"Why exactly are you taking this long?" Amelia mayfire growls from behind me.

  "What else do you expect me to do, lady?" I snap back at her. "Right now, it is taking every iota of my focus to keep back the bastard."

  "Why didn't you start with the propulsion formation first?" The lady snaps back. "The others are barely holding back the enemy. If you do not do something, we are screwed."

  I take a glance back at the lady and see that she has manifested that hammer of hers. That is enough to send a shiver down my spine. The damn lady is not the type to stay back like this, and she is blaming me for this inaction. (Well, she did stay back to guard me, so I can't really blame her for thinking that.)

  "Well, I had to save the people in the first place, didn't I?" I reply, in a calmer voice. (What I like my spine. I don't want to have it shattered and burnt.) "What is the use of having an active propulsion formation if it means that the strikeforce is dead. Anyway, it would not have bought us much time. It is a complex process to activate the damn thing."

  "Why is it even taking so long to activate the formation? Isn't it supposed to happen instantaneously?" The lady snaps back.

  "Well, I can explain the exact mechanisms that work to explain why this is the case. Do you have a couple of days to spare for that?" I reply. "The formation will only act instantly if the formation has been in use for a while. We haven't exactly been using any formation here for a while now. It will take a while to activate."

  That seems to have satisfied the lady as she sits back in her place. She is tapping that hammer too much for my comfort.

  With that, I return to my battle with the formation mage. I am happy to report that I have managed to achieve some kind of equilibrium here. That is all the strings that are being snapped by the enemy. I am replacing them as they are being snapped.

  The core control strings are perfectly fine. Well, the only issue is that I don't know how long I can maintain this. Right now, the drain on my vital mana is significant. I certainly won't be able to maintain this for more than ten minutes.

  After all, I have to create thicker than usual mana strings against this whirlpool. On top of that, I have to create way more mana strings to counter the enemy formation mage. All of that is slowly taking its toll on my mana reserves. (I know that I was supposed to be working on that. I haven't exactly been getting the time to cultivate in the last few months.)

  Well, I am relatively good position even with all of this. Right now, I have to admit that I am more worried about the situation of the strikeforce. After all, it looks like the strikeforce won't be able to hold against the Navoks for long.

  I wonder what exactly we have done that the Navoks are using so much force to attack us. After all, shouldn't they be targeting the rebels? They were the ones who were actually attacking the casino in the first place.

  To speak of the strikeforce now. Simply put, they are slowly but steadily being overwhelmed. The Navoks have been steadily pouring into the shipyard from all directions. I think that everybody who was in the casino has ended up coming here.

  The only reason that they have been held back is Eric and the Mayfires, if I am honest. The others have been fighting the Navok's of course. They have been instrumental in keeping them from boarding our ship. They would still have been overwhelmed if it were not for the support of Eric and the Mayfires.

  Their creatures of fire are more than enough to distract any person they set themselves on. Especially with somebody to kill them right next to them, it doesn't take long for a Navok to die under such assault. Every time one of the Aegis or the Sentinels is in a tricky spot, the creatures of the mayfires are there.

  The Searchers have also been helping as much as they can. I have to admit that they are not too helpful, though. The light that was instrumental in our escape seemed to have drained them.

  Anyway, Eric is very terrifying in such an open field. The man's arrow always finds a target. That target is usually the enemy's head. Even with them out on the field, we are not able to make much progress against them.

  The main issue is the magic that they are using. As I told you before, it is a variant of shadow magic that somehow enhances their body. That means that these grunts are much more durable than minions usually tend to be. I have seen a couple of these guys survive even a headshot from Eric. (I can tell from personal experience that it is not something you ignore.)

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  The fighting is still not too much of an issue, if I am honest. It is not a pretty situation, but the strikeforce will manage. They will certainly survive this fight. Right now, it looks like they are even managing to keep the enemy from the ship.

  The issue is that no ship is so strong that you can fight on it. Even now, the strikeforce has begun to retreat onto the ship. Every sword strike, every hammer strike hits against the wood of this ship. The ship itself has been pretty durable if I am being honest, but things will start to break soon enough.

  Well, I would fly away now if that were possible. The issue is that activating the propulsion formation is taking too much time. I had expected that it would take, but this is too much.

  To explain why that is the case, I will have to explain how the void thrust formation even works. (I know, I did tell the lady that it would take a couple of days. That was mainly to shut her mouth.) The principle of the void thrust formation is pretty simple.

