Dragonlord

Ep 37. Do You Know My Name? (3)

The two enforcers had reduced their pace to a slow walk. They busily scanned their surroundings venturing deeper into the canals, noting all obstacles, exits, and potential threats nearby. Patrick wove his glowing staff around every then and there, occasionally glancing towards Iris who seemed intent on keeping her attention focused on the road ahead.

While the canal’s paths had fortunately been lit by lines of torches, Patrick had kept his staff alit for a better vision in the dim lighting. It had allowed the enforcers to see additional incoming beasts a few seconds ahead, translating to a swifter response – though, swift or not, the frequent encounters were gradually wearing out the two mages.

“…You know, I feel like we should’ve waited to bring more people with us.”

“We’ll do what we can. If we must, we can always escape through my portal spell and call reinforcements after.”

“I guess. At least so far there hasn’t been anything too…huh?”

Both enforcers stopped midtrack as they saw a looming figure up ahead. The shadow was human in shape, but oddly malformed with extremely broad, scaled shoulders, shrinking down into a tiny waist and even shorter legs. A man’s face was buried in the middle of its chest. Half of it was covered in white scales, and his fanged mouth was groaning in pain. Their height was almost touching the sewer’s ceiling, which was at least twice a grown man’s height.

“H…elp…!”

A deep frown crossed Iris’ expression. The creature before her was clearly a person, at least in part; but at the same time, it was a beast that they had come to exterminate.

‘Do we have to capture him without killing? But that’s…’

The humanoid beast let out a low, painful cry as dim, white glimmers appeared in front of its shoulders. The lights soon crystallized into two glowing orbs, each sizzling in mana-based energy.

“Iris, careful! He’s using magic!”

Standing on a rather narrow path surrounded by the tunnel walls and the sewer streams, there wasn’t much room to avoid the incoming attack. Patrick hurriedly cast several layers of water shields in front of them, the beams of light exploding onto his barrier.

For a moment, the shields held – but the safety was short-lived. One by one the luminous beam of light melted through the layers, until every single barrier would eventually give away.

Patrick rushed to dodge the attack as the light scraped the side of his waist. He winced and retreated a few steps, gripping his burn with a pained groan.

“Patrick!”

“…It’s fine. Didn’t expect that to go through so many shields.”

Iris narrowed her gaze onto the towering figure. Their spell hadn’t seemed to be anything complex, and yet, it’d somehow pierced through several layers of an enforcer’s shielding spell. And while Patrick was swallowing the pain for now, the burn on his side was clearly unordinary; even with a cursory examination, she could see signs of burns, tearing, and frostbites, all at the same time.

“…Retreat for now.”

“What? You’re not thinking about leaving him here, are you? That’s a person in there.”

“We don’t know how many more there will be up ahead like him. We don’t know what magic it’s using either. Go call reinforcements; I’ll handle things here in the meantime.”

Iris grabbed Patrick by his hood as a blue portal lit up behind them. He tried to resist his coworker’s pull, but the burn on his side made it impossible to do so.

“Iris! Wait!”

Iris threw her friend into the portal, making Patrick strumble out onto the other side right at the sewer gate they’d initially entered from. The surrounding agents immediately took notice of Patrick’s appearance and injuries, hastily approaching the mage.

“Enforcer Parma! Are you alright?!”

Patrick groaned as he tried to pull himself back up and go back, but the glowing portal had shut itself off immediately after he’d fallen out, cutting off his path.

“She closed it?! Why that…!”

“What happened? Where’s Enforcer Alpid?”

Patrick gritted his teeth as the agent pressed him further. Despite the haphazard array of thoughts in his mind regarding the beast’s magic, there were more pressing concerns for the sector.

“…Summon all available sector agents and enforcers to this gate. Reduce the regulating personnel to bare minimum, and call for assistance from any available freelance mages at the association! There are people requiring our assistance in the canals. Move!”

“R…right away!”

✧ ✧ ✧

Boom!

“Tch…!”

Iris ran across the sewer’s corridors, tumbling out of the beast’s magic. She couldn’t abandon the scene as an enforcer, but she couldn’t go forward with the beast-man blocking the way; she was determined to help this individual groaning in pain, but she couldn’t figure out a way to do so. With Iris specifically aiming for non-lethal areas, her attacks amounted to little – but capture attempts seemed impossible with the uncanny magic the figure was wielding.

