World of Women - World of Women – V4 – Chapter 33

By the time I returned to the deck of the airship, we were pulling up along the side of the first airship. A group of women on each side pulled our prepared rune cards. Rune cards were a rather new invention in the world, only having been invented a few years ago and recently being brought up in popularity. They were like a playing card with preexisting runes on them. The runes contained about 95% of a completed spell circle, and you only needed to make a few additional fixes to account for the rest.

Different card sets contained different types of spells. The ones for personal use didn’t contain anything that could lead to conflict, but naturally, people took the same idea and create sets of attack spells. As long as a person had a deck, the basic understanding of what modifications to make when, and the ability to channel mana, they could launch attack after attack. Such an act was what they were doing now.

Various spells shot out from the side of the ship, slamming into the other vessel. The other vessel put up a shield, blocking such attacks and causing them to bounce off. While the closest ship defended itself, the other ships tried to launch distant attacks toward ours. Incapacitating spells of ice, torrents of wind, and even electrical strikes danced across the deck. A few people were even struck, but the spells weren’t at a level to kill someone, except possibly by accident. After all, the wrong gust of wind could cause someone to fall to their death. Such a thing had happened to me once before, so I wasn’t looking forward to repeating it.

We needed to not elevate things to killing. Once that order went out, the government would get their wish. The death quota would be reached and the summoning circle would become active. Thus, I had ordered Angela non-lethality. Given her personality though, I didn’t know how long that could last.

“Clyburn. It’s dangerous out here, you should stay below-” A woman I didn’t recognize approached me.

“Give over, he won’t.” Another voice interrupted her.

We both turned to see Cornelia standing there.

“Cornelia?” I raised an eyebrow. “I thought you’d be the first to try to keep me safe.”

She gave a wry look. “I’ve come to realize that getting you to not put yourself in danger is impossible. Just don’t do anything too stupid.”

“I don’t make any promises!” I shot back.

She snorted. “Alright, what do you need.”

“Does anyone have a drawing of the rune they are using to protect their ship or something like it?” I demanded.

The two of us turned to the unnamed sailor. When she realized we were looking at her, she shouted in surprise.

“Wh-what?”

“You’d be better off just humoring him.” Cornelia declared.

“R-right… the defensive spell is fairly standard. I think there is one in the attack decks.” She pulled out a deck from her pocket and started frantically shuffling through the cards.

As she did this, more and more spells fell on our ship. It was looking bleak. It was two on one, and whichever ship we got close to defend while the other ship attacked. It was a brutal combo. I glanced at the rune card she handed me and then grabbed the whole deck from her hands.

At that moment, I felt a rise of magical energy. I formed the defensive rune in my head, instinctively adding several changes before lifting my hand. A strike of lightning shot down, attempting to land right where the girl was standing. It struck a barrier that appeared over the entire ship. In fact, all of the strikes coming down struck this barrier.

“You really are strong with magic,” Cornelia said, looking up at the shimmering barrier.

“H-he’s doing that by himself? They need ten girls on the other side to maintain such a shield!” The sailor cried out in disbelief.

“It’s not easy…” I said in a strained voice.

However, it had given use a few seconds for the girls under bombardment to recover. We were still being pelted by dozens of spells though, so a few seconds was all I could give.

It was enough time that several other girls found their shield cards and erected their own smaller barriers. I let mine fall.

“Where is Angela?” I asked.

“She took off. She’s attacking both at once. She reckoned that once we take these ships, they’ll know what’s happening and cause trouble, so while they are attacking down there, she asked us to attack up here.” The woman hastily explained and then coughed. “Ah… I’m the first mate. Faeri herself-”

“I got the situation.” I waved my hand. “No wonder we’re suffering so much. We’re fighting two crews with half a crew. That woman really is reckless.”

“What should we do next?” She asked.

I realized that the woman who should be in charge was now deferring to me. I looked around the deck to see that there were about twenty people on the deck, not including whoever was piloting it. Five had seemingly already been knocked out in the previous attack, and ten of them were already using their power to hold up the shield overhead. I didn’t have a lot of time to think either, because they were assuredly planning to do something.

“Alright, prepare to attack the other ship, use everyone you have. Jump on board and overwhelm them in a single wave. Take control of that ship, and then we’ll conquer the third with a pincer attack.”

“Right… ahh! But the shields…” She gestured both to their shield, which made it impossible to bored, and our own, which was protecting us from the bombardment.

“Let me worry about that. Go give your orders, we attack on my mark.”

I pulled two cards out as I spoke to her. She nodded and started giving the orders to everyone. Meanwhile, I studied the two cards. As I did so, I noticed Cornelia by my side.

