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The air compressed in Fubuki's hands—and the moment the red dragon dove, spewing fire from its jaws, that compressed air exploded outward.
Dust and gravel swallowed the battlefield in an instant.The blast roared like a bomb going off.Buildings caught in the storm collapsed with deafening crashes.
But the real danger came after: a surge of razor-edged wind, split apart and sharpened by Fubuki's psychic power. Invisible blades screamed through the air and slashed toward the dragon.
Its massive body was far too bulky to dodge.
By the time the beast realized the threat, it was already too late.
The wind blades smashed into its scales—armor that ordinary adventurers couldn't even scratch. But under Fubuki's strike, those scales may as well have been plastic. They shredded apart with ease.
The red dragon shrieked in agony. Boiling blood sprayed across the ground.
Its mangled wings failed to hold its enormous weight. With a thunderous crash, it fell from the sky.
Yet even crushed and bleeding, the dragon's vitality was terrifying.
Its slit pupils reflected Fubuki's silhouette. In its fading consciousness, it couldn't comprehend how such a small human had brought it down.
With its last strength, the dragon opened its massive jaws, fangs dripping blood, magic gathering in its throat—Only for its head to be lopped off by a single, wide wind blade before the spell could release.
When the smoke finally cleared, Marcille and the others stood frozen in shock.
The monster that had nearly wiped their entire party—the mighty red dragon—was just… dead. Beheaded cleanly.
And they hadn't even seen how it happened. No chant, no spell circle, not even a weapon in that green-haired woman's hands. Yet somehow, she'd cut through a dragon's hide like paper.
"Big Sis Fubuki… that was amazing!"
It was Marcille's first time seeing a guild member in action, and her eyes sparkled in awe.
What was that just now?Magic? But there'd been no mana ripple, no incantation…
"This? Nothing special," Fubuki brushed it off. "Where I come from, this kind of dragon's no more than tiger-class at best. Forget heroes—even a regular army could take one down."
She was used to her teammates' praise by now. Marcille's admiration didn't make her head swell in the slightest.
"Wait—hold on a sec! Marcille, what did you just call her?"
Gabriel suddenly yelped like she'd struck gold.
Marcille, confused, clutched her staff nervously. "Um… 'amazing'?"
"No, the line before that!"
"…Big Sis Fubuki?"
"Yes! That one! Doesn't anyone else think that sounds weird? By the way, Marcille—you're an elf, right? How old are you this year?"
"Uh… around fifty, I think…"
The moment she said it, everyone understood without Gabriel needing to explain.
Rosen stroked his chin and chuckled. "Fubuki's twenty-three. A fifty-year-old elf like Marcille could practically be her mom."
"Eh—wha…?"
Marcil froze, then her entire face flushed scarlet.
Fubuki just rolled her eyes at Gabriel and Rosen.
She'd thought it was something serious. Turns out, it was just this?
Still… knowing Marcille's actual age, hearing her call her "Big Sis" did feel a little strange.
Although, to be fair, Marcille looked ridiculously youthful. Longevity races really were something else.
"You can't judge elves' age like that! I'm basically only around twenty-three, twenty-four in human terms!" Marcille protested, flustered.
A woman's still a woman, elf or not—nobody wants to be called old.
"True enough," Frieren added as she dispelled her barrier magic and patted Marcille on the shoulder. "I'm an elf too, and I'm only about the equivalent of a human in their thirties."
"I just remembered a line from an old saying."
Gabriel piped up out of nowhere.
"'Why does the old crone act like some blushing maiden?'"
The moment the words left her mouth, Frieren spun around, hands on her hips, face twitching with irritation.
Sure, Gabriel had teased her about her age before, but saying it so bluntly, right to her face—that was a first!
"I'm just the older big sister, that's all!"
In the end, Rosen stepped in to calm things down.
"Alright, enough bickering. Let's find Farin's body and get her revived."
The ruined streets and shattered buildings around them were slowly knitting themselves back together.
From the walls oozed a soil-colored substance that wriggled like worms, filling in the craters Fubuki had blown apart and reshaping them into smooth walls again.
The labyrinth had its own self-repair system.
The creatures doing the patchwork were harmless dungeon-dwellers.
Slime-like things also squelched out onto the floor, oozing toward the dragon's blood and remains to "clean up."
Leios chased them off so they wouldn't interfere with Farin's resurrection.
At the center of Marcille's magic circle lay a half-digested corpse, flesh and organs rotted by stomach acid.
"Gotta admit," Gabriel muttered, pinching her nose, "these adventurers have strong stomachs."
To recover Farin's body, Leios and Senshi had hacked open the dragon's belly after its death, pulling her remains from its gut.
It had been less than three days, so she wasn't completely dissolved yet…But her skin, muscles, and organs were badly corroded.
Normally, this kind of body would've been beyond saving.
But under resurrection magic, the ruined corpse rapidly began to heal.
And in Rosen and Gabriel's vision, a short-haired girl's blue soul drifted back from afar, glanced around, and slipped into the restored body.
In the next moment—breath returned, blood flowed, organs pulsed back to life.
Pale skin flushed with warmth as her eyes fluttered open.
Seeing the faces crowding around her, Marcille immediately threw herself into Farin's arms.
"Farin! You're finally back!"
The half-elf girl wept with joy.
"Marcille… Brother Leios…"
Farin's eyes curved into crescents as she recognized her old friends and family, smiling wide.
Resurrection and reunion—just another day in the life of adventurers.
After all, an adventurer who hadn't died at least once wasn't a real adventurer. That had basically become an unspoken rule of the trade.
"So… does that mean our mission's complete?"
Saeko Busujima asked, looking a little dazed.
It felt like she hadn't actually done anything here. Honestly, it was more like she'd been on vacation.
"Yeah, we wrapped up fast. But hey, we still got something out of it."
Gabriel punted away a slime that was trying to slurp up dragon blood.
"Don't tell me none of you are curious what dragon meat tastes like?"
"Dragon meat, huh… I've met a few dragons before, but never tried eating one."
Frieren crouched to inspect the carcass, intrigued.
"Could be worth a try."
Rosen nodded in agreement.
Dragon blood and flesh were said to be the ultimate nourishment.
In the original story, when Farin was revived with dragon meat as part of her body's restoration, her mana skyrocketed, and she no longer even needed incantations to cast spells.
If they brought some back for his familiars… maybe their stats would go up too?
"...."
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