Elijah Knight Pov:
A burning pain seared my finger from where my dimension ring was fitted around, imbuing mana into the ring the Typhon's medallion emerged from the ring falling into my palm the pain subsided immediately.
"Boy, How many of the ships are ready?!" Commander Virion's voice snapped at me through the medallion, The urgency in his voice made it clear this was no question. This was an order.
"I can launch five of them right now, the rest are still undergoing retrofits from the test ship that sunk last month," I answered Signalling everyone in the underground foundry turned shipyard for the warships to ready the launch tunnels.
"Launch them as fast as possible, we need the support now, Alexander, his bond, and the Typhon won't be able to sink all of them," he spoke grimly, I could hear the frantic footsteps from his end and the shouting from mine as they prepared to launch the ships and gather their crews.
Taking a shuddering breath I braced myself for the information, "How bad is our situation?" my voice apathetic as I readied myself for the worst, Agrona likely wouldn't step foot in this war. Then again Alexander did ruin most of his plans.
"Ships are coming from every direction, they surrounded Dicathen. It won't be more than a day before they make landfall." I felt a chill wash over me at virion's words. This wasn't an armada Agrona sent, This was an invasion to wipe us off the map.
Gnashing my teeth together I heard them grind together, the tent creaked under the weight of my presence, No, we can still win this. We have 11 white more mages, Tessia being the only paladin not at the white stage although we all agreed she'd make it within a few months, no doubt due to Arthur and Al giving her any spare beast cores, and Vritra-blooded mana cores or horns that they could spare.
Taking a deep breath I calmed myself focusing on my mana core, deep within it was Cadell's will itching to be used, its power was great but so was the drain, but this wasn't the time or place to let my anger get the best of me.
"I'll launch them as soon as possible, Getting them to the other side of the content will take some time, Tell Alexander I'll be back at the Typhon as soon as they launch," I spoke ending the transmission soon after.
Stepping out of the tent Mana infused into my voice as naturally as I breathed, "All Hands Launch The Ships!! This Is Not A Drill! We're Going To War!!" My voice boomed through the underground shipyard, dead silence ensued for an instant before hundreds of voices and machinery roared to life as they readied everything.
Leaning over the railing I could see the nine ship bays scrambling with Dwarves, Humans, and Elves fueling the ships. Soon I got the signal that the ships were ready and armed. The captains of the ships stood before me.
"Is it true? they're attacking Dicathen from every coast at once?" a grizzled sailor with sunken grey eyes and a long flowing black bore and hair asked.
"Yes. I'll be honest it doesn't look good for us, But we're here to take out as many of those ships as we can while everyone fights. If we let them land on our shores we won't have enough men to repel the invasion." I spoke grimly watching the massive tunnels open and the ships slowly preparing to be lifted to the surface dry dock to set sail.
"Then we'll give them a proper welcome won't we men?" he announced turning around to the other 4 captains. His long hair flowed across his military uniform as he cheered with a sneer at the thoughts his words invoked.
"Yes, Grand Admiral Teach!" they shouted back before he raised his hand silencing the hardy sailors lining the massive warship's decks that nearly made Zephyr look half-grown in comparison.
"Bah, I know I'm in the military and this is a war, but I want you to call me by my nickname I got as a Pirate. Captain of Queen Anne's Revenge, Blackbeard!" He bellowed as he boarded his ship, the flagship of the navy didn't bear the same name as his old ship but it did inherit a name.
In this world at least it was the first of the vessels classification that we borrowed from the early history of our last world, The Bismark class battleship. Dicathens flagship was The Dicatheus.
I watched as the ships were raised through the earth by Hundreds of dwarves, and the artificer's devices through tunnels. Shielding my eyes I took in the salty smell of the Seabreeze as we emerged from the tunnels, before long I felt the ship rock in the waves as they waded into the open oceans.
"I assume you have places to be Paladin Elijah, Let us handle these guests," Blackbeard spoke as my eyes looked out to the horizon, thousands of ships spanned across the ocean's waves, above them, hundreds of zeppelins trailed the paths of the ships.
"I'll take you up on that, no doubt the Typhon will have to move out as well." I took out the Medallion, focusing mana into it. I saw a teleportation gate manifest in front of me, soon to disappear. I took one last look at the five behemoth warships, hulking masses of steel coal floating on the waves.
With a word from Blackbeard, the Five ships' four 20 inch calibre cannons turned to aim at lines of alacryan transports and fired. A deafening explosion rang out as plumes of fire catapulted the thousand-pound shells filled with explosives and Spell beads made by Al and a variety of other mages that he taught how to make.
