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A few days of sailing passed after the Beluga departed from Youso Harbor. The winds at sea were moderately strong, which was perfect for the sail, and the skies were mostly clear except for a cluster of clouds in the distance.

The sailors were all excited to be traveling with Marize’s senior, so everyone were rather accepting of Olivia, except for the shock they had when they saw the large Servants and a dragonborn with her.

Their lookout was especially on edge because of that, but by now even he realized they were no threat. Then again, that only made things more boring for him.

“Yaawnnnn… Hm?”

He let out a long yawn, which even made tears form in the corner of his eyes, but then he noticed something strange. He focused his eyes to the cluster of clouds and the thing he noticed gradually became clearer, until he knew exactly what it was.

“Alarm! Alarm!”

The lookout shouted loudly, catching the attention of the other sailors.

“Then you can use this formula to calculate the result of this equation.” I’m sitting on Erika’s bulb and using improvised writing utensils to write letters and numbers on a steel plate she’s holding.

We’re in the Beluga’s hold, and I’m teaching the young tanned boy helping around the ship, Wakana.

He and his little brother Nisuke are working on the ship by Ruri’s request, and somehow I ended up becoming their temporary teacher. We’re doing this down here because Erika got really clingy after I didn’t pay her much attention lately. Oh, and Olivia was down here with us earlier, but she vanished the moment I suggested she could review her knowledge with us.

“Hm…hmmm…”

Wakana grumbles as he tries his best to understand. I like that he’s so hard working, but apparently his main motivation is that he wants to become just like Ruri, so I’m not sure how to feel about that. I really wonder what that wench did to this innocent soul.

Just when I start to consider explaining everything again, the hatch slams open and Wakana’s brother Nisuke rushes in.

“Natalia, there’s an emergency. Could you please come up to the deck with that Servant?”

He’s speaking politely like always, but I can tell there’s some unrest in his voice. And it’s probably not the time to point out that I’m a Servant as well.

“Alright, I’ll be there in a bit.”

It sounds like it’s something important, and I probably should find someone who can explain the situation better. So I throw all my teaching materials into my magic storage and head out with Erika.

“Sister, you should come too.”
“S-Sure.”

…HOLD ON!
Wakana is a girl?!

We get up to the deck, and it’s clear something’s going on. All of the sailors look stressed, and they’re armed with swords and harpoons.

“Ah, Natalia!” Once Olivia sees us, she runs up to us with Fan Yen, Clarissa, and Akane.

“Young Lady, what’s happening?”
“Apparently there’s a group of monsters heading here. We won’t be able to outrun them, so they’ve decided to fight back.”

Olivia points to the sea, so I look there and see multiple shadows flying at us in the distance. And they’re definitely moving faster than we can outrun them.

“Do you know what type of monsters they are?”
“Those are Fluttering Cows. You can think of them as horned whales that fly close to the sea’s surface. They mostly feed off algae and small fish, but they’re extremely territorial monsters.”

Fan Yen quickly replies. Most of my knowledge comes from books, so I appreciate having someone with actual experience like her, who’s a dragonborn no less.

“I see. I’ll strike first then.”
“Can you do that? They’re still pretty far.”
“I can, thanks to my magic guns.”

I take out my sniper rifle, the magic gun Blue Hound, from my magic storage. It’s very rare that I need to shoot at targets that are really far away, but it’s extremely useful in such cases. I guess the only downside is that I’ve never been the best at aiming through a scope like that.

I prop it up against the rails and look into the scope, and quickly see why Fan Yen called them horned whales flying above the sea surface. The horns growing on the sides of their heads also explain why they would be referred to as cows.

On average, they’re around the same size as Clarissa in wolf form, and the biggest is at least twice as big. If they get too close, I can easily see them ramming the ship and destroying it without much effort.

So the best course of action should be to diminish their numbers before they’re here. I train the sights on the forehead of the closest one, then pull the trigger. The gunshot makes my whole body tremble, but the bullet merely grazes the Fluttering Cow’s forehead before being deflected into the distance.

