“We should run! Even your abilities can’t beat that thing!”

From this distance, once they had the creature’s attention, even fleeing would be impossible. And Hanakawa figured Aoi would have no way of fighting a winged opponent, anyway.

“Why do you think I can’t beat it?”

“Your power doesn’t work on primeval beings, does it?!”

Hanakawa had seen Aoi fight in the Forest of Beasts. There, she had used the same cheat-like powers as Rikuto, and then erased them. Her ability seemed to negate the powers of those who had received their Gifts from someone else. It was hard to believe it could also work against a monster that was naturally so strong.

“Ah, it seems you’ve misunderstood something. Enemies like this are easy,” Aoi said casually. “There’s no way something so big could actually fly, right?”

The dragon abruptly fell from the sky. Even confused and caught totally off guard, it somehow managed to catch the air with its wings and glide into the side of the cliff, barely avoiding the fall to the bottom of the canyon below.

“My ability is simple. Just World works by dragging others into my own internal world. In other words, it changes the world around me to match my personal beliefs.”

“Like I said, that’s ridiculously overpowered!” Hanakawa couldn’t think of her ability as anything but preposterous. It seemed like the ultimate trump card, capable of doing anything at all.

“That’s not true. I can’t do anything that seems impossible to me, and those with high Fate levels aren’t affected at all. In those cases, I need to allow Fate to guide me.”

“I-Is that right? A-Anyway, it seems you’ve defeated this monstrosity.” Hanakawa approached the dragon. It had somehow managed to claw its way up the cliff face and was now lying on the ground. Its head was large enough to swallow him in a single bite, but perhaps disoriented by its sudden fall, it simply lay there with its mouth open and its tongue sticking out.

“Hah, you’re just nothing but a big, dumb lizard, aren’t you?”

“I wouldn’t get that close if I were you.”

Without warning, the dragon suddenly leaped up, snapping its jaws shut. Everything from Hanakawa’s right elbow down disappeared in an instant, brutally bitten off.

Hanakawa screamed, but he was more than accustomed to such injuries. His experience surviving numerous battlegrounds as a Healer wasn’t an exaggeration. Within moments, his right arm had been restored and he had jumped away from the dragon.

“As you said, it’s a big lizard. That’s still plenty dangerous, don’t you think?”

“Can’t you do something about it with your power?!”

“Of course not. It makes perfect sense for there to be a reptile of this size. There’s no way I can deny its existence.”

“Then what are we going to do?!”

“We’ll just have to fight it normally. I’m pretty strong, so it shouldn’t be a problem,” Aoi said as she drew her knife.

-Volume 2 pages 113 and 114