Chapter 10
Can it get any worse than this?!

Just as Alexander guessed, they didn't encounter any monsters on the way to Iliasburg, although they didn't manage to meet any adventurer like them either. They started out a few hours before them, so, by now, they should have reached Iliasburg a few hours ago.

Although, by following that logic, that also means that the group is also very close to Iliasburg, if not outright standing in front of it, which was indeed the case as they saw a tall wall extending to left and right in distance.

At their left, they could see the light of the sun getting covered by the Irina Mountain Range in the horizon of the western side of the Ilias Continent. They finally arrived at Iliasburg in the early evening.

"Finally…" The first one to speak was Luka, carrying a great deal of joy in his voice. "I can finally go to sleep."

"Me too." Alexander agreed with his opinion, as he was just as tired as him. Meanwhile, Alice snorted at the side, but she didn't comment on their behavior. She also wanted to sleep in an actual bed, since she felt really uncomfortable sleeping on a tree, but for the sake of her own image, she didn't say anything.

"Oh, by the way…" Luka turned towards Alice to tell her to disguise herself again as a human, as it would be really problematic for everyone if she went in the town with her monster form, but he shut down as soon as he saw her already transforming into a human.

"You don't need to tell me, I'm not that stupid." Alice replied to Luka's unspoken question, as if she knew exactly what he was supposed to say, and once again, she took a human visage.

The pale purple skin her upper body was covered with was now replaced by a rosy and healthy complexion, while the crown-shaped horns above her head disappeared.

Meanwhile, the snake tail that sprouted from her waist to below, and extended for a dozen of meters behind her magically disappeared, replaced by a pair of human legs with boots matching her dark skimpy dress included in the set.

"..." While watching this magical transformation, both Alexander and Luka couldn't help but stare at her in a stupor. They didn't know if it was the sunset behind her or it was just her nature, but she managed to look breath-takingly noble even though she was wearing what was basically the most coveted dress between Succubi.

They didn't notice that at first, since the color of her body made a mess out of her in their point of view, but now that she is human-like, they could use their standards to judge her appearance better than before.

Noticing their gazes, Alice glanced back at them and raised an eyebrow, before she asked: "What do you want?"

"Uh… Nothing." Luka immediately dismissed the subject, while Alexander said nothing at all as he quickly pulled his gaze away from her and stared back at the city.

"Anyway, let's go in. The first thing we have to do is find a place to sleep in and somewhere to eat. I'm kind of hungry now."

At Alexander's suggestion, both Luka and Alice agreed as they ventured closer to the city's walls that separated the human settlement from the wilderness where monsters like to wander through.

But as they got closer, Alexander couldn't help but notice a particularity at the front of the southern city gate…

"Where are they?" Alexander asked nobody in particular, but Luka noticed the unexpected surprise in his voice. He looked at him and casually asked: "Who are you talking about?"

"The guards." Alexander stopped on his steps and lifted a finger to the city gate. "There should be a few guards on the checkpoint, so that no monster gets in to assault everyone inside. But there is absolutely nobody here."

"Huh…" Luka took notice of that detail too, and quickly understood that it was something that shouldn't happen in normal circumstances. "Maybe they're doing something beyond the walls?"

Alexander simply shrugged and said: "Let's check it out."

The three of them got closer to the gate, but there was still no trace of guards in the surroundings, and there wasn't even any person in sight beyond the gate. The streets were empty, with nobody in sight as far as the eye could reach, and the houses around were also closed off, as if the city entered a state of quarantine.

As the group stepped through the gate, Alexander couldn't help but look behind him, staring at the open gate that was left alone by this town's inhabitants. Even his unusually good instincts didn't pick anybody's presence in the surroundings. This place was truly empty.

There was no way people would just leave this gate open and unchecked. What if monsters snuck through the open gate? Was the gate broken perchance? He didn't know the answer to that dilemma, and he certainly wasn't either in the mood or in the condition to think a lot. All he wanted right now was sleeping on a bed for the next 10 hours.

"Hey, guys, did you hear it too?" Suddenly, Luka spoke out, attracting Alexander's attention who turned around, and just noticed that Alice disappeared once again, much to his surprise. But before he could think about it, his attention was pulled by Luka who seemed particularly focused to the end of the main road, where the central plaza of Iliasburg was situated.

"Hear what?" Alexander stepped closer to Luka as he asked that question, while Luka shushed him.

"Shhh, just listen."

