Zed hit the ground. He stumbled, struggling to keep Shanine in a gentle hold, before righting himself.

That could’ve gone smoother, he thought, shaking his legs out.

He was surrounded by countless trees. They were so many that they were capable of holding up the crashed ship.

Oliver hit the ground with a loud thud and didn’t stagger.

There’s that Rukh rank strength.

Ash dropped next. Her knees bent forward completely and she was forced to keep herself stable with a hand on the ground. When she was steady, she got up and dusted her hands.

Chris remained quiet in Oliver’s arms, saying nothing, doing nothing. Her eyes were closed so maybe she was unconscious. But Zed couldn’t bring himself to believe that. She clearly wasn’t pretending to be asleep because that would just be stupid.

Zed looked up at the distance they’d dropped from. No one can sleep through that kind of fall.

“How did you know we were going to make the drop?” Oliver asked, looking up.

Zed blinked. “How did I what?”

“The drop. How did you know it wasn’t too high?”

Zed looked at anywhere that wasn’t Oliver’s eyes, and Oliver’s jaw dropped.

“Please tell me you knew we were going to survive it.”

“In my defense.” Zed adjusted his hold on Shanine so he could raise a dramatic finger. “We survived the drop.”

Ash winced. “Not completely.”

She walked over to them, limping a little before her steps corrected themselves. It seemed whatever had happened to her wasn’t so bad if she was healing it already.

“So,” she ran a hand through her hair, “any idea what hit us?”

Zed paused. She’d asked him so naturally, as if she expected him to know. “An EMP. I’m guessing that took out the electric power.”

“Then the mana thing-y Trevor was talking about came on,” Oliver added. “So what took that out?”

Zed pulled up his notification with a mental command.

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* [???????] has used effect [Mana Pulse].

* [Mana Pulse] has applied effect [Mana disruption].

* Your [Mana] is too high.

* You have resisted [Mana disruption].

* Your [Wil] is too high.

* You have resisted [Mana disruption]

* [Raw Mana] has resisted effect [Mana disruption].

* [Mana disruption] does not take effect.

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He looked through it quickly.

“No idea what it’s called.” He dismissed it and turned to them. “But it hit us with something called a mana pulse. Any idea what that is?”

“Strong tech.” Ash shook out her leg, the one she’d been limping with. “Only really top dogs use that. The VHF, Some guys in Russia. Generally, top players.”

Zed nodded. “Sounds like the VHF have important enemies.”

“Yeah,” Oliver agreed. “And if they took the time to bring out the big guns to stop then from leaving, then I’m sure they’ll be on their way here.”

He rolled his shoulders. Chris still didn’t wake up. “I say we better get out of here.”

“What of Festus?” Zed asked, looking back up. “We can’t just leave him there.”

“You do know we should be more worried about ourselves than Festus, right?”

“We got hit with a mana pulse, which you guys said is a really strong thing. And then,” he pointed up, “we crashed. I think worrying about Festus is justified if he’s up there.”

Ash and Oliver shared a look.

Ash was the first to speak.

“Do you think it would be strong enough to affect him?”

Oliver looked up, thoughtful. “I can’t really say with a Knight. Who knows what they can and can’t take?”

Zed wasn’t a fan of being left out right now. Not when it had something to do with Festus. “Guys? What am I missing?”

“The thing we were hit with disrupts mana,” Ash explained.

“I already know that. I felt it, too.”

“Yes, so what happens is that it makes the mage unable to affect the mana around them for a while or even use theirs properly.”

Zed looked up at the ship still in the tall trees, then down. “We made the jump so I’d say we recovered quite quickly.”

“Because the ship took most of the blast.” Ash started walking forward. “Trust me, you don’t want to take that blast head on. It’s like having constipation and diarrhea at the same time.”

“Then let’s not get hit by it.” Zed changed Shanine’s position, and placed her over his shoulder to free up his hands. “But we can’t leave Festus up there.”

There was a moment of tense silence where nobody said anything. It was clear Ash and Oliver were thinking of how best to react to his new found stubbornness.

Personally, he felt he was being stubborn. They were still in danger. And whoever was after them had a machine that could blast an entire ship out of the sky.

But I can’t leave Festus behind.

