The southern gate's central section had been reduced to rubble. Though calling it rubble was generous — the areas that had taken a direct hit from the beam were half-melted.
"What kind of power was that..."
As if responding to my murmur, multiple groans reached my ears. Looking around, I saw people who'd been grazed by the beam or injured by shards of shattered wall crouching on the ground. Those who'd taken a direct hit had vanished entirely, leaving behind only scattered body parts or fragments.
"Tenma!"
That was Mom's voice. I spotted her standing with Dad about a dozen meters from the ruined gate.
"Mom, Dad — you're both okay!"
As I said that and hurried over, I noticed something was wrong with Dad. His right leg was gone from the knee down, his left arm was bent at an unnatural angle, and he was coughing up blood.
"What happened to Dad?!"
I checked on his condition while asking Mom, who was already casting healing magic on him.
"When that beam was fired, I was directly in its path. Your father shoved me out of the way to save me, but the beam grazed him — and then the aftershock sent us both flying all the way here."
She explained.
"Got it. Mom, you take care of Dad and the other wounded. I'll handle the defense."
With that, I leaped up onto the gate. Even in the time we'd been talking, the zombies had been drawing closer.
"Damn it — I can't use Fire Tornado at this distance!"
The zombies were closer than I'd expected. Using my trump card, Fire Tornado, risked hitting allies and the fortress itself.
So I decided to start by sealing the gate with earth magic.
Next, I launched Fire Storms at them in order of proximity, gradually pushing them back to create distance.
Once enough space had been opened up, I coordinated with the other mages to create a Fire Whirlwind.
"Now we can win this!"
"Burn those zombies to the ground!"
"Die, you zombies!"
Cheers erupted. But the fire whirlwind was obliterated by the beam before it even made it fifty meters.
Rather than merely neutralizing the fire whirlwind, the beam—though weaker than the first shot—reached the wall and blasted a hole through part of it.
Fortunately, no one was injured, but a sense of despair began to settle over the area. Just as Mom—who had handed off treatment duties to someone else—returned upstairs, the thing that had fired the beam slowly came into view, and it was beyond anything we had anticipated.
"A Dragon Zombie..."
Mom murmured. Its true form was that of a dragon zombie, easily exceeding fifty meters in height. Just then, Grandpa rushed over and added:
"And what's more, that's probably—"
"an Ancient Dragon—"
"zombie."
Dragons were classified into lower, mid, upper, Dragon King, and Ancient Dragon ranks. Lower dragons referred to dim-witted creatures like wyverns or young dragons, while mid and upper dragons were distinguished by intelligence and power, taking forms similar to both Western and Eastern dragons. Among them, the one that grew exceptionally powerful was called a Dragon King, and an Ancient Dragon referred to an individual that had lived for over ten thousand years.
While body size was said to have little bearing on strength, larger individuals were generally more powerful. And it was said that Ancient Dragons had the distinguishing trait of large, gem-like metallic growths forming on their bodies.
The Dragon Zombie that had appeared before us had dark-colored metallic protrusions about three meters in size jutting out from both shoulder positions.
"Those resemble the features of an Ancient Dragon described in ancient texts. According to the records, a dark-attribute Ancient Dragon appeared in the kingdom three hundred years ago, destroyed several villages, and when it showed up at a city, it was driven off by the knights and royal court mages of that era."
"So that's why the zombies were smarter than normal."
I said, still firing off spells. But—
"Take that thing down and the other zombies should stop moving."
At those words, all the mages launched a coordinated assault on the Dragon Zombie, but it fired its breath and nullified most of the spells.
Each time the breath attack drew closer, the wall crumbled further and the number of wounded kept rising.
"If this keeps up, we'll be overrun. Tenma, we'll draw its attention—go hit the zombies while you can!"
That's when Mom issued the orders. The Dragon Zombie had advanced to within about 500 meters of the gate.
"Got it, I'm going!"
Saying that, I soared high into the sky, flying directly above the Dragon Zombie. From an altitude of about 50 meters, I launched my spells.
"Earth Needle."
First, I'd use a continuous ground attack to halt its movement.
"Wind Cutter."
Next, I started slicing cuts into the surface of the zombie's body.
"Fire Bullet, Fire Lance."
Finally, I fired off a barrage of fire-attribute magic with high penetration power. Each time the Dragon Zombie tried to target me, Mom and the others disrupted it with their own spell attacks, leaving it helpless as my attacks struck home.
I must have landed dozens of blows. A thick cloud of dust and sand filled the area, completely obscuring our vision.
Several dozen seconds later, when the smoke cleared, the figure that was revealed was the Dragon Zombie, lying completely still.
This time, the villagers raised cheers of relief, believing we had finally survived. Some members of the defense force even went outside to finish off the remaining zombies.
As I landed near the gate, everyone gathered around me.
"Tenma, you did it!"
Mom hugged me tightly. Dad, leaning on Grandpa for support, approached.
"Tenma was incredible!"
"To have nearly defeated an ancient dragon single-handedly at your age, your names will be etched in history!"
Following Dad and Grandpa, the others began voicing their praise one after another.
Then, one person ran up to check on the Dragon Zombie. At that moment, everyone believed the Dragon Zombie was dead.
No one realized this would prove to be a fatally careless mistake.
When the person who went to check on the Dragon Zombie peered into its face, the zombie's eyes—which had been devoid of light—suddenly began to glow red, and then…
"GUWOOOOO"
"GYAAAAH"
Frozen in place by the sudden roar and scream, we couldn't move as the Dragon Zombie suddenly came back to life. A villager was clenched in its jaws—dead on the spot, surely.
Our inability to move proved fatal. The Dragon Zombie was about to unleash its breath attack. Just as I thought "this is bad," my body was sent flying sideways.
"Gwah!"
When I looked to see what had happened, my father had shoved me out of the way. Mother and Grandpa were smiling at me even as they raised a magic barrier. I thought I could see their lips moving and hear their voices.
"Live!"
"Live!"
"You must live!"
And—
Just as I was about to say something, my parents and grandfather were swallowed up by a dark beam of light.
I could only stand there in shock, watching the scene unfold before me.
So, the boss of the zombies was the Dragon Zombie.
On top of that, Ricardo and the others were all taken out in one fell swoop.
It turned out a little different from what I originally had in mind, but things just snowballed from there.
At most, I plan to wrap up this chapter in another two to three chapters.
After that, I'll be inserting some side stories before moving on to the second chapter.