Biblical. That’s the only term describing the beast that slowly emerged from the water before us.
We didn't know how large it was, but we could tell from how far our steamship was sent backward by its emergence that it was massive.
"Heh, if we were searchin' for a hidden island in the midst, we'd probably think we hit paydirt, wouldn't we, boys?!" Eris hollered, looking at the island-like shadow shimmering in the fog like a mirage. While my people were frozen with terror, her psychopathic crew laughed and cheered to fight against their fear and nervousness.
Thea gripped my arm with surreal strength, digging her nails into my arm without noticing. "Let's leave," she pleaded.
I didn't blame her. In fact, I was considering it. It was irrational to risk my life fighting a colossus when we could evacuate with avian mounts. There would be trouble fleeing to Rigma Forest because it was the Green Sea's territory. However, it was only temporary, and it was explainable.
If I were anyone else, I'd have abandoned ship immediately. However, I had something that no one else did—Molecular Separation.
Almost all animals have their brains next to their eyes. One hit and separating oxygen from hydrogen or simply separating water cause their brain to explode.
More importantly, our destroyer has siege cannons that can shoot over half a mile! That was the entire point of building the ship!
It'd be one thing if there were little value in battle. However, beyond saving the ship and my strategy, there was a more important benefit to fighting—an ancient's soul mana meat.
After fighting with Titus Roman, I realized I wasn't that powerful. There were many archwizards in Novena and countless around the world. I couldn't rely on modern equipment to defeat them—and I didn't have anyone else who could fight them.
If I got that meat and ate it after obtaining an S-rank soul cultivation technique, I could possibly change that.
Running away wasn't necessarily the most rational thing to do. There would be benefits and consequences no matter what I did.
Retreating meant giving in to King Redfield's demands at the suitor's tournament. However, if I won, I'd obtain physical strength and a power play. Conversely, losing meant losing the ship—and our lives.
"We should at least try," I reasoned, trying to hide my twisted grin. "What was the point of creating modern weaponry if we don't use it?"
Thea shuddered, and her tail stood up straight. "Ryker, that thing... it's—"
"That's what I'm talking about!" Eris grinned. "Whether you and your cannons are here or not, I'm rippin’ that thing's head off and feedin’ it to my men!"
Light cheers from her crew met her words, making her turn. "That's all? This is your one chance to become a legend by fightin' an ancient, and that's your response?"
Nervous excitement bolted through her crew like lightning, leaving her crew buzzing. After nonchalant declarations like "Eh, why the hell not," and "Ah, fuck it. I don't have anything better to do," the crew laughed and cheered.
GOOOOOOOOOOOORRRN!
A horrifying roar cut through the fog, followed by distant blood-curdling screams and the sound of wood snapping. The griffins and thunderstags followed suit, thrashing around in their stables. It killed the enthusiasm instantly.
"You hear that, boys?! That's the sound of becoming a legend!" Eris grinned. "That howl just guaranteed that at least one gonna fly away and recount what they saw. Hell, their account is gonna be so exaggerated that you're gonna be a legend for bein' here!"
"I'll drink to that!" one said, brandishing his flask and taking a swig. The crewmates laughed and did the same, hyping themselves up until they heard a loud snap.
"Who said it's gonna be alive that long?" I asked, snapping the steel legs off the harpoon's mount. Once I had the massive deck cannon in my hand, I got on a thunderstag and helped Thea on behind me with my free hand. "Stop being dramatic. We're not going to become legends fighting that; we're going to become legends by eating it!"
My words rejuvenated everyone's spirits despite the horrifying sounds in the background.
"Iska!" I yelled to my new guard. "After giving the signal, I'm going to shoot that thing in the face. If it doesn't die, I want you to use that siege cannon to shoot it in the face. If you can't see its face, I shoot the water where it should be."
Siege cannons can shoot half a mile through stone walls. Once a cannonball hits full momentum, water's resistance force can turn stronger than concrete, likely causing it to explode like a water shotgun meets a frag grenade. The cannonball can skip like a rock, but the distance is far enough to drop the velocity before it hits.
"Yes, sir!" Iska replied.
"Do you not want me to take care of Lady Lockheart?" Graken frowned.
