Serna cast a watchful glance towards The Stone Elemental, "Um, Quake, are you alright? You don't look so good. In fact, you look like you're going to hurl!"

Quake cupped her mouth with her free hand to stave off the rumbling building up in throat.

"Look out everyone!" Serna declared in a voice loud enough for all to hear, "QUAKE IS GONNA' HURL!!!"

Right on que, the elemental barfed over the railing of the airship. The stench blended in with all the other foul smells of the Black City.

*********

Above the city towers an air ship appeared. It looked like a scaled down version of one of the ships from Jupiter Ascending. All metal with vertical feather bladed sails atop and on bottom. However, they were not fully deployed due to city towers and limited space. Figures could be seen by War Scribe, Willow and Alyson as it approached.

"Here comes the cavalry, ladies and gentlemen. Be ready to get aboard as soon as she sets down. Men, be ready to form a perimeter," Roberts called out. He knew that Bruno's airship might take a ding or two, but she should hold together with the onslaught that was coming. And, once clear of the buildings, she would be plenty fast enough to give the pursuers a run for their money.

Lysana danced a little in fright as the air ship descended.

"Easy, Lysana, easy!" The Swordsman comfortingly patted The Wolfen on her left flank, "They're here to help us, not to land on us. I hope!"

"We're getting out of here on THAT THING?!" Irzen looked up at it in dismay at the descending airship, "With a half-Venger, half-Dragon monster already owning these skies? Bruno, unless you have a jet engine to get us out of here or a tac nuke to take out our pursuer we're going to be sitting ducks aboard that thing!

Bruno fired another flare with his flint lock pistol. The color was not the typical red color but blue. As if on que the main forward cannons charged up before unloading a barrage of Ball Lightning hits against the hybrid monstrosity bearing down on the party.

***SSKKRAAACCK!!***

The monster roared in pain as the barrage of Ball Lightning slammed into the creature immediately halting its aerial advance.

They hit with full force knocking the creature onto its back crushing any of the unfortunate denizens of the city. Two, the attack pinned the creature's wings to the adjacent buildings.

The airship touched down moments later within reach of the party. A sturdy plank was lowered just in time. From the bow, the first mate yelled, "MOVE IT PEOPLE AND LADS!! YOU GOT TWO MINUTES BEFORE THE NET WEARS OFF!"

"That's what I'm talking about!" Roberts exclaimed. "Move it, people. We don't have all day." He ushered the rest of the party on board, then his men. He was insistent that he be the last to board. It was an old tradition that he brought with him - he would always be the first of his men into the fray and the last of his men to leave. He would never lead from the rear.

"Well, I guess this is one way to leave a party," War Scribe ran back towards the others in an attempt to board the airship.

"I hope your vessel can get us out of here before our attacker gets free, Bruno," Willow added as he raced towards the ship, "Unless you have another trick up your sleeve, Half-Orc, in his current form, the Dark Lord will be more than a match for us in the air."

As if on cue, the hybrid roared like a half-mad lion as it struggled to get free of its bonds. It slowly but surely began to pull down on the buildings that restrained it in place.

"You just noticed that?" Bruno scoffed at the swordsman as the elementalist ran up the ramp, followed by Quake, "You gonna be able to stomach being off the ground, elemental?"

Quake gulped and tried not to look over the side of the ship, "...I'll manage."

"Good Lord, he's strong!" Irzen declared as he watch Venger/Nightmare struggle, "Now would be a good time to go!"

"I'll second that!" Neven added nervously, "We can't leave here fast enough as far as I'm concerned."

With everyone on board save for the pirate, the half orc motioned to his first mate to lift off. "Roberts were leaving! You're men are on board, move it!"

Roberts kept a watchful eye on the party ascending the ramp. As the last of everyone else was near the top, he hopped on at a run, giving Bruno's men a signal to lift off. When he got onto the deck, he noticed Quake's visible discomfort. Remembering something he had read once, he reached into his pocket and produced a small, leather sack, about the size of his fist. "Quake! Here, you might find use for this." And with that he handed her the sack.

Quake reached over and grabbed the sack just in time to barf into it. Even being only several feet off the ground did not bold well for the earthen elemental.

"Well, that was a pouch of dirt. I thought it might help to give you a connection to the ground. I GUESS it would work as a barf bag." Roberts had his me take up positions around the deck, watchful for any unexpected approaches.

"Oh!" Quake apologized while still trying to keep her balance.

"Can we go now?" Serna asked no in particular.

"Yes! Now would be a good time to go!" Neven declared in complete agreement with the Shield Maiden.

"Can we go now?" Serna asked again more urgently than before.

Bruno signaled to his first mate and the ship lifted off withdrawing the bridge plank as it rotated ninety degrees to the left heading to shield gate for the few airships that dared to supply Venger's war effort.

Alyson reached in her pocket and produced an herb to help Quake's nausea and keep her stable enough to help out with counter strikes against Venger. "Eat this."

The elemental swallowed it and within thirty seconds she felt a little better, "Lady, I'd rather be drunk than feel like this."

"Well, considering we can't go back the way the rescue party came, our options are slim at best." Alyson reassured Quake, "And about what happened with the Wild magic, I saw it too late and you were too eager to show everyone your new ability."

"Hold on, people!" Bruno shouted as the airship's steam engines roared into overdrive as it sailed to the exit.

Roberts kept his balance, enjoying the rush of acceleration the engines produced.

However Roberts' enjoyment was short-lived for in last surge of sheer power and might, the Venger/Nightmare creature tore itself free from the buildings which held it in place and fired off a blast of magical energy from deep within its maw that tore through the air narrowly missing the aft portion of the airship. The near miss was so close that everyone on board could smell a nauseous mix of brimstone and ash wafting in the air.

"AH CRAP!" Alyson and Quake said in unison.

Flapping its wings with the force of a hurricane, the monster took flight once more and began to give chase to Bruno's airship.

"TAKE EVASIVE ACTION!" Bruno barked orders to his crew scrambling about the airship command deck. Craining out the left window, "Roberts! You and your men get on those deck guns, asap!"

Roberts had his men relieve Bruno's crew on the deck guns so they could supplement other areas of the ship's function. IT only took two shots for them to employ their battle mage to enchant the shells to explode in proximity to the flying beast. If they couldn't get a direct hit, they would shred him with shrapnel. Anything to buy some time.