My (Monster?) Hero Life

Chapter 323: Hunter and Prey! (2)

Gyn rushed to the cabin where the controls were for the airship. He had wholly reworked everything so that the Captain could control everything from this space, leaving the crew free to operate the weapons. 

Red crystals embedded into the walls all over the airship suddenly began to pulse in crimson colours. The monsters onboard quickly reacted to this and dropped everything that they were doing! 

Gyn had informed them all when they boarded that this was the signal to prepare for battle. Why did he use pulsing red gems? Because it was more noticeable, of course! This way, it was a visual cue so that they could still hear orders clearly.

The monsters rushed for the cannons that were connected externally to the hull. Trap doors opened up as orcs, and goblins shimmied down the cannon mounts hundreds of feet in the air with ropes tied around their waist.

They gibbered excitedly as they edged themselves into the seats provided one by one. They took a moment to get used to how these cannons worked. Forty cannons on the underside of the ship swivelled around in circles as the monsters operating them squealed with excitement!

Kace walked up to the front of the ship and stared out at the drakes in the distance. 'I wonder how strong they are?' Kace felt a wave of adrenaline coursing through his veins as he stood there with the wind blowing in his face. 'Hm?'

A sudden loud noise drew his attention to the six giant cannons on the deck. The goblins who were operating them began to curse at how slow they were.

"How are we meant to hit anything with this!" One of the operators wailed.

Kace raised an eyebrow at that statement as he watched them go through the motion of turning them around from their seats to aim in different directions. 'They are indeed slow. Did Gyn make a mistake?'

However, Gyn let out a broad grin as he flicked a switch on the console in front of him. Suddenly, the whole ship began to hum due to the massive amounts of mana being transmitted throughout the airship's structure. 

Bright green lines appeared on every surface, both internally and externally. The drakes in the distance seemed to sense that something was wrong with the massive silhouette coming towards them. Kace's attention snapped back to them as a train of drakes streaked through the air towards them!

"Brace yourselves!" Gyn's voice called out excitedly.

'What?' Suddenly, the airship lurched as vast amounts of wind magic was funnelled into the sails propelling them forwards at high speed! Kace slipped as he tried to regain his balance while cursing under his breath. 

The drakes had still been a few minutes away from them just a moment ago. However, they were now flying directly below the steel and wooden behemoth.

The eyes of the drakes almost bulged out of their skulls as a single thought ran through their primitive minds.

'Oh Fuck!'

"Fire!" Gyn roared through a tube that carried his voice through the entire vessel. 

The cannons on the hull suddenly shot out various coloured balls of light directly into the mass of drakes. Squeals of pain mixed with excited roars as the monsters barrage tore through skin and bones!

When the drakes who had yet to pass under the hull saw the devastation that had been dealt to their comrades, they quickly angled their wings to carry them higher. The monsters manning the cannons below zealously fired none stop at any drake that entered their sights, even if they did not kill them, their wings became riddled with tears and holes making them useless.

For a while, screaming and broken drakes fell from the sky like rain as Kace turned his sights on the first drake to appear over the to deck. Kace thrust out his palm as he launched a Plague Spear with a vicious grin. 

The drake in question flashed a mocking look towards him as it performed an aerial manoeuvre the get out of his spell's trajectory. However, Kace detonated his magic as it passed the drake. Shrapnel burst out with a poisonous cloud. The sudden assault wrought havoc amongst the drakes who had followed the one that Kace had targeted.

Wild roars filled the sky as one of them suffered injuries from the shards of Kace's detonation while others felt poison filling their lungs. The nearby drakes who had escaped the effects of the spell flapped their wings towards Kace.

Kace felt a warning coming from his Hydra head that told him invisible blades were converging on his location! Kace's eyes narrowed as he summoned Sylvan in a halberd form. Kace's muscles bulged as he swung Sylvan around violently.

Deafening explosive sounds filled the air as Sylvan clashed with the drakes ability. The shockwaves from when they collided ran through the weapon and up Kace's arms, making them tremble. 'Damn, they're pretty strong!'

It had been a long time since Kace felt threatened by wild creatures, which said a lot for these beasts. The drakes appeared to be shocked as they studied his significantly smaller figure on the deck. They had expected him to be turned into a couple of piles of flesh and blood! What was up with this guy?

BOOM!

Their moment of hesitation proved to be fatal as one of the giant cannons behind Kace fired at their stationary bodies. The goblin who had fired the cannon screamed in delight when he saw the after-effects of his attack! A huge hole had opened in the drakes formation and the beasts that had been there a moment ago were nowhere to be seen now!

Kace shivered as the hair on the back of his neck stood on end when the cannon had discharged. 'What the hell did Gyn create!' Kace swore internally as he studied the damage with a stern look in his eyes. He had the distinct feeling that he would suffer the same fate if he were on the receiving end of one of those shots!

The drakes attempted to scatter once one of them let out a screech meant to warn the others. However, the creature was a moment too late as the other five cannons fired simultaneously! Another resounding boom nearly destroyed Kace's eardrums as another wave of drakes disappeared into thin air amongst a flash of light!

Kace reacted quickly and leapt into the air as his hydra head warned him of incoming danger. A drake's jaws snapped closed as it passed through where Kace had been standing. As Kace reached the apex of his leap, he activated Kinetic Vision. 'It's the same one that tried to warn its pack.' Kace frowned when he reached that conclusion.

He was intrigued by the beast's intelligence, but that would not stop him from killing it! Everything moved so slowly to his eyes as he considered the best way to take the beast down. An utterly savage and disturbing smile appeared on his face as he had Sylvan change forms.

Kace snapped his arm backwards before lashing out towards the drake. Sylvan had taken the form of a barbed whip, and Kace had used his skills to cover it in a poison effect!

The drake roared in outrage as the barbed whip wrapped around its neck and dug deep into its skin. The drake immediately went into a nosedive as it cleared the airship's deck. Its plan was simple. The high-speed dive with a spin was sure to throw the gnat trailing along behind it off.

The drake suddenly realised something was wrong as it saw its own headless body overtake it. The pain had disappeared as a look of confusion crossed its face before its mind went dark. 

Kace flicked his whip to get the blood off of it as he stood on the airship's deck. He had pulled the whip so fast that its barbs had acted like a saw that tore through the drake's neck so quickly that the beast did not even have the time to register the pain that should have accompanied it. 

Bodies kept raining down from wherever the airship passed by. The flock of drakes had been decimated in just a few short minutes of coming into contact with Gyn's war weapons. The few beasts that survived the initial slaughter quickly turned tail and flew as quickly as possible towards the canyon.

"Ok! Let's land and collect those bodies!" Gyn shouted enthusiastically as some monsters still fired at the departing drakes. 

A loud cheer went up all throughout the vessel as the monsters realised what they had accomplished. It was unheard of amongst their races for anyone to have almost wholly annihilated an entire pack of drakes! 

Kace smiled at their excitement as the female Captain from earlier stood shaking against a bannister. 'I guess she isn't cut out for this kind of thing.' Kace sighed. Shagrat must have trusted her a great deal for her to have been given command of an airship. However, having this kind of reaction pretty much meant that she would not be allowed to continue serving as one.

'Well, I can't wait to see if I can gain anything from a bite of drake meat!' Kace's sympathy did not last long as his attention turned to his own potential gains from the battle. His mouth was already watering as he wondered how it would taste.

Just as Kace thought it was over, a roar that was louder than anything that he had ever heard before suddenly echoed out from the drakes canyon. His head snapped around to glance in that direction as the ground around that area started to crack. 'I don't like the sound of that.'