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Prelude
After hearing Yao Ro Dushi's plea for help, and seeing Tuka Luna Marceau descend deeper into the delusion that he is her father, Yōji Itami realizes that she may not be able to come to her senses unless there is some kind of closure- such as the death of the Flame Dragon that destroyed her village. However, because the Flame Dragon is presently residing in the Schwarz Forest- accessible only through Elbe, the JSDF is unable to send support for Yao's people.
Seeing no other possible options, Itami leaves the base without permission from his superiors, taking ten Panzerfaust-3 rocket launchers and a large amount of C-4, among other weapons with him in a Mitsubishi Type 73 light truck. As Youji plans to leave with Tuka alone, Lelei La Lalena, Rory Mercury and Yao meet him and join his party headed out towards the lands of the dark elves. Youji rendezvous with a group of about a dozen dark elvish warriors in a cave in the foothills of the Tuba Mountains. At this point, the Flame Dragon makes a surprise attack, but is repulsed when Youji and Tuka fire a Pzf-3 at it. While the rocket does little damage, the dragon flees the scene after seeing the launcher, proving it is intelligent enough to remember weapons which managed to hurt it. After the dragon's retreat, Youji instructs the dark elves in the basics of using the Panzerfaust 3, as well as his plans to place a large C-4 charge in the dragon's nest when the dragon was away and detonate it when it returns.
Engagement with the Flame Dragon
The dark elves lead Youji to Mount Tube, a large volcano and the highest point in the Tuba Mountains, and the location of the nest of the Flame Dragon. upon reaching the summit, Itami sends Rory to keep watch while he rigs the charge in the center of the nest, aided by the rest of the party. Shortly after the C-4 is successfully rigged, the flame dragon returns to its nest and attacks the party. At the same time, Rory is attacked by Giselle, who reveals herself to have tamed the flame dragon, intending to use it as a weapon.
Three of the dark elves fire their Panzerfausts at the dragon, scoring multiple hits. Unfortunately, they neglected to pull out the tip of the rocket before firing, meaning the weapon was set to high explosive, rather then shaped charge firing mode and lacked sufficient force to pierce the scales of the dragon. Yao manages to hit the dragon with a properly set-up rocket. However, it hits on its thickly armored flank, only lightly wounding the dragon. During the engagement, all the rockets are expended, only wounding the dragon, but almost all of the dark elves are killed.
It is at this moment that the shock of the seeing so many killed by the flame dragon, Tuka remembers the death of her father and everyone in her village. At the same time, Lelei enters the battle herself, using her magic to accelerate the swords of the many fallen warriors that lined the nest at high velocities. The blades travel fast enough to pierce the dragon's hide but like the rockets, are unable to kill it.
The dragon charges at Youji, Tuka, and Yao, who lead it directly over the C-4 charge. At this point, Tuka uses her lightning magic against it, sending electricity through the swords, into the dragon, before going to the ground towards the C-4. The electric current sets off the blasting cap and detonating the charge. The Flame dragon is instantly killed in the ensuing explosion. Youji and the survivors of the engagement- Tuka, Lelei, and Yao flee the crater of Mount Tube as the place starts to collapse, with Youji only narrowly stopping Tuka from falling off the crater rim.
The JSDF Arrives
After escaping the crater, Itami comes across a severely wounded Rory and reattaches one of her arms, which had been severed in the fight with Giselle, allowing her to regenerate. Despite this, Rory is still weak when Giselle orders two of the flame dragon's offspring to attack Rory, Itami, and the others.
The dragons, however, never manage to complete the attack before they are injured by missiles launched from a pair of JSDF F-4 Phantom jet fighters. The fighters force the dragons to the ground, where they are immediately bombarded with missiles and artillery shells by AH-1S Cobra Attack Helicopters and Type 75 155 mm Self-Propelled Howitzers. The bombardment kills the dragons and wounds Giselle, who is taken into JSDF custody.
After returning to base, Itami is informed that he will not face any major disciplinary action for his going AWOL, beyond a pay cut and reassignment to a team searching for mineral resources in the Special Region.