My First Flight

(5 months 7 days after Klada Disaster)

[Kyrielle's POV]

About 3 days has passed since Lynn left me alone here, but no more attacks has ever happened to the city anymore. The Truce to the war was successfully established, and the people were allowed to live in peace once again.

After just a day of rest, my body recovered back to it's original strength with the help of my Dragonkin body's inherent Healing Factor. I was actually surprised at how fast I recovered, it is likely that my Dragonkin powers are still present even though it's very weak without Dragonkin Burst.

It was actually kind of refreshing to be able to walk again without limping, you always take for granted how healthy you are until you are unhealthy.... But I've recovered now so all's good!

Without anything to do as I waited for Lynn to come back, I started practising with my new found abilities.

I felt the need to further boost my skills since my last encounter with those 5 vampire beasts was just too close of a call. Those Vampire beasts are just C ranked threats alone all while that Gemory is an A- ranked threat... but since they are a hard counter to my abilities and they outnumber me, I was almost killed.

I practiced using these new found abilities of mine during my fight with those five monsters, that actually battle inspired tons of abilities to me.

As a way to record all of my new abilities, I made a table on a paper using scientific methods to record data.... It's divided into two categories : Practised Abilities and Dragonic Abilities.

(Author's note :

Originally I planned for a training arc, but I found it to be EXTREMELY boring, so I did this instead. If you don't want to read this table, that is fine actually because the story involves Kyrielle using these new powers not much later anyway. The abilities found here would later prove to the very core abilities of her combat style.)

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(Dragonic Powers)

(Mana Shield)

A normal Mana Shield, granted not because of training but because of talent. It requires no Mana to use.

Effects -

Make the body Tougher, Stronger, and Faster.

Boosts Reflexes and Elemental Resistance.

Weakness -

None.

(Dragonic Burst)

A dragon's variation of Mana Burst, commonly used by Saint ranked mages. Coats the body in an ominous red aura.

Effect -

Boosts Magic Power by a bit.

Boosts Mana Shield's Defence, Power, Speed by almost three times.

Weakness -

Consumes a lot of Mana, I can only activate it for 10 minutes at most.

(Practiced abilities)

(Combustion Punch)

Explosive punch.

Effect -

No need to explain right?

Weakness -

I need to get into close range to land the punch.

(Omni Directional Casting)

Able to cast spells at all directions using my imagination to visualize the magic flow and crest itself.

Effect -

I don't need to extend my arm out to cast any magic, and I can cast them at every direction.

Weakness -

Magic Power is lowered by a bit because without the arm to connect the flow of Mana, less Mana gets to flow out from my Reserve towards the Magic Crest, which equals less Magic Power.

(Thrusters Mobility)

Using my spell 'Incinerate' as a thruster like a rocket, I can launch myself towards a direction at lightning speed.

Effect -

GREATLY increases movement speed.

Variations -

Thruster Dash

Thruster Sprint

Thruster Brake

Thruster Flight

Thruster Flight (??? Mode)

Weakness -

Consumes so much Mana that it'd be almost impossible to pull it off for anyone that has less than half my Reserve Mana.

Is difficult to pull off as well, requiring extreme precision and timing to even do consistently without hurting myself.

________________

The most powerful ability of mine out of those five should be extremely obvious right?

Thrusters Mobility! By using Incinerate as boosters to push myself like a rocket, I can move extremely quickly and in ways that a normal person can never do.

Most of the other abilities was loosely practised... most of my attention was given to using Thrusters and doing Omni-directional Casting because I need that to compliment my Thrusters.

Thruster Dash is easy to pull off, just fire Incinerate opposite to the direction you want to dash to, and you'll fly towards that direction. I named it because it's less like flying or running, more like I'm quickly dodging around like the people in many anime.

This is the ability saved me from being eaten by the Vampire Beasts back then. Discovering this ability is a clutch in that fight for sure!

On the third day I learned a more advanced way to use the thrusters.... It is to continuously shoot Incinerate behind my back to gain momentum as I sprint. I call this 'Thruster Sprint'.

