Airship Mauled

by Darkonshadows

Chapter twenty one, Cult Evasion: We all fall down.

Author's Note:

This ends the Cultist Vacation fun times.

-Fizzle-

“Edge of Seared Seer Mountain in about twenty two seconds Jacky! Jade and Daring are on their way back and Bumble just might have been… critically injured… by big, dark and evil.” I was estimating here as the boat was picking up speed.

“Good news, with the way I set it up the balloon will act something like a poor parachute once we start falling.” Sounded okay to me Jacky. “Bad news, we’ll have to quickly inflate it while falling. If we don’t and we hit terminal velocity… then we’ll all die! On the bright side, with the way I set it up at least we won’t immediately flip over the second we go off the edge of the mountain.”

“Blade, check on mom and brace her and Sugar for when we start falling. Pin them to the floor with your body and knife if you have to, just prevent her from getting hurt any worse!” I started off commanding Blade and then turned to Velvet as our thestral friend went into the cabin. “When the balloon starts parachuting we’ll need you to climb up onto it Velvet!”

“Why whatever for?” Velvet seemed to wilt a bit at the idea of doing something so dangerous.

“To stop the thestrals from putting any holes in the balloon while Jacky and I fill it…” At this point we went over the edge of the mountain and I didn’t feel like we had any more time to discuss it.

-Jade-

“Incoming, I’ve got Hollow. I don’t know how long I can take him for, try to keep Screaming’s forces off the airship.” Both I and Daring dove after the falling airship with several thestral tails on us. I was likely the only one that could seriously hurt Hollow in his nightmare state.

“I’m never getting the deposit back on this airship if it crashes.” Daring then received a shuriken to her helmet and then spread her wings she shot up and threw a vicious air stalled uppercut on the thestral that threw it.

I didn’t have much time to think on it as Hollow came at me, I flipped around to face him. He threw his right hoof at me, he barely grazed me and it sent me careening into the mountains wall.

I bounced off the wall grunted and then Hollow came in, no words, no playing, all business. He slammed my back against the wall, well he would have if I wasn’t using the lights wings to keep my back from scraping against the icy stone wall as we continued our downward momentum.

He lifted his left hoof and swung it at my face bloodying my nose when the hit connected. I took one of the wings he was grinding down off the wall and swept it through his head, dispersing the darkness around his face.

I swiftly slashed him across the face with the my left set of claws making him back off, I bloodied him hard and took quite a bit of skin and fur off where I hit him.

Getting a little distance away from the wall I directed some sunlight into reinforcing and rebuilding the wings of light. I had about twenty percent charge left and the wings of light wouldn’t hold together much longer after having been under so much stress.

While reforming my wings, I didn’t let Hollow get too far. Grabbing his hind right leg and, with a swift yank, I swung and released him head first into the mountain with a painful sounding crack. Looking up I could see the indent his head left behind after he had bounced off the mountain.

At the speeds we were currently falling at, that had to have at least hurt him somewhat right? Would I be lucky enough for that to have killed him? Where did he go after he bounced off the mountain?

I really shouldn’t have taken my attention off of him after I let him go. His left hoof rammed into my stomach from out of nowhere folding my body over it. While I was stunned, his right hoof grabbed me by the throat.

I tried to struggle, the darkness felt horrible and cloying like it was trying to seep into me and it was quickly sapping my strength.

I really had to thank Celestia’s feather for the minor protection it gave me, it prevented me from putting up less of a fight than Bumble did when Hollow grabbed him.

Also I most certainly did not want my throat slashed open, he raised his wing ready to swing it outwards to do just that.

“You may resist the effects of the darkness, but you are soon to be a footnote in my glorious…” His eyes widened and he released me, if he hadn’t he would have received clear lance shaped icicle to his extremities from below.

I looked down and saw Velvet created a bunch of snowflake shaped sheets of ice that blocked several incoming crossbow bolts from Screaming’s soldiers. I quickly turned back to Hollow reminding myself not to lose sight of him and nearly took a sharp edged wing across the face.

