Chapter 1: The Dragon's Verdict

"What the hell! My body is not responding, I can't move an inch from my position." Mira exclaimed loudly as the thought alone caused terror to bubble in her mind.

She had stepped into the Dragon's Lair clad in light armor and a mind brimming with confidence.

But that got shattered the moment her eyes locked on her opponent.

It was the Demon Dragon, the colossal entity who had destroyed the human cities and was on a conquest to wipe out the human race. She was standing right in front of him, the only enemy she needed to defeat so that humanity could be saved. A suffocating pressure rolled out of his body like a tide, heavy enough to crush her mana flat and bind every muscle she had, and she realized it was not fear alone that held her in place but the weight of a being who existed on a level far above her own.

'I can't give in to my fears. He's the last boss... I've clawed my way through, surviving for years against the bloody demons just to reach this place. I can't succumb to pressure.'

Mira was tenacious. She gave up trying to control all of her body and instead focused on her left limb. Her fingers twitched and with it, she pulled out a dagger from her utility belt and stabbed...

The pain tore through her body as her own dagger plunged through her flesh. She gritted her teeth as she staggered forward trying hard not to scream, and the sharp burning of the wound cut through the Dragon's pressure like light through smoke. She took a step and her body responded perfectly which caused her to let out a smile.

"I'm coming for you, Bastard Dragon..." Her voice roared to life as she charged directly towards the Dragon who was just lying there with no thoughts of moving but there was a glint of surprise on his face.

"You used the pain from the stab to get rid of the fear in you... That's brave for a woman."

"What are you saying, Dragon? I'm the Strongest Female Warrior..." Mira declared as she closed in the gap between them, her grip wrapped tightly on her lightsword. "Remember my name, Mira Cromwell." She added as she leapt high into the air, surrendering her body to the wind while lifting her weapon up into the sky.

"O Mother Creator. Vanquish my foes. Astral Light Slash."

Her weapon lit up with white binding light that wrapped all over her body and then she slashed down directly towards the Dragon's head. The wind split into two as a blinding light tore the space into two while the force of her own attack sent her hurling backward.

She crashed on all fours and immediately rose to her feet while her gaze remained glued to the Dragon. The smoke cleared up and her eyes widened.

"The fuck... that was my strongest skill and it... it didn't even scratch the Dragon at all." Mira refused to believe her eyes but the reality was present before her. It was the same technique that had cut through demon generals who towered over her, the one she had perfected through five years of bloodshed in a ruined world, and it had not even disturbed a single scale on his head.

"Hahaha... The Strongest Female Warrior? That must be a joke of the century... Without men, all you women are nothing but a mass of mana to be fed on." The Dragon laughed out loud as every one of his words stabbed directly into Mira's brain.

"It's not your place to define who we are... We don't need men to survive... For five years, I clawed my way to this place... I survived all sorts of things that even men can't bear... I'm a woman but that doesn't mean I'm less a warrior than men... And I'm gonna show you that." Mira declared as white energy leaked out of her body... the energy wrapped around her lightsword forming another layer of skin when she moved.

Even as she spoke, her warrior instincts refused to stay silent, and she studied the Dragon the way she had studied every demon general before him, searching for any flaw in the way he lay and breathed. She noticed that the scales along his belly looked thinner than those on his head and that his weight shifted slightly to the left whenever he moved, and she judged that to be the one opening she could reach before he found a way to stop her.

It was as if she disappeared out of sight, blending into the wind as she aimed to strike the belly of the Dragon, a part she assumed to be his weak point.

"Futile attempts." The Dragon grinned when he saw through her facade. What Mira didn't know was that her opponent could see her clearly, and that the thin scales and the shift of his weight had been left there on purpose, a bait he had been patient enough to wait for her to take, and as she rushed to strike his stomach, she was met with a resistance.

Her warrior instincts flared up as a powerful presence appeared behind her that caused her to turn instantly.

"Light Shield." She quickly activated her skill as the white energy all over her body condensed into a shield of light blocking the tail of the Dragon which was heading towards her.

The tail pierced directly into the shield breaking through it in one strike and before she could even think of raising her sword, it stabbed directly through her chest and forced its way out of her back with no resistance.

Splat!

Mira coughed a mouthful of blood as she felt her life force draining drastically.

'I got hit.' The thoughts settled in as her gaze reflected the tough skin of the Dragon. 'I can still fight. I can't give up.'

Her will was still strong but it couldn't keep up with her body. The sword fell from her grip and that was when she realized it was over. For the first time in five years, the one thing that had never failed her had nothing left to push against, and she understood in that silent moment that no amount of determination could close the gap between them.

"You were saying something?" The Dragon's voice filled her ears as she couldn't mistake the heavy sarcasm laced in it. She had struggled for five years just for this moment, she had trained... survived countless hurdles to kill the Demon that had reigned terror over the human race, and she had watched friends fall one after another in a world that had already been burned down around her.

"Hahahaha..." Mira laughed out loud before spitting out another mouthful of blood. 'Years of struggle just to fall under one attack of the Demon.'

The realization was a tragedy but there was nothing she could do about it.

"You've seen it too, right? Women are nothing but trash... just a filler... Take out the men and they're useless. Had you been a man, maybe just maybe you would've lasted longer... haha." The Dragon said to her before withdrawing his tail from her body.

Gravity pulled her down as her body launched uncontrollably to the ground but she didn't land as with his tail, the Dragon flogged her body away hurling her hundreds of miles away causing her to crash into the ocean...

She was dead, her body unconscious but her mind clung to regrets... The regrets of being weak, the regrets of being born in a world where women are treated as property. She regretted that it had taken a ruined world to teach her how to fight, and she regretted every person she had failed to save, whose faces she could still see as her body sank in the dark water with no way left to change any of it.

The last words of the Dragon troubled her as her body sank deep into the ocean...

What if... What if...

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