by Jakob Tanner
Oh no.
She was too low level to handle the hit. I whipped out my staff hoping to knock it away. I barely grazed the flying claw. Its speed lessened but still hit Kari in the arm, knocking her back and taking 60% of her HP.
I stood in front of her to block any more attacks. She healed herself behind me while the rest of us returned to the battle. The Mecha-Wolvren were all low HP now due to the poison, burning, and crippled debuffs. Serena unleashed another whirlwind blade, her sword slicing through the wolves as they attempted to bite her with their ferocious metal teeth. The wolves’ HP fell, one howling in death.
+105 EXP!
Shade and I focused our attacks on the same target. He swiped with his daggers, pummeling small attacks into the creature. While the individual attacks didn’t do much, combined together it was a ferocious amount of damage dealt. I threw in blasts of fireballs, sending the weakened wolf to a fiery death.
Serena shoved her sword through one of the wolf’s mouths right down its throat. She ripped it back, dragging out a burst of blood and guts, flinging across the warehouse. She turned to the remaining wolf. It leapt to bite her and she kicked the animal in the face. Then she held her blade above her head and unleashed her crushing blow attack. Her blade sliced through the metal and flesh of the Mecha-Wolvren, slicing it in half. Blood and electrical wires oozed from its fallen divided corpse.
+105 EXP!
+105 EXP!
+105 EXP!
Kari glowed as she leveled up behind us.
“Good work,” I said. “Let’s go.”
We hurried towards the exit and outside we found our location, the outskirts of the city. The royal keep was nothing but a speck in the distance. Lightning and shining light swirled around the castle. Bertwald had begun his necromantic operation.
The quest timer kept ticking.
00:29:47 minute(s) remaining.
35
The streets were heaving with people. Angry mobs had formed throughout the city. Citizens carried torches. The throng of citizens yelled, “Time to lead or get off the throne! The king must face us or he has to go!”
“What’s happening?” I asked, approaching a protestor.
“The little wanker king needs to wake up to what’s happening around him,” said the man. His breath reeked of booze and alcohol. “Gangs fighting in the streets, children going missing and what does the king do? He hides in his keep. He needs to face his people. He needs to lead or get off the throne.”
Gangs fighting in the streets. So it was all kicking off then, was it? Drakus and Nolan and who knew what other mobsters were getting involved in the fight. Add the angry protestors and the whole city was falling apart. Chaos. Anarchy. The last thing we needed in our rush to the keep were streets full of protestors and violent criminals. Broken glass littered the cobblestones and crackled beneath my boots. Smoke and ash swirled through the laneways.
I scanned the scene. Looters and protestors marched forward towards the keep. If it were like this on the outskirts of the city, what the hell did it look like closer to the royal castle? Neither direction looked very fast. Even if I cast shocking speed on everyone, it would still take us forty minutes to push our way through the crowd.
Not enough time.
I frantically looked around for an alternative option. “What are we going to do?”
Instead of a solution, we found another problem: a squad of four Laergardian soldiers rushed towards us, bayonets pointed and ready. They were armored in silver breast plates and shoulder pads, green capes billowing behind them. The captain of the squad yelled out to us: “Halt! You four are enemies of the state. We are under orders to arrest you for spreading lies and instigating this city-wide riot!”
They formed a firing line and cocked their rifles.
“Unequip your weapons and put them on the ground and we won’t shoot.”
Serena and I glanced at each other. They weren’t leaving us with any other choice. Serena launched a charge attack: pummeling through the air towards the group of soldiers. Landing from the charge move, she unleashed it again, pivoting to the side, zigzagging through the street, confusing the squad of soldiers. I tracked her movement and shot out a burst of attribute-buffing lightning right as she landed out of charge. Her boots crackled with new found energy and electricity. She unleashed her final charge right into the center of the group.
The soldiers scattered. The captain stayed to fight Serena head on. He lunged his bayonet towards her but Serena knocked it away with her elbow. All four soldiers came at her at once and she gripped the hilt of her blade and spun, dealing a tornado swirl of slashes at the incoming attackers.
Shade slipped into the shadows while Kari threw out bright white beams of Muumuu healing and support magic.
I conjured a fireball and threw it at the incoming soldiers attacking Serena. Next I ripped the street they stood on apart with ruptured ground. I waited for one soldier to lunge forward with his bayonet and hit him straight on with lightning cage, leaving him paralyzed and vulnerable to attack. Shade emerged from the shadows with his daggers drawn, backstabbing the soldier and finishing him off. The experience points ran through my HUD.
After making quick work of the guards, another squad of soldiers came running through the streets towards us.
“We’re never going to get there like this,” said Serena, holding her blade up, readying herself for another fight.
Shade pointed to a nearby air tram station. “C’mon I have an idea!”
We dashed behind the Lirana thief, the Laergardian soldiers yelling and running after us. The air tram station was even more crowded than when we’d seen it earlier. Rioters pushed and shoved to get up the crowded stairwell towards the air tram platform. Shade budged a Haeren man’s shoulder and got a violent elbow in the stomach. For a second try, Shade went with a more gentler approach, “Excuse me sir we’re in a bit of a hurry, do you—”
“Fuck off,” spat the man.