Flipping backwards I kicked him in the face knocking him upwards, there was a glint of something as Hollow reoriented himself and a barely visible shuriken ripped through my right side.

How strong is this guy that he could throw one of those things that fast?

I planted my right arm over the wound and with a twirl, I flipped over and pointed downwards. Pushing with my wings to speed up, I got closer to the Airship with darkness entrenched Hollow hot on my tail.

Speaking of tail, he grabbed mine and that was something you never do to cat! I flipped around and immediately solar flared the darkness off of him at point blank range.

My feather barely had a charge left after that, but it was enough to keep my wings strong for about another minute.

I immediately clung to Hollow by wrapping my legs around his waist and started to hit him rapidly with a furious amount of claw swipes to the face.

He was ridiculously strong and his face was ridiculously tough, but my tenacity to injure him was causing his now noticeable darkness induced healing quite a lot of trouble.

Not enough trouble as his darkness burst back to life, said burst sent me flying away from him. At least his injuries didn’t seem to be healing this time.

-Velvet-

Kick, step, prance, roll, buck and twist, hip thrust, right hoof sent out in an arc… this was beginning to become a little more than even I can handle with all my grace and dignity. A resplendent reindeer, such as myself, wasn’t meant to fight on top of a falling airship’s balloon.

I could feel it getting somewhat firmer beneath my hooves and our falling was beginning to slow down imperceptibly.

While they had the easy job of filling the balloon up, I meanwhile was stuck with the hard job with having to deflect crossbow bolts and shuriken while fending off diving attacks with swift movements and copious amounts of ice magic.

Like that thestral swooping in at me from the right as I created another extravagantly formed snowflake barrier with a sweeping arc of my right hoof. I don’t think I’d be able to stop him in time and block the next three shuriken and two crossbow bolts.

I didn’t have to worry about that thestral coming at me with the wing blades, because when he got close to the balloon he seemed to stop in mid-air and let out a horrified screech. A knife had suddenly appeared on him, rammed three fourths of the way to its hilt, in his right shoulder.

With that injury, the thestral smartly retreated and started flying back up the mountain.

I immediately, and quite gracefully if I do say so myself, deflected each projectile I was previously worried about with but a few flicks of my dainty hooves, a few well-formed and aimed icicles along with two well placed snowflake barriers.

After I sent the icicles arcing at our aggressors, I took a few steps to the side and looked as Blade climbed up onto the balloon.

I assume that well thrown knife was her hoof work, she nodded to me in silent acknowledgment.

Looks like I was getting some much needed help, Screaming Star still had five guys left to hassle me while he was busy with Daring.

Why didn’t I take the chance to leave and go separate ways when it was offered?

Oh right, that would mean I would have to go home. Also, I would never know why Snickers went to all that trouble to drag me to her bonded partner.

I stood up on my hind hooves and twirled rapidly. Once I stopped deflecting the projects with swirling winds, I dropped to all four hooves with my rear facing two of the thestrals. I bucked outwards in a way as to point both my rear hooves at them.

Two smaller swirling tornadoes of frigid ice erupted and swirled right into two of the airborne thestrals freezing their wings solid. They fell into some clouds and were out of the fight, only three left it would seem.

That technique was quite tiring, but it was always such an impressive display for others to watch.

-Daring-

I might not be the best flyer in the world, but if I can handle the likes of Ahuizotl and his menacing menagerie, then Screaming Star wasn’t a real big issue.

It was just that he could fly faster than I could and was impossibly maneuverable in the air, I would say he’s almost better than a pegasus. ‘Almost’ being the key word, up close and personal he was nothing compared to me.

He tried to swipe me with his right wing and I floated out of range of his attack and he kept trying to press me with his hooves or his wings.

Any shuriken he threw immediately went into my lucky helmet, lucky in the fact that it always stopped me from getting skewered.

