Face of Eternity : The Little Angel

Cannonballs fired out from a large pirate ship and peppered the port side of the aircraft carrier we occupied. The devastating damage and subsequent shaking made it hard to keep ourselves upright. It was made all the more worse when I factored in the shrapnel that stung my wings.

The only way out of this room was the one door that might as well have been a window with a great view of the enemy ship and their weaponry.

Rather than let them keep shooting at us, it was time to shoot back. I primed my mana cannon at low power output, then held on to the edges of the door frame and stuck my chest outward as far as I could.

*BWOOOV!*

A thin beam of pure blue mana shot out of my heart. Water meters below it vaporized as it passed by. I turned my body ever so slowly as the energy flowed. The beam struck across the row of cannons that were giving us trouble, blowing them to bits.

Getting that shot out and also moving my body at the same time winded me, so I had to take a few seconds to regain my stamina. Within a few breaths, I was ready to get the others out of this room. “Let’s go!” I grabbed them both and brought them to the edge of the door.

“What are you planning to do?” Marek asked, a bit scared of my answer.

“You're not gonna take us for a swim, right?” Indena asked.

“Not particularly. We’re going up.” I jumped out the door, immediately flapping my wings up and flying to the top of the carrier. All the while those two knuckleheads were screaming in my ear like this was an amusement park ride that lost control. “Please stop yelling in my ear!”

Cannonballs zoomed past me as I tried to keep focus, nearly striking me on several occasions, but my flying was too good to hit, even with them leading their shots.

Once I was able to get us to the top of the craft, it was much safer from the cannon fire, but it wouldn’t be for much longer. The pirates upped their attacks and shot us with even more cannonballs, ones much larger and streaming with fiery red energy that caused massive explosions.

*BOOM!*

The damage was getting too severe way too quickly. We needed to abandon ship, or risk going down with it.

“Ain’t no way the Royal Navy got taken out by some dumb pirates,” Indena commented.

“You’re right,” Marek said. “Those pirates wouldn’t even be much of a skirmish for the fleet this carrier came from. I wonder what happened to them.”

“You guys seem to be forgetting that this dream reality isn’t made to be fair,” I said. “It’s not supposed to make sense to us, just to whoever controls it.” Which at the moment, was the demon lord.

“So, what do we do then?” Indena asked.

*BOOM!* went a terrible explosion off the starboard side, forcing the ship to rock violently to one side.

“We could surrender.” Marek shrugged.

“As if!” I replied, knowing what truly needed to be done.

There was no surrounding at this point. Those pirates wanted us to meet good ole’ Davy Jones at the bottom of the sea. This was war, and it meant we had to respond in kind.

In my USER ID menu, I turned over to my equip screen and donned an intimidating hat I'd worn once before. It had a smiley face with 2 crossbones for an emblem. To finish the look, I also put on my coal stained battle dress and pointed out toward the sea.

“Listen up, scurvy scallywags!” I shouted as loud as I could. “Yer dealing with none other than captain Angel Wing, the demon hunting piratess, and her crew, The Feathers!” To defeat these pirates, I had to play along and become one!

Suddenly the cannons stopped firing. I wasn’t sure at first if they could hear me, but I guess that was as good a confirmation as it gets.

“Mark me words, we’ll sink every last ship in yer darn fleet!”

“Yeah!” Indena joined in and threw a cute little fist forward, pointing along with me. “Every last one, stupid pirates!”

“We're really doing that?” Marek also threw his fist forward and pointed, smiling nervously. “Sacrebleu…”

“If it’s a fight to the death yee wants,” one of the pirates on the largest vessel shouted back, “a fight to the death yee gets! Fire!”

A symphony of cannon fire erupted across the waters, striking the carrier and tearing it asunder.

We all ran to the center of the flight deck and shared a worried expression among ourselves.

“We got an actual plan here, or are we just winging it?” Indena asked. “No pun intended.”

“The Pirate that shouted at us was probably the captain of their flagship.” I pointed to a really big ship off in the distance. “The plan is that we fly over there, take the pirates out, then steal the ship.”

I thought that was a pretty good plan to come up with on the fly.

“Even if we get over there and steal it, the other boats would just shoot at us still, no?”

