Above, the dragon circled again.
Anthony was sure that it didn't want to fall into another trap. He was also sure that it didn't see any traps. Or the very least it was taking its time now. This was perfect for the next phase of the operation.
"Andrew, you're up!" He yelled.
The cannon was rotated it into a vertical position aiming straight up or close to it. Anthony grabbed a ball of mana, infused it with healing magic and then passed that to the artificer.
He opened the back door to the cannon, loaded the shot and then closed it.
The energy flowed out of the cannon nearly destroying in a line of offensive healing magic flew straight up towards the dragon.
Whatever they had been trying to do was obscured by the width and girth of the beam. The shaft of magical energy stretched upwards to the sky and for a second Anthony was jealous. It wasn't that he had any degree of performance anxiety; he was well and happy with what he had. But the grass was not only greener where Andrew enhanced it, but it felt like he had used steroids, but also male enhancement pills. But again, Anthony was not jealous.
He could be happy for the dwarf.
He couldn't be happy with the dwarf's aim.
The beam went wide, not close enough to hit the dragon. He was going to have to work on his aim. There was no reason for them to miss unless the dragon was really intelligent.
The dragon did a aileron roll.
"Well shit," Anthony said, gulping. "That can't be good."
"Ready for another shot?" Andrew said.
"With pleasure."
Anthony squeezed out another mote of mana into the artificers hands. Andrew held it briefly, charging the cannon.
Thooom!
The cannon went off once again, shaking the back of the now obvious airship.
Anthony had no practical notion of being a captain that would go down with his ship. He wasn't a romantic in that sense. He did want to kiss the dragon with his large shaft of life giving magic though, just once.
The thick shaft of magic nearly hit the dragon. Andrew was definitely improving his aim.
The dragon, too, took note, banking further away as it pulled out of its downward spiral. Then it launched a ball of fire at them. Anthony didn't appreciate the large bulbous orb of black flame.
He cast a large area defensive spell, an instinct that had to be his class powers taking over rather than anything that was his own.
The counter was immediate and wide ranging. The magic hit magic coalescing into an ear splitting sound.
Anthony's ears popped and then went silent.
The dragon fully changed course, diverting away from the large holy dome. Through the transparent shield, the dragon's limping flight away was visible.
"Is it coming back?" He said.
He couldn't hear anything. His own words sounded like he was underwater.
"WHAT?" yelled Andrew, pointing at his ears.
"I said, DO YOU THINK IT'S COMING BACK?"
When both man and dwarf realized that neither could hear the other, they reverted to orc hand talk. By now, both were practiced hands at it.
Song, standing on the opposite side of the ship, signaled them, asking if they were alright.
Anthony signed, 'Hearing problems', and got a thumbs up.
They tracked the dragon for a bit, before Anthony began signing for Bob. The ranger would have a good handle on the distance of the dragon and if it was going to make a counter attack. He could find any zombies within five span, a point which made him a bit jumpy. Anthony never wished for that ability, but was certainly glad that someone had it.
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Bob, Mork's purveyor of souls, couldn't hear anything. The dragon that had lost it's wings had decided that it wanted to live. It was currently smashed into pieces on a riverbank.
This would be the first time that Bob was glad for the many legged crocodiles. Though the match up seemed to be uneven, without the dragon's ability to fly, it was just another meal for the crocodilian.
That is, if the two could figure out who was the dominant one.
Any other time in his life, Bob would be patiently waiting for the two to square off and taking bets on who would win.
He nervously watched the skies. He had been close to the death knight and the two would have to clash again.
The dragon made up of orc flesh had to have some weakness to the iron trap jaws of the larger than life crocodile.
Bob realized with a start that the death knight had retreated out of his range. He still had an idea of where it was, but as he watched the two beasts tussled, it was only the icon that moved.
The only zombie within five kilometers was down below, and he wouldn't let that one go.
He climbed up towards the airship, seeing Song at the side to relay signals.
He signed 'Prepare to take off' to the orc.
Song signed back, 'Ready when you are.'
Bob brought the funk and the fire, making his way up and over to light up the airships canvas balloon. He could make it move on his own and he only needed one person with air affinity and then he could move around picking up everyone.
Already he could see the goats making their way down the mountain.
By the time it was up and running, there were only a few people left that he needed to get.
Anthony and Andrew were setting up for another shot. Or rather, Anthony stood by when Bob arrived and Andrew was fiddling with the gears.
"I saw your attack. Good work. The other dragon is out of range. We can get that one," he said pointing over the side. "If they are still engaged in mortal combat I think we have a chance to take out the grounded dragon. It's going to be like spear fishing in a barrel."
Anthony looked over.
"Ah, you weren't kidding huh?" He said. "They're really going at it right now."
The crocodile was missing one of its six legs and the dragon looked like half of its face had caved in, but it was still going. It looked like a small child had torn off parts of each. But they were still fighting. Joe, he was really glad that they were keeping a fear distance from it. As much as Bob wanted to smash a dragon like any bard his age, this was not the kind that he was looking for. Plus he was in a pretty committed relationship with Stella. Perhaps he needed to ask her about a dragon costume.
"Hey Anthony, what do you think about cosplay?" Bob said.
"That's a bit of a question to ask right now, Bob dare I ask why?"
"No reason. I just remember all the hot cosplayers who would come to events nearby and they all had some great sewing abilities and perhaps that's the kind of thing we need in this group. Seeing as how your shirt and pants always get stolen by your girlfriend."
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"She prefers the term work wife."
