Chapter 116: Battleship

The wind screams wildly, howling like a wolf calling her pack for the hunt. Summoning them for the imminent battle. A herald of slaughter.

…

“[Resurgent Melody]”

A spreading song, a symphony of sound summoned by skill. An expanding enigma of power and potential.

It begins, not with a whisper or a shout, no soft strings or blaring trumpets. It begins with what is first a low rumble, before it crescendos and reveals itself as drums, a drumroll on a snare.

And abruptly, the drums stop.

There is silence.

A sound never heard before in this world comes forth, strings twanging before being amplified and altered into a harsh noise filled with power. It’s something new, something bizarre…

Something electric.

The guitar plays a simple chord progression. The drums return, a bass joins in. A piano accompanies the three.

Then the orchestra makes themselves known, strings rising in volume in the background. Alongside the drum kit are timpani and bells. With the guitar are trumpets and trombones. The choir harmonizes with the rest, not necessarily leading nor following.

And now that it’s all there, a great chorus united in song, does the guitar once more rise above the rest, playing a melody of determination, promising naught but unrelenting force.

For war was upon them; here was its anthem.

Artistic Talent: Unique: [Anthem of War]

While music continues, decrease skill cooldown by 50%

While music continues, decrease stamina drain by 30%

While music continues, decrease mana drain by 30%

While music continues, increase all physical stats by 10%

Bonus [Harmony of Movement]: Increase dexterity by 30%

Bonus [Hymn of Power]: Increase all physical stats by 20%

________________________________

“Executive Officer, please increase engine speed.”

Jessica sighs.

“Quasi, why do I ha-”

She stops as Quasi gives her an annoyed glare.

She rolls her eyes.

“Commanding Officer,” she begins, “why do I have to yell out the orders?”

Quasi, the self-appointed Commanding Officer of the ship, crosses his arms in annoyance, “Your questions are borderline mutiny, Executive Officer. I run a tight ship here and I will not accept your backtalk. Now, increase engine speed.”

Jessica groans as she rubs her head.

“Fine,” she says after a moment. She then looks into the distance.

“Zemyna, can you please fly faster?” Jessica yells out while weathering the scathing glare of the ship captain.

The engine growls in confirmation. Her massive wings flap, the power required straining her muscles. The engine pants as the ship accelerates.

The ship travels quickly, further and further within the central islands, staying unmolested for a surprisingly long time. It is only when they near the easternmost islands of the floor that a confrontation becomes inevitable.

In the distance, an army of fire wyverns takes flight from nearby islands. Several thousand, at least, quickly take to the air. Like a swarm of ravenous locust, they fly towards the ship.

The captain stands up from his stone throne and gazes towards the enemy swarm.

“Stay the course. We will break through the blockade with force.”

He turns towards Darrow.

“Gunnery Sergeant, prepare the cannons. Inform them to fire at my order!”

Darrow, with a goofy but somewhat serious face, snaps a proper salute.

“Yes, Commanding Officer.”

With a smile, he runs between the sides of the ship, yelling commands at the hundreds of [Stone Wyverns] with mixed results.

Most of them are located at the bow of the ship and are already combat ready, just waiting to shoot at the distant swarm.

The others just stare at Darrow in confusion as they are unable to interpret the chaotic waving and shouting of the humanoid lizard as anything but a funny dance.

“On my Mark!” The captain raises his hand. His eyes focus on the swarm ahead. The distance between the groups close as both sides accelerate. The [Stone Wyverns] turn their heads, brace themselves , and open their mouths.

“Fire!”

Nothing happens.

Quasi, Jessica, and the Gejan stare at the [Stone Wyverns] who are still waiting for the order.

“Oh.” Quasi facepalms.

“Fire!” he yells again, this time in Draconic.

The “cannons” begin to discharge their payload directly into the swarm of enemy wyverns with sickening efficiency. Bones are broken, wings are ripped, skulls are bashed. But the enemy numbers many thousand, so even as the cannons reload and fire again, the enemy swarm swells in size.

Eventually, the flock nears the ship.

“Fire the close-range guns!”

Hidden within the midst of regular cannons are larger ones that also have a very noticeable crystalline sheen. These cannons, better known as [Crystal Wyverns], rise above their younger brethren as a new type of ammunition forms in their mouths. Thousands of small crystal shards are created between their jaws before being condensed into a ball. The shards aren’t melded to one another, but are still apart.

