A long time ago, a country stood on this spot. The country wasn't large, but it had a splendid castle and splendid people. One day, a dragon suddenly attacked, and the country was destroyed. That was what the history books said, at least.
After the dragon had its fill of violence, it chose the castle as its nesting spot. At some point, the poor, destroyed country had devolved into ruins, but the building that had once been the castle still played host to the dragon that destroyed it.
At some point, people started fearfully calling the dragon, "Manda," and the ruins it settled in gained the simple name of "Manda Ruins." No one had approached the ruins ever since, even hundreds of years later. Well, it was possible that adventurers dreaming of killing a dragon might have gotten close, but they must have all been turned into feed, since the dragon was still living in the ruins like it owned the place.
"Well, it's time," Naru muttered while looking over at the ruins.
The other three made faces that said, "Time for what?" So Naru explained.
"Look, the castle's deteriorated a lot. It seems as if the dragon likes this castle quite a bit, but it's about reached its limits. So if it can't live here anymore, what do you think the dragon will do?"
Juvia was the first one to arrive at an answer. "It'll… look for a place to live next?"
Naru nodded. "That's right. If we leave it alone, it'll just attack another country somewhere and wreck it. Or it could even attack Ydalir. It's about time that someone needs to kill it. I'm saying that we don't have the option of leaving it alone anymore."
The dragon could attack Ydalir. Hearing those words, Erza and Juvia braced themselves. To them, Ydalir wasn't just a base for their adventurer activities. It was also their second home. They couldn't stand for it to be destroyed. So Naru was right; it was time. The dragon Manda had to be defeated here and now.
"Juvia, we need a greeting. Go and wake it up."
"I thought you'd say that. I'm ready."
At Naru's command, Juvia activated the spell she'd already finished preparing. The pentagram enclosed by two circles shined blue, and mana gathered in front of her before converting into a large amount of water. The spell would unleash a merciless torrent of water. It was a high-tier water spell that would crash through everything before it.
"Tidal Wave!"
There was no water in the ruins, but suddenly, there was a physical phenomenon that ignored the rules of physics and nature, causing a tsunami to appear.
Normally, manifesting water in a place like this would just make it spread everywhere, but the Tidal Wave spell was directional. The tsunami formed a typical wave shape and surged forward, as if the water itself had a will. The wave itself was actually around 20m tall and engulfed the ruins.
Tidal waves shouldn't be underestimated just because they're water. The effect of the huge mass of water was exactly like a natural disaster. The deteriorated castle was easily smashed, crushed, and otherwise destroyed.
Eventually, the water passed through, and the castle that had been just barely holding on to its form was completely turned into a pile of rubble.
"Hot damn! You're pretty good, elf girl!"
Jenny raised a cheer after seeing Juvia's spell, but Juvia herself stayed calm.
"Naru already said this, but this is just a greeting. It's coming—get ready!"
The Tidal Wave spell had the highest destructive power among all the spells she could use at the moment, but Juvia still expected that it wouldn't do too much to a dragon. And in fact, the dragon that burst out of the mountain of rubble didn't seem to have any actual wounds on it.
"GOAAAAAAAGGHHH!!" The dragon Manda howled, causing the very air to shake.
Its body, covered with purplish blue scales, was over 10m long. And its mouth, which was filled to the brim with fangs, was drooling. Its glowing, golden eyes had vertically slit pupils which were currently locked onto Naru and the others, and it was clearly enraged.
It seemed to have taken the destruction of its favorite home personally.
Carried away by those feelings of anger, Manda swung its claws down at them.
Naru came forward and intercepted the blow head-on. Her legs sunk into the ground from the force of the blow, but she herself took no damage.
Somehow, a single person just managed to stop a dragon's full-force blow.
"GAAHH?!"
"Nice attack there!"
Naru's eyes were open wide as she spun on the spot. Then, she threw Manda. Erza, who was in Manda's path, used her sword to deflect the dragon away.
"That was dangerous. If you're going to throw it, you should have warned me first," Erza complained, dripping composure. But she sounded more impressed than angry.
Naru surely placed a lot of trust in Erza, and she had probably fully believed that she'd be able to follow up on her throw. The party's bond was strong and didn't waver even when Manda got up and opened its mouth.
As if to put that to the test, Manda breathed fire at Naru while her back was turned. But before it could hit, a wall of water rose up in the way, completely shutting out the fire.
"There's no time to be talking! You guys are way too relaxed!"
"Sorry, sorry."
Juvia most likely had the spell prepared for a while, expecting to have to block the dragon's fire. And Naru believed that Juvia wouldn't fail to do so. If she didn't, there was no way she would have let her guard down like that in a fight.
"What tepid fire, though. Allow me to show you what real fire is like."
Naru put her hands together, clashed the powers of both heaven and mana into each other, and created a tear in the fabric of space.
"I, your master, command you. Burn my foe to death with your rainbow fire—Fiona!" Naru shouted, and a sheep with rainbow-colored wool appeared out of the crack. Its size was far away from what a normal sheep should have been, though, as it rivaled Manda.
