The milsim nerd inside me is squealing with joy. Airships flying in formation and making maneuvers are just so, so, so fucking cool!

I immediately start teaching the golems how to use the comms and make maneuvers so that I can focus on the view. Lina is also enjoying this, although she's still a bit uncomfortable with the height, so I let our feelings mix for a short while, amplifying our enjoyment.

We fly north, then east. We pass by two island farms the size of small towns, then we reach the Looping Winds.

The Floater goes in first. It unfurls a large sail that hangs down from the bottom of the ship. It doesn't have a mast, but it doesn't need one when its sail is only used for the Looping Winds.

The Carrier goes in next, unfurling multiple large sails underneath it just like the Floater. They're so large that they disrupt the white sea of smoke of the Looping Winds for a few seconds. The Carrier is also twice as wide as the Looping Winds itself, making it look like a comically oversized monorail train.

We go in next after the Carrier is far enough ahead that the Looping Winds stabilizes. We can go faster than them, so it takes some fine adjustments to the tilt of our wings to match their speed.

The Island Winch joins in last. It's even wider and far longer than the Carrier, but it's definitely lighter, giving it a greater max speed. Its lower sails perfectly fit within the Looping Winds, not disrupting it that much when compared to the Carrier.

It seems to me that civilian ships prefer sails while military models prefer tanks and propellers.

We get out of range of the town's protective spell, and each ship activates their own anti-Vengeful-Spirit spells, keeping the mass of ethereal blue ghosts at bay.

We leave Whakamutu Mutu behind, and soon, the urban area ends. We're back in the wilderness of this fake Broken Skies. Random islands and islets are floating about, sometimes hidden within the colored clouds, sometimes drifting aimlessly, but most of the time, they're just floating in place near the Looping Winds.

Plenty of animals quickly make their appearance, flying between the islands either alone or in large numbers. It's rather surprising how often we see one of them flying by. The predators in this area are mostly monsters, but we're close enough to the town that the Celestial Horns often come here to hunt, keeping their numbers low.

A Chamebirb lands on our ship, and we use our magic so that we can pet it for a short time. I let the golems control the ship so that Alissa and I can stay down on the deck. Ted and Suzy are now perfectly capable of operating the comms box by themselves. I warn Hukarere of that so that she'll send non-urgent messages through the comms box to train the golems.

The number of islands gradually reduces until we finally leave the Horn's hunting area, then the sky is suddenly clear of islands and animals, and the Chamebirb on our deck flies away back to safety.

"They're good omens, those birds. They're noble and peaceful; it's an honor to be allowed to pet one," Paraaone says and subtly smiles.

"They're so beautiful that I feel blessed just from touching their feathers," Ciel says with a grin.

I hug Alissa from behind, then bury my nose in her fragrant hair as we lean against the railing of the ship and inhale the Ranja perfume. We're both fully armored, reducing the comfort of our cuddly time, but her pointy fox ears occasionally twitch, tickling my cheeks and making up for the lack of skinship.

I stare off into the starry sky, entranced by the stars and colorful nebulae. I never had such a clear view of the stars on Earth due to the light pollution, and Lily and I were hardly the type to enjoy going camping and sleeping under the stars.

I miss the technology and stimulation-heavy environment of the internet, but I can't deny that calm moments like this are really nice. It feels like I'm up in space, doing an interplanetary mission, but set in a fantasy setting instead of sci-fi.

Jarn's artificial and metallic voice suddenly resounds across the deck, "Message: Code red. The Carrier reports a swarm of Dragolites incoming. The Floater will protect the Winch."

I let go of Alissa, and she immediately grabs her not-ebony bow, then readies her quiver at her waist. "Target practice," she says with a small smile as she puts on her helmet.

For combat, the Carrier folds its set of small waving wings back, allowing the men within the living area to fire their magic tools. The Floater leaves the Looping Winds and flies over to the Winch's left flank to protect it. The rest of the ships are to continue on in the river of smoke so that no time is lost.

Alissa is the only one who can see them right now: hundreds of tiny dark dots approaching from our left. They seem to come from an island very far away that even Alissa has trouble discerning from the background of the night's sky.

The Carriers fire a salvo of [Earth Bullet]s, allowing everyone to range their shots. After that, they fire a [Fireball] salvo, and this is what does most of the damage. Alissa sees dozens of the monsters falling towards the endless abyss below.

