Small Scale Assault

7th day of the 4th week of the 6th month since the start of the war. At the shores of the Little Lake close to the base. At 11:55 pm.

Ciemnosc was lying on his back as he looked into the sky. There were a few little campfires around the edge of the shores as some groups built one facing the Little Lake, not thoroughly surrounding the campfires themselves. While Ciemnosc lay on his back, the other students rested and chatted among each other, but most were in their tents farther away from the cold water.

“Tomorrow, we take some training on land, right?” - “What land? It’s just training. Just try not to forget your training this week, and you’ll be fine next time.” - “Yeah, now we gotta get to see those filthy mortals. See if we don’t get dirt-” - “Woah!”

It seemed as if, from a moment of cheeriness and calm moments around the campfires, the atmosphere suddenly turned silent. An uncomfortable silence descended upon the whole area, the heads of most students around the campfires turning towards the one where that last comment was heard before it was interrupted.

“... You don’t say those things, remember?” One student of the first new batch of students told the one with a big mouth, who was from the second batch of new students. It didn’t stop there as a few more words continued from those in the same campfire. “The Chief doesn’t like that at all.” - “Yup, I’m pretty sure the rules say stuff about that. Didn’t you memorize them?”

“W- what? No way…?” The student with a big mouth was skeptical, and of course he was, and he dared not take too much time in showing why he felt that way. “I’m one of the sailors. He surely wouldn’t do anything to me, right?”

“...” Everyone simply stared back at the student, not saying anything, and that was when the student in question knew of his predicament. However, before he or anyone had anything to say, be it to amend it or to give the student advice on how to close one’s mouth, a calm voice swept over everyone’s faces while their ears trembled.

“Spoke rudely; that’s one bad point already. Thinks too highly of himself, another bad one. What to do? What should the…” Ciemnosc was standing right behind the sitting student with a big mouth, and his words were penetrating only the ears of that student, who couldn’t help trembling for a few initial seconds with Ciemnosc’s first phrase. A phrase that was then continued, “Punishment be?”

“...ah…” Realizing that their chief was really questioning them, Ciemnosc also had a face that spoke all about not being content, then the students all around began to think hard before speaking with still a subservient tone. “He has insulted the ordinary people, so… maybe staying with them directly would suffice?” - “It could be about… a month?”

“A month…” Ciemnosc muttered out slowly in contemplation, totally on purpose. The student with a big mouth started to tremble a little more as he looked back and up before lowering his face and locking his gaze below at Ciemnosc’s feet. It was even more terrifying somehow, especially considering that the Chief in Command was actually thinking about it!

“That’s too much.” Ciemnosc flatly said, his head shaking casually. But before the student could feel at ease and vow many times to be a good boy, Ciemnosc’s following words still made him ‘despair’ in his own way. “A week is enough for that matter. Only, he’d be sent to the poorest village. In case the village doesn’t improve to an unrecognizable degree by the time the end of the week comes, he’ll just have to stay there for another 3 weeks. And by then, the village better be improved.”

“Ah, I- uh- I… Yes, sir!” The student stood up immediately, still choosing not to believe, but Ciemnosc was as still and expressionless as a statue. In the end, the student seemed to find peace and accepted his punishment, bowing and saluting Ciemnosc without lacking vigor or intention. Ciemnosc simply nodded and turned around, leaving the students be. On the other hand, the students around the shore slowly went back to their chatting demeanor.

Step, step, step… step.

‘It is already my birthday… Don’t worry, I’m fine.’ Ciemnosc returned to his spot from earlier on and spread his arms a little as he thought before starting to lie back down against the snow and the grass. With his body becoming relaxed again, his 12 years old body felt at ease, almost like floating in the clouds and being carried by the hands of little angels - beautiful ones, if possible.

‘...’ His eyes were already narrowed when he started closing them. He was really relaxed after all and also felt so calm he might even be able to fall asleep. But clearly… that was not the case.

. . .

2 months after, at the beginning of the 9th month since the start of the war. Morning, 9 o’clock.

The waters of the Little Lake were calm as always and still without a single rip going off anywhere. It was especially so when nearing the beginning of the lake in question, from which barely any movement ever happened lately. Not that it was always empty, but it was just that there was nothing to do lately. It seemed like the major organizations didn’t plan to do anything for the time being.

Oscion was an Eagerburning Flames Sect’s disciple at the 4th stage of the Spirit Gathering realm. Thanks to the new methods employed by the major organizations, he gained a spot in the leadership of a few things. In this case, he was in charge of one of the ports that were already finished being built. He didn’t know much about them or how to protect them, but every week, he simulated such a situation in case it happened for both his troops and his sake.

As a Spirit Gathering realm cultivator in its middle stages, he wasn’t looked at as pleasingly well as every other late stage cultivator of the same cultivation base and a leading role in the Little Lake’s matters and the ongoing war.

But he, and his troops, were excited. It had been a long time since the last war, and just like every other disciple or believer of the 4 major organizations, he asked himself monthly if it would happen while he was still breathing. Still, he had quite a good reputation for leading his teams and squads to a splendid survival ratio and the success of their missions.

