Part 1

"It ends now!"

Seeing that the mana barrier has weakened, Elias readied more than a hundred mana orbs previously revolving around their ship to serve as the final attack.

This put a considerable amount of stress to him. It's enough to make an ordinary person exhaust all his mana.

As soon as the selected mana orbs stopped, he directed them to Stella as if pushing them onto it.

"!!!"

Before the mana orbs hit the enemy ship,  a surge of blue light exploded outward. This frightened not only Elias and Minnie but all of those who were watching.

The hundred mana orb barrage quickly dispersed as a result.

"Took you long enough."

Aria with beads of sweat flowing down her head can finally relax as she focused her attention on the Flow and Main Controls.

Seconds before the attack hit, Valion took control of the shields whose stabilizers were removed before the game started and applied the Corus' ability.

The surge of light was the result of their training.

They realized that the Corus can only trigger a huge amount of power for a moment so the timing is essential to pull off a risky move like that.

They called the ability 'Burst Trigger.'

This ability can also be applied to the other controls but it also puts a certain amount of stress to the ship so using it often is not advisable.

"Thanks for waiting. The Combat Control was really hard to destabilize. One wrong move and we're toast."

"Let's end this."

"Defeating them is tricky. When you think about it our ship is an empowered type while theirs is a projectile type.

We need to close the distance but I'll do more than that so full speed ahead. We'll switch to offense!"

There are three basic types of Sky Ships: Empowered, Projectile and Condition.

Empowered types are also called melee type ships that can produce mana blades as their primary offensive weapon.

They can still use guns but due to the focus on strengthening the close range combat power and defensive build.

The focus would be too broad for people not used to switching functions rapidly or using mana blades and magun at the same time.

Empowered types can still use maguns but they are inferior than those built on the projectile types.

Projectile types are the long range shy ships. This type is the most common and most destructive of the three.

They mainly focus on beating the enemy before they can even come close, sacrificing their defensive shields to put more focus on the maguns built onto them.

This type of Sky Ship can dominate the sky if the combat controller is a good marksman.

There are even Projectile type Sky Ships that have more than one combat controllers inside.

Condition type are those that can provide support and cripple the enemy ships.

They can disrupt the mana flow of a Sky Ships or even disable controls.

A condition type plays an essential role in winning large scale battles due to their versatility.

Some condition type can even repair damages from other ships under certain circumstances.

"What are they doing now?"

"Elias they're switching to offense!"

"Are they crazy?"

The distance between them widened due to Squall distancing itself when the "Burst Trigger" was used.

With this gap, Squall can easily rain mana orbs upon them so it's not advisable.

Valion knew the risks but he also trusted his skills and his partner.

Stella went straight for the kill while Squall directed all the mana orbs to target the enemy ship.

The two combat pilot were screaming as they gave it their all.

Squall gathered all the remaining mana orbs and merged them into one concentrated sphere that is almost as big as Squall itself.

Elias then pushed it towards Stella but it in turn released a mana surge similar to the one before to act as a shield.

Stella's barrier was near collapse when it got close to Squall.

During the split second before the collision, Stella focused all it's mana that's previously enveloped across the ship as a shield and directed them to it's nose creating a mana blade in the process.

Following that, Valion used Burst Trigger to enlarge the blade enough to critically damage the enemy ship.  The people watched as Squall was split into two by the giant blade made by Stella.

"I.. Lost?"

Elias was in disbelief as his ship fell down from the sky.

He looked up and saw the enemy ship.

He felt as if it's looking down on him.

"Elias you need to eject now! Elias!"

Minnie knew that he was in a state of shock so before leaving she ejected Elias first.

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

A Sky Ship has an ejection module that is located in the seats.

It's only function is to slow down the descent while invoking a mana shield around the chair to protect the person seated from debris.

"Minnie.. I'm.. Sorry."

The exhaustion and stress created by the battle was too much.

As the crowds cheered for the victor, Elias blacked out.

From afar, the Patriarch of House Eurus and his retainers watched as the two descended from the sky.

"Lord Jora, forgive my son's loss.

He is still young and this will only make him stronger."

"I'm not disappointed in what I saw. As a matter of fact, I'm delighted."

"R-Really?"

"You should be more proud of your son. Seeing his capabilities in mana manipulation, I'm excited to see what kind of pilot he'll become."

"To receive such praise! We're not worthy my lord!"

"Tell our men to help Elias and Minnie. They will need some time to recuperate from this so order all their training to be postponed for now."

"Yes my lord!"

'Valion Notos. Son of Victor Notos. How high will you fly?'

He stood up as he remembered the tragedy that has befallen to the Notos family. The only thing left now is regret and shame on his part.

As he left, several men that may be his retainers and guards followed him closely.

Part 2

Stella sluggishly landed to the hangar where a pissed off Etsa is standing.

She realized midgame that the stabilizers on the Combat and Shield Controls are disabled which not only damaged the ship permanently, it also made her efforts be in vain.

She's more sad than angry to be honest but not because they destabilized some of the controls but because she lacked foresight.

The ability to maximize the potential of the Corus was her job but in the end it was the two that figured it out.

As soon as the two got out, the ship broke down. It seemed that the damaged accumulated by the repeated use of the Corus degraded the ship's durability.

Using the Corus with normal material seemed like a no go. In order to use the Corus' ability all the time, they needed something sturdier than metal.

"Etsa! We won! We won!"

Aria was brimming with happiness as she grabbed Etsa's hands while jumping for joy.

She was probably still high from the adrenaline but Etsa clearly understood how enjoyable it should be for Aria.

"Yeah.. Congratulations. Now that you figured out how to maximize the potential of the Corus, I guess you won't need my help anymore right?"

"What are you talking about? It's clearly not working if it leaves the ship in that state. We'll need you to build us a ship that can withstand it's ability."

Valion said those words as he walked away from the two.

Maybe just maybe it was his way of encouraging Etsa.

"I.. see. I'll do my best then."

"We loo forward to working with you Etsa."

Aria gripped her hands tightly, exposing her excitement.

"Besides, the real battle is about to start. The final enemy we're about to face will be quite troublesome after all."

As Valion said that he looked at one of the screens in the hangar showing the next battle.

The third and fourth year students' battle just started. He watched as the third years' ship exploded.

The battle ended much faster than theirs did. And the victor was none other than Xeo Boreas, the heir of House Boreas.4

"Hey Etsa. Do you have any information against Xeo?"

"I only know what everyone knows. He's the son of the Boreas Patriarch. His partner is Glenn Meses.

Their ship is a Condition type but it's quite a mystery what kind of condition it imposes on it's enemies.

The only thing I know is that it's built by the Boreas family themselves meaning it has the advanced technology that family is known for."

"Even without the condition they were still able to beat the third years with ease.

If they can beat them without the Corus' ability then we best be prepared for anything."

"That's much easier said than done though."

Valion noticed Aria's smile as she said those words. The time they spent together still didn't give him a single clue as to how her mind works.

"Then why are you smiling?"

"Well won't it be fun to figure out? It's quite satisfying when we defeat really strong sky ships!"

"I can't deny that."

"Valion.. Aria.. Are you saying that you have a chance of beating them?"

Aria turned and looked at Etsa with a confident grin.

She made a face that says it's a secret while winking.

This made Etsa befuddled of what's about to come next.