‘I can’t just burn him down like the other beasts. Is he moving against his will? How do I…’

“Eh, ehehehe! Ehahaha!!”

An eerie laughter echoed throughout the chamber. Soon, a man emerged from the shadows beside the hulking man-like beast, fixing his glasses in genuine amusement as he stared into the enforcer’s eyes.

“W, w, we…have a g, guest!”

“Eisenhoff!”

A maniacal laughter echoed throughout the corridor as the doctor threw out his arms. The beast groaned in pain beside him, the curse mark behind its back glowing in crimson red.

“G, go ahead, my dear c, c, child! M, make our guest feel, h, home!”

Numerous prismatic orbs crystallized into being around the beast’s shoulder as they all aimed themselves towards Iris. Bursts of magic shot forth, crashing down unto the floor where the enforcer was standing.

✧ ✧ ✧

Ilias and Light were both sitting on a bed with their backs leaned against the wall. Despite the clock ticking way past their usual bedtime, neither of them could sleep; the half girl was hugging her own knees, and Ilias was worriedly watching the little girl sulk about matters beyond the dragon’s understanding.

“Light…what’s wrong?”

“…I’m just…a little cold.”

While they may not have been sisters by blood, Ilias had treated Light as one over the years she’d spent in this city – but never had she seen the half girl shivering like this. Ilias had her tail securely wrapped around her trembling sister, and she was practically stuck to Light’s side; with how warm the red dragon’s body usually was, there was no way Light could be cold in her current state.

“Is it those guys we saw earlier? I’m sure the enforcers will take care of them soon.”

Ilias winced as she realized that her comment only made the half girl’s mood worsen. Light’s face practically buried itself into her arms as the dragon stammered to correct the previous statement.

“Sorry, sorry! Um, what I meant was…I’m sure they got away safely?”

Despite the dragon’s attempts of reassurance, Light knew all too well that the beasts would be annihilated if the enforcers became involved in the case. There was no way they’d let dangerous beasts like that escape the city.

‘…He wouldn’t let them go anyways.’

Ilias made a perplexed expression as she watched her little sister sulk. The poor dragon had no way of knowing what it was that Light was sulking about, but considering how bright the half girl usually was, it couldn’t be a small matter.

But one thing had become clear: apparently, Light didn’t want those two beasts to get caught by the sector.

The dragon slowly uncurled her tail and rose to her feet, hopping off the bed. Ilias stretched her arms and made her way to the window side; sitting around moping with her little sister clearly wasn’t bettering their mood, nor was she the type to do so.

“Stay home with mom and dad. You can do that, right?”

Light worriedly raised her gaze. The window opened with a soft creak, and Ilias already had one foot planted on the lower ridge, ready to jump outside.

“You’re…going out?”

“Mhm. You wouldn’t want the enforcers to catch your friends, would you?”

Light flinched at the mention of ‘friends.’ Despite never having described the beasts as such, the dragon seemed certain that the term was accurate – which Light didn’t bother to deny.

But still, the beasts shouldn’t have been anything more than abominations that attacked innocent civilians. Even Light knew that much, at least.

“…What’re you going to do? They’re dangerous. They’re…monsters now.”

“Pft. Don’t you worry Light, your big sister’s really strong! I’ll just drop them off in a forest outside the city or something.”

“But…if you help them, the enforcers will come after you next.”

“So? Do you want me to stay here instead?”

“…”

Ilias faintly smiled as the half girl fell silent. The Light she knew would’ve told her not to go from the very beginning, if that was what the little girl really wanted.

“It won’t take long. Who knows? If your friends don’t struggle too much, maybe I won’t get caught at all.”

“…It’s not just those two.”

“Huh?”

Light uncurled herself as she rushed out of her bed, quickly making her way over to the dragon’s side in trembling steps. Only her eyes remained unshaking, staring into Ilias with a determined gaze.

“Take me with you. I know where to go.”

“…Are you sure? I mean, it’d be nice to have someone who knows the way, but what if your friends aren’t so…friendly?”

“…Then my really-strong-sister will keep me safe. Right?”

A soft snicker escaped the red dragon as she heard Light’s coy answer. Although Ilias still didn’t know why the Light was so fearful, or wanting to help those aggressive creatures, she didn’t really need to know.

The dragon trusted her little sister – that the girl’s motives couldn’t possibly be anything bad.

Ilias offered her hand, preparing to take flight with a passenger in tow.

“Of course she will!”