Chapter Two Hundred and Thirty-Four — Ack-Ack
Chapter Two Hundred and Thirty-Four — Ack-Ack The four planes formed up into a line before shooting over the Beaver. As each one approached, they’d glow a little brighter, then a beam of reddish light would strike out at the Beaver.My Cleaning magic didn’t seem to do anything to slow them down. Each one cut across the deck and some of the balloon, darkening the wood on the deck, fraying and cutting ropes, and tearing gashes into the outermost layer of our balloon.Individually, the lasers seemed underpowered. They were able to burn the wood and paint a bit, but it wasn’t a strong attack, not when the planes were zipping by super fast and didn’t have time to concentrate their attacks.The first four hits still did some damage though.“Steve, Gordon, Scallywags, priority on the balloon and the ropes!” I called. “We can’t afford to lose too much more gas.”The crew rushed across the deck, boots thumping and equipment being pulled all over to fix things in a hurry. It didn’t look like it would take more than a dozen minutes to patch everything up, but that had been one volley from the four planes, and from the hissing roar of their rocket engines, I knew they were coming back around for another pass.“Get ready to fire back!” I said.I started to prepare some fireballs. They’d likely miss, being too slow and such, but I could scatter them around and maybe I’d get lucky.My Cleaning magic would be a lot faster though, and I was pretty sure I could make those attacks seek out some of the planes a little.The problem was, even if Cleaning spells hit, I doubted they’d do much to a plane, not unless they were held together with bubblegum and trash.“Two are going round the front, two are coming from the rear,” Bastion said. “We should focus our fire, take them out by the numbers.”Bastion, Amaryllis and I rushed to the front.Orange was sitting upright on one of the figureheads, glaring her little kitty heart out at the mean cry planes that had dared interrupt her naptime.I stared out ahead. It wasn’t hard to make out the two planes curving up and around, the two long trails of brackish smoke behind them making it hard to miss where they’d gone.“Amaryllis, your magic’s the fastest here,” Bastion said.“Oh, it would be my pleasure,” Amaryllis practically purred. She pointed her dagger-wand ahead and a bit over where the lead plane was.I winced back as Amaryllis’ magic shot ahead with a whip-crack boom, a searing slice of jagged lightning forking out towards the plane and crashing into it.The plane wobbled, then one of its wings came apart with a splintering crack a moment before it was sent spinning out of the sky.I felt pretty bad. The poor pilot had to be terrified.But then the plane broke apart, and the cry that was aboard it came to a hovering halt some few hundred metres down.“That’s one,” Amaryllis said quite smugly. She aimed at the next and fired another bolt of lightning.It rammed into a shield, a magical barrier shaped like a gigantic snowflake that hovered before the plane.Amaryllis squawked. “That’s cheating!”Bastion chuckled. “Hardly. It’s adapting intelligently.” He brought Awen’s crossbow up and sighted down the length of it. “We’ll have to see if it does anything to stop physical blows.”I nodded. “How do magic shields work?” I asked Amaryllis.“It depends entirely on the shield,” Amaryllis said. “What kind of mana-aspect is used, how the shield was crafted, and a whole host of other things.”Bastion fired, the bolt leaping out of the bow with a heavy twang.We followed its arc across the sky to where it smacked against the shield and burst apart into so many splinters.“So much for that,” I said.The plane shot past, not even firing as it moved by.Then the other two swooped around, lasers trailing across the length of the Beaver’s hull.Wincing, I looked over the edge and took in the smoking burns they’d left behind. Not enough to start a fire, but I was afraid that if they slowed down and aimed a little better, they might just light the ship on fire, and that would be terrible.The planes split apart, one going right, the other left.Awen’s turret thumped, glass bolts zipping through the air and bursting apart behind one of the planes.Amaryllis fired a bolt after the one that had gone left, but the lightning sliced past the plane, forking out of its way. “Damn,” she muttered.The next shot was intercepted by a shield.I ran back a little, attention on the right-most plane that Awen was still firing at. She had one hand turning a wheel that was making her turret traverse around while her feet worked some levers that reloaded her bows. Then she fired again, four more bolts, one after the other.I shaded my eyes from the sun as I traced the trajectory of her shots. “A bit more forward!” I called out. “And higher.”