Chương 1074: 1104 - War of Establishment I

The day was clear and warm, with a pleasant breeze spreading the scent of mountain flowers throughout the Artor Valley. Birds sang in the trees and men and animals went about their business, even in the newly-shrouded mountains surrounding the valley. The day was peaceful and relaxed… until it wasn't. The eddies and currents of magic shifted from one moment to the next, and the water at the beach miles to the south receded.

The watching river nymphs reported what they saw, and seconds later, alarms blared throughout the valley. Warriors scrambled and arks took flight, and Leon in his villa bolted from the nine-peaked mountain as quickly as his prodigious power could carry him. In but a moment, he hovered above the southern Talon, his eyes locked upon the King's Ocean a stone's throw away. Maia's voice echoed through his head, bringing him news that the inevitable had arrived. [The Ocean King's arks are moving.] There was no greater legitimizer than power in Terris' mind. The strong ruled, the weak served; such was the way of things. In the grand scheme of things, he was strong, with only the Basileis, Anakes, and Elemental Kings above him. Given the civil duties imposed upon him by Khosrow's Law, he rarely had much of a chance to express his power, to feel powerful, so as his arks fanned out through the sea and his power emanated from his grand palace ark, a gleeful smile spread across his face.

He pulled the water in over hundreds of miles. He felt some annoyance that the tadpoles in his crosshairs noticed and started mobilizing, but in the end, he felt it was no matter, and allowed himself to feel no small amount of pride in how his power affected his inferiors.

'They're terrified… They're terrified of me …' His eyes closed and his head lolled back as he reveled in his power, in the control over his environment he showcased. Fish large and small and sea monsters of all kinds rushed to evacuate this region as fast as they were able, leaving mostly his war beasts all that remained to witness the sea rise into the air, contesting the sky with the birds. His arks drifted upward, filling the great wave that his power conjured.

The fools on land so frequently thought that the influence of water mages ended at the shore, and Terris took personal pleasure in reminding them of just how unsafe they were before a true water mage. With the power of a twelfth-tier mage and millions upon millions of gallons of water, the conjured water advanced upon the shore. It stretched for dozens of miles, leaving all within it under Terris' control—right where he wanted everything to be.

As the wave approached the shore of the Storm Lands, the engines of Terris' palace ark engaged, sending a pleasurable shiver down his spine as he felt the thrum of magic throughout the vessel. The palace ark pushed ahead of the others, flanked by a pair of heavy carriers, the largest vessels in Terris' fleet aside from his palace ark. The advancing wave slowed to a stop at the shore, acting like a watery cliff that towered over the pathetic chalky cliffs of the shore.

Terris' ark, however, kept going, the rest of his fleet following suit. The hordes of war beasts halted at the edge of the water, however. Terris then got to his feet and stood before his throne, pride and confidence surging through his body. All he needed to do was send a commanding glare at one of his subordinates, and a screen was projected in front of him, as well as a bright white runic circle.

Upon the screen were the plains and mountains that lay to their north, and the paltry defense fleet that the minnows could muster. The mountains were shrouded in mist, but Terris' only reaction to that sight was to smile and imagine how the mist would part before him, to the terror of those beyond it. He leaned slightly, bringing his mouth closer to the runic circle, and once his palace ark came to a halt several hundred feet outside of the immense tidal wave his power had summoned, he began to speak…

Leon's heart madly beat like it was trying to escape from his chest. It was one thing for the Thunderbird to show him how the Ocean Lords fought, and another thing entirely to witness it first-hand, especially knowing that the ire that conjured it was directed toward him. Such a display of power was an effective intimidation tactic, made even moreso as the lights of arks shining through the water heralded the emergence of dozens of arks from the watery depths.

The largest ark was in the center, flanked by two more enormous arks larger than Leon's carriers. Their appearance was almost immediately overshadowed by some shadowy thing in the water behind them, larger than all three arks combined by a wide margin, with more tentacles than anything should reasonably have, and dozens of glowing yellow eyes where eyes should definitely not be as far as Leon was concerned.