"You don't fuck your work wife, Anthony."
"No, we make love. Maybe you don't?"
Andrew, who was about a foot shorter than both of them came between them and gave them both a keeping dose of side eye.
"You learned that from Stella didn't you," Bob asked.
"Yes, and you're both ridiculous. Get the ship up into the air so I can shoot that abomination right in the snout."
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Finley was one of the last few to get on board the ship, just in time to get rocked by the cannon fire.
He walked up to the back of the deck. The ship had been expertly flown so that the rear-facing cannon had a great view of the slug fest between the four-and-a-half-legged crocodile and the half-blinded undead dragon.
He took it in.
The mages took turns shooting and charging. The cannon kept getting closer and closer as Andrew got better.
The action of cycling through motes of mana from different sources meant that Andrew and Valerie's aim got better quickly.
Caught up in the moment, Finley brought out his frame and a handful of uncommon card pieces. He went through the motions on auto pilot, feeling possessed by the Goat Lord himself.
Pieces were placed in just the right spot.
Mana flowed out of him, as he drew in the energy of the battle.
The iron pieces became a card as he snapped back into the present. Whatever had happened had completely taken him over.
He held up the card, the image of a cannon shooting at the fore.
Uncommon Skill Card: Cannoneer Level 1
Load, aim and fire. The wielder of this card has an instinctive knowledge of how to work cannons.
"Andrew, put this in your soul deck," He said shoving it into the dwarf's hands.
"What? Okay I'll do it, Canonneer? This is great! Thanks, Finley!
Finley went to pull out another collection of iron card pieces. Now that he knew what he was doing, he repeated the process creating a second card.
When he finished it, the moment was gone and he passed it on to Valerie.
The Goat Lord shone down on him that day, or perhaps he was connecting the dots. Whatever it was, he felt like all of the cards he had made before were now playing into his skills in a way that he hadn't expected.
It was a bit overwhelming and he had to think about it. Either he had figured out how to reliably make the same card over and over again, or he was getting little nudges.
He was ready to call it a day. He wondered if the horses would be alright.
Valerie could take care of them.
Then, leaning against the side of the deck, he took a nap. The soft thoom of the cannon punctuating his sleep.
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Finley woke up, not knowing what time it was. He was so groggy and out of it that for a moment, he thought that he was in his wagon. He checked and he was. Then he opened the flaps and realized that he was, of course inside of the ship.
It being dark, he cast mage light in a dull red. He did his rounds, checking on the horses and the goats. Both groups were undeniably smelly.
The amount of feed left was low. The water needed to be topped up as well.
He had to find Sonya or Zan. Probably Zan although how fast were they flying already?
He headed upstairs to check on their progress and see who was on watch.
The air benders had made good time and they were past the jungle.
Finley arrived to see Stella at the helm. He waved to her and then moved to inspect the canvas that was giving them life. They were not in the water. For the first time he realized that that was where he wanted to be.
He wanted to be where the people were. But also he wanted that place to be on the ground. He wanted to check out their whatchamacallits and doodads from the safety of his cave.
He didn't even have a cave and he wanted to be safe inside of one. Maybe a dancing fish would help him out? He's snapped out of it.
Stella waved him to come over and join him.
"How you doing up there?" He said.
"Good but you were sleeping for a while. Some of us were worried. Those cannoneer cards? Those were clutch. They saved us the battle. Or at the very least, made it easy to mop up the dragon. The other one hasn't made it back."
He came up to stand next to her. Happy so often, she would spit out a gout of flame.
"It looks like the balloon is holding well."
"Andrew does some amazing work. And the fixes, now that we know what we're trying to do? Those were amazing. Without him working so hard on all this shit we would be lost. Or at the very least he would still be very far north of here."
They rode on in silence for a while, the only punctuation was the wind. As they were heading into the dark Finley didn't expect to be able to see anything.
"How's Bob doing?" He said.
"The man is a specimen," she said. "He is a piece of work to be sure. He is fine, but..."
"But?"
"One of you guys needs to speak some sense into him. He really is thinking about this one-on-one battle with the Flesh Weaver. That invitation? He's been obsessing over it. And you know what the last thing was that he obsessed over?"
"I'm drawing a blank here."
"Well the answer is me. But before that it was the other death knights and way before that it was his image as a small business owner who was just trying to make ends meet in a hard world. But out here? He doesn't need that because he's one of the strongest of us."
Finley let that sit there for a moment.
"He's concerned with how he looks? Is that what you mean when you say image? I don't think that he looks... ugly?"
"I think more in terms of him as an idea. We all look up to him. The goats do at least. Valerie does both because of his position and because the three of us saved her life. We had to live up to that. That's a tough ideal to live up to."
"If he's thinking about how other people think about him, that shows that we are getting past the survival phase."
Stella waved her arms around.
"Finley. We are here in a first of its kind airship which probably needs a name by the way, and we are traversing most of a continent in less than a week. That is incredible and that is something that has never happened on this world."
"You want to name the ship?"
"Don't Tinkers name their wagons?"
"Maybe a family name. I've never named mine. I just think of it like my wagon."
"I think that we can get the Union on this and make a great name for ourselves. And we can also, make a great name for this ship which deserves one after what it's done for us so far. I'm sure you agree."
Finally, shrugged. Without the need to set a watch over, it was a lot more free time. It was so freeing to be in a place that they did not have to worry about zombies all the time. Maybe he was going to spend some time figuring out a good name for this ship. Hopefully, Stella would help him with that.