Ep 64. Get A Life, Will You? (4)

Ep 64. Get A Life, Will You? (4)

Ep 64. Get A Life, Will You? (4)

Hunting ice golems with Ilias was teaching Patrick lots of things.

For starters, he’d realized that he can comfortably cast Snow Claw now; it wasn’t as apparent before, but the growth of his mana reserve was extremely noticeable in combat. Though he would’ve struggled to handle even one golem on his own before, the enforcer now found himself well and fine after hunting three.

The second thing he was learning today was that, apparently, ice can catch fire – which didn’t make all that much sense, but eh, what did he know.

Patrick watched as another chunk of the golem’s torn ice armor crashed into the frozen ground, soon dissipating into bits of mana. Bits of snow pelted at his face, drenching the mage in water.

‘...Right. THIS is what actual dragons are like.’

When Raizel and Ilias had fought every single day back at their lodge, Patrick had thought them to be oddities for punching and breaking things. Serenis, who always seemed calm and collected, came across as a typical dragon to him.

However, what Patrick hadn’t fully perceived was that Serenis, despite her identity, was currently human; she possessed her former heart, but not the rest of her former body. Naturally, the dragonlord’s physical prowess wasn’t anything remarkable.

Simply put, Raizel and Ilias were normal. Serenis was the weird one who always relied on magic.

Patrick narrowed his gaze once more. In the distance, an innocent youngling was seemingly having the best time of her life.

Ilias was attached to a golem’s arm, her laughter echoing throughout the snowy field. She plunged her blazing hand into the monster’s chest, melting through the frozen armor with a violent sizzling noise.

The golem groaned, stumbling left and right in pain while trying to tear off the tiny dragon with its other arm.

In all fairness, Ilias was barely the tenth of the golem’s size in her human form: it seemed all too easy of a task to tear off the tiny youngling from its body. But instead, the golem’s arm would never make it to Ilias.

Noting the towering arm behind her, Ilias swung her tail to cleanly break off the limb reaching for her. A massive, arm-shaped block of ice was pitched across the sky; hopefully, it’d dissipate before crashing down unto a poor tree.

Ilias let out another playful laughter as she continued to ‘hunt’ the golem. Though, Patrick could swear she was torturing it on purpose.

‘It’s almost like watching a cat playing with mice...except the sizes are reversed.’

Soon, the dragon climbed the golem to its shoulder, poking her finger into its head. The monster began to panic as molten hollows formed on the side of its frozen helm from the dragon’s heated fingertip.

Unfortunately, predators rarely cared for their prey’s panic.

Finally driven to its wit’s end, the golem pulled back its head and slammed it into its own shoulder, breaking off its remaining arm in entirety – shoulder and dragon and all.

As soon as Ilias was off, the armless golem immediately turned and began to flee.

The red dragon landed onto the snow beside Patrick, brushing the bits of snow that had splashed onto her clothes.

“Wow, he’s smart! Even knows how to run away.”

“...Ilias, I don’t think you realize how terrifying it is to have a dragon attacking you.”

“But Raizel attacks me all the time though. Violently, too.”

“You know what? Never mind. Look! It’s getting away!”

“Oh! Right!”

Ilias pulled back her right arm, her fingers curling into a claw-like shape. Three streaks of fire sparked into blazing spears above the red dragon, readying themselves to be thrown.

When she swung her arm in a throwing motion, the flaming spears launched themselves straight across the air – towards their fleeing target.

“Bye!”

An immediate response came from Light, actions following suit. She dropped the basket in hand and took a few steps back, slamming the door shut behind her. Serenis and Karas awkwardly remained standing, looking towards the closed entrance.

‘...Well, that was quick.’

Slowly, the professor likewise reached for the knob – before he’d get dragged back to work too. However, vines sprouting from the floor wrapped around his ankles to drag him towards the cauldron, with Otoka giving a rather menacing glare towards the crow.

“...She can leave, but you need to stay. I’ll need the fire again soon.”

“...Of course. I wasn’t thinking about leaving. At all.”

The dragonlord watched the professor being dragged back to work, wondering if it’d be better for her to replace him. However, the last time she’d offered, the archmage had adamantly refused – mostly because Aldrid had looked at the old man with a I-dare-you-to-make-her-work glare when it happened.

This time, Aldrid’s eyes were pressuring for a completely different reason. The deity was wearing a sullen expression as she weakly greeted the dragonlord’s return, beckoning her over.

“Lord Serenis, could I speak to you for a moment? In private.”

“...? Of course.”

After exiting through the backdoor to gain sufficient distance from the others, the deity apologetically lowered her head.

“Sorry. There might be a problem.”

“Has something gone wrong in the craft?”

“No, that’s proceeding apace – making the ward won’t be a problem. It’s just...I haven’t been able to locate Master Felicir at all.”

Serenis’ expression hardened at the news.

“You sounded rather certain that you’d be able to find him before.”

“I did. I can normally find him quite easily. Wherever he goes, deaths tend to occur through rather...unnatural means. If I but focus, I can sense such loss of life quite easily. But recently...nothing like that has happened.”

“...”

The deity of life had been the only lead she had in locating this ‘Felicir’; even Iris hadn’t sounded like she knew where her brother was. If Aldrid couldn’t locate Felicir, then there basically wasn’t any lead as to where their target may be.

However, Serenis couldn’t afford to let her disappointment show. Not when Aldrid had been of substantial help already.

“Raise your head. It’s nothing to apologize for.”

“But...I promised I’d help you, and...”

“You’ve been plenty of help already, child. Once the ward is completed, I can simply look for him myself.”

When Aldrid raised her head as told, she could see a reassuring smile on the dragonlord’s lips – which only made her feel sorrier for the failure.

“I cannot say for certain, but it may be that he’s with the other deities. There really isn’t much else that would occupy him...”

“Is it not a good thing if he’s too occupied to kill lives as he pleases?”

“Well...you see, when the others call for Master Felicir’s presence, it’s usually to consult him about strange individuals – ones that they deem a threat to themselves, necessary for removal. Like...”

Aldrid audibly gulped as her eyes filled with worry. She hoped that it wouldn’t be the case, and she even knew that Felicir had no way of knowing about Serenis’ return yet – but somehow, she couldn’t shake off the ill feeling that the deity of death was already alert and aware.

“...You.”