Size matters.

Unparalleled beauty.

Something out of this world.

That’s what we saw.
Fayling and Astra vanished, and in their place, a new person, a new dragongirl, appeared.

She was slightly taller than me, with slightly dark skin and long hair that started as light brown and gradually turned orange near the tips.
She had two dark brown horns, tiny dragon wings in orange and brown, and a short but thick dragon tail of the same colors.
Scales covered her arms, legs, and the sides of her torso—some dark brown, others dark orange.
She wore dark brown shorts, a dark, almost black short t-shirt, and no footwear.
A red ribbon was tied to her left hand, and two white ribbons were tied around the lower part of her thighs.

This person turned her head and spoke to us.
Her voice was mysterious, almost divine, with a slight echo—the kind one would associate with a goddess in a fantasy game.

"Don't worry. Asterlinn does not know the meaning of the word defeat."

Suddenly, a bright orange light appeared around her feet, and everything beneath her exploded. She flew upward at a crazy speed, leaving nothing but a small crater where she had been standing. Once she was in the air, her body was engulfed in flames, and she fell at an insane speed, her right foot hitting the nara in the head. She crushed the nara against the ground, creating a massive crater and generating a tiny earthquake in the process. All of this happened in less than a second. This was not lava magic. This girl had fallen from the sky like a meteor, crushing her enemy and burying it deep in the ground.

"A meteor dragon." That was the first thing that came to my mind.

Asterlinn: Leo, now!

It was time to move.

Leonel: Alejandro, come with me!

I rushed toward the bald bastard, who probably still had some bullets left and hadn't used his fire spell.
He shot at my left leg, but the guy next to me—covered in hard leather armor, metallic plates, a helmet, and carrying a Molotov bomb and a dagger—kept running toward him.

Once he got close to our enemy, the bald bastard used his fire pillar spell against him. I had to jump away to avoid getting caught in the flames.

Bald Bastard: Idiots. Did you think you could rush ahead with a Molotov bomb without getting killed in the process?

Of course we didn't. This was part of the plan.
He hadn't killed Alejandro, who was still hiding in the wagon.
Alejandro had used his ability to summon many tiny mana creatures to move this mannequin made of armor parts from the inside as if it were a human being. 

It was like one of those possessed armors from medieval stories.

The main part of our plan was a success.

The bald bastard had wasted his fire spell on a decoy.

We needed to move quickly before the flames vanished and he noticed his mistake.

Just as our enemy waited for the pillar of fire to vanish, Alejandro secretly emerged from the wagon and, without being seen, poured oil over a pile of tiny wood splinters and set them on fire.

Xio then used her "breeze" ability to lift the burning splinters into the air.

When the fire pillar manifested, nine of Alejandro's tiny mana creatures came out of the wagon and flew up to a great altitude, hiding right behind the fire pillar so the bald bastard wouldn't see them.

Each one was carrying the special clay pots I had made with the help of Astra and Faylinn. These clay pots were essentially rudimentary flash grenades.

Xio's ability caused a bunch of burning wood splinters to fly upward to where these tiny creatures were holding the flash grenades. Once the burning splinters reached the short fuses, the mana creatures circled around the fire pillar and quickly dropped the flash grenades over the bald bastard, who was just waiting there for the fire to vanish so he could retrieve the red soul crystal that he was sure would appear in front of him.

Nine flash grenades fell from the sky and exploded in the air right in front of his face. With nine of them exploding simultaneously, even if they were rudimentary devices, the flash was certainly enough to blind him for a few seconds.

This was my chance.

The bald bastard was shaking his head like a madman. The flash must have been too intense.

I used fire magic strengthening on my right leg and took it to the limit. I had no time. My whole leg was now covered in hot flames. I jumped toward the bald bastard, ready to perform the ultimate attack—one that could fail. And even if I succeeded, there was a chance I could lose my hand.

I pulled out the custom-made item the blacksmith of Rida had made for me.
The blacksmith couldn't craft a copy of my "lucky bullet," which I held in my wallet, because it required precise skills and dexterity that he didn't have.
So, I asked him to make a much bigger bullet, one that didn't require such precise crafting skills.
It was huge—half the size of my arm and extremely heavy. I had to use strengthening magic on my arm just to hold it.
My jump got me closer to the bald bastard, who was still blinded by the flash grenades. I had less than a second to finish this.
I covered my hand in flames and ignited the bottom charge of the bullet, creating a powerful explosion.
Unfortunately, I was never good at physics. There must have been some kind of physics law I didn't know about, because the moment I ignited the charge, the casing of the giant bullet was pushed backward, essentially destroying my entire arm in the process and leaving nothing but a trail of smoke where my arm used to be.
But this wasn't a complete failure.
The lead projectile was propelled forward when the gunpowder ignited.
I had lost my arm, but I had achieved my goal.
The massive lead bullet absolutely erased the bald bastard's head.
He now looked like a dullahan sleeping on the ground.
The madness was over.
I had lost an arm, but the bastard was gone.

I then noticed a massive flame coming out of the crater where Asterlinn had been fighting.
She came rushing over to me. I guessed she had defeated the giant nara.

Asterlinn: Don't move. I'll handle your wounds. My regeneration spell is quite fast now.

That's when I noticed that I had taken the fire strengthening magic on my right leg too far. Not only was it covered in flames, it was almost completely burnt.

Asterlinn's healing stopped the bleeding from my shoulder, but now she was healing an almost charred leg.

Asterlinn: It seems I will be able to save your right leg. But I cannot restore the flesh that turned to ash. You will most likely have a thinner, weaker leg, with smaller muscles and limited mobility. And of course, I can't do anything about your missing arm. It's gone.

Leonel: That's fine. I'm just glad that this madness is over...

Alejandro then came out of the wagon and went to the body of the bald bastard.
He opened his backpack and found the red crystals.

Alejandro: I just have to destroy them so our friends can finally rest in peace, right?

Asterlinn: That is correct.

Alejandro then placed them on the ground and started stomping on them, shattering them.
The pieces of the crystals eventually vanished.
We had achieved our goal.

Alejandro: I will never forgive this bald bastard. I hope he burns in hell.

He was still angry. He went and kicked the dead body out of anger, and that's when he noticed something that made him laugh a little.

Alejandro: Ha, such an idiot. Leo, look—he's wearing the same pendant that was so popular in our country. The "lucky bullet" pendant. People are supposed to wear them in life-or-death situations to increase their chances of survival. I guess it didn't work for him. That's what he gets for believing in stupid superstitions.

I couldn't respond. I was one of those morons who bought the same pendant.
I guess it did work for me, though. I had survived, after all.