“Woah!” I yelped as I felt [Foresight] activate once again, only this time it came from behind me.

My body fell backwards as I felt a foot sweep my feet out from under me, helping me narrowly avoid the arrow. Yet, as I was about to land on my back, I noticed the arrow stop right before where my head just was and swerve to the side, switching its target to the fire Saint like some kind of homing missile. Accelerating from the spot, it launched itself right at the tiger, lodging itself right into his shoulder.

Once my back hit the ground, I slammed my palms on it, pushing myself back on my feet just in time to see the fire swarming around the beastman’s shoulder, turning the projectile into ash. There was a dent in his armor, but it didn’t look deep enough to have hurt him. Still, it made me question what that arrow just now was.

“Thanks,” I told Vifi,

She pulled out her rapier and crossbow, tapped me on the shoulder, and turned away from me. “All I’m helping you with. Don’t die, donut.”

Why am I a donut, now? What is with these nicknames?

Vifi shot her crossbow at the salamandra, causing it to roar out and wiggle in pain. I planted my glaive on the ground, trying to find out where the archer was, but my senses couldn’t detect anybody that resembled one. All the dots moving in my [Detection Sensor] felt more like they were attacking the monsters, with only a few exceptions.

One of them was the Saint before me while another group from where I found Saori and the others. Three of those signals were jumping around, fighting against a group of six. Who were they? Were they associates of this Saint? The Saints from the Aurena and Plesia Church all had knights to protect them, so maybe it was the same for Shiterno’s religion? Or, and this was a big or, it could be a Champion, since Champions were supposed to protect Saints.

Still, none of these people were that archer. This trepidation of the unknown, forced to be wary of an enemy I could not find, made my chest feel tight. My concentration was raised to the max, but it also meant I had to direct some of my attention away from the tiger.

“Surge, come forth! Bright Flight!” A magic circle appeared on the tiger’s staff, conjuring a flame bird. Raising its flaming wings, it soared up as the mage conjured even more spells before it charged at me.

Really? Reeeeally? Fire? Ha … Panzer.

I stood my ground, holding my hand out. Custom spell versus custom spell; which one would beat the other? My defense or his offense? Well, the real issue for this guy was that my [Volcanic Blaze] had an [Inferno Resistance Lv. 10] integrated into it, and it wasn’t a dragon skill. Nor were my custom spells.

As purple fire surged from the brown magic circle, it enveloped me in, hardening around me into a shell of obsidian. The flame bird hit me, exploding right on my head as I could feel the warmth of the spell. Oh yeah, without my scales, the heat actually felt hot. Goodness, once again I was reminded why I disliked being in my human form.

“To ashes!” The Saint continued spamming his fire spells on me, demolishing the area where I stood. “Let my conflagration burn you, dear kindling! Let this glorious flame light up the darkness of this worl—”

Ding ding.

[Music Resonation (Minor)] inflicted on [Young Sunfang Dragon, Hestia Atsuko Kargryxmor]

Dang dang, ding ding dang.

Still, despite the ear-booming sounds around me, my music still pierced through, taking over the chaos and buffing everybody around me. However, instead of using a spell song, I imitated a synthesizer to create electronic punk rock, drums to drive the hype up, and then trumpets to drown out any blast, roars, and cries inside this black market, all to herald the climax of this song! Let my violin play, for nothing would stop my blood from pumping!

Gale Steps!

I dashed out of the fire while the Saint was confused by my battle theme, zig-zagging before I stood before him. I gripped my glaive and swung upwards, using [Spark Crescent], forcing the Saint to dodge. [Air Steps] then activated as I stomped the air, using [Dragoon Dive] to crash land, sending the tiger flying. With the momentum, I twisted my body, using [Volcanic Blaze] to control the flames created by his spells, using it against him as I blasted him away.

Humanize!

[Humanize (Minor)] inflicted on [Young Sunfang Dragon, Hestia Atsuko Kargryxmor]

I used the obsidian armor to hide my features, so I wouldn’t directly appear as a dragonewt and mostly remain anonymous. The armor imitated the form of an edgy knight, as my dragonewt snout appeared like a helmet, my wings like capes, and my coiled tail like a sash. With my form decided, I glared at where the tiger had landed and snapped my fingers, materializing a large fire magic circle in the sky.

The beastmen dug himself out of the rubble, snarling with a wide grin as his catalyst lit up bright yellow. Runes then appeared on his greatsword as it set itself on fire, scorching it until the metal was flaring hot. At the same time, his fur lit on fire, perfectly aligned with his red stripes, revealing two runic tattoos beneath them.

