92 Airships and the deser

The blast came from above. A surge of energy like white-hot light slammed into Spike's shell from the cloudy sky.

[It's here! It's already here!] Spike roared in pain. [Remian! Where are you?!]

[We're coming! Fend it off!] Remian replied from the south.

Spike roared, but the airship that had shot at him was too high, hidden among the clouds, and he couldn't even see it, much less affect it with sonic attacks from that distance. [It's too far! I can't reach it!]

[Hunker! Protect your head!]

Spike withdrew his head just in time for another blast to narrowly miss his nose. The near-burn scorched the sands beneath his chin; it smelled like glass.

Gulping, Spike withdrew his tail as well as his head, trying his best to act like a tortoise.

The third shot glanced off the rear of his shell. One of the spikes on his back was burned black, and then fell away, breaking to pieces on the sand like charcoal.

Meanwhile, DD's herd made rude noises toward the sky. In response, the fourth blast fried the noisiest boar, a direct hit to the snout that burned his entire face off. No hogs head from that guy… though one could still get oversized Tier 4 pig's ears…

DD's herd started a stampede. Boars immediately took off running northward in a swarm.

[That's not going to help!] Spike groaned.

But they didn't listen. Of course they wouldn't.

The fifth blast, the sixth, the seventh… the airship above seemed to be enjoying the herd's panic, leisurely gunning them down one by one. The eighth shot, the ninth, the tenth…

Spike stumbled forward through a field that smelled of burned pork and melted glass, trying his best to keep his head close to his shell and his tail low.

But abruptly, there was a blazing beam of light and an explosion in the clouds overhead.

Remian's psionic voice echoed in Spike's mind. [Direct hit!!] he crowed.

[You're here!] Spike never expected to be so happy to see him.

Blue fireballs sprayed out in quick succession from the first airship. The Fal'Herim frigates had both a heavy frontal cannon and smaller side cannons. The frontal cannon fired off thick beams like the one that scorched Spike's shell. The side cannons fired off blue fireballs at a rapid pace.

The blue fireballs flashed through the cloud layer, but there was no response, no explosion, they just sailed through and fizzled off over the distance. The Red Fang wasn't there any more.

Magic ignited on that airship. Barriers rose up on every side, especially in the front. A thick layer also covered the lower hull of the frigate, shielding it from any assault from below…

"Maximum power to the main cannon!" the voice was tiny among the clouds, but it carried very large consequences.

The crew of the Fal'Herim jerked their heads upward in astonishment; that voice had sounded almost literally on top of them…

That's when the Red Fang appeared right behind and above them. It was so close, they could actually see Remian's face at the front.

WHAM! Another blinding beam slammed into the envelope of the Fal'Herim airship from point-blank range. The airship shuddered as the upper rear barrier broke, pierced clean through by the heavy cannon's blast. The beam burned right through the envelope.

Then, the airship began to fall.

[Ready?] Remian asked Spike, mind-to-mind.

Spike grinned as he watched the airship fall toward him. [Totally!]

Down it came, nearer, nearer, nearer…

Spike roared. Sonic energy flooded the air and tore at the falling airship. The screams of the crew were completely drowned out. Some of them died before they ever reached the ground.

But the airship did, of course, reach the ground, and it did so in an earth-shaking crash. DD's herd actually stumbled at the tremor, but they didn't hesitate; they charged in at the wreck from all sides.

"That's it for the Red Claw." Mindy sighed, watching the Red Fang's sister ship getting mauled by DD's tusks. Magic armor was good, but it really needed someone powering it for it to reach its true potential. Between Spike's sonic roar and the crash, there was no way any of the Red Claw's crew could have survived, much less empowered the armor. "I wish we could have captured it intact."

"We could still salvage it." Remian shrugged.

"Really…?" Mindy eyed the furious boars below. "I'm not sure there's going to be anything left to salvage at this rate."

[DD! Enough! Call off your herd! I think we got them!]

But not even DD could completely stop the rampaging herd from taking vengeance upon the wreckage.

"More airships incoming!" Mindy reported. "I'm taking us back into cloud cover!"

The Red Fang slipped into the clouds again.

"Signal the Sky Barge and the Tug to stay farther away. Do not approach! I repeat, DO NOT APPROACH!"

Earlier on, Remian's orders had been for them to stay a safe distance out of the fight. Now, he was urging them to keep even farther back.

There were three airships approaching from Fal'Herim now, two of them were Sky Galleons, the third one was a smaller, faster skiff. All three stopped halfway between the city and Spike, then hovered there uncertainly.

They knew there was a military-grade frigate just hiding in the clouds above Spike. They didn't dare approach.

[Come get me!!] Spike roared. [Or I'll come get you!]

[Actually, no, just stay where you are.] Remian cut in.

[What??]

[Stay put. Just stay put.]

[Why?] Spike wailed.

[Because] Remian smiled a grim smile. [We're just the distraction.]

***

Meanwhile, Mikai and Tim were right under Fal'Herim with somewhere between five to six hundred lynxmice. They had tunneled all this way under the desert; one of the reasons Remian wanted Spike to take his time, four to five days instead of three, was to give them time to get there.

[We have their attention. Go, go, go!] Remian's thoughts flickered through both Tim's and Mikai's minds.

"Go!" Tim whispered in a hoarse voice.

"Squiik!" Mikai ordered.

A hundred squeaks responded, and massive movements erupted beneath ground. Abruptly, they flooded out into a hangar, scrambling onto mechanics and airport crews before they could do more than yelp.

"There!" Tim only needed a few seconds to find his target.

It was the biggest, fiercest looking ship docked at the airport. Military-grade Galleon, almost as big as the Sky Barge but a lot more heavily armed and armored. Right now, it was being boarded by armored men carrying crystal-tipped staves. Mages in armor?!

"Go!" Tim ran straight for it amidst chaos and yelling with Mikai and a deluge of lynxmice at his side.