My Brother Is The Hero Of Earth

Terri and I had restarted our dart game using my knives while Katye used her telekinesis to float targets for us. Katye made it more difficult by having the little pucks that Terri supplied zoom around in tight groups of three, so that we had a slightly bigger targets. Gustavo and Lesedi joined in and Katye pushed herself to the limit, controlling ten independent groups, a total of thirty pucks. The four of us lined up in front of Katye while my two holsters were attached to the railing, one set between Terri and myself and the other between Lesedi and Gustavo.

"Ready, set, go!" I said.

The four of us reached for three knives each as the clay pucks flew up from under the ship. The ten, v-shaped formations zoomed randomly while the knives flew out. I focused on one cl.u.s.ter at a time, destroying all three pucks before moving on to the next set. Terri was my only real compet.i.tion, thanks to her skill with a bow, but I could keep up with her since I practiced so much. Gustavo and Lesedi weren"t too good, but they were able to take down a group each before Terri and I had cleared out the remaining eight.

"Hey, I had dibs on that group," I said as Terri shattered the last puck.

"You got the win, stop complaining," Terri said, shoving me.

I laughed along with the other as I returned the knife in my hand back to its holster. Everything seemed relaxed, but often when things are peaceful, danger is right around the corner.

"Man the cannons! We have something incoming!" Yue voice ran through all of our ears.

"Which side?" Gustavo asked.

"Both, its a swarm!"

"Look!" Lesedi shouted out loud.

I turned around and looked towards the front of the ship. Through the misty clouds, a black cloud moved unnaturally against the wind, constantly changing shape and size. My eyes turned gold as my vision magnified and I could see that the black cloud was made up of round creatures with bat-like wings. There must hundreds, if not thousand of them. I turned back and jumped into one of the open mage cannon since watching wasn"t going to help the situation. The cannon was preloaded with monster cores to act as the energy source, so I only had to put my hands on the handles and channel a small amount of my personal mana into it to control the gun.

"Katye, just channel some mana through the handles and you"ll be able to control the cannon," Yue chimed through everyone"s ear cuff.

"Do you have an ID on them yet, Yue?" Terri asked.

"Flying Heads... between one and two thousand, but they keep moving around so I can"t get a solid count."

"What"s their ranking?" Gustavo asked.

"Rank two, but the size of the swarm is pushing this towards a three," Yue replied.

"Here they come," Lesedi said as she opened fire.

Teal bolts of light shot out of the three different barrels of her cannon and hit the first few that had rushed in front of the main group. A white light seeped out from all of the ship until a hundred feet around us was saturated in a white mist. Four gold lights erupted from within the mist and all of the white mana rushed in, towards the golden light, solidifying into four white creatures. They were four ma.s.sive, white, winged-serpents with golden accents and eyes. They circled around the ship as they would act as the main defense of the ship.

"Snakes? Really?" Katye complained, which caused everyone who had been herb hunting yesterday to laugh.

"They are the manifestation of Alice"s defensive formation," Yue explained.

"They won"t get any closer than this!" Terri yelled.

"Why is it snakes?" Katye sighed in defeat.

Before the conversation could continue any further, the swarm entered firing range. The Flying Heads were about two feet in size and, exactly as the name suggested, their body was covered by a large face with wild, black hair. Two large, ash gray bat wings sprouted out from somewhere under the hair and each one was four feet in length. Their eyes were completely black and they revealed a mouth full of sharp fangs as they screeched at us.

As the swarm engulfed the ship, the four winged-serpents kept the Flying Heads from approaching with a shimmering golden barrier that was only visible when something struck against it. No one was just sitting around while Yue kept the barrier going as we all unleashed a constant stream of teal bolts into the crowd. It was deafening between the booms of the cannons and the screeches of the monsters, but no one missed the crash as a crack appeared in the barrier twenty minutes later.

"d.a.m.nit, there must be a king cla.s.s variant! They are starting to focus their dive bombs in the same location! Ella, Terri, and Becca, give up on the cannons and head to the top!" Yue ordered.

"Got it!" I said.

"Roger," Terri added.

"d.a.m.n," Ella cursed.

"I"m still maintaining the collection ward on the crystals, we have plenty to recoup your losses," Yue coaxed.

"Fine."

We all hopped out of the gunner seat and ran to the edge of the middle of the ship, on either side. There was a rope waiting on a low hook that I stepped on then it yanked me up in the air as Terri did the same next to me. The rope pulled me in a gentle arc around the balloon and I freed myself from it as I flipped and landed on the catwalk that ran along the top, making it safe for us to stand up here. Ella and Terri both landed a beat behind me, both carrying their weapons. Terri"s was obviously her bow, Ella"s though, was a unique set of telekinetic disc that she would attach her talismans to and send them into large groups of enemies.

"I"ll that the front," Terri offered.

"I got the back then," Ella said.

"Sided are mine. I"ll holler if I need a boost," I replied as I pulled out my hover board. "No one better hit me with a cannon this time," I said through the cuff.

"If you would just stay out of the way," Lesedi"s voice rang through our ear.

I laughed while Terri and Ella split in their direction and squatted before I leapt high in the air. With the hover board behind my feet, I flew to the end of the barrier while taking in a deep breath and channeling my mana into my mouth. When I opened my mouth, a stream of crimson spewed from my mouth and spread out, through the barrier, engulfing all of the Flying Heads that were dive bombing. I zoomed around towards the front of the ship, releasing flames until I ran out of air. While taking in another breath of air, I began to dip down in the range of the cannons as I reach Terri"s area.

"Can I get a lift?" I asked as I knelt and held onto the board.