"I'd love that," I chuckled. "However, if I did that, she'd kill you, get on a thunderstag, and come after me regardless. I'd rather avoid pointless bloodshed."
The staff shuddered.
Thea was the paragon of trust—but that behavior came at severe costs. With the sole exception of Rema, Thea would never let me get close to another woman, she didn't give me free time, and I couldn't protect her in a fight because she was right next to me as a weakness and a liability. I had to learn to accept these costs.
"I want to see every mage on a mount following behind me and all my soldiers on those cannons, preparing to blow that thing to hell on my order!"
HAROOH!!
The sailors were impressed by the abrupt shift in the hearts of my crew. Even Eris was left grinning with excitement.
***
The closer I got, the grimmer it became. I couldn't tell how many ships were lost because the colossus' emergence caused waves that separated everyone. However, I could tell from the screaming and the floating wood planks that the ancient had claimed at least four or five.
"Tentacles at six!"
"Tentacles at three!"
I grimaced when I heard two ships over 100 meters, over a football field away from one another, screaming about tentacles simultaneously. "This thing's far larger than I thought."
CRAaaaCK!
Crack!
My stomach sank when I heard both ships get slammed by tentacles in unison.
GOOOOOOOOOOOORRRN!
Another shriek from the beast shattered the airwaves, causing our thunderstag to discharge blue electricity in the fog like lightning, like a storm cloud. The sight triggered a vicious reaction, causing the colossus to emerge further from the water.
"Electricity would naturally be a weakness." I grinned, satisfied I had gotten another tool. However, I lost any sense of power when the beast continued emerging.
Far from the 50-foot guardians I was used to fighting, the beast had at least a 400-foot spread and a 60-foot head in the center. That meant that the actual body was the size of an iceberg.
"I guess it's not an ancient for nothing," I chuckled, my heart rattling off like a machine gun.
"Let's leave!" Thea begged, gripping my stomach until it was hard to breathe. "Please, Ryker!"
I gulped, icy sweat dripping down my shoulder blades. I felt true fear of fighting something for the first time since my reincarnation. It went far beyond Titus Roman, who I knew I could kill given the right conditions. But this creature? The hair on my arms raised just looking at it.
Moreover, I only had one grenade-tipped harpoon, a dozen regular, pre-tested harpoons in my bag, and a limited supply of CO2. Worst of all, loading a mounted gun while flying a thunderstag would be nearly impossible!
"Okay, we'll—move!" I shouted, kicking the thunderstag with abusive force when a silent maroon tentacle with mace-like studs and thick suction cups emerged, causing the fog to swirl as it crashed down on us.
The thunderstag moved out of the way at the last moment, letting the 80-foot tentacle crash into the water below.
"GO UP!" I yelled, pulling the reins and having it shoot into the air. However, seven more tentacles shot from the water, creating a complex pattern of movements to prevent us from escaping as we weaved through the attacks.
Worse, each movement entrapped us, bringing us closer to its head as if it were playing a game of chess with our movements.
We weren't the only targets. The mages following behind me were screaming as the tentacles swiped them out of the air with their suction cups, dragging the mages and mounts into the fog. It was a terrifying sight that made our forced trip toward the beast's hidden head harder.
"It looks like we're killing this thing!" I grinned, my left hand grabbing the reins tighter. When we finally saw the beast's head, my eyes widened in horror. "Lusca..." A shark with squid-like tentacles from Caribbean folklore. "If this world has gods, it wouldn't be so strange...."
"Thea! Sync with the thunderstag!" I grimaced, knowing that once Thea connected to the beast, she'd lose the function of her real body and senses until she cut the connection. "There's no choice!"
Thea nodded. "Okay!" She wrapped her hands around my waist and tied them with a special binding cloth; a moment later, her body went limp, and the thunderstag smoothed its course, weaving out of the tentacles with precision as we approached the shark head.
“AghhHHhhHHhhh!”
An entire wooden boat crew and all emerged from the other side of the water, slowly entering the shark's mouth. I gritted my teeth while it happened; there wasn't much that I could do.
CRAaaaCK!
