SLKD – Volume 4 Chapter 1

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The Might of the Dragon Roar, Skill Competition, Dual-Ability Wielder

“Then, that is all for the record, thanks for going through the trouble today.”  The policeman said, as he closed his notebook and looked at me with respect.

I bowed to him, stood up and dragged my beaten body out of the police station.

Right before I stepped out of the police station, I could hear some of the policemen muttering as they pointed at me, “That’s the kid; he completely wrecked those seven bank robbers, who killed more than ten people.”

“It couldn’t be, right?  His spirit energy is so weak.”

“Don’t be fooled by that kid’s appearance – he is actually the son of the Lin Fan, the great Battle Master.”

“What?  That famous Battle Master?  He was my idol.  When I heard that he died, I cried for a very long time.”

“Gross…  How could a grown man cry?”

“Think about it, in order to let his companions escape, he fought off four superior demons all by himself and managed to kill them all; only to die of exhaustion at the end there…  Wasn’t that very moving?”

“Yeah, that is true.”

————————On the way home

I felt dead tired…  I couldn’t believe that my attack was so powerful, and nearly killed all seven bank robbers…

Because Wild Wolf was too brutal to Kamiki, I used too much force and broke his jaw in my rage — that, I admit was on purpose…  But… for those other six criminals who were sent flying by my Dragon Roar, I didn’t think that they would be so seriously injured.  It was clear that they were only being slammed into the wall… but their bones were broken…  Sigh…  Luckily, they were criminals, and wanted mercenary fugitives at that.  Otherwise, I would be in jail now, right?

‘Kid!  You did good!’

‘Oh… Freed, it is you…’

‘What’s the matter?  Why are you so down?’

“I am so tired…  I over-exerted my dragon power… also, how come my Dragon Roar was so powerful?  Didn’t you say that even though my Dragon Roar wasn’t powerful, it would be sufficient to temporarily disorient them?  How could you count that as being temporarily disoriented?  They are all f*cking vegetables now.”  When I think about how I have completely wrecked those people, I get agitated.

‘Don’t get too agitated.  When you get agitated, you start to curse — that is not what a civilized man would do.’

‘Oh?  Is a dragon who could only say “f*ck” in any position to make comments on what constitutes “a civilized man”?’

‘Oi, kid, I know that you feel like you overdid it, but they were all evil doers.  Why should you even worry about that?’

‘Even if they are criminals, they are still human, right?  They…’

‘It is ok, I know what you wanted to say; you wanted to say that you have ruined their lives, isn’t that right?’

‘Yeah… don’t you know?  ‘I’ understand all too well the feeling of being looked down on, the feeling of having no ability, of being helpless…’

‘Then let me ask you: are they good people?  How many lives have they ruined?  Sometimes one needs to be flexible.  You are a kind hearted person, this I know.  Otherwise, you wouldn’t have gotten yourself ran over by a car because you were trying to save a little human kid… mankind can’t only be kind-hearted.  Towards evil, you need to be evil too.  Take demons for an example, do you feel that they should all die?  Don’t you feel even the tiniest bit of guilt for killing them?’

‘You already said they are demons… humans are different….’

‘There isn’t much of a difference, they are just demons in human skin, after they died, they would surely turn into demons.  You don’t have to feel guilty, they deserved it.  Have you ever considered what would have happened if you didn’t do that to them?  What would Kamiki’s future be?  Sigh~~ I never thought that I, Freed, the great dragon God, would end up having to lecture a brat that is still wet behind the ears .  I thought that you had grown a little, who could have thought that you would feel bad for beating up some hoodlums; from here on out, you will have a long, tough road ahead of you .’

…This is a world with the law of the jungle, humans killing each other — that’s why there are so many negative emotions…  Thinking back, at the time, they didn’t even hesitate and opened fire…  Those people who died… they also had families… their families would be sad.  What I did, could it be considered as avenging their deaths?

‘Right, that’s the right attitude.  Even though right now, you may find your ability very scary, so long as you don’t use your ability to bully the weak, and use your power for punishing evil demons and bad people, then, you will always be righteous.’

