John and Tempest made their way down the ladder leading to the lower decks of the airship while the Storm King's soldier's busied themselves with putting out the massive fires Tempest started. They were able to easily sneak by unnoticed, and soon found themselves in what appeared to be the main internal deck of the airship. Unlike the previous wooden interior of the last airship they boarded, the interior of the Storm King's escape ship was made entirely out of metal. Dark, angular steel support beams ran the length of the deck, while panels of welded black steel adorned the walls and floor.

Aside from a few thoroughly thrashed training dummies, however, the deck appeared to be empty. John swiftly cleared the entire floor, finding no trace of the storm king in the dimly lit room.

"Where else could he have gone?" John asked, turning to Tempest.

"I'm not sure. I've never seen this style of ship before. For all we know, he could be any-" Tempest began, only for a loud bang to grab both her and John's attention.

They both turned to the massive steel doors behind them. John aimed his shotgun at the doors, waiting with his finger hovering just above the trigger for any kind of threat to appear and attack, but nothing happened. The only sound to fill the air was the sound of the engines roaring from the other side of the door, their mechanical chugging muffled by the thick steel plate between them and the rest of the room.

John slowly stepped toward the door, ensuring to step to the side in case something were to punch through the steel and into the room with him. Tempest mirrored his actions on the other side of the door, and they both quickly reached the handles. John grabbed one side while Tempest grabbed the other, both giving each other a look to confirm they were ready, before yanking the doors open. John instantly shouldered his shotgun and aimed into the room as the roar of the engines filled the air.

However, as John and Tempest swept the room, they found no sign of the Storm King, or any of his soldiers. John's eyes narrowed and he slowly lowered his shotgun. Just as he and Tempest turned to face the rest of the room, however, a white mass of fur and steel dropped from the ceiling, slamming into the floor just a few scant inches in front of John. Before he could aim his weapon at the massive creature, a steel-clad claw lashed out, hitting his shoulder so hard that it sent him tumbling to the ground several feet away, his sleeve ripped all the way down to the last few layers of Kevlar.

https://youtu.be/PLe3pznz9oM

"John!" Tempest cried out, her eyes wide in alarm.

Tempest and John both looked up to the massive creature standing between them, the ladder gritting his teeth in pain. The Storm King stood nearly nine feet tall, his beastly form towering over even John. He wore black steel armor over his white furred torso, and atop his head sat a twin horned helm. Staring down at John and Tempest, full of contempt, were two icy blue eyes.

"Well, well, well. Welcome back, Tempest. I see you've brought a guest." The Storm King growled, his voice just as cold as the steel surrounding them.

"It's over. Your invasion, your rule, and your life end here." Tempest snarled, sparks trickling out of her horn as she prepared to fight.

While the Storm King's attention was focused on her, John pushed himself to a kneeling position as quietly as he could. He nearly silently shouldered his shotgun and moved his finger to the trigger.

"That would require you to have enough magic left to fight me, Tempest," The Storm King scoffed, "But I think we both know you've got one, maybe two shots left in you." He replied, before swiftly spinning on his claws and kicking John in the chest.

With a grunt, John sailed through backwards, before slamming into a steel support beam nearly a dozen feet away. The impact knocked the air from his lungs, and he grit his teeth in pain as his back absorbed the impact.

"No-ehgh" Tempest grunted as the Storm King swiftly grabbed her by the throat.

The titan of a yeti easily lifted the small unicorn several feet into the air until she was dangling higher than John's height. She writhed and gasped in his grasp, her throat squeezed shut by the massive claws wrapped around it.

"You know, considering how easily you two killed my soldiers, wiped out my fleet, and destroyed my medusa gas cache, I'd have thought you'd put up more of a fight. Guess I was wrong to assume." The Storm King coldly stated, squeezing his claws tighter.

While Tempest desperately tried to free herself from the Storm King's strangle-hold, John fought to clear the blurry vision in his eyes. He felt throbbing, agonizing pain emanating from all over his back and shoulder, and a ringing sensation filled his ears. For several seconds, he struggled to right himself and get his bearings, but all he could manage to do was cough up a measure of blood. The crimson fluid dripped down his chin as he forced air into his battered lungs.

"J-Jo..hn.." Tempest croaked, her vision fading to black as the Storm King's grip tightened even more.

At the sound of the mulberry unicorn's voice, however, John's eyes lit up in realization, and he looked up to the sight before him. As if spurred on by a wave of magical clarity, John's eyes focused, and he realized just how perilous Tempest's situation was. He hastily shouldered his shotgun and fired a shell into the Storm King's back.

