Chapter 69: Naval Warfare

 

Travelling under the salty water was Saladis and her royal guards, moving silently with the waves as they tried to stay hidden from the enemies above. Her expressions and movements remained calm and noble as she led her people towards their mission objectives.

Saladis and her people had always been the pillar of naval might for the Northern Demon Kingdom. It was that way ever since the waters calmed down a few thousand years ago. Without her and the presence of the merpeople, the Kingdom would be open to attacks from the sea. It would also mean that the other countries would be able to sail their waters uncontested. 

Though arguably speaking, the rough terrain and the dangerously tall seaside cliffs prevented other countries from striking them reliably. The only way that they could do so was in a beach area such as the ones at Divinatus. This made the merpeople less important in the eyes of the Ak'hims.

Nonetheless, they tried their best to serve the Kingdom. The Kingdom that took them in almost eight thousand years ago when their race was facing extinction from the sapiens. Unfortunately, their devotion to repay their kind's debt to the descendants of the First Demon Lord was met with the treatment of being treated like second class citizens by the Ak'hims. A treatment that will continue well past the era of the Sixth Demon Lord. 

It may have even gotten worse. But then again, under Sylendri's rule, everything was bad. The queen herself, although a general and a very important part of the country, was relegated to a low ranking number within the army. Their armies were seen as worthless in land battles and her council was often ignored.

Her people had often asked why they do not just leave the Kingdom. That they should have done so when the crazy war started and the Alliance started pushing back. They were seaborne, there was nothing the Ak’hims could do to stop them from swimming away. And they would be safe too, to live life deep in the ocean where the humans and Ak'hims would not disturb them.

Truthfully speaking, Saladis was very close to making that decision. The extreme nepotism and the sheer incompetence of the nobilities within the Kingdom was something that disgusted her. The Northern Demon Kingdom was a place where people with merits work like slaves for those of the aristocracy. It goes counter to everything that the previous mermaid queen thought of her— that nobility should serve the people. The Ak’hims were also cowards who would not stand up to those above them even when oppressed.

To her, there was no saving their kind. Rather they leave than die with them. 

The only thing that kept her and her people there was the fact that they owed the Ak’hims a debt of life. No… A debt of existence. If it wasn’t for the First Demon Lord and his people taking them in all those long years ago, the merpeople would not have survived to see this day. It was something that the merpeople wanted to repay, either by paying that same debt of existence or by something of similar value.

But then again, was almost eight thousand years of service not enough to repay that debt? Must they continue to be treated as second class citizens? The thoughts ponder upon Saladis’ mind until the day she met Klauna.

Lord General the Seventh of the Northern Demon Kingdom. Needless to say, Klauna had caught Saladis’ interest. She was… uncouth, so to say, to the Mermaid Queen. Her heart was not really in the right place either and she was neither noble nor graceful— but she was wise. Her words and arguments made sense and unlike the others. She was not what the humans would say: ‘have a stick up her ass’.

She was also the most unorthodox strategist that Saladis have ever seen. Though her actions may be extreme at times, it was never out of spite. But more than anything, she backed her words with her actions. She would never ask someone to do what she would not do herself. If she says she's willing to kill thousands of people, then you better believe that she could and would do just that.

Though Saladis could see right through her act. She may act the way she did and hid her feelings away, but Saladis knew. Everything that she did was to protect her subordinates— the people she cared about. Saladis could empathise with someone like that. She had scores of fish under her that she wanted to protect as well.

That was why she made the decision to follow her to the very end. She was someone worth following. She reminded her of the stories of the First Demon Lord. He was someone the Merpeople look up to as being able to do the things that need to be done. He was not born from some special family. He was no natural leader and he didn't want to lead the Ak'hims at first.

Klauna was the same. They both have people they wanted to protect and rose up to the occasion.

“To all. I am Queen. I and my soldiers hath reached the naval blockade. I and my loyal followers are ready to strike anytime,” Saladis talked to the replica of the grimoire. 

A grimoire that was recently upgraded by a wonderful man named Yuupiecca who made the grimoire fully waterproof. It was a much, much, more expensive replica to make than the previous replicas, but it was worth making in case such a situation like the energy rain ever happened again. 

