C25- Searching for the Colossus (4)

The duo were flying above the forests of Piscea. The already cold wind got colder the more they went faster. Without Noah's painting heating them from above, they would have already caught a cold.

They watched as the forest under them started to have a thin layer of snow over it as they moved north.

"You are crazy Corvin, you know that right!?"

"What? I can't hear you!"

"The forest looks really different from here, doesn't it?"

"Hahaha..."

Neither understood what the other said because of the wind. Noah just talked while Corvin laughed like he understood what Noah said.

With the help of Corvin's magic, they flew towards where the ratman ran away. After some minutes, the wind that was blowing towards them, started to blow with them, making it less noisy. Corvin started to need less magic to help them fly.

"Huh? Did we get lighter?"

"Oh! Corvin, look! A leaf is flying with us!"

"Huh? Leaf..?"

Corvin turned his head towards where Noah pointed at. As he saw a leaf fly with them, he felt like time slowed down. But Corvin understood why he felt like that.

"Uh oh..!"

SWOOOOSHHH~

After watching the leaf for what felt like a minute, the two were blown forward by a strong wind. It was a strong blizzard, carrying new snow to add more to the thin layer on the forest.

The two lost their balance and Corvin decided to land on the ground. The dense forest should block the wind and protect them.

Crash!

"Guha!"

Thud!

"OUCH! What is wrong with you?!"

"What, you idiot!? Did you want to get thrown around in that blizzard?"

"Blizzard? Ooh, so that's what it was..."

Corvin stared at Noah with absolute shock on his face.

"You... Don't tell me you-"

"I am joking, of course. I just wished you didn't crash us into a tree at high speeds!"

"I had no choice! And, look! My glider broke! Your painting is still intact, be thankful."

"But the frame is completely broken, I need to store it properly."

"Is your violin okay? We will probably desperately need that thing."

"Of course, I protected it with my body, it is okay. Probably."

"Prob-? Go check it now! Our lives might depend on it!"

"Yes, yes.", said Noah in defeat.

"Damn slave driver...", he muttered, but Corvin heard it anyways.

"Slavery is illegal in the Empire, you know?"

"Yeah, right."

Noah looked like he had more to say, but held back. It wasn't the time to talk about things like that, there was a bigger danger they faced currently. Corvin also didn't continue the chit chat.

"Did you organize your stuff?"

"Yeah, you?"

"Hold on, just let me put this painting in this."

Noah placed the painting between two papers and wrapped it into a cylinder. He placed the painting in the similarly shaped container and got up.

"Won't it curl permanently if you put it like that?"

"No, the canvas is made by magic, it can retain it's shape even if you put it in weird ways."

"Hmm... Also why did you get up?"

"Huh? We aren't going to find the monster?"

"No, I am tired. Let's take break here for a bit. I also need to find where we need to go before we can start walking again. You go check your violin while I do that."

"How will you find our way? Aren't we completely lost right now?"

"That leaf was pretty much flying with us, no? The wind was blowing towards almost the same way as us. So we are still on course, most likely."

"Most likely?"

"Well... We can't be completely sure. But, don't worry. The monster is probably close to a settlement... an abandoned one. So all we need to do is find it, defeat it and find the road that goes back to Celati."

"How can you be so sure? What do we even know about the thing?"

"Well, all we know is that it probably looks like a rat. And rats are always around human settlements. And since it's minions are strong, it probably is sleeping around where it appeared, while controlling it's minions. Hopefully, it can't both control it's minions and fight with us at the same time."

"Hopefully..."

'Well, he really did get my father's education after all.'

Noah was impressed with Corvin's thinking as he readied his violin. He started playing a calming melody while testing if it broke anywhere. He used some magic to help Corvin recover his stamina faster.

'Since he did really use a lot of magic while flying, this is my small gift.'

As he played more, he got into it. His melodies started to get faster and louder. He added more effects to his magic as well.

A little bit of mental acceleration. A little bit of body strengthening. At some point, he just played one of his favourite pieces. It started fast, got faster and the notes carried excitement. But eventually slowed down almost like a sudden stop. Then, after a bit of stagnation the notes climbed higher. 

Chiuu~ Chiuu~

The notes held the same excitement from before, but suddenly came to a halt. Corvin lifted his head to see why Noah stopped, because that wasn't how that piece was supposed to go. And then he saw what made Noah stop. Because of Noah's magic, his thinking was faster, and he understood what happened quickly.

Chiuu~

Noah's music attracted something. Not an animal, not a normal monster either. It was a humanoid with a rat skull for a head. Thick round horns and a long tail. It was a completed version of the transformations Corvin saw on the patients at the hospital.

And Corvin understood. He understood that they were getting closer to their target. But he also understood that the tail currently slowly flying towards Noah's chest wasn't actually slow. It was because he was thinking fast right now and he probably didn't have enough time to fully block the attack.

"Noah!"

He shouted and jumped towards the tail. He drew his sword from his belt and tried to deflect the tail with the help of his magic.

Clank!

The sound that came from the collision wasn't what hitting metal with a tail would sound like at all. But the ratman didn't have a metallic weapon with it.

'What are they made of?'

Before being able to say that out loud, he and Noah were sent back a couple of meters and almost crashed into a tree.

Noah looked weird because he reflexively stretched his arms to protect the violin. He was successful in protecting the violin, but it hurt really bad.

"Khak!"

"Noah! Help me with your magic, I don't want to use Amy's pills yet. And, they also take some time to activate and we don't have that.", said Corvin while blocking another attack from the ratman.

"At least apol- Whatever, alright.", muttered Noah and continued the song he couldn't finish before. He stepped back a couple of meters to give Corvin space for the fight and started concentrating on his magic and music.