Editing Leviathan:Volume 2 Chapter 6 (section)

===Part 4===

"Akuro-Ou! Use the Bow again with fire magic!"

Seeing Pavel Galad still surviving, Orihime swiftly issued orders. Acting separately from Hal's group, she was currently running towards them.

Responding to Orihime's command, Akuro-Ou's Bow, namely, the nine arrowheads, released flames at the same time.

"Nu, guohhhhhhhhhhhh!"

Swallowed by the vortex of nine flames, Galad suffered in pain.

The pearly light&mdash;imperishable protection&mdash;was defending him, but it had become very dim, almost about to vanish. At this moment, Hal made a discovery.

Due to Rushalka's attack weakening his heart, or equivalently, his heartmetal, it had also diminished the protection's power.

But before the pearly light disappeared completely, Galad pounced towards Akuro-Ou.

And his right hand was wielding the dragonslaying sword he had called back!

"Flames of this level cannot burn me to death!"

Shouting valorously, he raised the dragonslaying sword for a downward swing. His target was Akuro-Ou's head. The white fox-wolf barely dodged but her left shoulder&mdash;the base of her front limb&mdash;was slashed viciously.

Kuohhhhhhhhhhhh!

Akuro-Ou screamed in pain. Galad used this opportunity to swing his long tail as a dragon, pummeling the fox-wolf's body with a horizontal blow like using a log.

Then when his opponent shrank back as a result, he made a forward thrust with his sword.

The blade brushed past Akuro-Ou's neck. Red blood splattered out.

Next, Galad spewed out blue-white flames to burn the white fox-wolf's entire body. Burning and burning, he tried to burn his target to oblivion.

Kuohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

"Disappear for now, Akuro-Ou! You'll die at this rate...!"

The fox-wolf's gigantic body vanished from the earth at Orihime's command.

Galad ended the discharge of flames then turned his eyes, filled with fighting spirit&mdash;to Hal on the ground.

"Successor of the Bow, we have both lost subordinates and now it is finally time for a one-on-one duel. How elating."

"I don't share that kind of mood. Get lost."

While cursing his enemy, Hal mentally thanked Orihime and Akuro-Ou.

Thanks to them, he had made it in the nick of time. With a mechanical click, the magic gun's magazine was finally reloaded. Hal immediately started shooting.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Galad had escaped in the air. The bullets missed their mark.

However, the three bullets of red light chased after the target that was rising in the air. This was homing functionality resembling that of air-to-air missiles.

"Fufu, the Bow is truly hard to handle without protection!"

In contrast to what he was saying, Galad's voice was filled with joy.

The silver dragon swerved in flight to disrupt the homing bullets while raising an index finger from his dragon hand. On that fingertip, a magic symbol was flashing brightly.

"O rune of Ruruk Soun, grant me more powerful wings!'

The gigantic silver body accelerated dramatically, instantly leaving western Shinjuku's sky.

"S-So this is the magic of High-Speed Flight...?"

Asya's voice. Panting heavily, she was approaching. Spurring her body that had been severely drained by Double Casting, she was running over here.

"He couldn't possibly have fled. Is he planning to withdraw temporarily and regroup?"

"It's called protection, right? How long does it take to recover?"

"Hmm... Well."

Hal stared at his magic gun, the gun-shaped "magic wand."

It was a guide to controlling the power of dragonbane. Whenever Hal wanted to learn about the Rune of the Bow's powers, it would provide him with instinctive understanding. Hal had taken action after becoming aware of this.

"A full recovery after giving the heart half a day's rest, apparently."

"In that case, we have to end things here. Considering that dragon's personality&mdash;"

"He'll likely return immediately. But it would be great if he had fled for real."

Hal nodded and agreed with Asya's speculation. Then he said, "Everyone, I will try fighting alone for the next part."

"Haruga-kun!?" "Haruga-san!?"

"Indeed, that might be for the best..."

In contrast to the surprised Orihime and Hazumi, Asya was the only one who nodded in agreement.

"Our 'serpents' have already reached their limits. Given the current situation, it's very hard for us to support Haruomi. Fighting alone might turn out to be easier."

Hal smiled wryly. As expected of the childhood friend, bound to him by rotten fate. It was great that they reached consensus so quickly.

