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As I get dragged into the air, I adjust my position to hold onto the Black Roc’s leg. Meanwhile the monster has already carried us high up into the sky. Natalia might get crushed at this rate, so I have to free her before I do anything else.

I keep holding onto Natalia with one hand, while the other keeps hold of the Black Roc’s leg.

“Let Natalia go!” I shout and kick the Black Roc’s ankle with all my strength.

“Squee!” The Black Roc cries in pain, its entire body shaking and the grip of its feet loosening. I put more strength into my hand so I don’t drop Natalia. As soon as she’s free from the monster’s grip, I pull her up to me. Holding her close, she opens her eyes just a little.

“Young Lady…”
“You’re fine now. I’ll take care of the rest, so just rest.”

At least she hasn’t shut down like before. Just as I secure Natalia in my arm, the leg I’m holding onto swings forward, while a beak closes in.

“Damn youu!”

Both my arms are occupied, so I can only retaliate with a kick.

I kick back time and time again, but my shoes are common leather ones, nowhere near strong enough to stand against a monster’s beak. I’m imbuing them with magic so they’ll last a bit longer, but I’m sure they’ll break soon enough.

“Thunderstorm!”

I decide to use a middle level lightning spell from close range to get out of this situation, and the compressed tornado of lightning sparks violently. But that’s not enough for me to get rid of the Black Roc.

“Screee!” The Black Roc squeals and accelerates all of a sudden. It starts to make turns rapidly, then stops suddenly and turns the other way around. I barely get time to catch my breath as it also starts diving and rising up.

It seems that the monster is trying to shake us off. I’m not so weak that I’ll let go from just that though. I keep holding firmly onto its leg and chant again. If lightning didn’t work, maybe fire will.

“Ignis Drake!”

There’s a roaring sound as my dragon of flames hits the Black Roc’s body. But the monster responds by flapping its wings rapidly, creating a gust of wind that extinguishes the fire.

After that we’re back to being rocked around, combined with shaking of its leg to make us fall.

I can keep holding onto it though. But then the Black Roc goes into a quick dive, followed by a rapid ascent, at the peak of which it spins its body.

“Ah!”

All of that combined leads to me releasing the Black Roc’s leg, flinging me and Natalia into the air. I felt like my body suddenly became weightless, but that sensation was quickly overshadowed by dread over our impending fall.

“Please hold on tightly.”

Before long I hear Natalia say that within my arm, and I reflexively hold onto her with more force. Then Natalia shoots out her arm, holding onto the Black Roc’s back and reeling her nerve threads, pulling us there.

As soon as we land there, I firmly grip the monster’s feathers.

“Squeeeeeeeeeee!”

There’s no time to relax though. As the Black Roc cries, I notice a bright light above us. I turn up, and see that a large magic circle has formed up there.

This is bad!

Just as I think that, a powerful shockwave hits us from above.

I feel like I’m getting crushed against the Black Roc, and even its body shakes violently under the pressure. The monster had used that spell knowing it would get caught in it as well.

It probably realized it would not be able to get rid of us just by flying around, so it decided to get rid of us even if it harmed itself in the process.

“Young Lady…are you alright?”
“Yes, but we need to do something about this.”

Natalia seems to be fully awake again, but it’s probably too soon for her to push herself. Not to mention that the Black Roc’s magic is really powerful, so we probably won’t last through many hits.

We need to defeat it as soon as possible.

“I’m not done yet! Thunderstorm!”

I use a spell from really close range again. There’s flashes of lightning and sparks scatter everywhere. This should be enough to defeat most monsters, but I guess Black Roc is too powerful.

Another magic circle forms above us, and the same magic rains down, feeling like an enormous fist is punching me down.

In that case I’ll just have to keep attacking myself!

“Thunderstorm! Thunderstorm! Thunderstorm!”

If one time isn’t enough, I’ll just do it again, and again. As I keep piling up attacks, the Black Roc decides to do the same in return.

“Young Lady! At this rate-”
“I know, it’ll be a bit tricky but I’ll try using a bigger one.”
“Huh? No, that’s not what I-”
“Shake the skies above, thunder of the Gods.”

Natalia is right, we won’t last much longer at this rate. So I have no choice but to take a bit of a gamble.

As I start chanting, a large magic circle similar in size to the Black Roc’s appears above us. This is a high level spell my mother taught me. When I was small she had activated it just by chanting, but I can only use it by deploying a magic circle at the same time.

“Screee!”
“Guh!”

The Black Roc’s magic shakes my body. I almost get knocked out unconscious, but I manage to keep myself awake.

“Show the world below your divine might.”

A bolt of lightning rushes through the sky, splitting it apart. I feel like all the mana I’m channeling for the spell is about to burst out. Now I just have to mention the spell name and it’ll be complete, unleashing its power.

“Ah…I have a really bad feeling about this.”
“Lightning-”

Halfway through the last step, a powerful gust of wind stops me, while my magic circle starts to crack. The Black Roc’s magic circle had broken mine. I can’t finish the spell anymore.

“I’m not done yet!”

All the mana and lightning I gathered stays there, unable to complete their purpose. I just have to find a way to use those remnants now.

Raising my fist up, I begin to gather the drifting mana and lightning into it. Everything quickly rushes into my fist like a bolt of lightning, leaving it brimming with mana and blinding sparks.

But that’s not enough yet.

I imbue my fist with even more mana, empowering the lightning. Now the sparks are making loud crackling noises, wanting to run free from my grasp. But I’ll keep it all here, I’ll make it all part of my power.

And I’ll add even more to it!
I’ll gather more!
I’ll hold it in my fist!

“Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!”

The sparks start to change color. At first they were a blinding white, but suddenly they’re overtaken by an inky black.

“Fall alreadyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!”

I shout loudly as I strike the Black Roc’s neck with my fist. The black lightning spreads through the air, burning, tearing, and piercing through the monster.

“Screeeeeeeeeeee!” The Black Roc cries loudly, which eventually turns into an agonizing scream before its body loses all strength.

“Woah!” My body soon feels weightless again, slowly separating from the Black Roc’s body as we all start falling at the ground. There was nothing carrying us in the air now.

“Young Lady!”
“Natalia!”

I see Natalia trying to reach for me, and I also reach for her and take hold of her hand, pulling her close to me. Her face looks serious like always, I can tell she’s already thinking of sacrificing herself to save me.

She’s always like that. She usually acts like a regular person, but she’ll never complain about being treated like a magic automaton, and will easily throw her life away to save mine.

I’m glad she cares so much about me, but I also don’t want her to get hurt.

As we get closer to the ground, I can feel Natalia’s grip getting tighter. At this speed I doubt I’ll survive even if Natalia acts as my cushion, and I’m sure she understands that as well.

Luckily I have a friend who thought about a situation like this. I reach into my pocket and activate the magic device. A moment later me and Natalia start to float in the air, as if gravity just forgot about us.

“Huh?”

Natalia looks around confused, and doesn’t recover until we lightly land on the ground like feathers.

“Christina gave me a prototype of a gravity reduction magic device she’s building with Miss Annabelle.”
“So you had a device like that…”

Her eyes are still wide with shock.

Either way, she doesn’t seem to be hurt too badly, and she’s fully conscious, so at least I don’t have to worry about things ending like last time.