Floor 16, Battle of Pogoren Fortress (4)

Erendil snapped her waist and slid toward the front of the broom.

I leaped lightly onto her back.

The moment I took hold of Erendil's waist, she swung the broom's head toward the dragon.

"Erendil, wait. Let's head for the left wall first."

"Huh? Why the left wall?"

"There's something I need to do."

"Mm. All right, fine."

Erendil nodded and turned the broom's head back around.

The reason we were heading for the left wall was to hand the commander's microphone over to Ha Heijeong. It was something we'd agreed on back in the Waiting Room.

No matter the situation, me fighting on the front line rather than taking a command position benefited our allies more.

After all, you can't survey the battlefield while you're the one swinging a weapon on the front lines.

And even if that weren't the case, Ha Heijeong — who'd climbed all the way to the 94th floor — made a better commander than I did anyway.

"Right side! You'll handle the wyverns over there, right?"

The broom flew in a straight line without any evasive maneuvering — a delicious target that made the wyverns' eyes spin.

A few of them came swooping at us through the swarm of Svren still fighting in the air.

"Of course! Just trust me and keep going straight!"

With every second counting, it was better for me to deal with them than waste time on evasive moves.

I tapped the mimic hanging at my side.

A throwing spear promptly sprang out into the open air.

"Moongchi, keep 'em coming!"

The instant my hand closed around the shaft, I wreathed it in lightning and hurled it.

The crackling, glowing spear buried itself deep in the nape of a wyvern diving in from the right.

"Kyiack…"

The wyvern crumpled mid-air and fell, slamming its head into the wall with all the momentum of its doomed flight.

I turned my head and caught the next spear springing out of the mimic.

"Oh! Nice! Let's do it again!"

Erendil shouted excitedly, amazed by my throwing arm — and even as she cheered, she tilted the broom's head lightly to follow the wyverns' positions and give me clean shots.

The bombing brigade did not pick their Night Witches lightly, and she was proving it.

"Heijeong!"

After driving spears into the bodies of six wyverns, we finally reached the left wall.

Hearing my shout from the sky, Ha Heijeong turned from the spell she was casting.

I pulled the microphone off my cheek and tossed it down to her.

"Mic!"

Ha Heijeong caught it and gave a small nod. Then, in a blink, she vanished from where she stood.

"Huh? What the— did she just teleport?"

Erendil's dim eyes went wide at Ha Heijeong's spatial movement magic.

"Probably, yeah?"

"Wow, holy crap, I've never actually seen a mage who can teleport. That's no ordinary spell, you know?"

Hm. Was spatial movement really all that impressive?

The question crossed my mind for a moment, but I deliberately cut the thought off. There was no time to be mulling it over.

"Erendil! Now let's go for the dragon."

"Got it. Hold on tight!"

The instant Erendil finished speaking, whooom — the tail end of the broom began to whip and writhe.

I hastily grabbed onto Erendil's waist.

It took me about three seconds to get used to the broom's acceleration. Once I'd steadied myself, I freed my right hand from her waist and tapped the mimic.

"Once we're deep in the battlefield, I won't be able to block every wyvern!"

"I know! I'll dodge them myself!"

The accelerated broom began its evasive maneuvers.

Left and right, then up and down. As the broom danced through dizzying swerves, I kept up my barrage of thrown spears the whole time.

High up in a sky crammed with Svren and wyverns, riding a broom that jerked wildly through the air, I couldn't hit every shot dead center.

Part of it was the fear that one stray throw might clip an ally.

"Kyeeeack!"

The evasive flying continued. Then, suddenly, a wyvern burst out of my blind spot.

It hadn't been deliberately targeting us — it seemed to have been wandering the chaotic ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠sky when our flight paths happened to cross.

It was far too close for a throw, so instead of a spear, I brought lightning down on it.

As the charred wyvern plummeted, a Svren below it shrieked in panic and dodged the falling corpse.

Hm. That was nearly a disaster.

I'd been trying to be as careful as I could, but an aerial battlefield was far more chaotic than one on the ground.

Offering a silent apology, I turned my gaze to the dragon.

"Krwaaaah!"

I spotted the dragon breathing its flame from atop the right wall.

After each breath, it unleashed spell after spell at our allies in the sky.

Countless fireballs and magic arrows chased down our forces.

The allied mages threw up barrier after barrier to meet them, but a few slipped through and struck home regardless.

Svren and Night Witches fell from the sky. Each crashing broom kicked off a massive explosion on the ground below, black smoke boiling up into the air like storm clouds.

In that instant, something flashed through my mind.

The smoke of the blasts. We should use that.

"Erendil! Over there! Into the smoke!"

"Into the smoke?"

Erendil shrieked back at me. Fair enough — from her perspective, it was a perfectly reasonable reaction.

Visibility inside that black smoke would be next to nothing.

If ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠we collided head-on with a wyvern in there, we'd explode and die right there in the open sky.

But I had my presence detection.

"The closer we get to the dragon, the more wyverns there'll be. Punching through with the smoke is our better bet!"

"Then we won't be able to see a thing in front of us!"

"Trust me! Just fly wherever I tell you!"

When Erendil turned to look at me, I could see her lips pressed tight together.

She was wavering. But whether it was because of how I'd carried myself earlier, she finally nodded.

"Fine! Damn it! I'll trust you!"

And with that, we plunged straight into the smoke of the blasts.

I gripped a throwing spear in my right hand and held onto Erendil's waist with my left.

Then I drew up every ounce of focus I had and poured it into my presence detection.