“Right!” Awen shouted back.She spun her traverse wheel faster, even as the plane started to turn back towards us.Her bows tilted up with a series of mechanical clicks, then she racked the strings back with one press of her leg and loaded fresh bolts onto the rails with a tug at a lever. “Firing!”Her turret wobbled back as she fired, four bolts again, one after the other. The first missed, the second passed so close to the plane I was sure it would hit, the third punched a little hole in a wing but kept on going.The fourth thumped into the wooden beam holding one wing in place.And then it exploded.The plane tumbled apart, wings and wood flung across the sky, the biggest chunk breaking and rolling past us before it exploded a second time.The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.The ball of fire rocked the Beaver and sent a few of us crashing onto our bums.I jumped back to my feet, then raised both arms in a cheer. “Well done, Awen!” I said.“T-thank you,“ Awen said as she adjusted herself on her seat. “Where are the other two?”I had to look around for a bit before I could spot the final planes. One was circling around us, quite a ways away, a small snowflake shield hovering between it and us. The other was flying towards us from above, engine roaring and a set of four shields hovering around it.“Above!” I said.I started to form some fireballs, but realized I’d never have time to make a bunch of them before the plane passed, so I launched what I had, then jumped aside as a red beam sliced across the deck where I was.The fireballs I’d fired all went wide or splashed uselessly against the plane’s shields.Awen turned her turret around as quickly as it would go. “It’s too far ahead!”“Clive!” I shouted as I got back to my feet. “Hard to starboard!”“Aye aye!”The Beaver tilted to the side as Clive threw the wheel around. Some of the tools the crew were using to cut and fix up bits of balloon tarp flew off the edge with a clatter, and I had to stumble to the rails and hang on until we evened out.“There!” Amaryllis screamed.Lightning flashed out, first one crack, then another. They rammed into the shields around the plane, making it glow and spark, but never taking it down.“More!” Bastion called out as he levelled Awen’s bow and fired. The bolt didn’t do much to help.Then Awen fired. Her first two shots hit the shield, one after the other, each exploding and sending a wave of fire burning around the plane. The next two went a little wide, but still exploded just past the shield.The plane nosed up and turned, getting out of our range for a moment before its shields lowered to reveal tattered wings and an engine that was on fire. Or at least, more on fire than usual.“We hit it?” I asked.“Had to be some of the shrapnel,” Amaryllis said.The second plane flew around and formed up next to it, both levelling off a little ways away. The path they were taking would be bringing them closer soon, if they continued to turn.I set my feet and raised both arms, then concentrated. Obviously, they had some sort of magic to fire lasers. I didn’t know if that was Light-aspect mana or something else, but if they could do beams of magic, there was no reason I couldn’t too!Pinching my tongue between my teeth, I brought my hands together before me, working hard to shape my Cleaning magic into a long, narrow form, then I fired it.It wasn’t so much a beam as a sort of glowing lance that darted out and completely missed both planes. Still, it got both of them to juke out of the way, and they both raised their shields.I narrowed my eyes, then glanced at my mana.Mana: 124/145“Amaryllis! What happens when things hit a shield? Does it use up mana?”“It does,” she said. “It depends on the sort of shield, but most that can move like that will be linked to the caster, and will use their mana to mitigate damage. What are you thinking?”