Everything changed in the blink of an eye when the warship behind us fired its main cannon at us.

The Aviaton that Samantha was flying was D-rank, with D-rank shields, and a D-rank mana cannon that was capable of fully weaponizing the mana inside a Mana Crystal. Every time we fired our weapon, we were spending about a million coins.

When the warship behind us fired at us, it used a Mana Orb—something which would cost over a hundred million coins.

Of course, the commander of the warship wasn’t an idiot. A single, targeted beam of energy would be easy for us to dodge. When the mana cannon fired, it cut a wide swath of destruction, directly lighting up hundreds of acres of forests below us.

There was no way to dodge an attack like this. Samantha tried, veering us as sharply out of the way as possible, but the fire in the air caught up to us easily, devouring the Mana Shield around us in a split second, and then I felt everything catch fire.

Samantha had a hand over our Interdimensional Pouch, and I felt a glimmer of hope that she had something to counter this pain.

But to my shock and horror, Samantha took out the Metan General’s body.

I was suddenly aware that I was falling, then flying, propelled by an Air-attuned Mana Crystal held in my left hand behind me, as everything around me burned.

Everything was fire around me, and my health was rapidly falling.

And then, finally, I reached the outskirts of the fire. Not by propelling myself to the left, or right, but by flying up, above the warship.

The moment we were out of the fire, Samantha wrapped the Invisibility Cloak around our body and cut the power to our flight.

Our previous trajectory continued, carrying us through the air, and I could now see the blazing inferno below us, and feel the immense heat reflecting off the blackened forest below us.

Then, with a sudden buzz, we landed squarely on top of the massive warship, a few dozen yards away from the massive Mana Cannon that was still glowing.

We were not actually touching the warship. The warship’s shield prevented that, refusing to give us any traction at all as we floated on the Mana Shield just above the warship’s hull.

The warship was moving slowly, and the curvature of the hull and complete lack of traction made us start to slide off the warship.

To my surprise, Samantha let us slide, dozens of yards, along the sleek top of the warship’s Mana Shield, until we were about to slide off the edge of the warship.

Just as we fell off the edge of the warship, Samantha finally fired her Air-attuned Mana Crystal, just once, pushing us up against the side of the warship—directly inside one of the large divots placed on the side of the warship, which the Aviatons had used to latch onto the warship previously.

Once inside the divot, Samantha applied a slow, gentle pressure so that we wouldn’t slide away, and then settled in as comfortably as she could.

The first thing Samantha did was drink a much-needed health potion. Even being caught on the fringe of that C-rank Mana Cannon had nearly reduced my health to 0. My body was a blistering, burning mess, and the metal parts of my equipment still seared my skin.

I was thankful, for once, that I wasn’t experiencing the majority of the pain that I knew Samantha was feeling.

It was slightly comforting, realizing that Samantha probably didn’t enjoy causing me pain. Or, if she did, then at least she enjoyed causing herself pain as well.

The wave of fire that originated from the Mana Cannon had disappeared, but the fires burning through acres of forests were just starting.

There were thirty Aviatons flying in grid-like patterns over the fires, presumably searching for Samantha and myself.

Samantha said.

Victory? What, are you giving up?

Samantha said.

Samantha trailed off, letting me fill in the dots.

An Aviaton would likely land right where I was, or nearby. In order for that to happen, they would need to phase through the shield, somehow. And presumably, once the Aviaton docked, the pilot would be able to enter the warship.

Was this your plan all along?

Samantha said.

It took five minutes or so, before the first Aviatons returned to the warship. The Aviatons had gathered near the exploded remains of our old Aviaton for a while, and then they flew slowly towards the warship to dock.

We left the divot we had been hiding in, flying awkwardly and pressing up against the side of the warship’s Mana Shield.

Soon enough, an Aviaton approached our divot. The Aviaton turned off its Mana Shields, and at that same moment, Samantha flew us to the underside of the Aviaton, gripping tiny ridges in the Aviaton’s underbelly forcefully.

Then, we passed directly through the warship’s Mana Shield, along with the Aviaton.

The Aviaton docked gently against the warship’s hull, and Samantha climbed lithely around from the bottom of the Aviaton to the top, just in time to see the dome of the cockpit open, and a hatch in the warship opened simultaneously.

A werecat climbed easily out of the cockpit. He paused, sniffed the air, and I tensed mentally as his ears twitched towards me. Then, the werecat climbed through the hatch into the warship, and the cockpit and hatch closed behind him.

Samantha waited about thirty seconds or so, and then she tapped the dead General’s Identification Crystal against a certain part of the Aviaton’s surface, prompting the cockpit to open once again, and then with a similar procedure, we opened the hatch.

From the opposite side of the hatch, once we were inside the warship, I could see a set of controls.

Samantha inserted the General’s Identification Crystal again, and played around with the controls for a bit, until I heard a the Aviaton in front of me shudder slightly, and slide a few inches side to side

Samantha immediately reached out so one hand was on the control panel by the hatch, and the other was placed on the rim of the Aviaton.

Then, the Aviaton vanished into our Interdimensional Pouch.

A soft alarm started ringing the moment the Aviaton vanished, but in all honesty, it could have been worse. It didn’t sound like an “all hands on deck” intruder siren—it just sounded like a “the engine light on your car is on” alarm

Samantha pressed a few more buttons, and the alarm cut off, and the hatch in front of us sealed.

We were in a small, dull, grey room, likely an airlock, with an exit opposite the hatch. After a few quick steps, and a quick tap of our ID Crystal, we left the small room and a narrow, grey hallway with a relatively low ceiling.

What’s the plan? Are you going to hijack the Warship?

I felt a certain thrill, a curiosity, like I was watching a first-person movie following a complete badass.

Samantha said.

It sounded simple, and to my astonishment, it certainly started off that way.

Samantha, of course, knew exactly where to go. Most doors would open due to the Identification Crystal she held, and the ones that wouldn’t, she slashed once with our sword.

The soldiers guarding the armory were met with a series of Mana Cannon attacks to the chest. Then, with a combination of planted explosives and an intense barrage from our Mana Cannon, we were able to break through one final Mana Shield and enter the armory.

By this point, the alarms were ringing for real. I could hear the clatter of footsteps echoing above and below me.

The armory held hundreds of Compressed Mana Crystals of various types, and ten Compressed Mana Orbs. Samantha collected everything.

At this point, all gloves were off. Samantha fired a Mana Crystal through a dozen different walls and rooms to blaze a path directly towards the engine.

Any soldier in our way met a quick demise from Samantha’s Mana Cannon. It was only a question of how many hits each soldier would need to take.

This wasn’t to say these soldiers were useless. Often, they moved faster than I could see, and I could tell a single strike from an Ursal would be enough to kill me in a single blow.

But Samantha seemed to always know which way they were headed, and none of the soldiers could lay a finger on us.

But with a plan this simple, it was only natural for the Metans to anticipate our next move.

As we neared what I assumed was the engine room, I could sense a dozen soldiers, all over level 100, all equipped with Personal Mana Shields, forming a literal wall blocking our path.

They even had their own mana cannon set up like a machine gun pointing down the hallway. Standing behind them, I could see someone whose aura reminded me of the red robed magician.