True Love's Seventh Kiss

Ch.11 X Marks The Spot

"This is a fool's errand." Chaunce grumbled as he loaded mana stones aboard the ship for fuel and maintenance.

"Quiet Chaunce, look." Klayus pointed at the group that was approaching.

People cleared a path but also gathered to see the famously ill Count walking towards them all geared up. The Swordmaster was wearing a sword again and the whispers began to pick up with the rain.

"My airship is on an errand. I hope you don't mind me borrowing my son's." Count Novak said as he smoothly stepped aboard without any issue.

"None at all, sire." Klayus said with a bow.

Chaunce bowed too and then asked. "The Count has an airship? Ooof!"

Herman slapped the back of Chaunce's head and told him to hush.

Henry jogged up to Marion. "Rion what is going on?"

"I'll tell you on the way, let's just say we are on the clock, and we need to ship off now." Marion patted Henry on the shoulder and then got on board and began shouting orders.

It would take about three hours to get to the location.

There had been studies about the numerous ruins that littered the forest. Watch towers and chapels used by ancient people that have long since walked this world. The place they were going to was no more exceptional than the rest except that it was a little further out. After an hour passed the last rays of sunlight were extinguished by the gathering storm cloud as day turned to stormy night and the forest came to life in a new way.

The plants and animals tended to glow thanks to being mana touched. The different colors of the trees, plants, and animals displayed their true nature with glowing neon landscapes. Even the invisible sea of mana intensified and the ship was able to fly higher without expending extra magic power.

The sounds of the night were loud with the waking sounds of birds and the howls of predators. Their first visitors were gargoyles who landed on the ship in search of prey. Large pale gray humanoid monsters with wings. They had markings on their bodies that glowed neon colors and matched the fluorescent neon forest that was their home.

The first one to claw its way up the side of the boat to the deck was met with a sword to the eye from Novak's rapier which skewered it straight through the head. When the creature growled at him Novak removed the sword and stabbed it three times in the chest so fast it looked as if he had only thrust once.

Not to be left behind, Marion yanked the level on his bolt thrower, and it buzzed to life as he took aim and began to cover his father. He and Henry stayed near the mast and fired bolts at the swarming creatures. Kaliban and the knights didn't slack off either. They drew their long swords which glowed with magical light, and they were able to slice through the gargoyles with ease.

The two knights hardly broke a sweat. The elder of the two was the experienced veteran Sir Gilder, and the second was his talented nephew the young chatterbox sir Dennon.

"You are swinging too hard, you need to concentrate on control, or you might hurt the ship, Sir Dennon. This isn't a battlefield you can carelessly flail about on." Sir Gilder lectured.

"Really! You are going to lecture me, here!? Now?" Sir Dennon complained.

Apparently, the reason they were so easy to find was because Sir Gilder was already lecturing him on something. Since time was of the essence, Kaliban just grabbed them both shoved supplies in their hands and dragged them off.

"Just look at Kaliban and the Count!" Sir Gilder shamelessly continued. "No wasted energy and not a single wasted movement. This is going to be a long night, don't waste more energy than you have to. Excellent marksmanship, young master." Sir Gilder complimented Marion.

Marion had never been thrown into combat like this before, but it was easy to see why his father had become so serious. He had also noticed that gun technology had prioritized developing crossbow/bolt tech over bullets, and it had everything to do with the need to kill monsters in addition to killing people. Bolts had a certain weight to them, and their piercing was better for the tough skin of certain beasts where bullets would bounce off. An extra benefit was that to some degree the ammunition was reusable. If you had the time and means to retrieve them.

There were also many nifty tricks Marion hadn't thought about. One occurred to him the first time he fired a bolt into the chest of one of the gargoyles, then his father charged up his fist with mana and punched it deeper into the beast, killing it. Another was the ability to nail parts of the gargoyles to the ship to impair their movement.

Then there was personal taste, and Marion was incredibly fond of the large caliber bolts as ammunition as part of his 'man's romance' theory from his past life. The same theory that argued that there was something about men that women wouldn't always understand about bigger was better, that giant robots, guns, and swords were cool.

Marion and Henry stayed back and provided supporting fire, but the battle raged on for the better part of an hour.

They must have taken down four dozen of them while Herman made sure to keep them on course.

"Well, that wasn't so bad." Sir Dennon said as he was dripping with sweat. "You two aren't bad, weren't you like 10 summers old?" He said to Marion and Henry.

"Thirteen." They both groussed.

"Show some respect to the young master." Sir Gilder slapped Sir Dennon with the flat of his sword. "Forgive my nephew, he is talented in just about every area aside from common sense and manners."

"Now isn't the time for such formalities. Another wave of who knows what could strike us at any moment." Novak advised. "We just have to hope the next wave is something as easily pushed back."

Something loud and angry roared a distance away and something else loud and angry screeched at it. Then the magic from those two exploded with fire and ice at one part of the forest. Even this high above the canopy, if their ship had been anywhere close to it, they would have gotten caught up in the fight and their journey would have been over. This was only the first of the primal forces clashing in the forest and the deeper they flew the worse it got.

The neon forest was a nightmare of monsters and magic now that the moon was high in the sky. Flocks of birds took to the skies, luckily none of them had noticed the ship yet.

Since it was a race against the clock they counted ever such blessing.

"There!" Marion pointed at a clearing in the trees. This particular abandoned Chapel was in the center of a medium sized field cleared of trees which was pretty standard. What wasn't standard was the large gathering of neon striped ghouls. "Well, that is troublesome."

"Ghouls, I forgot about them." Herman said.

"Why are there so many?" Marion asked.

"Rumor has it that since ghouls are the lost souls of failed colonization and stranded airship crews, they naturally congregate to the chapels and towers since they are the closest thing to civilization in the forest." Herman explained.

"What's worse is that they are mana-touched so each one of them is basically an undead mage." Novak grimaced. "If they have enough sense to use the magic in their bodies then they are either a tireless mage enemy or blow themselves up... along with everything around them. The empire wanted to weaponize them a few years back and I did everything I could to explain how much of a bad idea it was."

"What happened?" Marion asked.

"They tried it anyway. They gathered a few during the day when they were dormant. But during the night the head researcher got himself and half his staff blown up. Nobody wanted to take the risk after that." Novak said. "Our best course of action is to avoid being seen or to lure them away."

"And if we carelessly lead them away, we may run into more dangerous monsters and we waste time." Marion observed.

"What do you think, son? You are the captain; I will leave it up to you." Novak asked.

"We don't have any time to waste, and this place is our only lead. Let's do it quick and quiet." Marion said. "Just you, me, and Kaliban."

"I understand." Novak said and steeled himself for what was likely his last excursion into the Cliffgard forest