Oliver groaned, then dropped his head. “Fine.”

Ash turned to him. “Fine?”

“Yes,” he sighed. “We really can’t leave him there.”

“Then how do you propose we get back up there?”

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

“Who says we have to get back up there?” Zed asked. “Ollie, can you gather enough mana for a gravity spell? Something with a strong pull.”

Oliver looked puzzled. “I can.”

He didn’t sound very sure of the words.

“That will do.” Zed pointed a finger at the ship, specifically a few of the largest branches holding it up. “If I just time it right, I can just—”

Ash came up and held his arm. “What are you trying to do?”

“Well, if I can blast enough branches to shake the ship off the trees—”

“Then it will come crashing down. People will die in there.”

“Not if Oliver can displace the force of the fall with a strong enough gravitational pull.”

“You asked if he can create a spell with enough gravitational pull. How’s that supposed to help.”

Zed looked from her to the arm she was still holding, then lowered it. This was the worst time to be arguing.

“Ollie, do you have a spell that will be strong enough to pull a ship?”

Oliver scratched his head in thought. “I can’t say I—”

An explosion boomed above them with enough force to rock the ground beneath them. It dislodged a few of the branches and the ship teetered to one side.

Zed turned to Oliver. “Please tell me that came from inside the ship.”

Oliver didn’t look certain of anything. “All I can say is that the back of the ship’s smoking and that wasn’t a magical attack.”

“No shit.” Zed aimed at the tree and started drawing a rune.

“You’ll blast them down, and someone might get hurt.” Despite her warning, Ash wasn’t stopping him this time.

“Someone’s already trying to blast them off.”

Another explosion rocked the ship and this time he saw where it was coming from.

“Ollie, watch the east,” he said, adjusting his aim. “Whoever’s shooting them is over there somewhere.”

Oliver turned east as Zed steadied his aim.

Then he drew the rune too fast even for himself.

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* You have used basic rune [Force]

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A large blast of purple rings shot out from the rune. It went through the distance and struck another group of the already loose branches. The ship teetered some more and he watched something propelled with fire whiz right past it.

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* Basic rune [Force] has applied effect [Knockback] on [Olympian Ship]

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Zed was more concerned by the unidentified object that had just flown by. “What the hell was that?”

“Was that…” Ash lifted a hand over her eyes as if to shade them from the sun the canopy of trees and the ship were already interfering with. “Was that an RPG?”

“Wait.” Zed was confused. “Are you saying our enemies, whoever they are, are using RPGs? Not magic?”

Ash dropped her hand and shrugged. “Looked like a rocket to me.”

That changed everything.

“Ollie, prepare for a more explosive attack. I don’t think our friends are very confident in their long range firepower.”

He cast [Force] again and it dislodged another branch. Progress not perfect.

But progress is taking too long. We don’t want to be here when whoever they are shows up.

His next blast pushed aside another branch and the ship came crashing down. It broke through the remaining branches holding it up and fell straight down.

Zed pumped a fist in the air. “Yes.”

He watched its descent, and realized they had a new problem.

“EVERYBODY RUN!!!”

The movies made large things look very slow when they were falling. The movies lied. The ship was falling too fast.

Zed’s legs carried him as fast as it could, he ran as hard as he could. The good news was that they hadn’t been directly under it. The bad news was that it was still a very large ship. It had enough width to take care of their annihilation.

He worried more for Oliver than Ash or himself.

Shanine weighed next to nothing in his hands. But Chris was a Rukh, Oliver had to be feeling her weight.

Why didn’t anyone think of giving it some distance? he thought as he ran.

He was worried for Shanine as well. He could heal any injury if they didn’t clear the distance on time, and Ash was strong enough to heal a few injuries.

Shanine was the weakest of all of them. He didn’t even know what benefits blood mana would give her as an awakened.

That’s it. he grabbed her flailing legs in both hands. She’s an awakened, so she’s sturdier than a normal person.

He moved into a turn as he ran, then spun. She would either forgive him for this, or she would not. He really hoped she would.

The spin shifted her body from his shoulder and he held on tight to her legs. Then he flung her.

She scaled a distance and landed somewhere in the forest. It was a dangerous throw but possible severe injury was better than certain severe injury.

