I was broadcasting my Commune to all the Whale Emperors, who were impressed by the incredible breadth of my Awareness of everything in the sea and sky and earth all around, despite all their age and power.
The urgently arriving Hammerhead Finman Emperor, the Krakenoid Emperor coming from below, and the Sea Serpent Emperor coming from below to the east and south were extremely obvious to me, along with their retinues of Nobles.
The Whale Emperors could have frightened them off by merely showing their Auras, as none of those incoming were True Emperors and would have fled from Leviathan at once, doubtless screaming to the most powerful members of their own Tribes for help as they did.
The Orca, Blue Ocean, and Cachalot Emperors, all with their own Rulers, peeled off smoothly to intercept them instead.
Orcas were the greatest Shark-killers among the Whales, and whole Tribes grew up eating little more than Sharks and Fin-men. Blues were the greatest Psychics among the Whales, and those Krakenoids didn’t have a chance in mental conflict with them.
The Cachalots were perfectly happy to come thundering into the Sea Serpents (actually Sea Drakes, but hey, alliteration sticks) and show them who was boss. The fact the Whales all used group tactics automatically and masterfully only helped in these kinds of conflicts.
Still, the Aquatics brought in their own schools of lesser Sharks, Octopi, Squids, and smaller Sea Serpents, and some of the Whales turned aside to deal with those extra appetizers, er, opponents.
The sudden explosion of fear from the incoming defenders of the Salamanders when the Whale Emperors and Rulers revealed themselves was impossible to miss. Their entire angry advance stalled, and then the Seas exploded with So Much Magic.
Non-stop magicks at and beyond Sagedom tore into one another, and the lesser creatures in the area were promptly pulverized by the shockwaves and fallout both physical and psychic.
Two of those enemy attacks would have smashed into forces of Whales filling bellies able to hold far more than their volume. I slammed Dispels into the spells from miles away, shattering the magic and abruptly terminating the spells in mid-strike, frankly startling every Ruler and up around me who felt the spells break and dissipate, completely harmless.
Whole sections of the ocean rose a mile into the sky, while other areas split all the way to the sea floor miles below. Barriers of Water that could stop nuclear shockwaves rose up, and Tsunami that could erode mountains pounded them down. Streams of Water shooting faster than bullets cut, slammed, and slashed at rotating and deflective shields, alternately cutting into or sliding over dense hides, sometimes drawing great gouts of dark blood out into the waters which deterred none of the combatants much. Mists and fogs turned the area above and below the waves into blind, groping mazes, and Aquatics and Whales left the ocean to crash together in both sea and sky.
Through it all Whalesong reverberated, Psychic pulses extended everywhere, and the Whales operated together like an oiled machine. The Krakenoids were good at commanding their lessers, but not at working together, and their lessers obeyed, they didn’t innovate or adapt.
The Whalesong was also playing merry havoc with the Aquatic Casters, especially their mentalists, and the Whales were preying on them the instant their Psychic attacks faltered. I watched the Squid-folk wink out one after another, their Psychic screams fading quickly as remorseless jaws crushed down on them.
“Contact to the southeast,” I murmured to Leviathan Emperor, who registered the presence and quietly surged into motion.
I watched the awesome, ominous mass of Him slide into the middle of the tumult, and the whole combat arena shattered around Him as He passed, the non-Whales stiffening in horror as He swept by them, just His Aura enough to render them momentarily helpless... and the Whales naturally seized on all those chances instantly.
The Skeletal Red Coral Emperor advancing with miles-eating strides through the waters to break up this fighting and scatter the Whales, punishing them for this effrontery, could only pause in shock as it watched the fighting ahead of it split apart, and the great True Emperor Leviathan come surging towards it with a blast of Whalesong that hit far, far harder than mere Thunder.
Even the other Emperors fled from the range of the eruption of killing waters that resulted as two True Emperors went at it, razored coral branches against massive flukes and cavernous jaws, mindbending Psychic forces, and residues of soul-eating Poison against thundering Whalesong.
One of the spells I’d shown Leviathan Emperor was Dilution of Toxins, a Water-based variant of Neutralize Poison. Why might I have done that, I wonder?
“If you are wounded, come to this one, and she will begin the process of Healing you,” I reminded the Whales across the many miles. These fellows were utterly massive and the Rulers had Health in at least six-digit ranges, let alone the Emperors. There was no way I could Heal them quickly... but it would still be far more quickly than they could do so themselves!
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Here and there fighting Whales broke away from the combats and headed in my direction to deal with incessantly bleeding wounds from the jaws, tentacles, and coils of their foes, and perhaps Poison that had managed to make its way through their massive layers of shock-absorbent blubber and was starting to corrode them from within.
I began the process of an Archmage-level Bring down the Moon and Stars, which I could maintain while I addressed specific injuries or debilitations for each Whale. One point of Mana would be more than enough to deliver a LOT of Healing to these big fellows at this point.
