136. Evacuation

136. Evacuation

Thousands.

No, tens of thousands.

The sight of dragons densely filling the black sky.

Behind them, the sun, now devoid of light, leaving only a halo that shone as if during a total solar eclipse, and a colossal dragon with twelve wings soared through the sky, looking down at me.

“Huk….”

Everyone who looked at the sky gasped.

The only part of the sky devoid of dragons was the trajectory of my sword swings. Even that was soon covered by other dragons flying in to fill the scar in the sky.

“There are so many.”

“See, I told you! Killing the weak dragons is useless. We need to catch the one up there first- Aagh?!”

A powerful sonic boom. A radiant light shot towards us. It seemed to annihilate space itself, devouring the world.

But I cut it down.

“It feels like it’s looking at me.”

“Uh, Sister, can you take care of that one!”

“I will.”

The colossal dragon flying at the highest point, the one that fired that light. The feeling of making eye contact is not my imagination. It is clearly looking directly at me.

“Speaking of dragons, when I was young, I fought a wyvern in the north.”

“Are you telling old stories now?!”

“That wyvern looked somewhat similar to that one….”

It was only “somewhat similar.” Wyverns and dragons are different monsters. I was just reminiscing about the past; I wasn’t saying that wyvern was the same creature as that dragon. I readjusted my grip on my sword.

Freya raised her middle finger towards the dragon and shouted.

“You’re screwed now! My sister saw you! You stupid bastard!”

“… Freya?”

“Ah, uh, Sister, no, that is, um.”

When did she learn to swear like that?

I have never sworn. It is said that in any country, one learns to swear first upon learning a language, but there was no one around me who swore. My father’s occasional rough words were the harshest I heard, so my own swearing was limited to that extent.

Freya would be no different. Of course, I had never seen Freya swear in the north either. If that’s the case, it means she learned to swear after coming to the academy….

Sensing my gaze becoming strange, Freya quickly pointed to the sky and urged me on.

“Let’s catch that quickly.”

“Hmm.”

I had something to say about that.

“Actually, I can’t catch that right now.”

“What?!”

“The range isn’t enough.”

Strictly speaking, it’s not within effective striking range. That dragon is strong, befitting its massive size, and to leave a wound, one must attack with equal force. However, it’s natural for destructive power to weaken with distance. For me, my hand couldn’t reach that high altitude, several kilometers away.

“Why?! You can just do a ‘pow pow boom’ like before!”

“Freya, I’m a swordsman. How can a swordsman catch something in the sky?”

Isn’t that common sense? That’s why the professors who can’t use magic are huddled in the corner right now.

Freya was speechless at my logical rebuttal, and in that opening, Priscilla approached me.

“Skadi, then, if we get closer to that dragon, can you catch it?”

“Yes.”

“I have a great idea!”

Priscilla’s eyes sparkled, and I felt a sense of unease. Surely she’s not suggesting I be attached to a meteor and shot into the sky?

Fortunately, instead of shooting a meteor, Priscilla presented the young dragon cradled in her arms and said.

“We’ll use this ‘Pipi’!”

“… Why that name?”

“It cries ‘Pipi’! Isn’t that an incredibly cool name?!”

The dragon looked at me and cried, “Pipi.”

Yes, I see. A name like that is considered cool. The world is indeed peculiar. This is why I can never trust the common sense of my past life. I nodded and asked.

“How will we use it?”

“Even though it looks like this, Pipi is incredibly strong, Skadi! It should be able to carry you high into the sky!”

The dragon, called Pipi, spread its wings as if to show off and jumped out of Priscilla’s arms. It hovered in the air, flapping its wings, which were only about a thumb’s length. The dragon looked at me and cried “Pipi” again, as if telling me to trust it.

“Priscilla, what if we attach me to a meteor and launch me into the sky?”

“Skadi, meteors fall from above. And how would you attach Skadi to it and launch her into the sky? You have to think logically!”

… Logic. Yes, but can this dragon even carry me in the first place?

If Pipi were as large as the dragons in the sky, it would be quite reliable. But the size of this red baby dragon… even exaggerating, it’s only about the size of my upper body. I have no doubt it can’t carry a person.

