I look at the massive fortress in the distance. We are currently on a ship attacking the Hatred Fortress. I see a lot of boats already sailing toward us. Sadly for them, the win is on our side. They use rune crystals to set sail and move, but not too fast. We can use this.
I control the water underneath me and prepare to unleash it.
"Archer! Get ready!"
At my command, the archer boat behind us is full of action, and I can see the archers inside the boats preparing to release a hail of arrows.
I wait for a few seconds before shouting another command.
"Fire at will!"
A rain of arrows flies from our side and rains upon the enemy's boats. They are truly greenhorns as they charge at us instead of maintaining formation, even though they are defending instead of attacking.
"Keep firing!"
The archers keep firing their arrows at the incoming fleet, and when I see them get closer, I control the water. I control a large amount of water to slow them even more so the archers can hit them longer.
I keep controlling the water to slow it down and cancel it when my mana reserve reaches half. I take out my sword and point it at the enemy.
"Archer! Stop! The rest of you! With me!"
Seven boats set sail toward the enemy.
"Ramming boat! In front! The others! Prepare to board!"
My boat sets sail at full speed, and when my boat rams into the enemy's boat, I jump from one boat to another. I swing down my sword and kill one of the soldiers.
"Attack!"
My soldiers quickly jump from their ship to the enemy's ships. I look at the other ship getting closer and shout.
"Quickly! Create a bridge! Don't let them get away!"
The combat ships are getting closer and passing us, the ramming ships, to encircle the rest of the enemy ships. I smile and gather lightning mana from the air. I let the lightning spread across my body and dash forward.
With lightning mana inside my body, my body gets stronger and faster.
I appear in front of Godwin's soldiers and swing my sword. I cut one of the soldiers and then quickly swung vertically upward to block an incoming attack. I push the sword and create a circular downward swing to cut my opponent in half.
*BUMMM*
I can hear a war horn being blown in the distance and shout.
"Stop! Don't chase them! Retreat!"
The others look at me in confusion because they don't know about the grand plan for this attack.
"Some of you! Take their boat. We will take the boat as our own."
"Yes, sir!"
"Good! Come on! We need to get back to Raftfleet."
=//=
"Right. With this, we manage to push the enemy close enough to their fortress to make them have a hard time attacking us without risking attacking their own men. So, will we get into the second stage?"
I say while looking at Lucretia and Admiral Raja. Lucretia smiles at me and says.
"That is right. The prince and the others are already going to Ceras Lake Ruin."
Right. To ensure no one dies, I ask Nikea, Norma, and Ernst to accompany the prince to the ruin.
"We will start the second stage of the plan. Gerrald, Logg, and Lun, I need you three to go and cause as much havoc as you can."
I smirk at her and say.
"Leave it to us."
Logg and Lun also nod their heads in agreement. After saying our goodbyes, the three of us return to the dock, where ten boats are already waiting for us alongside the crew coming with us.
I can see a stack of barrels with some sort of spring contraption underneath it. That spring machinery is what Professor Babbage created for this mission. With all the preparation over, Logg looks at his crew and says.
"Alright, people! Let's get this started!"
With that shout, we set sail. Logg and I are using the ship full of barrels of oil while Lun is sailing with the boat we use when going north. We need it for later.
We continue to set sail and see the people on the fortress busy panicking when they see Logg lighting up the barrel with fire. When I see a group of archers appear on the edge of the fortress, Logg looks at me and says.
"I will leave them to you."
"Sure!"
I take a deep breath and watch a small rain fly toward us. A second later, a long line of water cuts all the arrows that were flying toward us. Logg laughs loudly and makes the ship even faster.
"Pop! We are close enough, don't you think?!"
Lun calls from behind, and Logg shakes his head before shouting.
"Calm down! We still have time to get closer!"
Logg gets even faster, and I can see the fire about to reach the oil inside the barrel. When we are only a couple dozen meters away from the fortress, Logg suddenly jumps into Lun's boat. I quickly follow suit and give one last push to the boat that is now in flames.
When the boat rams into the giant fortress, it explodes, and the barrels scatter inside the fortress, spreading the fire even more. I look at the rest of the ship and give a signal for them to come.
I can see they are getting closer and even lit their ship on fire. The sailor then jumps into the water, where we pick them up. While sailing away to the side, I can see the soldiers on the wall retreating from the burning fortress.
When we reach the shore, I can see a giant firework appear in the sky.
"Shit! Has it already started?! We just arrived on land! We did not have time to take my baby away to safety!"
I ignore Logg's cry and store the boat in my inventory before dragging them to safety.
"Go! Go! Go!"
We make a mad dash to the nearby hill just in time as we see a giant tsunami appear from the northern part of the river and slam the giant fortress into pieces.
If you want to read more and support me, you can visit my P@treon: P@treon.com/Luxvondeux