Chapter Summary: The Enhancer makes a new friend thousands of feet up, while trying to convince a stubborn wyvern to get them down. Nozomi gets really tired after the events of these past two days.

Chapter 4: Wyvern's Party

White cotton clouds pass me, some colliding against my body, some enveloping me whole. I try my best to keep my composure and not freak out or scream the wyvern's name again. Well, it's a bit hard to do that. Especially when I'm clinging to the damn wyvern's tail as if it's my life-line, thousands of feet above the ground, sailing through the sky!

Just moments ago, my feet were touching the lovely ground, holding onto the very smooth surfaces of the wall. From there, I spotted Terizla holding a petite girl by the hand with her mouth. Of course, just like any sane person would, I immediately dash out without casting any of my spells, relying on momentum alone to propel myself off the ground. However, Terizla noticed me almost immediately. She let out another ear-piercing screech and unfolded her wings, ready to take off into the skies once more.

"Oh no you don't!" I was a few inches away from the stall the two of them were on, but there was nothing for me to grab on. No ladder to climb, no chair to stand.

So, I jumped up instead. Without any enhancements, I chose to jump forward, stretching my arms out to grab blindly. I was hoping for a kind of leverage, or maybe even the edge of the roof, something I can hold to prop myself onto the metal cover.

Instead, I grabbed onto the spiky tail.

And Terizla takes off into the sky with several powerful beats of her wings.

With me still on the end of her tail.

Screaming.

It seemed my shrieks woke the girl too, for she joined my chorus of screams seconds afterwards before Terizla lets out a threatening growl to silence us. That led to now, where the grey wyvern with skeletal frame circles around town from above.

Stellar job, Nozomi! Now you're providing company for the girl. She never has to worry about being alone in the sky with a wyvern. She has you instead!

"Hey, lady?" Said cinderella-looking girl calls out to me. "Do you have some sort of plan?"

'I wish' was what I would say, but given the situation right now, it's much better to leave it in my head. She looks at me pleadingly, eyes wide with fear, as her bottom lip quivers.

"Y-Yeah." I smoothly lie. 5 seconds to think of a plan before she starts crying and makes the wyvern mad again. "Uh, well, I'll... try climbing the wyvern's tail and ride her!"

She raises her eyebrows. And then?"

"And then uh... I'll guide her to the food stalls! She'll definitely land if there's some meat or something." The gears in my brain start working overdrive, assembling this 'impossible' plan, which was superficial at best.

"Meat?! Was this wyvern trying to eat me?!"

"Shhh! Don't scream!"

Terizla growls again, snorting smoke out of its nostrils. Great, another fire-breathing animal? Yeah, as if witnessing Moody trying to barbeque me with his flamethrower wasn't enough. The cinderella girl goes silent once more, keeping her head up. She gives a quick glance towards me, one that clearly says, "Please help me".

Well, Nozomi, you did this to yourself. "Defense Enhancement 2x Hands."

They pulse in response as the fingerbones and metacarpals harden. The metacarpals refer to the bones in the middle of your hand. Fingerbones are quite self-explanatory, though.

Gripping onto the spiky tail firmly, I climb it like rope, using the innate strength of my arms to pull myself up. As for my legs, I had to use them as well, but without any defence enhancements. My magic was already strained after the numerous times I used them over two days. This was my last enhancement.

Terizla's tail is quite long, but I manage to reach her main body in a minute. Her body is thin, smaller than her wings, so I could easily loop my arms around her. More clouds fly by us as the wyvern makes a sharp turn to the right.

"Whoa!" I yelp, chills creeping down from my stomach to the soles of my feet.

"Lady!" She shouts from below, despite the countless warnings Terizla gives her to just stay quiet. I shoot her a smile, as wide as I can make, to ease her worry. It kinda works. She purses her lips but doesn't say anything afterwards.

Alright, focus, Nozomi. I'm sure Terizla will understand human language; she's a trained wyvern! Reign should have taught her a lot, so I just need to instruct her to land.

