YM778.TV Volume 4 9
"My lord, may I ask to be the one to discipline this youngster?"
When I was wondering how I should deal with the dragon, Wight unexpectedly passed by and then volunteered himself to rectify the darkness dragon.
Needless to say, I was grateful.
"You’re both dragons so you might understand each other better. In that case, sorry but please do take care of it."
"Certainly, my lord. I will make this one know its place."
Wight then directed his gaze to the darkness dragon. That made the dragon feel something, made it shift its gaze between me and Wight.
"Now then, what are you trying to pull off by showing such disrespect to the supreme being that is our lord?"
Wight was angry.
His facial expression and tone didn’t change but the atmosphere around him certainly did.
His calm demeanor made him scarier.
"KYUWAA!"
The Graphross roared as if to say it was the superior one.
It was an intimidation, a show of force.
Or at least it would have if not for the complete lack of vigor behind it. The dragon was visibly afraid of the power it instinctively sensed from Wight. It probably intended to push on regardless but it could not hide that deep in its heart, it had accepted its defeat already and was just bluffing.
"Hush, brat."
Wight succinctly informed it so.
With just that, the Graphross took a few steps backward. With each step the Graphross took, Wight effortlessly took two to close in.
When Wight had closed in enough that he was almost face to face with the darkness dragon, it began to tremble.
"Now then, I suppose we’ll begin with teaching you just whom you’ve challenged."
The next moment after Wight said that, overwhelming power swelled from within him.
Even I who was used to the girls’ power levels was shocked by his display. Moreover, miasma that was death itself flowed out of him. He had released an aura that would freeze any onlookers’ soul.
With [Berserk] no longer being held back, Wight revealed his true form as a Siegwurm, the darker-than-black dragon of death. He was a size smaller than the Graphross but his power far exceeded the latter’s.
He was the very embodiment of death; it felt like even the air surrounding him was dying.
At any rate, he locked on to the Graphross with his blood-red, malefic eyes.
In the next moment however, he placed a foreleg atop the newly born dragon’s head. Yes, placed, without any real force—whether physical, magical or otherwise—behind the act. A simple pat in the head.
Normally, doing such a thing would produce nothing but...
"Kyuu, kyuu, Kyuuooon"
The darkness dragon turned itself over, made a pleading whimper, and showed its belly. It became fully submissive. It wasn’t a proud dragon anymore, just a dog begging its master.
In the meantime, Wight reverted back to his demi-human form.
"My lord, its discipline is complete. This should be the very last instance this young one would be so rude towards you."
He said so and smiled at me.
"Thanks for taming it. I really appreciate it since the darkness dragons are going to be the backbone of the aerial combat unit which in turn will be used in quite a few strategies."
It wasn’t just to Wight, the Graphross became fully obedient to me as well. With that, I was able to count it among our forces.
"This is a rather good monster, my lord. Quite convenient."
"I’m relieved that you, a strategist, say so."
"It might have been unruly until a while ago but it is highly intelligent. More so than a human, I’d wager. Furthermore, while it is a dragon, it is also classified as an undead which means that it will benefit from my special ability."
When Wight was reborn, one of the special abilities he gained was called [Ruler of Death] which had the effect of greatly strengthening undead monsters under Wight’s command.
"That sure is reassuring. With its high base stats and your special ability, it’ll probably be comparable to a low-tier A rank in most circumstances."
Given that its race was a kind of dragon, it had high stats. Perhaps, among B rank monsters, they were one of the strongest.
Race: Darkness Dragon Graphross
B rank
Level: 58
Physical Strength: A
Endurance: A
Agility: A
Magic: B
Luck: B
Special: B
Skills:
Darkness Dragon
Miasma (Weak)
Deadly poison
Fear
Darkness Dragon: Able to use magic and breath attacks of the darkness attribute. Physical Strength and Endurance receive enhancements (small). Bonuses (medium) to the skill-holder’s flying capabilities.
Miasma (Weak): Clads the user in miasma (weak) that adds damage to his attacks. Gives bonuses (medium) to Endurance as well as magical resistance.
Deadly poison: Clads claws and fangs with a deadly poison.
Fear: Grants weakening effect (medium) against all enemies lower than A rank.
Both its stats and special abilities were great. It was an extremely excellent monster.
And then, I had an idea. Sometime later, we’ll extract poison from these dragons. Poison that are gonna be used in weapons and some products.
"Wight, I plan on creating nine more darkness dragons. I was thinking of leaving the command of them to you but is that fine with you?"
"Of course, my lord. With 10 of this monster, we should be able to defeat most enemies with ease. My lord, how do you plan to make use of them?"
"First is to make them take over the aerial bombardment which until now is being done by the Griffon and Hippogriffs. Unlike them though, the darkness dragons will not require the elves to clear a path for them; they can gain air superiority on their own and can drop powerful bombs on the enemy army right from the start."
To be able to speedily bombard the enemies on the ground after eliminating the ones in the sky by themselves, that is their greatest strength.
"That’s certainly true. If they use the napalm bombs right at the start of battle, our side would gain an overwhelming advantage. To be able to safely and reliably execute that is really reassuring."
"And that’s not all. I’m also intending for these dragons to transport the Avalon-Ritters."
It could be said that this would be their more important job.
"I intend to make them carry a container filled with about 10 Avalon-Ritters and drop that container down on the enemy’s base. I want this to be a new standard tactic of ours."
Upon hearing my words, Wight gasped. I took that as an indication that he fully understood me.
"As expected of my lord, to be able to think up of such an amazing thing. In essence, we would be able to rapidly send out large amounts of fighting force of A-rank-equivalent units to any place at any time. .........That is revolutionary. We will be able to pretty much ignore the enemy’s defenses and launch a surprise attack in the center of their formation."
The Avalon-Ritters were made of the light-weight metal orichalcum but due to their size, each one was heavy. Too heavy, in fact, that it was impossible for the Hippogriffs to transport many of them at a time.
Such was not the case for the Graphross, however.
If we could pull this off, the way wars were fought would most likely change; mobility would be the most important factor.
"Bombardment and transport, those will be darkness dragons’ duties. I leave their command and training to you, Wight. Use as much real explosives as you see fit for the training. As for the transportation training, you may make use of any golems other than those made of mithril and transport them outside of Avalon in a container I would have the Dwarf Smiths make. For anything else necessary, you have my every permission."
"Yes, my lord. I will definitely present to you the strongest aerial combat corps."
Wight said so and very elegantly bowed.
Originally, I planned to be the one to do the training but since he was conveniently there, I entrusted it to him. More than that, since he could strengthen the darkness dragons, I had decided that it would be better for him to be their commander.
In reply to him I nodded to indicate my satisfaction. I then bought the other nine dragons with almost all of my remaining DP and entrusted all of them to Wight.
As a side note, one of newly born dragons immediately protested to which the very first one only looked at the latter with eyes filled with pity.
"I’ll leave the rest to you then."
"Certainly, my lord."
I left the place and headed toward Kohaku the Byakko.
Before I settled on any kind of defenses to prevent the leak of information or on what my intelligence-gathering monster is going to be, I first needed to know more about intelligence-gathering monsters themselves.
I was certain that in the middle of my talk with Byakko, I would be able to get some kind of insight.