After I talked with Ellie, I headed for the training field where Gram is waiting at.

The moon will s.h.i.+ne upon us tonight.

A full moon at that.

At last, I arrived at the field.

In the middle of it was Gram, standing imposingly with his hammer sunk into the ground next to him.

He's bathing in the moonlight, creating a long-stretching shadow.

“You're here at last.”

“Yeah.”

We don't have much to say to each other.

Both of us had our reasons to fight.

Both of us had our reasons to kill.

And that was more than enough.

We don't need to talk much with someone we're about to kill.

“Why don't you join my ranks?”

Gram asked as he pulled his hammer out from the ground.

“Sorry, but I have a teacher, and I have no plans in being apart from her.”

I, too, lowered my back, readying myself to unleash my spells at any time.

Meanwhile, Gram did the same thing.

He lowered his body and gripped his hammer with both of his hands.

“Hm, that's a shame.”

And thus, our opening exchange ended.

What comes after this is just a deathmatch.

“—HERE I COMEEEEEE!!!!!”

He kicked the ground powerfully, roaring as he quickly accelerated.

Using his magic, Gram coated his body with flames and approached me.

In just mere seconds, he closed his distance.

“——kh!”

In response to that, I raised the ground to make a wall.

But I didn't do it vertically; I built it diagonally towards my direction.

Because of that, the ground pushes me away, opening some distance between me and Gram and making a protective wall at the same time.

Yet Gram obliterated the wall immediately with a swing of his hammer.

(—that's the first step)

I created some distance away from Gram, and sent a volley of flares, scattering them toward the air.

Those flares was able to generate heat that even a dragon's breath couldn't compare.

As those flares s.h.i.+ne bright red, I launched each one of them toward Gram.

I shot the flares with the temperature several dozen times hotter than that of a dragon's breath like lasers.

Its power would be somewhat reduced by the time it reached Gram, but it would still disintegrate a normal human the moment they made contact with it.

“—Guh!”

I aimed them true without any intentions of missing, but the moment it was about to hit Gram directly, Gram unleashed a blast that managed to repel my flares.

The repelled instead lasers struck the ground and dissipates.

Gram saw the ground around him reduced into magma, and he raised his eyebrows.

(…didn't work.)

But I didn't plan to reduce the concentration of my attacks.

I continued to fire my flares, up to over a dozen per second, each one of them launched to burn the enemy.

Yet Gram kept repelling them with his blasts.

Gram himself was unable to move from his position.

He was trying his best to repel and hold out against the power and number of my attacks.

And several seconds after the battle started, the situation changed.

CRAs.h.!.+

“—Ugh!”

Perhaps he's about to reach the limit of his mana capacity, Gram's blasts weakens, and the hammer he used to defend himself breaks.

Perhaps deciding that it was no longer an option to stay in the same place, he threw what's left of his hammer and retreated back.

I deflected the sc.r.a.ps with my flares.

“—As expected of the disciple of the Violet Sorceress. You can utilize the firepower of Fire-attribute and the defensive power of Earth-attribute magic…it's not an everyday sight for someone to be able to control two attributes at once”, said Gram in admiration.

“…”

On the other hand, I replied to him with silence.

I don't need to say any more to fight.

I only need to kill him.

That's all that I'm thinking of.

“…This means I need to unleash my full strength soon, eh!”

As he declared that, he ripped his s.h.i.+rt open with both hands.

And then—

“—UUURRRRRRGGGHHHHH!!!”

His body wriggled in the darkness.

Slowly, his body transforms itself into a form far way different than his original body.

Splat! Slice!

There was a discomforting sounds of flesh tearing, as if cut into pieces.

Along it, Gram was transforming into something grotesque.

—After a while, the transformation stopped.

“Grrrrhh…how many hours has it been since I last took this form…”

In his place now is something that couldn't be called a human anymore.

It had a splendid mane,

a pair of golden eyes that gleams in the darkness,

large, sharp fangs, and similarly sharp claws,

and lastly, a large, tough body.

Its arms, torso and legs were twice the size of a human's.

