Amidst the rain-drenched mountains, shaded by the thick storm clouds above and illuminated by frequent bolts of lightning, Leon watched his prey draw closer.

He felt alive in a way that he hadn’t in a long time. This was hardly hunting of the sort he was fond of, but there was something about stalking a strong target through thick forests and around steep cliffs that set his blood aflame with delight.

‘I’m going to need to take some time off after all this is over, run around the woods for a while,’ he thought, though he immediately clamped down on the thought, regarding it as too optimistic.

He was hardly hunting some strange monster now, though; instead of creeping through the underbrush, he stood upon a reasonably flat plateau beneath a dome of light that rendered him and his companions invisible. He and his company had made their way through the caves and the Aesii below the land, emerging from a narrow cave in the western mountains. It had been a tense and terse journey, with few words spoken that weren’t purely utilitarian. But now, they’d reached their destination: a firing point that Leon identified while watching the Diluvian arks fly their patrols through the mountains. Moving slowly and under the cover of light mages, they managed to reach this point and set up their four Aurichalcum Lances undetected, but in only a few moments more, their attack would begin, obliterating their cover.

Leon smiled despite the risks. The arks in the western mountains were small, consisting mostly of frigates and destroyers, and they moved in groups of two. They didn’t stray too close to the edges of the misty veil for fear of Leon’s arks lying in wait—which Silver Spear and Bolt in Shadow were—but instead patrolled miles away, bathing the land in the magic of the sensor enchantments and senses of the passengers.

And so far, thanks to the efforts of Eva, Cassandra, and half a dozen other light mages, Leon’s company had gone undetected.

Now, a group of two frigates were drawing closer to the plateau, flying about a mile or so above the ground—perfectly within range of the new Lances. Leon’s only real concern was that his Lances, powerful though they were, weren’t enough to guarantee that both frigates would be killed. It took three shots on average to down a Diluvian frigate, and he had two targets and only four shots. If one or both frigates survived the ambush, then they could respond with Lancefire of their own, potentially killing some of Leon’s company or destroying his new Lances.

With that dilemma in mind, Leon made his targeting decision as his prey drew closer to effective firing range, and gave his orders. His company then prepared themselves, and Leon began to quietly gather magic within himself. The door to his soul realm within his heart opened wide, flooding his body with magic and a few sparks of origin power. Lightning flashed through his blood, his muscles were taut as a drawn bowstring, and his golden eyes glittered with all the anticipation and anxiety of the moments before deadly action.

The Ocean arks drew closer, the din of rain striking their hulls in great sheets reaching Leon’s ears, the thrum of their magic engines resonating in his chest even two miles away.

With a vicious grin, he released a little of his power, summoning several successive lightning bolts behind the arks, throwing their silhouettes into sharp relief against the suddenly brightened sky, and then he gave his silent order.

[Fire!]

The new Lances, already practically aglow with stored power, appeared to flash to Leon’s magic senses. Lightning magic coursed down the barrels, concentrated in the twin rods on either side of the long tube. Magic flowed through thousands of runes, directing and amplifying the power within the weapons, and iron bolts as long and thin as Leon’s arm were launched from the weapons with thunderous roars. The dome of invisibility around the company was torn asunder as the weapons flared with power, even with mages as powerful as Cassandra and Eva powering it, revealing their position to the world.

The bolts sped along their trajectories, crossing thousands of feet in seconds. Still, two miles was a long distance to cover, and as they were revealed, their targets reacted; their thrusters flashed, and they began to separate. Leon could sense the relatively meager Lance complements of each begin to build up a charge, but several seconds after firing, his Lance bolts struck one of the frigates.

The frigate in question was too small to have a shield of light and was forced to rely on more physical defenses. In the moments before the bolts struck the hull, Leon saw ice spreading across the surface, forming an icy shell to better withstand the oncoming hail.

When the bolts slammed into the frigate, this shell shattered completely, momentarily enshrouding the ark in a cloud of ice crystals.

And then the cloud was illuminated from within as the ark detonated, the Lance bolts having struck the thrusters and Leon’s best guess as to where engineering and the ark’s main power systems were located.

Without waiting to see any more, Leon shot into the sky, followed closely by most of his companions. They had mere seconds to act before the second ark responded with deadly force. Perhaps another second or two was bought as the shockwave from the first ark’s destruction buffeted the second, and Leon intended to use every fraction of a second he had to ensure his people’s safety.

