Chapter 240: Encounter

After properly switching out of his robes and into his standard sailing attire, Captain Leonard made his way up to the stern and dramatically placed his hands on the wheel of the Sky Darling. The others followed him with their eyes cautiously, and saw a big awkward grin grow across his face.

“So…” He spoke as he released the wheel and began fidgeting with his interface floating in front of him, though to others it appeared as if he was poking at the air. “Got a few new skills here. Might be a bit shaky but, I think I can manage.”

“You think?” Herilon raised his eyebrows at him.

“Well, you know… never manually levitated an airship before. Up until now, the island stone in the hull has been doing all the work. So, it might be a bit shaky.” He shrugged back innocently.

“We should probably hold onto something.” Gregory told the others in monotone, and Aegis, Ren and Trexon quickly nodded back to acknowledge this suggestion. They all promptly found parts of the ship that were nailed down to grab onto.

“First, let’s get out from under this big tree.” Leonard continued, pretending to not see how the rest of them were reacting. With a few simple waves of his glowing yellow fingers, the wing sails opened up along with the mainsail, catching a light breeze as Leonard carefully managed the rudder to start rotating the ship. Once it was facing back towards the direction that they’d arrived from, the speed began to pick up.

The Sky Darling smoothly sailed along the surface of the calm waves slowly. Aegis had grabbed onto the railing near the front to make sure he had a good view of the deep ocean water in front of them, just to keep an eye out for any suspicious aquatic creatures that might take interest in them. It wasn’t long before the Sky Darling made its way out from under the large roots of the tree, narrowly maneuvering around the smaller roots.

It looked initially impossible to get through without having to cut through them, but as the ship approached any tangled mess of mid to small sized roots, they parted ways to give their ship a clear path outward. Aegis wasn’t sure himself if this was just a game mechanic of the tree, or if the AI Wildling tree was actively watching them and letting them pass. This is what sat on his mind during the last moments they spent in the shade of the Great Old One, until finally pulling out into the open ocean, with nothing but a clear, dim dark blue dawn sky above them.

Leonard waited until the Sky Darling was a decent distance away from the tree and its tall canopy before clapping his hands together loudly, then rubbing them together afterwards and licking his lips.

“Alright.” He let go of the wheel again to double check his new class skills in his interface. There was a long, uncomfortable silence from the others as they once again turned to look at him, watching his troubling expressions as they appeared on his face as he stared at his skill descriptions. “Simple.” He finally broke the silence.

After hearing this, Herilon, Ren, Trexon, Aegis and Gregory all exchanged looks of doubt before tightening their grip on the ship and staring back up at Leonard.

“I just need to start with this skill. That should keep us in the air.” Leonard announced, though, despite this, he didn’t actually use the skill. He took a horse stance, bending his knees as if preparing some great physical maneuver, but it became clear to Aegis that he was just trying to psych himself up. He took multiple deep breaths, then cleared his throat and straightened his back.

“Aerilogus.” He spoke with a shaky voice. Immediately upon speaking, a great yellow magic light began to emit from his hands, and the hull of the ship below them. It illuminated the surrounding waters greatly, for a brief moment, before the ship itself began to separate from the surface of the ocean. The wooden planks of the ship creaked ominously, as if they were stretching out after a long time of not being used. The last sounds of water gently brushing up against the hull were heard, and within seconds they were levitating up above the ocean water.

They didn’t stop there, though - they continued to get higher and higher. The ship held steady, much to the others relief, and they all found time to look over the railings to see the ocean getting further and further away.

“It’s working…” Trexon spoke, with a hint of disbelief in his voice.

“Awesome!” Ren cheered excitedly. “We won’t need to worry about any evil squids on our way back, right?”

“Seems like.” Aegis smiled back at his enthusiasm.

“See? I told you all. Never doubt my skills as an Airship Captain.” Leonard declared proudly.

“Right…” Gregory said while cautiously looking down to see them still rising. “How high are you planning on going, sir?”

“Huh. I guess this should be high enough. Now I just need to stabilize our altitude…” He mumbled to himself while taking one hand off the stern and going back into his interface to read his skills again. “Like this!” He shouted triumphantly, waving his hands to the side. Once he had, the ship stopped rising, but awkwardly teetered to one side briefly, causing everyone aboard the ship to suddenly jerk their hands back towards the parts of the ship they’d been holding onto, and holding on for dear life.

“Guys…” Leonard smirked at them, “Relax! You really think I’d let my passengers fall off of my ship?” He tried to reassure them, speaking with confidence in his voice that the expression on his face did not share. “Now, let’s start our journey back!” He paused to clear his throat once more, preparing to cast another skill. “Momenious!”

The moment the words left his mouth, there was a forward jutting motion - magic from his hands had hit the sails, but at an awkward angle. Immediately, the ship began to point downward in the front and sail 45 degrees back towards the ocean for a few seconds, accelerating rather quickly.

