Chapter 188: 78: The Hunt – Part 2

"Lights up!" I order, and the golems on the bridge obey, turning on our ship's lights.

We bolt out of our beds and scramble to suit up in our wooden plate armor. We were sleeping in our scale armor, so we're kind of protected already, but we consider our plate sets as our primary armor, and we seem to have the time to fully prepare ourselves.

The comms officer on watch gathers all the birds and yells, "Fay Leviathan spotted! Direction, ten degrees north; elevation, minus twenty degrees; distance, over one thousand metri! Accompanied by forty-four large Kite Dragons! Remain in place and wait for further orders!"

In the distance, a Holly spots a dark serpent passing in front of a colored cloud, and a small swarm of black dots follows it. There's barely any moonlight since the moon is hidden behind the clouds, but it's still enough for the Chimera spotters. They wouldn't have survived this long if they didn't know how to detect a night raid.

The Floater is to our west; the Carrier is to our northwest, its broadsides facing north and south; and the Winch is in the middle of the three of us. To save MP, I dismiss the extra summons and only keep out two Hollys for scouting, a spirit elemental, the bird on the bridge, and, of course, the ones I have with Klein and Osaria.

On the Floater, a light crystal at the top and one at the bottom suddenly shine so brightly that they light up the surroundings. The clouds in the immediate vicinity are all illuminated, revealing over ten Stone Lancers coming from the west, which are currently about five hundred meters away from us.

These monsters are like mini black Concorde planes, about twice the size of a horse. They have a thick jousting lance made of stone for their beak and a small, flat body with fixed wings for control. They don't even flap their wings, flying entirely by magical propulsion, which is fucking fast, and they attack through obvious means.

Alissa immediately stops helping me put on my armor and grabs her bow. Roxanne only needs to put on her robe, hat, and glasses, and grab her staff, so she's the first one of us to finish getting ready.

Alissa pulls Roxanne out of the tent to hold off the Lancers. "Wolfy first!" She exclaims, and Lina and Yunia come over to help me finish armoring up.

I quickly pull out a crate full of javelins and spare weapons. "Ted, Suzy! Go help Alissa!" I yell to the golems.

"Yes, Master," they answer in unison. They fly down from the bridge, pick up the crate with [Telekinesis], and exit the tent.

I grab a rope and store all of our beds simultaneously in my "Items."

The Carrier and the girls start firing at the same time at the Stone Lancers. These monsters have robust bodies, so they take a beating without a single one falling. Only two of them get significantly wounded, but they're still flying at full speed.

"Captain on the bridge!" Someone inside the Carrier yells, then Hihiriwa, Kaiia, and Kaata quickly enter and take their seats.

The Floater activates its [Wind Shield], but the Lancers simply ignore it and pass by. They don't seem to be aiming at the Winch or the Carrier, either, so that just leaves us.

The Floater quickly turns and fires a [Beam] at them, damaging the ass of one of the Lancers, but then they all start to do barrel rolls, making it difficult to hit them again.

I hear the Floater's propeller engage, and it tries to catch up to use [Discharge], but it's slower than the Lancers, so it gets left behind.

Gify pops out of existence, but I have a feeling that she's actually just hiding inside my armor.

Alissa suddenly senses enemies entering the range of her [Sense Presence], and they're coming from the east, fast.

"JARN! SHIELD UP!" I roar.

"Yes, Master," she obeys and feeds mana to the enchantment.

Three seconds later, the enchantments drain mana a bit faster as they divert ten Stone Lancers coming from our east. I get to the bridge just in time to see these large monsters jet around us. They whistle past our ship like a blur, and I can barely turn my head fast enough to follow them. I'd guess that they're flying at over 100kmph.

I deactivate our shield, and Alissa, Roxanne, and the golems fire at the Lancers. An [Ice Lance] and an arrow hit the softer stone of the Lancers' ass ends, heavily wounding them. The golems completely miss with their javelins.

