War, Contending For The Center

"And when you try things like this," Heian Ciemnosc pressed the tip of Blauw Ishikyy's tail downwards. Her tail immediately cut through it, dividing the sink into 2 until he finally stopped midway downwards and took her scaly tail out. Blauw Ishikyy had an immeasurably surprised expression as it made 'crrgggk~' noises while cutting the sink. When she felt her dragon tail free, she jerked it out of Heian Ciemnosc's pale hands and coiled it behind her thighs. Heian Ciemnosc then smiled and stepped forwards.

“You better be honest to your personal Imperial Teacher, or you’ll become his second best apprentice. Pou has already matured-” Heian Ciemnosc said with all the calm in the world. How could he not know when his apprentice could take most of her transformation out of her body? As he came closer and slowly traced his pale hands on her cinnamon shoulders, Blauw Ishikyy felt her whole skin tremble, thrilled under the situation. But then, his words unleashed a set of memories deep within her. “You weren’t too good earlier today, not bidding farewell to your teacher.”

‘Uh oh!’ Blauw Ishikyy thought, and uh-oh indeed, as Heian Ciemnosc moved her body at right the next instant. Her eyes widened, and she felt not even an iota of movement or air brushing against her face before she opened her cutest, brightest aquamarine, azure eyes in the middle of the steamy bathroom corridor… bent over and with her tummy atop a familiar lap. It felt slightly cold and fresh but strangely warm.

“!” Blauw Ishikyy gradually looked up, and those cutest eyes started at the darkest ones. Heian Ciemnosc was there, with a 14-year-old innocent lady bent over his lap and with his right hand raising. It was cruel and a dirty job, but someone had to do it, lest this growing monster become a reckless disaster. Thus, Blauw Ishikyy closed her eyes with peace, knowing there was no escaping his hands, and stiffened her neck while looking at the ground. This was her top-notch technique for dealing with a strict teacher’s punishments.

From the age of a 10 year old little girl, she had to train and learn alone whenever her teacher wasn’t with her. The first thing she learned to do was to find ways to ease the pain from either enemies she fought to the death or her beloved, personal Imperial Teacher. She was a veteran now, and where she made her mother angry, she was confident in taking 2 blows from her before begging for forgiveness. She was, after all, Heian Ciemnosc’s apprentice!

Slap~! Slap~! Slap~! Slap~! Slap~! Plah! Plah! Plah! Plah! Plah! Pa! Pa! Slap! Plah!...

Rub, rub… “...” The following third of an hour was spent this way, with Heian Ciemnosc forcing an innocent young girl on his lap and giving her spanks that resonated everywhere in the bathroom. Were it not for the barrier he put up, the others would’ve noticed since before when the sink was cut into 2. Now, however, after Blauw Ishikyy remained silent, whimpering every 3 slaps with each bum and hanging on his lap limply. Heian Ciemnosc rubbed her poor, bluish butt with some [All-Devouring Force Chronicles] methods.

His pale hand vastly contrasted with her skin color, but she kept quiet still as she enjoyed the honeymoon of her poor ass. Once upon a time, she would’ve felt embarrassed and that the world was plotting against her in every way possible. But after his punishments became more serious and she did more stupid shit, she understood this was for her own good and because her apprentice cared for her. Also, it was so she could continue training without interruptions, but she just chose to forget that all the time.

Some more time passed. Heian Ciemnosc kept rubbing her thick, perky buttcheeks for another 10 minutes before helping her up. Blauw Ishikyy still made no complaint, and as she was brought to stand up before Heian Ciemnosc, she was slightly dizzy. Heian Ciemnosc held her shoulders and shook her up, then waited for her to compose herself with an understanding notion. When she did, she looked up at him and knitted her eyebrows to speak, although she found some difficulty.

“Imp- hahh, Imperial Teacher, why do you keep spanking me? My mom ‘teaches’ me a lesson in other ways and won’t raise her hand against me unless I do something the young me used to do.” She finished with a pout. Heian Ciemnosc lifted his right hand and cleared a tear of something from her left eye with his thumb. She shook her head from the sudden touch and squinted her left eye, making a grimace with the left corner of her mouth that appeared too cute.

