Chương 269: Air Ambush

For the next few hours, Anise and I had a good time looking through the windows. It was interesting to see the land so far below us. We were far enough in the air that the town we lived in looked like a little postcard. Mountains, forests, and factories also looked tiny from our height. It was an enjoyable experience. The flight also had a meal that they offered two hours into the flight. The food itself wasn't great - after all, it was probably hard to cook a proper meal in midair.

But it was okay, and coupled with the view it was still a good experience. About an hour into the flight, we also figured out what the 'cannons' attached to the airship were for. I had thought that they were weapons, but they seemed more like alchemical chimneys. Every couple minutes, they spat a cloud of binding essence and some sort of waste product into the air. After a few hours of observing our surroundings, we got bored.

There was only so long we could marvel at the feeling of being in the air before it wore off. After four hours, Anise and I settled into our seats to take a nap. We awoke to pandemonium.

"The strange Zelyrian creatures have been spotted!" yelled the captain.

"Please remain in your seats. We will attempt to turn around and outfly them! If any passengers have brought guns with them, please do not attempt to shoot them! Placing a hole in the ship will cause us more problems than the Zelyrian monstrosities. I repeat, please remain in your seats!" I heard a few panicked screams and yells from the passengers, as well as a lot more assorted tense and heavy breathing. However, most of the passengers remained seated as they stared out the windows.

I shot to my feet and looked outside. There, in the distance, I saw a horde of worldstriders flying towards us. I resisted the urge to curse. We hadn't even landed yet and we had already run into the worldstriders. Why were they here? Had the range of the worldstriders expanded? Were they trying to take over even more territory? Then, right afterwards, I felt my heartbeat speed up. These guys came right as we were approaching them. Can they sense Anise at a distance?

Maybe they didn't come because they were trying to take more territory. Maybe they came for us. If the worldstriders were capable of sensing Anise at a distance… then we would have a major problem. The reason we took this trip was because my spatial sight and soul sight, coupled with my Grade 12 Perception, gave me absurd threat detection range. As long as I kept my eyes open, we would have total freedom to avoid larger groups of enemies and attack smaller ones.

The worldstriders would never be able to hurt us if we only ever ran into small groups of them. But if the worldstriders could sense Anise, our greatest advantage would become moot. We would need to cancel this trip and flee back to Damilius. I shook my head, and tried to wipe my thoughts away. I could think about what this meant afterwards. Right now, we had a fight on our hands. I looked at Anise, and saw that she was also awake. <Ready? > I asked. She nodded.

I dropped both Anise and I into the worldstrider's layer of reality, then used my spatial and soul sight to scan the area. At the same time, we started to fall through the floor of the airship, which took me by surprise. This hadn't happened when we were on the ground of Damilius, or in the pocket dimension. Still, it wasn't too hard of a problem to solve. I grabbed Anise, and then used my umbrella to help us fly along with the airship.

Most of the other passengers were too busy screaming to notice us falling through the floor. <Around thirty worldstriders, > I said, as I breathed a sigh of relief. There were only thirty enemies. My previous speculation, that the worldstriders could sense Anise, was probably wrong. If the worldstriders had come for us, they should know that only thirty worldstriders wouldn't threaten us. I had more than enough essence to extinguish all of them.

I didn't see any other surprises the worldstriders could bring to the table. I relaxed. I started checking ranges and prepping my spells, before I unleashed a bit of payback for Sallia's death. I started out by targeting the ones at the back, so that it would be harder for the others to notice they were being attacked. Before they had time to realize they were being attacked, five worldstriders dropped. Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.

And then, my sixth extinguish missed. The worldstriders had finally realized they were being attacked, and started dodging. Worse, they had started thinning their bodies out like sheets of paper. This made it easier for them to create holes in their body when they needed to dodge another extinguish. I frowned. The ease which which worldstriders could deform their bodies to dodge attacks was a huge pain in the neck.

I still probably had enough essence to extinguish them all, but it would be more costly than anticipated. <Let me try something, > said Anise, after she saw my seventh target dodge my attack. <What are you planning on doing? > <The worldstriders have very soft, almost jelly-like bodies. That makes it easy for them to deform their bodies and dodge attacks. But I might be able to use that to my advantage as well. Let me see if I can squish them into one spot with Mage Hand and make it easier for you to hit...

