Chapter 95: Having Fun
After finishing their sandwiches, the two—now fully recovered—launched into the sky. Shimmering crystal wings unfurled from Khione’s back, while blazing flame wings erupted from Nero’s.
Flap! Flap!
With just two powerful beats, they soared above the towering treetops, racing forward as if the sky itself had issued a challenge. The Ice Queen, her face calm and unreadable, glided with elegant precision, her wings slicing through the air in smooth, calculated arcs. Nero, laughing under his breath, followed close behind, his fiery wings leaving trails of heat in his wake.
For ten minutes, they weaved and darted through the sky, twisting between clouds and branches, diving low and spiraling high—neither one yielding, neither one speaking. It wasn’t a contest declared, but a silent rivalry, fierce and unspoken. In the end, no victor emerged—only two figures vanishing deeper into the heart of the forest, their unrelenting pace saying all that needed to be said.
Though the aerial race had brought them a burst of excitement, neither lost sight of the real mission. The hunt—and the true competition—was far from over. Khione was two kills behind and needed to catch up quickly. Their team still held first place with 291 points, but the other teams were closing in fast.
To maximize their coverage, they spread their senses in opposite directions, scanning the terrain below. Within moments, two distinct presences entered their range—large, sluggish, and brimming with aggression. Given the area, it wasn’t hard to identify them: orcs.
The moment Nero locked onto the targets, he dived without hesitation, aiming to claim the kills before Khione could act. But she wasn’t about to fall for the same tactic twice.
A knowing smirk tugged at her lips. With a graceful sweep of her wand, she invoked a spell:
"Ice Shield!"
Two translucent shields of ice materialized mid-air before Nero, stacked and slightly angled. They shimmered like frozen glass, each radiating a bone-deep chill that caused the air around them to frost over. Jagged veins of magic pulsed through the shields like frozen lightning—beautiful, but unyielding. They weren’t just barriers; they were meant to halt momentum.
But Nero had expected this.