“Even pirates would think twice before blasting away at their captain's ship,” I said. Pirates hold together under the hypocritical code of honour and pride. So it would be mutiny if they scuttled one of their own prized ships. At least, that’s the logic I was using to justify this suicide mission.

“It could be Ghostbeard over there, no?” Marek said.

“Not that freak again.” Indena threw out her arms in frustration. “I thought I took him out. I doubt it would be the same guy.”

“Anything’s possible in this dream,” I reiterated, also reminding myself of the situation we were in. “Marek, I don’t have any mana based attacks, and Indena doesn't have her tattoos at the moment.” The closest thing I had to elemental magic was the Flame Wall power I got from copying Indena, but that wasn’t much of an offense. Well, maybe it could be, but I didn’t want to rely on that. “Your pistol is enchanted, so make sure to use it against the pirates.”

“Uh…” he reached for his belt. Suddenly a holster with his pistol appeared. “Oh… I didn’t know I had this with me.”

It must have been me reminding him that spawned it in. What else could we bring from reality if only we remembered it existed?

*BOOM!*

*CRACK!*

That explosion caused enough damage to crack the hall of the carrier like a piece of peanut brittle. The whole ship started to list as if it were sinking. planes that were on deck started sliding off, only barely tethered in place by a collection of chains.

We needed to get this plan in motion now, or we’d sink with the ship.

“Everyone ready?” I wrapped my arms around them, preparing to run off the ship and fly toward our target. “3… 2… 1…” I sprinted forward and leapt off the edge, flying high and dodging cannonballs!

The two of them screamed as I crossed the ocean to reach the flagship. Admittedly, they were a little more prepared this time to fly.

“Get ready!” I shouted as we approached the ship. “It’s gonna be a hot drop!”

We touched down, immediately being met with swashbuckling swordsmen. Marek whipped out his pistol and fired, hitting the closest one, then taking time to reload.

Although I couldn’t do damage, I used my speed and spear to block their attacks. It seemed that their weapons were just as real as anything else, so I could interact with them.

Once Marek reloaded his flintlock pistol, he fired it again, downing another pirate.

Dozens more flooded in, quickly overwhelming us. But Indena managed to get past them, stealing a dagger and shanking their legs.

“Yarg!” they’d shout as they buckled under the pain of wounded ankles.

“I told you, my ankle biting ain’t nothing to scoff at!” Indena said.

Thanks to her help, not only did she put down the pirates, but I also realized that we could hurt them with their own weaponry.

-Phantom Cutlass-

-Melee, Slashing-

-Poor quality-

-Ghost weapon : Can attack spectral entities-

To confirm that description, I made a slash at one of the pirates, hitting him in the side and watching him vanish.

A few of their braver warriors stepped forward and attacked me, but our blades met each other and sent blue sparks flying. I swung as best I could, using my combat mode to predict where they’d strike. But I had to deal with three swords at once, which was a lot of pressure.

*BANG!*

Marek fired a shot, hitting one of the three pirates. Indena came by and shanked another, leaving all but one against me.

To retaliate, my combat systems watched for an opening in the last pirates attacks.

I managed to evade a slash, then I kneeled down and stabbed at his gut, just as my combat systems advised. He disappeared from sight.

*BANG!*

Marek wasn’t the only one aiming down his sights. A few gunmen stood above us on the poop deck and fired down.

Marek returned fire and I flew up there. Both of us were able to take out the gunmen before they became a serious issue.

*BANG!* *BANG!*

I swiped two of their pistols and fired down on guys who were about to attack Marek.

“Merci bien!” he shouted.

“De rien!” I replied.

Many others came to reinforce the pirate ranks from below deck, but took a second to fear our combat momentum. They were invigorated when their captain announced his presence, stepping out from the helm of the ship, which was under the poop deck. He was holding Indena by the scruff of her coat.

“Let me down, you beer bellied scruffy freak!” Indena fought him for control, but was too small to do anything of use.

“Looks like I caught me a little rat,” he chuckled, holding a pistol up to her head.

“No!” I shouted from above.

“Ah ah…” the pirate captain taunted as he looked up my way. “Any sudden moves and it's lights out for the little one.”

This guy was actually going to hurt her if I didn’t stop him! I needed to think of something quick, or Indena would be sleeping with the fishes.