In the forest at night, something slowly began to move.
The the vibrant scents of foliage hung in the air of this summer night, but moving its sniffling nose, it discovered a scent distinct from such plant matter.

—That was the scent of prey.

Suppressing the deeply ingrained instinct to howl, it licked its lips. Its mouth hung open, and drool seeped out.
Pressing its feet to the ground, its chest was filled with delight.
Forcefully, forcefully it kicked against the earth and dashed across the land. Ah, what a liberating feeling!
Clearing the melancholy pressed into its beleaguered hide, it became as a black wind, dashing through the forest at night.

—Now, it is time to retake your own dignity.

Looking up at the sheer cliff face that stretched before them, Wren groaned.

“Isn’t this… basically just a mountain? This isn’t a forest anymore, it’s a mountain, right?”

The southern part of the test area was a relatively flat forest zone, but the farther north you went, the rougher the terrain became.
The most distant X mark that Tia and company were headed for was located on the northern edge, with the most extreme inclines.
Tia tilted her head, looking up at the sheer cliff face in front of her.

“Is it a mountain? If it’s only this steep, I’d say it’s more of a hilly forest?”

“It may not be much, but it appears that someone has made some improvements. Look, there’s a staircase.”

Beyond Sevil’s pointing finger, there was something resembling a staircase constructed of logs and wood planks embedded into the ground.
However, they were not methodically constructed steps with fixed spacing, but simply intended to support hikers across areas with uneven footing.
Naturally, there were no handrails, and a single missed step could send one careening to the bottom of the cliff.
“Urgh.” Wren’s face scrunched up, but Tia responded in all honesty.

“How nice of them!”

“You call this nice? A pretty boy is visiting, they should be rolling out the red carpet!”

“Those who complain will be left behind.”

Sevil marched off pointedly, behind her Tia followed stiltedly, followed a little later by Wren, nervously.
Over a day had passed since the test began, and they were now in the afternoon of the second day. Considering that the exam would end at noon the next day, they would like to make it to the top by sunset.
Climbing the cliffs was dangerous, although the inclines often had stair-like footholds.
The path was not terribly wide, and there was a chance they could fall if their feet slipped, so the three of them, Sevil, Tia, and Wren, lined up single-file in that order as they proceeded.

“Tia, make sure you don’t slip. Your manner of walking is somewhat uneasy. Wren, report if you start feeling exhausted.”

“Piyopp!”

“Sure…..”

Tia had plenty of stamina left, so she responded cheerfully, but Wren was already gasping for air. He didn’t have the luxury of being able to quip or curse back.
Regardless, he was determined enough to continue silently moving his feet and kept on behind Tia.
Tia looked up at the sky as she walked up the hill. Today was a cloudy day, but moisture in the air hadn’t risen. The weather would probably hold until tomorrow.

(It’s been a while since I’ve been so high up, huh.)

They hadn’t gone very far up, but she still felt like she was a lot closer to the sky than the ground. That pleased Tia.

(If I learned flight magic, I could fly much more, and much higher.)

Alright, let’s keep at it. Tia motivated herself, moving her legs in a rhythm.
Despite the clouds, Tia could tell the approximate time from the brightness of the sky. There was likely about an hour left until sunset.
The map hadn’t precisely recorded the contours of the terrain, but she thought there wasn’t much distance left between them and their goal.
Eventually, as the western sky began to glow in the evening hues, Sevil opened her mouth.

“There it is, the peak.”

“Yayyy… eh… eugh.” Behind Tia, Wren raised a cry of joy that was soon cut short. He really was nearing his limit.

“Wren, are you okay? Your face is all droopy.”

“Hold on, give me three seconds. It’ll go back to pretty boy now.”

Wren covered his face with both hands, then, as he said, after three seconds removed his hands with a flourish.
His round green eyes, rosy cheeks, and the thick lips on his bright smile—Even his hair seemed to regain its shine.

“How about that? The pretty boy is back! Isn’t the sweat on my cheeks and my slightly pained breaths just so adorable? … Hah.”

