Chapter 7: The Storm(6)

MISTERLP

"Now then, sire, keep your head down, please!"

"S-Sure."

"Here I go... Hahhhhhh!" With a loud cry of exertion, Aisha swung her

greatsword.

The blast of wind I had seen before while watching her training with

Liscia flew forth, splitting one of the falling objects in two. Then a

sideways swing; a diagonal slash from the left; a diagonal slash from the

right. With each swing of Aisha's greatsword, a sharp blast of wind would

fly forth, cutting down one of the falling objects.

Aisha was always a bit of a disappointment in her daily life, but on the

battlefield she was reliable, and the most powerful warrior in the kingdom.

With Naden and Aisha going to work, the spherical objects dropped by

the cube were either blown up or cut in two. However, it kept dropping

them, one after another.

"This is endless..." Aisha groaned.

"But if we don't shoot them down, they'll cause damage below,"

Naden said.

"We cannot advance, and we cannot retreat. We'll be whittled down to

nothing like this."

Aisha was probably right. Damn! If only we could get in touch with the

ground, we could warn them of the danger and have them evacuate. I

should have brought a Factory Arm to serve as a relay... Well, whining

about the things I didn't have wasn't going to help.

"Oh, geez. What can we do?" I looked up at the cube, wracking my

brains.

Then it happened.

"Heyyyyyy..."

I heard a voice coming from somewhere. It was unlike the voice I had

been hearing up until now. This time, it was a man's voice.

"Heyyyyy! Soumaaaaa!"

This voice was coming... from below?!

When I leaned over Naden's side to look down, I saw a red dragon

driving toward us at an incredible speed. Her wings were folded, and she

was in an almost arrow-like shape. Hold on, wasn't she flying awfully fast

for not beating her wings?

Furthermore, Halbert was on her back, holding on for dear life.

"Hal?!" I shouted.

"Ruby?!" Naden cried out at the same time.

Ruby shot past us with Halbert riding on her back. The two of them

continued to ascend vertically like that, but eventually they lost inertia, and

started falling upside down. Her wings weren't spread... Oh, that was it!

Because if she spread them, they'd be affected by the winds, huh!

"Naden!" I called.

"I know!"

Naden got underneath the falling Ruby and caught her. From there, she

wrapped her body around Ruby and fixed her in place. Ruby sounded

relieved when she said, "This method of flying's... not easy on the heart."

"Ruby, how did you...?"

"Save the chitchat for later! We can't let those things reach the ground,

right?!"

With those words, Ruby inhaled deeply, and set loose the flamethrower

known as a dragon's breath. The flames stretched out like a blowtorch,

frying the objects and making them explode.

When she saw that, Naden spun her body around flinging electrical

shocks in all directions. With that, Ruby's breath went around like the

hands of a clock, setting off the falling objects across an even wider area.

The area around us was filled with brilliant flames, electricity, and

explosions. It irritated my eyes.

By triggering all of them to explode at once, it had given us some

leeway until the next set were dropped.

"So, how are you here, Ruby?" Naden asked Ruby, who was breathing

a little raggedly, when things settled down. Now that she mentioned it,

hadn't we talked about how a winged dragon couldn't fly in these wild air

currents?

"I had this person here cooperate with me... and did some crazy things

to fly up here..." Ruby said while trying to catch her breath. Stretching out

her long neck, she used her snout to point to her back.

By "this person here," did she mean Hal?

"Hal, just what on Earth did you do...?" I asked, feeling thoroughly

exhausted.

Hal pointed behind him. "Souma... You brought this, didn't you? We

used it... to fly right here."

What Hal was pointing at as he said that was the Maxwellian

Propulsion Device affixed to the back of his saddle, the Little Susumu

Mark V Light.

My eyes went wide.

So this was what Kaede was talking about!

◇ ◇ ◇

Earlier...

"I'd like to ask you a favor." I sat my aching body up, corrected my

posture, and then bowed my head to the red-haired young man.

When I did, Hal exchanged glances with the fox-eared girl... Kaede,

was it? "I'm not sure this is the time to suddenly be asking for favors..."

"First, I'd like to hear what that favor is, you know," said Kaede. "Is

there something you'd like to ask Hal for?"

"I don't care what it is. Just give me something I can do!" I said

pleadingly. I bowed my head again deeply. "I don't want to rely on Naden

to fix this situation! If I leave the fate of Dracul to Naden, while I do

nothing... I won't be able to have pride in myself anymore."

I couldn't fly in this storm. Even so, if I let Naden do all the work, I

wouldn't be living up to the reputation of the dragons of the Star Dragon

Mountain Range.

That wasn't all. If I made Naden take all the risks, and then something

happened to her, I'd never be able to forgive myself.

"You're that king, Souma's, vassals, aren't you? There's nothing we

can do, but since you two have come from outside the Star Dragon

Mountain Range, I thought you might have some way of doing it."

"I dunno..." said Halbert.