“That I should go all out,” I said. “Clive! Hold him steady!”The planes both started to turn our way. Awen’s next volley flew out, but all four bolts missed, flying through where they would have been had they not started to turn.I created another lance of Cleaning magic, then another, then another, each one linked together by a thin filament of magic. They thrummed and hummed, glowing bars that were filled with gently swirling magic.I made three, then five, then seven, then ten. Sweat poured down my forehead and into my eyes as I reached twelve.Mana: 4/145That would have to do!I fired all of them at once, each imbued with my desire to wash away the enemy’s shields. They darted through the air, a dozen comets that glowed bright enough to brighten the midday sky.The planes tried to dodge, but I reached out and twisted and the rods of Cleaning goodness veered around and smashed into their hastily raised shields.I was hoping for a big explosion, or at least some sort of loud noise, but all I got were big, bun-sized holes torn into and through the shields.Then the shields cracked and burst apart, like glass being smashed by a wayward baseball.“F-fire!” I called out.I stumbled a bit, suddenly really tired, as if I’d just broken a fever, or run for a long time.Awen fired another volley, with Amaryllis and Bastion joining in.The planes turned, both of them diving down and around so that they were racing away from the Beaver even as Clive brought us around so that we were still facing them from the side.“Are you okay?” Amaryllis asked as she came closer. She placed the bit of her hand that wasn’t all talons on my forehead. “How much mana did you just use?”“All of it?”“You... moron,” she said. “Understandable, but moronic. Come on, sit down for a bit. You don’t need a fainting spell while we’re doing maneuvers.”“I have a bit left,” I said. “Four points!”“That’s not the problem! You don’t usually do big spells like that, it’s taxing. Stressful. I... really should sit you down and beat an education into that stubborn head of yours.”“But the planes?”“They’re running,” she said.I blinked and glanced over to see that she was right: both planes were rushing off, dark smoke trailing after them. “Oh,” I said. “We won!”“Yes, now we need to deal with the damage and hope it wasn’t too bad,” Amaryllis said. “And now you need to explain the reason for all this trouble.”
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Chapter Two Hundred and Thirty-Five — Cross-cultural Xenopsychology 101
Chapter Two Hundred and Thirty-Five — Cross-cultural Xenopsychology 101 “That was a rush,” I said.The two remaining planes were rocketing away, both of them just hazy blurs with trails of black smoke behind them now, though it looked like they were both running out of propellant. Maybe they would glide the rest of the way back? I hoped that they didn’t have any more planes like that. Or bigger, scarier things to fight us with.“That was certainly something,” Amaryllis agreed.A clunk sounded to the side, and I turned to see Awen extricating herself from the inside of her crossbow turret with just a bit of difficulty. It was a tight fit in there, after all, and it didn’t look like she had installed a proper door to get in and out yet.“Well done, Awen!” I cheered before enveloping her in a big celebratory hug.Awen laughed and returned the hug. “Thanks!”“This thing is so cool! And it’s just the prototype? Are you going to make it even cooler?”“Awa! It needs a lot of tweaking. I didn’t realize how many problems it had until I started using it. The sights aren’t good; the turning speed is really bad. I think some of the controls could be placed in better places. I should take notes before I forget, for the next iteration, I mean.”“It is an impressive contraption,” Amaryllis agreed. “If you improve it a fair bit, perhaps simplifying it some, I’m certain there would be a market for them. Merchant ships often have ballista emplacements that take up a lot of room. This seems more compact.”Awen nodded. “That’s what I was thinking too. The Beaver is very small. I’d like one of these to be able to deploy from both sides. Ideally. It might take up one of the bedrooms on the other side.”“We have two that are empty... one now that we have a passenger,” I said.“Speaking of which,” Amaryllis muttered.I nodded. Amaryllis had questions, and, well, so did I. But there were other things to look into first. The rush of victory was fading, and I was beginning to notice all the damage.It wasn’t too bad—I didn’t think. Some ropes cut, a few burns across the tarp of our balloon. The holes were already being patched up by Steve and Gordon, with the Scallywags working as a team to reconnect one of the lines.There were burns here and there, but most didn’t seem more than paint-deep. A bit of washing and a fresh coat of paint would fix the worst of it.