“Glory to Danterno! You tru—”

[“I am Hestia Atsuko Kargryxmor, dragon princess of Kargryx, and Champion of Aurena,”] I announced only to him. [“I am not Fire God Danterno’s Saintess. You think you can contest with the fire of a true dragonkin? Against the daughter of Sixth Empress Melloxtressa, Ruler of the Great Blizzard? With your pitiful flames?”]

I reached my hand out, ripping the flames surrounding his body and weapon off him, gathering them around me.

[“Okay, you want to play? Let’s play!”] I raised my hand up in the air as the music once again reached its climax. [“Symphonie des Feuergottes!”]

[Symphonie des Feuergottes Movement (Allegro)] inflicted on [Young Sunfang Dragon, Hestia Atsuko Kargryxmor]

A waterfall of fire flooded the area around me, scaring the salamander away and forcing the flabbergasted pantheon beastman to the edge of my spell. As it dissipated, I used [Dragoon Jump] to dash right at him, enhancing my speed even further with [Wind Blast] and my scale-dust boosters to make it to him before he could react.

Swinging my tail, I smacked him on the head, leaving a deep gash along his eye to his jaw, blinding him and ripping off a section of his snout. I then swung my blazing glaive, forcing him to move his greatsword up to defend himself as a reflex, only for the impact to cause an explosion from all the scale-dust detonating and blasting us apart again.

Allegro boosting my agility by half of its original amount meant I could reach the tiger without any special movement, as I was just that fast. As I was about to hit him once more, his catalyst glowed once again, bursting into flames before it entered his body through his arm. Red seams appeared across his body and staff, all flowing like rivers towards his heart, glowing brightly as if he had a sun core.

Mana Eyes.

Name: Sierras

Level: 110

Main Job: Ash Seeker

Unique Skill: [Ashbringer Wildfire Lv. 5]

Title: [Ashbringer of Renewal]

That’s enough information, judge the rest for me parallel minds, I ordered, as that was all I needed to know. The rest of Sierras’ Profile could be analyzed by my ten minds to help me adjust my battle style.

Ashbringer Wildfire: A unique skill to turn the old into ash and dust in the name of life, allowing the world to rejuvenate in the aftermath of the inferno. Allows the blessed to absorb the ashes around them, healing their wounds and strengthening their stats. Creates an ash shield, protecting attack from everything but water and ice elemental attacks. Reduces fire and heat damage by 50%

Ashbringer of Renewal: A title granted to a mortal recognized by the God of Trailblazing. Allows turning ash into [Healing Dust], scaling in effectiveness by [Ashbringer Wildfire]’s level and the blessed’s Intelligence. Able to absorb ash to apply [Ashen Heart]. The possessor of this title will also gain immunity to any fire spell that they cast

Ashen Heart: Healing dust absorbed into the blessed’s mana paths, concentrated around their hearts. Turns 50% of all fire and lava elemental damage into healing. 50% of damage the owner causes on others through fire elemental spells is turned into healing. Reduces water elemental damage by 20%. Healing dust is constantly drained and once this buff expires, apply [Exhaustion (Minor)]

Sheesh! A drain and fire tank!

“Searing Immolation!” he shouted as he blocked my strike, directing his staff at me, before a magic circle caused an explosion. As my [True Draconic Barrier] shielded me from the attack—creating some distance between the two of us—I noted how that didn’t feel like a normal fire spell.

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Searing Immolation: A defense melting fire spell, specialized in debuffing. Applies [Immolated] to reduce fire resistance by 20% and wisdom by 5%

Aha, so it’s like my [Dread Burn]. Contact and the debuff applies. Got it. Although … now that I think about it, wasn’t I the worst match-up ever for him? The worst fire mage to face!

“Soot of potential, rebirth into life!” he roared out his chant as a red circle materialized, sucking in the ashes around us before blowing it all my way, forcing me to use [Wind Blast] to counter it.

As the dust flew into the sky our weapons clashed again, ringing the sound of metal as a flurry of strikes were exchanged. His red-hot weapon continued glowing brighter, while I was slowly expending my solar energy to power up my glaive with [Drakonian Sunlight Edge], but not enough to make it obvious.

Our eyes met as we both shot our spells. He focused primarily on his ash and fire ones, while I was weaving wind, earth, lightning, and holy together to disorientate him. In a clash of magic and speed, I had the advantage, but the fight could still go either way, as he was pretty good with his sword, despite being a mage. It was a wild, unpredictable fighting style that made even [Foresight] have trouble. I still had much to learn … so it was time to turn the tides.

