Foul Weather - 1

At the same time as hostilities kicked off on the ground, the wyvern soldiers in the sky above the New Principality had a different threat to attack, and they assembled to face it.

The demolition squad that had stormed Mage City in advance of the salvo from the Cold Star was under attack by an intruder from the sky and on the verge of being completely wiped out.

Right then, as he waited for his enemy's arrival, Regnejee declared to all his wyvern subordinates:

"His strongest weapon is Hillensingen the Luminous Blade. The moment he draws his sword, a blade of light extends outward. The reach of his slash is four meters. There's no need to watch out for this attack. If he gets in a clean hit, you're as good as dead. His other enchanted sword is Trembling Bird. It creates this noisy din while it flies about on its own. Assume that there are two enemies instead of one. Divide the force and have a group keep this sword in check."

It was outside Regnejee's predictions that Alus the Star Runner didn't appear directly over the New Principality of Lithia, given the position of the Cold Star, but nevertheless, things were moving along even better than he could've expected.

He had been able to pick up on the special characteristics of a majority of the previously unknown magic items that Alus the Star Runner had at his disposal. By the time he had incorporated the news of the demolitions team's engagement and subsequent defeat into his strategies, he had already finished preparing for another.

"He has a magic whip called Kio's Hand. It has a range of at least twelve meters. There are times he uses it to close off his vicinity and protect himself. In those situations, its effective range is cut in half or more. This is the attack you need to be wary of. Twelve meters. Repeat what I said, scum."

"Krak, twelve…meters." "Twelve…"

"Gwwwark, don't g-get close."

"Got that down? His main weapon, the gun, has a farther range than that. A grazing shot from its poison bullets is enough to give you an agonizing death, and he has magic bullets of roaring lightning that fire thunderbolts. If you keep interfering with his shooting stance or his reloading, you can disrupt these attacks. Disruption will be outside a twelve-meter radius, while those given the 'death role' will attack all at once in groups from a six-meter radius."

"Operation…u-understood…"

"Kree-kree-kreeee…! Attack Star Runner!"

Alus the Star Runner was an unrivaled rogue. He outstripped and easily dominated many legends who had previously made names for themselves across the world.

However, the conditions for Regnejee the Wings of Sunset—and the wyvern soldiers he commanded—were different. They had anticipated the unbeatable rogue's raid. They had also gained complete knowledge over Alus's numerous methods of attack and could meet them with their own tactical answers.

The wyverns need no champion. I will end this right here, right now.

He saw slender wings swoop in, the moonlight of the big and small moons both shining behind them.

The one who brought legends to an end. Alus the Star Runner. "Now…it's been a while since I've seen your face. You've been running

away for quite a long time, haven't you, Three-Armed Alus?" Regnejee sneered, full of malice.

"Finally returned to the flock, have you? Even scum like you is welcome

—to my flock. I'll go ahead and put you in charge of provisions." "...…Be quiet."

Gunshots. It was hard to believe the lightning speed of the rapid fire was occurring in midair.

Regnejee, opening up enough distance, used another soldier as his shield. He was always positioned near the center of the flock, and he assembled them in a formation to prevent any direct shots from reaching him.

"Kwa-ha-ha! Oh, are you angry? No, of course not, right? You don't have enough brains in there to be angry. Born that way! Stuck crawling on the ground, barely able to ride a wind current! A three-armed reject, that's what

you are. I know all about you."

Alus tried loading his next bullet. Several wyverns swarmed him, drawing his attention and interfering with his reloading. There was a group that dived down below and passed under him. On the backs of their armor, engraved with the New Principality's crest, were burning bundles of straw, the acrid smoke blocking Alus's vision for a quick moment.

He soared downward diagonally and escaped. Regnejee's tactics had accounted for his path of retreat away from this snare, too.

"Why do you think we were waiting for you here in Lithia?" "...!"

Faster than Alus could regain his bearings, gunshots rang out in succession. He evaded by contorting his body, and one of the bullets just barely grazed his skin.

The attack wasn't anything special. A simple volley of gunfire. However, it hadn't come from the wyverns in front of him.

Looking downward, Alus saw the glint of numerous gun barrels on the spires lining Lithia.

"Only a fool would think of using a gun himself—you know that, Alus?"

Driven back by the enemy in the air, the sniper attacks could kill him from his disadvantageous position. An effective strategy.

