Oh, it's so breezy up here…feels good to have my hair flow with the wind.

["Oh? Princess Hestia Atsuko, are you enjoying yourself, or are my eyes deceiving me?"]

[“Leave me alone, please. I don’t want to talk with you.”]

[“Hmm, fair enough. I shall respect your terrible mood.”]

Sigh, what a dick…

Frankly, I shouldn’t be acting like an asshole to Astalos but it honestly irks me when I think about playing “nice”. Technically, this was a kidnap and why should I be nice to somebody that kidnapped me, right? Of course, it would be more sensible to deceive him by being friendly and eventually finding an opening to escape but…no, I don’t want to.

After saying our goodbyes to lizardmen, our trio continued flying with the wyverns a bit to the south until it was completely dark, forcing the wyverns to land in the forest to rest for the night. During our night with them, we were served raw meat that one of the ice wyverns hunted down.

Saori and I wanted to cook it but for some ungodly reason, the wyverns were adamant about us eating it without spicing it up. Astalos said something like “You would ruin the flavor” and “Eat it fast, otherwise, it will be snatched away”.

Snatched away by whom? The wyverns? Nope, those guys simply hunted their own meals and the amount of meat was enough to satisfy them.

Then what about Tasianna? I’m kidding, of course, but even if she were to feel too hungry, she was more a fruit person than a meat-lover. She simply picked one from the surrounding trees and considering her size, that was ample enough.

That leaves the animals from our surroundings, but which monster was idiotic enough to come close to us? If you excluded my party, three B rank wyverns surrounded us like bodyguards which should be enough to scare off even the dumbest monsters.

However, as much as Saori and I wanted to continue complaining, we had to eat. Astalos told me that as a “whelp” I needed to eat more to grow. Well, it made sense. I was a growing girl and I’d fallen into some gluttonous phases before, so more food is good.

The problem was just the taste. We had to deactivate [Humanize] as our taste buds differed between forms or to be more exact, our true forms could endure the unpleasant stink of blood better.

In all my time as a dragon, I still haven’t gotten used to the crude, iron taste of blood. I would usually drain the body before eating, but the wyverns were insisting that we didn’t. Well, while it didn’t make me want to puke anymore, I still found it bland and disgusting.

I also realized something during that night which surprised me, greatly. It’s the fact that watching those giant scaled lizards strutting around me was quite pleasant. If you took away the fact that they were killer machines and that we sorta fought to the death a few hours ago, then they were pretty cool.

Astalos already looked incredibly awesome with how rough and edgy his scales were, sending me into a bit of a trance when he shook his body to loosen it up. The crazy amount of fantastic monster and enemy designs in video games already made me say “oooooh”, but seeing the real deal is something else.

The two ice wyverns also didn’t disappoint. On Astalos’ command, the cleaned me up for the night using their tongue. While getting licked wasn’t pleasant, it did give me a good look at their shining beige and navy-blue scales. It was beautiful to the eye as if you were taking a glimpse into a wonderland of snow-white gemstones.

.

Sleighbells ring, are you listening? ♫

Cold in the air, winter is coming ♫

When will the snow fall ♫

The fall of year’s end ♫

Flying in a winter wonderland ♫

.

["Oh, what is that sound you're making, Princess? What is that humming?"] Astalos asked.

[“S-Shut up, Dummkopf!”] I responded flustered.

[“Hmm, your hostility has increased again. It makes it uncomfortable for me, not knowing if it’s you or a threat from above, that is directing their bloodlust at me,”] Astalos said with a slight frown.

[“Can you blame me? I’m still angry that you had to ruin everything. I fulfilled one promise but now my other will have to be left unfinished, for an unknown amount of time. Ahh, this is frustrating,”] saying that, I clenched my teeth and tightened my grip on Astalos’ scales while he flew with me on his back.

The second promise that I mentioned was the one I made to the lizardmen kids. I know I told them that I won’t forget about it, but it still was terrible to see them cry, telling me that they will miss me. It was just a terribly quick farewell.