“Hm,” Heian Ciemnosc seemed to give it a thought, looked up, and placed his hands behind his back as Blauw Ishikyy wasn’t even bothering to adopt a proper stance, bare before him. He calmly said, “If you stop being silly, I’ll stop hitting you. If you want me to stop altogether, try beating me up. At that time, you can punish me however you want. If you can beat me, silly chick. Now, get dressed and return to your party. I’m not interested in stealing your new comrades. They aren’t well-trained like your maids.”

“Teacher!” Blauw Ishikyy tilted her head to the right and admonished the naughty little black monster. Then, she put on a coquettish face and looked upturned at him as her torso slightly swung forwards left and right. “Ahem, Imperial Teacher. I will read every message you send me, I already promise. I also promise to keep my chastity. I know you told me to find my way, but… I believe I already did. Don’t worry, I’m living up for the 40%, hehehehe. Also, I will become the best of my class, institution, and… bah, and everything!”

“So, teacher,” Blauw Ishikyy pulled her arms up, making her tiny erasers tingle like bells, and asked with a small voice. “Can you hug me to wish me good, good luck?”

Rustle. Heian Ciemnosc said nothing and just smiled before taking the girl into his torso. She took a few seconds to react and wave her arms around his sides before hugging his lower back and pressing her right ear into his solar plexus. Heian Ciemnosc suddenly felt the young girl was calm again and that she was strangely not saying anything about her bum having hurt more than ever before. He had also increased the pain after she joined the army.

“Be good,” Heian Ciemnosc let go of her, even though her arms were still linked behind his back, and she delicately frowned, not wanting him to go. Yet, he was too strong and freed his body from her clutches. Not falling for her ‘about to cry’ appearance, he booped her nose and said before walking behind her. Blauw Ishikyy rubbed the tip of her nose with a grin before turning around, but Heian Ciemnosc was no longer in the bathroom with her.

Swoooshhh… Whooshh… “...” Suddenly, she felt like the bathroom was really alone, and put her fists on her waist with her lips pouting. After a while, she turned around, dressed up, and joined her roommates. She sat in a circle they’d made with her pajamas on and her waist moving on the ground a little as if she was very comfortable with her sea, which was just the floor. One of her roommates asked her out of curiosity. “My princess, are you feeling alright?”

“Bwah, what’s that addressing for? Yup! It’s all good. Just had an itch, hehe.” After responding to her, Blauw Ishikyy engaged in the girls’ night with Heian Ciemnosc, long gone.

. . .

Several days later, in the late night, just 10 minutes away from the first day of the 4th month. In the Wyrm Lord Nation’s ex-sea territory. The Blauw Empire’s sea southern sea territory borders.

“Submerge,” the slowly moving First fleet surrounded by a seemingly regular mist in their sea territory, from the Carrier at the very center of the fleet moved northwards. The Third Admiral, a middle-aged Demon in the Hana-Saga realm 1st stage, gave the order, and the team of experts commanding the Carrier at his every command nodded before relaying his orders. Soon after, as the Carrier ‘watched’ every other warship fall into the water, the Carrier was the last to follow as the Azure Dragon’s Bloodline in every warship connected with the endless Water particles around them.

… plop. Only after every warship disappeared from the surface did the mist above the water’s surface start thickening and spread everywhere in the Empire’s sea territory. The enemy side, patrolling from their waters or inland… wasn’t oblivious. The patrolling warships, each one top-notch, started retreating and transmitting alarming reports to the headquarters, only to be told to stop playing around and wait for any further change instead of wasting resources again.

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“... Hey! Hey! The warships from the southernmost borders have moved!” A patrolling enemy cultivator shouted, bringing attention to himself before other patrols took devices out of their Covert Space bags and looked in the southern direction of the sea. They saw shadows moving away from their borders as if they were retreating… it was a strange change… “!!”

However, the patrols didn’t waste time thinking, immediately thinking of the worst scenarios, just as they were trained. They started taking their medallions out and repeating the same report as any other inland patrol, warning for a possible sudden invasion after bombarding the seas and sending everyone backwards before it happened! However, it wasn’t that simple, and the response they got was to still wait and continue to observe.