He looks like a monster, made by combining a man and a lion.

“—RRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!”

The lion-like monster let out a war cry, seeming joyfully confident of its own power.

Meanwhile, I merely continued to [Observe] it.

“…you monster.”

—but if he's in this form, it means that I don't have any reason to hesitate anymore.

I can kill him without feeling guilty.

“…Veil of the Dragon Blood¹.”

I closed my eyes and silently thought of an image of a dragon.

Its overwhelming power,

its enormous energy,

its powerful limbs, jaws, wings and tail.

I imagined all of that.

Its arm would cut up and crush everything.

Its jaws would bite down and swallow everything.

Its wings would destroy everything with the wind pressure it creates.

Its tail would swipe over everything, so strong that no people can try to sever it.

—And then, I open my eyes.

I've deployed a layer of armor.

On both of my sides were two gigantic dragon arms.

On top of me was a set of enormous jaws

Suspended mid-air behind me was a pair of wings,

and below that was a long, thick tail.

“Let's do this, you monster.”

Replying to the me who transformed into a humanoid dragon,

“You ain't one to talk.”

The lion laughed pleasantly.

That moment, I hit my fists together.

Veil of the Dragon Blood.

It's a spell that combines the Earth, Fire and s.p.a.ce attribute magic, one that only I can use.

Its strong scales are made through Earth attribute magic,

Its overwhelming destructive firepower is created using Fire attribute magic,

And finally, I used s.p.a.ce-attribute magic to control the scales and the destructive firepower.

The result is something that had tremendous defensive and offensive power.

Perhaps if I also used Wind and Water attribute in its creation, it would have better mobility and regenerative power.

But since I couldn't do that, I'll have to make do with a combination of 3 attributes.

—but this is enough.

I'll definitely win against a power-type like him.

“—GGGGRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!”

“—RRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!”

Gram and I charged at each other, sticking our fists forward.

Are we trying to dodge each other? Of course not. Not me, not Gram.

As it is, our fists will hit each other.

Fire-attribute magic is discharged in front of my fist.

Gram did the exact same thing.

Gram's attribute is fire from the very beginning.

He could similarly unleash his destructive power from his fist.

And thus, our fists met.

—CLAs.h.!.+

Our vision was flooded by the light

—BOOOOOMM!!”

After a slight delay, an explosion bursts out, followed by a thunderous roar.

The protection provided by the dragon's armor using Earth magic provided protection, and I also brought my wings forward to add further protection from the shockwave, using s.p.a.ce Magic to control them.

With my vision obviously blocked by my wings, I could only notice the cloud of dust kicking up around me from the side.

Even then, I continued to try searching for Gram.

—But it should be pretty easy.

Inside this cloud of dust, I would notice immediately if he moves even just for a bit.

—Found you.

“…There you are.”

I saw a huge shadow some distance away from me.

I attempted to shoot at that shadow, but I'm not using the flimsy flare that I had, and instead I unsealed the power of the dragon that I have.

I imagined the dragon's breath. Something like…no, something more than the real one.

I kept increasing its heat—way until it reached its limit.

And then I launched it.

—VWOOOOOOOOOSSSHHH!!

“——kh!”

The enormous energy shoots in the form of a laser, roasting the air.

It had a diameter of one meter.

The fire launched so quickly that there's no way of avoiding it the moment it enters your vision.

The laser that packed heat enough to disintegrate anything it touch accurately penetrates through the torso of the shadow.

A huge hole opened in its chest.

The laser cleared the area of the cloud of dust, and as it did, I saw a lion monster, coughing up blood, down on its knees.

Its chest had a large hole and its right arm was charred.

perhaps this is the result of our first engagement.

(Did he die?—No. Not yet.)

The lump meat twitched, and before long, it quickly starts regenerating.

In mere seconds, it regained its shape of a lion.

“A similarly monstrous regeneration, huh. Have you decided to quit being a human?”

I said that so coldly that I even surprised myself.

That I even question if a human is supposed to be able to say something in this tone of voice.

