So many airships... there was almost thousand of them.

Some of them looked like sea ships from middle ages, with large Zeppelin style balloons, instead of sails. Others looked like weird platforms and had many parts made of metal, four large turbines at their sides kept them in the air. A few ships looked like some spaceships from a sci-fi movie and the largest among them, nearly five hundred meters in diameter, was completely made of metal and had a shape of a floating sphere. Glowing runes on its surface indicated the work of enchantments.

As far I could see with my enhanced sight, only some of the passengers were Eli, the rest were of different races. Most were humanoids in shape, lizardmen, werewolves, some even looked like dryads with wings. At first, I thought those were their cloaks, but when a few of them jumped from the deck, I realized they were just folded wings not in use.

Besides natives Eli, two more races had nothing in common with humans. One looked like a floating... slime. No arms, no legs... just a pulsing goo floating slightly above the floor. Another, with its overall posture, reminded an overgrown frog, though its head looked like that of a crocodile.

When I looked at Sei, I noticed that his body was trembling. I never saw him acting like this. This wasn't a fear, no, he was actually... very excited.

"It's been almost a decade since their last joint assault. And the best part is that Razel still at her homeworld. Have they somehow learned about it? Doesn't matter, this will be so much fun. Oh, that's right, you should stay out of this, Sis. If it's anything like the last time, there will be a lot of Champions from different worlds. Anyway, I think it's about time our air forces make an appearance..." but Sei wasn't able to finish.

The leading ship, that looked like a sphere, sent some kind of wave in all directions. It was practically invisible to the eye and only a distortion in the air let me detect it.

As I thought it's some sort of attack, I quickly activated my phantom shift. While Sei wasn't affected, it wasn't the same for me. Once the wave passed through our location, I was forcibly pushed into the real world.

"What?" I whispered surprised.

While there was almost no damage to the body, this was the second time I was affected while in phantom shift. So far only the devil managed to do so.

"They... they sealed the space," Sei looked around. "This timing... Don't want us to get reinforcements... or to escape. I hate when they do this."

"Sealed the space?" I attempted to reach my pocket dimension... without any success. I then tried to activate my teleportation and... was still in the same place. I tried again, but this time with a barrier around me, still without any progress. I also noticed that the barrier was a bit weaker now. Probably because it was a fruit of Space Time Magic.

"How far does this reach?" I asked while sensing my surroundings.

"Hmm, not sure. It's been a long time since the last time they used it. Their gods helped to create these artifacts, so... half of the world? Oh, that's right, I think a few hundred kilometers above the ground should be outside its influence..."

"Few hundred?! It's practically a vacuum at this altitude!"

"Don't worry, it's not the first time they did this. I have a trick of my own." and as he said this, I noticed that all this time his armor was glowing with runes. Shortly a similar wave was launched in every direction.

"Hmm? Still doesn't work? Did they upgrade it? Well, this might be a bit harder than I anticipated. Hmm, have to get my hands on their artifact... oh no..."

"Drarg, stop!"

When Sei shouted, I noticed that destroyer class golem started charging its attack, this time from its head. Even when the voice of Sei reached his location, it was completely ignoring the command.

While still approaching, the fleet of ships started to scatter, making as much distance from one another as possible. Eventually, Drarg finished charging the attack and fired a beam from its single eye. The ship in the shape of a sphere was hit and started to fall, though now its shape was more like a weird donut, with a large hole at its center. Most of its mass was missing. A few ships, that were unlucky enough to be behind it, have vanished completely.

This was a similar attack golem used on the city, but it seems that even the largest ship wasn't enough to trigger the effect of an explosion, and the beam just pierced like a laser.

"I still don't get how Razel makes them obey. I guess that means I will have to manage without reinforcements... You should really stay out of this."

After some time, Drarg charged one more attack and destroyed a few more ships. This was so... anticlimactic. Every single attack had so much power that destroying all of them could be done a few times over, yet only a few ships were destroyed every few minutes.

Eventually, the fleet has approached close enough to start its own assault. Series of beams and large balls of energy were launched to the golem.

Runes on its body flared up with each impact but just a moment later started to dissipate. When more attacks reached the same place, following explosions caused its 'flesh' to shatter. Considering the size of the golem, the damage was almost nonexistent, but it was there.

"Spell erosion... they come prepared. In an hour or two they might even pose a threat to it." Sei then looked at me. "Don't do anything stupid while I am away."

He stretched his hands to the side and four, twenty meters long, snakes of earth burst to life from the ground. Each of them launched to his open palms and the moment they touched started to glow. It was as if they melted from high temperature, though only a moment later I realized I was witnessing transmutation.

