Having witnessed the death of their colleague, the soldiers started to tense up. The only thing they could do was use their spears and swords to try and block the Wyverns from damaging the airship.
*Thwack*
*Rip*
But their spears and swords weren’t enough to block the agile Wyverns’ attacks. Under their relentless attacks, the battlefield on the deck of the airship had soon devolved into chaos.
Again, another soldier was snatched away by a Wyvern.
“AGGHHH!”
The moment the Wyvern attempted to fly up into the sky, at the speed of light, Pram hacked its legs off.
The soldier, having fallen on the deck, had a dazed look on his face.
“Ah… ”
“Snap out of it and get back into formation!”
Soon after yelling his command, Pram started focusing on striking the Wyverns that swooped down on the soldiers.
His rapier struck the Wyverns’ wings and legs without mercy.
“Grr!”
“Grrrrrr!”
As more of their own continued dying, the Wyverns’ movements started becoming more reserved and calculated. They had determined that Pram was a dangerous enemy.
[Frozen Whisper]
Adjest momentarily stunned the Wyverns with a freezing spell.
“Grr!”
With that, the Wyvern’s could no longer approach the soldiers. The risk that they posed no longer matched the potential reward and as a result, some of them hung back biding their time for a better opportunity. However, Desir wasn’t idle.
[Summon Lightning]
*Crash*
“Kyaaaak!”
An electrocuted Wyvern tumbled out of the air and landed at Desir’s feet. Even in pain, it whipped its tail at him.
After easily avoiding the attack, Desir invoked a spell that pierced it through its forehead, killing it immediately.
It didn’t take long before almost all of the Wyverns had been taken care of. There had been two unfortunate casualties, but considering how dangerous the situation was, it was the best they could do.
Desir examined the situation and prevented more casualties by focusing his efforts on helping the soldiers that were in danger.
*Swooop*
Just as the situation seemed to come to a close, a strange noise rang out.
Desir looked up at the cloudy sky. It was a place that the light couldn’t reach.
[Owl’s Vision]
Observing the sky using magic, Desir noticed something strange.
“A transcendent creature… ”
Having heard Desir’s muttering, the soldiers started panicking.
Transcendent creatures.
Through evolution, these creatures had developed into beings far superior than their regular equivalents, both physically and intellectually.
Fully understanding how dangerous this situation had become, the soldiers’ faces paled by the second.
“A transcendent Wyvern! It’s approaching the ship from above!”
The magicians hurried to invoke magic towards the creature.
*Bang*
Despite their struggles, none of the magic managed to harm it in the least.
Easily ignoring the magic, the creature opened its mouth towards the airship. Soon, magic started gathering in front of it.
Desir held his breath.
‘This is dangerous.’
From the look of it, it was a rather powerful breath spell. If that were to directly hit the airship, a crash was unavoidable.
‘There’s no choice, huh.’
It was when Desir reluctantly started to invoke a spell…
“Everybody back off.”
An extremely calm voice spoke.
Kei, who had been watching the entire time, had already pulled out his sword.
As his aura seemed to wrap around the sword, it suddenly burst into flames.
But it didn’t end there. The aura flared up even more, soon compressing its energy into itself.
Desir knew what that meant.
Qianjiang, the sword also known as the perfected aura blade.
Apparently Kei wielded it.
Although it looked like he was slashing into thin air, a crescent-shaped force flew towards the transcendent creature as it followed the trajectory of his sword.
At the same time, the creature fired its breath. Kei’s force split it in two as it continued to fly straight at the creature.
Everyone was silent in shock as Kei’s sword strike sliced through the creature as if it were tofu.
He was strong.
It was truly strength that exceeded all standards. This was proof enough as to why he had been endowed with the title of Grand Master.
Having taken care of the transcendent creature, only a few Wyverns remained. Seemingly having determined that no further command was necessary, Kei jumped straight into the front lines and started hunting the Wyverns.
‘This is no time to be admiring him.’
Desir examined the situation. It seemed like there was no further need for him to join the battle.
Just as he had started to relax, he cried out in surprise.
“Romantica, behind you!”
There had been a Wyvern right behind her.
At Desir’s cry, Romantica turned around, but it was already too late. The Wyvern snatched her and flew up.
“AHHHH!”
In an instant, Romantica was ferried far away from the airship.
She couldn’t help involuntarily recalling the soldier that was shredded by a Wyvern’s claws. And that image overlapped with herself.
The color drained from her face. The thought that she had to get away from it at all costs filled her head.
[Wind Cutter]
Invoked at an incredible speed, Romantica’s magic cut off the legs of the Wyvern with a crisp sound.
As she escaped her restraints and regained her freedom, Romantica smiled with joy.
But that smile soon disappeared. She had realized the situation she was in.
Romantica was falling. From tens of thousands of feet above the ground.
*Whoosh*
The desert landscape that had seemed so far away was zooming in quickly. The roar of the wind deafened her as she continued to pick up speed in her free-fall.