The Laergardian soldiers were catching up with us. They had less than a minute until they were in fighting range. We had to get up to the platform. Now.
“Serena,” I said. “Let Shade get on your shoulders.”
She gave an odd repulsed look. “What?”
“I’d take him myself but you’re the stronger of the two of us,” I said. “I’ll take Kari.” I bent over and looked to the little fox healer. “Get on. It’s time we utilized our jumping abilities.”
Serena winced at Shade, “This piggy-back ride—it stays between us.”
“Whatever you say Ms. Serena,” said Shade, “I’m just along for the ride.”
“Shut up and get on,” said Serena crouching for him to get on.
Kari climbed onto my shoulders and dug her tiny claws into my skin. “We’re not about to accidentally kill ourselves are we?”
“Maybe,” I shrugged. “Let’s go.”
The soldiers were meters behind us now. “Stop!” they yelled.
I ignored them and jumped in the air, creating a pool of mana at my feet, and jumped again. On the second leap I was above the heads of the crowd. It also meant there was no more collateral damage when it came to shooting at us. A barrage of laser bullets came from the soldiers below. I hopped and strafed through the air and landed on a pillar in the middle of the line.
Commuters below heckled me. “Hey! No cutting the queue!”
Serena leapt through the air, soaring over the crowd of commuters and landed on a pillar close to mine. There was no time to take a breath though as a flurry of bright mana bullets flew through the air towards us.
I power jumped out of the way of the incoming blast. I made another pool of mana, jumped, and another until I was able to land at the top of the stairwell in front of the busy air tram platforms. Serena and Shade had made it halfway up the stairwell and were pushing and shoving their way to the top.
I let Kari off my shoulders and yelled to the others, “C’mon, c’mon.”
The platform termina
l was a mix of workers coming home from a long day and angry rioters hoping to get back into the city center. There were equal amounts of dejected exhaustion and pent-up rage filling the station. We dashed through the crowds of workers and rioters to get the next train. We were about to hop in when the doors shut right in our faces.
What?
A muffled voice came on through the terminal’s speakers system. “I’m sorry to announce that due to the riots throughout the city all central-bound air trams have been hereby cancelled.”
I pounded the glass window of the tram in front of us. “Fuck,” I yelled. The clock was ticking. Fen and Mari’s lives hung in the balance of every second. We weren’t even any closer to the castle than we had been five minutes ago.
“Clay, relax,” said Shade. “The air tram wasn’t the idea I was thinking.” He pointed to the ceiling above the platform. “Remember the parking lot we saw?”
The nobles area! There were loads of small airships up there!
We pushed our way back through the platform towards a stairwell, cordoned off with a velvet rope fence. A guard stood by the entrance and I zapped him with lightning cage, rushing past him. We hurried up the stairs and found a large docking bay with a few ships. There was a small zeppelin-like ship and a hot-air balloon vehicle with a wicker basket. Catching my eye though was a slim wooden ship with multiple propellers and mana engines. The front of the ship was angled and pointed like a needle.
I ran towards it and jumped onto the deck. “All aboard everyone.”
Once onboard Kari asked, “So how do we work this thing?”
I spun the steering wheel to see what happened. Green window prompts appeared in the air in front of the ship’s wheel. They had the same translucent computer game sheen of the prompts in my HUD.
This airship does not belong to you. Please enter six digit passcode now to unlock airship’s user interface, advanced airship mechanics, and captain’s log. Without passcode, airship can only be operated manually.
Okay. How did we manually get this ship going then? Behind the steering wheel at the back of the deck was a large engine full of brass pipes and tubing. Purple mana crystals glowed beneath the vines of wires and pipes. Along the side of the main pipe was a control panel with a set of buttons. One button was large and red. It was the kind of button you were either supposed to press all the time to get the engine running or it was the kind of button you were never supposed to touch as it would self-destruct the whole vehicle.
So what kind was it?
A squad of soldiers ran up the stairs. They crouched, firing bullets at us.
No time to hesitate. I pressed the red button. I closed my eyes and braced myself to explode into a million pieces.
The ship shuddered and vibrated. The pink mana crystals of the engine glowed brighter. The ship zoomed off into the air. We all collapsed to the floor of the deck as the airship flew through the night sky.
The gusting wind blew my hair back and made my eyes wince. I got on my knees to stand up when a barrage of laser bullets shot past the deck of our ship and out towards the clouds. I fell down to dodge the incoming fire, only daring to stand back up when it was safe. I went over to the quarter deck. We were out of range of the soldiers on the station parking lot.
“So, since we’re winging it as airship captains,” said Serena. “Does anyone know how to land this thing?”
“I’m sure we’ll figure it out,” said Shade.
“What about maneuvering?” asked Kari, pointing to a giant stone spire we were about to crash into.
Shade swung the steering wheel and the ship did a sharp left turn dodging the roof. He pulled the spinning wheel back and held it, getting the ship on course towards the keep. Massive amounts of energy and light swirled around the castle. Powerful dark magic was at work there. We had to stop it.
