A ma.s.sive pillar of reddish black light about up from the middle of the temple, completely blowing what was left of it into a ma.s.sive like of rubble and debris. Raven Song and I kept our bearings due east, heading to a part of the island that was not as populated, and where the Acheron was docked right underwater. Whatever was going to be coming out of those gates we really didn"t want to be here when they did, plus Eve we won"t be in danger from the gates themselves, we were right In the middle of hostile territory, so I would very much like to avoid being surrounded by a guild of fanatical players.
However as we flew over a small patch of forest owe to the edge of the island, a ma.s.sive fireball flew towards us, or rather it was a flaming rock fired from a catapult. Raven Song and I banked left and right, barely evading the ma.s.sive Boulder that came out of nowhere, but that the least of our problems as players sporting jetpacks flew up from the trees below us, each of them holding guns that looked really garish and ugly with their black and red frame. There were six players and given that they were all similarly armored, I get the feeling that they all shared the same cla.s.s.
*Pew pew!*
Two red bolts flew from two guns, I quickly brought my wings forwards, letting then block the two shots and letting gravity drag my body, however both shots were so powerful they pushed me back and felt my wings feeling a little bit of heat. I spread them as let them catch air as I s.h.i.+fted Sky back to her staff form from her helm form. The players were too cl.u.s.tered to attack with bust the Mana ARROWS, not to mention Sky was already feeling weakened, I"ve been using her abilities none stop for the better part of two hours, she was still very much a living being as opposed to the tool she looks like right now, things like stamina would always come into question for her.
(STORM DANCE)
I was in the air and sort for Raven song who just got his wings and this group of players who were busy moving shakily with jet-packs, the sky was my domain. Band it was about time I needed it to my advantage, not unless I wanted to fully s.h.i.+ft into my dragon form, which if I should be honest I really don"t want to do, as that was a trump card I had to keep hidden since Persephone and Zareth already used theirs.
(MANA ARROW)
Four silver blue Mana arrows flew towards one of the players, he really wasn"t expecting it, and his defense seemed somewhat weak. The Mana arrows punched a hole into his body and out the back of his jet-pack, and 2 seconds later before he faded away he exploded into a shower of flames and metal, and since he was quite close to one of his friends, he took the guy with him in a blaze of fiery glory.
Two down, four more to go. I turned my head to the remaining four who had instead chosen to focus on Raven Song, which was why I would have done seeing as he was the one decked head to toe in a golden armor and was bulky and beefed up he looked like the Terminator. However the two meter long Warhammer Raven held in his hand seemed to elongate and grow flexible, becoming something akin to a whip which he flipped and used to sweep the four players a.s.saulting him . He crushed all four players together like they were nothing more than soda cans, and then swung the hammer down, smas.h.i.+ng it against another Boulder that came flying towards us. Then he spun, swing the whip hammer? Around himself, causing a disturbance in the wind as he raised it up and brought it smacking down with a heavy and resounding thud. Some how as he brought the hammer down, the b.l.o.o.d.y thing seemed to expand, until it was over a hundred meters in diameter, and when he slammed it into the ground, a ma.s.sive crater appeared releasing a shockwave that created a clearing, smas.h.i.+ng all of the trees within a three hundred meter radius to splinters and leaving behind cleared earth filled with saw dust and very dead players and AIs.
I turned to look as Raven Song as he withdrew his Warhammer, returning it back into it"s normal two meter form, which he proceeded to even shrink into it was the same size of his previous Warhammer. He looked at me with wide eyes leaking out of his golden visor and said.
"I honestly didn"t see that coming, do you think we"ll get in trouble?" he asked me, the I rolled my eyes and asked him.
"Get in trouble with who? We"re running from an island of devil wors.h.i.+ppers, and the entire universe is out for our heads, we answer to no one Raven, we"re Acheron." I don"t know why I phrased it like that, but I felt as if something had changed in the way we viewed ourselves. We were not just a crew of wanted people roaming the seas, we answered to no one, and if anyone wanted to stand in our way, we would be more than happy to kick their f.u.c.king a.s.ses.
Raven Song and I continued until we got to the coast, thankfully we were not ambushed or way laid by anyone else. We dived into the water and almost screamed in fight at the ma.s.sive face we saw as we got into the ocean, it only took a moment for us to calm down as we realized that Zareth was playing a prank, the fang filled grin on his face was more than enough to show that he was being a ma.s.sive d.i.c.k, which was nothing new.
We swam towards the s.h.i.+p with Zareth s.h.i.+tting back into his diminutive dwarfish form. We went behind the Acheron and came up the rear entrance that led to the hull. We swam in and saw Qitar waiting for us with a towel in hand, I gave her a simple thanks as I practically ran to the s.h.i.+p"s intercoms system.
"Darke! Get us the f.u.c.k away from this island right now, put everything we have to it s.h.i.+elds and focus on getting us the f.u.c.k away from here!"
(SEA SPRINT ACTIVATED)
To be honest I was feeling somewhat frantic, we had to get out of here before something goes horribly wrong, what was it that could go wrong apart from the gates of h.e.l.l opening, I didn"t know. But I get the feeling that we would be finding out soon enough. I made my way to the deck, it was covered now ,but we could still see what was happening above, especially with how the s.h.i.+p"s navigation system works. I went to the wheel and returned the compa.s.s back into its perch, reactivating the s.h.i.+p"s full navigation system.