“Uh, Leonard?” Trexon asked him anxiously, speaking on behalf of the others as they were all jerked forward towards the front of the ship - luckily they were all still hanging on for dear life and no one lost their footing.

“Right, of course, I need to keep control of the Aerilogus spell and have it offset the forward momentum to keep us balanced out. No problem.” Leonard said quickly before waving his hands, but whatever he did was not what he needed to do. Immediately, the ship began to bank left and curve at an angle, now flying nearly sideways towards the ground.

“Oopsie doodle.” Leonard declared as he waved his hands again, this time overcorrecting and jerking them into a sharp turn in the opposite direction, so much so that the ship was, within seconds, partially upside down flying downwards towards the ocean, and picking up speed.

“LEONARD?!” Herilon shouted as he and the others were now dangling from the ship, their feet swinging down into the open air as they held tightly onto the railings and mast. Leonard himself was tightly gripping the stern and struggling to hold on.

“No problem, don’t worry! I can fix it!” Leonard shouted anxiously, casting several more skills. The result of his next few casts were that the ship completed an awkwardly slow barrel roll, while still continuing its 45 degree dive towards the ocean.

“I think I’m going to be sick…” Gregory groaned as the ship eventually leveled out once more with the mast facing upwards.

“My apologies, that spell must be for controlling the direction.” Leonard laughed uncomfortably.

“We’re still about to crash into the ocean!” Aegis shouted at him as he had a front row seat to the approaching water’s surface.

“Right, right!” Leonard quickly waved his hands to cast several more skills, causing the ship to veer upwards and correct itself. It leveled out just meters away from the surface of the water briefly, before quickly angling upwards. Within seconds it went from flying leveled to at nearly 90 degrees, forcing everyone to tightly grab on once more.

“LEONARD I’M GOING TO KILL YOU!” Herilon shouted at him angrily, as he and everyone else’s feet dangled downward.

“It’s like a rollercoaster!” Ren cheered with enthusiasm in between a loud bout of laughter.

“It’s not like it came with an instruction manual!” Leonard shouted back at Herilon in frustration as he struggled to pull himself closer to the stern, his hands tightly gripping it.

“I’m glad you can disable vomiting in this game.” Gregory groaned, a strange gurgling sound coming from his stomach that mixed in with the sound of the winds pressing into the sails of the Sky Darling.

Aegis was being as patient as possible, leaning more towards Ren’s reaction than Herilon’s, but as the ship continued to get higher and higher, he became increasingly concerned. Eventually, though, Leonard got a decent grip and recast several skills, causing the ship to level out.

They were high above the ocean when it happened, even higher than the canopy of the Great Old One still visible in the skies behind them. The sound of their feet clunking down onto the deck of the ship was followed by nervous, heavy breathing.

“You good now?” Herilon asked Leonard aggressively.

“Yes. I’ve got it. We’re moving along at a brisk pace, with a nice and steady altitude. No problems.” Leonard replied, his face pale and his eyes wide.

“Never doubted you for a moment, sir.” Gregory coughed. The others let out a sigh of relief, but no one was willing to let go of the railings and mast they were holding onto tightly for a good long while. Leonard as well was sure to always move with his hands holding onto something.

“You’re sure we’re flying in the right direction?” Trexon asked him.

“Absolutely. Have faith, we’ll be back in Kalmoore before you know it, dears.” Leonard smiled. The ship continued forward from here without incident, sailing high above the vast ocean of the virtual world.

Aegis and Ren spent most of the time looking off of the side of the ship down at the water below. Around midday, when the sun was highest, the edge of the black mist came into view on the horizon, signaling that they were approaching land once more. As it did, though, Ren excitedly pointed out the large squid-like creature visible below the waves.

Despite being so high in the air above the ocean, and the creature being so deep, it was still easy to spot out. It looked even larger from above than it had while they were on the surface, and they saw several of its large tentacles wriggling to the surface and poking out above it.

“That thing is massive.” Aegis commented.

“Would be so cool if I could shift into one. Maybe when I have my advanced class?” Ren asked.

“Maybe. Wouldn’t that be a bit overpowered, though?” Aegis replied.

“Hehe, yeah…” Ren said with a devilish grin.

“Heads up!” Herilon shouted suddenly, getting the attention of everyone on board. He was keeping watch of the skies in front of them, and quickly paced to the front near Ren and Aegis, pointing out toward the air above the approaching black mist.

“What is it?” Leonard asked as everyone began to squint, looking in the direction Herilon was pointing.

“We’ve got fans of yours.” Herilon motioned to Aegis’ livestream which continued to hold steady around 2 million viewers.

“Stream snipers?” Ren asked.

