Dragon slain. Noah could start running the title dragon-slayer, though that might be from inside a prison, depending on whether the guild found him.

‘Damned Antela’

Though, kind of an underwhelming fight. The only reason they could really beat it was because it was stuck in a cave where it couldn’t really fly.

Really unfortunate. Noah would have enjoyed seeing a fair fight. Maybe it was arrogance but he thought he’d have a decent shot at killing it.

“I killed a dragon,” Antela declared.

“We killed a dragon,”

Noah touched the dragon corpse, warping it to steal back a middle finger. Couldn’t flip Antela off without it.

“Right, yeah,” Antela nodded. “Nice dagger throw by the way,”

“Thanks, I worked real hard,”

Antela looked Noah up and down.

“But you don’t carry any daggers?”

‘Hmm…how to explain this little thing away? I had one dagger? I carry one just in case? Or…”

“It was a bone off the ground. Cute you pay so much attention to me though”

Antela didn’t wear an expression of amusement. In fact, one might describe her as a little pissed, but oh well, it didn't really matter, did it? Same thing.

“Smart thinking,”

“I am a genius after all,” Noah nodded to himself. After returning to the city, changing his name and making up a new life, he started a little differently.

The seclusion of the wilderness and the unrelenting time spent with Antela probably did the trick. That wasn’t even an exaggeration, too; every waking moment seemed to have her in it.

He actually met her at a bar, where he’d got into a fight over…he might’ve spilled a drink or something. Anyways, as he was about to beat the ever-living shit out of a civilian, you have to understand he’d just come from a tough adventure, Antela stepped in to break up the fight.

He was stunned seeing a beautiful white haired girl, cute ocean-blue eyes looking back at him. Piercings and a cross necklace with a black dress still showing her bare legs and arms.

A few cuts and bruises from hunts, but her face still glowing in his gaze.

Very his type.

At that moment, she seemed like an angel.

‘How wrong I was,’

“I’m hungry,”

“Yeah, let’s get cooking,”

With Antela around, a girl able to muster a much better flame than his own, magic wasn’t his strong suit, things were so much easier. Instead getting firewood, setting up a little campfire, making little hands to hold the meat, probably cooking some human skin into his meat, he could just sit back, relax, watch Antela abuse magic to cook a neat meal, then dine.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

Noah didn’t have to lift a finger. Life was great.

“Cut the meat then, Noah,”

Right…this was the part that sucked. As a seasoned hunter, he could butcher up a beast with pure skill, but the months in the wilderness abusing his power got him rusty. Of course, he’d picked it back up, but laziness tended to take over.

Whilst pretending to cut up the meat, continuously looking over his shoulder, Noah just lazily warped it off to safe time, converting the excess skin and whatnot to more meat, then throwing it at Antela.

“You’re fast. You should’ve become a butcher,” Antela teased.

“Yeah, what an exciting profession for a swordsman like me. A lot of action I’d bet,”

Antela ignored him and got to flame blasting the meat away with her magic. This was definitely cheating and put together this might be the laziest couple of people in the entire continent, but if it works, it works.

“Dinner is served,” Antela declared, the meat unevenly cooked but…you know, it was edible.

Taking a bite, well, actually, attempting a bite, Noah grimaced. Very, very tough.

Cheating once again, as was typical of him, he sneakily warped his facial structure to make the chomping easier.

Seeing Noah easily chomp through the meat she was struggling to dig her teeth into, Antela thought Noah must’ve been raised on a farm with lots of milk.

Then, she went ahead and cut the meat into tiny squares to swallow whole. This would actually take more effort than chewing, but she didn’t care.

Juice being squeezed out of the meat, Noah swallowed heaven. For such a tough bastard, he did taste divine. Maybe dragons weren’t so bad after all.

At least on the menu.

“Is it to your liking, my lady?”

Antela glared.

“Can you drop that act? We both know you’re far from noble.” Antela spat. “And it’s too tough. I don’t know how you managed. Guys are just built different.”

“Or maybe I’m just super strong,”

“No,”

Noah sighed. You could only ever get the most minute compliments from this girl. But when it came to insults, she only dealt critical hits.

‘Such a demented girl’

***

Next morning.

“Ready?”

“Ready.”

The fight commenced. Of course, Noah had to hold back a bit, considering he’d created one of the most over-powered physiques using his power.

But even for a hunter, this girl was tough; no wonder she beat up that guard, damn.

Clash.

Noah blocked her aggressive strikes. Right now, he was playing quite defensively. If he fought back, the fight would be over pretty quickly and she wouldn’t learn much. It wasn’t really unfair; he’d been training with the sword practically since birth, with some amazing instructors.

Plus, if this was a real fight, Antela would have magic on her side; that power could change the tides of wars.

“Fight back!”

“Right,”

Noah pushed harder against her blade until the two separated, this time, he moved forward, sending a few faint strikes so she’d keep close and defensive, then feigned a large swing, leaving obvious openings for a counterattack.

Antela wasted no time to get duck and swinging, yet Noah transferred the power of the swing to a kick, knocking he ducking body down, then shoving a blade half-an-inch from her neck as a little reward for falling for the feint.

“Not bad. Improving,”

“You’re a cheat!”

“That is wild coming from the one who battered my shins before a spar to gain the advantage. You know that’s the only time you’ve ever won, right?”

And he kind of had to let her. It’d be too suspicious if his shins were fine after getting abused by metal.

‘The cheat!’

“Fine, fine,” Antela got up from the ground, Noah’s sword in his sheath now.

“What do we do with the corpse then?”

Noah scratched his chin.

“Cut off the tail, drag that out the cave, report it to the guild, show them the tail as proof and then get a payday. If we tell them where it is, they’ll get the corpse and we’ll make a ton of money.”

“But we pissed off the guild,”

“Yeah a dragon should buy us forgiveness,”