Transcendence?

***Island Nation of Mist***

***Ascathon***

“Are you sure that your plan isn't a little bit risky?” Celestial looks down at the enemy ships around Fingulf's little personal island.

“It's perfectly fine. There is a risk involved in everything we do. Without taking risks, we would have to stop moving and never make any progress.”

“Oh, I just thought about jumping without parachute might be a little risky for the attack team?” Celestial looks at the people around us. There are about fifty warriors gathered on deck. Den is leading them while Celestial and I are just tagging along.

“The suits have levitation magic. The only one who will create a crater upon arrival is you.” I smile at Celestial. “Are you sure that you don't want to try a cannonball onto one of their ships.”

She tilts her head and smiles. “Aren't you a nice husband! I will do it if you do a belly whack first.”

“Ähm... The operation is ready to start.” Den interrupts us and points at the commander in the bridge, who is waving behind a window.

“Then don't let them wait!” I jump over the railing and start to fall. “JAHOOOOOO!” This is thrilling!

The air is chilly and stings my face, so I put the mask on and close the seals.

Then I take a look at the planes all around us, as they start to dive down at the enemies too. They were launched earlier and we have ninety of them in the air. Their purpose is to distract the ships around the island while our fleet descends to bomb them to hell. Our small task force will descend directly to the island and abduct Fingulf.

And maybe his relatives too, though he never mentioned family to me.

I turn my attention back to the ground and witness the first explosions around the enemy ships. There is no holding back this time. Our ships will shoot until they are out of ammunition.

The already well known fireballs start to rise from the enemy fleet, but there are some new tricks as well. There are yellow glowing orbs of light too. They move faster and in straight lines. Obviously the enemy used his brain after the first battle.

They must have concluded that the slow moving fireballs are ineffective against flying air ships.

Then one of the yellow orbs changes its direction and heads directly for me. I whistle while I congratulate the inventor of this new spell. The pointy ears are able to progress on their own after all. And creating energy based attack magic which aims on its own is a great feat.

I wait for the last second before pushing myself aside with telekinesis. The yellow orb misses by a mere metre and heads for Celestial!

But my wife simply strikes out at the thing and diverts its path. A tight series of manoeuvres follows as I evade a few more orbs as I act only on instinct.

As soon as I leave the shower of incoming fire, I hit a hidden button on my left arm and my descend starts to slow until I touch the ground with elegant ease. Touchdown!

I nod to myself, everything is working as intended!

I landed on a glade in the thick forest of this island. As I look up, I find others descending to my location. And there is Celestial … falling like a stone.

*BAM!*

A dust cloud erupts a few dozen metres to my right in the underwood. I knew it! She just relied on her barrier! Other members of my small force descend all around me while I check a small display on my right arm. Somehow we lost four people, but the rest seems to be okay.

Den lands right next to me and I nod. “Seems like we got down. Did you see what happened to our losses?”

Den nods. “Direct hits by those yellow orbs. The suits can't withstand that. It's their own fault for being too slow to evade.” He grimaces and starts to stomp off into the direction of the mansion.

The rest of the group starts to fan out in a loose formation with at least ten metres between everyone. They are well trained.

I follow Den in a few metres' distance as he creates a path through the undergrowth of the island. Our progress is aggravated by thick vegetation and forest.

After a few metres Celestial emerges from a bush and joins us. She is dusty and her clothes are partly torn. Twigs are all over her and I grin. “So the suit wasn't necessary. I see.”

“It wasn't.” Celestial's answer is short and fast.

I resume to following Den and look up at our flying ships. They are fully committed now and I hear the thunder of distant explosions. “So how do you intend to get up again?”

“Jumping!” Celestial is busy with picking leaves and twigs out of her hair.

I sigh. “Of course. How else would someone get back to the ship.”

We follow the soldiers in silence and concentrate on our surroundings. Fingulf's mansion is just three kilometres away. It's possible that there are enemy troops stationed here.

Our squad purposely didn't jump directly onto the enemy. Den deemed it to be a recipe for chaos, increasing the probability of needlessly losing people to the enemy or falling into a trap.

But nobody disturbs our advance until we reach the open clearing around Fingulf's mansion. Our people are using the trees as cover while Den observes the situation with an orb. “Barricades all around the house. And quite a few soldiers and people who look like magicians.”

He freezes for a moment and continues. “And there are three freaky guys with masks! They are looking right at us.”

I smile. “No wonder, they saw us jump and also where we landed. It's not hard to guess from which direction we are coming.”

There is no point in hiding any more, so I walk forward. “Let's test how these suits perform in man to man combat! I will be the spearhead.”

I walk towards the enemy barricades with my hands folded behind my back and the enemy soldiers start to call commands when they see me. The rest of my comrades follows at a respectful distance.

There are indeed three masked figures with them. They have powerful auras, despite looking elderly. Their masks seem to symbolize the old trinity of creation, preservation and destruction. The first one seems to be a woman. Her mask is made of wood. It's laughing and there are different patterns taken from nature on it.

The second person's mask is made out of steel or iron. It shows no distinct expression and there are no patterns at all. He seems to be a guy.

The third person is also male and his mask seems to be crying. The whole thing is stitched together out of a multitude of materials and looks worn and old.

The enemy soldiers seem a little dumbfounded and unsure of what to do. I guess they didn't expect the enemy simply walking up to them. Not a word is spoken and there is a heavy silence all around the area.

I am only twenty metres away, when one of the soldiers deems that I got close enough. An arrow is let loose and impacts my chest plate. The arrow splits and falls useless to the ground. The automatic defensive barrier didn't deem the arrow as a danger.

Consequently it didn't activate. I halt and inspect the scratch in the beautiful black and golden ornament on my chest plate. It took me a day to achieve an acceptable result.

The colour was scratched...

I look up and point my index finger at the individual responsible. A small disk of light forms at my fingertip and shoots out faster than the eye can follow.

The archer's head disintegrates into a cloud of blood and brain matter. One of the masked guys is quick to react and the earth starts to move under my feet. My body moves on its own as I recognize the spell.

A stone spike stabs the space where my head had been a second before.

“Attack!”

I hear Den's voice bellow from behind and Celestial rushes past me. There is no point in thinking of special tactics right now. We have to keep a tight schedule to meet up with the fleet again. They are currently fighting an outnumbered battle to give us the needed time.

Guns are shot from behind me and the enemy guards start to fall. They strike back and a fireball rushes past my head. I hear an explosion and screams.

While I run, I conjure a blue sphere of mana and split it into several smaller spheres which start to orbit me. Manipulating mana became much easier since I have the new mana crystal.

Celestial throws herself between the enemies and moments later our two forces collide in a blind attempt to attain victory by pure force.

.