I’d had hoped I could have stayed with them a bit longer, just long enough that I could translate my song and sing it to them in Common tongue. I wanted them to hear me and understand the lyrics, while I graced through the dance floor at the beat of the music. I had envisioned something spectacular, although humble, for my first idol performance.

But that enthusiasm is now replaced by a creeping pain in my chest, gnawing on my guilt. Everything was set, the stage was near, and the music was about to play…but three wyverns just had to ruin everything.

I’m in this shitty situation ‘cause of them and if it weren’t for me feeling a bit of kinship, due to them being the first dragonkin that I could speak to, then I would have honestly hated them as a way to vent this frustration inside me.

But it just felt wrong to do so. The ice wyverns might have been fierce during our battle, but they’ve just been meek since this trip started. I guess they were afraid of what I did to them. Watching them does make me want to sigh sometimes but I couldn’t hate them.

However, Astalos on the other hand…I had [Featherfall]…I didn’t need to worry about falling down. I personally wanted to slice his throat, right about now, but I also understood that it would’ve been impossible.

I was sitting on his back in my dragonewt form with only half of my original stats. If I couldn’t do anything in my dragon form, then my dragonewt form would have even more trouble. I was even trying to scratch his scales with my claws right now, but it wasn’t even leaving a scratch. Granted, I wasn’t trying nor was I empowering it with either buffing spells or [Spark Claws] but it’s the principle that mattered here.

[“Hey, Hestia are you alright? Want some stew? I think I still have some in my storage,”] Saori offered while she rode on the female ice wyvern.

Saori wasn’t using “my Lady” or “Lady Hestia” here as it was redundant to do so. The wyverns already knew our situation and Saori also wasn’t in the mood to keep up appearances. Ever since we talked to the leviathan, she seemed to be acting differently.

[“Ooh, would tea be to your liking, also, Lady Hestia?”] Tasianna offered before realizing that she couldn’t make any while sitting on Saori’s shoulders. [“On second thought, that might cause too much of a mess.”]

[““Yeah,””] both Saori and I responded.

Not only would it prove hard for Tasianna to make tea when we were this far up from the ground, but it would also be difficult for her to hand it to me when they were a couple of miles behind us, flying on the ice wyvern's back.

That was the sorta formation that the wyvern agreed on. Astalos would lead with me on his back, while the two ice wyverns would flank on his side a couple of miles behind us. It was to ensure that they would be ready for combat, but I think it’s to keep me away from my two friends.

I know they wanted to cheer me up, but it’s just empty words at this phase. Saori found it difficult to use [Shadow Dash] while the wyverns were flying this fast. It’s the thoughts that count but I was in a bit of a bad mood to appreciate it.

As we continued flying through the day, my boredom grew more and more. Flying should be exciting but I was kinda getting fed up by it. Was it ‘cause I wasn’t flying myself or is ‘cause of something else?

“Sigh…” I sighed.

["Please, bear with it a bit longer, Princess Hestia Atsuko. We are already flying at a fast pace but any more and there will be a risk that you might be blown off me,"] Astalos informed, noticing my unenthused mood.

He was right about that. Now that they’ve found me, they didn't have many reasons to slow down and search for me which meant that they could speed up as much as they wanted. We were skating through the skies like a Ferrari at top speed, making all the effort of our party to go north null in a matter of hours.

While my hair was fluttering from the wind, the sight of mountains could be seen. If north were the Belzac mountains, then this must be the Aviator Peaks mountain range.

[“Yo, Astalos. Don’t tell me that those mountains in the horizons are Aviator Peaks. Are you seriously telling me that you made it this far just from a single day?!"] I asked, flabbergasted at this crazy thought.

We’ve started out at the dawn and we've been flying without any breaks since then. I could already see the sun starting to set and the sky turning orange which meant that evening was coming, but this was still unbelievable. How were these wyverns able to do this?

