Interlude: Travel Log
Some time ago, around the same moment Alma was defeated by Lucci...
Orphia had teleported back with Gouki and his people on a mountain a few kilometers from the capital of Galtuuk.
“Let us hurry, Lady Orphia. Please lead the way,” Gouki immediately prompted. He had been informed of the situation before they arrived.
Orphia had witnessed ominous black shapes raining down from the sky the moment before she left the capital. There was a high possibility that the castle where Miharu and the others were was in danger, so she had brought them here with great haste.
“Yes, but Ariel is only able to carry eight people at once... No, if we consider the possibility of an aerial battle, it may be best to limit it to five.” While Aria could fly on her own, there were too many of Gouki’s people to carry.
There was the representative of their party, Gouki; his wife Kayoko; their daughter Komomo; Sayo, who left her village to chase after Rio; and her brother Shin, who came along out of concern for his little sister. There were also twelve of Gouki’s attendants, who had been serving his family for many years.
“In that case, we can split into two groups. Three of my people will come with Kayoko and me,” Gouki said, promptly deciding which members would head to the castle. “Aoi, Shin, and Sayo... You remain here with Komomo and the others.”
“I will set up the stone house here for them.” Orphia quickly set up the stone house nearby for the people staying behind to wait inside. The only basis for the bad feeling she had was the black shapes she saw just before teleporting. If the castle was actually safe, her efforts would be for nothing, but that was fine with her. It was better to hurry just in case. However, on the way to the capital, they discovered that her worries were not unfounded.
“What is that...?” The first person to notice was Orphia, who was flying in the front. She was at a height of roughly five hundred meters above ground, but there were many shapes falling rapidly from even higher before her. They numbered around fifty, and they were approaching them at a rapid speed.
“Th-They may be lower class demi-dragons!” Orphia yelled, identifying the shapes immediately. They closely resembled the winged lizards often spotted throughout the Wilderness.
“So that’s a demi-dragon... Hmm.” Gouki looked at them curiously, having never seen one before.
“They’re most likely winged lizards. But why are they here in such large numbers...?”
Their territory should have been in the Wilderness. The odd individual wandered into the Strahl region from time to time, and there had been kingdoms that tried to catch them for breeding and taming like griffins, but there hadn’t been any success. That was what Rio had told her before, so it was strange for them to be by Galarc Castle in such large numbers.
However, there was something about them that was different to the winged lizards Orphia knew. Firstly, their skin color was as dark as a Black Wyvern. Secondly...
“What?!”
When the winged lizard opened its mouth, a breath of fire came rushing out to kill them.
“Haaah!” Orphia flew towards the winged lizard, creating a barrier of wind to protect Ariel and the passengers behind her. The breath was cleanly redirected away.
“Splendid!” Gouki laughed in praise. “These things have appeared to stop us from approaching the castle, it seems. They must be related to the black shapes you saw earlier, Lady Orphia.”
There was no basis for his guess, but his senses had been sharpened by many years of combat experience, and that was what his senses were telling him.
“Here they come!” Orphia suddenly warned.
The winged lizards made a rapid approach to bite at Gouki’s group.
“Looks like we’ll have to eliminate them!” As soon as Gouki shouted that, he leaped from Ariel’s back, falling under the force of gravity. “Ha ha! How convenient indeed. As expected of Lord Dominic.”
He kicked the air and started running across it. The secret to this feat was in the boots he wore. They were a magic artifact crafted by Dominic, capable of creating tiny magic barriers to serve as footholds for running and leaping through the air.
Sara and Alma could do the same with spirit arts, but it was a technique that required delicate control of essence. If Gouki was to learn the technique from scratch as a human, it would take quite a long time. That’s why, although they were a little tricky to use, these boots were designed to support his spirit arts.
I may not be able to fly freely like Sir Rio and Lady Orphia, but at least I can fight in the air now! Gouki rejoiced. This was to be his first battle in the air.
“Hmph!” Gouki charged into a winged lizard from the front, drawing his sword as he passed. The winged lizard’s tough body was cleanly sliced in half.
“Ha ha, I couldn’t be more grateful to Lord Dominic. What a splendid blade.”
The sword he carried was named Kamaitachi. It had been forged by Dominic for Gouki after Gouki had told him about all the weapons and armor in the Yagumo region. The sword had perfect compatibility with its wielder, who had named it—Gouki specialized in wind spirit arts, and this top-class weapon could clad itself in wind arts just like Rio’s.