Time passed, but nothing happened, and they could only see as an entire fleet from the Blauw Empire retreated to where the True Dragon House once was. After many reports of the Empire’s warships finally entered the headquarter’s brains, they finally ordered a retreat. The patrols weren’t slow to follow, and they started evacuating their fellow soldier units from the possible area of bombardment.

This took a little over a quarter of an hour, but even a few minutes later, when everyone was more than 10,000 kilometers away from the Blauw Empire’s southern sea territory, nothing happened. The inland wasn’t receiving reports of an incursion, and the waters were all tranquil, with that mist staying strong. But then, the mist started slowly dissipating, and to the startling surprise of the enemy, there was basically no one in the Empire’s southern sea territory.

“... Whats going on?! Why have you stopped reporting? What is it?! How many? What’s their intention?!” Many voices shouted from the patrols’ medallions, wanting to know why the other side grew quiet, but everyone was stupefied. It was simple. No one was there! What could they say? That they didn’t know? They’d be harshly punished or even killed just for not knowing where the Empire’s warships were. However, the Empire wouldn’t let them down, and they timely appeared in the water a few seconds later.

“!!!” From the water, in the Sand Emirate Grotto’s sea territory, dozens and dozens of warships resurfaced from under the water’s surface! This brought back horrible memories from a couple months ago! Everyone had watched the recorded footage from soldier units in the Blauw Empire’s sudden ‘declaration of war’ against the top 5 organizations. How could they not have gone through it also?

“Grotto Instructor! They are already here! They are in our sea territory. It’s all of them, an entire Fleet!! Send ev-” BOOM-... Ta rararararararararararararararara- Pum! Pum! Pum! Pum! Pum! Pum! Pum! Pum! Pum! Pum! Pum! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

Before the patrol could finish his words, the medallion broke into smithereens along with his body and disappeared from the world in a cloud of explosions. Artillery guns started firing everywhere as soon as the First fleet appeared in the enemy’s sea territory, and their toys started raining tongues of bullets, bizarrely flying from their barrels. Each Flotilla, Small, Medium, or Large, had a small hatch from which a Fighter or more came out. The Cruisers had the most Fighters within them, and they rapidly flew to the skies to start annihilating the enemy’s patrols nearby and defensive positions.

Fortresses, walls, and towers were immediately bombarded with their missiles, leaving the enemy helpless. The protective barrier array formations they placed didn’t last more than 3 seconds under even a Small Flotilla’s Fighters, let alone a Large one. But the worst was yet to come. As the enemy was barely starting to comprehend the situation, and the patrols were retreating with their lives on the line, the First fleet’s Carrier and its 2 Battleships were finally surfacing in the center of a defensive-aggressive formation.

Other than the Frigates, every other warship formed an outer, inner, and core circle with the Carrier in the middle as it came up to the surface. As soon as these behemoths appeared, they started accelerating towards the Green Emirate Grotto’s sea territory. The Destroyers broke the formation first as they joined their Frigates in taking the Sand Emirate Grotto’s sea territory. Meanwhile, the Cruisers accompanied the 2 Battleships and Carriers to the sea borders.

This way, the Carrier took less than an hour to get there with the aid of several Cruisers, as these returned to their Flotillas soon after, one by one, to support them and avoid any unnecessary casualties. The enemy was taken by surprise, but they were still prepared and had devised a plan for this matter. If the Empire continued leaving everything to the fragile Frigates and the capable but not heavily equipped Destroyers, like the Cruisers are, destruction would ensue.

“... Admiral, we’re ready to set the barrier!” In the Carrier’s central command, where the Admiral and his team of experts were, one of the latter spoke to the former with utmost respect. The middle-aged man slightly nodded, and that was enough for his team to start working on the prepared objective. The last 2 Cruisers left the Carrier and 2 Battleships’ sides, rapidly returning to the battlefield. While their 2 last guards left, the Admiral spoke to their Captains in command. “Good luck! We’ll get this over with soon so you can take a rest.”

“Aye!” - “Heard!” The 2 Cruisers’ Captains responded before zooming in the distance with the water in their favor. Then, the Admiral addressed his following words to the 2 battleships beside his warship. He didn’t need to establish communications as these 2 would always be at his command unless they were ordered by the Admiral in question to battle on their own. “Initiate Border Wall. Let’s turn these waters to the azure they deserve.”