[“It is all a matter of experience and having to live in an environment that forces you to know how to fly. Still, I must admit that we’ve been straining ourselves a bit too much as you can see my Stamina having dropped below 50%”] Astalos admitted which was quickly confirmed with an [Identify]. [“I do not believe it is wise to actually enter the mountain ranges today. My subordinates will not be able to keep up any longer and with all the griffons there, we will need our full strength to outmaneuver them.”]

With a simple nod of his head, the two ice wyverns behind us understood his intention and were slowing down drastically with Astalos, [“You will learn this once you stay up in the sky for a prolonged time, but your wings will start to feel strained. If you start feeling it, never attempt to continue flying at that state, otherwise-evade!”]

“Wooooooaaaaaaaah!” as if somebody suddenly twirled a car, Astalos jerked his body to the side at high speed, causing me to nearly lose balance.

Before being able to complain, a large, blue ball shot right past us.

[“Huh?! What in the hell was that?!”] I let out in surprise.

[“Hostile located! Spread out and retreat! We retreat with the dragoness!”] Astalos shouted a command, bringing the snow wyverns into actions as they began flanking us from the side.

To get away from what was attacking us, the wyverns had to twist their bodies mid-air like a snake, killing their forward momentum in the progress. However, before we could actually fly, my [Prediction] suddenly noticed an attack, no, multiple attacks coming from below.

From within the foliage of the trees, hundreds of projectiles shot up and flew towards us. However, instead of clashing against Asatalos' body, they were instead reflected by an invisible barrier that surrounded his body. Considering that static was affecting my hair, I believe this must be his [Electromagnetic Barrier] doing work.

While we didn’t have to avoid those attacks, the same couldn’t be said about the snow wyverns.

While the male one could freeze his body to protect his body from the attacks, the female one couldn’t do that as she had Saori and Tasianna on her. She was only able to freeze her underside and belly, but it wasn’t enough as she was dodging with the same elegance as she did during our battle.

As I was looking at their direction, I suddenly notice the form of the projectiles. Instead of magic spells or toxic spit that most animals in the Belzac forest used to attack us, these were instead something man-made: arrows.

[“Insolent beings! Know your place, know thunder’s fury!”] with a loud shout, three purple magic circles appeared in front of Astalos. Whilst chanting his spell, lightning suddenly started flowing from these circles, intersecting which each other as a ball of lightning grew from this joint union. The ball’s shape suddenly began to flow, breaking off as pieces of it started joining the three magic circles, creating an even larger magic circle.

[“Ramuh!”]

With that word, the giant purple circle glowed a lilac glow as the static became louder and louder, forming a singular, condensed mana concentration in the middle of it. With the sound of numerous thunderstorms raging at the same time, a massive beam of pure magical electricity shot out from the circle and into the forest.

The shockwave of the impact caused Astalos and the other wyverns to be blown backward, closer to the mountains and the canyon that separated the Belzac forest from Aviator Peaks. However, even from this distance, the aftermath of the explosion could be clearly seen.

The howling thunder ravaged the trees and ground, evaporating anything organic while singing the very ground they stood at. With one single spell, Astalos was able to wipe out a whole area of its vegetation while also scorching the ground, leaving embers behind in its wake.

[“Lesser beings should stay down and respect the rulers of the skies. Their arrogance have-huh, what is this?!”]

While gloating in his victory, shadowy tendrils started coming from out of my shadow and entangled Astalos’ wings in a solid grip, preventing him from moving in the skies. Before he could free himself, another blue ball shot through the skies, crashing against him and sending him tumbling through the air while I was launched off his back.

HEILIGE SCHEIßE-oh wait, why am I worried about falling? remembering that I had measures to protect myself from fall damage I chastised myself for panicking. While spreading my wings to slow down my descent, a sudden chill ran down my spine as I heard Astalos’ bone-chilling roar.

That ball…there is no doubt about it! I know that, no, I was once hit by the very same thing! That’s a [Warhammer Mana Cannon]!

Directing my eyesight towards the direction of that mana ball, I was able to spy the exact location of the cannon and the ones who were wielding it. In my memory, the cannon was manned by giant demi-human monsters called trolls, however, this time it was a wide range of beings.