Another warning comes from the bridge, "Monster swarm spotted! Direction, due south; elevation, plus forty-five degrees; distance, over one thousand metri! Harpies and Dragolites! Be careful of ranged attacks and magic!"

There are too many types of monsters here for a simple leader-type to control.

The ten Lancers to the far west join up with the other ten we just defended ourselves against, then they all turn their pointy beaks towards us and charge. The Floater suddenly starts gaining altitude and points up, flying towards the harpies and Dragolites above us.

Why are they targeting us? Did they assume that we didn't have a [Wind Shield]?

"FROST ORBS!" Our handler yells, and we activate the [Wind Shield], losing our chance to counter the Lancers' charge. They whistle past us again, diverted by the shield.

"We're under attack from all of the Lancers," I report to my bird.

A light suddenly slams into one Lancer, and the monster is split in half, then the light dims enough for us to see Paraaone, fully armored, with his angelic wings spread out and pointing his glaive towards the Lancers.

He fires [Beam] and wounds another Lancer. Thirteen Lancers remain in good condition, six are injured, and one is dead.

"Hide behind the Carrier, and the Celestial Horns will aid you after dealing with the harpies. Kill the Lancers as fast as you can!" The handler relays Hihiriwa's orders. The comms box lights up with the command for a "defensive battle." I lower the ship so that the Kite Dragons can't hit us anymore.

Hukarere appears on the bridge and replaces our handler. It makes me a bit calmer to have her with us.

The Carrier and the Winch turn on their lights. The Carrier's are comparable to the Floater's, but the Winch is in a class of its own. It's a mini-sun that even lights up the Leviathan approaching from afar.

The girls line up on deck and prepare their spells, and the Lancers turn around to face us. I lower our shields, and we release our volley, then the Lancers spread out, and only Alissa's arrow manages to scratch their stone beak.

"ONE MORE! ON MY MARK!" I order. The Lancers' acceleration is frightening, so we only have a few seconds to react. I guide the girls with [Bind] so that we each aim for a different target.

Paraaone glows again and nods at me…

I wait another second, and [Battlefield Perception] starts to tickle in my mind. The Lancers are going to try to pierce our [Wind Shield] once again.

"FIRE!" I order.

A wild assortment of spells flies from the girls and the Carrier, breaking the Lancers' formation, then Hana and Paraaone launch towards the enemy just before I raise our shields.

Hana aims for Alissa's target. There's an arrow in its right eye now, so it doesn't see Hana rapidly approaching with her spear to finish the job.

Paraaone tanks a Lancer's hit with his manly chest, aided by his balls of steel. His armor being OP helps, too. The Lancer's stone beak breaks against his armor, then he grabs it with one hand and decapitates it with his glaive.

Five of the Lancers get stopped in mid-air by the [Wind Shield], and the rest of them are diverted. Three [Telekinesis]-powered maces and a few extra spells launch at these five, breaking their beaks.

Six Lancers are left in good condition, eleven are considerably wounded, and three are dead.

"Careful! The harpies are aiming at you!" Hukarere exclaims.

What the fuck?!

Hana aims her shield upwards, then a rain of Needler feathers rain on us, but they're diverted by our [Wind Shield]s.

The rest of the Horns and the Floater engage the harpies while the Wasps thin out the large number of Dragolites.

Hihiriwa yells at the Horns to help us finish off the Lancers already. The Carrier tries to approach the Kite Dragons, but they retreat along with it, easily staying beyond its range.

I see the Leviathan starting to glow with a light blue color as it makes its way towards us. I now realize that our ship is basically a smaller version of the Leviathan. Its rough-textured face looks exactly like the bow of our ship, a vertical triangular prism with a long, protruding chin that can be used as a ram. Its long, transparent body is at least three times as long as our ship; there's a thick vertical fin at the end, which I assume it uses to slap things; it has three sets of fin-like wings, which are twice as large as ours; and its many, colored organs are all visible, pulsating and twitching. Fucking creepy.

