Chapter 300

Before Tatsuro and Ai settled their battle, Cardina and the others were—

Inside the Palanquin on Jeanne’s back, Cardina and her group had finished preparations for the sortie, awaiting Tatsuro’s signal.

And finally, the moment arrived.

||||An item has been added to the Item Box.||||

“Peewee!”

“Neigh!”

“It’s here!”

Cardina and the others each retrieved the delivered memo and checked its contents, finding only brief instructions regarding the sortie and a caution about killing.

“Peewee—Peewee—Peewee!”

“Neigh!”

“Got it!”

The sortie permission meant that Leah’s rescue had succeeded but negotiations had failed, so there was no longer a need to act covertly.

Thus, without hesitation, Cardina used Detection Magic and Spirit Division: Far Sight Near Slash to inform Jeanne and Athena of the most effective dispersal points.

Without objection, they immediately memorized the points Cardina assigned to them.

“Well then, let’s go!”

“Peewee!”

“Neigh!”

Cardina and Athena leaped out from Jeanne, confirming they were floating in the air using their respective methods. Jeanne then stored the Palanquin in her Item Box.

“Peewee!”

“Neigh!”

“Cardina-nee, you guys be careful too!”

Wishing each other luck, they headed to Cardina’s designated points—Jeanne to the castle’s front, Athena to its rear. Cardina descended to an optimal altitude to neutralize aerial forces and, if necessary, assist the other two.

Jeanne, wielding hatchets enhanced with magic correction in both hands, used Wind Magic to blow away the humans at the castle’s front, creating space to land.

Then, activating Spirit Division: Giant Arm Shockwave, she equipped a Halberd, channeling the power of Waves into it.

She slammed the Halberd, held by the giant arm of her spirit division, directly onto the castle gate above.

The gate turned to dust from the point of contact, vanishing entirely. Simultaneously, Jeanne deliberately stomped the ground upon landing, causing a thunderous roar as the earth upheaved across a wide area, transforming the beautiful garden into a desolate scene.

At that moment, soldiers who had sensed Cardina’s Dispel Magic rushed to the gate area and caught sight of a dragon radiating immense pressure.

“What… what is that!?”

“W-why is a dragon in a place like this!?”

“Hahaha, this is a dream! Wake up, me!”

“Gyaaaaah!”

Shock, confusion, denial, fear—various emotions mixed into a panic, turning the scene into chaos.

In the midst of this, Jeanne swung the giant arm of her spirit division, reducing the castle walls to dust.

The soldiers guarding the area knew best how sturdy those walls were.

Thus, they instantly realized that each casual swing from Jeanne carried lethal force beyond their capacity to resist.

“We can’t stop it! Call the elite squad here immediately!”

“Yes, sir!”

A dwarf man wearing armor engraved with the Lyusiten crest, the highest-ranking officer present, ordered his subordinate to summon the elite squad the Lord had gathered for self-preservation.

The subordinate, relieved to avoid charging at such a creature, hurriedly ran back into the castle.

“Everyone! There’s no need to think about defeating it! Just stall until reinforcements arrive!”

Only less than a third of the soldiers present responded to his rallying cry.

The rest were frozen in fear, lashing out that stalling was impossible, or attempting to flee the castle grounds.

Yet the armored captain, Ottomar, couldn’t bring himself to blame them.

After all, telling them to face that creature was akin to ordering them to die.

“It’s a miracle even this many stayed… Let’s go! Follow me!”

Moved by the captain’s courage as he raised his hammer and charged forward, his subordinates roared “Ooooh!” and followed, brandishing weapons and staves.

—However.

“Neiiiiiiiigh!”

When Jeanne let out a mighty neigh to intimidate, their bodies froze, and they halted.

Furthermore—as if it were a bonus—she unleashed Dragon Power Convergence Cannon, blasting a massive crater in front of the leading captain.

The bottomless hole made everyone imagine what would have happened if it had hit, silencing them in stunned horror.

