Sorry for the delay. I thought I published chapters of this novel this month already. There will be a double release today. Enjoy!

  Magi Craft Meister 550

  16　The Demons’ Mastermind Arc

  16-29　Singlehandedly Dealing With Grand Dragons

  Reiko and Ann headed out to meet the Grand Dragons, who were whipping up a cloud of dust as they sprinted towards Capricorn 1.

  “The idea is to show the Kugutsu clan our power, so please be as flashy as possible.”
“Understood.”
Magical beasts with high magic resistance had a tendency to be relatively vulnerable to physical attacks.

  Reiko carried her Peach Blossom on her back and a Magi Cannon in her hand. Ann armed herself with a Vibration Sword and a Mana Bomb.

  “Let’s go, Ann.”
“Yes, sister”
The two of them jumped out of Capricorn 1’s skylight. The Grand Dragons weren’t more than 200 meters away from their position.

  Several members of the Kugutsu clan had come out to watch and stared at them, unable to take a single breath.

  “What are they doing?”
“Two women? And one of them is a little girl!”
“This is absurd! What could they possibly do?”
However, their doubts soon turned into astonishment.

  ＊　　　＊　　　＊
“Magi Cannon, fire!”
Reiko launched three lead cannonballs one after another to try to stop the three Grand Dragons’ advance.

  Though lead is too soft to deal any considerable damage, it’s still effective as a stopping measure as it transfers all of its kinetic energy to its target upon impact.

  Each of three Grand Dragons, which had been sprinting at a speed of nearly 200 km/h, took a lead ball to the chest, causing them to roar as they bent backwards.

  This caused them to momentarily drop their speed by more than half. Reiko took this chance to fire her next round.

  The now slowed-down three Grand Dragons each took a steel ball to the head.

  Their roar echoed, shaking the very earth. They were cries of pain.

  Their heads seemed to be quite hard, as the steel balls bounced off of them upon impact, but they still seemed to have sustained some damage.

  As a result, the three sprinting Grand Dragons stopped 100 away from Capricorn 1.

  “Ann, use your Mana Bomb.”
“Yes, sister.”
Following Reiko’s instructions, Ann threw her Mana Bomb.

  The Mana Bomb unleashes a Magical Explosion which, despite being magical in nature, deals physical damage.

  Although Grand Dragons are fairly resistant to magic, they would suffer considerable damage from its raw physical destructive power.

  And though the debris of the bomb’s explosion had barely scraped their tough hides, the shockwaves of the explosion shook their not-so-large brains, completely paralyzing the Grand Dragons’ hearing.

  “Now, armor-piercing bullets, fire!”
Her third set of ammunition were armor-piercing rounds, which had a particularly high piercing power. Rather than cannonballs, they were shaped like bullets that had Hyper Adamantite tips that would be fired at a speed of Mach 20.

  Having been fired from a distance of 100 meters, the armor-piercing bullets generated a strong shockwave after colliding with the Grand Dragons’ bodies, penetrating them completely.

  The three Grand Dragons roared in pain again.

  And Reiko decided to go for a follow-up attack.

  “Ann, let’s go for some close-ranged attacks!”
“Yes, sister.”
＊　　　＊　　　＊
The members of the Kugutsu clan stood there, staring in awe.

  An unbelievable scene had just unfolded right in front of them.

  The three Grand Dragons were drawing near at a tremendous speed. At that time, they feared their home would be trampled over in a matter of seconds.

  But then a thunderous sound echoed, and the Grand Dragons suddenly roared and bent backwards.

  Though they plugged their ears, they still heard the second roar that followed as the Grand Dragons had slowed down, and once the roaring was over, the dragons had already come to a complete stop.

  And not only that, their bodies had been pierced, and their wounds shed blood as they writhed in pain.

  “W-What… What just happened?”
Then Belials puffed up his chest as he spoke to them.

  “They are under the service of Jin, the Magi Craft Meister.”
“Magi Craft Meister!?”
“Yes. Mr. Jin has come to save us.”
And while that conversation was taking place, the scene continued…
“Hyaah!”
Reiko cut off one of the front legs of one of the Grand Dragons with her Peach Blossom. A little later, Ann did the same thing. Then Reiko cut off another Grand Dragon’s front leg.

  The Grand Dragon writhed in pain. Its large head approached the ground, and then…
Reiko threw a punch at it. All present members of the Kugutsu clan were equally astounded.

  “W-What…!?”
“I can’t believe it…!”
Reiko’s punch launched the Grand Dragon tens of meters away.

  As it fell, the Grand Dragon lay sprawled on the ground, and then stopped moving.

  Then, the blue-haired woman did the same thing the little girl had just done.

  And in the same way, the second Grand Dragon ended up laying inertly on the ground. Only one Grand Dragon to go.

  “W-What!?”
Then, after a mixture of black and blue, the remaining Grand Dragon got all of its legs cut off.

  Reiko and Ann followed up with a kick at its limbless body, sending it flying even further than the other two.

  The Grand Dragon then finally landed over 100 meters away, causing loud tremor upon impact, and then stopped for good.

  ＊　　　＊　　　＊
“Welcome to our humble abode, Magi Craft Meister Jin!”
“Thank you for saving our clan!”
Jin (‘s Substitute Doll) followed Reiko and Ann, and stood in front of the members of the Kugutsu clan.

  “My name is Maximus, I’m the chief of this clan. How can I ever repay your kindness?”
The Clan Chief Maximus then bowed to Jin.

  Thus Jin and the others were welcomed by the Kugutsu clan.

  “Looks like the ‘Agujas’ here were under the influence of that same machine.”
With the help of Nurses 1 and 2, they managed to remove the “Agujas” from the 25 members of the clan in about half a day.

  Alciel and other 4 clan members, who were more close to the radical side of the Kugutsu clan, were missing.

  It was highly likely that those 5 would still remain hostile to humans even without the “Agujas”.

  “We’ll need to persuade them as soon as we find them.”
“Right. Mr. Jin, do you think you could take Belials with you for a while?”
“Sure. It’ll be easier to persuade them if we have someone of the same clan as them with us.”
As they settled on their next guidelines for action, Jin expanded his agricultural reform to this territory as well.

  He made 20 farmer Golems, named Agris 101 to 120, as well as 10 Barrier generators to help prevent frost damage.

  Considering the clans’ numbers and the fact that they could also hunt for food, this would be enough for them to become more self-sufficient.

  Jin also gave them 200 kg of the wheat he had brought with him. The Kugutsu clan gave him some monster materials in exchange.

  Jin was given a lot of Snow Tiger fur and Icefield Lizard leather. He had no idea how much he would get by selling them, but he also had no intention to do so.

  He had also been given many other rare materials, so he was in very high spirits.

  Of course, the materials he was happiest about the most were the scales and hide obtained from the Grand Dragons Reiko and Anne had defeated.

  “I have to take a look at their properties once we return home.”
With that, Jin (‘s Substitute Doll) sent the materials over to Hourai Island via Warp Gate so that the real Jin could get his hands on them.

  ＊　　　＊　　　＊
“Things are going to get rough from now on.”
Jin said so to himself as he operated his Substitute Doll.

  “My Lord, I was able to obtain information regarding Nega-Doll 001’s movements.”
“Is that so? That must have been tough. Send me a report.”
“Understood.”
The autumn breeze began to blow in the land of the demons.

  The full-scale battle with Nega-Doll 001 was yet to come.