Chapter 10: Battle in the Clouds
(Unknown Lands, 10,000 feet above ground, the Sea of Clouds, 102km North from Team 6's commune, 30 Minutes Earlier)
The day was bright and calm. The current time was peaceful.
As of now, a Royal Airship flew in a sea of clouds.
Like any royal airships, inside was escorted by the kingdom's Royal Knights as they took the main direction from here to a nearby city.
Within the airship was perhaps what the people of Fordalt considered as one of the most important figures. The Daughter of a Duke, not just any duke but the Duke of one of the Kingdom of Goldrose's most largest and major cities. Penny Fionire.
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Draped in a frilly royal dress, colored in Rosy red color, her pale skin, her scarlet eyes and child-like innocence, her hair long and same color as her dress, and two black ribbons in her pigtail hairstyle.
Penny Fionire was the youngest of her bloodline, her age being 7, now bordering upon 8. She is currently guarded by a group of Knights, one of them is her elder brother, Alden Fionire, who is a knight commander. At the age of 21, he was considered to be the most powerful in this Airship at the level of a Rank 4, while not the strongest among the Royal Knights, his rank was one step ahead to break through towards Rank 5.
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Speaking of her brother, he was commanding the group of Royal Knights that were lining up, talking about the defenses of the airship.
"Remember, men! Keep your eyes sharp! Alden called out his Knights, "You've all read the reports from the scouts, Sky Pirates headed towards us, they think they could surprise and ambush us, no, they've underestimated our capabilities and we will show them who's the fool here. MEN, ready your weapons, were about to meet these barbarians."
"""Yes, Sir Alden!""" His Knights replied in kind.
With his message received, Alden moved towards the ship's bridge as he started to speak to the Captain of this ship.
"If you do run into any sky pirates of any sort along the way, I want you to order every crew in this ship to ready the magical cannons and the magic shield immediately. Protecting my sister is your top priority." Alden ordered the Captain.
"I know the drill, Commander Alden. I will do it for the sake of her life." The Captain said with a serious look on his face.
Alden nodded as he moved outside of the bridge and headed towards the outer deck to check around the ship's surroundings. The Airship flew in the sea of clouds in silence for a moment before Penny, his sister stood behind him, Alden looked behind and saw his sister with a look that said she wished to speak with her brother.
"Is everything alright?" His sister asked.
"Everything is fine for now, sister. I'm just making sure everyone is keeping their eyes out for any potential threats." Alden replied, this time his Commander tone was nowhere to be seen.
"Ah, I see." She lightly nodded before continuing, "I wonder what my father will see me after a few months to be in the city of Garrelm. I bet he will be worried for our safety."
"Cheer up, Sis. I'll be sure that when we get home, I'll have you, me, and father deliver one of the head chef's best cakes." Alden said in assurance to his Sister before giving her a smile.
At this, Penny looked at her brother with an almost childish excitement in her eyes.
"With strawberries? 😃 "
Alden couldn't help but chuckle at his sister's childish tendencies. "Yes, with strawberries."
Penny then showed an excitement and open smile that made Alden couldn't help but adore. However, the two siblings' conversation was soon cut short.
The royal airship had gotten to a point in the sky that led through a large wall of clouds, all of which covered their view, there was nowhere to go around it, so the Captain of the ship had no choice but to give his orders to his crew to move forward.
As they entered the mist of clouds for the past few minutes, something fast cut through the air, like a missile, an enchanted cannonball was shot and was about to made impact on the ship, but unfortunately it was blocked thanks to the ship's defenses systems, a magical barrier surrounds the ship, with that, it was able to protect the ship from any fast moving projectiles.
Feeling the shaking through inside the cabin, her eyes widened in worry as she grit her teeth.
"Sky Pirates!"
At this, everyone in the entire ship was out on high alert, Penny growing a heavy look of fear and worry as her Brother Alden and his knights immediately went out to the ship's decks and tried to spot any enemy airships in the midst of clouds.
Fortunately, the royal Airship finally made it out of the mist of clouds where they got a perfect view of their vision. But soon enough, two smaller airships came out of the mist of clouds as well, following them, including another one in front of the royal Airship like it was waiting for them.
