第十九回：以石擊膜群舉屠龍，玄白媓待機藏玄心
Goodness, I've already got mud on my clothes,
now I have all this see-through sauce on me too.
Rude.
Very rude.
The dragon's howl pierces through the air, viridescent beam of energy misdirected towards a far-away mountain in half-blinded rage, toppling rock and dreams of scenic preservation.
Swinging my body upwards with the threshing momentum, I catch the ridged edge of the other side's antlers like an ancestral 『wako pirate』 [1] leaping from one ship mast to another.
The angle is just right.
The bulbous, ugly, green football rolls upwards;
That's right,
stare in horror.
I cast [Hyper☆Rock].
Splendid. I hate death throes as much as anyone else. Amusement park rides don't appeal to me because I've only read about them in manga. Great-grans was just a coward who didn't want to bring me to the main continent where they all were.
Keep raising your polearm in [Hanging Guard] down there, Annalie!
Once again, [Reckless Ayaya] has to save your a--- woah!!!
The twitching and jerking finally stops, I guess it did not redeem the quarter I shot into its eyes too well.
With a violent shudder, the dragon's head finally slumps to the ground.
I too, slump down the side of its left antler.
Not now...
Not now...!
Knees weak and fingers long having lost grip strength, the small and cute detective slides off the side of the dragon's head, body in full vertical drop, head pointed to the ground in a downwards plummet.
Balls.
If I'm going to die,
I would like watermelon as my last drink...
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Annalie realizes the gravity of this situation and speeds forwards, the bottom of her feet singeing the ground infused in her magick. Propelling herself on her weapon, which she uses as a jumping off stand, lightning greaves the bottom of her soles; and in a bolt of black, a piercing shot of human lightning covers the distance between herself and the falling Ayano, safely cradling Ayano before her head turns into a summer watermelon.
"Ehahaha! Nice going, Ayaya!"
I am already too tired to reply, keeping one eye open with eyelids flickeringly closed is the best I can do right now.
That's why I didn't notice the change that was happening around me right now.
Annalie lands on the ground, throwing up more mud on my clothes just as it started to happen.
Blue-hued light starts to shine through the scales of the dead dragon's body like cracks in an eggshell.
Power pushing itself through falsely imposed boundaries,
it arcs upwards like water spouts,
shimmering in an arcing clear blue curve above,
it seeks and flows into a rightful vessel.
Warm.
As the watershow is redirected towards my body, it passes through my body benignly, covering my body in a faint azure glow. I know this, since the vigor has returned to my fingers and I am gripping the air repeatedly in amazement at this second wind. It is safe to say that I have never felt this alive before, not even the highs of [Reckless Ayaya] matches this feeling in the slightest.
So this is... killing a dragon?
When all the power had streamed into my body, the sound of cascading draconic power fades away and leaves behind two things. All the dark clouds looming above simply burst apart, revealing the clear blue sky that had been obscured from sight.
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
And...
...the fishbone-like skeleton of a dead dragon.
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"Oof."
After repeatedly patting at Annalie's shoulder to insist that I was alright, Annalie finally set me down on the ground. Tentatively touching the white bones of the beast Ayaya just dispatched, my detective's mind starts spinning again.
This is real.
This isn't some plastic prop.
This is real bone.
I would know, the number of corpses I've inspected the last month.
But if this is real...
What happened to the skin and flesh?
I am certain that stone met eyeball just now.
What was that waterfall-like sound?
What is going on right now?
And why is everyone running up to me?
Zhangji is supporting a much more heavily injured and limping Daju, one arm clinging to the cultist's shoulders. She's alright, even if the black bandages on her head heavily stained with tomato juice seem to imply otherwise.
Ying-onee is on the other end, touching the tailbones and coming to the same conclusions as me. Have you ever seen a dragon before, Ying-onee? This is not your first time is it?
Most frighteningly...
All the surviving Black Bandanna NPCs have gathered around.
Gathering in a loose mob,
passing through their closed lips are two slow and repeated words:
【Tulong】...
and...
【Shounu】?
Merely hours before,
I could say with certainty that NPCs did not speak...
... so what does it mean when they do...?
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PROLOGUE ACT 【屠龍少女】 END
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Moments ago, the "Prefecture of Condemnation", 【府ｘ開】.
In a shaded room tucked away from prying eyes, a fat duck is half-submerged in an open bathtub lit up by glimmering white stones at its base. Spreading both wings on each rounded corner of this jaccuzi-like bath, it decides that too much steam makes for a boiled duck, and lifts its heavyset body, with some effort upwards.