I tested this outside the city, and I was able to run really freakishly fast by shooting just a single Incinerate behind me. And I'm talking about at break neck speed, as I can run 200 meters in just 6 and a half seconds. It'd take Usain Bolt on Earth about 20 seconds to do the same.

I did the math on it, and I am most likely running on about 112 km/h, the speed that most cars drive at on highway, and this is when I'm only using ONE thruster! Just imagine what speed I'd reach with two or even four thrusters!

It may be fun and all to reach those freakish speed but the problem arises when I try to stop.... I can't stop like I do usually, it just doesn't work like that.

Because of the fact that I run extremely fast with thrusters, when I turn it off I have to spend at least 10 or so seconds digging my feet into the ground to stop myself..... I learned this fact the hard way.

_______________

(Out by the Desert Plains of the city...)

"Okay... here we go!"

'Thud!' I took off on a sprint and simultaneously, a single blue magical crest appears directly behind my back.

'Bwuom!'

"Wahaha!" How exciting, it's pushing me really really fast! 1... 2... 3... 4... 5... 6.... I ran 200 meters in just a bit over six seconds!

....Oh shit... how do I stop myself?

I stopped the thruster behind me and drove my leg into the ground to try and stop myself... what happened instead was my leg sliding on the sandy ground of the desert, not stopping my momentum at all as I slid forward.

"Shit!" Directly in front of me is something dangerous looking that I'm about to ram into it.... It's a cactus that's the size of a person.

"Wah!!!"

'Thump!!!'

Like a plastic bag being pushed by the winds, I rammed face first into the mid section of the cactus, and I was stuck on it.

"Ouch!... That one hurt...."

And afterwards, the gravity slowly made me unstuck myself from the cactus and drop to the ground like in those cartoons. As I dropped onto the ground, I knocked up a screen of sand....

"Cough cough cough!...."

That hurts... why was I so stupid... Seriously, why didn't I thought of a way to stop my momentum first before I try that out?! To this day I still can't understand my Idiocy...

____________

With the entire front of my body full of needles from the cactus, I limped back to the city and had the healers there help me. Dao was one of those healers who helped me unpluck the spikes.... She was annoying.

"(Pfft ahahaha! Why are you full of spikes?!)" Was Dao's reaction. Hearing her say that makes me wanna bury myself into the ground!...

"(Gah!!!! Shut up shut up shut up!!!... Huh?)" I'm on my bed and it's night now?...

Yes, I literally had a nightmare of it that night. The way that she and a few other healers turn me into a complete laughingstock still haunts me to this day....

"Sigh..." Unless killing myself is the strategy, I can't use it in combat at all if I don't think of a way to stop my momentum.... Aha!

It was then on the bed that the solution came to me.

The solution is really simple actually. When I want to stop, I can just fire another Thruster at the opposite direction of where my body is flying at. This will generate 'counter thrust' as called in physics, and help stop my body using it like a brake of sorts.

_________________

(Fourth day)

On the next day, I tried my luck again the next morning on the very same location. And this time I was able to shoot another thruster using my hand whenever I wanted to stop, and it effectively stopped my momentum in a just a split second.

'Bwuom!...' The Thruster Brake fired out, shooting out a large cloud of fire as it pushed me backwards, helping me stop the momentum from my Thruster Sprint.

"....Big success!" It actually worked!

_____________

And that was how I learned 'Thruster Brake'. But I never knew when to stop researching at all, not especially when it's something as fun as this....

On that very same day, I started to wonder how much further I can push the Thrusters abilities.... which is how I came up with the idea to fly using it.

____________

"Hmm..."

What if I were to bring this Thruster Sprint even further beyond than it's current speed?... What if I fired not just one, but two thrusters behind me?

With this I might even be able to even fly!

"Mmm!... It'd be awesome!" Even as a child back on Earth it has always been one of my wishes to fly like the Ironman that I see in those superhero movies!

