by Jakob Tanner
+ 210 EXP!
A small string of notifications ran across my HUD.
Fire Blast has leveled up (Level 5)
Fire Blast: Shoot a molten orb of lava at your enemies
MTKP: 45-70
MP Cost: 8
10% increased chance of inflicting burn (debuff) with every blast
Status Cure has leveled up (Level 3)
Status Cure: Remove debuffs ailing you and your party members. Removable debuffs include: poison, confusion, slow, weakness, and paralysis (new!)
The crowd erupted with cheers and clapped at our show. The mages who’d been hired to tip the battle walked away despondently. No bonus pay tonight.
Jackson’s body glowed and the bronze bracers around his wrists shattered and faded away. He stared down at his arms, completely stupefied.
He turned to us. “Thank you.”
He held out his hand and I grasped it in a firm shake.
“You still interested in flying airships?”
9
Our departure from the Grand Casino Palace was more than a little awkward. Jackson had no belongings to gather and the Rorn guards who worked for the arena offered us stony looks as the three of us exited the casino into the back alley.
The sky was in the fleeting moments of twilight. Our day of planning was over. We needed to return to the keep and look over the remaining preparations.
Newly freed, Jackson was understandably skeptical of our offer to join us on the Horizon’s Dream. He was grateful for our help in the fight back there, though, so he agreed to come with us to the keep and let us try and convince him more. Plus we were offering free food and board for the night whether he chose to set sail with us in the morning or not.
We walked through the streets, mostly in silence. It was hard to know what to talk about with Jackson. Small talk wasn’t appropriate. It took a moment for Shade to catch onto this.
“Tell me Jackson: are you more of a lager man or an ale guy? Or don’t tell me: secret wine connoisseur?”
“Whatever gets me drunk,” grunted Jackson.
“I’ve never heard wiser words,” said Shade, looking to me like a spouse impressed with someone else’s partner.
“Now tell me Jackson: what have you been dying to do since you were locked up?”
The man didn’t answer Shade. He simply looked around at the bustling streets. The shop owners closing up their businesses, players heading towards inns after a day of adventuring, and air trams flying by overhead. He was watching life unconstrained by the enslaved debuff. The sight of it all kept him silent.
Shade scratched the back of his head and kept quiet himself.
Back at the keep, we found Serena and Kari in the bailey practicing their abilities. Serena was thrusting her blade over and over while Kari conjured her healing abilities again and again. Repeated use of skills helped them level up.
Kari and Serena had bonded over the last few weeks. They both played crucial roles in our fighting formation: tank and healer. Their whole relationship had to be built on trust and faith in one another. Serena would take all the hits so long as Kari promised to keep her alive. A strong bond of friendship was forming between the two of them; though sometimes I worried when I walked by and the two of them giggled, like they’d been gossiping about me. I smiled and let them have their fun. I had much more significant things to worry about. We all did.
“Well where have you been?” said Serena, sheathing her sword on her back and placing her hands on her hips.
“Getting Shade back on board the quest train,” I said.
“I’m still not on board, but I don't want you all to die without me there to help you,” said Shade, crossing his arms.
“Who’s this?” said Kari, walking up to us, looking up at Jackson wide-eyed.
“Our new navigator,” I said, beaming a smile at Jackson. I quickly added, “Maybe.”
“Well, now is as good a time as any to explain how you acquired an airship and why you need me specifically to fly it?”
I was about to launch into a whole summary of my time in A.K.O. when the sound of smashed glass echoed across the courtyard.
“INTRUDERS!” yelled a guard.
An alarm bell rang across the courtyard. Armed soldiers fled out of their barracks and along the walls.
“What’s happening?” said Kari.
“Everyone follow me,” I said, running up the steps towards the keep, heading in the direction of the shattered glass. The king. Theobold. Tell me they were okay.
We entered the darkened throne room, shattered glass laid across the floor. A thick strand of moonlight came through the destroyed glass window.