“Neigh!”

Jeanne neighed again, shattering the silence, and the oppressive aura lessened slightly, allowing them to move.

“—All units, retreat! It’s impossible, impossible, impossible, absolutely impossible! Who said anything about stalling!?”

“Eh!? Wasn’t that you, Captain!?”

“Who cares about that!?”

“Ehh…”

The moment they could move, Ottomar took the lead in fleeing.

His brave subordinates, wide-eyed, followed instinctively, unable to criticize as their legs obeyed their instincts.

Thus, the castle’s front was deserted, and Jeanne, now bored, used the power of Waves to turn the once-beautiful garden into a desert.

Observing from a distance, Ottomar and his men, relieved that the dragon seemed uninterested in humans, prepared to flee at any moment.

As the scenery at the castle’s front became increasingly barren—

They arrived.

“Sorry to keep you waiting. So, which one’s the dragon?”

“Oh! The Dragon Hunter, Tsomaho!”

“And I’m here too!”

“You’re the Giant Beast Slayer, Sejenam!”

It wasn’t Eduar or Andoni, the strongest of the elite squad Ottomar had hoped for, but the muscular lizardman and lizardwoman were adept at hunting large monsters, and Tsomaho had even slain a dragon before.

Moreover, ten other elite squad members, experienced in combating giant monsters, were present. Though less powerful individually, their combined experience and strength could surely take down a single dragon.

Convinced of this, Ottomar rose, gripping his hammer.

“I’ll join you!”

“Sorry, but we don’t need you. Small fry nearby would only distract us.”

“—Tch. I… understand.”

Having fled and only peeked from cover, Ottomar had no grounds to argue. He stood powerlessly in place.

“Alright, you lot! It’s just one dragon! Sejenam and I will charge in, so handle the support!”

“Can we take it down while we’re at it, Tsomaho?”

“Ha, if you can, go for it, Tankret.”

The dwarf mage, Tankret, grinned boldly, his eyes burning with determination.

Tsomaho responded with a feral grin, exchanging a glance with his partner Sejenam before charging forward together.

“Aaaaaaah!”

“Haaaaaaah!”

Tsomaho retrieved a massive Great Scythe, over three meters long, from his Item Box. Sejenam wielded a slender, conical great spear, two and a half meters long.

Holding weapons disproportionate to their builds, they rushed toward Jeanne.

The martial artists of the elite squad followed, while the mages prepared their spells, advancing forward.

“Neigh!”

As if acknowledging worthy opponents, Jeanne snorted, her lips curling upward, and began scattering Flame Wind around her.

“Not so fast!”

“Leave it to us!”

“We’ll stop it!”

Three mages from the elite squad unleashed their magic in unison.

Their spells suppressed the wind, raised earth walls, and doused the flames with water.

“Well done!”

Tsomaho and his group hadn’t yet reached her. Seizing the moment when the dragon’s magic weakened, Tankret pulled out a clarinet-like staff, bit down on it, and blew like a blowgun.

Round water orbs shot from the staff’s tip, hurtling toward Jeanne.

“Neigh?”

What’s this? Jeanne tilted her head. Before Tsomaho’s group could reach her, the water orbs struck.

Boom! A loud explosion echoed, and the water turned into scalding steam, showering Jeanne.

The remaining orbs hit, enveloping Jeanne in explosions and a mist of boiling water, obscuring her.

“Tch. Did we really get it?”

“My gut says it’s not dead. Probably near death, though.”

Tankret’s magic was a compound of water and explosion.

Thanks to a special staff imbued with the Archery skill, he could shoot explosive water orbs like bullets, his signature method of defeating monsters from a distance with explosions.

Even if the explosion didn’t kill or was dodged, the scalding water caused burns. Continuous detonations created a mist of boiling water, burning the lungs if inhaled—a vicious, hard-to-evade spell.

This technique had earned Tankret his reputation.

But such magic could only defeat second-rate monsters.

A breeze blew from nowhere, clearing the mist.