And so, I decided to try out this little theory of mine. Once again, I'm at the desert plain outside of the city, readying to practise my flight ability.

But what's different is that this time I was smarter... I actually wore a safety helmet in case I hit my head or something. (Not that it will actually help that much)

"Okay... Let's go, Incinerate Double!"

Two crests appeared side by side behind my back, facing directly away from me.

'Bwuom!' (2x) Right as I jumped, I fired off the two spells behind me. In that instant, my body accelerated forward at break neck speed because of the push generated from the two thrusters behind.

"Wahaha! I'm flying! Uh oh...."

Not seconds later, my body tilted to the sides a bit... And in an instant, my body starts to spin rapidly in the air since my thrusters went out of control.

"Oh shit!"

As I spun rapidly in the air I stopped my thrusters, but I still spun around uncontrollably. My eyes caught glimpse of what I was flying towards... It's that stupid cactus again.

"AHHHH NOT AGAINNN!!!!"

'Thud!' "Ouch!..."

Yep. I rammed into that very same cactus again... And just like last time, I slowly slipped off the cactus and dropped on the ground, knocking up a screen of dusts.

'Thud!'

"Cough cough cough!.... That really hurt...."

What went wrong?...

My flight easily lost control because my body and the thrusters is not stable enough.... Even though I hate to admit it, I have a petite body that lacked mass so it's less stable. The lack of control over my thrusters doesn't help either....

For now I should go get healing....

"Ouch ouch ouch...." As I tried to stand up, the needles stuck on my body starts to twitch around and it got painful.

_____________

After ramming into the cactus and becoming a laughing stock for Dao once again, I thought of new ways to balance my body while I flew. I couldn't come to a conclusion at all even after thinking for an entire day.

As a result of that, I returned to the inn to get some rest.

_____________

'Cha chank!...' I opened the door to the inn and walked inside.

"Sigh...."

"(Welcome back, little missy! Hmm, what's with the long face?)"

"(Well, it's just that my training section has hit a wall, literally. And my muscle is extremely sore from all the exercise that I have been doing these past few days....)"

Almost my entire body is stiff and sore as a rock... especially my shoulders.

"(Really?... I've heard that you played a big role in defending the city last week, so you can have this as thanks!)" She took out a piece of small paper from her pocket, and handed it to me.

"(Oh there's no need! You don't need to thank me, I didn't do it for anything!)" I did it out of a feeling of responsibility....

"(Just take it then as a personal gift then, your body will probably thank you for it.)"

"(My body?... Then I'll take it...)"

I took the piece of paper that she handed me. It was a coupon of a spa salon... This salon is just in front of the inn.

"(Go and get a massage there!)"

"(I see.... thank you very much!)"

"(It's fine, really. This is nothing compared to what you faced last week.)"

________________

I headed towards the store right in front of the inn almost immediately. In front of the store, I find it odd that for such a run down slum of a city that this is, the spa salon was quite fancy.

I entered the shop.... And inside the shop was a pretty shop keeper who looks like she's some sort of undead. Likely a revenant.

"(Oh my... A human customer?)"

"(Umm, yeah.)"

"(Mmm... So this is how a human girl looks... Ah, don't mind my mumbling haha! What do you need?)"

"(Umm, it's my first time in a spa like this so I don't know what this coupon could do....)" I said as I handed her the coupon....

"(Oh, this let's you get a second class service for free.... Did the innkeeper gave you this?)"

"(How did you know?)"

"(Haha, she's my friend you know? Anyway, would you want to have a session right now?)"

"(Sure!)"

"(Alright, please follow me.)"

"(Okay.... I'll be in your care.)"

She led me deeper into the store. As she did so, she chatted to me.

"(...Many undead races frequently like to us this massage service because their muscle gets extremely stiff from time to time. That is why, our spa will definitely offer a human like you an extremely satisfying session. This is also as thanks for you saving the city!)"

"(Right.... How did almost everyone knows that I was the one who beat that Vampire Lord?)"

