And The Eyeseeking Region

The enemy was wiped out cleanly. The Empire's First and Second fleets slowly advanced into the enemy Region's territory. Meanwhile, the inhabitants of the Undermudmusk Region started panicking in the sea, fleeing in any possible direction, with half of them rushing eastwards, not even planning to return to the Undermudmusk Region. Their actions were only slightly curious in the Empire’s navy’s eyes.

The Universal Conveyance became available after the war, making information more easily spread, especially from the inhabitants of the Blauw Empire’s core. The vital passing of data was unstoppable, but the Empire’s hierarchy was already counting on that. They didn’t reveal too many things to their people and kept things confidential. Only something such as the new special forces and their 4 fleets besides the amphibious fleet were publicized, and so on.

It was more than standard for the neighboring Regions to respond this way, at least for their inhabitants. Thousands and thousands of boats flew away, be it from fishers or merchants. They sailed out of the Empire fleets’ path and cleared the trajectory to the shore. But the First and Second fleets weren’t allowed inside just because they could, and the Undermudmusk Region’s organizations started sending small forces to threaten the First and Second fleets.

Unfortunately for them, the Empire acted swiftly and accordingly to the enemy’s harassing their front. The Carrier and Battleships were no longer at the fore or in the middle’s vanguard but in the perfect center of their respective fleets. The Battleships were a distance of 1 kilometer fore the Carrier, at its sides, with most Cruisers remaining in the rear, while the rest of the Cruisers were at the vanguard, with most of the Frigates and Destroyers.

The Carrier was well protected, and their Fighters safer than ever. But as the enemy sent those harassing forces, the Small Flotillas rushed forth, letting their Fighters dash at the enemy while the Destroyers and Cruisers went all-out, except for using their LBFD rocket launchers, and dispatched those small enemy forces without suffering much. The sea-owners worldwide were still the Blauw Empire’s Azure Dragon’s Bloodline!

A couple hours were spent like this, with the main fleets staying on course while their Flotillas dealt with the enemy’s attempts at downing their numbers and/or delaying their arrival at the shores or any further into their territory. By then, the world knew the Warlord Blauw Empire had initiated another war, and although this one made sense, they were too brunt and inflexible as they wedged war in a peak medium Second Step organization. One could only wonder if they kicked a metal plate or were becoming a harder iron.

Nevertheless, after fruitlessly attempting to do damage or delay the Empire’s 2 fleets, the enemy no longer sent their soldier units and warships to die and started meeting in their ruling organization’s individual territory. Meanwhile, when the First and Second fleets were already near the shore, close enough to only need a few minutes to arrive at a range where they could bombard it as they did to the Undermudmusk Region’s Fleet they destroyed, the Empire’s navy noticed a few changes compared to the gathered intel from before.

The shores were all armored with multiple tanks, each one top-notch, just as their warships are. They had their barrels already aiming at the open sea, and hundreds of cultivators lined up behind them, up the beach, with their weapons out, and everyone was at least in the Broken Crystallization realm. With the strongest among them were a few in the Hana-Saga realm.

One side looked at the other, and vice versa. The Empire’s fleets had gone through the enemy sea territory and arrived hundreds of kilometers before the beach. They could start advancing at any moment and initiate this stand-off to see who could be more destructive. While the Empire’s fleets were confident, they weren’t stupidly arrogant. On the other hand, the enemy was stern and strict. They looked at the fleets, no longer sending any other small force from their Region, and looked at their warships without showing underestimation.

This was different from before. The Blauw Empire’s navy was now facing an entire full-fledged Second Step organization, nothing the exterminated top 5 organizations over the peak of the First Step could compare. Just as the Blauw Empire gained tens and tens of millions of troops, the Undermudmusk Region’s ruling organization had its few tens of millions of soldier units. And this was without counting their vassals.

And while the Blauw Empire’s vassals weren’t here… yet. The Undermudmusk Region was prepared to receive the Empire’s forces with theirs, go all-out, and take the initiative away from the Empire’s hands. However, movement was spotted from the enemy ranks, and one of their commanders seemed to want to say something, with Craftspeople following him, writing array formations’ inscriptions. Probably to warn the Empire’s navy once more. If they could make the Blauw Empire retreat after losing too many Fleets to them and more naval units, this could be considered a relieving win.

