CHAPTER 14 - ESCAPING FROM THE STARSHIP CERBERUS
The captain had returned to the bridge to find everything in chaos. He had to give orders to stop the ships listing. He worked on the list issue with some of his crew, while the others were tasked with fixing the other issues. The bridge crew had informed him the upper deck guns were disabled and needed to be restarted. The ships launching platforms were also knocked out with various craft damaged or destroyed. Getting those online would take days. Which he didn’t have. Thankfully the hole in the bow hangar section of the ship was big enough to get some craft out.
The whole ordeal had been his own fault. When he had fired off his artifact to kill the wolf girl. He had succeeded in incapacitating her. Only to make a bad shot that ended up hitting one of the ship’s three stabilizers. One of which was on the bridge.
The damage wasn’t too severe from the looks, but the arifact’s power ate away at the energy coming from it. The captain had the bridge crew work fast to stop the ship from tilting any further.
As this was all going on he had some other crew keep an eye out for the targets. If they tried to make an escape. It didn’t take long for them to notify him they were fleeing on summoned dragons.
Knowing they could get away he opted to use everything he had. That including his trump card. He had the crew unleash his experimental flying rift eaters that had been given to him by the planet’s chosen.
The main guns were only at 90% restart when he got the message. The captain decided to have the guns open fire anyways. His last order was to get whatever craft that could be launched to go after them. He wanted them all dead.
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The group got a better look at the burning starship now that they were free. They flew above at an angle the ships side and lower guns couldn’t shoot them. The ship had a huge hole blown in the upper deck near the bow’s hangar. Black smoke choked the air as fires could be seen burning from the ship from the explosion that had caused the hole. The ship was also listing to starboard at a 15 degree angle, with the bow pointed down at a 10 degree angle.
“Well that was certainly something.” Cleo muttered to Julia as they all looked back.
“I hope we never do anything that reckless again.” She sighed, paying attention to any threats.
The group may be free but they still had to deal with flying rift eaters and the Palasco faction. Yin and the remaining four guards were busy dealing with the remaining Palasco faction. The enemy decided to disengage as their losses were mounting.
Soon the group was clearing away from the fight. They watched as some of the guns from the upper deck came back online. Only a few shots were fired before the group's plan began to work. The bow section's guns began to rotate at fast speeds. The result caused parts of the guns to break away and fly into the unknown. Other guns jammed or completely were ripped free off of the interchangeable mounting.
Cleo laughed at the site as she grinned over at Lisa. When her handy work began to show off. The stern guns began to fire at each other. While others blew up just from firing. The entire upper deck of the ship was now a burning wreck with more fires breaking out.
The explosions and flames made it hard to see what damage was being done. Thick black smoke covered most of the ship as they made their retreat. The smoke ended up hiding another threat from the group. An auxiliary starcraft pulled out if the smoke battered and caused damage as it opened fire on Qin’s group. One of the elite guards ended getting hit. The man’s dragon summon was blasted on the right wing into the man’s right shoulder. The guard yelled in pain as he plummeted towards the ground below.
Everyone scattered in confusion as more craft appeared out of the thick smoke. Julia and Cleo had to do crazy maneuvers to avoid being hit. They were flying much slower due to Julia holding Cleo.
Yin ordered the elites to take up protecting Julia and Cleo as he needed a new plan. They could out fly the burning starship, but not tge smaller ships coming after them.
The group had to fight with just Lisa, Yin, and Qin. Qin made her choice as she had her summon back upwards into the sky. Yin yelled at her as she unleashed her move.
Qin pulled out the dozens of remaining feathers Margaret had given her. She burned through more of her mana as she was now below ten percent. Qin would have be careful going on with saving her remaining mana, in order to not pass out and have Judgement Day activate.
She turned the feathers bits into hundreds of dragon summons. Qin had to message everyone to hit the deck. The dragon summons dived towards each and every attacking ship. They exploded in blinding white light that left spots in everyone's eyes. When the light vanished. Qin got a look at her work as all the ships began to either lode altitude or explode and disintegrate in midair.
The group used the opening a flew away.
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The group had managed to get clear when they were all relaxed. The elites were still on guard as they were making their way back to the Furnace Peaks. They had discovered where airship had come from, but now they had a bigger issue to deal with. Hopefully, their encounter with the Cerberus would change the council's mind for help.
The group had made it 125 miles before a new surprise came after them. Two giant rift eaters dive bombed the group. In an instant two of the elite guards were knocked clean off their mounts as they plummeted towards the earth below.
The other watched in horror as one of the wing rift eaters, a giant griffin, snapped one of them in half. The other guard was able to back on his mount and tried to fight back. Everyone took evasive action expecting more to show up.
The group was getting frustrated by this point. So close to home and they just lost another guard.
The rift eaters next dove for Qin. She had to tell the others she couldn't fight much or she would be completely out of mana. Still she gave it what she had as she jumped off one of her summons to fight one of the beasts. She landed on its back, summoning her radiant weapon as she plunged into its skull. It let out an unearthly shriek and it spiraled to the forest below. It cry didn't go unheard.
Qin tumbled through the air as she jumped back on her own summon while the others took care of the remaining griffin. She helped them finish it off before they continued on.
About ten miles to the Furnace Peaks. The group was dive bombed by more griffins. This time they were prepared to fight. Unfortunately, there were more than they could handle.
They again went for Qin. By this point her mana was being depleted as she kept having to fend them off. Knowing the inevitable was soon to happen. She broke off from the group. Most of the griffins dived after her.
Julia had to yell to Yin what was about to happen. Qin was going to use her ultimate ability of Judgement Day. Yin wasn't sure what Julia meant, but he followed after her.
Qin landed on the ground as she quickly turned her radiant weapon into a bow as she blasted the diving griffins. Multiple griffins were killed before they reached tge ground. Qin was slammed into by a few as her summon tried to fight back for her. Her energy was now spent as she went into berserk mode. She began attacking everything at random. Killing with no clue of what she was doing.
The others had to just watch as she began blasting everything to bits. Yin was surprised to see his sister in such a sorry state.
With her rampage in full swing the other griffins left the others to deal with the more serious threat. Qin eventually ran dry before collapsing. Not before Judgement Day went off.
The group watched as the entire landscape was lit up with a loud boom. As Qin unleashed her attack full force. Every rift eater was instantly vaporized. As fast as the attack lasted. It stopped.
Yin and the remaining two guards were speechless at to what just happened. He broke out of his trance and flew to Qin. Yin landed with one of the guards. They saw that his sister had been wounded. The guard told Yin her wounds were not life threatening as he healed her up.
After the guard treated her. Yin made his summon larger to hold both of them. The two got back in tte air as they finally closed in on the furnace peaks.
