"I guess we won't be seeing each other for a few days. I'll miss our morning 'practice,'" I say to the bird, and I see Hukarere's face cramp, holding back a smile.

"So will I," she whispers and glances towards Kaata.

Paraaone and Oritiki remain on our ship while the rest of the Celestial Horns fly over to the Floater to get some sleep. Hukarere retires to her bed, and the night shift handler takes over.

The girls drag Hana into the tent and make her strip down completely so that they can clean off every single drop of blood from her armor. Nobody wants to go to sleep hugging a stinky dragonkin.

The golems come up to the bridge, and I let them pilot while I simply keep watch. We'll be just following the Floater for now, so it'll be easy piloting even with the mist since the Floater has bright blinking lights for us to keep track of it.

Alissa climbs up to the bridge and gives me a hot cup of honeyed Tonique tea.

"Thank you, my love," I say and caress her cheek as I take the cup.

"I think I should stand watch with you. If you go to sleep without me, you could have a nightmare," she says, and her butt gently wiggles as her tail tries to break free from her armor.

"Yeah, I think that'd be for the best," I say and force a slightly sad smile.

I've been neglecting this issue, but right now would be a bad time to test it again.

I drink my tea while leaning against the railing, and Alissa offers me some jam-filled cookies.

"You're going to spoil me if you keep this up," I comment with a wry smile.

She giggles adorably and snuggles up to me, resting her head against my chestplate. "Everyone deserves to be spoiled with love," she replies and kisses my cheek. "I'll spoil the others too when I have the time."

I finish my mouthful of the cookie and say, "But don't exhaust yourself, okay? Remember to be mindful of your own condition and not just think of others all the time."

"Yes, yes. I still remember our talk about the two rules and overworking."

I finish my cup of tea, and she stores the tray of cookies away, then we just keep snuggling there for a long while.

The handler tells us to send over a summon to the Floater, so we exchange birds. The Carrier and the Winch will try to follow us, but since they're much slower, they'll definitely be left behind.

The Floater's bridge is smaller, but very similar to the Carrier's, except that there's a yellow [Beam] crystal positioned right beside the [Wind Shield] crystal below the captain's chair. Nohopu and Kurii, his beagle-headed female XO, aren't on the bridge anymore, so everything is completely quiet now.

The lights of the Floater can only reach a few hundred meters ahead, revealing nothing but white mist. The only sounds I can hear are those of the sleeping girls and the whistling wind coming from the elementals constantly blowing air into our sails.

Cloud Snakes are a notable danger in this area, so we're relying on the Floater's strong crystal light disrupting the monster's [Hide Presence] along with theirs and Alissa's [Sense Presence] detecting the monsters before they can attack.

Small fireflies start to appear, attracted to our crystal lights. These are manaflies, and if these cute bugs are around, then there could also be Ploms nearby. I tell the spirit elemental to check on our crystals every once in a while in case those mana-sucking rodents try to sneak into our hold again.

Oritiki spreads her wings and slowly floats up towards us. She stops right outside the bridge and asks, "How are you holding up? Not too scared of the Leviathan, are you?"

"As long as we keep our shields up, we seem to be safe," I calmly reply.

She smiles faintly. "Yeah, that's what makes the Leviathan so difficult to deal with. We can perfectly defend ourselves from it, but to actually kill one takes a lot more than that."

"If our shields go down, would you be able to defend us from both of them?" Alissa asks.

Oritiki nods gently and answers, "Sure, no problem. In case they try to attack, we can definitely give them a mortal wound, but it'd cost us most of our mana, so we'd only do that in an emergency…" She suddenly frowns, and her expression becomes serious. "Though, that albino's mirror is a bit of a problem."

"It can counter your… special attack?" I ask with a raised eyebrow.

"Partially. It seems to be more of a physical mirror than something… more 'abstract,' so it should still heat up if we unleash our [Beam]s at it, but it'd be a huge waste of our mana."

"If it learns how to deflect the [Beam] instead of scattering it, then we'll have a real problem," I say and point to the dark line burnt across the ship's deck.

