Captain Hylen looked towards the distant fields. Last night, they received a warning about the rampaging monsters in the south. Fort Uwah was lost with the small town that grew in its vicinity. The monsters had already begun their assault on the city under his protection and the situation was grim. They were spared casualties so far, but unfortunately, in the next few hours, that was going to change.

"We have managed to hide the women and children in the temple, Lord's mansion, and in the town hall, Captain!" The young officer reported. "The Lord left most of his guards in his mansion and told us they would suffice for the last stand. He, also, begrudgingly agreed to stay behind so we can focus on the protection of the city. He wanted to help us, Sir."

"Most?" The Captain turned his head towards the sergeant and ignored the last remark.

"Yes, Sir! The rest of them were sent to the temple and the town hall. The guilds send their staff members there as well, so the soldiers and adventurers can reinforce the soldiers on the walls."

"Excellent! I'm so glad that Viscount Kornalion listened..." He looked at the fields torn by an occasional explosion when a more powerful spell hit the monsters. The monster bands were still manageable for the archers and mages but that was going to change very soon.

"It's not good, sir, is it?" The sergeant looked out of the battlements of the southern tower.

"I don't know, Josh..." The Captain sighed. "We received the message that our Navy is coming. By coincidence, the five ships were in the area but they will only provide us with a little additional firepower."

"Why?" The sergeant's voice was disappointed.

"They are returning from a peace conference that was held by the Arcadians. Lady Vettalia and Lord Guad are on board." Hylen shook his head. "It's a miracle they will even come to our aid."

"Well... Then we should be glad even for that." The Sergent suddenly brightened. "If we hold long enough, they could, at least, evacuate the children!"

"Hmmm... You are right." The Captain sighed and shook his head. "Now we must hold long enough. But I don’t think they will make it. The wind has been blowing south since yesterday so they will be delayed..."

No one had to say it loud, but they knew exactly what that meant: the airships might not arrive at all. The both of them eyed a huge horde that was approaching from the south. The monsters moved through the dense forest so their approach was unnoticed until they were merely ten kilometres away. The mages noticed the new monsters and they ceased attacking those few that roamed the fields near the city to preserve their mana. The archers continued to target monsters that circled helplessly near the city moat. The main force that approached the city looked like a rising ocean tide. More and more monsters of various shapes and sizes emerged from the forest and it seemed like that tide would have no end. They rushed towards the city, falling into a few pit traps the defenders managed to prepare earlier, but it was just an insignificant droplet in this tide of fangs and claws.

It certainly was one of the biggest tides in the history of Metaka. Tens of thousands of monsters were impossible to stop and the defenders knew they wouldn't even kill enough of them to make any difference. Nonetheless, no one tried to run or hide. The town's militia was mixed with the regular soldiers of the Metakan army and those terrified men bravely watched the approaching wave that was about to devour their city. Despite all odds, everyone knew that as long as they fought, their families might survive. As soon as the monsters were in range, the archers switched their targets and began shooting at the main horde using their most devastating skills. The mages, whose range was far shorter, joined soon after. The explosions shook the ground, killing dozens of monsters at the same time, but that wasn't enough. What was worse, Hylen noticed in the distance the flying monsters that rapidly approached the city. The sudden commotion rose over the walls and Hylen couldn't tell what was going on until a runner arrived with the news.

"Goblins! Goblins are filling the moat, Sir!"

"Fuck! Send mages’ reinforcements there! They must stop them!" The Captain ordered and grabbed his pendant.

Suddenly, all fighting ceased as everyone heard the distant, ominous music. Something huge was emerging over the horizon...

•••

The space near Aoi's throne on the bridge was more crowded than usual. Cassmira, Mia, Tia, Rose, and Leonard were all standing nearby and observed the screens. The covert team, they dropped earlier, had already managed to infiltrate the Dungeon, but they hadn't found anything unusual yet. The Arcadian flagship and its fleet had travelled at full speed the entire night. These leaders all gathered to see how bad the city's situation was and how Janet was going to deal with the monster tide. Unsurprisingly, the First Fleet arrived long before the Metakans.

"We managed to arrive in time, Ma'am!" The excited voice of the first officer disturbed the silence of the bridge and Princess Cassmira loudly exhaled in relief. "It looks like the walls are still intact and the main horde just arrived a few moments before us but the Goblins are filling in the city's moat."

"We have hostiles incoming from three o'clock! Engaging CIWS!" The tactical officer marked the targets for the defence weapons' gunners. "Fire solutions ready, all command is yours, Ma'am!"