“Just trust me!”

“Pii-pii!”

Priscilla, with a face overflowing with confidence, puffed out her chest. And Pipi, following its owner, puffed out its chest… belly? with overflowing confidence.

“… Ur, I’m worried.”

“Don’t worry, Master! You won’t die even if you fall from the sky!”

No, it’ll hurt. I won’t die, though.

Meanwhile, Claire, who had been thinking to herself, asked a question.

“What if we get shot down while flying?”

“That’s true too.”

Wolf beastkin are terrestrial creatures. I cannot move freely in the air. I can cut down one or two breaths, but will those tens of thousands of dragons really just watch a dangerous species flying towards them? Surely the sky will be filled with streaks of light of all attributes.

I can withstand those attacks with my bare body, but Pipi cannot. Naturally, I will fall to the ground. If I lose my means of transportation, I won’t be able to ascend again.

“Th- Ugh?!”

“Stop bothering me.”

In fact, breaths had been continuously shot towards this location since earlier. Freya and other magic department professors were blocking them to some extent, but strong attacks that couldn’t be blocked occasionally slipped through. I cut those down.

The sky is already as black as pitch, making it gloomy, and these minor attacks are constantly draining my mental energy. It feels as if the dragons are intentionally leading the battle into a war of attrition.

“Sister, there’s one way.”

“Yes?”

“All the mages will simultaneously unleash magic into the sky to disrupt the dragons. Whether the dragons dodge the attacks or counterattack us, at least the attacks aimed at you will decrease. With that, I can withstand it with the protective barrier I’ll create. But….”

Freya’s eyes fell on the colossal dragon flying in the sky. It was the source of the strong attacks that had been coming since earlier.

“I can’t block that, so you have to do something about it.”

“Leave it to me.”

My body is one. I cannot block multiple attacks. However, if you interpret that conversely, it means I can block one attack countless times.

“Then what do we do?”

In this plan, Claire and the other martial arts professors had nothing to do. I pondered for a moment and then opened my mouth to speak.

“Eat popcorn?”

“….”

——

The plan was decided.

It wasn’t a death march, but with a strangely solemn atmosphere, I bid farewell with deep kisses to Freya, Priscilla, Claire, and even Ur, and then clung to Pipi, relying on a single rope.

Unexpectedly, Pipi was strong. It could fly normally even with me clinging to it.

“Sister, when we get back, let’s get ma- Kk, hey, you really…!”

Leaving behind the trivial incident of Freya arguing with Claire, I slowly ascended high into the sky. Then, hundreds of spells began to pour from below into the sky.

“Oh.”

BOOM, BOOM!

Light clashes with light, sparkling. It’s like meteor showers colliding with meteor showers. The indiscriminate magic shot from the sky to the ground and from the ground to the sky paints the black world.

“Pii-pii!”

“Is this protective barrier okay?”

Even amidst that, there were breaths aimed at me. Occasionally, magic from the ground hit me. Each time, the green barrier glowed and blocked the attack, but the visual and auditory threat was undeniably vivid.

Before long, I had ascended to the midpoint between the dragons and humans. It was high enough that the people on the ground looked like dots, and the dragons that were dots now looked clear. If I fall from here, it will surely hurt a lot. I don’t want that.

“Master!”

“Kk!”

I twisted my body, hanging from the rope, and cut down the radiant light flying towards me. As expected, I hate fighting in the air for this reason. It’s only inconvenient for me.

“We need to go higher. Can you do it?”

“Pii-pii!”

As I ascend higher, the attacks intensify. The protective barrier shakes countless times. But my mind must not shake with it. All I need to block is the breath of that white colossal dragon.

I cut it down again and again. I break it. I pierce it.

Finally, breaking through the clouds of countless dragons, the black sky, the halo, and the dragon with six pairs of wings stared at me.

“I will not forget the vengeance of my child, white wolf.”

“What are you talking about?”

“It is meaningless for you to kill me. According to the contract, the one who removes the boundaries will fulfill my revenge….”

I twisted my body powerfully and cut off the head of the dragon spouting incomprehensible words. At the same time, the halo of the sun that illuminated the black sky disappeared into the darkness….

And the world was dyed black.