Chapter 7

January 22nd, 2043South Iteran Sea

The call was sent out, and the allies had responded with haste. Two fleets of two separate nations were sailing in joint formation, with another on it's way to meet with them to formulate their plan against the invaders from the gate.

Two fleets, both from the Entorian and Jinsan Empire were sailing together. Meanwhile the fleet of the Rukan Empire, the ones who called upon them, were approaching with haste. The Entorians assembled a fleet of seventy warships with thirty wyverns available, while the Jinsan assembled a fleet of forty with only five of their wyverns available.

From atop his flagship, Admiral Sugimoto Rei of the Entorian Navy watched as the Rukan fleet approached them to join in the battle they were called upon. However something was off by what he was seeing.

"Strange, wouldn't they have sent a larger fleet rather than just twenty vessels?" He asked himself as he was confused by the low number of ships sailing towards them. The Rukans were the strongest of the three empires, so it would make sense they would've brought with them a larger force.

"Perhaps we'll find reason once we meet with their admiral." The admiral's executive officer responded from behind.

The other admiral from the Jinsan Navy was aboard as both watched the Rukan flagship pull up and dock with the Entorian flagship. From it stepped forward the Rukan Admiral accompanied by his own executive officer and two armed sailors with muskets.

"Welcome aboard. I am Admiral Rei of the Entorian Navy. With us is Admiral Ikki of the Jinsan Navy." The Entorian admiral greeted the Rukan admiral as the two bowed before each other in greeting, as did the Jinsan admiral who approached and bowed to the Rukan admiral.

"An honor to fight with you Admirals Rei and Ikki." The Rukan admiral responded. "I am Grand Admiral Zou Zan of the Rukan Navy. I was sent as the commanding officer to lead our fleets into battle against the invaders."

"I am honored Grand Admiral," Sugimoto Rei responded. "But I am puzzled. For a grand admiral, I would've expected a higher count of ships to lead the charge. Tell me, why is there a significant absence of such a fleet to accompany us?"

"I apologize," The grand admiral answered. "But yes we are indeed a bit short on naval power at the moment. Several ships from the Bleyham Empire were spotted trespassing in our waters. Most of the ships we were supposed to receive were reassigned to intercept and engage the intruders should they turn hostile."

"The Bleyhams were intruding? That doesn't make sense." The Jinsan admiral responded. "The Bleyhams have never intruded within our waters."

"This is the first Admirals Ikki and Rei. We fear they may possibly be instigating an invasion with this recent development, so we took precaution by mobilizing a majority pf our fleet to intercept. this is all we could spare."

"Very well, then we'll have to proceed on and accept these numbers." The Entorian admiral responded. "What is our plan of attack grand admiral?"

"Based on what we know of our opponent based on survivor accounts, our foe utilized gun powder based weaponry on a scale never before seen." The grand admiral began explaining. "They even have powerful range, and strike us from beyond the range of our own weapons. Which is why I have decided to divided and spread our fleets out. That way their effectiveness is mitigated and our own vessels will be harder to hit from range. There have also been reports of that can track the movements of our wyverns. Inform your riders to take serious evasive action when being pursued."

"Giant homing arrows?" The Jinsan admiral questioned. "What sort of weaponry is that? Is it perhaps magic related?"

The Rukan grand admiral shook his head. "We're uncertain at this time. However we assume it to be magic related. Also, the enemy appears to utilize We're unsure of their range, but they travel at ludicrous speeds and drop explosives used to destroy ships. As far as we're concerned we should conserve our wyverns for dealing with them as they pose the biggest threat to us."

"Ludicrous speeds? How fast are these birds you mention?" The Entorian admiral questioned with skepticism at what these so called were capable of flying at.

"We're not sure, but survivor accounts say as fast as a bullet, if not faster."

"Faster than a bullet? That can't be right!" Both the Entorian and Jinsan admirals exclaimed.

"No living thing can go that fast! It's just not possible! Perhaps they were over exaggerating?"

"I too doubt the reports, and believe it to only be an exaggeration. For now though let us use caution and proceed on our way. We'll divided our fleets over some distance and keep our ships spaced apart. Unleash you wyverns only once we come into contact with their metal birds and keep on the lookout. We still don't know much about our enemy." The Rukan grand admiral instructed before he returned to his flagship and pulled back to his fleet.

The Entorian fleet would take lead of the entire armada, with it's ships spread out into ten groups of seven vessels each. The Jinsan fleet was beside them port side with it's ships spread out into ten groups of four vessels each. Lastly, the Rukan fleet sailed behind them with the lowest amount of ships, with only four groups of five vessels each.

While on board, the grand admiral returned to his quarters and picked up a scroll placed on his desk. Stamped onto it was the royal seal, indicating it to be from royalty. Opening it, he read the contents.

The grand admiral sighed and placed the letter in a burning oil lamp, letting the evidence burn away into ash.

_________________________________

January 24th, 2043South Iteran Sea

The coalition fleet of the Itera continent empires had sailed on for two whole days. The wind was in their favor today as they covered greater distances than yesterday. They were now approaching the site they believed their enemies to be stationing their ships.

"Grand admiral, sir! Our spotters identified what looked like an enemy bird circling our position!" The grand admiral's executive officer declared as he pointed out at a specific point in the sky.

Tracing where the officer was pointing, Zou Zan spotted some sort of flying creature circling them. It had stretched out wings with a disk shaped object on it's back. It appeared inanimate as it wasn't flapping it's wings or showing any bodily motion. So how was it even flying?

"Understood. Send the message to our ships, discretely. Be prepared to disengage at the sight of combat and return to the mainland."