He hoped.

When the ship hit the ground, he felt it perfectly well. The ground rumbled with enough force to throw someone off it. Zed lost his footing, his stability interrupted by the spin. The ground rose up beneath him, flinging him.

Of to his side, he saw the same thing happening to Oliver. But unlike him, Oliver didn’t seem far enough away from the ship.

Have to time this right, Zed thought as the nanoseconds ticked on by. Is it just me or am I too quick to decide what’s possible and what’s certain?

It was really too late to ask the correct question. He’d already finished his rune and activated it.

----------------------------------------

* You have used basic rune [Force].

* Basic rune [Force] has applied effect [Knockback] on mage [Oliver Brown].

----------------------------------------

The ring of purple force blasted Oliver right in the back. He arced backwards when it hit him and Zed could’ve sworn he heard his name and something unpleasant as Oliver was blasted off.

He’ll forgive me, right? There’s no way he won’t forgive me.

The crash flung him in a debris of dirt and rocks and roots, and he tumbled chaotically through the distance, flung like a useless rag doll.

I’m sure he’ll forgive me… right?

Zed hit a tree, throwing his current trajectory off. All he could think about, besides the pain, was how he had two people he needed to apologize to if they ever made it out alive.

Wait! Two? Where’s Ash?

Zed’s mind was still scattered on his thoughts. He couldn’t believe he’d forgotten Ash.

Then again, Oliver had been the greater worry with all his weight, and Shanine had been forefront on his mind considering her weakness. But he felt that a part of him should’ve thought of Ash at least once.

I kind of did, though, he thought as he struggled to push himself off the ground.

There was sand in his mouth, and a piece of leaf or two. Nothing too dangerous. His greater concern was his head. He remembered hitting it mid flight—mid fling?

He placed his hand on a tree as he pushed himself up.

He expected to stagger when he stood up, maybe feel a little dizziness here or there. The throw had been quite hard, and he did hit his head.

Surprisingly, he felt fine. No dizziness, no weak legs.

Odd. He checked his head with his hand, then looked at it. No blood.

He was getting sturdier. A few days ago he would’ve been worried about a concussion, being tossed about like that.

Less self-praise, more looking for the others.

He turned around and found himself surrounded by trees. But it wasn’t as far as the eyes could see. Just beyond, at the end of his sight, the trees ended and were replaced by what may or may not be buildings.

Zed pointed in it’s direction. So that’s my way out, and…

He looked in the opposite direction. There were a few broken trees, some still standing tall, but nothing he was looking for. He panned his gaze to the side very slowly, until he found it. when he did, he pointed.

And, that’s the ship. Must’ve been thrown real far if it’s that small.

He kept his arms raised, fingers pointed in two directions. He had his way out now, all he had to do was take it. It was a long walk, and maybe a short sprint.

He could be out of here in a matter of moments or he could risk his life saving the others, or trying to save them.

It was a decision he had to make between both options. But it wasn’t a tough one.

He turned and headed towards the ship.

I think something might be wrong with my sense of self-preservation, he thought as he walked. I blame it on regenerate. Kinda hard to be scared of injuries if you’re always healing from them immediately.

Zed did his best to be quiet as he approached the ship. He walked slowly, slightly crouched so that he was below eye level. His hair ruffled in the occasional raised wind level and tickled his cheeks. Since it didn’t get in his eyes, he couldn’t say it bothered him.

As he moved, he kept his attention open. The ship wasn’t his only priority. He needed to find Oliver, Ash, and Shanine.

Not necessarily in that order… by the way, which way did I throw her?

He’d known the answer to the question up until he’d hit a tree. Now… well, it was anyone’s guess.

He was close to the ship now. None of the others in sight thus far.

The ship was right there, massive in its hulking size, just a few trees away.

It felt too easy. The ship had enemies that were converging on it, and Zed still had that second quest about surviving. He could’ve pulled it up but now wasn’t the time for distractions.

Instead, he placed himself behind a tree and waited.

It would be stupid to get killed while trying to save someone stronger than him. kind of worse to be killed by what I don’t know.

The enemy was still out there somewhere, most likely carrying a riot shield. And he only knew of one group of people who carried riot shields since he’d woken up.