“Understood, Admiral.” - “You got it, sir.” A male and female voice responded, respectively. Before long, the 2 battleships started moving as if by magnetism, literally sliding in the water as they clashed against the port side of the Battleships. The Battleships aimed all their toys at their west, and its keel started glowing pristine, starred azure color as a translucent, thin barrier took shape, starting from their port side.

It seemed like they were attempting to build a mobile wall to intercept the incoming enemy’s reinforcements. However, they left a 20 km gap between their bow and stern. Yet, the Carrier moved closer to that aperture and faced the incoming enemy with its bow as all its toys aimed directly ahead. Without doing anything else, the Carrier looked deathly threatening and imposing, but that wasn’t it.

Sliiiide~- whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!... The Carrier opened all its hatches, and more than ten thousand Fighters came out at once. However, instead of forming in any battle formation, they carried strange water-ish cubes from below with additional mechanical arms attached to their bellies. They flew tens of kilometers above the water's surface before dropping those strange things.

Whiiistleee~- phuag- splassshhh, splash, splash, splash~~!...

The water-ish cube thingies dropped on the thin, translucent barriers projected from the Battleships’ port side. The moment these things touched those barriers, they became liquefied and streamed down their thin structure. They rapidly gained color and volume as the Battleships started separating their respective bow and stern to a distance of over 1,000 kilometers. The Carrier remained in the center of their previous gap and advanced until its bow was just a few hundred meters from there, and as its Fighters returned to its interior hangar.

“... Admiral, several warships spotted ahead.” - “Sir, my crew has just noticed a large movement inland towards here. My spies tell me they were destined to secure the inland territory on the Sands’ side, but they were moved towards here at the last minute. They have equipment…” Suddenly, the Admiral received commands from the Battleships with him and frowned upon hearing them before falling silent.

“First, you are to take charge of both inland and sea threats. I will take more numbers with me this time. Leave me those I target. Second, focus on the outer sea and the enemy’s Fleets. Keep your spies informing us… We’ll be here for a while.” The Admiral commanded. The Battleships’ Rear Admirals knew what those words about staying here meant and that their only source of resupply would be the warships they would be protecting from an enemy incursion, which could happen and breach at any moment if they weren’t always at their limits.

“Even if it takes a while, oldie, we’ll just have to accompany each other until we get bored and decide to take enemy Fleets in their own territory… down!” The male Rear Admiral said, sounding quite emotional but held his tone down. The female Rear Admiral transmitted her lighter and still stern words right after to better the mood. “Woohoo! Victory awaits us. Whoever dies first doesn’t get to come back and drink the new liquor the little black monster brought to our people.”

“Hmf,” the middle-aged Third Admiral grinned and walked outside the central command’s module. Stepping outside the large cabin room afterwards, he stood out in the open, with his majestic Carrier facing the incoming enemy that were nothing more than dots for the moment. His face became more stern and solemn, imagining the following scenarios after taking position here. It had been many years since he became a Hana-Saga realm.

In previous encounters, he had faced the death of those who were more talented than him and whose capabilities were far above his. But they still died to a weapon, enemy, or a greater cultivator from many realms above theirs. What’s more, in the previous 2 wars involving the entire Kingdom, he saw other fellow brothers and sisters perish in the extermination of their previous forces. Those stronger than him were bathed in the enemy’s besieging tactics and bombardment from the enemy navy. It was all helpless.

But what the Third Admiral and any other Blauw Empire cultivator above the Neutrality realm feared the most was… not dying with a purpose. To be finished off without being able to at least sacrifice themselves for their home. However, with the recent years’ changes… he could be glad that he at least fought to the last breath if his moment came. But not before accomplishing something greater than himself before that. He can’t allow others to die and sacrifice themselves unless it is absolutely necessary.

Heian Ciemnosc has at least taught the new Blauw Empire’s forces this much. As for the Battleships’ Rear Admirals, any Admiral could call them either number, by their name, nickname, and so on. It didn’t matter. What mattered was comfort and efficiency, not some sort of limiting discipline.

…