I raised my left arm and then used my hand crossbow. Even in the darkness of the night and the ocean, I was able to see the cannonballs flying toward us. Large explosions happened between this and the closest warship, and then those guys looked in their direction.
“Run away! The ship is filled with cannonballs like that!”
After the explosions, something that seemed similar to liquid fire fell on the ocean and kept going downward. I furrowed my eyebrows, thanks to the surprise. I can finally understand what Cassius had planned.
“Are you deaf? Run away unless you want to get hit by this kind of attack!”
The tritons looked at each other in confusion. They had their weapons in their hands and they were planning to dispose of all the enemies inside the warship, but maybe they wouldn’t have time for that.
Regardless, I was also surprised with myself… I didn’t have any reason to help those guys. My only goal was to prevent the plan from using the nasty oil from working since I was part of it.
I reloaded my crossbow, and those Aquarians raised their guards. I blocked with my bolts the cannonballs again, but soon some fireballs flew in the air toward us… too many of them. They began to hit the warship, and the flames began to spread.
The two guards that fell earlier finally arrived on the deck and then readied themselves to fight… the Tritons approached them to fight and then I realized that I couldn’t stop this, it was time to bail and leave the morons to their own devices, but first, I had something to do. Without hesitation, I jumped into the sea…
… …
The explosions were sudden, ripping through the ocean’s quiet depths with force. Each blast sent massive columns of flame surging upward, piercing the water’s surface and churning the sea into chaos. The detonations echoed, each one expanding into a towering barrier of flames that stretched in an unbroken line across the horizon, searing into the dark blue of the water. It was a wall of fire, an impossible to miss against the endless expanse of ocean.
Waves, massive and churning with fury, surged outward from the impact zones, rising and falling with terrifying speed. The water roiled, darkening as oil leaked into the currents, slick and black, carried relentlessly by the shifting tides. The flames licked at the edges, where patches of oil caught, igniting into pockets of blazing, drifting fire.
Some of the Aquarians caught in the deadly expanse burned, struggling to escape the waves carrying the burning oil toward them. Their cries of pain cut through the roar as the flames clung to them, spreading over scales and skin. The fire danced cruelly, licking their bodies as they twisted and writhed, unable to shake free of the inferno. It was agony, an assault from both the heat above and the consuming, oil-filled flames below, turning their haven into a treacherous, merciless trap.
“What is going on? Why isn’t that ship exploding?”
Cassius’ plan worked. He almost completed a barrier of flames to get rid of as many Aquarians as possible. A lot of money and resources were being used to pull that off, but the plan was still incomplete. He felt a bit bad for using Regulus, whom he knew as Fletcher for that kind of plan, but he had the feeling that if he had explained things to him, he wouldn’t have accepted be part of it.
The plan was made in a hurry, so they needed the help of some enchanters that they didn’t convince to come to take part in the war. He invested a lot to convince him to come. Half of the reason was that he truly believed that he had a lot of potential, but half of it was because he needed that kind of person to change his plans if necessary.
The final reason to disposing of him was that Cassius needed all the fame he could get and if people knew that someone who wasn’t working for him helped with that, his credit would decrease a lot. The reasoning felt cheap, but he found more value in the immediate gains of winning the battle considering that the Leviathan clan could join at any moment. He needed an enchanter, since cannonballs like that aren’t easy to produce. He didn’t need to explain anything to the Regulus, but having his cooperation would have made things a lot smoother. Rumors in times of war spread fast and a lot of people probably would try to make use of that to make Cassius gain less power and influence.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
“The cannonballs are finally hitting the ship, sir. The others were blocked by some kind of attack.”
The black-haired woman reported to Cassius. At the same time, she could see some explosions happening on the ship a bit of a time… the chain explosion was happening slower than expected.
While she was looking at that, she frowned at the smile of her father. She decided to become a warrior and follow a different path in order to protect him. Part of the reason was the fact that she didn’t want to become someone scheming like that… fighting and winning with honor as much more acceptable for her. Still, she knew that this time, things had to be done this way.
Eventually, the final ship exploded and then the flames began to spread and the encirclement was almost complete. Cassius grinned when he saw that… now they could retreat and tell their second wave of soldiers to come and finish off the Aquarians that manage to escape the encirclement.
