21 adventurers walked the chilly tundra of the Northern Lands.
A thin layer of snow powdered the trails.
The leaves fell from the trees, and the branches were whitening from the chilly air.
Soon, the long winter will come.
[Quagmire, Can you scout ahead?]
Following the order of Soldat, Quagmire used the appropriate magic.
He brought forth a pillar of earth and snow that he stood atop as it rose high up into the air, granting him a great vision for quite some distance.
Quagmire then conveys what he sees. The target is a large Red Dragon.
One that is not difficult to be missed with continual reconnaissance.
What's this?
Quagmire also spied something else.
[Raster Grizzly at 2 o'clock. Seems like a bunch of them. They are kicking the hell up out of the snow!]
[How many are there!?]
[8...no wait, 10 of them moving this way. I wonder if they noticed us. Approaching from dead ahead! And fast!]
These monsters were not the target though.
For the so few members of the group gathered, there isn't really enough spare energy to go wasting on small fry monsters like this.
However, when evil comes, one must defend.
[Everyone, spread out! Quagmire, hurry down, we're going to need you for support!]
[Understood!]
Soldat gave the order, and four parties deployed their members.
The plan was to flank the enemy and herd them towards Quagmire's ambush.
[Quagmire!]
[I'm on it!]
On Soldat's order, Quagmire moved.
He was called "Quagmire" for the skill he had using Earth Magic.
He had an amazing skill that instantly creates mires of mud, bogging down enemies.
Landing him with the nickname of [Quagmire.]
A herd of ten Raster Grizzly were funneled towards him, and all fell victim almost instantly to the highly adhesive mud of which they found themselves quite stuck in.
"Now!"
The members of the raid group who suddenly sprang out from the surrounding areas quickly surrounded the monsters, charging in and ruthlessly dispatching each and every one.
No mercy.
Any mercy shown now could mean death the next time; such a thing was common sense to an adventurer.
And in short order, the Raster Grizzly threat was eliminated.
However, after dealing with these enemies, someone noticed IT.
[Hey! It's the Red Dragon! It's coming!]
[Ah, these Grizzly must have been running away from it!]
The Rogue.
Red Dragon.
The strongest monster that exists on the Central Continent.
And his prey was the group of Raster Grizzly we defeated.
[Quagmire! Why's this guy here?]
[It must have been hiding in the wake of the snow powder that was being kicked up by the Grizzly. I didn't see it anywhere before!]
In regards to dealing with the sudden arrival of the Red Dragon, the adventurers pretty much lost their wits about them.
Originally the plan was to prepare an ambush from farther away, then launch a surprise attack on it.
And now, not only was there no preparation, but the dragon was launching a surprise attack on the raid group instead.
There was practically no chance of winning this fight.
[Damn it! Retreat, everyone Retreat!]
A Red Dragon is a creature that flies in the sky.
Its outer shell is resilient and is deceptively dexterous.
And truth be told, a Dragon on the ground is a dreadfully powerful thing.
In this chaotic scene.
The Quagmire goes to work.
[I'm putting up the smokescreen! Please scatter while you retreat!]
Quagmire was calm.
Using much practiced Fire Magic, he vaporizes the latent snow around him to raise a wall of steam.
A smokescreen, improvised from the use of the surrounding nature.
A skilled magician cheating the enemy of its vision.
However, the Rogue Dragon was also clever and sharp-eyed.
It took aim at the Quagmire.
[....Kuh!]
Quagmire fled from it in the opposite direction of the retreating group members.
If he was targeted, it was his role to make it give chase.
Speedy Quagmire.
He was alive now because of the training he did every morning.
He knew the secret to staying alive was to be able to keep running, to keep moving away.
The vexed dragon's mouth was burning; it opened wide, and what spewed forth was a hellish flame.
In a mere moment, the entire surrounding area was painted with fire.
It was the Red Dragon's finishing move: [Fire Breath].
Everything in the path of the flame was incinerated.
Was the Quagmire killed by this?
No, He was still alive.
Quagmire glanced backward quickly and instantly raised a titanic wall of water.
As Quagmire moved, he tore through the densely rising steam.
Embers of flame burnt the edge of his robe.
He paid it no mind, and instead started magically producing a casing of rock.
The rock bullet shot forth at a high speed and pierced the scaly hide of the Red Dragon.
[GYAaaaa!]
Rock bullets were released one after another.
The Red Dragon managed to avoid several of them.
However, it could not avoid all of the bullets that traveled at such a high speed.
The Red Dragon immediately turned around and prepared to take flight.
The Red Dragon was also a wise creature. It immediately understood that small creature called "Quagmire" was concealing a high offensive power.
The Quagmire doesn't give chase.
Did he let the precious prey escape?
It seemed so at the time.
[GUKYAaaaAA!]
The howl of the Red Dragon echoed.
Before it could get away, a quagmire came to be in existence.
The Red Dragon found itself having sunk into a highly adhesive mire of mud. Again and again, the Quagmire calls his magical power forth. The Red Dragon madly tries to escape from the mud, but finds the mud it's trapped in is becoming more and more adhesive and even solidifying.
[Ah, captured....]
The little Quagmire muttered something so unexpected, then proceeded to smash the squirming Red Dragon with a enormous mass of rock.