Its three rows of massive teeth snapped down on the boat with a resounding crack, swallowing it whole. It was a horrifying sight that scarred itself in my memory.
I couldn't think too long about it, as we were too busy weaving in and out of tentacles and avoiding the cage it created above us. There was no escape.
"There's no choice." I gritted my teeth and silently cast the amplification spell. 'Præsta mihi vōcem deōrum; fer vōcem meam ad exercitum meum; fer verba mea ad populum meum; amplifica.'
When its reflective green eye flashed into my vision, I turned the harpoon gun to it, sporting a 50-foot rope. "YOU'RE PATHETIC!" I roared with amplification magic. When it turned to me in a fury, I grinned and pulled the trigger, sending a harpoon directly into its eye.
BOOM!
GOOOOOOOOOOOORRRN!
It howled in agony, jerking its massive head and sending the thunderstag flying into it—Thea and I included. As we were flung vertically, we received slack near the head, and the thunderstag stabilized under Thea's tight control. "Up close!" I yelled.
After a moment's hesitation, the thunderstag complied half-heartedly, getting near the thrashing colossus' head as tentacles carefully tried to stick to the harpoon without pushing it into its eye.
Once we got within ten feet, I began my chant. 'Collagen, chitin, Actin-myosin filament, hydrogen, oxygen, ATP, separate!"
A massive ten-foot spherical tumor developed outside of its eye and ruptured, causing an explosion of blood to rain down as it shrieked and hit the water, creating a tidal wave.
Seizing the moment, Thea found gaps in its failing tentacles and flew toward the sky.
It felt like a victory. But I got a sinking feeling in my chest. Somewhere in the massive collection of information my mind accepted, a crashing feeling of doubt and terror developed within me.
"Thea! Release the sync—now!" I ordered, throwing the massive harpoon to grab the reins. However, before my right hand could grab the reins, we hit a massive wall in the fog. "How didn't I...?" I was going to say see that, but I realized what had happened once my mind refocused.
"RYKER!" Thea screamed.
I looked up in a daze. Our thunderstag was missing half of its body, and my left arm was missing, spurting blood from a stump as we fell toward the water.
Two heads. There were two heads.
No.
There were three heads. The third was emerging from the water at my right, opening its maw to catch me in the air.
'What a hell of a way to go.' I internally chuckled. That's the maximum amount of words I could safely think before it closed in on me. My time had come.
At that moment, amid the hyper-slow motion, a boom sounded, and a massive black object crashed into the beast's head, causing blood to gush over the other side. 'Well, that answers that question.'
That was my thought as we hit the water and got swept away in a tidal wave as the colossus crashed into the water next to us.
When we finally corrected, I tried to swim, but my arm didn't move, causing extreme imbalance as I moved forward. It was enough until a massive tentacle shot through the water at me. 'Son of a bitch!' I internally screamed, trying to escape.
At the last moment, an abrupt force gripped the back of my neck and yanked me out of the way, helping me dodge another tentacle from the side. I looked up and saw Thea shooting toward the surface.
Once we surfaced, our stomachs dropped when we saw more tentacles, operated by miniature brains called ganglia instead of the main brain, waiting for us. 'What a brutal creature," I internally laughed, watching them crash down from the heavens.
A golden streak abruptly cut through the sky, cutting the tentacles in half and sending them crashing into the water near us. I saw Eris flying across the zone on a griffin, cutting through the beast's tentacles with a cutlass.
'She must have waited until the cannons fired….' I smiled. 'Obviously.' Woozy from the blood loss, I stopped talking, and my body went limp.
"Ryker!" Thea yelled from behind me.
'I'm….' Okay. I wanted to say that I was okay, but I was so tired. I'd just do it later.
"RYKER! STAY with me....." Her voice trailed off.
---
"RYKER! STAY WITH ME!" Thea screamed, holding Ryker against her chest as she kicked in the choppy waters. The skies were on fire above her. Griffins shot across the skies as sailors and soldiers cut through dozens of tentacles as ice mages shot lightning and ice magic from above. She could see it all with the thinning fog.
"Iska! We're here, Iska!" Thea screamed as the guard flew above them. However, no one could hear her between the raging battle, screams, and crashing waves. They were just a grain of rice in the dissipating fog and raging sea.
