All too soon, daylight assaulted Gallagar's eyes. A small part of him hoped it was all just an eventful dream. He hauled himself upright, midnight sins staring back at him. A splitting headache was punishment enough. He refreshed himself, cleansing his body of former filth and vomit before he forced on his armor. It still felt ill-fitting. He took on his old black cloak and draped it over his augmented shoulders.
A great shadow knifed the window. A sudden force knocked into the flank of the ship, wracking its frame with a violent tremble. Gallagar snatched his weapons and fled the cabin. He emerged on the primary deck, turning his face away to shield his eyes from the stabbing sunlight, his jaw-length hair curtaining his face.
Every Avangardian held defensive positions, with weapons drawn. Gallagar bristled from the roar that split the heavens. An ominous shadow blotted out the sun. Formidable forms. Darkness heralded three colossal, flying Leviathans. Their serpentine forms, sleek and sinuous. Scaled bodies with a seemingly impenetrable hide. Their eyes gleamed with an insatiable hunger that spoke of aeons of primal instinct. The second ship, recognizing the imminent threat, attempted evasive maneuvers. The deck was bursting with activity, swarming bodies like ants, scampering to their stations. Loaded cannons shot out a barrage that the long and nimble Leviathans evaded with the twist and twirls of their bodies, their firepower outmatched by pure power.
"The Electus!" those besieged bellowed.
"Where is the Electus?"
The Leviathans swooped down to soar over the airships, their wings casting shadows that swallowed the vessels whole.
"Take cover!"
The air crackled with dark energy as the Leviathans unleashed blasts of searing power from their maws, akin to celestial firestorms. A thousand screams cleaved to the air, sending a tremor through the heavens. The second airship shuddered as the intense beams of energy tore through its hull, sending sparks and debris cascading into the world below.
Zephor zoomed to the nose of the airship to leap onto the edge. A Leviathan swerved around and arrowed right towards him. Zephor jutted Starweaver out in front of him before the whirling beast released a surge of pure energy. The electric blue blast collided with his energy shield, splitting it apart mid-surge as Zephor's arm quivered from the force of the impact.
The Leviathan ceased and propelled itself upwards, preparing for another attack.
The second ship—a vessel carrying an iron legion had been reduced to a crumbling ruin, plummeting towards the earth like a wounded bird. Joint energy blasts had torn through their meager defenses like a tempest through fragile clouds, rending the airship asunder. The Leviathans circled the disintegrating airships, remnants aflame with blue, shooting down like falling stars.
Zephor lifted Starweaver. Symbols, arcane and pulsating, materialized in the air around him. With a sudden and deliberate motion, the High Mage thrusted the head of the staff towards one of them and the very fabric of reality seemed to warp in response—torrents of energy burst forth like a cosmic force to blast a Leviathan. One—it bellowed a roar, two, it evaded. Zephor's blow to the second beast made it falter, wings flapping frantically.
The sole ship quaked once more, an explosion rippling through the vessel. The third Leviathan flashed towards the rear. Zephor was too occupied by the troublesome two, blinding him to the third. His movements mirrored a conductor orchestrating a symphony of the cosmos with silver-sieved blasts streaking at the twin beasts.
Elysia brandished her blade readily, her resolve stronger than Azrian steel.
Blackthorn recognized that look of insanity. "Elysia."
Where men might fail, she would make certain that a woman would not. She dashed into a sprint, generating speed and momentum. When she was at the rear edge, she launched herself at the seething beast whose mouth crackled with a lightning-blue. She landed on its elongated neck and embedded the blade to keep herself from falling. The Leviathan made a sharp hiss, spiraling but not averting from its trajectory. She swung herself into a rider's position and she yanked up the sword to bury the blade in its brain. It managed to liberate one final foray before the blade was inserted. The creature shot up, and Elysia kept an enduring grip around the plunged sword. Its body jostled the airship during its broken ascent. It floundered, flying haltingly before it froze—everything became weightless, before it dropped from the sky. Elysia's narrowed eyes, trying to find clarity through the wind-rush, saw the airship maneuver into position. Elysia discarded the sword at the last second as the dead Levithan grazed the damaged airship. She sprung off to land on deck with a somersault, then jumped to her feet, her hair whipping out as she sought to catch a fleeting glimpse of its spiked tail. Panting for air that already seemed scant, Blackthorn knocked out what remained when he collided into her, his massive form engulfing her into a bone-crushing embrace.
"I would be enraged… if I wasn't so aroused."
Still breathless, she grinned back at him; heat rising anew. A short-lived victory. The airship quaked, losing sudden and rapid altitude. Three Leviathans were defeated at the cost of an entire legion. Zephor was unconscious, and Valerius held onto him. The ship became a fiery comet blazing through the sky, plummeting towards the planet's surface—terrain rushing towards them. In seconds, the airship slammed into the ground with a deafening crash. The impact was so strong; it sent many off ship.