"W-whoa... D-did this thing eat some kind of miracle fertilizer or something?"
Dust's previously dashing charge came to an abrupt halt.
He craned his neck upward at the enormous beast, which was a full three times larger than he had imagined, and even the spear in his hand began to tremble.
The Griffin lowered its head. Its massive beak stopped less than half a meter from Dust's nose, blasting him with a powerful stench of raw meat.
"I'M OUTTA HERE!!!"
Without the slightest hesitation, Dust let out an ear-piercing scream, spun around, and bolted at a speed that seemed to surpass the limits of humanity.
Not only did he run, he flailed both arms wildly as he fled.
"Help me! Kōichi! Kazuma! This isn't some mutated Griffin! This has to be the ancestor of all Griffins! It's going to eat me! It's definitely going to eat the most handsome one first!"
Their planned frontal diversion collapsed instantly.
Dust shot toward the rear position Kōichi had originally set up like an out-of-control cannonball. The enraged mutated Griffin flapped its enormous wings, whipping up a gale strong enough to knock livestock off their feet as it pursued him.
"That bastard!"
Kazuma nearly jumped out of his skin with rage. The gale blew his carefully prepared [Snipe] stance completely off balance.
"He brought the monster straight to us! Kōichi, do something! Megumin's still chanting!"
"Ugh... ngh..."
Megumin was currently balancing on one foot in an absurdly dramatic casting pose. Unstable red light had already gathered at the tip of her staff, but the violent wind made her slender body sway like a candle about to go out.
"Crimson of the abyss... Ah! Stop pushing me! My chant's about to break!"
"Ohoho! Look at those powerful claws! Look at that devastating beak!"
Instead of fleeing, Darkness charged directly into the gale with her face flushed bright red. She spread her arms wide and planted herself directly in Dust's escape path.
"Come! Ravage me! Smash me into the dirt with those brutal wings!"
Kōichi stared at the battlefield, which had descended into complete chaos, his temples throbbing.
Dust's retreat had completely ruined the battle plan.
What should have been an organized fight had turned into an all-out free-for-all.
The situation on the plain had gone beyond bad and entered the realm of pure absurdity.
Dust was sprinting for his life, tears and snot streaming behind him in the wind. He was so terrified that he was not even looking where he was going.
Meanwhile, Aqua was crouched in the grass, trying to retrieve a premium cabbage that had been blown loose by the gale.
"Waaaaah! Get out of the way, you lousy third-rate Goddess! I'm going to get eaten! I'm going to get eaten!"
Dust screamed so loudly his voice cracked.
His foot caught hard on Aqua's ornate but cumbersome silk stockings.
"Ow?! Ow, ow, ow... Wait! My cabbage!"
With a sharp thump, Aqua was launched through the air like a blue meat bun fired from a catapult, tracing an impressively graceful arc through the night sky.
Unfortunately, the mutated Griffin had just opened its enormous jaws to unleash a thunderous roar at Dust.
And by the worst possible coincidence, Aqua's flight path was aimed directly at the gaping mouth large enough to swallow a cow whole.
"Kōichi! Kazuma! Save meeeee! This giant bird's mouth smells horribleeeee!"
Aqua flailed all four limbs wildly in midair. Tears poured from her eyes like fountains, glittering beneath the moonlight.
"Hey! That's like throwing a meat bun at a dog... No, wait! That's an idiot feeding herself to a Griffin!"
Kazuma's eyes nearly popped out of his head.
He instinctively raised his bow, but Aqua's wildly flailing rear made it impossible to aim.
"Kōichi! Think of something! That Goddess might be useless, but if she gets eaten, we won't have any resurrection coins left!"
The Griffin itself seemed momentarily baffled by the sudden blue projectile.
A trace of disgust flashed through its eerie green eyes, as though it were seriously considering whether a creature that reeked of cheap perfume and alcohol was actually edible.
"Ooh... the thrill of being swallowed whole... Aqua, you cheater! That position should have been mine!"
Darkness dropped to her knees and covered her face with both hands, trembling violently as an unmistakable look of envy appeared in her eyes.
At that moment, the silver scale against Kōichi's chest had grown as hot as a branding iron.
His gaze locked onto the Griffin's exposed throat as it prepared to swallow Aqua.
Deep inside, a pendant glowing with faint silver light flickered in and out of sight with every breath the monster took.
It was a fragment of Sylphy's power!
"Everyone, listen up! Forget about that idiot Goddess!"
Kōichi took a deep breath, his expression turning cold and decisive.
"Megumin, ignore the wind and aim straight into the Griffin's open mouth! Kazuma, combine Create Water with my Wind Blade and give this thing a full stomach flush! We're taking back whatever's inside before it can close its mouth!"
"O-oh! That sounds completely depraved, but I like it!"
Kazuma understood immediately.
Just as Aqua's tear-soaked face was about to make intimate contact with the Griffin's barbed tongue, sheer survival instinct drove the useless Goddess to unleash strength beyond all common sense.
"Nooooo! I refuse to die like this! God Blow! No, wait! Create Water!!!"
With Aqua's desperate scream, a torrent of crystal-clear Holy Water nearly two meters across erupted from her trembling palms like a high-pressure water cannon.
The sheer volume was absurd. It was as though Axel's entire moat had been dumped straight down the Griffin's throat in a single instant.
"Gugh?! Cough! Cough, cough, cough!!"
The mutated Griffin's mighty roar instantly turned into a ridiculous fit of choking.
Its enormous eyes bulged from the violent coughing. Its jaws, which had been about to snap shut, not only failed to close but opened even wider as the sacred properties of the Holy Water inflicted an intense, purifying sting.
The Griffin thrashed its huge head from side to side, desperately trying to cough the Holy Water out of its lungs.
Its massive wings beat wildly against the ground, spraying mud everywhere, now mixed with the clean scent of Holy Water.
Aqua, meanwhile, was sent careening through the air by the enormous recoil of Create Water like a deflating balloon.
Finally, with a splat, she slammed spread-eagle against a nearby crooked tree in an utterly undignified pose and slowly slid down the trunk.
"Perfect! Kōichi, now!"
Kazuma's eyes lit up.
He immediately activated [Lurk], his body fading into a blur as he circled around the Griffin's flank.
"Kick it while it's down! That shiny thing has to be treasure!"
The silver scale against Kōichi's chest was now so hot it felt ready to burn through his clothes.
He knew that somewhere deep inside the monster's throat, a part of Sylphy was crying out in pain.
That was something he absolutely could not lose.