In the weeks following the departure of my troops, I had ironically more time available. Even despite being forced to prepare the camp for the night myself, with a bit of assistance from Medusa since Persephone had no idea how to do so because this was her first time in the wilderness away from civilization. Yet it was unsurprising as her physical form was in some aspect different compared to myself and my acquaintance. If anything, it was Orthrus who was more similar to us than his handler.
Therefore it was easy to argue for having Orthrus procure the fresh food, for those of us who required it. Admittedly, he was a great hunter, always returning within half an hour, with something that could be consumed by Medusa and me, after it was cooked. I was forced to acknowledge, that Medusa's stew from wild berries and meat from fire-breathing horses was superior in quality to anything I myself, could make. So much so in fact, that even Persephone was intrigued by it and asked for a small portion. The look she had after the first bite, reminded me of some of the orphans from my second life, when they tasted some salted meat after it was donated to the church.
Overall, Persephone showed a great interest in various things myself and Medusa did. If her questions pointed primarily towards me, since Medusa was not so talkative yet, were anything to go by. We discussed various topics, all the way from cloth making to gardening. And every time without a failure, Persephone's eyes shone with fascination.
As a payment, for providing her with this casual information, I asked Persephone about how exactly the Olympian magic involved core to do the computations since I greatly lacked in this department. This was an unexpected obstacle that would have to be overcome as soon as possible since without the magnifying glass my firepower was greatly reduced and should something happen, it would leave me with only my mage blade and reduced explosion formulae, as offensive measures.
This was luckily rectified a few days after my troops left. At the time, Persephone became interested in the optical formulae I use. Of course, it would be impossible for me to produce it without a magnifying glass, since the formulae needed it as a focus, which Persephone noticed. While I did intentionally withhold this information from her, not letting her know about my combat abilities being a tactical decision on my side, I did cast optical formulae in front of Persephone several times. And for a genius like her, it was just natural to realize that I needed the magnifying glass. This just affirmed my current line of thinking that Persephone was indeed genuine in her job offer to me and Medusa. Since she could easily use her advantage at the time, should she have any nefarious intentions toward me.
Needless to say, something so "easy" as glassworking, was not an obstacle for a possibly crazy scientist like Persephone, who casually produced a magnifying glass, of high quality, out of a random pile of sand, just because she was interested in my magic. Of course, as my performance of optical formulae sated her curiosity, the magnifying glass was mine without having to pay any exorbitant amount of money. Genius scientists were great as long they were not Schugel!
Then, there was the matter of Medusa, she was still highly intrigued to learn the Olympian magic, which was great because unlike myself, she had a natural talent of a genius, being able to cast the shield formulae on the first try and then consistently continuing in doing so. As she was always listening to my and Persephone's discussions she was able to study a multitude of other different spells.
While she was able to use the shield formulae on the first try, every other spell, she learned directly from listening to Persephone, Medusa failed to even properly cast. Which visibly frustrated her. I was aware of similar cases from my first life, and they rarely led to a good conclusion. Thus, it was in my interest to help my acquaintance understand the underlying problem and explain it with patience. Moreover understanding the perceived mistake, that Medusa was making with other formulas, could help me to understand how to use my soul to cast Olympian style of magic.
My musings were interrupted by a low whining noise, which was fastly rising in its pitch, since whatever was making it was approaching our position. The nature of the noise did in fact slightly remind me of Junkers Ju 87 Stuka, or perhaps the iconic sound that was overused by Hollywood movies for plane scenes. Either way, unless this was the exact moment Being X decided to rear his ugly head and send modern weaponry my way, directly into the past, it must have been something else.
The noise of course also caught Orthrus's attention, and with the two of us looking in the same direction, both Medusa and Persephone perked up with questions on their faces.
"Something is coming, get ready to cast the shield spell," I explained.
Better be safe than sorry, with all the unreasonable monsters being the prime example, of why was good to be prepared for potential enemies.
Then suddenly the noise got a whole lot louder, while its pitch was higher. Whatever it was, it was certainly going at us! And not even a second later something fell out of the sky near our camping site, while the noise was getting away. The payload did not hit us, but now it was clear that the sound was indeed coming from the sky since the thing just dive-bombed us! Where in the world were AA guns and spotlights when you needed them?!
Either way, given the sounds were on approach towards my location again, I would soon find out what was stalking the skies of the ancient Greek world.
"Medusa shield, Persephone we need light pointed at the sky," I said before the flying thing could get too close.
While neither Medusa nor Persephone were my well-trained troops, they were also no regular civilians. And even if I expected slightly better reaction time from the Olympian such as Persephone, my orders were perhaps too broad for her to react with the swiftness I usually expected. But this was the reason why I divided the tasks between the two, so it was easier for them to react. Moreover, the only spell Medusa so far could use, was the shield and hopefully, her being able to do something could raise her spirit, thus helping her mental state.