With a grunt of effort, Hana pulls the spear out of her Lancer's brain before it falls into the infinite below, then she lands on our deck along with Paraaone just as the rest of the Lancers turn around.

[Beam]s fall on the Lancers at the same time as another salvo from the Carrier, finishing off three Lancers.

Five Horns appear in front of our ship, and I recognize Oritiki's horns in the middle of their group.

"Scorcher Harpies are aiming for the Ryders!" Hukarere reports.

Alissa looks up at the mayhem raging above and notices some harpies with a more reddish plumage diving towards us. The naked chicken-women seem to be holding small red wands in their claws, which shows that they're mages. The Horns are engaging them, but there are just too many to deal with quickly.

I summon three fire elementals to counter their magic and guide the girls to shoot at the screeching creatures. I stall one after the other with [Gravity Crush] while Alissa and Lina shoot at their ugly mugs.

[Battlefield Perception] tickles my mind again, and I activate the [Wind Shield], giving it just enough power to deflect the Lancers. I manage to stop two of them at just a meter from the ship, and the girls immediately fuck them up.

The Horns finish off four more. Only eight Lancers remain while four are wounded.

Suddenly, multiple fire-type area spells begin to form all over our vessel. This must be the Scorcher Harpies trying to destroy us since we don't have a [Dead Zone] protecting the ship. Because they're area spells, we can interrupt them before they're actually cast, but there are dozens of them being formed at the same time.

The Floater has now disengaged from the harpies, leaving them free to focus on us, and it's now literally ramming the Leviathan, though they never quite touch each other due to the [Wind Shield] protecting the Floater.

The fire elementals quickly interrupt most of the harpies' spells, and we deal with the rest, but that distracts us from the Lancers. The Horns aren't fast enough to chase them, so they stay in front of our ship to guard us.

The Lancers whistle past us again in an ineffective attack, then they all clump together, probably to try one last attempt to fuck us up.

Oritiki's laugh resounds through the air, and the Horns all clump around her. "RYDERS! WATCH THIS!" She bellows.

We continue to interrupt the harpies' spells and watch on. I keep the shields up so that the Needlers can't hit us.

The Lancers charge. Eight black Stone Lancers versus six white Celestial Horns. The Horns stay still in the air like a wall, and the Lancers hit them straight on.

An unstoppable force meets an immovable object. Rock shrapnel sprays out in a cloud, and the Horns remain in place without moving a centimeter. The force has lost to the object.

With their beaks all broken, the Lancers make an easy target for us, and we quickly finish them off.

"NOW GET THOSE FUCKING KITE DRAGONS!" Hihiriwa bellows.

"Ignore the harpies, destroy the Kite Dragons!" The handler exclaims, and the comms box lights up with the initials "KT" and the command for "attack."

The Winch is joining the battle between the Dragolites and the Wasps, helping out a bit with its few Trinity Cannons as it flies in. The Wasps circle around the Carrier, diving into its [Wind Shield]s to prevent themselves from getting overwhelmed by the swarm. Some of the Dragolites manage to get inside the shields, but they're quickly dealt with by the winged soldiers outside or the guards inside the Carrier.

I point the ship's nose upward and flap the wings, giving us a lot of initial impulse, then I push the "forward" lever to the max.

"WE'RE GOING AFTER THE KITE DRAGONS!" I yell, and the girls and Paraaone cheer in response.

Oritiki and her four bodyguards follow us while the rest of the Horns help the Wasps. We're going to have to make our way past the harpies, but they've been significantly thinned out, so their area spells are unlikely to overwhelm us.

A stray Frost Orb comes our way and gets diverted by our shields.

I see the Leviathan and the Floater engaging each other above the Carrier, remaining in a blind spot of its Trinity Cannons. The Leviathan's body is wreathed in ethereal blue flames, the Fay Fire, a magical fire that has an effect similar to the Decay goop if it touches anything.

