216 Breaking Tide

Directly south of Itarim, south-east of La Vive, east of Hispanol and west of Ceres, were a stretch of islands bearing small towns of short, white structures. These were the islands of the Midlands Sea People, who were currently allied with Ashdale and La Vive in the world war and presently filling up rapidly with refugees from La Vive.

At nine forty-eight in the morning the day after the Beast Tide officially began, lookouts on the southernmost island reported seeing something most unusual; there appeared to be a new island to the south, and it had appeared practically out of nowhere.

An hour later, a panicked report came in; never mind the island, there was a huge flock of Wilds on the horizon, and they did not look friendly. Red eyes, slavering at the fang, and all that.

The hour after that, someone remarked that the new island that appeared seemed to be getting bigger, or perhaps, closer. But by then, everyone was too busy preparing defenses and screaming for help to really listen.

By the third hour, the Sea People were able to make out individual Wilds in the horde of Pegasi about to storm their islands. Some people tried to get away by airship or seaship, but there were just too many people and not enough ships or time.

At twelve fifty three noontime, an enormous tidal wave broke onto the shores of the southernmost island, and the 'new island' slowly bumped onto the edge of the land. Hundreds of smaller Wilds streamed off it, while the skies were covered with flying horses who rained down and trampled through three seaside villages and a port town within minutes.

It was at that point that people began to just dive into the sea regardless of whether there was a boat for them or not. They swam for the northern islands, but for all their desperation, they were instantly overtaken by the flying horses.

Town after town, village after village, the entirety of the Sea People's islands were overrun in a matter of hours. The number of people jumping into the sea overtook the number of people remaining on land before the disaster was half-done. The Sea People were generally skilled swimmers anyway; oddly enough, jumping into the sea was what saved more than half of the islands' population.

Everybody who remained on solid ground was quickly trampled, bitten, struck down with steel-hard wings, even blasted with razor-sharp winds. The Storm Pegasus King spared no human he saw on solid ground.

And then he was past. The Storm Pegasus King, his forces, and all the flying Wilds with him had crossed over the Midlands Sea People's islands, and were continuing north toward Itarim over the remaining stretch of water. Meanwhile, the islands were still overrun by amphibious Wilds and even Wilds who couldn't swim and had come down off the back of the Deep Emperor.

Those who could swim followed the flying Wilds north. Those who couldn't, well…

They never left the islands.

Of the four islands in a row, three of them were accessible to each other through tidal fords. The northernmost one, however, could only be reached by swimming, flying or sailing. As the day passed, the Wilds spread out all across the three southern islands, while the humans ended up clambering onto the northernmost island. This was the island with almost no Wilds, since the flyers, swimmers and amphibians had all continued north, while those who hitched a ride on the shell of the Deep Emperor were basically stuck on the southern islands forevermore.

As for the Deep Emperor himself, having successfully brought the Tide to the unsuspecting humans in their own lands, he turned around and went back home casually.

***

Around that time, the Southern Tide's forward group had passed Deadly Sands. Again, the settlement there had been completely abandoned, and again, they trampled everything into the dirt.

Their main group approached Three Pines, and Darian pointed out one particularly large white figure. "Dad? See that big bony fellow over there? That's the Bone King. He's the Tier 7 in charge of the Southern Tide."

"That's one big skeleton." Damien grimaced. The Bone King was big enough to swallow his Sky Barge whole. He was the biggest, strongest, and meanest Skeletal Serpent in the world, comparable in size to the Roc King and Senior Dragons like Har'es-dras' mother.

Alongside the Bone King were a dozen adult dragons, twice as many younger dragons, and an uncountable horde of scaly, furry, bony beasts from the far south and everywhere in between. At least two hundred of them could fly.

Damien grimaced and picked up a communications crystal. "George, the main group of the South Tide is passing by Three Pines. Bad news; you got flyers incoming. I'm seeing hundreds of flyers, at least thirty Tier 5, about a dozen dragons and twice as many bat and bird types. Better cap the airport."

From the other side of the line, George sighed. "I was afraid of that. We'll just have to make do."

