The general crashed down a couple meters away from me, so I ran over to him to check on the situation.

"General, are you alright?"

"Ugh… That thing sure has a hard head. Thankfully I channeled a magic shield in time, so I'm fine."

The commander got up again and picked up his great axe. His wings spanned wide open, as if he was preparing to charge in again.

"General, wait a moment."

I quickly chanted and cast a basic strength and speed buff onto the general. It felt slightly awkward doing so without a staff, since I had to make direct contact on the general's skin with my hands.

"Thanks."

He took to the sky once more as I wished him good luck.

"I should probably do something too…"

Among the rubble and debris on the ground were some weapons, so I quickly ran over to a pile of scrap on the ground to find something useful, eventually finding a sturdy long spear. Using my staff was out of the question since I would get blown up by the thunder dragon's breath attack, so the best alternative was to use any durable staff-shaped object. In theory, I could cast magic unarmed, but doing so would make me unable to concentrate my mana in one place. This would result in an increased risk of friendly fire and significantly lower power output since my attack would be scattered, thus rendering any magic attacks I use more harmful than good.

After taking a deep breath and making sure I was sufficiently far away enough from the testudo wall and my staff, I began chanting and channeling my mana into the spear. After the dragon shot out another split breath attack, I activated my spell as general Denato and the cavalry and flying units charged in.

"Fireball!"

From the tip of my spear, several fireballs came flying out towards the dragon. Since a spear was not a proper magic weapon, it was hard to channel a lot of mana into it. Consequently, the fireballs I fired that were normally as large as my head came out at only half their usual size. Unable to withstand the surge of power coming from the mana being channeled into it, the spear snapped into pieces after shooting out the tenth fireball.

Shooting a small fireball at a giant dragon was probably only as effective as flinging a ball of paper at someone. It was at best just a minor annoyance, and certainly in no way life threatening. The dragon never bothered reacting to where the fireballs hit, but I wanted to keep myself thinking that I was contributing to the battle somehow. I ran over to the pile of rubble, dug through it and picked up another spear, then began chanting again.

After another split breath attack hit the ground, I shot out another ten or so fireballs before breaking this second spear. By a sheer stroke of luck, two fireballs hit a metal wire that was stuck on the dragon, heating up the wire sufficiently to make it red hot around the points of impact. The dragon let out a roar and violently squirmed the segment of its body where the hot wire was in order to shake it off. Seems like this thunder dragon's thick scales were not heat resistant.

Finally, an effective attack!

Some soldiers seemed to have caught onto the dragon's reaction to the hot metal wire, so after the next breath attack, several flying units dropped their metal wires close to each other to make it easier for me to hit with some fireballs. The tactic proved to be effective, as several fireballs hit the metal wires, leaving some scorch marks on the dragon's body after it shook off the wires again.

Enraged and having decided that I was now a threat, the dragon turned its head to where I was standing as it prepared to launch another breath attack.

Oh crap. This is bad.

I quickly tossed away my broken spear and ran for my life towards an empty corner.

Damn, why didn't I cast a movement speed buff on myself earlier?

I could feel a cold chill running down my spine as the delay on the dragon's attack was about to end. There was no person or object around that could possibly shield me, so the only thing I could do was run to where nobody was standing in order to minimize casualties.

I thought to myself about how my life was about come to an end in just a second or two. I may not have accomplished any good deeds to be remembered by, but I'll probably remembered as someone who at the very least managed to slightly damage a dragon and prevent allied deaths in my final moments.

Not wanting to see my own body and the things around me blown into pieces, I closed my eyes.

A loud boom rang through the sky once more, and the ground underneath me shook violently.

I felt a warm strong impact on my back as I got launched through the air.

I heard a smash, and my body felt as though it was being pelted by a cloud of dust and rubble.

My body then hit a cold stone floor and slid to a stop.

If this was what death felt like, then apart from the face-first impact on the floor, it felt a lot less painful than I expected.

"Are you alright?"

Wait, was I actually still alive?

I opened my eyes and turned myself over, towards where the voice came from. There, I saw general Denato somewhat trembling as he was trying to get up off the floor. I only had a nosebleed and some minor bruises in various places on my body, while the general was in a seemingly worse state. He was covered in bruises and cuts, his armor full of holes and scratches, and blood was dripping profusely all over his body. His lustrous black armor was now dyed a grayish red shade from a mixture of stone dust and blood.

"I think I'll be fine…"

"Good thing you gave me that speed buff earlier, huh?"

The general seemed to be trying his best to optimistically smile as I got up.

It was a bad thing if soldiers ever saw their commander severely hurt, so it must have been really hard on him to pretend he was still fine. It made me feel bad.

"Why did you save me?"

"Commander Mavuto's going to give me hell if I let you die under my watch."

There was no doubt that general Denato had swooped in at the very last moment to push me away from the dragon's breath attack, resulting in him taking a more serious blow than me. He even used his magic shield on me to minimize the impact against the barracks wall afterwards, leaving him with much less protection from impacts.

"Thank you, general Denato. Um… I have a favor to ask."

"Hm?"

"If I told you I had an idea to defeat that dragon, would you be willing to risk your life again?"

I didn't want him to charge straight into the dragon again, given his current condition, but there wasn't anyone around with as much strength and speed as him. I was not certain that what I had in mind would work, but we'd all most likely die if we didn't do anything, so it was probably worth trying to propose an idea.

"What is it?"

I pointed in towards the deep crater that held my staff inside.

"My staff in that crater over there has the 'lightning rod' enhancement. After the next breath attack, if you charge in with the flying units and cavalry, please try to stab it into the dragon."

I'm still surprised by the fact that the staff was still intact after taking half a dozen explosions. Maybe "tougher than tempered steel" was a severe understatement for the enhancement it had.

"Are you sure about that idea?"

"We'll probably all be killed eventually if we don't try anything."

"Heh… You owe me a beer for this."

The commander slightly chuckled. Heck, if I make it out of this alive, I'll probably buy beers for all the soldiers stationed here.

I cast movement speed and strength buffs on myself and the general, and we both headed outside afterwards. The dragon probably thought we were dead after the last breath attack, as it was not looking for the two of us anymore, its gaze now turned towards the soldiers taunting it behind testudo wall once more.

I couldn't find any weapons lying around nearby, so I grabbed a laundry pole instead. After taking a deep breath to calm myself down, I began chanting for another spell.

General Denato flew onto the roof of the barracks we crashed into in order to get a good view of the crater and my staff inside. The dragon launched another breath attack, and two explosions once again hit the ground.

As the dust cleared away from the crater, the general immediately dived towards it to grab hold of my staff, while I channeled mana into the laundry pole.

The general then flew with blinding speed towards the dragon, zipping left and right to avoid his soldiers' wires and ropes with amazing dexterity.

The laundry pole began glowing red and leaking out some of my mana. I know this pole is much flimsier than a spear, but I really hope it can hold out for just a little longer!

The general swerved under the dragon's large wings. He quickly pulled out the sword lodged into the dragon's body and stabbed my staff into the same place.

The dragon let out a loud roar again as it whipped the general away with its body. It angrily prepared another breath attack, with a new magic circle forming in front of its mouth, and aimed at where the general was knocked towards.

I took another deep breath and aimed towards where the staff was, in order to drive it in deeper.

"Flame Pillar!"

A column of fire fell from the sky towards where my staff was wedged as a large beam came out from the magic circle in front of the dragon's mouth, breaking in half and flying towards the creature itself. At the same time, a bright light flashed before my eyes.

All I could remember was losing consciousness, as my laundry pole exploded in front of me due to a mana overload.