Infernal Flight I

A dragon—of course! If this was a world where elves exist, then surely something like this would as well, right?

“We have to get outta here,” said Haruki before Anemone could utter a word, turning a hard left, away from the dragon and other dark figures behind it.

“I didn’t expect them to come a day early,” said Anemone, bewildered.

“Come a day early? Were you expecting this?”

“Yes, but—”

The dragon and the flying army behind it pivoted formation, and headed straight for the fortress north of them. Haruki steered again to the opposite side, fighting his own momentum. When he unfortunately inched closer to the fortress, he made out a clearer picture of it.

A small castle-like structure stood at the heart of it, a tree gleaming in the midst of overcast emerging from an opening at its base. Smaller trees lined up in front of and beside the castle moat, and inside the walls. Blips piled out of multiple entrances—people most likely—and many rushed towards the turrets poised at the four corners of the castle.

When the dragon and its army flew overhead, streaks of light shot out from formations atop the castle walls. Balls of fire, ice, and unknown green energy fired up at the beasts, all in sequence like fireworks in the summer.

“We’re too close!”

Everything happened in a flash. Haruki pushed the KM’s route away from the castle, but the passing dragon’s wake churned the wind and pulled Haruki and Anemone closer.

Within the army, three bear-sized shadows stopped, flapping their wings in place. They turned in their direction, eyes glowing blood red, thirst for blood felt even from a distance. Forming a triangle, the beasts closed in, their sickly grey hides bulging, revealing razor sharp talons and mouths frothing with burning acid.

“What the hell are those?”

“Gargoyles!” Anemone grunted out.

“Are you serious!”

The gargoyles pulled their heads back, garling the acid in their maws. With a powerful spit, globs of acid rushed at Haruki, dead center.

Haruki pulled his back, too slow to react—expecting the inevitable. A gust of wind pulled his hair forward, and when he opened his eyes, the globs of acid had been dispersed by a barrier of wind.

“Please watch out! Their fluids can melt steel,” Anemone said, arms and hands held forward in a shielding motion.

“R-right!”’

Seeing the gargoyles ready to spit their vile acid again, he pulled the KM up an extreme angle. “Hang on tight!”

Green acid shot out of their mouths again. Their sizzling vomit shot out in sequence, barely scraping the plane’s aft.

The plane pivoted, then dived below the gargoyles and through their formation. The beasts spun in place, disoriented from his speed.

“Anemone,” Haruki yelled over the comms. “Where’s the safest place we can go right now? You know this place better than I do!”

No answer.

“Anemone! Hey!”

Again, silence.

“Hey, you said we had to get outta here. I believe you now. Please, tell me where—”

“Sir Haruki, do you have any weapons here? Does your bird?”

“Weapons?” Haruki exhaled when her intent struck him. “Wait, you’re not suggesting we fight these things, right?”

“Do we?”

Haruki glanced left and right, then grunted. “I’d struggle to call them weapons.”

The gargoyles returned hot on their trail. “Behind us, Sir Haruki!”

Another barrage of acid blasts shot from their mouths. Haruki dodged out of the way, only scraping barely. A drop of molten acid sizzled against an inch of wing.

A ball of fire blazed between the KM and the three-beast strike team. Following the sparks left in its wake, one gargoyle separated from the bunch and dived towards the source.

The source—a young-looking elf girl in a black-and-white victorian-like maid outfit, froze in place as the gargoyle bore its blacked claws, aimed at center mass.

“Please, Sir Haruki!” Anemone shouted in sheer terror. “She’s going to die!”

Haruki cursed. “Dammit,” he said, chasing after the single gargoyle. “Here goes nothing!”

Expecting the KM’s “fake” mounted guns to fire airsoft bullets, Haruki pulled the trigger and fired upon the rushing beast. The deafening sound of gunfire followed after.

His guns tore the gargoyle’s hide asunder, ripping flesh from bone and sinew from flesh. The gargoyle exploded into a bloodless pile of flesh, pieces flying in all directions like torn origami. The KM flew over the elf girl, and Haruki pulled back up, stabilizing course.