With Iron Pride in hand and his body clad in his pseudo-Adamant armor, he released all the power he’d stored within him. He swung Iron Pride and an endless stream of silver-blue lightning slammed into the ark, stripping and vaporizing the hull and pushing the ark backward. A moment later, the magics of his companions struck the ark as well—beams of light as bright as a star, fireballs so hot they’d seemingly come straight from the Elemental Plane of Fire, ice dragons, blades of water and wind, and so much more. For a brief moment, Leon thought that the frigate had become one of the brightest things in the universe, visible on the other side of the Nexus even from beneath the clouds of his storm.

The frigate never got a chance to fire its weapons, as under the barrage of Leon’s company, it ceased to be. When the barrage ended, nothing remained of the ark larger than a fingernail.

Leon spared the time for a single smirk, then he shouted, “Get moving! Let’s go!”

He could already see other Diluvian arks turning in his direction, and he and his people had to move before Terris’ people could make a counterstrike.

Another dome of invisibility descended upon them, though it wouldn’t do much good now that the enemy knew where they were—as showcased a moment later when a wave of magic power rolled over them, disrupting the invisibility and rendering them visible again. However, by then, the Lance crews had already pulled the weapons into their respective soul realms.

Leon sighed, frustration hitting him hard and tainting the elation of the successful ambush. ‘Plan B it is, then…’

“To the veil!” he ordered. “To the veil!”

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Heading back through the caves wasn’t an option if they could be seen, so that left only the most direct route of retreat to them. Leon shot into the sky, followed by his company, and with him summoning a gale at their back to speed them along, they tore through the sky as Diluvian arks attempted to intercept. Leon even sensed from the only heavy cruiser in the western mountains the magical signature of one of the eleventh-tier mages fighting under Terris’ command.

A fine target, to be sure, but not one he was going to risk getting bogged down in a pitched fight to take out.

Another wave of magic swept over them, and the rain all around them turned to chains of water and ice. Leon cut off his use of wind and responded with a hundred lightning bolts, the rest of his mages adding their power to his. The chains were shattered, but they were slowed long enough for a destroyer to enter range and fire its main cannon.

The Diluvian arks were more akin to his ancient destroyers as they had main cannons, whereas his modern destroyers didn’t. However, they weren’t based on light magic, instead firing concentrated jets of steam so hot that the vapor glowed red—or just heat underwater as far as he knew.

A deadly jet of steam lanced out from the destroyer, powerful enough to boil anyone caught in its blast. Leon responded with a torrent of lightning, and Eva let loose with a beam of light, while Anastasios conjured a giant from the stone of the mountains below. The giant leaped into the air with much greater speed than its size suggested it had, interposing itself between most of Leon’s companions and the steam jet.

These efforts paid off, giving Leon’s people enough time to get out of the way even as the cannon blast tore through Leon and Eva’s power and rendered Anastasios’ giant little more than dust and pebbles, many of which glowed with heat from the steam.

“Slow down a bit,” Leon shouted to Anastasios and Eva, “we might be able to get another kill!”

“Greedy boy,” Eva responded, but she slowed with him.

“Boldness will win the day,” Anastasios countered with a supportive smile.

To the others, Leon shouted, “Keep going!”

Few looked like they wanted to while Leon, Anastasios, and Eva fell behind—Valeria, Cassandra, Maia, and Anzu especially looked like they wanted to stick with Leon—but they followed his order.

Leon then conjured his comm slate and sent a quick message to Anshu in Bolt in Shadow.

The company reached the safety of the misty veil before any Ocean arks caught them, vanishing from both physical and magical sight. Not too much further awaited the Thunderbird arks, practically salivating at the chance to score some additional kills. As the Ocean arks in the western mountains drew closer, pursuing Leon’s group of three, that opportunity presented itself.

With additional blasts of magic, Leon and his two companions encouraged the Ocean arks closer, from dozens of miles away to only handfuls. However, none drew closer than five miles, with even the Strategos who’d taken to the sky maintaining some distance. Still, it was close enough, and with seven arks now forming a half-circle around his group, the environment had become rather target-rich. As Leon dodged a Lance shot from a frigate seven miles away, he sent his final order to Anshu.

A moment later, a deadly beam of light shot out from the mist and slammed into the destroyer that took a shot at Leon’s company. A hole was punched clean through, from which poured fire and smoke, and the Ocean destroyer began to list in the air, its prow angling away from Leon and his group. While the destroyer wasn’t crashing or exploding yet, Leon still thought that Silver Spear had earned itself another kill.