I cast [Terra Wall], and instead of displacing him, I shot myself up into the sky. I tuned [Aerokinesis] and placed it in front of me, before I let out a [Tyrant’s Voice] which was further boosted by my newly acquired [Acoustic Power] from my Job evolution. As if the tigerman was hit by a hammer, my voice smacked him front on the ground, digging him in the reddened ground while I was sent further into the sky.

Once I reached the ceiling, I activated [Dragoon Dive] and my scale-dust booster. I flew, twisting around in the air to gain momentum all while I kept rupturing the earth below with my voice. Tightening my grip on my glaive, I held it in front of me as I stomped the air, boosting my descent with [Air Blast] before I slammed into the ground, releasing a shockwave.

I blew the dust away with a wind spell, snapping my head towards where the Saint had flown away. I tilted my head as I saw him having survived the attack as an ash barrier protected him, but I had managed to gouge out a chunk of his left leg. His ash was healing him, and he was grinning and breathing heavily; he looked like he was having fun.

“Magnificent! Ahaha, there is no wonder God Danterno chose you as one of our fellow blessed! You might be a dragon, but the way you wielded that weapon is what warriors strive for!” he bellowed. “Kargryxmor chose the wrong Origin God! Do not make the same mistake, Saintess! Retur—”

[“I see my voice not only burst your ears but it gave you a concussion as well,”] I interrupted him, pointing at the blood coming from his ears and nose and how wobbly he was. He touched them, realizing in shock what happened and began to heal himself while I kept talking. [“I am not your ‘fellow.’ I know where my loyalty lies and it isn’t with your people! One last chance; I will let you leave here alive just because I don’t want to associate myself with your people again! Tell them to get the hell away from me and anybody I care for! Tell your damn gods they can stay the fuck away from western Altrust!”]

The fire Saint’s smile vanished completely. His stare was stoic, glaring at me with the eyes of a hunting tiger. He snarled, showing his fangs once again. “Good … if this is your answer, then we accept it. Your existence is a threat to Carmaniate anyways. I don’t need God Askaino’s Divine Quest to smother your flame! You’ve shown your strongest attack, I shall now—”

[“Who said I did?”] I raised my hands up, holding them in a snapping position. [“Open your eyes. What are the things floating around us now?”]

He raised a brow as he swayed his head around, finally noticing the red glimmering specks floating in the air. Like little rubies, they reflected the bright lights caused by the fire around us.

[“You are nowhere strong enough to taste what I use to kill actual threats.”]

And the music climaxed once again … Snap!

“Kuraaaagh!”

My scale-dust exploded from a simple spark, enveloping the entire area where I landed on and on the tiger himself as my glaive did hit him. Flying around in the sky was all done to spread the dust around, and it all went under his nose due to my roar attack. Usually, those “meteoric” [Dragoon Dive]s I usually did would cause an explosion; this time it was better to conserve the scale-dust for this moment—when he decided to not give up.

Snap!

“Iieerrruagh!” he screamed once more before jumping out of the explosion radius with that fire jump he did before. His body was entirely on fire; his ash barrier wasn’t able to protect him. “Uuuuargh, hahah! You think this fire can stop me? I’ve felt worse! Reduce Heat … Huh? Reduce Heat! Reduce Heat! Arrugh, what?”

[“Didn’t you read your System notification? [Dread Burn]? See it?”] I stated, causing him his eyes to twitch around before they stop, causing his eyelids to contract. [“Yeah! I thought you fire fanatics would love it, since my flames are unable to die unless I allow them to. ‘Fire consumes fire,’ right? Maybe put your junk interpretation of its true meaning into the gutter, because there is more to fire magic than blind destruction.”]

Snap!

“Kuaraaagh!”

This is for Shiterno’s stupid mistake causing me to nearly hurt my friends!

White flames then appeared on my hand before I threw it at the tiger, cleansing him of the dangerous red flames and healing the wounds I had caused him. He looked at his body in bafflement as just a moment ago he was screaming from the top of his lungs.

I guess he never felt the true wrath of fire, unable to douse it. Had he ever felt how painful it was to be cooked by the extreme heat within yourself? To the point you could feel your organs forming blisters and exploding? No. Of course not. I haven’t even come close to realizing the full potential of the fire element.

Snap!

“Wha—Noooooooo!”