I swung my whip and managed to hit one of his wings, he dropped a few feet before catching himself. He didn’t even yelp or scream at some of his membrane taking damage. Did his pain tolerance match Jade’s repeatedly mentioned mythical proportions?

I tried to hit him again only his wings crossed, caught my whip and then, with an outward swing of both of them, he shredded my whip. Does he not know how hard it is to find good adventuring whips?

He came at me and I charged forward towards him, hoof to hoof it was then. Unfortunately for him, I’m a pugilist and I punched out panthers or bigger on a regular basis!

He spun trying to catch me with his right and left wing in that order, both of which I weaved out of the way of before he tried to use his centripetal force to throw a hard right at me.

I deflected with my left hoof so that he got a glancing blow off the right side of my neck and then I slugged him with my right hoof and delivered a straight with my left dazing him even further. Three more hits, a left, a right and another left.

Properly stunned, I was ready for my finisher since it had a dramatically long windup. I spread my wings and grabbed him with my hooves in a loose grip, I reared back with both my hind legs.

I spun upwards and threw an harsh upper buck into his chin knocking his butt flat out and into a cloud where he would lazily drift away with several broken teeth. Hopefully he’d do something else with his time.

Oh yeah, I’m awesome!

Wait… too soon to celebrate, got to get back to the airship.

-Jade-

My wings were faded to almost nothing.

Hollow was pummeling me with his hooves, each blow like a magical jackhammer that was likely enhanced by his current nightmare state. I was quickly losing the will to fight and the ability to put up any at all.

I was covered in bruises, welts and my own blood and he just had a bleeding face.

I wasn’t winning, to put it lightly.

He grabbed me by the throat again and slammed his left hoof into my face, the agonizing pain to face could not be described. I think he just broke my nose with that one.

I caught his next blow and kicked him in the sheath with my right foot. No reaction whatsoever on his face, not even a grimace of pain. What in Tartarus was this guy made of?

He hit me with his hoof again and the whole world went blurry, along with black spots and vertigo twisting out of control. So much pain, so dizzy… can’t think.

“See now the power of… what?!” Hollow seemed shocked by something as his hoof suddenly stopped being covered in shadows.

I could see the horizon, the sun peeking over the edge of the world.

It was a beautiful sight… the wings on my back came more into focus and he threw his hoof forward, I used both the glowing wings to block him and they shattered. At least he didn’t hit me this time.

He screamed and my blurry, tear filled, vision came into focus. Shattering the wings of sunlight had scorched his flesh and ripped multiple holes into his wings membrane.

I was untouched by their shattering, I don’t think it was because I created them with a cast.

I knew the wings had a heat to them, but it looked like he just suffered instant full bodied third to maybe even fourth degree burns. That probably wasn’t good for him in this kind of weather.

He roared at me enraged and came at me rearing back his hoof looking like an angry and tattered revenant, I was currently too beaten to defend myself.

“Hollow!” The one being called out to didn’t reach me, because Prime rammed into him.

What little I saw was Prime ripping into Hollow heart, his teeth gnashing, wings striking out and hooves hitting with force that made sounds that even I was wincing at in my state.

Eventually, Prime dealt a final devastating blow that sent Hollow spiraling away somewhere onto the ledges of the mountain. By then I landed on something soft and bouncy… heh, landed on the balloon.

My eyelids were growing heavy… I was lucky to be alive after facing that monster head on.

“Jade?" Was that Velvet’s voice? "Get that medical kit out!”

-Prime-

Hollow will be back, I doubt he’d stay down despite his vast number of injuries. He was surprised by my unbridled rage and sudden attack, but none would be more surprised than I at the brutality I had unleashed upon what was once a friend.

A friend that was no longer there… in his place was a horrible monster that I might see again.

I flew to the flying airship and decided to check on those who needed help and I would reflect on my anger.

If I am to help the thestrals of Fright Night Grotto, I must be better myself.

-???-

A steaming hoof shot out of a pile of snow.

Wendigoes swirled around the spot.

Though the burning hatred fed them, the object did not freeze in their cold.

It was the cold.