A hail of Lancefire then followed from Bolt in Shadow, striking a frigate and overwhelming its defenses. The hull was battered and torn apart, and a third frigate fell from the sky to burn amidst the rain-soaked mountains.

“Fall back!” Leon shouted as Lancefire from the remaining arks switched targets to the ancient arks, briefly located within the mist from their attacks. At the same time, the Ocean arks reversed their course, putting distance between themselves and the edge of the veil.

Leon had to admit as he approached the edge of the veil that the temptation to stay and try and further capitalize on their ambush was strong. However, he’d already taken enough risks, and a wave of power from the south only affirmed his decision to fall back—Terris had noticed and was personally moving to the west.

With one last glance over his shoulder to see what little remained of the three downed frigates and the barely airborne destroyer, he grinned behind his helmet, and then crossed the misty veil’s threshold, returning to relative safety.

As far as such ambushes go, this one had been spectacularly effective. If he could pull off a few more ambushes like that, then he might be able to put enough pressure on the Ocean forces to force a retreat.

If.

---

‘Clever bastards,’ Leon thought with a dark look as he stared westward from one of his perimeter defense towers.

There had been much celebration when his company returned from their successful mission, and Leon honored those who’d taken part as best as he could. However, it seemed that while his people were celebrating and preparing to launch a second ambush the next night, Terris wasn’t idle.

In a concerning display of competence and discipline, the remaining Ocean arks took steps to ensure such an ambush couldn’t be launched again. For starters, they more frequently changed their patrol routes and moved in larger units. While this meant that they couldn’t cover as much ground as before, which was a win for Leon in and of itself, it also meant that any ambush he now carried out would come with much greater risks.

Even worse, however, were the pulses of magic that the arks now emitted at irregular intervals. Each pulse by itself was a waste of power, but since the pulses were strong enough to disrupt invisibility, they prevented Leon from getting close again using invisibility. That invisibility had provided much-needed cover for Leon’s company to launch the ambush, and without it, setting up another one would be incredibly difficult.

Not impossible, of course, but still incredibly difficult.

Not that that would stop him from trying, though…

---

Glowering from the observation deck of his palace ark, Terris took in the problem at hand.

The foolish Ascended Beast that had led his people into this region had inflicted considerable damage upon his forces. Some within his inner circle were already asking whether or not this expedition was worth continuing—Strategos Anhaire chief among them. Terris disliked being questioned so; this region had been carved out as a buffer zone with the chaotic Storm Lands by the Ocean King himself thousands of years ago, and ceding it now, especially since he’d already mobilized this force to enforce that buffer zone, would only tarnish the pride of the Lords of old Diluvia.

In short, he’d committed to seeing this through once he began, and men like Anhaire wouldn’t dissuade from continuing.

‘Coward seems to have lost his nerve after facing that beast in battle,’ Terris uncharitably thought, remembering how much Anhaire had bitched and moaned over the pain and the damage to his armor the bloated pelican had inflicted upon him with its beak and talons.

The operation thus far had been costly, but not catastrophic, and had yielded certain benefits already—Titanstone was flowing back into the King’s Ocean like a silvery river, enriching them while denying the Storm Lords those same assets. Still, so many arks lost would be hard to replace, but with this much Titanstone, it would be worth it.

Besides, reminding the Storm Lords of the power of the Ocean Lords was worth far more than Terris had paid so far.

Such were his reasons for continuing despite the slowly growing criticism he’d faced over the past couple days. Of course, his Strategoi were intractable on the best of days; he could summon them to heap honors upon each of them and they’d still find something to complain about.

This latest loss, where the pelican struck down several more arks, only added fuel to the fire. But Terris was hardly inexperienced in this sort of thing—he fondly remembered his time as a general on a lower plane, commanding men and organizing material, neither of which he’d been able to do since being stationed on such a quiet front millennia ago—and his countermeasures were robust.

He still had the power to drown this pelican and all his followers beneath the endless tides even after—a bright flash of lightning caught his attention and pulled him from his thoughts. It was in the west and had clearly not been normal golden lightning.

It had been the strange bluish-white lightning the pelican used, and upon which its claim of descent from the Thunderbird apparently rested.

Terris snorted as another flash of strange-colored lightning illuminated the dark mountains. He smoothly strode from the observation deck as more and more bolts of bluish lightning flashed in the dark, his armor appearing over his body between steps. It seemed the pelican was making another play against his arks.

The Thunderbird Clan had been powerful, but the Thunderbird Clan was dead. As Terris moved to join this new clash, he vowed that if the pelican so insisted upon its lineage, then he would send him to join his claimed ancestors post haste.