Pushing myself forward, I reach near her head, where her pointy ears protrude from the sides. The wind was blowing noisily in my ears at this point, drowning out every other noise, like the girl's voice. I lean my head closer to her.

"Terizla," I softly say. "Land us right now."

The wyvern continues to glide in the sky. My fingers dig themselves into Terizla's neck, an irritated growl escaping from my lips. "Land. Us. Now." I repeat. But, she still continues to glide care-free in the air, ignoring my words. What the hell? Either Reign didn't teach her to understand human language, or this damn arrogant wyvern is ignoring me right now! Argh, this was just pointless!

"...-hold on! Help!" Just as Terizla flies into the clear blue once more, the Cinderella girl's voice reaches my ears. I snap my head in her direction, only to see her gripping onto the wyvern's lower jaw, fingers intertwined with her razor-sharp teeth. Blood was trickling down from the tips of her fingers and straight into the wyvern's mouth.

Shit, how could I have been both blind and deaf?!

"Can you raise your right hand?" I motion my right arm upwards in case she couldn't hear me. Luckily, she seems to have heard me, for she lifts her free arm as high as she can towards me. It trembles, and I didn't know whether it was from the strain or the fear. But I do know that I'm not going to let her down.

I'm going to actually save someone.

Keeping my right arm around the wyvern's neck, I stretch my left outwards to her hand, slowly covering the distance. If Terizla chooses to make a turn or suddenly stop... I'll be flung out of her back under a moment.

Another wave of chills sweeps over my body. But I try my best to push it down, to just keep it together until I rescue this girl. Leaning my body forward, I rest against the wyvern's neck, laying on my stomach. Then, I stretch out even more until my hand could finally clasp with hers.

"I got you." Her face lights up with hope, diminishing the worry she held for some time. Her arm no longer trembles as she tries to strengthen her grip around my hand as if I'd let go at any moment. But now came the hard part.

I have to hope with every fibre of my being that Terizla will continue flying straight, and nothing startles her. Because this time, I'm not the only one who's going to free-dive in the sky- the girl will too. Secondly, I'm not sure if I can pull her up with my non-dominant arm alone since it's much weaker. I have to let go of my right arm momentarily and rely on my legs to keep me anchored to the wyvern's neck. That leads to the third problem, which is the worst one because I highly doubt the girl will be willing to do this.

"Cinderella girl, I need you to do one thing for me."

"W-What is it?" Her voice comes out in a quiver, and it punches me straight in the gut. Guilt already starts to etch into my throat as I croak these words out.

"Let go of the wyvern's mouth."

The silence rolls in as the girl's eyes widen to an impossible level of large. But, I need- no, have to convince her, because I can only pull her up with both arms.

"I know it's hard to place your trust in me. I know that it's scary to let go and leave yourself dangling in the air." I tighten my grip around her hand, flashing her a small smile. "But please don't worry. I'll make sure I save you! I mean, why else am I here, riding on this wyvern for? Enacting a movie?"

Her eyes soften, no longer widened with fear and distrust. She stares at me for a few seconds before speaking again, "... Will you really save me?"

"Of course!"

With those words, she nods her head at me.

And she lets go of the wyvern's mouth.

Instantly, I yank my left arm up with as much strength as I could muster, pulling her up high enough for my right to grab her other hand. With both hands gone, my legs tighten against the slender neck. Then, I channel my remaining energy into my dominant arm to pull her over and lean my body weight to the right. Pain starts to shoot up my arms and back as I bite my lips to grit and bear with it. Eventually, with a war-cry and several growls from Terizla, I manage to pull the girl on the wyvern's neck, laying her on her stomach.

The two of us lie on our fronts, panting, me for the workout and her for the near-death situation she was just in. My arms were tingly, my forehead was dotted with sweat beads and, my lips were forming a wide smile. I take a glance at the girl, who was gasping for air, clinging onto the wyvern's skeletal-like neck tightly. Her white eyes make contact with mine.

"L-Lady *huff*... Ohh, I still need to breathe!" The girl's voice nearly cracks at the end. I try to chuckle but end up wheezing like an asthmatic.

