For Now, Though

A quiet wind blew through the canyon.

In that place ruled only by silence, a single wyvern flew in.

Its target was a pill bug the size of a goblin, grazing near the trees.

The wyvern swiftly dropped altitude and grabbed the pill bug just like that.

It quickly reacted to the rustling sound of the trees swaying and turned its face… then froze in shock.

There was Kikori, holding axes in both hands and swinging them up.

Kikori, who had jumped down from the tree branch where he had been hiding, slammed his axes into the wyvern with all his momentum.

“Gyaaaaaaah!?”

“Hraaaaaaaaah!”

With that momentum, Kikori struck repeatedly with his axes.

He would not let it escape into the sky. His attacks, filled with the strong will to finish it here, battered and tore into the wyvern.

Even so, the wyvern sent Kikori flying by shooting straight upward.

“Orphe!”

“Fire Arrow!”

But Orphe had appeared even higher above it.

Pierced by several arrows of fire from above, the wyvern screamed as it was slammed into the ground.

The wyvern stopped moving where it lay… and Kikori let out a breath.

It really was strong. Unless he boosted his power with Mjolnir, Kikori could not finish one off.

But if he fought in combination with Orphe, the issue of attack power was solved.

“Looking good, Kikori.”

Leaving the fleeing pill bug alone, Orphe descended near Kikori with a cheerful expression.

It was probably because they had already taken down several wyverns using similar methods.

Underground, underwater. They had hidden in various places and launched ambushes, and for now, things were going smoothly.

“For now, though. Wyverns aren’t stupid either. If more of their comrades don’t return, they should come up with countermeasures.”

“Well, yes. But the more we reduce their numbers like this, the more it leads to our victory, right?”

“That’s true.”

“Then what we have to do doesn’t change, does it?”

When she put it that way, Kikori could only say, “You’re right.”

Just as Kikori had said, the more they carried out this plan, the more wary the wyverns would become.

Their comrades who went out hunting for food did not return.

As long as wyverns were monsters capable of group behavior, that fact should lead to strong caution.

That was why he wanted to find some clue to breaking through somewhere, but… he did not even know how many wyverns there were in total.

For example, if these were goblins or orcs, a superior individual would command them, and if that one was lost, the group would immediately collapse.

Of course, superior individuals were incomparably stronger than ordinary ones, but… Kikori thought that with Orphe there, they might be able to win.

“In any case, let’s move. Staying here for long isn’t good.”