“Looks like it.” Herilon nodded. It was during this time that Aegis was able to see what Herilon was pointing at. There were 4 airships hovering above the edge of the black mist, not far from where the mist transitioned into the ocean water - the waves clashing with one another. Each ship looked similar to the sky darling in its basic form, but had distinguishable differences in its style. Two were distinctly much larger, and each mainsail was decorated with matching symbols - that of a skull and crossbones with a star tattoo on the forehead.

“Do you recognize that mark?” Trexon asked him.

“Yeah, a mercenary PvP guild based out of Savringard. They specialize in raiding transport ships without sinking the ship they’re attacking, but they’re also for-hire. They call themselves the Shattered Pirates.” Herilon explained.

“You think they’re here of their own accord, or did someone hire them?” Leonard asked. Herilon didn’t need to answer, he instead exchanged looks with Aegis, who took a big deep nervous breath. His silence was all that the rest of them needed to hear.

“They’re most likely after the essence. They could have just as likely been hired by Seraxus, or Makaroth.” Trexon explained.

“Or, they just want it for themselves.” Ren suggested.

“Sorry. This is my fault, because I’ve been streaming.”

“Are you kidding?” Herilon smirked. “This was the whole reason I tagged along. Finally some action.” He said while drawing out his greatsword.

“Turning off your stream would’ve shown weakness and fear. I haven’t known you to be weak, or afraid, and nor am I.” Leonard replied proudly. “Don’t fret. With my new sailing skills, they shouldn’t be able to touch us.” Leonard declared.

“Rise us up as high as you can into the sky. They’re still relying on their island stone hulls to keep their ships afloat, meaning they can’t go that high above the black mist.” Aegis said to him, and Leonard nodded back.

“Right you are.” Leonard replied, waving his hands to cast a few skills and cause them to increase in altitude, nearing the few misty white clouds hovering in the sky above. As he did this, Aegis quickly cast bless on everyone and fastened his mithral shield onto his arm, while Trexon drew out his staff and Ren leaned over the railings to get a better view.

It wasn’t long before the Sky Darling was soaring overtop of them, high above the ships and the black mist by at least a kilometer. In the few tense moments that they sailed beyond, the group looked down over the railings at the 4 airships below.

“Maybe they didn’t even see us?” Ren suggested, but this was quickly proven false as all four ships turned and began pursuing them in the same direction. They were keeping up in speed, but were too great a distance below to do anything impactful to them.

“Typically, they like to board and barter. They have a code to not sink ships, given the rarity of them. Maybe if they’re unable to board us, they’ll just leave us alone.” Herilon suggested. Hearing this, there was a hint of calm spreading amongst the players on the deck of the ship. It was short lived, however, as several ominous loud blasts suddenly erupted from the four ships below - one each.

Seconds later, bolts of red and blue magic flew up into the sky all around them, one soaring so close to the ship that Aegis felt a heavy wave of heat as it soared up past him and exploded in the sky above the ship.

“Taking evasive maneuvers.” Leonard declared.

“Grand shell.” Trexon cast, creating a dome around the ship. Seconds later, several more shots were fired up at them from below, impacting the shell surrounding the ship. Aegis saw through his party interface that the attacks were dealing a lot of damage, but appeared manageable. That was, until a white bullet was shot up from below and crashed into the shell, casting it to shatter like glass before disintegrating.

“Anti-magic shots!” Trexon shouted anxiously, while at the same time a bolt of ice had been fired to trail behind the anti-magic shot. It looked as though it’d hit the hull of the Sky Darling, but Aegis quickly projected his shield to block it, causing the projectile to explode below the hull of the ship outwards into dozens of large icy shards. Luckily, none hit the ship.

You take 3,348 Cold damage.

“I’ll block them, it’s not much damage.” Aegis said to Trexon, who nodded back. Aegis tapped his own shoulder to cast healing wind on himself. “Can you turn into a gryphon and fly me around? It’s hard to see the shots that are coming while I’m on the deck.” Aegis said to Ren, who quickly complied by releasing a puff of green mist around himself and transforming into a green-feathered gryphon. Aegis then hopped onto his back and he took off into the skies, soaring around the Sky Darling.

Several more shots of ice and fire flew up towards the ship, the aim of the 4 airships below improving rapidly, but Aegis was able to project his shield around to block all four shots, then heal through the damage.

The Sky darling continued to soar forward under Aegis and Ren’s protection, but after several dozen more shots and attempts to take the ship down from below, the firing stopped.

“Looks like they’re giving up.” Trexon called down to Aegis and Ren while they continued to circle the space around the Sky Darling.

“No, not exactly.” Herilon said while once again pointing down towards the ships below. “They’re just changing tactics.”

Looking down, Aegis saw what he meant. From the decks of the four ships, dozens of winged creatures took off into the skies, quickly flying up towards them. Mounted atop each of the flying beasts was a player, their levels varying but primarily 150 or above. Of the creatures present, Aegis only recognized the gryphons, but he could make out the names of two other types - wyverns and hippogryphs.

“Prepare to be boarded.” Leonard declared with an anxious tone.