Chapter 5:

The tower of fire and ash (2)

Mitali observed Taccilas as he spoke those words. “Ah, I see.” Was all that she said.

The next moment, she let her cannons loose.

Their booms resounded across the air like fireworks desperately trying to overtake each other’s measly roar. Roars that themselves were eclipsed by that ferociousness of the battle before them.

Mitali shook intensely and her shells whistled through the air, a plume of powdered smoke rose before them and temporarily covered the bridge’s view.

“W-Woah…” Said Taccilas whilst laying on the floor- He had tripped over from the booming of Mitali’s cannons.

Moments later, the guns’ smoke cleared, a fire had broken out on the warship Mitali fired upon. It ravaged through her funnel and superstructure and erected a second pillar of smoke on the scene.

“Hit confirmed on Wolf One.” Said Mitali and without a moment’s hesitation, she launched her torpedoes on her starboard side.

Contrary to her guns, who made their presence felt, Mitali’s six torpedoes quietly submerged themselves underwater and stealthily traveled to their destination. Evidently, the enemy saw them- the warship they were directed to tried desperately to turn and dodge, but one of the torpedoes nonetheless struck her astern.

A column of water was erected, easily the same height as Mitali’s hull was, and the warship rocked to its side thanks to the impact. Men could be seen running to and fro below deck to try and do whatever they could to save their warship.

“Torpedo hit confirmed on Wolf Six.” As she spoke those words, Mitali’s main guns yet again fired upon the same ship they had hit previously and once again struck it. Although, this time the damage was negligible.

“Don’t shoot the same target!” Taccilas, who had regained his footing, exclaimed.

“Hm? Why not?”

“We won’t take them down, we need to separate them to reach that white ship.”

It’s during this point in time that it’s worth mentioning the scale of the warships Mitali was charging towards.

For they were all larger than her, with bigger guns and stronger armor. Some of them were faster, as well. Not only were they outnumbered, but they were outclassed too. Practically speaking, the only advantage that Mitali and Taccilas possessed was the element of surprise, and this was an advantage Taccilas was incredibly keen on exploiting.

These are, of course, all things that Mitali understood as well. However, she planned to take down every opposing ship during that small time frame where the element of surprise was still a major player in their favor.

Taccilas, on the other hand, didn’t plan on taking down any warship. He simply wanted to reach the heavily damaged white vessel and ask for money after their rescue.

“I see… Your sole objective is to rescue those originally in peril, is it not?”

“Yep.”

“How shall we proceed, then?”

“Shoot the ones trying to turn towards us.”

“Very well, as you command.”

Gears could be heard turning and pushing each other as Mitali’s turrets turned to lay waste upon a different enemy. Before long, weak booms echoed across that burnt air again and ran fire across Mitali’s enemies.

Four towers of smoke reached out to the skies.

By this point, Mitali was about as close to Azukima as the ships surrounding her. Half of these ships were still trying to deal with the damage Mitali had inflicted upon them, but the other half had successfully turned their guns and were now shooting back at Mitali.

Thankfully for the pair, the white ship in question was between them and two of the warships firing upon them, meaning that a good number of shots were hitting Azukima instead of Mitali. Regardless, they still had one opponent they had to disable before reaching her safely.

Mitali could tell- It was another destroyer, just like her, but her guns were bigger, her armor stronger, and her engines faster. She had been built with spires coming out of her bridge and superstructure, her guns resembled the towers of a church more than they did tools of war.

No name was written across her.

She had broken formation and was heading straight for Mitali. Unfortunately, Mitali’s guns were aimed at her port side, but this ship was approaching from her starboard side. It would take time before Mitali was able to bear her guns at the approaching vessel.

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The torpedoes hadn’t reloaded either.

The rushing ship’s guns reloaded far faster than Mitali’s, and whilst a majority of her shots were missing, she had finally managed to strike Mitali- Half of one of her funnels had been blown off.

Within the bridge, Mitali supported herself on a wall.

“Are you ok?” Questioned Taccilas.

“I am fine.”

But blood was flowing down Mitali’s fair forehead, some of her snow white hair was slowly turning crimson.

“Did you get hit? What happened?” Taccilas panicked voice echoed throughout the room.

“Do not worry about it. It is nothing.”

