an: next extra chapter should be the last. I promise.
CRASH
CRACK
KABOOM
“What happened!?” Rath demanded. “I want answers now!”
Before he spotted the fabled ship, The Kraken, along with the small Celestian fleet in the enhanced sight of his telescope (which was like a modern-day artifact) he had heard a huge sound: the sound of bashing, water spilling, wood cracking, and finally an explosion.
“Y-Your highness!” An officer saluted. “Two of our ships to our left have been destroyed!”
“I can see that! I want to know why they have sunk!”
He had seen the aftermath of those ships – to his left, two ships that sailed a few rivers beside his had collided with each other. (a river is half of a meter). Both ships sank and there was an explosion coming out of those ships, probably the explosives.
“There was a huge wave coming out of nowhere. The wave caught the first ship and then it swept the ship to the other ship, the ships collided and both sank.”
“How did two ships colliding cause both of them to sink!? They should only be damaged, but sinking entirely is absurd! And where is that wave now!?”
“Your highness! Right when the wave was about to hit the second ship, some kind of blue wall appeared on the opposite end of the ship. That caused both ships to collapse entirely.” And then the officer’s face paled. “Could this be the ‘water sorcery’?”
He saw his soldiers on the deck fall into a state of panic.
“So Edward’s son can do it too!”
“It will be like thirty years ago!”
“He’s going to kill us all!”
“We have to retreat while we can!”
BASH
“Do not panic!” Rath slammed his shield into a wooden railing on the hull, the soldiers turned their attention to him. “That was just a passing wave that hit our fleer unluckily. There is no way that was ‘water sorcery’. Didn’t the spy said he wasn’t able to?” He attempted to give a decent explanation, though he could not make an excuse about that blue wall. But it still calmed down his soldiers.
Besides, if it were to be this ‘water sorcery’ done by Jake Rhaims, then this would’ve happened from ten lakes! (a lake is half a kilometer). That is an absurd distance, the farthest a cannon could fire was two lakes. Edward’s ‘water sorcery’ certainly did not reach that far and it wasn’t water shooting beneath the ships.
Rath pulled out an artifact capable of sending orders to all of the fleet. “We keep going as planned,” he ordered.
“””Yes, sir!”””
They sailed for about a lake. Rath breath a sigh of relief, perhaps it was just an unlucky wave coming at them.
“See, I told you-”
CRASH
SPLASH
He was interrupted by yet another familiar sound.
“Your highness! There is another wave incoming, it hit the ships to our right!”
“What!?”
He looked to his right, a large wave of water enough to engulf a standard Laegar warship swept across an unfortunate ship. That ship, in fact, was carried across the ocean, almost flipping over.
CRASH
SPLASH
And it crashed into another ship. Both ships stuck together as the wave pushed both of them even further.
“Oh, Sea Lords!” One officer exclaimed. “The wave is coming straight for us! Brace for impact!” Every man on board held onto whatever was close to them, Rath too held on to a railing.
After all, the crew of the Laegar mothership was able to witness this because those unlucky ships were sailing right beside the mothership. The wave with two ships in tow had claimed its third prey, next will be the biggest ship of this fleet.
CRASH
SPLASH
CRASH
However, a wall of see-through blue appeared on the opposite side of the third ship. With the huge wave approaching the wall, the three ships were crushed like killing a bug with the clap of a hand.
CRACK
KABOOM
And the explosives inside those ships ignited, setting the ships on fire as it sinks into the watery grave.
“Men, calm down. That was just another naturally occurring wave.” Rath bluffed – again, he couldn’t explain the blue transparent wall, but his soldiers seemed to accept it. How will I keep my men calm if he keeps doing this? but his mind betrayed what he was saying.
Rath could deduce it clearly. That blue wall had stopped the wave from touching the mothership. That was most likely a demonstration. A demonstration by the son of the ‘water sorcerer’.
Rath looked into his telescope again to see the grey ship, particularly on the man in a blue trench coat with an awful beard shaving standing on the bowsprit of that ship. His right hand holding a sword with blue details. It was just like thirty years ago.
What are you thinking about?
The Laegar prince looked at the pirate’s expression, only there wasn’t any. His gaze is not of a happy-go-lucky attitude like the spy reported nor was it that of a war maniac craving bloodshed. It was not the face of a cold-calculating tactician nor it was the face of an arrogant prodigy. It was a blank face that of a person who had lost all semblance of life.
This was not in line with what Rath assumes was his doing. That pirate has clearly shown that this entire fleet’s predicament was his doing, he has shown that they were at his mercy and he indeed showed it. He could’ve destroyed this mothership if he wanted to, it’s not like he needed the commander alive; Edward Rhaims certainly killed the commander. Jake was toying with his enemies but his demeanor was not of enjoyment or remorse.
Do you even feel anything? Rath wonders. If anything, it was like a switch turned off all of the pirate’s emotions.
No, that is not important. Rath concluded as he issued a new order to his fleet, “We are changing formation!” He said, “make sure we do not travel beside each other! Tell this to all ships!”
“””Yes, sir!”””
Well, he certainly can’t retreat. It would be dishonorable and he would be made a laughing stock. He has to stick with it ’till the end.