Gooooooorn!
Thea's heart sank when she heard the beast's dying voice. Dying. Dying wasn't dead. That meant the beast was alive, and the biblical battle wasn't over.
"A teenager messed you up! Imagine what I'm going to do to you!" Eris screamed. "By the time I'm done with you, you'll wish you didn't bite your merciful executioner!"
GOOOOOORN!
A split second later, the beast shrieked and hit the water, creating a massive torrent that sent Thea and Ryker crashing through the water.
***
Thea hit a sandy shore, rolling at high speed until she flew into a tree with a loud crack. Hearing the groaning tree, she threw her body over Ryker as it crashed down, hitting her back with full force. It was a brutal hit, but she gritted her teeth and bore it.
"He's breathing, thank god," Thea murmured, her voice cracking as tears dripped onto his cheek. He was alive but knocked out cold. Knowing he was secured, she shook the tree off her and ripped her shirt, using the cloth to create a tourniquet over his arm.
Crack.
Thea looked up with a pounding heart and saw squirrel folk riding on various massive creatures resembling mongooses and squirrels. They had sharp ears and tiny bodies, even fully grown, and wore red and gray garb with metal pieces on their foreheads that didn't go past their ears.
"Humans! We need to alert Emilia of the attack, Crassus!" One yelled.
"We just crashed here from the ocean; we're not attacking you!" Thea yelled back in their tongue, making them stumble backward. "But I will attack you if you threaten my man!"
After studying her further, they noticed she was a feline beastkin. Then they thought about the statement.
"You can't be from the ocean; Rorsaka spares no one!" Crassus, a squirrel folk wearing a red cape over black and silver armor, declared. "Where are the other avians?!"
[https://c10.patreonusercontent.com/4/patreon-media/p/post/86347457/39567a5caeff4409b4efcd70e7c4bbe9/eyJ3Ijo4MjB9/1.png?token-time=1692057600&token-hash=wMKxAJC35SCwWW5qbI08JqpYHarQdvo5cDANLdTgsZs%3D]
"Rorsaka?" Thea growled, pointing to the north. "You know what that thing in the water is?"
The one beside him turned pale as a sheet. "Reekon...."
Reekon froze when he looked into the north and saw griffins and other beasts successfully fighting back tentacles without the fog. "What.... No way.... Rorsaka!" he screamed, brandishing a sword. "HOW DARE YOU KILL OUR PROTECTOR!"
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Thea snarled and flew from Ryker's side at blinding speed, grabbing the squirrel folk and smashing him against a tree. "I'll kill all of you and every single member of your village if you raise a sword at my man again," she warned, her bloodshot eyes trembling. "That thing attacked us; we killed it. If you don't think we can slaughter all of your loved ones, think again!"
The squirrel folk trembled in fear and backed away, looking at each other with wide eyes. One nodded and pointed his bow at Ryker’s body, attempting to take him hostage. However, before he could aim, Reekon's body flew into him, sending him flying into a tree. Thea grabbed Crassus by the throat in his place.
"Tell your people to back off, or I’ll target your scurry first," Thea declared, referring to his family and litter of children. She used the term "scurry" to include his friends, family, and anyone close to him.
"I-I…" Crassus wheezed.
"Back down, Crassus," a voice called out from the forest.
"Q-Queen Elara!" Crassus choked, torn between addressing Thea and the representative of the Green Sea.
"Please calm down, Lady Lockheart," Queen Elara requested. "We’re not here to harm King Everwood."
Thea released Crassus and moved back to Ryker, preparing to pick him up as she crouched down. "Why are you even here?" she growled. "If you are Queen Elara, you should be in the audience chamber in Emiran."
"I'm here because you’ve been stationed near our territory," Queen Elara explained. "If there were a place we’d need to face you in an attack, it’d be here, in the home of Rorsaka."
"Are you saying that you had it attack us?!" Thea hissed, picking up Ryker and walking backward along the beach.
Queen Elara narrowed her eyes. "If we aimed to help anyone, it’d be Rorsaka. She’s the guardian that protects the Green Sea from Eudoria."
