The Supreme Hero’s Younger Brother

Hearing Ash's statement, Rock and Marissa sighed in relief. If Ash occupied himself to teach the Supreme Hero's younger brother, he wouldn't have any time to duel the Supreme Hero.

Though because their boss 'kidnapped' the Supreme Hero's brother in the end, they were held captive by his group as reassurance. The Supreme Hero and an unrealistically beautiful elf were glaring at them as if they were preparing to chop their heads if they tried to escape.

They wanted to cry.

The rumor said the Supreme Hero was very friendly and kind, but what is this!?

He wanted their boss to come back soon but they also wished their boss wouldn't come back soon. At the very least, don't come back before the airship depart!

Much to their relief, the 2 of them hadn't returned when the airship took off.

When they returned 3 hours later, all of them were blinded by their beaming face.

"Thank you very much, you've enlightened me greatly." Rye shook Ash's hand.

"And your wisdom has also opened my mind to more possibilities," Ash squeezed Rye's hand, "You really won't consider joining my team? We can invent many great things together! Don't you think the idea of combining your magic engineering and my science is very intriguing?"

"He's taken," Ludric swiftly separated them and looked coldly at Ash, "And he's not going anywhere."

"Then, let us duel!" Ash declared again, "I will gladly take Rye with me once I win."

"Boss!!" Rock and Marissa cried at the same time.

"No need," Rye stopped Ash, "Even if you win, I won't change my mind. I have a mission I need to finish, Ash. Please understand."

"Very well. As a hero, we do have a duty to uphold," Ash backed away, "And so, I shall come with you to assist your mission!"

"Boss!!??" Rock and Marissa were shocked by Ash's conclusion.

They hurriedly turned to look at Ludric's reaction, but he unexpectedly didn't immediately reject the idea.

"Alright, let's duel once we land." Ludric nodded.

"Huh?" Rye couldn't help but be surprised.

"But not with me," Ludric pointed at Lilith, "With my teammate Lilith. She's the Archer Hero."

Lilith was stunned, "Me…?"

"An archer? Fair enough. I–"

Beep! Beep!

Ash paused and took out a small metal disk with an orb at the center that was blinking red. He pressed a button and a holographic image of a woman popped out.

"Ash! A group of wyvern is inbound in our route!"

"How many?"

"Twelve."

Ash nodded and ended the call. He placed it back into his coat, "We shall continue this conversation later," he turned to Rye, "Rye, would like to put your new spell to practice?"

"Can I?"

"Of course!" Ash jumped and a metal surfboard formed from his soles which hovered midair, "Or do you want to try riding this?"

Rye's eyes immediately sparkled from the sight.

Ash offered his hand. Rye accepted it and was pulled up to the front. Rock and Marissa also summoned out their airboard.

Ash secured Rye with an arm so that he wouldn't fall and dashed off, "Let's go!"

Rock and Marissa quickly followed him.

The rest, "…"

"I guess for Rye, technologies are more interesting than magic…" Aerindel commented in irony.

Rye, Ash, Rock, and Marissa exited the airship through a hatch at the top of the airship's body. Rye was given a tape by Ash to keep his glasses in place before they flew out.

The expanding view of the sky immediately took Rye's breath away. The clouds were so close that he felt like he could reach one with a stretch of his hand.

"Breathtaking is it not? All the hard work to learn how to fly is paid off just with this one view," Ash understood Rye's feeling, "Your flying debut will not be complete before you feel the clouds!"

Ash shot up their altitude. Rye's eyes widened when he saw the thick blanket of white clouds above them and held his breath as they flew into it. The soft and cool clouds enveloped his whole body. It was a much more exhilarating experience than he has ever expected.

Beyond it, he was exposed to a land of clouds. The ground was fully white with fluffy mountains of different shapes all around them.

"What do you say? You want to try something more extreme?" Ash incited.

Rye could feel his heart beat faster from the adrenaline. He nodded.

