"Sylvia! Are you okay? Don't give up, we're almost there!" Shouted the man — pilot of the bird.
He knitted his thick brows, and his sharp eyes with azure pupils were filled with worries; sweats were flying from his spiky red hair that dangled in the air caused by the wind pressure, and his long pointed nose twitched. His swollen muscles were unnoticed by his slightly tanned skin; in his mouth, he was grating his teeth.
The unshaven beard was settling on his chin.
He was wearing a sweated dark red t-shirt doubled with a padded vest of red color as well, it was paired with combat trousers. He was wearing combat boots on his feet. Both pieces of equipment were made of good quality materials with fairly high resistance from physical and magical attacks.
"Y-Yeah, s-somehow, Jun." Said the person in grave voice who was lying horizontally on top of the bird and behind the pilot.
Her chocolate-colored hair that is tied at the back was fluttering caused by the wind. At the moment, her features look pale. Even her lips had faded colors. The dark circles below her eyes gave off a hint of how weak she was at the moment.
Swoosh! The bird they were riding glided to the left behind the 4-story building.
Jun felt relieved at her reply.
But.
"Damn it, those assholes chase even here!" Swear Jun under his breath.
Swoosh! Another bird glided closer to Jun's bird. Rode on it was a girl, and a man was well-tied on the back the same as Sylvia's situation.
"Jun, Sylvia! Are you okay?!" Worriedly asked the girl pilot rode on another bird. Her black hair with highlights of pink was tied in a pigtail. She also has lovely big eyes, pointed small nose, rosy lips, and cute face.
She was wearing a pink fitted suit toppled with a black vest and black shorts.
"We managed to evade at the last second! Where are the others?!" Jun replied.
Because of the wind pressure, they had to shout in order to converse. Most of them had knitted their brows and frowned to fight back the pressure that was caressing their skin.
Actually, they could converse using communication features in their Cyber Screen. But right now, they were conserving their deity's battery.
"They turned right, we will reunite them after we pass this residential area!" Shouted the girl pilot.
"Okay! By the way, Sierra, how's Pol?!" Jun nodded and asked in a loud voice.
The girl named Sierra glanced at her back and signaled a thumbs-up to Jun while saying, "Still unconscious, but he was breathing!" Sierra replied in a mischievous manner.
Jun sighed in relief and glanced at his back yet he widened his eyes.
"The heck! Watch out!" He shouted a warning.
Swooooooosh! ~~~~Bang! Another line of azure light trailed towards them. It went straight and hit the building in front.
Debris fell down from the broken part of the building.
"Hehehe! The rats managed to evade, boss!" One of the people covered in dark blue cloths jibed.
"Tsk!" The leader of the group clicked his tongue.
Fortunately, Jun was able to maneuver to his right. He also saw Sierra glided to her left. The both of them went into the opposite directions and twirl around the 4-story building.
Many people below were shouting.
Some were taking videos using their MTMD's. But magicians mostly use their Cyber Screen to record it.
"Damn it! Who are those people??!" Angry shouts of one of the residents below.
"I believe they were magicians from the academy! But I don't know those people who are chasing after them!"
"Oh my god! They even intruded here in the city at this time of the day!"
"Are they from another academy's magicians?"
"No one knows about that. Since they were disguising themselves!"
"Gosh! They were firing high-level magic without consent!"
"Call for military guards!"
"Are you an idiot?! Do you think it's easy to get a hand of a Transpo bird? Even if they come, they could only watch below together with us!"
"Fucktards! It's better than doing nothing!"
"I agree. Let them work!"
"Hump! Their work is to balloon their bellies! They could not even catch a single thief who stole my husband's underwear!"
"Ah, this morning I woke up and saw male underwear beside me but I didn't steal it! I promise!" Shouts a guy with thick makeup on his face.
"Damn gay!"
"....."
"Hey, guys look!"
"What is that?"
"Is that a monster?"
"Oh no!"
Such noisy shouts coming from the people below. They suddenly focused their cameras on a mysterious individual running and jumping from building to building at a high-speed going towards the directions of the bird riders.
"Holy shit! What kind of monster is that?"
Jun didn't even recognize these people. They suddenly attack their group while they were resting in the woods after completing a mission of killing a fierce beast that wrecked a village located to the east of this city.
They tried to fight back since they have the number advantage.
However, most of them had already exhausted their mana and stamina before the battle started, hence, they were barely able to return fire.
Jun had no choice but to order a retreat when half of them fell wounded together with their two most trusted medic magicians.
...
After Jun succeeded in evading the azure light attack, he proceeded to maneuver the bird in full speed, trying to lost the enemies.
Three members of the people from the enemy side chased after Jun, and the other two went to chase Sierra.
The enemies were raining fires at them. Jun had no way to return the fire and focused himself on evading.
Jun stole a glance at the back and saw a red hot flame shot towards him.
He hastily maneuvered the bird to descend; yet, he noticed an azure light shot below. Jun grated his teeth and disregarded his initial plan and chose to increase his speed while crouching his head on the bird's back.
The flame passed by a hair's breadth away from his head, his scalp could even feel the burning aura of it.
Abruptly, he glided to his left because another high-level magic was coming to his way.
Weng, weeeeng, weeeeeeng! A wind cutter attack was fast approaching him! It was a spinning crescent moon-shaped.