The oceans burned where the shells landed, spilling liquid flames on the boats and rocking them with the explosion of black powder and mana.
Hopefully, the five ships will hold out long enough, was the only thing on my mind as I stepped through the teleportation gate, on the other side the guard saluted me and opened the massive gate.
Wasting no time I walked straight to the armoury, There I saw everyone else, The Paladin's, all of the mages under our command, and for some reason the Lances!?
"Ah Brother, I was wondering when you'd arrive," Olfred called out while buckling the belt of his lance uniform.
"I don't know whether or not to be surprised that you and the other lances are here Brother," I replied walking over to where Al had assigned me a locker, Reaching in I pulled out a Warhammer that I've been modifying since we returned from our training with Wren.
"I have plenty of Asuran armour and weapons, giving it to the Lances, and our stronger soldiers is just about the best use of them I can think of," Alexander Called out putting on his ring that melted over his body before solidifying into his Armour.
A breastplate of silver metal that looked like Damascus metal with a pattern of fierce scales materialized on top of the red and black robes underneath made of feathers and hair of various asuran races. The grieves, gauntlets and hip armour were all made of the same metal as the breastplate.
"Looking like a king there Al. Ironic, Isn't it?" I chuckled pulling on armoured battle robes made of the fur of rare mana beasts and metal with nearly the same properties as titanium,
"Who knows, I might just become emperor at this rate." He cackled while beginning to meditate with Cadel's horn.
Tessia had a worried look as she sat next to Arthur, his brows were knitted in deep thought and his eyes were heavy with worry. "Art... Are you sure you're feeling ok?" Tess fretted as she held Arthur's hand.
"yes, This is just. Such a large-scale assault makes me worry, the logistics for this must have taken an absurd amount of resources, It just makes me worry for whatever Agrona has planned." Arthurs's voice trailed off as his hands drifted to Sylvie's mark on his forearm, before long Sylvie's arms wrapped around her shoulders giving him a comforting hug as he steeled himself.
"Let's not keep the commander waiting Through the portal all of you." Al sighed, placing the horn back into his dimension ring and standing up, portals opened in front of the Lances, allowing them to go through as they donned the asura forged weapons Al gifted them.
"Claire, Tessia, I do hope you share with me how my teachings have paid off~" Aya's sultry voice tinged with sound magic trailed off as she walked through the portal swaying her hips. the other lances followed suit as they walked through the portals.
"Did that excite you?" Cecil spoke from behind me, she was laced with jealousy as she poked my cheek stopping me from turning around.
Cupping her cheek I kissed her gently "Cecil you know how much I love you, I wouldn't trade you for the world." I smiled at her ignoring the gazes of some of the soldiers.
"You could stand to mention it more, Eli." She beamed as we all marched out of the armoury, A maid approached Alexander, he dwarfed the maid as his body approached seven feet tall, looked down at her, and she offered him a glass.
"Here Paladin Alexander, it's not much but I'll support everyone in the Typhon as best I can." she nodded eagerly, handing him the cup. He took the glass, swallowing it in one gulp his demeanour changed entirely.
His crushing bloodlust spilled out as he Grabbed the maid by her throat lifting her off the ground with one hand, "I know you want me dead but poison? that's just fucking disappointing, Agrona." He smirked as the maid's smile vanished leaving only a hardened and annoyed gaze.
"You're more resilient than I had Accounted for, Not that it matters. I shall have my answer to what It takes to deal with you soon enough." A cold emotionless voice rang out from the maid before a sickening crunch ended the maid's life in an instant. her lifeless body fell from his grasp an instant later.
Alexander's and Cecilia's gazes snapped to the side, their eyes staring with intent as if they could see through the stone as if it was glass. "Battle stations, All of you! Tessia get to the bridge and tell Gramps we're gonna be a bit late." Alexander's voice was urgent as he ordered us.
"Al what the hell is going on?!" Arthur unsheathed dawns ballad being ready for anything and Sylvie formed arrows of pure mana around herself.
"We got thirty seconds to prepare for a fight, a big one at that." He spoke as the Typhon disembarked from Xyrus, this time floating at a higher level than the flying city.
"Elijah, I got a plan for this but you're not gonna like it in the slightest." he sighed before clicking his tongue. Before long I started feeling their presence, It just HAD to be them.
"Al, Are those who I think they are?" Arthur asked, infusing mana into his body.
"Yes, and they probably want me dead. Also, Elijah, do you mind if I use Cecilia as Bait?" he scratched his chin.
"NO! not against them! that's just borderline stupid!" I snapped looking him dead in the eyes.
"Welp too fucking bad, Cadell's bad enough but Two Scythes? We're gonna need a distraction, and what better is there than the legacy."