CHAPTER 3 – A FIGHT FOR SURVIVAL

AUTHOR’S NOTE: I PLAN ON ADDING DETAILS OF THE AIRSHIP LATER ON.

As soon as the airship descended from the clouds all hell broke loose. The ship dropped a payload of void busters. They exploded on impact causing the ground to shake in a black fire. It left behind crafters with pods that released rift eaters. Thankfully, the ship had overshot when dropping the pay load sparing the transport of any damage. The bad news was they had to deal with a hoard of rift eaters. Qin and Margaret both leaped off the transport to intercept the incoming hoard of rift eaters.

Johnny looked back and slowed down after they had jumped off. He was afraid of losing them. “Go, we will hold them off. You need to find a place for cover. Our mission is to transport the portal mage. Stuff like this happens all the time.” Said Qin as she kicked off the ground into the air. Her hands began to glow as she shot fists full of radiant energy. She shot off six in all. Wherever the balls of light hit. They turned into small cybernetic dragons. The dragons were metallic silver. On all fours they were tall as Johnny torso. The dragons were five feet from tip to tail. The dragons just stood there as they waited for an order.

“Attack.” She yelled. Her six dragons began to slaughter the incoming rift eaters. A few managed to get around the summons but were easily dealt with by Qin as she fried them from the air. Soon the first hoard of rift eaters had been dealt with. The group was happy to also get rift eater essence as well.

Johnny could tell what was going on but was giving the reply from Cleo who was sitting next to him as she watched the fight. It didn’t help him that the portal mage was freaking out with her guards. He was busy heading to the northwest. He was hoping he could hide under the big trees from the airship.

The ship made a sharp turn to follow back on the attack. It dropped more void busters this time straight over top of Johnny. He heard the spheres screaming towards the transport. One was on a bull’s eye path for the vehicle. He knew there was no way to dodge it in time.

“Incoming.” Yelled Julia as she quickly manned the 30mm. She fired the cannon. Johnny was expecting shells to fly out but only saw radiant energy as it blasted the void buster. The void buster exploded into shrapnel. Before it could even make an impact. Julia activated a barrier spell that deflected the falling debris.

Johnny kept going as the other spheres exploded around him leaving even more craters. This time the rift eaters were on all sides of him instead of behind. Qin and Margaret were quick to act in the air. Cleo and Lisa both jumped off the clear path for Johnny ahead. Julia focused on covering protective cover for the transport.

Soon the second volley of rift eaters had been eliminated. Johhny only had a fourth of the way for the trees. When the airship shot at the base of one of the trees. The tree had to have been 500 feet in height and 50 feet in circumference. The tree fell with an ear shattering crash. Johnny tried to turn to the left to go around. In response, the airship fired off three volleys of void busters. This time Johnny was pinned in with nowhere to go.

The first two volleys landed exploding leaving craters too big for Johnny to navigate through the third volley had an even bigger sphere that was three times as large. It landed with the others in the third group in the center.

Johnny was now worried about something big coming out only to find a being that was reptilian in a humanoid form. The reptilian was followed by four humanoid rift eater guards. Johnny could see an evil smile on the reptilian’s face as it approached him.

Despite the setback Johnny decided to put his driving skills to use to escape, but first he would need a distraction to pull off his plan. Johnny called on the team’s contact. “Can you guys distract our host long enough for me to make a run for it?” They all agreed in unison as he prepared his next move. Julia followed the rest as she jumped off the transport. Johnny had to hope his crazy idea worked. It has been a while since I pulled a stunt like this.

Johnny put his plan into action while the others kept the new hosts busy. He applied a few rocket boosters from the prototype’s onboard terminal. The rocket boosters appeared on the back side of the transport on sides. The rockets were powered by radiant essence. He needed to get the transport to jump the crater. Although the more he thought about jumping the crater. He thought that maybe he could jump over the fallen tree. He decided to go with his second idea to get more distance from the reptilian humanoid. He hadn’t explained his plan fearing they would think he was crazy. At this point any idea for escape was better than having the portal mage caught.

The group was fighting hard, blasting magic and all. They were doing a good job keeping the reptilian humanoid busy. Johnny fired up the rockets and told the portal mage and her guards to buckle up and hold on tight. They asked what was going on, but before anyone could get a word out Johnny hit the boosters. The group began to freak out as Johnny rocketed for a giant branch on the fallen tree. Johnny just laughed with excitement when he hit a crater to get some air. He then hit the boosters to full throttle while in the air. He then hit a branch from the fallen tree. The result caused Johnny to do a barrel roll as he flew over the tree barely clearing it. The transport landed on the ride side wheels first, before setting back down. The transport didn’t escape damage though from the jump. A few of the wheels had bent from the landing. The right front wheel had fallen off. The suspension also suffered significate damage as well.