The Empire’s Second Admiral narrowed her eyes, and before the enemy commander on the beach could say a thing, she nodded as her Soul fluctuations connected with those of the Third Admiral through their Carrier’s communication channel and said. “Engage.”

Swuoooshhhh, swuoooshhh, swuuusshhh!! The First and Second fleets moved together, forming a stretched-out line, and began advancing together. Their speed was ostensibly slow, but the enemy on the beach was slightly confused. After half a minute, the enemy started deploying their troops even more thinly, and reinforcements came from inland to increase their numbers. Meanwhile, the First and Second fleets continued to face the shore with their port or starboard sides.

The Empire’s Carriers, Battleships, and Cruisers formed an extremely long line, with several Frigates and Destroyers between each big baby. The enemy became increasingly anxious as they watched the Empire’s warships form a line nearly completed. And as they finally finished it, the enemy troops started hurrying from one side to another, spreading to cover the beach, with their tanks rushing from inland while aiming at the sea.

Ta- rarararararararararararararararararar~~!! Pum! Pum! Pum! Pum!...

“AAAGGH!” - “They’ve started, fuck! Where’s the array formations!” - “They are arriving, sir- no! One of their tanks was just destroyed!” - “Another one! We are being actively targeted, damn it!” - “Were we too slow? Damn it…” - “Retreat!” - “Keep firing. Take down those fuckers! We’re retreating!” - “AAAAH!” - “Missiles incoming!” - “Energy barriers, now!” - “Too late- NOOO!”

The enemy forces on the ground weren’t that many, to begin with. The First and Second fleets extended hundreds and hundreds of kilometers, taking the Undermudmusk Region’s ruling organization’s shore, the most important one in the entire Region. The enemy was nearly immediately routed. They resisted a few minutes of bombardment and insane mauling of their bodies to the ground, forming part of the arena and soon becoming grains of sand among the lot.

Some enemy barrels from their tanks reached them, but other than that, nothing happened to the Empire’s navy. Even some of the Frigates’ shields were left untouched. The enemy was evidently not well-prepared for a naval battle, much less to defend against one. The Blauw Empire’s offensive was from the simplest of war games, and the Undermudmusk Region was losing them already.

“Advance… !!” The Admirals ordered their fleets, and their warships moved sideways towards the shore. The sea became silent, but the beach continued echoing with silence. Nobody felt amazed that they targeted the enemy’s Craftspeople, who were brought forth with tanks against warships. It was plain stupid, but more than anything, it was effortless on the Empire’s part to hack into their communications systems when the enemy was this unsophisticated and lacked Craftspeople.

“Activate the Elemental Water Eye!!” However, when the Second Admiral heard closely, her eyes widened, and she shouted her command. Her fleet followed without hesitation, with the First fleet taking a couple seconds longer as a barrier spread from one extreme to the other, even waving depending on the movement of their warships. Their previously known Border Walls were now used and being called by their name, such as it is!

PUMMM! Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang!! RIPPLEEE~! SWUUSH SWUUSH!

“!!” The Second Admiral’s eyes widened as she watched the First fleet’s Elemental Water Eye bombarded just as it was forming their barrier. The water before them rippled after hundreds of artillery shells blasted exactly above the First fleet’s Carrier, fortunately, blocked by the Elemental wall as the Second Admiral’s breathing recomposed as soon as the banging sounds went off.

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The water’s surface roared stronger than it already was but didn’t become more threatening and only bashed about for a couple seconds as the smoke dissipated on the First fleet’s Elemental Water Eye. Their Elemental barrier quickly formed to its full brunt, and the First fleet continued their course while the Second fleet slowed down to synchronize their movement. Without needing to exchange information, the Admirals looked at each other’s direction before nodding.

Pum! Pum! Pum! Pum! Pum! Pum! The enemy tanks and helicopters kept firing. The latter’s speed was too fast, so the Empire’s big babies’ arsenal aimed at the tanks, whose speed was negligible with their low nimbleness. The enemy shelling started slowing the First and Second fleet’s advancement, while their numbers increased with a higher volume of vehicles and mobile protective array formations moving forwards to defend the danger spots where the Empire navy could attack and destroy their side.