Anything more than that could hardly be seen, for the creature, and all those that he was barely able to see past the wall of water, remained behind even as the arks advanced. And then a voice boomed from the leading ark, reaching Leon's ears as he hovered above the southern Talon.

"THIS LAND IS PROPERTY OF MIGHTY AHNDHAS GARGAN, LORD OF THE ETERNAL WATERS, COMMANDER OF THE TIDES, AND THE OCEAN KING, BY THE GRACE OF THE GREAT LORD KHOSROW! YOU ARE TRESPASSING. REMOVE YOURSELVES IMMEDIATELY OR I WILL USE LETHAL FORCE TO REMOVE YOU. YOU HAVE FIVE MINUTES TO COMPLY." Leon snarled and pulsed his magic senses.

Thousands of powerful mages were doing the same, literally lighting up the southern plain like an aurora, the collision of such potent magic causing faint light to ripple across the grassy meadows in a way that Leon would've admired had it been under other circumstances. Still, he was able to see that his fleet, already on standby, was less than five minutes from getting into position.

His fleet amounted to nine frigates, three destroyers, four heavy cruisers, and four carriers, many of which were still damaged and not operating at full capacity since the clash with the pirates. Leading the fleet were Bolt in Shadow and Silver Spear. When the battle began, MALLs capable of firing into the sky would deploy across the meadow, hopefully adding some much-needed firepower to their side since their enemy outnumbered them by a significant amount.

Leon wasn't able to accurately identify the classes of such strange-looking arks, each one with the rough shape more or less of some kind of shark or whale, but based on their sizes, he thought that his enemy had brought thirty-three frigates, fourteen destroyers, twelve light cruisers, ten heavy cruisers, and six carriers.

The leading ark didn't look particularly armed, thankfully, but Leon doubted it would remain unengaged when battle was joined, especially given the abyssal aura that he could sense radiating from the vessel. Whoever was in there would fight, of that he had no doubt. But his foe was not limited to simply using arks, either, for they brought more than a hundred enormous war beasts, and thousands more that were of a more conventionally ridable size.

Thankfully, they remained to a monster within the tsunami that threatened to crash upon the shore. Leon almost thought that would be the end of it, but his expression fell when he saw small vessels emerge from the foot of the water wall and begin disgorging troops upon the beach. This was an event that he had planned for, but he'd still hoped that this option wouldn't be taken.

Regardless, he now had to contend with thousands of heavily armed and armored troops spilling across his beaches, and especially flocking around the Titanstone mine that his people had started to build before he'd ordered everyone back to the Artor Valley. Knowing something would happen didn't mean that he took it well, and he fought the urge to fly out and incinerate these people who thought to steal what rightfully belonged to his Kingdom.

Instead, he flew directly to Bolt in Shadow, around which Clear Day, Anastasios, and Eva were already hovering. Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

"We're not going to comply, are we?" Anastasios called out as Leon approached.

"What kind of question is that?" Leon responded once he was in comfortable speaking range.

"Do you think I'm going to do all these preparations only to tuck my tail between my legs and run away? If they want us gone, they're going to have to root us out!"

"HA HA! Well said, young Leon! Well said! Outnumbered we may be, but those who fight for their homes will defend with a vigor that will overcome mere numbers!" Leon smiled at the former Lord Protector's display of bravado, but it was small comfort when his people were outnumbered to this degree. If a decisive battle took place over the meadows, then it would be his decisive defeat. The best he could hope for was to inflict disproportionate casualties upon his enemy before falling back behind the misty veil.

Regardless of how this fight panned out, the fight would be short and brutal. Across the skies, he could see fighter arks—and on his side, giants and Ulta suits—deploying from their respective carriers. Again, his forces were considerably outnumbered, though not quite as much as the rest of the fleet was. He could also see some of the stronger war beasts his side had come out to play, though none were as powerful or as eye-catching as Red in her wyvern form.

