After seeing its opponent, a mere human boy, still unharmed despite all the attacks that it made, the Griffon reached a certain conclusion. The Griffon steeled its resolve and made its final move.
With the Steel Wing still activated, the Griffon stopped making afterimages and flapped its lustrous, majestic wings using the Wing Blast skill. The Griffon soared to the sky, surpassing supersonic speed.
Its launch was so intense that it created a shockwave that curved a shallow crater on the earth below it. The shockwave reached hundreds of meters from the crater and even billowed the long, lustrous black hair of the girl, who was standing a hundred meters away and watching the entire fight.
The Griffon continued to soar through the atmosphere until it reached an altitude of ten thousand meters above the ground in just five seconds.
The Griffon slowed its speed and stayed at altitude. It turned its body and fixed its gaze on the plains inside the dangerous forest. The plains had little vegetation despite being in the very fertile Great Forest of Darkness.
After surveying the area, the Griffon turned its sharp eagle eyes to a certain spot. The Griffon used the Extra Skill Telescopic Eye and confirmed that its target was staying still, levitating in the air.
The boy looked directly at its eye, as if he could see the Griffon clearly despite the unreachable distance. Which made the Griffon think that its chances of success were getting lower.
Even knowing that, the Griffon never felt insecure and firmed its resolve. Along with the cold winds, the Griffon continued to flap its wings, making itself constant with the altitude.
With the blazing sun and thin clouds above the Griffon, the half-lion, half-eagle monster opened its metallic wings and pointed its sharp beak toward its target.
The wings glowed upon the activation of the Wing Blast skill. The monster then waved its wings backward at an unimaginable speed.
Wing Blast was supposed to be an offense skill. The user would flap its wings forward to create intense air pressure and hit its target. But if the wings were flapped backward, it could be used as a force to propel oneself and increase its flight speed.
The wave of its wings causes the clouds behind it to scatter and form a void in the sky. From the surface, it looked like a blue hole within the forest of clouds.
As the Griffon dove from the atmosphere, it activated some skills midair. Hypersonic to increase its diving speed, surpassing Mach 10.
The Griffon then used a skill that it rarely uses, the Sky Dive. It is a skill that ignores the air resistance and increases the gravity acceleration. The Griffon rarely used it because it's a double-edged skill.
Every two thousand meters, the Griffon used Wing Blast to speed itself up. The Griffon repeats the process every two kilometers, like the shifting of gears in a sports car.
From the boy's point of view, the Griffon's dive was like the gliding of a peregrine falcon preying on its food. The difference was that its dive was faster than a jet's, and the prey was him.
As the Griffon dove faster as it closed the distance between the monster and the boy, it suddenly heard a mechanical voice.
It is just a split second, but the Griffon do not take heed of it as the Griffon don't understand human language. Instead, it just activated its newly acquired skill.
The Extra Skill Meteor Dive does not only increase the acceleration and ignore air resistance, but also increases the momentum of the dive for greater output and more destructive power. Not only that, it also penetrated some defenses and disrupted magic circles, canceling their casting.
From six thousand meters, the Griffon's diving speed increased significantly, and it seemed like a meteor. As the velocity goes up, the compressed air will heat up the falling object.
But that's not what happened to the Griffon. Because the Meteor Dive ignored the air resistance, there was no air being compressed. Making the Griffon unharmed during the dive.
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(This is bad!)
Sensing the significant change in speed, I startled for a split second but regained my composure afterwards. I knew it wouldn't work, but I still deployed barriers along its trajectory.
"Windshield. Mud Wall. Barrier. Light Barrier. Stone Wall. Ice Barrier. Iron Wall. Void Barrier. Anti-Physical Barrier."
I deployed barriers of different attributes to at least slow down the Griffon's falcon dive. Each barrier was rounded and had a diameter of 15 meters. The order was varied with the toughness of the given situation.
The first barriers were deployed three kilometers from me. All the barriers had a interval of a hundred meter from each other. But despite that, the Griffon still broke all of the defenses in just a few split seconds.
The Windshield blown, the Mud and Stone Walls crumbled, the Barriers were shattered, and the Iron Wall became a donut.
Seeing all the barricades shattered into pieces, I immediately enveloped myself in my last line of defense, which also served as my trump card once more. I stepped on my newly deployed Foothold created by my Space Magic.
