Boom! Boom!

The intensity of their struggle enhanced, sweat was trickling down their brows and their muscles were straining to hold on. At that key moment, Mentos burst onto the scene quickly taking in the chaos of the cargo hold, noting the scattered debris, the crackling flames licking at the edges of the breached wall, and the precarious positions of Hao and Kiera. “I’m coming Vee!” Without hesitation, he gripped the hilt of Shark Skimmer, his jagged shark tooth-edged sword, and sprang into action.

Mentos tried his best to get closer towards his friend, but the tilt structure of the Skyship was proving to be difficult for him to traverse safely. His sword was held firmly at his side, ready to be utilized in their rescue. Getting closer, he spotted a familiar figure in his peripheral vision and gasped. What he saw was Yoad and Barkcode, who had apparently managed to sneak onboard the Skyship.

“You! What the heck are you doing on board this aircraft?” Hao and Mentos were both alarmed to see him, but there was no time for explanations.

"Since you’re here, I need you to help me with something!" Mentos’s shout was barely audible over the crackling flames and grinding metal.

“I understand. I’ll follow your lead.” Said Yoad, gripping Barkcode's fur tightly as the transformed Beast Companion lunged to assist Mentos. They had to be careful to avoid falling crates and debris.

“You guys hurry!” Hao cried out, with him and Kiera mere moments from being lost in the sky,

“I’m on it!” Mentos leapt into action. He swung Shark Skimmer in a wide arc, embedding it into the side of the cargo hold. Using the sword's tether, Mentos and Yoad lunged towards Hao, hoping to grab hold of him and save him from certain death.

Kiera struggled to cling to Hao, but it was clear that Mentos and Yoad were focused solely on saving their friend, not her.

“No!” Kiera's fingers grazed Hao's sleeve as he slipped out of her grasp and into the waiting arms of his comrades.

“Come on, we’ve got you, Vee.” Mentos and Yoad did their best to pull Hao upward, the three friends were holding on for dear life as the Skyship bucked and swayed.

Rumble!

“I told you before that if I’m going to fall to my doom then you better be damn sure I’m taking you with me!” Kiera held true to her word. With a final, desperate cry, she reached upward and grabbed onto the bottom half of Judgment Day which was poised at Hao’s back.

“Huh!” Hao felt the X-Class sword quickly slipping from his back, seconds later, he lost contact with the sword entirely, it was now falling towards the open space with Kiera. “No!” Hao’s untrammelled thirst to unsheathe Judgment Day compelled him to do something foolish. He wrenched his hand from Mentos’s pull to go retrieve the priceless artefact.

Whoosh!

“Vee! What the hell mate! Are you insane!?” Mentos almost popped a head vein. He couldn’t believe what his friend just did.

Yoad, seeing what had just occurred was equally stunned, “Why did he let go? Does he have a death wish?”

“It’s that damn sword!” Mentos cursed, “It seems to have sunk its evil clutches in his mind and possess him somehow.”

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“Possess? What are you talking about?” Yoad was yet to be aware of Judgment Day’s true nature.

Now both Kiera and Hao had slipped through the gap into the open sky. Seeing Hao soaring down towards her, she yelled, “I didn’t know you had such jumbo balls. Who’s the clingy one now?”

“I just want that sword!” The wind rushed against his face and he almost swallowed a bug, but neither of these would deter him from reclaiming what he thought was rightfully his.

“This thing…?” Kiera briefly overlooked Judgment Day, it didn’t take her long to recognize its sinister appeal, not wanting to be contaminated by its dark lust, she hurriedly toss it away. “Go fetch!” She snickered at Hao whilst in the midst of falling to her death.

“No! Damn, you woman!” Hao was extremely livid. Words couldn’t express accurately what he was feeling. There were days when he hit certain snags and could work around them, but today he was reaching his limit of tolerance in dealing with this cunning enemy.

"Shalla! Come get me!" Kiera's desperate cry rang through the open air as she plummeted toward the earth. The majestic aerial Bastian that she called out to, was perched on the eastern side above the Skyship when it heard its master's call. With a surge of power, the creature spread its wings wide and dove towards Kiera, cutting through the air with the grace and speed of a falcon. The wind whistled around it as it raced to the rescue.

At the same time this was happening, the other Bastian Bandits who were outside the Skyship, dealing with the last set of gun turrets, heard Kiera's cry for help. They glanced downward, alarmed, and spotted her and Hao descending to their deaths. They were burdened with concern that almost made them stop what they were doing to attempt a rescue, but they knew this was unnecessary because Shalla was already carrying it out.

'Come on! I can't let it fade!' This was Hao’s thought as he was falling, his Vibe Sense was starting to lose track of Judgment Day's precise location. The rushing wind and aerial interference distorted the vibrations, making it difficult for him to pinpoint the sword's exact position.

At that moment, Kiera's beast, Shalla, gave off a mighty roar that alerted Hao to its incoming presence. ‘I need to act quickly.’ Realizing what he needed to do to survive, Hao slashed his sword and activated Night Tamer. A burst of dark noise flourished around him and within an instant, he teleported closer to Judgment Day with his arm outstretched. The wind rushed against him as his fingers closed around the scabbard of the X-Class sword, soon, a triumphant expression crossed his face.

"I've got it!" Hao shouted, clutching the priceless weapon. However, his situation was still dire. ‘Now I just need to go back up.’ Just then, he sensed Kiera at the outer limit of his Vibe Sense range being rescued. She was scooped up by her Beast Companion; Hao could almost see her snigger of triumph.

"That bastard won't make it! I'm the one who's going to survive!" she boasted, believing that Hao was about to die.

‘That's my cue!’ After securing Judgment Day at his back, Hao slashed the air with Vibe Edge and used Night Tamer once more to teleport upward until he latched onto Shalla's tail at the very last moment. The scene was incredibly dramatic, Hao's fingers were gripping the creature's tail as if his life depended on it – which it did.

“Huh!” Kiera noticed Hao hanging on and cursed, "You persistent little bug! Why won't you die!?"

Hao forced a smirk and responded, "That's easy. I'm immortal." His joking response infuriated Kiera even more, to the point where she ordered Shalla to speed up, moreover, trying to jerk him off by making sharp turns and sudden drops.

“Woah! Steady!” Hao held on for dear life, his fingers were burning from the force of his grip.

Back inside the cargo hold of the Skyship, Yoad and Mentos were holding onto a support beam to prevent themselves from being sucked out into the sky. They watched the scene with Hao and Kiera unfold, relieved that Hao had found a way to survive, but Mentos was still visibly upset.

"I can't believe he would risk his life for that cursed sword," he grumbled while clenching his fists.

“Is that sword worth more than his life?” Yoad had no clue just how valuable that sword Hao was fighting hard to cling onto actually cost. To put it bluntly, if word got out to the public about Judgment Day's existence, it might cause a global anomaly that could quite possibly shift the balance of the fate of Optimum and put many lives at risk. This was one of the main reasons why the Imperial Hounds were acting discretely to retrieve the stolen weapon and they were counting on it to remain locked and inaccessible to Hao, but knowing him to be a skilled Blade Engineer didn’t sit well with them, hence they were unsettled greatly due to the slim possibility of it being unlocked weighing on their shoulders.