When Sei finished, each hand held a long, whip-like sword made of metal covered in green flames. They were made from many parts, and in places, all of them were connected, looked no different from normal swords. Only when the blade bent or was extended, it reminded a skeleton of a fish. The tip of each sword looked a bit like a diamond, but from time to time it would split into four, looking as if strange jaws have opened.

Sei then looked at the fleet, swords in his hands behaving like living snakes.

Shortly, I felt strong mana fluctuations in the air. At first, I had no idea what he was doing but then noticed that the earth down below us started to tremble. After a moment one chunk after another, the same size as the little island we were floating on, was torn from the ground and launched at the ships. In the middle of flight, they were turning into boulders of hard rock.

Five, ten, twenty...

As the first boulder reached a ship, a barrier blocked its path and it shattered without doing it any damage. Shortly the rest of boulders crashed into nearby ships. Only one barrier shattered when that ship received five hits in succession, then one more boulder crashed to its hull. Two of its turbines were gone and after the ship leaned to the side started to fall.

Still, this was only one ship, the rest had not a single scratch.

New chunks of earth raised from the ground. This time, some of them started to glow.

Transmutation? At this distance?

Only half of them were undergoing a change, the rest were turning into solid boulders like before. When they almost reached the fleet, there were quite a few orbs of metal in the mix.

"I don't think that just turning them into metal will..."

*BOOM* *BOOM* *BOOM* *BOOM* *BOOM* *BOOM*

Suddenly multiple powerful explosions covered a part of the fleet from our sight.

Bombs!

Did he turn their insides into explosives?

"One should hide a few surprises with each attack..." grinned Sei and then jumped from our floating island.

The force he used for that jump, launched the island hundreds of meters down and I barely kept my balance.

Even more boulders were heading for the fleet and Sei bounced from one to another with insane speed. When he reached one of the ships, he passed through the barrier as if it was an illusion and pierced the ship with his own body.

As he emerged on another side, the ship started to crumble into many pieces, each with at least one side flat like a mirror, as if cut with something sharp. Swords in his hands were now almost hundred meters long.

In the meantime, the golem finished charging its main attack to the ground and once again the wave of destruction spread far and wide. Even if the attack was now twice as powerful as before, the altitude of a wave wasn't that higher. But it seems that wasn't its aim...

Turbines of a few dozen platform type ships suddenly stopped to work and they began to fall all at once.

EMP!

I am sure that they have some protection against it, otherwise, the same would have happened from the wave that destroyed the city. But apparently, it has its limits.

A part of the fleet changed its aim and started to fire at its legs.

Unlike other golems, Destroyers don't long for freedom and don't have any self-destructive thoughts. Souls residing within them are evil to the core and have only one desire... to kill and destroy. When Drarg realized that without enchantment protection another similar attack might harm it, resumed its attacks with a beam from its head.

When I looked again at the fleet, I noticed that even 'normal' boulders Sei used were not that simple. Clouds of dust released during impacts with barriers were slowly spreading in a wide radius and slipped past barriers of nearby ships. They had a delayed effect of corrosion and ships were receiving severe damage to their hull.

'One should hide a few surprises with each attack' echoed his words in my mind.

They did try to attack Sei as well, but he was too fast, and there was... hundreds of him. His martial arts 'Sealed Illusion' was on completely another level from my...

As I watched the fight I noticed that my hands were trembling. I lifted one and looked at the palm.

'Stay out of this?'

I clenched it into a fist. I don't think so.

Dangerous? High chance to die? This is exactly what makes it so exciting! I could feel my blood boiling, calling me to join the battle. So far I fought only those weaker than me, but this... this might be just what I needed. No way in hell I am gonna miss this!

I looked at the floating island under my feet and touched the ground with my both hands. I might be unable to create metal from the soil like Sei, but as long as there is some hidden within, it's not a problem to extract it.

Little by little a fog started to gather near my hands and as it contracted further, turned into a chunk of mixed metals. I willed it to take a shape of bracelets for my arms and legs. I still had broken Catbit on my left arm, so I needed only three of them.

Once I was done, I raised in the air with metal manipulation and started to fly. It might be possible to fly using only wind manipulation, but I wanted all the speed I can get to board the ship.

Soon this Kitty will be a pirate!

As I started to approach the fleet, various spells and even some gunshots were aimed at me. I dodged them to the best of my abilities but some of them could change their course at will, and I don't have the speed of Sei. When I used a barrier it was shattered with a single spell... spell erosion. Luckily I still had my heat absorption and devour soul to assist.

That didn't help against bullets though and by the time I reached the deck, I looked like a stray, with holes all over my body.

And while regeneration took care of the wounds, it wasn't exactly an entrance I planned... It would have been so much easier if I could still use teleportation.