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 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: 4/145

That 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.”

***