"B-But my Minadzuki can still move!"

"She gets frozen just from the sight of the sword, right?"

That was Hal's reply to Hazumi's protest. Judging from the fact that Rushalka and Akuro-Ou were fine in this regard, establishing a vassal covenant probably conferred the ability to withstand it.

However, Minadzuki had not been involved with that covenant.

"Haruga-kun..."

"I have no intention of dying or committing suicide, so don't worry, Juujouji. Also&mdash;"

Confronted with Orihime who was unsure whether she should stop him or encourage him, Hal said, "Starting last night, I've felt that my luck has been riding on a peak. What happened last night was definitely more effective than praying to a goddess of fortune."

"W-Wait, what are you referring to by 'what happened'&mdash;!?"

"Anyway, that's that. I'll be back."

Finishing in as relaxed a tone as possible, Hal turned his back to the witches.

He decided to advance towards the north side of the former Metropolitan Government Building first. Concentrated there were luxury hotels, university hospitals, etc.

Indulging himself in a sense of martyrdom while heading to his death, that was totally behavior unlike himself. Besides, he had no interest of that sort. Hal hoped as much as possible to stick to his usual attitude.

Even so, he still could not help but run uncontrollably.


"Orihime-san, we still have things to try."

Hearing what Asya said, Orihime jumped in fright, because she had sunk into deep thought while staring at Haruga Haruomi's back as he left.

"W-What kind of plan do you have?"

"Let's talk about the details while we walk. We need to hurry over to Rushalka."

The senior witch's gaze was cast towards her partner who was all covered in wounds. The blue wyvern was lying on the asphalt, collapsed in exhaustion.

Her body was not in peak condition to begin with. Then there was overuse of pseudo-divinity and Pavel Galad's flames.

The combined effect of these factors had pushed Rushalka to the limit. However, Asya seemed like she still intended to have Rushalka do something. For the sake of victory, such mercilessness was surely necessary&mdash;

As a swordswoman with nation-wide renown, Orihime nodded strongly.

"...Yes. Boys resembling the Black Ranger or the Blue Ranger shouldn't be my cup of tea, but this no longer matters now..."

To hide the worry in her heart when watching Hal leave, Orihime whispered softly.

"? Orihime-san, did you just say something?"

"N-No, nothing!"

"The same goes for you, Hazumi-san. Even if Minadzuki can't fight the enemy directly, there might still be things she could do."

"Y-Yes. Please give the order no matter what it is!"

Hazumi answered with strong morale in response to Asya. The cousin with the quiet personality was showing a dignified and determined countenance in a rare display.

The battle was not over yet. The three girls hurried over to the "serpent" that was collapsed on the ground.


Hal sneaked into a certain office building's top floor.

With only eight floors, it was definitely no high-rise building. Climbing sixty floors or something when elevators were not in service? Hal would never do that.

"But trying to snipe through a building's ceiling is pretty absurd too."

This floor seemed like it used to be some sort of company. While lying on what appeared to be the reception sofa, Hal toyed with the magic gun of steel and gold in his right hand.

If Galad flew towards Hal, Hal would fire his gun to snipe him&mdash;This was fairly simple as a plan.

Hal was relying on the magic gun's firepower and ability to search for the enemy. Shooting through the ceiling was not a problem. Capturing the enemy, who was out of sight, to launch a sniping attack did not count as hard either.

"What's next is to see which of us can land a preemptive strike..."

Galad was probably going to use investigative magic to target Hal who was out of sight.

Whose ability to search the enemy was stronger&mdash;Unknown so far. Impossible to predict.

This was a gamble. Hal only had one source of hope. Last time, Raak Al Soth did not have an easy time locating Hal after losing his trail. Conversely, the magic gun of steel and gold allowed Hal to effortlessly locate Galad even when out of sight...

"But this alone would be totally unreliable."

Hal felt his shirt pocket to confirm the pocket watch's tactile sensation.

This was the Clockwork Mage that he had just used to perform magic. Hal had used Sound Suppression, Visual Interference, Olfactory Nullification as well as Enemy Detection magic together.

Having exhausted all methods at his disposal, Hal was currently waiting for his gamble to bear fruit.

"I hope fortune will favor me..."

