“What the… is this thing?!”
Before the Dragon-Slaying Group, the wall of water that should’ve swept past beneath their feet suddenly surged upward without warning. In no time, it had reached the height at which they were hovering.
“So it really was caused by someone. A tsunami this tall couldn’t happen naturally.”
Justin raised his hand and fired an arrow, blowing apart the wall of water just as it was about to spread beneath them. Seizing the opening, all five flew outward and emerged on the other side of the wall.
Beyond the wall lay an impossibly calm sea, as if the wall of water behind them were the only thing out of place.
“Hey, hey! At this rate, that town’s going to be in trouble!”
Ransel was getting a little anxious, but the next second, he fell silent.
The wall of water kept rising, but no more seawater climbed up from where its base met the sea. The tsunami was gradually being severed from the ocean below. The connected curtain of water grew thinner and thinner, until it finally broke off completely.
“The tsunami… it’s flying? No, something’s pulling it toward the sky,” the assassin said quietly from within the gray shadows.
“Could it be those two Dragons the detector picked up? What a reckless race!”
“But if it’s being pulled in that direction, then they must be over there, right?”
Ransel pointed his gun at the sky.
…
“You actually caused a tsunami… What the hell is wrong with you?!”
“Hahaha! Well, we didn’t destroy any human towns, so relax. Take it easy.” Anticas spread his hands, utterly unconcerned.
“So this is why the Dragon race acts so recklessly… I got chased by those Dragon Slayers without them bothering to get the facts straight.”
Aya let out a long sigh and turned his attention to the column of clouds his dad was controlling. Its spinning had grown into a terrifyingly massive thunderstorm. After gulping down an enormous volume of seawater drawn up from the surface, like a great whale drinking from the sea, the cloud column had grown several times larger. The lightning coiling through it and the moisture-saturated air all around made it hard to believe they were more than ten thousand meters above the ground.
Even in air this damp, the greatsword Branch of Calamity in Aya’s hands remained unaffected, its molecular vibrations forcibly intensified.
But that was only so far. Who knew what would happen if it collided head-on with that thunderstorm cloud, which had absorbed so much moisture and was still compressing and cooling rapidly?
“Wait, that’s a Law too? Isn’t that totally unfair?”
“Just because I call it [Cloudflow], that doesn’t mean it can only control clouds.”
Anticas wagged a finger. “To be precise, my Law should be called [Weather]. But that name sounds awful, so Cloudflow is way cooler.”
“You bastard…”
“Hey, hey, son, calm down. My uncle is your great-grandfather.”
“Get lost!”
Aya was starting to lose it. He wasn’t about to let his dad calmly finish preparing his thunderstorm, so he gripped the greatsword’s hilt with both hands and brought it down in a slash.
“Ready to start? Then let’s do this.”
The superstorm hadn’t fully formed yet, but Anticas was already confident of victory. He brought his hands together, touching his index fingers, and two dragons made of thunderclouds immediately split off behind him and shot toward Aya’s greatsword.
The moment the crimson greatsword struck the thunderclouds, its intense heat incinerated the clouds, along with the moisture and lightning within them. But the powerful gust that followed blew Aya’s body away, keeping him from pressing forward. He could only struggle against the thunderstorm, locked in a stalemate.
“Damn it!”
If he couldn’t get close enough to fight, then no matter how powerful the greatsword in his hands was, he couldn’t put it to use.
“Firestorm!”
The sky behind Aya suddenly turned red. A patch of fire clouds—not all that large compared to the superstorm his dad had summoned—drifted above the thunderclouds.
Like the thunderstorm, it had formed unnaturally: the Grand Spell, Firestorm.
Firestorm was just its name. In essence, it was more or less a single-target version of the forbidden spell Heavenfire Burns the City.
A superheated meteor, boosted by molecular vibration, slowly descended from the clouds and collided with the two cloud dragons. Much of the cloud vaporized in the heat, breaking away from the thunderstorm as water vapor. The freezing temperatures high above quickly turned it into a mist of tiny ice crystals that scattered everywhere, blocking Aya’s view.
At least he wouldn’t have to deal with the thunderstorm interfering anymore.
Aya swept his sword sideways, clearing the ice mist from his line of sight, and pressed forward. But Anticas was already waiting for him.
The fully formed superstorm spread in an instant. Black clouds swallowed Aya in the blink of an eye. Against this massive, single-cell storm, Aya in his human form was like an ant before a whale. He didn’t even have a chance to escape.
“…”
Aya glanced at Branch of Calamity, gripped in both hands. The greatsword, now obviously out of proportion with his body, looked like a flickering torch in the pitch-black thunderclouds, where he couldn’t see his own hand in front of his face. The violent currents around him were sweeping his body along, and he could clearly feel himself spinning rapidly around the center of the storm as he sank.
Powerful wind elements tore at his body, but he couldn’t control them with his mental power at all. He could only use defensive Magic to strengthen his air scales and body, barely keeping himself from being injured.
Worse still, the cold and ice crystals began creeping over the surface of his air scales, and even started eating away at the crimson greatsword in his hands. Compared to before, the blade had clearly shrunk by a whole size. Even with its Law-enhanced power, it couldn’t completely resist the effects. This was getting bad.
“Is that old man planning to wear down Branch of Calamity before showing himself…?”
If that was really his plan, they’d be in trouble. Not even Aya—or even an Elemental God, if such a thing existed—could summon fire Magic in a storm filled with violent wind elements and extreme cold. And with Aya’s current understanding of the Law of Vibration, intensifying molecular heat motion would be just as difficult over such a vast area.
Besides, Anticas still hadn’t attacked personally. Aya had to stay on guard for whatever danger might come next.
He couldn’t just sit back and wait anymore. He had to end the fight while Branch of Calamity could still withstand the cold in this environment.
Aya focused his attention on the sword. Its weakening glow suddenly flared bright.
If he couldn’t find his target, he might as well hit it with everything he had. The thunderstorm was right there in front of him, after all. Cutting through the whole thing should at least ease his disadvantage.
Circular Slash: Burning Flame!
Well, it didn’t actually have some chuuni name. He was simply releasing all the power of Branch of Calamity at once through a circular sword slash.
The scorching slash swept away a vast stretch of thunderclouds in an instant. But Aya’s heart sank when the sky beyond the cleared patch remained dark. Farther out, there was still nothing but endless black clouds.
Just how far did this thunderstorm stretch?
Less than three seconds after Aya attacked, Anticas struck back.
Above him?
Sensing danger, Aya looked up. Ten thousand bolts of lightning were reflected in his pupils, a dense torrent pouring down like a waterfall—or a thunder dragon roaring toward him.
After all, it was a thunderstorm. Weather phenomena were always connected to one another, and thunderclouds were still clouds, so it was perfectly reasonable for [Cloudflow] to summon lightning too.
Watching the battle, Tiran nodded again and again.
