Chapter 97 Strongest Sage, Solicits
"Iris, get down!"
"Y-Yes!"
I unfolded a kind of defensive magic in front of Iris who crouched down.
The magic won't completely block the damage, but it can nullify the dragon-damaging magic part, the rest should be fine with Iris's defensive prowess.
As for me, since I don't have the time to deploy a strong defensive magic, I make it to only slightly reduce the magic impact.
Thus, being helpless against the blast, I got blown away.
I slightly changed my trajectory while I was in the air, preventing me from hitting obstacles.
As a result--
"Mathi-kun!?"
"A-are you okay!?"
I got blown to where Ruli and Alma were.
I guess it's around 100 meter away.
"I'm fine. Humans won't die just from being blown 100 meter away."
I stood up while saying that.
Looks like I got off of this without any injury.
"No well, pretty sure they will though...."
"Even 10 meter will kill you right...?"
But the two don't seem to get it.
Well, there's a lot of knacks to get out of a blast after all.
"You'll be able to withstand it if you forge your body. The knack is to not let your mouth and nose inhale the blast. Once you've got that sorted out, the rest isn't any different from a 100 meter free fall... With that, don't you think it's possible to survive somehow?"
"No I don't!"
"That's using Iris-san and Mathi-kun as the standard isn't it--what is this sound!?"
Ruli suddenly cut her words.
We could hear a loud rumbling of something huge moving.
...Well, I can guess what sound is that from the mana reaction.
"Ah, no need to worry about this rumbling."
"But it sounds obviously dangerous!? We've got to hurry and run!"
The loud rumbling stopped right when Alma was going to run.
Soon after--
"I've brought the magic stone with me!"
Iris showed herself up from the dungeon's passage.
Body of the dragon we fought earlier was behind her.
The loud rumbling earlier was from Iris dragging the dragon.
"Ou. Are you hurt anywhere?"
"Nope! I'm saved thanks to Mathias-san! ...Humans really are small and inconvenient... You get buried in a dungeon, fall on a small hole..."
"This body is convenient once you get used to it though."
I check out Iris's body with magic while talking.
She seems to be unhurt. Looks like the defensive magic worked well.
"By the way, Iris."
After confirming that, I spoke to her.
I've decided on something just now.
"Yes, what is it."
"This might be a bit sudden, but I'd like to officially treat Iris as one of our party members from now on."
Up until now, I treated Iris only as a dragon.
But now, treating her like a dragon feels a bit wrong.
Her outward appearance is that of human after all, and she's also treated like human socially.
It makes me think that I should treat Iris like a human while she's in this form.
I spoke with that in mind.
"Me, becoming Mathias-san's party member...? Is that alright?"
"Of course. Alma and Ruli too... are you fine with it?"
"I'm in agreement!"
"Me too, I agree. Iris-san is such a great help for us!"
Everyone is unanimous in this.
"Iris is now officially our party member... Which means, there is something we should do."
"Something we should do?"
"Yeah. Now that you're our party member, I can't let you easily get hurt or die on us. I'm thinking of properly training you, Iris, so you get used to that body as soon as possible."
"To think the day Mathias-san worries about me would come.... Thank you very much! Please take care of me!"
Iris happily answered my suggestion.
Her dragon body won't easily get hurt, but there's no guarantee that something like earlier will never happen again.
I can't always protect her with magic like that.
"...Mathi-kun's proper training?"
"I-I've got a bad feeling about this somehow...."
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