"You're not *huff* the only one..." I spit some words out before entering some breathing regime, following the 4-7-8 count in my head.

A few moments passed by. Terizla continues gliding through the skies, opening her wings and swerving to the side slowly. She didn't do any drastic movements that would throw us off her, so the girl and I had a good break. We managed to catch our breaths, formulate some words in our heads and sit upright on the wyvern's necks.

"Um, firstly. I want to thank you for saving me, lady." Cinderella girl speaks first, looking straight at me. "If you weren't here, I d-don't think I would have s-survived..."

"Don't thank me just yet." I quickly say, much to the other's surprise. A sting of guilt runs down my spine as I brush my neck. I wonder, if she knew that these animals belonged to the guild, would she still be grateful? Probably not. I could imagine the girl being hateful towards us, blaming us for the traumatic situation we put her through. The worst part would be that it's true, and we wouldn't be able to deny much of it. All of us, especially Hiroto, would probably feel guilty as hell...

Sadly, all my thinking isn't giving her an answer as she tilts her head to the side in confusion. "Y-You can thank me when we get to the ground." I say, omitting the 'if you still want to' part.

"Oookay... S-So, do you have any plans?"

"I'm hoping my friends could rescue us from below, but other than that, I got no plan. B-But, we can just enjoy the scenery!" I tilt my head to the right. Cotton white clouds sail past us, giving us the same background for nearly 5 seconds. Up ahead was more white stuff, and below was the same sight, even more clouds. I swear this is starting to look more and more like heaven, only I don't see any angels, God, or dead people. Just this puffy, annoying cotton-

"Okay, nevermind! Let's just do small talk." I relented with a sigh, switching my sight back to the Cinderella girl's face. "So, do you have a name?"

"Minaka Yumi." She simply answers.

"Right, right, Minaka... Mi-na-ka. My name is Nozomi Lancaster! I'm from a Mage Guild, namely Luna Bird!" I advertise with no shame, giving her my brightest smile.

Cin- Minaka gives a small smile of her own, eyes revealing a little twinkle in them. "A Mage Guild? I haven't heard of that before. So, what do you guys do?"

"Well, Mage Guilds are usually tasked with doing dangerous jobs in exchange for Jewels, like expeditions, hunting, catching criminals, even rescuing people! Heck, my last job was bodyguarding a trader with another guildmate of mine, and the two of us fought Hyenas clad with Basilisk scales!"

The twinkles became even more apparent as she perks up from her position. "That's so cool! What else did you guys do?"

My excitement simmers as I give a nervous smile. "W-Well, that was my first job. I got bed-ridden after that; worked the muscles in my legs a bit too much with my magic. Force magic is such a pain to deal with afterwards..."

"I guess I can agree. Blood Make is so hard to clear up..."

My ears twitch. Did I just catch a unique name for a 'magic'?

"Bloood Make?" I stretch those two words out, a curious smile forming on my face. "You can use molding magic?"

Minaka's face takes a light shade of pink for some reason, her excitement dissolving to embarrassment in mere seconds as she shies away from me. "Y-Yeah... It's not that big of a deal."

"Not that big of a deal? Minaka, that's the most awesome name I've ever heard! Imagine making objects with blood- Oh wait, you already can do it!" Terizla gives me a growl of silence, to which I answer with a slap to the neck. "Hey, don't expect me to be quiet while I'm up here! You're the one refusing to bring us down."

The wyvern gives another bout of growls but doesn't seem to be letting us go down anyway, so I continue squealing about Minaka's magic. "So, what can you make?"

"It kinda depends on how much blood I have... Like for example, if I use the blood from earlier." Minaka raises her right arm out, balling her hand into a fist and resting it on her open-palmed left hand. She mutters some words under her breath, which sparks a reaction from Terizla.

The wyvern lets out a growl of surprise as droplets of blood begin to surface from her mouth. They woosh over to Minaka's hands immediately and start to mix around, forming the shape of a scalpel. It seems to take a lot out of her to maintain the blood's shape, judging from the beads of sweat trickling down her forehead. But, Minaka manages to solidify the blood, and the weapon falls onto her lap with a plop.

