Chapter 38
The battle with the aerial beasts becomes a lot easier once the poachers joined the fight. Using their expertise at bringing down monsters, the poachers were able to kill a lot of aerial beasts which greatly reduces the pressure on the defenders.
As for the silver falcon, Rennel was the one handling it much to the poachers’ dismay. Although it was a monster king similar to the monstrous wolf and the goblin king; the silver falcon was noticeably more difficult to handle. And this was despite the fact that Rennel had had her second awakening.
The reason for this was mainly due to the fact that the creature has free reign of the sky. Even Rennel with her heightened senses had to give her full concentration just to not lose sight of the monster.
“I didn’t expect that it would be so difficult to fight a flying opponent. If I were on the ground, I could probably do something about the monster’s speed but on the airship, I have to control my strength or I might accidentally cause damage to it.” Rennel inwardly complained.
“Maybe I should ask the help of the poachers… No, not yet… these people are up to no good. If teacher was correct then their real target was the silver falcon.”
The timing of the poachers is suspect. And the fact that they’re able to smuggle their weapons in meant that it’s an inside job. For this reason alone, Rennel refuses to give these men what they wanted.
“But I can’t just monopolize the monster king. I’ll have them help once the numbers of aerial beasts were greatly reduced.”
Although Rennel was being patient, the poachers were not. Seeing that the girl was not in a disadvantage despite fighting the silver falcon, the men are starting to worry.
“Hey, girl… How about you change place with us? We should be able to handle the monster king much better than you!” One of the poachers shouted.
There it is!
“No need. I could still handle the monster. Just keep helping the crews defend the airship against the other aerial beasts. If I really can’t handle it, I’ll ask for your guys help!” Rennel shouted back.
Tsk! One of the poachers clicked his tongue. He was feeling annoyed that someone was taking their prey. If they let the spear-wielding magician girl defeat the silver falcon, then their plan would surely fall apart. And they can’t have that.
Their group had already invested so much effort, money, and time on this venture. And as Rennel suspected, they have accomplices. It was for this reason that they have access to their tools and weapons.
Their biggest concern though was not the fact that they put a lot of investment in the venture but the fact that they only have a one chance to pull this off.
If they miss this chance, another one will no longer appear…
“What should we do?” The poacher with a black beard asked in a low voice.
“It’s obvious… we can’t allow that female magician to kill the silver falcon.” The rude poacher answered between gritted teeth.
“We all know that… but how are we supposed to do that? It’s very obvious that the magician was suspicious of us. Should we…?” The poacher with the red bandana on his head put one finger in his neck and did a cutting motion with it.
“Don’t be stupid! If we did something like that, all of the magicians in Nuathl city would be after our asses!” A more level-headed poacher, the one that seemed to be the leader of the group scolded the poacher wearing the red bandana.
The two other poachers, even the rudest one of them all was feeling hesitant to use violence against Rennel. Not because they’re being kind but because they knew what the consequence would be if they touch a magician from “The Tower.”
Although they won’t hesitate to use violence against other people just to get what they wanted, they couldn’t do the same against a magician connected to that place.
“Let’s wait for the chance to strike. Although the female magician was very powerful to be able to last this long against the silver falcon; she’ll run out of mana and stamina eventually. Once that happens, then she can’t complain even if we steal her prey.” The leader said with a cold smile on his face. “Also, if we can’t really find an opportunity then we’ll just make one…”
Although the leader of the poachers stopped his men from harming the girl, it didn’t mean that they’ll allow her to kill the silver falcon.
No. There’s absolutely no way that they would allow anyone else to profit off of their hard work. The amount of investment they put on this venture was too big for them to just give up.
****
“It’s almost time… they’re probably running out of patience now.”
Rennel had seen how the four men communicate with each other despite fighting the silver falcon. Although the men tried to be casual about it, they could not escape the girl’s notice.
Honestly, she’s really pissed off that there are people like these poachers that would take advantage of their dangerous situation just so to complete whatever goal they have.
While having such a thought in her head, some cracks start to appear on her airtight defense. These “cracks” did not escape the silver falcon’s notice which then started attacking more vigorously. Her defense compromised, Rennel could only defend desperately.
Although she was still able to hold on, Rennel was noticeable attacking less and less and was instead focusing more on defense rather than offense. The girl’s situation was noticed by the poachers who were looking for the chance to take center stage.
Now that the direction of the wind was changing, the poachers knew that the chance they were waiting for had arrived.
Not long after, the silver falcon released several wind blades towards the girl. Seeing the wind blades, Rennel knew that she could not take them head on. The girl quickly channels the power of the wind through her spear and creates her own wind blades to counter the monster king’s wind blades.
Unfortunately, her hastily made wind blades were no match for the silver falcon’s wind blades – blowing her off the airship to the defending crews shock!
“It’s our chance!”
The poachers didn’t care that Rennel fall off the airship. For them, she deserved it for getting in their way. Without saying a word, the four men abandoned the defenders to fend off against the horde of aerial beast, and went on to face the monster king instead.
Meanwhile, Rennel that had “fallen off” sky deck earlier actually manages to sneak into airship. What happened to her earlier was nothing but a ruse to force the four poachers to act. Although what she did will surely trouble the defenders, the girl believed that they can hold on without her help, especially since the airship was almost out sky titan’s range.
