The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic

The punch that he delivered with all his might pierced the Evil Dragon's chest.

To tell the truth, I myself do not know how powerful my real blow is. But it was a punch that could have blown a zombie's shoulder off with no effort at all. I'm sure it's something I could never use against a normal human being.

But..,

"......, you're so hard. ......!"

The response from the fist was surprisingly weak.

It was as if he had been hit with a hard, thick rubber. Unlike the armor with which Nair had cast a spell, the impact was taken as it was, and the sensation disappeared as if it were escaping somewhere else.

The moment the words "my fists don't work" came to my mind, a sentence from the notebook in my pocket came to my mind.

That attack was meaningless in front of the powerful scales of the evil dragon.

It's not that I forgot.

But I had the optimistic thought that a creature hundreds of years old could not have deteriorated. In fact, they may have deteriorated. But even so, the body of the evil dragon was so hard that my fists could not penetrate it.

"...... hmm?"

I was so upset that I was unaware of it, but I tried to withdraw my fist before Nair could recover, when I felt a thumping sound like a heartbeat through my fist.

I thought I was imagining it, but as I went to check again, suddenly the moonlight shining on me was interrupted by "something".

I was still ...... moaning and groaning in agony.

The zombie she's supposed to be controlling won't move on its own.

For some reason, she tells herself, clenching her fists and looking up to see if there is something blocking the moonlight.

"......!"

Our eyes met.

The evil dragon, who turned his face to the side and was peering at me from above with his uncollapsed eye, and I, who looked up at him, met our gazes.

The dry and cracked eyeballs showed a certain will, and the breath coming out from the edge of the mouth had an unpleasant smell of death and decay.

"......"

Oh no.

I don't know what it is, but it's bad.

Even more than the snake, this thing is a more dangerous creature than I had imagined---no, I'm not even sure I'd describe it as a creature. I don't know how to describe it, I don't have the vocabulary.

But I think there is a saying, "A frog stares at a snake.

Because that's exactly what I am now. Just looking down at me with these fearless eyes, I can't move as if I'm in bondage.

It's not good, I'm completely submerged. Whether he has a will or not, if Nair gets up, I in front of him will be crushed by the evil dragon without any way to do anything.

"Ugh ...... humph!"

I pull out my fist, which is still thrusting, and smash it into his forehead.

I am knocked unconscious for a moment, but my body and mind, both of which had been tense, are restored to normal for the time being.

"Yes!

Perhaps because of the rough treatment, fresh blood flowed from my forehead, and the area between my eyebrows and my chin were stained bright red, but there was no problem as long as I could heal it with healing magic.

I wipe off the blood with my hand and move away from the evil dragon who is looking at me without moving an inch.

"Well, what shall we do?"

The poison is bad, the claws are bad, and the tail probably hurts too.

The fists don't seem to be effective either, so it's hopeless for me to defeat this guy.

--- Then let's take down Nair.

If she's right and this thing is really "under her control as a zombie", we can end this battle by hitting the source.

And unlike Ms. Aruk, this guy is not as fast, though his attacks are more aggressive. It will not be able to interfere with our attempts to attack Nair.

With this in mind, I was about to shift my fighting style from a one-on-one battle with the evil dragon to punishing Nair just enough, when the evil dragon that had been watching me unnaturally turned its head in the other direction.

"haaai,chi-niku ......,minra,holobobu?　What the hell is he talking about?"

I don't know if it's just a zombie moan, but he's facing diagonally behind me, in the direction of the road leading to the Western-style house.

...... homing instinct?　Or is he looking in the direction of the place where he has a connection with the brave man?

Do zombies do that?

But according to my notebook, the last place he died was Samaria. That's the opposite direction, and the only village is the one where Tetra lives.

"Oh, well. Let's just ignore this guy. There's nothing we can do about it anyway."

He starts to run lightly from the spot and runs toward the half-destroyed Western-style house.

I cross the street next to the evil dragon zombie, keeping a wary eye on him.

Since they don't react to anything in particular, I guess I can assume that they are really doing as Nair ordered. With some relief, he makes a leap to the second floor of the Western-style house to go up at once.

At that moment..,

"Giggle."

A wrinkled laugh is heard, and at the same time, Evil Dragon's throat swells up.

"Oh, shit. ......!"

It was a trap!

I tried to get away from him, thinking that he was trying to spit out that corrosive sludge nearby, but for some reason he was not looking at me.

He was sucking air with his throat puffed out as if he did not care about me.

The wind was blowing wildly around the dragon, and I was exposed to it. I could not understand what was going on, and I was just puzzled as I held on to the edge of the second floor.

Then I heard the voice of Amako, who had sheltered me at a distance.

