“How many in the flock?”
“Three total, and they’re agitated.”
“This is bad……”
Alicia bit her lip, face grim.
Her party, Sword of Dawn, was a top-tier group of four.
Judging by their equipment quality, they probably had the ability to take down one wyvern.
But three, apparently, was a bit much to handle.
“Misha and Henry, aim for the wings and shoot them down! Ganz, protect Lord Viktor!”
“What about you, leader?”
“I’ll engage them head-on when they land!”
With that, Alicia drew the sword at her hip.
At the same moment, a shrill cry rang out from somewhere.
……A wyvern’s call!
Then, lit by moonlight, a massive shadow revealed itself.
“Let my golems fight too!”
“You have golems that can fight?”
“Yes! Failnote, come!”
When I called out, a turtle-shaped golem immediately came forward.
A large ballista was mounted on its back.
This one’s name was Failnote.
A combat golem I’d developed for defending the town.
Its capability could best be described as a mobile, fully automated ballista — and the power of its bolts should be enough to work on wyverns.
“You even have something like this……! You’re a lifesaver!”
“Here they come!! Fire!!”
Mid-conversation, a wyvern came diving down to attack us.
Misha immediately launched a fireball, and Henry let arrows fly in rapid succession.
True top-tier adventurers — their attacks flowed together seamlessly.
“Failnote, fire!”
I immediately barked the order at Failnote.
The great bow was drawn taut, and a bolt loaded automatically.
——Thwoom!!
A massive bolt screamed through the air.
And it punched straight through the wing of one of the three wyverns.
The wyvern lost its balance and plummeted helplessly toward the ground.
Then——
“Haaaah!!“
A single slash, full of fighting spirit.
The blade traced a beautiful arc and carved through the wyvern’s scales in a diagonal sweep.
Crimson blood sprayed out at once, and the massive body thrashed.
Before it could recover, Failnote drove home the follow-up.
“GRAAAAAHHH!!“
The bolt drove into the wyvern’s brow, and the great body crumpled.
Good — first one down!
With one of the three taken out, the remaining two were rattled, their movements sluggish.
“Henry, Misha! Focus on the left one! Get it down somehow!”
“Got it!”
“On it!”
Misha’s magic and Henry’s bow were loosed simultaneously.
A ball of flame struck the wyvern square in the head, blinding it.
In that window, an arrow punched through the wyvern’s wing.
With it badly off-balance, another arrow was loosed immediately after.
“SHAAAAA!!“
Sensing its companion’s crisis, the other wyvern moved.
It came hurtling straight at us in a steep dive, trying to force us off the attack.
“Failnote!”
The ballista fired instantly at the charging wyvern.
The massive bolt pierced through the root of its wing and killed its momentum dead.
“That saved us!!”
Alicia immediately drove her blade into the wyvern’s torso.
Then she turned with the same motion and slashed at the second one as it fell.
——Slash!!
The wyvern’s jaws, lunging to tear Alicia apart.
She drove her blade up through them from below in one clean thrust.
The blade burst out through the top of its skull, and the light vanished from the wyvern’s eyes in an instant.
“Incredible……!”
“Alicia’s a cut above even top-tier swordsmen. She’s our pride and joy.”
Ganz, who’d been guarding me, crossed his arms and nodded with satisfaction.
Can’t blame him for wanting to brag — she was that strong.
The whole party’s coordination was remarkable too.
They’d even worked Failnote into their flow smoothly.
This party, Sword of Dawn, was on a higher level than I’d expected.
“That was a close call! We made it through thanks to everyone!”
“We owe that golem ourselves. Remarkable machine.”
“Nah, this one’s an outdated old model.”
“Is it? It seemed more than capable to me……”
Alicia looked at me with something like exasperation.
I mean, Failnote isn’t really that impressive a golem.
At the very least it’ll be underpowered for operations in the Sariel Great Forest.
In that demon frontier, wyverns are probably only mid-tier threats.
“Hmm……could it be that the Count actually intends for the pioneering to succeed, and sent Lord Viktor for exactly that purpose……. But even with golems, sending him alone still seems far too strange……”
Alicia began muttering to herself and sank into thought.
Well, whatever. Either way, let’s rest for tonight.
We still have quite a lot of road left to the Great Forest, after all.
So I tucked the maid golem I’d been working on under my arm and headed toward the cabin — and a bloodcurdling scream split the air.
“Wh-what was that!?”
“That sound, could it be……!!”
The adventurers instantly drew their weapons and snapped into battle readiness.
Tense silence, thick and ominous, settled over everything.
And then——
“Dragon!!!!!“
A shadow vast enough to blot out the sky revealed itself.