Whether calm or tumultuous, the waves could only rock their ships, making the journey at best a breeze or at worst a nightmare for those with sea-sickness. Not to mention, even in 10 foot waves, anyone on the boat was strong enough to withstand such force and remain planted on the steady deck. Compared to those ordinary sailors who hadn’t evolved a single time, the place they’d be going made such things look like a ‘little bit of water’.
However, that’s not to say everything is easy due to that. It took conscious effort for footing to remain stable even at their levels, and as such, some dawdling might lead to someone tripping. Or falling face first onto the metal floors…
Like Raccelline had done twice now.
Each time leaving a small imprint from where her small nose bashed against it.
But besides those little hiccups, and a sulking child, they very quickly approached the Stormwall almost uncontested. At one point, some weaker sea beast rose up from the waves to attack them, but someone on the leading ship, the Breakhead, released a spell which instantly zapped it to the point where a slight char could be seen on rather extravagant fins.
The beast in question was some sort of sea serpent crossed with the body of a drake. While wyverns may be the aerial-dominating cousins of dragons, drakes would be their land-based counterparts.This species too, appeared no different from lizards in their childhood but adapted their bodies to form incredible barriers against anything of a similar level. It was always unwise to fight drakes with an elemental affinity similar to yours.
However, this long-necked beast greatly resembled sauropods in that regard, with a hefty body attached to its base for rare land movement if need be. However, the thick and dextrous fins which ran all along its neck must have propelled it through the water at respectable speeds.
Too bad it was merely a gold tier in the end… Killed by whoever released that spell.
It was unwise to ever fight against those long standing groups with great power, and a decision to utterly run from the humans’ conflict only settled in Icy’s heart. How stupid would it be to actually stick around as the wars only worsened?
“We’ll be at the Stormwall tomorrow evening. Just a few more days and we’ve made it past the most dangerous part… For now.” While Korridan spoke to the group, it was really just to get a conversation going as they’d spent the past few days training nonstop in the little cabin. At most heading outside to get a sight of the open blue sea.
“I’ve wanted to visit the Trifel for a few years now as well… What? Why would I have brought up such a stupid idea in the past?” Jaren looked at them all as though they’d said something stupid, but in fact, they’d just turned to stare as they never imagined that he’d be the one who wanted to visit. In fact, Mala had admitted some interest, but she only cared on a magical basis to collect the more unique resources of the continent.
But Jaren? He wasn’t someone who ever placed much emphasis on elven culture, nor their females as some focused on. Architecture, magic, politics, beautiful forests?
Nope!
He grew interested because Trifel, what is informally called the elven continent by many, had a forest which was unique in a strange regard. In a way, it was very similar to the Evelard mountain range. Of course, he had no aims to head into that forest as a weak Steel rank archer, but one day… One day when his arrow could pierce the stars, and see through all obstacles, would be the time that that forest welcomed another hunter.
The Forest of Gods, a ridiculous and uninspired name for some.
But as a forest literally grown on the corpses of a dozen gods, with several demigod beasts who exceeded supreme tier, it absolutely had the right to such a name.
That was the final step of Jaren’s goals.
To hunt the best of the best, in the land that no man nor god could claim.
Well, it was mostly a childish dream from many years ago, and while he absolutely wanted to visit the forest, he’d given up on any hopes of growing to the Primordius rank in his lifetime. Although, recently, that hope had been rekindled by a stroke of luck that could never have been anticipated.
“Have to say your dreams were a lot loftier than ours.” Rebecca popped out of the shadow to grab a cream pastry out of a box they’d bought back in Avril, making a quick statement before vanishing once more.
“You are the last person on this ship with the right to say that. Like you didn’t claim to have a way to steal the emperor’s crown for six months!”
She replied, still clearly chewing at the same time, “It was foolproof.”
“Foolproof with 50 Starlite warriors and 20 Blossoming wizards! Mala, speak some sense into her!” He turned to the wizard who currently laid on the bottom of a bunk bed, now learning her fifth Intermediate true spell as provided by Icy. However, she completely ignored him and chose to not become involved in the cute spat.
Of course, any one of them with their knowledge now could tell that merely that many numbers wouldn’t even have been able to touch the emperor, let alone leave the capital with his crown.
The couple dozen Sages in the capital alone would kill them before a pin dropped. Let alone the Cornem ranked warriors on top of that.
“What level is a Blossom-ing wizard?” Raccelline asked after hearing Jaren’s bite back at Rebecca. The ranks for warriors were extremely simple to grasp, as the metals simply got stronger and rarer with everyone, but wizards were odd, admittedly.
“So, Mala is a Sapling wizard right now. She just evolved into one, and after that is Mature, that’s the same as Mithril for warriors. And then Blossoming after Mature, does that make sense?” Icy, being beside her, did his best to explain it simply such that it didn’t hold up the conversation. But at the same time, he was trying to lecture a nearly 7 year old child who already withstood years of schooling.