"(Well, the men returned from war, and most of them were saying that 'A little human girl saved the city!' or something along the lines of that.)"

"(I see....)"

I was led further into the shop and entered a room together with another staff.

I undressed and wrapped my body in a towel. I also untied my hair and wrapped it up with another towel as well. The staff to me to lie face down on a really soft bed with a hole in the middle... I stuffed my face through that hole, and lied comfortably there.

And the start of the session? It's a shoulder massage.

'Geee...' The staff squeezed my shoulder so hard that weird tension sounds starts to come out.

"(Ouch ouch ouch!.... Hah...)"

After about 2 minutes of massaging, my shoulders finally felt refreshed and loose. I haven't felt this way since I last recovered from my injuries, so it was satisfying.

"(Phew.... That was extremely comfortable...)"

"(Now, please raise your head up.)"

"(Like this?)" I pulled my head out of the comfortable hole in the bed.

"(Yes.... Now close your eyes for a moment.)"

"(My eyes? Uh, sure.)"

I obediently closed my eyes.... Just a second later, I felt two hands grabbing each sides of my head.

'Crack!!!' My head was violently twisted to the side, creating some serious cracking sound that I never thought is humanly possible.

"(Kya!!!... What was that?! Are you trying to kill me?!)"

I thought my neck was gonna snap!... But it didn't snap, and it actually amazingly good....

"(Hehehe! Now for the other side!)"

"(No wait are you laughi-)"

'Crack!' My head was twisted to the other side violently again.

"(Kya!!!... Woah...)" My neck is a whole lot less stiff and felt extremely good now...

"(Now, it's time for me to crack your back.)" Without pause, she pressed her hands on my spine.

"(What?! No I'm not ready yet-)"

'Crack!' She pressed firmly into my spine, and loud cracking noises could be heard once again. My back is now crushed.

"(Kya!!.... Please stop... I can't handle it anymore...)"

"(Huhu, I am not done yet!)"

"(What?! No-)"

'Crack!'

"(Ahn!... Hah!...)"

"(Please don't make weird moans, other people might misunderstand.)"

'Crack!'

"(Kya!!!....)"

___________

After cracking my neck and my entire back, she helped me to massage my back muscles. It felt good... Extremely good.... No wonder so many demons come and visit this place.....

After around 15 minutes of massaging, the session was done and I headed to the Salon's bath to clean my body in warm water. They say this helps improve my blood circulation.

___________

'Splash!...'

"Hah...." I breathed a sigh of relief as I submerged myself inside a warm bath tub.

How long has it been since I was teleported to this continent?... It was so long already that I'm starting to feel at home here....

What if.... What if I lived on the Bostnia Continent instead?...

"...Haha, what am I thinking?..." I still have family and friends to return to.... I can't stay here.

"Hmm...." As I lowered my head in relaxation, my bare body laid before my very eyes.... The body of a teenage girl.... It still feels so surreal to think that I was once a guy back on Earth, not a red haired girl in this world....

"Hmm..." I had my last period a while ago now but I didn't check my menstrual cycle... It'd be a problem if I were to start cramping while travelling...

"Hmm..." Did my breast grew bigger again? I swear that my bra is the right size, but nowadays it feels tighter than usual.... I think sooner or later, I'll have to replace my bras with C cup sized.... And it seems that my bums are getting bigger as well...

"Hmm..." What the hell am I doing now anyway, inspecting my body like a dirty old man...? I should be thinking about how to make Thruster Flight possible-

Wait, if I changed the direction of my thrusters into a V shape with me in the middle, then will it work?

"Hmm.... That could work actually...."

By shooting two thrusters behind me in a 90 degrees V shape, I can fly forward without flipping around because I can easily balance my body by increasing the output of one side!

(AN : Despite being a Highschool student, I still suck at Physics and explaining things. It sounded cool and somewhat logical, so whatever!)

15 minutes later, I headed out the salon after finishing my bath.

"(Thank you for the visit. Please visit us again in the future!)"

"(Mm!)"