Another shell hit Mitali, this time, one of her front-turrets had been broken. At this, she merely clicked her tongue, but a new wound had appeared on her body. This time, three of the fingers on her right hand had snapped, blood flowing from within them.

“Hey! What’s happening?!”

But she didn’t reply.

Her turrets, three of them, had successfully turned towards the opposite side and were now firing on the encroaching enemy, their booms shook the sea and their whistles stunned the air.

The enemy’s bow broke through the waves with immense speed and the shells Mitali fired bounced off it. Again she tried-

-But again they bounced off leaving nothing more than scratched paint.

Mitali, for her troubles, had been awarded with another broken turret, as well as a broken, bloodied hand.

“...”

“Hey Mitali, she’s getting closer.”

“I am well aware.”

“Do you have a plan?”

“That, I do.”

“I’ll leave it to you then!”

And with that, Taccilas sprinted out of the bridge and down the stairs, straight towards Mitali’s starboard side.

“...Wait! Taccilas?!” Exclaimed Mitali, she tried extending her hand, but reached only into thin air.

“Don’t worry, just dock beside the white ship once you’ve defeated the other one!”

As he stepped out onto the deck, Taccilas could witness the scale of what was unfolding before him.

Shells flew across the sky like blistering balls of fire and wrath that pierced Mitali and her opponents with uncompromising fury. Steel bent and cracked whenever they impacted, filling the air with their screams. The overwhelming chaos forced him to cover his ears.

Smoke and ash spread out as far as the eye could see, fires had now even broken out on Mitali and if she wasn’t careful, the heat on her hull would make Taccilas boil.

The smell of burnt ash clung to his nostrils, that which signaled fire and death.

However, Taccilas ran across Mitali’s deck as if it were just another day of his life- A shell landed short of Mitali’s hull and splashed water onto him.

Haven’t showered in a really long time.

A smile had spread across his face.

However, the next moment, Mitali’s cannons shot and covered him in a thick layer of ash.

“...”

But he kept running nonetheless.

The moment he reached Mitali’s bow, he heard a quiet splash behind him, Mitali’s torpedoes had finally reloaded and she was immediately letting them go. A thought crossed Taccilas’ mind that very instant.

How is she even loading her guns, or shooting her cannons?

What about the torpedoes?

As he began wondering, an explosion rang off not too far away- A tremendous column of water followed it and reached out for the sky. A tiny rainbow inappropriately appeared on the spot and shone around the column.

Something flew right through the rainbow.

It was a piece of a ship, but Taccilas couldn’t quite make it out. It had crumpled and bent under some sort of immense pressure and now those hundred tons of steel flew up in the air as if it were the most natural thing to do.

The piece of steel in question was a ship’s bow.

One of Mitali’s torpedoes had struck.

Screams muddled together with the roar of fire and the echoes of waves. The injured destroyer kept charging in spite of her injuries, but soon enough water had rushed her insides to render all her efforts completely useless.

And that salt water continued pouring down the hole left behind by her bow and filled up every inch it could

It was as if the ocean itself tried to claim the very soul of the destroyer and all aboard her for its own repertoire.

Taccilas allowed himself to observe that destroyer as Mitali sailed closer to the white ship, even if only for a couple of seconds. His head was quickly bombarded by innumerable questions.

How many people are aboard that ship?

Are they going to be ok?

Is that ship like Mitali?

Is she hurting?

Will she sink or will she live?

Will those sailors return home?

Will someone mourn them if they die?

What are their names?

The foam that for a few moments filled the bow had now dissipated, instead, the ocean water had settled and now swayed from side to side. Miraculously, the breach had been stopped and the destroyer had somewhat stabilized itself, but she was clearly out of the engagement. Her front turrets had been damaged and it was evident she was barely staying afloat.

Sailors desperately ran atop her deck putting out whatever fires Mitali had set and repairing whatever damage could be immediately repaired, but she survived.

Notably, Mitali’s weaponry had grown silent after the destroyer’s bow had been blown off. The only other operational warships in those moments were on the other side of the white vessel.

It bears mentioning that once Mitali sailed close to the Azukima, her shadow was easily more than twice the size of the white-haired warship.

Thus, Mitali was completely covered from incoming enemy-fire, and Taccilas let down a net from Mitali’s port side and leapt onto the wounded white vessel.