"What... what was that?"
Several Kingdom Army soldiers looked up, only to suddenly see a dark shadow swooping down at them. In that instant, they did not even have time to react. They felt a sharp pain in their chests, then lost consciousness and fell straight down.
In a short time, the number of soldiers who fell like them had risen to nearly a hundred.
The Kingdom Army was thrown into a panic, but only then did they roughly make out the dark shadow's appearance—blood hung from its sharp claws, powerful wings beat behind it, and those hawk-like eyes continuously searched through the crowd, as though looking for its next target.
That was right. It was a Griffin.
And it seemed there was more than one.
Around twenty adult Griffins had suddenly appeared over Cru Town. No one in the Kingdom Army knew where they had come from, but they clearly saw that a single low pass by the flock had claimed nearly a hundred lives.
What was going on?
Most of them were dumbfounded, though fear was the stronger emotion. The power of Griffins needed no explanation. Nearly everyone had heard tales of merchant caravans attacked by Griffins, with no survivors left behind. By now, their image had been carved into everyone's minds. To the vast majority of people in the Hori Kingdom, seeing a Griffin was the same as seeing the Grim Reaper. That terror came from instinct.
The battle had been going so well... how had a flock of Griffins suddenly appeared?
Yet when the Griffins dove again and swept away another swath of soldiers, they witnessed something even more unbelievable.
There were people riding on the Griffins.
Clad in armor and carrying heavy hammers, they looked remarkably young. The emblem of the Magic Academy was painted