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*Japanese uses the term 逆鱗 (gekirin) which literally means “reverse scale.” It is said that dragons have a single scale growing in reverse under their chin/neck, and touching it enrages them, thus it’s used figuratively as something that shouldn’t be touched.

Adventurer managers knew that when fighting against an organized group of monsters, it was better to start by defeating their leader first.

In the mountain, a little separated from the hunting ground.

In the headquarters of the Maltgartz army, the exterminators and hired dragon hunters who survived the raid were gathered along with the knights and soldiers that guarded the general.

The soldiers were preparing the defensive magic items and shifting their formation so they could retreat while fending off the attacks.

“Everyone be silent! Get ready to evacuate. As long as you remain calm, running away from a dragon is nothing! The ones who panic will be the first to die!!”

The general with a spiral mustache and luxurious armor commanded the agitated subordinates.

If some people started running away aimlessly in fear, they wouldn’t be able to evacuate properly, and those who fled while leaving them behind would too die in their failed attempt.

In that sense, what the general was saying was correct, and judging by his resonant way of speaking, he had a decent commanding ability too.

“Wrong. You’ll be the first one to die.”

Lucella boldly made his way through the soldiers who were preparing to flee and stood before the general.

“What did you say, little girl? Who are……”

The moment their eyes met the general’s eyes shot open and he shrunk back in fear.

“E-E-A-Aeeeek…!”
“Oh, so you can tell the difference in strength.”
“H-Hewp…Hewp me…”
“I can tell it too… that you… are a weak little garbage compared to me!!”

Lucella leaped at the general who was begging for his life while trembling, slapped him through the helmet and knocked him down, and slammed down the sole of his foot into his armored chest with all his strength.

“Gphaa!”

His gaudy armor felt heavy and thick.

Since a general wore it, it must have been quite a valuable magic item, so it should’ve been strong enough to block an elephant’s charge at least.

But the armor cracked and broke with just one kick from Lucella, and even what was inside was a mess. The blood spurted from the general and he never moved again.

“Who’s next?”

Lucella lost his interest in the general already and glared at the dumbfounded people all around.

It felt like his breaths were accompanied by fire.

“W-Wha-… D-Dieeeeee!!”

The ones who moved first weren’t the superhumans who were used to dealing with monsters, but rather the knights who were anti-human specialists.

It was an incomprehensible situation, but they bared their swords in desperation in reaction to their general’s murder. They wouldn’t get careless or merciful even if the opponent looked like a little girl. Even if they were confused, their actions were those of warriors well experienced in killing humans.

However… at almost the same time…

There was a strong flapping sound of wings.

““GRROOOOOOAAAARRRR!!””

Kafal in the skies, and Lucella on the ground. Their overlapped roars split the heavens and shook the earth. The clouds got shredded and disappeared, and trees raised creaks as their leaves and branches got blown away.

Ground cracked around Lucella, fissures running like a spiderweb.

All who lacked courage were robbed of their consciousness in one go, while those who had it collapsed with their ears spurting blood.

Kafal lowered her altitude as the winds roared.

Then she inhaled from the gaps in her fangs, swelling up her belly.

“GRAAAAAAHHHH!!”

And then spewed the fire breath toward the knights.

It was no mere fireball. It crashed down with so much pressure that it turned into a flaming mass that crushed everything to death.

Several armored knights got blown away while burning.

Lucella immediately searched for the signs of life.

Those that were already dead. Those that were drawing their last breath. And there it was— someone still alive!

Without a moment’s delay, Lucella snatched a short spear that was leaning on a wall inside the encampment.

“Yaaaahh!”

The spear flew with so much force it scorched the atmosphere, and skewered a knight in the air along with his armor before he could hit the ground.

“…Actual weapons sure are sturdy, huh? The spears I made by tying magical beast fangs to a pole were sharp but they broke right away.”

The one he threw was a relatively common mythril spear, but thrown with Lucella’s might it was a deadly weapon.

As it seemed, human technologies weren’t without their worth when it came to mass-producing durable things.

As Lucella was thinking of such things.

“Shoot heeeer!”
“Ah-?!”

The exterminators released their bows.

Adventurers that entered unexplored lands couldn’t thoughtlessly increase their luggage so they tended to just focus on mastering a single weapon they are best at, but the exterminators from Maltgartz used several weapons to deal with different situations.

Bows were effective weapons to take down… or at least wound the enemy that shouldn’t be approached.

Drawn by their superhuman strength, the bows would turn into fearsome weapons that could even pierce the thick skins of the magic beasts.

Not just the bows, even their arrows were specially made. Arrows that had not just arrowheads but even their shafts made of adamantite were quite heavy and expensive, but they were powerful! And several of such arrows were flying sharply at Lucella now!

Before long, they collided with Lucella’s body… and fell flat to the ground.

“….S̲h̲i̲t̲… I thought my new clothes would get torn up!”
“Huuh…?!”
“Actually, that hurt a little. What was that for, you b̲a̲s̲t̲a̲r̲d̲s̲!”

The defensive clothes made of Variant skin boasted a frightening level of defensive power.

Its power was drawn out by elaborate processing, so they were even stronger compared to when the skin owner was alive.

Even if the armor deflected the arrows, with so many sharp attacks hitting you, the shock transmitted to the flesh under it would normally deal significant damage, but Lucella was in no way normal.

He immediately moved to pay back for the attack.

“Get burned!”

It was a feeling falsely similar to using magic. He controlled the power revolving inside his body and connected it to this world. Heat flowed into the earth, spreading cracks through it.

“Gyaaaaaa!”

The surface spurted the flames. They spewed out as cracks continued to form.

Those flames coming from the spiderweb-like fissures around Lucella continued to turn the surroundings into the kiln of hell.

“What is that magic?!”
“It’s not magic. I only just realized I could do things like this, though.”

Lucella’s attack seemed like something magic-related at first glance.

But the exterminators seemed to have realized that it was different.

In the case of magic, it was possible to read the flow of magic power and react to it at least at the same time as it activated, even if it was an instant spell with the omitted chant. But Lucella had created flames as naturally as if blinking, so they failed to react to it in time and took the blow.

“It’s a fire breath.”
“What?”
“I don’t have the throat of a dragon, so sorry about the improvisation!”

Lucella suddenly swung his arm.

The next moment, the flames gushing out of the ground moved as if they were sentient, attacking the exterminators that luckily managed to avoid a direct hit before.

Mount Kuguse was a mountain that slumbered with the flames it carried. The flame factors contained in it were dense and woke up by using a dragon’s roar as a catalyst.

What Lucella caused was not quite on the level of a volcanic eruption, but the squirming, spreading torrents of red were just like a flash flood of fire.

“Aaaaagghhhh….!”

They were squashed.

Lucella’s flames burned even the superhuman bodies of the exterminators.

“GROOOAARR!!”

A genuine breath came from above at the same time, scattering and scorching the fleeing soldiers to death.

There was no longer a single person who stood up to fight them. They were all betting on their small chance of survival and fled.

But that was no reason for angry dragons to stop fighting.

“Hmm?”

Lucella spotted someone among the fleeing men.

“Gemel.”
“Eeek!”

It was a man he remembered.

“You already realized who I am, right? I also remembered… Everything that I had forgotten.”

The giant man donned in adventurer armor froze in place as if his feet got sewn to the ground and timidly turned around.