He also saw ninth and tenth-tier mages on either side venturing out to give battle, and in this case, he was far more terrified since those mages on his side counted Valeria, Cassandra, Maia, and Anzu among their ranks. With a nod to Clear Day, the tau gave him a sad smile and fell back, as they'd agreed. The tau was no great fighter despite his power, and Leon could sense other mages filling the sky in the wake of the fighters, including four eleventh-tier mages.

Clear Day would not fare well taking part in this fight, and Leon wouldn't force him to try. Anastasios and Eva, on the other hand, shared a look between themselves and one with Leon, then split apart, flying to either side of the fleet where they would each face an eleventh-tier mage, locking the enemy down and preventing them from messing with Leon's fleet with their apocalyptic power. That meant that Leon would face two by himself.

His heart, beating rapidly from the fear and adrenaline, had excitement and battle lust added to its reasons to hammer against his ribs. But before he did anything, he pulled out his comm slate and sent a message to the Jaguar, who was in the southern Talon below commanding the battle.

'Take the first shot at your will.' His message sent, Leon assumed his Thunderbird form, adding the invisibility ring about his ankle as he did. He didn't activate it yet, but he wanted it there, ready to go. Then he called upon his boosted power and asserted himself for all to see. The boom of thunder echoed through the mountains and rolled across the plains, while clouds gathered far above, blotting out the light of the Origin Spark.

Flashes of brilliant silver-blue lightning briefly banished the gathering darkness, while that very same lightning flashed amongst Leon's shining white plumage and within his electric blue crest feathers. The wind picked up into a howling gale, and before long, a storm raged around the Artor Valley for dozens of miles, with the valley itself left as the lone island of calm within it.

As the deadline they were given just about ran out, Leon's people finally gave their answer: from Silver Spear's main cannon, a beam of light flashed for an instant, connecting it and the leading enemy ark. A water-like shield sprang into place to block the hit, but some of the beam's destructive energies reached the enormous ark's outer plating and carved a deep rift within it. Hardly enough to be considered catastrophic damage, but certainly enough to be an adequate insult.

And then Leon's fleet broke and engaged in defensive maneuvers. Lances fired, filling the air between the two sides with deadly metal bolts charged with lightning or fire magic. Fighters and Ulta suits accelerated, while the MALLs below aimed upward and added their wrath to the fleet's. Before the first volley could even hit their targets, it was answered in kind with deadly bolts of ice, and the battle began in earnest.

As each side's first projectiles passed each other in the air, Leon was already calling upon his power, summoning a wave of lightning from the clouds above. Instead of targeting any tough opponent, Leon decided his first move would be to avenge what he considered the Ocean King's more insidious insult, and used his power to ravage the relatively weaker mages on the ground.

Hundreds of bolts of lightning struck their targets in seconds, bringing death and ruin to nearly a quarter of the forces that were sent to the beaches and shore cliffs. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to kill off any more as a jet of steam, superheated from the friction of its passage through the air, enveloped him, and to his surprise, a giant hand of blood-red water cut through the steam in an attempt to catch him.

If he were able to smile, he would've; the steam was no great threat to him, but the hand dissipated much of it anyway, and he easily rolled out of the way of the cumbersome appendage. As he left the steam cloud, however, he found that the hand of red water was connected to a two-hundred-foot-tall giant of the same material, one of the eleventh-tier Ocean Lords within its chest.

The other mage that he would contend with made himself known as he charged, another jet of superheated steam, this one glowing red hot, lanced toward Leon. Leon tucked his wings in and rolled out of the way, letting arcs of lightning peel off his feathers and surge back through the steam toward his opponent.