Seeing the sudden appearance of the third enemy airship, the captain immediately ordered it to halt as the airship stopped.
Turning towards the ship's gunner crews, Alden without wasting time ordered them.
"You, ready for battle! Activate the weapon systems!!"
"""Yes, sir!"""
As the crew ran, Alden turned towards his knights.
"Draw your weapons and ready your magic!" Alden yelled out as he drew his enchanted sword from his scabbard, his knights doing the same. "We make sure none of these barbarians get a single step to this Airship! You all know your training!"
"""YES, SIR!!"""
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Play Music: Two Steps From Hell - Protectors of the Earth
Link: https://youtu.be/ASj81daun5Q
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For the past few minutes, the sky was now a warzone. Three Pirate Airships continued to shoot their cannons after cannons at the royal airship but were still protected by its magical shield. The magical shield was casted with 7th tier barrier that could hold many 6th tier spells in a few hours However, the sky pirates possessed enchanted cannons which are far more powerful than normal cannons. With three airships armed with 10-15 enchanted cannons, it didn't take too long before the magic barrier broke. They should've got the opportunity to kill them but their intention isn't to assassinate but to capture the girl. Why? Quite obvious, for ramson of course.
With that, every sky pirate jumps out of the ship supported by mages casting them with levitation or wind magic to escort them to fly towards the ship.
But that only led to their deaths as the Royal Knights began to strike any sky pirates that step on the ship's decks, but there are too many and some have the strength nearly to a Royal Knight as they are able to defend themselves against them.
While the Royal Knights were outnumbered to 1 to 5, they still get the hang of it because most of them are within at the rank of Rank 2 to Rank 3, a strength, speed, and senses are something that is far higher than any records on earth has.
As the battle continues, it seems that the Royal Knights are winning, but not before long as all of the sudden something jumped out on one of the Sky Pirate's Airships through the sky like some superhuman.
Few moments have passed, the figure landed in the ship's decks, the force of the impact pushes all of the Royal Knights and Sky Pirates, some Sky Pirates fall out of the ship by the force of the impact.
It was a Minotaur.
Seeing this, the Sky Pirates began to cheer, and it seemed like the Minotaur was the strongest of the group.
Seeing another enemy in the ship, two Royal Knights began to engage, one of them dashed towards the Minotaur at neck breaking speeds, the other Royal Knight casted {Blink} to teleport himself behind the Minotaur, both Royal Knights were about to strike down the beast with ease.
However...
The Minotaur, all of the sudden dashed towards the one who is coming towards it, but unlike him, the Minotaur's speed is far faster and deadlier and ram the knight before he could notice.
Thanks to its senses, it is able to block an attack from the Royal Knight behind it, with its strength, it pushes the knight a few meters back with its large Axe.
The Royal Knight able to recover in time, the Minotaur appears to be very strong than a normal Minotaur, the Royal Knight began to focus as he—
All of the sudden, with a terrifying speed, the Minotaur was already in front of the knight and was about to strike him down, but thanks to his training, the knight still managed to dodge the axe as it made a large crater in the wooden floor.
But it was not done yet, before the Royal Knight could react, the Minotaur kicked the knight so hard that it made it to kick the knight out of the ship, falling for his death.
Alden, witnessing the whole thing was surprised, adult Minotaurs were naturally <E> to <E+> rank beasts, but seeing the one fighting, he knew it isn't an ordinary Minotaur, that last attack that it did to his fellow knight, he almost couldn't catch that speed, judging by its strength, speed, and senses, the Minotaur is definitely at the Master Realm, <D–> rank(Rank 5), rank higher than him.
After his victory, the Minotaur ran towards the cabin where his sister was.
After cutting down one of the Sky Pirates, Alden spotted the Minotaur broke through the entrance leading to his sister, causing the Captain of the Royal Knights to widen his eyes in fear and immense worry as he watched the Minotaur run through inside of the Airship.
"Penny!" Alden yelled out as he followed the Minotaur's direction, making sure to reach there with all the speed he could let out.