Six main cannons release their payloads all at once. Simultaneously, the sound barrier is broken six times as well. The shards spread midair like grenade shrapnel exploding in one direction. Sharp crystals tear into [Blaze Wyvern] skin, ripping through wings and outright killing some; but just like trying to kill a swarm of bees with a shotgun, the barrage can’t stop them all, and the wyverns are getting dangerously close to the ship.

“Aircraft Officer, release our fighters. Protect the ship at all costs!” Quasi yells and Alba giggles as she mentally orders all of the wind wyverns hiding in the aft of the ship to take flight at once.

They are led by Anemone who quickly leads her kind into aerial combat. Fighting begins with the [Blaze Wyverns] releasing streams of fire against everything, blasting the ship, the cannons, the engine, and the wind wyverns engaging them.

The cannons and the engine ignore the flames. They are built to endure, and the unfocused flames from [Blaze Wyverns] do little to damage them. Even the [Wind Wyverns] fair remarkably well as they focus on dodging and distracting, allowing the [Stone Wyverns] to pick them out of the sky.

Jessica watches the massacre of flame wyverns happening around them. She frowns as she turns to the captain, “They are so aggressive,” Jessica voices, “Why are they attacking? They are losing so many of them.”

The captain grunts in reply.

“The Engine has the ability to control lower leveled earth wyverns. She gained the ability to do so when she hit her fourth evolution at level four hundred.”

Jessica’s eyes widen.

“That means-”

The captain nods, “Yes, things have gotten a lot more complicated.”

The captain frowns as he surveys the battlefield. The enemy wyverns are now landing on the ship to disrupt the cannons, even at the cost of crash landing onto the deck.

“Enemies have boarded. Destroy them before they damage my cannons!”

Darrow, Thorous, Orlan, Aldonis, Joker, and Mule heed the captain’s call and engage the flame wyverns in melee. The fighting aboard the ship is brutal and violent as blood seeps onto the deck of the ship alongside severed limbs and strewn corpses. The fighting continues on for the next several minutes. Death and destruction reign without an end in sight.

Until it ends all at once as the swarm is completely defeated. One minute, the sky and deck were filled with enemies, in the next, they were gone. Ten thousand [Blaze Wyverns] had died, bewildered by tactics they did not understand and slaughtered by weapons for which they had no countermeasure.

Regardless, the [Blaze Wyverns] are only small fry; the real battle is only beginning.

With the sky now clear, the music still playing, and the smell of blood permeating the atmosphere, the captain has a clear view of the next enemy force waiting to engage them.

Twenty-eight [Inferno Wyverns], twelve [Incinerator Wyverns], and, behind them, a flame wreathed dragon further back into the distance.

“[Advanced Analyze]”

[Conflagration Wyvern] Lvl 411

Conflagration Wyverns are the fourth evolution of [Flame Wyverns]. Few wyverns ever reach the fourth rank, but when they do, they obtain a small portion of their ancestors’ true strength. Conflagration Wyverns have molten scales that release extreme amounts of heat while amplifying the wyvern’s natural fire wielding abilities. They are masters of fire magic and are capable of absorbing heat to heal their wounds.

The captain’s smile wavers as he reads the last sentence. He remembers the massive lava bath waiting below them all.

“Fuck. That’ll be annoying. Damnit, I really didn’t want to resort to plan B.”

“What’s wrong?” Jessica asks.

The captain sighs, “Nothing, just that a sacrifice is going to need to be made.”

______________________________

Throughout the whole battle, the The ship had maintained her course and come through unscathed. Her build quality is, indeed, very impressive, but even so, the engine, at her core, has feelings, and it is currently feeling a little bit of dread as it gazes at the mighty [Conflagration Wyvern].

If she had not given her word to the one known as Quasi, she would remove the enchanted tethers of bone and finally stop dragging the stupid island. Granted, the plan is brilliant. Instead of having her kind leave the land in which they are strongest to do battle against the fire wyverns, the [Hero] had instead brought the land to the battle.

And now, she waits with both fear and bloodthirsty glee for the battle soon to occur. She surveys her surroundings, finding plenty of islands near the enemy wyverns. Each one she can tap into to utilize her magic. Soon, she will taste worthy blood again.

“Engine, stop drooling.”

Zemyna closes her mouth in annoyance. She doesn’t know what an engine is, but Quasi keeps calling her that. For reasons beyond her comprehension, he has chosen to change the names of everyone without any reason why. He calls her [Stone Wyverns] cannons, the [Gale Wyverns] fighters, and has changed his own name to captain or commanding officer. It makes no sense and the other two legs don’t understand the reasoning either.

_____________________________

“They’re coming!” Jessica shouts as the [Inferno Wyverns] and [Incinerator Wyverns] move to intercept the ship. The music increases in tempo and pitch as though it expects a significant battle to take place.