On a side note, talking underwater had caused Saladis’ voice to have some sort of resonating watery texture to it as she spoke. Underwater talking was not the same as talking in the air.

“This is Wingless, noted on that. I am currently bringing the payload to the enemy ships as we speak,” Lina’s voice came out of the book. Loud flapping sounds could be heard in the background.

“Spear here. The strike will begin within the next five minutes. Queen, you are ready to go. Harbinger, the same goes to you as well.”

“Noted. I’ll be waiting for your signal Queen,” Harbin said as the communications cut off.

Saladis nodded to her royal guards when suddenly the grimoire turned on again.

“Ngah! Poi!” Harbin yelled out.

Right after Harbin yelled was Poi who had a mischievous playful voice. “Hey hey! Lina! How was the secret date with that genius inventor?” 

“Wh-what?! I didn’t do any date with Yuupiecca!” Lina yelled back.

“Heh heh heh… why I never said anything about Yuupie. Why did you mention his name?” Poi said out with a snarky tone.

“Wha!?” Lina was speechless at being played by Poi.

Saladis couldn’t help but chuckle at their antics. It was a nice sight so to say. Much better than the aristocracy that she had to deal with before the war. 

“Do not be ashamed young Succour. Being in love is something to be in pride with,” Saladis said with a teasing tone.

“My my. I’ll support you the best I could, Lord Lina!” Medica was the next to comment.

“WHAAAATTTTT?! You are in a relationship with Senior Yuupiecca? I thought you two hated each other?!” Yuuko’s voice of shock could be heard.

“That’s not! You guys are mistaken!”

The girls bantered for a while with Poi, Yuuko, Medica and Saladis teasing Lina to no end. It only ended when Harbin finally took the book away from Poi before bonking her in the head. For a while, everything went quiet.

“You have my blessings, Lina,” quiet until Klauna started speaking out instead.

“I’ll bloody drop you into the ocean!” Lina yelled out in annoyance.

Klauna let out a small chuckle. She then said to everyone with a serious tone. “Enough fooling around now. Time to crash this party people. Queen, you may begin the strike.”

Closing the grimoire for real. Saladis signalled her soldiers before starting to speed towards the ship above her. “Tis is time to strike!” 

With her trident aimed upwards and burst speeds of up to fifty kilometres per hour, she struck the keel of the ship before bouncing away for another strike. The strike caused a large explosion that sent shockwaves throughout the water, though with a specific spell and manoeuvre, the mermaid queen managed to shield herself from it. Her royal guards followed after her and launched more torpedo strikes against the ship, making more explosions and causing it to rock back and forth. It wasn’t long before the ship started to capsize.

All over the place, one could see more ships being assaulted by the merpeople. Their assault was devastating to say the least, sinking about a quarter of their total ships in the first strike..

Right immediately after that initial strike, the ocean lit up with multiple cylindrical shaped objects. Said objects exploded as soon as it reached a certain depth. The ocean was littered with it as the remaining alliance ships scattered the ocean with depth charges. Saladis and the other merpeople were forced to retreat in order to avoid getting hit by the depth charges. Though they didn’t retreat for long, only moving around the battlefield in order to find and strike through an opening.

With Saladis and the merpeople taking care of what’s below, Lina led the Succours in a strike from above. Giving off a nod to Lina, Medica and her squadron sped off in a dive towards one of the ships below. Squadrons of Succours could be seen diving below as well.

Medica stopped flapping her wings and curved them in the shape of a glider, causing her dive to be faster and easier to control. Once she reached the correct height, she cut loose belts of bombs that were tied to her thighs. The bombs fell down to the ships below, causing a large explosion and a fire aboard. 

Her squadron members did the same as well, causing multiple detonations to the ships. Once the bomb was dropped, the Succours immediately opened their wings and flew out of there with the speed they gained from diving, avoiding any range or anti-air magic that was thrown at them.

As she made her escape, Medica spotted a large ship surrounded by smaller ships. “I’ve found their capital ship! It’s directly north of the blockade!” Medica said to the grimoire. “I’m moving back to the carrier platform to reload.”

“Wingless here! I am on the way with the payload! I need someone to cover me!” Lina said out loud.

“Roger that, future sister!” Poi was the first to reply.