The wyvern soldiers again began dispersing smoke. The straw they burned also served as guiding lights to the soldiers on the surface, showing them Alus's position. The gunshots from the towers continued without pause. Cycling out soldiers as they reloaded, the attacks went on in succession.

…If I break through an opening in their defense net— No.

One of the wyvern soldiers flew forward, challenging him to a close- quarters fight with his talons. It was a decoy. Alus knew that if he stopped his wings to deal with the challenger, he'd be brought down.

…What weapons can I use…at this range?

With his luminous blade and Kio's Hand, he tried to regroup and start again. However, the enemy didn't approach close enough for him to catch multiple wyverns in his attack. Faster than he could devise his next plan, the onslaught assailed him.

Smoke. Gunfire. Claws.

"Kekexy ko khar." (From Regnejee to Lithia's winds.) Then Word Arts.

"...Irritating…"

"Kent kakor. Kokket korp. Kokaito." (Returning mirror plate. Stringed sun. Shine.)

Alus avoided the red light of Regnejee's Thermal Arts. A bullet tore a section of his wing. It was a premediated hit—to create a second to shift to the offensive. He began moving into his stance to let his sword fly.

"Trembling Bird…!"

With a shrill, piercing scream, the enchanted sword flew off. A section of Regnejee's swarm responded immediately and intercepted the enchanted sword with their claws. The blade changed its arc in midair after being brought down and returned to Alus's hand.

It was clear from the group's immediate response that they were trying to capture the enchanted sword for themselves. Alus decided it was best to avoid using Trembling Bird recklessly during the fight.

"Kokket korp. Kokaito." (Stringed sun. Shine.) A tapered red light.

Regnejee again completed his incantation. Alus dodged the deadly light beam.

He couldn't afford to take a single direct hit. He simultaneously needed to pay attention to the flow of battle and the enemy force itself, close to a hundred strong, and couldn't afford to lose focus… "...…"

Alus produced a small magic tool, resembling an urn.

The wyvern soldiers' saturation attack continued mercilessly, constantly forcing Alus to deal with every assault levied against him. As a collective, the soldiers experienced no fatigue. They wouldn't stop until Alus was dead.

"Having too much trouble to talk now, huh?" Regnejee taunted.

"Alus. Three-Armed Alus. You want the Cold Star? Kwah, ha. Let me try guessing what you're thinking. You're thinking how if you just had that Cold Star in your hands right now, aren't you? Frustrating, isn't it? Though…I doubt your brain's even developed enough for an emotion like that!"

"…The Cold Star, huh…?"

If he had the city-leveling beam of light or a dragon's destructive breath attack, he could've swept Regnejee's whole army away at once.

The claws and guns urged him on.

Alus evaded the attacks, using the recoil from Kio's Hand like a second tail. Although unable to catch and pull in midair enemies, by utilizing it this

way, he was able to freely change his direction mid-flight.

"…Kekexy ko khar." (From Regnejee to Lithia's winds.)

Then, in the midst of his sudden evasive actions, something resembling small pieces of coal spilled out from Alus's urn and fell down to the New Principality streets below. It was an attack of his own.

"Even without it…"

Flames rose up below his eyes.

"Kent kakor." (Returning mirror plate.)

"…I can still wipe out a country, Ground Runner." The line of flames ran a direct path forward.

Regnejee looked down at what was happening. The charcoal that Alus was dumping below, bright fireballs that ran through the streets at high speeds, was spreading throughout the city. It was another of Alus the Star Runner's magic items and one he had kept secret in Mage City.

Flames that seemed to travel of their own volition, growing stronger as they fanned out over the city. Its name was Ground Runner.

It's only the urban areas. There aren't any military facilities there. A meaningless attack. But Curte…

Even locked in a desperate fight to the death, Regnejee's mind first turned to the one spire directly connected to the central stronghold.

…It won't spread to Curte's location. Only ones who'll die are the minia civilians.

His sight relief was also an opening. The magic whip Kio's Hand silently stretched out from Alus's grip, piercing the cervical spine of the soldier Regnejee was using as a shield.

"...Sixteen meters. Kwah, ha… You were hiding your maximum range after all, weren't you, Alus?"

When the wyvern leader was attacked, the closest soldier to him would sacrifice themselves—unflinchingly and unperturbed by death.

"A meaningless and shallow tactic in the end."