As he was about to take his 10th step to chase down the Minotaur, he was suddenly blocked by three Sky Pirates in his path.
"Oi! Your opponent is me, redhead! Kyehehehe!"
The Sky Pirate laughed maniacally as he struck down on Alden's position but he managed to block it with ease.
Of course he was stronger than that sky pirate but that doesn't mean he shouldn't take this seriously, sometimes someone could defeat someone who is higher rank than them unless the person is smart, skilled, experienced, possessed powerful magic, or the opponent is very naive and overstimulates himself. Like Izrael from the Kingdom of Atira for example, he is able to defeat a Transcendence-level Demigod just himself thanks to his intelligence, skills, and his quick thinking.
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As the Minotaur ran across the halls of the large ship while killing guards and crew from its path until it found the room what it was looking for.
The Minotaur grabs the door and rips it apart, tossing it aside as it spotted the scared noble girl over in the corner protected by several normal guards.
The Minotaur grinned as he looked at the weaklings before him, letting out what sounded like a chuckle.
The laugh was heard from the guards as they felt shivered from their spine. With a little hesitation, one of the guards dashed forward towards the Minotaur, but the speed seems normal that you can see normally on earth, judging the speed, the guard appears to be only Rank 1.
With a bored look on its face, the Minotaur swung its large Axe and split the guard in two, the second guard who was beside the girl appears to be a Mage judging by what it was wearing, also he was shaking in fear as thr first guard, who was only at Rank 3 eventually.
Raising his hand, the Mage casted a magic circle on his palms towards the Minotaur.
"{Fireball!}"
With that, a ball of flames appeared in his hand and shot forward towards the Minotaur who was doing nothing.
As the fireball hit the Minotaur and created a flurry of flames in the surroundings, suddenly around them didn't catch the flames thanks to the airship enhanced with magic being immune to fire. As for the Minotaur, surprisingly it didn't flinch, not even a sign of burnt on its skin.
"Haha, pitiful, weak 3rd Tier spell is useless against me."
With that, before the Mage even realized, he was instantly split into two by the Minotaur's large axe at deadly speed.
Seeing someone split in two and seeing the insides, Penny was horrified, she indeed saw someone get killed before but not that type of brutality.
The Minotaur smirks as he sees Penny's horrified face. He lick his lips as he imagine the money he and his boys will trade, and best of all, he will finally get a little taste of a royalty(He means r*pe) that he never tasted one for about 2 years, just a bunch of commoner women which only tasted like tasteless bread.
The Minotaur was about to grab the girl and finally complete his mission, only to turn his head at the sound of wood shattering. It turned its head just in time to see Alden break through the wooden ceiling as a shortcut.
"{Greater Attack Boost!} {Flow Acceleration!} {Body Strengthening!} {Heavy Slash!}"
At the time he yells, multiple kinde of color energy emitted from his body, meaning he boosted his speed and attack stats to make him more stronger.
In a blink of an eye, Alden dashed towards the Minotaur with more speed that made the Minotaur caught off guard, before he could make a move, Alden made it in time as he slashed at the Minotaur's left arm with his enchanted sword.
"GRUUUAAAHHHHH!!!"
The bull-like beast roared in pain as it stepped back from Penny, grasping his bleeding arm with his other as it dropped his Axe.
"YOU'LL DIE BEFORE YOU EVER LAY YOUR HANDS ON HER, BEAST!" Alden yelled at the Minotaur.
The Minotaur then glared at the knight commander before letting out a roar, his angry snorts blowing steamed air from his nose as he scraped his foot gaining at the dirt, getting ready to charge as it carried its axe once again, it made Alden raise his brow.
Noticing the confusion, the Minotaur explains.
"You really think I'm only left-handed? Puny human, think again, I am both handed!"
Like when the Minotaur roared, Alden was also ready as he yelled once more as he charged towards the Minotaur, the Minotaur charging as well with his large Axe in his right hand. Both combatants are getting ready to strike.
As they were fighting, unbeknownst to all of them, two peculiar males would intervene in their fighting and god knows what will happen next.
Weekly Power Status
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Ranking 
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