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『NgyaAaAaaaaaa!!!!!!!!』

The little thing grabbing tight on my back is screaming loudly, but I don’t plan on slowing down. After using “Levitation”¹ to float with the propulsion from “Move”, “Wind”, and the explosive energy of “Burn”; I’m practically like a small missile now.

Arytte is screaming non-stop, but I can’t afford to lower my speed, so she’ll have to stay as-is. Rather, I’m surprised that she hasn’t bitten her tongue. Just enduring the air pressure is already straining enough for me.

While there was no one present where the magical tool was used, what’s clearly the reason for the SOS is visible to my eyes even from afar, so I changed my course and headed there. What I saw was a large T-rex-like dinosaur. Its snout seems a bit sharper in comparison, but it’s practically a T-rex. Its scales are distinct, and are colored… reddish brown, I suppose?

「Urania!」
「Kyaa! No!!」

As I was closely observing it, I suddenly heard cries directly below me. I quickly shifted my gaze to what the dragon was heading for, and there I saw Urania down on the ground with an egg on her back. It can’t be, Urania stole its egg? I immediately shook off that thought from my head, and flew towards Urania at full speed.

「”Wall!”」

I made it! Exactly as the dragon was just about to snap its jaws at Urania, I made a wall right in front of its snout, crashing the wall into it. Since I was in a bit of a panic, I prematurely lost my “Levitation” midair and landed painfully on my feet, but it seems like I don’t have the time to care about this.²

『GYUOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!』

While I did make the “Wall” in a panic, the T-rex-like dragon very easily crushed it with its jaws, and roared loudly to the sky. The trees, the air, and the ground trembled. The rippling vibration is grating on my body, but I’d be troubled if it thinks that this is enough to intimidate me.

『Lily, have you noticed?』
「Hm? Ah, I noticed that too.」
『Right, the sensing life essence thing, was it?』

Arytte warned me about a certain presence, but this dragon isn’t something I can fight without complete focus. To make sure that I won’t get any interference, I suppose I’ll have to ask for help.

「Arytte, I’ll leave that to you. This isn’t really something I can split my focus with.」
『In my opinion, you shouldn’t have any problems with it either way, but sure. That’ll be 3 pies for the assistance.』
「That’s pretty expensive. Got it, I’ll bake you some later.」
『That’s a promise, alright?』

With this, I don’t have to worry about any interruptions while dealing with that. Geez, first that annoying harassment, and now they do something like this? You can’t expect me to not be mad. In the meantime, let me vent this anger…

「Out on you!」
「GYAOOOOO!!!」

I activated “Burn” and “Wind” in my right and left hand respectively, and released them at the same time. The air compressed by “Wind” is instantly combusted by “Burn”, creating an explosive burst. If I had to name it, it’d be “Explosion” I guess? This attack aimed at its feet didn’t seem to have pierced through the dragon’s scales but it should have done some damage, as the dragon shrieked, seemingly in pain.

Even as it shrieked, the dragon still charged onto us, so I carried Urania with the egg and jumped, avoiding the dragon with the use of “Levitation”. I left Urania on top of a tree for now and was about to head to the dragon, when Urania suddenly grabbed my arm.

「It’ll be fine! Just wait here!」
「Don’t! Don’t hurt the dragon! It only wanted the egg back!」
「Even if that’s the case……」

It’s unusual for Urania to plead like this. If possible, I would prefer to answer her request, but this dragon isn’t something that I can deal with while holding myself back. It’s not that I don’t have any idea of how to do so, but I’m a bit uneasy about my remaining magic power. Still, what Urania’s saying is true, and even I don’t like killing indiscriminately.

「Fine. Still, I won’t have enough magic power, so nmgh-!?」
「Mwn…… Phwa! Is this enough?³」
「Y-yeah. Leave it to me.」

Geez, now that I’ve been paid in advance, I have no other choice but to give my all, don’t I? My winning condition has changed from subjugation to capture, making the difficulty increase sharply. This is because of the dragon’s large amount of magic power, which would repel any magecraft and even magic if they are not loaded with sufficient magic power.

While the “Explosion” from earlier was made with magic power, the explosive force that it caused is a physical phenomenon, which is why it caused considerable damage; however, in the case of capturing a live capture, things will be incredibly difficult. After all, a regular “Bind” would just be repelled.

As I landed on the ground, the dragon moved to mow me down with its tail, so I crouched to evade it and drew near the dragon. Just thinking about coming close to something as large as this is already scary, but it’s extremely difficult to load magic power from afar, so approaching it is necessary.

First, I touched its hindleg, which is thicker than my own body. The dragon naturally seemed annoyed and tried to trample me, but I tumbled down to avoid it and came in contact with the opposite leg. At the same time, I activated “Bind” with the two places I touched as the origin, tying them together as though they were bound by a thread.

「Whoop!」
『GUOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!』

In addition to the synergistic effect of using two “Binds”, I somehow managed to have these stay without being repelled by directly charging them with magic power. From there, I successfully tripped the dragon. And then, I used “Bind” on its arms, mouth, and neck respectively, and continued on increasing the binds.

『GUGYAAAAA!!! GUGOOOOOO!!!!』
「Argh, geez! Stay put!」

Even after using “Bind” on the dragon 10 times now, it still continues to rage on violently and it’s starting to exhaust me. If I lose my focus even just for a moment, it’ll likely tear off the binds; and no matter how much magic power I charge into these, the magic power gets repelled and leaks out. It’s starting to get irritating…… Ugh, no, I can’t, I promised Urania. There’s no other choice but to keep it up and have the dragon calm down this way.

「Gragh! Enough already!」
『GURUU……』

Unable to bear my growing irritation, I couldn’t help but smack the head of the dragon with my magic power loaded right hand. Then suddenly the previously rampaging dragon immediately stopped moving.

「Wai-, what?」
『Hm, this is that. The dragon’s submitting to you.』
「Ha?」
『Dragons are prideful creatures but at the same time, they have the instinct of serving those stronger than them. How nice, you’ve made yourself a dragon companion.』
「Hah!?」

1. Silva: oops, I actually read that as Leviathan for a moment there, no wonder I was confused…
2. Lyly: Ouch
3. Lyly: Urania; actions first, discussion later