I’d seen a lot, and not much phased me as it once had.
But looking out over the side of our comparatively small craft, I couldn’t help a nervous swallow.
“That’s a lot of ships,” I said, the words sour.
Around a dozen or so ships had been flanking us, but now visible even to the unaided eye, was what looked to be three or four dozen just as large warships sailing in our direction and at a rapid clip, too.
Sea currents. Damn.
I wasn’t enough of a naval expert to know exactly how that all worked, so at best, I could only curse the words and what their existence meant for us.
Watching the speed at which the equally massive warships were gaining on our guard, it would only be a few minutes until they were within firing range, or so Rorak had announced with surprising cheer.
Wonderful.
“Baster, is there anything in your bag of tricks to help us out here?” Dirk questioned.
“Not really.” I shook my head. “While my affinity is for water, I don’t have the mana reserves to jet us far away. That’s a lot of water displacement, and that means a lot of mass, which equally means-”
“Lots of mass and energy, which means marginal benefit.”
I shrugged; there was simply nothing more to be said on the matter.
“What about defensive measures?” Ilya questioned this time. “My main affinity is Rentar, so I’m not about to be of much help out in the middle of the damned ocean.”
“If cannonballs start flying our way, I can probably swat down some.” I acknowledged. “But again, there is a limit to what I can do. My magic is oriented to personal combat, not defending from sustained cannon fire.
“If that’s the case, we do this the old-fashioned way.” Alice shook her head before glancing at Rorak, who scrambled to pull open a long, hidden compartment in the bottom of the vessel.
Revealing several long, sturdy oars.
“Grab an oar.” He waved once at the long poles. “We must get out of here with as much haste as possible.”
Handing the oars out, we each sat on either side of the small boat, sliding the oars through what I initially thought were cosmetic gaps in the siding. The only one without an oar was Alice, who sat at the front of the ship with a drum-looking instrument.
“On my beat, you row. Got it?”
Everyone nodded not exactly a difficult concept to grasp.
“Alright, then-” Alice was interrupted as a sudden explosion of noise rocked not far from us. As one, we turned to look, only human nature to be curious even if we all logically knew the sound.
The crown navy, or at least the large portion of it that had sailed here, had finally reached us, one of their ships clearly reeling from the impact of one of our warships.
There was a moment of silence as if everyone involved needed a moment to register what was about to begin.
“Row!” Alice shouted as she began to pound upon her drum just as the cannons began to let loose.
The noise was like being centered in the very heart of a thunderstorm as each ship began to fire all at once. Considering how many cannons were bristling from every warship present, hundreds of cannons must have been letting loose all at once. To say we were in the heart of a thunderstorm may have been putting it lightly.
The waters, which had been no choppier than a gentle roll, were suddenly a ferocious beast as cannonballs that missed their mark crashed into the water.
“Row damn it! Like your lives depend on it!” Alice snarled as her drum beat drilled into my skull.
Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom. It was frantic if consistent in its pace, as it needed to be, lest we row out of synch and begin to spin off course.
We began to gather speed, but I could see from Alice’s expression she wasn’t nearly satisfied. Still beating the drum, she dashed behind us, taking hold of the wheel that controlled the ship’s rudder, and began to turn it, using her elbows of all things to sustain the drum beat.
It was as well as she did, as the water exploded directly to our right, a cannon nearly sending us to the crushing depths had it not been for Alice’s course correction.
Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit.
It had been a while since my fate had been so squarely out of my hands, a reality I did not appreciate. Teeth grinding, I continued my rowing, already feeling the skin tearing from my hands on the rough wood.
“Rorak, Ilya, we need to let loose more sail!” Alice shouted, barely audible over the cacophony of noise erupting. Subconsciously, I noted one of the leading crown ships staggering, listing more and more heavily to one side before the last of its strength gave, the entire ship going down as flames ravaged the deck.
First blood is ours, at the very least.
Not that it would matter if we didn’t get out of here.