> said Anise. She frowned in concentration, and I felt a bit of essence ripple out of her body. A moment later, I noticed a spell start to take effect. The worldstriders had thinned out their bodies as if they were sheets of paper, to make dodging easier. However, after Anise's interference, the worldstrider closest to us was smashed into a ball shape. I immediately tossed an extinguish at it, and it died. The other worldstrider's gazes snapped towards us, as if they had found their sworn enemies.

I heard one yell something that I couldn't make out. I prepared to fire an extinguish at the vocal one. And then, before I could do anything, the vocal worldstrider split in half. I blinked in surprise as the worldstrider's corpse tumbled out of the sky. The creature had… died? Just like that? What happened? Anise started laughing. <So that's what it is! I figured it out! > she said. <What is it? > I asked. <Mage hand! > <... I'm sorry, what? Isn't that a beginner spell? How did you kill a worldstrider with it?

> <Their bodies are so soft! They're as sturdy as wet paper! Normally, Mage Hand can't rip materials apart, because it's incapable of exerting much force against anything. But the worldstrider bodies are so squishy that even mage hand can rip their bodies in half! Especially if they stretch themselves out like this! > said Anise. <Is that so? > I blinked in surprise. Was it that simple? Could one of the most basic spells in Zelyrian spellcasting kill the Worldstriders?

<Well, I still need to be in the same layer of reality as them. Otherwise, there'll be plenty of issues with the spell. And if they bunch themselves up, they're harder to get rid of. But at least for us, it's good enough! > said Anise, as she ripped apart a few more worldstriders. Some of the worldstriders started to bunch themselves back into thicker shapes, and I fired a few extinguishes at them. Most of the worldstriders died, although one managed to dodge my first extinguish.

I followed up with a second one, and this time it died. <How well does it work? > I asked. <Mage hand is almost instantaneous! It has very high activation speed, and very low essence cost! > <And if I kill the ones that reshape themselves into thick shapes, they have no way to escape, > I said. I grinned. <Either they get killed by mage hand, or extinguish. > I started to laugh. <I don't know if this is what the Zelyrians used to win against the worldstriders... but either way.

We don't need to copy their exact method of winning. We just need a way to beat down the worldstriders! > <Exactly! > said Anise, as the two of us kept working our way through the attackers. Nearly two thirds of the worldstriders had died by now, and the remainder was no longer approaching the airship. Instead, they had started to flee. Not that it helped them much. Anise and I both had massive attack ranges with our chosen spells.

Within a few minutes, the last worldstriders died, and I pulled us back to the normal layer of reality. The other passengers looked at the falling corpses of the worldstriders with confused expressions. None of them seemed quite sure how to process what had just happened. For seemingly no reason, the dangerous threat to their lives had just dropped dead.

"Passengers… the threat appears to have been… dealt with?" said the captain, sounding as if he couldn't believe his eyes.

"We, umm... we will... resume the flight?" There were a few scattered murmurs from the other passengers, but no one contested his decision.

"We are two hours away from landing. Please remain seated and enjoy the ride" Meanwhile, Anise and I looked at each other as our eyes sparkled. We had finally found a way for Anise to contribute a lot to each fight. It probably wasn't the way the original Zelyrians had dealt with the worldstriders. But we had a good way for Anise to fight. And that meant two things. We had already achieved our first objective in coming here.

And if we wanted to push a bit, we might have finally found a way for Anise to get a keyword ability that she wanted. <I have a new idea, > said Anise. <How about you shapeshift both of us a bit first, so that the worldstriders don't link us to the attack on their pocket dimension all those years ago. Then… how about we find a way to mess with the worldstriders a bit more? We can also make sure that the worldstriders don't come looking for me again. In fact, I have a few other ideas.

Since the worldstriders probably remember me from our first encounter... we could fake my death with some preparation. And we could also terrify the worldstriders. It'll take some setup and brainstorming, but I think we can set up something amazing if we do it right... > I grinned as the two of us talked over Anise's ideas. It wasn't perfect, and we might not fool the worldstriders... but I felt that our odds were pretty good.

If things went well, we could deflect any attention from the worldstriders and get Anise her keyword ability. And so, for the final two hours of the flight, we plotted.