"This is as much power as I've got!" Charlie panted. "The magic drive is going on full, and I've already exhausted most of my mana fusing that Tier 4 spell! I can't boost it by much more! Don't you realize how much weight we're towing?!"

"How can I help?" Remian asked.

"Don't! Your powers are too unstable! A sudden super-boost like yours could totally wreck my engine!!" Charlie gasped. "Don't try it!"

Remian growled. He glanced at the cannons.

"NO!" Charlie barked at once. "You might very well blow us all up!"

"There has to be SOMETHING I can do!" Remian grouched.

"Use your Light Barriers." Charlie suggested. "They could protect the s.h.i.+p if Spike starts roaring at us."

Remian clambered to the deck as Spike neared. The Tier 5 lizard was completely ignoring the town under reconstruction and seemed to be targeting Remian personally. He even diverted his path more and more to the left as the airs.h.i.+p made its way south…

"It really is headed straight for us." Remian realized suddenly. "It's not going to the western settlement! It's targeting this very airs.h.i.+p!"

Or was it targeting the Sky Barge? Did an agent of the Desert King somehow manage to sneak a wave-caller crystal onto the Sky Barge along with all the stuff from the western settlement?

"Drop the tow cables!" Remian ordered.

"What?" blank looks were the only response he got.

"The tow cables! Cut them or release them, just STOP TOWING the Sky Barge!" Remian shouted.

"But…"

"Fire!" Remian couldn't wait any more. He directly cast a fire lance at the tow cable. "Fire! Fire!"

The third fire 'lance' erupted as a blade similar in shape to an axe. It cut right through the tow cable and with a snap, the Sky Barge jerked free and was rapidly left behind while the Roving Albatross immediately sped up.

Spike paused in mid-stride, hesitating, then very deliberately, turned left even more.

"That's it. It's on board this s.h.i.+p." Remian concluded grimly. "There's one of those crystals on board this very airs.h.i.+p!"

Charlie! What did you do? What have you brought with you? Other than cows and dairy farming equipment… what did you pick up?

There was a flash of blue. A bolt lanced out from Mindy's airs.h.i.+p, striking Spike. Spike roared back at them, but they were too far away. Another bolt of blue struck out, and then a third.

Spike roared at them, but kept heading for the Roving Albatross.

Yeah, there was definitely one of those crystals on this airs.h.i.+p. If only they had known earlier…

But now wasn't the time to reflect. They had to move. Spike was closing in.

"Charlie!" Remian shouted. "Spike's after your cargo!"

Charlie's response? "Change course! Head directly west!"

"What? No…!" Remian spluttered. "Not yet! We're still too close to the…"

Too late. Already Spike was running with an unstoppable momentum. Without slowing down, he rammed into the western settlement. His spiked back and house-sized feet smashed into the temporary shelters of the workers' quarters, breaking apart everything in his way.

Screams resounded from the Sky Barge, suspended hundreds of feet above the giant Spike-back Lizard rampaging over their previous shelters. For a moment there, Remian's heart was in his throat; he feared that Spike might suddenly decided to take a shot at the workers but the oversized lizard merely looked at them, then turned back to face the Roving Albatross.

Remian didn't realize he'd been sweating until a sweatdrop dripped from his face.

Spike roared.

The roar knocked Remian off his feet. The world suddenly began to spin. There was a terrible buzzing sound in his ears; Remian couldn't hear anything, and suddenly realized that he was actually on the floor, wondering how he got there in the first place.

There was shaking all over. Remian felt rather than heard footsteps, being flat on the floor, but even the sense of those vibrations were half-muted. He felt numb. Everything was numb.

Also, there was blood on the floor. Was that his blood? He couldn't even tell.

"I thought we were supposed to fly too high up to be attacked…" Remian frowned. "This can't be right. We were… we were…"

Oh, right. They were fresh out of the airport and towing another airs.h.i.+p that had just launched. They were going to fly higher, but there simply hadn't been enough time.

Some day, Remian figured, we'd actually just go straight up and let Spike roar and jump in futility at something way too high for him to reach.

That could have been today. They could be doing that right now, if only they had known…

But instead, Remian was crawling on the floor wondering where the blood was coming from.

But how? How did the crystal even get on board the airs.h.i.+p? Did the Desert King somehow antic.i.p.ate all of this? If that were the case, he was a fearsome tactician indeed.

"Higher…" Remian choked. He shouted as loud as he could. "We need to go higher!"

He had no idea if anyone could hear him or anything. He had no idea if anyone could hear anything at this point.

Remian blamed himself for it. Next time, doofus, raise the Light Barrier BEFORE Spike roars.

Speaking of which, Spike was opening his mouth again.

"Light!" Remian raised his hand, raised his voice, and raised all his panic in a single unheard shout.

A s.h.i.+mmering wall of light appeared as Spike's roar erupted. Did it block out the sound? Remian couldn't hear in the first place, so he couldn't be sure, but the wall of light rippled, and then the airs.h.i.+p shook again.

Was it his imagination, or was this shaking a lot gentler than the first one? Maybe the wall of light did block out some of the roar's power, at least, if not all? Or maybe the shaking of the airs.h.i.+p had nothing to do with Spike's second roar…

Or maybe the light barrier was completely useless against sound and the reason the second shaking was gentler was because they were getting farther away.

No, wait. That couldn't be true. Spike was nearer, now, not farther. In fact, he was getting frighteningly close. He roared again.

This time, Remian saw the light barrier torn apart, and then the airs.h.i.+p's shaking tripled.

Yep, no doubt about it! The light barrier DID protect the airs.h.i.+p earlier but now it was gone and they were in serious trouble!

"Light! Light! Light!" Remian scrambled to raise more barriers, trying three where one failed. On second thoughts, why stop at three? "Light! Light! LIGHT!!"

But the barriers he raised now didn't seem to have the kind of power the earlier one had. They looked flimsy, thin, and one of them even looked more like a curtain than a barrier.

Spike roared. Five layers of Light Barrier were torn apart, the sixth barely holding. This, while Spike got even closer.

"Light! Light! Light!" Remian shouted unheard shouts, but the barriers were becoming even weaker, and Spike was closer than ever. "Light!"

That last barrier wasn't even fully formed. It was full of holes.

And Spike opened his mouth to roar one more time.

"NO!" Remian didn't know what he was thinking, didn't know what he was trying to do exactly, only that he didn't want to die because a turtle yelled at him.

Then, there was a sudden, absolute stillness.

Spike froze. The airs.h.i.+p froze. All vibrations around Remian froze.

The red faded from Spike's eyes. He blinked at the airs.h.i.+p then looked around in confusion. [Where am I? What am I doing here? Can somebody tell me what is going on?]

Relief flooded Remian and he landed on the floor again. Somehow, it seemed they were going to survive today.