A tired groan was my reaction to the news. I was beyond fear at that point; I’d simply been through too much too quickly.
Casting aside all thoughts of baths and rest, I quickly grabbed my pole – having sorely missed it during the fight with the pirates – and made my way back outside. I found Ren not long after, and he let out a little laugh as he saw me.
“Just can’t catch a break, can we?” he asked with a smile, and I shook my head at him in disbelief.
“How are you still so happy?” I asked incredulously.
Ren laughed as he heard my question. “Because life is just funner when you laugh at everything that comes your way. Especially when life seems determined to throw every curveball it has at you.” He spoke casually, his tone flippant, but I was startled by how much sense it made. I stayed quiet as I sunk into thought, pondering his words even as we began to make our way back to the elevator. Wordlessly, we had both agreed that going back up to the floor we’d left Anabella at would be the best course of action.
However, before we could make it to the elevator, a screech sounded out throughout the entire ship, the sound so high-pitched that it brought Ren to his knees. He clutched his head as he did, no doubt his extra sensitive hearing making the ordeal much worse for him.
That didn’t mean that I was fine, however. The sound made my head feel like it was going to split apart, forcing me to stagger and use the wall to stay on my feet.
After what felt like an eternity, the sound finally ceased, leaving behind a strangely hollow silence in its wake.
The silence was quickly broken again, however, as an older voice sounded out from the intercom above. “The Void Bat colony is headed by a Saint Realm Bat, which means that we need all hands on deck. Medic mages, retrieve all dead mages and place them in Incubation Cells; leave the wounded for now and return to the battle. All other mages, if you are able to fight, come to the top floor. Otherwise, stay on your floor and keep order with our passengers.” With that, the orders ended.
Ren and I looked at each other and instantly arrived at the same conclusion. Any normal person would turn back, but we were still going. You didn’t get stronger by hiding away in your room, after all.
With our decision made, we quickened our pace as we headed toward the elevator.
The closer we got to it, the louder and clearer the sounds of the battle became. And as dangerous as I knew it would be, the sounds only served to further my excitement. My blood boiled at the thought of another, likely equally challenging fight. The exhaustion of earlier had already been forgotten in the excitement, especially since I knew it would be some kind of animal that I would be fighting. Which meant I would have no trouble killing them.
Who knows, I thought to myself as we entered the elevator, maybe killing animals will help me get over my stupid unwillingness to kill people.
There was a second of silence as Ren and I stood in the rising elevator, the both of us grinning in anticipation of what was to come. And then, with a lurching stop, the elevator arrived and the doors opened up, revealing one of the most chaotic scenes I’d ever seen in my life.
Dozens of massive bats flew around the now familiar room, while even more mages shot at them with beams of golden light. The room echoed with a cacophony of the bat’s screeching and the shouts of the mages, making for an incredibly loud, jarring mess.
A massive part of the room had been torn off, right in the center. Clearly, it was the place that the bats had entered through, but the hole had been closed now. A shimmering golden barrier was stretched over the gap, and beyond it stood the green-robed man who seemed to be the highest authority on the ship. He and four other men stood against an absolute behemoth of a bat. It didn’t take a genius to figure that it was the Saint Realm Bat that the man had mentioned earlier. I let out a small breath of relief at the fact that I wouldn’t have to fight with a beast like that anywhere near me. I was confident in my own strength, but I wasn’t delusional.
Turning my attention back to the room, I paid closer attention to the bats, trying to judge if I was strong enough to join the fight. The bats were incredibly big, far larger than any on Earth. With a wingspan that was at least twelve feet long and bodies that were about half that, they were far bigger than any flying animal I’d ever heard of on Earth.
They swooped down on the mages below them with speed far greater than anything their size had any right to be, scratching at them with their long claws. The already dim room crowded with dark flying bodies painted quite the creepy picture, but I was anything but deterred. I’d watched them long enough, and I was sure I wouldn't be a hindrance in the fight against them. The Ruby who’d first stepped onto this ship all those weeks ago would have been entirely helpless against them, but not anymore. Not since I’d been gifted my flames.
