CH 210

The six breaths from the flame magic landed, and there was a huge crash as the ship violently shook.

「What’s the damage!!」

Raising my head, I yelled this question at Noa who stood there imposingly.

Everyone else had dropped down low and though they withstood the impact, Noa was the only one standing at attention. What was she made out of. Even I was grabbing onto the bow for support.

「It’s insignificant! If it’s something of this level, then there’s no problem at all!! However, there are no guarantees as to how things will turn out after this!!」

After a brief glance around, Noa shouted this in response.

Unlike the people who had Ria’s barrier, it was the shell of the turtle monster that we used to build the ship that had protected it from what had crashed into the ship. Luckily, the attack had hit the area that was covered by the shell this time, but the next one might not be the case. The Wyverns had intelligence as well, and we were the ones at a disadvantage in an aerial battle. The underside of the ship was heavily armored, but that didn’t help.

「D*mn it, if only the monsters were all gathered in one place….」

Seeing the scattered Wyverns, I complained. Perhaps it was because the Wyvern who was the boss and commanded the flock was gone, as the remaining six Wyverns were moving on their own, so I was unable to get a good read on them and it was annoying. If there was a chain of command, the it would be possible to see where they’re aiming at and make our preparations based on that, but perhaps because they were rampaging due to hunger, no matter how many of their companions were shot down, they would not give up until their hunger was satisfied. Yoru, who was in the form of a dragon, was trying to drive them all into one place, but perhaps they still retained some intelligence even when in a rampaging state, as it was not an easy task.

If they had been unified just like before and were in the range of my『Shadow Magic』, it could’ve swallowed everything, but there was not much shadow in the sky unlike in the forest, so even if I gathered shadows from the distance, I couldn’t extend my『Shadow Magic』too far. The weakness of『Shadow Magic』was exposed in such a place, huh. I frowned and clicked my tongue. 

I invoked『Shadow Magic』, so that it would activate as soon as the six Wyverns, who were flying unsteadily to avoid Amelia’s arrows and Nanase’s wind magic while shooting their flames at the ship, entered the range. 

「If we gathered the enemies, you could do something about them!?」

In a place where my voice shouldn’t have been able to reach, Tsuda, who was protecting Ueno and Waki, yelled this. The hero or Kyousuke, who were near him, probably came to the same conclusion. Including Zeal-san, they had all traveled together, so both their battle formation and their coordination were firmly established. Everyone’s strength and amount of experience probably added up to about the same as myself.

「Oda-kun!!」

As I was focusing on the Wyverns while taking note of the hero and the others’ movements, in a place further away, Tsuda suddenly called my name.

Even though we were in the same class, Tsuda and I rarely interacted. I certainly felt something similar to kinship towards him who also stayed in the corner of the classroom, but from what I remembered, we shouldn’t have spoken to each other even once. 

「What!!」

I shouted back at him just as loudly. Tsuda rushed over, paying no attention to the defense. Currently, there was one more knight, Zeal-san, who was holding up a shield in front of the non-combatants. However, the other party was flying in the sky, so they needed to have another person in the back. 

「If it’s you, instead of me, the two people’s shield, no, you can do it better than me, right?」

Under the pressure of that straightforward look in his eyes, I unconsciously nodded. If the range was around the same as that of a shield’s, I’ll probably be able to surpass it using『Shadow Magic』with room to spare.

Rather than that, Tsuda’s eyes bothered me. The Tsuda that I knew was always watching Kyousuke, and other than that, he wasn’t particularly self-assertive, and gave the impression that he was a good kid, but was unreliable, but the current Tsuda seemed somewhat different. If it were the hero and the others who usually worked together with him, they would definitely understand this uncomfortable feeling, but I did not. 

「Then, I’ll leave it to you. I’ll get the enemies’ attention, so I want Asahina-kun and Satou-kun to defeat them all. You can do it, right?」

The hero and Kyousuke, who were suddenly called out to by Tsuda, who was different from how he usually was, nodded nervously. 

「You, you can substitute for me, right?」

I threw my spare dagger, getting rid of a Wyvern that was trying to attack Amelia as I asked this.

I couldn’t make a big counterattack, but I could do other things like attacking the Wyverns that approached Amelia and Nanase with magic power, and stopping the monsters who were about to bite at the fragile parts of the ship.

After taking a deep breath, Tsuda gave a big nod.

「Of course. I’ll show you that we can turn this situation around.」