The Green Sea faced the demon continent of Eudoria, and Rorsaka prevented a direct naval invasion. The ancient beast was a genuine protector, and they had just killed it.
"Does that mean you’re going to kill us for revenge?" Thea growled.
Queen Elara shook her head. "No one owns the water, and we didn’t warn you before you faced her. Since you won, we cannot complain."
Thea eyed the woman suspiciously. "Then why are you here?"
"I'm here to protect my people. However, I’m talking to you because now that you’ve killed our guardian, we need power," Queen Elara laughed, almost scoffing as she looked into the distance. "Therefore, I’ll offer you a deal."
---
"Ryker!"
I groaned, my head throbbing as I regained consciousness. "Thea?"
"RYKER!" Thea's voice screamed, holding onto me tightly. "I was so scared!"
"Take it easy..." I winced, opening my eyes and finding myself in an unfamiliar thatched-roof hut woven with red grass. "Where are we?"
"You're in Tenamar," a smooth voice replied. I turned and saw a blonde woman in flowing green robes beside me. She had a youthful appearance with smooth skin and elven ears. We were definitely in the Green Sea. "It's the home of the Watchers, who oversee the border between the Nightshade Forest and the Green Sea."
"I see..." I responded. "So, I take it you came here wondering if we'd attack you?"
"That's correct," she replied.
"Well, we won't," I said, pushing myself up. "We have no ill intentions towards the Green Sea. We're just passing through."
"We have no ill intentions either," Queen Elara replied, looking at my arm.
A wave of horror washed over me, and I looked down, finding a pure white arm where my missing arm should be. It wasn't a prosthetic. Upon closer examination, I saw red veins running through it in an eerie pattern, making it look simultaneously alive and dead.
"Lady Lockheart and your crew traded half of Rorsaka's meat to heal your arm," Queen Elara explained. "However, you shouldn't use it unless necessary for the next few months, or you'll lose it forever. No healing will bring it back."
"I can live with that..." I sighed, feeling a deep sense of relief. "Now, tell me, what do you want from me?"
"We want you to protect these waters," Queen Elara answered. "With Rorsaka dead, we no longer have a deterrent against Eudorian invasions."
I eyed her suspiciously. "You were against me in the recent council. Now you want an alliance?"
"I am a pragmatist, King Everwood," she declared. "We need protection, and you are someone who could easily become an aggressor. I am negotiating early."
“Then why not just kill me?” I frowned.
“There’s a prophecy of an otherworlder saving Solstice,” Queen Elara explained. “We’ve passed the prophecy down for generations. However, there have been many otherworlders over the years, but no savior. But you….”
I narrowed my eyes at her.
"You are definitely an otherworlder, but you're different from the others," she said, looking deep into my eyes. "You spread education, provide employment, arm your enemies, build ships, and, most importantly—you don't seem interested in power."
"I've seized territories and built a sketchy warship, and you think I don't care about power?" I scoffed, skeptical of her assessment.
"I don't think so," Queen Elara doubled down. "You're famous for sounding late despite moving at an extraordinary pace—that's how you sound right now. Even after fighting an ancient, losing an arm, and staring down a queen, you sound that way. It doesn't feel threatening."
"Get to the point," I rolled my eyes, growing impatient.
Queen Elara met my gaze firmly. "King Everwood, are you here to save Solstice?"
"I am," I replied, meeting her gaze. "Then you people can do whatever the hell you want, so long as you leave me, Thea, and my loved ones alone. I'm only saving this world because I don't want to die in 82 years—I couldn't give a damn less otherwise."
"That ship doesn't claim you just want to be left alone," Queen Elara countered.
"I'm on vacation." I turned away. "Since I can't take a piss without people bothering me, this is the only way I feel safe."
"That's a lie," Queen Elara declared.
"What else did you expect?" I asked. "The truth?"
A few minutes of silence passed between us.
"If you can't fix your ship, I'll welcome you to the Green Sea.” Queen Elara sighed, standing up. "Otherwise, I'll let you stay on the shore until it's fixed, and we'll forget that we saw you."
I blinked twice when she left but was too overwhelmed with Thea hugging me and crying to think about it. By the time I left the beachside hut, Queen Elara was gone, and all the squirrel folk pretended they hadn't seen her.
