Chapter 142 – Working on the Details

The Clock rewinds and Emily finds herself back aboard Calypso in full control, guiding the ship towards Erenmoor from the engine room. She breaks her meditation, opening her eyes that glint with a cold, calculating light.

There’s no way I can actually block that spell if he aims it at Calypso. Even a glancing blow instantly tore through my boot, so none of my spells will be enough to block it, but I may have a chance to reduce the power.

Emily stands up and starts walking through the ship to her workshop.

He can’t not attack us because it will look bad for his family, and he can’t outright miss for the same reasons, but what if I indicate the least vital area of the ship, then set up some barriers to reduce the damage that gets through? That may work.

She steps into her workshop and looks over the tools set up against the walls.

“I may have to rely a little on luck for this,” she mutters, one of her hands resting affectionately on The Clock’s pouch as she pulls up her system and confirms that the extra requirement on her quest has reset to not complete. “Good thing I can keep trying till the dice fall in my favour.”

***

Emily spends the night working on the ideas in her notes to handle the coming battle before passing control of the ship back to the crew as day comes, instructing them to set down near Erenmoor once again.

Instead of sleeping, Emily meditates and enters the Spellweave to continue working on a spell for the coming assault. She leaves the engine room six hours later and calls everyone to their stations to set off before activating the ship’s array once again.

The flight towards the border is uneventful, the only difference being that this time Emily spots a well-camouflaged outpost hidden in the sands as they pass over it a few hours before the first scouts arrive. She ignores it and keeps her eyes on the horizon, waiting for the scouts to show up.

The moment she spots the faint outline of five ships in the distance, she leaves the bridge and makes her way to the drop hatch. She steps out, plummeting to the sands below before breaking into a sprint, boosted by lightning step. The ships in the air spot her approach and hatches open on either side of them as ten armoured gunmen lean out to fire on her.

Emily weaves between their shots with ease, the distance between them quickly closing as she uses air walk to rise up towards their ships. Panic grows on the soldiers'' faces, but they’re helpless to stop her as Emily reaches them and dives straight into the first scout ship through the open hatch, tackling the shooter to the floor.

She lands straddled on the woman’s chest, pinning both of her arms to the floor with her knees. The poor soldier fruitlessly tries to struggle against Emily’s immense strength, but Emily quickly pulls a hollow needle from her belt, filled with a potion brewed from a sominal bomber’s venom, and stabs it into the woman’s neck. Her eyes lose their focus almost instantly, and a few moments of slowly weakening attempts to escape later, her eyelids flicker shut as she falls into a deep slumber.

Emily places her fingers against the soldier’s neck, sending a pulse of machina into her body to scan her, checking the effectiveness of the sleeping potion and adding more data to her growing collection of information on the human body.

“She should stay asleep for eight hours,” Emily mutters with a satisfied nod. “I can dilute it more next attempt if I want, I only need them unable to pursue me.”

She rises from the sleeping woman’s chest while sending a strong pulse of machina into the ship below her feet, quickly understanding its blueprint so she can make her way to the cockpit. Lightning sparks between the floor and her feet as she shoots through the narrow confines of the small ship, arriving in the cockpit in the blink of an eye.

The pilot tries to fight back, pointing his revolver at the door and unloading six shots into the hallway behind as he hears her footsteps approaching, but Emily easily weaves through the shots. She watches his eyes and barrel, slipping to the side each time he pulls the trigger and dodges before each bullet leaves the barrel.

“Shit! Mar-” the pilot screams as Emily charges into the small control room, springing up and slamming her knee into the man’s chest, cutting off his call for help and knocking him back into his control panel without any air left in his lungs.

As he’s stunned and wheezing for breath, Emily jabs him in the neck with another full needle, knocking him out. The footsteps of the final two members of the crew ring through the ship, quickly approaching, so Emily sets the pilot down in his seat again and tucks herself in beside the door, waiting just out of sight.

“Lazlo, where I-” the first soldier starts as he charges into the room, cutting off as Emily’s fist slams into the side of his ribs, knocking him aside.

The shots that went just behind the shaft and its connection to the ship worked the best.

The five bombers begin letting steam out of their balloons, dropping to the floor to meet Emily as she reloads a fresh magazine full of high explosive rounds. She points her gun at the backs of the ten boarders heading for Calypso as a few small bullets and hefty cannonballs land in the sand around her.

The ground troops have pushed towards me. I need to make this quick.

She pours more machina into her rifle and unloads the magazine into the sky. A single shot flies into the circular exhaust on the back of each boarder, detonating inside and taking part of the ship with it. Half of the ships simply lose a few of their propellers and slow down drastically while shuddering unstably in the air, but the other half have much larger detonations as large fires burst through the hull at their backs, ripping all their propellers off and killing a few crew members inside.

? ? ? ? ?

-Leave the country without killing any of your pursuers (Failed)

_____

“Shit,” Emily mutters without a visible reaction on her face. “This may take a few tries, but it should work. They aren’t fast enough to catch Calypso any more even if I just remove their boosters and a few props.”

She turns her attention away from the useless ships and over to the large remaining force.

I may as well practice taking down the big ones.

Emily sends the Whisper into her belt as she pushes herself up from the sand, scrambling forward and to the side to avoid the hail of bullets flying towards her previous shooting position. She calls upon her elemental connection as she runs, and after a few moments a familiar azure glow seeps from her eyes as lightning crackles along her skin. She pours power into her legs as she shoots into the nearby infantry formation before they can blink, focusing on the interceptor ships that have moved forwards to target her as well.

The shooting from overhead stops as their target enters their ranks, but Emily easily weaves between the melee weapons the soldiers draw to try and hold her down. She ducks under every blade and sidesteps every heavy mace, only struggling slightly when the soldiers close ranks around her to try and use their bodies as a shield.

It would be easier if I could kill them... But I shouldn’t get into the habit during my practice.

She leaps off the ground and over the grouped soldiers, exposing herself to their gunfire again as she rises above the crowd. Not batting an eye, Emily produces solid footholds of crackling charge and continues rising up towards the interceptors above, still weaving between the bullets trying to catch her and taking a few shots to the torso that her armour blocks.

She reaches the front of the first interceptor with only a few bruises and clings onto the hull just above the bridge. She sticks her feet and her left hand to the ship using the lightning crackling around her while drawing back her other fist. A thin film of crackling plasma wraps her fist like a gauntlet before she thrusts it forward, drilling a hole in the ship.

The lightning covering her fist floods into the control room below, stunning everyone and preventing them from fighting back as Emily pulls a grenade from her belt. She pulls the pin and drops it through the hole she created before setting the ship to descend with a pulse of machina and leaping towards her next target.

She doesn’t stay to watch as the grenade detonates with a muted pop, filling the bridge with gas and sending the stunned crew to sleep. The large ship plummets to the floor, and the soldiers below start frantically running to escape the falling heap of metal, completely forgetting about their enemy dancing above their heads.

Emily takes down three more of the interceptors before the first ploughs into the sand below, and a satisfied grin transforms her features as she hears the heavy impact.

This will work. This is enough chaos for Calypso to fly right over without me even on board. Everyone has time to avoid death as long as they react quickly. Now all that’s left to worry about is Virgil.

Before she can feel too pleased with herself, Emily hears the grounded artillery begin firing, sending several shells towards Calypso. Her grin vanishes, and she quickly activates The Clock while glancing over at the mages holding an array of fire spells up to the magical ice encasing the cannons.

And maybe I’ll make those bullets a bit stronger.