Death Guns In Another World

Chapter 2095: The Wyvern of Broken Peak

The mission parchment was old and crisp. It had been sealed with red wax and stamped with the symbol of the Adventurer's Guild—a sword and shield crossed behind a dragon's skull. Alex broke the seal and read the words inside.

Urgent. Threat Level: Disaster.

Location: The Jagged Spire.

Target: Enraged Frost Wyvern.

Notes: Creature has lost its mate to poachers. Now attacks all who enter its territory. Entire mountain pass is closed. No survivors from three previous attempts.

The guild master, a tired old man with one eye and a wooden leg, looked at them from behind his counter.

"I wouldn't ask if it wasn't desperate," he said quietly. "But you are the best. The only one who might come back."

Alex folded the paper and tucked it into his cloak. He looked at Saeko.

She gave one small nod.

They left at dawn.

The journey to the Jagged Spire took two days. The first day was long and quiet. They walked through pine forests and crossed cold, clear streams. The path was empty. Other travelers had heard the warnings. The road was theirs alone.

They stopped at noon to eat dried meat and hard bread. Saeko poured water from her canteen into her palm for her horse. Alex checked his equipment. His gun gleamed in the pale light. His sword rested easy at his hip.

They didn't speak. There was nothing to say that their eyes hadn't already shared.

As night fell, they made camp in the shelter of a large rock formation. No fire. The wyvern could see heat. They ate cold food and wrapped themselves in their cloaks. Saeko slept first. Alex kept watch, his heterochromia eyes scanning the dark sky. Nothing moved. He woke her at midnight and slept. She watched the stars wheel overhead until the sky turned gray.

On the second morning, they saw the Spire.

It rose from the mountain like a broken tooth. A jagged pillar of black rock, thousands of feet tall, wrapped in permanent ice and cloud. Around it, the forest had been destroyed. Trees were snapped like twigs. The ground was scarred with deep, parallel gouges—claw marks. Frozen patches of blue-white ice covered everything, even in the summer air.

They tied their horses to a dead tree far from the destruction. Then they walked into the wyvern's territory.

They didn't have to look for it.

It found them.

The roar came first. It wasn't just loud. It was a physical force. It hit them like a wall of sound and frozen wind. Saeko staggered. Alex planted his feet and raised his arm to shield his face.

The wyvern descended from the clouds.

It was enormous. Its body was easily forty feet from snout to tail tip. Its scales were pale blue, almost white, like ice that had frozen a thousand years ago. Its wings were massive, torn in places, the membranes scarred from old battles. Its eyes were not cold. They were burning. Furious. Mad with grief and rage.

It landed on the spire's lower ledge and screamed again. The sound echoed across the valley. It was a challenge. It was a warning. It was a promise of death.

Alex and Saeko didn't run. They didn't flinch.

They drew their weapons.

The wyvern attacked first.

It launched itself from the ledge, wings snapping open, and dove straight at them. Its claws, each one as long as a short sword, reached out to grab and crush.

Alex and Saeko split apart. He went left, she went right.

The wyvern's claws hit the empty ground between them. Dirt and rock exploded upward.

Saeko was already moving. She ran up a slanted piece of broken stone, launching herself at the wyvern's flank. Her katana, wrapped in sharp wind, cut a shallow gash along its side. Blue-white blood, cold as liquid ice, dripped from the wound.

The wyvern shrieked and twisted. Its tail, thick and spiked like a mace, whipped around. Saeko barely got her blade up in time. The impact threw her twenty feet. She rolled and came up on one knee, unhurt.

Alex fired. His mana bullet struck the wyvern's shoulder. It flinched, but the shot didn't pierce its thick scales. Too tough. He needed something stronger.

He fired again. An ice bullet. It shattered uselessly against the wyvern's frost-resistant hide.

The wyvern turned its burning eyes on him. It charged.

The battle moved.

Alex ran, leading the wyvern away from Saeko. He fired as he moved. Fire bullets. They sizzled against the wyvern's ice-cold scales, making steam but no real damage. Lightning bullets. They made the creature twitch and slow for a moment, but didn't stop it.

It was too fast. Too strong. Its claws slashed, and Alex dove behind a boulder. The boulder exploded into pieces.

Saeko was back. She ran along the wyvern's flank, her wind carrying her up its side. She reached its back, between the folded wings. Her katana drove down into the base of its neck.

The wyvern roared. It bucked and thrashed, trying to throw her off. She held tight, pulling her blade free and stabbing again.

Alex saw his chance. While the wyvern was focused on Saeko, he ran straight at its head. His black arm pulled back. He punched the wyvern in the face.

CRACK.

A tooth flew out. The wyvern's head snapped sideways. It stumbled, shaking the ground.

Saeko was thrown off its back. She landed hard, slid, and got up.

The wyvern shook its head, confused and enraged. It looked at them. Two small creatures, hurting it, refusing to die. Its madness peaked.

It spread its wings and took to the sky.

Now the battle was vertical.

The wyvern circled above, roaring. It opened its mouth. A sphere of freezing energy gathered in its throat.

Alex pointed.

"Down!" he shouted, but no words were needed. Saeko was already moving.

The wyvern breathed. A beam of pure, white-cold frost shot down at them. It was so cold that the air itself froze, forming a tunnel of ice crystals around the blast.

They ran. The frost hit the ground behind them and instantly created a field of thick, jagged ice. Trees caught in the edge turned white and shattered like glass.

They couldn't outrun it forever.

Alex stopped running. He turned, raised both hands, and met the frost with fire.

His flames roared upward, a pillar of crimson heat. The frost beam hit the fire, and the air exploded in a massive cloud of steam. For a moment, nothing was visible. Just hot, thick fog.

The wyvern, blinded, flew lower, searching.

Saeko didn't wait. She leaped from a high piece of broken rock, the wind catching her, lifting her. She flew up through the steam, katana pointed at the wyvern's chest.

She hit it hard. The blade sank deep between its ribs.

The wyvern screamed, a terrible sound of pain and surprise. It twisted in the air, trying to bite her. She pulled her blade free and dropped, landing softly on the ground.

The wyvern was hurt. Really hurt. It flew unevenly, one wing dipping lower. Blue-white blood rained down, freezing on the rocks.

But it wasn't done. It landed heavily on the spire's main ledge, breathing hard, its mad eyes still burning. It was cornered. And cornered beasts were the most dangerous of all.