Path to Freedom: Skathi and Cayde
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@Suku Perkeo, elated at having been freed, practically hugged Cayde's leg, but, seeing as that he really really really would rather live, he instead followed the words of the nobleman before him. Beaming, Perkeo gave a bow to him, saying:
"Very well, with you lighting our trail, its smooth sailing from here on, sir." he said. While he had no idea what house Cayde was from, it was clear from his posture, his voice, and his courage, he was no doubt from a noble military family, or a Knight Order at the very least. Perhaps even a rather bold skyfarer captain. Regardless, Perkeo resolved to escort Cayde and the group down the many flights of stairs.
Within no time, the party found themselves equipped with their former weapons and armor, and Perkeo with his beloved
lute in hand. The thing was massive, easily larger than any weapon the party carried, and fitting snuggly in the massive Draph's hands. Strumming a few notes, he seemed elated, a pleased smile on his face.
"Halfway there. Just need to pass the Warden, and we'll-" he said before a loud boom echoed from outside. It seemed they'd have to hurry.
Guiding them along to the fourth floor, they would come to see Skathi face to face with the warden himself, bodies of prisoners and beasts alike scattered before them. Fire burned across the warden's axe as he swung, his heavy strikes deftly parried by Skathi's ether-clad claws. Though she could avoid his strikes well, actually getting in for a hit was difficult. This man was far above normal.
As such, when Cayde joined the fight with fire of his own, the tides began turning rather quickly. Clashing steel with Cayde, sparks literally flew between them.
"You're not bad at all. Too bad you lost it all, Selmy. Could have been a hell of a general. Now you're just gonna be one hell of a-" he'd manage to say before a wooden THWACK impacted with the back of his head. Perkeo, having taken the opportunity to strike him down nonfatally, sent the terrifyingly skilled warden crumpling to the floor with a single strike to the head. Sweating nervously, Perkeo took a breath of relief.
"Sorry about that...I thought I'd get him while he was talking."By now, Skathi's rage would have subsided, and without much else to do, would opt to join Cayde and co. in their quest to escape this island. After all, hard to defend Griever's land when she wasn't on it. A pact was made, and, after fighting their way through a swathe of guards, they would retrieve Skathi's bow. With her weapon in hand, the primal-infused warrior proved to be more than a match for the legions of common guardsmen, supporting Cayde with arrowfire, while Perkeo...well, he hit a few while they weren't looking.
Reaching the ship in the hangar bay, the crew would find that the prisoners had managed a resounding victory. Still though, the storm raged on outside, and with it persisting and without a proper pilot, a certain Erune riot-starter was left to pilot the ship.
Gulping, the tan erune woman started hitting switches and flipping levers. After nearly causing the ship to self-destruct a few times from the engine almost overheating, another inmate stepped in and pushed her into the Co-Pilot's seat.
Path to Freedom: Arno and the Akula
While the cannons were small, they were certainly packing quite the punch. As a creature of the deep, fending off human weapons was clearly not the duty of the Primal Beast. However, as the storm grew worse and worse, Arno could surmise rather quickly that the beast was directly affecting the weather in an attempt to knock him from the skies. The Harvin was skilled, far moreso than a normal person could be, and far more prepared than any would expect to be. The turbulence was only a minor disturbance, while the bullet holes in the beast's tendrils became more of a hindrance to it.
Letting out a tremendous roar, the beast began rotating in the water. It was as if the entire basin of water the Island sat upon began to turn with it...and soon, it was very clear that was exactly what was happening. Whipping the water around itself, Charybdis' tendrils soon became moved by something more than flesh, as rounds harmlessly impacted with the high pressure current of water surrounding its body. Worse still, was the fact that the beast was quickly gaining elevation, seemingly flying on the very water it controlled.
Just when things began looking a bit too hot to handle, Arno would hear the engine of the main airship down below start up. His job wasn't to kill the beast, but now that his distraction had succeeded, all Arno needed to do was to distract it to look away from the ascending airship. Circling around, the pilot's diversion succeeded once again, letting the airship soar gracefully at an elevation below his, hopefully out of sight from the beast. Once a fair bit of distance was reached, Arno would move to begin a mid-flight landing on the Zweite Transport vessel. A simple matter for him, and, with his ship secured, the harvin was free to move to pilot the Transport Vessel.
...Out of the corner of his eye, from the mirror present to view the back of the ship, the pilot would see the beast standing there, faced towards them, its entire body rotating at an impossibly high speed. Water formed a vortex around it, the spinning circle drawing closer and closer to its maw, before all at once it broke, the water ejected faster than a bullet, in a continuous stream towards the ship. Narrowly avoiding a direct hit that would have taken out the enire airship, Arno's skills had spared the vessel, but the hit had still cost one of the main three engines. Now sputtering, and barely able to keep aloft, Arno's next few motions were crucial.
Soon, the beast fired again and again, this time scraping the main wing on the right, and, with a third blast, impacted against the side of the left main engine and punctured it all the way through. Without enough hands to run immediate emergency repairs, Arno would find the ship crashing rapidly, its nose almost completely turned to the bottom of the sky.
A miracle occured, that day, wherin an ever shifting current that frequently traveled throughout Tyragrande carried the ship a fair distance, far enough to crash land onto...well, land, rather than an empty void of cloud and eternal falling.
Within a large patch of forest, the present crew would land, the impact knocking out quite a few people aboard the ship, and making damn sure that few would be in any shape to repair the nearly completely destroyed ship. For now, freedom was their's...and, well earned. Patting Arno on the shoulder, the erune that helped him escape panted heavily, pale enough to look like she hadn't seen the sun in a few weeks.
"Y-Ya did...d-did real good..." she managed before her cheeks swelled. Hurriedly grabbing the helmet she used for her imperial disguise, the woman barfed into it, turning away to keep Arno from seeing.
...Well, she had at least stayed classy most of the ride.
Path to Freedom: Marshall
To say that Marshall escaped from Ziggurat was a miracle was...fairly true, honestly. Of all the airships to board, a particularly skilled inmate chose to hijack the one he was on, sailing it off, far into the horizon and away from Ziggurat. What he couldn't have anticipated however, was the turbulent storm that followed in the wake of Charybdis. The beast's wrath was not contained to only the island, it seemed. The final blast of water that the beast had launched stripped the entire right wing of the airship off, resulting in the entire thing tumbling down, being carried on the same current and impacting a fairly long distance away from the larger ship. Many other smaller ships weren't so lucky, plummeting to the depths below.
Well, Marshall was fine at least. His pilot had fallen out during the current sweeping them up, but a crash landing never DID require a pilot. A bit of a broken left arm, and a bit of shrapnel in his stomach sure, but Marshall was just peachy.
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