[“My white flames are cool and don’t burn. If Shiterno actually wanted me to spread how fire can be used for more than burning things down, then maybe I could help him with that. Blacksmithing, baking, showmanship, or even saunas! Hot springs! Why aren’t there more fire mages making artificial hot springs like me?”] I snapped my fingers again. [“Oh right! Because Shiterno is an incompetent god, unable to appease any god that doesn’t have destruction on his mind all the time! Blacksmithing could have been his source of power! Bleidla could have helped your religion so much! Why aren’t there more fire mages working inside a smithy like Daichi!”]

This is for indoctrinating Macklemor! This is for that fire professor who caused a dungeon break by working with the demonkin. And this is for the damn gods from the fire pantheon sending that professor and you after me!

I continued my fingers, causing more and more spark explosions, to the point the Saint’s cries were more audible to me. He couldn’t heal himself no matter what he did thanks to [Dread Burn], and he couldn’t do anything as I kept stunlocking him with my attacks. Even if he tried to retaliate, I had spells up my arsenal to keep him at bay.

In fact, when I saw him charging at me like a berserker, I poured in enough solar energy into my glaive to cleave right through his ash shield, fire-resistant armor, and bone, separating him and his right arm. I then kicked him before blasting him with another spark explosion. Somehow, he was still alive.

He began to crawl away, not even turning his head around as I slowly walked up to him. With every snap, more explosions rattled the scene, sending him even further away from me. I could be patient. He should see what he got for coming here, not to mention, I couldn’t just let him die.

I needed him for information.

“C-Champion!” he cried out as somebody was approaching us from behind a burned down building. His voice sounded so happy as he stood back up and limped towards them. “Champion Ferrit! Hey! Where are my knights and yours? Argh, no, forget it! We must combine our power! Our gods underestimated the Sain … tess.”

A human-faced arvisian man limbed over to us. His wild, monster-material armor was in tatters while blood covered his entire left side as his arm was crushed into a pulp. He looked up before he began shaking his head.

A Saint and Champion? They sent both after me? Seriously?

“Don’t …” he eked out. “There are—Kragh!”

Something exploded on his back as he was launched forward, tumbling on the ground before he landed before the Saint. From the side of the building, another person appeared—Grimnir. Fully armored with his blasthammer slung over his shoulder, he was also carrying around five other beastmen on his back before throwing them down.

Curtains close on this symphony. Humanize.

[Humanize (Moderate)] inflicted on [Young Sunfang Dragon, Hestia Atsuko Kargryxmor]

“Hey, lass, you got this handled, huh?” He waved at me.

I showed him a thumbs up. “Well, he’s almost done. How about on your side. Dead?”

He looked down at the beastmen, shaking his head. “Your sister pummeled them until they lost all their teeth. She’s still pretty angry at those dragonslayer assassins, so I guess she vented on them. Saori stopped her just before they got themselves killed. We don’t want Carmaniate getting angry at us, now.”

Good judgement, Saori.

It was clear from the moment he introduced himself that he was from the beastman alliance. While his action probably had nothing to do with them, and more with the Church of Danterno, the Saint and Champion duo were both probably important to the alliance in one way or the other. Killing them would only have done one good thing and that was to remove them from my list of enemies while maybe increasing my level.

Sadly, doing that would have actually just increased my list of enemies, as the beastman alliance would then have to respond, right? Would they declare war on me? No, of course not, but they could do something to interfere with King Fugnarus or my holy war. There would be issues regardless, but leaving them alive to send them back home was also a show of strength.

“Don’t mess with me,” was the declaration towards Carmaniate and the Church of Danterno. It also acted as a warning that things would be different the next time they did this, as I would consider it an actual threat and incompetence from the alliance. If they didn’t want a dragon breathing down their necks, maybe try to control your stupid blessed? No?

Also, Mom would totally be angry if I cause another war before I’m done with my current one. Sheesh, the scolding I would get!

“Champion Ferrit, stand up! We must fight! For God Dantern—”

“You said something?” A woman’s voice interrupted him to the side.

“Huh—Argh!” He kneeled as somebody kicked him in the leg.

I looked to the two women standing behind him, having just exited his shadow. “Hey, Sis. Saori. Vifi and I were wondering where you three were.”

“Sorry about that.” Saori scratched her neck, looking guilty. “I was surprised when they appeared before I noticed Grimnir was attacking them.”

“I saw everything and went to help …” Neill shrugged. “Nothing much to do, though.”

“Gahaha, they were nothing!” Our smith bellowed. “The new armor is working great! I’m beating people far above my levels now. Could use some finetuning on the mana efficiency, but … I feel strong.”

It all started with a simple comment on power armor from sci-fi media, before it turned into replicating steampunk with manatech. There were issues here and there until we finally settled on using runes and manatech to create something more akin to high fantasy dwarven armor, until this final product. A combination of every single idea coupled with Ellaine’s and Daichi’s effort and continued training with the power of Grimnir’s new blessing.