Goblin A green demi-human who are renowned for being devious and cruel. These little monsters might be weak individually but can work with themselves to defeat larger enemies. Envious creatures that take sadistic joy when they can overwhelm and defeat anything larger than them, pleasuring themselves by torturing their fallen enemy. Rank G Kobold A brown-furred demi-human whose intelligence is restricted compared to their other demi-human relatives. Social creatures that form strong bonds with one another, working in solidarity to achieve their goals. Shows high potential for evolution options. Rank G Orc A green muscular humanoid monster with two small tusks. Although not the smartest, these monsters still possess an adequate amount of intelligence. Stunning strength and sturdy defense must be planned for when one fights such a creature. It has a strong sense of smell, despite its small nose. Rank D Ogre A giant cantankerous humanoid monster with muscles large enough to break another being’s bones with a single swipe of the hand. Extremely intelligent with an ability to be reasoned with, these demi-humans are dangerous foes for any unprepared challengers. Possess high alcohol resistance. Rank C

These are my first-time witnessing goblins and ogres, which is surprising considering how large the Belzac forest was. I’ve witness tribes of kobolds and also a few orc groups, but never have I seen all four of these demi-humans in the same place.

From how they were fidgeting with the cannon, I can assume that they must be the ones who shot it. Quite interesting…but very helpful.

[“Hestia! Use [Featherfall]!”] finally having caught up, Saori called out mid-air while clutching Tasianna in her hand.

After quickly casting [Featherfall] on myself and then transferring another to Saori, she then grabbed me around my waist and sped up our fall. Protected by my spell, Saori landed with a loud thud at the bottom of the canyon, leaving an indent of her feet behind.

With me under her arm and Tasianna sitting in her hand, Saori looked around for a second before speeding up to the nearest…cave?!

[“Saori, hey! What are you doing?!”] struggling in a panic, I questioned Saori’s action.

[“I am sorry, but we have to. Please, bear with my plan for the moment, alright? While the wyverns have to deal with those attackers, we have to get out of their sight,”] Saori stated, pointing at the loud cannon fires that were happening above us. [“The cave is our only hope! If we can escape there, we can either find an exit or come out of the entrance when everything settles. In any case, we need to disappear!”]

Urgh, what a turn of fate… I mumbled to myself, realizing how ironic it was that we’re back here after spending nearly three weeks walking north. How crazy is it that we’re back in the canyon where we met Tasianna?

Entering the cave, Saori sprinted through it without a bit of worry, with the sole goal to get us away from the wyverns before checking out the situation. Igniting a [Light], I held onto our only light source with a fierce persistence as [The Light]’s side-effect made me feel unwell inside the darkness.

Suddenly, the [Prediction] of all three of us sounded its alarm directing our attention upwards. With the sound of streaming electricity, a bright light appeared as it cleanly sliced the cave’s ceiling and floor.

The effects of that attack caused the cave to quake, crumbling as rock and sand fell onto us. Casting both [Haste] and [Swift Winds] on Saori, she quickly caught my intention and turned back into her monster form, throwing us on her back.

With improved speed, my cadejo friend sped through as the ceiling began collapsing, eventually blocking our way back out. Once the shaking stopped, we heaved a small sigh at nearly being buried under the mountain.

[“What the hell…I don’t think [Sanctuary] would be able to stop a whole mountain from falling on us…”] I said while looking at the fallen rocks.

[“Huff, puff…that wyvern is a menace. He nearly killed us,”] Saori breathed heavily as she complained about the one who caused all of this.

[“That was definitely lightning, and my wings could still remember the same static that happened on the day we met him,”] Tasianna pointed out. [“That had to be his [Boltreaving Blade] …what frightening power.”]

Nodding at her statement, our group then turned our heads towards the remaining path of the cave.

[“Well, I guess we can only go forward, right?”] I said.

With another nod, our trio continued onwards after barely escaping the wyverns, certain that what lied ahead of us was another adventure…hopefully without any wyverns.