Hearing those words, Magus Bex immediately told the pilot to maneuver around the wreckage. Unfortunately, even though he took action as quickly as he could, he was still too late.
Before the pilot could steer the ship away, the figure of the dark elf magus suddenly became conspicuous as he turned into bright flame. He then shot forward, intercepting the ship by crashing into it head-on.
BAMMM!!!!!
A wave of vibration shook the entire ship as the magus crashed into it. The momentum brought in by the latter was unexpectedly strong enough to tilt the ship and send everyone inside staggering and falling.
“Half Moon magus!” Magus Bex loudly shouted his estimate of the enemy, and in response everyone right away cast their respective spells and skills to buff themselves, preparing for the worst outcome.
If the enemy really was a Half Moon elf magus, it meant that he would have the power of peak human magus and could kill everyone on board.
While the others readied themselves for the impending clash, Magus Bex tapped the dazed pilot’s shoulder and spoke in an urgent tone. “Stay focus soldier! Keep going, make sure we stay on course!”
As soon as those words reverberated in the air, there was a loud bang that everyone could hear. An arm covered in flames had punched through the ceiling and tore it apart, revealing the dark elf facing down towards them with a wicked smile.
The elf’s action once again made the ship tilt to one side, turning the situation for the worse as there was now an extreme suction of air inside the ship thanks to the hole he created on the ceiling.
The sudden change in air pressure made Emery, Julian, and all the other non magus lose consciousness for a moment.
When he returned to reality, Emery saw the dark elf magus was ready to cast his spell and burn everyone inside the ship.
However, before the elf could do what he planned, Magus Bex resolutely used all his strength and with a thunderous sound, he leapt towards the dark elf magus, tackling the latter and dragging him into space away from the ship.
In just seconds, the two figures were already left behind, hundreds of meters from the ship. However, they still didn’t stop and continued to fly away.
After they disappeared from sight, Emery observed the two with his Spirit Reading. The last thing he sensed from them was a burst of both lightning and fire that created a huge explosion of power.
In that instant, he realized that Magus Bex had just sacrificed himself to take down the dark elf magus and make sure the ship stayed intact; all for the sake of this operation.
On the other hand, the aftermath the dark elf magus delivered with his actions didn’t just disappear. With a huge hole in the ceiling, the ship was flying on a wild track, despite the fact that the pilot tried his best to keep it stable.
Even though everyone on board were all wearing the special space suit, if the pilot couldn’t regain control of the ship, the group would have lost precious time they could use to complete the mission.
It was at this moment that, when the ship was still wobbling around, Magus Aruka recovered from her stupor and quickly took action. Spirit energy flowed out of her body as she cast an ice spell to cover the hole.
The hole was covered by a layer of ice, stopping the strong suction force. However, it seemed that it could only last for a few seconds as cracks began to appear on its surface. Therefore, before it was completely shattered, Emery quickly took out [Aegis of Void] to strengthen and isolate the hole from the contrasting pressure.
Julian also didn’t remain still as he quickly tried to repair the hole by placing his palm on the surface of the ship whereupon the metallic material from the ceiling was slowly restored
The combined spell of the three managed to close the hole completely. It was certainly not a perfect repair, but it should be enough for now since it allowed the pilot to gain control of the ship.
When the damage that occurred was repaired and the situation finally somewhat settled, the soldiers mourned the loss that had just occurred.
The two magus had their gazes on the back, where Magus Bex and the dark elf magus had gone to.
“We should turn around and help Bex!” the female Magus Aruka said. Alas, her burly colleague denied her idea. “No, the mission must continue. We don’t have much time, besides… he probably already died.”
Magus Aruka seemed to want to say more, but ended up choosing to swallow it back.
While the two magus were thinking about Magus Bex, the ship kept approaching on the yellow planet.
At this time, Bardock suddenly walked up and said, “We need to do something. The ship may not be able to pass through the stratosphere with its damaged hull.”
The 20-mile-thick layer that covered the planet would certainly give dangerous problems to a damaged ship such as the one the group was on.
“We can’t do anything else. Be prepared, we will jump when the ship breaks!” Said the burly magus.
“Good luck to you all mate!” said Stildar who seemed ready to jump.
Emery turned around and saw that the soldiers seemed to have surrendered themselves to their fate. Being a non magus, such a blast might have killed them all.
With quite a bit of difficulty, the ship finally entered the said atmosphere. As expected, the ship began to vibrate violently as its body rubbed against the air. There was even a crackling sound heard from the ship’s hull.
“15 miles through! But I don’t think we will make it!”
Hearing such words, everyone was ready to brace for the destruction of the ship.
Emery, however, was still not willing to accept such a result. He channeled the stirred spirit energy within his body out and once again cast [Aegis of Void]. He cast it with all of his power, enough to cover the entire ship. The biggest reach he ever did.
And he succeeded.
“10 miles left!!”
In an instant, everyone could feel the tremors subside somewhat. Seeing the spell succeed, Emery continued to channel the spell.
“We went through!!”
Thanks to his actions, the damaged ship managed to persist through the perilous journey and dive into the white clouds below the atmosphere.
With this, they successfully re-entered the yellow planet and the vast desert landscape of the Wasteland was now in their view.