Chapter 89: At the Dawn 4

The sound of the flight system ticking down the altitude gauge and the wind rattling the hull was the only noise on the bridge as Harlock held onto a grip near the helm.

The Heart tilted into its maximum dive, and outside the sealed compartment, the wind whipped at the ship wildly. The balloons acted as massive brakes, slowing their descent despite their best efforts to force themselves into a controlled fall.

Hundreds of steel cables strained to hold the rest of the ship to them against the extreme force; crewmen clutched whatever they could in their sheltered emplacements.

Firing was impossible while diving at such a rate, but the same couldn’t be said for the rising enemy ships below.

Coming in from such a high altitude with the sun had been a risk, but they’d hoped to catch the enemy by surprise.

Harlock grunted as one of the allied Contian ships took a hit on its belly. Bronze and wood shattered, spilling out into the sky. The blow wasn’t enough to end the ship, but its port side defense field flickered warningly.

None of the Contian ships had belly guns. If they were going to make more attacks from above, a redesign was needed. The ship shook, and the crew cursed.

“Damage control crew, investigate!” Harlock ordered through the ship’s voice tube.

A crewman called down from above. “Enemy fleet, two hundred feet vertical!”

Harlock grabbed the helmsman’s shoulder. “Level out!”

The ship began to tilt back to level as another crewman shouted, “Other ships have signaled ‘Full Attack!’”

Harlock bit back a remark. This was foolish.

The Heart groaned and rattled as it leveled out, the sudden change in momentum causing Harlock to grip the railing tighter.

He surveyed the chaos far below. The enemy fleet engaged in a fierce battle with the city’s defenses. Hundreds of bolts and flashes of magic traded between them, illuminating the sky in a dazzling display of destruction.

“Gunnery crews, man your stations!” Harlock bellowed.

As the crew scrambled to their positions, the enemy detachment opened fire on the Contian airships with their heavier weapons.

The Heart shuddered as it took several hits, its arcane fields flaring blue, then orange.

An engineer burst onto the bridge, his face streaked with soot. “The shields can’t handle much more of this! The shards are already stressed enough as is!”

Harlock raised his telescope to his eye, scanning the enemy ships until his gaze fell upon the battleship targeting them.

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Flames licked at its hull, evidence of a previous hit, but it showed no signs of backing down.

“Focus fire on that battleship!” Harlock commanded, pointing at the offending vessel.

The gunnery officer nodded, dispatching a crewman to relay the orders to the gun master on deck.

Moments later, the Heart’s smaller cannons erupted in a volley, each gun selecting its own target among the enemy fleet. Riflemen on the upper deck joined the fray, their shots adding to the battle.

Nearby, a Contian warship unleashed its heavier cannons on a Monevoian vessel, the blast finding a weak point and slamming into the enemy ship’s balloons.

The fragile structures shredded to pieces, sending the crippled ship listing to one side as it began to lose altitude.

The Heart’s main artillery finally erupted with a thunderous roar, sending a hail of black powder shrapnel shells bursting towards the targeted warship.

Harlock watched as the projectiles found their mark, exploding in a fiery cascade between the enemy ship’s balloons and deck. Men tumbled overboard, their screams lost in the distance as flames engulfed the vessel.

“Half their cannons are down!” a crewman shouted.

Harlock nodded in acknowledgment. “Focus fire with the light cannons. Riflemen, pick off any men you see on deck.”

The Heart’s crew sprang into action, flame bolts spitting from the light cannons and swivels, while riflemen took aim at the exposed enemy crew.

The targeted ship retaliated with another volley, angry red energy splashing against the Heart’s starboard defense fields. Lightning crackled along the ship’s hull, and an explosion near the bow drew Harlock’s attention.

“Swivel’s gone, sir!” a damage control crewman reported.

Harlock turned to the helmsman. “Turn to starboard. Present the port fields to the enemy.”

As the Heart maneuvered, an allied airship turned to port, passing dangerously close.

Harlock held his breath as the ships’ fields collided, sparks flying, but fortunately, neither shorted out.

A barrage of flame bolts slammed into the other ship, sending embers raining onto the Heart’s deck.

A large enemy warship pulled alongside, its main cannons leveling at the Heart. They were too close for the enemy to miss, and the Heart’s fields likely couldn’t withstand a full blast.

“Brace for impact!” Harlock shouted.

A demi-divine flashed by, her gray and gold wings outstretched.

With a precise path, she sliced through the enemy airship’s balloon cables, causing the vessel to list heavily to one side, its top exposed.

Harlock pointed at the vulnerable ship. “Open fire!”

Harlock gripped the overhead handle tightly as the Heart’s guns erupted in a ragged line, chunks of the enemy battleship flying.

The port artillery cannon fired, its shell burrowing deep into the enemy vessel before detonating inside. For a moment, the ship expanded, then collapsed in on itself, the forward and rear sections splitting apart, held together by a few remaining steel cables.

The entire wreckage plummeted downward as the balloons failed to provide enough lift.

Cheers erupted on the bridge, but Harlock quickly silenced them. “Quiet! Move to the next target!”

The Heart whipped away from the combat at full speed, maneuvering to attack the next enemy ship from behind.

Feathered wing ran amok between the enemy ships.

Elania.

His jaw went slack as one ship was encased entirely in ice, plummeting like a rock. Another was bathed in a sea of fire until its balloons burned away, while a third dissolved in a green mist.

He could hardly believe this was the same girl he had trained back at the Ironfist headquarters in Neftasu. The transformation was beyond anything he had ever witnessed.

Not that wielding divine magic had much to do with swordplay.

The gunnery officer shook Harlock’s shoulder, shouting, “Which ship are we supposed to target, sir?”

Harlock focused his attention back on commanding the Heart. “Target whichever one isn’t already sinking or being destroyed by the demi-divines!”

The officer nodded, relaying the orders to the gunnery crew.

The enemy fleet was in disarray, ships falling from the sky or consumed by the elements their demi-divines conjured.

The battle was nothing like Harlock had imagined.