With Rorak and Ilya working in tandem to let loose more sail, hoping to catch as much wind as possible, I felt our ship slow a pace, missing two rowers.
Another cannonball crashed into the sea alongside us, this time to our left, as Alice let out another snarl.
“Damnit looks like they’ve noticed us in the chaos.”
Part of me wanted to ask why they would bother aiming at us, a single small longship, but the answer was obvious.
If there is a single longship in the middle of an entire armada, you can bet that whatever is on that ship you would prefer to see sunk to the bottom of the sea.
“Several more cannonballs blew the water on either side of us up in a vaporized mist, the tremors passing through to us in the ship.
We aren’t going to make it out like this.
“We aren’t going to make it out like this,” Alice grunted. Our allies were doing a grand job of returning fire, but there were simply too many royal ships in firing range, and could only be sunk so fast. At the rate we were going, we’d be the ones sunk.
“Dirk, Danai, Garus,” I grunted while rowing. “How well can you defend the ship?”
“Not well enough to stop everything coming our way.”
“Likewise,” Danai answered.
I had only an instant to consider it before I shrugged; the only option I could see that would get us out of this predicament.
“Go.” I gestured to the side of the ship. “Keep any stray shots from sinking us.”
“But we’ll lose too much speed.” Dirk shook his head in denial of the plan. “For what we’d gain in defense, we’d more than lose in speed.”
“No, we won’t,” I said calmly, or I like to think I said calmly. “I’ll handle that.”
“What, have a spell for just this sort of thing?”
“No,” I said. I released the oar for a split second and discarded my shirt to the deck in one smooth motion. “Gonna do it the old-fashioned way.”
I saw the three share a look before Dirk nodded with the well-practiced composure of a military man. “If Greyheart stocks as much faith in you as they do, then so shall we.”
Getting up from where they sat, the three made their way to either side of the ship, the low murmur of words being spoken under their breath as mana began to respond to their commands.
The rest is up to me.
Standing up, I took my spot in the center of the deck and closest to the front as I grabbed an oar for each side, a single word whispered under my own breath.
“Flow.”
Strength and speed were fine and dandy, but it wouldn’t be enough. Gathering more mana, I continued.
“Aulous.”
Something I’d often tried to lecture my students about was that the tricky part of magic wasn’t refining your mana core or harnessing more and more mana.
No, the tricky part was your ability to understand the natural world around you and apply that to one’s imagination in how you used magic.
In this case, nothing outwardly changed when I spoke the word of power, as I knew it wouldn’t.
What had changed was the oar, something I felt as I began to row solo. The oar, which had slipped through the sea just seconds prior, now felt like it was being pulled through mud, even with the massive increase to both my strength and speed through the usage of flow.
That was the point. My spell had been simple; I’d increased the resistance of the oars against the sea, meaning that rather than sliding through as they had earlier, it was like I was pushing off against solid matter, each stroke of the oar magnitudes more effective than ordinarily.
The caveat, though, was it was also magnitudes more taxing. Without flow, it would have been like trying to lift a house or tear down a tree with your bare hands.
Bear it.
Arms shaking even with the aid of flow, I kept pace with the frantic drumming.
Boom. Boom. Boom.
Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.
After a while, I wasn’t sure what was what. Was that my heart, the drum, or the sounds of cannons?
Boom. Boom. Boom.
My arms screamed in objection, but I could only push on.
Boom. Boom. Boom.
“Incoming!”
Subconsciously, I felt the impact as something crashed into us. Still, the fact that we didn’t immediately begin to sink meant that someone must have softened to impact. However they’d managed it, I hadn’t the luxury of pondering.
Still, I continued to row, sinking into an almost meditative trance. All that was in the world was me, myself, and the oars.
Boom. Boom. Boom.
At one point, the burden eased, but only by a small amount.
Boom. Boom. Boom.
Arms on fire, I went to row, only to find myself unable to, my arms locked up.