The ship shook violently and shot off course. Gunfire echoed while the wood on the side of the ship split and cracked.
“Enemies behind us,” shouted Kari.
Chasing at our tail were two Laergardian cruisers. Each ship had a total of three soldiers. One to pilot the vehicle and two to fire off laser rifle blasts.
“Shade and Kari, come with me to the back,” I said. “We need to hit these guys with what we got.”
“Who’s going to steer?” balked Serena.
“You are.”
The two ships were gaining on us. A barrage of bullets came our way and we ducked behind the back of the quarter deck, crouching alongside the rumbling engine of the ship.
“They’re coordinating their blasts,” I said. “We need to do the same. Kari—I know you don’t have any offensive magic at the moment, just cast protect on all three of us and keep an eye on our HP if we take any nasty hits. Sound good?”
She nodded her head determinedly.
“Now Shade—let’s fire at the left ship’s navigator. If we—”
“Wouldn’t it be better to shoot at the soldiers shooting us?”
“Possibly. But my thinking is this: if we take out the navigator, it will cause more confusion on board their ship, leaving them vulnerable for longer.”
“Crafty,” smiled Shade. “I like your style. Let’s do it.”
The Lirana pulled out his two revolvers from his belt and stood up, stretching his arms out towards the enemy airship and aiming the barrel at the navigator. He cocked the hammer on both his revolvers with his thumbs, and pulled back the trigger. A loud bang went off as his bullets fired towards the Laergardian navigator. The shots knocked him back from the steering wheel, making his whole body shake. For a second, the airship lost its momentum. The soldier shook his head, regaining composure, and gripping the steering wheel.
The bullets had dropped the soldier’s HP by 15%.
I conjured a fireball in my right hand and threw it out, fastball style at the navigator. The molten sphere of flame flew across the night sky and erupted in a crackle, one of the soldiers shooting it down.
“Serena,” I yelled across the riptide of wind and firing bullet shots.
She held onto the steering wheel, maneuvering the ship around the tall sharp rooftops of Land’s Shield. “I’m a little busy.”
“Be ready on the count of three,” I said.
One.
Two.
Three.
I slammed my palm on the red button of the engine and the ship jerked to a halt in the air. We fell down towards the streets of the city, the two enemy ships zooming past us, mana dust from their engines leaving pink trails in the night sky.
“Alright go!” I slammed the engine back on, zooming towards the enemy airships.
Shade and I ran across the deck, fighting against the torrent of wind pushing us back. Firmly placed at the front by the bowsprit, I lobbed more fireballs at the navigator. Shade fired off his revolvers, bullet by bullet, whittling away at the navigator’s HP. The red bar declined until it hit 0%. The remaining soldiers scrambled to take over. I launched a massive fireball at them when a loud crash knocked into the back of our ship. Wood cracked and the engine rumbled furiously. Clouds of black smoke swirled from the engines exhaust pipes at the back of the ship.
While we’d been attacking the one airship, the other one had pulled a similar trick to our own. Shit. They rammed our ship again. More wood cracked and the engine groaned with defeat. They fired at the back of the engine with their rifles, dealing even more damage to our ship. Sparks flickered from the engine on the quarter deck until it erupted in bright pink flames.
Shit shit shit.
“Clay!”
It was Serena. She was clutching onto the steering wheel with all her strength but our ship was descending towards the ground with an intense velocity.
“I’ve lost control of the ship,” she screamed.
The bowsprit pointed straight towards a tall crooked building’s window. Serena spun the steering wheel but the ship was no longer responding to it, regardless of which way she turned. Our ship was a paralyzed falling wreck. My stoma
ch lurched. We fell faster and faster. I crouched down and raised my arms to cover my face, bracing myself for the impact.
36
The bowsprit blasted through the glass window. Smashed shards shot out in every direction. The ship’s deck cracked and broke apart, violently wedging itself into the building. My whole body lurched forward, slamming into the front deck. An aching pain coursed through my body. I fell even further, rolling off the front deck and onto the random living room floor full of sharp shards of glass. My HP took a 45% beating.
I rubbed my eyes and coughed, breathing in all the smoke. Kari stood overtop me and with both her hands out, a glowing white light flowed from her palms and nourished my whole body, bringing my HP back to max.
Next Serena held out her hand and lifted me to my feet. “C’mon,” she said. “We need to keep going.”
Shade stood by the doorway to the apartment. Thankfully, no one was home.
We hurried out the apartment and down the stairwell. I checked my HUD and saw we had around twenty-two minutes remaining. Also according to my mini-map we weren’t far from the keep. Ten minutes away at most.
At the bottom of the stairwell, Shade and I crept to the front entrance and peered outside. Search lights suspiciously peered over every surface while Laergardian cruisers hovered over the crash scene.
“This is our chance to throw them off our tail,” said Shade. “This way.”
We headed out through the back entrance into a deserted alley. A mob of torch-wielding protestors hurried down the nearby street.
“C’mon,” said Shade, wagging his tail. “Pretend like we belong.”
Shade marched into the crowd, chanting along with them. “Time to lead or get off the throne! The king must face us or he has to go!”