The blast caught the yeti completely by surprise, both in volume and force, and he stumbled forward, his grip on Tempest's throat failing as well. The unicorn fell nearly three times her height and crumpled into a heap of gasping, heaving pony as the Storm King fought to keep his balance. He growled from the pain of the steel plate covering her back absorbing the impact, before leaping to the side just as John fired a second shot.

Fragments of lead scattered through the air as the buckshot slammed into the steel wall, making both John and Tempest duck their heads. When they both looked back up, the Storm King was quickly rushing toward John, his claws thudding on the floor as his massive frame sprinted the admittedly short distance between them in just a mere second.

John reacted as quickly as he could, just barely managing to fire another shell off at the Storm King's breastplate, and stagger him back. John aimed for a hasty headshot to end the confrontation as quickly as possible, but just as he pulled the trigger, the Storm King ducked low, seemingly already recovered from the shock of buckshot at near point blank range. He brought his claw into an upward slash, intent on ripping John's head clean off his body, but the attack just barely missed as John threw his head back to dodge the slash.

With John on the backfoot, the Storm King aimed low, delivering a sweeping kick that took John's legs out from under him and knocked him flat onto his back. John grit his teeth and growled in pain as the Storm King stepped on his shotgun, keeping him from using it. With his other foot, the Storm King stepped on John's chest, his immense weight and size nearly caving in the human's ribcage in an instant.

Just as the Storm King went for the kill, however, a bolt of lightning blasted him in the back, electrocuting him and making his entire body seize in agony.

"GRWAHAAYA!!" He screamed, smoke forming from his horns and armor.

Despite being pressed under the behemoth, John felt none of the effects of the lighting coursing through his entire body. He took the reprieve to push the foot off of his chest and try to free his shotgun. Meanwhile, just a few feet away, Tempest panted heavily, her horn sparking and sputtering as her magic reached its last legs. She managed to hold the spell just long enough for John to pry his shotgun free from under the Storm King, before it sputtered out and she fell to her knees.

With his body no longer held in a constant state of agonizing electrical paralysis, the Storm King looked down just in time to see John point the barrel of his shotgun right at his face and squeeze the trigger. Unfortunately, the yeti was simply too fast, and spun just enough to move his head out of the line of fire as another concussive blast of twelve gauge roared past his ear. As he spun on his feet, he kicked one leg out, connecting with John's shoulder and sending him flying nearly a dozen feet.

Dazed, but still lucid, John slid to a stop, his shotgun falling from his grasp and landing just a few feet out of reach. He struggled to push himself to his feet, but another cough forced its way up, and he felt his lungs throb in pain as more blood splattered to the cold floor beside him. He pushed himself to his feet as the Storm King attacked a Tempest who simply had very little fight left in her. She ducked under one swipe of his claw, but simply could not dodge the second in time. The steel-clad claw ripped three more gashes into her wither, forcing a bloodcurdling scream from her maw, before he silenced her by grabbing her throat once more.

John rushed to grab his shotgun, only for the Storm King to throw Tempest at him as hard as he could. The little pony was easy for the mountain of a yeti to launch the distance at a frightening speed, and before John could even reach down to grab his weapon, her body slammed into his shoulder, knocking them both to the floor, on top of each other. John landed on his back once more while Tempest found herself tangled in a mashup of his left arm and her forelegs as she laid on his chest, her breaths coming in quick, ragged rasps.

John could only grit his teeth and look over Tempest's rapidly heaving barrel to see the Storm King rushing toward them both. John looked over to his Benelli, finding all too quickly that he still couldn't reach it. He hastily looked down at Tempest's barrel as she struggled to not slip into shock, instantly finding his 1911 still holstered on the belt wrapped around her waist. With less than a second to react, John grabbed and unholstered the pistol, his thumb flicking the safety down while his finger reached for the trigger.

John frantically fired off all eight rounds of .45 ACP, striking the Storm King in the thigh and making him stumble as he gasped in pain. Two bullets slammed into his chest plate, with another hitting him in the shoulder, and a fifth clipping his forearm. The sixth punched through his neck, just barely missing his jugular, while the last two flew high and missed. The Storm King staggered back in pain, blood pouring from his now numerous wounds and turning his white coat red.

With a moment of breathing room finally established, John hastily moved to reload the pistol, but as he moved his left forearm to grab another magazine from the duffle bag on Tempest's barrel, he found that his arm was trapped underneath her weight. With the moment slipping away, he set the pistol on the ground beside him and dug into the duffle bag with his right hand. He managed to grab a magazine, but just as he moved to load it into the 1911, he felt the Storm King's claw constrict on his foot like an anaconda.