"…What's with them…?" Alus questioned as he continued to shoot down enemies, weaving his reloading in between gaps in his opponents' barrage. The hole from the lost individual would immediately be replaced by another wyvern, and Regnejee's tactical operations were entirely unaffected.

"These aren't wyverns…"

"Kwa-ha-ha. Want me to tell you? I'm using Life Arts to mess with their

heads. I'll do the same to you." "...You're lying."

Life Arts involved skills able to enact restorative changes on cellular and biological activity, but they couldn't distort the brain functions of advanced intelligences. Wyverns were different from bugs and fish. They were able to comprehend Word Arts.

A genius who could lead armies with his exceedingly high intellect and even cooperate with the minia races. Wyvern soldiers who, as a result of painstaking terror and oppression, served without fear of death.

This completely unexplainable abnormality was the very core of Regnejee's army.

This leader, who'd had a majority of his original swarm annihilated by the True Demon King, had rebuilt it into an aerial force the size of a nation in only four short years.

"You started talking again… Trying to buy time, Three-Armed Alus?"

Alus's luminous blade warded off the spray of gunfire. He then took emergency maneuvers to evade four shots beset on him at once. Then another gunshot. Evade. Repeat. He wasn't given a moment's rest.

Alus's eyes flickered around the area, searching for a needed path of escape from the gunners' lines of fire.

The besieging web of wyverns had formed again. There were no holes to slip through.

"…Are you stupid?! Kwa, hwa, kwa! With every passing second, you take one step closer to your demise! This is the New Principality! They can deploy as many minia marksmen as they need! They've been gathering in this area ever since you arrived, fool!"

"...You always…talk so much, Regnejee."

"Indeed. Repent. Accept defeat. That's why I'm talking to you. To make sure you realize how wrong you are and that you're incompetent garbage. Listen, Alus. Listen and really think it over. You were strategically outmatched before you even arrived."

Up until that moment, Alus hadn't been able to topple the leader, Regnejee. Neither had he been able to greatly decrease the wyvern army's numbers, either, as he had during his engagement over Mage City.

Thus, no matter how much longer this went on, Alus the Star Runner couldn't overcome the current situation.

The density of the long-range attacks from the surface was increasing slowly, and the wyvern army restricting Alus's movements was cycling through its soldiers to rest and recover their strength. Meanwhile, Alus was constantly pressured to keep evading attacks, extremely taxing on his reflexes and concentration, and eventually (or even sooner), failure would come.

Whether gunshots from average soldiers, without any special proficiency, or talons of rank-and-file wyvern soldiers, it didn't matter when a single direct hit spelled death.

An army that crushed champions. Such was the strategy of the wyvern commander, Regnejee the Wings of Sunset.

"...…Yeah. Time."

Alus grunted, sounding exceedingly somber.

He folded his wings. There was only one meaning behind folding the wings, meant to be filled with the wind and air. Regnejee was suspicious.

A nosedive?

It was an act of suicide. Alus the Star Runner abandoned control over his own flight.

"…I needed time."

The moment he spoke the words, Alus was hit in the back by successive gunfire. One shot. Two shots.

Five shots were direct hits. Alus was able to keep evading the previous gunfire entirely due to his knowledge-bending mobility, and with his simple, straight plunge down, the soldiers of the New Principality had no trouble hitting their mark.

"That's it, then."

Alus the Star Runner continued his descent.

He remembered the scene of days gone. The sea cliffs. Wings flying off into the sun, high in the sky.

The one who abandoned his flock as a right of the powerful and the one who protected the flock under the sense of responsibility his power bestowed on him.

Which one had managed to obtain something of true value? "…I was right."

The descending wyvern vanished into the sea of flames razing the town. Flames. Spreading flames.

"…!"

Regnejee became aware of a certain possibility. He shouted to his flock of followers.

"…Everyone, drop down and pursue him! Assume he's survived and surround Alus the Star Runner! If you find him, don't move from your position! Even if it means your life, understand?"

"L-life… Kra-kwaaah."

"Krrrk, encircle, u-understood…"

"Don't repeat things! Hurry up and get after him, fools!"

The sky army began their descent, like a wave crashing, and dove down between the gaps in the city spires.

Assuming there was a deeper purpose to his actions, that would mean from the moment Alus the Star Runner released his fire…he had planned for this.

Then Regnejee saw the flash of an enchanted sword in a corner of the city. The light signaled Alus the Star Runner's survival. It was Hillensingen the

Luminous Blade.