When Nausica was busy fending off her enemies, Angor’s group also bumped into several flying rays that could release cold energy into the environment.
Unlike most of the monster fishes they saw before, each of these rays had a wingspan of over 20 meters. There was also a shiny, golden ray among them that was twice the size of others.
With each flap of their “wings”, more freezing air would emerge from their formation. Slowly, the condensing air had blocked all paths around.
The rays were clearly hostile. One of them already sent a comet-like ice orb into the rear of Gondola.
Hermes immediately leapt away from the boat and unleashed his own sandstorm attack, which blew all other incoming ice comets away.
“Guess we have to get serious this time...” Hermes set his gaze upon the biggest, golden ray. “I’ll handle that one. As for the rest of them...” Hermes looked at Tana. “You just do something. I’ll leave Alan and Loki in your hands.”
“No objections.” Tana put her hands on the floor of the boat and arched her back. Slowly, her body turned into a brown, winged leopard and flew ahead to engage the smaller rays.
Carveline also moved. She was wearing her usual, unchanged armor dress while holding a longsword in one hand.
An intensive battle soon followed.
This had to be the most dragging fight they had after leaving the lava zone. The rays had hard yet smooth skins that deflected most of their attacks. To make it worse, they could keep using their icy power as if they had limitless mana reserves.
Most of the rays were as powerful as the best level-2 apprentices, while the golden one was already half-step to wizard level.
Carveline was surrounded by six of them. Other than the blinding sword flashes and ice shards, the others couldn’t see what was going on at her end. It seemed her element went well against the ice rays, and she was doing pretty well.
Hermes, on the other hand, was trying very hard to keep up. He had to face the golden ray as well as three smaller ones. More than once, he fell into dangerous situations and was helped by “leopard Tana” and the white rhino.
Tana had dropped Alan and Loki onto Angor’s boat.
Angor thought about helping, but he currently couldn’t drink any more Witch Stew. This meant that he couldn’t eject his soul and join the aerial combat. He could still attack the rays while sitting on Gondola, but since Alan and Loki were with him...
The tide of the fight was turned as more rays were slaughtered. Carveline only had one fish left to deal with now. If was only a matter of time before she could join Hermes and end the battle.
And Angor was glad to stay put and relax.
Loki had been watching the fight nervously, but he soon relaxed after he saw his friends winning. He turned back and looked at Sinehowze, who was leaning against the rear rail of the boat casually.
Sinehowze didn’t join the battle, and no one noticed what she had been up to. Now that Loki felt safe enough to check, he saw the woman examining the carvings on Gondola with great curiosity.
“Why are you not helping them?” Loki frowned and asked a straight question like how he always did.
“Those guys are enough.” Sinehowze yawned and put up a carefree look. “Are you expecting a Gourmet apprentice to help them fight?”
Loki thought about Alan’s terrible combat capacity and chose to agree with her. Even so, something told him that Sinehowze was hiding a lot of secrets from them.
Angor also heard their conversation. When he followed behind the woman while invisible, he witnessed Sinehowze’s amazing flying skills and her courage to confront monster fishes. Also, judging from how Sinehowze was brave enough to “fool” so many apprentices into helping her, Angor believed this woman wasn’t really weak when it came to violence. Still, he wouldn’t question Sinehowze’s purpose right now since he was also a “slacker”.
Sinehowze saw Angor looking her way and revealed a sly expression behind their backs.
“Just like that small fatty over there, I don’t know how to fight stuff. But I can make you all something delicious afterward as thanks!”
Loki immediately surrendered. After spending some time with Alan, he developed a demanding appetite, and he believed the woman was a more seasoned Gourmet apprentice compared to Alan, which meant he got to eat better stuff.
Sinehowze chuckled and looked at Angor next. “By the way, thanks for helping me with the tentacle thing. I’m going to share the egg and cook something for you as well. Are you okay with it, Mister Angor?”
Angor found no reason to reject a good meal, so he agreed without a doubt.
“Nice. So, what should I do with it? Let me see... Shall I roast it or boil it or should I add some other spices...”
Loki suddenly yelled out and interrupted Sinehowze’s self-talk, “Hey, look out! That one is coming for us!”
It seemed the golden ray fish decided to pick on something weaker. It slammed Hermes away and began to rush toward Gondola.
“Angor! Get out of there!” Hermes yelled.
Angor nudged Loki away and hopped onto the tip of his boat.
Something flashed in his eyes; people began to see several shadows appearing from Angor’s body.
After they cleared their minds, they realized that it was an illusion.
Before they could understand what Angor just did, the golden ray suddenly stopped moving and trembled in front of Gondola as if it just saw the most horrific existence in the world.
The gigantic creature then turned tail like a startled child.
Hermes was already waiting behind it. While defenseless, the ray ran straight inside a sand prison created by Hermes.
Slowly but surely, the monster’s flesh and blood were sucked clean. It became a dry corpse before it crashed to the ground.
Hermes reached out a hand and recovered the now red sand into a small bottle hanging on his waist.
The death of the boss of the rays signaled the end of the fight. People all returned to their previous positions; even Tana changed back to her human form.
The encounter had given Angor a clearer idea of each person’s abilities, especially Keely, who kept ten rays away from the group and was still in perfect condition as if nothing happened.
Also, Carveline was not someone to be underestimated. She killed six rays without even a wrinkle on her clothes.
As for Hermes and Tana, Angor was more interested in Tana’s form-changing ability. It seemed Tana fused the bloodline of a Winged Leopard into her body. Being able to “become” a leopard meant she had mastered her bloodline.
But isn’t Felicia her teacher? So, she’s not a Gourmet apprentice?
Tana noticed Angor’s questioning look and explained nonchalantly, “I have two talent orientations, Bloodline and Occult. But my own potential is just... average, so I’m good at neither, unlike little Alan, who can use way better Gourmet skills than me.”
“Two orientations? That’s so rare.” Angor remembered something mentioned by a book he read before. “My professor once told me about dual-talent people.”
“Mister Sunders told you?” Tana wanted to know what kind of comment came from the famous wizard.
“He said such people have more options in their lives but better not attempt too many things before becoming a wizard. You should focus on one of your talents until you earn a longer lifespan.”
Tana nodded to agree. “Professor Felicia said something similar. But I didn’t follow her words and began to study Bloodline too soon because I thought that those with Gourmet talent can’t fight... and now, here I am.”
Hermes saw Tana feeling sad and approached to hold her shoulder. “Don’t worry. We can use the garden challenge to purify our spirits, and you can choose a main subject from now on. You still got a bright future.”
Tana pushed him away. “I planned as much. By the way, Angor? What did you do to scare that monster away?”
“Oh. It’s a cantrip called ‘Fear’.”
...
They enjoyed some peace after the fight against the rays.
No one really cared where exactly they were heading to. Hermes believed Angor chose a specific direction for a good reason.
Sinehowze was already working on the meal she promised earlier, and the others all wondered what they would enjoy when a Gourmet apprentice was on the team.
When Sinehowze took out her materials from her space necklace, Angor noticed that her pink, butterfly-shaped pendant was actually one of the storage items he gave Devildare to repay his debt to Twilight Auction. He was quite surprised to meet with his old creation in such a situation.
Although he didn’t say anything about it. Instead, he carefully watched Sinehowze’s moves while hoping to learn something from her. His own Mana Bread always tasted like old socks, and nobody could tell him why. Greya did tell him to give up on studying Gourmet.
However, as a young man who wouldn’t admit defeat easily, when he saw a chance to observe a Gourmet cook, he simply decided to take advantage.