I guess the swaying of the ship makes it even harder to aim properly, though I won’t let that defeat me. The hit still makes the Fluttering Cow shake uncomfortably in pain, so I switch targets to another one and shoot. If I can’t take them down with one shot, then I’ll just have to find a way to break them up.

Still looking through the scope, I also activate some of my automaton functions to accelerate my movements.

I manage to get a bullet to pierce through, but their bodies are too large so it’s not enough to kill the monster. Then again, all I need is to slow them down. I shoot two more times, which causes a lot of blood to come gushing out of the monster’s forehead as it goes down and creates a large splash of water. Its dorsal fin is still moving, so it’s probably still alive. But that should’ve been enough to immobilize it.

“I managed to stop one, but the rest have gotten too close. I’ll go confront them directly.”

I return Blue Hound to my magic storage and activate my magic devices. Steel Silk sprouts from my shoes and cuffs, wrapping around my hands and feet. Those are the aids that help me materialize my magic gauntlets and armor. They were built by Mir to give me more mobility when using those abilities too.

I also equip the flying magic device Celaeno, magic handgun Black Hawk, and magic submachine gun White Viper.

“Fan Yen, we can fly and intercept them. Young Lady, you stay here with Marize and the rest of the Beluga’s crew and get ready to counterattack.”
“I’m in!”
“Natalia, take care! And Fan Yen too!”

With Olivia’s supportive voice behind us, we fly away from the Beluga.

“So tell me, what’s your plan to defeat those huge things? I’m not saying I can’t do it, but I can’t guarantee the ship’s safety.” Fan Yen asks me that, flying next to me.

“Don’t worry about the ship for now, Olivia might not be used to being on a ship, but Marize and the rest of the crew are there, so I’m sure they’ll be fine. We’ll attack the monsters from above and try to distract them.”
“Hmm, I understand. Let’s go then, shall we?”

We give a quick nod to each other and commence our plan, attacking the monsters from the air.

The bullets from my two guns rain down on the Fluttering Cows, drilling holes all over their backs. But none of them seem to pay any attention to us, and continue flying straight forward.

“I guess rapid fire doesn’t pack as much of a punch.”

There’s a way for White Viper to have the same power as Blue Hound, but the recoil is so strong I can’t do that while flying. Though I’d give it a try if it comes down to the wire.

“Now it’s my turn. I’ll let them taste the secret arts of the dragonborn!”

Fan Yen creates a fireball without chanting or any magic circles, and shoots it straight at a Fluttering Cow, where it explodes and makes the enormous monster tip over.

Our attacks finally start to attract their attention, as one of them looks up at us and starts to fly higher.

“I can also do this!”

I flap my wings to increase their power output and rotate my body so it’s horizontal, then spread out my legs into a straight line. After readying myself, I retract my wings and create magic blades extending out of my legs before I rotate rapidly like a circular saw and cut down along the monster, going from its head all the way to its tail.

Feeling the blades slice through its body so many times makes the Fluttering Cow let out a loud cry, which is surprisingly high pitched considering its size.

“Hahh!” Then Fan Yen punches its nose, making its large body bend over. After that the monster stops moving and falls down to the water, creating a tall plume.

“That’s one down.” I spread out my wings again and fly up to Fan Yen, where she looks at me with an unusually stern face.

“Natalia, let me give you some friendly advice. Don’t ever use that move around Olivia, your skirt was completely flipped over.”
“…I appreciate the concern.”

I can already imagine how troublesome it would be if Olivia saw that. I can do splits like that very easily with my automaton body, and I’m proficient at creating magic blades, but I’ll probably have to seal away this move.

When Natalia took off, I was able to see under her skirt. She’s wearing light blue shorts today. That feels like a strange choice, considering she usually wears more sexy lingerie, but at closer inspection, I realized they’re semi-transparent lace shorts. They’re sexy after all.

“Aww…if only we were somewhere else…”

It’s too bad I can’t push her down under me right now.