Chapter 301
You’ve Come at the Just the Right Time
“…It’s raining?”
Sherlock suddenly looked up at the sky.
A flash of lightning illuminated the distance, and soon after, rumbling thunder accompanied by a bone-chilling wind swept in. Both his and Haina’s hair were blown about by the wind, causing Haina to subconsciously raise her hand to shield her eyes from the dust kicked up by the roadside.
Dark clouds had gathered at the edge of the village unnoticed, and the wind was picking up. Sherlock’s hair was visibly being tossed around, forcing him to squint.
After the cold wind passed, rain began to fall along with the increasingly frigid gusts.
The two could only find shelter nearby.
“Such heavy rain?”
Sherlock glanced back at Haina. “Is this normal?”
“Um…”
Haina hesitated.
This was mainly because she hadn’t been back in a long time, and her childhood was also long past. Now, she couldn’t quite remember clearly.
But in her impression, there hadn’t been such heavy and sudden rain…?
Sherlock understood. “You don’t need to say any more, I get it.”
This was clearly an abnormal phenomenon.
“Did something happen to Eivass?”
Haina asked with some worry. “Should we go take a look?”
Sherlock also felt like going, but his reason stopped him. “I’m afraid it might turn into that situation—we think we’re going to help, but instead, we become a burden. Originally, Eivass could deal with it normally, but after we arrive, we get kidnapped as hostages, thus distracting him.”
“There is indeed such a possibility…”
Haina sighed.
Just as she was about to say something, she felt the ground shake violently. This almost made her bite her tongue, and she quickly reached out for the most convenient support beside her—Sherlock’s head.
Sherlock lost his balance and almost had his neck snapped by Haina’s palm.
Just as he was about to look at Haina angrily, he heard a thunderous explosion from the direction of the village.
“Let’s go, let’s see.”
Sherlock made the decision without hesitation, grabbed Haina, and rushed out of the room.
Even if they would be a burden, it didn’t matter—if they didn’t go in such a situation, what difference would that make from being a burden?
—It was clear that something had gone wrong!
Perhaps they were already mutually injured, waiting for Sherlock to finish them off or save them…
Of course, Sherlock’s vigilance was at its limit.
He had already gripped Edward’s power sword, ready to cast Law Spells instantly—in this situation, spells that required incantations were less useful than Law Spells.
However, before he could even run a few steps, he heard Haina sigh.
“Stop running.”
Haina said indistinctly.
The next moment, he was picked up by Haina. She placed him on the Gryphon Liz beside them.
Sherlock turned his head and saw that Haina had a Gryphon whistle in her mouth.
It was a special whistle that, when blown, produced a sound that Gryphons could hear from a far distance. When Eivass gave Liz to her, he also gave her the matching Gryphon whistle as a necklace. And now, it was being put to use.
After blowing the whistle, Liz flew over in the blink of an eye.
She let out a crisp cry, asking Haina if she wanted to come up.
Sherlock was light, and Haina was not wearing armor. Although Liz was not yet an adult, she could easily carry both of them… After all, a Gryphon’s load-bearing capacity was based on an adult carrying heavy armor and weapons.
Haina instinctively wanted to run over herself, but she paused for a moment before realizing she already had a Gryphon.
She was a little touched and with a spin, she jumped up.
*I have a Gryphon now too!*
Liz flapped her wings and took off, her claws gripping downwards slightly—the two on her back, along with Liz herself, turned into a semi-transparent state.
It was the Wind Elemental form!
It was not a physical body, nor a storm. It was a pure elemental form—only passengers with a Wind Elemental Mana Pool could be transformed into this form.
Sherlock and Haina both happened to have it.
In this form, they would naturally not be affected by the sonic boom. They didn’t need to erect a protective barrier like adult Gryphons, nor did they need a sufficiently strong body to resist the impact and acceleration—the world around them blurred as it rapidly receded.
Sherlock didn’t feel much inertia physically, but he experienced intense stimulation psychologically. Obstacles rushed towards his face at a speed he couldn’t react to, and even branches of trees repeatedly approached and receded, causing him to instinctively cover his face.
Even Haina hadn’t fully adapted. She also couldn’t help but squint slightly, lower her head, and tightly hug Sherlock’s waist and Liz’s neck—although Haina had ridden Gryphons before, taken flight lessons, and passed tests, in the education she received at school, flights were always along designated tracks.
Although there were some turns in the air and near the ground in the forest, the “track” was generally wide and neat.
This was her first time flying in such a dense forest.
The elemental form Gryphon could ignore small obstacles, such as flying birds or branches. As long as the wind could pass through normally, it would crash through them without slowing down.
Many Gryphons, because they occasionally had to transport Ordinary Persons, would look for safe and stable routes. But Liz was clearly an exception—like a child who liked to splash in puddles or deliberately took a long detour to climb a mountain to “explore” instead of taking the main road, she liked to charge through places with a lot of obstacles.
And this method of rushing through had its advantages.
The biggest advantage was its speed.
In just over ten seconds, they flew from the swamp on one end to the edge of the village.
“—This is much faster than running myself,” Haina’s thought immediately surfaced.
Upon arriving at the scene of the engagement, they were stunned.
The grassland here was gone.
The conflagration had not completely disappeared even under the downpour, and in the center was a giant pit, from which a large amount of black smoke was rising.
The walls of the nearest Priest’s house were almost completely destroyed. Flames were burning everywhere inside.
But what puzzled Sherlock the most was that despite such a large fire and so large an explosion… the trees in the forest were untouched.
And Eivass, whose clothes were tattered, was calmly pointing his hand at a burning table, drawing flames from it to use Fire Worship Magic to heal himself.
When Sherlock arrived, he seemed to be almost healed.
Upon seeing Sherlock, Eivass’s eyes lit up.
“You’ve come at the just the right time! Quickly build a wall, surround this place, and come in!”
Eivass shouted from a distance.
Sherlock patted the Gryphon beneath him and said softly, “Charge in.”
Gryphon Liz immediately responded—although her master hadn’t spoken, having a command was better than being dazed.
Sherlock had already begun to chant the spell.
Soon, several earthen walls rose from the ground, repairing the dilapidated house.
It was around this time that a cold wind blew—
Sherlock, having experienced this scene, immediately realized.
The King of the Wild Hunt had arrived.
