Abandoned in the mountains, I was adopted by a lizard ~I mastered magic and surpassed my parents, but I didn't know they were legendary ancient dragons~ - Chapter 61

Chapter 61   Captain vs Captain

Amidst the roaring cheers, I stepped into the arena.

Aphrodite, still furious from Licht’s attack, stood like an enraged demon, ready to strike.

“Let the match begin!”

The moment I reached my designated position, the gong signaled the start of the match. Just like when she scattered our vanguard, Aphrodite charged at me with incredible speed.

–If she’s skilled in melee combat, I’ll counter with magic.

I surrounded myself with a high-voltage electric barrier.

Aphrodite, apparently unaware of the barrier, slammed her hand into it with full force.

“Gyah!”

The combination of the barrier’s resistance and the electric shock sent her flying. She managed to stop just short of the edge of the arena.

“Huh… you’re pretty good,” she said, her voice calm, having regained her composure from the clash.

“Alright then… I’ll show you my true power!”

Oh… this looks like a different technique. What could it be?

I watched her closely as Aphrodite began to float in the air. She started spinning rapidly, her body surrounded by a glowing heat.

The speed of her rotation increased until it looked like she was spinning in reverse.

“Take this… Meteor Tackle!”

As Aphrodite reached her maximum rotation speed, she shouted and cast a gravity spell on herself. She then hurtled towards me at incredible speed.

The technique combined various magical phenomena, but the core was gravity magic. No matter how fast she spun or how hot she got, if she couldn’t reach me, it wouldn’t matter.

I cast a gravity spell in the opposite direction, sending her flying into the sky.

I hoped she would fall out of bounds.

Turning my attention to the audience, I noticed they had fallen completely silent, a stark contrast to their earlier cheers.

“What… what is happening…?” The commentator’s voice echoed through the silence, amplified by magic.

My hopes were dashed as Aphrodite managed to use barriers as footholds and assist herself with flight magic, returning to the arena.

“You can block that too, huh? …Why don’t you stop defending and try attacking for a change?” Aphrodite taunted, beckoning with her middle finger.

A provocation. If I took the bait, she’d likely counterattack. Strategically, it was best to keep observing her.

However, Aphrodite remained still in her stance, making it clear that the match wouldn’t progress unless I initiated an attack. My goal was to impress the scouts in the audience, not just win. I couldn’t afford to seem passive.

I needed to strike in a way that minimized openings, maintained high impact, and posed no threat to the spectators. I aimed a modified dragon flash strike at her solar plexus, ensuring I could control its trajectory.

To my surprise, the attack pierced through Aphrodite without any resistance. I redirected it upwards to prevent it from hitting the audience.

“Kah…”

The dragon flash was so hot that, even though it burned a hole in her abdomen, she didn’t bleed much… but she did cough up a little blood on the spot.

“What…?”

I was taken aback by the effectiveness of my test strike.

A trap? But the cost seemed too high. Could her power really be as the analysis magic indicated?

Then, something changed. Aphrodite’s eyes glowed red, and an immense amount of blue-white aura erupted from her. Her energy levels tripled in an instant, which I could sense from the overwhelming pressure she now exuded.

“No way… The Inferno Ogre?”

Seeing her like that, I recalled a long-extinct creature described in an ancient book. The Inferno Ogre, known for its ability to triple its combat power when its health drops below one-third.

Indeed, when that creature’s combat abilities increased, its eyes glowed red and it emitted a blue-white aura. I couldn’t fathom why a human like her inherited such a trait, but perhaps somewhere in her lineage, an Inferno Ogre’s genes had mingled and resurfaced through a recessive gene.

It seemed she had taken my attack on purpose, aiming for this very state.

I hadn’t anticipated that she carried ancient creature genes, so I didn’t perform DNA analysis. If I had known, I would have focused on causing a ring-out without inflicting damage. It’s regrettable I didn’t consider that possibility.

Nonetheless, even with her abilities tripled, she still doesn’t surpass Great Seitan. If this is the extent of her hidden power, I can still aim for a straightforward victory.