We walked into the hall, weapons ready for an ambush. I stepped towards the glass and found a stone brick on the ground. What the?
A scream came from up above. Theobold’s Tower.
I hurried to the end of the hall and entered the tower staircase towards Theobold’s lodgings. I ran up the steps, bashing my way into the room.
Papers were strewn everywhere, while blood leaked across the floor.
“Theobold!” I yelled, finding the old Rorn wizard at less than 10% HP on the floor of the room. I materialized an HP potion and poured it into his mouth. “Kari attend to his wounds. Can you speak Theobold? What happened? Are the intruders still here? What did they want?”
Theobold lifted his shaking hand, pointing above us. “Watch…out…”
A brown metallic ball flew through the air and landed between us. Purple smoke leaked from it. The billowing clouds of purple made it hard to see through the room. Everyone’s coughs added to the hysteria. A shuffling noise echoed through the room. Another window shattered. The intruders were still here.
I conjured an energy ball in my hand, cutting a light through the smoke. “Shade—are you sensing the intruders?”
“This way—follow me.”
Shade led the way to the window. Two shadows rushed across the western walls of the keep. We jumped out, landing onto the stone wall and shattered glass. One shadow ran off into the distance, while another spun around. The intruder was cloaked in all black, like a ninja assassin, but the way he moved his hands to cast a spell suggested he wasn’t the ninja class. Blue smoke oozed from his fingertips as he conjured a large bear-like creature. The ferocious animal ran at us, its stats appearing in my HUD.
Spirit Bear
Level 14
HP: 670
MP: 17
Silver knives glistened through the air, zooming by overtop the incoming beast. One swooshed past my head, barely missing me while another hit Shade right in the shoulder, flinging him back.
“Shade!”
I stretched both my arms out and forcefully pushed the air in front of me, triggering air blast, and pushing the spirit bear back.
The intruder turned around and headed off with his partner, leaving us to deal with their distractions. Shit. They were getting away.
“Clay,” said Shade, ripping the knife from his shoulder, gasping. “Leave the bear to me. Go after the enemy.”
The intruders were now shadows in the night, sprinting across the keep’s walls. They were escaping while their spirit bear kept us distracted. I let off another air blast and knocked the bear back. I then created a long stretch of ice between the bear and us.
“I won’t leave until back-up comes.”
The bear galloped across my plate of ice, slipping and falling in its eagerness to come attack and devour us.
“Clay go! They’re getting away,” yelled Shade, blood gushing now out of his shoulder.
I grabbed him and hugged him and let the healing mist surround us both. His HP shot back up, the wound in his shoulder stitched itself back together.
The bear got across my field of ice and was pissed off. Lifting up one of its blue translucent spirit claws, swiping down at Shade and me. I flamed dodged backwards, leaving a trail of fire across the stone wall of the keep. Shade jumped to the side.
I conjured
a ball of flames in my hand and whipped it at the spirit bear’s chest. Its HP was below 50%.
“Back-up is here,” said Serena, jumping from the broken glass window of Theobold’s tower, slashing her sword into the spirit bear.
“Go!” Shade shouted.
I electric blinked past the spirit bear onto the other side of the wall and sprinted in the direction of the intruders. They had scaled the walls and gone through the city. I was on the ground level, looking past the evening street and pedestrians for the two black-cloaked figures. Where had they gone? They had too much of a head start on me.
I cast shocking speed and sprinted down the street, looking every which way. I ran past a side street and saw two figures dashing in the distance.
There we go.
I electric blinked down the alley three more times, closing the distance between us. I materialized an MP potion and took a swig.
“Stop!” I yelled.
I hurried after them. My heart beating. My throat burning.
I turned a corner. I was now at the broken docks in southwestern Land’s Shield. Between the shanty towns and dilapidated remains of the old aerodrome expansion, were the two cloaked individuals, revving the engine for a small air boat.
I picked up the pace, dashing towards them.