The instant he whispered, Hal felt the enemy's presence.

He closed his eyes. Thanks to Enemy Detection magic working in conjunction with the magic gun, his senses were even sharper than when his vision was obscured by explosive flames.

Pavel Galad's massive body was flying back and forth at high speed over western Shinjuku.

He was probably swerving greatly as a precaution against Hal's long-distance shooting.

He was currently trying to disrupt Hal's aim. Stalling for time in this manner so as to seek out the location where Hal was hiding...

However, given this level of speed and aerial mobility&mdash;Hal pointed his magic gun at the ceiling.

Some elite dragons were able to survive even when their heads were destroyed.

Hence, Hal aimed for the chest. This was to pierce a dragon's greatest vulnerability, the heartmetal.

While lying on the sofa, Hal proceeded to pull the trigger thrice in succession. Three bullets of red light were shot from the muzzle, opening a large hole in the building's ceiling before flying out.

Then the bullets struck their target. All three shots had hit. That was the feeling Hal received.

"I won...?"

For an instant, Hal felt troubled by his inability to confirm victory.

The target suddenly accelerated to descend towards the ground. And straight towards him, rapidly descending towards the top of the building where Hal was hiding. Hal instantly deployed imperishable protection.

Next, a thunderous crash resounded in all directions.

The building's ceiling easily collapsed with a large amount of rubble falling down. When the blue sky and the silver dragon's massive body appeared before his eyes, blue-white flames instantly surged into Hal's floor.

"Wahhhhhhh!"

Thanks to protection, Hal was unhurt. However, he was buried alive by the collapsed ceiling. Debris of varying sizes was piled on top of the pearly light. Apart from that, he could not see anything.

And the light of protection was about to vanish.

Hal's heart had taken quite a lot of damage too. He immediately raised the magic gun to fire in triple burst mode.

The surrounding debris was blown away in one go, clearing out his field of vision.

The blue sky and Galad's gigantic body, hovering motionlessly in the air, entered his view. Galad had pulled back slightly from the building, holding the dragonslaying sword in one hand. Despite clearly being a dragon, he was using a fencing pose.

"Take this&mdash;!"

Hal used the magic gun to attack in burst mode. Three bullets of light were fired at the same time&mdash;

"O dragonslaying sword! Carrying the sword god's favored affection, bring victory to me!"

However, Galad used the dragonslaying sword to deflect all three bullets of light in the air.

Fast as lightning. His masterful swordsmanship had reached the realm of divine skills. Seventeen glowing runes of Ruruk Soun also surrounded the dragonslaying sword.

The runes meant "O blue sky, I beseech you to grant the sword god's favored affection unto my blade."

"A technique of assured annihilation, hidden within the dragonslaying sword... Do not think that the thunder god's sword is the only one."

"No, no, even as a special move, using a sword to defend against a gun is too much of a cheat..."

Realizing that the earlier sniping attack had been cut down in the same manner, Hal sighed.

Living up to its name as a trump card of dragonslaying power, its absurdity knew no bounds.

"However, my gun is also convenient to the point of cheating a little too."

"Indeed you are right. Putting aside the various dragon kings, one probably could not find among the dragons an opponent as troublesome as you."

Hovering in the air, Galad opened his jaws wide. He looked like he intended to breathe fire.

How much longer could Hal's protection last when it was about to vanish? Several seconds or ten-odd seconds...?

"Ugh...!"

Hal reflexively fired a shot. However, it was deflected by the dragonslaying sword.

This was why the enemy did not approach. At extremely close distances, it would be hard to defend against gunshots.

Hal began to feel anxious. If he fired with full auto, he could probably get past that sword to attack a dragon's greatest vulnerability&mdash;the heart. However, Galad would probably prioritize defense. Chances of success were likely to be quite low.

However, there was no chance of victory unless Hal tried his luck...

Hal realized this was the devil's temptation. He could not possibly obtain a good outcome even if he risked everything on a gamble. But if he surrendered here, the outcome was undoubtedly certain death&mdash;

At this moment, Akuro-Ou pounced.

She bit Galad's neck without warning. Orihime's "serpent" had one of her tails severed, leaving eight. In addition, the fox-wolf's expression was unprecedentedly violent.