Just because she couldn’t pronounce tough words, did not mean she was an idiot.
Her reply focused somewhere else entirely, “But why are you called a master at that level?”
Unexpectedly, he was left speechless not at the question itself, but because the answer couldn’t have been more frustrating. Who likes to hear ‘That’s just the way it is’ as a reply? But that really was the reality. Tiers for beasts never truly fit into some logical slots for progressive power.
From what he knew, there actually had been an argument across the whole eight worlds between all the major beast species to argue if changing their tiers to the warriors’ ranks was simply an optimal thing to do…
The talks broke down in three days with three major parties.
But that digressed from the point at hand. He replied, “When beasts selected their tiers, we just picked which ones sounded nice, even if it didn’t make sense. Which is why we go from mithril to master tier, and so on.”
Raccelline nodded slowly in response, but it was evident that she lost most interest at that moment. Why that was the case may only be known to the inner workings of a child’s mind.
It was clear to see that most conversations between the group couldn’t really be that heavy or impactful, primarily because at least three of them behaved like children. Although one at least had an excuse for her behaviour. As with the nights before, they got some sleep and passed the day until just an hour before entry time for the Stormwall.
Only now did it appear at the horizon’s edge, and every ship of newcomers was now filled with passengers as they wished to see the literal wall which blockaded the two continents.
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The wall was not endless in height. In fact, it easily measured to only be 10 kilometres… But such a thing was impossible to climb over to anyone present. Even Mala knew her Intermediate true spells could not help here.
A verifiable wall of fog and cloud, almost unreal, as though it claimed that no more existed in the world beyond that inky grey deluge. The wall swirled, rising and falling as though a breathing entity, with its clouds, thinning and thickening at the surface yet so neatly compact that a surface could be seen with ease. It did not appear dense or thick, instead, it was like a tinted amalgam into which their hands could sink with ease. But the truth could not be further away, as only with their blades could they cut open the Stormwall and walk into its almost syrupy confinement.
Cut and push. Those were the two requirements for this layer…
But as evening came, the bow had only just pierced through the front as every group retreated into their cabins and soon fell asleep. It took well over six hours to completely pass through the layer of fog and cloud, and many groups wished to sleep through the thunderous storms of the latter phase.
However, this was a mistake for one ship. For an uncannily simple reason that no one ever bothered doing much research in.
Bringers are a force of nature. Whether day or night; willing or unwilling; awake or asleep…
In the dead of night, the second portion of the Stormwall had once more been penetrated by their group with ease, and as the Breakhead existed the thick clouds first, it suddenly glowed with a combination of both blue, white, and brown lights, immediately cutting through a wave in front of it which threatened to lift and drop the ship a dozen or so feet in seconds.
They’d only been given a few seconds to react as sudden bolts of white lightning arced to the ship, rapidly absorbed by the arrays and reducing any concerns.
Over the next few minutes, ship after ship escaped the grey blanket and illuminated with similar lights, but in a slightly dimmer manner. Without hesitation, they all arranged into the shape of an arrow, and the glow of every ship changed slightly. Those at the front now contained far more blue, whilst those to the back mostly glowed brown… And this could not be seen better by how the hundreds of bolts now entirely focused on striking the ships further back. Perhaps only one in a thousand struck the Breakhead, allowing for this larger vessel to achieve its purpose in breaking waves to make the journey possible for those ships behind.
Towards the back, the team’s ship was none other than one of the few. The Kalian easily withstood the barrage of white bolts, and with the waves mostly dampened by those ahead, it didn’t rock nor shake that much from the movements. At the very least, the trip went completely as usual for the sailors.
For a while this was the case. The seas were treacherous but not repulsive nor antagonising, an easy sail for the experienced lot as they easily continued through the storms for a couple hours without a single mistake.
And then a bolt of blue-tinged lightning struck the Kalian…
Lightning which simply wasn’t designed to appear in the Stormwall. Well, it wasn’t impossible for some random burst of mana to merge with a lightning bolt, as many of the observant sailors argued internally. No real harm–
Two more blue-tinged bolts struck, no longer targeting the Kalian but rather two ships covered in a stronger brown hue behind them. Both ships absorbed the strike with ease, but the sight did not bode well for any.
The clouds above had darkened, and the rain grew colder. More hostile and frigid, as though to tell the men who breathed this air countless times before, that this was no longer the place they knew…
The waves turned dark. Black even, like blades of the night aiming for their throats, and the ocean a murky nature as though informing of an unknown future. Every one of them continued to work tirelessly to maintain the ship’s voyage and formation with the others, but it seemed as though the Breakhead was no longer achieving its goals. Even those at the back found the waves unbelievable, the low-sailing ships encountering such things at least twenty times their height, forcing the arrays to switch to a blue just to avoid capsizing.
No one even had time to look up; thousands of blue-tinged bolts struck the few back rows of ships, smothering them in the white and fiery blue whilst leaving the ships covered in a thin layer of black dust.