Igniting the air around my free hand, I let the bright orange flames swirl around my fingers for a moment, feeding it with some of my own Flux as I felt the warmth tingle on my skin. The fire greedily swallowed up my Flux, and the heat it gave off rose by dozens of degrees.
A few meters in front of me stood a mage, a younger woman, who was being terrorized by a single bat. The dark beast would swoop down and claw furiously at her, forcing her to create shields of light all around her. Then, the bat would rise up out of reach before the woman could counter with her own light sword.
With a grin, I pointed my hand at the bat as it came down on the woman again, waiting until I had a good shot before letting the flames surge forward. Moving as a swirling column, it burned a hole through the bat’s thin wing and hit it on the side. The dark fur ignited with a bright flare, and a horrible screech was wrenched out of its mouth as it burned. Seizing the moment, the woman immediately dispelled her shields and materialized her sword, slashing at the beast’s neck with a decisive strike. The woman had a deceptively strong swing, managing to sever the muscle and bone of the bat’s neck completely. The head went flying off, followed closely by a spurt of thick red blood.
With a grateful, somewhat questioning smile thrown my way, the woman made her way further into the room and joined the fight with another mage.
Ren and I looked at each other and, with a shared grin, leapt forward into the chaotic mess of the battle.
The first of them to fight us was a slightly larger one. It swooped down on us a few seconds after we stepped into the fray, its maw opened wide as it directed a screech at us. It was a good tactic, since the whining sound could easily distract their prey long enough for them to rip them to shreds with their claws.
Unfortunately for it, its plan didn’t work so well this time. Just as it opened its mouth, I launched a small, pearl-sized ball at it. The golden thing flew with incredible speed, fast enough to make it into the bat’s mouth before it could clamp its jaws shut.
The little ball exploded as soon as the bat’s mouth closed on it. The sound of it was muffled, but the smoke that filtered out of its ears and nostrils told me that it had done its job. The bat flew down with no control over its speed, its eyes barely holding a glimmer of its life.
Seeing where it would fall, Ren stepped forward and did a quick twirl just as the massive body fell behind him. His thin dagger cut a swift line through the beast’s neck, leaving behind only a small trail of blood. The giant bat fell to the floor with a thud, dead before it even hit the ground.
Spurred on by our quick success, I jumped over the corpse of the beast with some extra spring in my step, my palm already gathering Flux for the next mini fireball.
The next bat that came for us attacked from behind, and in the confusing symphony of the battle sounds, I didn’t hear a thing as it swooped down like a hawk. Thankfully, Ren, with his spherical range of detection, managed to notice the thing before it could rake its claws over my back. Being ahead of me, he had little time to react, but he moved incredibly quickly. He spun around and kicked me in the side as he did, light enough not to break anything but hard enough to forcefully clear me out of the path.
Unfortunately, that put him in the predicament of facing a speeding bat with its razor-sharp teeth just barely a meter away from tearing into him. He had no time to dodge or even put his dagger in front of him, but his calm didn’t waver for a moment, his entire trust in me.
And I made good on that trust. Despite the disorientation of being suddenly hit to the side, I reacted just in time. The action was a mix of instinct and conscious thought, but I managed to launch my fireball in the direction that I had been hit in, just in time to hit the bat on the side of the face.
The thing exploded with the force of a small grenade, knocking the body of the beast to the side, just enough for Ren to avoid being hit by the full momentum of the bat. The edge of the wing still caught Ren on the side, but he managed to bring his walking stick up in time to deflect the dagger-like claws of the animal.
I landed with a thud on my side immediately after, more than dazed after the sudden chain of events. By the time I got myself back up to my feet, Ren had already taken care of the grounded monster.
“That’s two to zero now," Ren said with a grin as I staggered to my feet, "but hey, who’s counting, right?”
“Oh, shut up,” I countered, giving him a glare. “Both of those were mine. You stole them right at the end.”