The pink exhaust of the mana engine glowed and shot them off into the night sky.
They were getting away.
I took a swig of my last MP potion and sprinted across the decrepit docks. I power jumped into the air, creating a pool of mana beneath my feet. I did the math in my head as I jumped across the sky, chasing after the get-away boat. Power jump cost 7 MP and I had a total pool of 90 MP. I had twelve jumps to capture the boat. Six if I wanted to make it back to the broken docks.
With my fourth jump, I was closing the gap between me and the intruders. The broken docks were no longer below my feet. I was now jumping across open cloud ocean. A giant pit formed in my stomach. The night sky spun in dizzy delirium. Keep going. You can catch up to these guys.
I put all my strength into my fifth leap. I was going to catch up to them with the sixth. One of the cloaked individuals pulled out a mana pistol and pulled the trigger. A bullet smashed right into my stomach, knocking me backwards in the air. I was scrambling. I’d lost balance and focus on my mana puddles. I was falling deeper into the endless cloud ocean.
The wind knocked the hood back of the intruder who had shot me. The man laughed and I recognized him instantly. Bald head, thick neck with pulsing orange veins.
Oren Kaige.
His distant laugh echoed as I fell further through the sky. I focused on my feet and created a mana puddle. I didn't even jump, standing in the middle of the sky, watching Kaige and his summoner accomplice get away. The faint silhouette of a larger Arethkarian vessel hovered in the far distance, waiting to pick them up.
There was no way I’d catch them now. I didn’t have the MP to jump so far into the sky.
The broken docks were above me. I electric blinked once then twice and caught hold of a hanging strip of wood. I climbed onto the dock. My heart pounded. I was out of breath. I’d almost killed myself going after Kaige and his man.
Eyes looked out from the makeshift homes of the broken docks. They furtively glanced at me with both awe and concern.
I stood up and left. On my way to the keep, I kept thinking about how I was going to explain to the team I’d let the intruders get away.
The team was waiting for me in the throne room. The king was there sitting on his throne and so were his advisors on either side of him. Theobold rested on a nearby chair, his wounds tended to. Shade, Serena, and Kari all stood to one side, arms crossed and contemplative. Jackson Thorne leaned against a pillar, unsure where he fit in amongst all of this.
“They got away,” I said. “I’m sorry. I let you all down.”
Everyone nodded their heads solemnly.
“It would’ve been great to know why they had broken in and what Arethkar’s plans are,” I said. “But seeing no one’s gotten hurt—I guess, it’s not the end of the world, is it?”
Theobold’s face was pale.
“End of the world would be the exact words I’d use right now,” said Theobold. “Arethkar is searching for the Ultriga Weapon as well. Worse, those two intruders stole the only map in existence on how to get to it.”
10
Arethkar now had a copy of the map to Ariellum. The one trump card we had—our single strongest advantage—was now lost. I had been scrambling to gather a crew of people, I hadn’t even stopped to think whether Arethkar might’ve been spying on us, might have had designs of their own. Things weren’t all bad though: Theobold had a facsimile copy of the map, so it wasn’t like we’d lost our own directions on how to get there. However, it did mean, we were now racing against the clock to beat General Oren Kaige from unlocking the power of the Ultriga Weapon before us.
Jackson Thorne looked up from the map in the captain’s quarters of the Horizon’s Dream. “It’s at least a three days journey from here to the destination on the map. If Arethkar already has a copy we don’t have a minute to waste here. We need to set sail at once.”
“So you’re coming with us?”
The Rorn brawler crossed his arms. “I was hoping to have a more peaceful reintroduction into mainstream society, I’ll give you that, but you and Shade saved my butt in the arena. Also, how can I say no to being captain of an airship.”
“Well, uh, no. I’m captain.”
The brawler smirked. “I’m joshing you. I don’t want the responsibility of captain. The engine and propellers and sky is all I need.”
Shade raised his hand. “Let’s say you were captain though. Who would be your first mate?”
