Reincarnated as a dragon’s egg ～Lets aim to be the strongest～

Chapter 446

446 – Perseverance of a Champion

I fly up through the destroyed castle and alight on the upper floor. I see the ruin howling loudly as it shoots [Ruin] into the city.

“OooOO, OooOoOOoOOOOOO!”

Just by getting closer to it, I feel an immense pressure weighing down on me. It’s really does feel like it is the urge to destroy made incarnate. Its appearance is a mass of iridescent light in the shape of a dragon.

I can’t see any way of fighting it.

Now that I am at the same height as the ruin, I can clearly see the destruction of the city. I see distant buildings bursting into iridescent light and crumbling apart one after the other. The ruin’s hollow eyes gaze out absently over the destruction.

“GuuruoOOOOOOOOh!”

I [Roar]. The ruin doesn’t turn to look at me. However, the moment I roar, it lifts its tail to point directly at me. It’s still far away from me, but the tail is proof that it is aware of me. An attack’s coming!

I slam my tail against the floor and kick off with my rear legs to jump backwards. A ball of iridescent light appears where I was standing just a moment ago and quickly bursts into an explosion of light.

The blast wave rushes towards me. I spread my wings, using them to catch the blast and propel myself backwards. Staying in the air, I look at the spot where I had been standing. A round hole of destruction now gapes open in the floot.. It looks almost as though the space itself was cleaved away.

I had thought it would now pursue me, but the ruin instead continues to gaze out over the city, unmoving. Damn it, are its memories completely gone!? It’s as though I’m not even within its consideration.

『Should we hit it with something?』

My partner suggests.

But I don’t want to throw away MP on a careless attack. With its healing abilities, there’s no point in trying to wear it down. My aim is to count on the ruin’s characteristic skill, [God of Destruction].

Besides, as unclear as it is as to whether it is even capable of conscious thought, it’s uncertain that it would even register my attacks. It looks like all it’s doing is shooting out its skill in whatever way causes the most destruction. If that wasn’t the case, it’s hard to imagine why else it could have ignored us to attack the city.

『Hey, slime, it’s me! Face me!』

The ruin’s face twitches, and it stops moving. The [Ruin] magic attacks that it had been releasing at regular intervals also stops. I use [Telepathy] to search its inner thoughts.

『Destroy, destroy…, …? Destroy, destr…oy…』

As before, I feel nothing but dark destructive impulses swirling around inside it. But, behind that, I sense something like confusion. This can work. Probably, a part of the slime’s consciousness still remains.

The ruin’s head peers around unsteadily as though searching for something. It just needs one more push. But, if once do that, its murderous impulse will be pointed at me. Once that happens, I’ll… No, there’s no point hesitating now!

『It’s me, Irushia! We’ll settle this once and for all, so come, slime! You’re already tired, aren’t you? I’ll send you to God’s Voice’s side!』

The ruin’s confused searching comes to a complete stop. Its iridescent shining body stamps its feet destructively while slowly turning to face me.

“…Iru…jia…?”

I gulp. I meet the ruin’s gaze. The two hollow cavities where its eyes should be appear to flash brightly. It was probably wasn’t anything other than the constant fluctuations of its colours, but for a moment, I feel my spine freeze with terror. Though it had been no more than a bundle of destructive impulses, malice has now returned to the ruin. The fight is now unavoidable.

【Title skill [Hero] has risen from level 8 to 9.】

【Characteristic skill [Perseverance of a Champion] has been acquired.】

The message informs me that I have indeed become the ruin’s target. It’s uncool, but it would be a lie to say that I don’t have any regrets. I still don’t have any sort of clear idea as to how I could possibly survive in front of this guy.

“O, OoOO, OOOO…IrujiaAaAAAaaAaaAAh!”

The ruin howls. The light covering it grows stronger, spreading out. The floor where it was standing crumbles away. As the light subsides, I see it floating in the air with four iridescent wings spread out behind it. It’s clearly also swollen up in size too. The wings don’t appear to be used to fly, as they aren’t moving.

I turn my body to the opposite direction, lean forwards, and glide quickly.

Unfortunately, I don’t have the power to fight the ruin head-on. Its stats are far above mine. In addition, just hitting its body that is a mass of magic power would be enough to inflict lethal damage to myself. The skill that has the same name as its species, [Ruin], also annihilates a huge area. If I fought fair and square, I would be unable to dodge and be killed in an instant.

All I can do to protect Alban is to lure it away. I need to keep running until its maximum HP runs out as a result of that mysterious [God of Destruction] skill. It’s pathetic, but that’s all I can do.

…Although, with my stats, I’m not confident I’ll be able to outrun the higher rank Ruin. But, the crux of this strategy is that I don’t need to completely outrun it. As long as I can lead it somewhere far from human habitation, then even if I fall, it’ll run out of strength by itself as it tries to get back. At worst, as long as I can reduce its maximum HP to half, the ruin won’t be able to cause any more harm.

It’s not the approach I want to take. But to take the ruin on, I need to be prepared for the worst.