Ren opened his mouth to respond, but before a word could leave his mouth, the sound of glass shattering sounded out from above, cutting through the symphony of the battle.
Both of our gazes immediately shot upwards to find the green-robed man falling from the roof, little pieces of the golden barrier following behind him. His once clean robes were now darkened with the dye of blood, and when he hit the ground, I saw even more of the liquid splurt out of his mouth.
There was a second, the briefest moment of stillness that passed over the room, before the hole in the barrier began to suck everything in the room toward it. Chaos once again descended as everything not secured to the ground felt a strong tug upward. And even more terrifying than the hole that was pulling everything out was the fact that the massive bat outside the ship seemed to know that that was going to happen, as it had spread its massive jaws open right in front of the hole. Waiting for its lunch to be delivered straight into its mouth.
The unfortunate bats closest to the roof were the first to go. They screeched helplessly as they clawed at the roof, but it was futile. The suction force was too strong, and they were dragged wailing through the hole and straight into the waiting jaws of the Saint Realm Bat.
For the mages on the floor, however, there were plenty of handholds in the shape of the tables that provided safety. However, in a stroke of incredible misfortune, before Ren and I could grab the edge of the table beside us, a crazed, out-of-control bat crashed into me from behind, carrying me with its momentum and crashing into Ren as well. Despite the force of the collision pushing us sideways, the suction force from the roof immediately picked us up, pulling us like dolls with a string tied to their backs.
Time slowed as I felt my body go weightless. I looked up as we flew, staring into the abyss that was the throat of the bat hungrily awaiting us. It was a certain death, I understood immediately, but I wasn’t about to go down without a fight. Simultaneously channeling all the Flux in my body and the Flux around me into my pole, forcing it all into the point of it. Dark plumes of smoke flowed out of my hands and the pole as my mind ran faster than it ever had before, straining itself to gather and condense the Flux into as small a sphere as possible.
Then, with half a thought, I ignited the ball of dark smoke, and it came to life in a blinding flash of golden. It was about the size of a tennis ball, but it was undoubtedly the strongest I’d made to date. Pointing the thing directly upward, I immediately fired, only to notice that Ren had not been idly flying beside me.
He’d also channelled a massive amount of purple Flux into his dagger, and at about the same second as I fired my fireball, he swung heavily with his blade. Somehow, the Flux detached itself from his blade, speeding upwards in the shape of a crescent.
The golden fireball and the meter-long crescent of purple smoke flew together as they sped toward the mouth of the bat, but I knew even as I watched them go that it would not be enough. Together, they would certainly do some damage, but killing the beast was far out of the question.
Then, suddenly, a streak of green light flashed between Ren and me, and I looked down just in time to catch the green-robed man falling out of consciousness, his finger raised and pointed at us.
Returning my focus to my impending death, I watched as the three projectiles – my ball, Ren’s crescent, and the green-robed man’s arrow of green light – all travelled through the hole and made contact with the inside of the monster’s mouth.
My fireball exploded just as Ren and the man’s attacks gouged deep gashes into the animal’s mouth. A wave of blood rained down through the hole and showered Ren and me, adding to the pirate blood we’d yet to clean off.
The combined force of the three attacks was just enough to knock the massive beast off the ship, clearing our way out of the hole. Still, although the beast’s jaws were gone, what awaited us was still certain death, just not the same kind. Strengthened by Flux our bodies may have been, there was no way Ren and I were near the level of being able to handle the extreme stresses of being in outer space with no protection.
With only a second left till we exited the ship’s safety, I forced my eyes to stay open as I awaited my death, drinking in the dark beauty of the void of space with set eyes. If I was going out, I was going out facing death head-on, not cowering like a wimp.
And then, all of a sudden, we were outside. I moved my gaze from the spangled horizon to Ren’s face, finding it already watching me, adorned with that same smile as the day we’d first met.
I returned the smile as best I could, bracing myself for death.
But strangely, it never came.
