Meanwhile, Latifa was still running through the forest. A four-meter long
bird — Orphia's contracted spirit, Ariel — had been flying above the forest
near the village. Orphia and Uzuma were also patrolling the skies, along with
several other warriors from the village.
"Another intruder, huh? That makes two in the past six months. These
aren't very peaceful times," Alma murmured from where she sat on Ariel's
back. Sitting next to her, was Sara.
"It'd be fine if they just left like this," she said. "And if they're human,
we can just ask what their motive is. Uzuma, make sure you don't make the
same mistake as that time with Rio."
"I-I know that!" Sara's stern warning made Uzuma nod in guilt from
where she flew nearby.
Their urgent flight continued for another quarter of a temporal hour
(roughly 30 minutes). Sara's group arrived in the vicinity where the greatest
ode reaction was observed; all they had left to do was investigate the area and
locate the target.
"Orphia, are there any suspicious ode reactions nearby?" Sara asked.
"...Two near the spring over there." Orphia replied a few seconds later.
"There's a human! And that's... a griffin!" Uzuma spotted the target
instantly with her sharp vision.
"...Let's descend into the forest first. Then, as we discussed earlier, we'll
listen to what they have to say, peacefully. If the human tries to make a run
on the griffin, we'll restrain them."
At Sara's orders, the party moved down into the forest and towards the
spring.
◇◇◇
The boy paced in circles around the spring.
"He said he'd be back soon... Damn it!"
Thirty minutes had passed since Reiss left to explore the area. Yet there
was still no sign of his return. Just then, the bushes nearby started to rustle.
"Mr. Reiss?!"
The boy's expression brightened as he turned towards the sound. But the
moment he spotted who had appeared from the bushes, the color immediately drained from his face.
"D-Demi-humans..." The boy murmured in shock at the sight of Sara's
group. Sara's group seemed to be able to hear his words, as their expressions
furrowed in the slightest.
"We would like to talk to you. Will you come with us quietly without
putting up a fight?"
"Eh? Ah, umm... haha."
The boy moved his left hand to his waist in a panic, pasting a fake smile
on his face as he cautiously backed away towards the griffin. He shot a
glance towards where the egg was.
"...What kind of egg is that?" Sara asked in suspicion and looked at the
egg.
"Oh, umm, I wonder..." The boy picked up the egg in his right hand as he
gauged their faces for their reactions.
"Please refrain from making sudden moves. We do not wish to do this
the hard way, but we do have appropriate countermeasures prepared if we
sense any hostility from your actions. Will you answer our questions?" Sara
asked sincerely as she attempted to negotiate a compromise.
In actuality, humans very rarely passed through this forest. Because of
this, the village warriors — including Sara — did not have much experience
with situations like this. There was no protocol for this situation.
When Rio had intruded half a year ago, their wariness had caused them
to act rashly, making them lose their calm and causing Uzuma to go into a
frenzy. That was why they had reflected on that experience and chosen to
take the calm approach this time. However —
"S-Sorry!"
The boy tucked the egg into his side and pulled out a knife hidden at his
waist, moving to cut the rope that tied the griffin to the tree. Then, he jumped
onto the griffin's back.
"H-Hold it right there!" Sara yelled in a panic.
But the boy ignored her order and directed the griffin to take off into the
air.
"We have no other choice! Sara, give the order to attack!" Uzuma yelled
as she activated the spirit art she held ready in her hand. The other warriors
immediately prepared themselves to go on the offense.
"Kuh! Aim for the griffin! Make sure you don't kill the human boy!"
Sara commanded, and several of the warriors launched less harmful spirit art attacks into the air.
But griffins weren't called the rulers of the skies for nothing: with their
high intelligence, they could detect the low power attacks directed at them
and calmly make maneuvers in the air to avoid them.
"Kaaaaah!" The griffin let out a high-pitched screech and flapped its
wings as it suddenly sped up.
"I-It's fast! Get after it -- that's the direction of the village!" Sara yelled,
taken aback. The warriors of the village all kicked off the ground and flew
into the air.
"Sara, get on Ariel!"
At some point, Orphia had materialized her own contract spirit. Alma had
already hopped on its back, so Sara hurried to join her.
"Yes, let's go!" Sara's group immediately took to the skies, flying high
above.
◇◇◇
"Ugh, why can they fly?! Damn monsters!" The boy yelled, seeing the
warriors of the village chasing him.
He had taken to the skies on the one-off chance they wouldn't be able to
fly after him, but he hadn't expected the pursuers to be able to give chase in
the air. If anything, this made the situation even worse than before.
"Hey, fly faster! You'll be killed, you know!" he shouted wildly,
ordering the griffin to accelerate using the method that Reiss has taught him.
Because of his desperate orders to accelerate — or maybe because of the
stress caused by the attacks it had just received — the griffin huffed in
agitation as it sped up. However, it still wasn't enough to pull away from the
village warriors behind him. If anything, they were closing the distance
between them, little by little. Realizing that it was only a matter of time
before he was caught, the boy's panic increased.
Just then, a black shadow covered the boy's vision. A large mass
descended upon him at a rapid speed, coming to a stop just before him.
"Huh...?" The boy let out a dumbfounded noise. He didn't understand
what had just happened.
"Kaaah?!"
Meanwhile, the griffin noticed that something had obstructed its path and
dropped its speed immediately. As a result, they barely avoided colliding with it.
However, the sudden movement had sent the boy flying, along with the
egg that had been tucked into his side. The boy's face twisted with fear as he
instinctively curled around the egg. Once he had secured the egg within his
grip, the boy fell through the tree leaves and branches at a high speed.