***
I was resting in a hut near a lush forest. Just below me was a sandy beach with clear waters, stretching seemingly forever.
However, they did lead me to the beach, where Carter was working on the ship. However, I didn't even make it to my people before Eris walked up with the sailors, all stumbling around.
"It's the King! See?! I told you that there was no way that a petty wound could kill a legend!" Eris roared, lifting her early-morning bottle of rum high and triggering thunderous applause.
I frowned. "My cannons did that. All I did was get half eaten."
"You hear that, boys?!" Eris shouted. "The King thinks that his cannon killed that thing!"
The drunken sailors burst into laughter.
"Yeah, and I killed it, too!" a drunken man stumbled. "It was all me!"
Her crew burst into laughter again. Others jumped in, adding sarcastic remarks that only aggravated my confusion.
"What are you talking about?" I frowned.
“Oh, yeah. You were too bust winnin’ to notice, but after we shot that thing in the head with your fancy cannon, it took three hours to kill that same head because it kept regenerating. Our only savin’ grace was that you fried its main brain or somethin’, so it stopped releasin’ that fog and just sat around attackin’ until it got tired of gettin’ its tentacles mowed down and let us pike its eyes out. It was wild."
"But you!" Another captain with a white beard and an eyepatch stumbled up, pointed his finger at me thrice, took a swig, and pointed again. "You flew right up in that thing's face, that thing's head exploded, and it didn't regenerate, let alone get up again."
Everything clicked in my mind. In the mist, it probably looked like I intentionally flew up to Rorsaka, one-shotted it, and then it died. Its weakness must have been its brain, which is very small in sharks and is right behind the eye. Molecular Separation must have caused the entire thing to explode in the rupture and removed critical functions.
"And I ain't never seen an actual king fight before!" another laughed, holding on to his mate for support. These people were wasted. "They eat all this meat and learn all these fancy spells, but they don't leave their castles for nothing! This king... hic. This king, he gets right up in the action and attacks an ancient?! Hah. This man's my King, he is!"
My eyes widened when all the drunk sailors cheered and echoed his statement.
"Are you being serious?" I asked.
Eris wrapped her hand around my good shoulder and took a swig of her dark brown rum, her breath reeking of booze. "That's right; you're the King now."
She turned and lifted her bottle high. "To our new king!"
Roaring cheering from drunken sailors filled the shore. "I'll have to ask them about this when they're sober," I rubbed my temples. "Seraphin isn't going to be happy."
After calming down Thea's murderous expression, I talked with Carter. Apparently, the ship only had structural damage from when Rorsaka crashed into the water after the first bombing, sending a tidal wave that swept it away and leading it to slowly glide to shore. So it wasn't anything major, but they wanted to repair it before trying to finish the job.
Realizing that the squirrel folk had barred us from their actual village, only giving us their watch huts, and that Carter and the crew would spend the next few days on the beach fixing the hull of the ship, I pulled out my hammock again, created sunglasses for Thea and me, and then promptly joined the sailors getting drunk.
Carter wasn’t very happy about it.
I'm sure he was just jealous.
In truth, everyone was trying to get the horrifying battle with Rorsaka out of our heads, and the sailors were escaping from losing more than 75% of their crew. As for me, I remembered every second of it and didn't like reliving my arm getting eaten or the psychologically horrifying feeling of trying to use my arm and realizing it just wasn't there.
Well, that's what I told myself to justify my day drinking. Good excuses are rare, so it's best to embrace them whenever you find one.
***
Three days passed as Carter fixed the boat on the beach, eating the food we already had. I couldn't eat Rorsaka's meat because my soul core was full, and overtaxing your soul core can lead to soul corruption.
The crew members who didn't heed my warning about soul corruption promptly found out when every vein in their veins turned black, and their bodies started spewing toxic miasma that killed their mates. I promptly killed and dissolved their bodies.
No one ate the ancient soul mana meat after that except Eris, who was stronger than Thea. Instead, I treated them to B-class soul mana meat to help get their bodies ready for their small to-go piece.
