Raising the Lowest-Ranked Adventurer, the Heroic Girl – Wasn’t I Just a Substitute Old Man?

Raising the Lowest-Ranked Adventurer, the Heroic Girl – Wasn’t I Just a Substitute Old Man?

Volume 5 Chapter 27   Mizuki: Dragon battle end

“Mizuki, Kana!”

Haruka called out their names as she saw them being blown away, but there was no response.

Due to the distance they had from Mizuki and Kana, Yuzu’s multiple layers of barriers were not completely destroyed, allowing Yuzu and Haruka to remain unharmed.

However, just because their bodies were unharmed didn’t mean there were no issues at all.

Most of the multiple layers of Yuzu’s barriers had been broken. She hurriedly tried to reinforce them, but if she were to reconstruct a powerful enough barrier to withstand the dragon’s attacks, it would deplete almost all of Yuzu’s remaining magical power.

The best she could do was a few light healing spells, two or three times at most.

In that case, only Haruka would be left, but even she had already used up her magical power in the previous attacks.

Perhaps she could barely manage if it were just one dragon, but two were impossible.

Yet, they had to survive. What should they do? What can they do?

Haruka and the others desperately tried to come up with a way to overcome the situation, but nothing came to mind.

If they were to push for an idea, it would be hoping that the remaining dragons had been caught in the self-destruct, but even that thought was quickly shattered.

The self-destruct, driven by a lack of consideration for their friends, had caused damage. While some scales had been chipped off the remaining two dragons, they still had no trouble moving, and both of them were closing in on Yuzu and Haruka.

Within seconds, the dragons approached Haruka and Yuzu, slamming against their barriers.

“Aaah!”

Though they were not blown away by the dragon’s attack, some of the multiple layers of barriers were broken. With the gigantic dragon arms pressing against their defenses, Yuzu couldn’t help but scream.

Even though they might be at a loss, Haruka tried to attack. However, without time to charge her spells, her attacks had little effect.

Charging an attack would be the only way, but as Haruka constructed a high-powered magic spell, the dragon’s assaults continued. With each passing moment, several layers of Yuzu’s barriers were shattered.

And as the dragon’s attacks dismantled about half of Yuzu’s barriers, just as the dragon’s arm swung again—

“I won’t let you!”

Mizuki, whom they thought had been blown away by the dragon’s self-destruct, suddenly flew out from behind Haruka and the others, her voice echoing with a cry.

With her entire body enveloped in lightning, Mizuki rushed towards the dragon, with her sword.

“Mizuki!”

Seizing the opportunity, Haruka forcefully constructed a spell, pouring almost all of her remaining magical power into it, and launched it at the dragon.

The moment Mizuki heard Haruka’s voice, she leaped away from her position and landed beside the two. Her gaze focused on the dragon, which had been damaged by Haruka’s reckless attack, the head engulfed in flames, writhing and howling in pain.

However, the flames were significantly weaker than the spell that had incapacitated the third dragon with a single blow, and they wouldn’t last long.

Naturally so. It was an excessive drain on magical power.

Yet, at the moment when the flames dissipated, Mizuki pierced her sword through the dissipating fire, moving towards the dragon’s face and landing on its forehead.

And then—

“Take this!”

She thrust the sword into its forehead and released a torrent of lightning at full force.

The dragon, struck by the combination of the sword and lightning, thrashed and screamed, but like the previous dragons, it suddenly stopped moving, crashing to the ground with a resounding impact.

Thus, the fourth dragon was defeated.

—But that was where it ended.

“Ugh… Just one left…!”

Having defeated the fourth dragon, Mizuki could barely stand, relying on her sword stabbed into the ground for support.

Since the battle with the dragons began, she had exerted herself without rest, and now she had completely depleted her magical power. She had taken some restorative potion, but its effects were not immediate, and the recovery rate couldn’t keep up with the consumption rate.

Retreating was an option. She could fight and survive, but she no longer had enough strength to completely slay the remaining fifth dragon.

The last dragon, seemingly assured of its victory, roared triumphantly towards the sky before locking eyes with Mizuki. Standing up on its hind legs, it mustered all its strength and swung its arm down, as if to finish Mizuki off.

“No way I’ll go down like this!”

But just as if it were a replay of when Mizuki had reappeared earlier, Kana showed up, shouting.

Though her movements were slower than when Mizuki had first appeared, Kana still charged at the dragon with a speed far beyond that of an average person.

Despite their surprise at Kana’s sudden appearance, it was too late. Whatever they did now wouldn’t stop the dragon’s attack, and Mizuki and her friends were still destined to be crushed.

“This is…!”

Meeting the descending dragon arm head-on, Kana lifted her massive hammer with both hands as if to counter it.

Ordinarily, such an action would lead to being crushed immediately. But Kana endured. She withstood it and even now was resisting, maintaining a tense stalemate.

“Kyaaaaa!”

However, no matter how much she resisted, there was a significant difference in size. While Kana managed to intercept the dragon’s stomp with her hammer, the impact point where Kana’s hammer met the dragon’s arm was higher than the position of the barrier that Yuzu had erected. As a result, Yuzu’s barrier was easily shattered.

The collision between the two produced a shockwave that scattered around, leaving Yuzu and Haruka defenseless as they were blown backward.

Amidst this chaos, Mizuki, relying on her sword for support, kneeled down, but she continued to watch the clash between Kana and the dragon.

Yet, from the dragon’s perspective, there was no need to push further. With three of its four legs still on the ground, it could maintain its position and evade Kana’s attack, then counter-attack when the opportunity presented itself.

However, even so, the dragon couldn’t bear the idea of retreating at this point. Its pride had been provoked—was it acceptable for it, as a dragon, to flee from a smaller opponent?

That’s why the dragon chose to duel with Kana.

But…

“I won’t loseeeee!”

The outcome was not what the dragon had expected. With a powerful shout, Kana poured all her strength into it and pushed back the dragon’s stomp, deflecting it.

The force that should have crushed Kana was instead bounced back, causing the dragon to lose its balance and flip over, ending up lying on its back with its belly exposed.

Kana, who had slipped into the dragon’s chest as it fell on its back, smashed another magic stone and poured all the overflowing magical energy into enhancing her body with the continuous body strengthening magic.

It wasn’t perfect yet. She was wasting some of the magical energy contained in the magic stone.

But even so, the fact that the source of her power had been enhanced remained unchanged.

And for Kana, that fact alone was more than enough.

She moved her strengthened body, took a wide stance like a baseball batter, and swung her giant hammer.

“Get outta hereeeee!”

With that swing, the hammer launched the dragon into the air, not the size of a building, but certainly larger than any normal house, as if it were a joke.

“Not bad, huh!”

Kana laughed while watching the dragon flying towards the nearby park, the momentum of her swing sending her to the edge of the playground.

An achievement that could hardly be accomplished by even a first-class adventurer, let alone a special-class one.

“Hahaha… Oh boy. This looks like it might get a little tough.”

Watching her rival, who had become vastly stronger than she had ever imagined, Mizuki chuckled with a wry smile.

However, there was a certain brightness in her expression.