Kumo Desu ga, Nani ka?-Skirmish - Oni vs Wind and Lightning ①

『Drop dead!』 𝑓𝒓𝚎e𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯𝘰𝐯𝒆𝑙.c𝚘m

The body of the leopard-like dragon glows, and a crackling sound reverberates threateningly. I immediately swing one of the swords held in my hands, releasing the energy in the magic sword imbued with the power of lightning. At the same time my sword reaches the end of its swing, I shoot that energy!

The next instant, thunder rang.

A roaring sound that deafens the ears. A flash of light that blinds the eyes. And, a hot wind surges that seems to burn skin.

『Hah-haha! I bet not even a fragment will be left!』

While my ears are still ringing, I could hear the voice of the leopard dragon who believes that he’s won.

『My eyes! My eyes!?』

I could hear the other dragon screaming in agony. It seems that the flash of light just now blinded him. I guess it means dragons can be dazzled as well. I break into a run while performing such analysis. The leopard dragon who fired the attack believes it’s all over, and has become careless. The other dragon has shut his eyes and can’t move properly. There’s no way I can miss this opportunity.

I grip the lightning sword in my mouth, and take out four throwing knives from Space Storage using my free hand. They look like small knives, but they are swords with the added property of exploding on contact. Even if they’re small, their destructiveness is plenty. I throw the knives while running. From the perspective of the dragon who was caught completely off guard, it would likely feel like these knives suddenly came flying out of the dust cloud that had been kicked up from his previous attack.

『Woah!?』

The leopard dragon screams and there’s the sound of an explosion. However, that scream didn’t seem to be one of pain, but rather of strong surprise. In other words, he was shocked but didn’t take damage. However, that was also within my expectations. Parting through the dust cloud I jump out. With a swing of the sword in my other hand, the magic sword imbued with the power of fire is already wrapped in flames. I grip it tightly in both hands, and swing it towards the leopard dragon.

『Owahh!?』

The leopard dragon reflexively bends backwards. However, while that reaction would normally be called a mistake, the leopard dragon was able to accurately fire the lightning coiled around him towards me.

「Ugh!」

Pointing the lightning sword in my mouth up at the sky, it gets used as a substitute lightning rod. The lightning heading towards me was sucked up by the lightning sword, and once again flashed with light. The shock from the lightning sword in my mouth runs through my teeth and into my chin. While literally struggling to clench my teeth, I make another swing with my fire sword towards my opponent. However, by that time the leopard dragon had already escaped from the range of my sword.

『D, dangerous!』

The leopard dragon sounds panicked. In the time it took me to take a single step, the leopard dragon moved back about 10 meters. As I expected, his speed is much greater than mine. In addition, the exchange just now convinced me that this guy is a Lightning Dragon who rules over lightning.

How troublesome…… In my mind, I click my tongue.

Lightning Dragons. While dragons of all attributes are troublesome, in my opinion the two most troublesome are lightning and darkness. The number of Darkness Dragons is particularly small, so fortunately you’d almost never encounter one in practice. However, Lightning Dragons are different. There are about as many of them as with other attributes. Worst of all, Lightning Dragons have a weak sense of territory, frequently showing up suddenly where people live. Most likely, the species of dragon that gets into the most fights with people and demons, are Lightning Dragons.

They have a plain and simple style. Attack using lightning, and utilising their physique for close range battle. That’s all. However, precisely because it is plain and simple, they can maximise their potential. What’s most troublesome, is their lightning based attacks. Humans cannot react to the speed of lightning. You could say that dodging is practically impossible. Yet it’s powerful. It will turn anyone with lackluster defensive strength into charcoal with a single blast. So dodging or withstanding the attacks is difficult. While they burn through their MP quickly as a result, you’re going to be killed before they run out of MP. To go up against a Lightning Dragon, the minimum requirement is to be able to withstand the lightning attack.

I more or less meet that requirement. My specialised attributes are lightning and fire. Due to that, I’ve often made lightning magic swords, and so also gained lightning resistance. Like I did earlier, with a magic sword of the same attribute you can also withstand the attacks since they cancel each other out. However, being able to withstand the attack, is no more than the minimum requirement. Without that you can’t even stand on the battlefield. In other words, I’ve not been able to do anything except survive on the same battlefield. Whether I can win or not, I don’t know.

The greatest feature that Lightning Dragons have is their lightning strike which is difficult to avoid or withstand. After that, the next most important is their agility. Lightning Dragons have particularly high speed status values, so their special strategy is to use their agility to confuse the enemy then hit them with a lightning strike. Also, their physical offensive ability and their magical offensive ability values are high. On the other hand, their physical defensive ability and magical defensive ability are the lowest amongst all dragons. Although they possess the dragon scales skill that all dragons do, because they are a species that almost never receives attacks, the skill is often at level 1. In other words, they are completely specialised for attack.

While I am somewhat irregular, I could also be said to be specialised for attack. I don’t have any defensive abilities that are worthy of mention. In terms of status values, while you could say that I am a balanced type, my skills are completely focused towards attacking. In other words, this battle is a clash between attack specialises. My magic swords versus the leopard dragon’s lightning attacks. Whoever comes out ahead will probably be decided by whoever lands an effective strike first. That’s probably the type of battle it will be. At least… if this was a one-on-one battle with me and the leopard dragon.

『Finally I can see again. My eyes are still fucking stinging though.』

The Pteranodon-like dragon is shaking his head.

『Hey you fucking retard, why are you so relaxed!? This guy fucking withstood my Spark, hey! He’s bad news!』

『You asshole! Just who’s fault do you think it is that my eyes are stinging!』

『Never mind that and fucking help me already!』

『Ah, sure.』

The two dragons square off against me cautiously. Based on their exchange just now, the leopard dragon might have a higher position than the Pteranodon-like dragon, but given how casually they are interacting they’re probably almost at the same rank. Most likely they’ll both attack cautiously from now on. It was a massive failure for me to have not even wounded them earlier during the perfect opportunity when they were still being careless. However, it’s too soon to be pessimistic. They might be uninjured, but I’m also uninjured. The battle is only just getting started. With sweat running over my hands, I take a stance again with my magic swords, also squaring off against them.