"Can you steer us away from the storm, Captain?" Oliver shouted over the wind.
The captain nodded grimly. "We're trying, but it's no use. The storm is catching up to us."
Oliver's mind raced. He knew that if they couldn't escape the storm, they were doomed. He glanced down at the churning sea far below. It seemed like a thousand miles away. He suddenly turned, his long coat billowing behind him as he ran towards the hangar, a crazy idea in his head.
"Oliver! You better not be about to do something crazy!" Captain Mellanox shouted over the winds. The hull creaked as the magi-thrusters strained to keep the ship from being blown around.
Oliver raced below deck and slammed his hand against the button that made the front of the ship open. The wall unhatched, part of the stem tucking in on itself as the front opened and rotated downward, forming a platform level with the hangar floor. Oliver scrambled to a steam suit, a humanoid construct that acted like a set of armor that ran on the Fluxpulse Reactor.
"Here goes nothing!" Oliver pulled up his hood and scarf then walked to the edge of the hangar opening. He stepped off and engaged the magi-thrusters in the back unit. The gears in the armor began whirring to lessen the strain put on the stationary parts as Oliver poured his Mana into the Flux Receptors. The suit activated, Oliver shot up into the air from below the opening where he had been falling. His suit finished its activation by shutting the panels as the visor lit up green.
The nobles and crew had gathered at the hangar and on the deck as the weather dampeners had kicked in when he stepped off the ship. Most of the nobles thought that the disgusting lucky commoner had fallen to his death, while the crew simply sighed and hooked their heads knowing he was about to do something that while it would work was both crazy and dangerous. The nobles couldn't believe their eyes when Oliver shot up into the air from below.
Oliver spun around in the air and clenched his fists. "Mana's being guzzled faster than I thought. Should probably fix that when I get back on board," Oliver thought to himself. "Shit! I left the sword!" Oliver swore annoyed, he turned towards the opening and saw that the crew had already launched the sword at him. It spun in the air as it hurled towards him. Oliver grabbed it by the handle just before it hit him, then turned and faced the storm.
"Time to stress test the systems I guess," Oliver said to himself. He pushed mana through the suit into the sword and prepared to slash the air. An explosion from the back unit caused him to lurch forward. The Flux converter which changed the mana into power for the suit had just shorted out, smoke began to billow out of the burning part. Oliver swung the sword as the Flux Storage ruptured, a part of the casing slashing his arm as it tore through the suit as it exploded.
The slash had done it. The pressure from the swing forcing the clouds apart. "Gotta get back!" Oliver struggled to maintain the mana circuit in the suit and was running out fast. Blood streamed out his nose as his vision blurred. The Magi-thruster on his left ankle sputtered as it ran out of mana. Oliver crashed onto the hangar floor in a burning smoking heap, blood covering him as the strain of the mana from the suit crashed into him. His vision blurring,
Oliver came to in the ship's Infirmary, Captain Mellanox sitting next to his bedside. "Kid, you went too far," the captain said, his voice filled with concern. "You almost lost your life."
Oliver groaned, his head throbbing. He tried to sit up, but the pain was too much. "I'm fine," he mumbled, his voice barely a whisper.
"You're far from fine," the captain replied. "You've lost a lot of blood, and your mana reserves are depleted. It's a miracle you survived."
A medic approached, checking Oliver's vitals. "He's lucky to be alive," the medic said. "We'll need to keep him here for a few days."
Oliver closed his eyes, feeling a wave of exhaustion wash over him. He knew he had made a reckless decision, but he had no regrets. He had saved the airship and the crew, and that was all that mattered.