The Leviathan flaps its wings and gains a burst of speed, then it "swims" through the air to dodge the Floater's [Beam]. It suddenly turns and slaps the ship with its tail fin like a whip, knocking it away. When the force of an attack is too high, the [Wind Shield] enchantment pushes its source gem away to make sure that the attack doesn't get through.

The Horns and Ciel fire [Beam]s at the Scorcher Harpies around us, and we easily fly past them since there's nothing that they can do to stop us.

Alissa climbs up to the bridge while Jarn jumps down to our deck. We sync our minds through [Bind], and she starts flapping the wings of the ship to give us an extra boost. We quickly get out of range of the harpies.

A few of the Kite Dragons turn to us, but most of them continue firing on the Carrier. If all forty-four of them decide to turn to us, then we might have a problem.

"WE'LL PROTECT YOU FROM THE ORBS!" Oritiki yells.

The armor of the Horns in front of our ship begin to glow with a faint red, and when the Frost Orbs hit them, the magical frost almost instantly melts away.

I knew it. Their armor was made to resist magic.

Some of the harpies try to follow us, but a few diverted Frost Orbs and Alissa's arrows quickly deal with any of them that manage to get close.

There's nothing left for us to do until we're in range of the Kite Dragons, so we just rest, enjoying our less than a minute long breather. It's eerie to have to stand still and do nothing while others fight behind us, especially since the Floater's fight is just so "energetic." It's constantly moving, trying to face the Leviathan, just nicking it and inflicting light wounds while the monster keeps slipping around it and trying to stay in its blind spot so that it can drain the [Wind Shield]s mana.

Alissa stops flapping the wings, then gracefully drops down from the bridge, and Jarn returns to her post.

"I'm in range!" Roxanne yells.

The Horns block another Frost Orb, and I drop the shield.

"FIRE!" I order.

The girls don't spare their mana, just throwing everything they can, and the formation of the Kite Dragons immediately starts to crumble. One by one, they slowly switch their attention to us, all forty-four of them.

"Calm down," I say with [Godly Language] and forcefully slow my own breathing down.

I focus on all of my [Bind]s, every girl, every summon, every pair of eyes. I have a full 360-degree view of our ship. I can see the entire battlefield at once. I have all the information that I need, and more tools and weapons than I can count, so it's time to put it all to use.

Hana and Aoi are my bruisers, they jump off the ship and fly into the fray; Roxanne and Lina are my main damage dealers, they'll disable anyone aiming at us; and Alissa is my finisher because, with her, it's one arrow, one kill.

"RAAAAAAAGH!" Hana and Aoi roar in unison, then each of them crash onto a Kite Dragon.

Aoi pries her Kite Dragon's mouth open and sends her own [Wind Blade]s down its throat, then she uses it as a meat shield to protect herself from a Frost Orb.

The fire elementals, the golems, Ciel, Yunia, and the Horns all fire randomly at whatever gets close to them, wreaking havoc among the Kite Dragons. The damage starts to pile up, and the Dragons start to fall.

We hear lots of propellers activating far away, and the Carrier starts to charge towards us.

We fly into the middle of the Kite Dragons' formation, then they try to surround us and fire on us from all directions, but the Horns glow brightly like stars as I take evasive maneuvers. The monsters miss most of their shots, and the Horns easily block the few that are on target.

Suddenly, a deep, long roar shakes us to our bones and nearly breaks me out of my Godly calmness, "UROOOOOO~~!"

"The Leviathan is coming after you!" Hukarere reports.

The Kite Dragons turn around and start to flee. The Floater chases after the Leviathan, managing to injure some of its wings in its pursuit.

"DON'T LET THEM GET AWAY! KILL AS MANY AS YOU CAN!" Hihiriwa bellows.

"Chase after the Kite Dragons!" Hukarere relays the order, and the comms box's lights change from the "attack" command to "chase."

