Chapter 111: Pegasus Down
The magical airship Christina blazed across the sky, its hull flickering with unstable magical energy as it plummeted toward their position.
"Everyone, move!" Carla shouted, her white wings spreading in alarm.
Dino didn't budge. Instead, he cocked his fist back, a familiar white sphere of compressed atmosphere forming around his knuckles.
"Air Quake!"
CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!
Spiderweb fractures tore through the air itself. The shockwave exploded upward, detonating Christina's magical payload mid-descent. The sky erupted in a spectacular display of multicolored explosions, like the Grand Magic Games' opening ceremony gone wrong.
The concussive force sent the massive airship spiraling higher into the sky, barely keeping it aloft.
"That tremor magic…" Erza's eyes narrowed with recognition.
"It's Dino!" Lucy exclaimed, relief flooding her voice.
Gray's expression darkened as he whirled on the Blue Pegasus mages. He grabbed Hibiki by his designer collar, frost creeping along his fingers. "What the hell are you guys playing at?! That's your own airship!"
Hibiki raised his hands defensively, looking genuinely distressed. "We don't know! Christina's been hijacked—this wasn't us!"
The blond member of their trio, Eve, stepped forward with unusual seriousness. "Listen, if our plan's been compromised and they've taken control of Christina, we're all in danger. That airship has enough magical firepower to level a small town, and it's been charged three times for this operation!"
"Then we end this quickly." Erza's hand moved to her hip, already reaching for a sword. "We find whoever's controlling it and cut them down."
"Erza's right," Gray added, releasing Hibiki with a slight shove. "Standing around won't help."
Leon and Sherria exchanged worried glances. "Wait—aren't you concerned about your guildmate?"
Gray glanced back, smirking slightly. "Dino? Worried about him?"
Lucy giggled despite the situation, adjusting her Celestial Spirit keys. "You clearly haven't seen what he's capable of. Christina's magic cannon might work on normal mages, but Dino's anything but normal."
She remembered the Phantom Lord war, when Dino had faced down their giant magical weapon without flinching. "He literally punched a magical spirit back to its own realm. Trust me, your airship's the one in trouble."
"Besides," Gray continued, already walking toward their objective, "smaller, faster attacks might give him some work, but a big, slow magical cannon? He'll see it coming from a mile away."
Meanwhile, Wendy stared up at the sky with wide eyes, her twin tails whipping in the wind from the explosion. "C-Carla, what kind of magic was that?!"
"The terrifying kind!" Carla's voice came out higher than usual, her usual composure shaken. "Wendy, I think we've been traveling with a complete monster!"
"Monster?" Wendy tilted her head. "But Dino-san seems really nice…"
"That's not what I—" Carla's ears perked up. "Oh no! Christina's charging again!"
Above them, the hijacked airship's magical core began glowing with ominous light, condensing another devastating blast.
Dino cracked his knuckles, the white sphere reappearing. "Round two, huh?"
FWOOOOSH!
The magic cannon fired, a pillar of destructive energy screaming toward the earth.
Dino's fist shot forward. "Air Quake!"
CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!
"BOOOOOM!"
The explosion painted the sky in brilliant white and gold. The shockwave forced everyone to shield their faces, even those far from the blast zone. Wendy grabbed onto Carla, her small body nearly blown back by the pressure.
Hibiki, Eve, and Ren stood slack-jawed. "He… he just punched it again," Hibiki whispered. "That's impossible. Nobody's physical strength should—"
"That guy's no ordinary mage," Ren finished, his usual confident demeanor cracking.
Leon crossed his arms, looking far less surprised. "You should've seen him destroy an entire hillside with one punch. This is nothing for him."
Dino eyed Christina as it was sent tumbling higher from the impact. The distance was working against him—his shockwaves were dispersing too much through the air.
"This long-range stuff's getting annoying." He glanced down at Wendy and Carla. "You two find somewhere safe to hide. Don't let the enemy spot you. I'm going up to end this."
"Going up?!" Wendy's eyes went impossibly wide. "But Dino-san, you can't fly—"
BOOM!
Dino stomped down hard, cratering the ground beneath him as he launched into the air like a cannonball. Then, impossibly, he kicked at the empty air itself.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Each kick against nothing propelled him higher, as if he were climbing invisible stairs toward Christina.
Wendy's jaw dropped. "C-Carla! He's walking on air!"
"I can see that!" Carla sputtered, her mind struggling to process what her eyes were showing her. "Wendy, I've read about many types of magic in the Cait Shelter's library, but nothing about shattering space with your bare hands or walking on air! This man isn't just a mage—he's a complete freak of nature!"
Wendy watched Dino's ascending form with stars in her eyes. "So there really are mages this strong out there… The outside world is amazing, Carla!"
Carla could only sigh in exasperation. "That's what you're taking from this?!"
Aboard Christina, the hijacked crew scrambled to maintain control as the airship shook violently from the repeated impacts.
"Dammit! Who the hell is this guy?!"
"Two direct hits from Christina's main cannon and he's still standing! How much longer until we can fire again?!"
"Sixty seconds! The magical core needs time to—"
"Fire the instant it's ready! We need to vaporize that monster before—"
A new voice, smooth and entirely too casual, cut through their panic. "Monster? Oh, you mean me?"
Every head snapped toward the bow.
Dino stood on Christina's signature pegasus figurehead, hands in his pockets, looking perfectly at ease despite standing on a flying airship several hundred feet in the air.
"W-when did you—?!"
"Impossible! There's no way he climbed up that fast!"
"Forget how he got here—kill him! KILL HIM NOW!"
The hijackers surged forward, weapons drawn, desperation driving them to swarm the intruder.
Dino tilted his head, an amused smirk playing at his lips. "Hey, quick question." He lifted one foot slightly. "Any of you ever been in a plane crash?"
"What are you—"
BOOOOM!
Dino stomped down.
The entire airship lurched violently, its nose diving straight toward the earth. Magical circuits overloaded and sparked as the carefully balanced flight enchantments shattered under the force of the Tremor-Tremor Fruit's power.
"PULL UP! PULL UP!"
In the control room, the helmsman yanked desperately at the controls. "It's not responding! The flight systems are completely fried!"
The ground rushed up to meet them with terrifying speed.
"NOOOOO!"
CRASH!
Christina slammed into the earth with devastating force, the impact sending up a massive plume of dirt and debris. Metal shrieked and tore as the pride of Blue Pegasus crumpled like paper, magical energy discharging in wild arcs.
When the dust settled, the once-magnificent airship lay in ruins, a smoking crater marking its final resting place.
From a safe distance, Dino dusted off his hands, having leaped clear at the last moment.
"And that," he muttered to himself, "is why you don't fire magic cannons at people."