Additional Agreement
Every ship from the base was farther apart from each other. But at the moment that of going to meet head on the 9 enemy ships with one about to be destroyed, they quickly got somewhat together each other and together charged up towards the enemy ships. The ships closed onto one another but were still separated by hundreds of meters, especially the one at the right, on the east, which was to meet head on 3 of the 4 enemy ships in the center and the other one to the enemy's left flank.
Just a few moments right before they were side to side with the enemy ships and when just meeting the crew on top of the enemy ships’ decks, everything was ‘normal’ and seemed to go according to all science. The 3 battleships would pass through the 9 enemy ships. Then they would go their own ways to whatever the case was; should the 3 ships decide to go further, the 9 enemy ships could only either go back or try to assault the base’s port: or ports.
However, unexpectedly but only for the enemy ships, the 3 ships weren’t just getting close to one another for some particular reason of ‘united we are strong’ - for as soon as the enemy ships were within ‘range’... the 3 ships went into action!
The one on the left was going farther to the front, while the ship on the center was slightly slower than the ones on the left and right. The battleship on the left was then already so rushed ahead that it was facing with its sides the enemy ship on its left and another one at the rear. The battleship on the front where Ciemnosc was standing on top was to take one at the center of the enemy ships’ formation on the right and another 2 at the rear too.
While on the other hand, the ship on the right was to take the remaining 4 enemy ships! Three enemy ships from the center and another from the rear, making it the ship with the most work to do. Meanwhile, the battleships on the left and center had to put in effort a little lesser.
As for what they were going to do, the enemy ships could experience it clearly the moment they understood that these 3 ships weren’t about to just cross through their formation and arrive at their base to destroy the ports and kill their fellow members. No, instead, the 3 battleships that were right then, right there, positioned to face with their sides the enemy ships had compartments slide away to reveal obscure crevices.
Each of those crevices was round and seemed like canon vents were visible as such only for a mere moment. As in the next, without any warning nor possibility of knowing, they immediately lunged forward from within several dozen meters long shaft made out of pure wood but with clear array formation inscriptions around it!
“BE CAR-” There was a time when the enemy’s leader, on the first and foremost leading enemy ship, shouted when just seeing some of those shafts lunging from the 3 battleships. But he only yelled as he saw the central battleship open its ‘cannon vents’ and hook into the bodies of the ship right behind his and another at the rear. He couldn’t see… could - not- see - as his battleship was ‘slowly’ hooked by the other battleship at the east and already in-between several more ships.
“BGHAWAWWLL!” - “BRUAARRGGHH!” - “AAAAAAAHHH…!” - “HEL- GRUWAAAAKK!”
SPLASHHH SPLASSHH SPLASSSH~!
In a mere set of moments’ worth of time, the enemy ships were sailing at a noticeably slower speed than the 3 ships without going full speed, becoming hooked as the shafts came out from those ‘cannon vents’ in the end. Every one of the enemy ships, even the one almost destroyed and in flames as well as the other one that was nearly incapable of remaining afloat, became hooked by those things and suddenly ‘stiffened’ as if enchanted.
The enemy sailors didn’t have any time to react. They had already seen that a few of the crew on the 3 battleships were taking a position to board them and also prepared almost their entire personnel to receive the enemy. Though they were noticeably less than them but stronger than them - the 4 major organizations were anything except scared of battling a war.
However, when the shaft things came out of the 3 battleships, their penetration to the ships on their sides was barely felt. What was discerned instead was the implementation of the strongest and densest laws, as they felt as if their bodies were pulled from behind and from the front - simultaneously and with an incredible force!
The shafts had clear energy oozing all around themselves, and there were about more than 20 coming out of the sides of every single one of the 3 battleships. Even though there were many, supposedly in case most failed to intercept enemy vessels, none of those shafts failed as they accurately hit the enemy in key, crucial points, and their array formation worked in a second.
The moment the light green around the shafts glowed and intensified, the light green energy spread all around the ship but without making a cocoon out of them. Simply connecting the mast directly down to the deck and the helm, its bow, and its stern, while the rest of the energy was as if electricity simply running through water.
The ships that were reached turned as if into clay but suddenly became solid. And with it, the enemy ships began to actually ‘sail backwards’ along with the 3 battleships who continued to speed forth without stopping! It was neither the one nor the other. The 3 ships were going to do both: going to continue to the enemy’s base filled with ports and unsuspecting enemies, as well as to battle these enemy ships and destroy them in the process of making their way there!
While the 3 ships began dragging those enemy ships around, the canons never stopped being fired, and the enemy crew was invaded on their own deck without a problem by the ready and capable sailors. Missile projectiles were sent flying into the enemy’s unprotected ships t the deck. Others directly impulsed themselves with some thruster tools and began drilling into the enemy ranks.
Others directly charged at the enemy, who were more than unprepared, disordered, and of confused minds. Their mental state couldn’t be any worse than now. Not only were they clueless to the sudden ‘change of world’ that happened, not even when it happened!