"On the plus side, they're not attacking our airships around Three Pines. Also, I don't hear my wife screaming." Damien added. "Which means that she's not under attack at high altitude either. We still have room to accommodate people if you want to send some over at high altitude."

"Understood. We'll be sending all the children and as many mothers as we can fit. Your school is going to be a lot busier for a bit."

"Go ahead and send the children to school. We'll be fine."

***

As the forward group of the South Tide passed the Black Depths Lake, George filled his entire airfleet with children, mothers and wounded, then sent them all off.

"Make sure you stay above the clouds!" He ordered.

"Got it!" Jim replied. "We're also going to take a roundabout route! We'll go around the Tide, not past it!"

"Good! Stay safe!"

So they left, and George watched them go.

"All right, that's it. Close the airport." George ordered. "Lower the shell!"

"Lower the shell!" voices rang out, and the shell of Spike's late grandpa, taken whole from Craggy Falls, was lowered over the exposed top of Kara-01.

"Everyone, we're closing up! All doors, windows and hatches, shut and locked! Full lids and camouflage over the windows! Everyone inside, NOW!"

Actually, almost everyone was already inside. There were just a few squads left outside reinforcing the entrances or piling on camouflage or even downright burying a few access hatches.

"FDF, report!" Song Chen barked.

"Three more squads outside, on the way back!"

"Kara Main entrance, five squads, ready for battle!" Two of those squads were armed with breech-loading rifles, two with spears, and one manned an XL runic Ballista.

"Goth Main entrance, five squads, in position and ready!" Their loadout was similar to Kara Main's.

"Kara-01 upper accessway, three squads, fully armed and waiting!" One of those squads had rifles.

"Kara-02 maintenance entrance, two squads, in position!" One of theirs had rifles too.

"Kara-03, exit tunnel guard squad, ready!"

"Enclave Underground Tunnels, four squads, ready!" Half of them had rifles.

"Kara Reserves, five squads, ready!" These guys were meant to be sent in response to emergencies. Two of their squads were armed with rifles.

"Goth and Enclave Reserves, five squads, ready!" Similarly, two of their squads had rifles too.

"Camouflage Squad 2 has returned! Mission accomplished!" one of the squads previously outside reported.

"Camouflage Squad 1, now entering Kara Main!"

"Camouflage Squad 3, we're almost to Kara-03's tunnel exit! Just give us another minute!"

"Excellent!" Song Chen smiled in spite of the circumstances. Given the amount of time they had to prepare, everyone in the FDF was well ready for this Beast Tide.

"Mercenaries?" George called.

"Sons of Sand, four squads, standing by." Salim reported.

"Crescent Saber, five squads, standing by."

"Moon Runners, three squads, ready."

"Miscellaneous Mercs, four squads, we're all here."

"Iron Legion?" George asked next.

"Six squads, all accounted for!" Markus replied. Three of those squads now had rifles.

"Five hundred and fifty regulars ready for battle." Song Chen summarized. "Militia Volunteers?"

"Almost ready!" Sabriane replied. "We just need to make sure everyone has enough ammunition!"

"There's never enough." George advised. "Just make sure everyone knows where to get more."

There were two hundred militia volunteers, and fifty of them had rifles. That meant five squads of riflemen, the rest wielding crossbows or spears.

Literally every weapon wielded today was at least Tier 3, even the volunteer militia's. Every entrance had at least one Ballista rated at Tier 4. The two Main entrances and the Enclave Underground entrance also had XL runic Ballistae rated at Tier 5.

Finally, George himself led a special squad of the best mercenaries, legionnaires, and adventurers outfitted with heavy armor. All of them were equipped with ME-Frames and upper Tier 4 weaponry. Several of them had runic weapons that could even harm a Tier 5.

"Seven hundred and sixty-one defenders all accounted for." Song Chen breathed.

"We've been preparing a long time for this day. Let's hope it's enough." George said.

"Do you regret not putting up those traps?" Song Chen asked then. That had been one of the preparation ideas from early on.

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"Nope. Let's not provoke them." George said. "If possible, I'd rather we didn't have to fight at all."

Thus, the defenders of Kara-Goth turtled up and hid, hoping the Tide would pass them by without a single shot needing to be fired.