“I need to talk to Clive, then I’ll join you below deck, okay?” I asked.“Take your time,” Amaryllis said. “I’ll be in the office. I think we might have gone a little off course. Not too much, mind, but I’d still like to chart everything properly, just in case.”“And I need to figure out how to get this back down,” Awen said. “I think I skipped off the rails; this is going to be annoying to fix.”“Let’s make sure the Beaver’s in tip-top shape before we worry too much about that,” I said.Awen nodded. “Right. I’m going to go look at the engine room, make sure that nothing is loose or on fire.” She waved us off as she jogged to the back and then into the aft section.I moved across to the other deck and hopped closer to Clive. “How’s it going?”“He’s holding up,” the old harpy said. “I’ve been in my share of engagements with pirates and some nasty flying beasties. This was far, far from the worst. Port sails aren’t deploying right. We’ve lost some buoyancy from escaped helium, and I think the rudder’s sticking a little.”“Is any of that critical?” I asked. The buoyancy bit sounded dangerous.“On their own, no. They’re all little things, the kind of problems that’ll pop up and need some maintenance. But it’s a lot to take care of all at once,” Clive said. “The boys are taking care of the balloon now. That’s the main thing. We can still turn and maneuver, and once the rigging is fixed on the port side, we should be fine. It’ll be jury-rigged for a while, but we’ll make it back to whichever port.”I sighed, some nerves leaving me in a gust. “Good. I was worried.”“Aye, don’t be, captain. I’ve flown on worse ships that had more troubles on them when they were fresh out of the skydock. This little ship’s a tough fella.”Grinning, I patted Clive’s back, then gestured to the rear. “I’ll be down below. We have someone to interview real quick. It shouldn’t be long. Just call if anyone spots another one of those planes.”“I’ll try to make good speed,” Clive said. “Get out of anything nasty’s range.”“Alright!” I called as I jogged across the deck, then went down a deck. The lower deck seemed completely fine. Though, the things in Awen’s room had been flung around a bit, and when I crossed Amaryllis’ I saw some of her stationery on the floor. My room was... empty?My spade had fallen over, and my bag had rolled across the floor. Obviously some of the manoeuvres we’d done had been a bit rough. That wasn’t a problem. The problem was the lack of a big floating crystal person. “Moonie?” I asked.“Broccoli, we’re here!” came Amaryllis’ voice from deeper in.I stepped out of my room and then continued down the main corridor, only stopping when I saw the door to one of the empty rooms left ajar.Amaryllis was sitting on the edge of the bed and staring at Moonie with a look that I might have called a glare if I didn’t know Amaryllis any better.“Hey,” I said.“I was just showing our passenger to their room,” she said. “And of course I had a few questions.”The cry shifted in the air so that they were facing us with their curved bits to the side. It was strange talking to a cry when they had no face or eyes to look at. “We don’t mind answering any question you might have. Though we don’t know everything,” Moonie chimed.“No one knows everything,” I said. “Even if Amaryllis sometimes acts like she does.”This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.My harpy friend squawked and sent the pillow on the guest bed flying towards my face. “I know that you’re an idiot,” she said. “That fact was plain enough to uncover.”I laughed and moved over to sit next to her. “Just teasing,” I said as I bumped shoulders with her. “So, Moonie, can you tell us why those cry were after you? And where they got planes?”The cry bobbed. “I am... defective. We... I... We wish to know what you know of the cry, as individuals.”I noticed Amaryllis staring at me, so I translated. How’d she manage to get Moonie here without understanding what the cry was saying in return?“Not very much,” I replied to Moonie’s question.“We see. The cry are not born, we are split from the form of a larger cry. I am Shard of Mountaintopper’s Growth, Fourth Shard, and not Yet Whole. I am a piece of a cry called Mountaintopper, who earned a name for themselves after several hundred years of existing. They too, were once a shard of another cry, and that cry, in turn, was the shard of another.”“Huh,” I said. “So, that’s different from how I know babies are made. No storks, for one.”“What?” Amaryllis whispered.