The winged lizards scattered like mist in the air, leaving behind enchanted gems that dropped to the ground below.
Monster gems? They’re not winged lizards...?
Orphia was confused by the sight of the gems. She couldn’t retrieve the enchanted gems during battle, but an analysis would be necessary.
She used her spirit arts to create several balls of lightning, then fired them at the fake winged lizards at a rapid speed. The lightning orbs struck several of the creatures.
“Gyaaah!” The fake winged lizards merely staggered from the impact and continued to fly.
It seems arts have little effect on them, just like real winged lizards.
Thanks to that, she now knew their strengths and weaknesses. It seemed they were basically winged lizards that could breathe fire.
“Arts that convert magic essence to energy will have little effect. If you’re going to attack with spirit arts, create something with physical substance or impact!” Orphia immediately explained to the others.
“I see. Understood. Everyone hear her?” Kayoko asked the three attendants that remained with her on Ariel’s back.
“Yes!”
“Then let us go. We didn’t come along to be baggage. Let’s prove our worth.”
With those words, Kayoko jumped from Ariel’s back. Her attendants followed. They were elites that had been trained in combat by Gouki and Kayoko from a young age. They ran through the air without any fear.
Incidentally, the weapon Kayoko held in her hand was a kodachi. Even if she was able to run through the air, her weapon reach seemed insufficient to take on the winged lizards. However...
“Grah?!”
A stream of water extended ten meters from the end of her kodachi, wrapping around the body of a winged lizard like a whip. With its moves restricted midair, the winged lizard lost balance.
“Hmm...” Kayoko pulled the winged lizard in towards her, then burst into a run. She then drew one more kodachi from its sheath and stabbed it into the creature’s head. The winged lizard died, leaving behind an enchanted gem.
What a wonderful blade indeed. The skin of the creature appeared fairly tough, yet...
The kodachi had pierced the head of the demi-dragon smoothly, like there was no resistance at all. Both of the kodachi in Kayoko’s hands were top-class weapons forged by Dominic. They were optimized for water spirit arts, which she specialized in.
If they can be killed with a single strike to the head, then there’s no need to restrain them. I should be able to conserve my magic essence. There’s no telling how harsh the battle will be once we arrive at the castle.
As she was thinking such things, the next winged lizard drew near to bite her to death. But the moment it opened its mouth—
“If you open your jaw so wide, you’ll obstruct your own vision. And it’s bad manners,” Kayoko muttered. She waited until the last moment before moving. The jaws closed around nothing but air.
“Grr...?!”
Heavy pressure from above caused the winged lizard’s body to drop. Kayoko had leaped up, using the momentum of her fall to thrust her kodachi in its skull.
The winged lizard made to scream, but its vision was already black. Its body soon dispersed.
“Right. Let’s clean this up quickly!”
The greatest fear of midair combat was the possibility of enemies coming from every direction, but both Gouki and Kayoko handled themselves perfectly in their first midair battle, cutting down every winged lizard that approached. Gouki’s three attendants worked as a team to handle their share of the enemies without any issues either.
They’re amazing... I can’t fight like that, so I’ll use my ice...
Orphia was impressed, but quickly activated her spirit arts to join the fray. She figured that simply releasing her essence as cold air wouldn’t be enough to freeze them, so she chose to stab them with ice spears instead. If Celia was a master at making fixed forts, then Orphia was a master at making moving ones. She simultaneously cast her flying spirit arts with the ice spear creation, counterattacking all the winged lizards that approached her.
“Kreee!” Orphia’s contract spirit, Ariel, manipulated the wind to push the winged lizards back, adjusting how many of them approached at once.
Thus, over thirty winged lizards were defeated in a matter of minutes. At that point, the remaining enemies seemed reluctant to approach just to be killed.
“Gyaaah!”
They stopped their attempts to bite in favor of circling them from a distance.
“Ugh, their movements have changed. Everyone, fall back!” Gouki ordered.
“Please get on Ariel’s back. They’re about to breathe their fire.” At Orphia’s suggestion, the humans that couldn’t fly returned to Ariel’s back.
“Graaah!”
As she expected, the winged lizards began to breathe fire. However, Orphia and Ariel both could control the wind. They didn’t allow the flames to reach them.
“Winged lizards normally challenge enemies they have an advantage over...”
The winged lizards here were clearly abnormal. They were monsters that dropped enchanted gems. Orphia frowned, realizing once again that something was odd.