This was arcanatech armor!

“That’s why—Get over here!” The arcana crystal on Grimnir’s left hand lit up green before it created a suction effect, pulling the Saint right into his grip. Holding him up by the throat, Grimnir tilted his head. “Go to sleep.”

He slammed the tiger’s head onto the building next to him, knocking the Saint out. With him carrying all the beastmen for us, we rendezvoused with Vifi, who was waiting for us with the unconscious spy. She had left the salamandra alive, as it fled after I cast [Symphonie des Feuergottes], so her job ended right there after she killed anybody in her way.

With our target acquired and our enemies defeated, we quickly fled from the scene, as I was still nervous of that archer. Once we reached the tunnel, though, all five of us felt something was wrong. Our [Detection Sensor] noted how there were more than three people at the end of the place. There were—

“Quatre!” Saori shouted as the fourth fenrir jumped out of the shadow, charging right through the tunnel like a bulldozer. Leaving me to fortify the walls with [Terra Wall], ensuring the enlarged passage wouldn’t fall on our heads.

We followed right behind him before somebody tried to attack our wolf, but due to his shadow armor, he was a literal tank knocking anything in his way away. Saori equipped her daggers and connected them with a mana thread before using them like whips, smacking our assailants down before summoning Rajah, having him carry the beastmen, the spy, and the two cloaked figures.

As Quatre reached the end, he howled before slipping back into a shadow, allowing us to see what was happening. There, we found Gael, Vangrim, and our informant lying in their puddle of their own blood, while multiple cloaked figures stood over them. In addition, there was a large hole in the middle of the room.

“GAEL!” Saori shrieked before her body turned into smoke, appearing right behind the person who attacked Gael, almost looking like she just teleported. She swung both of her daggers, far too fast to see normally, leaving the assailant riddled with wounds before he fell on the ground.

Experience for development Jobs has reached multiple breaking points.

[Star Idol]: Lv. 0 -> Lv. 1

[Fire Mage]: Lv. 0 -> Lv. 1

[Tyrant Hatchling]: Lv. 0 -> Lv. 1

Surprisingly, that was our first kill.

“Go!”

From the shadows of seven assailants, Saori’s shadow pack emerged from them. The four fenrirs and Saori’s mom bit the men’s leg, ripping them off, while Rajah’s mom pierced one with her sharp tail. The last was consumed inside Shoyi’s slime body.

“Who are you!” Saori demanded as red smoke appeared around her eyes, but before they could say anything, they jumped into the hole in the middle of the room. “Tsk!”

“Go get them!” I shouted before casting [Sacred Field] to heal the three injured. Having hopefully stabilized them, I then continued the treatment with my white flames. “Saori, go! Get them!”

“R-right, please!” Saori eyed Gael before running off. Grimnir and Vifi followed her upon my command.

As I stared at Gael’s numerous body injuries, especially a knife hole in his head, I scowled as I knew this would be difficult. Vangrim also was in critical condition as a sword ran right through his heart. My healing magic was strong, but one false move could still ruin the operation, as I had no idea if I could restore brain matter, or a completely destroyed heart—I still needed the bits of Vangrim’s original heart to copy it with [Miraculous Grace].

“Hey, the girl!” Neill urged me before turning her head around and scowling. “Oh …”

“Yeah …”

It was too late for her. Gael and Vangrim survived their wounds barely through their levels and higher health.

Neill clicked her tongue. “Okay, can’t do anything. You need my help?”

[“And me, Master?”] Rajah asked.

“Yes, guard those people for me, Rajah, and make sure to keep your nose open. Also, keep me informed on Saori and her location,” I replied. “Sis, open a portal for me. I need Asaka’s help to make sure I don’t accidentally kill Vangrim by pulling the sword out. Afterwards, I need you to stand guard for me. This is no coincidence! The damn spy being around, protected by so many people, then those fire blessed, and then this ambush!”

“You told me that prince went crazy, but if this was done all under his orders, then you really shouldn’t underestimate that Prince of Envy!” Neill warned me before doing what I wanted. Our instincts knew what was up.

Gael, please! Don’t die on me. Farron’s and Yorshka’s hearts would break if you die! Priscilla’s, too! You’re Saori’s goddamn rogue mentor and drinking buddy, so don’t you dare die!

I gave a silent prayer as I refocused and had my parallel minds start playing [The Heir of Hope]. This was what I had to do.

I had to leave the rest to Saori.