216 - - the triumph of the dragon-killer

Thor exhaled slowly at the sight of the lake dragon lying exhausted in the river.

A small body jumps onto his back.

"You got him!　That's great, To-chan."

"Yeah, you did good, Moe."

He stopped the child who was about to fall, and Moo, with a big smile on his face in Thor's arms, held out a cage of insects to him.

"You did your best, Kurosuke. That's great!"

"Mmm-hmm."

"What about me, Thor?"

"Sora, you've done very well. Thanks for saving my life."

"Heh heh heh."

The girl lifts her chin happily, her voice bubbling with joy as she looks at the huge carcass of the dragon.

"Ushishi, there's so much meat! We can have a meat festival for the time being, Mu-chan!

"Really?　How much longer?　Can you go for three days?"

"Well, I don't think I can last a week."

"You're going to eat all this in a week?"

"Thank you all for your hard work."

"Yuril-san, are you all right now?

At Sola's worried question, the ash-eared beauty who had joined the conversation smiled coolly.

Her beautiful face did not show any sign of fatigue after she had performed so many magic moves in a row.

"It seems that you have defeated her safely, doesn't it?

"Yes, the plan worked out beautifully, didn't it?"

I had heard from Yuril beforehand that dragons in a swarm phase have more than one heart.

Even if one heart is destroyed, as long as the other heart remains, they will regenerate each other.

So, he first physically destroyed the heart at the base of the head, then used the ice technique to stop the blood flow throughout the body so that it would not regenerate, and then used to completely stop the remaining heart in the torso.

The aim was to prevent him from turning into a frenzy by folding all at once, and it seems to have worked well.

Although it may seem that he killed them easily, he was able to do so only because of the presence of Yuril, who could use two kinds of upper branch magic techniques, although he had to switch between them.

Furthermore, the other members of the team performed their roles well, which was also very significant.

As he looked once again at the huge body of the motionless dragon, Thor strongly sensed the power that can be brought out by the cooperation of a large number of people.

"Well, what do we do now?"

A large amount of blood is pouring out from the holey head, and most of the dragon's body is still cold due to the ice-based magic technique.

The blood of the dragon's head is full of holes, and most of its body is still cold due to the effects of the ice-based magic.

We might be able to pull it out of the river, but it will be tough to bring it back to the city.

"You did it, brother!

As Thor pondered what to do, Rorolf came running up to him and lifted his fist in the air.

As they bumped into each other, the purple-eyed young man's face broke into a bold grin.

"You're all out of shape now that you've been frozen, lizard boy! That's the best feeling I've had in a long time.

That's exactly what you wanted. You've thought this through."

In fact, the plan to contain them in the shallows was the brainchild of Roloff and others.

The plan was to leave them there and isolate them as they were, but then Ulill's idea was incorporated into the plan and Thor took command of it.

"No, no, we couldn't have done it without Thor's brothers. To be honest, I didn't expect it to be so easy.

They looked at each other, grinned, and bumped fists again.

"So, what's going to happen now?"

"Well, I'm sure we'll have plenty of manpower, so why don't you ask them to help us out?"

With these words, Roloff indicated the adventurers who were looking at us from a distance with his chin.

"Yes, that's right. Will you listen to me for a moment? We'll get him out of the river while we're at it.

"Oh, yeah, I'll take care of it."

Rolling his eyes at Thor, who answered without hesitation, Roloff nodded and turned on his heel.

As if to replace him, a girl from the Soukei tribe spoke to him.

Thor-san, I've finished checking your injuries. Everyone here is all right. Everyone is in good health.

"Well, thank you. I'm sorry you're tired, but we might be seeing some jumping clams soon. Could you tell Sisang and the others to be on the lookout?

Yes, sir!

Thor watches his companions moving out at once, and then heads for the other side of the river, along the stone mountain.

On the riverbank, two shieldmen were sitting down in the middle of a somewhat discordant conversation.

"I can't say there's anything wrong with the decoy pawn strategy, but it's not very interesting when it's all you do.

"Yes, it is. But there's a lot of meat around the neck, too. The parts that monsters often move are quite tasty.

"Really?　For my part, I prefer a more defensive, wall-piece formation that can take it head-on."

