While the captains of Kodria’s large ships sent search parties ashore to find enough food and water to replenish the supplies that they had used on their short trip out to sea, another man-o-war ship sailed up the river and arrived at the island to join her sister ships.
Akira watched the large ship sail up to the docks and inspected it closely. It was the newest ship Kodria’s shipbuilders had managed to complete during the time they had been dealing with the Legendary sea creature.
A shiny anchor splashed down into the murky waters and several ropes were thrown to the dockworkers as a skinny plank of wood was lowered down to the dock allowing a young man who was in his early twenties to rush down and stand straight in front of Akira saluting him smartly.
“Captain Nue of the ship [K.S Greenplanks] reporting for duty! I am glad I managed to reach you before you left somewhere else!” said the young green captain.
“If you had come half a day later you would have probably missed us. So this is the newest ship built? With how fast they built her, is it sea-worthy?” asked Akira skeptically.
“I checked every nook and cranny before we set sail. The trip here was smooth sailing with no issues!”
“You are quite young to be a captain of a new ship. What was your previous command?”
“I have been the captain of an old patrol ship taking over for the previous captain who was killed by a demigod attack during [Operation Hard Thrust]. The other captains agreed to promote me after going over the other candidates. I can assure you that although my ship, my sailors, and myself are all a little green we will not show any less guts and grit than the older ships and their crews.”
“How are your supplies?”
“Fully stocked, but you can never have enough water.”
“If everything goes according to plan, we will be leaving in an hour. Be ready to leave at that time,” said Akira.
With a salute, the young captain rushed back onto his ship to inspect the ship one last time and recheck their supplies.
When the long-awaited hour had passed, the last of the scavenging parties returned to their ships allowing them to raise their anchors and set sail for the open sea!
Kodria’s 4 frigates and 3 men-o-war were not alone as half of Captain Pegleg’s ships joined them on their journey to discover the unknown disturbance out in the sea. The remaining ships of Captain Pegleg’s fleet along with Kodria’s remaining smaller ships would continue to patrol the rivers and the shoreline of the continent to ward off any enemy attacks or attempts to recapture land.
But with this new major event happening along with the news he had heard from the shamen, Akira was not sure if any of the demigods had their attention on their land anymore.
Since all of this had to do with such a massive change to the sea both Princess Cora and Princess Shaarla decided to join them on the trip as this could cause major problems for their underwater kingdoms. If an entire continent appeared out of nowhere, then that meant many sea creatures’ homes would have been disturbed or outright disappeared which was going to cause massive turmoil as they fought for new homes.
The first few days of sailing were quite boring as there was nothing much to see besides a few rare large fish jumping out of the ocean at random times of the day.
There was nothing but water everywhere you looked.
“I feel a lot of relief now that the demigods have been pushed out but for some reason, my gut is telling me to not let my guard down…” said Akira as he watched the waves of the open ocean pass them as they sailed towards a distant black dot on the horizon.
Ding!
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Akira’s bad gut feeling +1
“Yap!” said Fluffball as he stuck his head between the wooden rails and tried to bite one of the flying seagulls that were lazily flying circles around them.
Kodria’s ships were sailing in a single forward line while Captain Pegleg had half of his ships on either side in a messy order. The two princesses swam underneath them protecting the ships from any troublesome creatures that had been disturbed by the growing conflict deep under the water.
“Awoooo!”
Akira’s absentminded gaze was torn from the distant dark clouds in the sky and turned to look at the lead ship that was far ahead of [K.S Wulfric] which was sailing at the center of the stretched line.
“Awooo!” one after another each ship’s lookouts all howled alerting the captains.
Gong! Gong! Gong!
The large copper gongs on each ship all began to ring, alerting and calling all sailors and marines on the ships to their battle stations!
The sailors rush to their battle stations all over the ship, some manning the ballistas, others gathering buckets of water to fight any fires, and readied medical supplies to treat the wounded.
The Marines all donned their armor and buckled on their sword belt before grabbing their shield and crossbows.
