The 7tth day of the Fourth Cycle of the Year 1854. Isakov takes a look at the mini-islands that they were tasked to subdue. Leading the charge is the Grand-Galleon of Milostiv, pulling a pykrete-made barge carrying thirty-two heavily armored Treant Company.

They found tribes of demikin in the area. Demikins who are naturally the enemies of the Lighthouse Fleet ever since they started to travel the seas. Isakov has never been the kind to think about it. All he knows is that if they don’t get rid of the enemy. The enemy will strike first.

Aeka, the windcaster, and his friend Milles scour the area. Recent improvements have made things easier for them. But it never made him feel right about what they have been doing.

The Fleet has made a home of the Tundrae. Like a source where they’ll find improvement on their fleet. It has been like that for the last few years. The improvements has made them eager to try out their new weapons and even improve their ships, who are now safely guarded in the Jagged Fjords after the Arkshelled Island, using its enormous size and strength made a pathway.

It was the first time he saw the island in action. Sometimes, he forgot that the island can be taller than a mountain and now they were fighting the demikins who couldn’t reach the skies.

The skyships have been instrumental in their campaign. The first campaign that the Lighthouse Fleet has initiated on their own ever since the blinder was awake.

“We got monsters in the area. They haven’t been able to detect us.”

“How could they?” Isakov said. “Can they see through the clouds?”

One of the new tactics voted on by the fleet is the use of the skyvers as an aerial regiment to soften the enemy while the cannons of the Grand-Galleon rain artillery fire on the island.

From above they can see the fleet taking a proper formation while hiding behind a huge chunk of land that covers the field of view. Isakov had taken officers of war, and even had the Doctor take notes on the position of the islands and how many they are.

The Shatran Islands. They call it that way after one of the demikins that they captured shouted it at them. The demikin was as tall as them. It works tribal garb and holds tattoos that are intricate. After the fleet was done with the demikin, they had the demikin summarily executed.

It was cruel. But they had to clean up every witness they could. The Tundrae was infested with local tribesmen that hid using this complex underground system that has hundreds of entrances and pathways. If it wasn't for the help of the sprites, then the fleet would have not noticed the legion of enemies living in the island.

They had companies sent alongside Treants and Vitae-wielding elven kin to help in wiping out the indigenous demikins. Driving them away from their homes and throwing them into this large ditch that they have been thrown to be killed.

The Doctor insisted on a less painful method. But he was rejected by the council who deemed it wasteful to spend resources on the death of the lesser creatures.

They dropped this black oil on their body and lit them up. This black oil that they found lit them up and Isakov could still remember their screams as their thick bodies crumbled into ashes. Their beady little eyes and pus-ridden skin boiling.

After ashes were left. The rest of the crew hauled their ashes to the island to be made as fertilizer for the plants. The rest of the demikins were fed to the stomach of the Arkshelled in hopes that it would nourish the beast.

Tied with thick ropes. Hundreds of demikins were led to the mouth of the beast and devoured, sacrificed to nourish the beast. He didn’t think it was senseless. Though from what he could tell, the Elven-kin ritually sacrificed their souls to strengthen the vitality of the island. According to Aeka, it has an effect where it will nourish the soul of the Arkshelled.

The changes were visible and from the looks of things. The company’s planning to offer the islands to the Arkshelled in order to strengthen and enlarge the already mountain-size island that they live on.

Isakov didn’t want to debate whether it was righteous or not. Whether they had the right to slaughter and sacrifice the lives of the demikins. He wasn’t delusional enough to believe that in the eyes of the neutral, they are nothing more than mass-murderers of those who couldn’t even fight back.

The damning thing was that he couldn’t take pity on them. They were different and they were the enemies that covered the world into a perpetual dimness.

That’s what he thinks when they are doing the job. Isakov held no fondness of the Demikin and his crew thought of them as what they are in the eyes of the fleet.

They are the enemy.

That’s all there is to it. Hideous disease-ridden enemies that are nothing more than another obstacle for the fleet to rule this region and take what it has and claim it for themselves.

“How is the height?” Isakov asked.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Milles takes a glance at the drop and then checks the instruments on the fleet.

“We might need to adjust so that the bombs hit.”

He turned to Aeka. “How about on your side?”

“I can direct them to hit what they need to hit.”

Isakov nodded and turned towards his crew.

“Listen up! The fleet wants these creatures dead. You have been briefed about the plan and if our scouts are right, then we might encounter their warband here, the ones ruling these seas. The plan is simple. We soften them up with bombs, lit their trees and settlements up on fire and when the fire dies out, they, who are exhausted from their attempt to save their homes. We will send the Armored Treants Company to crush their defenders and force them to surrender. The Council wants them preferably alive. But that is an option request that will not be enforced unless necessary.”