“You’re not going to fight?”

“I’m no fighter.” She snorted. “Besides, I decided already that my place is by your side.”

“I see…” I nodded. “Then, let’s do what we came here to do.”

The two cards in my hand were a wind rune and the defensive shield. Using my understanding of magical theory, I worked out how the shield blocked physical and magical objects. It essentially worked with waves. I vaguely remembered that if you put waves of the exact opposite over existing waves, they would cancel each other out. Thus, I inverted the shield, and then prepared it in my mind.

I dropped the cards once I was done studying them. I had an abnormally incredible ability to memorize runes ever since I had gained the demon lord’s inheritance. A brief look was all I needed, and then my mind filled in the rest. Raising my hand, I let out a yell.

“Now!” I cast the shield, pushing it out against theirs.

There was a brief moment of resistance, but then the two shields popped together and then shattered. The girls on the ship let our cries. Those that had been managing the shields dropped them and then turned to the enemy ship. At this moment, the pilot turned the ship until we struck the other. Girls began to leap across, surprising and alarming the magicians on the other side who had been resisting magically, not prepared for a physical fight.

As soon as the shields were down, the attacks from the other ship flared up again. I released my second spell, throwing my hands out in the opposite direction. A massive whirlwind of air, a modified and much more powerful version of the rune on the card erupted between our ship and theirs. The spells that were supposed to strike were blown away, and their ship was pushed back. Our ship slammed into the neighboring ship with a thud, causing everyone remaining on bored to fall.

However, the other ship didn’t have someone to push against, and the ship tilted, nearly going ninety degrees before stopping. It started to teeter on the edge, seemingly unable to straighten itself. I stood back up and looked in horror as dozens of women fell from the side of the ship. There were very few left on board. I hadn’t intended to kill anyone though, so I grimaced as the bodies plummeted down into the city. However, before striking, they all started to slow down. They fell the rest of the ways at rather relaxed stats. When I raised an eyebrow, Cornelia gave me a questioning look.

“It’s fairly standard to have bailout runes on an airship. If someone falls over the edge, it activates and they are slowed down by a pocket of wind until they reach the ground.” Cornelia explained.

“That is something I would have liked to have known about a long time ago.” I coughed.

I felt like a lot of heartache in my life could have been spared if I had known about such a rune. I had been on several airships before, and such a thing was never even mentioned to me. I guess it was like life-preservers on a cruise ship. The crew all knew about them, but unless you were looking for one you might never see or hear about it unless the occasion arose. As much as I learned, I probably missed a lot not growing up watching the media of this world.

I shook my head and then shouted to the pilot. “Rise up! Get around to the other side of that ship!”

Most of the crew was not on our ship any longer. They were busy taking over the other ship. If some of theirs got wise and jumped to our ship, it would be problematic. Our ship rose and headed toward the capsizing ship. Movements on an airship weren’t necessarily fast, and it took fifteen minutes before we were on the other side. I use less energy, but threw out another wind spell, pushing the airship back to a normal position.

At this point, there was a shout on the other ship, and it also started to approach the now righted ship. I could see our girls, including the first mate. They were in charge, with the other women either unconscious or tied up. With only a few remaining girls who had held on for dear life, the girls on the last ship put up their hands, surrendering. As the girls boarded the last ship and tied up the last few survivors, there was an explosion down below, and the ship shook for a second like the giant chain had been pulled. The two ships began to rise quicker, no longer locked into the ground.

Taking out a pair of binoculars, I looked down at the surface, to see on the final chain of the long link… was Angela and a few other girls clinging to it. She was shouting and laughing, although most of the girls were clinging to it looking like they were going to be sick. She had successfully detached the chain. With a breath, I pointed up and shouted out.

“Rise to the island!”

The process wasn’t fast, and while we were waiting, they threw down ropes and managed to help Angela and the rest back up to the ships. Two ships continued to pull the chain up, while a third acted as protection. I was on the protection ship, as were most of the remaining crew, who would create shields and attacks if any other airship came near us.

None did, as they were distracted by the island itself. As we rose closer and closer to the island from below, we could see similar shields and attacks being launched from the side of the island. The airships were currently busy trying to launch assaults on the island, while the residents were busy trying to toss them off. As we got closer and closer, I grew increasingly anxious.

“It’s time for you guys to be getting off.” Angela declared as the ships finally rose past the island.

The two ships carrying the chain were under the ledge of the island, lining up to where there was an exposed support beam to attach the chain to. Several women were getting ready to jump off the ship and land on the edge. They would be acting to defend the ships from the tip of the island while this airship did circuits in the air to keep others from interfering.

