CHAPTER 55: ROKURO AGAINST THE UNDEAD DRAGON

There’s been a lot of monsters that I’ve never faced before, not until recently. This dragon is just like the rest of them... Only it’s a bit bigger than most of the monsters I’ve encountered.

Crack. Crack. After cracking my knuckles I knew that every second would matter. The dragon wasn’t going to wait for me to attack, it was already extending its jaw.

Oddly enough I felt quite calm. If any monster would instill fear... It would be a dragon. Kind of crazy to think about that since I also have the power to eventually become one.

A chance to become even stronger, don’t waste it. You won’t be able to become an SSS rank without getting through this.

What does that mean? I feel like I’m starting to get the hand of this a bit so I disagree.

Kill the dragon. I’ll keep it short and sweet.

I planned on doing that before you even said anything so there’s no reason to tell me about it again.

A burst of green flames came towards me in an instant, just barely dodging them in time after bringing myself back to reality. Sometimes thoughts can be overwhelming in the worse situations.

I push past the thoughts and put some force behind my foot as I propelled myself towards the dragon. It’s strange but I feel the talon forming once again as I prepare to punch a dragon in the face.

As my fist connects I feel the roughness of its scales against my hand before seeing its face recoil to the left from the impact. Wind blew past it as well, the punch was a bit more effective than I expected.

Fwoosh! It flew up briefly as I fell back to the ground, quickly reorienting myself the moment my feet hit the ground.

I can’t believe I just punched a dragon across the face, not something that I would’ve expected to do in all my years since the collapse happened.

Shit, I didn’t even think dragons existed before all of this happened.

"ROARRRRR!" It screeches once more before setting it’s eyes back on me.

Swish!! Its tail goes towards me, a tail made of nothing but bones and a few raggedy scales that remain. Swiftly I jump over the tail as it passes by.

Might take a bit more than a brute force to kill a dragon Rokuro, and don’t even think about trying fire against it.

Aren’t you extra moody today, maybe some advice instead of just "kill the dragon" or "don’t use fire" would be much appreciated.

Ba-thump. Ba-thump. My heart suddenly felt like it was beating out my chest as the red haze starts to engulf my vision. Thud. My knees give out as everything starts to change around me once again.

The bloodlust feeling from before, this is exactly what it felt like last time so why am I feeling it this time? I didn’t kill any humans this time around so the trigger didn’t make any sense.

I’ll tag on in then. KILL. KILL. KILL. I WANT IT DEAD.

The control I thought I had was being completely taken away from me by this feeling once again. I could feel myself gritting my teeth as everything took over.

"Rokuro is quite interesting." Mira thinks to herself as she watches from the distance, a smile on her face.

Velia is fighting off the old souls all around us while I’m losing control before an undead dragon. How fast the circumstances change... I need to get this back under control while I’m killing this damn dragon.

Instinctively I jump in time to avoid another tail swipe before as I notice I’m just floating in the air. Flap. Flap. Wings, the sound of wings was something I didn’t expect to hear.

I didn’t even realize they formed but maybe it’s best I don’t focus on this and just kill the damn thing already. My body moves forward on its own as I feel my fist go across the dragons face.

Left, right, left, right. The motion seems to repeat quite a few times as the dragon tries to fight back.

It didn’t feel like anything that was happening was because of me... Rika felt like the one controlling everything all of a sudden.

Maybe it was the right call to let her help out more in this fight so I can actually understand the power a bit better. Maybe I was starting to understand it after all.

Was it this hard to do this?!?

I can hear the change in her tone, the thrill of fighting against a dragon. Probably more exhilarating than fighting a standard monster like the ones from Ashvalis.

1, 2, 3, 4. More and more punches continue to be delivered before finally a burst of power goes through its skull. SHATTER!!! Fragments of what used to be its skull fall throughout the environment below.

CRASH! THUD! Its massive body falls back onto the floor with a small gust of wind going throughout the floor.

The fight was definitely not how I expected it to go since dragons are strong beings in most stories. Is it because I have such power within me that it makes it possible for me to handle these fights?

"Rokuro it’s finally done." Velia says loud enough for me to hear her.

I landed back on the ground as everything disappears once again, the feeling the power gave me is gone. The bloodlust has completely disappeared from me as if it was never there to begin with.

"The fight ended a lot faster than I expected it to." I reply with a bit of shock in my voice.

Will every fight be like this or will I actually be capable of doing something on my own? Rika seemed like she was tired of how slow everything was going so I guess this was the best choice for now.

"Strength like yours will do that Rokuro." Velia says with more of a serious tone.

Strength like mine, is it really just mine?