......Hey......hey, come back!!"

Three over-eager young dragons began approaching the cliff edge to peer down into the ravine.

Trying to call them back due to his ominous premonition, but Samezan was a few seconds too late with his words.

The young dragons had already extended their necks over the cliff to look down, and then the next instant......

Of those three, two had their necks severed from their bodies as they plummeted into the ravine bottom!

"Eh, eh......!?"

The remaining one had clearly burned that instant into his eyes.

The moment the two severed dragons peered over the edge.

Something small and black raced up the vertical cliff face at tremendous speed, arms spread wide as it passed directly between the two dragons.

Then their heads rolled away, falling down the ravine.

Certainly, the remaining one had clearly witnessed that instant.

Yet even so, he could not comprehend what had occurred in that moment.

That Emi who should have fallen to the ravine bottom used [Silverfish] to race up the cliff face, the force of her momentum allowing her to lash out with both arms in a [Great Mantis] strike severing the two dragons' necks - such an idea could never occur to him who viewed humans as mere bite-sized snacks to be casually devoured!

"You fools!! Evade it—-!!"

"Eh? Eh? Eh?"

And the lone remaining dragon did not understand the meaning of the leader's shout either.

It had all happened too suddenly for his comprehension to keep up.

Emi raced straight up the cliff and launched herself into the air, the noonday sun backlighting her as she spun her body rapidly......using that spinning momentum, she lashed out with a sudden [Mantis] strike to sever the head of the remaining dragon frozen in shock!

Dosari, dosari, dosari.

Three massive dragon corpses thumped to the ground, and Emi landed amidst the green dragon nest's rocky area, immediately charging at full speed toward the remaining dragons!

"Eh, [Air Protect]!!"

The defensive spell that had blocked the projectile stone attacks was useless against Emi's explosive footwork!

"[Air Cutter]! [Air Cutter]!!"

"Uwah! Why aren't they hitting!?"

And the supposedly unavoidable invisible wind blades - Emi continued evading with minimal movements!

Sometimes ducking her head, other times with small hops, or minutely shifting her path left and right, without losing a shred of momentum!

No matter how colorless and transparent, any spell contained magic power.

Such paltry tricks could not work against this girl capable of [Magic Perception]!

"Dammit! Don't panic, you useless fools! It's just one runt!? Surround and kill it——-!!"

"R-Roger!!"

"Got it, leader!!"

"Prepare yourself, runt!!"

The flustered young dragons heeded Samezan's rebuke, brandishing their claws and tails in readiness.

However, Emi did not slow her pace at all upon seeing that.

Rather, by utilizing [Grasshopper] to leap forward, she closed the remaining distance at an even greater burst of speed beyond what the green dragons had grown accustomed to, taking them by surprise!

Only seconds until contact.

Or so the black-haired girl seemed to think, but the next instant, she was right before them.

"This, one!!"

The young dragon whose snout she grazed hurriedly tried clawing her apart in a panic, but too late.

Like the previous young dragons, his neck was lashed out, killing him.

Without losing the momentum from that neck strike, Emi charged straight toward another young dragon.

Using a [Magic Strike], she struck him squarely with all her might.

"Gogyaaaah!?"

The sheer impact shattered his bones as he was blown apart in a spray of flesh and blood, falling dead.

But Emi still did not stop.

Next, she wrenched a stone projectile from the ground-jutting rocks and spun to launch a [Stone Throw].

One, two, three.

The stones she launched in rapid succession all unerringly found their marks, blasting the young dragons' heads off.

At such close range, the preemptively cast [Air Protect] was not functioning!

"You've left an opening, runt—!!!"

The young dragon trying to attack Emi from behind was shredded to pieces by the invisible mana threads called [Magic Slash Threads] deployed around her, dying in a mess.

"I don't want this anymore! H-Help me—-!!!"

Overwhelmed by panic at the sight of his comrades being slaughtered one after another, the brazen green dragon Kan tried to take flight and flee.

However, that decision came too late.

Though Kan flapped his wings to take to the air, strangely he could not gain any altitude no matter how much he flapped.

Fearfully craning his long neck to look behind, he saw the black-haired girl had firmly gripped his tail!

"Hihyaaaaaaaaah——!!!"

