"Erina, let me ask you a question."

Erina removed her eyes from Angelina and looked at Kai.

"What is it?"

"When is a person the strongest?"

Erina placed a finger on her lip and slightly opened her mouth.

"When they've properly rested and trained?"

Kai shook his head but didn't give an answer, he wanted Erina to give another answer.

"When protecting something?"

Another shake of the head, but this time Kai answered.

"It's when they're desperate. Desperate to survive, desperate to protect, desperate to win. They say a cornered beast is the most dangerous, that's what I believe as well. In Angelina's case, she will never get desperate especially when she knows that I'm near. That's why I kept this all a secret from her, she'll probably think at first that I am here but when she gets injured, she'll think things like 'why isn't master coming to save me?', 'is he really not here?' and so on-"

Erina had narrowed eyes and was evidently displeased.

"...It maybe a bit cruel-"

"It is."

"And I know that it's the work of scum-"

"It definitely is."

"But she needs this. That girl has more talent than me and you, if our roles were reversed, I'm sure that she would be many times stronger than me. Her connection with Gaia isn't on the level of being called a monster, it's on the level of impossible, the chances of her being a God or even a Supreme Being are the highest, even higher than mine. Not only her astral body, even her physical strength, intuition, instincts, all of them are on a different level than mine. In fact, it doesn't feel like her body is normal, I even have suspicions that her body is modified like mine. If her reliance on me isn't removed, she'll never become strong."

Erina narrowed her eyes even more.

"So you say but you're definitely doting on her a lot."

"I'm not."

"Sure, sure."

Erina turned her eyes back towards the battle.

----------------------------------------

Angelina faced the dragon with trembling hands. Her armor had only a single breath attack in it left, her sword was far from breaking but her fighting spirit was rapidly dwindling.

Angelina was A-class when it came to magic and body but her toughness definitely matched S-class, the knights that came with her couldn't even move anymore and were on death's door.

The dragon repeated a pose that Angelina was very familiar with, a breath attack. Though it had done this multiple times, it showed no signs of running out of juice. A normal dragon could only use a breath attack four times because of the massive amount of mana and power required.

The breath attacks like [Shadow Breath] and [Flame Breath] were only cheap imitations of this skill. They can't even be compared.

"Master... save me..."

Angelina began to mutter as she saw the attack that had gave her despair over and over again during this battle.

"Master... I've given my all time and time again, so why aren't you here yet...?"

Tears began forming on her eyes until they gradually fell down.

'Are you afraid?'

A single familiar sentence made Angelina's crying stop. Her eyes widened as she looked around.

'Will you run away?'

"Master, where are you...?"

Angelina weakly cried out but when Kai didn't show himself, she resigned herself to the fact that he wasn't there. As the dragon opened its mouth, Angelina closed her eyes which made the teardrops that had built up inside her eyes fall slowly.

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

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Desolate Beast Mountain Range

"Haa... haa..."

Angelina panted repeatedly while limping away from the beast behind her.

"Master!"

Angelina caught sight of Kai and went for a hug.

"Master... I can't do it... I don't want to fight it anymore..."

Kai looked towards the direction that Angelina had ran from and looked back at her.

"Are you afraid? Will you run away?"

Kai whispered to Angelina who was crying on his shoulder.

"I..."

"I don't accept cowards. You dare call yourself my disciple yet can't even face a dragon? Run away now and I'll never allow you to become my disciple again."

Kai's cold words made Angelina freeze on the spot.

"B-but that thing killed my parents! They were B-class mercenaries!"

"And you don't want revenge? Didn't you become my disciple to get stronger and defeat that dragon? Why are you clinging to me again?"

"M-master...!"

"You have no right to call me master."

Kai released Angelina's grasp which made her fall on the floor.

"Wait...!"

Angelina reached out with her hand to Kai's departing back but Kai didn't turn around. For who knows how long, Angelina stretched out her hand repeatedly while muttering 'master', 'but I'm scared','please help...' over and over and over again. It wasn't until rain fell down during that night did she realize that unless she defeated that dragon, Kai would never come back, she would be abandoned.

"I don't want that..."