“Hmm. Their movements are strangely unified. I don’t see any specific leader of the group... Their only goal seems to be to stall us.”
“Although we’re able to run through the air now, enemies that can fly freely are still difficult to take on.”
“Indeed. There’s no telling what’s happening at Sir Rio’s mansion, so we shouldn’t remain here any longer.”
Gouki looked around at the winged lizards with suspicion, while Kayoko expressed her annoyance at the battle dragging out. Thus, Orphia came up with a suggestion.
“How about you all go with Ariel to check on the castle first? I can take on the rest of them alone.”
“Hmm. Are you sure?”
“Yes. The numbers have been reduced by a lot already. The capital is right before us, and there might be something going on there. Ariel knows where Rio’s mansion is located too.”
Orphia recalled the black shapes she had seen before teleporting. She wanted to check on things as soon as possible. They were currently one kilometer from the capital. Ariel could make that distance in no time at all.
“Indeed... All right. We will return immediately if everything is fine over there.”
Gouki’s group specialized in close combat, so they had been disadvantaged from the moment the winged lizards started to keep their distance. Orphia was best suited for long-distance combat with her spirit arts, so it was the most efficient decision to make at the moment.
The winged lizards were breathing fire even at this moment, but Orphia’s wind barrier was blocking the attacks perfectly. She should have no issue taking them on alone.
“Yes, and I will follow after you as soon as I’m done. I finished preparing my magic essence while we were talking—I’m going to release a large-scale art. Ariel will take off at my signal.”
“Understood,” Gouki nodded.
“Go, Ariel!”
“Kreee!”
At Orphia’s signal, Ariel started flying for the capital. Until now, Ariel had remained stationary through the use of wind spirit arts, but it accelerated rapidly the moment it flapped its wings.
“Graaah!”
The winged lizards redirected their fire, but Ariel had a wind barrier set up to veer the flames away. Then, once Ariel had made it a certain distance away, Orphia began her attack.
“I am your opponent!” A large tornado appeared around her.
“Grah?!”
The winged lizards were swallowed in the tornado, losing their balance to the point they could no longer fly. However, the tornado itself didn’t do any damage to them. Letting them fall to the ground was one way they could be damaged, but Orphia chose to send them higher up into the air instead. Then she took aim at the staggering winged lizards and fired her ice spears.
“Greeeh?!”
An ice lance pierced through the bodies of the winged lizards. Some survived the first spear, but were soon taken out by the follow-up attack.
“All right!”
By the time Orphia cleaned off the remaining winged lizards, Gouki’s group had just arrived in the skies above Rio’s mansion.
◇ ◇ ◇
Meanwhile, Reiss was hiding far above the clouds after sending the winged lizards to stall Orphia’s group.
A swarm of fifty dark winged lizards was eliminated so easily. I figured demi-dragons would be the best matchup against a caster and her mid-class spirit, but alas...
He had made quite the miscalculation. He hadn’t been expecting to defeat her completely, but had thought she would struggle more than this. It should have been enough to fulfill his goal of buying some time.
Winged lizards were the weakest variety of flying demi-dragons, but that didn’t make them weak as monsters. Their skin was hard and resistant to magic essence, their teeth were sharp, and they could fly around the air freely. On top of that, the ones Reiss released could breathe fire. They were not weak by any means at all.
What he hadn’t accounted for was how skilled Orphia was at spirit arts, even for a high elf.
The spirit art used to fly in the air was highly advanced. That was why most spirit folk were unable to cast large-scale arts while flying at the same time—but it seemed Orphia was an exception to this.
Furthermore, she’s brought along some powerful reinforcements. Where are all these troublesome people appearing from, honestly...
Reiss chuckled to himself. Even he didn’t know why he was laughing at a situation one would normally be angered at.
It seems I was completely preoccupied with the Black Knight and his contract spirit.
He had underestimated the people gathered around Rio without realizing it himself. He knew they had some decent skills, but he figured they were fine to leave alone.
However, when all these skilled people gathered together, they formed a formidable force equal to a major nation.
There’s no mistaking the fact the Black Knight is the most troublesome, though. We must obtain insurance against him. But if we’re unable to secure a hostage, then... At worst, we should consider reducing the forces around him. The attack this time is assumed to be the work of the Heavenly Lions, after all.
If they couldn’t secure a hostage, then they’d stop worrying about capturing them alive.
If we do this, they’ll be convinced that I’m still alive, but...
But it was worth doing anyway, he decided.
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