Hana and Aoi return to our ship since they're slower than the Kite Dragons. The Wasps finish off the rest of the harpies and Dragolites, then land on the Carrier to recharge while it's in pursuit. The Winch unfurls all its sails to keep up with the Carrier.

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I unfurl our sail, and Ciel starts guiding wind into it with her "Willpower," then I unsummon the three fire elementals and replace them with wind elementals to help her. Alissa climbs back up to the bridge, and we start flapping our ship's wings again, then we all recharge our MP with [Redirect Mana], just as a precaution.

The girls and the Horns continue firing at the Kite Dragons, getting in a few more kills, which drops their number to thirty.

Lina walks to the back of the ship and faces the Leviathan, giving it a mean glare. She cycles through [Weaken], [Sap Power], [Befuddle], [Demoralize], and I switch her points around so that she can cast the level twenty spell, [Slow].

"Winds take me; she's managing to slow down the Leviathan!" Oritiki exclaims.

The monster turns its huge white eyes towards Lina, and a massive wave of discomfort washes through her. Her whole body starts to twitch and gradually stops obeying her.

Yunia runs over to Lina and hugs her, then she positions her [Soul Shield] in front of her body, but doesn't cover her eyes. "It's doing something to her spirit!" Yunia exclaims, then she starts chanting [Soul Touch].

Lina soldiers on and continues to stare down the Leviathan, and with Yunia's help, its counter-attack is blocked.

Oritiki lands behind them and glows brightly, reducing the power of the Leviathan even further and allowing Yunia to actually start to heal Lina's soul.

The Floater catches up to the Leviathan, and its [Beam] completely slices off a fin.

"URO~! URO~! UROOO~~!" It roars again repeatedly.

"UROOOAA~H!" Another roar from ahead of us responds to its call.

Oh, fuck.

"Oh, fuck…" Hukarere mumbles.

"Oh, fuck!" Paraaone exclaims.

Up ahead, among the dark clouds, a white light suddenly shines, revealing a Leviathan twice the size of the previous one.

"FUCK UP THAT BLUE LEVIATHAN! NOHOPU, KILL IT!" Hihiriwa orders.

"Switch targets! Kill the blue Leviathan!" Hukarere orders, then the comms box lights up with the signals for "Floater" and the command to "support."

"YUNIA! CAN YOU HOLD THE BLUE ONE WITH [CHAIN LIFE]?!" I question.

"WHAT?! I-I THINK SO, BUT ONLY FOR A MOMENT!" She answers, caught by surprise, but she immediately recovers her confidence.

"THAT'S ENOUGH! GIVE YOUR SWORD TO HANA AND WAIT FOR MY SIGNAL!"

Hana drops her weapons and jumps up towards the bridge.

"Become stronger!" I exclaim in [Godly Language], and she regains her almost fully spent strength.

Then she jumps down to the back of the ship, nearly rips Yunia's enchanted longsword from her hands, and launches herself towards the blue Leviathan. Oritiki and the other Horns follow Hana a second later.

Hana hugs the longsword and leans as far forward as she can to increase her speed to the max. Her wings are tired, but she has enough energy for one last strike.

"MOTHER FUCKING SNAKE! LOOK AT ME! I'M GONNA SKEWER YOUR ASSHOLE IF YOU DON'T!" Hana taunts.

The Leviathan turns its massive head towards her and opens its mouth, revealing its hundreds of sharp teeth ready to chew and grind down Hana into a mush. It's like the mouth of a colossal worm.

"NOW!" I order.

Just before the Leviathan closes its mouth around Hana, it freezes, and Hana slips through into its throat. She uses her wings to spin, activates [Extend], [Bleed], and [Searing Blade], and then lets it rip.

Her mana gushes out like a pressurized pipe bursting, and I summon her before she passes out.

Her body is completely drenched in blue blood and the Leviathan's smelly innards. Alissa and I immediately cast [Clean] before we can all pass out from the stench.

"Jarn, finish [Clean]ing her!" I order, then I turn our ship around, and Alissa grabs her bow again.

