The blaringly hot sun scorched us into ashes, some men had even stopped short of the journey. They were left behind, a mere casualty of war attrition. If you were too weak to keep moving, Commander Kyle wouldn’t even turn his head to accommodate you. That was just simply a fact. Sweat drenched my garments, I had a basic sword issued to me by the army. I was a mere footsoldier, serving little purpose rather than being fodder for the elite warriors to use as cushion.

Did it anger me? Sort of, but this was the way of the times, and for Quigtar, things were even more abstract. The God Mountain, and the God Pillars as I liked to call them, were absolutely fascinating in theory. My intuition told me that everyone from my squad wouldn’t live through this endeavor, actually the odds were higher that we would all perish.

I held my hands tightly into balled fists as I rode on the ecstatic wave of eagerness and the anxious surge of doubt besetting my demeanor. I was a hot mess, just like the rest of the squad. The only person who was even keeping his cool was Officer Roger, and it was because he was already an experienced warrior, fighting these campaigns. I didn’t even know why we were fighting The Western Creed. I just knew we were.

Apparently our mission was to siege the fortress of Galbahk, a fortress that was near the border of Luthric, but also was a strategic position for the Creed. It was a vital choke point in conclusion. A powerful wind gave me the chills. The sound of warhorns aired nearly a day after our march. We had camped earlier and rested, but the sound of warhorns brought my heart to a race, my palms worked themselves into a sweat.

General Lancaster stood at the forefront of the army, with each commander ordering the men into rectangular units. “Get in line!” They would scream at the top of their lungs. We had been put off guard by the warhorns. The horns were not ours, so it only could mean it was the enemy. We had been ambushed in some capacity and all we could do is prepare for it. A cloud of dust rose in the air as a calvary line could clearly be distinguished at its tip.

The men did not look determined, instead they seemed to be running for their lives. Western Creed Knights were routing and dispersing from the sandwiched hills. They wouldn’t even attempt to fight, dropping their weapons as they surged for protection behind the Luthric army. The men were quick to detain them, but in exchange, our guards were lowered at the approaching anomaly.

A fiery hot red flushed out the dust as parallel wings flapped into the air with a massive roar. A purple-scaled dragon. The beast was larger than anything I could have ever imagined in fiction novels. I concentrated hard on my options. A meager army would be trashed by the might of a dragon. This was no Wyvern! Being on the God Mountain was probably the reason for the dragon appearance. They might even be common in the large plateau.

“Status.” I said, trying to gather myself and understand the situation to my best ability. I really wanted to be able to slay this dragon, it would garner me profits undoubtedly. The men were starting to route casually away from the dragon. Even General Lancaster was considering a retreat.

Status:

Character: Tylor Justifix

Title: Nameless ( 10 Fame )

Rank: Citizen of Luthric

Level: 0

Strength: 1

Vitality: 0

Agility: 0

Dexterity: 0

Intelligence: 1

Wisdom: 0

Luck: -1

Skills: ‘Being an Asshole’

‘Accept your level ups?’

A small notice read at the bottom. Who designed this trash system? I swear, what kind of system had to ACCEPT the level ups? This entire time I had been leveling up in some capacity. I felt like an idiot, sheepishly I accepted. I was hoping that I would get a lot of gainage from this action, because I had done many endeavors! Let’s see now…

Status:

Character: Tylor Justifix

Title: Nameless ( 10 Fame )

Rank: Citizen of Luthric

Level: 1

Strength: 2

Vitality: 1

Agility: 1

Dexterity: 1

Intelligence: 2

Wisdom: 1

Luck: 0

Skills: ‘Being an Asshole’

Select A New Skill:

Mana Shield - (Locked due to lack of magical prowess)

Divine Sword Strike - (Locked due to lack of proficiency)

Agility Boost (Increases speed temporarily)

Vitality Strike (Converts health into strength)

Two of the skill options were locked, and I was already pissed enough that I was only level one now. Although the sudden stat boost gave me a surprisingly vigor of energy that I wasn’t expecting. I felt twice as strong as I did before. Agility Boost seems to be the best skill to take for now. I don’t have enough health to even consider using Vitality Strike. Although that seems to be a glasscannon skill.

Without much hesitation, I chose the Agility Boost skill, and added a handy trick to my selection of abilities. This would increase my chances of survival. Roger and Alice were side by side, while Griffin and Ferdinand did the same. Ghost and Evan were nowhere to be seen. I was the odd man out, partnerless for life it seemed. It was quite painful to be the only seventh-wheeler.

The dragon lurched its fire out to the army and scoured an entire troop to dust in an instant. General Lancaster crazily pointed his sword to the dragon, “Charge!” He screamed, and the calvary men charged with him. The entire army started moving forward, reinvigorated by the general’s enthusiasm. The dragon was nearly forty feet tall. It was massive, and was by far the most entertaining thing I had seen since reincarnation.

