“Get ready to jump!” Mynap shouted, over the sound of the storm and the impacts. “Melee! We’re going down! Stay away from the heads!”

  Stay away from what heads? Nar thought, leaving Tuk behind in Kur’s care, and running towards the outer handrail. He leaped for it, and swayed to stop himself from following Mynap and the other storm gliders jumping down.

  “What in the Pile is that?” Mul asked from his side.

  Below them, spread across the hull, and even through some of the promenades, were some kind of giant fish things. They had rammed the ship, and seemed to have managed to breach the hull with their giant, ax-like bony heads, even go so far as throwing some of the promenades into panicked disarray.

  “Hurry!” another squad leader shouted from somewhere nearby. “They’re going to suck the ship dry!”

  “Fuck’s sakes!” Mul said, leaping off the handrail.

  Clenching his jaw, Nar dropped after him, aiming for the same fish as Mul, which was big enough to comfortably accommodate for their whole party to stand on!

  Nar landed with a grunt, and slipped off of the fish's shiny green and yellow scales.

  “Ugh!” With a grunt, he stabbed the sword down into the beast and twisted it sideways, and managed to keep himself from sliding off. Then he reached over to his left, and grabbed onto Mul’s heatless flaming armor.

  “Thanks!” Mul said, as Nar hoisted him to the top of the fish.

  “Can you hold on?” Nar asked.

  In reply, Mul ignited his hands with a burst of searing hot aura, and buried them into the fish.

  And that’s not even a skill… That's just pure damned fire aura! Nar thought, as the brawler proceeded to climb over the fish’s back and towards its head. The day he gets that rage under control and gets to actually start using his skills…

  The thought alone was shiver inducing.

  The beast screamed in agony under Mul’s fiery approach, and tried to dislodge itself from where it had breached the hull, forcing Nar to steady himself with a better grip. Casting his eyes up, towards the beast’s face, he noticed that the fish’s bony ax-head was shining blue, red and yellow.

  It’s draining the ship’s aether! Nar realized. Through that bone thing!

  “I got this one!” Mul shouted down at him. “You go find another!”

  Nar hesitated. Shouldn’t we kill it together?

  However, the brawler seemed to have everything well in hand, Nar’s nostrils filling with the scent of cooked and burned flesh.

  “Alright!” Nar shouted.

  He searched around for another beast, and didn’t have to look for long. A few dozen feet below them and to their right, there was another of the great beasts, its ax-head shining as it greedily drank in from the Scimitar’s aether. Gritting his teeth, Nar kicked off from the fish he was dangling from, borrowing from his [Strength], and triggered his [Sword Aura] skill with 50 points of aura.

  He impacted against the second fish with such force that his arms nearly buckled as his sword rammed into its flesh, penetrating down to its hilt. The fish growled its weird, mouthless cry, and tried to dislodge him off its left side, but Nar was well stuck to it.

  Let’s see how you like this! He thought.

  He had enough of suffering aether invading him and damaging him. First from the psaelis in the den, and now from the very ambient aether gone wild. So what if he flipped the script for once? He reached for the aura in his core and cycled it in an angry stream down his arms, into his sword, intent on letting it loose into the fish’s innards.

  Instead of the expected angry reaction of aura and aether tearing apart the beast from within, Nar felt instead an immediate counter pressure pushing outwards against his aura and sword, and it trapped his aura around the metal of his blade, keeping it from spreading into the fish in the deadly, out of control explosion that Nar had envisioned would blow up from the fish’s other side.

  What the…

  Around the sword’s entry wound, a dull, yellow light gathered from within the fish’s insides, and inch by inch, his blade was repelled outwards, against his aura and even his [Strength].

  It’s pushing me out?

  Nar grit his teeth and held onto the sword with both hands, pushing as much aura as he could into the weapon, and out of the corner of his eye, he watched his gray aura bar start to drain.

  However, the counter pressure from within the fish grew in equal measure, always staying just slightly stronger than his aura. More and more of the blade slid off the creature’s light blue, bleeding wound, and Nar eventually lost his footing, slipping and falling flat against the fish’s flank.