With a quick split-second decision, I held my crimson sword with both hands and posed in a thrusting stance as I waited for the Griffon.
I didn't blink my eyes and focus my attention entirely on the Griffon. I have my ultra-fast Though Acceleration enhanced with Concentration technique to perceive the meteor-like dive.
I waited for the right moment to strike my sword. When the Griffon reached my range, I thrust my crimson katana right at its chest and did a Sword Art technique.
"Impaler!"
My sword launched at imperceivable speed past the Griffon's feathers. The tip penetrated its flesh, as did the rest.
Even though the guard had already hit its feathered chest, the momentum was still so powerful that I was pushed back. My Foothold cannot withstand the force and shatters like a mirror.
The Griffon's massive steel wings collide with my upper body. I let go of my sword and wrapped my arms against the wings. The Griffon dragged me until we hit the ground, creating a big crater on the surface.
"Raphael!"
I heard the cry of the sister, who was watching from afar, but I cannot see her because my vision is obstructed by the thick concentration of dust. Though I can still sense her running to my location with Detection.
"Are you okay?!"
"I'm fine."
I lifted the massive body of the unconscious Griffon and flipped it over. I stood up and brushed the dust off of my clothes and shoes.
"I thought you wouldn't leave unscathed."
"The Griffon made me use Impregnable Fortress twice. I give it my respect."
Even though I was hit by a meteor-like force, I am still unharmed due to my Ultimate Art: Impregnable Fortress. If not, my body would have been a Swiss cheese from the plumes before.
I approached the Griffon and pulled my katana from its chest, like pulling a sword from a stone, then sheathed it back in the scabbard. I looked at the Griffon and saw its condition.
Unlike me, the Griffon suffered serious injuries like dislocated wings, broken bones, and an internal hemorrhage. Blood is coming out of the crest and its mouth. In spite of that, the Griffon is still breathing and alive.
(It looks like I didn't stab its heart.)
"It depleted all of its mana and used it to perform its last resort. Even knowing that it cost its own life."
"Aren't you going to finish it?"
"I'll do the opposite."
"Huh?"
Ignoring my confused sister, I open both of my palms in front of the dying Griffon. I am here to demonstrate my token of respect.
"Area High Heal."
Upon chanting the name of the Level 6 Light Magic spell, a huge white magic circle with a tint of aquamarine appeared above the Griffon. Big enough that it covered the whole Griffon.
Then the magic circle emitted a pale white light and enveloped the Griffon below. Bathed in warm and soothing light, the Griffon's wounds closed up and healed. The fractured bones connected and were restored. The dislocated joints were fixed to their original positions.
"Done." I said after I did my job.
"Why are you healing it?"
"Maybe because I saw potential in it? I want it to get stronger so I can fight it someday."
"Are you certain it will not attack again?"
"Its mana and stamina had already been depleted. So it would take some time before it could get move. Let's investigate this unusual plain before it regains consciousness."
"Yeah."
As we turned our way toward the center of the plains, a familiar female voice rang in my head.
"…"
"? What's the matter?" she called me out noticing I halted my feet from walking.
"Ahh… looks like I tamed the Griffon just now…"
"What?"
When we looked back at the Griffon, it was now looking at us, still on the ground. It still has no strength to move and is rendered immobile.
"To think that you tamed a S-ranked Griffon. You are really something, Raphael. Even Mom could only tame monsters of A rank and below."
"I do not have the slightest thought of taming a monster, let alone a legendary Griffon."
Mom had a Taming skill, and she was able to summon them using the Summoning Skill. When we asked her to show us her tamed monster, she summoned a jet-black, A-ranked Thunderbird that was soaring thunderously in the sky.
"What are you going to do with it?"
"I'll make use of it." then I conjured a small bottle from my Inventory.
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Elixir - a potion made from a mixture of Moon Mushroom extract and other herbs. If consumed directly, it will partially restore the consumer's stamina.
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I took off the lid and splashed its aquamarine content on the laying Griffon. The liquid submerged into its lustrous coffee-brown feathers and was then absorbed under its skin.
The Griffon stood up in place post-restoration and spread its wings wide. There's no word I could explain but majestic.
"There you have it. Aerial transportation, acquired."
"Well, air is definitely faster than we have on land. Let's go now and find the answers to this irregularity."