A tired groan was my reaction to the news. I was beyond fear at that point; I’d simply been through too much too quickly.
Casting aside all thoughts of baths and rest, I quickly grabbed my pole – having sorely missed it during the fight with the pirates – and made my way back outside. I found Ren not long after, and he let out a little laugh as he saw me.
“Just can’t catch a break, can we?” he asked with a smile, and I shook my head at him in disbelief.
“How are you still so happy?” I asked incredulously.
Ren laughed as he heard my question. “Because life is just funner when you laugh at everything that comes your way. Especially when life seems determined to throw every curveball it has at you.” He spoke casually, his tone flippant, but I was startled by how much sense it made. I stayed quiet as I sunk into thought, pondering his words even as we began to make our way back to the elevator. Wordlessly, we had both agreed that going back up to the floor we’d left Anabella at would be the best course of action.
However, before we could make it to the elevator, a screech sounded out throughout the entire ship, the sound so high-pitched that it brought Ren to his knees. He clutched his head as he did, no doubt his extra sensitive hearing making the ordeal much worse for him.
That didn’t mean that I was fine, however. The sound made my head feel like it was going to split apart, forcing me to stagger and use the wall to stay on my feet.
After what felt like an eternity, the sound finally ceased, leaving behind a strangely hollow silence in its wake.
The silence was quickly broken again, however, as an older voice sounded out from the intercom above. “The Void Bat colony is headed by a Saint Realm Bat, which means that we need all hands on deck. Medic mages, retrieve all dead mages and place them in Incubation Cells; leave the wounded for now and return to the battle. All other mages, if you are able to fight, come to the top floor. Otherwise, stay on your floor and keep order with our passengers.” With that, the orders ended.
Ren and I looked at each other and instantly arrived at the same conclusion. Any normal person would turn back, but we were still going. You didn’t get stronger by hiding away in your room, after all.
With our decision made, we quickened our pace as we headed toward the elevator.
The closer we got to it, the louder and clearer the sounds of the battle became. And as dangerous as I knew it would be, the sounds only served to further my excitement. My blood boiled at the thought of another, likely equally challenging fight. The exhaustion of earlier had already been forgotten in the excitement, especially since I knew it would be some kind of animal that I would be fighting. Which meant I would have no trouble killing them.
Who knows, I thought to myself as we entered the elevator, maybe killing animals will help me get over my stupid unwillingness to kill people.
There was a second of silence as Ren and I stood in the rising elevator, the both of us grinning in anticipation of what was to come. And then, with a lurching stop, the elevator arrived and the doors opened up, revealing one of the most chaotic scenes I’d ever seen in my life.
Dozens of massive bats flew around the now familiar room, while even more mages shot at them with beams of golden light. The room echoed with a cacophony of the bat’s screeching and the shouts of the mages, making for an incredibly loud, jarring mess.
A massive part of the room had been torn off, right in the center. Clearly, it was the place that the bats had entered through, but the hole had been closed now. A shimmering golden barrier was stretched over the gap, and beyond it stood the green-robed man who seemed to be the highest authority on the ship. He and four other men stood against an absolute behemoth of a bat. It didn’t take a genius to figure that it was the Saint Realm Bat that the man had mentioned earlier. I let out a small breath of relief at the fact that I wouldn’t have to fight with a beast like that anywhere near me. I was confident in my own strength, but I wasn’t delusional.
Turning my attention back to the room, I paid closer attention to the bats, trying to judge if I was strong enough to join the fight. The bats were incredibly big, far larger than any on Earth. With a wingspan that was at least twelve feet long and bodies that were about half that, they were far bigger than any flying animal I’d ever heard of on Earth.
They swooped down on the mages below them with speed far greater than anything their size had any right to be, scratching at them with their long claws. The already dim room crowded with dark flying bodies painted quite the creepy picture, but I was anything but deterred. I’d watched them long enough, and I was sure I wouldn't be a hindrance in the fight against them. The Ruby who’d first stepped onto this ship all those weeks ago would have been entirely helpless against them, but not anymore. Not since I’d been gifted my flames.