‘Righteous, eh?  Oh~~ you still haven’t told me why my Dragon Roar had so much power.’

‘Actually, it has something to do with how the dragon power within your body has grown.  The strength of a Dragon Roar relies on both the strength of your elemental power, as well as the strength of your dragon power.  Your dragon power has grown a lot, so the power of your Dragon Roar has also increased proportionally.  The fact of the matter is that if those thugs hadn’t underestimated your before, I believe they would only at most be badly injured.  The problem lied with them being misled by your weak spiritual power and thinking that you wouldn’t be any threat to them.  So, feeling relaxed around you, they let their guard down.  When you let loose your roar, it was already too late for them to put up their defenses.  So, the combination of a powered up Dragon Roar, together with unguarded defenses resulted in their ruin.’

‘Really?  Dragon Roar… is indeed very scary.’

‘Scary?  Are you kidding me?  If only you had a chance to witness some of those ancient dragons’ Dragon Roars, then you would know that your half-baked Dragon Roar simply cannot compare to a real Dragon Roar.  To use something from your original world as an example, then your Dragon Roar would be a hand grenade, while their Dragon Roars would be missles.  On top of that, ancient dragons actually weren’t that big of a deal; some of those primordial dragons’ Dragon Roars could pack some punch.  The power of their roars was comparable to nuclear bombs.’

‘What?  Even on par with a nuclear bomb?  Just what kind of terrifying existence were those primordial dragons?’

‘Meh~~ Those are all in the past; they should all be dead by now.  At most, there are still some ancient dragons somewhere, but they should be very old by now?  Almost all of the remaining dragons should be close to death.’

‘Really… I didn’t think of that…  Right, you are both dragon Gods, right?  Then, wouldn’t your roars be even more powerful?’

‘Us?  Oh, no.  Neither Yalide nor I know any Dragon Roars…  At best, we could only do some basic roars.’

‘… You are kidding, right?’  The dragon Gods, the primogenitors of dragons, can’t use any Dragon Roar?  Who would believe that?

‘Why would I lie to you?  We were born together with God. God had lived a total of fifty thousand years and we had lived fifty-six thousand years.  Just think about it, we were the dragon Gods – we only needed to manage our domain; we didn’t have time to fight over territories or take part in any wars between races and countries.  In truth, Dragon Roar is something the dragons developed over the years and evolved into a type of battle technique…  It isn’t something that a dragon was born with.  Did you forget that I once mentioned how a young pure-bred dragon would take a hundred years before it could successfully learn Dragon Roar?  That is because Dragon Roar is something that requires non-stop practising…  Of course, it would know some basic roars, but to have roars that pack real power would require a long period of training.’

‘You said so much in one setting, I couldn’t quite get it all…  Wait, you didn’t just make that up because you can’t do Dragon Roar, did you?’

‘Forget it if you don’t get it; from now on, if you have anything you want to know, I’ll tell you.  Just don’t make this kind of bad joke.  Indeed, I don’t know Dragon Roar, but I know some major magic.  My magic is not any worse than Dragon Roar.  Don’t you forget, I am Freed, the scion of light.  In terms of speed, no one can match me…’

‘Speed of light?’

‘Right, you know too that there is nothing faster than lightspeed in the world.  Of course, you can’t reach that level.  Oh~~you should be able to reach the speed of sound or hypersonic state.’

‘Reaching the speed of sound?  Wow ~~~ that is really fast.’

‘Fast my ass.  Light speed is the king.  Hm?  Strange. I’ll ask this, are you lost?’

‘Huh?’  After Freed reminded me, I realized that because I have been so focused on chatting with him that at the moment, I am walking around in a place I don’t recognize at all.

…

I am dead tired…  I didn’t expect… I even walked all the way to the neighbouring city…  Letting my mind wander was really scary…  When I opened the door, I said in a weak and tired voice, “I am back…”

At this time, Silent Water came out from inside the house, the sound her sweet voice rang in my ears, “Welcome back, Master.”

“Hmm, I am back…”

Before I could finish, Reidy came outside, acting like she was really upset, “Human!  Where have you been?”

