Luna was at the end of her limits.

Any cover she could find, Treese shot right through it. The Silvus soldiers used grenades and flamers to flush her out of cover. As she ducked to find protection, Treese managed to hit her on her foot. She was forced to stay low as a hail of bullets poured down on her position.

The endless zing and grind of bullets was all she could hear.

Let them be safe at least. Luna desperately prayed. Maker, I beg of you, Let me die here, but let them escape.

A massive loud horn blared in the air, followed by the sound of rotors, screams, and volley fire. Treese and the soldiers scrambled as a new batch of gyrocopters breached the clouds and performed a strafing run.

Behind the Silvus strike fleet, a new group of airships emerged from the clouds but one airship stood out above the rest. It was a capital airship; a gigantic circular ship that was double the size of the dreadnaught. The ship seemingly had a fortress and walls on its deck as its hundreds of cannons opened fire. Alongside it were, cruisers and dreadnaughts, with dozens upon dozens of biplanes and gyrocopters. When she saw the banners hanging on the walls of the capital ship, she exhaled with relief.

It was Alexander’s personal strike fleet. The gold and white capital airship contrasted with the red and black of the Silvus ships. Alexander’s ship, which had massive tusks on its front that acted as a ram, boomed its war horn as his fleet rammed the Silvus strike fleet from the rear. The capital airship collided with a cruiser in its path. The impact cracked the cruiser and caused it to explode, while Alexander’s ship continued firing all its guns towards the enemy.

The Silvus fleet focused on Alexander as his strike fleet was cutting through them, giving Vhlad a chance to pull back.

Luna then saw Solomon’s gyrocarrier come out of Vhlad’s hangar and provided a strafing attack on the deck of Treese’s dreadnaught, giving her a chance to find new cover. As the gyrocarrier headed down, Treese’s walker recovered and gave chase, with him firing his rifle at her. One shot missed Luna but destroyed her second grappling hook.

=0o0=

The enforcers aboard the gyrocarrier peppered the hangar and demolished the soldiers that surrounded everyone. As they landed, Solomon, armed with his portable gattling canon, was the first to come out alongside his knights, who provided covering fire.

"Move!" Baldric ordered. He personally carried Elizabeth and guided Annie onto the gyrocarrier. He saw Solomon carefully picked up his wife and carrying her onto the carrier. They made sure no one was left behind as Baldric helped the knights evacuate.

"Get us out of here!" Solomon roared once everyone was inside.

"Belay that! Luna is still out there!" Baldric yelled.

"She’s on the topside! We’ll pick her up there!" Solomon said as he banged the sides of his vehicle.

When they made their way to the top, the sky was filled with Silvus biplanes attacking Alexander and Vhlad’s glider fighters. In the distance, Alexander has already destroyed half of the Silvus strike fleet.

"I can’t see her!" Baldric yelled as he tried to find Luna on the burning top deck of the airship. A silvus biplane strafed towards them, but the gyrocarrier managed to evade the oncoming plane. But the carrier was shot on its left side, leaving a massive hole. Miraculously, no one was hurt.

"Lord Solomon we cannot stall up here! We are too open!" The pilot yelled out.

"Circle around! We need to-"

"Left side! Left side!"

Another biplane almost hit them, but the pilot dodged quickly. The biplane missed, but the gyrocarrier spun out of control. Everyone inside held on, with Baldric holding on to Annie and Elizabeth, but the force caused the child to slip from his grip and she fell through the hole.

"Elizabeth!"

Everyone could only watch as the child screamed as she fell out.

Willow and Shiny leapt out hoping to catch her, but she fell too fast and they could not reach her in time.

=0o0=

Luna saw everything unfold from the deck, and once she saw Elizabeth come out of the side of the gyrocarrier, it was as if time slowed down all around her.

Even with a hole in her foot, she ran faster than she ever did in her entire life and jumped off the edge. Luna caught Elizabeth and Willow in mid-air, and with all her skill, pulled out her grapple gun and aimed at the airship. It managed to barely connect and she reeled them both back to the top deck.

