Dark lord's POV:
After we finally arrived at Walpurgis. I was excited to finally be catching that little minx, but never did I expect her to come to me first. And much less so as a pirate.
"pft!"
I couldn't help but let out a chuckle as I looked at that little girl playing a pirate.
"My lord! The enemy is attempting to destroy our defensive barrier! Also, it seems the Mad mage and his spirit has fled from battle!"
"Leave them! Focus on capturing her!" I said as I pointed towards the little pirate in a mask sending a rain of fireballs down on the ship's barrier.
"Haha! I never quite know what you'll think of next! You really are just, so fun to watch my little Noxy!" I muttered to myself, as I waited for her capture. Unfortunately, she was not going to make this easy.
*Bang*Swoosh*
As the ship's cannons fired gravitational rays to capture the little ship floating on a punctured cloud, her little rowboat moved with a sudden burst of speed leaving a trail of fire and smoke as it dodged the cannons. The boat dodged and weaved around through the sky as it danced around my ship, all without stopping the barrage of fireballs cast at the barrier.
"It's only a matter of time now. You can't run forever." I said despite the fact she couldn't possibly hear my words through the windy skies.
*Crackle*Crackle*
Then suddenly I noticed a crack in the barrier forming. That should be impossible. This barrier could resist an attack from an immortal cultivator. It would at least take a 6th tier spell to even put a dent in it, but despite this fact, the crack only grew bigger as new ones started forming around the forcefield.
"WHAT IS HAPPENING?!" I yelled out for someone to explain. Eventually one of my men came out from the ship to give a report.
"My lord! It seems the forcefield generator is being overheated from the large number of attacks! We are currently attempting to cool it down using our ice qi, but it is proving difficult to do without damaging the equipment!"
"WHAT?! Why is this occurring just now?!"
This ship has survived countless battles over the last year. It has endured far more attacks from far stronger people and the forcefield generator overheating never occurred back then.
"In the past, whenever going into large scale battles the mad mage would always utilize spirit magic to regulate the temperature to prevent such an eventuality, but we cannot find him."
Just then, I recalled a report about the man in question fleeing at the start of this battle. Of all the times he could have fled, why did it have to be this time?
"Temporarily turn off the generator to the force field until it has cooled down and divert all the manpower we can spare to capturing the target. I will handle our defenses myself!" After saying that, I pulled out my demonic sword from my spatial ring and used it as a board as I surfed into the sky after my beloved.
Soon after I left the deck of the ship, the forcefield was lifted and I was met with a stream of fireballs. I used my power as a nascent soul cultivator to emit a qi-based pressure from my body which disturbed the balls of fire just enough to trigger the explosions prematurely as I passed them by. As I flew around the ship, I began to slowly move further out as I outpaced her rate of fire. As she flittered through the storm of gravitational beams while leaving a trail of fully charged Fire Ball spells I followed suit. My task of triggering the fireballs prematurely had changed to disrupting the spells they came from. It was practically the same thing as my qi would contaminate the energy inside the spells causing them to fail or explode before fully activating.
As I slowly closed the distance while weaving through the capture beams from my ship I spotted three gagged figures tied to her boat. Their size and physiques seemed to vary, but they all seemed to sport the same pirate themed get-up. While pondering who they might be I finally set foot on the rocket powered aerial craft.
"Caught you!" I said, as I grabbed my little pirate by the hip.
She lifted her left arm to cast a spell at my face, but I disrupted it as I used my free hand to grab hers, restraining it as I moved our interlocking fingers to the side and pulled her in closer. From an outside perspective it might appear as if we were about to start dancing.
"Looks like I won our little game of tag! You know what that means, right?"
"That you get to pay your debt up close!" She said, directly to my face.
*giggle*
"Silly as ever!" I chuckled, as I moved my mouth next to her ear.
"As the winner. I get to claim my prize." I whispered.
"I think that's far enough away!"
"Wha-?!"
*Swoosh*
*Crash*
Just then, the aerial craft we were standing on suddenly changed directions as we flew straight into my ship. Right after the boat crashed on to the upper deck, we were sent flying by the momentum. In the sudden upheaval I accidentally loosened my grip, and that little girl squirmed out of my arms.
I quickly recovered thanks to the fortitude of a nascent soul and perceived my surroundings. I could see that little pirate being surrounded by my men as she grabbed onto her three companions.
*BOOM*MOOB*
Just as my men were about to capture them, there was a sudden shockwave that came from the remnants of the boat that hit everyone onboard, sending us flying off the ship before suddenly pulling us back midair.
"WHAT!?"
I looked towards the wrecked aerial craft and noticed a cracked box containing a galaxy, pulsating with spatial energy as it let out shockwaves that pushed and pulled on the space around it. As it slowly tore the ship apart, I recalled the legendary-grade spatial item Nox had escaped with half a year ago.
I quickly used my qi to move towards Nox, to demand an explanation, but…
"You want a prize? Then here you go!"
And with those words she disappeared into a spatial distortion. Before I could use her spatial trail to go after her the tug and pull shockwave stopped as a bright light enveloped the ship. When the light stopped and my eyes adjusted, the scenery had changed.
Before me was the battered deck of my aerial craft, but the weather had changed drastically. In the place of the clear skies above Walpurgis, there were thundering rain clouds. In the place of the soft winds of spring, was a gust so strong I could see some of my men flying off the ship. And in place of the magical sky island, Walpurgis, there were the crashing waves of a black sea. I looked towards the wreckage the spatial box was in, only to see the smashed remains of an empty glass cube.
"WHERE THE HELL ARE WE?" I yelled, as I grabbed some of my men out of the air while making my way towards the control center of the ship.
"WHAT HAPPENED?" I shouted, as I entered the control room.
"M-My lord! I-It appears the ship was caught in a giant spatial distortion!"
"Where to?"
"According to our navigation systems, our current location is on the southwestern side of the continent right above the obsidian sea!"
*Crash*
*ROAR*
Just then, a giant sea-monster came crashing through the ship and could be seen sticking out of the deck. I could feel my blood pressure rising as I watched the beast tear my men apart through the windshield of the control room.