Samantha, I was glad to learn, was not so foolhardy as to charge the twelve soldiers defending the engine room.

Instead, we planted a few explosives a floor below the engine room and the defending soldiers, and then we snuck into a large storage room a few dozen yards away from them, and a floor below them.

And then Samantha took out the Aviaton that she had stolen from the hull of the ship. The Aviaton almost completely filled the room we had chosen, but it somehow fit. We climbed in, raised the shields, and then wreaked havoc.

The Mana Cannon on top of the Aviaton started with a series of void blasts, shredding through the ceiling above us and towards the engine room. The Void Beam itself was nearly silent as it fired. This silence only emphasized the shouts and screams of the soldiers ahead of us.

Samantha fired dozens of shots in just a few seconds, but it still wasn’t enough to completely eliminate the enemy.

The soldiers had regathered on my floor, since we had destroyed their own floor from beneath them, and I could see them clearly through the walls I had destroyed.

There was a massive, bear-like man—an Ursal—in front of the soldiers, half-kneeling, hiding behind a massive full-body shield. Arcing out of the full-body shield, and around him, I could see a powerful shield of Martial Energy, curving around the Ursal and forming a spherical shield that protected all of the soldiers around him.

The various mana beams that our Aviaton fired at them—Void, Fire, Air—were all blocked easily by the Ursal’s shield.

It was obvious that our weaponry was somehow outclassed by the Ursal’s defenses. The shield trembled occasionally, but the Ursal’s feet were planted steadily. I didn’t see any reason to doubt that he could keep this up for a while.

Unfortunately for us, the martial energy shield allowed attacks to fly towards us—a half dozen ranged attacks flew towards us, and we had very little room to dodge.

Samantha did the best she could, dodging the most dangerous attacks with the tiny amount of leeway that we had in the destroyed hallways, but several fireballs and arrows landed on our shield, making our own shield flicker.

Then, Samantha detonated the explosives that we had placed. Explosives that were on the opposite side of the Martial Energy shield.

The orderly defenses in front of us were immediately shredded. Half of the defenders died immediately, and the Ursal in front stumbled forward.

Samantha rapidly entered a series of orders into the Aviaton, and then we were ejected from the cockpit violently.

Surrounded by smoke from the dozens of explosions, we had set off, I almost missed what happened next.

As we stood on the ground, I watched as the Aviaton that Samantha had been flying flew on its own accord through the very same holes that we had made previously in the ceiling and hallways, over the Ursal’s head, crashing directly into the engine room’s Mana Shield in an immense explosion.

Then we followed after it, jumping through the ceiling above us, ignoring the incredible heat from the explosion, and hacking open the locked door to the engine room now that the shield was destroyed.

The engine room was about 400 square feet, and most of the space was taken up by a massive metallic contraption that was glowing with runes and mana. From the outside, the engine looked knobby, with a half dozen miscellaneous pipes and a dozen compartments and several different levers at various parts. With Mana Sensing, I could tell how incredibly complex and intricate this engine was. Every inch of the inside of the engine was covered with diverse runes, and I had no idea what half of them did.

Besides the engine, there was nothing else in the room.

I had a suspicious feeling that if the engine were not bolted to the floor, ceiling, and walls a hundred different ways, Samantha would steal the engine in a heartbeat.

Instead, we stole the Compressed Unattuned Mana Orbs that were held in several pipes attached to the engine.

In all, we were in the room for approximately two seconds. We collected all the Mana Orbs we could, and then we planted dozens of explosives in various locations around the Engine.

With Mana Sensing, I could tell the Ursal was just a second away from entering the Engine Room.

The Ursal threw open the door to the engine room. His fury created an almost tangible, roiling aura that pressed against my very being.

His Martial Shield was already formed around him—completely, this time, just like a Personal Mana Shield, and I saw a second Martial Shield appear around the engine in front of me.

At the same time, the walls, ceiling, and floor of the engine room were still glowing with mana—it would be no easy thing to carve a second way out of here.

Then Samantha detonated the explosives inside the engine and smirked at the Ursal. Since the explosives were already inside the engine, the Martial shield around it was rendered useless. Perhaps as a result, when the explosives went off, they were somewhat muted.

The explosions certainly shook the engine, and I could feel the heat on my skin, but it more felt like everything powered down. Huge chunks of the engine were missing, thanks to several of the Void Bombs that Samantha had planted.

All around me, with Mana Sensing, it was as though the lights went out, suddenly. The engine, predictably enough, was what converted the Mana Orbs into enough energy to power the full ship. The engine powered the Mana Cannon on the top of the warship, the shield that surrounded the hull and the most critical parts of the ship, from the bridge to the shield around the engine room.

The shield around the engine room disappeared, and with a quick movement, Samantha stabbed her sword into the floor, drawing a circle underneath her, ready to disappear to the ground.

But the Ursal was having none of it. He cast out another Martial Energy shield, this time directly reinforcing every inch of the engine room’s walls, ceiling, and floor. Then, he charged us, even as the ship began to shudder and descend.

The descent, at least, was a controlled landing. Presumably, the anti-gravity runes had some kind of backup system that would provide enough power for the warship to perform an emergency landing.

The Ursal stepped through the door, and closed it, sealing me in the engine room with him. Even though the Mana Shields were down, his own Martial Shields were surrounding himself, the engine, and the room itself.

Samantha tossed something towards the Ursal. The moment it collided with his shield, a field of mana spread, and the Ursal’s movements slowed.

I breathed a sigh of relief as the Time Dilation field worked its magic through the Martial Shield. It was almost comical, how the Ursal’s eyes opened widely in slow motion surprise, and even a hint of fear.

Rather than attack the Ursal and enter the Time Dilation field, Samantha stabbed her sword repeatedly at the ground, simultaneously firing a Void Crystal at the ground as well.

After a whole, painful second, the Martial Shield under our feet broke, and we fell through the ground and fled.

Once again under the effects of our Invisibility Cloak, we were able to run easily through the warship. Dozens of personnel—soldiers and technicians alike—were running about frantically.

We cut through any doors that blocked our path—the majority of the warships shields were down, anyway.

We made our way towards the hull, and Samantha found an unclaimed Aviaton.

After all the other struggles we had been through, hijacking this Aviaton was a piece of cake.

We took off easily.

Of course, knowing Samantha, she wasn’t just going to return to the battlefield.

No. Just as the massive warship touched ground, destroying a hundred trees in the process, Samantha opened fire with the Aviaton’s Mana Cannon.

I almost felt bad for the massive warship. Without its own shields, every blast shredded through its hull and tore through its interior.

Of course, there were already some Aviatons in the air that were already targeting us because of our unapproved departure, but Samantha ran rings around them, and they just chased us futilely as Samantha lit up the warship like fireworks.

After ten minutes, I started to realize Samantha was taking her time. She was performing unnecessarily complex evasive maneuvers. It was when she didn’t fire the Mana Cannon for about thirty seconds, and then destroyed two pursuing Aviatons by somehow getting them to crash into each other, that I realized she was just killing time.

You’re delaying the return, I said. You’re just doing this to having fun.

Samantha said, though I could detect a hint of guilt in her voice.

Sure. But you’ve been doing this for ten minutes, and from what I’ve seen before, you could be done in five.

Samantha said, somewhat weakly.

Two minutes later, we were flying leisurely towards the forces of the Human Empire. Nobody dared pursue us.