Oritiki stares at the line in thought for a moment and says, "Yes, that's problematic. It seems that it'd be easier to just tire it our first with your dwarf's… special magic."

Alissa frowns slightly and says, "That could prove difficult since she has to maintain eye contact with the monster for it to work, and I believe that the albino won't be so easily lured into attacking us, right?"

Oritiki rubs her horn. "Hm… yes, I see. Perhaps she can stay on the Floater's bridge during the battle?" She turns to look at us.

"Then it would just stop attacking the Floater and attack us, instead, or even simply run away."

Oritiki's non-existent eyebrows knit in worry. "You're right, the albino is too smart to engage us long enough for that eye magic to work. Unless we enrage it…" She shakes her head. "Anyway, we should at least finish off the normal Leviathan; that'd be a massive blow to their strength."

"Do you think they have any monsters in reserve?" I ask.

She shakes her head. "They shouldn't. Before we crushed the Lancers, they should've sent any monsters they had in reserve, it'd be a complete blunder to not do so. I think that they only have the surviving Kite Dragons and disposable small monsters left."

"The albino did wait until the other Leviathan was wounded before joining the battle," Alissa comments.

"The blue Leviathan was probably trying to lure one of us away from the Carrier so that they could fight them two-on-one, but it seems that their plan failed spectacularly," Oritiki replies.

That's most likely because they didn't expect our ship to have [Wind Shield].

I nod and rub Alissa's ears in thought as I say, "So, we've already crushed them, and now, we're going in for the finisher."

"Exactly. Now you can see why we were so confident about this expedition," she says with a hint of pride in her smile.

At around 3:30 AM, two other horns arrive to replace Oritiki, and we wake up Roxanne and Hana to stand watch in our place. Alissa gives them some Tonique tea, and we drift off to sleep in our plate armor, which is even more uncomfortable than sleeping in our scale armor.

Today is the 18th.

-

Roxanne increased her [Water Magic] by 1 (now 1+29). Lina increased her [Throw] and [Cursing Magic] by 1 (now 4 and 10+5).

Also, today is Ciel's birthday. She's now twenty-two years old.

I call Aoi back into the tent with Yunia, then we surround Ciel and say in unison, "Congratulations, let this year be better than the last."

"Gih gih."

Ciel blushes and looks down, gushing with a smile.

I grab her hand and pull her towards me, then I immediately steal a tongue kiss. It doesn't last long because there's a line of eager women waiting to kiss her.

First up is Lina, obviously; then Alissa because she has a crush on my foxy lady; then Hana because she has to assert her dominance; then Roxanne, just because; then a lick from Aoi; and Yunia starts to seduce Ciel again by first kissing her hand, then staring deeply into her eyes with a gentle and sultry gaze.

"You age like Eia. The longer I spend with you, the further you let me see," Yunia says to Ciel in a deeper voice than normal, then kisses her lips.

"Uh… u-uhm… thank you…" Ciel says in a weak voice, stunned for a moment, then she starts chuckling.

I'll have to get Yunia to teach me how she does that.

"This isn't the most romantic place for a birthday, but we'll definitely compensate you accordingly," I say and give her hand a squeeze. She breaks out of Yunia's spell and turns to me. "Your gift will be that we allow you to ask anything from us once."

Yunia sends me a glance. She's not part of the [Bind] yet, so she's a bit concerned about what this "anything" might entail.

Ciel raises her eyebrows, then her gaze softens, and she looks around. "Hm… thank you, really, but I'll wait until we're in a better 'place' to claim my gift."

Lina scooches closer to Ciel, then grabs her hand and says, "For me, you don't have to wait. I'll always do whatever you need me to."

"Awn…" Ciel's heart bleeds a bit at that, and she gives Lina a tight hug. Their armor clinks as the plates rub against each other.

I call for a quick group hug, then we leave the tent.

We're up a little later than usual to compensate for the time we spent awake on watch.

Once we emerge, the Horns on the bridge bow respectfully and say that they have nothing to report; all they had to do was observe the golems during their watch.