I felt completely refreshed. My body felt so loose and light that it felt like I from just put on a fresh pair of underwear on New Year's Eve.... (Jojo reference)

For now it is almost evening now, so it's time to head back to the inn.

________________

(Sixth day)

(Three more days later...)

I had practiced flying with my thrusters for the past two days now. Using the theory that I came up with, I tested the viability of it directly that day. I successfully flew for a while, but soon lost control again.

The problem isn't because the layout of my thrusters are bad.... it's my lack of experience with flying.

That is why for the past two days, I repeatedly practiced with it. It used up a lot of Mana though, for each day I could only fly for about 10 minutes before I'm completely exhausted of Mana. It's rare for that to happen to me since my Reserve Mana is such a huge pool that I've never drained it out before.

All things aside, this morning I've decided to test out my skills by going full speed and trying to maintain control when I flew. I never actually flew up to the sky other than just a few meters above the ground, so today I want to try to fly higher up as well.

'Hoo....' The hot desert winds blew at me as I stood in the sandy Plains, preparing to fly. A few guards are watching me from the city walls, waiting to see my performance even though I never intended for anyone to spectate me.

"Okay... Let's do this!"

Incinerate Double!

Two crests appeared facing away from me in a 90 degree angle... Both crests are just a little bit behind my back.

'Bwuom....' (2x) I activated the spell, a small amount of flames came out of it.

At the start of the flight I didn't blast it off full speed, this is so that I can maintain balance in both crests and not have one side shooting more flames than the other to help balance my body while I fly.

And after matching the output of both thrusters, I raised the output of those them as I leap off the ground.

'Thud!' 'Bwuom!' (2x)

The two thrusters instantly bursts out large amount of flames as my body flew forward with incredible speed. In just a few seconds I crossed the plain that is 200 meters long. Although I didn't count the seconds, my guess is that flying is almost twice as fast as Thruster Sprint!

Flying past the cactus that I've ran into twice, the flames from my thrusters completely engulfed it and burned it up.

"Hahaha! Suck on that you stupid cactus!"

I was able to maintain balance even as I flew at my fastest speed, so now I only have to fly higher up then. This is a great chance to prank the annoying guards that are always watching me as well!

I changed directions by increasing the power of one side to push my body to the opposite side....

'Bwuom!' (2x) I did a big circle around the Plains and changed my directions to fly directly at the wall.

"(Oh no.... She's gonna hit the wall! Run!)" (?x) The guards on the walls were seen panicking as I approached them at terrifying speed. Their reactions are priceless!

'Bwuom!' (2x) As I got close to the wall, I aimed the two thrusters downward and bursts out the thrusters. This changed my directions to fly upwards, curving my flight to fly up to the air avoiding the wall by about 10 or so meters.

"(Ahahaha!)" I laughed out loud as I flew past the wall.

'Bwuom!' (2x)

"(That was close! She's messing with us!)"

I flew up higher to the air for about 30 or so seconds.... I'm most likely about 600 or even more meters off the ground now, which is actually not that high.

As I reached so high up, I could even see the border with the Western part of Bostnia Continent where it's forests and mountains instead of the usual Desert and Hills.

Once I got high enough, I flew around in a big circle and watched the scenery.

'(Fwuom!!!)' Loud wind noises blocked my ears, but having winds brush past your face like this is strangely calming...

I have just realize it once I flew so high up, but this world is extremely vast.... the contrast between two biomes looks really gorgeous as well.

A sense of nothingness hits me as I see how small I am in this world...

My hair flows along with the air, and my body felt like it's being embraced by the air itself. Birds flew around the same elevation as me.... I am just like them, flying through the sky.

"So this is what it feels like huh?" To soar through the skies like a dragon.... How ironic, a Dragonkin without wings would never have been able to experience the sensation of this...

It felt extremely calming and satisfying.

______________

[Narrator's POV]

(On the city wall...)

The guards that were watching Kyrielle's flight test were astonished by her performance.