Another lake was traveled, nothing happened at all. Rath looked into his telescope and see no changes with The Kraken and the Celestian fleet that was sailing at the same pace.
“Your highness! There’s another wave, two this time!”
CRASH
CRASH
SPLASH
SPLASH
Two waves traveling diagonally in the opposite direction to each other to the fleet’s perspective. Both waves each caught their first victims.
CRASH
CRASH
SPLASH
SPLASH
CRACK
KABOOM
And two more ships were consumed. The wave to the fleets left had enough taking down two ships and ammunition inside those ships ignited.
CRASH
SPLASH
One ship was lucky enough to sail a few streams away to avoid the wave. But another ship wasn’t so lucky.
CRACK
KABOOM
And three more ships drowned without a fight.
“Keep going, men!” Rath yelled into the communication artifact.
Thankfully, the soldiers’ training had made them so that none of the ships tried to turn their sails and run away out of cowardice. For the noble ships who joined the war, it’s a matter of pride – they would be disgraced if they turned back. Also, this is a matter of vengeance for what happened thirty years ago.
14 Laegar ships remain.
2 kilometers to Laegar fleet, 1 kilometer left for open combat.
Welp, they got their chances, Jake thought.
He was hoping to make the enemy retreat through that show of prowess. He was sure the enemy commander was watching him through his telescope. But it seems either pride or idiocy got the better of that guy. While Jake is eager to fight the opposing Laegar fleet, he is not one of genocide. He also runs the risk of losing the lives of his crew.
Jake even made some unnecessary gestures to make it obvious that those waves were his doing. Most Court Wizards only wave hands or strike a pose when intending to let their enemies know it was them or to not fuss about aiming. Otherwise, they would simply stand there doing seemingly nothing while maneg orders are forming behind them.
Anyway, a naval battle was inevitable. Both the Celeste navy and the Laegar fleet had no reason to turn back now that they are this close.
Jake had filled all of the missing maneg inside his Maneg Soul after the last Order. Granted, that Order didn’t even cost double digits percentage of his supply. But like any other experienced Court Wizards, the Water Court Wizard always make sure to maintain the supply of disloyal maneg above ninety percent at all time. Since disloyal maneg still counts as a part of his soul, missing too much will have a physical impact on his health. He recalls Ice Boy getting severe body weakness after dumping a third of his maneg to freeze a huge lump of land with fire inside; the kid could barely move a muscle. Remembering that, he really hoped that Heroic Bastard would be alright will all of his disloyal maneg lost.
“Now then,” Jake muttered without so much of a tune in his voice. “Time use that Order.”
Preset: meter; I order you…
SPLASH
CRACK
It is here, Rath thought.
A ship to his left was met with a gush of seawater from the ocean. It had been the ship of a noble from the Powers household. It was a very decorated ship with red silk around the hull and carpets on the deck. Quite wasteful to be used for war, especially if it gets destroyed. However, the shot of water did not destroy the ship. It had come out from an angle and the pressure of the water had destroyed the sails. That ship was a sitting duck now.
SPLASH
CRACK
Another ship in front of the mothership fell victim. This time, it was a Laegar ship.
Please, let this be over soon, Rath hoped as he watches more ships getting destroyed without so much a single cannon fire.
an: let’s not waste too much time on each and every ship getting destroyed by [Geyser]
9 Laegar ships remain.
1 kilometer to Laegar fleet, 0 kilometers left for open combat.
Jake had cut down five ships, three of which were the fanciest noble ships – those ships must contain the nobles that participated in the war. He had incapacitated those ships of the Laegarian nobles, rendering them defenseless. Hopefully, they would surrender immediately and not try to make a last stand when met by a Celeste ship. Those nobles could make a lot of ransom money if captured, too bad the first noble ship was destroyed entirely and the aristocrat onboard killed.
Now, both sides are evenly matched.
Behind him, eight Celeste ships prepared to open fire. Due to the relatively small population adding the Winter Sickness only eight ships can be operated when there were eleven captains including the general. Well, Celeste actually has more ships than that, but those are backup ships, it’s a practice common for the many island kingdoms of Osianicd Archipelago to have extra ships without the manpower to sail them.
“Men,” he commanded. “Ready the cannons.”
Orders
[Geyser] a derivation of [Pillar]. It creates a hollow pillar that shoots anything inside upward in high velocity and pressure. Best affinity with object relevant to Element. Order: form hollow cylinder x diameter x height, sculpt top weaken x factor, after x sculpt base rise upward to top.
The command ‘weaken’ cause maneg formation/creation or a part of it to be weaker by lessening the amount of maneg used. Used when intending to make maneg formation to be easily breakable, or to save maneg. Useful when giving an Order with the intention to break a fall or something. However, in the case of [Geyser], it’s only used to make the top of the cylinder less reinforced so that the liquid inside could ‘burst out’ faster, but less pressure comes out because of it. The ‘weaken’ step was included in that Order as it was necessary most of the time.
Similarly, the command ‘reinforce’ reinforces the maneg formation/creation or a part of it to become tougher. However, more maneg will be used to achieve it.
Azhure: So, what do you all think of this sub-chapter? Is it good? Are there any problems with it? Any reviews or feedback is appreciated as long as they’re not plain insults meant to blow off your stress.
Voice: Don’t do that to people! Not even on the internet!
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