"I don't care how dangerous it is. I want you to let me do something,

too." My feelings were tearing me up inside.

Hal scratched his head with a troubled look on his face. "Hmm, I don't

have any idea how to fly when the skies are so bad that even a dragon

can't fly. Kaede's magic manipulates gravity, but even with that, she can

only make things float off the ground a little. Right?"

"Yeah. I don't think earth magic is going to be able to do anything

here," Kaede nodded.

Was it like I feared? Was there nothing I could do?

When despair was beginning to set in, Kaede suddenly said, "But it's

not like we don't have any way at all, you know."

"Y-You have something?!"

"It's dangerous, but... if your wings are going to catch the wind, you

can just not open them, you know."

Not open my wings? She was telling me to fly without flapping my

wings? That was... something only Naden could do.

Hal also had a dubious look on his face. "No, no, how is a winged

dragon supposed to fly without her wings?"

However, Kaede just looked at him with exasperation. "Have you

forgotten, Hal? The thing we have in the gondola."

"In the gondola? Let's see, there's that weird kigurumi thing that

Souma uses, and... Oh, that! The propeller, that Little Susumu

whatchamacallit!"

Propeller? I had no idea what they were talking about, but they seemed

to think it would work.

Kaede pointed at my back and said, "Dragons and wyverns are

different sizes, yes, but their overall shape is similar. If we put the Little

Susumu Mark V Light on her back, like we do for the wyvern cavalry,

then fire it up to full power, even with her wings folded, I think she could

climb straight up from the ground."

"I get your reasoning, but... isn't that dangerous?" Hal asked dubiously.

"She can only rise straight up, right?"

Kaede nodded, affirming his concerns. "Of course. There's no way to

change direction. It's only able to go up. Besides, we haven't tested it in

storm conditions, so I don't know if what I was just saying is actually

possible." Kaede looked concerned. "However, as things stand, if she

wants to do something, this is about the only way..."

"I don't mind," I said firmly. "I'm well aware of the danger. Let me do

it."

"Ruby..."

"Aw, geez! Looks like I've got no other choice!" Hal scratched his

head, a grin on his face. "I'm the one who got you fired up to do this. I'll

have to go with you."

Halbert's proposal made Kaede's eyes go wide. "Hal... you do

understand what you're saying means, don't you?"

"That I'll be in danger? Yeah, I'm ready for that. Besides, the dragon

wearing the propeller can't control it. She needs someone to ride her and

steer it, right?"

"That's not my only concern... Oh, geez, there's no other choice, is

there?" Kaede muttered. "Fine. I'll find a good way to tell His Majesty."

Kaede shrugged her shoulders in resigned exasperation as she approved

the idea.

"Thank you. Hal, Kaede."

I bowed my head to the two of them again. I couldn't have been more

grateful.

Here and now, an impromptu red dragon knight was born.

◇ ◇ ◇

While Naden and Aisha continued intercepting the falling objects, I

gave Hal and Ruby a quick rundown of the situation.

This cube was causing the storm, the objects it was dropping were

bombs, and it would be dangerous to let them fall to the surface. I didn't

mention that the thing was apparently trying to destroy Dracul so that it

would be destroyed itself. I had no proof, and I didn't want to take the time

to explain it.

When they heard my explanation, Hal and Ruby nodded in unison.

"Got it," Hal said. "We'll handle contacting the ground."

"The other dragons can fight from down on the ground, too." Ruby

stretched her neck, bringing her face closer to Naden's. "So, Naden, don't

worry about things down below. Head straight for that thing."

"Can I trust you to handle this?" Naden asked.

"Your job is to carry Souma, right? As a dragon of the Star Dragon

Mountain Range, I may not be able to clear the way for you, but I'll at

least cover your back."

"...Okay."

Naden uncoiled herself and released Ruby. The moment they were set

free, Hal and Ruby let gravity take its course and fell straight down.

I shouted after them, "Hal! Take care of Liscia and the others!"

"Count on it! You do your thing, too!"

The opposite of the way they came, Hal and Ruby fell headlong to the

surface. Even as they were falling, Hal threw the spear he was holding and

took down one of the falling objects. It looked like his dratrooper training

had paid off. Red-haired Halbert, riding on a red dragon, and throwing a

spear... huh.

"They're doing the whole dragon knight thing properly, huh..."

"You can say that again," said Naden. "Meanwhile, we're all weird."

"Now, now, sire," Aisha said. "They're them, and we're us. Why can't

we just leave it at that?"

""Pfft!"" When Aisha summed it up like that, Naden and I cracked up

laughing. When she dismissed it in such a carefree way, even if Dracul

was in danger, it felt like it wasn't a big deal.

Yeah, I was starting to feel like we could do something about this.

"Haha... Now then, let's leave the falling objects to those on the

ground, and go take a look at that cube ourselves," I said.

"Yeah. Let's go, Souma, Aisha."

"Okay!" Aisha cried.

With a burst of acceleration, Naden began to climb.