Romantica could feel herself getting faint. Her mind went black. She had lost control of her thoughts completely.
Clenching her jaw. The metallic taste of blood filled her mouth and soaked her lips.
‘I can’t give up. If I let go of my consciousness here, I’ll die.’
Romantica could easily picture her pancaked body if she didn’t think of a way out of this. Not even a strengthened Clothes Line would survive a fall from this height.
If she wanted to avoid her imminent doom, she had to come up with a solution somehow.
‘There is a levitation spell, but… ’
Like the name stated, levitation magic was magic that lifted objects from the ground.
However, there were too many problems that made it hard to use in this situation.
First off, Romantica was quite frazzled by the sudden turn of events and trying to levitate an unstable object that was falling from a high altitude was difficult to do with her skills.
There was also the possibility that the situation would worsen if she tried invoking levitation magic in her current state.
‘But if the end result is going to be the same anyway… ’
Her clothes fluttered around crazily.
There wasn’t much time left before her crash.
Romantica steadied herself with a deep breath.
‘I have no choice but to do something!’
A spell unfolded before her eyes. Once the arrangement was complete, her body started to float.
But there was no time to be relieved because her body flailed around wildly as if an invisible giant was controlling her.
From left to right, up and down, her body was flung around like crazy.
In an instant, the sky and ground flipped around. At this point, she didn’t even know which way she was falling.
‘D-Damnit!’
She knew that it was going to be dangerous, but she didn’t expect something like this to happen.
She could hardly concentrate. Her calculations immediately fell into disarray as her direction continued to get further messed up. The spell that had miraculously lasted this long, started to collapse.
*Snap*
The levitation spell eventually fell apart.
And it would be the same no matter how many times she tried.
She couldn’t think of anything other than levitation magic.
Her momentary struggle ended in vain.
“… !”
The situation was hopeless. Even opening her eyes had become a struggle as her oxygen-deprived brain started to slow down further.
Romantica could sense her death nearing.
She knew that most deaths in Shadow Worlds were caused by carelessness, but she didn’t expect to die in vain like this.
She realized the importance of the single guiding principle in Shadow Worlds. The principle that she had become so complacent about.
‘A single misjudgment will lead to death.’
Romantica closed her eyes and gave up.
“ROOOMAAAANTIIIICAAA!”
Just then, Desir’s voice rang out.
“De-Desir!?”
When Romantica opened her eyes in surprise, Desir was right next to her.
Was she dreaming? Why was Desir, who was on the airship mere moments ago, falling with her?
“Reactivate your levitation magic!”
Romantica was about to instinctively argue that the air currents were too unstable.
‘But it’s Desir.’
She buried her anxiety. And per Desir’s request, invoked the magic again.
[Fly]
The levitation magic was invoked. This was her second try. Following Romantica’s magic, Desir invoked his own magic.
[Swift The Air]
It was magic that turned the atmosphere into a vacuum state.
Desir minimized the air present in the atmosphere. They caught their breath, but it wasn’t the time to be worrying about that.
As if they were a lie, Romantica felt the raging winds that had tormented her instantly subside. Getting rid of the air current itself meant that an unstable current wouldn’t exist in the first place.
Romantica invoked the flying magic, while Desir maintained a stable air current.
However, because they had already accumulated so much speed, they couldn’t be satisfied with the levitation magic simply slowing them down. It still wasn’t enough to break their fall to a level they could survive from.
Desir yelled towards Romantica.
“Use all of your magic power and cast it downwards!”
Realizing that he was trying to slow their fall by using the principle of opposing forces, Romantica immediately invoked her magic.
[Abarossa’s Storm]
[Wind Twilight]
[Spear of Thousand Wing]
It was a vast array of spells.
Romantica poured out all of the magic she had. As she continuously invoked magic into the desert below, her magic power soon started to run dry.
“Hold on tight.”
Desir then pulled her into his arms.
He also started to invoke magic towards the ground. It seemed to have a complex structure. It had been formed using his new magic system.
[Paria Arunde]
It was a Third-Circle wind property magic.
As the magic hit the ground, the sand exploded, creating a huge crater. And soon after, they felt their bodies bouncing back up with an unparalleled repulsive force.
“Blech!”
“Agh!”
Romantica and Desir’s shouts echoed out. Hitting the ground, they rolled several times on the sand. The impact had been great enough to trigger their Clothes Line defensive magic.
“Cough cough.”
Romantica let out a few dry coughs. Her entire body was a mess. Not a single place didn’t ache. She could hardly get up.
After a while, the sand dust subsided, and the airship sailing in the sky seemed like a small dot in the distance.
“Well, it seems to still be flying.”
Desir’s voice rang out. He was lying flat next to Romantica. The two lay still for a while.
Desir’s voice was tender as he checked up on Romantica.
“Check if you have any injuries.”
“Hm, I probably don’t have any.”
“Then that’s a relief.”
Des1r gave a small smile.
—-
Chapter brought to you by the Patrons.
ED2: Purplemen101
TLC: N/A
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