"(I can't believe it, that girl is actually flying so high up... I thought that her idea was crazy but to think that it actually worked.)"

"(Yeah. She seems to be enjoying it as well...)"

Even though none of the guards say it, their heart all felt the same thing. They were slightly jealous that Kyrielle got to soar the skies like a dragon.

________________

[Kyrielle's POV]

I flew around for about 5 minutes now.... It was so fun that I didn't felt like stopping, but my Reserve Mana is not near unlimited like Lynn, I should descend now.

I turned my thrusters to fly downwards to the desert plains in front of the city. With my speed, I descended such a high attitude in just half a minute. When I'm close to hitting the ground, I tilted my thrusters to fly upward until I am flying horizontally again just slightly above the ground.

"And now... Thruster Brakes!"

'Bwuom!' (2x)

To stop, I disabled the two thrusters behind my shoulders and instead used my two hands to fire out Incinerate. With one hand aiming forward and the other aiming down on the floor, I fired off Thruster Brake and slowed myself down.

Once I reached slow enough speed, I then disabled the brakes as well and dropped on the floor like Ironman.

'Thush...!' As I dropped down, I slid on the sandy floor for a bit before finally coming to a stop.

"Hah!.... Hah!.... Hah!..." My heart was pumping really fast.... and my palms are sweating so much that it's unreal.

I grasped for air as I stood down. How much mana did I used? I unleashed my Mana Aura and then....

"I've used up half already?..."

I only flew for only a little while, maybe five minutes.... This is how much Mana flying will consume.

It has about the same Mana cost as Dragonic Burst, so if I can active Dragonic Burst for ten minutes, then if I use both at the same time I'd only get five minutes before I run out of gas huh?

This is how much I was able to test out my abilities within days. And to be honest that is already a good enough result because in this short 8 days I learned so many new things that it's crazy.

"Hah.... Time to head back to the inn..."

I stood up from my place and went inside the city again, intending to go to the bath house first to clean all my sweat up.

_________________

(Seventh Day)

This morning in my inn's room, I was once again thinking on how I could improve my flight even further. One thought that I have is what if I can boost the speed of my thrusters even further beyond?...

If I casted two more thrusters that aimed diagonally downwards, I could theorically hover in place and also fly around in a much higher speed.

I named this mode 'Super Speed Mode'... I intended to try it out today but before I could, someone interrupted me.

'Knock knock!'

"(Coming!)"

Wearing nothing but underwear and with a messy hair, I quickly dressed up and went to open the door.

'Cha Chank.'

"(Yes?)" Opening the door, I see a demon who is dressed in traveller clothings.

"(Hmm, are you Miss Kyrielle Buffet?...)"

"(I am, why are you surprised?)"

"(Oh sorry, it's just that I never expected go see a human here, so don't mind it. You have a letter, and it came from the Magic God, Lynn Howard.)"

"(Oh, I see... Thank you.)"

"(Just doing my job.)"

'Thung!' I quickly shut the door and sat on my bed to read it.

Let's see here....

'To Kyrielle,

How have you been doing? I heard that you single handedly killed the enemy general, that is not an easy feat! You have definitely grown far stronger than before, as expected of my cute apprentice!'

Jeez.... I could hear her annoyingly cheerful voice saying the words in my head.

'By the time you received this letter, it would have been about 4 days after I sent it. I want you to come to the city east of you by yourself and meet me here....'

"Hah, what happened to her promise?!"

'I'm sure you'd be angry at me for this... but hear me out. In about 3 more days, I'd have finished with the negotiations. To save time, I'd like you to come to the city so that I don't have to come and retrieve you.

You've killed that Archdemon that is at least A- ranked threat, nothing can even hope to beat you now in the wilds. Just be careful of bandits though, but you are a Saint Ranked Mage now so no one could beat you anyway.

-Lynn.'

....Did she just say I'm now a Saint Ranked mage? Isn't that like only one rank below God rank, the highest rank?

Before I knew it, I had already grown so strong that I'm possibly among the strongest people on this world now.

(Chapter end)