You And Me

“Foolish.”

“Orphe! Behind me!”

With a roar, the Great Wyvern’s breath of flame poured down on Kikori.

“Guh…!”

It was hot. It hurt. But he could adapt.

Although its power was on a completely different level, because he had once taken a wyvern’s flames, the fire did not manage to deal a fatal wound to Kikori.

Within the flames trying to burn him, Kikori shouted, “Mjolnir.”

The thrown axe pushed forward through the flames.

“Wha…!?”

It struck the Great Wyvern and slightly scraped its hide.

Yes, it was too light to call damage… but it was a definite blow.

That was enough to make the Great Wyvern stop its attack.

“You… wounded me…!? And you endured my flames? Impossible. What did you do!”

“I don’t need to tell you.”

The Great Wyvern had been hovering in the air without flapping its wings since earlier.

If so, Kikori predicted that it was probably flying by some magical means.

(Then… that thing itself shouldn’t be able to do anything reckless. I’ll exploit that!)

“Orphe, if it’s no good, you can run! I’ll somehow handle this place!”

Kikori shouted that, then used Mjolnir to clad his axe in lightning once again.

Orphe flinched at Kikori’s words… but her answer was.

“Ice… Arrow!”

Several arrows of ice fired toward the Great Wyvern.

The ice arrows themselves were repelled by the Great Wyvern’s hide, but the Great Wyvern clicked its tongue and soared even higher into the sky.

It spat flames just like that, but the semicircular dome that appeared along with Orphe’s shout of “Shield!” completely blocked them.

“Are you stu…pid or what! Saying we should team up, then telling me to run with the same mouth! Idiot! I-di-ot!”

“No, but—”

“If I was going to run in a place like this, I wouldn’t have teamed up with you! Don’t underestimate me!”

It was a shout that somehow sounded desperate… but that shout echoed deep in Kikori’s heart.

Different from that alchemist girl, different from Kuon… a companion he could fight alongside.

Orphe might truly be exactly that. At that fact, tears flowed down Kikori’s cheeks.

“Ha, haha.”

“What are you laughing for! Keeping this up is pretty hard, you know!?”

“Thank you, Orphe.”

“You’re welcome!? Is this the time for that, idiot! Super idiot!”

Even in this situation, laughter slipped from Kikori’s mouth.

She was reliable. Very… very warm.

Something welled up from deep inside his body, and he felt the illusion that he could fight far better than before.

“Orphe. You and me, let’s kill that thing.”

Back then, when he had done this, even the other members of his party had been put off.

But now, now it was all right.

The magic that had been called a dragon, cladding his entire body in Mjolnir.

“…Mjolnir.”

Intense lightning covered Kikori’s entire body.

The lightning that extended all the way to the tips of the axes in his spread hands.

Combined with the shape of his helmet… he looked exactly like a dragon waiting for the moment to fly.