Arrogance and Growth

I'd always had a talent for magic.

There were no other mages around me, and the constant praise and expectations had gone to my head, I think.

An extraordinary affinity for fire.

I believed without a shred of doubt that if I just honed that alone, I'd be stronger than anyone.

Of course, that was nothing more than conceit, a mere delusion.

Being defeated in battle, captured, and sold as a slave shattered my confidence thoroughly.

Even so, being assigned a role as a mage after being sold wasn't an entirely bad memory. Being useful let me save some face, at least.

I hadn't wanted anyone to know about that, so I think even I was behaving terribly.

I stared at the magic stone in my right hand.

A water magic stone, grabbed at random while avoiding the fire ones.

With my strongest suit, fire magic, proving ineffective, I needed to explore other options.

"Alexia-san, please try to land an effective hit with magic. It's too hard for my sword to do much."

"Even that sword of yours can't damage it?"

"If I had enough mana, the sword's power could probably handle it, but I'd need at least ten more of me… And I can't afford to use the apostle's power and burn out halfway through."

I imagined ten-plus Azus swarming the Dragon Zombie, and it was actually a little amusing.

Azu gave me a quizzical look, then charged back in.

She dodged another blast of miasma and fought desperately to deal whatever damage she could.

But the sheer size difference and the absurd hardness of Dragon bone meant she wasn't getting anywhere meaningful.

Drawing its attention and slowing its advance was the best she could manage.

Elza had been channeling her purification miracle toward the Dragon Zombie this entire time.

A far cry from her usual laid-back demeanor. One glance at her face made it clear just how serious she was.

Even for Elza, a priestess of considerable skill, purifying an undead of that magnitude wasn't going to be easy.

Her efforts were undeniably having an effect, but there wasn't enough time.

The garrison soldiers were harassing it with barricades and swarming its legs, but one twitch from the Dragon Zombie sent them all flying. Not much to hope for there.

Against an ordinary monster they might have been fine, but this opponent was simply too much for them.

As the burnt and rotting flesh sloughed away until only bone remained, the Dragon Zombie, now lighter, resumed its march toward the city.

Elza wouldn't finish in time. Azu was tied up just trying to slow it down. If she used her so-called apostle's power, she could probably take out a leg, but that wasn't suited for a drawn-out fight.

And against a monster this massive, a drawn-out fight was unavoidable.

Azu was the only frontliner capable of holding the Dragon Zombie's attention.

If Azu went down, we'd lose our ability to stall it, and it would smash straight through the walls into the residential district full of defenseless civilians.

I didn't want to think about the casualties. If it used that miasma, total annihilation was possible.

True to its undead nature, the malice and hatred it directed at the living was palpable even through my skin.

It didn't kill to feed. It killed to kill.

We had to stop it here.

Which meant I was the one who had to change the situation.

A mage could turn the tide of battle single-handedly.

By converting mana into any element, the range of what we could do exceeded anyone else's.

That elf, Evalin, was the ultimate example.

She could do anything on her own.

She'd even bent nature itself to her will.

The question was how someone like me, no elf, could possibly achieve something similar.

That alchemist, Ramiza, had told me plainly that if I couldn't figure it out, I'd inevitably find myself in trouble.

And that was exactly what was happening right now.

I forced my mind to work. This wasn't like before, where throwing fire magic at the problem solved everything.

The Dragon Zombie swung its tail.

Rotting flesh still clung to the tip, and the centrifugal force of the violent swing tore it loose, sending it plummeting toward us.

The mass of flesh was enormous. We could dodge, but the soldiers couldn't evacuate in time.

I gripped the water magic stone and prepared to cast at the incoming mass.

Shape the water into multiple blades and slice the flesh apart?

No. Even in smaller pieces, anyone underneath when they landed would still be crushed.

Instead, I generated a water sphere roughly the same size as the incoming mass and slammed it into the flesh at full force.

Water spheres were the most basic water spell, and even I could handle that much.

All I had to do was pour in more mana.

And conveniently, I didn't need to spend my own mana. I had plenty of magic stones.

This might actually be a good environment for trial and error.

Using the water magic stone, I successfully deflected the mass of flesh.

It hit the ground with a dull thud.

It sank deep. If it had landed on a house, the building would have been flattened.

And that was just one piece. The difference in scale hit home all over again.

… A thought struck me.

If it was that massive, even stripped to bare bone, its weight must be staggering.

Bones that strong existed precisely to keep it from collapsing under its own weight. Meaning they were dense through and through.

(Maybe I should give it a try.)

I didn't have a spell that could kill it, but I decided to act on one idea that might hold it in place.

The concept was simple enough.

I took water and earth magic stones, then turned the soil beneath the Dragon Zombie's feet into a swamp-like mire.

I'd done plenty of earth manipulation, making paths for wagons, tilling fields. I knew the feel for it.

Master had told me to do all of that, and I'd thought it pointless at the time. Who would have guessed it'd come in handy now?

Nothing should be underestimated.

"Azu, I'm going to mess with the ground, so get clear."

"Yes!"

No soldiers were nearby either.

Once I confirmed Azu had pulled back, I combined earth and water magic stones and transformed the ground into a deep mire all at once.

Just as I'd expected — perhaps because it was heavier than it looked — two of the Dragon Zombie's legs within range sank steadily into the muck.

It lost its balance and toppled sideways.

It tried to wrench its legs free by brute force, but swamps were tricky like that. The harder you pulled, the deeper you sank.

Even with the Dragon Zombie's strength, it would probably rip free along with the ground eventually, but this was perfect for buying time.

Being undead, brute force was all it knew.

Its skull, now level with the ground, opened its jaws and tried to unleash miasma at us.

I erected a wind barrier with magic and deflected the miasma.

By continuously projecting wind magic, even if the miasma made contact, it wouldn't be swallowed up or overpowered.

I managed to weather that as well.

Every single one of its attacks could be lethal, which was exhausting, but I was handling them.