kscans

Chapter 53 - Chapter 8: Part Two - Greed Dragon Subjugation? II

The Greed Dragon raised its head high, looking up at the heavens. A deep roar echoed as its lower abdomen began to swell. The large magic crystal on the great beast's forehead glowed with an even more ominous red light.

"It's going to use its breath. Keep your distance."

The knights of the four squads simultaneously retreated from the massive creature. Tension surged across the battlefield.

At last, the Greed Dragon's neck whipped down from the sky. Its massive jaws opened wide. A red flicker could be seen deep within its throat. It was the same terrifying attack that had incinerated the Second Knight Order. But what it actually spat out was as feeble as a puff of white steam on a winter's day.

Good, the product actually worked.

Looking closely, I could see the dragon was breathing heavily. Well, that can't be helped. Its respiratory system, the most advanced among all vertebrates, has been semi-paralyzed.

I let out a sigh of relief. There was no guarantee it would work on a dinosaur that had evolved so abnormally, and I hadn't been able to test it. That was the reason I had traveled all the way to the front lines at the prince’s request. Making hundreds of people bet their lives on a product with unproven effects, and then just waiting for the result, is torture for a coward like me.

The prince looked at me. I nodded in response.

"The best case scenario would have been finding it suffocated in its nest."

As I muttered this, Claudia shot me a look of utter disgust. It's unsettling to be looked at like I'm the strange one here. I wish she'd direct that kind of look at the dragon.

"A poison that can seal a dragon's breath... Just how did you prepare such a thing?"

"It's not like I prepared it. It's more like... something I just happened to have on hand."

What's tormenting the Greed Dragon right now is a special poison from the Vinder Company. In other words, that pollen. To be precise, it's a substance within the pollen that acts on the air sacs. As long as that thing is a dinosaur, it's basically a bird. A poison that works on birds has a high probability of being effective. Or to be more precise, it's the other way around. It's not that dinosaurs are birds, but that birds are dinosaurs.

Dragon equals Dinosaur equals Bird. This piece of modern knowledge forms the basis of my strategy.

Under the prince’s command, the Knight Order's assault began anew. My part in this is over. I've already warned them of the possibility that the breath attack could blow the pollen away. Now, it's a race against time.

◇◇

There have been at least several exchanges between this world and Earth. It's almost certain that the flora and fauna of this world came from Earth at that time. And the monsters arrived here before humans, descendants of ancient creatures that adapted to the magical energy.

In other words, a dragon is the result of a dinosaur evolving in this world.

A dinosaur becoming a dragon... sixty million years is an incredible amount of time. Then again, on Earth, we went from the Super Famicom to the Nintendo 64 in just six years.

Now then, it's well known that vertebrates are divided into five groups. Fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and us mammals. Hooray for boobs.

But this classification isn't quite accurate. More precisely, birds should be called dinosaurs. The evolutionary flow of reptile, dinosaur, then bird is probably correct, but the dividing line shouldn't be between dinosaurs and birds. It should be between reptiles and dinosaurs.

Let's organize the differences between birds and their reptilian ancestors. Compared to reptiles, birds are warm-blooded, have highly efficient respiratory systems, hollow bones, feathers, and the ability to fly. And there is evidence that dinosaurs, especially theropods like Tyrannosaurus and raptors, had acquired many of these traits previously thought to be exclusive to birds.

The theory that dinosaurs were warm-blooded is a strong one, and fossils of hollow bones and feathers have been found. Their skeletal structure strongly suggests they had air sacs. Incidentally, birds still have scales on their feet.

In short, the very qualities that make a bird a bird had mostly evolved by the time of the dinosaurs. It's more accurate to say that the creatures we call birds on Earth are the survivors of the dinosaurs, rather than to say that birds evolved from dinosaurs. They are, at the very least, far closer to birds than to lizards.

In fact, decisive evidence was found when the amino acid sequence of collagen from a Tyrannosaurus fossil was shown to be closest to that of a chicken. If I could send a DNA sample from that dragon back to Earth, I'm sure we'd get the same result.

Essentially, it's as if all mammals except for bats had gone extinct. If an alien were to observe Earth's ecosystem in that state, they would surely call the group "chiroptera" instead of "mammalia" and judge the ability of flight to be their defining characteristic.

