Chapter 40

My hair moves as the emerald and silver wind bursts around my feet. Mysteriously, the wind against my body does not feel too strong in spite of my speed. Perhaps this was part of the ability.

“Run! Go Poshule!”

I could hear Fiona encouraging her half unicorn behind me. For such a beautiful half unicorn…it was a good name!

“Daniela, are you alright?”

I look down at her and ask. Her hands are still shaking as she clutches onto my clothes. But…

“Aye…I am fine.”

She was still nervous, but at least she was no longer completely stunned. I wanted to run like this all the way to Spiris if possible. But there was one problem.

I wasn’t sure if this city of the plains had a system of defense that could take on the wyvern. If this just happened to be a rare incident in these parts, things could get real bad. It would mean that we were bringing a huge disaster with us to the city.

But if wyvern attacks were common here?

I look at the walls which are getting closer and closer. They looked to be around 3 to 4 meters in height. They were impressive walls. Now, if only those were made to help protect them from wyverns…

“GOWHARWGGAAAAA!!!”

The roar of the flying beast explodes behind us. It was enough to turn your blood cold. However, there was no way I could allow it to slow me down now.

“How are you doing! Fiona!”

“I am fine! But this is horrifying!”

Well, I was relieved that she could say that much in this situation. I wasn’t sure just how fast the wyvern could get, but it seemed that it wasn’t quite as fast as a half unicorn, much less the ‘legs of a forest wolf.’

“We’re almost at Spiris! Can that city handle a wyvern!?”

I ask Fiona as she rides behind me. She’s a guild member and had been the first to react to this aerial assault. Perhaps she knew something about the city’s defenses.”

“It is fine! Keep going!!”

Got it. I look over my shoulder and nod. The half unicorn blows air from its nostrils and does its best to catch up with me. And so the distance between us and the wyvern grows.

“Daniela, do you have something like a whistling arrow?”

“No, I…do not. But you want to alert the city? Then…”

With shaking hands, Daniela takes out a single arrow from her quiver.

“It is a flash arrow. With this…”

“Are you able to shoot it?”

I ask gently. Daniela nods.

“There is no point in shooting it unless it is from here.”

She says with a severe expression. I manage to carry her with one arm as I sheath my sword before carrying her with both arms again. Thankfully, she was rather light.

And then Daniela takes out her bow and aimes at a point above the city. With it, she had nocked this arrow that she called a flash arrow. As its name suggested, it was likely going to emit some sort of light. I tell Fiona that we were ready.

“We are going to shoot a flash arrow to let the city know that we are coming. Be careful of the light!”

“Understood!!”

Fiona hugged the half unicorn’s neck tightly and whispered, “It’s going to be alright.”

Seeing this, Daniela nods and pulls back as far as the bowstring will allow, then releases. The arrow flies towards the city. I estimated it to be at around the halfway point between the city and us before it exploded into a bright light in the air. The cities guards must have surely become aware of the wyvern by now. And so they would become aware of us.

“Very impressive, Master Daniela. That’s perfect.”

“Mm… You are a good student, young Asagi.”

She was now calm enough to return my jokes. The only thing I was worried about was that her cheeks looked a little red.

Now, all we had to do was run. ‘Legs of the forest wolf’ meant I would not get tired. Well, I was almost certain that the pain would appear to a ridiculous degree later, but I couldn’t think about that now. Who knew how long the half unicorn could run? It had come all this way through the forest from Fhiraldo, so it must be pretty tired already.

The city was getting closer and closer. Those walls which looked so high were armed with ballistae. Perhaps those were used to attack the wyverns. I was sure then, that our approach should not be a problem. I could even see soldiers busily running on the ramparts.

Now there were guardsmen running out of the city gate. The one who stood in the lead was swinging a spear above his head. Was he calling to us? The guardsmen split into two sides with him in the center. I suppose they wanted us to go through them. I look towards Fiona and she nods. There was nothing to do but run.

But was it a good idea to continue running like this with ‘Legs of the forest wolf’…?

“Daniela, I want to avoid being seen using this skill. Though, I’m not sure if it isn’t already too late…”

“Aye, indeed… I think I can run now, thanks to you. Throw me aside just before you get to the hill. You should then grab onto the half unicorn.”

“What, I can’t do that…?”

I was starting to get the hang of it, and so I slow down my speed a little. I run parallel to Fiona and discuss it.

“Then all three of us can ride. Poshule can handle it!”

Apparently, he could handle it. Half unicorns were amazing.

“GOHGWAAHHHH!!!”

The wyvern roars once again behind us. There was an obvious rage in its voice over the fact that we were getting away. Of course, we were not so kind as to relieve it of this frustration.

Daniela reaches out a hand to the half unicorn. Just as I wonder what she is doing, I see that she is sending a current of magic energy. It was probably wind magic. For a second, the half unicorn is able to pass me. Not wanting to lose, I pass it once again. This repeats several times until we reach the last hill. Here we were no longer in sight of the city guards.

Daniela climbs onto the half unicorn as it goes up the hill, and I also stretch out an arm in order to get on. Daniela grabs my arm and pulls me up onto the horse. It’s clearly not very safe to be riding on the rear side of it, but we were almost there at least.

Then Daniela takes my arms and wraps them around her waist. She was telling me to hold on. I didn’t need any further encouragement as I held on tight. Hmm, perhaps I would be able to attack it from this position. I felt like the wyvern deserved some kind of thank you for making us run so much.

“Watch this… Here’s a shot to remember us by.”

“Asagi?”

Daniela looks at me with confusion. Her reaction makes me smile with a child-like mischievousness.

The half unicorn had now gone up all the way and was now descending the hill. It was just a little more now. We could see that the ballistae on the castle walls were aimed at the wyvern.

I stretch out my empty hand. The weapon that I create is the same ‘ice sword’ made of blue ice magic that I used in the fight against the orcs. I point the sword at the wyvern. There wasn’t much time, but I carefully take aim.

“We’re almost there!”

Fiona shouts. And I fire at the same moment. Just as I had intended, it is sucked into the left eye of the wyvern. The force of the sword being launched along with the oncoming speed of the wyvern was enough to make the blade sink all the way up to its hilt.

“GOGwaaAAAAAaaAAAAAaaaHhh!!!”

The sudden shock of pain causes the wyvern to lose control of its wings, and it plunges to the ground. Then it lunges forward, sliding through the fields of grass in a last desperate attempt to attack, but we are too far away now. I wave at the city guards with a newly formed sword of ice so they can see.

“OOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!”

The voices are powerful. A battle cry that is loud enough to make the air shake. These voices surround us as we ride through the space between them. The guard in the lead who is wielding the spear points it at the wyvern and shouts the command.

“FIREEEEEEE!!!”

We could hear the sounds of strings that were strained to their limits being unleashed over our heads. The sounds of ballistae firing. The screams of the wyvern immediately followed. Poshule, the half unicorn did not seem to be the least bit concerned about the fight occurring behind him. He finished the race, blasting straight into Spiris without having slowed down even once.