“Why are you calling me a monster…That appearance…that power…You're a monster yourself!”

“GRRAAAAAAHHHH!”

Gram roared and approached me again.

He's decided to fight me in close quarters.

Judging by the result of our first clash, I know that I don't even need that much strength. After all, he still had his lower arm completely charred just with that.

(—That means his defense isn't that high in the first place)

Lowering the heat, I continued to engage with Gram's fisticuffs.

But the fight is still to my overwhelming advantage.

Gram's fists. .h.i.t me countless times, but the victims were only his fists.

Yet Gram kept striking again and again every time his fists regenerate.

His face was colored by the joy of fighting; there were no sign of him fearing death.

Yeah, he's just a battle junkie, wanting to die in the battlefield.

(—Let's just finish this fight quickly)

That thought pa.s.sed through my mind.

“RRRAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!”

Gram launched his fists again, and I attacked him with my own.

CRACK!

Gram's fist broke.

At the same time, his other fist reached me

—This time, I ignored it.

“——YOUUU!!”

(—What a noisy animal²)

Your measly fists cannot go through my armor.

Understanding that, I turned to go on the offensive.

(—Sorry for fighting so cowardly…but I cannot die here just yet)

Gram's fist approached my armored face, but I don't care—I don't need to.

He wouldn't be able to go through my armor. Instead, it's his fist that was destroyed by the impact.

As I took his fists head-on, I released an attack with the maximum heat on my fist toward Gram

“——!”

First, I wanted to make sure he couldn't run, so I obliterated his legs. After that, I aimed slightly off of the body and removed his arms.

——VVOOOOMMM!!

One by one, his fists was erased without a trace by an overwhelming power.

It was an obvious result.

This much heat was enough to break through the barriers in Arisa's research facility. With this, I could erase any living things in this world.

And thus, the result of this battle had already been decided before it even begun.

—Next.

“——GUOOOOOOHHHH!!!”

The moment I erased his legs, his arms had already regenerated.

Those arms grabbed me.

But because he had lost his legs, he fell over before long.

Because he slipped down, my aim was disrupted slightly, but in an instant I fixed my aim again.

I fired from both of my hands, and once again, Gram's arms were erased.

“GUOOOOHH!!!”

Next.

His torso is quite big, so I need three shots.

—BZZZT! BZZTT!! BZZTT!!

With both hands, I created three holes in his torso.

His body was not enough to stop my lasers, so even the ground around me is riddled with holes.

—What's left of Gram is his head.

It had succ.u.mbed to gravity after I removed his limbs and hollowed his torso.

I stopped it right before it fell on the ground, and I looked at his expression.

Surprisingly, there were no expression of despair, sadness nor suffering.

Instead, his expression seemed thankful for he was able to fight with his all, and it looked like he's praising me, the victor.

—Gahahaha, he laughed.

I wavered at his laugh.

At the same time, the image of Arisa crying and the cowering Ellie came up to my mind,

And my hesitation disappeared in an instant.

I smashed my fist against Gram, and after that I discharged all the heat it contains.

Gram exploded to pieces, and after that, I thought to myself;

—That was the first time I killed someone.

As the fight was over, I stood alone, stunned.

Nothing else was there with me.

Not even the feeling of relief that I've managed to stay alive.

Not even the joy of winning.

All I felt was the emptiness of losing something important.

——But then, I heard two sets of footsteps coming closer.

(—Aah, that's right. I was—)

“Ed!”

“Edgar!”

I saw the smiling faces of Arisa and Ellie—

(—I'm glad they're okay)

I patted my chest, and I was finally able to smile.

          Chapter 35 >

TLC:

¹ The kanji of the skill says 龍血裝 which translates to Dragon Blood Clothes/Instruments/Equipment, while the furigana says “Dragon Veil”. I thought I'd just combine the two into Veil of the Dragon Blood instead.

² Kanji reads “Animal”, but the furigana says “monster”.

This concludes the fight between Edgar and Gram. A one-sided fight, isn't it?

Anyways, hope you enjoy the chapter, and as always, I hope you have a nice day.