Looking in the direction where I heard her voice, I see her desperately trying to tell me something in the place where Burlyn and Mr. Aruk are, where the miasma is much thinner.

"---!!!　---!!!!"

"......, what, it's windy. ......"

I can't understand what you're saying over the sound of the wind howling.

I watch the movement of her mouth, protecting my arms from getting sand in my eyes.

I'm not sure what she's saying, but I can't make out what she's saying. ...to?　

......,You're kidding!

"You can't do this!"

The moment he understood her words, he kicked the wall and plunged into the dragon's face.

I clenched my left fist in the wind, and with a clear hostility different from my previous fist, I punched the lower jaw where the crushed eye of the evil dragon was located hard.

With a "dogwaa" sound, the lower jaw shifted to the left and purple miasma leaked out from the Evil Dragon's mouth, enveloping me in its miasma.

"U......"

While being poisoned, I use healing magic and land on the ground.

However, it does not heal immediately, and I fall to the ground. He coughs up blood and wipes his mouth.

"I'm used to it, but poison is still painful. ......"

I grumble as I heal my poisoned body and wounded parts, and I look at the evil dragon that I beat up as I sit down.

The evil dragon was hit in the lower jaw and held its mouth with its arm, and fell to the ground, crashing into the Western-style house behind me while rampaging around.

He did not fall down. He just hit him on the jaw and shook his head, but he got up soon.

"I've got to get up, too. ......"

We can't just let him go.

We had to take him down here, no matter what.

We heal him of his poison and get up. Then Amaco, who had left Bulrin, came running toward us, his face bloodied.

"I'm glad you got the message. ......!"

"Oh, thank you. I would have missed it if you hadn't been there. Even for ...... that son of a b*tc*.

Despite my presence, he targeted the village with Tetra and the village chief.

The reason why he was looking at an angle behind me earlier was because he could see the village with a bright light in the darkness.

I don't know why he did it. But I'm sure it wasn't Nair.

She would never think of killing the people of a village that she uses for no reason. Rather, she is just an unfortunate child, except for her strong attachment to what she wants.

"Evil dragon, I guess I underestimated him. Hey, Amako, I finally understand what he was talking about earlier.

He said these words while looking at the village.

I didn't understand it at that moment, but seeing the evil nature of this evil dragon, I fully understood its meaning.

Destroy, flesh and blood, destroy them all. In other words, he's a man of destructive impulses. So far, he's been watching me to see if he can use me as a plaything. But when he found a better plaything behind me, he went for it."

Apparently, I was not good enough for him, because he never attacked me.

"It seems that Nair has brought back from the dead a very bad guy. ...... Fortunately or unfortunately, she's still holding her face and writhing around, not really understanding the situation."

You really went out of your way to make me feel bad.

In this case, you could say it's Nair, or the brave men who came before him who didn't completely bury this nuisance. Anyway, I no longer have the option of running away from this guy.

"It's not that my fists are completely ineffective. Look, Amako, his jaw joint is dislocated and he can't close his mouth. The outer shell is hard, but the bones inside are not so hard. Even I could crush it."

"...... Usato, let's run away."

"...... is?"

Amako stops me from going to the evil dragon, who clenches his fists and grunts, tugging at the hem of my trousers as I try to go.

"What do you mean run away? What do you mean you're running away? Besides ...... we're stuck in the sludge that bastard spit out."

"The trees in the back are still rotting, so maybe we can get out. Usato, I'm worried about the people in the village too, but not everything can be managed. ......"

"......"

"That's not normal. No matter how great Usato is, it's not something he can handle. ......"

Indeed, the power of the evil dragon is unknown.

It would be foolish to try to fight it. But I can't think of leaving it alone.

Did you see Amako? She tried to drop a lump of poison on the village without hesitation. It's so poisonous that even I couldn't move for a while. If a child or a woman inhaled it, she would die in a few minutes.

And the sludge is so toxic that it rots the trees and plants.

You were going to drop it on a village, but what if it gets dropped on Lukvis or the Kingdom of Lingle?　Lingle Kingdom has a lifeguard squadron, but Lukvis has too many children to deal with.

"What if that poison-spewing thing goes out of control and attacks nearby countries? If that evil dragon is like the one I know, he'll wreak endless destruction. That's more than a demon king's army can do.

"......, but Usato will die. ......"

I did not say the easy words, "I will not die. Rather, I could not find any words that would reassure her in this situation.

Instead, I put my hand on Amako's head once, just for the sake of it.

---nothing of any particular significance. But I felt my fear of the evil dragon eased a little.

"We're going to get caught up here."

Her expression turned somber, she nodded her head and ran toward the direction of Bullyn.