This attack was no doubt could easily slice him in half!
Jun felt he could not avoid it by simply swinging left and right. He strengthened his grip on the bird's rope and forcefully maneuvered it.
The Peon bird hid its wings and dove free falling on the ground. Because of this, he was able to avoid the wind cutter attack and it passed above them while leaving sharp spinning sounds behind.
It then hit a billboard of a product and sliced it in half.
Before the Peon bird hit the ground it suddenly spread its wings and hovered above, then it flew at full speed. It spinned its body to avoid the falling half of the billboard.
He continued evading while swirling around the building. The enemies continued their nonstop attacks.
"Guehehehe, boss, we are almost at the academy. We shall make a huge explosion at their barracks."
"No. We can't do that."
"Eh? Why?"
"What do you think of us? Terrorist? Our mission is to pressure the magicians in this city."
"Isn't it a better idea to destroy their barracks instead? I'm sure it gives them more pressure if they lost their barracks."
"If we do that, those high-level elders won't just stay silent, idiot."
"Then, why are we chasing them until here, boss?"
"Hehehe, don't you think those girls in their team are very attractive?"
"Guehehehe! I like that idea boss! Looks like joining your team is the most right decision that I'd ever made."
"Ehehehehehe!"
"Gyahaha, the boss is right, Bean Cutter! With this disguise, I bet they wouldn't know who we are!"
"Damn you! Who'd you call a Bean Cutter?"
"Gyahahaha! It's you! Dumbass!"
"You yourself are dumbass, Lighter!"
"Lighter, huh! You want a go?"
"Sure, the challenge is accepted! Guehehehe!"
"You two stop it!"
"Pwe, say thanks to the boss, Bean Cutter. You avoided turning into a crisp!"
"Guehehe, you must be the one to thank the boss, Lighter. If not, your good as a piece of swiss cheese."
"Hehehehe, before the two of you fight each other, At least hit the target in front. I heard after this residential area was a hill with thick forest. Then the academy is beyond it. We must catch them before that!"
The leader exclaimed then decided to increase the bird's speed. Immediately, his hand was enveloped by azure brilliance once again and he shot it to the person riding a Peon transport bird in front.
He frowned when that person was able to evade it.
"Boss, wait up!"
"Wait for us, boss!"
Jun glanced at the back and clicked his tongue. 'Damn it! As expected of those Hell Chaser birds, they really live to their name! They could easily chase the Peon birds. Although they don't have high stamina compared to the Peon birds, Hell Chaser birds are known to be one of the fastest transport birds.' Jun mulled.
Beads of sweats splattered and mingled in the air. He returned his gaze in front as he was already able to pass by the residential buildings.
Looking from others' perspective, they looked like they were playing tag. Drifting along the buildings in every direction to lose the trail of the enemies that are chasing after them.
"Jun!"
He saw Sierra at his left side being chased by two people. She shouted his name while dodging the rapid-fire of magical attacks.
Sierra seemingly annoyed as she summoned a wind element in her delicate hand and formed it into a shape of the disc then threw towards one of the enemies while shouting, "Fuck off!".
Yet.
*Shing!*
It was sliced by a sword coated by a similar wind element.
The spell she shot was just a low-level spell. But at the moment most of them could not muster high-level spells because of mana exhaustion.
Jun knew that Sierra was as tired as most of them.
A moment later,
"Guehehe, we finally caught up on you, boy!"
Said one of the people covered in dark blue cloths. His wicked eyes were peeking under the hood of cloth.
'Damn it!' Jun curses inwardly. Just a moment that he glanced somewhere and they already caught upon him!
Jun tried to maneuver to his left to increase the distance from them. But...
"Gyahaha, where are you going, Sissy?"
"Tsk!" Jun gritted his teeth when another person appeared on his left. Now he was in the middle. He was being pincered.
"Ehehehe, you are chicken-mate(He means checkmate), punk!" Jun glanced above and saw one of the enemies said this line.
Jun felt dejected and his face turned grim at the situation.
He bit his lips and tried to summon one ounce of his mana. But with a puff, he suddenly felt weak and his deity landed on his shoulder.
"No, way..." his mana and deity's battery hit the limit and it canceled their resonance.
He also saw Sierra in the same situation as him.
'This is the end.' He thought in dismay. He could not even save Sylvia. What a loser party leader he was. He glanced behind to see Sylvia. He noticed that she already lost her consciousness.
'Damn it!' He curses inwardly.
"Ehehehe, too bad, Chickens, You almost succeeded in getting away! Ehehe," said the group leader and wetted his lips that broke into a toothy grin.
"Gyahaha, don't cry cow, I mean coward! Haha...!"
"Guehehe. Boss, this girl here is barely alive, let me have a taste of her before she passed away!"
Hearing this remark, Jun's face turned sour, but he could not even summon a little bit of strength.
Suddenly.
"Heh, so that's what this is all about, huh!"
They heard a cold voice, but none of them recognized it. The three glanced behind them but...
Bang!
The leader was sent flying below.
And a person? Monster? Landed on the bird's back where the supposed position of their leader.
"What?!!"
Both of them gawked in disbelief. And question marks floated above their head. Wondering where this one came from? And how was he able to come here?!