"..." Alexander closed his mouth and focused on any sound in the way. Fortunately, Iliasburg could be considered as a ghost town with all the silence around them, so he could quickly pick up a strange noise coming from some distance away.

It was too far to pick up the direction it came from, but considering that they came from outside and there didn't seem to be anything that could make noise from there, it was easy to guess that the commotion must come from inside the city.

"Anyway, Alice disappeared again." Alexander commented after noticing some noise from a distance, like Luka did. Luka, hearing his words, turned around and realized that Alice wasn't near them, again.

"Could it be that a monster is here?" Luka came up to a conclusion upon considering these points, and Alexander thought that it was the most likely answer to this mystery.

Everyone closed themselves up in their homes, probably; the guards aren't here to watch over the open gate; and Alice, the person who said that she would leave immediately as soon as there is a chance to meet a monster, isn't here with them.

Of course, it all aimed at the fact that a monster could have caused this. After all, Iliasburg isn't exactly known to be hosting monsters in their city… Except for 'her', but that 'thing' was a special case.

But…

"What kind of monster could bring this whole town to a state of silence?" Alexander muttered under his tone as screams suddenly appeared. Their origin must have been quite far if they were so quiet, but he definitely heard them.

Luka must have heard them too as he looked at Alexander and told him: "They must be fighting the monster! Let's go!"

After saying that, both Luka and Alexander ran off to the presumed source of the noise, which was getting louder as they approached the central plaza.

As they came closer to their supposed destination, they could see a few metallic silhouettes resting on the ground many dozens of meters away from them, but when they got even closer, they noticed that those silhouettes were armored knights and heroes knocked unconscious. Some also had bloody injuries on their bodies.

However, instead of assisting them, the two of them went further beyond that point, trying to see what caused all of this instead of fixing issues without cutting off the roots of those problems.

And what they found in the central plaza left them surprised.

*Cla-Cla-Clang!* A metallic clash between three spears piercing from different directions and a single comically large greatsword spinning around echoed through the silent streets around the plaza, and those three spears were all repelled at once while the owner of the greatsword didn't move an inch from their spot.

That red-haired person holding on the greatsword is the monster that Alexander and Luka were talking about, but they were definitely taken aback by the appearance of that monster.

Judging from the green reptilian tail and the green scales covering her legs and forearms, along with the flaps below her knife ears were all clear hints of the monster's species: Dragon.

They are one of the most famous species of monsters in the world, around the top 3 in the list among the physically strongest monsters existing, along with Giants and Behemoths. However, their physical strength wasn't the only thing they were famous for…

Each of their individual scales are as tough as iron shields, and their fangs and horns are really sharp. Their basic offensive ability is far higher than ordinary monsters, and their intellect and wisdom is just as great. That is to not talk about their peculiar ability to spew flames that can melt through metal with ease, which is also their strongest point.

Also, just like the High Slug Alexander and Luka encountered the night before, they didn't use magic, which leaves them mostly unaffected by the divine blessing of Ilias Continent.

Speaking of locations, normally, Dragons are supposed to stay around Gold Volcano and Hellgondo, two of the eight danger zones, so it doesn't make sense that a Dragonkin, a humanoid subspecies of a Dragon monster, was here out of all places.

It also didn't make sense that a Dragon, like this one in front of Alexander, would wear armor and swing around a sword when she could make a clean job out of the knights around here with her bare hands… Unless…

"You've got to be kidding me." Alexander whispered, cursing his misfortune while also trying to not be heard by the Dragon. He pulled Luka behind a tree and closed his mouth just as he was about to yelp in surprise.

"Shhh!" Alexander shushed Luka and told him: "Don't make a sound! Otherwise, we're dead meat!"

Luka stared up to him in surprise, probably taken aback by the appearance of the monster, like Alexander was just a second ago, but then he nodded in understanding before Alexander pulled his hand away from his mouth.

"That's…" Luka muttered under his breath with a shaky tone, and Alexander exhaled an exasperated sigh.

"The strongest swordmaster in the world and one of the Four Heavenly Knights serving the Monster Lord, Granberia." He finished what Luka was about to say as he glanced at the side, staring at the battlefield from the corner of his eyes.

She is one of the strongest people in the world, one of the few who could fight the Monster Lord on equal footing, so why is she here?! What does she want from Iliasburg?!

A second clash resonated in the air as she forcibly pushed away the three spearmen fighting her with a single swing. The three knights grunted in pain as one of them also stumbled on the ground with an embarrassing timing. While they were glaring at the monster with a shaky gaze, an exasperated expression appeared on her face as she stabbed the sword on the ground and tightly held on the hilt, glaring back at them with a hardened stare.