“Wha?”

The sound of a large horn disrupted the shocked comments of Lina. Just beyond the sight, was one ship that somehow managed to slip past undetected by the Alliance. It was one of the ships that the Ak’hims was using as a carrier platform for the merpeople and the Succours to refill their bombs and spears. At the bow of the ship, one could see Poi pointing forward towards the capital ships. Harbin was seen near the middle of the ship with a group of Analysts, casting something big.

The ship itself was moving rather fast. Insanely fast. The ship cut through a path as they soon reached in the range of the Alliances’ artilleries. Artilleries that soon shell out multiple ordnance at the speeding ship. Most of them missed the ship as it weaved around. Those that hit the ship were met with a large force field that bounced the shots away.

An orb suddenly appeared in the middle of the Ak’him ship. A bright red orb that went high up into the skies. It then shot out a beam of light towards one of the escort ships that were protecting the capital ship. The devastating beam tore a hole in the ship before it broke in half and sank shortly after. If they didn’t have the Alliance’s attention before, they sure have it now. The ship was seen as a big threat and most ships there started aiming for it.

A fatal mistake of course, the ship was just a decoy. There was no way that they could punch through the force fields of Klauna’s most elite of Analysts before the Alliance got annihilated.

“I’m moving in!” Lina yelled as she brought the payload towards the capital ship, now unprotected by the escorts.

As soon as she got closer, she let go of the payload that she was carrying the whole time before flying back to a carrier platform in order to get some bombs. “Payload is dropped!” 

The payload was the strongest weapon that the Ak’hims have. A weapon strong enough to kill everyone on the capital ship without destroying the ship itself. It was an Ak'him that wields the Warrior Spear Indominatus. 

Pointing the spear downwards and letting out a burst of mana from the back end of the spear, Klauna accelerated towards the capital ship,  landing on top of the deck like a meteor. The shockwave from the strike sent everyone near the blast zone flying away. Some of the dwarves who were unlucky enough to get hit by the shockwaves fell into the ocean where they subsequently got picked off by the merpeople.

Soon after, a few Succours dropped Warriors onto the ship, though not as far away as Lina threw Klauna; not everyone can dive in like a meteor and be unharmed after all. The enemy, having panicked about being boarded by the Ak’hims, tried to engage them in melee combat in an attempt to drive them off from the ship.

They met their end at the demon with the mighty banner.

 

* * * * *

“This is Spear. Status report,” Klauna said to the grimoire as she stood at the helm of the ex-capital ship of the Alliance, dead bodies scattered all over the place. They were being gathered up right now by the Ak'hims.

“Bombardment triplet number two here. All carrier platforms functional, the enemy never knew we were even here,” Yuuko was the first to say.

The next was the aquatic voice of Saladis. “I am fine. Though, there are some of my kin that hath been lost to the abyss.”

“...I’m sorry about that,” Klauna responded.

“Do not be. They died in honour, fulfilling their duty to the throne. I go now to reclaim their bodies. If you may excuse me.” 

“This is Triage. We’ve lost a few Succours here as well,” Medica replied with a sad tone.

“Harbinger and Rogue here. We are fine. Harbin and the others seemed to be a little bit seasick though," Poi replied as soon after.

It was a decisive victory no doubt. It’s just that, no matter how good a plan is, deaths are inevitable in war. But unlike before, the deaths of her subordinates no longer bother Klauna as much. They died with honour, doing their duties and beyond. She was grateful to have worked with them.

“Any bodies we can find, we will bury them at Port Aleksander. I want the largest of the ships that we capture be fitted with a skeleton crew. We now move onwards to Port Aleksander. I want to be there as soon as possible." 

Her orders were followed with haste and without question. With the momentum of their victory, they soon reached the human Port of Aleksander. What happened there was a simple raid and loot operation— destroying any harbour and ships docked there before stealing all types of necessities to loot in their recently stolen ships. 

It was enough food to last them for several months if rationed properly. Though she didn’t know how long that they would be able to feed the hungry five hundred thousand Ak’hims at Divinatus.

‘Perhaps a farm within Divinatus will be necessary?’ Klauna thought to herself. It doesn’t need to be sustainable. She only needed it to supplement the food long enough to survive the voyage.