They fire two more [Fireball] salvos, then range their shots again with [Earth Bullet].

The monsters lose nearly half their number before they get into range of our spells, but they focus more on the Carrier than on us. Without a breeder or leader-type with the tactical knowledge to guide them, monsters will almost always focus on attacking the most plentiful concentration of humanoids.

The [Fireball]s are soon replaced with [Lightning Bolt]s, and so, no more ranging shots are necessary. Now that the sky is clear of projectiles, the Wasps and the Horns engage the Dragolite swarm.

A few Dragolites move to attack the Floater, but it releases a huge [Discharge] in front of it, completely clearing out that area of monsters.

We fire our spells, easily killing any approaching monster, and Paraaone takes to the skies, preventing any that we miss from damaging our sail or wings. I summon two Wind elementals to disrupt their flight and make it easier for us to hit them.

The Wasps and Horns suddenly all simultaneously fly towards the north, leaving the southern part of the swarm free to do whatever it wants.

The Floater turns on its propellers, suddenly charging forward at a high speed while also making a large amount of noise. It activates [Discharge] again, and a huge chunk of Dragolites get fried by it.

Dozens of monsters are lured within the Carrier and quickly slain. It seems that we'll be eating Dragolite today.

The battle only lasts for two minutes as the Dragolites are massacred to the last monster. Aside from three instances of Wasps having their wings broken, no other damage nor even a single casualty is taken by us. The Chimeras aren't experts in [Nature Magic], but with their [Alteration Magic], they can repair their Wasps exactly like how someone would use [Grow].

A group of five Wasps flies away to the left, towards where the Dragolites came from. Alissa watches them and notices a suspiciously large Dragolite desperately flying away.

"I think that's a leader-type," Alissa says.

Paraaone lands beside us. "Oh? You can see it that far away?" He asks, surprised.

"The senses of the average werefox are better than most humanoids," she answers.

He gives her a wry smile as he takes off his helmet. "And you're definitely not an 'average' werefox, are you?"

She nods happily, and her tail twitches under her armor.

The leader-type gets lassoed by two Wasps, then slain by the others and brought back as a trophy.

Code yellow is sounded, meaning that the fight is over and that we can rest, but also that we should remain alert for a second attack.

Since we left town quite late in the morning, it doesn't take much longer for lunchtime to arrive. Code green is sounded exactly as it starts.

"Message: Marshall Hihiriwa invites your family for lunch," Jarn announces.

"He'll probably invite us pretty frequently. This'll be good practice for when you have to socialize with other nobles," Yunia says.

Roxanne, Hana, and Ciel share a look between themselves. None of them are eager for that.

We fly the ship towards the Carrier and carefully land on it right in front of the Gull plane.

I leave the elementals guarding the ship, then we drop down onto the concrete runway, and a touch of acrophobia enters my mind. There aren't any railings along the landing strip, so if you get blown off your feet by a strong gust, you could fall off the ship.

Among us, only Alissa, Lina, and Yunia are unable to fly, but that still doesn't overcome the fear of falling that's been hardwired into my land-dweller brain over my entire life.

A guide arrives to receive us, and we part ways with Paraaone. With a slight shudder, we make our way off of the landing strip and enter through a hatch into the living area of the ship. The interior is made from a dark wood, and we're warned to be careful because, except for the floor and the outer armor, all of the walls are very thin and fragile to reduce the weight.

I think that my mailed fist could easily punch a hole through them. It feels like I'm inside an American house again.

Aside from the essential areas, most of the corridors are poorly lit, forcing us to use [Spirit Light]s to keep ourselves from stumbling on something, or someone. The winged Chimeras almost exclusively fight outside of the ship, so there's little reason for them to be walking along the corridors. Most of the crew we meet are among the small types, and they're all rather cute. Fortunately, and unfortunately, they're all wearing dark green jumpsuits, hiding their - dangling bits from our sight, but also concealing the interesting bits of the women.

Hana feels a little cramped in these corridors, but Oritiki would certainly have to be careful whenever she entered a room. Lina says that the ventilation is at least decent, so it's not all bad.

We arrive near the front of the ship, and suddenly, the corridors change. They become much wider, taller, well illuminated, and even carpeted. I see a few Celestial Horns lounging inside a room, and we understand the reason for the change: we're near the living quarters of the nobles and the winged soldiers.

The Horns aren't the only winged soldiers around, but they're certainly the tallest and most muscular. They're also the ones with the bigger - bits and - honkers.