The Acheron was cutting through the ocean Ike a knife through b.u.t.ter when all of a sudden we felt a sudden tremor, looking up we noticed the a ma.s.sive dome falling from the blood red sky as if to completely isolate the ocean City Of Atlantis and it"s surrounding ocean, cutting them off from the rest of the world and preventing outside interference.
"Captain!"
"d.a.m.n it Qitar! I can see the d.a.m.n thing!"
I s.h.i.+fted my focus ahead of us, the dome was coming down really quickly, and we were still within the range of the dome, which meant we might not be able to make it there in time. And should that for fully come down, we"ll be stuck here and subjected to G.o.d knows6 what kind of torture. I didn"t doubt for one second that the dome would stretched underwater, I had this guy feeling that it would. Then I got an idea.
"Qitar aim all guns and turrets behind us, and fire! And don"t stop until I tell you too." I said to her as I went to the bow of the s.h.i.+p where the Trident was stuck firmly into a carrier.
Qitar didn"t wasted time as she started blasting the guns and turrets, hang the force of their discharge to add more boost to the s.h.i.+p and push us forward, the sole movements was quite jarring and, doing this to the s.h.i.+p would probably be putting g quite a lot of pressure on it, but this was the only option we have, and for the most part it seems to be working, and now it was time to add a little more boost to the s.h.i.+p.
I held the Trident and felt a vibration go from it, to the s.h.i.+p and out into the ocean around us. The water bubbled and shook as the currents s.h.i.+fted in our favor, storm clouds gathered as the water itself created a current stream that pushed the Acheron forward. Even though the s.h.i.+p was in it"s submarine form, the speed were moving at was so great that everyone had to hold on to something, heck I was holding on to the Trident with my entire body in the air being dragged by the inertia and speed of the s.h.i.+p.
I heard a dull groan , almost as if the s.h.i.+p was complaining about the amount of pressure we were putting on it"s engines. But none the less we still had to push her to her limits. I struggled to place my hand on her how, as if to comfort her and ask her to hold on. We were almost through the danger zone. I looked up and saw the dome break through the surface of the Ocean, we were about three hundred meters below and we were trying to get pa.s.sed the barriers range, and we had just about a 100 meters to go.
But with how cats this b.l.o.o.d.y thing was dropping, I was beginning to worry that we would be unable to make it. The seconds seemed to get longer as we drew closer and closer, and yet the threat of being trapped or smas.h.i.+ng against that b.l.o.o.d.y barrier was very real. I could hear my own heart beating and my blood pumping in my ears, the hands unused in holding the Trident was clammy with sweat as I held my breath. We got closer and closer and then.
*Kreeeeeeeeeeeeee*
The sound of the barrier sc.r.a.ping across the frame of the Acheron, raising Sparks and causing a breach on the deck"s covering. Sea water splashed into it, but even with that development we could all breath a sigh of relief, we made it out, but quite narrowly to. The s.h.i.+p moved forward for another kilometer or two before finally slowing down to a stop. We had to ascend as staying underwater at the moment was not safe for some of the crew members.
The Acheron burst out onto the ocean with a flat sky s.h.i.+ning above it, in the distance was the ma.s.sive dome hundreds of meters of not thousands in diameter, heck it could be a few dozen kilometers. The sky above it was still covered with thick clouds that were all painted red, there was just the feeling not depression coming from it, a feeling of Carnage and destruction.
I suddenly remembered what the t.i.tan had said to me about the innocents that would be left behind and at the mercy of the legions of h.e.l.l, however there was nothing I could do about it anymore. I looked around to notice that there were quite a few s.h.i.+p"s gathered around, and many of them held players and AIs who were busy watching with horror what was happening as the Ocean City Of Atlantis was buried under a dome of red and black.
I s.h.i.+fted my gaze to the s.h.i.+p and noticed that the s.h.i.+p was already in a state of self repair, but even if she"ll be okay eventually, this mission almost cost us, and not just that, this was the first time we met a challenge we truly couldn"t overcome, even with all of the strength we had. We ran with our tails tucked in between our legs, it was more than enough proof that we weren"t invisible. But I was thankful that we were all alive, and that somehow we did get what we came for, Jack was going to be fine , and after that we"re getting the f.u.c.k off this planet, one way or another. h.e.l.l and it"s very open gate was not our problem.
I s.h.i.+fted my gaze and looked around, every other s.h.i.+p all had their eyes on us, recognition etched all over their faces as they yelled questions at us demanding to know what had happened. Some of them even seemed to be preparing to swim over and attack us, we were surrounded and we were not in our top conditions. But none the less I get the feeling that this was better odds than facing an open gate of h.e.l.l, quite happy to don"t out legions of monsters hundreds of levels above me.
"Dinah! Fix the s.h.i.+p, Qitar get the guns that are still working online and shoot at anyone who come within a sixty meters of the Acheron, the rest of you prepare for battle, would the need for it arise."
We were all tired, but I was not until good a mood that a bunch of clueless players would pop out of nowhere to ask me questions I didn"t what to answer. We answered to no one, that"s the Acheron"s way.