Right now, none of the other ships were able to see the ships with the chain from above the island. It blocked the sight of our ascent just as the government had intended. However, they probably thought we intended to just keep them from chaining the island, and were now using the ships to begin an air battle. They could be seen from the surface and as soon as the wrong person figured out what was happening, they would likely signal the ships and the true fight would begin.

I turned to her. “Are you sure about this?”

“We can handle things here.” She responded confidently.

I reached into my pocket and pulled out a few cards. “Here.”

“Huh? I don’t need something like that.” She frowned.

“These runes should be able to put up a bit of an illusion,” I said. “Get them to the ships below and they’ll look like just part of the dirt. How long they can keep that spell up will reveal how long before the government learns about our plan. However, once you start pulling, everyone is going to know.”

“Okay…” She pocketed the runes. “Then make sure to get as many people protecting our asses as you can. If you can’t end the fighting on top of the island, then we’re bound to fail.”

I nodded. This was a dangerous plan. Everyone had to do their part, or it would certainly fail. Worse, besides the group of us, no one else even knew exactly what the plan was. On the island, they were still just fighting to survive. Whatever Faeri had come up with, I didn’t even know.

Shaking my head at the absurdity of it all, I joined a group of women was standing at the edge of the ship while checking their stuff.

“Ladies! Do you have your life-saving wind rune?” The one in charge called out before glancing at me. “And man.”

The girls all chuckled, but I made sure that my rune was with me. Cornelia walked up right next to me, looking over the edge with a frown.

“We have three airships now. You won’t be able to save every guy, but we could probably take at least five-hundred with us if you just wanted to escape now.” Cornelia watched me out of the corner of her eye.

“There are at least 5,000 men down there,” I responded.

It was the entire male population in Amaryllis as a country, give or take 1000 some men still unlucky enough to be in programs like the one I was placed in, the farms, or still in reeducation. They had made it seem like most men had it good in a situation with an agent like me, but that was only those that went through the proper reeducation. Most of the older men who were used to having things their way had ended up in the male district.

That didn’t even factor in all of the women we’d be leaving behind, prisoners, and those who had chosen to protect men like Nada and my sister. I shook my head, which caused Cornelia to nod too. She looked over the edge and gulped. As we were speaking, the woman was still shouting orders to the others, something about holding the lines and protecting what you believed in.

“I spent 4 years in university taking classes on such an island, and I never felt it was so high before,” Cornelia spoke in a strained voice.

“You weren’t on the island when it tilted?”

She shook her head. “No, we just got off the trolley when that happened.”

“Well, this is a ride that we won’t be able to get off of,” I glanced at her. “Are you really sure you’re coming?”

She frowned, and then reached out a grabbed my hand. “We’re in this together.”

“Hey! You two! Stop flirting! No other girl here will get a guy, so don’t rub it in our faces! It’s depressing!”

Cornelia jerked upright, her face turning red.

“After today, men might be in the majority. You might be able to have your pick of a guy.” I responded. “So, if you show your cool, brave side and keep a man safe, imagine how appreciative he’ll be.”

My words were extremely effective, and all of the girls let out cries of excitement, their eyes glowing as they imagined a love affair with a man that resembled what they had seen in media. I did need to watch some of those shows sometime. I would probably be even more successful with women if I understood what they fantasized about when it came to men.

“Yeah, yeah…” The lead girl shook off my temptation the quickest. “No one will have anyone if we all die after jumping. Jump when I tell you to! If you’re off even a moment, you might be falling much farther. As for the spell, just hope it holds out the entire fall because otherwise, it will be a long drop to Amaryllis.”

Her words tempered the jovial demeanor that had started growing throughout the group. Everyone swallowed and then put on a serious face. Once we jumped, we’d be jumping right into it. It wasn’t just a matter of making the jump onto the island, but we’d also be falling who knows where. We would fall right into the enemy. Even if we fell into friends, they didn’t know which side we were on and might attack.

Plus, the spell slowed down our fall, but that effectively turned us into sitting ducks. Anyone could shoot a spell or a gun and knock us out of the sky. In short, while we were floating down, we were extremely vulnerable.

“Ready.”

“I have second thoughts,” I whispered.

“On my mark.”

“Now?” Cornelia responded in disbelief.

“3.”

“This is kind of scary.”

“2.”

“You’re unbelievable.”

“1.”

“Let’s just lower a rope and…”

“Mark! Go! Go! Go!”

“Too late!” To my shock, laughing excitedly, Cornelia grabbed me and jumped, pulling me with her off the ship.

That’s how I learned Cornelia might be an adrenaline junky.