Chapter 8: Take Me Out of this Forest
At this moment, that shadow is leisurely flying over in the sky over the forest.
The shadow is actually a beast with a lion's body and claw, the head of an eagle, and a pair of eagle like wings. A demonic beast that's like a hybrid of a lion and an eagle.
That's a fairly well known demonic beast – the griffon.
Griffons are publicly recognized as a very powerful demonic beast, bearing the strength and aggressiveness of a lion and the speed and wings of an eagle. This particular type of demonic beast is generally ranked alongside wyverns, and can even be said to exceed them.
Therefore, even in the previous life, griffon is a fairly well known fantasy creature. In this other world, it's just as much an existence not to be looked down on.
This particular griffon doesn't seem to be here because it discovered prey, but rather it was just passing by, flying at a leisure pace without any idea that it's already been targeted by a certain someone.
Shien was currently observing the griffon that was flying by in the sky.
"If I can ride that griffon and have it take me along, I should be able to fly out of this forest, right?"
Shien is contemplating such an idea.
And the more Shien thinks about it, the more he's getting motivated to act.
Although this definitely isn't something easy to do, when it comes to leaving the forest as fast as possible, this is the best idea that Shien could think of.
Plus, if he passes on this opportunity, that would just be a shame.
After all, within these past ten days, besides the man-faced snake-bodied monstrous bird that Shien encountered at the very beginning, this griffon is the most suitable prospective mount that Shien had encountered thus far.
It's not that Shien hasn't encountered any flying demonic beasts, but it's that those demonic beasts are either too small to be ridden or too strange in shape to be rideable.
Only this griffon shouldn't have any issues with riding on its back.
"Alright!"
After some thought, Shien. who had always been decisive and receptive to changing circumstances, stopped hesitating.
"Evolve!"
Then, Shien activated [Limit Evolution], allowing magic power furiously circulate within his body, converting it to strength, and gaining a superhuman body.
Right after, Shien moved to stoop down and concentrated all his strength to his feet.
Thanks to the effect of the max leveled [War God] skill, Shien was able to perfectly control his body and easily gathered all his strength to his feat.
In the second after…
"Boom!!!"
Following an explosive sound, Shien shattered the ground beneath his feet, producing a sudden gust of wind along with a cloud of dust, blasted forth into the sky like a rocket.
"Kew!"
High in the sky, the sedately flying griffon was startled by the huge noise, but all it could see was a figure shooting at it like an arrow.
The direction of that arrow seemed to be pointed right at itself.
"Bang!"
Not long after, a dull impact rang out high above the forest.
The griffon felt itself hit by a heavy impact, cried out, and was spun around in midair. It almost lost its ability to fly and fell right down.
By the time the griffon managed to stabilize its body, flapped its wings, and once again steadily flew in the sky, it instantly discovered the abnormality on its body.
At some point, a figure had landed on the griffon's back.
"Success!"
With one hand holding onto the Holy Sword and the other tightly gripping onto the griffon's fur, Shien laughed. He managed to completely ride onto the griffon's back.
「Skill gained – [Riding] – Would you like to learn?」
When this message popped up in Shien's head, before he could make a decision, the griffon below him had finally reacted.
"Caw!"
The moment the griffon managed to realize just what had happened, it immediately let out an angry squawk. Magic power also erupted from its body in the form of waves.
In that instant, a tornado formed on the griffon's body.
Yes, a tornado.
The griffon's magic power transformed into a tornado, formed of countless blades of wind. It activated right upon the griffon's body and begun furiously ripping about over the griffon.
"……!"
Shien's expression shifted and purposefully tightened his grip on the griffon's fur.
The tornado on the griffon's body struck upon Shien with terrifying force.
If it was a normal person, then under the furious ripping force of the tornado, they would have been instantly ripped from the body of the griffon and turned into mince meat.
Shien has the two max level skills [Physical Resistance] and [Magic Resistance] though, plus the protection of the Holy Sword. Naturally, he wouldn't have been turned into mince meat, but he'd still have a hard time avoiding getting blown off the griffon's body.
What instead happened was that Shien learned the just gained skill [Riding] as fast as possible and maxed it out without a moment of delay, thus granting him the highest level of riding ability.
Therefore, Shien not only did not get blown away by the tornado, but instantly gripped the griffon's body with his legs using the max amount of strength, strengthened his grip on the griffon's neck fur with all his might, and lowered his body, using everything he could to resist the force of the tornado.
"Rip!" "Rip!" "Rip!"
In an instant, the originally fairly worn clothing on Shien's body was torn apart by the tornado's constant ripping.
However, Shien still managed to steadily remain upon the griffon's body unharmed.
"Kew!"
Noticing that, the griffon cried out in extreme anger and begun dancing madly. Spinning in midair, climbing, and even diving, all in an attempt to shake Shien off.
Unfortunately, Shien was like a champion rider and firmly kept himself on the griffon's back. He sometimes changed position, sometimes flowed with the force, sometimes lowered his body and sometimes sat up straight, perfectly keeping control of his balance and weight distribution.
"Freaking calm down!"
In the end, Shien tightly kept control of the griffon while raising the hand wielding the Holy Sword. He reversed the Holy Sword and fiercely struck the griffon's head with the pommel.
"Conk!"
Following the sound of the impact, the griffon released a pained cry.
At the same time…
「Skill gained – [Taming] – Would you like to learn?」
Shien stopped for a moment. Then he immediately learned and maxed out this new skill.
At that moment, Shien made an expression of enlightenment. He put a hand onto the griffon's back and begun pushing his own magical power in.
This magic power was slowly injected into the griffon's body following a set path and flow.
"Caw! Caw!"
The griffon that was just raging from pain suddenly made some pleased cries. Its struggling had also weakened.
Seeing that, Shien was overjoyed. He quickly used the same method to constantly inject more magic into the griffon, making its cries sound more and more pleased and making it stop rejecting Shien so much.
After an unknown amount of time later, the griffon had completely stopped struggling. It no longer resisted being ridden by Shien and even kept calling out to him, as if it wants Shien to keep giving it more magic power.
"What? Want more?" Shien laughed. He said to the griffon below him: "If you're willing to take me out of this forest to the nearest town, I'll continue, alright?"
Hearing that, the griffon cried out a few more times as if showing that it accepts. It's wings shook, and it blasted forth in a certain direction.
Shien who understood could no longer hide his joy.
A person and a beast thus quickly flew towards the forest's border.