The monstrosity towered over them and rushed towards the ship with a deafening roar, covering the night sky. Stormfalcon was a speckle against the mountainous wave, and the contest with the colossus killed their spirits.
“What is that!” Lance shouted, staring at the incoming wave.
“Ewan! We can't survive that!” Stefan yelled.
“Nyte! Thrusters at max, launch!” Ewan hollered. “Take off! Fly at max speed!”
The lukewarm thrusters came alive with thundering flames, the blaring noises drowning Nyte’s reply, and the Warship blasted off with a long jerk, leaving the Morinfair’s embrace.
“Go inside!” Ewan yelled. “Tie yourselves to something!”
The three raced in and hunkered down in the standby room while Ewan stayed on the deck to be the Warship’s eyes. “Nyte, turn around! Fly in the opposite direction, go up, up!”
Stormfalcon soared, leaving a trail of dripping water and a cloud of steam. The rapid acceleration rent the air, and the defense shield curved against the wind. Soon their speed broke the sonic barrier and the shockwave boomed behind them, the starry sky getting closer and closer.
Yet, they still couldn’t clear the wave.
“Brace for impact!!” Ewan roared and weaved a net of Ryvia around the Warship to keep everything in place. And the wave hammered them down, the fleck of a ship disappearing into the behemoth. Stormfalcon was for war, after all, so the shield held its own against the passive wrath of the nature. But they tumbled around in the water, losing their direction, going where the wave took them. The thrusters fluttered with short bursts, and Nyte lit up the bridge with red alerts.
…
…
…
The rampage of the ocean settled after hours, and the quiet and peace took over again. And when the wave rested, the Stormfalcon swooshed out and smashed down onto the water, its flickering defense shield deluged. Ewan panted on the top deck on all his fours, sweat dripping down his nose, the sound of blood racing through his veins buzzed in his ears.
The extent of the danger far surpassed any storm he’d faced so far. Even when they ventured into the eye of tornadoes and enjoyed the hurricanes, they held their own. But this one wave thrashed them around, and without even any intention to do so. They just stood in its path…
When Ewan recovered his breath, his thoughts went haywire for the cause, and they all strengthened the suspicion he had. He looked towards the island, Alasec. Yet, there was nothing there, and only the swirls of Mystic-Anima and the endless horizon met his eyes. The island became a reality because of the mystic, and the ocean and the earth accommodated it. And when his
“Boss! Stefan’s hurt!” Kidd yelled from the standby room.
Lance and Kidd squatted beside Stefan in a pool of blood while he lay on the floor on his back, his breath breaking into hiccups with faint groans.
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“I think he broke his spine, sir,” Lance said when Ewan rushed over.
“He can't move his hands or legs, Boss,” Kidd said.
Stefan uttered a painful chuckle. “It’s fine, it’ll heal on its own,” he said.
Ewan’s Ryvia scanned him inside out, and beneath the puncture wound on his lower back, a part of his spine lay broken, shattered actually. The bone shards had torn his chord and the fracture split Stefan’s skeleton into two.
“It’s really fine, you don’t have to worry,” Stefan said with a trembling smile and a pale face.
With a Kyron’s means of treatment, he would die for sure. But luckily, Ewan wasn’t a Kyron, far from it. And so, with a cast of
“Now you’re crying,” Kidd said, slumping against the wall behind him, his hands drenched in blood.
Stefan hid his eyes with his arm. “This was my punishment,” he murmured and cried.
“It was an accident, an adverse consequence of our decision,” Ewan said, looking down at Stefan as he stood over him. “If you wish to punish yourself, you’re welcome to do so. The deck is always open to you, go jump into the water. Clean the blood before you do though.” He left the words and walked away to the bridge, dreading the damage report Nyte would give him.
In its optimum condition, Stormfalcon would’ve braved the disaster without any damage. But it already had cracks in it, and all that the monstrous wave had to do was to push it, and it would crumble.
“Thrusters module, damage at 7%, flight feasible at maximum thrust. Defense module, damage at 30%, initiation possible. Ryvia module, system collapsed, no feedback detected. Peripherals module, no damage, running at maximum capacity. Main tank, no damage. Sub-tank, no damage.” Nyte read the report.
Ewan breathed a heavy sigh of relief at the extent of the damage. It was better than he expected, at least the Warship could still function as a Warship. The only headache though was the Ryvia module. It was the original of the Nightingale series, and its theoretical limit touched a Step-2 Asheva’s peak. But now, it was beyond repair, he had to replace the whole module. And it would cost him an arm and a leg to get the same specifications, that too if he could find it without the hub.
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Status: Healthy
Step-1 Severynth [Spirit-Nebula: Zeroth Surge]
Subtype: Step-0 Elementalist
Name: Ewan Ayres
Species: Human
Vitality: 7.0
Spirit: 25.4
Anima: [Fire – 25.4 | Ice – 25.4 | Blood – 5.4 | Mystic: 25.4]
Astylinds: 4 [Potential: 1]
Rolling Cat [Toast]: Step-1 Severynth [Spirit-Nebula: Zeroth Surge]
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Fire Monkey [Orange]: Step-1 [Level-10] [Grade-B]
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Imp [Frost]: Step-1 [Level-10] [Grade-B]
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Bloodthorn-Lotus [Iris]: Step-1 [Level-10] [Grade-D]
Equipment: Common Clothes; Yurn [Neck Gaiter]; Moonkeeper [Crystal-Ball]; Rainwarden [Staff]; Blackfeather [Overcoat].
Storage: Journal; Elementalist—The Path of Anima [Subtype-Book]; Spellbook; Bloodlust [Spell]; Transmute [Spell]; Unknown Book [Radon’s Legacy]; Anima-Crystals [Novas Coins]; Hub-Connector; Ingredients.
Novas: 25,145
Crelith: 1,014