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The dust finally settled after Johnny made his landing. “Is everyone alright back there.” Johnny asked the portal mage and her guards to see if they were okay. They just grumbled saying they were fine. After checking on the others. Johnny tried to get the transport to move. He dropped the rocket boosters to lessen the load for more speed. The damage it had suffered made it crawl at a minimum speed of 5 mph.

Johnny was getting frustrated. He looked up to see the airship had swung back to take chase. He was glad he managed to get into the tree line. He was also nervous now that he was a sitting duck. The ship fired into the trees. Most of the shots clipped off of trees or pounded the ground. One shot hit one of the discarded rocket boosters causing it to explode into a massive fireball. Everyone had a jump scare from the blast. He was then messaged by Julia asking if everything was alright. He replied he was fine and that one of the rocket boosters had been blown up he discarded off the transport.

Johnny was unsure what to do since he was on his own. He could continue further into the tree line or stop the transport and have Albert repair the damage while he manned the 30mm cannon. Johnny decided to go with the latter. He could get help from the girls when they reached him. Johnny radioed Julia of his plan. He then had Albert take over damage control.

The fighting stopped to watch Johnny take off. Everyone was in shock with Johnny’s stunt. Julia was worried when she saw Johnny disappear over the tree. Qin and Margaret, who were both engaged with air support, told Julia he had landed on the other side. Although, they told her the grin news. The transport they told her had suffered some damage from the landing.

Once everyone got out of the shock they began fighting again. The airship began to fire over where Johnny had landed. The shots were mostly blocked by the trees, some managed to hit the ground. An explosion could be heard from the other side.

After seeing the airship firing over the trees. Julia decided on a tactical retreat. She asked Johnny if he was alright after hearing an explosion. He radioed back with a static connection saying one of the rocket boosters he had discarded exploded.

A few moments later Johnny contacted her again informing her that Albert was doing damage control while he would mount up on the cannon. This news caused Julia to decide. Keep fighting or make a tactical retreat to give Johnny back up. She chose the latter informing the others. They managed to push back the reptilian humanoid as they made their way over the tree. Qin had her summons piggyback Julia, Cleo, and Lisa over the tree. They covered the retreat into the woods.

“How much longer Albert.” Johnny groaned continuing to fire off the cannon at incoming rounds from the airship.

“The repairs for 100% thirty minutes. Minimum repairs to escape for another day should take ten.” Albert relayed the message to Johnny. He just groaned from the response. Johhny had to make a choice he told Albert to do the minimal. They needed to get out of there.

Julia and the others were now facing off against the reptilian humanoid again. The opponent was tough even for their standards. Even though his guards had been finished, the man kept up the fight with no signs of stopping. They kept him at bay while Albert was desperately working with repairs. The group was getting worn down. The group was also wounded. Johnny knew they couldn’t keep this up. Their best bet was to continue on into the forest.

At this point Johnny was getting very frustrated. Instead of watching on the airship he took aim for a new target. He locked onto the reptilian humanoid with the 30mm cannon. He blasted the man with cannon fire. The beast was taken out by Julia and the others. Unfortunately, the distraction was all he needed. The reptilian humanoid smiled with a savage grin before expiring. Everyone had a puzzled look. Until they all noticed a big projectile coming into too late to stop.

The airship fired a shot that rocketed through the air. It slammed beneath the transport blowing the vehicle off the ground. Johnny was thrown from the mounted cannon. He was thrown 30 feet into the air. He slammed into a tree with his back upside down. He gasped in pain as gravity took over. The last thing Johnny saw was the ground before his vision went dark from landing on his face.

The transport suffered far worse. It was tossed into the air and barrel rolled two times before slamming into a few trees. The vehicle rested upside down. With the entire undercarriage destroyed the only thing that was intact was the frame.

Julia and the others watched in horror as the dust settled. Her elite guard made a run for the transport. When they arrived the portal mage and her guards were climbing out of the wreck. Aside from a few cuts and bruises they seemed unharmed. The portal mage told them she was able to cast a buff spell that kept them from getting severely injured before hand.

Johnny on the other hand wasn’t so lucky. Julia ran for Johnny whose body was a broken heap and bleeding. She began working her healing magic on him. She ranted in frustration telling him how stupid he was for what he did.

The group was now exposed to the airship. Julia couldn’t leave Johhny in his state. She had Qin stay with her while the others took cover in the forest. Albert appeared next to Julia telling her he could repair the prototype transport, but it would take at least half a day to complete. She sighed in frustration as she looked at Johnny’s broken body. She had stopped the bleeding and mended his broken bones. He was still in bad shape with open wounds though. Her mana was almost drained. Qin took over with healing so Julia could save what little MP she had.

The airship continued to fire everything going on. It made another pass to shoot. They all watched as the airship prepared to launch another volley of void busters. The airship never got the chance as it was hit by a beam of fire. Then another and another until the ship pulled away in retreat after being hit too much. It was burning as it began to lose altitude.

Everyone was tense as they wondered if there was a new enemy to deal with.