Chapter 163: Trench Warfare
Between the guardians of Ghost Reef and The Sapphire Armada’s invasion force, the latter were the first to falter. Coop and the phantoms were barely getting started, fully prepared to launch an extended campaign in the defense of their settlement, but the invaders hesitated before continuing their efforts to assault the mysterious fog. From their perspective, Coop’s Fog of War blanketed the entire main island of Ghost Reef, obfuscating the entire landmass, presenting their opponents with an unconditional advantage. Casting spells into the massive domain was ineffective and attempting to traverse through the mists had resulted in no progress whatsoever. It seemed as though the invaders in charge had come to the conclusion that continuing to assault the fog was a losing proposition.
Searching for methods of circumventing the fog pushed the forward squads to the east end of the channel and into the mangrove forest instead. It didn’t take long before the Armada fully abandoned the idea of breaching the island through the murky forest as well, finding the marshy ecosystem even more daunting than the channel between the two islands. The mangrove forest, with its natural obstacles, exacerbated by the influence of the assimilation had them reeling. That left them trying a third option, wading through the shallows, far off the western shore, away from the lighthouse, so that they would hopefully wrap around and emerge on the western beach of Rock Key. Admittedly, Coop also believed it was their best shot, but if wading across the reef right up to the fort would have worked in the first place, they wouldn’t have needed to unload the troop transports on the opposite end of the island chain. Even before Coop had arrived, the defenders of Ghost Reef had repelled the invaders when they tried to navigate across the reefs to assault the fortress.
The constant wavering of the Sapphire Armada’s invading force had resulted in stalling the squads that followed behind the initial groups. While the forward attackers poked and prodded at the main island of Ghost Reef, finding setbacks at every turn, the rest were stuck waiting for new developments to make room for their march. Those that couldn’t witness the forward assaults rehashed the same mistakes as the initial squads, pressing further into the fog than they should and half-heartedly testing the mangroves, or they followed their predecessors as they waded out to the reef. In the meantime, others had begun fortifying the second island while those even further behind settled in for a longer conflict between two maritime powerhouses. The assault was transforming from an exercise in overwhelming a smaller settlement with their massive numbers to an extended campaign where they had to fight for every inch gained. They should have known it wouldn’t be so easy to sweep the fortified enemy away when the naval bombardment had failed to crack the defensive measures of the small island settlement, but they had fully committed when they launched their massive armada from their home port.
At first, as the squads waded into the ocean while seeking an alternative to crossing the channel into the mists or fighting through the mangroves, they probably believed that their maneuver would be a successful one. Coop’s fog didn’t actually extend all the way to the fort any longer. It was now concentrated on the channel between islands and both of their shores as it had been drifting south for the duration of the conflict. From offshore, the invaders could see that they had an opportunity to bypass the misty domain with a wide detour. But nothing on Ghost Reef would be easy for enemies of the settlement.
The first problem appeared when the Primal Kites started ambushing them. While the Constructs weren’t strong enough to defeat more than one person at best, the fact that the troops were constantly being bombarded from underground killed any momentum they had gained from adjusting their strategy. The sandbars they were using to navigate the reef were full of the annoying ambushers and they had no method of detecting the monsters before they were upon them. The soldiers had suitable numbers to overwhelm the individual Kites, preventing the creatures’ dodges from becoming truly dangerous, but that didn’t prevent the monsters from taking a few shots with their magical ranged attacks and leaving the fighters with preliminary injuries before even reaching their true opponents on the walls of the fortress. The eruptions of sand and water were enough to kill their morale as they had no way of telling if it was a deadly explosion or the beginning of a short monster encounter.
Ancient Piercers had already done a number on their initial assault, but at least the massive enemies were visible among the trees, giving the soldiers a chance to organize and face down the regular, if abnormally high level monsters. The Sapphire Armada had some experience facing down powerful monsters, but the straightforward battles with upfront monsters were in short supply on Ghost Reef. The Rippers had also made an appearance, crashing into the invaders from above, using their horrible lashing tongues to drag themselves onto individual victims when they least expected it. Then, the mangrove forest turned out to be teeming with Primal Serpents, cruising beneath the surface of the water and aggressively pursuing those who splashed too near their spawn areas. After all of that, the Primal Kites attacked them from underground as well. They were being assaulted from the trees above, from underground, underwater, and everything in between. Even without Coop’s Fog of War allowing him to listen in on their grumbling, it was clear that they had already had enough of Ghost Reef, finding the natives of the tropical paradise shockingly inhospitable.
And that was just the monsters. Coop’s spears continued to crash into them from above, exploding onto the sandbar like missiles, forcing the soldiers to split their attention from the submerged ground to the skies, as if knowing the projectiles were coming made any difference. The spears traveled at excessive speeds, breaking the spotters’ vision by flying above the clouds before shooting straight down. From below, they could only hope to spot the needle-like point seconds before it landed. The rush of wind as the tip of the spear tore the air and the thump of the wet sand being pierced beneath the waves was a periodic and traumatic occurrence.
Before they escaped the edges of Coop’s Fog of War, the phantoms had recycled some of their squad-based tactics from the siege. They formed groups of 20 and raided the flanks of the Armada’s army, teleporting in, dropping a coordinated strike of point blank area attacks in their midst, then teleporting back into the mists. The rapid strikes never gave the invaders a chance to organize proper counter attacks and the flexible nature of the phantoms’ movement abilities meant that the rapid assaults could happen almost anywhere. More than a dozen of the raids could occur simultaneously, creating havoc among the Armada’s troops.
Changing their position so that the mists were no longer between them and the settlement also exposed the invasion to the naval defenses of the fortress walls, but without the ability to use their planned countermeasures. Wading through the ocean, they had no cover. Trebuchets and cannons blasted them from hundreds of yards away, destroying feeble personally summoned shields with ease. The extreme range of the casters and archers meant that the Armada’s troops were completely exposed without their own navy to run interference.
Once another artificial storm started brewing, unnaturally isolating itself directly in their path while blasting the ocean with jagged lightning bolts that blinded them with flashes and caused their hair to stand on end even at a distance, the squads that had taken the initiative to lead the army into the ocean were turning to retreat. The entire campaign had turned into a nightmare. Others who would take their place in the front didn’t even bother, already exposed to the dangers of the island and not willing to take their chances. In comparison to the rest of Ghost Reef, the coconut palm grove with its charging Ancient Piercers and wispy mists actually seemed like the safest place.