Code Name: Ryu

Offer

I am powerful—this is the dragons’ creed. We are powerful. We excel in physical strength. We excel in magic. Overall, we excel. If someone fights a dragon, they are one of two things: Overconfident or Powerful. The former makes up the large majority of challenges dragons receive. The latter comes in various shapes and sizes, though in a smaller quantity. Take Louisa’s and my current predicament as an example. The Soul Eaters, though physically weaker, they outnumber us—which is where the problem lies.

“Haruki… I think… we may have a problem.”

“You think? Well, I can tell you now that we have one.”

The Soul Eaters crawl around on the walls and ceiling. The faint screeching sounds like an angry clowder. “They’re not moving. Do you think they are communicating with each other?”

“It’s possible. Should we attack them?”

“No, they may be waiting for us to attack. There’s more of them than us, so we’re disadvantaged.”

“Do you have any area of effect spells?”

“Many. But if I fire them off, I’ll run out of mana.”

“Do you trust me?”

“More than anyone.”

“Then leave your receding mana to me.”

“What about your collar?”

The mana-absorbing collar. As its name suggests, the collar siphons my mana. Though it does so constantly, I haven’t felt my mana decrease. “I have enough mana to last us through this ordeal.”

“If you say so,” Louisa calls back the fire spirit, and the darkness envelops us. The screeching grows closer and louder. “Heathens—you dare think you may approach M’lady?” says a voice, drowning out the screeching. “You are millennia too early for such a trivial ordeal.” The sewage water glows blue, like the ocean. It lights up the room and halts the Soul Eaters’ charge. An entity, taking the form of a water dragon, emerges from the water. “No one shall touch a hair on M’lady’s body.” The entity flaps its wings and causes torrents to wipe the Soul Eaters out. In the dark, the torrents eliminate all the Soul Eaters that eagerly attempted to attack us. The entity turns to Louisa and says, “I took care of the pests, M’lady.”

“Good work, Aquos.”

So, this is Aquos, the King of Water Spirits. I’d call it blasphemous for a Spirit to project itself as a mighty dragon; however, we need his help, so I will let this go for today.

Aquos turns his gaze to me. “Do you have something you wish to say, boy?”

“You took care of an awfully low number of them. Is this all the power the mighty Water Spirit King can muster?”

“What was that? You dare question my might hu—No, you are not a human. You merely pose as one. This mana belongs to the dragon race.” Aquos bursts into laughter. “I understand now. You are insulted that I project myself as a dragon, correct? Dragons are so simple to read.”

“Simple? Well, I guess that’s as much an insult as you can muster since you need a master to do anything. Honestly, spirits are quite useless.”

“Useless? Dragon, why do we not settle this dispute most fittingly? I’ve longed to crush a dragon’s proud skull with my water.”

“Is that so? Then I guess the Water Spirits will crown a new king after I vaporise you.”

“Enough! Both of you! We have an immediate issue we need to take care of right now. The Soul Eaters are wary of us right now, which is why they aren’t attacking. But if they see us bickering, they will find a chance to attack us. Aquos, I understand you are a king and will not allow any disrespect from anyone, so I ask you to forgive Haruki.”

“If it is what my master wishes.”

“Good. And Haruki, I know you value your pride as a dragon, but that pride will not get us out of this current predicament. You asked me to trust you, and I did. So, hold up the other end of this agreement.”

“I… understand…”

I can’t believe I let myself get caught up in a trivial matter. Louisa’s right. I promised to heal her exhaustion, which is what I ought to be doing.

“Great. Now, can you do what you planned? I cannot keep Aquos in Leagard for very long.”

Healing Magic is a support-type attribute. It can heal more than just external and internal wounds. With enough practice, a healer can even restore the lost mana of an ally. “Healing Magic: Restorative Heal.”

Louisa’s body glows like the sun. “This is… My mana is recovering.”

“This is a healing art I studied. With my support, you will never run out of mana. So, don’t worry about running out of steam. I’ve got your back.”

A smile arcs on her face. “Then I will take you up on the offer.”

For ten minutes she continues to fire off a flurry of AOE spells, destroying hordes of Soul Eaters. However, our upper hand fell apart after one creature fell from the ceiling. Louisa’s concentration slipped, and the creature surprised Aquos and me. It turned to Louisa, the weakest of us three, and leapt onto her. It plunged its dagger-like teeth into Louisa’s neck and devoured a large portion of her mana before Aquos destroyed it.

“M’lady, are you okay?”

Louisa places her hand against her gushing neck and says, “I’m… good…” before falling to the ground.

“M’la—”

“Louisa? Hey, Louisa!” Ignoring Aquos, I walk to Louisa’s unconscious body and lift her. “Hey, Louisa! What’s wrong? Louisa! Speak to me!”

My throat clenches and my vision blurs. Louisa’s heartbeat fades… until it disappears. Her panted breaths halt. Aquos disappears and the Soul Eaters charge forward. “Louisa? This is not funny anymore.” I shake her limp body. “Hey, Louisa! There’s no way you can get done in by something like—” Purple veins and skin spread from her wound. Poison?

A Soul Eater jumps onto my back and attempts to bite into my neck, but fails. My steel skin is too hard for their measly teeth. I flash a glare at the annoying pest on my back and it jumps away, screeching.

“Fine, if that’s how you want to play it, then I’ll tag along.” I stand up and a metal object falls to the ground. I look down and see that the collar is now split in two, as though someone burned it in half. After reaching for it, I pause when I notice a black aura surrounding my arm. “What is this?” The aura like a coat of transparent darkness wraps itself around me. I search the room and all the Soul Eaters are on the run, but with an extreme slowness. It’s like time freezes for them. I walk to the one who ran after biting me and kick its head. Like a sword, my leg slices through its neck and its head falls to the ground. I do the same to the next Soul Eater. And the next. And the next. Until a mountain of corpses fills the sewage wasteland. Despite their frozen state, the innumerable amount of Soul Eaters remains overwhelming as their numbers thin.

There’s no end to them. Just where do they appear from?

“So, you are Haruki?” asks a voice. I spin around to find two individuals in cloaks standing over Louisa’s body.

“Louisa!”

Before I can leap towards the two cloaked individuals, an aching pain hits my head like a hammer smashes steel, and I fall to the ground. “Don’t be so hasty, Haruki. We came here to collect you; however, we seem to have run into an impasse. You see, on his way here is the Hero, Niklaus Borneheimer. And since Joker and I are already exhausted, we will have to report back to our organization. Boss might not be happy, so I want to leave you with this: Join us, Haruki. We have the answers you seek.”

Join them? I don’t even know who they are. But…

“No… Haruki…”

“Louisa! You’re alive?”

“They are… using you… Haruki… Don’t listen… to them…”

“Silence, girl.” The man who introduced his partner raises his leg and steps on Louisa’s stomach.

Louisa, too weak to even react to the stomp, smiles. “Is that… all you can… do?”

“What was that?”

“Necromancer! This girl is…”

Necromancer remains quiet. The darkness hides his expression well, and only his red eyes focus on her. He removes his foot and turns away. Joker follows.

“Think about our offer, Haruki. You’ll only benefit from it.” With those words, he and Joker leaves. The hordes of Soul Eaters disappear.

So, he was the summoner. No, that does not matter now. “Louisa! Louisa, can you hear me?” I crawl to her, but faint before I can even get close.