He felt the branches snap against his body, the powerful collisions
causing pain all over. In the middle of his descent, he let go of the egg he had
been carefully carrying, and landed on the ground, back-first.
"Gah!" A groan of pain escaped the boy's mouth at the same time the
egg made contact with the ground.
A huge crack ran along the shell, and the contents started to leak out. At
that moment —
"W-What?!"
Latifa's timid figure appeared; she had been running around the forest
aimlessly when a boy had fallen near her.
"A-Are you okay?"
Once she had spotted the fallen boy, she ran towards him in a hurry.
"Huh? A human...?" Latifa froze at the boy's human appearance. But,
despite his species, she couldn't cast aside someone so battered and injured.
"Are you all right?" she asked, and cast the healing spirit arts she had just
learned the other day.
"Ugh..." the boy groaned, and weakly opened his eyes.
He found himself face to face with Latifa, who had twitching fox ears
growing out of her head. His face twisted with fear.
"Eek! Stay away, monster!" he yelled, turning pale.
"Wh-Wha... Kya!" Latifa flinched and backed away, trembling.
After the boy pushed her away, he fled in a panic, face screwed up in
pain. Only Latifa and the cracked egg were left behind — or so she thought,
when...
"Kyaa?!"
Suddenly, a large black mass dropped from the sky, snapping the
branches of the trees as it fell. The force of its impact easily blew Latifa
away.
"Ugh... Eek?!" Latifa opened her eyes from where she laid.
Before her eyes was a dragon-like creature, with its front legs and wings
constructed as one limb, its whole body covered in black scales, and with a
height of 20 meters. It stared down coldly at Latifa.
This was a Black Wyvern — a member of the superior wyvern
subspecies, and it sat at the top of all other demi-dragons. Its combat abilities
were believed to be greater than all but pureblood dragons themselves. Even
amongst demi-dragons, they were of a completely different caliber than the
Winged Lizards that Latifa and Rio had encountered in the Wilderness.
"D-Dragon..."
To Latifa, who had never seen a real dragon before, the Black Wyvern's
form had a presence that was just as overwhelming as a true dragon.
"Grrrooaar!"
Latifa had been trying to get to her feet when the Black Wyvern's roar
made her cower. She let out a squeak and fell back down onto the ground. As
she began to slowly back away, the Black Wyvern shot her a glance that said
she wasn't worth its time, before looking around at its surroundings.
Then, once it spotted the cracked egg —
"GRAAAAAH!"
It let out an even greater roar at the heavens, and its enraged and
menacing eyes locked onto Latifa. The Black Wyvern twisted its body with a
snap; Latifa thought that it was turning itself around, but a whip-like tail
swung out horizontally, and the sound of air being sliced through rang
throughout the air. The trees, which grew everywhere in their surroundings,
were all mowed down at once.
Latifa's scream fell on deaf ears as it was drowned out by the thunderous
crash made by all of the trees that were sent flying.
◇◇◇
The village warriors came to a screeching halt at the grave situation that
had suddenly befallen them. Right after the enraged Black Wyvern suddenly
descended upon the boy on the griffin, another Black Wyvern appeared —
and it was leading several other wyverns.
"Lady Sara, it's a flight of the flying dragon subspecies!" Uzuma
immediately identified the intruders as she confronted them, as the wyvern
herd menacingly flapped their wings from a distance.
"Nobody panic! They wouldn't come this far out for nothing. They won't
attack immediately and it doesn't seem like they're here to hunt... Oh no,
don't tell me...!" Sara trailed off, remembering the egg the boy had been
carrying moments ago.
"Sara, it's the egg! What if that boy just now stole that egg?" Alma and
Sara came to the same conclusion.
"If so, this is bad. Both he and the egg are in the forest..." Sara bit down
hard on her lip, furrowing her brow.
One of the Black Wyverns had descended to where the boy had landed in
search of the egg. If the egg was safe, it was likely that the wyverns would
avoid a confrontation and simply return to where they came from. However,
if it wasn't... the worst-case scenario flashed through Sara's head, making a
chill run down her spine.
After some time, the Black Wyvern below them let out a roar towards the
skies, as the herd of flying dragons above beat their wings in a show of
furious grief.
"It doesn't seem like that's an option anymore. This is very bad. The
village is right there..." Alma's face scrunched up.
The Black Wyvern on the ground swung its tail and razed all of the trees
in the area. In response, the flying dragons in the air attacked Sara and the
others.
"Orphia, Alma! We're going to take care of those two Black Wyverns!
Uzuma, you lead the other warriors and eliminate the remaining wyverns!"
"Understood!"
The other members of their party moved out as soon as Sara gave the
order. As they faced the approaching wyvern herd, each warrior released their
most powerful specialty spirit arts. However, as many of the spirit users
present were of a flying type, most of those present specialized in wind
abilities.
Spirit arts could manipulate natural phenomena, but the laws of nature
could only be influenced, not completely dominated. Depending on the
strength of the arts user, one could ignore the laws of nature to bring about
unnatural phenomenon. When the village warriors used their spirit arts, the
surrounding winds blew violently, attacking the flying dragon with blasts of
air launched from blades of wind and ode.
However, even if they managed a direct hit against the wyvern's skin,
they had no effect other than a mild physical attack. At most, it slowed them
by a fraction. There was not much else it could do against the large frames of
what were, easily, ten-meter-tall examples of a typical sub-species. Wind
elemental spirit arts had a wider and more adaptable range of use compared
to other elements, but it also had a lot less power. Especially in a case where the opponents had such large bodies, in most circumstances, a spirit art of
great scale had to be used to not be outmatched.