“Nowhere…”  I didn’t mention the incident at the bank.  It’s all in the past.  Besides, if I were to say something, they would for sure be worried…

“Don’t you know that we couldn’t eat because you weren’t back?  Don’t you know that if I don’t eat, I would be hungry?  Don’t you know, when I am hungry… I will lose my temper…  So, next time, you need to come back earlier.  Idiot.”  Towards the tail end of her speech, Reidy turned her head to the side, put her hands on her hips, giving me this look like she wanted me to really think long and hard on my actions.

“I am really sorry, Reidy.  So, have you guys eaten yet?”

“Isn’t it all because of you, that we haven’t eaten anything yet.  Why are your clothes so dirty?”

“Ugh… where is Dusty”

“Don’t try to change the topic!”  ”Dusty is taking a bath.”

“Is that so…  Then let’s eat…”  I quickly took off my shoes and walked into the house….

———————— At the dining table

“Little Silent, sorry to make you do all the work.”

Silent Water put out plate after plate of piping hot food onto the table and gave me a sweet smile, “No problem.  Silent Water was only heating up the food, nothing too exhausting.”

“Is that so?  But, cooking is rather tiring…  Oh… Reidy, I am sorry to you too… letting you go hungry.”  Seeing Reidy sitting next to me with her stern look, I didn’t understand why she is angry.

“Humph~~~  Isn’t it just cooking…”

What does she mean this time?

…

After eating, I took a bath and returned to my room.

While lying on my bed, I thought back on things that happened in these past two days of the weekend…  I couldn’t believe that in just two days, I had experienced so much…  The life that I was so used to seemed so far away.

I took a look at my cell phone I had left on the desk.  I don’t know why, but I kept getting this feeling as though someone had left me a message.  I got up, picked up my phone, turned it on, and found out that there were actually two messages.  Both of the messages were from Satsuki.

The first message was from Saturday evening around one o’clock: — ‘Idiot, you asleep already?  Why didn’t you call me today?  When I called you, why didn’t you pick up?  You busy?’

The second message was from earlier tonight, around ten o’clock: — ‘Even though I don’t know what you might be doing, you must have your reasons for not returning my call, right?  Tomorrow at school, you have to give me a good explanation.’

Ho~~  My good sister is worrying about me?  Luckily, I didn’t die, or else I wouldn’t be able to see Satsuki ever again.

I put my phone back and returned to bed.  Very quickly, I was overtaken by an intense feeling of sleepiness…

———————— Morning

“Where is Reidy?”

“She is still asleep.”

“Is that right…  A pampered lady is a pampered lady.  Later on, when she is awake, you can just reheat the breakfast for her.”

“I understand, Master.  This is your bento.”

“Thanks, Little Silent.”  I took the bento, opened the door and walked towards the school.

…

Today is Monday, June 25.  In order to help improve the relationship and rapport between the spirit familiars and their masters, today is the day when the school holds a skill competition.

From first year through third year, all students of the high school have to participate in today’s competition.  After the competition, all the squads can recruit freshmen as new members of their teams.

The so-called squad is just a team consisting of no more than ten students, organizing themselves together as a tactical unit, something akin to a military regiment.  After joining a squad, a student can take part in some of the battle competitions organized by the school, as well as those organized by the city.

The life in high school can be categorized into two time periods: before spirit summoning, dull and tedious.  After spirit summoning, colorful and exciting.

Sigh~~~  No matter how colorful and exciting it may be, I will have no part in it…  After all, my spirit is Silent Water… she is not an existence that I want to let other people know about.

————————— School

Today, the moment I stepped inside the classroom, I could already feel the excitement and the enthusiasm from my classmates.  It was like the Spirit Summoning Day, except that they were even more excited…  Meh…  If they perform well today, they would be recruited by powerful seniors into their squads, then enter into competition with the rest of the squads and become an overnight success, or something like that….

I really envy them.  I sighed to myself…  Hm?  What the heck is that girl Kamiki staring at me for — is there something on my face?  I instinctively wiped my face with my hand, but I didn’t notice anything on my face…  When she saw what I did, she smiled.  This is really strange.

