THAT DAY I BECAME A STAR

"You cowardly sly bastard!!" 

"Yeah, yeah. Just follow me." 

The guy who was defending the last pillar is trying to kill me with everything he has and frankly speaking, he is strong. But since he is not using scripts nor the Longinus gear, he is just following me from the ground like a puppy. I wonder why he thought he was strong. 

"Kriekk!"

Unlike him, the other Longinus aren't as calmly following though. Most of them are trying theur best to reach me. The sloins and prators are jumping around but none manage to come high enough. If there was a kirsurk around, it would have certainly been…

"Kriekk!!"

"I was just joking, you know?" Of course, a kirsurk would pop up now, right?

In any case, there is no more dome here so I can use as much Angas as I want. I give a good meal to the kirsurk and as he falls to the ground, I fire launch some fireballs and earth balls at my pursuers.

"Kriekk!!" 

"It's no use!!" 

Some of them are hurt but the guy manages to dodge them. What for though since he cannot reach me? He should at least try something like even throwing his sword at me. Can't he even think a little and make this interesting?

"I am tired of all this!!!" Finally, the guy acts, and a small dot of Regas forms before his mouth. He shoots a ray of regas that slice through the woods while aiming at me but I manage to dodge it. 

"See? It wasn't so hard, was it?"

I answer with another bullet hidden behind a fireball. But this time, he simply jumps over it and let the explosion damage the other Longinus that were near the area of the explosion. Yep, I can't just use that every time.  That would be too easy. 

"Mister Dragonroad!!"

Without even noticing, I have joined back with the army. There are a lot of soldiers pressing through the Longinus since they were just waiting for the dome to come down. 

My pursuer also gives up and runs away, hiding among the Longinus who come to face us. Now, I only have to wait for Wilhem and the others.

***

K'nor is the first to arrive one hour later. Why did it take so long? While he is licking my face, Willhem arrives behind him, followed by Stephan and the other soldiers I left. Everyone is alive so why did it take so much time?

"They were tired. Don't look at me like that." 

Willhem immediately justifies himself seeing as I am looking at him suspiciously. Well, as long as you guys are all okay then it is fine.

"Kriekk!" 

The number of Longinus has greatly diminished but there are still some that won't leave us alone. The soldiers are taking care of most of them so I just stood there in case of an emergency until Willhem arrives. Now, I wonder if we can already push forward.

"Let's go and make our report. We have smoothly executed this mission so it is very encouraging for the others." 

Stephan turns around and walks back like those who are still fighting in front of us have already won. Well, let's go back then.

When we arrive at the camp, the commander who was presented by Frankher greets us at the gate. 

"You did well. No, you did very well. I am deeply grateful and impressed by the swiftness of your actions."

"Thank you, sir." The commander takes Stephan by the shoulders and shows a sincere smile. "The new device works perfectly. We were able to enter rapidly and reach our targets without a hitch thanks to the star of Mercuria and the Mandragora's tongue."

"I see. But surely, your skills were of help as well. You are one of our best after all." 

"Oh, no sir…" Stephan starts smiling awkwardly. Like someone who doesn't know how to react when being praised. "I would never reach the strength of the special class guarding the high commander." 

"I think you do. Well, that isn't the topic right now anyway. You guys should go and rest. But we will need our full force ready tonight to push with the mortar closer to the second dome." 

"Yes, sir!!" 

All the soldiers answer with deeply engraved faith then walk past the commander. When we follow them, the commander just winks at us with a smile. I don't know why but it feels gross. 

The night that follows, we are once again around the fire with the soldiers we fought with during the day. None of them are speaking. They just calmly look at the fire and you could see in each of them's eyes that they are thinking silently about something. 

I am lying on K'nor while Willhem is sitting alone, once again crafting those wood statues that no one will ever see. He carves the wood with precision and enthusiasm. I don't know what he is thinking about while carving it but it must be something happy. Let's see…

'And then I will strike like this! Even if she counters it, it will leave an opening for me to…' 

"Huh?" I am so surprised by his thoughts that I accidentally open my mouth. 

Willhem turns and looks at me. My surprised face generates an interrogative one on his side; but then he turns around since I didn't say anything. I thought he was imagining something good but he is just thinking about fighting. I wonder who it is he is fighting in his head though. There was a 'she' so it must be Tatiana. Sorry for you though, Tatiana is mine and mine alone. 

"How do you think Titan will be once we get inside?" 

Out of nowhere, one of the soldiers finally opens his mouth. The most surprising is that he is looking at me, though.

"You are talking to me?" 

"Yeah, why?" 

"…No, it's nothing." It is something but I don't think it is a problem after all. "Well, as far as I am concerned, I don't care. The hammer hands has lost it so." 

"You think?" 

"How can you not care?" 

The other soldiers also start talking like they were waiting for this.