Well, now that I feel a lot lighter, let's do this.

"Hmm?"

When she turns toward the evil dragon, she sees him standing still in an unnatural state.

I'm shaking slightly ...... is something blocking my movement?　I tilted my head and found Nair on the roof, staring at me with a red face.

She holds her nose and sticks her index finger at me.

I'll never forgive you!　You keep coming after me over and over again. What do you have against me?

I only have a grudge against her.

Well, I can understand why you would want to say that, but....

I see, it's true that Nair can control it. It seems that my confusing her earlier caused her to loosen her zombie bondage, and the control of her body has been transferred to the evil dragon.

I might be able to ...... manage it if I can still somehow convince her.

"Nair, it has a soul. It's a monster you can't handle. You'd better put him back in the body while you still can."

We're in a very dangerous situation.

If her upset is enough to bring the evil dragon's consciousness to the surface, we can't just attack Nair.

Maybe it is slowly moving away from the zombie she controls now.

"You think I'm going to fall for that lie?"

"Earlier he tried to poison the village, not me. If I hadn't stopped him, Tetra and the others would be poisoned and dead right now.

"...... So, it doesn't matter to me if it's true. I'm a demon who has lived for 300 years, why should I worry about humans?　Or rather, did you think you could upset me with such words?"

"Huh. ......"

I'm upset as hell, though.

She's a pain in the ass. She's not much older than me.

Are we done here?　Then go."

"I didn't even get to talk to him, though: ......"

The evil dragon follows Nair's order and stares at us with his jaw hanging open.

Then he began to breathe heavily on the spot, as if he was thinking something. What was he trying to do?

As I was bracing myself to avoid approaching him, the evil dragon raised his head and looked up.

"......, no way!"

Nair's order was to attack me.

Then it doesn't matter what happens in the process, as long as the attack on me finally goes through.

Inhaling and opening my lower jaw, I understood what he was going to do.

"Nah!　Get away from there right now!

"What?"

I put on all my healing magic and run out of the place at the same time.

Instantly, like a volcano erupting, purple miasma overflows from the evil dragon's mouth and envelops the area around it.

I don't care if it's an enemy or not.

If anything happens to her now, the fetters that hold the evil dragon back will be released.

Without hesitation, he plunges into the miasma to get to her.

But as soon as I enter the miasma, my body is hit by a tremendous shock.

"--- but ......?

I saw a tail that was wriggling like a snake.

I was lured ......?　It was impossible to catch me normally, so he narrowed his vision and tried to ...... me.

I'm blown away by a painful blow in the midst of the miasma and poisonous air.

Then, as I roll on the ground, its whip-like tail slams down on me again.

"Ouch ......!

d*mn, I managed to defend myself in time, but the poison and injuries made it hard to concentrate ......!

This guy is not normal to escape from Nair's spell and at the same time to attack me at the same time! I need to get out of his attack range as soon as possible.

I try to get up while continuing to cast healing magic, but the evil dragon comes close enough to look down at me and holds me down with its big arms.

"KU......"

"Kk, kaka ...... kaka."

The evil dragon can't speak well, probably because his jaw is off, but I can tell that he's making fun of me.

However, he didn't like the fact that I couldn't speak well, so he held down the dislodged jaw with the arm opposite to the one holding me down, and with a gurgling sound, the jaw was put back in its original position.

"Goroz."

"...... What, you got a talking head, you?"

A hushed, wrinkled voice emanates from the evil dragon's mouth.

I sarcastically reply to him while thinking of his voice as unpleasant, and the evil dragon, the edges of his mouth twisted into a smile, comes closer to my face, which I finally catch.

"---Yusha, ha, gorozu. Not a drop of blood will remain."

Huh?　A brave man?　You mean the last hero, right?

Why are you talking to me like that ......?　Don't tell me he thinks I'm brave?

"......, no. ...... I'm not a brave man."

"You're a brave man, Zingai."

No way you're wrong!!!!

I'm not a brave man, I'm just a regular guy who got caught in the middle of all this.

And Zingai is not a person!　Are you saying that you are a brave man based on that criteria?

I can't hide my shock at the unreasonable misunderstanding rather than the fact that the evil dragon was able to speak.

"Dakara, Goros..."

But this is a very bad situation.

I think desperately about how to resolve this situation while holding down my paw, which has been trying to crush me for a while now.

But before I can do so, the evil dragon grabs me and lifts me up, and moves into a position to swing his arms up, which makes me realize that I can't take it easy, so I prepare myself for the impact that is about to come.

"Oh no, I'm going to die..."

The next moment, my whole body was hit with a shock equal to or greater than the shock of being hit by the leader of the group.