“Yup. It’s a good thing I came prepared.”

The [Hero] steps forward and smiles. “Release the elites!”

At his words, Nyxina, Deros, an [Incinerator Wyvern], and four [Diamond Wyverns] launch from the underside of the ship. They take flight and move into formation around Anemone. The [Gale Wyverns] are then ordered to stay with the island. Without a thundercloud, their usefulness is very limited and would only be a liability.

“They have a lot,” Alba says as she slowly walks near the throne. She is disheveled and clearly exhausted, the cause of which is from using her skills on so many wyverns for such an extended period of time.

“Yeah, that’s true. But, we have something that they don’t.”

“Uhu. And what would that be?” Jessica voices.

Quasi chuckles and then points directly above the incoming enemies.

“Missiles.”

At his word, the one hundred modified undead wyverns that had ranged high above and ahead of the ship drop from the ceiling. They accelerate down, faster than gravity, homing in on the unsuspecting enemy.

“Nobody ever looks up,” Quasi smugly smirks.

The undead ram into the enemy, penetrating scale and skin, lodging deeply into the bodies of the unfortunate fire wyverns.

Only one [Inferno Wyvern] dies as an undead penetrates its skull; most others are just injured even though they have undead inside their body.

“Engine! Ahead Flank! Ramming Speed! Full-on attack! Be prepared for anything!”

Zemyna complies; she pushes her speed to the max, wires of bone thrum and strain, pulled to their breaking point, but they hold and the ship’s speed triples.

The [Conflagration Wyvern] opens its maw and screams. The [Incinerator Wyverns] and the [Inferno Wyverns] heed to their leader’s orders and then they quickly decide to ignore their wounds, focusing instead on the incoming island which has just entered their range of attack.

“[Corpse Explosion], [Corpse Explosion], [Corpse Explosion].”

The captain continues activating the skill, doing so mentally so as to be done much faster. Only milliseconds pass between explosions. In a second all the undead have unleashed their unexpected payloads.

All of the [Inferno Wyverns] die, their weaker and smaller bodies are easily consumed by the detonations.

The [Incinerator Wyverns] fare far better. Only two die and the remnant ten are heavily injured, making them easy prey for the elite wyverns.

The elites swerve away from the island and quickly engage the [Incinerator wyverns]. Nyxina’s breath attacks easily destroy flesh while Deros latches onto one of them with impressive violence. The [Incinerator Wyvern] counters by covering itself in flames, but Deros ignores it as he begins to heal the damage faster than it can be done.

The [Diamond Wyverns], the third evolutions of earth wyverns, shimmer and shine as they ram into the enemy and fall down to the islands below. The four remaining of the [Incinerator Wyverns] are left to Anemone. Instead of attempting to fight them headon, she instead releases her mana to batter and distract the wyverns so that her other fellow elites can assist her when they are done with their own prey.

Quasi looks at the battlefield, at his ship, and can only sigh.

“All personnel, this is your captain speaking. Due to unfortunate circumstances, I am issuing an emergency evacuation. All those alive, take flight and leave!”

“What?” Jessica says wide-eyed right before all of the wyverns aboard the island begin to take flight and leave.

She then screams as a [Gale Wyvern] grabs hold of her and lifts her off the island. The same thing happens to the Gejan, Alba, and finally the captain.

“Engine! Plan B!”

Zemyna slowly bobs her head in understanding and disappointment. She continues her high speed charge at the [Conflagration Wyvern] and enters its attack range.

The wyvern opens its mouth and releases a violet flame which covers Zemyna’s entire body as well as the whole island itself.

The heat within Zemyna’s body quickly builds up to the point of extreme pain. Thankfully, her body is resilient enough to not melt or burn. She climbs, wings beating hard, and pulls the island upward. The [Conflagration Wyvern] stops its attack, looking upward confusedly at Zemyna who glides overhead without riposte.

At the last second, Zemyna rolls and dives, passing within a meter of the [Conflagration Wyvern’s] tail. The entrained island follows her motion and slams down on the enemy wyvern.

A crunch can be heard as bone is broken from the impact and the [Conflagration Wyvern] screams as the island drives him downward.

Zemyna, with quick reflexes, manipulates her scales to cut the bone wires connecting her to the island. Once free, she quickly veers away, allowing the island to continue its fast descent with the [Conflagration Wyvern] attached to it.

She is not a moment too soon; the derelict ship crashes into another floating island, sandwiching the [Conflagration Wyvern] between them.