Armada

The HMS Nike led a massive fleet of over 1,000 ships, carrying almost 100,000 men, 65,000 of whom were soldiers. This the was first Fermion naval assault in hundreds of years.

At the World Economic Forum, the sovereigns agreed to send their army a month after receiving word of the demonic invasion. Certain areas were designated as gathering locations.

But the plan evolved after the demons' rapid conquest. The meeting location was changed to the Azores Islands.

Now the Fermion fleet was heading to join the Eastern Imperial armada of 9,000 ships and over a hundred thousand soldiers also making their way there.

"Imperial ships ahead!" a crewman yelled from the bird's nest.

"Your majesty, we've caught up to the imperial armada," the captain informed the king.

"I'm sure Emperor Kaiser already knows of our arrival. We'll wait and see if he summons us," King Roland replied.

"Excuse me, your majesty, Emperor Kaiser isn't aboard. See the flagship's flag. See how the imperial flag is above the flag of the imperial royal family. That means there is a royal on board, but not the emperor," the Marine Academy Headmaster Puller explained.

Sea flags and a flag's precise location on poles were difficult for laymen. Even sailors struggled to understand what the signals meant.

Only expert mariners, like the Grandmaster Puller could confidently read flag signals.

"The emperor's not on board?" King Roland said in disbelief. "Will, what do you make of this?"

"I don't know. But I assume, he's giving his imperial royal highness a chance to distinguish himself," Will guessed.

"Headmaster Puller, do you see the Imperial Rhaziesian ship?" asked King Roland.

"Aye, Emperor Jacques-Louis de Caernarvon is on board," Grandmaster Puller confirmed.

"And the others. Do you see the others? Beastmen, Dwarves, Elves, Kingdoms of Kur, Sabsta, and Bocaritanylan," King Roland asked urgently.

"The kingdoms' ships are mixed in with the imperial armada. But I don't see the Orca Tribe, and I don't know the Dwarves or other Beast Tribe's flag," Headmaster Puller shared.

"Will do you know when the Beastmen, Dwarves, and Elves shall set sail? Or have they already left?" King Roland asked.

"I'm afraid I don't," said Will.

Kallista worked as a go-between with the Tribal Council. One of the reasons Kallista went home was to deliver Will's message. And the reason for vacationing in Lezhe was to pick her up.

Some might wonder why he used Kallista, not the Wolfman Ambassador, on embassy row.

Will's answer was politics. He knew he already had the Wolfmen's vote and their vassals, but the Sea Witch remained a wildcard.

Using Kallista for such a prominent task, would give the Sea Witch face and endure her to his side.

The democratic Tribal Council itself was so politically intertwined that predicting any outcome would take oracle.

Yet, Will hoped he could draw support from the Wolves, Orca, Cat, and Tiger Clans. Last he checked he was also on good terms with the Eagle Clan.

However, his biggest obstacle was the Bear Clan and their vassals. Bear Clan always remained skeptical of humans and adversarial to humans, especially Will.

The letter Kallista handed Will in the cabana was the Tribal Council's resolution. Will expected the unexpected when he opened the letter. Still, he was surprised to read the Tribal Council had gone behind his back and joined forces with the dwarves and elves.

The letter expressed their general distrust in humans and humans' prejudice against their races. Moreover, their strategy was rather simple. They planned to attack the demons from the rear, while the humans attacked from the front.

The demons would then be forced to split their army, making it easier on both sides, with the idea they'd meet somewhere in the middle.

Although the plan wasn't foolproof, it reminded him of the Allies' strategy during War World two.

Britain, Frances, and the United States attacked Germany from the west while Russian attacked from the east.

"Tell me the truth, are the Beastmen, Dwarves, and Elves decided against war?" asked King Roland nervously.

"No, they've agreed to fight but not with us. They've chosen a different landing location," replied Will.

"Do you know where?" King Roland asked.

"They didn't tell me," said Will shrugging his shoulders.

"It's enough just knowing they've joined the fight," said King Roland as he walked away to his room below deck.

After two weeks on the sea, a crewman in the bird's nest announced, land h—shivers! Shivers!"

The Azores Islands separated the boundary between the Great Eastern and Qhosnir empires. The contested islands had long been the source of conflict between the two empires.

The archipelago was an important waypoint for merchant vessels. Moreover, the main island port served as the largest trade port on Terra.

Ships from all over the world stopped they're before their endpoint. Almost everything could be found in the main island's bazaar.

The Azores Islands served another purpose. It served as the gateway between the known and unknown world. Past the islands were a lagiacrus, sea wyverns, and sanctuary.

The lagiacrus were capable of annihilating fleets. Lagiacrus were fearsome territorial monsters who enjoyed sunbathing on the nearby islands.

It was not uncommon for young lagiacrus to destroy ships in the Azores Islands as they explored. Even the youngest lagiacrus were a least five meters tall, with the adults reaching up to twenty meters in size.

Furthermore, arrows and harpoons were useless against these monsters' thick scales, especially when they moved in groups of seven to ten.

Sailors called their groups, shivers because that's the feeling they got seeing so many. Seeing shivers was considered a bad omen.

"What the hell is that?" shouted King Roland.

"Baton down the hatches, hard to port!" yelled the captain urgently.

The armada's tight formation dissolved into chaos, as every ship maneuvered. I'm the chaos ships rammed into one another, ships sank, masts collapsed, and survivors swam for their lives.

Headmaster Wang cast [Barrier] as string water surrounded the ship. While the barrier saved the ship they were on, the ships that ran into the barriers were badly damaged.

"Some tell me what just happened?" King Roland yelled angrily.

"Sea Wyverns your majesty. A shiver of them attacked the armada. If we didn't cut to port, we've would've rammed into the ships ahead of us?" the captain explained.

"Your Majesty! Monsters!" A crewman pointed out to sea.

King Roland's face ran face pallid, and his body shivered when he saw a stampede of lagiacruses heading for the ship.

Will looked out at sea, there were at least thousands, probably more, of lagiacruses coming their way. It was almost as if every sea wyvern was intentionally led here to destroy the armada.

Every sailor on the ship shivered when they heard the monsters' screeches.

Grandmaster Zayn Puller had been a marine nearly all his life. As the headmaster of Marine Academy, he was the epitome of body-strengthening magic. He could easily amplify his mana senses and could easily feel the massive amounts of mana oozing out of the monsters.

"Fermion Marines! Prepare for battle!" Headmaster Puller's eyes glinted with a dangerous light. Monsters. Demons. It did not matter. Headmaster Puller had been waiting for his opportunity to show King Roland the value of his academy.

In Fermion, marines and the Marine Academy were considered to be the weakest of the four academies. The Marine Academy's ineptitude during the 8-Day Plague was ultimately their downfall.

Southern Fermians, former Albanians, blamed them for the catastrophic death rate. That loss of trust was further exacerbated with Will's victory over a thousand marines in Korce.

"We shall massacre all these damned monsters!" Grandmaster Puller yelled before jumping into the sea and swimming to the nearest beast.

Soon thousands of marines did the same. Marines from the allied kingdoms joined Grandmaster Puller while mages did their best to protect the ships, fighting when they could, while the marines fought the sea wyverns in the water.

The deep blue sea was dyed crimson. Thousands of marines fought thousands of monsters, with little auxiliary support.

Underwater the demon Lord Nergal laughed. His attack perfectly crippled the armada. Hundreds of ships sank, others were scattered, and only about 1/3 of the troops were capable of fighting those monsters.

As some ships fled for the safety of the Azure Islands, there were fewer and fewer ships able to help.