Chapter 111: Calamity blocking the way
There were many people on the deck including the guards and the crew even though they were far away and scattered.
Still, for the guards stationed all around the ship, each of the passengers were visible from one angle of another.
"What?"
"HEY!"
That was exactly the reason they all shouted and screamed at the one that climbed on the edge of the ship and jumped off without any hesitation.
"Gather! Everyone! Gather!"
The ship had safety nets for moments when a passenger falls off in any case, but it wasn’t common to see someone actually jumping off a ship.
By all logic, at the speed they were moving, one wrong move and even a gust of wind would kill you before the magic system saves you.
As humans, the thought itself would seem utterly repulsive... and that was the exact reason those who actually saw him jumping off were so scared that they stumbled off to the deck.
"Meow!" His cat was still there, unphased by what he had just done.
It was strange, but the crazy one that had jumped off was more important.
"Where’s that guy...!"
"Did the barrier get him?!"
When the guards and a few other passengers looked down, however, they did not find the boy or the mashed up remains of his body.
The boy was nowhere to be seen actually.
"What the..."
"Where did he go?"
They checked with their devices and the guy, apparently a special guest of the headmaster, was still on the ship.
And when they tracked the ID of his boarding pass, they found him to be at the very front of the ship.
"..."
And from the very front, they did not mean the nose of the ship, but somewhere even further: with the creatures pulling the ship.
"HEY! I see him!"
He was with the sea horses, on top of their heads, doing something strange with a golden light surrounding him.
"Ring the alarms! He’s doing something–!" The guards who saw him do something to the creatures were afraid he was trying something crazy, but even before they did anything, they heard a familiar, bad noise.
"WEEEEEEOUUUUUUUUUUU!"
[< All onboard personnel have been requested to get off the deck! GET OFF THE DECK! >]
On the academy ships, there were light signals that ring on their own: Green when they are exiting complicated zones, yellow when they are about to encounter some environmental turbulence, red when there is something dangerous in their paths, and the worst one was Black.
And right now, black warnings were going off all across the airship.
[< The threat has been confirmed to be a Cloud of Hate! >]
The moment the mechanical voice announced those words, the people onboard fell to their knees.
"No..."
Everyone had heard about these clouds. They weren’t fluffy things of nature but a deadly hoard of gluttonous creatures that eat off anything and everything they get in contact with.
They were so dangerous that they were called a calamity, and there were several of them drifting across the world, impossible to actually track because of their strange properties.
Still, one thing was known to all that had heard stories about them: encounter with them meant death.
[< Evaluating emergency ejection protocol... >]
The only way to survive against them was to not encounter them to begin with. And so, there were extreme safety measures in place for the rarest moments when you do encounter them.
In the case of an academy ship, it involved getting rid of the ship itself. At the very least, the passengers were thrown off the ship in an attempt to save as many of them as possible.
They might not be able to save the creatures pulling the ship if the distance is too close but, at the very least the people would be saved... that’s what they can do if they somehow, by the grace of the gods, are able to foresee these creatures.
[< Failure failure! Protocol failed! >]
However, in a high speed zone like this where the ships are moving at an unbelievable rate, tracking them is nearly impossible.
By the time they spot them and slow down the ship, the risk of getting in contact with their outer layer scouts increases several folds.
[< Retrying... >]
So, those onboard had already started panicking. Most of them had, at least.
"Chirp!"
"Mii!"
Thankfully, Sam had spotted the threat in time and sent Lexie and Rainin to prepare the passengers for an emergency drop.
Rainin had already taken control of the ship with the captain and so, by the time people had started panicking, the safety protocol had already been initiated.
"WE ARE TOO FAST!"
But that still did not mean they were done.
The crawling mess of darkness that was present ahead of them could also be called the personification of corruption.
These creatures weren’t normal beasts. They were near immortal bacteria-type omnivores that could chew off even the strongest metals on earth.
[< Retrying... >]
They could only live high up in the sky, especially inside their ’clouds’ so the chance of encountering them was slim: though not impossible.
They were here right now. Before them, they were already preparing to clean off the incoming platter.
They had detected the food, but...
"WOOOOOOUOOOOOOUOOOOO"
Someone else had already taken control of the horses of their incoming platter.
"What is he doing?!"
The captain who was seeing the boy holding strange strings of gold and red was screaming at Rainin, the collar of his shirt in his hands.
His eyes were red with fear and anger. Seeing someone doing something to the creatures that had their lives in their hands did not seem ideal to the person responsible for this ship.
[< Retrying... >]
The whole ordeal was painful to watch. In fact, the captain was having a panic attack.
"Calm down, captain." But they did not need someone who wasn’t even in their right minds right now.
They needed someone calmer, so Rainin first splashed some water on the captain with magic.
And then, he forced him to look at the boy who was doing something none of them were capable of.