Everyone expected to see an injured dragon writhing in pain.

Yet there stood Jeanne, unscathed, her scales glistening with pleasant humidity, looking delighted.

For a normal monster, that magic would be fatal. But Jeanne took the explosion as a massage, the boiling water as a hot bath, and the steam as a sauna—a veritable health spa.

As proof, she wagged her tail and beckoned with her hand, as if saying, “More, please!”

“Look at that tail thrashing and beckoning… —Heh, challenging us, huh? Looks like this dragon wants a piece of us. So much for mages!”

“Right, Tsomaho! We’ll finish this!”

“Yeah!”

“Neigh!” (Why are you coming?) Jeanne seemed disappointed, eyeing the human who had amused her with that pleasant magic.

For some reason, he was on all fours, sobbing into the ground.

“Neigh!” (Why!?) Jeanne thought, genuinely disappointed, deciding to have Tatsuro do it next time. She shifted her focus to the two charging lizardfolk.

Her interest was piqued by the massive, over-three-meter Great Scythe, larger than any she’d seen.

Eager to see what entertaining trick they’d show, she watched as crimson Ki overflowed, and a tail-like form extended from the scythe’s handle.

Tsomaho grabbed the tail’s tip casually, twisted his waist, and swung the Great Scythe back.

Like a sideways pitch, he swung with full force.

A powerful horizontal scythe strike aimed at Jeanne’s neck from over ten meters away.

Using the Crocodile of Scythe Arts’ Beast Spirit Technique from the handle’s tail, combined with his strength and centrifugal force, this was Tsomaho’s ultimate one-hit-kill technique.

It had once beheaded a wild lesser dragon.

Then Sejenam. Yellow Ki erupted from her great spear, manifesting two massive tiger fangs vertically, like stag beetle horns.

Combining the spear’s derivative skill Charge Thrust, she closed the distance to Jeanne in one leap, unleashing her strongest thrust without holding back.

This technique pierced opponents with the two tiger fangs, then twisted to tear them apart, killing them.

It had once ripped through the belly of a fifteen-meter monster.

Both attacks were one-hit kills against normal monsters up to a level 8 dungeon.

Jeanne, finding them amusing, decided to catch both with one hand each.

“—Ngh!?”

“…Huh?”

The Great Scythe and great spear hit her wave-infused palms and shattered into pieces instantly.

Unable to comprehend what happened, the two stared at the remnants, now less than a third of their original size.

But for Jeanne, the attack—rare after facing only weaklings lately—left a pleasant tingle in her palms.

“Neigh!”

“—Eek!”

To thank them for the good hit, Jeanne clenched her fists, drew back one elbow, and stepped forward.

Tsomaho and Sejenam, dropping their now-useless weapons in terror, turned and fled at full speed.

Because Jeanne wasn’t fully serious, her oppressive aura was only half-hearted, causing them to misjudge her strength.

But their attacks made them realize the vast gap between them—like heaven and earth—and they thought they’d be killed.

However, Tatsuro had forbidden killing, so Jeanne had no such intention.

Abandoning the power of Waves, she kicked the ground with both feet, leaping toward the fleeing pair to deliver mere knuckle punches.

“Neigh!”

“—Guh!”

“—Gya!”

Catching up instantly, she landed knuckle punches from above.

The two let out frog-like croaks as they were driven into the ground, motionless.

“Neigh!” (Yikes! Did I kill them!?) Jeanne hurriedly checked their condition. Their bones weren’t intact, but they were breathing, so she sighed in relief.

“Neigh!” (Restraint is hard…) she muttered, glaring around.

The mages and martial artists preparing to follow Tsomaho’s group had dropped their staves and weapons, weeping on the spot.

Apparently, when Jeanne leaned in to check their condition, they mistook it for her intending to eat them, despairing that they’d die here.

Sighing at these spineless humans, Jeanne resumed her task of neutralizing everyone, delivering knuckle punches to bury them all in the ground.