Igniting the air around my free hand, I let the bright orange flames swirl around my fingers for a moment, feeding it with some of my own Flux as I felt the warmth tingle on my skin. The fire greedily swallowed up my Flux, and the heat it gave off rose by dozens of degrees.
A few meters in front of me stood a mage, a younger woman, who was being terrorized by a single bat. The dark beast would swoop down and claw furiously at her, forcing her to create shields of light all around her. Then, the bat would rise up out of reach before the woman could counter with her own light sword.
With a grin, I pointed my hand at the bat as it came down on the woman again, waiting until I had a good shot before letting the flames surge forward. Moving as a swirling column, it burned a hole through the bat’s thin wing and hit it on the side. The dark fur ignited with a bright flare, and a horrible screech was wrenched out of its mouth as it burned. Seizing the moment, the woman immediately dispelled her shields and materialized her sword, slashing at the beast’s neck with a decisive strike. The woman had a deceptively strong swing, managing to sever the muscle and bone of the bat’s neck completely. The head went flying off, followed closely by a spurt of thick red blood.
With a grateful, somewhat questioning smile thrown my way, the woman made her way further into the room and joined the fight with another mage.
Ren and I looked at each other and, with a shared grin, leapt forward into the chaotic mess of the battle.
The first of them to fight us was a slightly larger one. It swooped down on us a few seconds after we stepped into the fray, its maw opened wide as it directed a screech at us. It was a good tactic, since the whining sound could easily distract their prey long enough for them to rip them to shreds with their claws.
Unfortunately for it, its plan didn’t work so well this time. Just as it opened its mouth, I launched a small, pearl-sized ball at it. The golden thing flew with incredible speed, fast enough to make it into the bat’s mouth before it could clamp its jaws shut.
The little ball exploded as soon as the bat’s mouth closed on it. The sound of it was muffled, but the smoke that filtered out of its ears and nostrils told me that it had done its job. The bat flew down with no control over its speed, its eyes barely holding a glimmer of its life.
Seeing where it would fall, Ren stepped forward and did a quick twirl just as the massive body fell behind him. His thin dagger cut a swift line through the beast’s neck, leaving behind only a small trail of blood. The giant bat fell to the floor with a thud, dead before it even hit the ground.
Spurred on by our quick success, I jumped over the corpse of the beast with some extra spring in my step, my palm already gathering Flux for the next mini fireball.
The next bat that came for us attacked from behind, and in the confusing symphony of the battle sounds, I didn’t hear a thing as it swooped down like a hawk. Thankfully, Ren, with his spherical range of detection, managed to notice the thing before it could rake its claws over my back. Being ahead of me, he had little time to react, but he moved incredibly quickly. He spun around and kicked me in the side as he did, light enough not to break anything but hard enough to forcefully clear me out of the path.
Unfortunately, that put him in the predicament of facing a speeding bat with its razor-sharp teeth just barely a meter away from tearing into him. He had no time to dodge or even put his dagger in front of him, but his calm didn’t waver for a moment, his entire trust in me.
And I made good on that trust. Despite the disorientation of being suddenly hit to the side, I reacted just in time. The action was a mix of instinct and conscious thought, but I managed to launch my fireball in the direction that I had been hit in, just in time to hit the bat on the side of the face.
The thing exploded with the force of a small grenade, knocking the body of the beast to the side, just enough for Ren to avoid being hit by the full momentum of the bat. The edge of the wing still caught Ren on the side, but he managed to bring his walking stick up in time to deflect the dagger-like claws of the animal.
I landed with a thud on my side immediately after, more than dazed after the sudden chain of events. By the time I got myself back up to my feet, Ren had already taken care of the grounded monster.
“That’s two to zero now," Ren said with a grin as I staggered to my feet, "but hey, who’s counting, right?”
“Oh, shut up,” I countered, giving him a glare. “Both of those were mine. You stole them right at the end.”