He shrugged. “If you wanted the job, I’d give it to you.”
Shade raised his finger in the air and yelled, “Hallelujah!”
Kari’s cheeks blushed as Shade bellowed the phrase.
“At least, it’s better than bros before hoes,” I said.
“Not to nag,” shouted Serena from out on the deck, carrying boxes. “But we still have a lot of work to do.”
We all separated to our different tasks. Shade worked on getting the rest of the wine and food stocks on board. Kari checked the cannons were clean and gave tours to all the new basic crew members we had on board. I took a quick look at the ship’s stats.
Horizon’s Dream
Type: Air Frigate
Size: Large
Turning Radius: Wide
Classification: Warship
Min. Crew: 16
Crew: 33/200
Cannon(s): 14/32
Cargo: 45/80 (tonnage)
Speed: Fast
Crystal Mana Fuel: 200%
Food Supply: High
Health: 100% (Good)
Crew Morale: Overjoyed
Gold: 10,000
These were all good stats. The best possible before a long journey. It would be crucial to maintain them throughout the whole mission; or, at the very least, keep them from diminishing too much, especially the crew morale status. They were still overjoyed from the last payout and the prospects of more pay from the new job. The feelings of bitter resentment towards their captain would come later for sure.
“Oi Captain,” called one of the crew member’s untying rope and unfurling a sail. “You got a visitor.”
Theobold approached the ship.
“What are you doing down here?”
“I came to see you off,” said the old Rorn mage. “And I brought you a present.”
I met the man on the ground level of the Aerodrome. “Let’s see that present then.”
Theobold lifted his arms and materializing in his hands from his inventory was pile of clothes and boots.
“A whole new set of gear?”
“I figured you needed an upgrade,” said Theobold. “I know you can afford to get your own but you’ve been so run off your feet you haven’t had the time.”
I s
canned the items and equipped them straight away. I stared in awe at the glorious stats. Everything except my staff was new.
Sky Mage Cloak (DEF: 35 +15 MTKP +10 MP +0.05% MP REGEN Rate. Durability: 8/10)
Sky Mage Pants (DEF: 20 +5 MTKP +5 MP Durability: 9/10)
Sky Mage Gloves (DEF: 8 +5 MP)
Sky Mage Boots (DEF: 10 +Bonus Traction on the decks of airships Durability: 7/10)
Fire Staff (ATKP: 25-40, MTKP: 55-97. +Fire Ruby Upgrade (+30 MTKP, +30 Bonus Fire Damage, +15% Chance to Inflict Burn) REQ: Apprentice Mage Class, Level 10)
The cloak was leaner and more austere than my previous one: stitched together with brown cloth and metal shoulder pads. The gear was fantastic, especially the extra buff. Combined together I had an extra 20 MP, meaning I was able to cast one more electric blink if I was caught in a tough jam. The boots’ bonus traction onboard the decks of airships would be crazy helpful; keeping balance was a real concern during sky battles.
“Theobold,” I said. “This is incredible. Thank you so much.”
“You’re going to need all the help you can get on this quest. Thank me when you come back alive with the Ultriga Weapon.” He sighed and rubbed his hands together. “This evening I worry for the future of A.K.O. more than I ever have in the past.”
A bell rang from aboard the ship. Serena came to the balustrade. “Captain Clay Hopewell, this is first mate Serena reporting for duty. We’re all packed up and ready to depart sir. Now get your butt up here!”
I smiled at Theobold. “That’s my cue.”
“Stay safe and good luck.”
I nodded my head and hurried back onto the ship. Once on board, the gangplanks were raised, the top men—the crew who worked the sails, climbed up the rope ladders and positioned themselves on the different yards of the sails. We signaled the aerodrome operators for departure. A hole opened in the ceiling of the docking bay and a platform beneath the ship raised us up until we were at the summit of the air station, caught between the glorious city behind us and the expansive cloud ocean in front. The wind blew across my hair and a nervous pit formed in my stomach.