「We did it! We cut it!」
「That’s amazing Leone! Now we can eat tasty meat!」
「You did it!」
As Rafinha cheered, Pullum, who was on the same Flygear and concentrated on providing support, rejoiced alongside her.
「Yes, it’s all thanks to Inglis for arranging it and Pullum for the support! That felt good on the hand!」
The experience of slicing such a huge object was quite valuable. Leone clenched her hand firmly as though to confirm the sensation once again.
「Oi, the big tail’s coming down! Watch out!」
Lahti’s voice came from the other Flygear some distance away. Indeed, the giant tree-like tail was tilted and about to fall on the Star Princess unit. If they were caught under it, the sheer mass of it would easily crush the Star Princess unit. Rafinha and the other two wouldn’t exactly be safe either.
「I know that! I’m not going to blunder, not before I have a bite on that meat! I’ve been looking forward to it!」
Rafinha tried to steer the hull to take an evasive maneuver, but there wasn’t a need for that. Within a heartbeat, Inglis had already jumped onto the falling tail, catching it, and carried it on her shoulder.Rafinha and the others saw an immensely beautiful girl casually carrying a dragon tail the size of a giant tree very casually on her shoulder. Not to mention, there was a really pretty and refreshing smile on her face. They could almost swear they saw Inglis rubbing her cheek against the dragon’s scales in joy.
「I-, I’m surprised she could carry it like that! Normally you would be a human pancake, you know?!」
「Hahaha… Well, it’s Glis there, so I’m not really surprised she did that.」
「Y-, you’re right……Well, having her carry it just like that is convenient too…」
If they couldn’t move it from the area, the tail would have to be left in the danger zone where Phantom Dragons were popping up, so getting to it later would be difficult. If they could take it to a safe place, then it was better to do so.
「Thank you, Leone, everyone! Mission complete!」
Inglis called out to Rafinha and the rest with a smile on her face. The plan was she would use Ether Reflector to shave away Vufailbane’s scales and then have Leone cut the tail off with Pullum’s support. And that strategy went swimmingly.
After all, even if Inglis tried to cut off the tail of the dragon by herself, Ether Strike was too weak and would just get bounced away, while Ether Breaker would have been too powerful and could possibly blow off the whole tail.
And there was no in-between. Ether is a power that is hard to handle and even harder to apply. Nevertheless, Inglis was in the process of developing various means to use it, though her progress was still in its infancy.
Hence the plan. If she recognized this as a mere hunt for the best ingredient she could acquire instead of a battle to defeat an opponent, then leaving it to Leone so as to not damage the ingredient was the better option.
There was a tremor under her feet. The ground was beginning to quake. Would Vufailbane, who had been wounded by having its tail cut off, wake up from the pain and show itself to Inglis?
The Phantom Dragons no longer paid attention to the girls, but rather crowded around the cut off surface of the tail that looked like a stump of a tree and were getting absorbed by their main body. It was an instinctual move to speed up the main body’s healing process. However, with the scale of the injury, it was unlikely it would heal any sooner.
Thus, the last step of the plan.
「Rani! Please do the finisher!」
「Yeah, leave it to me!」
Rani changed places with Leone.
As she powerfully drew the string of Flowing Radiance, the arrow of light that was produced in her hand was shining with an aqua blue glow.
An offensive Gift that would shoot arrows of light that Rafinha had long since grown familiar with. And a healing Gift that Special Envoy Theodore had provided her with not too long ago that would heal the wounds of anyone she touched.
The aqua blue arrow was the combination of both Gifts. It had the effect of healing the wounds of those she shot. And Rafinha fired it to Vufailbane's open wound.
The aqua blue arrow landed squarely and was absorbed into the cut stump.
「How did it go?! I really hope that works!」
Rafinha cautiously watched the tail.
The entire wound of the tail was enveloped in a gentle, aqua blue light. The next moment, skin regenerated and covered the wound like a curtain.
The shortened tail began to grow, undulating and rising from the inner part of the tail. Rapid regeneration had begun. While Pullum’ support did make Rafinha’s Gift much more effective, the result was visible.
「Oh?! It works!」
「That’s great. Look at all that meat growing!」
At this rate, it would return to its normal size in a single night. At the same time, the pain subsided, and the vibration on the ground stopped. It was a sign that Vufailbane had calmed down.
Personally, Inglis was tempted to wake him up early so she could ask for a few matches, but prioritizing one wish before the other didn’t sound bad.
「We did it! Now we can eat all we want!」
「You’re right, Rani. Once the tail is all regenerated, let’s go and cut it again.」
「Yeah, let’s! That way we don’t need to hold ourselves back! We can eat and eat and eat some more!」
「And I will be eating with you too, Rani!」
Inglis and Rafinha nodded at each other with a gleaming smile.
「All right, let’s go back and grill the meat.」
「Ou! Do your best carrying it, Glis!」
「Leave it to me!」
Inglis smiled happily as she dragged the tail of the giant Dragon God that was dozens of times her own height back to the Flygear Carrier.