Lia's POV;

I have been content with watching Lara buying all kinds of dials. She quickly managed to sell some of the dirt of Nojiko's tangerine trees and used that money for the dials we wanted. From now on we don't need candles any longer. We have more heat dials for our hair or cooking and also a wide variety of other dials. She is especially fond of the sound recording dials.

During our shopping trip, I also kept the soldiers, villagers, Nirü and our crew in sight. This Fära guy was very protective of her. Didn't let Jonny any closer than two feet. Which might have been good. Fära brushed Nirü slightly in his attempt to keep Jonny at bay and the girl flinched away.

Her whole aura was in turmoil. Well, her parents or whoever will handle it. We will be long gone then.

“I can't wait to fill these dials with my latest attempt at music. I got this nice drum and bass song I want to record”, gushed Lara from my side, with a tone dial in her hands.

We have just finished the storing of our purchases and the boys were in the middle of raising the anchor. Nirü stood at the beach, waving.

“Too bad we couldn't stay, you think she liked me?”, lamented Jonny to Yosaku from my other side while waving back to Nirü.

“Dude, she got raped two days ago. I'm surprised that her boyfriend didn't kill you,” answered Yosaku with a shake of his head. I nodded in agreement.

Jonny was quick to defend himself, even if it was useless. “I just wanted to be nice to her.”

“Right.... Anyway, Lara, can we save these guys and destroy this Sect of Enel?”, asked Yosaku. He ignored the still speaking Jonny and looked at Lara, hoping she would agree.

“Destroying a group of fanatics is hard Yosaku. We would have to kill every one of them. Which will leave their children alone. Those will then grow up, knowing that we killed their parents. A sect is really hard to break up. Especially from the outside. Often times killing all of them is the only possible solution. And I don't know if you are willing to kill defenceless people, children included”, replied Lara without missing a beat.

If it were me and her alone we would do it, no questions asked. Fanatic zealots are a pain in the ass. Killing everyone who is into their belief is the easiest way to get rid of them.

Yosaku and Jonny were both a little shaky from the thought alone. “Then what are we going to do? If stopping them isn't possible, then how can we help these people?”, asked Jonny with a gesture to Nirü.

“We can't, at least not completely. If we attack this Sect of Enel and only kill their fighters then they are open to retaliation attacks. If we do nothing then they will continue with their pillaging and raping. There is no moral high ground in this, at least I don't know of one.

I think we should attack them, take what we need and then leave. If enough of them die, so that the normal people can defend themselves again, then so be it. If not it's not our problem, we can't help everyone.” I nodded in agreement.

“I don't like it. If I come up with something before we are there, can we do it?”, asked Yosaku.

“Sure, as long as it does not take too much of our time. It's not that I am eager to kill them, it's just that I can't see another way to easily get our hands on the waver equipment and a balloon octopus”, agreed Lara. She didn't lie, she wasn't eager, just indifferent.

walked over to Nojiko, who was planning our course. “Anything I can do?”, I asked her. She had the map of Skyprie opened up over a table and was scribbling down notes on a piece of paper.

She shook her head without looking up. “Not yet, but thanks. Once we have set sail I want you to sit on the crows nest and point out any possible hole in the sea. And if possible lift us over any of those holes we can't evade or would fall into. I know that it is taxing, but I hope that you can manage a few short meter.”

If it's only a few meter then I can manage. “Sure, I'll be up then”, I said and jumped up on the crows nest. From there I had a really good view of the island and far into the sea.

Spotting the holes will be hard, they are often rather small and aren't really highlighted. They are as white as the cloudy sea itself. Still, those close to us were still possible to be seen and I am confident that we won't fall down if we sail slow enough.

Soon after I felt the ship began to move forward and we started our search for the Sect of Enel. We were a lot slower than what we normally are. But that was good, as not even half an hour later I had to push the ship hard to the right. We would have fallen into a small almost invisible hole otherwise.

It was late in the evening when something finally happened. Which was not a close call to a fall to the death. No, a squad of six people were coming at us, the setting sun in their back.

“We'll be under attack in a few minutes, get ready and if possible try to get their skates”, I called down and slowed down our ship. Jonny and Yosaku also took the wind out of the sail and we soon were still in the white sea.

“Oh and try to keep one of them alive”, I added almost absent-mindedly. Unfortunately, I couldn't make out any details of their weaponry, thanks to the sun in their back.

Two from each side broke off from the formation and circled around us to attack from another side, while the remaining two held their direct course. These two reached us before the other four and jumped up to land or fly over our ship.

One of them got a bullet in the chest by Nojiko, the other received a hammer to the face from Noa. Both were instantly dead. Noa's victim even had half of his face caved in from the force of the hit.

It's nice of them to give us at least two pairs of waver-skates. Maybe the other four are equally friendly as their former friends.