I couldn’t. I was out. My mana that had sustained flow had run dry, and without its strength, my arms had only managed another two rows before they gave in.
Damnit.
I just needed-
“Baster!”
I snapped to attention as two fingers snapped in front of my face.
Alice was standing there, watching me with a blank expression.
“What happened?”
Pointing behind us, I turned to see two things. First was that Rorak, Garus, Ilya, Dirk, and Denai had returned to rowing. Except now I could see the sweat running down their brows, several stationed per oar, whereas they’d only needed one before.
Oh, right, my spell affected all the oars.
Second was that further way, nearly as far away as I could still see naturally, was the naval battle, still fiercely being fought.
“We’re out of range from any cannon fire now, be they stray shots or focused intent.”
“Oh.” Was all I could say, my mouth as dry as sawdust.
“Take a rest. Now that we’ve gotten up to speed, nothing will catch us now.”
I nodded weakly, dropping to the floor and resting my back against the side of the longship.
“Oh, but before you pass out, mind lifting that spell?”
Alice pointed at the oars, and I could only nod weakly.
The spell had low enough mana requirements that the latent regeneration of mana within my sage rings could have sustained it indefinitely and then some. While that was all fine and dandy while I was conscious and actively rowing, if anything were to happen that required them to continue rowing, even working in pairs to row as they were now, they’d tire out rapidly, the effort only meant to be sustained for a short sprint.
Without a verbal cue or indication, I released the spell, my eyes fluttering closed.
I’d accomplished fantastical, magical achievements in my life, but at the end of the day, physics was a bitch. While rowing some oars was far from impressive, it didn’t change that the energy it took was immense when the effort to row each oar was like bench pressing a horse.
Mentally giggling at my silly analogy, darkness began to close in around me. The fact that I’d found such an analogy as amusing as I did was a testament to how drained I was.
Nap time.
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“Ahh, it’s been some time, hasn’t it?”
Feeling like I had been spirited away, I spun around, startled. I was in the middle of… was this a throne room? While it looked like what I imagined a throne room might, it had an air of casual disdain as if the ruler of said throne room could care less for the theatrics of it, books left open and strewn about without abandon.
“Who said that?” I questioned, my voice sounding strange as if coming out of a tunnel.
“Hello.” From behind the throne emerged a woman of similar age to my own. She was twirling a rather plain-looking diadem around her finger as she smiled at me. Still, something about her smile was anything but reassuring.
My blood froze, and my gut dropped a million leagues beneath me.
“I’m glad you are doing so well, my young apprentice.” The Sage Above All said sarcastically, puffing her chest out as she rolled her eyes. “Is what I would say, but you and I know that is not the case.”
“I’m not your apprentice,” I said instinctively.
“Yes, I’m aware, hence why I said that wasn’t the case. Really now, weren’t you listening?” The woman dismissed my response with a wave of her hand.
“What do you want?” I asked, trying to calm my nerves.
“What do I want?” The woman feigned surprise before laughing out loud. “Oh, you think I was the one to summon you here? Well, that would be where you are mistaken. You are the one who projected yourself here.”
“I did no such thing. Anyway, I neither know astral projection nor is such a thing something that can be done by just anyone.”
“Ahh, but you aren’t just anyone. You naturally have a link to the astral and temporal plane of reality. It’s how you came to be, after all.”
I frowned, never responding. She wasn’t wrong after all. My connection to her former apprentice was the very foundation for that fact.
“So, you find yourself in my presence with little idea of how or why.” The Sage’s smile turned downward momentarily before she nodded to herself. “Yes, I believe I have an idea.”
I was curious, yet I felt that asking the Sage would be like asking a brick wall. In fact, I knew that would be the case, given my last face-to-face interaction with her.
“I must admit a curiosity.” The Sage Above All said as she looked me up and down. At the same time, I could feel something like the slightest pressure against me.
