When a Lion and an Eagle Love Each Other Very Much – Part 1

An electronic shriek permeated the air of the Airdrake, threatening to rupture my eardrums out.

Soon after, the on-board speakers cracked, and Fianna’s voice came on.

Hold on…! They even have speakers?!

“Three griffin coming from the bow,” she said, her voice revealing just a tiny bit of hesitation. “Keil will remain in the observation deck, and I’ill go to the back balcony. Tanney, go to the cockpit. Takashi and Chloe, please go to the common area and remain there.”

“Takashi! Tanney!” I heard a voice coming from the corridor. From there, a rather disheveled Chloe made her appearance. She clearly had been woken up by the alarm. “What’s going on?”

“T-three griffin… this is bad,” Tanney said as she was making her way out. “I have to go pilot the ship. E-Excuse me. Please stay here as Fianna ordered.”

The fox girl rushed out of the common area, past Chloe, straight to the front of the ship. As soon as she was out, the priestess’ expression morphed into one of pure annoyance.

“Tsk. I was sleepin’ so soundly,” she said in a low voice as she fixed her bedhair. “How long was I out for, anyway?”

“About an hour, I’d say.”

“Better than nothin’, I suppose. So now what do we do? Do we really just stay ‘round here?”

Just then, I spotted a blur of blonde hair zooming past on the corridor.

“Fianna! What’s going on?” I said as I made my way over. “Everything under control?!”

Hearing our voice, she backtracked to the entrance. “It should be. But it’s quite rare we get attacked by so many flying monsters at once, and this powerful, too.”

I glanced at the Demon Queen next to me, and her frown told me she was thinking the same thing I was.

Don’t tell me this is because Yzara is on board the ship.

“Can you deal with them? Need any help?”

“Not really. For your safety, just stay here.”

I should have heeded her advice, but I felt a bit guilty to leave everything to them when we were probably to blame for the situation.

“Nah, we can’t just sit around here doing nothing! Let us help a bit, at least.”

“Argh. Fine. I don’t have time to argue. Keep an eye on Tanney for me, okay? Hopefully nothing will happen to her, but she’s not a fighter.”

“Roger! We’ll do our best!”

Chloe and I hurried to the cockpit. As soon as we entered, we immediately spotted them right ahead.

“Woah!”

There were two flying monsters making their way to us. Even from this distance, I could tell their heads were that of an eagle, and the body was like a lion’s.

Griffin! Real griffin!!

If I wasn’t so scared to death, I’d probably be super excited about this.

“Y-You’re here!” Tanney said, still holding the helm.

“Yeah, Fianna sent us here to protect you.”

“Boss… I-I don’t need—” But she stopped. “Alright. Nothing will happen here, though. I’m only steering the ship as needed. Keil’s our main attacker in air fights.”

From above, the Magic Sniper answered with a shot—a literal arrow of light flew from out of view, hitting the griffin straight in the head. It exploded on contact, enveloping the creature in a ball of searing light.

“Woah, nice shot!”

That single attack did incredible damage. The griffin’s head was half-burned and half ripped away. The creature seemed to still be alive, but barely; it staggered in the air, flying erratically downwards, and soon disappearing under the airship.

“Fianna will make sure that one is taken care of from the back. That’s one down.”

Still, there was one griffin remaining, and it was quickly approaching us.

“Moving to port!” Tanney said into the microphone in front of her.

Keil’s voice cracked through the speaker. “Roger that!”

As Tanney frantically rotated the helm, the Airdrake ever so slowly began moving to the left. This would at least prevent the griffin from colliding directly with the balloon. Another arrow of light flew from the sky, hitting another griffin, this time on the wing. It lost lift even faster than the last one, disappearing from view.

“Phew, that was intense.”

The two griffin we saw in front of us were now both gone.

Still, I have a feeling we were missing something….

Before I even had a chance to fully realize that thought, a tremor and the sound of glass breaking rocked the entire cockpit. Pellets of broken glass hit us, cutting into our skin.

As I turned, a deafening roar and a rush of damp, humid air filled the entire room.

“Graahahhhhhh!!!”

Oh damn!