Once I get an S-Rank soul cultivation technique, eating the plentiful meat would bring me to the level of Titus Roman—I was certain of it.
That said, I needed to get one before its enzymes broke it down in a few years. So the clock was ticking down.
On the third day, we tested the ship and propellers and promptly left the Rigna Forest, moving down the Romba Strait for four days, gazing at the truly spectacular shores of the Green Sea. I didn't think it was possible to see so many types of green in my life, but it felt like someone had taken 20 shades of green crayons and melted them together before painting a landscape. It was extraordinary.
It wasn't just that. A kaleidoscope of colorful flora and fauna and a myriad of people and creatures came out to see our steamship passing through the Romba Strait. It was truly a beautiful place that looked delectably exploitable.
Must resist.
Resist.
Commerce?
I shouldn't have told Queen Elara I wouldn’t conquer them.
What a pain.
On the fourth day, we made a huge stir in Ardenthal as we passed. As indicated by a request I sent out beforehand, Seraphin brought us coal via a griffin and promptly freaked out on me.
"What the hell is this, King Everwood?" Seraphin asked, furrowing his brows after he touched down. "Don't tell me that you're doing to us what you did to Dragon's Peak."
"Of course I am," I smiled, patting him on the shoulder. "And, just like King Thrain, I'm going to sell you these and give you technology in exchange for a continued alliance and favorable trade."
Seraphin's exasperated expression turned grave. "It's not like you to make jokes. Why are you emphasizing our alliance?"
"No reason," I shrugged. "I just thought I'd talk with my friends on my early birthday vacation."
He looked around the deck and saw the massive siege cannons capable of shooting up to a kilometer away with a sarcastic smile. "Vacation?"
"Yeah, my vacation," I confirmed. "Unfortunately, my vacation was rudely interrupted by Ironfall attacking my people while I was away. So I suppose I'll need to return."
Seraphin's eyes widened in horror. "What dock are you going to use to park this ship if you're not doing it here?"
"Grakam Port, if things work out." I patted the man's shoulder with a twisted grin. That was the port in Dragon’s Peak, ensuring that I’d do a complete loop minus the icy north—ensuring I’d see Ironfall and Goldenspire.
"And if things don't work out?" he asked.
"Well, I'll just have to make do with other ports along the way," I smiled. "Now get out of here. I'm sure that you don't want to be seen with this ship more than you have to be."
Seraphin narrowed his eyes and took a sharp breath, looking away. "I don't know what to say to you, so I won't," he declared. "Either way, I'll see you soon."
"I look forward to it," I affirmed. "We'll drink to mutual prosperity."
He sighed and mounted his griffin, flying away to tell his people that he had investigated the mysterious object at sea, and it wasn't threatening to them… or however, he'd twist it.
That wasn't my problem.
With more coal and a crate of fish packaging materials, we left the port, spending a few days packaging the Rorsaka meat and storing it in my and Thea’s spatial bags on our way to our next destination: Port Town.
Past the port of Ardenthal was a large mountain range called the Horthock Mountains. It was a barren place without any life or foliage—and it was also the start of the Ironfall territory.
Half a day after reaching the edge, we reached the first sign of greenery while we saw ships passing to and from a harbor within the mountain passages.
It didn't take long before Port Town came into view.
The town was a dry, humorless place with large buildings, bustling commerce, or anything else that defines economic hubs like Ardenthal. Despite being summer, the port wasn't busy, there weren't any unique smells other than iron and Dragon's Peak steel, and the area was devoid of music.
All the buildings were stone and built to last, making the area look dry and colorless. The port was wooden with large docks, but there was no pier of shops and restaurants—just buildings and docks for loading and unloading ships.
Towering men walking around without shirts, picking up crates of ore with their bare hands or in teams of two, loading them up in merchant ships, then returning with grain supplies. It was purely transactional and with occasional hostile yelling between people. It felt like anger was a language there, accentuated by the scars on everyone's body from battles.
I activated my amplification spell as we came in view of the workers.
"This is King Everwood of the Everwood Empire!" I shouted. "I'm about to blow up your ports and demolish Port Town. You have thirty minutes to evacuate your citizens and clear out. Anyone who remains or decides to attack—will die."
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