  Without any other option, Nar yanked his sword back out and pulled himself back up, flying a few dozen feet upwards and away from the fish. He landed hard against the ship's hull, struggling to stabilize himself in that stationary position against the buffeting winds and snarling aether, and stared down at his enemy in befuddlement.

  A beam of dull yellow still shone from the fish's wound, then faded away. The creature grunted at him, its ax-head still deeply embedded into the ship's hull and whatever it was that it was siphoning aura from, but otherwise, it ignored him.

  What in the Pile was that? Nar thought, heart hammering in his chest, as he stared at the fish in stunned shock. The beast had pushed him out! Just like that!

  Nar had sought to explode it from the inside out, making use of the catastrophic reaction of aura and aether within the beast to end it quickly., but instead, the beast had fought him back, aether VS aura, and his aura had lost!

  Is this like what happened when I fought that spider? Nar wondered, recollecting the first time his aura had ever clashed with aether. Instead of the two forces exploding, or reacting as adversely as he had been told they did, aura and aether had instead vied for control of the conflict, with Nar just managing to succeed.

  But I lost this time…, he thought. And nothing happened… Is that because both forces were under control?

  He shook his head. The aethermancer navy archer had explained it to him, but Nar now realized that he still wasn’t sure how the aura vs aether thing worked. Maybe it was time he asked the Master of Blades directly, though given it was such a crucial thing as that, either they had been expected to figure it out by themselves, or it was one of those tests to see if they copped on and got the answer before the question got them killed. Regardless, he refused to believe that damned fish had more aether than he had aura, unless it was directly throwing the ships’ aether at his face, and so that left only one other option…

  My [Mastery]! Nar realized. That’s it! It’s blocking me!

  His [Sword Aura] had worked as intended. It had added an additional 50 points of aura times the 0.65 damage multiplier of the skill, for a total of 32 extra points of damage, plus his sword’s base damage of 20 - X…

  Whatever that X means, Nar thought to himself. But he had thrown at least 20 + 32 points of damage, plus all of his [Strength] behind it, plus the momentum of his attack, into the fish’s protective HP shielding… It had to have been quite the damage, all in all, even with the aether around him sapping 30% of the effectiveness of his skills.

  And the strike had gone as intended. Nar had pierced the fish all the way to his sword’s hilt… The problem had been what had come after. Instead of trying to damage the fish directly a second time, he had opted for destroying it from the inside using his aura, seeing how he was stuck to it… And that, had clearly failed due to his lacking [Mastery 3].

  155 points of aura was all that he could currently manage all at once, a far cry from what he could, in theory, bring to bear given his 2250 points of aura. And that had no doubt fallen well short of the fishes innate aether reserves.

  That's… He didn’ even know what to make of it, but well, it was something. That’s for sure.

  I guess this isn’t something I can do right now, he thought, staring at the still feeding fish, who seemed happy to ignore its bleeding flank, a wound that looked pitifully tiny in its massive body.

  In doubt as to his next step and still reeling from the encounter, he took a moment to glance at his status, and allowed himself a short respite. He adjusted himself into a more comfortable position against the hull of the ship, his hair still whipping madly around him and took in the numbers.

  HP is still close to full. Aura’s down a quarter thanks to that dumb idea… And stamina is down by a third. Not too bad, he thought, adjusting his grip on the wire tethering him to the ship.

  The pullies and the zappers hadn’t really required that much effort out of him, they were just endless. As for the two raimels he had briefly fought, they had been such frenzied, close quarter fights that he had barely had time to think, let alone the mind and the space to throw around his skills.

  This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

  Am I bad in close quarter fights? He suddenly asked himself.

  He shook his head. Another question for his master. Below him, the fish was still hungrily drinking the aether from the Scimitar, and looking around him, he noticed that the other apprentices were similarly having a tough time ending their enemies.