Dauntless' starboard flashed with the deadly light of a working CIWS. The rotary guns spew hundreds of Arcane Bullets spells towards the approaching threat. The monsters looked like some kind of a huge bat but only for a moment. Upon being hit by the merciless wall of CIWS's fire, the monsters were shredded into unrecognisable pieces. Even through the thick hull protecting the bridge, the sharp 'brrrrrr' of the multi-barrelled turrets was easily audible.

"Let's make some noise..." Janet grinned viciously. "Set the mood, Lieutenant. Let them hear us coming... Play The Ride of the Valkyries through the external speakers."

"Aye, aye, Ma'am!" The communication officer grinned and flipped a switch on her console.

A melody started playing outside the mighty airship but all the bridge officers smiled with delight. The music, like a rolling thunder, spread over the forests and fields, finally reaching the distant city. Everyone on the bridge immediately knew they were heard because the fighting ceased. With a flicker of her hand, the Admiral opened a huge screen that showed the dark tide of various monsters creeping towards the city. However, the view zoomed out, giving them a better picture from an Eagle's point of view. The smaller screens showed the various weapon systems of Dauntless and the rest of the fleet.

"They are too close to the city, Ma'am!" The warning came from the sensor officer.

"Then we need to encourage them to come to us. Fleet coms." The Admiral almost sighed. "All units goes to weapons free. I repeat, weapons free."

The turrets smoothly moved as the ships nearby started picking up their targets. Soon, all ships of the First Fleet, except Dauntless, opened fire with their primary weapons. The explosions tore craters in the monster horde as ships manoeuvred - seemingly to prepare to release infantry.

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"Main guns." Janet almost dismissively marked targets for all cannons of the main battery, and enormous turrets started moving. "Fire."

The deafening roar of the main guns of Dauntless hit them just before the ship shook violently under the recoil. However, compared to the smaller ships, Dauntless’ engagement was mass devastation. Hundreds if not thousands of monsters died in an instant. While the frigate and destroyers hammered the monster horde with a relentless stream of fire, it wasn't as effective. Soon, the secondary and tertiary weapon systems came to life and scorched the very earth under the enemy army. The monsters, seeing that the ships were descending, turned around and started rushing towards Arcadians.

"This is going to take the entire day..." Aoi sighed and grimaced painfully, seeing the effects of the fleet's attack.

"The horde moved far enough from the city, Ma'am!" That was exactly what the Admiral was waiting to hear.

Suddenly, the entire horde was covered in crimson red targeting reticles. The Admiral smiled viciously, like a predator seeing a helpless prey, and her eyes sparkled with joy.

"I am Doom." Janet flipped a switch on her console which was built into the armrest of her command throne; a red button flashed with a warm light.

The screen that displayed the view from the bow zoomed in and everyone held their breath. The view showed the small hatches, sixty-four in total, closed and the deck that was cleared of personnel. Only a few red warning lamps blinked ominously.

"I am Death." The Admiral pressed the button that flashed invitingly.

With a smooth and precise motion, all sixty-four launchers opened one by one in the sequence and the mighty dreadnought's front deck disappeared, covered in flames. Everyone looked shocked at the display as the low rumbling roar travelled through the Dauntless superstructure. Before anyone could truly panic, the first missiles started leaving their launcher cells. The sharp-nosed cylinders deceivingly slowly climbed into the air, leaving the battleship one by one. As the first missile had already left its launcher, its booster came to life with a terrifying roar and a deafening boom. One by one, the UCMS-1 missiles sped toward the monster horde that paused to look at Dauntless as it was covered in flames and smoke. The mighty battleship shook under the stress of recoil but, as Ragnar promised, everything worked perfectly. The missiles' exhaust fumes dissipated quickly, mostly thanks to the speed of Dauntless and the frontal wind.

"Bow VLS empty, Ma'am. The launchers are cooling, no structure damage, and we are cooling from the excess heat. We will be reloading the launchers in five minutes. Mages report a minor fluctuation within the ship's matrix." The ship's system officer reported as she raised her head from the large display showing the monster horde in the distance.

The Admiral did not reply but the officer wasn't really waiting for any kind of acknowledgement. Everyone watched in anticipation as the missiles were accelerating faster than anyone could believe was possible for anything that wasn't magic towards the monsters. Despite being able to use complicated trajectories, the UCMS-1 current path was simple- almost crude. The simplistic ballistic trajectories, plotted by the weapon system's officers, guided each of the missiles over a part of the monster horde. As each missile reached its coordinated arrival, they all seemingly detonated. Each of the sixty-four deadly cylinders opened, releasing much smaller objects that spread over the entire area and fell like rain.

Less than one heartbeat later, the entire landscape ceased to exist.

