I was honestly expecting more stuff to happen throughout our journey to Ertpit… Erttit… Erprt… Whatever that Trasif town's name was.

Seriously, how the heck did they name their locations? Are they even speaking the same language or do they have a different language?

I'm joking of course, I know that everyone speaks the same language in this World at least.

Which means that the name of that town is just completely weird…

Along the way though, we did start to meet more Trasifs and they were pretty friendly when we passed by. Most greeted us and even stopped to have some small talk like asking where we were headed and whether we needed more supplies for our journey.

Surprisingly friendly people, all things considered.

When I mentioned that out loud, Emilia was the one who responded, "Of course they are. They were the ones who had been abandoned by their deity before another one took them under their wing. They know what it's like to be unwanted. Most people who travel here might also be running away from stuff and they welcome them to their midst to take refuge."

I frowned, "That kind of sounds like… A prime opportunity for people to take advantage of them…"

"They aren't stupid either, Boss. They might welcome them if they were really refugees or running away to seek a new life… But if you commit any crime or endanger their way of life, then they will not hesitate to be the ones that end your life. To them, protecting their own is way more important than protecting outsiders seeking refuge."

Huh… So basically you are welcome to escape to their midst but if you try to do something against them, they will also be lynching you to protect themselves. That… Works? I guess?

"How long more before we reach the town?" I asked.

Katsuki paused for a moment before answering, "I believe it's another two days at this speed, Mistress. Shall we speed up?"

"It's fine… We're not exactly in a rush either. What's the name of the place again?"

"Ertpytgya Town, Mistress."

Yeah, I'm not going to attempt to pronounce that.

Still… We haven't actually met any monsters while we're--

A loud roar interrupted my thoughts and all of us immediately reacted by moving to our usual formation where they surrounded me and kept a lookout of our surroundings.

In the meantime, I contacted my Shadow Guards who have been following us at a distance to search for the source of the roar.

The roar sounded pretty close so the monster should already be nearby.

I got a reaction pretty quickly as one of my Shadow Guards relayed what they saw through our shared link.

"It seems to be… A giant lizard?" I told my girls before pointing to the side. "And it's coming from over there."

Odeta grinned, "A giant lizard? Then it's most likely a land bound dragon. Wahaha! Just when I was thinking of having a good fight!"

I frowned, "There's dragons in this forest as well? I thought dragons would be in Dungeons or in the Dragon Sanctuary…"

Lisa shook her head, "These are land bound dragons… They're monsters that don't have wings but are also classified as dragons because they are able to use Draconic magic."

Before I could ask her what Draconic magic was, there was a loud thud and a dark shadow appeared from behind the undergrowth.

All of us watched as the shadow got larger and larger and eventually, a giant lizard head the size of a tank appeared from behind one of the trees, its eyes slowly shifting down to stare at us.

[Screened]?

[Name: Young Forest Earth Dragon

Race: Monster

Stats:

2850 Strength

100 Dexterity

3200 Endurance

600 Magic

Magic Skills:

Geomancy (Tier 2), Draconic (Tier 2)]

Wait, this is a 'young' Earth Dragon?! Just how big are the adult ones then?! The head of this one is already big enough to swallow all of us in one gulp if it wanted to!!

Also… Those stats really are something…

"A Young Forest Earth Dragon… Is it… Hostile?" I whispered.

Odeta turned to me, "Eh? Are we not going to challenge it?"

"Well… If we don't need to… Then I'd rather not, you know… That monster looks like it would be a pain to fight…"

Odeta grinned, "That's the fun part, isn't it? Wahahaha! It wouldn't be fun if the monster dies too quickly!"

Well, it doesn't look like we have a choice anyway as the dragon stepped out into the open and turned towards us menacingly.

It opened its mouth and I felt the hair at the back of my neck stand.

"Everyone, scatter!!" I ordered immediately, not liking the look of it.

Everyone obeyed and we split up in different directions with me jumping straight up into the air.

Not a moment too soon as well since the very next moment, a giant boulder was shot out from the dragon's mouth, smashing into the ground where we had been standing earlier.

How the heck… Where the heck… Did the rock just come out from the dragon's stomach or something?! Was that supposed to be a spell or it literally just spat that rock out?!

"Can we fight now?!" Odeta shouted, looking up at me from the ground.

At least she's still asking for permission instead of just jumping in…

"Go! Take that monster down!!" I ordered, tucking in my wings to dive towards the dragon.

For an opponent like this, I won't be staying back as support but participating in the attack instead, leaving the support spells to my Shadow Guards instead.

I dove right on top of the dragon's head, pulling back my fist and buffing myself with [Strength] and [Body Current] before I punched down on the dragon.

My fist made contact with the monster and the trees around us shook from the shockwave of the impact. Yet despite that, the earth dragon barely moved and I didn't even make a dent in its scales.

I bounced back up into the air, flaring my wings to control myself right as another boom shook the forest around us from below. I'm guessing that came from Odeta punching the dragon and at least that made the dragon flinch back slightly.

Guess I can't beat it with my strength alone so I materialised my swords, already activating their enchantments as I dove back down towards it.

The dragon let out another roar and slammed its front paw into the ground, causing stones to erupt from around it and forcing my girls away from it.

Too bad that spell doesn't protect attacks from above so I slashed my swords out at the dragon's back, my Light and Shadow swords clashing against its back.

The blade of light sliced through its back, cutting a small slash through its scales and drawing blood though it was nowhere near deep enough to be more than a superficial wound.

The Shadow sword on the other hand left a swath of flames on the monster's back, the flames slipping into the wound that my Light Sword had behind.

The superficial wound turned into an agonising one as the black flames burned into it, which was evident by the fact that the dragon started thrashing around in pain.

This combo sure is scary huh?

I leapt up into the air again to avoid the thrashing of the dragon, right as my girls returned and started wailing at it from below.

Trusting Eins and the others to be able to deal with supporting them, I dove back down and delivered a series of slashes with both swords along the dragon's back.

Every wound that was opened by my Light Sword would be ignited by the flames on my Shadow Sword.

Very soon, the entirety of the dragon's back was filled with black flames, making it look like the top of a bbq stove except the flames were black in colour.

Just as I was about to consider doing the same thing on its head, the dragon suddenly jumped up into the air, reaching a rather surprising height for its size before it slammed back down onto the ground.

Not only did the earth shake from the impact, I could also feel the air vibrate from the shockwave before I got sent flying back.

I tried to control my flight path but the dragon suddenly flicked its tail and I got slammed across the abdomen, the impact sending me flying towards the tree.

The air got knocked out of my lungs and pain erupted from my body before I found my vision darkening.

Just as I was about to black out, the pain suddenly disappeared, most likely from one of my Shadow Guards using a [Heal] spell on me.

When I looked up expecting the dragon to be rampaging around, I realised that it was actually running away from us.

Hey!! What's the big idea!! How dare you start a fight and then run away!! Get back here!!

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