Kai's ears were still ringing as they flew away, the four of them crammed into a make shift skimmer that drifted away over the dark treetops.

Despite missing the results of the opening attack, Kai watched the battle that still raged on in the distance behind them.

The opening salvo had caught the Shattered Kingdom fleet unawares. Their barrier systems were down and their crews were unprepared.

Every ship was hit by an overwhelming number of calculated attacks before they could activate their defences had received significant damage.

The two leading frigates took the brunt of the adventurers' much higher level volley. They were immediately removed from contention as they sank low to crash into the canopy below.

The Cruiser was critically damaged from Kai's attack. The damage was clear as the ship listed dangerously off to one side and immediately tried to break free from the assault that rocked the ship from behind as the gold-ranked adventurers of the Child of Adventure made themselves known as they reacted quickly to Kai's revised attack.

Their combined assault with Alicia and the other adventurers, damaging the ship's systems such that they had lost their ability to fight back effectively.

That left the cruiser one option, and it was currently trying to limp away as the remaining three frigates tried to cover its retreat.

Kai watched as someone jumped from the Child of Adventure across to the deck of one of the smaller ships.

The impact of them landing on the ship causing it to rock violently as there was a flash of light from whatever attack was unleashed on impact.

It was amazing, watching the adventurers from the child of Adventure unleash their attacks. Even from this rapidly increasing distance, Kai could tell their attacks were magnitudes more powerful than anything he could do at his level. His spatially accelerated, compressed mana bolt only coming close because of the raw amount of mana he compressed into the one attack.

"Are ship battles usually like this?" Kai asked curiously as he watched another person cross onto the ship.

Arnella scoffed from where she piloted their makeshift skimmer.

"It usually takes a good hour or two to get to this point. What you did was so far out of an opening volley they lost any advantage they had the moment you released everyone's attack. I mean, sure, nearly everyone will need to be treated for hearing loss. But that's a small price to pay." She patted the crystal in front of her fondly. "I'm just glad I was below deck sorting this baby out."

There was a bright red flash of light as one of the frigates exploded, and Kai received a fresh wave of shared essence and system notifications. He dismissed it.

"Did you hit all of their cores or something?" Arnella asked as she looked over her shoulder.

Kai shrugged, "Just targeted the largest mana signature of each ship… didn't see any of the shots hit as I had just magically flash-banged myself… Syl marked them up for us. I think the adventurers actually did more damage, as they knew what to aim for. I keep getting shared essence though.

"So do I…" Alicia said, "Gift insisted on hitting each of the ships with a new type of arrow that lingers and causes a wide-area illusion that should have them disorientated while its effects linger."

Gift let out a quiet little menacing laugh to himself from where he sat curled up in his Kitsune form in Alicia's lap.

"Yeah, anytime the system thinks you played an active part in a kill, it tries to direct essence your way. In Kai's case, he augmented everyone's attack. So i expect he is getting frequent essence shares whenever there is a death that can be remotely related to the volley. What about you Syl? Are you getting a share?"

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"Not that much. All I did was mark stuff. But as you know someone is currently letting all their mana spill over to my core…" Syl said, staring daggers from where she was tucked into Kai's side, "I'm letting it repair my soul damage, as that is clearly the intent. Though I would prefer we gain a few more levels."

"Yeah, I read about your soul damage and essence sharing in the reports Thanric gave me," Arnella said as she swerved violently to avoid a tree. "It is probably for the best that you don't level. You need new team members, and it gets harder and harder to find people who fit with you the more you develop your skills. Lower-level people are just more malleable."

"Thanric? I have never heard you not use my Master's title."

"Well, I'm no longer his subordinate. No need to be so formal. So you, Alicia, should drop the Master while you're at it; you are no longer his apprentice."

"I- I know, it's just…"

"Relax, Alicia. You're one of the Empress's daughters, so that man has always seen you as more than just an apprentice."

Kai had to wonder if Arnella was in on the secret. Heck, Gift had worked it out from the smell alone.

"This is all just part of some ruse. To keep the three of you safe, give you time to come into your own. Just drop the master when talking about The Sage. You don't want people to know you have any connection to the man until you can stand on your own. In fact, any moment now there should be an explosion on the Spirit of Exploration," Arnella explained as she casually piloted the skimmer through the tops of the trees in the dead of night. The way in front was lit only by the two full moons overhead and the occasional flare behind them.

"What, why?!" Alicia looked back with her concern clear in her eyes.

"It's part of the plan," Arnella said, the tone of her voice relaying her amusement.

"There is a saying where I'm from, 'No plan survives contact with the enemy," Kai said as he remembered how badly their plan for the dungeon master had gone in the trial's dungeon.

"Well, you saw to that when you decided to show off," Syl said teasingly.

"You could have stopped me."

"No point. You were in your element."

There was a flash followed by a delayed boom, and Kai got more notifications.

"What I don't understand is why I am getting kill notifications for pirates. I thought these were confirmed as Shattered Kingdom ships?" Kai said as he double-checked the kills, seeing nothing but a list of different kinds of pirates.

"Oh, that's political. They get themselves marked as pirates before they do any crazy shit like this. That way, if it goes wrong, the Shattered Kingdoms can plead ignorance of the operation in foreign territory. And when it is traced back to them, they claim it was a rogue element and that they cannot be held responsible."

"It's been a problem for centuries now. They do something they should not, breach countless international treaties, and pretend they had nothing to do with it," Alicia said. "Then they make a token show of cleaning up actual pirates, then bury it in political nonsense for the next couple of decades or more, knowing it will eventually be forgotten because of some other crazy event that happens."

One of the frigates launched a pitiful attack against the Spirit of Exploration. Kai was actually surprised to see it pass through the ship's barrier and impact against the hull. A moment later, there was an unusually large explosion from the ship.

"Ah, congratulations Alicia, you just died… or were lost, captured. No one truly knows, your body and that of your mysterious lover were never found."

"What?" Alicia asked, her head shooting back around to look at Arnella's back.

"Yeah, the Twilight Empire is going to come down hard on the Shattered Kingdoms for this one. The Union may even use this as an excuse to enter a state of emergency, ramp up military activity and protocols above what's laid out in those dusty old international agreements. Since the pirates are evidently able to deploy fleets now, we might even see some large ships that are outlawed…"

"You know," Kai said whimsically, "when I woke up this morning, I didn't think I would be at the centre of an international conspiracy to build up arms against a shifty nation."

"Don't forget dying; you died too. Hopefully, it is enough to deter the people who are looking for you."

There was a flare as bright lights shot up into the sky beyond the conflict.

"And there is the Union ship to corroborate that we were indeed attacked, just as planned."

Kai watched as the Shattered Kingdom ships broke from their attempts to guard the larger cruiser and tried to flee the conflict.

"Wait, Arnella, you're here with us? Won't the fact you aren't accounted for be a problem?"

"Don't you get it yet? We're all dead!"

"You're not going back?" Kai asked.

"Nah. My commission was nearly over. I'll get a posthumous promotion, and my pension will go to my mother. Not a bad deal if you ask me. Got a cushy new job lined up once I get you to the meeting." She turned to give him a wink. "But I still have the old uniform if you ever change your mind about that power play fantasy of yours."

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