All they could tell was that, with a force that should’ve sent them flying away and left behind by the speed of now not only the 3 ships but also their own ships; they were instead feeling as if a snake of energy tightly grabbed onto their chests and did not let them go. Holding them, they could only helplessly be pulled -‘in’-, while the inertia instead pulled them ‘out’ -.
Some enemy disciples and believers were already puking and oozing blood from their mouths or the rest of the orifices of their heads. Some others were hit so hard by the force that just hitting their heads against the deck, or any other part of their bodies, was enough to cause them pain, fracture, and severe bleeding.
On the other hand, the leaders of the ships that were in charge of anything were directly killed as, when the shafts fully connected to each other by the fragments of array formations especially designed for these situations were activated - several spots of the ships exploded as if the pure energy in the air at those places simply decided to go crazy and self-implode. There was, however, a green light-smoke appearance for every spot on the enemy ships that had an explosion.
They didn’t become nothingness, but they had their vertebral column, crotch, and heads disfigured, mangled, and turned into minced meat. While only a few sections of each part remained untouched by the explosions.
The enemy crew didn’t have it better for those who suffered the worse from the instantaneous pull. They were immediately met with their eyes detaching from their heads. Their optic nerves enlarged unnaturally, their vertebral columns bending backwards, and their shoulders forming part of their ribs as their faces became even worse, enlarging too but thinning and flattening.
“WAH!” - “Noo, AH PLEASE, I was under Comm-” - “Please, don’t kill me, I surr-” - “ARRGGHH!!”
Many screams rang and rang out nonstop. The enemy was confused and in pain, incapable of standing up properly with the sudden change of their slow sailing speed to the 3 battleships’ incredible speed with half their ship sails activated. But the sailors of those ships did care not what they shouted nor with what intensity they shouted those words.
Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.
Men or women, female and male. Even those pretty young ones that were purposely placed in the enemy ranks by their higher-ups to play the innocent card weren’t given any time to breathe. But some sailors hesitated at first, only to be saved by a nearby sailor, either hacking, hammering, or simply impaling down those ‘young and innocent’ who almost took them hostage or directly killed them in revenge.
The enemy ships weren’t that difficult to take because of the enemy’s unpreparedness for such a unique method of battling, especially at melee, where everything was supposed to be as if on land. Most of them were killed off by the sailors with either missile, exploding into bits or large chunks of bodies’ remains, or by the thrusters that trained around the deck and even went lower to look for hidden enemies, either because of cowardice or setting any kind of ambush.
The rest were directly dealt with by the edged, blunt weapons and polearms of the sailors who were moving about and killing nonstop, each of their movements precise and agonizing for their defenseless enemies.
Some managed to put up a fight, slowing down the process of the sailors clearing out an entire ship, but only that: slowing down the process for a bit.
The ship on the left, on the west, had it more manageable as they only took care of 2 enemy ships, and one was already in flames and about to be destroyed. But even that ship still had enemy cultivators in it, so both the cannons, which were now available to be used together, fired at it nonstop until even the blood of those killed while in the water became a beautiful blue and merged into the Little Lake along with the rapidly sailing ships.
The central ship, where Ciemnosc was standing on and witnessing the enemy being brutally killed by his troops, watched as some even tried to claim his head and whatever glory— primarily benefits, of course —that would come to them thereon; if successful.
All he had to do was wield one Mortal grade sword and swing it with a wavy motion. Air would cut apart without him needing to infuse it with dark Power Energy and either blast the ant-like enemies flying away or to all angles after being cut to pieces by the air from his sword.
Their 2 canons, which were naturally also able to now resume firing, began doing just that and destroying the enemy ships the ship’s crew had already cleared. Thugh the central ship was the slowest of the 3, it was instead one with the most efficiency at clearing out enemies. Maybe because their very own Chief in Command Ciemnosc had sailed with them for hours, their morale was now high-up in the heavens, wanting to prove themselves to him.
But perhaps also because they were more than glad to execute as many enemies as possible, yet were not stupidly competitive, barely behaving competitively, if anything. In the end, the ship on the left took less than half an hour to clear out the 2 enemy ships; the central battleship took about 40 minutes despite dealing with 3 enemy ships instead of 2.
On the other hand, the ship on the right, on the east, had it the worse as not only were they against 4 battleships, but they were also being shot by the ship that was the farthest away by their 4 cannons! The intensity of those cannons wasn’t much, thanks to the array formations of the shafts piercing into the enemy ships, as it made it more stable for 10 canons to fire away nonstop without the array formations.
While being fired at, the ship’s crew on the east continued to jump from ship to ship. But, it took more time than ever thought. The sailors were still in the first enemy ship - which happened to be the leading enemy ship when more than an hour had gone by.
Only when the 2nd-hour came did they proceed to the next ship with only 1 casualty. It was a significant difference from the rest of the enemies, which were above the hundreds from those who were at least capable of putting up a bit of a fight against less than 20 sailors of the Spirit Gathering realm 10th stage or so.
“... Fire to the enemies still in the water!! Don’t let them live!” Ciemnosc suddenly shouted as they were nearing the enemy’s base. Some enemy cultivators were taking that was more like taking a ride now and waiting in the 3rd and 4th enemy ships for the battleship on the east to come and start fighting them off to have this chance to jump out of their enemy ships and save themselves since they were already so close to their base.