Now, however, he was a leader of thousands of disciples and believers, whose friendliness hadn’t soared high enough to be able of achieving seamless cooperation. The pressure, and while he was the big boss of the second port, he couldn’t help but give many benefits to his fellow disciples of the same sect. While leaving anything else blank and tasteless but satisfactory according to the ‘rules’ and ‘regulations’.

However, one thing was even truer, and that was the certain little influence on the other 3 major organizations other than the Self-Mutilating Honores Sect in accepting bribes. This way, Oscion just kept on going in giving his people the best treatment and letting the other 3 major organizations find their own way.

All major organizations had this, and it wasn’t just the 2 ports that had this kind of completely biased treatment towards those from the same major organization. The smaller groups and lower levels of members with status did just the same with their own smaller amount of troops. It was an ongoing error nonstop all over the coalition forces.

But it was still manageable. Otherwise, the upper echelons of the major organizations wouldn’t just let it continue. Of course, they also got some extra pocket money for allowing it to happen. But these things were just way too well known all over the history of the Region. It was almost like a tradition even, let alone seeing it and making anyone frown.

Right now, this was a good morning. Oscion was thinking about letting the boys, especially the girls, into the warm water again and relax for another day. Another week without training or simulation wouldn’t hurt anyways. They weren’t dumb humans who needed constant training nor their bodies would become ‘rusty’.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

Besides, it was known that that Ciemnosc was also one who let his people bathe in the Little Lake every week. Heh, how foolish. The major organizations let them do it nowadays however they want to as long as they just protect their ports until new resources from all over the Region were being gathered. After all, the west was on its own while the north, south, and east were all up against the west.

‘Hmm, now that I think about it, that Ciemnosc was also known for punishing his troops a lot if they didn’t do as he said. How crazy is that? Bah! No wonder they betrayed him, look at my own, heh heh.’ Oscion thought, grinning out of nowhere and spooking the few fellow disciples behind him who were unfortunate enough to look at this very moment towards him.

He was very tall and had a white top, with a bald-like hair that seemed as if his body had accepted the fact while Oscion was still in the midst of accepting going bald.

“Alright boys… and girls.” Oscion looked back, at his fellow disciples who, at the moment of hearing these words come out his mouth, began to undress and had crazy good looking eyes shining like addicts getting better stuff than what they are used to. “We can get into the water for another 5 ho-”

“It’s bad, really, really bad boss!!” A loud and anxious shout from far away killed the mood, those getting bare from head to toe stopped and looked, frowningly, at the scout minion who just appeared to stop them from a good ol’ fornicating session in the water.

“What?!” Oscion was, however, instincts tingly and shouted back, feeling something about to go oh so very bad. The other Eagerburning Flames Sect disciples began to feel apprehensive after he did.

“It’s them-” The minion yelled out once more and for the last time.

Whistle- boom.

“!!!” Everyone watched as the minion scout was still going at full speed, shrinking his outline shape but still running towards them without thinking of even slowing down. Following him, with an impossible gait, a shining ball of whitish transparent and translucent light came right after. From far away, deep towards the Little Lake further ahead, it came towards them like having a mind of its own.

Just as it was noticed, as if the damn thing was shy, it suddenly deviated and turned to the side. But the direction it turned was, naturally, that of the running minion scout who didn’t even notice the other’s eyes glaring at him, becoming faithfully terrorized in slow motion.

That was when the pure energy shell finally landed on the back of the minion scout, becoming broken as if absorbed by that shell. If looked at a motion where everything stopped, it could be seen how the minion scout got his lower back made into a light and directly broke the rest of his waist and pelvis. But by the time the rest of his body began to break in shambles, the pure energy shell had already penetrated and landed on the ground a few steps in front of the panic-stricken, terrified face of the minion scout.

And an instant later, the pure energy shell broke away, leaving only a scattered pure energy blast behind that lasted for a few seconds before immediately dissipating as they all do as long as they hit on a flat surface or anything solid.

“Shit, SHYAT!!” The members of the major organizations immediately went into an uproar, with Oscion himself shouting loudly to relieve that stress out. They were under - fucking - attack!!

“Get to your ships, warn everybody else, move aw-” The disciples were too engrossed in their fear that they became frozen, every single one of them just waiting for another barrage of pure energy shells to come at them and pulverize them just as well. But such a thing didn’t occur. Only when Oscion, their leader, yelled at them did they wake up and finally moved to dress up while retreating towards the port nearby and to warn the rest.

Whistle- - boom boom boom.

Another whistle came by just as they were mostly turned around and even began to run away already. Oscion was seemingly talking to his Identificatio Token, letting the superiors know before anything else, but without actual information to give. After all, their scout was killed… made into nothingness right before their eyes, and straight up before he could tell a thing.

Before they knew it, they were flown into basically nothingness. Those who had started to run were already somewhat saved… some parts of their bodies, as they directly became nothingness, and only part of their limbs, necks, or either the foot or hand they were using to further run with their bodies that was pushed to the front.