“Roaaaaar!”

Once again, Aphrodite took on the stance for her Meteor Tackle.

“Not happening.”

Thinking I could cast Absolute Heal after the match if needed, I decided to use whatever non-lethal attacks were necessary. I fired four Dragon Flashes, targeting her limbs.

“Urrraaaah!”

Even after taking those hits, Aphrodite didn’t stop her Meteor Tackle and continued to dive toward me.

“Back off.”

I activated my gravity magic with three times the magical power, sending her skyward once more.

But…

“Raaaaaaah!”

She instantly materialized prosthetic limbs using magic, kicked off a barrier, and charged at me again.

She’s this badly injured and still doesn’t give up? Her fighting spirit seems even stronger than before.

What could possibly drive someone to such lengths?

In that moment, she shouted,

“I won’t show my beloved darlings a pathetic sight!”

Hearing that cry… I remembered something important.

Right, Ian had mentioned it.

Due to her unattractive appearance, she had a determination to “become strong and make everyone regret their treatment of her.” And her current goal was to see how many beautiful boyfriends she could gather.

In other words… her driving force, simply put, was “public image.” Her strength was incomparable to that of an ordinary person.

In that case, there was only one thing to do. I needed to finish her off with an attack that would preserve her dignity. Physically, she should already be at her limit. If I could just extinguish her determination, she would lose her driving force and likely pass out.

I decided to respond to her.

“Don’t worry. Today’s audience will see you not as ‘the loser of the tournament,’ but as ‘the one who bravely faced a dragon.'”

Then, as I leaped into the air, I transformed into a dragon using dragon transformation magic.

“A… dragon…?”

As Aphrodite stood stunned, I let out a thunderous roar that appeared to be the dragon’s breath.

“Graaaah!”

The roar hit Aphrodite directly… and by the time the smoke cleared, she had collapsed, unconscious.

“The… the, um… emergency situat—what?”

The announcer, about to declare an emergency, hesitated as I dispelled the dragon transformation magic, leaving him confused. But a few seconds later, he continued.

“Ch-check her pulse, referee!”

No, I didn’t kill her.

The referee rushed to Aphrodite, checked her pulse, and shouted,

“She’s likely still alive, but in critical condition! Provide immediate first aid! If she survives, Hadar will be declared the winner!”

Seriously? That’s bad. Considering that Lady Mordena holds the position of Saintess, it’s unlikely that the first aid team has better healing abilities than her. And if it takes an hour and a half to perform Absolute Heal, Aphrodite would likely die during that time.

However… if the match is already considered over, healing her now shouldn’t affect the outcome.

I cast Absolute Heal on Aphrodite. Her limbs regenerated, and the wound in her abdomen closed.

“What… I’m… healed…?”

The referee stood frozen with his mouth agape… while Aphrodite slowly got to her feet.

Seeing this, the announcer exclaimed,

“Aphrodite is alive… the winner is Hadar!”

…Good. That’s a relief.

In the end… even though she’s called a “prodigy,” it seems that it was more in the sense of her potential to become someone who can hold her own in the Inferno Continent in the future. Maybe I overestimated her a bit.

How should I explain this to Francois?

As I was contemplating that and heading back to the waiting room… Aphrodite, passing by me, asked,

“What drives your strength? What motivates you to aim for such overwhelming power?”

Hmm, my motivation for strength…?

Honestly, I never sought strength for its own sake. But if I had to reframe it as the “motivation for my current efforts”—

“I want a job offer from a white company. A hundred, no, a thousand offers.”

That would be it.

“…What? A genius like you wants to be employed…?”

“There’s no superiority in either. ‘Freedom’ and ‘stability’ are two sides of the same coin.”

Sometimes you come across people who only see the positive aspect of freelancing, “freedom,” and underestimate the negative aspect, “instability.”

Well, given that she has the economic power to support six boyfriends, she’ll probably be fine, and since I defeated her, I might be okay too. But even so, I still want “stability.”

With these thoughts in mind, I decided to head back to the waiting room while waiting for the awards ceremony to start.