Akira followed the Marines to the front castle to get a better view of what had been spotted by the lookouts. The [Full Moon] guild members that had joined Akira on this ship also followed him. They had been given the honor to protect Akira and the ship along with his royal guards.
As he scanned the flat horizon for several seconds with a collapsible telescope he finally found what the scouts were howling about.
A large three-mast ship was sailing in the same direction as they were. The ship looked to have gone through hell as it was torn up worse than Captain Pegleg’s ships. It was barely reaching the speed of a few knots since its sails had a few large tears.
As he looked at the ocean around the ship trying to see what could have caused such damage he only managed to see the last of a tall ship’s mast slowly sinking underneath the water.
No dead bodies were floating in the water nor was there anyone trying to swim away from the sinking ship. Either the ship’s crew had been rescued or… killed by someone or something… Akira shuddered at the thought of the ship’s crew being eaten by a sea monster.
A bright flash of light caught his attention once again and he turned back to look at the tattered ship.
“%$^&!” said several of the marines that were standing nearby and watching everything happening in the distance.
“It’s the demigods…” muttered Akira as he saw several colorful skills fly towards Kodria’s lead ship, only for it to smash into the ocean well short of the intended target.
A nearby loud splash in the water drew Akira’s attention away to the distant demigods. In the water, both Princess Cora and Princess Shaarla had appeared riding in one of their war chariots.
“Has something happened?” asked Shaarla. “There are two ships ahead of us that are sinking.”
“Demigods have appeared,” said Akira pointing to the distant tattered ship that they were getting closer and closer to.
“With such a large ocean, to be able to encounter them… is our luck good or bad?” asked Cora as she looked at the distant ship.
“It has nothing to do with luck. This only proves my worries. They are headed to the same place as us!” said Akira.
“What are we going to do with the demigods and their ship?” asked Cora.
“We must get rid of them along with their ship!” said Akira.
“Allow us to take care of it quickly! There is no need for your ships to put themselves in danger so early in our voyage,” said Shaarla.
Without waiting for Akira’s reply the two once again disappeared under the ocean waves.
Akira nervously looked to the north where the demigod ship was, hoping that the mermaids would not be found out or attacked before they could deal with the ship.
As he watched the ship, he became puzzled at what he saw. The tattered ship began to rise out of the water! Was this some sort of secret skill that the demigods had?
Akira’s crazy thoughts were quickly washed away when he saw the large back of ‘Little Blue’ rise up out of the water seconds later.
A large gush of water shot out from its water spout striking the ship that was stuck on its back. The force of the attack was so great that the hull of the ship cracked wide open!
Before the demigods could regain their footing and counter-attack ‘little Blue’ had sunk back into the ocean.
The ship now had a huge hole in the bottom and was quickly sinking as the water gushed in.
When the first of the allied ships was in range of the demigod’s ship it was already underwater with the surviving demigods struggling to stay swimming above the waves.
The twangs of crossbows shooting could be heard as the marines on each of the ships targeted the floundering demigods.
Killing them while they were in such a helpless state was not honorable, but there was never any honor with these demigods when they fought. The more demigods that were killed the less there were to try and kill them, at least for a short time until they came back for revenge.
The mermaids did not sit back and watch, they also helped out by piercing the demigods with spears and dragging them underwater to drown.
This would not be the last encounter they had with the demigods on the high seas.
Every other day it seemed that there were groups of one or two old ragged ships crewed by demigods that had survived [Operation Hard Thrust] and had escaped the land armies only to meet the naval forces out at sea.
Each encounter was quick and brutal thanks to the help of the mermaid’s sneak attacks from underwater.
As each day sailing on the open ocean passed, the sky above them grew darker and darker.
“Awoooo!”
GONG! GONG!
Akira had grown accustomed to the daily life on the ships and the almost daily sea battles. He took his usual spot on the front castle and scanned today’s target.
“Aw crap…” Akira’s hope for a short and easy battle was shattered when he saw the enemy ships ahead of them.
There were at least six large ships and they were all in good condition.
“Awoooo!” the warning howl rang out from the lead ship.
“They’re turning around to face us!”
Akira already knew deep down this was not going to be like the previous battles.