As long as they’re far away enough from the sky titan, the aerial beast would soon stop attacking. The silver falcon would still be very troublesome but the four poachers should be able to handle the monster till her return. It’ll also for the best if the monster king and the poachers weakened each other.
Right now, the girl’s biggest concern was to ensure the safety of the entire airship and the passengers. And in order to do that she must first get rid of the hidden danger. The girl was of course referring to the accomplices of those four poachers.
Although her teacher didn’t specify why the poachers were so hell bent in hunting the silver falcon, she has this feeling that it’s not anything good. But before tackling the poachers she must first tackle the hidden dangers.
“I thought finding the accomplices would be very difficult but to think it would be this easy…” Rennel was a little speechless.
She had been racking her brain on ways on how to find the accomplices of the poachers. And yet after sneaking back into the airship, her problem would be solved so easily.
“Heh heh… I feeling very irritated right now. What’s the point of all that planning if you’re all just going to expose yourselves just like that?!”
On the hallway of the airship, Rennel saw three men wearing the uniform of the airship crews carrying weapons and loitering around. Moreover, she saw several airship crews lying unconscious on the floor. It’s obvious for everyone to see that someone had hijacked the airship!
“Come to think of it, there’s had been no more announcements from the captain since the attack begins. What’s more, the airship seemed to be moving rather slowly despite the fact that we’re trying to get as far away as possible from the sky titan.” Rennel thought to herself.
Rennel noticed that the speed of the airship slowed down a lot since several minutes ago. At first she thought that it was just the captain being very considerate to the people fighting the aerial beasts on the sky deck. But after seeing these armed men, Rennel knew that her guess was wrong.
“The captain and the rest of the crews must have been taken hostage by the other accomplices. And here I thought that there are only one or two accomplices but to think that there’s more of them.” Rennel complained in annoyance.
“It’s fortunate that they didn’t touch the passengers… but I’ve no doubt that they won’t hesitate to hold them hostage if things didn’t go as they’ve planned. Still, who were these people and what were they planning? No… now’s not the time for that. For now I should take down these people and re-establish order.”
****
One by one, Rennel rendered all of the armed men she saw loitering on the hallway unconscious. To prevent herself from accidentally killing them, she did her best to control her strength – using only enough to render them all unconscious without doing them much harm.
While doing all of that, Rennel was also checking on the status of the unconscious crews. Aside for some not-too-heavy injuries, the men only lost consciousness.
Rennel also took of the weapons of the hijackers and stored all of them inside her space ring. This was to ensure that none of the men would have access to any weapon if one of them manages to regain consciousness before the stated time.
The girl deduced that it would take several hours before the men regain consciousness. That said; Rennel was kind of regretting not learning magic that could put all of her enemies to sleep. If she had learned such a magic beforehand, then she wouldn’t have to trouble herself knocking the hijackers one by one.
“I swear, I’ll try to learn a sleep spell once all of this is over…” Rennel murmured to herself.
After knocking two more hijackers, Rennel finally reached the cockpit. But before opening the door to the cockpit though, the girl first used ‘Detection’ to know what’s happening inside the cockpit. She did all of this to avoid a sudden ambush from the inside.
“One, two, three, and four… There are four people… four of them are carrying weapons. One of them is near the person manning the steering wheel… must be the captain.”
Rennel tried to open the iron door without making any noise. Unfortunately, someone might have forgotten to oil the door as its making quite the racket. And as one would expect, the people inside the cockpit heard the noise and turned around to look who it was that entered.
Damn it!
Knowing that her plan of a surprise attack failed miserably because of the annoying door, Rennel could only curse inwardly. Also, upon seeing the girl wearing a black hooded cloak, the people inside the cockpit reacted differently.
The reaction of the four men carrying weapons was to charge at her in order to bring her down. The captain and his assistant on the other hand could only stand in place with dumbfounded look as the men charging at the girl were disarmed and rendered unconscious.
Everything started so fast and ended as fast that the captain and his assistant could only stare at the girl blankly. If the girl didn’t speak to them, they might have stayed like that for a little while.
“Who, who are you?” The captain asked after waking up from his reverie.
“Rennel,” The girl started. “I’m here to assist.”
Hearing that the girl was there to assist them, the captain, and his assistant could not help but look at each other.
“What happened to the other hijacker?” The captain asked another question.
“Don’t worry; I’ve knocked all of them unconscious. They shouldn’t be able wake up for several hours.” Rennel reported.
“That’s good!” The captain and his assistant cheered. “By the way… do you know what happened to the crews of the airship?”
“I’ve found several crews lying unconscious on the hallway before I get here. I’ve already checked on them. Aside from some injuries all of them are still alive. The ones on the sky deck on the other hand were still fighting. Four poachers are also there fighting the silver falcon. Those four should be in cahoots with these guys.” Rennel explained and pointed at the unconscious men on the floor.
“That said; we’re still not out of the woods yet. The four on the sky deck should be much stronger than the hijackers here. I’m confident that I could take care of them but I will need your help.”
Rennel looked at the captain and his assistant before opening her mouth.
****
To be continued
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