The water must have logged into its cyanic robes, for it found itself unable to fully lift itself up by the wings, slips, and falls helplessly with a splash once more in the tub. Repeated attempts are made, until it finally opts to crawl out, with much difficulty and shame. Its Mxxxxy Mxxxe hat falls by the wayside, dignity completely forgotten.
Shaking itself and its magistrate attire dry is the 'honorable and justicious' Tu Feiya, 【Inspector-Magistrate】 of 【Dusi Kuodo】. It waddles and wiggles its way up to the other side of the room, where a giantess of a girl is lying on her side, eyes closed.
This is the girl we would later come to know as Xuan Baihuang. The eldest of three sisters, she stands at a towering five and three-seven chi, pale white hair tinged with jade-green falling over the side of the bench. Sharp eyebrows are painted above lashes that conceal the sky and earth, reserved and impenetrable. The torn and ill-fitting white prisoner's outfit hugs at her body, the only thing about herself she is not given the right to conceal.
"Why did you not help me out just now...!", the duckfaced one quacks in violent throes, pointing a dripping wing at the unmoving Xuan Baihuang.
The girl does not open her eyes at all, preferring to 【Act Sagacious To Seem Foolish】 [2], and slowly, with calculated intent, raises both wrists before the wide-girthed duck.
"I wish... I could.
(killthisfatduck) But...
My hands...
(whenIgetoutof) ... are literally tied."
Large translucent wrist cuffs are placed upon her, more resembling a pair of thick and heavy discs attached to glowing green chains. Her manner of speaking has its intended effect on the weak-hearted duck, who hurries to fiddle with the cuffs before suddenly realizing its folly and startling backwards from the couch she lays on.
The punishment for deception is violence.
"Of you three returned from 【Imaishine Prison】... it seems that you alone lack discipline!" The tyrannical duck quacks quaveringly, taking great pride in having bested its cuffed and collared prisoner.
"I don't...
(dissthisd) ... even
know what you mean..."
Quickly licking the raw, red side of her lips, the immovable girl puts her wrists down and returns to resting with eyes closed, as if nothing happened at all.
"Don't forget, the lives of your sisters Hong Yunlin and Yue Fuyi are in this duck's wings...!" The duck makes a threatening gesture with the tip of its wing feathers, like it were pinching a handful of sand that is quickly slipping its fowl grasp.
"That's fine.
(.......) Sisters that sell each other out...
are not sisters at all."
Duck Magistrate is unable to see through Xuan's intentions at all, mistakenly believing that the conditioning from 【Imaishine Prison】 had finally kicked in.
In truth, it was the other way around.
Having Xuan as a hostage allowed Corrupt Mcduck to command the two known as "worth ten thousand". Furthermore, the seeds of discord had already been sown between Hong and You, so there was even less chance of them turning against 【Dusi Kuodo】. 【Constitutional Slavery】 rarely turned out fine products as these three sisters!
At the height of its arrogance,
a flash of cyanic blinded its eyes.
A vision of a cute lil' black-haired buccaneer
holding a rock high above,
smashes its vision with reckless abandon.
Vomiting blood while falling backwards on its bottom, it rolls around on the porcelain-tiled jacuzzi floor in its own duck fluids, making quacking sounds calling for help, rescue and assistance!
This unexpected scene causes Xuan to lightly, almost imperceptibly, raise an eyebrow, revealing a sliver of her iris underneath.
There is some semblance to an oversized baby as it cries ancestral mother and father for the loss of Stability, face, and other random things that did not really matter to the prisoner observing all this.
One thing that Xuan knew for real...
Someone had struck at the 【Dao of Ryuu】 itself.
Real, tangible, hurt.
The one who had greedily monopolized most of its power was now...
... getting its just deserts.
Oh dear.
We'll be punished if I don't call for help.
It can't be helped then.
"(softly) Help...
(rollrollroll) Oh
Someone...
(rollrollroll) ... oh please help. (Rahaha)"
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NEXT: A Most Blessed Reunion In Pu'yeng Shouldn't Be This Breathless, Aya-Chan You're Not A Wizard You're A Dragonocider!
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TERMINOLOGY
[2] 【Act Sagacious To Seem Foolish】- 【若智若愚】, to act in a way that it is imperceptible whether you are smart or silly. Sometimes, this is the only thing you can do when under duress...
GO GO AND LEARN MOONRUNES WITH AYA-CHAN!
[1] 『wako pirate』- Pirates who raided the coasts of the [Old Continent] in the far distant past. No! My ancestors were NOT pirates! What makes you think that?!