A massive explosion shook the ground and it seemed as if the ground itself rose. The violent shock wave barely shook the massive airship, however, the matrix adapted and inertia dampeners reduced the impact. Not a moment later, a wall of flames scorched the air. The debris flew everywhere and a fiery inferno consumed the very earth. Nothing should survive that explosion and the first readings from Dauntless' sensors confirmed exactly that. In absolute silence, everyone looked at Janet who started laughing.

"Status?" She asked, still madly laughing.

"Ninety-five percent neutralised, Ma'am." The radar officer reported with a very sheepish voice.

"Avalon is hailing us, Ma'am!" The communication officer chimed in, very, very nervously.

She flipped a switch without even waiting for permission. The holographic Theon Avalon appeared in the middle of the bridge and looked down at the Admiral who flinched under his gaze. He was standing tall and looked at the Admiral with a disappointed gaze with his arms crossed in front of him.

"It was worth it, my Lord!" She grinned, making him sigh heavily.

The Emperor shook his head, and after a moment, he took a deep breath.

"Oh, I'm glad you all are having fun out there, but I must remind you: Missiles. Do. Not. Grow. On. Trees. Janet." He accented every word. "Yes, you provided me with a lot of mana but I'm not sure if that was necessary."

"I would argue with you, my Lord." Janet cleared her throat and straightened on her command throne. While everyone held their breath, the Emperor simply raised his brow but said nothing. "The news about this will spread over Aderon and everyone will think twice before declaring war on us, my Lord!"

"Technically you are right." He admitted. "But you could have achieved the same effect using your main guns and ordering the fleet to follow suit. Yes, it would take a bit more time but the effects would be the same. Don't expect to receive replacements for the munitions you used anytime soon. We don't have the manpower available to build any quickly, and even if I told Ian to focus on the production of munitions, we don't have that many resources to spare." He shook his head one more time and looked at the Empress. "Speaking of resources, I'm leaving it to you to negotiate with Metakans regarding the payment for our intervention, Aoi. We accept steel and mithril. Optionally gold and orichalcum. Also, I'm saying, in advance, we can't sell them this weapon for now."

"Yes, Theon..." The Empress replied sheepishly, but most of the people could relate to her current mood.

•••

The entire ship was unnaturally quiet. At first, the people were scared of the power they helped unleash. However, the more time passed, the more bold statements were heard across the battleship, with people being absolutely confident in the power of their Emperor. Soon, most of the personnel were happy that Arcadia possessed a weapon so destructive. Thanks to that, they hoped that their families and their children could live in safety. The price of attacking Arcadia would be too high to pay. However, the quiet and thoughtful atmosphere was interrupted by orders coming from the Lady Admiral. All available teams were sent to the surface to directly confirm the weapon's effectiveness. Surprisingly, they found some loot left by the defeated monsters which was a nice bonus. While it was rather trash on its own, everything was collected from the field to be delivered and smelted in Avalon once the fleet returned home.

The teams were looking to clean up any pieces of the missiles, which took them most of the day, but they found nothing. As the First Fleet lazily drifted a few hundred metres from the traumatised city, no one dared to ask Arcadians what they were doing there. No one even dared to interrupt the soldiers and sailors during their search. The city's officials, most likely, tried to figure out what to do with a fleet that could potentially annihilate them on a whim. In the meantime, the Metakan airships arrived and their flagship approached Dauntless. The fact that their Navy's ships were allowed to approach the Arcadian behemoth, finally provoked the response from the city. The city gates opened and a reasonably big detachment left the city towards the two flagships. They ignored the ground teams but they were visibly jumpy every time one of the Arcadian destroyers fired their main guns and destroyed remnants of the monster horde. Before anyone from the city reached the airships, however, a boarding ramp connected the flagships.

"What in the world happened here?" It was the first thing that Guad asked as he set foot on board Dauntless.

"Arcadia used their newest weapon to destroy the monster's army..." Leonard replied with a hard-to-read facial expression.

"That must have been a horrifying battle, brother..." Guad looked down and trembled. "I can't imagine how many people died..."

"People?" Leonard raised his gaze toward Guad and, in the meantime, as Vettalia joined them he continued. "Oh, no... No one died on our side. I'm not even sure it was a battle. Brother, Sister, Never. Provoke. Arcadia. Never ever..."

Leonard looked at his siblings with the begging gaze of a man who had seen something he shouldn't have ever seen.

"Don't ask me about this weapon because I don't know anything besides how devastating and terrifying it was. However, once the First Fleet of Arcadia returns home, pay very close attention to the report from Kornal. Don't discard them, no matter how improbable they seem. Look at this barren wasteland and remember this sight."

"Why are you telling us this?" Guad lowered his voice as they moved towards the familiar hangar.

"Because, in a moment, Empress Aoi will issue you a bill for Arkadia's intervention. Trust me, paying it, no matter how high it is, will be in Metaka's best interest."