Angelina stood up while crying, she used her sword for support.

"I don't want to fight the dragon..."

Angelina said as she walked with her sword back towards the place she ran from.

"I don't want to get hurt..."

Angelina tapped the bracelet on her left wrist and took out a red potion and began to gulp it down.

"I'm scared of the dragon and I'm scared of pain, but..."

Angelina arrived at the injured dragon's cave once more.

"...I don't want to be abandoned by master the most!"

Angelina was a very sheltered child, her parents had doted on her so much that she didn't even know how to use a sword when Kai had first met her who was about fourteen. An adult was fifteen years old but most kids learned how to use a sword by ten. She hadn't had much contact with the outside word as well so she subconsciously relied on the parent figure who had saved her from the depths of despair, Kai. Though he was younger, he taught her how to fight, how to hunt, how to survive, and how to avenge her parents.

To anyone else, losing a master would at most pain them but to Angelina, losing Kai was like losing a parent.

"I've already lost my parents, I don't want to lose Kai too! So, dragon, die for me!"

...

"I... did it..."

The dragon's body stopped moving, a sword stabbed through the skull.

"Ah..."

Just as she was about to fall, she felt a warm hug and her head being given pats.

"Good work, disciple."

"Master..."

Tears fell from Angelina's eyes once more as she cried in Kai's embrace.

"Can I stay with you now...?"

"Of course. Stay as long as you like."

----------------------------------------

"That's right..."

"Die, human scum!"

"Master never left my side, even at that time, he was right there, watching me from afar."

The dragon released its breath which had power incomparable to the ones before it.

"I haven't tested this move since I nearly died from it, it was well over my limit at the time."

Angelina relaxed her body.

"Forbidden Dragon Slayer Art: Dragonification. «Draco»"

Angelina felt her bones cracking and skin ripping apart while she grit her teeth.

"...It looks like it's still over my limit but there's no other chance."

Angelina utilized her full power to resist the pain. The wind around her began to rampage and formed a barrier of sorts around her, then her skin cracked.

"DIE!"

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM

The breath attack landed on Angelina and the injured knights behind her. The side of the cave where the knights were stationed collapsed and the knights near the entrance were blown away. Like this, a part of the mountain was destroyed, a gaping hole could be seen on one side of the cave that they were fighting in.

But Angelina and the injured knight were safe, the floor around them was already gone but the land beneath them was the same as ever. The light lit up the dark cave and Angelina's skin was visible to the light. Her skin was cracked all over.

"A human's skin cracking? Could it be that you're not a human at all? Well, it doesn't matter. You're dead either way."

The dragon walked forward leisurely and raised its right leg and slammed it down.

SHATTER

"Hm?"

""

The dragon's leg was being held up by Angelina's arm.

""

"How?!"

Angelina pushed away the dragon's leg and leapt upwards. With the dragon's leg gone, her body was visible. She had scales on some parts of her body like the forearms, the cheekbones, and the legs, her eyes had turned into slits and she had the same air around her as the dragon.

"Dragon Art: Roar."

Angelina opened her mouth and her voice amplified so loud that it produced visible shockwaves of air and blasted the dragon's scales apart.

"AGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!"

"Dragon Art: Talons!"

Her nails had become longer and her hands were like that of a dragon's as she cut through the dragon's body.

"Dragon Art: Wings!"

Angelina stopped in mid-air and translucent wings sprouted from her back.

"Die. Dragon Art: Breath."

Her cheeks puffed up and with a terrifying roar of a dragon, she released flames from her mouth and burned the dragon slowly, the scales on its body were pierced through and its body was charred black.

Never in all its life had it suffered damage like this.

"AAAAAAAAGGGHH! YOU INSOLENT HUMANNNN!"

It put up very little resistance against Angelina's dragonification, the scales on her body was even harder than that of the dragon's and the power of her breath was on the same level as the dragon's final attack.

The dragon's slit eyes slowly turned white and it fell over head first. The sound of large fifteen meter body falling down created small tremors but Angelina stood tall and walked over to its lifeless body.

""

To its death, it still had the pride and arrogance of a dragon.

""