Those severed body parts were as if bitten by a cartoon character of a monster, triangular shaped broken and ‘bite’ marks from where they were detached while little to no blood and with those limbs already having turned pale. They no longer looked like they were attached to any living being just a second ago, just one second later.

Splash, splasshh, splasssshhh!

“...” From still hundreds of kilometers away, Ciemnosc was standing on top of one of the 3 ships sailing full ahead, at max speed and without a care for the Inferior Powerful Stones used one after the other for maintaining such speed. The array formations working perfectly, as are the ones back in the base after receiving Ciemnosc’s pointers.

Only 3 ships were moving at max speed towards the second port, which currently had no ships around, only empty land, mostly, and empty waters. But that wasn’t the case a further 1,000 km up the lake, where Ciemnosc could already see a few hints of movements from afar with his eyes. He had to close them soon after and relax them after a few seconds though.

“Prepare your aim again! Nine incoming ships! Four at the front!” Ciemnosc shouted at the students, not only in the ship he was standing on calmly but to the other 2 ships as well without being afraid that his voice wouldn’t travel with ease at the speed they were going.

“Aye!” - “Heard!” - “Getting ready, Chief!” - “On it!” - “Aye!” - “Yes, Chief!”

The teams on each canon had their respective team leader respond to their Chief almost right away, signaling they were almost ready. With the current situation, the present scenario; Ciemnosc had his sailors not use the automatic aiming guidance system, only letting them have the necessary features to see from so far away from the ports and letting them have all the responsibility of firing away.

After all, the ‘easy mode’ should only be used for emergencies in which the teams in charge of the cannons had either perished or had to focus on repairing the ship. Because, after all, the battle doesn’t end too soon or until one of the 2 sides dies, and the base accepted not a scaredy cat who didn’t dare to enter into battle even if they were already halfway done to the grave!!

Pum pum, pum pum, pum pum - pum pum, pum pum, pum pum…

In a set of 4 shots in consecutive succession, the 3 ships fired a total of 24 pure energy shells altogether in a matter of 15 seconds! They each flew high in the sky and disappeared from the naked eyesight just a few seconds later. Meanwhile, on the other side, as the enemy ships were closing in before they could even get truthfully to know what the fuck to do, they suddenly saw shining, glowy things coming their way from the sky!

… … boom boom, SPLASH, SPLASH, SPLASH… …boom boom booom…

From afar, Ciemnosc and every other sailor in the 3 ships could hear the little explosions thanks to their cultivation base. Among those sounds were those from the many pure energy shells hitting the water. And through the panel that shared the same features, but were not actually shared image by image, as the captain’s panels to observe the fight far away, Ciemnosc saw that only about 7 of those 24 shots were a hit.

It was a good number, as the result was because of the sudden evasions from the enemy ships, who could respond like that only after getting bombarded by the initial 12 shots, from which the 4 ships that were at the front to the center were hit one after the other with the one at the lead getting hit 4 times of those 7. The rest of the ships each received 1 hit.

“Reload!” - “Reload!” - “Reload!” After Ciemnosc gave the captain a nod in general— just by looking at the one behind himself—, they all nodded back and immediately shouted. To wait until the cannons were fully unloaded of their Powerful Inferior Stones was stupid, especially considering that these cannons were good not only for aiming.

As they used opened the storage ammunition compartment, they didn’t take the tiny Powerful Inferior Stone out compared to its size from before, half a Powerful Stone. Instead, they put another half inside, they left it there together with the remnants from the other. Now, all the teams of each canon could do was act upon the captain’s orders as it was not time yet for ‘melee’ fighting.

“Fire away!!” - “Unload those cannons!” - “Blow the enemy up already!!”

Their captains didn’t disappoint, however, they did look at Ciemnosc in askance after giving the orders. Noticing that their Chief was still looking ahead, seemingly semi aware of the changes between the enemy formation as they closed in and as they themselves closed in on the enemy ships too.

Pum pum, pum pum, pum pum. Pum pum, pum pum, pum pum. Pum pum, pum…

What followed suit was the firing away of those 6 cannons, 2 for each ship, a total of 8 times at the same time and with each avoiding meeting the other’s pure energy shells here and there while they traveled through the air before descending upon their enemies!

The sight was majestic, at least it was so for Ciemnosc’s eyes who looked away from the panel as the images it could provide… were incomparable to those from which his eyes could take in. In the panel, the transmission of images was okay, showing the pure energy shells moving in a trajectory with an already calculated trajectory forward and a contrail left behind to take further calculations.

Such a thing wasn’t only seen by the captains of each ship, but by the team leaders of the cannons as well. And with each ship having about 6 teams, a total of 2 squads, and about 50 sailors each, they were ‘tight’ in personnel but completely fine at the same time. Their 2 cannons didn’t stop their sailing at any speed, even at a slow speed. It wasn’t because of just the ships’ materials north array formations, but because of the way that these ships were made for holding on to 3 cannons at most, in which case they would receive some recoil.

This meant that with just 2 cannons, it was enough for the ship to be completely seamless to the powerful negative points of the cannon. A thing that was seemingly not taken into consideration by the major organizations, as the panels of captains showed them that there were… 4 cannons on their smaller ships!

…