At the front, everyone saw a bright yellow light build up, growing in size and intensity with every moment. However, in those moments, none of the group paid attention as a new bolt shot downwards to the Kalian, striking its deck and leaving a scorch mark on the metal itself. All the sailors sweated as they saw this bolt was no longer tinged blue, but instead a pure azure throughout to show off the bolt’s magical nature…
Just a few moments later though, the building light on the Breakhead finally released, leaving a trail of yellow as it shot into the clouds and released rings of fading yellow pulses every hundred metres of travel, eventually striking the darker than usual clouds and detonating into a final pulse of yellow.
Immediately, things turned for the better as the clouds lightened to their ordinary state, and the previous blue-tinged lightning returned. Then it reverted back to white, losing all magical effects.
The waters returned to their dark yet safer colours, and tides no longer threatened to leave them on a chopping block for every moment.
It seemed to have cleared the deadly atmosphere, and everyone breathed better as the fleet’s leader had cleared up the issue. At first, some fear remained of the bolts returning, but as they only saw the harmless white lights for another hour, they were able to continue freely.
And as another hour passed, they’d completely forgotten the suddenly tense moment of blue tinged lightning with a heavy focus on making it through the Stormwall.
Delaying the end is not a solution though.
Faster than it’d set in the first time, the darkened clouds returned. And immediately brought with it the azure blue lightning which now barraged the entire few backrows. Two more beams of yellow light were fired off after just seconds, and the storm’s danger faded once more… With decreasing effect.
Time and time again, the Stormbreakers in the fleet all began feeling the attacks of the blue lightning bolts, as the back rows could no longer resist the waves, they stopped drawing so many attacks, and before long, every ship in the fleet had to both resist unprecedented bolts and waves at the same time. To put it simply, they had an impossible task.
By far, the ship which suffered most was the Kalian and those around it, but the density of the overall assault made that hard to notice.
All their arrays began to dim, the ships no longer just covered in black dust or charred slightly, but instead, the metal plating which protected them completely blackened. The inner materials which protected their arrays now showed serious damage, simply not created to resist magical lightning, and now they’d drained almost four-fifths of their mana supply!
Yet the inner portion of the Stormwall went on for at least 4 hours more!
Five rays of light shot out, and the deadly storm subsided for another hour. And as that time came to a close, that person on the Breakhead immediately released ten beams as another wave of blue crashed into every ship in their formation… However, this burst of ten only staved off the lightning for forty minutes.
When that short time was up, they tried once more with twelve beams of light.
Now just twenty minutes. They could not cast more at once, and switched to regularly using one beam every few minutes.
Then one every minute.
And now, an hour from the end of this hell, the beams did nothing to stop the oncoming storm.
Another barrage of blue lightning ravaged the ships once more, and all the crews had to question if this horrible folly of nature would be their demise… but on the Kalian, they could only stare in fear as they swore that some trails of yellow remained on that final bolt.
It couldn’t be possible. It arguably shouldn’t!
They could only believe that someone intentionally sabotaged the Stormwall to execute their little business of ferrying individuals along… How else could such a thing occur?
A literal calamity!
And finally, those aboard the Kalian couldn’t even scream as the blue lightning with frills of bright yellow hit their ship and instantly melted a tiny layer of the metal’s top. But more importantly, destroyed its insulative layer beneath and ruined every delicate array beneath. Every light went out. The ship could only be seen by the bolts of lightning striking its hull and deck endlessly. Everyone aboard was more than awake following the disabling of all arrays on the ship and loud crashes of thunder.
The formation lost a ship, unable to locate the figure in darkness with such a storm choking them by the second, and it was apparent that they wouldn’t be able to hold on.
A bolt of vibrant yellow hit the deck square on, melting through the surface with ease and passing all the way through the hull. In simply one bolt, the ship had been wrecked, the same bolt which caused Icy to awaken, and consciously avoid feeding the storm further. The yellow bolts vanished, now reverted to blue for just a few seconds before turning white for the final time. But things were too late as water entered the small holes at the base of the Kalian’s hull and threatened to sink them.
As everyone stepped on board, there was only so much that could be done. Icy’s Water Control just barely held back the flow gushing into the hull, delaying their sinking. Korridan was able to hold off the lightning bolts with a Lightning Attraction spell from Mala, but little could be done about the waves.
They were tossed and turned without any control, moving forward at a slow pace without any control. No one had the energy or desire to make jokes about their situation or play about, simply doing their best to keep the broken vessel intact.
The crew said it was just a short while to the inner band of the Stormwall. From there, they could repair the vessel and move on safely.
…
Without any chance to ponder on that, a sudden wave flipped the hulking steel ship, throwing the crew into the chaotic waters.
Icy didn’t remember what happened after. He merged with his spirit, and dove down to grab Raccelline before swimming to the surface, forcefully casting Ice coat once more in the rain. But then passed out, as the young girl’s powerful arms held him tight above the water and kicked with the force of a giant.
All he could hope was that everyone survived this mess.