Chapter 75: Interception 5

Elania stood at the prow of the Heart as the ship pushed through the sky.

The entire Contia airship fleet stretched out in a long line to her right. She glanced back, confirming the Gold trailed behind the Heart, with Yolani commanding from its deck.

To the left, the flying city of Contia itself cut through the air, easing its pace to match the slowest airships. The fact that the city could move faster than either the Heart or Gold was ridiculous.

It had taken half a day to secure loose debris and prepare for the journey.

Even an hour into the flight, small bits of the city trailed off into the air as the wind pressed against it. The least maintained buildings sloughed off like dead skin shed by a creature. Elania frowned, hoping no one had been inside, though she feared it was likely.

Her receiver crackled with a weak message from Arlois, announcing the enemy’s presence ahead and warning that communication would soon be impossible. All commanders were instructed to use their discretion.

Despite Contia’s love for bureaucracy and laws, its military was essentially a gaggle of captains, each acting independently, alongside three of the Four Towers blasting away. Well, plus herself, now.

To be fair, Arlois had mentioned it had been over a century since the city last went to battle.

They had far more time to detail the intricacies of inter-demi-divine relations than to establish proper military formations. Elania hoped the enemy was similarly disorganized, as her experience in Neftasu suggested might be the case.

It still made her nervous that their strategy essentially boiled down to a dumb “Select All” and “Attack Move.”

The morning sun hung behind them as the air fleet pressed forward.

Elania squinted, finally spotting the first enemy warships on the horizon, their silhouettes moving perpendicular to their own formation.

A crewman’s shout carried across the Heart, announcing that the other airships had raised the enemy sighted signal. In response, the fleet surged ahead of Contia, engines roaring to life as they pushed the ships into military power. They couldn’t maintain that pace forever, but it would hopefully be enough to close the distance.

The Heart lagged for a moment, it’s smaller artifice engine taking longer to charge up. But they slowly began to pick up speed, and then they started to zoom.

The wind whipped through Elania’s hair as she watched the unfolding movements. They caught up and then surpassed the other ships, angling upwards rather than straight forward.

Elania bit her lip. She knew it would be her turn to act soon enough, but for now, she let the crew and Harlock handle the ship’s maneuvers.

As the Heart gained altitude, Elania noted the other lighter airships, those with two or even a single balloon, rising alongside them.

Their task was to chase down any fleeing enemy vessels, who seemed entirely oblivious to their approach. A smile tugged at the corners of Elania’s mouth. Coming in from the sun with the dawn had helped maintain their element of surprise.

Only when the Contian ships were nearly upon them did the enemy vessels begin to turn away, desperately trying to group up in a defensive formation.

But it was much too late.

The larger Contian airships opened fire with their newly installed long-range artillery, the sound of the cannons reverberating through the air.

Large puffs of red smoke filled the sky where the timed fuses detonated the shells just in front of the enemy ships.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Arcane fields flared up, a shimmering barrier that the enemy crews likely expected to protect them.

But Elania could imagine the chaos erupting on their decks as small fires and sparks rained down upon them, the black powder shells spewing their deadly shrapnel across ships and crews alike, bypassing the magical defenses they had relied upon.

A call went out that drew Elania’s gaze to the north. The rest of the Lightbringer fleet was on the way.

They’d be far too late to assist the detached patrol.

Instead of trying to flee to their allies, the enemy group turned and charged toward the Contia airships.

Elania glanced at the Gold, then leaped off the Heart’s prow, unfurling her wings. As the two airships flashed by, she waved to Yolani before folding her wings and diving toward the enemy vessels.

A massive laser erupted from Contia, slicing two battered enemy airships in half, creating colossal detonations.

Elania dove for the enemy ship at the center of their wedge, pulling up at the last second with a flare of her wings to level her [Regalia] at them.

A white blast of kinetic force lanced out of the barrel, punching through the ship from above.

Arcane shields were weak or nonexistent from above and below, and airship combat, from what she knew, meant avoiding allowing enemy ships to get shots from those angles.

That meant little to her, though, and she fired a second shot that pierced the airship’s rear. The strike hit something vital, and a second later, the rear half of the ship exploded in a massive fireball, sending the vessel hurtling toward the ground.

Despite the growing damage, the Lightbringer ships closed the range.

Elania bit her lip and then flew to the next ship, dodging several blasts of flame darts fired from swivels.

Rolling and then flipping to face the rear of the ship, she fired her [Regalia] into the ship’s center of mass. The kinetic force of the elemental bullet ripped a tornado from stern to bow, carving out the engines.

She flashed forward and then flung her wings in front of her as she pierced straight through the balloon, slashing it open. The enemy ship went into an uncontrolled tumble towards the ground.

Elania angled upward to gain altitude, flying backward to survey the battle. The enemy ships traded arcane fire with the Contians but were heavily outnumbered.

The wind whipped through her hair as she ascended.

Several smaller enemy ships turned to flee, breaking away from the primary engagement and heading toward the bulk of the Lightbringer fleet in the north.

Her eyes darted to the Heart and Gold, watching as they surged forward, their engines roaring to life as they pursued the fleeing ships. Elania picked up speed, her wings propelling her through the air as she caught up to the Gold. She grabbed onto a balloon line, steadying herself as she waved to the bridge.

The crew were battened down inside, bracing themselves for the impending dive.

Through a window, Elania spotted Yolani, her eyes wide as she waved back. The sheer scale of the airship battle below was both exhilarating and terrifying, with magic and bullets flying in all directions.

Elania turned her attention forward, keeping track of the enemy ships the Heart and Gold pursued. As they closed the distance, the Lightbringer vessels opened fire, launching flameshot projectiles that impaled themselves into the arcane barriers at the bow of the Contian ships.

The Heart and Gold leveled off, turning to present their broadsides to the enemy. Crewmen rushed out of hiding, filling the deck as they manned guns and delivered ammunition. Others pulled out rifles, taking aim at the enemy ships and opening fire at a steady rate.

Elania took that as her cue to attack. She let go of the rope, flinging herself forward into the fray, her [Regalia] at the ready as she prepared to engage the fleeing Lightbringers.

Elania flashed forward, her wings spread wide as she willed them into deadly blades.

With a swift slice, she severed the ropes holding the balloon to the first enemy ship.

The vessel lurched sideways, dangling precariously from the remaining ropes on one side. Men spilled into the air, along with equipment and debris, their screams lost in the battle’s chaos.

A barrage of artillery from the Heart slammed into the exposed top of the ship, causing it to detonate in a fiery explosion.

Elania flared her wings, preparing to engage the other ship, but the twin artillery cannons from both the Heart and Gold delivered a devastating four-shot salvo. The Lightbringer vessel’s arcane defense fields crumbled under the blow.

Wood and metal shattered as a second salvo from the lighter cannons tore through the unprotected hull, shrapnel digging deep into the ship’s structure before blasting out the other side.

Flames erupted from the rear, leaving the vessel spiraling out of control. Another salvo from the artillery cannons reduced the ship to an expanding cloud of debris, the remnants of the once-formidable vessel scattered across the sky.

Elania let out a breath, surveying the aftermath of the engagement.

She glanced back at the central battle between the Contian warships and the Lightbringers, noting that all the enemy ships had been destroyed or were in the process of crashing.

In contrast, none of the Contian vessels appeared to have suffered heavy damage.

Her attention turned to the north, where the bulk of the enemy fleet awaited.

Elania began to count the Lightbringer warships, her heart sinking with each passing number.

Ten. Twenty. Thirty. Forty.

The fight was only just beginning.