"GROAAAAAAARGH!" I heard the wyvern roar behind me. It felt like its jaws were about to snap shut and swallow me whole at any moment. Trembling at the thought of it possibly breathing fire, I clung to Shien's back as we raced through the forest. I focused on keeping my center of gravity steady, relaxing my tense muscles, and letting Shien run as he pleased. With each stride, a wave-like impact coursed through me, nearly throwing off my balance, but I managed to hold on. Still, I made sure not to tense up my body. I remembered seeing something on TV about how a rider tensing up can hinder a horse's movement. So I tried my best to maintain a balanced, natural posture. Shien is an intelligent horse that can understand my words, so I had told him I was leaving all the details to him. The forest wasn't all flat terrain, of course. There were crooked trees, muddy patches, plants long enough to trip us up, and slopes. But Shien charged on, undaunted, scattering dirt as he ran. "...That thing sure is persistent," I muttered. The trees created an obstruction for the bulky wyvern's body seemed to be hampering its ability to charge at us freely. "GRAAAAAAARGH!" What scared me was how it slithered like a snake, skillfully folding its wings to close in on us. It was particularly nasty how it chose to attack just as we approached a slope. The monsters in this world are quite clever, I thought. Or am I just unlucky enough to keep running into the smart ones? But my Shien was no ordinary horse. He was a monster too. Me riding him and even slopes did not matter, he kept running at full speed to leave the wyvern behind. We're tireless undead, after all. Shien could keep sprinting indefinitely. If we turned this into an endurance contest, the wyvern would surely give up first. "Heh heh heh, unless you spit out that breath of yours, you won't even be able to touch us," I taunted. "Neigh!" Shien let out a short whinny, as if agreeing with my provocation. There was an unmistakable air of mockery aimed at the wyvern in his whinny. When I checked behind us to assess the situation, I saw the wyvern flying low, avoiding the trees, with its mouth wide open. At that moment I saw the back of its throat began to glow red, and it spewed out a fiery breath. "Whoa! It's really breathing fire at us!?" I frantically patted Shien's back, urging him on. "Neigh!?" Shien let out a cry that sounded like he was saying, "Seriously!?" I felt hundreds, if not thousands tongues of flame spreading behind us. The trees caught in the fire and any unfortunate monsters passing by were instantly engulfed. I panicked, thinking, "Aren't undead weak against fire!? This is bad!" In that moment of distress, a scorching hot blast of air caressed my back. "Ah, hot!?" I exclaimed. Reflexively, I flapped my arms wildly, which was when I noticed that my red cloak had caught fire. I quickly patted it to extinguish the flames. As far as I could tell from touching it, my back didn't seem to be melting or anything like that. My armor remained intact, without any deformation. My red cloak was a bit singed, though... The breath attack from earlier was hot, but not unbearably so. Still, it was hot enough to make me reflexively think "That's hot!". I'm not a masochist, so I'd rather not get hit by it if I can help it. While wondering if it was thanks to my high defense as an undead and the armor I was wearing, I heard a panicked cry from Shien. "Neigh! Neeeeigh!" "What's wrong!?" When I asked, Shien unnaturally raised his hind legs. Looking back, I saw that Shien's red tail had caught fire too. I shifted my sitting position slightly backward, careful not to be thrown off, and patted out the fire on his tail with my hands. "It's out!" "Neigh!" Shien seemed to realize it was extinguished and let out a short whinny, as if to say thank you. That damn Wyvern. Until now, there hadn't been any sign it would use breath attacks. I thought it couldn't use fire breath since it was an inferior species compared to dragons. What a clever bastard, not using it at all until now and keeping that fire breath as a trump card. But you fell for our provocation and showed your hand. In the end, you're just a lesser dragon. Hahaha.

"Aaaaah! That's a bit hot!" Damn it, it spat out another breath attack. Pretty cheeky for a Wyvern. Still, even a Wyvern is a living creature. It can't breathe fire indefinitely. From what I could see, that attack must consume quite a bit of energy. It's not an undead after all, so that's got to be the case. I didn't know how many more breath attacks it could fire, but if we got too close due to an accident and took a direct hit, even I wouldn't be able to handle it. While we could probably win in an endurance contest, it also entailed some risks. It would've been nice if we had some way to attack from a distance, but I'm a Dullahan and Shien is a Cóiste Bodhar. We didn't have anything at our disposal. I tried observing our surroundings for anything useful, but since we were at full gallop, the scenery was just rushing by at an incredible speed. It was difficult enough to spot anything, and even if I did, we couldn't stop with the Wyvern closing in from behind. As I was hoping for something useful, I heard Shien's voice from below. "Neigh!" This was the sound he made when giving a warning. I looked ahead and saw a thick branch sticking out to the side. If we kept going, it would've hit me squarely, probably knocking me off. I made that assessment and was about to lower my posture... but then I stopped myself. "Neigh?" Shien let out a questioning whinny. "Keep running but slow down a bit," I instructed. Shien made a dubious sound but followed my order, maintaining his pace, but slightly reducing his speed. As the thick branch came level with my stomach, I raised my right arm high and shouted, "Hiyah!" I brought my hand down in a chopping motion. The power that could easily split a large boulder transferred to the branch, causing it to break with a dry crack. I immediately caught the broken piece. It was a thick branch with a nicely pointed end. "GROOOOOAAAR!" The Wyvern bellowed behind us. He was rapidly closing in. It probably judged that we were tired or weakened since we had reduced our speed. The beast plowed through small trees, snapping them against its body and wings without care. Its determination was palpable - as if declaring it would finish us off right here. It was likely reaching its physical limit too. "Keep running at this reduced speed!" I called out to Shien, who was trying to pick up the pace. The gap between us and the Wyvern was shrinking visibly. From that distance, if the Wyvern were to breathe fire, we'd be engulfed for sure. However, judging from the Wyvern's exhausted state, it didn't seem likely to happen. Perhaps it could still use its breath attack, but his range got shortened. Either way, it was my plan to let it get that close anyway. "GROAAAR!" The Wyvern twisted its body, flapping its wings vigorously as it approached with its huge maw wide open. Its vicious fangs, capable of crushing anything, gleamed ominously. I could see inside the Wyvern's fleshy, disgusting mouth. Its hideously, ugly, reptilian face and its large, bulging yellow eyes like those of a bird of prey were right infront of me. I calmly observed its mouth, but there was no red glow. It seemed to have decided to finish us off with its fangs. I readied the thick branch like a javelin and threw it with all my might into the approaching Wyvern's open mouth. The wooden spear, propelled by a Dullahan's power, sliced through the air at tremendous speed and pierced the Wyvern's throat. "GYAAAAAAGH!?" The Wyvern let out an agonized screech. It twisted its body, seemingly in unbearable pain, crashing into the trees with loud cracks as it toppled sideways onto a path. "Alright! Now's our chance, Shien! Full speed ahead!" I shouted. "Neigh!" Shien whinnied in response. We immediately increased our pace, galloping through the forest at top speed.