And then, her voice boomed through the city's streets, as loudly as possible. "Weak, too weak! Is this the whole defensive force of Iliasburg? Is this the best this entire city can do?!"

She was clearly provoking the three knights, and everyone who was still capable of hearing her voice. In reaction to her words, the knights slightly crouched down.

"Damn it…" "She's too strong!" "Ugh…"

They were clear of their inability to stop the Heavenly Knight, but their sense of duty stopped them from running away. However, their instincts and logic were screaming at them to run away, leaving them in an impasse where they can't either fight or flee.

"Hey." Granberia, the Heavenly Knight of Fire, glared at them and called them out with an annoyed voice. "Are you going to fight or not? If you are too afraid, just drop your weapons and leave!"

In reaction to her provocation, two of the three knights tightened their holds on their spears, while the third one, who was still sitting down, flinched in fear. It was clear as day who decided to fight and who decided to surrender."

"Grr… Damn you!" One of them cursed her as they shot forward and jumped in the air, with the intention to strike her from above.

Meanwhile, the second one followed after the first one as he reared his spear back to prepare a powerful piercing strike.

The Dragonkin exhaled a long breath as she relaxed her body, before she pulled her massive weapon out of the ground and let it hover a few centimeters off the ground with a single hand.

"You know that your actions are meaningless against absolute strength, but at least you still have the spirit." Granberia commented with an apathetic expression before she flicked her wrist, which somehow made her sword cover its blade in a wave of rovent flames.

She lifted her flame sword and struck the tip of the spear coming from above, rebounding it upwards, before she swung down in a vertical line. The flames of her sword shot out in a small firestorm that covered both of the knights for a moment, before they fell around her, unable to move again.

They probably fell unconscious from the intense heat alone, considering their armors were still shining with the same metallic reflection of before and the skin that was still visible didn't look burned at all. It was as if they didn't even receive an attack before they were knocked out.

Once those two were defeated, Granberia's reptilian eyes settled on the remaining knight, who clearly showed signs of surrendering after he dropped his weapon and trembled in fear. However, after a few seconds, the knight picked himself up and ran away as fast as he could while also stumbling on the way, leaving behind his unconscious companions.

The dragon knight didn't chase after him, and her gaze didn't even change at all during this whole time, as if nothing perturbed her.

"This is bad… What do we do?" Luka whispered with a shaky tone filled with fear, not knowing what to do. He was clear of his own power, and he didn't even need to try to compare it with Granberia's to know that he was powerless to act.

However, if the Heavenly Knight continued her rampage in Iliasburg and there was nobody to stop her, what would happen to this place? That thought gave Luka an equal amount of fear that brought him in a weird impasse between acting and losing his life or not acting and throwing away everything he stood for.

As someone aspiring to be a Hero, he shouldn't let this monster destroy everything. But as a human being, he knew that he would be throwing his life away if he fought her…

If Alexander knew what was going through Luka's mind, he would have dragged him to the closest psychiatrist he could find. Comparing their own ego with their life? A normal person wouldn't take a second to decide between the two! So why was Luka so hesitant?!

Unfortunately though, he didn't know what Luka was thinking, and he was too busy thinking about a logical solution to this huge problem, which left him completely unprepared for the next twist of events.

"Ho… Hold it!"

Just as Granberia was relaxing her muscles after swinging around her giant sword, Luka managed to push himself out of his hiding spot and let his presence be known by her.

However, when he did that, Granberia's apathetic gaze set on him, and a crushing sense of oppression filled his very soul, paralyzing him immediately. He started to regret coming out of his hiding place, but the thought of running away again was interrupted by a second stare setting on his back. But unlike Granberia's unsurmountable presence, this second stare was filled with murderous intent that made him twitch in fear for a moment.

He knew where it came from… It came from Alexander who was glaring at him at this exact moment.

If glares could kill, then Luka would have met the Goddess Ilias back in Heaven right now. He understood that if he managed to survive this crazy stunt of his against Granberia, then Alexander would be the one to finish him in the worst way possible.

"..." Alexander held back any sound as he shot the worst glare in his life against Luka, feeling his bubbling wrath being held back from the sheer force of his will and fear of getting discovered along with the purple-haired boy.