Still, before Cassius could give the order for the ship to move away. A large explosion took place on the deck. The blast pushed them away to the borders of the deck while some of the guards began to burn by the liquid fire… seeing them with their armor melting added to the confusion and that stunned them for a moment.
Soon enough, they saw a cannonball falling from right above, and then another explosion took place… the deck began to melt right in front of them and then they panic spread. Once the oil combined with the flames started to work, they could last for days and nothing aside from high-level ice magic could stop it. They didn’t have such an ice mage nearby to help them.
“What the hell is going on? Who the hell is… Arggggggggggghhhhhh!”
Before Cassius could finish his sentence, he felt a sharp pain in his back that reached his shoulder. While he was agonizing and screaming in pain, his daughter looked at him and opened her eyes wide when she saw that something had pierced his shoulder from behind. It resembled a hook, but there was no one behind him.
She only realized what was going on when she saw her father being pulled into the ocean. Then she saw a hope attacked to the hook that led to the Sea.
“Dad!”
Cassius began to fall to the Sea, and the woman tried to grab him by his hands. He extended his hand to her as well, but soon he fell from the deck and hit the ocean with a splash. Thanks to the flames around, she was able to see a figure in the ocean, the one who pulled her father towards it… it was the Enchanter. As if that wasn’t enough, he approached Cassius and then cut his throat.
“NOOOOOO!”
She jumped into the ocean to save him, but the deed was already done.
… …
I moved away from the burning ship after I finished things with Cassius. In the end, I was just an expensive piece of the puzzle that he needed. I always thought that he used way too much money on me when he had connections with the head of the Moredall house. He could just have used force, but I could understand why he didn’t.
The plan wouldn’t have worked if I weren’t willing to cooperate. It would be too obvious to the guards guarding me that they would be disposed of as well, after all. I felt that he couldn’t convince ten guards to die for that crazy plan to work, but he probably bought one with enough money, and that one fooled the others.
“Noooooooooo!”
That woman was still screaming… I threw the enchanted cannonballs at the deck expecting to kill or wound all the guards in the ship, but the plan didn’t work as intended. Nothing in my life works as intended.
In any case, I began to swim toward one of the breaches in the ocean caused by the flames and then used my bike to escape. I sure hoped that it would help me the way I had designed. Since it was made of a bunch of parts, it was quite customizable. I could use the back wheel as the propeller of a boat… I never had the chance to test it, though.
‘Shit… the water is boiling.’
The oil and the flames increased the temperature of the ocean in the area. That wasn’t natural, given how much water was around. Still, that was probably one of the things designed to stop the Tritons. Still, I wondered if that was working since I only gained experience when I used the cannonballs to attack Cassius’ ship. I didn’t make them, but I enchanted them, after all.
I could see some silhouettes underwater moving. They were the Aquarians trying to escape the encirclement, only to began to shake and choke when they got too close. I was able to resist enough to reach the other side thanks to my equipment, and they never saw me since I also used camouflage. Still, I couldn’t drop my guard.
I sighed in relief when I reached the other side, but when I began to change my bike, I soon felt a shiver run down my spine. Something dangerous had arrived… when I looked in front of me, I saw a large shadow ahead… it was as big as a castle.
‘What the hell…’
When I saw that immense shadow move above the water, my heart seemed to stop. It was vast, stretching far beyond anything I could comprehend, a hulking darkness that blotted out the light filtering from above. Instinctively, I knew—this was no ordinary creature. It was a monster, something the Leviathan clan had summoned and commanded. I could feel it in the weight of the water pressing down on me, an ancient power that pulsed with menace, deeper and darker than the ocean itself.
I froze. Every thought, every urge to move, fled from my mind. My body locked in place, muscles tense with the raw, primal fear surging through me. This beast was beyond me, beyond anything I’d ever imagined. Just one flick of its tail or sweep of its limb, and I would be nothing but a ripple in its wake.
In the next moment, the monster growled in annoyance and then the temperature began to drop insanely fast. Before long, I was no longer able to move my body at all, and then the cold took over my body completely and I was enveloped by darkness.