I charged with my squadron, releasing the sheathed blade and activating my new skill. “Agility Boost!” I said, my legs feeling suddenly explosive. Another commander-unit is burnt to a crisp as I jolt between the men and appear in the frontlines with the calvary. People were shocked if they saw me, I was keeping up with the calvary line. The calvary suddenly crashed into the dragon, some were dismounted and chunked meters away, while others were simply crushed under the dragon.

General Lancaster blocked the dragon’s fiery breath with a blue mana shield. It protected everyone around him. He almost effortlessly defended against it while simultaneously attacking this ugly purple beast. Another burst of energy entered my legs, I literally flew up the side of the dragon before stalling in the air and coming back down to the earth. The skill had ran out! What bad timing.

I wouldn’t let it end in such a fashion. Stabbing my sword into the dragon’s tender region between its scales ventured me a saving grace moment. My upper body strength would soon give out, the dragon was frantically moving around from the stab. “Shit!” I immediately responded when I noticed something even worse. Who had ordered the archery line to fire flaming arrows at the dragon?! Or any arrow at that! This was simply bad strategy.

Pouncing off the dragon’s hide, I made way for the dirt and possibly my death. The nearly thirty foot drop would kill me if I wasn’t trampled in the process. I closed my eyes, hoping to be reincarnated into the next world again. This was the end of the line, my biggest blunder yet and most likely my last one. Three, two, one… cablop.

A soft blanket of energy furrowed around my stomach as I bounced on it like it was a bouncy-house. I fluttered my eyes open to be greeted with the sight of Alice straining green magic from her hands. She had saved me! “T-Thank you Alice, but how?!” I screamed at the top of lungs. It was obvious I had broken her focus as we came crashing the rest of the way to the ground. The calvary and men were clustered around the area.

I had this wave of worry and anguish overcome me as I searched for Alice who had fallen into the trampling shit-fest that this had become. I pushed my way through and ventured around for the girl, but to no avail, she had disappeared from sight. If she was already among the fallen on the ground I would possibly die from regret. A sudden fiery blast came from the dragon’s inferno. Scorching men from right to left, when suddenly a green mana shield lunged out to protect the men around me. The fire simply shuddered off the shield, but it began to crack against the extreme heat.

The source? None other than Alice once again, saving my ass for a second time today. I felt completely embarrassed. Not only had Alice won favor in the group, but she had also won renown that I could never surmount to at this rate. Would Alice become Queen before I could become a King? Hell--that’s pretty likely at this rate. It sure would be nice to learn magic at some point, then maybe I could do fancy things like Alice amidst the battle and save my comrades.

Griffon and Ferdinand leaped from the waging war against the dragon, and went to attack it, but they failed as the dragon became surrounded and fled to the skies. It flapped its wings and ended up sending gusts of winds throughout the army. They were strong enough to send men flying back or even tip them over. The momentum had been completely lost in that moment.

A familiar face came from the corpse pile with his sword in hand. It was Commander Kyle, bloodied and charred. His skin had been partially burnt by the dragon. He had a spear in his other hand. Incredibly pissed, he ran into a burst of hatred and powered his spear into the air with every ounce of his being. The spear only scaved the dragon, bouncing against the dragon’s dick and clattering to the ground shortly after.

General Lancaster took the stage and shot out yellow energy from his fingertips. The magical rounds zipped right through the purple dragon armor and crippled it in the air. He continued this barrage, before the dragon finally had to land from morbid amounts of pain. Even it had its limits. General Lancaster was phenomenal, his strength alone was enough to challenge the dominance of this forty foot dragon. What a man!

General Lancaster was one to watch out for. He was eventually to become one of my rivals if I was not careful. He was a careful opponent. I furrowed my brow as the dragon changed posture. Suddenly, a blue energy surged from its belly and the energy lingered into its throat and grew in size. The dragon opened its mouth and revealed a blue flame that was hotter than hell itself.

General Lancaster had seen this type of dragon once before. This was simply something they had not prepared for. If he wanted to survive this, he would have to surge all of his life into a magical barrier and the campaign would end. Even if he defended the army against this blast from hell, there was no way they could defeat the dragon without his strength. Lancaster knew this, but he was willing to sacrifice his own life to save his men.

A large magic circle appeared in the air, facing opposite from the dragon, as Lancaster attracted magic into the palm of his hands. The yellow and blue particles converged into a single point. “Magic Circle: Barrier of Kings!” He chanted, the yellow shield emanated and emitted into existence all around the army. The dragon roared and let its beam of blue hell-energy from its body into the air. The fire smashed against the barrier.

The heat was so intense, I began to sweat immensely from the fire that was on the other side. The dragon let an endless stream of blue-energy out and the barrier began to form cracks. General Lancaster’s face contorted as he stood his ground, his palms against the magical circle, his palms being absolutely scorched. Only Lancaster’s master could have won a battle like this, and Lancaster wasn’t quite there yet.

My heart froze when the barrier shattered into a million pieces.