As soon as Ciemnosc ordered it, the ship on the left had its captain nod his head before the crew on that ship then took their sets and let the holders automatically hold them down. Then, it suddenly made a turnaround. The surviving 2 enemy ships’ crews became aghast and wide-eyed with shock as they watched another way out becoming impossible from now on.
“You, how much more time do you need?! We are already nearing their first port!!” Ciemnosc shouted towards the ship’s captain on the right, who was sweating by controlling his own ship, making sure not to deviate too much and not start ‘drifting’ in the water and crash either against the shore or the against the battleship that his Chief in Command was on.
“Sir…” The captain looked at Ciemnosc, who was already looking at the captain, and the captain then steeled his face and looked at his crew’s backs as if they were conversing and understanding each other this way. “Please let me go ahead and start the assault on their base. We can do this. Allow me and my crew, Chief!”
“...” Ciemnosc looked silently at the captain before nodding. The captain, in return, made a quick salute and began to talk to his collar while Ciemnosc returned to face the front before saying once a bit of silence had gone by. “Advance, follow that ship and fire at any other who tries to jump off their ships.”
“Yes, Chief.” The captain of the central ship nodded and said slowly, quietly spoke, and then began to stand right behind the battleship on the right, becoming its tail.
On the other hand, the ship at their front was still firing away their canons, pure energy shell after pure energy shell. From time to time, it would drift to the left or towards the right - but that would stabilize a few seconds later though it sometimes looked like it would have already capsized if it wasn’t because of the captain’s sailing capabilities.
The ship on the rear, which was taking care of the rest of the enemies who jumped into the water and hoped to save themselves from the incoming murderous streak of the demonic monster that Ciemnosc is, was keeping on with the ship Ciemnosc was on. Diligent in killing off all enemies in the water but not losing speed after turning around last time, following at a great distance and pace without any troubles. The Inferior Powerful Stones used to kill those off weren’t a problem for now since the Chief ordered something, and so that order had priority.
The ship at the front had it harder and harder while the battleship at the rear could maneuver all around the thinning width of the Little Lake from eastern to western shores. The ship at the front had it more challenging with the diminishing space.
Deviating from left to right was customary to see every few seconds from minutes after Ciemnosc let that ship take the front. It was, after all, connected to another 3 enemy ships as one of them was still battling on, and the other had already been blown to pieces by their cannons and the cannons from Ciemnosc’s battleship.
The real problem was that the ship’s crew was more powerful than almost all the enemy cultivators. But they were above the hundredth mark, able to fight and put up some resistance. Meanwhile, as they spent too much time in the 1st and 2nd ships they boarded, the rest of the enemies on the other ships had not become used to the speed that they were now being dragged backwards without the battleship responsible for that seemingly becoming too heavy weighted. But they had at least become able to stand up on their ships’ decks.
By the time the 3rd ship was engaged and both the battleship and Ciemnosc’s ship began firing at the 2nd ship to destroy it, the 3rd ship was more than ready despite having most of its ship gone by the previous long-distance bombardment.
This time, the fight was quicker, but the moment that the third ship was cleared out of any enemy… was also the time that the base’s ships arrived before the enemy base - whereas the first port was already visible going from the eastern shore to the western shore.
... Ciemnosc looked on as the ship at the front began to now really deviate and began forming crazy circles in the water! The battleship was still moving, and its crew battling the other enemy ship’s crew. But the 4th enemy ship was getting bested as the captain of the ship began to clearly move around like a madman and yet with his crew expertly moving about as if there just was nothing unusual about the speed and maneuvers it went with.
“What is it?!” - “Wait, are those, not ours?!” - “What the fuck?! Why are they floating?! What other ship is that? Is much larger!” - “FUCK! Those are not ours for sure, take co-”
Pum pum, pum pum, pum pum, pum pum, pum pum, pum pum, pum pum, pum pum, pum pum, pum pum, pum pum, pum pum, pum pum, pum pum, pum pum, pum pum… boom boom boom boom obom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom…
There was finally some reaction from the first port as they watched the sight of 4 ships speeding towards them. The one towards the left seemed fine but it was advancing so fast now that the port was here, and it seemed for those who were on a flat surface as it was gliding through the air from time to time.
On the other hand, the ship at the front was seemingly being… ‘held’ by another ship behind it, facing bow to bow though. It was complicated, but there was another ship behind those 2, and it made the enemy cultivators at their port feel something - the looming of death.
In their confusion, they were just about getting to physically react to their fear and step away from the port, though it was bound to be a long way, especially for those midways through the port. When bombs started falling down all over the middle of the first port and at certain intricate other sections of it, where shipyards were specifically built.
Hell descended onto them while their deaths, as beautiful as they looked from afar, everyone who looked at them and were not part of his side, of Ciemnosc’s troops anymore… Could only feel the terror of feeling that same kind of death in the future, watching others already going through them. This was war!
…
----------------------------------------
Let It Rain's Note: Crazy titles o.O; guess I just didn't want to have 'same title' (1-4 parts).