The Storm King ruthlessly yanked John away from the pistol and out from under Tempest, growling in fury all the while. John reached out on instinct and managed to grab ahold of the stock of his M4, before the Storm King violently threw him as hard as he could. John sailed through the air, before slamming into the door beside the engine bay. The whiplash of the impact made him slam the back of his head against the steel, instantly concussing him and nearly knocking him unconscious. The metal bent slightly from the impact, and John slumped down to the floor, spitting out more blood in the process.

His head spun and he dazedly tried to get back to his feet, his spine, shoulder, and most of all, ribs, protesting heavily at the thought. With a colossal amount of willpower, John fought to get to his feet, his sight reduced to blurry tunnel vision as he wheezed and fought to fill his battered lungs with air. He looked up, finding with no small amount of dejection, that the Storm King was quickly approaching him. John brought his M4 up to bare as quickly as his battered body would allow, just barely managing to shoulder the weapon and fire before the yeti could grab ahold of him again.

John winced from the recoil of the shotgun as it pounded his wounded shoulder, and momentarily lost sight of the Storm King amidst the blast and gasses that exited the barrel. He blearily blinked his eyes to catch sight of his target, but found nothing but a thin cloud of smoke and darkness. With no body laying on the ground before him, John was forced to push himself off of the wall and search the dimly lit room for any sign of the massive yeti.

As John stepped into the light of one of the weak white lanterns illuminating the room, his head throbbed, and his breaths came in weak, gurgled rasps. He coughed up another small measure of blood, before spitting a wad of the sickly red fluid onto the floor. Struggling to maintain his focus amidst his injuries, John heard a cackle run through the room. He quickly whirled around toward the source of the noise, but found it nearly impossible to pinpoint with his senses blurring the way they were.

"You know, I must give credit where it's due. You are the first creature in my lifetime to ever injure me." The Storm King's voice echoed off the walls, giving it a sickly, taunting aura.

John elected not to respond and continue his searching. He kept his finger just a hair's breadth off of the trigger as his eyes meticulously searched every corner as best as they could.

"If I didn't have to kill you both, I might even have considered offering you a place as one of my generals..." The Storm King continued.

John checked around one of the metallic pillars before looking up toward the ceiling for any sign of the yeti. He continued to come up empty, only finding shadows and steel everywhere he looked. A blur of movement caught his eye just as he checked behind another pillar, and he whirled his shotgun around to aim at the threat, only finding more of the same dark room around him.

"Too bad you and that traitor won't survive to have that chance." The Storm King announced, his voice suddenly much closer this time.

John saw a blur of white, red, and black motion as the Storm King lunged out from the pillar behind him. He spun on his heels and and pointed his shotgun in the direction of the yeti barreling toward him, but there simply wasn't enough distance and time. Just before the muzzle of the M4 could find its mark, the Storm King grabbed a hold, halting the barrel in its place, aiming just barely off to the side of the yeti. With his other claw, he grabbed John by the throat, and hoisted him into the air.

John choked as he felt the vice-like grip tighten around his throat, forcing him to release his grip on his shotgun and try to pry the claws off of his neck with both hands. The sharpened steel covering the Storm King's hands dug into John's neck, lacerating the flesh as he squeezed. John grit his teeth as the stabbing, burning, crushing pain inflicted on his neck threatened to cut right through his jugular and possibly even decapitate him completely.

The Storm King effortlessly tossed John's shotgun away, his victory all but assured as he squeezed ever tighter. With time quickly running out, and John's options running out even quicker, he desperately reached into his pocket and pulled out his switchblade. He hastily flicked the blade out with his thumb, before thrusting the steel into the Storm King's wrist with all his fading strength.

The thick, furred hide of the massive yeti absorbed the blade all the way to the hilt, but the Storm King only winced. He growled as he grabbed the knife with his other claw, ripped it out, and threw it to the side. With a snarl on his face, the Storm King squeezed even tighter, the blades on his hand inching ever closer to John's jugular.

With his options exhausted, and his body too oxygen deprived to fight back, John's hands fell limp at his sides as his vision faded to black. The last thing he heard was the cackling, heinous laugh of the Storm King as he choked the last of the life from him.

However, just as John faded from consciousness, a blindingly brilliant blast of white lightning burst forth from the shadows, forcing the Storm King to drop John to the floor as the massive yeti was flung all the way into the engine room from the force of the electricity. He crashed into one of the engines, his giant frame and steel armor leaving a sizable dent in the cylinder head of the motor while more and more lightning poured forth from Tempest's broken horn.

Step by step, she walked forward, her magic blasting the Storm King in an unending torrent of arcane might that she didn't even realize she had. Despite her energy feeling as if it were completely depleted just mere moments ago, she found new life being breathed into her as each step forward, and each spark of magic, made the imposing yeti scream in agony. Her magic wildly attacked everything in sight, searing orange hot gashes along the steel and sending sparks flying from the engines caught in the crossfire.

