For the next three hours, Dumblewick remained an unendingly irritating chatterbox, going on and on about Boss Morg, himself, his mighty quests, his mighty adventures, and his mighty battles at the Base.
It was unending and annoying.
But then, he suddenly fell silent.
Declan hummed as he turned to look at the man.
Finally tired?
But when he looked at Dumblewick, he found his eyes narrowed at the dashboard.
"What’s wrong?" Declan called out as he turned to look at the dashboard, which currently displayed a radar identification.
Both of them watched its signal for a while before Declan’s expression changed slightly upon realizing what was happening.
"They’re coming for us."
On the radar, there were not just one, but about five more red dots.
And while the first natural reaction was to shrug them off as just another group of air vehicles flying around, all five of them were forming a complete circle around their helicopter, and right now, they were all closing in at incredible speed.
"Strap in," Dumblewick said to him, and Declan immediately grabbed the belts and tightened himself into his seat.
In the next moment, Dumblewick opened a cap on the dashboard and tapped the button.
Immediately, Declan felt a force descend upon him, pressing him into his seat as his back tightened against it.
____________
"We have them surrounded, boss."
The words resounded through a spaceship cabin, where a man in a techno battle suit could be seen with his eyes fixed forward at the radar, where a green light was rapidly approaching.
"Don’t worry about retrieving the serum," the voice said. "Now that we’ve perfected the Arcane Serum’s creation formula, we can reproduce it anytime."
"Just get rid of that one with them."
"Yes, boss," the man replied, shutting off the comms before turning toward the dashboard, pressing a button, and issuing a command.
"Activate weapon..."
Those words had not even been completed when—
BEEP!
BEEEP!
BEEEP!
The sound of beeping rang loudly through the cabin as the lighting immediately switched to red.
"What’s wrong?"
"Incoming projectile... capability is enough to destroy the ship."
"Please evacuate in 3..."
The man’s face changed wildly as his hand immediately reached for a button.
He tapped it, and the entire seat beneath him gave way, causing the man to be ejected from the ship.
Yet he had not even fallen a meter before he found the head of the bomb directly before his nose, just beneath the ship.
"What the—!?"
BAAAANG!
The bomb tore straight through his head, carving open a hole as the resulting explosion blasted upward toward the jet.
KAAAABOOOOOOOOOOM!
Back on the helicopter, Declan noticed one of the red dots suddenly disappear.
"You got one down already!?" he mused in surprise, turning to look at Dumblewick.
But the man was completely in his own world.
He had pushed Declan’s seat toward the back, leaving himself with the entire dashboard, and right now, it was as if he were operating a keyboard.
The way he operated that keyboard was like an author high on caffeine while blasting beats through his ears.
[A/N: Kekeke]
But his reason wasn’t unfounded.
All around the helicopter were bombs with target locks.
They chased it down through the sky from every direction, yet with incredible maneuverability and speed, the helicopter managed to dodge every single one.
It maneuvered in such a way that the bombs ended up crashing into one another, while the helicopter blasted through the resulting explosions unharmed.
Dumblewick opened two covers on the dashboard and slammed the red buttons they were concealing.
In an instant—
WHHII!
WHHHHIR!
Two loud mechanical sounds echoed as the helicopter’s underside opened, revealing two massive protrusions that rose higher into the air.
WHIIIIIR!
A unique mechanical turning sound followed, and in the next moment,
BOOOOOOOOOOM!
Both portions opened up, firing two powerful bombs that quickly disappeared into the clouds.
The helicopter burst forward with furious speed in the next moment as another bomb rapidly chased after it.
"Two lights off!?" Declan mused to himself, watching as two of the lights on the radar suddenly disappeared.
BOOOOOOOM!
An explosion erupted from the side of the helicopter, tilting it violently for a moment, and Declan’s heart almost jumped out of his chest.
Fortunately, the helicopter quickly stabilized itself and remained in the air.
Opening up another cap directly above the cabin, Dumblewick reached out and slammed his fist onto the button.
Outside—
WHOOOOOOR!
The sound was like a suppressed roar as another protrusion, this time twice as massive, emerged from the underside of the helicopter.
Crimson rays of light burst through the clouds, illuminating two other battle jets currently speeding through them, and in the next moment—
KAAAABOOOOOM!