  The void thrust propulsion formation works by emitting pure mana to move the ship. This is much like how making a hole in a balloon works. Except, in this case, you have to replace air with pure mana.

  The mana is stored in the storage chamber of the mana formation. It is compressed there as much as possible. Then the mana is released, allowing us to move at a pretty fast speed.

  This allows the formation to run very efficiently. After all, mana is not being converted into any intermediate form. (Such a flames or wind spells.) This also greatly increases my control over the formation. I can control the speed of this ship very well.

  That is also the reason for my delay. After all, making a hole in the balloon is useless when it is not full. The ship won't be taking off until the mana in the storage reaches a critical degree.

  Right now, mana from my ambient mana storage is flowing into the propulsion formation. It is being used to power up the formation even as I record. The only problem is that it is not fast enough.

  Well, an ambient mana storage has a fixed output. No method allows you to temporarily boost your mana output on this ship. If that wasn't the case, I would just need to burn through a few mana stones to activate the ship.

  So, all in all, the only option that I have left is to wait and defend my control strings. Once the propulsion formation is active, we will be able to take off. That is why the Navoks seem to be attacking us with such desperation. After all, they don't know why we are still grounded. The problem is that they also realise that this is not an opportunity they will have forever.

  Fuck, what in the hells am I doing? I was so distracted by the recording (defending the control strings as well.) that I had forgotten to keep an eye on the propulsion formation. It had reached the critical state about half a minute ago.

  Seriously, what in the hells is wrong with me? I take a quick glance to see if the lady has noticed this. Looks like she had not. She wouldn't have been so calm otherwise. (She is actively looking for an excuse to hit me.)

  "Prepare for takeoff." I scream at the lady. "Go and inform the others as well. It is not going to be a pretty takeoff."

  She doesn't say anything to this as she takes her leave. With her outside the room, I finally focus on the propulsion formation as I activate it. I will have to be careful about how I use it. I can activate it at full throttle, but then it is more likely that I will crash into the wrecks surrounding us.

  After all, the enemy formation mage is still there, and he is attacking me with his full power. To be honest, he has been attacking me with his full power for a while now. I have been holding against that pretty well. (Even with the whirlpool). Desperation has lent the man new strength as he throws everything at me.

  Even as he does this, I can feel the dummy strings being attacked with a new ferocity. It is ferocious enough that my equilibrium finally breaks. Well, I had expected that. Still, it is not easy.

  Taking off is a precise process. Activating the propulsion formation too much or too little is going to result in a crash. I also need to be careful about the direction. It is a sensitive process that needs to be done precisely.

  I feel like my mind has split into two, as one side focuses on holding back the enemy. The other goes through the motions of taking off. The process starts by studying the area around us. After all, I need to decide on a path to take off. Our surrounding area is completely plain. The only real threats are the wrecks of the airships that are surrounding us.

  It doesn't take me long to make a path. Next comes the process of activating the propulsion formations. It has to be done in and slow and steady manner. Right now, I am trying to find the precise thrust that will allow me to take the path that I have decided on. This step can't be rushed, or we will end up crashing.

  The enemy also realises this as they continue increasing their attacks. Well, I try to defend my strings, but I leave it be for now. Taking off is more important right now.

  The path that I have taken aims for the ship to move forward to the left. (Directly going up would have given the enemy a chance to climb up the ship. They are durable enough to even survive it.)

  I can feel my heart relax as the ship begins to climb up into the air. The speed increases as we climb higher and higher. The first place that I notice this is in the whirlpool that surrounds us is becoming fainter and fainter. I am leaving the range of the shipyard, it looks like.

  The enemy mage is still trying his best, though. I realise that he had managed to pierce through almost all of my dummy strings. If I had wasted even a few more minutes, I would have likely ended up having my control strings cut. (Which would have destroyed my ship.) Yup, there is no way that I am telling this to the others, though.

  Well, it is not an issue now. Destroying the enemy strings has just been getting easier without the whirlpool. I don't even know why the man is still bothering to attack me.

  That is when the world becomes a kaleidoscopic mess as I hit the walls of the ship. It takes me a moment to realise that the walls of the ship have been hit. By an enemy cannon. That is when I focus on my sensory formation. Right now, there is a fleet of six ships following after me.