Chapter 36 – Up the Sky (1)

The firefight between the Crew that wanted to slay the warship and the soldiers got harder. Archie was able to return fire, but if it wasn’t for Leiko who was running around killing the dangerous ones, they would have already died twice. Joshua was still trying to operate the air balloon. Cassia who was sticking to Archie constantly shouted. “Is it fucking done already?

The lad replied. “No, it is not! I don’t know what these glowing stones are!? I thought they were using burners damn it!”

“Can you make it work!?” shouted Archie.

“I can, just give me a minute and figure this thing out!”

He shook his head. He had gone mechanical as he aims, shoot and reload. He was getting used to handling the gun better. He should have been scared but he was strangely focused. There were soldiers rallying towards them but it seemed like the rallying that the Lord Enforcer did allow the enemy to focus on them. There were still bombs being dropped but it was minimal compared before. He thought that it might because they had their own soldiers now. Even they aren’t that coldhearted to sacrifice their men.

This allowed him and the others to defend the air balloon. Joshua was able to somehow figure out how the runes worked. He shouted. “Get in now! Leiko we should go!”

He ran towards the hot air balloon and vaulted into the wicker basket. He peered outside and returned fire. Leiko, the right hand of the Lord Enforcer sprung away from the rooftops she was dancing around and landed on the wicker basket. The soldiers closed in, but Joshua willed the balloon up as it propelled to the sky. Using the ropes, he dodged the bullet fire and made use of the green colored runes to speed up the balloon. The air balloon reached up to one thousand feet. The warships were still four thousand feet away so everyone inside the wicker basket calmed their breaths.

“They really still do exist,” said Archie, looking at the rune stones levitating the air balloon.

“And you don’t find it weird that I can transform into a werecat?” While Leiko snarled at their surprise. Cassia frowned and then said. “Well, it not like every day you’d see hails of bombs and magical rune stones that should have been lost through time.”

“Good point,” he said.

Archie wanted to touch the runes but Joshua shouted. “No, don’t touch them. You might will us down. I do not want to go back down.”

“Okay...” Archie put his hands up, backing away from the rune stones acting as the burner for the hot air balloon. Joshua heaved a sigh, he looked at the burning flames coming from the runes before resting his back on the wicker basket.

“This is quite the ride isn’t it?” said Archie. He looked at the outline of the mountains beyond the city. It was serene and relaxing, different to the now ruined City of Avilla.

“It is,” commented Cassia. “I never thought I’d live long enough to see that I’ll be up in the sky.”

Archie smiled helplessly. “Hopefully we returned alive.”

“I hope so,” said Cassia. “And so that you can marry me.”

“You really are serious with that?”

Cassia replied by sticking her tongue out playfully.

Meanwhile, Leiko sat near Joshua. She taps his knee. “Are you alright?”

“That’s strange,” said Joshua with a weary smile.

“What’s so strange?” she raised a brow.

“You saying that it’s just strange,” Joshua said wearily.

“I can be nice.”

“Oh really?” he said breathing out. She didn’t like that so she slightly pouted. Joshua looked at her and said. “But thank you for asking. That means a lot especially coming from you, Leiko.”

“Is that?” she curtly said.

He didn’t really know what’s up. In fact, he was just staring at his companions while glancing at the armada of warships floating above. The balloon was getting closer to the warships, and seeing this even Joshua stood up. He took the rows of fabric packed together on one corner of the wicker basket and said. “You guys should wear these parachutes. They used this to fall down, and there is a big chance that we need to jump down instead of using the balloon. And also take these canisters with you.” he handed the canisters on his belt. “These are poisonous, and do you see that trail of smoke that’s smothering the other ships? If we can somehow take these and mix them into that smoke, we might just be able to poison an army of them.”

Archie breathed cold air. “Are you sure?”

“I don’t know. But it doesn’t hurt to try.”

Cassie glance at the canister and said. “Are you joining? You sound like you are staying behind.”

“I’ll guard the balloon. It’s best that you three head back. But like I said if it’s troublesome then jumped and use the parachutes. That cord sticking out of the chutes should allow you to use it. Just make sure you strap it carefully.”

Cassia nodded. “What about you Miss Right hand?” she asked.

“I’ll be protecting him. And if we want to take that thing down then we need to light it on fire. There’s an army waiting for us up top. We can’t fight them and at best you need to just throw the canisters and mix them with that giant trail of smoke while Joshua and I will try to light the balloons on fire with the runes while also covering you.”

Archie asked. “If that’s all we need to do, then shouldn’t we stay here?”

“And risk dying together?” Leiko snapped. “My sister’s waiting for me there and I don't want to leave her alone. So we will go with this tactic. Try and do your best to reach the smokes while I’ll support you three. There are cannons there so just shoot them and the barrels of gunpowder they have.” she paused. “What I am trying to say is that we need to light that giant airship like a floating campfire and have it affect the other ships while at it. Who knows? We might just get lucky and they’ all lit on fire.”

There was this wide grin at the face of the lord enforcer’s right hand. Everyone on board of the air balloon grins slightly as they egged themselves up. Lock and loaded, they knew that they have to do something about that monstrous thing and it won’t be easy.