“Shoot them down! Shoot them! If you don’t, they are going to blow us up!” A terrified captain deafeningly commands echoed within his troupe like his life depends on it. 

It was just his cursed luck that his airship is now being robbed by the most infamous ship that gives a dreading experience to any airship it encounters. Why of all the days and all the airships out there should it be now and them? The captain was furious with a sense of trembling in his knees. He knew he would lose everything by then.

Its pitch-black exterior conceals the scars and bloodstains that marks its victorious history of killings. Some people call it ‘the bloody rose’ for it is said to leave a bloody trail of death and chaos behind, just like a poisonous rose petal that is enchanting, but lethal. This airship is too fast for anyone to catch, and it seemed to know its way around the skies hiding within the clouds to avoid the kingdom’s airship and wyvern patrols. 

This airship is the “Night Rose.” 

No one really knows the identity of the Night Rose Captain, who suddenly appeared beside them. The Captain skillfully maneuvered the ship and bombarded the merchant vessel, aiming to steal from them like how they usually do to the airships they defeated.

The Merchant Captain remembered how he pridefully said before leaving yesterday, that his ship was fast enough to escape. His cannons were strong enough to destroy any vessel or ship, including the Night Rose.

His life is on the line. That was the case even before the sky robbers came, as they were transporting magic stones. It is not just any low-grade magic stones, but the majority of them were of the most premium quality and are very valuable that only the wealthiest men could see. 

Because of this, if the kingdom who trusted him to transport these riches found out that there are a few magic stones missing, he will be executed for treason. He would either die here in the skies or back at the kingdom if he came back empty-handed.

Only one thing course through his entire being by then, “I want to live.”

The Merchant Captain touched his neck nervously after the possibility of ‘execution’ crossed his mind. He is now regretting his decision of dealing with such types of goods. Regardless, there is no time to waste. He must give his all to protect this valuable shipment that would cost his life.

“Have you tried to make an emergency call to the nearest air patrols or to anyone that can help us?” the Captain asked his right-hand man grabbing him by his collar

“Yes! Unfortunately, there is something currently blocking our signal, Captain. We cannot have any contact with anyone!” the man responded, looking fearful as beads of sweat were running from his forehead to his cheeks. 

“Quick! Use any of our remaining magic stones to the engine and load them to the magic cannons!”. The Captain ordered, before asking in urgency, “How is our black powder and cannonballs situation for now?”

“We still have over two hundred cannonball left, and we have fifty barrels of black powder stored in the spatial storage.”, the right-hand man answered.

“Good! Shoot everything against that damn Night Rose!” The Captain found some surge of confidence that he might make it alive, he ordered before placing his hands on the steering wheel and trying his best to avoid the enemy’s attacks.

***

Inside the Night Rose...

Meanwhile, as terror and panic arise inside the merchant captain’s airship, excitement and cheering filled the enormous halls of Night Rose.

 “Captain, this will be our biggest haul in a while. We have been pretty unlucky as the security measures have gotten stricter in this area lately.”, said by a middle-aged man with a bald spot on his head as he grins excitedly. He is looking forward to getting his share and has already imagined how he will spend it later, “I can’t wait to buy all the booze and food back at our local pub, just imagine sitting there for days and nights-“

He was cut off by another one of their crewmate, another man who seemed quite younger; he was chanting along as he puts his arms, “Free Booze! Free Booze!”

The rest of the crew chanted along with him.

“Hmm…” the Captain, who seems to be in her twenties hummed after giving a nod. “Something is up. This is too easy.”

“We are lucky; that is why!” the man replied cheerfully, “I am blessed by the heaven above.”

Another crewmate mocks, “Blessed by the depths of hell you mean, ey?”

With a snort, the captain explained,  “That is the reason why I’m worried about it. This is just too simple and lax for upper-grade magical stones. There should be at least a few airships for security reasons alone. But just look at that!”, the Captain said, pointing at the merchant ship before continuing, “That ship dared to travel alone even when they know the area has been recently infected by pirates. I have a bad feeling about this.”