  Across from him, above and to his left, he caught sight of repeated flashes of orange, indicating that Mul had resorted to simply punching the fish in the head, repeatedly, and Nar could imagine just how much the brawler must be screaming and shouting in that moment. His anger suppressor had been lowered to just enough to prevent him from entering rage mode, but everything else was fair game. However, even that display of brutal, fire-fisted approach didn’t seem to be wielding any results against the beast.

  “Go for the gills!” a voice roared through the storm. “The head is too hard! The body is too resistant! Go for the gills!”

  The gills? Nar thought, looking down at his foe.

  He had seen enough fish beasts in Slaying class to get what the voice, probably a storm glider, meant, and he shifted his footing, lowering himself slightly, to catch a better look at the fish.

  There!

  He had completely forgotten about that obvious weak point in fish beasts, especially one that was just standing there, wedged into the hull, though he was far from being the only apprentice to do so. Now that he looked properly, he could see a very fine, faded mist of blue, red and yellow escaping through the fish's shining gills, as they opened and closed rhythmically.

  Is that… Unwanted aether? Nar wondered.

  “Go for the gills!” the voice shouted again.

  Nar took a deep breath, something that was only possible in that storm thanks to his helmet, and angled his sword down again.

  If I can’t win directly with aura, I’ll just have to win through damage, Nar though, aiming once more to strike at the right side of the fish, though this time, at its right gill.

  [Sword Aura]. 50 points.

  Shifting gray light coated his blade once more, and Nar flipped himself upside down, angling his head towards the fish. Let’s do this!

  He kicked off from the ship's dull, rust coloured hull, trusting his [Reflex] and [Agility] to guide his blade where it needed to strike… And the fish screamed as the tip of his bright sword scratched down the side of its head, then plunged deeply through the soft tissue of its gills.

  Nar came to an abrupt halt, as his sword became wedged in something within the fish's head and held fast. Aether fizzled and popped against his helmet and chest, erupting in an angry and sudden stream from the fish’s gills, but his armor seemed capable of stopping the majority of it from penetrating through to Nar.

  Once more, he felt the fish trying to push him out with its aether, this time trashing widely and roaring in pain. However, this time Nar simply let it. He pushed backwards against the fish, taking his sword with him, and swung back again at its gills.

  He didn’t use his [Sword Aura] this time, and simply cycled aura directly to his blade. The gill had given his sword almost no resistance as it went in, and he wanted to confirm the feeling he had gotten that he actually didn’t need to use the skill for the job.

  The blade penetrated deeply once more, splattering light blue blood onto his gauntlets, arms and torso. The blood began to fizzle away and disintegrate almost immediately, and before the fish could react, Nar jumped back out and repeated his attack.

  On the third time, he lucked out, and his blade went even deeper than before, almost all the way to its hilt. The creature under him spasmed, its tail raising in a contraction of agony. Then it went limp, its shining gills and head going dark. Before he could relax, however, a surge of aether blasted from the hull breach the fish had ruptured.

  “Woah!” Nar shouted, pulling back.

  “Careful!” someone shouted from up above. “Come away from it!”

  Nar looked up and found one of the storm gliders dangling just above him. He pressed on the red button and gave himself some space away from the angry aether snapping from the hull.

  “Must have hit a junction box or something,” the storm glider told him. “You can just leave it there. The crew will sort it out, and all the bodies will be harvested afterwards.”

  Nar nodded mutely. More XP, I guess…

  “Go on!” the guy said, patting him in the back. “Onto the next one!”

  And with that, he zipped away, riding the wind and aether currents with graceful somersaults and moves, as though he was one with the very winds.

  Wow… Nar thought, briefly following the man with his eyes. So that’s how it's supposed to look like.

  He looked back to the fish below him, aether still bursting from the ship’s hull around its ax-head, then he cast a gaze around him, searching for his next prey.

  Mul had already finished his fish, as evident by the burning marks on its gills, and he jus caught sight of the brawler jumping off to go deal with another of the beasts.

  Nar took a moment to quickly scan the battle. To the left of his position, Jul and Viy were working in tandem to end one of the beasts, as for the rest of the apprentices, everyone seemed to have taken the advice to heart, and he saw a lot more still tails and darkened heads than before.