But back to the topic. The respiratory system is where dinosaurs, including birds, excel compared to other animals. The oxygen concentration is said to have been low during the period when dinosaurs evolved, so they adapted by enhancing their ability to take in oxygen. The lungs of a dinosaur, fitted with pumps called air sacs, are far more efficient at respiration than those of mammals. This is why migratory birds can fly at high altitudes over the Himalayas.

In us mammals, the fresh air we inhale mixes with the exhaust air that is low in oxygen and high in carbon dioxide. That's a given since the entrance and exit are the same. On the other hand, in the lungs of dinosaurs with their air sac pumps, air flows in one direction. This means a constant supply of fresh air to the lungs, and exhaust is quickly expelled.

And from here on it's pure speculation, but I theorized that this unidirectional airflow is also utilized for a dragon's breath. The breath is generated by magic in the anterior air sac, which is where the exhaust air from the lungs collects. By exhaling it from the mouth, it doesn't waste magical energy and there's less need to protect the lungs from the high temperatures of the breath.

Therefore, the pollen from the purple flower I found in the honeybee village, the one that killed the birds, could be expected to seal off the dragon's greatest weapon. At the very least, if I could weaken the function of its air sacs, I could rob the dragon of its strength and stamina. That was my calculation.

Well, you could say that for someone from a culture with a myth about defeating the Yamata-no-Orochi by getting it drunk, this is a pretty standard way to handle a dragon. ...Though I probably shouldn't equate that with poisoning something. Also, I'm not doing the fighting myself.

Correction. I guess I really am not cut out to be a hero from another world.

But this was something I couldn't test on an actual dragon. The most I could do was ask Dalgan to gather as many different types of birds as possible and confirm that the pollen was effective on all of them in small amounts.

Using the Grand Duchess’s authority, I had a large amount of pollen collected from that village and the surrounding ones. It was this pollen that was spread on the coats of the horses the Knight Order used as decoys to approach Tuvil Mountain.

◇◇

Judging by the situation, I'd say it was effective. The dragon's movements lacked their usual sharpness from the start. Its arm was crushed by the Knight Order's assault I had witnessed, and its ability to fly was taken away early on. As for its breath, I just saw for myself that both its range and power have been drastically reduced.

Incidentally, I delivered the poison to the Knight Order purely as a commercial product. I am, of course, just a merchant who accompanied them to confirm the product's effectiveness. Absolutely.

【PIGIIIIIIIIIIIIII!!】

Stomping its feet, the dragon began to thrash about wildly.

"Don't flinch. It's no different from a baby throwing a tantrum. Keep your distance and ride it out. We will go on the offensive at the next opportunity."

There was no hesitation in Craig’s command as he calmly ordered his troops back. Comparing that monster to a baby, he's got some nerve.

"Your Highness doesn't even have a wife yet."

One of the bearded knights even had the composure to respond with a lighthearted joke. I've confirmed the poison's effect, so they don't need me anymore, right? I want to go home now.

"Begin the assault."

The commander's powerful voice rang out, and the responding shouts of the knights shook the battlefield. The four squads simultaneously reformed their ranks. The Third Knight Order, forming a diamond-like formation, closed in on the Greed Dragon one after another. The dragon's left arm swung to sweep away one of the combat units. The hammers and maces of eight knights in the front rank smashed into the attack.

It was the Greed Dragon that staggered. Looking closely, I saw other knights behind the eight, supporting them in a scrum. Judging by the increased glow of their armor, they must have poured precious magic crystals into it. In that opening, the two squads on the left and right circled around to the Greed Dragon's flanks.

【GUGYUGYURURURU!!】

Blades flashed, and the giant monster's left and right legs were slashed at the same time.

【PIGIIIIII】

The Greed Dragon's roar now sounded more like a shriek. Meanwhile, the Knight Order's coordination remained flawless as they forced it to literally bleed. Even I could tell this was a victory.

Just then, a burning red light flickered on the Greed Dragon's forehead. Its cheek pouches swelled up enormously, and the very next moment, it forcibly spat out a blood-colored fireball.

I saw Craig's personal unit charge toward the dragon's now wide-open belly. The ball of fire flying over their heads in a parabola seemed to grow larger and larger.

I'm terrible at playing catch. That includes the conversational kind.

"Ricardo!"

Claudia tackled me out of the way, and we tumbled across the ground, tangled together. The rocky slope scraped my skin. We finally came to a stop when we slammed into one of the carriages that had been waiting in the rear.

An instant later, the ground shook. The last thing I saw in my trembling vision was the falling form of the Greed Dragon.