"Get up there first. I'll cover you," Ash said in a low voice.
She had already discarded her machine gun and switched to a Dragon Breath Cannon. Though this weapon had a short range, it attacked in a fan-shaped spread. Every time Ash fired, she twisted her body and wrists, sweeping the Dragon Breath Cannon's stream across a wide area.
This was the cannon-fighting technique Nini had invented. It was quite effective, but it placed extreme demands on the body. Every time Nini tried it, she twisted her waist.
"No choice now. We'll have to risk it!" Hodge turned to the few soldiers around him. These were the last of them.
"We'll tie the rope ladders around our waists, then have the airship climb directly. The instant we leave the firing position, we detonate the explosives!"
"Lady Ash, please inform the airship."
There were banshees aboard the airship as well. Ash had already established a Mind Link with one of them, allowing messages to be relayed in real time.
"I've told them. They're about to ascend!"
The bones were nearly upon them. The heavy machine guns fired desperately, but more skeletal masses surged forward than were blasted apart.
"Now!"
The steam engine aboard the airship let out a thunderous roar. The operators instantly discarded all the ballast blocks, and the entire airship lurched sharply upward!
At the same time, the people aboard the airship hauled desperately on the rope ladders. Hodge, Gwen, and the others rose more than ten meters almost instantly.
But the skeletal horde surged upward as well, lunging fiercely at the people in the air.
Ash glanced down at the monsters, then suddenly let go.
"Lady Ash!"
"What are you doing?!"
Ash said nothing. After falling a short distance, just as she was about to plunge into