"Whew." She lets out a sigh of relief. "It didn't fail this time..."

"T-That was awesome! The way the blood just 'wooshed', as if you commanded it And this scalpel..." I grab the small knife, mindful of the pointed end and inspect it. Though it was red and made out of blood, the scalpel still had a cool touch, as if it still had its metal exterior. One finger across the blade side of the weapon, and I could tell it was authentic. "How did you make it feel so real?"

"Well..."

Seconds, minutes, or maybe even hours probably passed by. Up in the sky, where the light blue stuck around, I couldn't tell how much time had passed by. What I did know was how much fun Minaka and I were having. The two of us went in-depth about our magic, like how we utilised it, some strange facts about it and even some of our 'embarrassing' slip-ups. While Minaka didn't share much about the last part, I was happy to give them all in great details. It was only fair, given the many facts she gave me about her 'Blood' Make magic. For starters, it was actually regarded as 'Lost Magic'. It's a type of magic said to be obliterated from history due to the immense power and consequences it brought to the caster, like Dragon Slayer Magic.

Although she didn't go deep about what kind of consequences she'd face.

The two of us got so lost in our conversation, I somehow forgot we were still a thousand feet up from the ground. But the clouds always served as a very annoying reminder if the wyvern's swerving didn't. And because of that, Minaka went quiet once more. She kept on peering over to the side, looking down with a worried expression. I didn't need words to know that she wanted to be on the ground soon, and I kinda shared that sentiment.

After all, I still needed to help Woe and Hiroto retrieve the two Malefs.

However, I'm not sure how to get Terizla to land us at all. At first, I thought the wyvern was hungry, hence why we're 'surveying' the town from above. But even when I told the wyvern to land us much earlier, she refused to, and at this point, I'm pretty sure we've made at least 2 laps around town already.

I give out a sigh. "Geez, what does this wyvern even want?"

Terizla moves her head to the side, glancing at me with one eye. I glare back at her and ball my hands into fists. "Yeah, you heard me, didn't you? What do you even want? Food?"

The wyvern shakes her head, changing my anger to confusion in less than a second. Huh, she's not hungry? Then, why is she up here, doing all of this?

Minaka, hearing my conversation, exchanges a look with Terizla before shifting her attention back to me. "M-Maybe we could try guessing what the wyvern wants? Then, we can bribe it with it to get us on the ground!" She suggests with a hopeful tone, her white eyes twinkling once more.

Well, why not? At least it's better than yelling up here.

"Sure. Did you hear that, wyvern? If we guess what you want, then you're going to land us!" Terizla gives us a nod as she slows down her flying speed and spreads her wings out, going into a gliding position.

And with that, the two of us start our game of 'Guess The Wyvern's Needs!'. I will be shouting out our guesses to Terizla while Minaka forms the imagery with her 'Blood' Make. If we get any of our guesses right, Terizla will land us on the ground safely. If we get them wrong... well, I don't know what the consequences are.

"So, what do you think wyverns would want to do?" I ask Minaka, folding my arms together and keeping my balance with my legs. The girl answers with a 'hmm' as she thinks about this.

"Uhm... Burn something? The w-wyvern did produce smoke."

"Well, that makes sense for me. Hey, did you want to burn something?!" I shout my answer, just as Minaka reshapes the scalpel into a still image of a fire. Terizla, however, didn't seem amused at all.

Suddenly, her neck lurches upwards, and my whole body goes weightless. My breathing stops immediately as my fingers grow ice-cold, watching the world flip up, then fall back down. What the- Did Terizla just attempt to throw us overboard?

"A-Ah, oh no!" Minaka yelps. "The blood got splattered everywhere..."

Sure enough, when I manage to steel myself, I spot the blood splatter on Minaka's bottom half of her dress and on the neck. If it weren't for the fact that Minaka's magic utilised blood, I'd have been panicking a lot more, maybe even give Terizla a mighty kick to the neck!

No, no, practice self-control, Nozomi. You can deliver your knuckle sandwiches AFTER we get to the ground.