As they landed, Luna held Elizabeth tightly, shielding her from the impact, but the force destroyed her grapple gun. Luna recovered quickly, and with the blotking and the child in her arms, she scrambled to find cover. Solomon’s gyrocarrier evaded the biplanes attacking it, distancing itself from the airship.

Treese kept firing at Luna, and she used what remained of her hat to provide additional cover for all of them. The shredder rounds pierced through it as Luna dodged and ducked to make sure Elizabeth was unharmed.

As the walker continued to make its way towards them, Luna could feel the hole in her foot finally starting to take its toll. She had run out of everything: amber, ammo, and even her weapons. The only thing she had left was Shinaki’s sword on her belt.

Alexander’s fighters performed a strafing run on the deck and aimed at Treese.

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"Run! Run!"

Both of them made an escape as Treese blocked the gunfire from the gliders. A gyrocopter attacked him, but it flew too low and his walker grabbed it in mid-air, ripped apart its rotor, and threw the vehicle directly towards them. Luna pushed Elizabeth and Willow out of the way. The gyrocopter barely missed Elizabeth but separated the two of them as the walker made its way towards Luna. Treese fired at her, hitting her in the leg.

Shiny headed straight towards Treese and tried to blind him while Luna hobbled to get away. Treese swatted the ball of light away as he fired at Luna again, hitting her in the shoulder. "Time to die freak!"

Before he could pull the trigger, the walker was hit by large pieces of metal. Elizabeth used her powers as she chanted, the child’s eyes and hair glowing white and gold as she lifted large debris and threw it at Treese. While she attacked the Walker, Willow made her way towards Luna and helped her move towards Elizabeth.

Elizabeth bombarded Treese, but she was reaching her limit. She threw one last large metal object, but it lost its force midway and he simply swatted it. Elizabeth fell to her knees as exhaustion took a toll on the child’s body.

"Elizabeth give me your hunters coin quick!"

Elizabeth threw her coin, which Luna caught. Smearing her blood on the rubies, she threw the coin towards the walker.

When Treese noticed the coin shining brightly inside the cockpit, he roared. It was too late for him to escape, as it exploded, ripping the gigantic walker into pieces.

Sensing it was over, Luna slowly made her way towards Elizabeth. The loss of blood caused her to stumble as Willow and arm-o tried to seal her wounds. A few steps away from the child, Luna was suddenly attacked from behind.

Treese was still alive and barely had a scratch on him, but his hair, clothes, and skin were on fire. He was still under the effect of the venom as he unleashed blow after blow while Luna struggled to parry his hits. Willow leapt from Luna and aimed for Treese’s face, with the blob attempting to suffocate him. He tried to grab Willow but his fingers just went through him. He grabbed a nearby flaming piece of debris and he used it to burn the blotking. Arm-o tried to choke him, but he simply crushed the metal arm.

Willow began to burn as the creature leapt off Treese. The moment he did, Luna attacked Treese with the last of her strength. She slammed him onto a nearby pile of metal rubble, but he recovered quickly and grabbed her by the throat and threw her to the ground. Treese picked up a sharp metal pole and aimed it at Luna’s head when he got struck by more metal debris.

Elizabeth lifted more heavy debris and aimed it at him, and then with the last of her magic, she picked up a large mass of rubble and buried Treese underneath. With that the child collapsed and fell unconscious.

Willow returned to Luna, with the blotking’s size significantly reduced. It went back to sealing her wounds to prevent her from losing more blood while Shiny joined them.

Luna crawled towards Elizabeth and slowly picked her up. She then heard the sound of gliders performing a dive as Silvus gliders opened fire at them. Luna managed to hide all of them under a large piece of metal to prevent them from getting hit. She slowly got up with the child in her arms and headed to a more defensible position. Another Silvus boarding party landed on the top deck and saw them. Luna moved as fast as she could to avoid their gunfire. The soldiers prevented them from getting better cover, and all Luna could do was use her body to protect Elizabeth, Willow, and Shiny.

The wreckage they were using was starting to shatter under the heavy fire, while Luna’s body felt incredibly heavy with her vision starting to fade. She was hit again in the arms and legs, but she did not move, so Elizabeth won’t get hurt.