The captain shifts its gaze to the black ceiling, analyzing where skulls hanged as if they were chess pieces; she was muttering to herself, “What am I missing? Is it overconfidence, or am I not seeing something here?”

“Ahoy! You are worrying too much, Captain! They are just too busy to catch you. I bet there is a decoy somewhere with lots of ships to protect them and a rumor that they are guarding it because they are transporting magic stones. But they don’t know that we have information about the harbor. They are not aware that our underground information network is constantly supplying us with the right information.”, the middle-aged man said while looking at the Captain. Despite of the many undesirable possibilities, the man is not afraid. 

He knows just how treacherous the path he had taken with his captain, but to him, the Captain is someone he admires and respects even though the Captain is apparently younger compared to him.

 The Night Rose Captain is skilled with aircraft operations and machineries, and in handling different guns and swords. He is a woman who managed to form a group of mistreated and notorious trained robbers and gave them the chance to live and get rich, and for that, the Captain is someone who is worth the bandit’s respect and loyalty. 

They lived because of the captain, after all.

Everyone inside the Night Rose airship honors and respects the Captain. Regardless of the situation they are in, and the men were confident that after looting any ship, just like the Merchant ship in front of them now, they would go home and drink for days. 

That kind of trust for their captain does not ever fade. They believe in her with their life.

The captain smirks and commanded, “Send a boarding party.”

***

“Captain, we are being boarded! I repeat. The Night Rose are sending a boarding party!” the right-hand man from the Merchant ship suddenly shouted out loudly. 

The Merchant ship is now in chaos; the crews there are panicking as they paced back and forth, imagining their lives- they’re now knocking on death’s door. They were praying to whoever's up there that can save their pathetic and miserable lives.

“Everyone prepare your weapons! Prepare for close combat! I repeat. Prepare for close combat and repeal the enemies!”

“We cannot let them have the cargo!” the Captain shouted out loudly and started to panic.

The Captain had to leave the steering wheel and let the airship standstill in the air. After that, the Captain went to his storage chest, which stores all his weapons, and took out a short sword on his left hand and a pistol on the right. He was out of breath, and his heart was racing; he never knew the day he would need to hold a gun and a sword again would come.

He then went out from the room to the airship’s deck. 

His pistol could only fire once; then, he must reload it. However, the reloading would take almost a minute, and because of that, he would need to use his sword more as he did not want to stay out from the combat and stay behind to have time in reloading his pistol.

In the deck, he saw that a massive cannon had fired a rope bridge to their airship, and there were ropes with boarding hooks attached to his ship. Some robbers even used a single rope to swing from the Night Rose to the Merchant ship. 

“Everyone focus on the bridge! Shake it off, cut it, or destroy it in any way! Bring anything you can get off from the ship!” the Merchant Captain shouted and took his pistol aiming towards the bridge. 

He pulled the trigger and was able to hit someone that tries to board his ship. The man fell off from the bridge to the bottomless pit that was under them.

The Captain threw his pistol after that and took a shield from a lying body of his dead comrade. 

“See, they do bleed and fall just like us, so just focus and hold on! Reinforcements are coming! We just have to fight back and kill them! We will be hailed as the heroes who took and destroyed the Night Rose!” the Captain shouted out while trying to defend against the approaching bullets that were fired towards him.

The airship’s crew was ready to fight with their Captain. However, all their thoughts were cut off as they heard a loud sound…

Booooooooommm!!!!

***

“Captain! Captain! Something is wrong!” one of the boarders from the Night Rose tried to notify the Captain, but suddenly, the Merchant ship exploded.

The Night Rose shook from the explosion, and the region of the airship was damaged even though their magic shield received most of the blast.

The captain shook her head with her flowy jet black hair falling in her face; she gritted his teeth, “crap.”