Nevertheless, the shield provided by Medusa was enacted around our group of four, while Persephone produced a bright directional light upwards. At that exact moment, something hit the barrier with unexpected force, and the dust explored out of the dropped payload, lowering the overall visibility.
But even the dust did not hinder my vision to the point I would not be able to see the dive bomber. It was a flying pig! It was a real flying pig, with white feathered wings! Did Being X invent a new kind of angel? Now it was clear that letting go of my troops, was a good decision since they would never stand a chance against the flying enemy. At best, they would be just a target practice, just as Dacians were back on my first mission with my 203rd aerial mage battalion. Not that my troops were that stupid to group together as Dacians were, but for a dive bomber, the winged pig was surprisingly precise, as it could hit its mark on a second try. The losses the precision strike could cause would be terrible.
Now though, it was my small group of four who were grouping together. And even with the shield protecting us, it could protect us only for so long, until it put too much strain on Medusa. Therefore getting rid of the flying pig was of the utmost importance. Shooting it with optical formulae was given since Medusa was busy with the shield and I needed Persephone to illuminate the sky, so the target was visible.
This of course left me to be the one to deal the final blow to the flying pig. One problem was, that the shield spell was not pervious from inside and thus would have to be deactivated before I shot the pig. Another problem was - when exactly should I strike the pig? The most obvious option was to shoot optical formulae at the flying pig before it started its approach. But as several other monsters proved, their intelligence was something of a wild card, and thus it might be possible that the pig could notice the deactivation of the shield, realize that a counterattack might be occurring and change its direction at the last second. And with no shield, we would be vulnerable, to its attacks.
Then there was the other option, let the pig hit the shield with its payload, then have Medusa deactivate her shield and shoot the pig as it was leaving for another turn to strike us. The problem here was the lowered visibility caused by the dust. Not to mention that the dust could possibly refract the light of the optical formulae, drastically decreasing its power output. Which could lead to flying pigs surviving the hit.
Or I could perhaps use the tactic used by AA gunners and shoot down the pig on its approach. When it dived down, it would be forced to move in my direction and could correct its course only slightly. This approach of course had one major flaw, unlike the dive bombers of the Second World War of my first life, the pig was flying a whole lot closer, thus there was a danger of it hitting my group with its momentum. That of course would happen only in a case if there was no shield. And since I had two people who could cast the shield formulae, one of them should be able to do so in time. Moreover given that everyone in my group was not human, using the inhuman reflexes to dodge, should be viable, even if I had to pull Medusa along with me. On top of that, from a logical perspective, given his stature, Orthrus could serve as a meatshield, taking the brunt of the force caused by thy falling flying pig. Ideally, I should hit the flying pig with optical formulae in such a way it moved off its course when it started falling.
"Medusa, you will disable the shield when I tell you, then both you and Persephone be ready to cast the shield again, or at least dodge the falling pig. Also, Orthrus I'm counting on you to protect us in a worst case," I explained my plan in short since there was not much time before the pig started another bombing dive.
I saw Persephone nod, to the command, while one of Medusa's hair snakes flickered its tongue at me, reluctantly acknowledging my orders. As always, Levi was one angsty teenager, if I were to guess by her behavior. The whining sound, of the flying pig descending, echoed through the air and not a moment later it became visible in the illuminated sky. Though it was not as close as I wanted it to be, I had to account for the delay caused by the information being verbally relayed to Medusa.
"Medusa, now!" I said.
My close acquaintance reacted fast, though not as fast as I would expect of some of my well-trained troops or the mages of my 203rd battalion. But it would have to do since there was no other option.
Firing optical formulae at the rapidly approaching dive-bombing pig I hit its left wing, obliterating it in the process. Because of the lack of a lift-producing appendage, the pig immediately started to spiral down in an unpredictable trajectory, in the general direction of my group. Because of the randomness of the moment, I was unable to shoot another optical formula at the pig and hit my target.
"Shield!" I shouted, seeing as there was still time before the pig inevitably crashlanded.
Two different shields came to be, one over another. Medusa's shield was the inner, while Persephone was able to work around Medusa's abilities and make her own shield slightly larger, so the shields did not collide with one another. A moment later the flying pig fell to the ground several meters before us, causing the dirt to fly in mostly my group's direction, since due to its forward moment it dug a several-meter-long impact crater.
It took several seconds for the dirt and dust to settle down enough before the visibility on the target was clear enough. Surprisingly or rather unsurprisingly, the pig was still alive, although it would not fly ever again. One of its wings nearly fully missing and the other was mangled beyond useful when it fell.
It was high time to finish the pig off before it could do anything unreasonable beyond flying. Both shields were lowered, on my command letting me and Orthrus pass through.
One optical formula later, the flying pig was put out of its misery, while a food supply had been procured.
It tasted like a chicken.