"I hear dragon hearts are very tasty. I can't wait to see what it tastes like.

Garudo and Dialgo noticed Thor there and stood up quietly.

They bump their fists against each other's, and the three of them laugh in unison, as if in unison.

After a short laugh, Garudo exhales lightly and inquires about Thor's intentions.

"So, why is our fighting spirit full again?"

"Yeah, I just wanted to ask you to do one more job for me."

The two shieldmen looked at each other and lifted the edges of their lips.

The two shieldmen, now in complete communication with each other, used their to create a pile of stones under the monster's body, then pushed it up and overturned it.

It took more than ten moves of their martial arts to move it once, however.

Still, after the third rotation, Thor and his men succeed in bringing the dragon carcass to the shore.

When they returned, they were greeted with thunderous applause.

While Thor and the others are taking a rest, Rorolf comes out from inside the human wall with someone in tow.

"Thor's brother, let me introduce you. I'm Horak and Mussan, employees of the sub-branch.

Yo, nice to meet you.

Nice to meet you.

They are both red-haired Red Tails, the stouter of the two being Horak and the smaller being Mussan.

They are slightly younger than Thor, but their faces are full of tension.

"You came all the way to the staff. You've gone to a lot of trouble.

No, no.

You're welcome.

"So, they said a carriage will come and pick you up and take you into town."

Is that so?

It seems that the city has already been informed of the defeat of the lake dragon through the driver of the carriage that will take them to the city.

Now, a carriage with a big cart is on its way here.

"How about dragging this on top of the carriage to the landing place of the carriage?

Before we knew it, logs were laid out on the ground at equal intervals.

The raft had been very successful, but now it seemed to have been given a new role.

"We can handle it with the horses. Besides, they'll help us out.

I'll take care of it!

It's an honor to help the heroes of the Dragon Slayer!

More than a dozen men with red adventurer's tags were shouting in unison.

A thick rope is quickly placed around the dragon's body, and on cue, it is pulled.

Thor's relief was palpable as the huge body moved easily.

As he looked around to see if he had missed anything, Horak, a staff member, approached him.

He looked around the river surface as well and let out a voice as if he was impressed.

"Wow, this is really amazing. I don't know how you did it."

"Oh, I'm sorry for ruining your hunting grounds. I should have told you in advance. I'm sorry."

"What!　Oh, no, no, no, no!　I'm not accusing you of anything, I'm just deeply surprised."

"That's good to know. But it's not so good as it is. I'll fix it.

Saying this, Thor bent down to the shore and touched the ground.

Then he sees in his mind's eye what it looked like a little while ago, a red stream with piles of stones everywhere.

.

The next moment, every single stone pile has vanished from the river.

Thor stands up and turns around to find Horak looking at him with a stunned look on his face.

The warden approached him unsteadily and suddenly grabbed Thor's hand tightly.

With a tense expression on his face, he mumbles something to him.

"...... is it possible that you were the one who fixed ...... Bossalia?"

"Oh, yeah."

"...... well,...... it's you."

Suddenly, Horak fell to his knees, still holding Thor's hand.

He looked up at Thor with tear-filled eyes and spoke in a trembling voice.

I've wanted to thank you for so long, for so long. I was really surprised ...... when I came back to the town I ran away from and found my house, ...... the street my kids loved, and everything was back to normal. I was surprised. I had completely given up on ......, it was an important place, but I knew I had no choice."

After a pause, Horak continued to speak as if he were trying to squeeze the words out of his mouth.

"I'm really grateful to you for saving that city. ....... Thank you. I've wanted to say that for a long time."

Thor remained silent and just nodded quietly back.

Two hours later, an eight-horse cart arrived, pulling a long platform with big wheels.

The lake dragon, which had already been lifted by the rock pile team, was quickly loaded into the wagon.

Some of them climbed into the back of the wagon together with the dragons, while the rest climbed into Garudo's wagon and headed for the city of Bossaria.

The other adventurers follow Thor and his companions in their carriages, which are used for transportation and for carrying materials.

At dusk, when the outer wall finally comes into view, Moe, astride the dragon's head, shouts out.

"There's a lot of them!　Tor-chan."

As the child pointed out, countless people were crowded behind the open gate.