Chapter 131 Dungeon Core: “The Eternal Training Ground” (Patreon)

Pov Caspian

I could feel another attack towards our starboard, so I immediately started to fly us towards the port. The spell just missed us and detonated far enough away to do no real damage, but it still shook the airship. It was damn difficult to control this vessel as it's already taken quite a lot of damage, and I constantly needed to look backwards to make sure that our pursuers didn't have a clear line of sight.

Fortunately, we had reached a portion of the land that was quite hilly, but I needed to constantly concentrate on staying as close to the ground as I could. “Keep up, girl, you can do it,” I whispered to the ship as we dived once again. Just a few seconds later, an explosion occurred above us, fortunately far enough away that it did no damage.

“Everyone hold on,” I yelled as loud as I could and steered towards port. The ship groaned and tilted quite heavily. The soldiers on board held on as we did a tight turn. We needed to hold this for basically half a minute before I could finally turn it the other way so we would miss the boulders that would have certainly split this ship apart.

Our pursuers were higher up, but this ship was a lot faster, and we could easily escape if we just had some space, or if we could take out that mage, but that was impossible.

I looked downwards towards my left to see the last royal guard passed out, having exhausted herself helping us out of the palace and giving me a big enough boost to divert one true attack from that monstrous mage following us.

My arm would have still been broken if I hadn’t taken that healing potion, and of course, my armor was shattered, something that cost a king’s ransom quite literally.

The thought of my family almost broke me, but I pushed down those feelings. Right now, I needed to take care of the man here and then keep her safe. I could not let us be captured; her fate would not be kind.

That bastard truly hated dwarves, and I still can’t believe the rest of the dwarven nations have not tried to truly stop that madman.

"Prince, I do not know what we can do." He tried to speak more, but no words came out. It was difficult to see a man I looked up to be so lost. I racked my brain for any solutions, but nothing came to mind.

Once again, I needed to move our ships, spells once again flew towards us. Every time, I waited for an explosion to finally shatter one of the repulson crystals or perhaps our sails, but the attacks seemed less violent, almost like the mage was holding back.

I was not the only one to notice. "We are no longer in our own land?" I wanted to yell at him for saying that. We no longer own any land, but he was right we were in another kingdom.

I could see hope in his eyes, but I needed to quash it immediately. False hope was not going to save us. "This kingdom will not offer us asylum. They will, however, attack him if he does too much damage to the countryside. He's smart enough not to do that."

I think those words broke him, but there was nothing else to do but to continue to escape until our luck finally ran out. "I am sorry, Sandy."

I did not know how I was able to keep doing this, but it had been more than an hour, and we were still alive. I could feel the anger from the mage who was still attacking us. It would not be long before he lost his cool, and he would probably destroy us before this kingdom acted against him.

My men were also completely tired and barely keeping the ship flying at the speeds we needed to fly. Damn it why was it a platinum rank who started to follow us. Anyone weaker and we would have been able to escape.

Once again, I turned and looked backwards, but something up above caught my eye. I could see the turbulence up high. We had reached so far east that we were underneath the trade wind.

My mind exploded with possibilities as I realized that, but soon it became clear that we could not survive entering the trade wind. Well, we could survive most likely, but we would starve to death before we ever got out of it.

Looking back at that ship for longer, I was certain that it would not survive entering. "Prepare to abandon ship!" I yelled out loud, startling almost everyone.

Sandy was still out cold. "Commander, secure Sandy and myself," I commanded. Immediately, he went to work, but I could see the confusion. Everyone else, however, prepared to abandon ship.

"They will continue to chase the ship. We are, however, on foreign soil, and as soon as your feet touch the land below, you will be safe," I explained.

"No, Prince, we cannot leave you," one protested. He was not the only one to stop preparing. A particular look from me made everyone get back to their jobs. "I am no longer a Prince. My family's nation has fallen, and it will never rise again. The only thing I can give you for your service is your lives. I apologize, but that's the best I can do."

It was hard to keep the emotion in check, but I couldn’t do anything else. It was hard enough to do anything else but keep this ship from being blown apart. "Everyone's ready, Sir," someone yelled. It still took about 5 minutes before we were able to dip behind a small hill, and I slowed down the ship as much as I dared. "Everyone abandon ship now!"

I watched as they jumped out. Some hesitated a little, but they knew that every moment they stayed, it would be more likely that they would kill their former Prince. I could not look back and see if they landed safely. I immediately pushed the thrust crystals to their max, but their stores of mana were running dangerously low.

Using the next hill, I pulled the ship into a 20-degree climb and hoped that it would be enough. The ship shook, groaned, and felt like it would give up at any moment, but it didn't. It just kept climbing.

"Come on, you can do it. Keep it together," I encouraged. An explosion sounded off behind me, but we were now pulling up and speeding away from the ship following us.

It was an incredibly large warship that was behind us, and the only reason it was keeping up was because of the mages doing something so it would be able to keep up. This should have been impossible, but the mage following us was a platinum rank, no one at that rank was normal. The next moment the ship behind us started to accelerate towards us, not just keeping up but gaining ground.

I stopped looking backwards as there was nothing that I could do; they were either going to catch us or they wouldn’t. The best thing I could do was focus on flying this ship. The closer we got, the more violent the winds became. It was so hard to keep the ship from being blown off course, but I couldn’t stop. The explosions were getting closer and closer.

Quite often now, the sails caught the trade wind and jerked the ship forward. It was probably the reason why the mage kept missing, but then, mercifully, the trade winds finally properly picked us up. The mizzen mast broke almost immediately. The other two were able to hold up longer; the trade winds always came at a cost.

The ship jerked violently, and I was smashed against the wheel. Still, I was able to keep from blacking out, but I could feel blood trickling down my face. I did all I could, but the foremast cracked as well and was almost immediately ripped away, taken by the trade wind. The main mast, however, seemed to hold strong.

Looking back, I could barely see the speck that was the ship following us. We had escaped. I sank to the deck, completely exhausted. My emotions once again tried to overwhelm me, but when I looked around, I saw how bad of a shape the ship was in. There was no way I could rest now; if I did, we would be dead quite soon.

It was a day later when I was sitting next to Sandy when she finally woke up. She tried to move and get up as fast as she could, but I stopped her from doing that. "Don't move too fast; you are still recovering. Before you ask, we are all that is left, and we are currently in the trade wind with a barely functioning ship and barely enough rations to make it to our destination."

She took a moment to absorb the information I gave her. She was the strongest person I know, so it was devastating to see how her shoulders sagged. A moment later, however, her back went straight once again.

"What's our destination then?" Her words made me crack my first smile in many weeks. "Our destination is the only place we could be safe, and that we could actually reach. We're headed to Eternal."