The Nova Ranker - The Sword Almighty

Chapter 14. Sharks? Attacking an airplane? More likely than you'd think!

The morning before the trip, I called my mom. Being an incredibly responsible parent, she started worrying about the prospect of me meeting a serial killer. Honestly, I would've shared the sentiment, had it not been for the fact my big brother was coming with me. Also Franziska. And Joey. Honestly, I didn't think we were necessary. With Carmen hanging out with us and this mysterious Avigdor fella, we could take down an entire army. According to Mr. Rose.

Mr. Rose had too much faith in a group of teenagers.

Not much happened on the trip to the Airport. Since we had our guild Badges with us they even allowed us to take our weapons on the plane, though granted, those were put into the baggage area. We got on the plane, and, just like before, we were put in the super luxury Zone for no reason. We could've just gone in the economy seats but Mr. Rose insisted we 'travel in style'. Hoh. We left Chicago around 1PM, which meant we'd be arriving in Israel at 9AM.

Nothing really interesting happened for most of the journey. But things got rather spicy at the tail end of our flight. I sat at the window side, with Franziska beside me, her head resting on my shoulder. I'd woken up at 4am, and couldn't force myself back to sleep. Rather than bother myself with the tablet on the seat in front of mine, I looked out the window. What I saw took me by surprise. It was The Wall.

I had seen pictures of it in history books but nothing prepared me for this. It was the tallest structure I had ever seen. It stood up amongst the clouds, with enormous decorations on its sides. Giant carvings reflecting the history of humanity. Atrocities, accomplishments. All of it carved onto the rocky surface. As we drew nearer, I could see people climbing the side. I didn't feel ready to see them fall off so I looked away, my hand firmly grasping Franziska's, as I admired the wall.

"The wrist breaking grip is appreciated, honey" Franny said sarcastically, wrenching her hand out of mine and looking out the window with me. She didn't try to make any conversation after that, her hand rested on top of mine as we both admired the carvings on the wall.

Suddenly, the intercom came on and I heard the voice of the pilot speak. "Thank you for flying with Indigo Airlines, this is your pilot speaking. It is almost 7AM in our destination of Israel, so please adjust your watches. We are currently about to fly over The Wall. This may cause some turbulence, so please remain seated and adjust your seatbelts."

I shared a look with Franziska and adjusted my seatbelt, moving my hand to grab hers. Her grip was warm, though she kept my hand clenched hard. I didn't blame her, the idea of the plane was about to start shaking was terrifying. I had time to look back towards my brother's and Joey's seats, where they were adjusting their own seat belts. And then we flew over the wall.

Immediately, the clouds below us turned dark, and a mighty crash of thunder sounded in the distance. I looked out the window and saw the clouds stirring as if something was lurking underneath. I looked towards the back of the plane and saw what seemed to be a fin cut through the clouds.

I was about to mention this to Franziska when the plane shook. I heard a scream come from somewhere in the plane. Totally not me. And when I turned towards the wing of the plane I saw a Shark. A gigantic, glowing shark had suddenly flown out of the clouds and slammed into the side of the plane. That thing was enormous. It was almost as big as the plane! And it didn't seem like that sky beast had enough with just ramming us. As soon as it fell into the clouds, the shark started to follow the plane again. No, it wasn't only one shark. Another shake from the other side of the plane indicated there were two hostile fish on our tail.

For the following half hour, the plane flew, taking evasive maneuvers to stop the sharks from colliding against us. Sky Sharks smashing into the plane wasn't the kind of turbulence I had expected. It was almost 9AM when I heard an announcement from the pilot. We were almost in Israel. Almost in the safety of stable ground.

I saw a shark jump out from between the clouds, and then a mass of chains appeared suddenly from under the clouds, curling around the shark and yanking it downwards, away from the plane. And then a tiny figure jumped out from between the clouds and landed on the plane's wing. They were wearing heavy armor and wore a cape that billowed dramatically in the wind.

As the shark flew in closer, and was about to ram into the wing of the plane, the person jumped upwards, rising way above the plane. I saw a brief blur of black as the person flew past my window, their arm raised into the air. And as the shark breached, the person thrust their hand downwards. A massive flurry of chains shot out of their hand and darted through the shark's body, shooting all the way into the ocean below us, killing the beast immediately and preventing it from crashing into the plane.

The plane moved along, leaving the scene behind, though I did my best to look at it for as long as possible. Last thing I saw was the chains being pulled away from the shark's body, allowing it to fall down into the water. The Intercom came on, and the pilot informed us we would be landing shortly.

That person had to have been from a Guild. No doubt about it. Something burned inside of my chest. Excitement. Ellation. If I tried, I could be like that. I turned towards Franziska to ask what she felt. I saw her clinging hard to me, her already pale skin even more pale than usual. Her breathing was very short. Tears ran down her cheeks. In my excitement to see I hadn't realized Franziska must've been dying of fear for almost an hour. And suddenly being faced with the amount of fear irradiating from her scared me. I was used to seeing her so composed, so calm and confident that seeing her like this chilled me to the bone.

"Franny." I put my arm around her, and she made a choked sound, her heavy breathing pausing for a second and turned slower. Like she was attempting to calm down. "It's fine. We're about to land." I put my hand into her's, interlocking my digits with her's and squeezed gently, trying to get her to calm down as we both settled on our seats.

After a while we were finally in Tel Aviv. Franziska and I were walking out of the plane, still holding onto each other, with Joey and Andy walking behind us, looking spooked, but thankfully nowhere near as much as Franziska. I love those two but at that moment all my attention was going to Franny and keeping her as calm as possible. Carmen was with me, doing her best to calm Franziska down.

"It's okay, really. That's not even the biggest thing that's out there." She tried to sound happy and encouraging as she stroked Franny's back.

"Not helping." Franziska finally mumbled, though I could feel her grip on my shirt loosening up a bit.

To say I was shook would be an understatement. The most aggressive magical animal I'd ever had to deal with was an angry fire breathing cockroach that someone hid in my backpack in the fourth grade. I wondered for a moment if this would replace my recurring nightmares about the statue people standing in the hallways. Maybe instead it'd be sharks in the hallways. Before I had time to torture myself with that thought, my phone vibrated. A reminder to go to the exit to meet with Dawn Bringer's members after we recovered our luggage.