Ash promptly let go of his hold and watched as Rye tipped over from his board.

Rye let himself fall freely from the board. He saw Ash and his board rapidly getting further away from him with the wind howling around him. He flumped into the clouds and passed through them.

He couldn't even blink. It was just too overwhelming and thrilling!

"Holy f*ck!! Is boss crazy!!??" Marissa saw Rye falling freely from beyond the clouds and panicked.

"C-C-Catch him!! We need to catch him!!" Rock hurriedly moved when Rye passed by the airship.

"Do not ruin his moment." Ash appeared behind them and held them back.

"Boss!! He's going to die! If you're talking about his flashback moment, we need to ruin it!!" Marissa clutched Ash's collar and shook him in frustration.

Just as she said that, Rye flew up at the side of the airship and descended down to them. His hair was in disarray, but his face was glowing nonetheless.

"Ash, it was amazing!" Rye excitedly said.

"Huh!? Y-You're…you're flying!!!" Rock and Marissa were thunderstruck.

Rye nodded, "Thanks to Ash."

"Let us shoot down some wyverns to celebrate then!" Ash invigoratingly said and flew away.

Rye quickly followed behind Ash, matching his speed with no problem.

"He's fast!"

"Come on! We'll get left behind if we don't move now!" Marissa swiftly tailed them.

"Wait for me!" Rock caught up with her.

Rye and Ash stopped a few hundred meters away from the wyverns. As reported, there were exactly twelve of them. It was the first time for Rye to see a real wyvern although he often saw them in books.

"Is this a common occurrence?"

"It is and it is not. There is a mountain in our country where it is the nest of these wyverns, hence passing wyverns are nothing sort of new. It is our breakfast in the morning and our dinner at night," Ash explained, "Yet it is not every day that they are inbound within our airship's route. We have designed our schedule based on the wyverns' activity patterns after all. But there are oddballs such as these gentlemen once in a while who strayed from the pattern."

"Is it really necessary to kill them though?"

"Surely, yes. Those who strayed from the pattern all have this one common trait," Ash circled his arm onto Rye and pointed at a wyvern's head, "Do you see it, my dear friend?"

Rye focused on where Ash was pointing, "The gem? But aren't all wyverns have gems on their head? It indicates the attribute of the wyverns."

"Indeed, they do. But what is an attribute linked to?"

"Our soul."

"Correct. And what is the color of their gems?"

"Black…Ah," Rye understood, "They're demon wyverns?"

"Indeed they are! They preyed upon humans and they are inbound in our airship course exactly because their target is our airship."

"Boss, why haven't you dealt with them yet? Are you waiting for us?" Marissa finally caught up with Rock.

Ash raised his empty hands and a long cylindrical weapon formed above his shoulder, "What are you two dilly-dallying for? Go!"

"Yes, Boss!"

A large mallet as big as tall as 2 adults appeared in Rock's hand while sharp metal boomerangs appeared around Marissa, orbiting her. The two of them swiftly headed to face the wyverns.

Ash closed one of his eyes and aimed at one wyvern through the weapon's scope using his monocled eyes.

"Cover your ears, Rye."

Rye closed his ears.

Ash pulled the trigger and blasted out a huge rocket with a boom. The rocket accurately shot into the wyvern's gem which was in the middle of their flock. Rye thought it stopped there, but the bullet exploded, destroying the gem and blowing up the wyvern's head as a result.

The wyverns around it roared and scattered away.

"Number one rule in dealing with a group of wyverns," Ash put away the big weapon and formed 2 guns, one in each hand, "Do not let them be a group."

He flew away, targeting one of the wyverns. The airboard's speed easily surpassed the wyverns. Ash faced the wyvern head front and shattered the gem with several shots before swiftly heading to the next.

Rye hovered there in amazement.

So cool!

He looked up and found a wyvern that nobody was dealing with yet. He promptly flew up to help Ash and the others.