“Are you examining me?” I felt a prickle of annoyance blossom. Had I not already known who I was before and therefore been on guard, I wouldn’t even have noticed the probing sensation against me, her control that precise.
“Yes, I am. Still, my curiosity stands.”
“Of what?”
“This.”
One moment, I was standing in the throne room. The next, it was as if I had been thrown into a bottomless raging vortex, a speck of dust blown away by the most immense wall of pressure bearing down on me while simultaneously pulling at me from every angle and direction.
I’d never felt anything like it before. Power so overwhelming, I could imagine it shaking the very world apart.
I wanted nothing more than to crumple inwards, like a prey animal hiding from a fox outside its den.
There was no hiding against this much power, no retreat, no escape possible.
So I did the only thing I could. With all the determination and resolve I could, I pushed back, throwing out as much of my power in return. It was laughable, like trying to push back against a hurricane. Lauable it may have been, but still, I clenched my teeth and pushed back against the storm, as foolish as it was.
Falling, I continued to plummet through the endless torrent, no up or down to be found. Just an infinite descent of might that would tear me asunder. It was all I could do, clenching with all my strength, fighting back with everything I could.
Then, perhaps by fluke, it was as if I found the ground beneath my feet for a single instant. A single moment of stability and security swept away an instant later.
“How surprising.”
The black vortex of undeniable might was gone. I stood once more in the throne room as a cold sweat ran down my neck.
“It’s been over a thousand years since any could weather my direct attention, if even for an instant. It seems I wasn’t wrong.”
As much as I wanted to bark out my irritation at being played with, I was still reeling from what had just happened.
Which was just as well, the sound of doors slamming open alerting me to someone else in the room.
“Your Highness? Are you under attack?”
“No.” The Sage Above All sighed. “As if any could challenge me as such anyway.”
I turned around, noticing a woman with dual-toned salt and pepper colored hair, three distinct slashes above her left brow marking her otherwise gracefully structured face. She appeared momentarily as if she were about to say something else, but the Sage Above All cut her off.
“You may go. Our visitor will be leaving soon as well.”
The woman left, leaving me with the Sage Above All once more.
“As a reward for doing what those of your era could not, I will gift you a boon.”
“I’m good,” I answered tersely. Had I been thinking more clearly, I would have realized turning down someone as powerful as the Sage Above All was likely a mistake, but my brain still felt like mush.
“If it makes you feel better, is it nothing more than a mantra from my youth.”
I was silent, unable to find a problem with something as simple as that.
“Tall a cliff may stand for a thousand years against the sea, but gone it shall be a million later.”
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“Huh?” I felt my mouth moving even before my eyes.
What the hell is that supposed to mean?
“Baster, you’re up finally.”
With a jolt, I shot up from where I’d fallen asleep next to the siding of the longship.
Was that a dream?
No, I shook my head. Too many parts of it felt far too real and strange, even for a dream, such as when the dual-toned-haired woman appeared.
The Sage Above All.
I shivered as I thought of the power she’d pressed upon me, what she had described as nothing more than her ‘direct attention.’
I knew Great Sages were mighty, but she had to have been in a league of her own.
“Baster?”
“Yeah, I’m good. Just wore myself out.” I answered after a moment as I began to pull myself into a proper seated position. “How long was I out?”
“About a day.”
“A day!?” I jumped up, baffled that so much time had passed. The dream state I’d been in had felt like only a few minutes, yet an entire day had passed.
“Looks like you had some minor mana overexertion.” Dirk nodded toward Danai, who tilted her head slightly. “Danai gave you a look over, and that was all that we saw wrong.”
I wasn’t fond of being ‘looking over,’ but then it wasn’t like I’d had a choice.
“You were rowing for an hour straight yesterday, and with how damn heavy those oars felt, you probably used a rather large amount of mana sustaining that magic.”
It all added up to me, so I ended the discussion. Silence reigning, I examined the rest of the ‘motley’ crew.
“Has anything happened since I was out?”
