The griffon is a four-legged beast, about three meters in length, with a body that’s snow-white. It has the head of a bird, the body of a lion, and wings that enable it to fly.

It breathes fire, and its claws are strong enough to easily tear through iron. The most troublesome part of a griffon, however, is its ability to fly.

It’s stronger than a wyvern, and is known as the ruler of the skies.

There are tales of humans who managed to tame griffons and became heroes known as griffon riders. It’s quite a famous legend.

But in reality, an attack from high above can be truly devastating. There are many cases where entire groups were wiped out, unable to do anything in response.

Typically, the strategy is to wait for the griffon to descend to attack, then damage its wings to disable its flight. Once it’s grounded, everyone swarms to defeat it.

The griffon’s skin is resistant to most attacks, and its white fur absorbs much of the impact from magic. It’s usually a battle of attrition against such a beast, but—

“Haha! This is amazing! Flying through the sky feels awesome!”

“Mii!”

“Kraaaa?!”

Right now, the “ruler of the skies” was being beaten up by Ivy and Shannon.

We just stared up at them, dumbfounded.

As you can tell from the fact that we're looking up—they’re fighting in mid-air.

This was Shannon's suggestion, and Ivy’s execution of it.

“If the griffon’s flying, why not just fight it in the air?” was the plan.

Ivy possesses gravity magic that lets her change the weight of objects.

Right now, she’s using it to make herself nearly weightless, floating in the air. She can’t move freely, so she’s surrounded herself with a barrier to block the griffon’s attacks.

Meanwhile, Shannon, a front-line fighter, wasn’t affected by gravity magic.

“Five-point thrust!”

“Kyarrrk!”

Shannon, who can’t move effectively in mid-air, was using Ivy’s barrier as a foothold to fight the griffon up close.

Dodging the griffon’s claws by a hair, Shannon struck with precision from atop a glowing green barrier Ivy created as a platform.

The precision of Ivy’s movements is astonishing.

Beside me, Miriam, the girl who had recently called me a liar, rubbed her eyes repeatedly, as if she were dreaming.

Even a second-tier warrior like her probably couldn’t believe what she was seeing.

“Mii!”

Ivy formed a magic circle at her lips, surrounding herself with a halo of magic arrows.

Fire arrows, water arrows, light arrows, and lightning arrows. Four types of magical arrows lined up in a nearly uncountable number.

They all shot at the griffon in rapid succession.

The griffon tried to dodge, soaring through the air to evade. But every single arrow shifted in mid-flight, changing course to pursue it.

It seems each arrow has a homing ability.

Realizing that escaping was futile, the griffon braced itself and tried to block with its claws.

The arrows, forming a circle, suddenly began moving in jagged, erratic paths, twisting around the griffon’s guard and targeting its body from every angle.

Rather than homing, it looked like Ivy was manually controlling each one.

“Kraaa?!”

Thud! Thud! Thud!

The griffon’s body was riddled with arrows. Its fur could dampen magical power but couldn’t negate it entirely.

As arrows hit the same spots over and over, they finally began breaking through.

And with the sheer volume Ivy unleashed, it was only a matter of time.

“All right! Wide open!”

The griffon, barely holding on, smoking and wounded, was vulnerable. Shannon charged up a series of barriers like stairs, striking the beast’s exposed belly with her sword.

“Krur…”

With that final blow, the griffon plummeted to the ground.

Blue blood flowed freely from its battered body.

Shannon’s last strike must have been the killing blow.

“Uh, do we… even need to be here?”

“I… don’t know.” Miriam’s voice sounded drained, her earlier bitterness gone.

As we exchanged awkward laughs, the griffon crashed to the ground before us.

The ruler of the skies, felled like it was nothing.

I can’t help but be in awe of Shannon’s skill, but Ivy is something else too.

To utterly overpower a first-rank monster… her strength has no limits.

Ivy, where are you headed with this strength?