The summoned sheep collected rainbow-colored fire in its mouth and shot it, clearing away the fire that was being released from Manda's mouth even now in a show of brilliant, multicolored radiance. The rainbow-colored fire even melted dragon scales, which were supposed to be resistant to fire.
Having fulfilled its duty to show the dragon 'real fire,' the sheep retreated back into the crack in space and disappeared. But the crack itself didn't disappear.
Naru quickly moved on to her next action. "Next, I order you. Use your unrivaled power to crush my enemies Come, the Ox Princess Gyuki!" From the same crack came a tall, dark skin, and muscular blond woman with bull horns. The bull woman had a huge ax in her hand, and it swung that ax into Manda's neck, even while it was still covered in flames.
Having been hit by the ax, Manda's tough scales gave in, and a vast amount of blood shot out of the wound as broken pieces of scale scattered around.
With its role over, the bull woman went back through the crack, which finally disappeared.
But dragons were said to be strong for a reason. Manda stood up, even though it was bleeding like a stuck pig, and glared at Naru with seething hatred.
In response, Naru gave Erza a signal and drew the sword at her waist.
Erza swung the sword she'd just bought that day as easily as breathing, and Juvia swiftly completed a magic circle.
"GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGHH!"
"Maelstrom!"
Manda unleashed another breath attack, but the water from Juvia's spell canceled it out. But it didn't stop there; the raging swirl of water completely stopped Manda from moving, and Juvia shouted, "Now, Naru, Erza!"
"You sure kept me waiting!"
"Thanks for the assist!"
"I can do this, too!"
Naru, Erza, and even Jenny, who hadn't been called, replied to Juvia's shout and jumped into the air. Naru and Erza spun in the air, using centrifugal force to aid them in cutting into Manda's neck. Their attacks deepened the wound in Manda's neck left by the bull woman… but Naru's weapon wasn't fit for the job.
Unlike Erza's, which managed to cut halfway through the neck, Naru's sword got stuck inside the dragon's flesh and snapped. But she still managed to dig in pretty deep, and Erza was once again reminded how ridiculously strong she was. On top of that, Naru actually hit scales and busted through them, while Erza's sword entered the same way the bull woman's ax did. Her sword breaking was only a matter of course.
Lastly, Jenny's battle ax came falling in, and the dwarf girl's might finally severed Manda's head. Just like that, the three successful dragon slayers touched down—or not. Jenny was the only one who failed to do so and fell to the ground.
At any rate, they'd completed the request. The dragon that once destroyed a country was dead, and they'd obtained a whole dragon corpse, something that any blacksmith would be watering at the mouth for.
At some point, someone started laughing, which drew the rest of them in, and they all cheered and high fived.
***
"That's a great weapon there."
"Heehee. You jealous?"
The three of them had achieved something amazing and completely unlike most adventurers by killing a dragon. But for some reason, they were all sitting in the same bar a while later, just like always. Of course, they'd gotten job offers from other countries. There were so many messengers bearing offers of knighthood it was actually stifling. They even promised fame and status. But the three of them spent today as normal, still adventurers.
Although Naru was looking happily at the new whip sword she'd obtained.
Jenny had come through on her promise. The whip sword that Jenny had crafted was an excellent piece that could extend to mow down lots of small-fry all at once, and it didn't sacrifice attack power to do so. Naru was completely taken with her new weapon, and she hadn't tired of polishing the sword even a few days after receiving it.
"Don't worry. I'll make one for all of you!" Suddenly, a familiar voice called out to them from the entrance of the bar.
They all turned around and saw Jenny. For some reason, the dwarf girl was fully armed. She plodded towards the group and sat down with Naru and the others without waiting for permission.
"Jenny? Why're you here? Actually, what happened to your store?"
"I closed it."
"What?!"
"I figured something out. Rather than opening up a store, going along with you guys would net me a mountain of good materials. And you'd be the best test subjects to try out the feel of my weapons, too. As if I could keep up a store with such a juicy opportunity right in front of me!"
While Jenny spoke as if it were a done deal when none of the others had agreed to this, it was actually a tempting proposal. Naru and the others didn't know of a more skilled blacksmith than Jenny, and with her in the party, they'd have no problems with their equipment. Erza and Juvia sighed exasperatedly, but Naru laughed amusedly.
"So that's how it is. I'll be counting on you guys from now on!" Jenny gave a sunny grin and held out her hand. It seemed that to her, entering the party was already a done deal.
Naru was the first to shake Jenny's hand, followed by Erza and Juvia, who both smiled wryly.
Adventurers chased dreams. They chased them and died. But, if one managed to make it to the end, if they managed to get to the goal with comrades who shared the same dream… They might be elevated to the status of hero.
The world would later call these girls the Maidens of Midgar, or at least the Great Black Empress… But they didn't know that at the time. They were simply some lowly adventurers dreaming big in a dirty bar and laughing together.