I returned her smile, then I sat back down on to my seat.

Just after I sat down, Satsuki turned her head around and asked, “Could it be that just now, you were smiling at Kamiki?”

“Ugh.. yeah…”  Satsuki is really observative…

“Did something happen between the two of you?”

“No… nothing.”  As I say this, I couldn’t help but look away from her.

“Humph~~~”  Satsuki snorted in disbelief, and asked, “What did you do over the last two days of the weekend?  Were you really busy?”

“Yeah…  My uncle didn’t come home, then I went to him to get the Éguilles Grass”

“Couldn’t you have it delivered via express mail?”

“….  Éguilles Grass is very expensive, I felt uneasy having it delivered via express mail.”

“Is that right?  Xiang, what do you plan to do after the competition starts?”  At this time, Satsuki’s expression turned to look a bit concerned.  Did something happen?

“Competition?  What competition?  I don’t have any spirits so I am not taking part in it.”

“I am talking about the competition between you and Kitashima… ”

“Kitashima?  Who is that again?”  Why do I have to fight with someone called Kitashima?

“You’re kidding, right?  I am talking about the one who ranks top in our year, the dual-ability wielder, that Kitashima.  Didn’t you accept his challenge because of Yorikawa?

“!”  I recalled that there was indeed something like that…

“Judging from the look on your face, you really aren’t kidding me.  You actually had forgotten about it?”

“…  Sorry…  I really had forgotten about it…”  I smiled sheepishly.  It looks like I just can’t seem to fix my bad habit (of forgetfulness).

“You… and here I thought you went behind my back and went for special training for the two days over the weekend…  I didn’t think you would have completely forgotten about this….”

“Haha~~ my memory is bad.  Oh right, Satsuki, you said that he is a dual-ability wielder, what do you mean by that?”

“You didn’t know anything about him and accepted his challenge willy-nilly like?”

“Ye… yeah…”  Embarrassed, I nodded awkwardly.  I was too angry at that time, that was why I accepted his challenge.  Who would think about the consequences then.

“Sigh~~  Okay, actually, what the term “dual-ability wielder” refers to are people who are adept at both magical arts and physical combat.  Kitashima is a very formidable opponent; he is both an Intermediate Magician as well as a Battle Master.  Just think about it, being a dual-ability wielder, he mitigates the risk a magician faces in melee and at the same time, compensates the shortcomings of a battle technician at long range attacks…  So, wouldn’t you say… it would be impossible for someone like him not to rank top in our year?”

“No… but, isn’t it really weird?  Wasn’t Takahashi number one at that time?”  If he is so strong, then why was Takahashi number one previously.

“The guy Kitashima, even though he could use magic, his magic attribute is only earth, that is why he was looked down upon.  But Takahashi could use all five elemental magics…  Also, during the initial ranking, Takahashi beat Kitashima…  So who would you say should be number one?”

“Really…”  Takahashi was really strong. I wonder how he is doing now.

“Xiang… how about you give up?  You can’t beat him.”

“No… a man always keeps his promises.”

“While the arena has special magic that prevents injuries, but… if one receives a strong enough attack, it can still damage your mind…”

“Satsuki… do you have faith in me?”  I looked resolutely into Satsuki’s electrifying eyes.

Satsuki’s face suddenly turned red, it has been a long time since her face got this red, what is with her?

Satsuki turned her head, “What..what are you doing…  I believe in you… don’t look at me like that.”

So I embarrassed her, really a shy one.

I patted her head and smiled, “Thank you for having faith in me.  Just you wait and see, I will knock out Kitashima with my own hands.”

As long as I attune myself to wind, while slowing down a little, then nobody would suspect how I beat him…  The me now is not the same me as before, I am absolutely sure… I will beat him.

At this time, the homeroom teacher came in.  He stood behind the desk, then cleared his throat, “Cough, cough.  You students seem really excited today, Sensei understands your excitement!  Then I will not say much, come, let’s go to the meeting place, I hope that you all will get a good score at the competition!”

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