Wren spun a strand of hair around his finger and breathed heavily while conscious of the angles of his face.
Sevil’s voice showed she was somewhat impressed.

“Intriguing. This certainly is a unique skill. Very well, I shall acknowledge your ‘pretty boy’ as a unique skill……Hmm?”

Sevil frowned and placed a hand on her sword.
At the same time, Tia tensed up and leaned forward. She heard an unsettling rustling sound.
It was the sound of some creature with a long body moving by dragging its body across the ground—but the sound was too heavy to be a snake. This sound could only be made by a creature with a massive body.
Tia swallowed her urge to call out ‘Piyo’, staring intently in the direction of the noise.

(……It can’t be.)

It slithered out from the shadows beneath the trees.

In the past, Sevil had participated in a dragon slaying.
Therefore, she assumed at first that the creature that appeared before them was some type of dragon.
However, its body was clearly too long to call it a dragon.
Its long form, covered in brown scales, was as thick as three logs tied together. In the front, it had a head large enough to easily swallow a human whole.
A massive snake—the only thing that made her hesitate in that classification was the pair of wings growing out of its back.
The perverse winged serpent stuck out its red-and-black tongue, hissed deeply with its throat, and directed its gaze at them.
Sevil suppressed her shock, held a hand on the sword at her waist, and whispered.

“You surprised me, Wren. Your unique skill can summon monsters?”

“No, no, no, what the hell is this?….. Oh, that’s it, Illusion magic! I read in a book once that there was magecraft that could show you illusions! There has to be a test official hiding somewhere nearby!”

The strange serpent swung. There was a thick claw on its tail, and it felled numerous thick branches as it sliced deeply at the ground.
Dust kicked up from the earth where it struck, and Wren coughed lightly.
Illusion magic can’t do this.

“…Ack. Hey, this is manmade, right? There’s someone inside, right?”

Please say it’s that, His teary face begged.
Sevil drew her curved sword and held it in a ready position.

“Could a manmade puppet move like that?”

“Then it’s a new type of dragon! Look, winged dragons are a thing, aren’t they? It’s gotta be something like that, definitely….”

“I’ve seen winged dragons. This is an entirely different beast.”

Only two types of magical creatures exist today: dragons and spirits. The snake in front of them was neither.
The strange serpent flapped its wings. A howling wind beat against the earth and the snake’s massive body lifted off the ground.
Its head, with its massive mouth, slithered into the sky—then descended with vigor.

“Both of you, get down!”

Shouting, Sevil closed the distance towards the snake, and swung at its mouth. However, the snake deftly twisted its body away from the attack.
Sevil’s sword was not suited for stabbing. In order to cut deeply into flesh, it was necessary to build momentum, often by approaching on horseback.
Thus Sevil had tried to use the flying serpent’s momentum as it attacked them and swung her curved sword at its body. However, she failed to land a decisive blow. It would always twist and dodge at the last second.
From these movements, Sevil could feel clear hunting intent. At the very least, it was not such a simple creature that would simply attack because it saw something moving in front of it.
Sevil raised her voice to rally Wren and Tia.

“I have fought dragons before. A dragon’s body is extremely tough, and only attacks on its eyes, mouth, and forehead will have any effect.

Once more, the serpent soared.
She could see sharp white fangs inside its gaping maw—Nevertheless, they were nothing compared to the fangs of dragons.

“Rejoice! This snake is an easier opponent than dragons!”

“Wow, I’m so glad! ……..As if I’d rejoice, dammit!”

“Oh!” Enraged, Wren made a voice like he’d noticed something.
Sevil noticed after he did. Something was clinging to the body of the soaring serpent.
A white-haired girl—Tia.

“Tia!! What on earth is she doing…..!”

Wren’s eyes shot wide open. Sevil was also rather surprised. When had she jumped on?
At that moment, they heard a happy voice calling “Pyororororo” from above.

“I’m so high up! Super high! I’m flying! Wow~~~~~!”

“That dumbaaaaaasssssss!!”

Wren screamed.

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