We offer some breakfast to them, but they say that they'll eat the Chimeras' provisions so as to not burden ours, then they leave.

Ciel tells us that the Floater killed two Cloud Snakes during her watch. The Trinity Cannons are silent, so they only noticed that it had fired after they sensed the mana that was emitted.

The squirrel-headed captain and his beagle-headed XO woke up before us, so when we finish our breakfast, I request for them to recharge our ship. After a bit of delicate maneuvering, we align our ship with the Floater, then they recharge us on the fly. Our [Wind Shield] was drained quite a lot, but we only used about a quarter of its capacity. I'm really happy about how it's performing so far.

I can barely sense the mana of the bleeding Leviathan, but when I put my points in [Sense Mana], it becomes very noticeable.

Lina's Trivia: Someone who has a high-level in [Sense Mana] is called a "sniffer" since they can very accurately discern the "flavors" of mana. The Floater always has at least one of them on the bridge helping the pilot stay on track.

"This mist is starting to make me miss the High Forest," Yunia comments to Aoi as she stares wistfully at the endless white sea.

"Yeah, me too. Hunting Prowlers in the mist was always so intense; I miss it a bit. I wonder what made this mist, though," Alissa says through [Bind].

"It's not like the Eia mist in Escanso, this mist is purely physical," Yunia answers.

"That it doesn't dissipate under the sun tells us that its source is likely magical," Alissa says.

"That might just be right."

Yunia simply can't stand the line burnt across our deck and takes it upon herself to fix it with her [Nature Magic].

The morning quickly passes by, and we only encounter a few stray harpies that get instantly one-shot by Alissa. We set aside one for Aoi to eat while we harvest the chicken parts from the others. Buffalo wings are back on the menu, boys.

Preparing lunch in the mist is rather annoying since it makes the toasted bread for our soup get a bit too moist.

Islets start to appear nearby, and I completely lose the Leviathan's trail, but the sniffers can still sense it with some difficulty. The floating crystals in the islets interfere with their sensing a bit, but it's not enough to shake them off the trail.

A stray Stone Lancer forces us to turn on our [Wind Shield], so I use it to test the golems' reaction time and control over the enchantment. The results please me, and I believe that the golems are now ready to fly defensively during combat.

Some random Vengeful Spirits start to appear, but they're all easily dealt with. Their appearance is a sign that we've entered the "wilderness," which means that the strength and types of monsters here are unknown, so code yellow is given.

A few hours later, Gify suddenly shivers.

"Gih."

"A Leviathan is nearby," I report to the birds.

"You have your orders," Hihiriwa calmly responds.

Nohopu jumps out of his chair and exclaims, "Where?! Direction, distance, elevation?!"

"I don't know. My nature spirit only knows that it's nearby," I answer.

"Code orange, prepare for battle!" Nohopu orders and sits back down, then he starts tapping his clawed foot rapidly on the glass floor.

Oritiki ends her rest on the Floater and brings all the Horns back to our ship.

We spend a tense half-hour waiting. The reduced visibility is simply brutal on our nerves. Even though we know that [Wind Shield] will protect us, the tension of not knowing when the battle will start is still a burden on our minds.

The sniffer on the Floater's bridge is suddenly startled. "I smell Spirit magic, and it's not ours!" He exclaims.

"Leviathan?" Kurii asks.

He shakes his head. "No. It has a tinge of 'death' to it. It could be the Vengeful Spirits, and quite a lot of them."

He was right. A few minutes later, we see them, a swarm of Vengeful Spirits, and the albino Leviathan behind them, lazily swimming towards us. It blankly stares down directly at the Floater with its white eyes, but the intensity of its stare makes us all tense up.

Then we see it: the Spirits are running from the Leviathan; they're like anchovies spooked by a whale.

"It's trying to force us off its trail!" Nohopu angrily exclaims and clacks his bucked teeth loudly.

"The wounded Leviathan can't be far if the albino managed to corral all these Spirits here," Kurii says.

"Ignore the spirits and the Leviathan! Find that trail!" Nohopu orders, then he gets up and glares at the birds. "RYDERS, ORITIKI, CHA~RGE!"