A massive griffin was now hanging from the cockpit just a few meters from us, its head poking through a broken window.

“Eeek!” Tanney screamed as she collapsed on the floor.

“Grahahahghhhh!!!””

Its vacant white eyes and massive beak were right there; we could feel its breath even through our clothes. It was way too big to come in through the window, but it was trying its darn best to get in, getting more and more frustrated at not being able to reach us.

Is it just me, or is it looking squarely at Chloe?!

Now I was sure they were definitely trying to get her. Worse than that, the damn thing was so heavy it was dragging the airship down with it! We were losing altitude fast.

At this rate…

“Tanney, please keep the airship stable! We’ll deal with this guy!” I said, trying to channel as much bravado as I could.

That was apparently enough to jolt the fox girl back to life. She stood up and grabbed the helm as if her life depended on it.

“R-Roger!”

“Chloe…!”

She didn’t even hesitate.

“On it!”

Using her staff, she cast the one offensive magic she knew how to use. “Light Strike!”

An orb of light flew directly into the beast’s head, searing its feathers; compared to Keil’s light arrow, however, it did very little damage. It flinched a bit, but that wasn’t enough to demotivate it pursuit of Chloe. If anything, that seemed to have made it even angrier.

“Grahah! Graaahahahhh!!!””

Ahh, the heck with it!

From my Hero’s Bag, I pulled out the Wisp Staff. I pointed it at the griffin, and called out the basic skill I had trained with Tanney before.

“Shadow Strike!”

A blob of dark-blue energy shot out sluggishly, taking its sweet time hitting the monster. When it did, it enveloped its head in an all-consuming, freezing flame that burned it like ice. However, the beast shook it off, just like it had with the Light Strike.

“Tsk. We’re not doing much damage…!”

Damn it. At this rate, we’ll crash!

Fianna and Keil were busy dealing with the other griffin, and Tanney was trying her best to keep the airship afloat. Our survival hanged on us two managing to get this guy out of our ship.

What else can we do?

I briefly considered pulling out the knife the Worldbender so generously gifted me and poking it in the eye, but I risked getting beaked to a pulp. Not exactly my definition of “fun”.

But just I started pondering the other option I had on hand—

“Firebolt!”

A ball of electrically charged plasma shot out from behind us. Just from its heat permeating the air, I could tell it was leagues more powerful than Chloe and mine’s puny attacks.

“Grahahahghhhh!!!” It screamed in pain when the attack hit it squarely in the face, as smoke and the smell of grilled meat permeated the entire cockpit.

“T-Tanney?!”

“You guys l-looked like you needed some help,” the fox girl said with a grin, still holding the helm.

She managed to hit it while driving this ship?! Is she some kind of savant?!

“Now, let’s work together and try to defeat this—”

But she never got the chance to finish off her sentence. I should have noticed the cockpit had become quiet—way too quiet. After its last scream, the griffin went mute, not a single sound emanating from it.

Not until it exploded.

It wasn’t exactly a “boom”, so to speak. No, it was deafening white noise so loud it completely overwhelmed my ears. When I turned around, I couldn’t see the griffin anymore. Instead, a dense fog of black electronic mist emanated from it. A cloud of death.

Before I could even open my mouth to ask what it was, Chloe grabbed me from behind and covered my mouth with her hands.

“Don’t breathe it in,” she said as the mist rolled out and pooled in dense masses close to the floor. “That’s a Black Mist Explosion! It’s a suicide attack. The infection uses all the energy of the host to try and propagate itself. If you breathe it in, you risk getting infected. Hold still and draw in shallow breaths.”

So that’s how it reproduces?! Gross!

I watched as the mist made its way around the cabin. Fortunately, it seemed completely disinterested in me, instead making its way somewhere behind us.

“It should be safe now,” Chloe said.

“Why did it do this now? You’re immune—” I began saying, not really caring who could listen to our conversation.

“I was not the target,” she said, completely emotionless.

I was close enough to her that I noticed her biting her lip.

And then, a scream interrupted us.

“Aahhh—”

When I turned around, my heart sank to a despair I hadn’t yet felt since being transported to this world.

“Tanney!”