บท 518: Naval Discharge...

Admiral Tuindal of the third Aldmeri Dominion crosses his arms atop his flagship as it begins its bombardment of Winterhold.

Most of their projectiles had been aimed into the city itself, while others had been targeting the foundation of the College of Winterhold. While it was an ancient place of learning that most elves would pause at destroying, he and his leaders knew well that it was one of the central pillars holding up Skyrim and Nord society itself.

The stubborn Nords wouldn't like to admit it, but magic was part of their lives, and without the College, they'd quickly find themselves dearly lacking when compared to the rest of the world.

"Keep firing until that damned city is rubble!"

"At once! Admiral!" a few of his men chorus in response.

Everyone was going fine... Until it wasn't...

"ADMIRAL! Enemy ships ahead of us!" a man shouts from the crows next atop the vessel.

Tuindal frowns in confusion, their plans were kept strictly secret aside from the few in the know. The nearest port to Winterhold was Windhelm, not to mention Dawnstar that'd been burned to the ground recently...

He pulls the telescope from someone and takes a peek, becoming even more baffled when he spots the two ghost ships ahead of them, each being manned by hundreds of ghost sailors... "What in Oblivion is that!?"

*ROOOAAAR!*

Tuindal reflexively ducks as he hears the dragon roar, only then realising that the dragon was above Winterhold and seemingly ignoring him and his other ships... "What in all the gods is going on here!?"

"Sir! The enemy! They're pulling cannons to their bow!! Your orders!?"

Tuindal shakes his head and forces himself to breathe easy, "VANGUARD PREPARE A STARBOARD BROADSIDE! SECOND-LINE PORT BROADSIDE! BLAST THEM TO PIECES!" he commands, causing a quarter of the forward Aldmeri navy to begin moving while the boats behind them begin their own preparations for battle.

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Michael grins as he steers the Ghost Ship towards the Thalmor navy, the ability had been maxed out so he was looking forward to seeing what his enhanced cannons would do to the elves.

"Aharhar~! Wind from my hair, salt in my beard! Let's show these scoundrels what our being alive means for them!" Kunkka laughs in the Ghost Ship beside Michael's, clapping one of the ghost sailors on the shoulder as he does so... Surprisingly, the ghost actually grins in response, as if he were feeling emotions and familiar with the Admiral.

"He's enjoying himself too much for a man sailing into an enemy naval army..." Derflinger mutters.

Michael shrugs, "Let him enjoy it... At least this time he can go down with his ship."

He then looks up ahead and spots the Thalmor boats beginning to make their move. Surprisingly, they made a show of preparing their own cannons, surprising Michael as he hadn't expected the Thalmor to possess them...

Sure, had been developed in Tamriel, but the powder they used was far too volatile for anything but heavily enchanted cannons. That, of course, required a lot of gold to fund.

Regardless, no one was in range yet, and the Thalmor begin showing the broadside of the many vanguard ships... If he and Kunkka wanted to get any closer they'd be heading directly in a hailstorm of cannonballs.

...

But... Kunkka didn't seem swayed at all...

The Admiral raises Tidebringer and laughs uproariously, "RAMMING SPEED MEN! LET'S SEE HOW THEIR CANNONS FAIR AGAINST OUR BOAT!"

"Slow down you crack-pot pirate! There are fifteen boats aiming at us! I thought you were supposed to be a master in naval strategy!" Michael shouts after him, thinking that there must've been a better way to approach this... He could probably just glide on over and disrupt the front formation to make way for the ghost ships...

Kunkka didn't care.

"I am a battlefield genius! Which is why I'm charging! Hide on land if this is too much for you lad!"

"I'm beginning to think that this is why you had no navy, Kunkka!" Michael retorts, positioning his ship behind Kunkka's so the admiral could take all the focus. Still, he was prepared for them to get utterly decimated by cannon fire... They had two boats, while the Thalmor had around a hundred... The fight was nowhere near even.

Kunkka grins as his ship enters cannon range. "FIRE LADS! SCUPPER THE FLEET AND KEELHAUL THE LOT OF THEM!"

*BANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANG!*

The cannons pushed to the front of the ship all fire, Michael's boat firing over Kunkka's at a steep angle to avoid friendly fire. Thankfully, the Thalmor appeared to have shittier cannons than they did, allowing them to get fire blood in battle.

The thing about showing your broadside was, while you could fire many more guns at once, you also made yourself a larger target... The Thalmor's tactics had backfired simply due to the difference in their weaponry, two of their boats getting blasted by the initial volley.

A few mages attempt to block and deflect the ghostly cannon balls, but they were far too powerful and magically resistant to be moved by such means. The ghost ships were rank 4, far better than the rank 1 ship Michael had used to destroy a Daedric Fortress... And it showed.

Once the cannonballs struck the enemy vessel, the impact side all but disintegrated, as if the cannonball weighed as much as a small mountain without the size to slow it. The projectile hits the starboard side of the ship and shoots straight out the other side after devastating the underdeck. One cannon ball would've been enough to eventually sink it, but add the many others?

*CRAAAAAASH!*

The ship quickly slams to a halt as the anchor is blasted out from where it was held, causing it to unintentionally unfurl. This, of course, causes the other Thalmor ships behind it to slow or swerve in order to avoid crashing into its stern.