With [Adhesion] binding the soles of her feet to the boulder comprising the green dragon nest, no matter how desperately Kan flapped his wings, Emi's body would never rise off the ground.

"No!! No!! No......"

Kan sobbed and wailed in terror, but the next instant Emi slammed him violently into the ground, shattering every bone in his body to kill him.

(What is......this......)

Samezan was dumbfounded.

From the moment the first young dragon was killed by the [Stone Throw] until now, just a few minutes had passed.

And in the mere dozens of seconds since close quarters combat began, his entire brood besides himself as the leader had been annihilated.

(What is......that thing......)

Samezan glared anew at the small black human who had decimated his brood.

Drenched in dragon blood dyeing her entire body crimson, the girl tore off a chunk of flesh from a nearby young dragon's corpse and crammed it into her mouth, scales and all, as she raised her fists toward Samezan.

(How thrilling......how utterly thrilling!!)

Samezan trembled with an intense grin!

To Samezan's brood of green dragons, and Samezan himself, strength was justice, and even their own comrades were just meat if dead.

He felt no sorrow or resentment over his kin being slaughtered, only that they were weak.

In fact, he felt more anger toward Kan for trying to flee.

"Now then......shall we slaughter each other, runt......"

Samezan slowly shifted his body into a combat stance.

Enhancing himself with [Body Strengthening] to the utter limits, unleashing [Intimidation].

Emi's [Intimidation] clashed against Samezan's, the space between them creaking with an indistinct mishimishi sound.

"Don't lump me together with those small fry from before——-!!!"

With that roar, Samezan grinned as he charged at Emi!!

* * *

The setting sun dyed the Nanga Mountains a deep crimson hue.

"............"

Emi lay sprawled on her back atop a boulder, silently gazing up at the gradually darkening sky as stars began to twinkle into view.

The surrounding rocky area no longer retained its original form from the intense battle, boulders shattered and ground torn apart in devastation.

And areas were stained black by blood.

The green dragons' blood.

This place had been the nest of the unruly green dragon brood mere hours ago, now their graveyard.

The green dragons were all dead.

Massacred by Emi.

The leader Samezan had been a formidable foe.

If she let her guard down even slightly, it may have been her corpse lying bare instead.

However, she was the victor.

Wounded and bleeding, she had grasped a narrow victory.

Samezan died with a satisfied grin.

The green dragons were all dead.

And their corpses, not just the flesh but their very scales and bones as well, had all been consumed into Emi's belly.

The green dragons became nourishment for Emi's body and soul.

The sole living being remaining in this place was the victorious Emi alone.

"............"

Now, Emi was crying.

Bathed in the crimson sunset glow, lying on her back in silence, tears streamed from her large eyes.

Was she mourning the deaths of her dragon enemies?

No.

Was she despairing over her own beast-like life of constant battle?

No.

Was she pained by wounds from the fighting?

No.

A bellyache from overeating?

None of those.

For roughly the past year, Emi had suffered continuously.

Tormented by the black dragon's bloodline blessing or curse, an unquenchable hunger forcing her to consume any living being like a beast.

Devouring giant tortoises, entire wolf packs, great bears, ancient dragons......mindlessly stuffing her mouth with any monster or creature she encountered.

At times, even taking in the remnants of gods.

Yet still her hunger did not abate.

Until at last, by eradicating this entire green dragon brood.

Finally.

......She was satiated.

In other words.

She had finally.

............Finally!!

Become full!!!

Author's message:

Yes, so with that, Arc 11 is concluded.

Time for my usual afterword.

In this chapter, Oka had demanded the sacrifice of a young girl, but looking back, a character demanding sacrifices had already appeared before Oka.

Do you remember Jarnayaharma?

However, in his case, that background wasn't really elaborated on much before he was unceremoniously hunted by Emi, leaving me with a sense of indigestion as the author. I wanted to properly cover the topic of sacrifices better.

That was the motivation behind me writing Arc 11.

In any case, I'm happy if you were able to enjoy it even a little.

Thank you as always for your bookmarks, star ratings, reviews with impressions.

"The Reincarnated Extra" will continue from here on.

Because after all, Emi is still only 8 years old.

I have no plans for time to suddenly rush forward, leaving her an adult out of the blue or anything.

......No, the journey ahead is still tremendously long.

I hope you'll continue joining me.

I humbly request your kind regards going forward.