  Guess we’re winning again, Nar thought. He had no idea how much aether the fish had, or where still stealing from the Scimitar however.

  Hopefully not enough to make a difference, he thought, looking to the bright aether rod up and to his right. Alright… Let’s go get the next one!

  He had already located his mark. It was a bigger, meaner looking fish. Its scales were of a darker yellow and green variety, and several long, gnarly scars ran the length of its left flank, speaking of a lifetime of battles.

  That’s a big one, Nar thought, watching how much thicker the aether smoke coming out of its gills were. That means he’s sucking out a lot, and that means we can't end this!

  His mind made, Nar readied himself and jumped across the gap between them, reading his finger on the red button of his jump safety belt to pull him up towards his new target.

  He raised his sword, aiming once more for that shining weak spot and pushed off against the ship’s hull… Except that at that very moment, with a loud metallic groan, the entire ship shuddered and banked starboard, rolling sideways at the same time.

  Surprised cries rose distantly in the storm as Nar managed only a half jump, and as the center of gravity shifted, he landed with a grunt well off his target, banging his head against the metallic sides of the ship. Before he could even recover past the daze that fogged his brain, his [Instinct], hazy and distant, tried to warn him.

  “Agh!” he shouted, as several tiny things plunged into him, wrapping themselves around his arms, legs and torso.

  Pullies! He thought in rising panic. And in enough numbers that they could quickly…

  “Ah!” he screamed, as hundreds of fine, sharp teeth pierced through his armor.

  Ignoring the pain of the aura burning them, the pulleys began to drain him, and his sight went dark. Unsure of what to do, he instinctively cycled more aura, while weakly trying to get the pullies off of him.

  Shit…

  As his consciousness began to fade, something a lot larger than a pulley crashed into him.

  “Hey! Hang in there!” someone shouted, at the edges of his consciousness.

  Drawn to the voice, and the frenetic someone that was ripping off pullies off of him, Nar forced his sight to focus again, gritting his teeth to stay awake. With all the willpower he could muster, he reached for his core, empty and cold, and plunged his arm straight through it, reaching for the ball of light within. With a deafening roar, the sputtering light ignited once more, and aura blazed through his pathways.

  Nar came back to, and realized he was screaming at the top of his lungs. He gasped for air, and frantically held onto the apprentice that had come to his rescue.

  “You’re okay!” she shouted. “You’re okay!”

  Nar relaxed against the hull, gasping in the lengos’ embrace.

  “You…”

  She squeezed his side. “From earlier, yes. Thanks for saving our guy, by the way. And me!”

  “Thanks for saving me too…” Nar said, unsure if she heard him in the roaring wind.

  She shrugged. “We look out for each other!”

  “You kids okay?” a new voice joined them.

  The two of them startled in their mid-air embrace, and they looked up to find someone effortlessly dangling from the ship. As though untouched by the wrathful winds, the newcomer stared down at them from a position of perfect balance. Unmoving.

  Where’d he come from? Nar thought. He hadn’t even noticed the man, and he was barely five feet above him.

  “You good?” the lengos asked him.

  “Yeah!” Nar said. “Thank you!”

  The lengos patted his shoulder and they disentangled from each other.

  Nar cast another look at the crewmember again, who seemed to have lost all interest in them. His armor was the same, standard issue, brown and black plated armor, in what seemed to be a lighter version of the Tsurmirel combat gear. In his free hand, the guy held a wicked looking short-sword or long dagger that was brass in color, with lines of darkness running through it, interspersed with deep dark circles. A smokiness reminiscent of Jul’s armor wafted from the weapon.

  Is that a rogue? Is that why I didn’t sense him? Nar wondered. Did he come to help me?

  The storm gliders were supposed to be out there looking out for them, and that had definitely been a bad spot Nar had found himself in. And maybe if the other apprentice hadn’t gotten to him first, maybe the rogue would’ve…

  A massive roaring drew Nar’s attention from the storm glider, and he looked forward in time to catch an enormous aethership, at least twice the size of the Scimitar, burst up through the dark clouds below them.

