"Tsk." Seth clicked his tongue.
"Tsk." Fin imitated him, but her click was more derogatory.
"Tsk..." Mina also clicked her tongue, but more in a "Should have expected this"-manner.
Monique looked at the three clicking their tongues and sighed. Couldn't they react a little more at the sight of a harbor exploding and a city in flames? They had just watched their prepared vessel get hit by the ball of cursed flames and shatter into a million pieces as the engine inside apparently blew up.
"It's a demon attack! We have to find shelter quickly!" Robin urged from the side, circling them like a hyperactive hummingbird. Seth rolled his eyes. The blacksmith waved his hands, and the flames in a radius of several blocks simply vanished.
"Calm down, Robin," the bard said, but his words were unnecessary. The imperial aide had lost his speech at the sight he had just witnessed. On one hand, it couldn't be a coincidence; on the other hand- how the heck could anyone just snuff out a burning city with a wave of their hand?
"I'm the Court Blacksmith of Minas Mar, mastering fire is my job," the blacksmith answered the question that was clearly written across the aide's face.
"Looks like someone does not want us to go to the archipelago," Monique announced the obvious, referencing the flying ship-ship that had just gone up in flames right in front of them. Waiting for their arrival so they could see it was very theatrical. One might even call it campy.
"It might be a warning..." Robin mumbled, still in a stupor. Seth had to stop himself from making a rude remark. "What are we supposed to do now?" Robin kept on mumbling, looking at the city covered in ashes and soot.
People wandered the streets. Some just got hurt, others lost their home, others... lost more than just that. With the fire gone, the presence of guards in the streets grew, helping the wounded and collecting the survivors.
"We should be asking you that, Robin. Our vessel just got destroyed. Are we supposed to wait for a new one? Will there be a new one?" Monique asked the aide. However, Robin was not yet in a state to answer the questions.
"Ma-ma-Maybe we should go meet the lord!? I'm sure they can help us continue...?" Robin asked more than he suggested.
"Hng! Wake the heart, ignite the fire. Let spirits thrive, breathe in strength, come alive! Revive!" They were interrupted by a voice performing the full chant for a Revival spell. The fairy wasn't very good at the healer part of her job, so casting a high-end spell like Revive really stressed her.
"I guess Fin has the right idea..." Seth said with a shrug. " I guess we should help first and see how we get out of here later," the blacksmith said. Even he would have felt bad to just run off, despite having the ability to help in this situation.
The blacksmith had his Lesath, which allowed him to use the Scale of Apollo to heal, as well as his imitation of the golden fleece that allowed him to cast several advanced healing spells. Although he couldn't compare to the versatility of a healer, the ones he was able to cast were actually above the capability of an ordinary one.
Fin was busy frying her brain, casting Revive. Since she had little proficiency in the spell, the time limit to bring people back was very short, so she had to hurry and span it on corpses in the surroundings.
Seeing Seth and Fin move, the other two also started helping in the surroundings. Mina and Monique had no healing skills, but they were pretty strong, so they helped people escape from the rubble of their home or recovered bodies for Fin to do her magic on.
However, 10 minutes later, the time limit was up. This was the fairy's time frame to revive someone. Past that, she was unable to bring back the soul. Afterward, they could only heal those who were alive, but by that time, no wounded were left.
"I think it is time we get going," Seth finally said, when the situation had calmed down and was mostly managed by knights and soldiers that
"G-get going? But we haven't even met the lord, how are we supposed to set off? There is no working ship left in the harbor..." Robin, who had more or less calmed down, argued. Seth gave him a patronizing smile.
"Oh, please, did you think I came unprepared?" the bard laughed as he walked off toward the harbor.
"Seth, did you bring the shuttle?" Fin asked, thinking of the flying school bus Al'Zalsar had created together with the dwarves.
"The shuttle is still in the Sea of Trees. How would he get it before coming here? I bet it's one of the ships of epsilon," Mina gave her experienced verdict. She was right, at least concerning the shuttle.
"You are both wrong-"
"Is it one of the flying ships from the cultivators? Did you manage to get one to work?" Monique hurriedly gave her own guess. They had managed to get their hands on some of the ships of the Sect Alliance, but their tech was mostly incompatible with the people of the system.
Even if the ship and shuttles worked, they were hard to use without the kind of power cultivators commanded. While they talked, Robin was unable to make any sense of the words they were spewing, just following the party with a big question mark on his face.
"All three of you are wrong. Take a look at this!" the bard said grandly and brought out a huge flying vessel, resembling a silver ship. All three women squinted when they saw it.
"Somehow that looks familiar..." Monique mumbled, but couldn't quite make out why it seemed familiar to her.
"Wait! Isn't that the Vessel Hubert brought out during the Evaluation?!" Mina exclaimed in surprise, having remembered where they had seen it before. At the time, the three of them had been lazing around on a couch in Chrona, only watching the party's adventures through the empire's broadcast.
Since the vessel was a lot bigger in person than on TV, they had not recognized the iconic ship, which was used to cross the ocean and flee from the Koor Worm, when it was still alive. It was a little smaller than the ship that waited for them, but it also wasn't blown into a billion pieces.
"Yeah, Hubert traded it with me for a couple of cursed swords," the blacksmith revealed, and he owned the vessel now. It only cost him a couple of the swords meant to cause some chaos on the Voracious Cloud Continent.
"Wawawa....Wait, you had a vessel of your own?" Robin finally found his voice again.
"Yeah, well, I got it in case we would need one," the blacksmith said with a shrug. "As you can see, my concerns were not unfounded," the blacksmith said. As he walked to the ship gently floating above the water, close to the damaged pier, the vessel automatically extended a boarding bridge to the registered owner.
"Wait! I get the vessel, but how are we going to get to the Auk Archipelago without a navigator?" Robin made another attempt to reason, this time making a valid argument.
They actually needed a local who could navigate the sea, unless they wanted to end up like Odysseus. Seth sighed and exchanged a glance with the other. It seemed like they were in agreement.
"Fine, you win. We will meet the lord and get a fresh navigator..." he said, a little grumpy, and packed the ship back in his inventory. This was no neighborhood to park his vehicle.