They were certainly equally eager to greet us. Two came from the back, one from the left and the last from the right. None of them held any weapons, but there was a dial on the inner side of a glove. Maybe an impact or an electricity dial?

Anyway, the guy from the left went directly after Fiara. Maybe thinking that the tiny woman would be an easy target. Whatever his reasons were, Fiara disappointed him greatly. One of her robotic arms shot out faster than he could evade, grabbed his face and started to rotate rapidly.

His neck was broken with the first rotation and his head ripped off by the fourth. The speed he had while attacking her only helped in ripping flesh and breaking bones. His dead body crashed into our railing, while the arm crushed the head into a bloody mess.

The defender, Fiara, was crouched down, curled into a tiny ball and screaming in fear. Great, so she isn't able to fight. At least these arms will protect her. It will take some time to train her. And if worse comes we can always throw her at the enemy.

I turned around to look how the others fared against their enemy. Lara's was bisected in half. She killed a woman that attacked from the right.

That only leaves the remaining two from the back. One of them was either dead or knocked out. I don't know what. Yosaku was standing over him, slightly smoking and twitching. Did he got hit?

The last one, the only other women under the attackers, got pierced through the throat by Jonny. He doesn't look to be hurt in any form. The reach of his arm and sword must have saved him from a counter attack.

I jumped down, next to Yosaku and an already helping Josef. “What happened?”, I asked, not really directing either of them.

“I thought it might be a good idea to let him run into my sword. It worked, but it seems like he had one of these electricity discharging dials in his hands. The moment he touched my sword it was activated and gave me a mighty zap. I can't stop twitching”, answered Yosaku.

He had put down his sword and was showing me a twitching hand. I'm sure his hair would stand upwards, that is if he had any. Yosaku kept his head bald, while Jonny started to grow his out.

“Damn, that thing hurt, I'd advise to not get touched. Your body locks up and you are defenceless for any further attacks”, he further warned and took a few deep breaths to calm down.

“I'm no expert on wounds from electric attacks. But you are at least required to rest for some time. This can't have been good to your heart and you might have some strong muscle ache tomorrow.” Yosaku nodded to Josef's assessment and sat down on a bench.

Meanwhile, I turned back to the backside of our ship and walked over to a still crouched down Fiara. Lara was also there, talking to her. “No Fiara, you did not murder him. You defended yourself from harm. You didn't provoke him, it's his own fault for attacking us.”

The girl, still protected by her arms, looked at Lara with wide, teary eyes. “But he is dead, and I killed him. My family always told me that killing is bad,” sniffed the Tontatta girl.

Lara nodded in understanding. “Yes, and that is true, but only for the good guys. Killing the bad ones is okay. Those who want to harm you or your friends are the bad ones. Killing them is allowed.” Lara's tone was that of a parent explaining the world to their child.

And Fiara, the impressionable Tontatta she was, sucked it right up. “Oh... is that so? Then it's good that he is dead and we should kill the rest as well?” Huh, maybe I can get my psychopathic killer. We just have to drill into her that killing those we don't like is good.

Tontatta's are stupid.

“Yes and no. We shouldn't kill everyone that is mean to us, maybe beat them up, but only killing when they attack us.” Explained Lara patiently. Fiara nodded along, now calm again.

Way to go, there went my loyal little Tontatta I could throw at my enemies. Her flying at someone and then latching onto them with her four metallic tentacle arms would have been so cool.

“I'll help you with your next fight and we can train some time so that you get used to fighting, is that good?”, finished Lara while helping Fiara back up.

The small girl smiled brightly up at Lara. “That would be great. Next time I will know what to do. Those mean people won't harm me or my friends”, declared Fiara. The claws at the end of her metallic arms clacked in agreement.

“Now let's search the bodies and get rid of them afterwards. Maybe you can tinker some with their skates, later when we have eaten”, suggested Lara. She grabbed the remains of the head and threw it overboard. Both then took off the shoes of the body and searched him for valuables.

I did the same to the first two that attacked and found an electricity dial in their left hand and a knife lying nearby. They also had their skates, but nothing else.

“Guys! I found a map”, called Jonny from over the dead woman. A small piece of paper was in his hands. It got quickly snatched out of his hands by Nojiko.

“Yes, yes, I can work with this, give me a moment”, mumbled Nojiko while inspecting the map. She then rushed to the table with our map of Skyprie and compared both.

“Okay, I think I found a way to get to them. It won't be easy, most of the sea around their hideout is destroyed.” She then informed us.

“Good, let's set our anchor and rest for the night. I don't want to do a night raid. Tomorrow morning we will set course and give them a visit. The first night guard will be me and Noa.” Instructed Lara directly after.

Each of us nodded and I walked to the kitchen to make some food for everyone. Maybe chilly con carne, something spicy would be nice now.