  What now…

  Billowing plumes of smoke trailed behind the ship, being shredded to puffs of nothing in the insane winds and speeds at which the ship was going. Across its length, Nar spotted fierce fighting, as the ships promenades were swarmed with hundreds of thousands of screaming and screeching pullies, zappers and raimels.

  No fish on them though, Nar noticed. Maybe they had evaded the surprise attack from the new herd. However, given the smoke billowing out of hundreds of spots across its flat roof, things looked bad enough for the ship as they were.

  “A crystallizer!” the storm glider suddenly shouted.

  A crystallizer? Nar thought. What in the Pile is that supposed to mean?

  “Are they alright?” the other apprentice asked.

  Despite disentangling from him, she still had a hand closed around his arm for her own support, and Nar didn’t mind it. Out there, they really had to look out for each other and cooperate.

  “They’re fine!” the guy said. “Look closer at the smoke!”

  Nar frowned but did as he said, pulling on his [Sight]. He immediately noticed what the man was referring to.

  “It’s aether!” he shouted.

  Just like the fish expelling unwanted aether through its gills, what he had first assumed to be several fires across the ship's hull, were actually several openings through which aether smoke escaped from. And as they watched, the massive ship pulled up higher above the clouds, and Nar’s jaw dropped as a gargantuan, shining vortex of light emerged from under the ship, revealing the full ship’s shape to be a massive, rounded inverted triangle.

  “That’s the same thing as our rods!” the shadow man shouted above the combined noise of the wind and the massive machine before them. “Except a lot better!”

  Before Nar’s wide eyes, the crystallizer’s machine sucked in aether, clouds, lightning, pullies, zappers, raimels and even some of those flying fish beasts. It didn’t discriminate in what it sucked in, simply drinking it all into its golden pink, rainbow vortex of light.

  “It sucks everything in!” the storm glider continued. “Trash grade aether is expelled through the vents up top, and the low and medium grade aether is condensed into aether crystals! You won’t find anything higher than that until you reach the Deep Zones, but you can still make a crap ton of XP with the low and medium grade stuff! As long as you make a lot of it, that is!”

  Aether crystals? Nar thought, as the man at their side laughed into the wind.

  “That’s a mad bastard of a captain! Flying a crystallizer that size into a confluence?” he shook his head. “If they survive, they’re gonna make a fortune!”

  Nar nodded slowly, still wondering what in the Pile was an aether crystal.

  “Alright, you two! Enough resting!” the man shouted. “There’s still loads of those things sucking us dry! Get to it! Or we’re never leaving this thing!”

  “Yes, sir!” the other apprentice shouted.

  But the man was already gone, gliding through the wind in ways that baffled Nar’s brain and defied all explanation.

  How are they doing that? Nar thought. The other storm glider had also moved just as smoothly, like he could actually glide, or ride the stormy currents around him, and maybe that’s where their name came from.

  “Alright! Good luck, man!” the other apprentice said, letting go of his arm. “Stay safe!”

  “You too!” Nar shouted after her. “And thank you!”

  “No problem!”

  Nar glanced one more time at the man, but he was gone. And before him, the massive crystallizer ship began to sink back into the dark clouds once more.

  The Nexus is insane… He thought, watching the behemoth, and the hordes of beasts attacking it, disappear into the black, rainbow shimmering, lightning filled clouds once again.

  He exhaled heavily and glanced at his status. His HP was now down to 180/300 after that debacle, and his aura had similarly taken a plunge down from its lofty heights to a much lower 1247/2250 points.

  Those damned things… he thought. They would’ve bled him dry if that lengos hadn’t come to his rescue, or that storm glider. He took a deep breath and shook his head, pushing through his embarrassment. It just went to show that delving was a nasty business, and one strike of bad fortune could be all that separated gains from death.

  In the meantime, the damned ship, which had caused all of this, had righted itself back to normal again, and Nar scanned the hull for any more fish still alive.

  Right, that was just bad luck. It happens, he told himself. Come on. Let’s just keep going. Plenty of gains still to make!