Chapter 24 - 24: The Journey Part 5

Early the next morning on the airship Aron and the others had taken from the fallen Aristocrats, Oxin had woken up early and had made her way to the deck of the ship to get some fresh air and watch the sun rise.

"Hmm?" When she got there she first stretched her small arms and body before taking a deep breath. However when she turned to her left, the direction which the sun was rising from, she noticed something odd.

Upon closer inspection, she realized the odd thing she noticed was the silhouette of another airship. Having no way of knowing wether it was friendly or not she could only seek confirmation.

"Scarlett!" She yelled in her high pitched voice and almost immediately Scarlett rushed out to the deck to see what was going on.

"What? What? Are we under attack or something? For a little fella you've got quite the voice." Scarlett questioned in annoyed tone while rubbing her hair. Oxin didn't reply as she disliked being teased about her childlike voice so she instead just pointed at the problem.

"Bloody hell. Oie! Guys, we have a small issue!" After seeing what Oxin has called her out for, Scarlett didn't delay in yelling for the other to come to the deck.

A little while after she had yelled, Jin and Aron had arrived on the deck but Jagu was nowhere to be seen.

"Are we under attack?" Aron asked in a calm tone despite the urgency in which Scarlett had called for him and the others.

"Doesn't seem like it but that ship in the far distance is basically screaming "I'm coming to destroy you", well either that or I haven't fully sobered up yet. Take your pick." Jin jokingly commented while Aron looked in the direction of said approaching airship.

"It's approximately twice the size of this ship, I can only assume it's also more well equipped. Which means it's aristocratic by default." Aron had used his inhumanly vision to see the approaching airship perfectly before vaguely describing what he noticed about it.

"*yawn* Just means more pathetic cowards to kill." At that moment Jagu appeared on the scene and stretched his large muscular arms as he yawned and bared his many sharp teeth.

"Direct confrontation is suicide. We need a plan." Scarlett dismissed Jagu's remark seriously as she began to ponder.

"Tsk, thinking is a waste of time." Jagu snarled and crossed his arms unwilling to see reason behind not just attacking.

"I feel you big guy but in this case if we don't think we might not make it out in one piece." Jin tapped Jagu on the shoulder and explained but Jagu remained stubborn.

Scarlett and Aron on the other hand had gone silent thinking of a plan while Oxin just looked at everyone with narrowed eyes.

'Thank you for warning us Oxin, you're the best.'

'Oh you're very welcome guys, feel free to praise me more.'

'We love your cute outfit and mace, makes you way better than all those tall human girls.' Oxin instead had a sarcastic mental dialogue mimicking how she would have wanted everyone to react towards her warning them.

While she crossed her arms and continued to mimic the others, Aron turned to his right and noticed a mountain range.

"I've got a plan" almost immediately, Aron showed a charming smile as he announced this but rather than look excited the others looked unnerved.

None of them had properly seen Aron smile as he was usually stoic and kept to himself. The sight wasn't odd but when they thought of a plan that would make him smile it made them a little nervous. Only Jagu seemed to not care about the plan as he looked relieved that the thinking was finally over.

"Here's what I think we can do?..." Aron wasted no time in explaining his idea to the others as quickly as possible. Upon finishing to do so, no one seemed to to have any complaints as they simply looked at each other.

"So your plan is basically in four parts Attraction, Distraction, Elimination and Domination correct? What's really important is how these four parts are carried out. Personally I can take care of the distraction phase." Jin broke down the plan before agreeing to it and selecting a part he felt he could achieve with ease.

"It's risky but I've got nothing better so leave attraction to me." Scarlett shrugged before selecting a phase to handle herself as well.

"I prefer domination but... it's better me and the beast girl handle elimination, provided the distraction is done right we can finish our part quickly and efficiently without the humans even detecting us." Jagu growled before logically explaining his choice leaving everyone at the scene amazed.

"Don't over that head of yours, we know what you mean." Jin patted Jagu on the back and comforted to which Jagu just growled again.

"Well then that leaves the final phase to me. Since we're all in agreement then let's begin." Aron felt he didn't have much to say as everyone quickly assimilated themselves in the plan solidly.

'Having capable people around really makes things so much easier. Interesting.' Aron thought to himself as he observed the others with a neutral look.

"Well I best get started with my part, the easiest one of all quite frankly." Scarlett expressed with a smirk on her face before returning inside the ship.

A short while later the entire airship experienced shook madly as it began to change course from the direction it was in to that of the mountain range. Once the ship had fully turned, it remained stationary for a while longer.

It waited for the other ship to get within firing radius before it fired from its rear mana cannon. The blast it fired wasn't anything too explosive but it was enough to rattle the other ship to some extent.

After this shot was fired, Scarlett began to move the ship once more and went towards the mountain range. Due to the ship's relatively small size compared to other ships, it maneuvered easily when entering and moving around in the range.

After reaching roughly midway, Scarlett brought the airship to a halt and returned to the deck with her head held high.

"I'm fairly confident they aren't far behind us. Attraction phase done. You may want to get your distraction under way because it will be hard to escape if they get to close." Scarlett shrugged her shoulders and advised in a laid back tone.

"Right, I'm aware. Inag at Jagu and Oxin should be doing their parts soon as well." Jin showed a confident smile before seating cross legged on the deck and taking a deep breath.

Jin continued to take slow, deep breaths while chanting something under his breath in a language no one except Aron could understand.

'Tier 10 illusion casting...the distraction phase is as good as complete.' Aron thought to himself before walking away from the deck.

A little while after Jin started his chanting, fog began to fill the entire mountain range, slowly becoming thicker and thicker. When Jagu noticed this he gave a strange look to Jin but said nothing. Instead only gesturing Oxin to follow him.

Meanwhile not too far from them, the other airship was having difficulty maneuvering through the ever thickening fog. On the deck of the airship stood a well dressed beautiful young woman with a smirk on her face.

"A bunch of pigs think they can simply fire upon my grand ship and get away with it. Foolish." She muttered in an annoyed tone as an older woman in a maid's attire came from behind and bowed.

"Milady, the captain says it's dangerous to move the way things are. He suggests we wait for the fog to clear..." the maid explained while keeping her head lowered as she waited for a response.

"Tsk, Fine. I suppose a bunch of pigs aren't worth ruining our ship over." The aristocratic woman replied before turning to return inside the ship.. Completely oblivious to the two pairs of red eyes that hid within the fog.