Another swipe of the hand from the red giant disrupted his concentration, forcing him to not only dodge, but to conjure more lightning to vaporize as much of the giant's body as he could—which turned out to be not that much, but at least enough for him to dodge well enough. Waves of lightning met waves of water as Leon contended with these two Strategoi, all while the storm around them responded to his increasing anger by raging ever more fiercely.

The Strategoi were strong and battle-hardened, in Leon's estimation, but they were unused to working together, frequently getting in each other's way. He exploited this with prodigious speed, ducking beneath jets of superheated steam and weaving around strikes by the red giant. His talons traced deadly lines across the giant's extremities, usually deforming much of its body until the mage could reconstitute it, while bolts of lightning struck the flying fish made of steam that hounded him.

All around him was chaos, and as the stench of ozone and iron and coppery blood hit him, he spared but a single thought for how grateful he was that his Thunderbird form had a dull sense of smell. The first ark to die was not one of his, thankfully—one of the Ocean frigates was targeted by several dozen MALLs and three of his frigates, their combined weapons penetrating the enemy frigate's defenses and blasting it apart.

Unfortunately, with the numbers advantage, the enemy was able to do this with just about all of Leon's arks; his arks managed to survive by remaining mobile whereas the Ocean arks were more static. And then one of the larger war beasts in the tsunami made a move, pushing its mountain-sized face through the water and into the stormy air. It had a cavernous mouth so large that a frigate could easily fly down its gullet, but small beady eyes no larger than Leon's Thunderbird body.

The fangs that filled its enormous mouth were each dozens of feet long, while what little Leon could see of its body was covered in dull black scales, each one no larger than one of his fingernails. This monstrous creature opened its mouth, and a stream of black water was expelled from its maw so quickly that it hit one of Leon's frigates almost instantly, and the frigate was knocked from the sky, its hull torn apart, a hole twice the size of Leon's wingspan punched right through its midsection.

The frigate hit the ground and exploded while the monstrous creature retreated into the tsunami. Wrath burned within Leon at the sight, which only grew as Ulta suits and fighters from both sides fell from the sky. Arks kept exchanging Lance fire, while from above, a serpentine water dragon came barreling into the steam mage, who had focused too exclusively on Leon. The steam mage shrieked, his voice audible even as Maia submerged him.

He was still an eleventh-tier mage, though, and Leon, his wrath already stoked, felt an intense fear ignite within him as one of his wives engaged a post-Apotheosis mage. He shrieked, his war cry summoning an intense barrage of silver-blue lightning to strike the red giant. The giant glowed, Leon's energy coursing through it, and the mage within began to lose control.

Leon ignored him, his threat now considerably lessened for at least a second or two, and called upon all the strength in his limbs and all the speed in his magic, and shot toward the steam mage as the water dragon around him exploded by the expansion of a steam cloud. Through their connection, Leon felt Maia's intense pain, and his wrath doubled. He extended his talons and beak, and before the steam mage knew what hit him, Leon sank both into him.

His talons were large enough that they wrapped around the steam mage, while his golden beak slammed into the mage's neck. The steam mage was wearing armor of dark green scales, which held up well enough to the strength of his talons, but his beak pierced through the thinner armor of the neck. The steam mage screamed in agony as Leon's lightning raced through his beak and into his wound, and a moment later, another explosion of steam sent Leon's head reeling back.

His talons remained locked around the steam mage, however, and he squeezed as hard as he could. He felt the armor deform as scales splintered off. Silver-blue lightning raced along the outside of the armor and scorched it black, while he notionally gritted his nonexistent teeth and whipped his head back around for another try at taking the steam mage's head. An enormous red hand slapped them both down before his beak made contact.

His body so rattled, Leon finally released the steam mage, and he tumbled hard through the sky. He plummeted hundreds of feet before he managed to right himself, though his body was still wracked with pain—he thought several bones must be broken, including at least one in his right wing.

He was able to do nothing about it, however, for the red giant came barreling after him, while all around him, arks continued to battle each other, adding more and more burning metal to the meadow below as they were struck from the sky.