Inside the black smoke, the chaotic battlefield unfolded before my senses.

Svren to the left, wyverns above, and straight ahead—

"Right! Straight down!"

Barely had the words left my mouth before Erendil wrenched the broom's head around.

The moment we banked right, a wyvern lunged out of the left with its jaws wide open.

We slipped past it, then dove again.

A wingless wyvern — its wings sheared off — grazed over our heads as it fell.

"Up! Down! Left!"

Through a string of desperate evasions, I drove spears into anything that suddenly burst out at us.

About thirty seconds later, we shot out of the smoke.

It had been brief, but it must have taken a toll on her nerves, because ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Erendil heaved a ragged breath.

"Haah… haah…"

"Good work. We're actually pretty close to the dragon now."

That was no exaggeration. We'd emerged from the blast smoke less than four hundred meters from the dragon.

The wyverns circling around it like a royal guard turned their gaze toward our sudden appearance.

"And now… the real fight begins."

"…Hold on tight."

Her voice was grim and resolute. Erendil clenched her jaw.

But before she could accelerate, the dragon spotted us first.

All my worry about punching through the wyverns turned out to be beside the point.

Once the dragon laid eyes on us, it was bound to take an interest in my token.

"Kyeeeack—!"

"Kyeack—!"

Then the dragon issued some kind of command, and the wyverns stopped charging at us.

Instead, the dragon itself beat its great wings and came toward us.

"Erendil, change the broom's heading."

"Huh? Why?"

"When I say turn, just turn."

If things went south, I didn't want to take a breath attack or a spell head-on — we'd need to bolt immediately.

Erendil tilted the broom's course with a slightly dubious look.

Hm…

Trembling pupils. Stiff muscles in her neck.

Looking closer, that wasn't a dubious expression so much as pure terror.

Apparently she'd caught on from what I'd said.

"Erendil, if this goes wrong, you run for it. Got it?"

"Hey! You—"

"Quiet. The dragon can hear us."

Erendil turned back to me, her face full of shock and betrayal.

But what could I do? We were already right in front of the dragon.

Erendil fell silently quiet.

By then, the red dragon Izerion had closed the distance and was staring at me with its enormous pupils.

"That token… So you're the human who flayed Herkest's lair-scale."

"Yes, that's me."

"Hmm…"

Its pondering face was not a bad sign.

Apparently the token carried weight with Izerion as well—

"I was wondering why Sarkage, who took such trouble to recruit, vanished over some damn rat. So the rat was you."

…He's not listening, is he.

"Erendil!"

Fortunately, before I could even get the word out, Erendil had already gunned the broom's speed.

Somehow, in the middle of Izerion's speech, she'd sensed how things were turning.

I immediately locked my grip around Erendil's waist.

"Krwaaaah!"

Behind us, the dragon's roar thundered.

I twisted my head — Izerion's breath was streaking toward the spot we'd just left.

As Izerion swung its head around, a wave of searing heat came chasing hard after us.

"Faster!"

"I know!"

Along with the dragon's roar, dozens of wyverns came diving at us.

The Svren and the Night Witches, who'd been hanging back to watch what was happening, now flew in to help us as well.

Left, down, left again, right.

Erendil flew the broom without so much as breathing.

Damn it. If I use the Shadow Monarch skill, we could probably shake them off…

But I couldn't use it now.

If I activated Shadow Monarch at this moment, Izerion would learn that I could vanish from sight.

And that could doom the ambush I'd been saving for later.

The Shadow Monarch skill had to be conserved for the dragon's assassination.

Then a thought flickered through my mind.

Can I apply Flash Step to someone other than myself?

I had no idea.

When I used Flash Step, the weapons I carried moved with me.

Since I was holding the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠broom and Erendil, maybe they'd be carried along too.

The problem was I couldn't be sure Erendil would come out unscathed while moving at lightning speed.

Flash Step wasn't quite the speed of light, but it was blisteringly fast.

I didn't know much about science, but no human body could stay intact at such speeds.

I seemed fine only because I'd devoured the Essence of Lightning—

No, wait. Then my weapons should've worn out too.

I'd used Flash Step hundreds of times, and not once had a weapon or piece of gear been damaged.

It was something created by a divine being. There had to be some kind of protection built in.

Flash Step wouldn't kill Erendil, most likely.

The moment I finished the thought, wyverns came charging in from every direction. Even if I burned them down with lightning, the encirclement was already complete.

One way or another, I had to use Flash Step.

"Erendil! Keep your head on straight!"

There was no telling whether Erendil's perception of time would flow the same as mine inside the Flash Step.

With that warning, I activated it — taking Erendil and the broom along with me.

Time slowed to a crawl.

The wyverns hung frozen in mid-air around us.

And thankfully, Erendil could think and move right alongside me.

"Wh… what is this?"

In that frozen sky, only we retained our original speed.

But despite my warning, Erendil — rattled half out of her wits inside the Flash Step — couldn't hold the broom's heading.

At this rate, we'd smash straight into the wyvern dead ahead.

"Escape first, worry later!"

At my sharp shout, Erendil finally snapped out of it and wrenched the broom around.

And so, across that slowed sky, we broke free of the wyverns' encirclement.

Only after we'd put a good distance between us and the dragon did I release the Flash Step. Far behind us, I could see Izerion raging at our disappearance.

But Izerion was wise.

Rather than hunting for us beyond its field of vision, it hurled its breath at the wall instead.

It understood the nature of war.

Our allies kept falling.

I bit my lip. All that remained now was to assassinate the dragon.