Stars opened up high in the sky as all the Mana the creatures here weren’t using came to my command, flared up, and brought the Tears of starlight down for the Whales to come and enjoy. Since they were also showing up with severe mauling marks from claws, teeth, and tentacles, my Shards cycled up to dispense the Firefrost Healing to them in rather masochistic deliveries of magical energy. The pain was also delightfully offset by the descending twinkling starlight, as well as this section of sky and sea that seemed to be totally ignoring the cataclysmic magical effects going on all around us.
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The progenitors of the Shelled Salamander Demons died as fallout in the clashes of Rulers and Emperors, as did basically their entire flotilla of descendants. The Whales happily ate them all, and were pretty meticulous about it.
I assured them that the Sea Imperials knew how to make more of them, and if they tried this trick again, we’d definitely contact the Whales to come for the banquet.
There were some grievous injuries and some casualties, but no deaths among the Whale Nobles and Emperors. That wasn’t true for the incoming forces, with the physically less-resilient Krakenoids receiving much the worse of it after the Blues smashed through them, much to their utter dismay. The Hammerhead Finman Emperor barely managed to flee, and most of his Nobles ended up as Orca food.
The Cachalots got the worst of it, as the Sea Serpents were a deadly and dangerous foe, but their superior group tactics carried the day, and they tore off the heads of no less than six Noble Sea Serpents, while their Emperor also had to flee or get chewed in half.
Leviathan Emperor nearly smashed Skeletal Red Coral Emperor to pieces, bulling through the Poisoned spines and stingers and crushing the creature repeatedly while nailing it fairly constantly with incredibly deadly False Star Water Cannon attacks that it found incredibly hard and draining to deal with.
Of course, when a tail as tall as it was and even heavier smashed into it, it wasn’t going to have a good day, regardless.
The Whales were quick to eat everything, the flesh of such powerful Aquatics being like the finest ambrosia for them, but they were happy to leave me some skulls and watch me saturate the waters with vivus and clean up the excess blood, bones, and scrap.
I had to make some specific Baneskulls for them that wouldn’t work against Whales, so Aquatic Creatures was off the table. Piscean was open for the Finmen, Aberrant for the Krakenoids, and Dragons for the Sea Serpents, however, and any Noble Skulls were powerful enough to classify as Dreadskulls when they Burned down.
Affixing them into a yard-thick hide of blubber was beyond simple. The Emperors could loan them out if they liked, or just gloat in readiness for the next fight and the new edge they were going to have with their Toys.
Skeletal Red Coral Emperor left a lot of His poisonous spines around, which I collected up using Water Magic with the help of the Whales. They were actually excellent material for Implements of all kinds, although they would have to be carefully treated. Making them Banestaves against Aquatics would be only appropriate, I considered.
I spent a full day and night treating Whales, keeping the Moon and Stars falling, helping deal with Poisons, and even mending numerous instances of old spiritual damage from past attacks by Aquatics.
Even Leviathan Emperor couldn’t complain after I pulled out dozens of tree-trunk-sized coral barbs from His scarred hide and stowed them away for later use. He’d taken that Dilution spell, driven it into the Skeletal Red Coral Emperor, and made it stick. It meant the Poisonous bastard was going to have massive problems gathering the necessary Mana to heal up, and was likely going to hide as deeply as He could among the reefs until He managed to overcome the effect.
I very carefully asked Leviathan Emperor if He wanted me to track the bastard so He could finish the Skeletal Red Coral Emperor off.
Leviathan and the other Whale Emperors eyed me very cautiously as they considered that. They’d felt my Commune, and just how accurately and completely I could monitor the environment around me. Their own attempts to mask themselves from it just created big Whale-sized empty holes that were completely obvious to anyone looking.
I truly could track the Poisonous thing down if He wanted me to. The Sea Emperor would be hard to kill, but not impossible, and I could make sure of that, too.
Eventually they agreed that it was best to leave it for now, with the grievous losses they’d just inflicted on several Tribes. If they actively pursued a powerful Imperial, the other Imperials might just consider it an act of war and all band together against the Whales, which would be catastrophic.
The Whales were the most powerful Tribe in the oceans by average strength of members, but they were massively and completely outnumbered by the Sharks and Finmen alone, let alone all the other Tribes. It simply wasn’t something they could do easily, much as they might wish to. Eating the Salamander Demons, who had no Emperors, was just a target of opportunity, and the others had come in to attack; the Whales were only defending themselves eagerly!
This was not a desired territory truly belonging to any Emperor, so whoever was strong enough held it this close to the shores and Human lands. Basically, in the end this came down to flexing and a territorial clash, not anything serious, regardless of how badly the enemy had been mauled.
The Whales were also able to confirm the effects of the Salamander Shells. Some of the youngest Whales were already starting to manifest the equivalent of some kind of armored plates, which was only going to be useful in the inevitable conflicts of the future. The Whales were quietly conferring about how to better allocate such feasts in the future so those who would benefit most got to eat the most Shells!
“Your Imperial Majesties,” I addressed all four of the Emperor Whales there. Unfortunately, the Narwhals didn’t have an Emperor at this time, only a Great Ruler. “This one was wondering if Your Majesties might be interested in being able to speak with one another, and your counterparts on the Land, whenever you might wish, in a manner which cannot be overheard.
“If this is something that might be of interest to you, this one can explain further...”