We take a few flights of stairs down to the bottom floor and enter a large room that's almost entirely gilded in gold with a transparent glass floor. Hihiriwa, Kaatohe, Oritiki, and a few other Chimeras are seated at a long table in the middle of the room. The smells of the delicious meal before us enter our nostrils, and our stomachs sing rejoice.

Oritiki smiles, and Kaatohe nods respectfully towards us. We return their subtle greetings as we walk towards the table.

"Ryders, please have a seat," Hihiriwa says with a toothy grin and motions to the lavish chairs in front of him. "I assume your Living Armors don't eat?"

"They don't," I respond and nod respectfully, then we take our seats. The doll golems and Jarn stand behind us, creepily staring at the Chimeras. I quite like this.

Unfortunately for Lina, the view of the infinite sky below us frightens her, so I let her sit beside me while I comfort her mind by caressing her soul through [Bind].

I look down curiously and notice that the starry sky is becoming slightly blurred by a faint blue mist. The sun in the Broken Skies is unpredictable; some days, it's weak enough that the day feels like a night, while other times, it's so strong that you could boil water if you let the sun in. Most of the time, it's the former rather than the latter, and right now, it seems that it's getting strong enough that the blue sky will soon hide the stars.

The unknown men and women at the table seem to be interested in the golems, but Hihiriwa ignores them and seems to be more curious about Aoi.

"It's time for you to show off your manners, Aoi," Alissa says through [Bind].

"Muuh…" Aoi moos in frustration. She'll have to use [Telekinesis] to control her cutlery and actually chew her food this time.

Hihiriwa introduces us to his staff: Kaiia, his executive officer, a fluffy panda-headed man; Nohopu, the Floater's captain, a brown-skinned squirrel-headed man; Kurii, a beagle-headed woman, his executive officer; Mahi, the Winch's captain, a blonde horse-headed woman with an attractive body; and Kaata, Hihiriwa's wife and head comms officer, a neon-blue gecko-headed woman. Except for Kaatohe and Oritiki, they're all commoners.

"I assume the fight went well?" Hihiriwa asks us as our cups are filled with a watered down alcoholic drink that I don't recognize.

"Most of the Dragolites ignored our ship, so we were far from being overwhelmed," I reply.

"Dragolites are always found around this area, so there will likely be another attack like we had today. And tomorrow, the danger will increase."

"Kite Dragons and large Cloud Snakes," Oritiki continues.

"The Snakes are ambushers, so it's much more likely that they'll attack you instead of us," Hihiriwa adds.

"We'll be careful. We've encountered one or two Cloud Snakes before, so we won't be caught completely unaware," I respond.

Hihiriwa nods gently. "Good. Now, let's eat."

Predictably, a lot of the dishes have Dragolite in them.

Wahinui's warning lingers in the back of our minds, but Hihiriwa doesn't show any sign of changing his friendly demeanor. We'll have to spy on him, but I'm wary of letting a Holly loose right now. He could have unknown defenses against monsters or others sneaking into his room, or a Horn could accidentally get too close to a summon and notice something wrong.

I can get a Holly go up to the bridge, though, so we might be able to catch something. Also, it's obvious to us that we need to observe Kaata to discover Hihiriwa's true personality. We have to find out where their quarters are, but we won't have many opportunities to do so since we're expected to spend most of our time flying our own ship.

We have a low-key mental discussion about what to do while eating our meal and talking to the Chimeras. They complain about the crew being unused to expeditions and seeming to be pretty nervous, which influences them into making a lot of small mistakes. It's been a while since the Carrier last left port, and only the Floater saw regular expeditions for longer than a day trip, so the number of veterans is rather small.

Nohopu, the captain of the Floater, takes an interest in our tales of adventures, quickly befriending Hana and Ciel. He's a bit of a speed freak and loves racing, apparently, and he's definitely a bit eccentric.

Predictably, Alissa gets interested in Mahi, the horse-headed woman, but she doesn't pimp me as hard as she could. Most of our time is spent paying attention to Hana and Ciel, the bards, and Nohopu, the comedic relief.

Nohopu barely contains his grin, showing his rather small bucked teeth. His excitement as he tells his story is so great that we don't know if he's telling them to entertain us or himself.

