“Listen to me, Finn, there’s someone coming for you and I know it sounds like I’m asking you to run, but it’s important that you do not try to fight this man.” He waited for the inevitable protest but none came. Finn waited in return for him to continue. “You must not try to run either. The only way you can survive is if you hide. But just keeping out of view alone is not enough however. For you see, you also have to hide your—”

  A nearby wall exploded into pieces which showered over the poor unsuspecting Finn. All Falco could do was to scream “Hide! Hide!” while he hefted his rifle around and began loading it with powder.

  The dust from the explosion hid Finn from view, but as the dust settled Falco could once again rest his eyes on his old friend.

  Time had not been a good friend to Crassus. He stood tall and powerful as always. But the hair and beard on his head stretched long and unkempt down over his chainmail linked vest of keys. His face looked pale and emaciated, nothing at all like how he had used to be.

  Crassus heaved with anger, like there was so much hatred he could barely contain it. His white eyes bulged out of their sockets and strained to locate the intruder, the source of his wrath. There was nothing to be seen of course, he was completely blind, but Falco knew very well that Crassus had other ways to find his way. He had too many bronze keys for that not to be the case.

  Falco finished loading his rifle and swung it around over his shoulder and took aim. Crassus practically vibrated from indignation, he gulped in a large bubble of air, drew his head back, opened his mouth and screamed. No normal human could scream that loud. The roar was deafening, even all the way up to the airship. His power keys must be continually repairing his vocal chords. Normally the fortitude granted by the power key was negligible. But when you had as many as Crassus did, it became the main benefit to the key.

  Finn fell over himself trying to escape the sound. He had not listened to Falco’s order to hide and it was too late to do so now. Instead he was attempting to climb a wall rather than take the ten steps required to go around it. Maybe it had always been too late.

  “This way, boy! Come this way!” he screamed to the kid.

  Falco honed in on Crassus. If he missed, Finn would die. He called to his keys, all of them, and they answered. Blue sparks shot out from his skin, first firing out in random directions, then the next second they all surged forward as one in spirals around the rifle. Discs of black clouds with dark blue tint formed in sequence around the barrel like the cloud of condensation left behind when breaking the sound barrier.

  A ripple in the air spun out from Falco’s hand and traveled up the rifle. The spiraled tendrils of lightning and the disks of clouds all pulsed a bright blue light as the ripple went by.

  At the last moment Falco pulled the trigger. A cloud of dust shot out from the barrel. The ripple hit the cloud and transformed into something resembling a comet, or a blue fireball. It hit Crassus straight in the chest. His screaming stopped. A river of keys flowed out behind him like the bursting of a dam. Crassus groaned, looked down and brought his hands to his stomach with movements that resembled that of an old man.

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  Finn stopped the desperate climb he still hadn’t abandoned to look over his shoulder. Maybe the kid would listen now that Crassus had stopped screaming.

  “Finn! Over here, I’ll throw you a rope, you can’t run from him! This is your only option!” Falco was already tying the knot around the mast as he attempted to reason with the kid.

  “Okay, I’m here!” Falco heard the panic in the boy's voice. “Quickly, he’s waking up!”

  He secured the rope twice, tested it once, then threw it overboard. He watched it fall all the way down right between Finn’s outstretched hands and smack him in the face. He closed his eyes and fell flat on his back all while missing the rope several times with his waving hands on the way down. Falco groaned.

  “Come on, kid! Get up. Get up!” Falco gnashed his teeth together and heard the railing croak under his grip.

  Finn blinked several times, found a pile of rope nestled on his chest and gripped it. Falco spared one glance for Crassus and saw him on his knees shoveling keys with his hands into a pile in front of him. Crassus had more than enough keys still on his vest to kill them both, but the man was addicted to his precious keys. The only way to fight him was to resonate off some of his keys and escape while he collected them.

  When Falco looked back Finn had gotten to his feet and was attempting to climb the rope. Falco doubted he’d managed to clear his own height even when he fumbled his grip and fell on his ass once more. Falco cursed.

  “Don’t climb, just hold on! Hold on to the rope for your life!”

  “O-okay!” the kid stammered back but Falco had already turned and ran for the helm.

  He climbed the half-spiral staircase five steps at a time and once he was inside the helm’s room he spared no time for the remaining distance. Instead he took off his metal helmet and threw it. It hit the control levers at the panel, even the correct one, and pulled it all the way back, as intended. But when the lever hit the maximum setting and wanted to stop whereas the steel helmet wanted to continue, a brief battle of wills occurred. Which the helmet won. The lever broke clean off.

  Falco gulped. He heard Crassus resume his roar. Falco spared one more glance for the broken lever but he turned to leave again. It would have to do.

  He almost fell when he ran down the stairs and rather than risk his neck further by running the last twenty steps he jumped. He stuck the landing but pain radiated from the soles of his feet.

  He reached the railing and looked down. Finn floated thirty paces in the air, clinging to the rope with all he was worth. Falco almost shouted in celebration but the huzzah died on his lips as he spotted Crassus, or rather the large segment of wall that Crassus must be under. The segment shifted back.

  “Watch o—” Falco tried to warn Finn, but it was too late.

  The segment of wall blurred and the next moment it hurtled towards Finn. Falco felt a surge in his stomach as if he looked down into the drop off a cliff. All he could do was watch.

  The wall missed Finn by several paces, but hit the rope above him. The rope, with Finn on the end, slingshotted up and around the segment of wall and the centrifugal force peeled Finn off the rope like a flaky piece of old paint. Falco moaned involuntarily and made a half hearted attempt to shield his eyes with one hand, but he couldn’t stop watching.

  Finn screamed and flailed about. He swung in a graceful arc into the rope and was once again smacked in the face.

  Falco almost threw himself over the railing he leaned so far out. “Get a grip, you moron!”

  Finn started accelerating down towards the ground, but he regained his composure faster this time. His fists closed around the rope and Falco could almost hear the friction scorch the kid’s palms as they slowed his descent ‘till a stop.