Alissa pops an eye while everyone lets loose, turning the writhing monster into Swiss cheese.

The Kite Dragons turn around and fire Frost Orbs at us, forcing us to raise our shield and stop our attack, but the Horns and the Floater are still free to butcher the blue Leviathan.

"ROOOOO~!" The albino Leviathan roars as it flies past the Kite Dragons, who then turn back around and continue fleeing.

The gigantic Leviathan reaches us soon after and slaps down at our ship from above with its back fin. I set the controls to full power for the [Wind Shield], and the ship creaks as we're forced far downwards. The suddenness of the attack scares us shitless, but we quickly recover. Then, blue, glowing blood rains down on us, but gets diverted by the shields.

The albino Leviathan slaps the Floater away, then it tries to slap at the Horns, but they're like annoying bees that keep stinging it. It seems to know better than to try to eat them like the blue one attempted to with Hana.

With the way clear, a salvo from the Carrier rips open a line of wounds in the albino.

"SURROUND IT! KILL IT!" Hihiriwa orders.

"Get back into the fight!" Hukarere exclaims.

"Trying!" I respond.

We sense a burst of mana, then we see something sparkle, and a huge, circular mirror suddenly appears in front of the Floater. It's [Beam] scatters into dozens of smaller beams, one of which hits our ship, burning a line across the deck.

"Watch it! Friendly fire!" I yell to the bird.

One of the Horns smashes themselves against the mirror, which cracks it. Then the Floater slams into it, and it breaks up into a shower of glass shards.

We lower our shields and continue firing, the glass turns into dust, and I briefly increase the power of our shields to protect us from it. I'm sure that it's very unhealthy to inhale magical glass dust.

Hana recovers and weakly sits down, then she drinks one of Roxanne's MP potions.

We gain some altitude, but we're slapped down again soon after. The blue Leviathan seems to be exhausted, and I can clearly see its colored organs slowly becoming blue as it bleeds internally. It's dying.

The albino Leviathan suddenly bites onto the neck of the blue one, then starts to "swim" away with it. The albino is much faster than the blue one, and even the Floater seems to be slightly slower than it.

"NO~!" Hihiriwa rages and slams his fist down against his chair. He breathes in and controls himself enough to command, "Nohopu, Oritiki, Ryders, I'm ordering all of you to chase after the albino! You have three days. Hunt it down and kill it!"

"Understood," I respond and summon two more wind elementals to increase our speed. Our mast and sails strain from the amount of wind being blown into them, but I believe that they'll last.

We follow the Floater, which reduces its speed so that we can stay together, and we follow the trail of mana leaking from the bleeding Leviathans. Tracking magical beings is so much easier than physical ones when you have a high enough [Sense Mana].

I drop the shields, and Oritiki lands on the deck, then she removes her helmet and asks, "I request permission to remain on your ship. We'll also request for the Floater to lend us rooms for the night."

"Uh, permission granted," I reply and smile.

She nods, and the other five Horns land. They take off their helmets, then sit down, using their wings as cushions.

Hana sits down beside Paraaone with a grunt, and they share a glance, then they chuckle.

"What a night," Hana says.

"I've had worse," he grunts.

"It'll get worse," the blue goat says and smiles wryly.

Alissa goes into our tent and starts preparing some Tonique tea.

Oritiki clears her throat and says to all of us, "Everyone, you'd better get some sleep; we'll be awake for a while. Also, we'll take turns piloting this ship if you'll allow it, Wolf Ryder. All of my men are experienced in flying."

I nod and reply, "Fine by me. My golems don't sleep, so they'll always be ready to help."

Oritiki nods. "Alright. Everyone, get some sleep. The next shift will be in three hours."

Gify pops into existence, and she's definitely not happy about our current goal.

It's going to be a long three days.

We enter the "mist" area, and I breathe in the cold, moist air.

But if we kill it… the Leviathan will be the largest monster I could summon.

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