He maintains his rapid retelling and assumes a serious voice to properly portray the story to us. "The albino Fay Leviathan was finally cornered. There was no way that it had the strength to push the Floater back and escape from the tunnel, so I gave the order: 'FIRE!' And the [Beam] hit it right in its head… but the light scattered in all directions, deflected by a spell I'd never seen before!"

"Wait, [Dead Zone]?" Oritiki asks.

He waggles his finger. "No, no. The light scattered, [Dead Zone] doesn't do that."

"Ooh…"

"And when the [Beam] ended, I saw something that gave me pause… a mirror!" His voice drips with mystery and wonder.

"Ah! Mirrors deflect [Beam]! But how could it summon a mirror just like that?" Oritiki questions.

Nohopu shrugs. "I don't know. What I do know is that we saw a gigantic mirror floating between us and our prey for a few seconds, but then it suddenly shattered without a sound and disappeared."

"Weren't you chasing that monster for years? It's reasonable to expect it to try to counter you," Hihiriwa says.

"Well, I've never seen a monster create such a spell before," Nohopu replies.

"If that monster's offspring learn the same skill, we'll have a bit of a problem," Oritiki says with a wry smile.

"Ohohoho, but not for me, I know exactly how to counter that spell," Nohopu continues and giggles evilly. "After the mirror disappeared, I grit my teeth and ordered: 'CHARGE, FULL SPEED AHEAD!'"

"Madman!" Kaiia exclaims, her gentle gecko face distorted in worry.

"I took control of the fore weapons and shield myself and waited. The men were wary, but they trusted me, and I don't give orders twice. The navigator pushed up both levers, and the men started praying.

"I'd have only a second to react, but I knew what I was doing. The albino Leviathan turned its huge face towards us, and I swear that it looked as if it was surprised. Our [Beam] was almost out of mana, so I couldn't waste a single shot.

"The Leviathan retreated deeper into the tunnel, but it quickly stopped when it reached the end. Now, it was truly cornered. I grinned, and my hands on the controls itched in anticipation.

"The beast let out a long, low roar of rage, then I felt it use its mana. I immediately activated [Wind Shield], and we heard a crash, then I deactivated it again to preserve mana. The mirror had shattered, barely slowing us down, so I turned on [Discharge], and the Leviathan's counterattack was interrupted; it was about to slam its tail into us."

"Clever, both of you," Hihiriwa comments.

"I activated [Wind Shield] again, and we slammed against the Leviathan. I kept it active, using up the last of our ship's mana to pin the Leviathan against the stone. But then, just when I was about to use [Beam] to finish it off, we heard a thunderous rumble! The island was torn in half by our attack!"

"What?!" Oritiki exclaims.

"Why did it break?!" Hana questions, completely enthralled.

Nohopu's excitement dies down as his voice turns disappointed. "It was simply too small for our battle. The tunnel we made reduced its integrity too much, and with two behemoths colliding against each other inside it, I shouldn't have expected it to last. A chunk of the island fell away, taking the Fay Leviathan along with it, and I missed with that final [Beam]. The monster slipped right between my fingers!" He dramatically covers his face with both hands.

"If we encounter it, we need to kill it," Hihiriwa firmly states.

"It won't be 'if,' but 'when.' That Leviathan will want revenge," Nohopu says in a serious tone.

"It wouldn't willingly attack the Carrier. Not after being cornered by you once before," Kaata says.

Hihiriwa smiles gently at her and nods. "We'll have to ambush it," he says.

"Yes! I'll find it for us!" Nohopu exclaims, returning to his normal cheerful self.

Hihiriwa turns to me. "Your ship is much faster than the Carrier, so perhaps you'll be able to help. You and the Floater could herd it towards us."

Yunia is not pleased with his suggestion but doesn't show it.

"We have limited firepower and defenses against large flying monsters, so that plan would be pretty dangerous for us," I reply.

"The Horns will stay with you. It wouldn't dare to attack you with us around," Oritiki innocently says.

Dammit, Oritiki.

"No point in discussing this matter any further for now," Hihiriwa says before I can respond, then turns to Hana. "Now, please, continue with your stories."

We stay for a little while longer, then code yellow is sounded, so we end our long meal.

I put ten of Alissa's extra points in [Sense Presence] and tell her to keep track of Hihiriwa. We need to find out where his private quarters are.

We go back up to our ship and find Paraaone already waiting for us. We lift off, and I summon a Holly, then I order it to sneak into the bridge.

It's time to begin our espionage.