The elf’s buddy wasn’t far behind him, so I yanked my sword from his side and turned toward his friend.
The last man was huge, at least twice my size, and with a face five times as ugly. He had a huge brow ridge that protruded out from his face and thick bushy eyebrows on top of it, and he bared a nasty, yellow set of jagged teeth as he let out a guttural yell and came at me.
“Come on, big boy,” I said, but I felt Blar clench my shoulder. He wanted in on the fight, and I couldn’t deny him for too long. Besides, this guy was clearly an idiot, but he was large, and a little bit of firepower would make him a lot easier to take down.
I couldn’t feel it right then because of the adrenaline coursing through me, but I knew my body was still tired from the battle we’d been in earlier that day, so the least amount of energy I had to use, the better.
“You come on, little boy,” the big oaf laughed in a terrible deep voice that made me grimace with disgust. He even sounded stupid.
I widened my stance and held my sword out in front of me so he would think I was going to take him head on, but as soon as he was within range, I gave the command.
“Blar, now!” I exclaimed, and the little blue dragon jumped from my shoulder and up into the air above our large opponent to let out a huge blue flame.
“Ahhh!” the man screamed and dropped his weapon so he could try to cover his face and eyes.
I’d nearly forgotten Kas and Asta had put the enchantment back on the dragons so they appeared as dogs to everyone else. We couldn’t exactly run around with dragons, especially not in Asta’s homeworld with the dragon trade so rampant. The Elf King may be behind it, but the trade was still illegal, and anybody caught with dragons was to incur a severe punishment.
I couldn’t help but laugh as the man screeched, but I figured it was time to end his suffering, so I flipped my sword in my hand, held it above my shoulder, and threw it like a spear.
My blade pierced right through the elf’s chest, and he hunched forward slightly as his mouth fell open and blood poured out.
Then I focused on my blade and used its magic to extend it to its full size.
The bandit’s whole body arched back as my blade expanded inside him so there was no doubt about whether his injuries would be fatal or not. The large male fell to the ground with a resounding thud, and blood seeped from under him to form a puddle around his torso.
I walked over and looked down at the dead bandit. His hands and parts of his face were terribly burned, and blood dripped from his mouth down to his throat. The poor bastard never stood a chance, though he didn’t know that.
My blade made a terrible schloop sound as I carefully pulled it from the man’s chest. The metal of my weapon was virtually indestructible, but I hadn’t quite gotten used to that yet, so I still felt the urge to try and protect it from any damage this guy’s bones might have done to it.
Once the blade was out, I wiped it on his tunic and then re-sheathed it as Blar landed on my shoulders.
Suddenly, I heard the girls laugh, so I walked around the side of the cart and saw them standing over the three dead bandits they’d taken out.
“What’s so funny?” I asked as I walked over to them.
“We were just laughing about a move Eira did,” Kas explained with a gesture at one of the men on the ground.
My eyebrows pulled together as I inspected the body. There was a huge gash in the man’s stomach where Eira had thrust her blade into him, but the more interesting thing was that where the man’s eyes should have been there was only blood and some terribly mushed up white substance I could only guess used to be his eyeballs.
“Mmm.” I nodded and wrinkled my nose. “Yeah, I’ve seen this before.”
“I figured you had,” Eira chuckled. “I’ve done this move many times before.”
“She just shoved her fingers right into his eye sockets!” Asta exclaimed with a shake of her head, and she glanced down to Eira’s hand. “It was terribly disturbing to watch.”
“What’s the matter?” the redhead teased with a half-smile. “Can’t stand a little mess?”
“I would simply prefer to not have eyeballs on my fingers,” Asta explained calmly. “I eat with my hands a lot.”
The white-haired elf girl may not want eyeballs on her fingers, but she didn’t seem to have a problem with the blood splattered across her face from battle.
“That’s a good point,” Eira laughed and wiped her fingers on her tunic.
“On a more positive note, Eira thought of a name for the new dragon,” Kas said with a smile, and it almost looked out of place on her face since she was the bloodiest of all the girls.
I glanced down to the dead men and found the one Kas had taken down. It was obvious because the man was nearly cut in half, and though Asta and Eira were great warriors, only Kas’ greatsword could do that much damage in one single swoop.
“Oh, is that right?” I asked as I turned my attention to the redheaded warband leader.
“She blew a flame right in this guy’s face as