As she reached the doorway to the engine room, her magic slowly returning to its bluish tint as her renewed strength dwindled, she grit her teeth and bared down even harder. The pain in her wither, barrel, neck, and horn ached immensely, but the adrenaline pulsing through her veins numbed her senses to anything other than completely eradicating the Storm King. Tears streamed from her eyes but she couldn't blink, nor could she look away as the Storm King's fur caught fire, and he wailed a horrified, tormented wail as he burned.

The wayward lines of magical energy whipped at everything in the room as the yeti convulsed and writhed about, most of it finding its way to the engines. It only took a few moments for the fuel lines to heat up to the point of boiling the fuel inside, and only a few moments past that for the pipes to rupture, spraying flammable, superheated gas fumes into the air. Errant strands of magical energy quickly caught the wisping gas, and an explosion immediately followed.

The explosion was relatively small, only consuming the engine room and knocking Tempest off her hooves and to the floor, however it was only the first. A chain reaction of explosions ripped through the hull and toward the fuel tanks, each blast sending a vibration through the ship that almost launched Tempest back into the air each time. It only took a few more moments for the chain to reach the fuel tanks, before the final, most massive explosion tore through the hull of the airship and completely obliterated the entire stern of the ship.

This explosion, and the accompanying drop in altitude, did launch Tempest into the air slightly. She flopped to her belly as fire tore through the stairway leading up to the top deck, and a massive dent appeared in the floor as the majority of the explosion was directed out through the weaker wood frame below. The sensation of falling quickly registered on her mind, and she felt her stomach in her throat as the airship dropped from the sky.

Tempest frantically looked around the room as the sound of rushing wind echoed above her. She found her gaze almost inexplicably pulled toward the motionless form of John, laying just a couple dozen feet away. The ship's gravity swayed back and forth as it rapidly descended toward the ground, but it managed to thankfully stay upright, making the short but trying walk possible. She forced her hooves to move, each step feeling like a herculean task, but the adrenaline still pumping in her blood gave her a respite from the weariness she felt for just a little longer.

On shaky legs, and with blood still dripping from her wounds, Tempest sluggishly made her way over to John. The journey could have taken a minute, or a few seconds, or even the better part of an hour, as each passing second seemed to blur into the next. Tempest finally managed to reach John's lifeless form, finding his eyes to be just barely open, and his chest weakly rising and falling every so often. Blood pooled around his neck where the Storm King's claws dug deeply into his flesh, and he didn't even react to her arrival.

"John?" Tempest asked, her voice a fearful whisper in the violently shaking world around her.

John's response was only the tiniest stir of movement, but for Tempest, it might as well have been an entire sentence.

"John! Can you hear me?!" She exclaimed, fear, panic, and even hope in her voice.

John's eyes slowly fluttered shut, making her heart sink with despair.

"John! Get up! Please!" She cried.

For the first time, he felt strength well up in his lungs, and a weak, desperate plea sang from his lips, "Did... did you do it?"

His voice felt broken, and jagged. It could more aptly be called a croak, not a voice, yet it was enough for her.

"Y-yes... it's done." She answered, sniffling once.

"Good... that's good." He softly murmured.

"John... please no." She whispered, leaning down until her head was just a few inches from his.

"Knew this was... a one way trip." He whispered, the strength in his voice nearly gone.

"It... it doesn't have to be. We can... I can get you out of here." Tempest pleaded, tears dampening the fur on her cheeks as she hugged John close with her forelegs.

"I'm... sorry... but we both know that's not... gonna happen." John replied, almost absentmindedly.

Tempest sniffled hard as the tears came. She squeezed John's body closer to hers as she bawled into his chest. For a few moments, that was her entire world; just her tears, and the warmth of the human dying in her forelegs, but her eyes snapped open as she felt something touch her cheek. She glanced down to see John's hand weakly caressing her cheek, his thumb stroking a long, slow circle into her fur.

"Don't cry... you did good. You did... real good... I'm... proud of you... Tempest." John's voice trailed off.

Tempest held back her sobs as John lost consciousness. His hand fell away from her cheek, and he let out a quiet sigh. With her lip trembling, she laid down beside him, holding herself against his chest and resting her cheek on his shoulder. She closed her eyes and awaited the inevitable. The simple act allowed the last of the tension, adrenaline, and pain to leave her system, and she found that she was indescribably exhausted. Her entire body felt as if it weighed a thousand pounds, but the feeling of John beside her, comforted her as the airship reached the ground and crashed.

Author's Note

Whew boy this was a ride. I hope you guys enjoyed. I'll be posting the epilogue next week, so I hope you all stick around for that. It'll be fun I swear 🙂