While the Empire was being slowed down, and more so as more enemy tanks and helicopters arrived to support the defensive position further up the beach, the enemy was also being struck with severe casualties as their tanks became a hole in the sand and a few helicopters fell and exploded in pure energy blasting in implosions nonstop. The beach and sea territory became an exchange for raining bullets, shells, missiles, anti-missile turrets’ ammunition, and flying energy attacks.

“... Keep going, keep the Empire this way. A meeting has been scheduled in 3 days’ time. We will convince our neighbors to help us, or else!” The enemy commander ordered his troops in a global channel through their medallions after seeing they were stopping the Empire’s advancement at times, feeling satisfied with himself. But then, he felt something strange. His eyes widened, and he looked to the sides, trying to find something… anything that could tell him what could be happening.

He found nothing, however, and faced one of his direct subordinates before saying to him with a somber tone. “Send scouts to watch the sides. We won’t be pincered. If we allow these fishes to beat us at our best while we are defeating them in what they’re best at, it will be for nothing! They are not our match on land, but we can’t let them do as they please… Send them!”

“Yes, boss!” The direct subordinate nodded, saluted, turned around, nodded at his replacement, and rushed towards the individual territory to send scouts everywhere to the east and west. This wasn’t a flawed move, and it was already something happening, especially by the other vassal or allied organizations to the ruling organization, but putting more effort into sending scouting parties alarmed every other commander near their leader. They couldn’t underestimate the Blauw Empire!

***

Northeastern ocean. Free territory, 8 hours after the first battle of the Blauw Empire against the Undermudmusk Region.

The sky said it was night-time, but the lights flashing from the water’s surface indicated a lot of light underneath it. Warships came closer to one another from different sides. An entire fleet approached the Eyeseeking Region. The latter responded, sending half a Fleet to meet the suspicious fleet head-on. After the Undermudmusk Region was brutally defeated and their forces run over by the Empire’s 2 fleets, the adjacent Regions took precautions.

However, not only were they worried about the Empire possibly harming them in the ‘confusion’ or something. They were also eyeing the Undermudmusk Region. One of these Regions was the Eyeseeking Region, one of the 2 northeastern Regions in the ocean between the Far East Region and a few others. The other was the Lightglassed Region, which was farther to the east than the Eyeseeking Region.

To the Far East Region, these were known to be in the far north, far northeast, and so on. The Undermudmusk Region was the far north Region and the farthest away from the Far East Region. The other 2 were the far northeastern Regions, and they were neighbors and rivals who often fought with each other over the centuries. It wasn’t something deciding or critical, but it sometimes decided certain factors.

Unlike the Far East Region, which was isolated from having any Region as an actual neighbor, their only neighbors inland were the western Regions, far from it. It only suffered under heavy internal strife, worst.

At this moment, the Eyeseeking Region’s half-a-Fleet met the incoming fleet, and to their fearful hearts, their minds numbed when they saw the Blauw Empire’s emblem on every warship. The mediocre night-concealing array formation rapidly crumbled and revealed the Empire’s warships as they were. The Eyeseeking Region’s Fleet commander wasn’t present, and they only had 1 Supreme class Battleship. Their second-in-command wanted to open fire and destroy this Blauw Empire’s fleet, but his mind struggled with possibilities.

“Blauw Empire, you’re here for some reason. What is it?!” In the end, the second-in-command said, asking with a half-threatening, half-cooperative tone. Silence ensued, however, and the Eyeseeking’s half-a-Fleet felt their nerves becoming tenser, with some crew members even sweating and gulping at the prospect of facing the Blauw Empire from what they thought would be an opportunistic neighbor Region getting the coordinates wrong when a Region is being attacked by another. It wouldn’t be the first time in this ocean.

“Here is the Blauw Empire’s Third Fleet. We want to pass into this sea territory to attack our enemy’s inland territory.” The Fourth Admiral’s voice sounded in the Eyeseeking’s Battleship cabin. The second-in-command closed his eyes and seemed half-relieved to hear those words. But this couldn’t be all. The second-in-command said, “You’re speaking of a trade, yes? What are you willing to exchange? This is but a Region contacting another, after all.”