"Okay, so that wasn't the correct answer. And apparently, our punishment is a thrilling sky-dive... Great." I sigh once more, shooting a glare in Terizla's direction. The wyvern, however, didn't care much about it as she snorts out another cloud of smoke in plain arrogance. Ohoh, this wyvern really knows how to get on my nerves!

"W-Wait, Ms Lancaster, I think I got it!" The girl effectively stops me from punching the wyvern's neck because of two reasons. One, she's holding onto my hands tightly. Two, she just addressed me as 'Ms Lancaster'!

"What a way to make a person feel old... You can just call me Nozomi." I bitterly mutter, but the girl apparently doesn't catch my words. With twinkling eyes and a small smile, she releases my hands and moves into her casting position.

"Blood Make: Bird!" Those few words brought the blood back up, the red droplets mixing around in a frenzy. In her excitement, the blood quickly formed the shape of a small bird, resembling a pigeon, and solidified in an instant. The red animal, though lifeless, hovers in the air with open wings.

"Do you get it?" The girl asks, her smile growing.

'No, I don't' would be my answer, but I kind of don't want to ruin that bubbling excitement of hers. Minaka seems so confident in her answer too, I can't just break that! Alright, alright, time to think. What do a bird and a wyvern have in common? Well, they both have wings, can fly and are pretty annoying at times... Wait a minute.

"Did you just want to fly this whole time?!" The moment I answer, Minaka squeals in delight while Terizla gives a happy-sounding growl. "Y-You got the answer!"

I groan silently, planting my hand onto my forehead. Seriously, Terizla could have just let us down and fly on her own instead of making this situation so complex and life-threatening... But, hey, at least we're finally going to land if the wyvern keeps her promise.

The girl pats on my shoulder, the excitement and happiness from earlier still driving her. "So, how do you feel? We're finally going to land!"

As I place my hand back down, I give the girl my brightest smile and answer her with, "I feel like absolute shit."

It was apparently the start of the afternoon when Terizla finally landed us outside of the town. Her claws dug deep into the soil as she touched the sweet ground, furling her wings to allow us down. I was the first one to go down and immediately fell face-first onto the soil in my weariness. Minaka followed afterwards with an anxious step, but I reassured the girl I was more than okay. The ground had never tasted so sweet before, I can tell you that!

When I finally got to my feet, Minaka grabbed my hands quickly and shook them up and down, showering me with so much gratitude, it could hurt. She practically machine-gunned the word 'thanks'! Of course, as much as I would want to just melt under my pride, I knew I didn't really deserve it. So, without acknowledging her gratitude, I skipped over to ask if she could return home herself.

Thankfully, the girl agreed to it.

As she was about to leave, she asked me about the guild's whereabouts, to which I was happy enough to answer. Hey, more free positive advertising!

"H-Hope to see you soon, N-Nozomi! I-I'll come by to visit you!" Minaka says with her usual jitter before entering town again. As the girl disappears into the crowd of people, I sink to the ground once more and silently rest there.

"I'm so tired and achy..." My complaints go unheard. I take these moments to just breathe and comprehend what had just happened to me over the past two days. With each recollection of an event, my mind grows even more tired as I sink further down until I was just lying there. Terizla comes into my vision, but I was quick to shoo her away. "Leave me alone, Terizla. Just go fly already... I don't want you here right now."

Surprisingly, Terizla gave no growl or screech against me. Instead, she unfurls her wings and beats the air with them, giving me one last look. I roll on my side without another word, and the wind pushes against my back. Just like that, Terizla was gone.

And I was willingly alone.

The pain I held back for so long finally came pouring out onto my arms and legs, continuously washing over without any relent. The breaths came in heavier and colder, and my thoughts were evaporating into nothingness. Forget trying to retrieve the Malefs. Forget your task right now. But not this one thing.

Never forget why you're still here, Nozomi.

It was that simple thought which kept me from making much sound.

"Nozomi?! Hey, are you okay?!" Footsteps start to approach me from behind, not from the town's entrance but from the forest. That voice belonged to... Reign?

Oh shit.