A thunderous explosion followed as the massive protrusion launched a bomb, smaller than the previous ones at about half a meter in size, but moving at incredible speed.
Shockwaves continuously blasted outward as it rushed toward one of the jets and shot through it in an instant, emerging from the other side.
The jet itself continued into the distance for a couple more seconds before—
KAAAAAABOOOOOM!
A thunderous explosion rocked through the sky as it blew apart with a powerful bang.
"Another light off."
____________
"Come in, boss. Boss!?"
"What is going on, Kira? I’m trying to reach the others, and their communication has been severed."
"Have you gotten rid of them?"
The thunderous voice resonated from the other side of the comms, inside a cabin where a woman in a techno battle suit could be seen gripping the controls.
"The other jets have been destroyed, and it’s highly likely that their pilots have been killed, Boss."
"I’m calling for permission to abort the mission and return," she said, though the jet had already turned around and was currently speeding away with force.
"The fuck you mean they’re dead?"
"Abort mission? Fuck no!"
"Kira, those jets are 15 million each! What do you mean five of you can’t take down some fucking helicopter!?"
"We were wrong, Boss. It’s no helicopter!" Kira said, fear immediately lighting up her eyes as the entire light in the cabin turned red.
She instantly turned toward the dashboard, finding a projectile locked onto her position, appearing as a straight line on the display.
She turned her gaze outside, only to find the nose of the speeding bomb directly ahead.
The sight froze her so completely that she couldn’t even move the controls downward, and in the next moment, her final words were—
"It’s a War Helijet!"
"A WAR WHAT!?"
________________
KAAAAAABBBBOOOOOOOM!
Declan blinked twice, watching as the last red dot on the radar disappeared, leaving only them and the green light.
Dumblewick’s tapping speed finally slowed as he pressed another button, and Declan’s seat moved from the back to the side, closer to the dashboard, exactly where he had been sitting before.
The same thing occurred with Dumblewick, who was also moved away from the center and back toward the side.
Another button was pressed, and half of the ship’s button caps closed back up and disappeared into the dashboard before the helicopter’s speed gradually slowed.
Dumblewick turned to Declan.
"What were we saying before?"
"Oh yeah, so back at the Base, Boss Morg is the one..."
________________
One realization hit Declan hard:
He never got to see them.
Five jets had been wiped out, and Declan never even got to see a single one of them up close.
And what was more, all Dumblewick had now resumed talking about was how amazing Boss Morg was back at the Base.
He had just wiped out five jets, and he genuinely thought nothing of it.
The way he was speaking now made Declan doubt whether they had even been in a life-and-death situation in the fucking sky just moments ago.
In that moment, the words of Boss Morg couldn’t help but echo in his head.
____________
"Declan, meet Dumblewick. One of the most competent men on Mordran."
____________
At first, he had thought the man was anything but competent with his mischievous, unserious aura, but now he had been proven wrong.
In aerial battle, this man was a monster.
While he didn’t know what those ships looked like, at least he knew they couldn’t have been ordinary helicopters without firearms.
Most likely, they were battle techno-jets.
He’s just like Boss Morg, too.
Back then, he had also watched as Boss Morg cleaved through the neck of the Nexian that Declan had struggled against with his life on the line.
And she had killed that Nexian with such precision that he never even saw Boss Morg before losing his life.
The level of skill these people possessed was insane, and it only made him wonder.
What was this secret organization they all simply called Base?
"So, that was how it went down."
"Hahaha! I know it sounds bad at first, right? But things went well, didn’t they?"
Dumblewick said with another boisterous laugh, and finally, Declan responded.
"You know, through all your stories, you never made the mistake of revealing the true name of the organization."
Declan said it, and Dumblewick burst into another loud laugh.
"That is a secret I can’t say unless you’re truly part of the Organization."
"But I am part of it! Why am I in this helicopter otherwise?" Declan said, dumbfounded, only for another boisterous laugh to come from Dumblewick.
"Base doesn’t work like that."
"You got recommended by Boss Morg. It’s a recommendation," he said, emphasizing the last part.
"You still have to talk to The Boss and get your mark to be truly part of the Base," he said, causing Declan’s eyes to furrow.