“A shark got a little too curious, but that was about it,” Rorak answered the question, briefly smiling. “Wasn’t too hard to scare the big baby off.”
I’m not surprised a boat full of accomplished mages could scare off a single shark.
“In case you’re wondering, if tides and winds hold, it will be no more than a few days until we reach the edge of the God Peninsula. From there, it should only be a few more days until we reach the north. Max of two weeks.”
“Once we get to the north, what then?” I questioned. It was a fair question, given I wasn’t supposed to be the military expert here.
“We’ll be landing at the coast not far from Theronhold, where we will meet up with the troops we sent north in advance. Together, we will march on Theronhold.”
“Then?” I asked.
“That’s up to you. We are tasked with taking Theronhold, and I’m sure you’re aware of the task that might be.”
“Yeah, a damn impossible task,” Rorak spoke up, snorting as he did. “I’m not one to question Greyheart-”
“Sounds exactly like you’re about to,” Ilya said.
“-But taking Theronhold?” Rorak exclaimed, ignoring Ilya. “That’s a tallllll order. I’ve seen those walls before. We could ping away at them for a year straight with our strongest spells, and they’d probably have little more than a scratch for all our efforts.”
“That would be why Commander Greyheart didn’t put you in charge of that,” Danai answered Rorak with a patronizing tone. “We were given notice of Baster’s results against the Third Star. Anyone who can fight the Third Star as a near equal is significant enough to warrant the trust required for such a task.”
I wasn’t sure how much I agreed with the woman, but I said nothing.
“Hmm.” Ilya folded her arms as she watched our discussion. “Are you really that strong?”
“Ilya, you already heard-” Dirk began before she shook her head.
“No, I know our reports, but I want to hear it from him. Do you think you can genuinely bring us the victory we are seeking? Because while the rest of this little crew, Rorak aside, are too much of professionals to speak their mind, we need to know that you aren’t going to sit in front of those walls when we arrive and shrug your shoulders that you can’t do what we need you to do. All of us were pulled from important positions and responsibilities for this mission, so we need to know that it isn’t in vain.”
While no one voiced outward agreement with her statement, none admonished her. The only one who seemed put off was Rorak, who was muttering under his breath as if just catching on to the jab she’d thrown his way without his noticing.
I took a moment before answering, silence lingering.
Can I?
The last I’d seen of those walls had been near the very start of my journey, walls so grand they looked like they could rebuke even the gods themselves.
Can I?
The logical answer was no. While I wasn’t going to feign ignorance of my power, I wasn’t so arrogant as to believe anything I had in my arsenal was enough to bring those walls crashing down.
But.
But I didn’t necessarily need to bring them down. I just needed to capture the city.
A distinction, and maybe not even a significant difference, but a distinction, nonetheless.
“Yes,” I answered after the silence had held just shy of a moment too long. “I won’t lie and say I have a perfectly planned idea already in mind, but I’m confident I have the skills needed to capture the city.”
Several of the Nochesuki soldiers glanced amongst themselves before Alice took the role of responding.
“Good enough for me. Greyheart has a vision that sees further than the rest of us. Only the other Stars can claim to see anywhere near as wide in scope. So who are we to argue with the orders of our superior?”
“Agreed,” Dirk added. “Now that we’ve addressed such topics, we have other things to discuss.”
“Such as?” Rorak questioned.
“Strategy.”
“Bah.” Rorak scoffed. “Well, count me out. I’ve only got two things on my brain: the sea and how to get back to the sea.”
“And how to wreck things,” Alice added.
“That too.” The man seemed proud of what was obviously a remark on his character rather than his abilities.
Dirk snorted, the usually emotionless man letting his mask slip for a moment before it was back an instant later. “Jokes over, time to get to business.”
Closing my eyes, I silently prayed to the gods and lords above. Whether I really believed in them or not was irrelevant.
Just have to plan for the impossible. Easy, right?
It, in fact, was not easy.