"I’m sorry Elizabeth. I’m sorry." Luna kept repeating as she felt her vision darken.

Maker please save her. Take me but please save her.

=0o0=

Solomon’s gyrocarrier finally re-emerged and opened fire on the top deck. The soldiers and the enemy gliders prevented them from landing, so they were forced to hover on the edge. The back of the gyrocarrier opened and everyone inside provided them with covering fire.

Baldric spotted them and attempted to leap out, but the Silvus soldiers did not relent and returned fire, stopping him.

"Luna!"

Luna could barely see, but she saw the outline of the gyrocarrier and recognized his voice.

"Luna you need to move! Come on!"

Baldric and Solomon gave her cover as Luna roared.

Through the pain, she picked up Elizabeth, Willow, and Shiny and ran towards the edge of the airship. With everything she had left, Luna leapt off the edge and extended her left arm towards them. Baldric dropped his rifle and slid to the edge of the gyrocarriers' loading ramp and caught her with both hands.

"Take Ely first! Take her first!" She cried.

With her severely injured arm, she lifted Elizabeth, and Solomon made his way to grab the child.

=0o0=

Treese managed to escape the rubble and saw Luna hanging on. He grabbed his rifle, loaded a shredder round and aimed for her head.

Theo saw this and fired first, hitting Treese right in the eye, but the venom prevented him from dying. Instead Treese staggered as he accidentally fired his rifle.

The shredder round missed its mark and rather than her head, it struck Luna in her left arm.

=0o0=

Luna felt a numbing pain as she watched Baldric, Solomon, the gyrocarrier, and her left arm, still in Baldrc’s hands, go farther and farther away from her. Willow leapt after her but did not make it in time.

"Luna!" Solomon and Baldric yelled as both of them watched her and the blotking fall and vanish through the clouds below.

Baldric looked up and saw that it was Treese who fired the shot. The man laughed as he reloaded his weapon.

He did not hesitate to pick up the rifle beside him and fire, hitting Treese in his eye. Treese did not even bother ducking as he knew the venom would make him invulnerable, but unknown to him, the venom finally finished its course and the bullet went through his skull, killing him for good.

More explosions rocked Treese’s dreadnaught, and one massive blast sent the massive ship crashing down into the sea.

=0o0=

The sky battle was over with the Silvus airships retreating and jumping through the Geltic gate.

The gates are massive floating structures, floating fortresses shaped like an iron wrought key, that allow enormous airships with jump cores to be able to jump from one gate to another. Each gate is named based on its location, with the gate in front of them named after the Geltic, or the walled sea.

"Captain! The gate is within jump distance!"

"Pete! Signal every fighter we have to head back to the hangar! And signal Alexander and his fleet to commence the jump! Sylvie connect me to Tinkerton now!"

"Underztood, Captain."

"Luna! Baldric! Is anyone still listening on this thing! We need to make the jump now!"

=0o0=

Inside the gyrocarrier, only Oichi’s yells and her handmaids helping deliver the baby were the only sounds that could be heard.

Tinkerton-G was the one who answered for them. "Understood, Vhlad."

Annie leaned on Baldric while he carried Elizabeth in his arms as Shiny hovered on his shoulder. Everyone else was silent while they nursed their injuries and listened to Oichi give birth. Finally, the sound of a crying baby filled the gyrocarrier.

"Congratulations Lady Oichi, Lord Solomon. It’s a healthy boy." Shinaki said as Solomon cautiously took his newborn child in his arms. His suit was stained with blood and liquid, but he held on to his son and held him like a treasure. But Oichi still yelled out in pain.

"Vhlad this is G. We just entered the hangar now."

As the gyrocarrier made its way into the dreadnaught, Oichi delivered another baby, a healthy baby girl.

=0o0=

"Signal Alexander to meet us in Aspana. Pete get us out of here!"

The hangar doors closed, and outside, a beam of light came from the massive gate and enveloped all the airships. Then, after a bright light and a loud bang, they were gone.