“Yes?” Moonie chimed. “When we are split, we are given time to grow, to become an individual. We do not have a gestation period, but for a long time, we must relearn many things, things which we lose in the split.”“But the cry you split from doesn’t lose those things?” I asked.“Some, but most are prepared for the loss, information is segmented, and only some aspects are pushed into a new shard. Some of these are aspects which we no longer want. I am one of those. We are one of those. Forgive us for our impertinence.”“Impertinence?” I asked.“We... I refer to myself as I. Yet we are nameless. It is part of what being broken means. And it is why we are being chased by other shards. A broken shard like myself is not suffered to grow within the Crying Mountains.”“That’s awful,” I said. “What did you do that deserves that?”“We are too individualistic. We have too many memories from the shard that we split from. On occasion, a shard will break from a cry that has too much of the named one’s power. I am like that, I suppose. I remember thinking of myself as myself, as an individual as opposed to part of the whole. That is something reserved for those cry that have grown grand and powerful, and who have earned the right to individuality. I am not even healed from my own split.”“And so that’s why you’re being chased down,” Amaryllis said. “They want you dead.”“No, not necessarily dead. Merely broken more until I, we, lose our individuality. Some shards are against this. Shard of Waterwatches Compassion, Third Split and One Whole is one of those.”“How can they be against it if they’re not, uh, an individual?”“Individuality and the ability to think for oneself is a fine line among the cry; one that grows blurry as a cry grows and begins to earn their way into our society.”I hummed. “So, I guess... are we still bringing you to the Lonely island?”“If you wish it; we would be grateful.”“The amount of gold we received will barely cover the repairs we had to do,” Amaryllis said.I gave her a look. “I don’t think the damage is that bad.”Amaryllis crossed her wings. “Well, I would have asked for more if I knew of the danger.”“We were not expecting the aircraft,” Moonie said.I nodded. “We weren’t either. Are planes common around here?”“No,” Amaryllis said. “I’ve seen some, but they are frequently disasters. Little room to transport anything, they require small but powerful engines. Need a dedicated pilot, not to mention a landing area that isn’t compatible with any modern port. I’ve seen some proposals for them as fighter craft, but I think today’s attack proved their inefficiency.”“Well, we have plenty where I’m from,” I said. “Not rocket powered ones though.”“Have you seen the size of the Beaver’s engine? Can you imagine something like that on a craft so small?” Amaryllis asked.“Uh,” I said. “I guess?” Turning to Moonie, I asked the question on the tip of my tongue. “Do the cry have lots of planes?”The crystal turned from side to side, a sort of headshake, if its entire body counted as a head. “When airships became common enough that we realized the Grey Wall would no longer be as effective as it once was at stopping armies, the Crying Mountains commissioned dozens of different sorts of craft. There are hundreds of aircraft stationed around the Crying Mountains to be deployed in case of an attack. Not that the great named ones couldn’t burn ships out of the sky.”“Scary,” I said. I could still vividly remember the giant crystals jutting out of the mountains on the other side of the Grey Wall. If those were actual cry, living, thinking people able to use skills, then... well, if their lasers were proportionally the same size as those from the small cry that had attacked in those planes, then they would be firing beams of magic as big around as the entire Beaver. That would suck to fight against.“The cry learned their lesson about invaders long ago,” Moonie said.“Right,” I replied. “So, we’re going to bring you to the Lonely Island. I don’t know if you’ll be happier there, but, well, it’s on the way, and that’s where you want to go, right?”Moonie bobbed. “It is. There are others like us there. I want to meet them, to make a new home for ourselves, myself.”“Alright! And maybe on the way there we can share some stories and have a bit of fun. I’ve never made friends with a genderless sentient crystal before, so there’s all sorts of new things to learn, I’ll bet.”“That sounds like it might be... amusing?” Moonie tried.“The word you’re looking for is traumatizing.”“Amaryllis!”
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