Everyone silently acknowledged and got into position. Milles prepared the bombs and held the lever tightly. Isakov raises his hand, waiting for Aeka’s words of power and then releases the firebombs on the dense parts of their island. The rest of the skyvers who are hovering above the islands followed.

It was simply a terror beyond any words. Dozens of islands were lit up. The fire spread immediately, the dried trees becoming their fiery cage as their godless kind gathered in the center where they held their heads up high and prayed to whatever God they worshiped for their salvation.

Their God didn’t hear them.

The forces that were expected to come didn’t arrive. Although they have seen vessels that seem to be their boats. They were unable to cross the seas in large quantities. They weren’t the sea-kin and upon further observation. The Treants that landed on their beaches after the fire subsided noticed that most of them were amphibians. They had gills on their necks that allowed them to swim underwater.

And then they appeared on the barges. They threw their spears on the Treants, only for their poor weapons to bounce off the metal plates the Treants carried.

The appearance of the Treants reminisce about the old knights. But they were walking ten foot tall giants that moved nimbly despite their sizes. From above, they could see the approach of the demikins hiding in the corals below the island. With the airships acting as their eyes on the skies. The treants moved to a defensive position and unleashed the rotary gatling guns that are operated by the elven-kin who are making use of the autonomy of the treant to crank the gun.

It was a massacre. Despite the overwhelming horde that came crawling out of the woodwork. The Armored Treants met the wave like rocks against the waves. The ships overwatching them fired artillery fire. The skyships who had spare bombs dropped their load on the seemingly endless creatures.

When their ammo ran out. Isakov requested his fellow skyships to drop their ammunition boxes that are located on the back of the treant. Using cloth to slow down the fall of the ammunition. The Treants, with their blades out, moved to the location where the ammunition were dropped and loaded their back full of ammo. The sprites do the meticulous work of feeding the armored treants their bullets.

Not that they relied on the gatling gun installed on their forearms. The Armored Treants fought by speaking words of power. Raising the earth, and conjuring fire and wind as they reap through the endless demikins.

With their guns loaded. The armored company of treants massacred the endless sea of demikin until the only thing they could sniff in the air was the gore and blood of the demikins who fought.

The Grand-Galleon of Milostiv sent a rifled company and started searching the place. The divers who were armed to the teeth were sent on their underwater colonies, honoring their Whaler Ancestors.

Explosives were planted in their homes. Those who were clearly not warriors of their tribe tried to run, but were caught by the longboats who threw their nets and dragged them to the beach where they were surrounded by the dead of their kin.

The Shatran Islands consisted of about hundreds of islands. But seeing the amount demikin amphibians that came out. The fleet decided to reassess their strategies and sent out warriors who specialized in searching the places where the monsters were.

Guns are not as effective underwater. So the fight was mostly led by the Elven-kin who fearlessly sunk their Treants and Vitae to fight the colonies living underwater.

For four days, the cleansing of the Shatran Islands became a bloody affair. The fleet had underestimated their number and because of it they were taking too long in massacring the creatures of the interstice.

By the third week. The dead numbered thousands and the ones driven out of their coral colonies were dragged like beaten animals and were ritually offered to the Arkshelled Island.

The seakin varied in forms and Demikins seemed to have realized that they were being butchered. Readied their bands and sent their bands to annihilate the attacking forces.

But even their spells couldn’t reach the skies. Behind the cover of the clouds, they dropped bombs on them. The Armored Treants emptied their ammo crates and left a trail of bullets and corpses.

Their towering figure smothered with the gore of the enemies. The rest of the Treants who were sent to clean up made use of this fire-throwing devices that threw flammable sludges using a piston on the enemy. Burning their flesh to ashes.

The fire-wielding giants was accompanied by a Treant that carried containers of it.

By the end of the month after the campaign started. Most of the Shatran Islands were burnt wastelands. The islands that had resources were spared while the islands that were nothing more than habitats of the demikins were burnt.

It was a thorough cleansing. Anything non-human and non-elven were executed and sacrificed. The fleet started from the mini-islands and after making a landing stage on these mini-islands. The other ships of the fleet would land the soldiers and create a camp that would act as a deployment zone.

As the fleet continues to advance to the larger islands of the Shatran Region. Outposts and camps were established. Treantlers were used to carry supplies from the main fleet. The fast-moving ships carried most of them while the skyship used its ability to flight to deliver the packages to these camps.

With the tiny islands conquered. The destroyers of the fleet moved to the strategic locations and started what they did best. Point their cannons on the Shatran Island and start their bombardment.

Tearing the land apart, forcing the demikins to come out of their holes and fight.