The pilot pulls two levers all the way down, and the Floater's propellers spin at full power. A gust of wind hits us as their ship rapidly accelerates, leaving us behind.

"Full speed ahead!" I order the wind elementals, and they increase the amount of wind they blow into our sails.

"Surround the ship!" Oritiki orders her Horns.

"Ryder, ram the Leviathan! Oritiki, distract it from close range!" Nohopu orders. The comms box lights up with the "ram" command.

Fucking hell.

Gify hides inside my armor again and grumbles. The Leviathan's long-range spiritual attack is a nightmare for her.

Roxanne recharges the wind elementals with her mana while Ciel starts to help them guide the wind. Together, all of them start burning mana to boost our speed.

"Yunia, watch the mast in case it starts to break under the strain!" Ciel orders and Yunia obeys.

The Horns glow, and the Floater intensifies the light of its crystal, glowing so brightly that it damages the Spirits, who then become confused like headless chickens, not knowing which way they should run. The Floater could send a Spirit mana pulse to make them disperse, but that would wipe away the wounded Leviathan's mana trail.

The Floater swings around the Spirits in hopes of finding the trail while we charge the Leviathan head-on. It initially ignores us, but after we fly through the Spirits, it calmly turns its head to us and observes.

Its huge, long white body glows and is quickly covered in white flames. Its large eyes at the sides of its face seem to be more preoccupied with the Horns than our ship itself. It just stands there… menacingly. Waiting for us to make a move.

Alissa flaps the wings of our ship, and we all get ready for combat. We're just facing a big long snake about six times longer than our ship and nearly twice as wide. We'll be fine.

One of the monster's eyes follows the Floater, while the other follows Oritiki.

"The Leviathan is observing the Floater!" I report.

"Turn, fire, continue!" Nohopu immediately gives an order.

The Floater suddenly jerks and turns to the Leviathan almost instantly, then fires the [Beam] for a second. A mirror appears behind the Leviathan, scattering the Floater's attack.

"FIRE!" Oritiki bellows, and the Horns all point their glaives forward and fire their own [Beam]s.

Six small mirrors appear in front of the Leviathan and scatter the Horns' attack.

Wow.

"I knew it! Keep searching!" Nohopu exclaims.

The Leviathan's body suddenly jerks like a whip and stretches to the limit to smack us with its tail fin. It forces us a long way down while the Horns remain in place.

The Leviathan ignores them and swims towards the Floater to give it a slap, too.

"DON'T IGNORE US!" Oritiki taunts, and the wings of all Horns suddenly double in size. They all gain a huge burst of speed and chase after the Leviathan, easily catching up to it and managing to wound its tail fin.

The fin-slap almost makes us fall over from the sudden jerk, but we quickly recover and flap the wings of our ship while Ciel resumes blowing wind into the sails.

"Roxanne, prepare a big one! Lina, grab one of Rox's Sneeze-'n-Wheeze and a Decay gas flask," I order through [Bind].

The Leviathan growls at the Horns and turns around to engage them, but the not-Iron-Men can just tank the slap due to their ridiculous defenses. They're so well protected that not even its Fay Fire can hurt them.

The Floater jerks again and fires a [Beam], then continues circling. The mirror instantly moves to block it and scatters the attack again.

"Trinity Cannons! Fire [Earth Bullet]s at the mirror! Fusillade!" Nohopu orders. The Floater only has a few Cannons, so they don't manage to immediately break the mirror apart.

The Horns stick to the Leviathan's tail and start dicing it into chunks. The monster roars in anger, and the intensity of the ethereal flames doubles, forcing the Horns to disengage.

The Leviathan turns to the Floater again, and we enter firing range. I drop our shields for Roxanne to release an [Ice Lance] as thick as her body.

It pierces the monster's thick skin, and it grunts in pain, but the lance immediately starts to disintegrate. It turns towards us in anger, and Lina throws the flasks as hard as she can.

Alissa fires an arrow, and it breaks the flasks right in front of the Leviathan as it charges forward. The cloud of allergens and decay enters its nose and coats its eyes. Now, we wait.

