The Neighborhood High School Girl, Miss Isezaki, Is the Great Saintess Returned from Another World~ And I, Suddenly Awakened as Her Exclusive Mana Supply Uncle, Travel Between Earth and Another World with Time-Space Magic~ - 56. Earth Dragon

56. Earth Dragon

— Thud… Thuuuuum….

With each step, the Earth Dragon approached us, causing the ground to tremble. Its movement wasn’t particularly fast, but being so massive, each step covered a great distance, and it was advancing towards us faster than expected.

“Hey, what are we gonna do about this?!”

Shouting and spitting, the short man holding a dagger spoke up. He was supposed to be a skilled scout. The leader, drawing his sword from his waist lazily, replied in a bothered tone.

“Huh? We’ll just have to figure out how to take it down.”

“Figure it out… Can’t we do anything? It’s an Earth Dragon, you know? I’m not bragging, but this is the first time I’ve ever seen a dragon, let alone fought one.”

“Really? I’ve only seen an Earth Dragon once before. I got my ass handed to me and ran away.”

“S-so, this time, we should run—”

The short man’s voice trailed off, his face contorted in fear. But the leader sharply interrupted him.

“Don’t say that. We’re in the service of nobility, remember? If we flee here, we’ll be abandoning our noble employer, making us criminals.”

“That’s not fair…”

The short man muttered tearfully, but Geeta snickered at him.

“Hah, what are you talking about? It’s a dragon, man! If we defeat it, we’ll instantly become dragon slayers. I’ve always wanted to take one down, but I never expected the chance to come like this. I’m lucky!”

With a smirk on his face, Geeta stared intently at the Earth Dragon. Seeing this, the leader also chuckled confidently.

“That’s right, Geeta. Lose and we die, run and we’re fugitives for life… But if we win, we’ll be rolling in money with the Earth Dragon’s materials, and we’ll gain fame. Not a bad deal, right?”

“Yeah!” “Let’s do it, let’s do this!” “We haven’t decided to lose yet!” “I’ll definitely survive!”

The adventurers murmured one after another. Seeing this, the leader raised his longsword and shouted at the top of his lungs.

“All right, that’s the spirit! Show some guts, everyone!”

“Yaaaaaah!”

The adventurers roared as they stared down the Earth Dragon, each readying their weapons. Then, a voice came from behind.

“Mr. Matsunaga, come over here!”

Turning around, I saw Cyril standing there with two archers. As the protected target, I was probably supposed to fall back to the rear line.

Honestly, I wanted to head straight for Mrs. Isezaki’s carriage right away.

But around the carriage, the battle between the knights and the bandits had already begun, and it wasn’t a situation where amateurs could approach. Although I could use “Leap Warp” to jump near the carriage, I couldn’t enter it without visual confirmation.

Reluctantly, I ran towards Cyril at the rear. And as soon as I arrived, the two archers drew their bows taut and released their arrows.

With a swish, the two arrows flew and probably hit the Earth Dragon’s neck as intended.

However, they couldn’t penetrate the Earth Dragon’s tough skin, and they fell powerless to the ground.

“Fireball!”

Immediately, the skinny mage, who had already been chanting, cast a fireball.

“Whoa, that was close!”

One of the front-line fighters yelled. The fireball flew past him in an arc—

Boom!

With a bang, it exploded and hit the Earth Dragon’s foreleg.

“Nice!”

The skinny mage clenched his fist.

—But the Earth Dragon showed no sign of caring, and it took another step forward.

“Damn, it’s not effective at all! Rearguard, aim for the weak points and provide support! You guys, let’s go!”

At the leader’s command, the front-line adventurers rushed forward. At the same time, the rearguard resumed their attack.

Arrows and fireballs passed over the heads of the adventurers and struck the Earth Dragon’s face this time. As the Earth Dragon’s face was hit by a fireball, it turned away and stopped its advance. The leader shouted.

“Now!”

The adventurers rushed forward in unison. Each wielded their weapon to strike the Earth Dragon. At that moment—

The Earth Dragon casually lifted its forelegs and swung them down towards the ground where the adventurers stood. If they were stepped on, they would be instantly killed.

Thud…!

The ground shook violently, and a rumble echoed.

But the adventurers quickly scattered and avoided the Earth Dragon’s stomp. Among them, the one who acted the fastest was the ax warrior.

“Take this!”

The ax warrior yelled as he leaped up and swung his heavy axe down towards the Earth Dragon’s foreleg, which was still on the ground.

Crack!

However, a hard sound like striking iron resounded, and the ax warrior was sent flying. Losing his balance, the ax warrior fell to the ground from his back.

“Grrroooooooon!”

Then, the Earth Dragon roared and swept its foreleg from the inside to the outside, as if brushing away an annoying fly. The ax warrior was there.

“Guah!”

With just a light sweep of its foreleg, the ax warrior was sent flying like a ball.

And after being violently slammed onto the ground, the ax warrior rolled around for a bit before becoming completely motionless.

“No way, seriously…”

The adventurers gasped as they watched. Meanwhile, the Earth Dragon mercilessly continued its advance.