Terri lowered her bow while her thrusted her empty hand straight up into the air. It was like something slammed into the bottom of my hover board and it launched me forty feet upwards. I gave her a nod of thanks as I skimmed along the edge of the barrier. I watched as she knocked an arrow and shot straight at my without the slightest fear. The arrow shattered and every piece zoomed pa.s.sed me without touching even a hair on my head.

"Show off," I chuckled.

"Says the woman breathing fire," Terri retorted as she knocked another arrow.

I released another stream of fire as I flew towards the end of the ship where Ella was. It looked like she was setting off fireworks as she lit the corners of talismans with a yellow-green flame before sending the disc hurtling out of the barrier and exploding with a shower of yellow-green sparks and flames. I started slipping back down into the cannons" range as I neared Ella"s section, so I gave her a wave. Unlike Terri"s wind magic, Ella"s telekinesis gave me a gentler ride up as she controlled my board to raise back up in the air and pa.s.s over her.

"It"s working, some are starting to break off!" Yue said excitedly. "One big display and we should be able to scare them off! What do you guys think?"

"You don"t mean Becca..." Ella started.

"You both confirmed its safe for her to use her in lightning. One good shot in the direction of the variant controlling the flock and we can end this fight, or do you want to spend your free time reformatting crystals to refill the formation power source?"

"Good luck, Becca!"

I could almost see Ella giving me a thumbs up as I rolled my eyes and asked, "Where is it?"

"Two o"clock, quarter of the way down from the top of the barrier. It"s bigger than the others and only has one eye," Yue informed.

"I see it," I said as I angled my board and shot straight at it while I summoned my scales.

The golden charm around my neck began to burn, but I focused on the ugly creature and my fingers crackled with crimson electricity. A crack appeared on the charm as a ball of Chaos Lightning formed in my hand and then I threw it out. This was my first time used the method One had demonstrated when I had tried running from him a few times when I realized our speed was similar. The ball locked onto my target as flew, chasing after it when it tried to flee. These creatures had an instinctual fear of lightning since the Thunderbirds were at the top of the food chain, so a variant was smart enough to sense the danger contained within that ball.

Unfortunately for it, the Flying Head wasn"t able to escape as the ball touched its clawed foot. Crimson lightning dyed the sky red for a moments as the lightning scattered, branching out to all of the nearby monsters before a deafening crack of thunder erupted and over a hundred beasts began to fall, the variant turned into ash, core and all. That was the final straw as the Flying Heads retreated in a ma.s.s panic, their group unity shattered.

I let out a deep breath as I released the scales on my arms and checked the charm. There was a single crack across one of the points, but it was repairable damage. With the danger gone, I glided down to the main deck while the formation snakes broke apart into sparkles of light. Ella and Terri joined me on the main deck while the other gathered around with smiles on their faces. Although it was tense for the last ten minutes, it was a pretty fun fight and we didn"t take any damage. We stood around Yue while she stood on the platform and looked over shimmering screens that only she could read since she was controlling the formation.

"Alright, I"ve got the core numbers. Who"s betting?" Yue asked with a laugh, stepping off the platform.

"There was still over half the flock that tucked tail, right? I say no more than six hundred," Terri said.

"Come on, we had to kill more than six hundred," Lesedi complained. "Eight fifty!"

While the others were making their guesses, I was trying to think of a number when I felt a little spark touch the back of my arm. Katye had reached out towards me, but it seemed her mana jumped at me again.

"Sorry..." Katye said, realizing I noticed her. "What are you guys betting on?"

"Number of crystal Yue was able to collect while we fought. It"s not quite a kill-count since there is a limited zone she can harvest the crystals from, but you get the idea," I explained.

"What are the crystals for?"

"Fuel for formations and, when powdered, Kiara, Lesedi, and Ella use them for their crafts. People can also tap into the energies inside to strengthen their bodies, but there are high chances of losing your mind through repeated usage, or so, Alice says."

"Oh."

"Any guesses from the two whispering in the back?" Yue teased.

I turned red as I shot Yue a glare which made her giggle and smile widely.

"Nine hundred and twelve," Katye said.

"Ha, Gustavo is out!" Lesedi laughed.

"That"s what he gets for one-upping Sophia," Katye giggled.

"d.a.m.n... I wasn"t listening, is a thousand free?" I asked.

"Dare to dream," Sophia chuckled.

"Go big or go home, right?" I laughed.

"And the winner is Katye! It was nine hundred and thirty-two," Yue said.

"d.a.m.nit, I would have had it!" Gustavo whined dramatically as he fell to his knees then started laughing Ella whacked him on the head.

"What did I win?" Katye asked with a giggle.

A sense of dread came over me when I saw the sparkle in Terri"s and Sophia"s eyes at her question, but before I could mouth at them to remain silent, Melissa explained.

"Well, everyone who bet now owes you a "favor". You can ask for a special weapon or armor piece from Lesedi, Ella would have to give you some charms or talismans, Sophia can make a variety of unique, enchanted items, and Terri makes every unique traps which are always great to have in some tricky situations..." Melissa explained.

"Oh? And what does Gustavo and Becca usually do for the winner?" Katye asked, a mischievous smile on her face.

"They are a bit more difficult since they don"t do anything productive with their time," Melissa teased.

"Hey," Gustavo complained.

I wanted to retort as well, but my nervousness and fear had me frozen in a semi-blushing, semi-pale state.

"Usually, the other girls will ask for a special date from Gustavo... while Becca gets treated like an indestructible, practice dummy," Melissa said, trying to keep a straight face, but failing at the end as she laughed.

I sighed in a strange relief since I could handle that kind of teasing far easier than the other kind that everyone had been putting me through lately.

"Just think about your "favors" for when we get back, okay?" Melissa added, thankfully.