Oh, how much he wished to strangle this psychotic Hero-wannabe…

"A… u…." No other comprehensible word came out of Luka's mouth as he was left stuck between a rock and a hard place.

"What do you want?" Granberia's emotionless voice brought him back to his senses for enough time to recover himself. Luka gulped down a mouthful of saliva and took quick and deep breaths, before slowly calming down.

It was now or never, he thought to himself as he pulled out his iron sword from his sheath. It was one thing running away without doing anything, but appearing here just to leave in silence was out of question!

"I… I'm going to… defend this city…" Luka claimed his intentions with fear tinged in his voice as he pointed his sword to Granberia.

For a moment, she clearly showed a second of pause after listening to Luka's words, before her gaze slightly softened a bit. The sense of oppression that Luka felt before disappeared, but that didn't stop his legs from shaking due to the intense glare Alexander was giving him…

The dragon swordswoman took a deep breath before she lifted her sword again, and she went along with Luka's intentions. "If that's why you are wielding your sword, then I'll gladly take you on, boy."

"Show me your worst." Those were Granberia's last words before the fight officially began. Luka took a last deep breath before he dashed against Granberia and jumped up, with the intention of putting his weight on his vertical swing.

"Take this!" Trying to fan up his fighting spirit, Luka shouted to Granberia as he swung down.

Unfortunately, he failed to take notice of two very important facts before using this kind of attack against her.

The first thing was that he was still inept in the art of the sword. Unlike Granberia, who stood at the very end of the other side of the spectrum, Luka barely knew the very basics after being trained by Alice for one single night. There is no way for him to be able to fight against Granberia, but whether he knows about this or not, it's a mystery only he knows the answer for.

The second thing was not about him, but about Granberia. For Luka, who just started to properly wield a sword, it was impossible for him to see the exact height where Granberia stood. But for her, she could clearly see everything about him.

If you wield a sword, you are a warrior; if you master the art of the sword, you are a swordsman; if you master the sword, you are a swordmaster.

Using techniques wasn't the only thing Granberia learned in her life, but she also learned how heavy her sword is, how smooth the surface of her blade is, how hot the flames must be to forge such a sword, the materials the sword was made from… Not only did she master the sword techniques she picked up along in her journey of life, but she also mastered the mechanics behind them.

She could clearly see it… The tight hold Luka had on his own sword, which let little freedom to the sword's movements; the core of his body, that didn't support the swing of the blade at all; the way he was holding the sword, which was barely enough to hold the sword on his hands without it flying away.

Against a swordmaster, a swordsman should never hope to win through conventional means, and that is especially the case against a newbie like Luka.

'Maybe a little bit of pain will wake you up.' She wasn't the kind of person to harm weak people, especially children who didn't even have time to mature yet. However, she wasn't below teaching them a painful lesson that will be necessary if they have the intention to live longer.

In Luka's vision, Granberia suddenly disappeared, as if she was merely an illusion left by his mind, and without any warning, he felt something dragging across the left side of his waist as he lost his balance and fell down with his face hitting the ground first.

He grunted in pain as he felt his nose bleeding, but while he was trying to hold back his pain, Granberia stood behind him with a surprised expression. This was probably the first time for today that she changed expression.

"Armor." She spoke in understanding, realizing what the feeling of resistance over the edge of her blade was. Looking down on Luka's crouching body, she noticed white dragon scales running up over his waist below his shirt.

'To think that this young boy that barely looked 13 was wearing such powerful armor.' Granberia thought to herself. Judging from the dragon scales, they must come from the mines near Grand Noah, but according to her knowledge and reasoning, there should be no way for this boy to acquire that kind of armor… Unless he was related to someone who must have come from there.

Well, at least, she still inflicted pain to the boy, although indirectly. Putting down the spirit of a boy as young as him gave her a bad aftertaste, but it was necessary for him, who doesn't seem to know why he shouldn't overstep his boundaries.

Breaking past one's limits isn't something for everyone to aim for, especially between people who carry a weak determination.

"Boy, leave from here and return to your parents. Children like you shouldn't throw their lives away like this." Granberia told Luka as she put her blade down, waiting for him to get up and leave.

However, much to her surprise, Luka got up and actually faced her again, with his sword on hand and a bleeding nose. "I'm not a child, I'm 16 years old! And also, don't think I'll give up just with that!"

A thoughtful expression appeared on Granberia's face at the words that Luka said, but it wasn't about his determination, but rather the first sentence he said.

This child here was actually 16 years old… Now that's a surprise she didn't expect to see here.