“Peace after we conquer the Undermudmusk… Region,” the Fourth Admiral’s voice sounded, eliciting some creepy meaning as he took his sweet time to finish the sentence as if debating on which word to use. The second-in-command sweated this time, losing the low morale that his people already had when they saw his face getting drenched. The second-in-command wanted to retort, to ask for more, but thankfully, a message came from his medallion, and he became peaceful. He felt his skin refresh and his mind cool as he talked into the communication channel. “Come inside. We’ll return first and await for you near our base, past the strongholds.”

“Understood, we’ll follow after you,” the Fourth Admiral responded. Thus, the Eyeseeking Region’s warships returned at maximum speed, while the Third fleet moved at a regular pace.

Gradually, the Third fleet made its course through the Eyeseeking Region. There were multiple strongholds installed here and there, like tiny islands made from materials, some floating and others with pillars submerged until meeting the bottom of the sea, several kilometers down the surface. The Third fleet admired them but noticed something due to these things, and that was that, although the Eyeseeking Region wasn’t as bad in naval forces as the Undermudmusk Region, they were still not decent.

It could be seen by how immensely useful those strongholds look, with a semi-circular shape, built like a fortress, and the sockets where their arsenal could peek could be rotated to allow for quick replacement and consistent firepower. Not all were top-notch, however, and only those that were had multiple layers of protection, physical, and array formations. Some of which came out of hiding and aimed at the Third fleet’s warships, seemingly out of security measures… and to provoke them.

Unfortunately for them, perhaps, the Blauw Empire’s training was too tough for these measly notions to even prickle their mindset. The Third fleet slowly came closer to the Eyeseeking Region’s beaches, where a larger and more potent stronghold extended from the beach to several kilometers into their sea territory. The Fourth Admiral looked behind the stronghold, and his eyes narrowed as he calculated the distance between it and the Eyeseeking Region’s individual territory.

“... Eh, look! Why are they sinking more than usual? Aren’t these top-notch? They look top-notch, though!” - “... Those are top-notch, but this… that’s unusual.” - “Yeah, what I said, so?” Atop the gigantic stronghold, forming their beach into a massive fortress that no Fleet could dream of assaulting, cultivators chatted among each other after news of the Blauw Empire’s appearance and came to see the appearance of these seemingly fierce top-notch warriors in the entire world.

“This… isn’t good. We should, maybe, alert our superiors.” - “Hm, they are sinking too much. Why is it that?” - “Could they have malfunctioned and want our help? Will we become allies?” - “It’s too suspicious…” - “Damn! Why are we getting military orders? What’s going on! “ - “Yup, the medallion heated up like crazy. What is-”

Trrrururu, ssshcckk… Ta- rararararararararararararara!! SPLASH SPLASH SPLASH SPLASH SPLASH SPLASH SPLASH SPLASH~~! Pum, pum, pum, pum, pum, pum, pum, pum…!

The beach stronghold suddenly took its weapons out as the cultivators operating them became hectic, but just as they were nearly finished aiming at the Empire’s Third fleet, thousands of Frigates, hundreds of Destroyers, and dozens of Cruisers surfaced from underwater, and the Third fleet fired all-out against the beach stronghold! From behind, battling sounds between another fleet and the stronghold could be heard, accompanied by the terrible sounds of speed, moving at maximum in the way only the Blauw Empire’s navy can!

At the same time, the Third fleet started blasting to pieces the front of the beach stronghold, destroying the weapons that just came out of hiding, and launched missiles to destroy the pillars and cores of array formations for pulling into the sky with some Elemental particles involved for emergency situations. In just a swift set of 10 seconds, the entire Eyeseeking Region became a sea territory riddled with intense naval battles, and their utmost defensive stronghold was half-destroyed as everything fell to the water! The beach! And the enemy cultivators could only feel their hearts drop!

BOOM, POOM, BOOOM BOOOOOOOM~!! WHIIIIISTLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEHH~! CRASSHSHHSHSHSHSHHHHHH~~~~~!!!

“... We’re under attack! Under attack! Every soldier unit, regroup yourself to the beach strongh- NOOOO!! Dammit aaaaaaaall!!”

…