“What the hell…?” Those were real guns, weren’t they? Even airsoft bullets that speed couldn’t possibly do that, right? And the muzzle sound…

“Sir Haruki, thank you!” Anemone’s smile could be heard even when unseen. “You and your mount are amazing!”

I didn’t mean to… But he was thankful.

Was some kind of magic at work, or did Mr. Junk sneak in real guns and live ammunition into the KM? Haruki remembered saying he wasn’t going to war, but this was as close as he could get to war. For a brief moment, he thought Mr. Junk foresaw all this.

But he couldn’t have.

Right?

“Okay.” Haruki cracked his knuckles, then eyed the two gargoyles up and ahead of him. “You wanna dance? Let’s dance.”

The gargoyles pulled their heads back again, their stomachs rumbling like a grotesque cramp. Haruki poised the KM into position and pulled the trigger. Machine gun fire pierced their hides and ripped them to shreds before they could spit. Acid fell and fizzled before it reached the ground.

“Yeehaw!” Haruki cheered, then yodeled. Anemone laughed even though she didn’t understand.

Shards of ice and fire raced from below, almost scraping the fuselage. “Hey, I helped you,” he shouted, hoping the defense force below would hear, even if they couldn’t.

The maid-dressed girl rushed over from turret to turret, and when she did, their magic-infused spells and arrows redirected aim away and towards the beasts once more.

“Thank god she makes sense,” Haruki said.

That’s when he noticed—

He’d only killed three gargoyles, but the battalion below—they tied him in number of kills.

The legion of beasts were too agile, too ruthless, too aggressive for them. Most of their projectiles flew past their targets, and those that hit, seemed to only damage and agitate their marks.

“Our kingdom can barely fend off the Sky Legion,” Anemone said. “They are much too agile for arrows, and some hidden sorcery protects them from magic if not struck quickly in succession. And as for that…”

Anemone pointed at the dragon, whose burning breath had just decimated an archer squad of five, with only a few flesh wounds as consequence. “That which is not quick, is too mighty.”

Haruki steadied the plane, and flew away from the action to catch his breath.

“So you want me to fight, is that it…?”

“Yes,” Anemone answered with a pang of regret. “I’m sorry it had to come to this. I wish we—you were faraway when this happened. The Sky Legion is our responsibility, not yours.”

Responsibility…

They both came to the sky—to breathe, even for a moment. To escape, to flee from responsibility, even for a little while. And now responsibility came for her, even if he could choose not to take it with her. He could run. They could run.

Watching the men and women dying in the frontlines, he imagined the kind of responsibilities she and her countrymen will have to face when they return to the ground.

Because everyone has to return at some point.

“Alright,” Haruki said, shaking off doubt. “I don’t know if I have enough ammo to kill ‘em all, but we can try.”

Anemone clapped once. “Sir Haruki. Thank you,” she said. “Let me help, too.”

“I thought you said they’re resistant to magic or something.”

“But they don’t appear resistant to yours.”

“Then…?”

The KM tipped off-balance slightly, Anemone’s weight shifting forward when she leaned back and over the pilot’s seat.

“Hey, I told you to keep all your arms and legs in the plane, didn’t I?” He said, wiggling the control stick to keep the plane stable.

“If I share my power with you, then I’m certain—we can fight together.”

Anemone caressed Haruki’s neck, and her hands cupped his chin to the side and up. She leaned in and kissed his lips.

Her lips, wet and supple, played with his, as if seeking the sweetest spot she could find. He couldn’t resist the draw of her touch and the lushness of her scent. For a moment, time stopped.

Then—pain.

“Mmph…!”

The girl’s teeth had bit his lip, drawing a trace of blood. He tried to pull back, but she was too strong—too alluring to resist. His attention dwindled, feelings of ecstasy and survival mingling in cacophony.

Then came the visions.

His head filled with thoughts of the sky, the Inverted Tokyo, and of Anemone. A rousing energy surged through his veins, and when he closed his eyes for a brief second—

It was as if wind had become his blood.