Ren opened his mouth to respond, but before a word could leave his mouth, the sound of glass shattering sounded out from above, cutting through the symphony of the battle.
Both of our gazes immediately shot upwards to find the green-robed man falling from the roof, little pieces of the golden barrier following behind him. His once clean robes were now darkened with the dye of blood, and when he hit the ground, I saw even more of the liquid splurt out of his mouth.
There was a second, the briefest moment of stillness that passed over the room, before the hole in the barrier began to suck everything in the room toward it. Chaos once again descended as everything not secured to the ground felt a strong tug upward. And even more terrifying than the hole that was pulling everything out was the fact that the massive bat outside the ship seemed to know that that was going to happen, as it had spread its massive jaws open right in front of the hole. Waiting for its lunch to be delivered straight into its mouth.
The unfortunate bats closest to the roof were the first to go. They screeched helplessly as they clawed at the roof, but it was futile. The suction force was too strong, and they were dragged wailing through the hole and straight into the waiting jaws of the Saint Realm Bat.
For the mages on the floor, however, there were plenty of handholds in the shape of the tables that provided safety. However, in a stroke of incredible misfortune, before Ren and I could grab the edge of the table beside us, a crazed, out-of-control bat crashed into me from behind, carrying me with its momentum and crashing into Ren as well. Despite the force of the collision pushing us sideways, the suction force from the roof immediately picked us up, pulling us like dolls with a string tied to their backs.
Time slowed as I felt my body go weightless. I looked up as we flew, staring into the abyss that was the throat of the bat hungrily awaiting us. It was a certain death, I understood immediately, but I wasn’t about to go down without a fight. Simultaneously channeling all the Flux in my body and the Flux around me into my pole, forcing it all into the point of it. Dark plumes of smoke flowed out of my hands and the pole as my mind ran faster than it ever had before, straining itself to gather and condense the Flux into as small a sphere as possible.
Then, with half a thought, I ignited the ball of dark smoke, and it came to life in a blinding flash of golden. It was about the size of a tennis ball, but it was undoubtedly the strongest I’d made to date. Pointing the thing directly upward, I immediately fired, only to notice that Ren had not been idly flying beside me.
He’d also channelled a massive amount of purple Flux into his dagger, and at about the same second as I fired my fireball, he swung heavily with his blade. Somehow, the Flux detached itself from his blade, speeding upwards in the shape of a crescent.
The golden fireball and the meter-long crescent of purple smoke flew together as they sped toward the mouth of the bat, but I knew even as I watched them go that it would not be enough. Together, they would certainly do some damage, but killing the beast was far out of the question.
Then, suddenly, a streak of green light flashed between Ren and me, and I looked down just in time to catch the green-robed man falling out of consciousness, his finger raised and pointed at us.
Returning my focus to my impending death, I watched as the three projectiles – my ball, Ren’s crescent, and the green-robed man’s arrow of green light – all travelled through the hole and made contact with the inside of the monster’s mouth.
My fireball exploded just as Ren and the man’s attacks gouged deep gashes into the animal’s mouth. A wave of blood rained down through the hole and showered Ren and me, adding to the pirate blood we’d yet to clean off.
The combined force of the three attacks was just enough to knock the massive beast off the ship, clearing our way out of the hole. Still, although the beast’s jaws were gone, what awaited us was still certain death, just not the same kind. Strengthened by Flux our bodies may have been, there was no way Ren and I were near the level of being able to handle the extreme stresses of being in outer space with no protection.
With only a second left till we exited the ship’s safety, I forced my eyes to stay open as I awaited my death, drinking in the dark beauty of the void of space with set eyes. If I was going out, I was going out facing death head-on, not cowering like a wimp.
And then, all of a sudden, we were outside. I moved my gaze from the spangled horizon to Ren’s face, finding it already watching me, adorned with that same smile as the day we’d first met.
I returned the smile as best I could, bracing myself for death.
But strangely, it never came.