The Leviathan immediately slaps at us again, forcing me to reactivate [Wind Shield]. Then, one of the Horns barrels into the mirror, finally shattering it, and [Beam]s from all directions fire upon the albino monster.

A bunch of mirror fragments gather together to deflect the [Beam] from the Floater, while the rest of them deflect the ones from the Horns.

Motherfucking hell! This little shit is tenacious!

"Yunia! Prepare [Chain Life]!" I order. Two of the beams leave burnt lines on our ship, and one of them even wounds a wind elemental, so I yell at Nohopu's bird, "Watch it! It's deflecting the spells towards us!"

The mirror fragments disperse into dust, then the monster suddenly closes its eyes and writhes about in agony. Its white, ethereal flames cover its face, then it instantly calms down.

The flasks worked, but the fucker just fucking cleansed itself!

Now free of the allergens, it immediately turns around and charges towards the Floater.

The squirrel captain slams his fist down against his gaudy chair in frustration. "Just what is that endurance?!"

"FOUND IT! EIGHTY DEGREES EAST!" The sniffer suddenly screams.

"PREPARE [DISCHARGE] AND RAM IIII~T!" Nohopu bellows.

"Hold back on your magic! You'll give away that you've already found the trail if you engage it fully!" Hihiriwa warns Nohopu.

"Understood! Belay the [Discharge]!" Kurii orders.

"Charge the mana, but don't fire! Show it that we're anxious to strike!" Nohopu orders.

"I can hold it in place for a moment with our magic! Prepare a synchronized strike!" I yell at the birds.

"Prepare a synchronized strike! On Ryder's orders!" Hihiriwa relays.

The Leviathan slaps the Floater on its side, but the ship turns its heading towards the fin at the last moment and absorbs most of the shock so that it doesn't get thrown away. It immediately faces forward again and slams against the Leviathan's face.

They wage a contest of strength as they push against each other, but the Floater is losing as it gets pushed back

"Celestial Horns in position!" Ririmu relays.

"READY!" Yunia yells.

"NOW!" I scream.

"ATTACK!" Hihiriwa relays.

"FIRE!" Nohopu and Oritiki scream at the same time.

The Leviathan freezes, and a large [Beam] stabs at its face, then smaller ones from all directions pierce into the rest of it. Before it can even create the mirror, [Discharge] is unleashed upon all of its body, giving us another second to wound it more deeply.

"UROOOOOOO~!" It roars in rage and slaps the Floater away. Half of the monster's face is severely burned, now just a black char, and one of its eyes is completely gone. Seven black char lines are spread along its body, penetrating deep past its transparent skin. Other wounds, caused by the Trinity Cannons and the girls, make it bleed glowing, white blood.

It suddenly turns upwards and starts to hastily swim away, trying to escape.

"NOO! WE CAN KILL I~T! Nohopu screams and stands up.

"No, we can't! It's too tiring for my wife!" I exclaim and see Yunia being supported by Hana due to her exhaustion.

Kurii grabs Nohopu's arm, and he flinches, then he grits his teeth and sits back down.

"The blue Leviathan is a priority! Don't chase after the albino, we have time to kill it later!" Hihiriwa angrily yells.

"Yes, Marshall!" Nohopu angrily responds.

"Follow the trail, NOW!" Hihiriwa orders, and nobody has anything to add.

We fly in the direction the sniffer had mentioned, but our battle scattered a lot of mana, so it takes them a few minutes to pick up the wounded Leviathan's mana trail again. An hour later, we pass by an islet and see a huge droplet of glowing blue blood on it, confirming that we're on the right track.

Soon after, a massive outline appears and slowly reveals itself from within the mist. The Floater slows down until it stops completely, and we all gaze at the sight in amazement. A massive gray stone gate stands before us. The patterns of small glowing lights all over it tells us that it's still active, and the trail of blue blood staining it is evidence that the wounded Leviathan has crossed through it.

"Hihiriwa, we've found an abandoned fortress…" Nohopu solemnly relays.