BECMI Chapter 396 – Triple-Cross and Feint
The flanking fleets closed in, riding on the fury of the cross-winds, certain that we were certainly going to be engaged with the incoming Omicran fleet and they could swoop in and start mauling us, too.
The Thatallix were probably going to maul the Omicrans, too, but who knew?
The lack of black flags suggested the pirate clans had opted to stay out of this fight. I checked the tracking Runemarks I’d placed on the Haughty Gift, and smiled.
It seemed to be making rather urgent headway towards the islands that were the home of the Merchant’s Guild, strangely enough. Seeing as how the main force of the Guild were out of their harbors right now…
Well, Tenya’s favorite kind of people. Duplicitous, warlike, willing to do anything to win.
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Tension was mounting up something fierce as the fleets all closed in at the searingly slow pace of naval vessels in the age of sail. Not a single true Delphan airship in the sky to display mastery of their own world, the magical power and resources to build one too precious to spend on such extravagance, the remaining ones long fallen apart or destroyed in conflicts between the powers. Letting your opponent keep an airship when you didn’t have one was idiocy, after all, so destroying them had been a priority for rivals for centuries, until there were only messenger shipsable to levitate and all that remained was water and sails.
Most of the ships in my fleet could take off and levitate if needed with Permanent Cloud Vessel Cast upon them, which would be unwelcome for any if they were truly needed. I doubted they would be, as the many plain white sails of Omicran’s fleet grew nearer, dominated by their lofty galleons and heavy dreadnoughts, big but slow, as they came in from the west, tacking back and forth against the headwinds preceding us.
I watched the timing of their juking, and smiled.
To the northeast, the ribbed sails of the Guild and the painted sails of some Iotar vessels closed in rapidly, eager to join the fray. And to the south, the Thatallix were hurrying on the edge of the wind to get into position for what was coming.
Ah, time for some Magevoice diplomacy.
“Ships of Omicra,” I Said, my voice ringing out and covering five miles of space to exactly who I wanted to talk to, “This is the Lady Edge.
“My fleet is going to be executing a rather sweeping turn to the north and east to engage the Guild ships coming in from that direction. Now, I was informed that you have something of an acrimonious relationship with the gray sails coming from the south, who certainly have their hearts set on bombarding the lot of us while we are engaged and sweeping us off the seas.
“I should like to propose that we go sailing through one another’s formations, and give them a show of hurled flaming pitch and illusions of sails on fire and ships catching fire to encourage them to come in even closer, while do making sure to miss one another as much as possible.
“If you are agreeable to this little masquerade, please have that lead ship coming in fire a warning shot in our direction, would you?” I asked pleasantly. “Oh, and don’t worry about the clouds, they are entirely under my command.”
There was a few breaths of delay, and then, two miles out, a warning shot of flaming pitch rose high into the air, then plummeted into the sea.
“Excellent. Fleets of Eislas, prepare to sail in between the fleet of Omicran. Flaming loads if at all possible, and kindly make sure to not hit them if possible. We want a grand show and much confusion, and if you know any illusion spells to sell what is not happening, now would be a fine time to exercise them.”
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“Pull!” shouted the first mate, a stalwart fellow by name of Sigdun, and the load of flaming pitch went out and up in an attention-getting hurling, clearing the lumbering dreadnought entirely in a grand arc and falling harmlessly into the sea beyond it.
A half-dozen flaming ballista thrummed and streaked out towards us like burning comets, coming in about thirty feet over the deck and slashing past us.
I casually waved a hand and started a false fire on the side of the hull. “Excellent marksmanship, gentlemen!” I complemented the crews as the Scampering Wave hustled past. I was up with Superior Invisibility on Duum so that minor spells couldn’t see me, able to look and see the whole of the grand fleet action that was taking place to get there.
Flaming loads were flashing and flaring back and forth, ships were surging by dangerously close to one another, the more numerous and lighter vessels of my fleets scattered between the larger and slower ships of Omicron, while at the rear of our formation some mists were rising up and coincidentally hampering visibility. That all combined with the shadows from the clouds above to make it hard to see what was happening, only that a lot of fires were flying back and forth, some were sticking on ships, and shouts and cries and crashes and horns were all ringing out over the waters.
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Really, just making loud sounds was the simplest of illusions. Throwing pretend Fireballs and Lightning Bolts was pretty convincing, too.
“All Eislas ships prepare to pivot on my mark. Three, two, one… Mark! Winds reversing, set your sails!” I ordered from above, and down below, what should be impossible in this day and age happened as the entire fleet began its grand turn as one, the winds dying down and then reversing with sudden strength.
A hundred and seventy ships were scrambling to reset and align their sails, masts turning, sails billowing, wheels spinning and rudders shuddering as ships turned neatly onto their new courses.
And rather suddenly, the two incoming fleets found themselves not coming in on the edges of a major naval engagement, they found themselves racing into the jaws of two ready fleets with the wind behind them, weapons ready, and baying for their blood!
“Sister, why don’t you come and tell your children to shoo,” I Said, and Light punched through the clouds from above, lifting a downspout roaring from the waves as the lads below closed in on the suddenly unprepared Guild vessels.
The waters swirled and materialized into the figure of a berobed woman over a hundred and fifty feet tall, looming over the tallest of the opposing frigates, completely made of waters that glittered green, blue, and aquamarine. Fish were swirling about inside her, a porpoise leapt out of her and dove forty feet back into the sea, and the entire Iotari fleet just gawked as she turned her eyes upon them.
And the sea spoke.
“Any child of Iotar who fires upon my sister will be taken by the sea.”
The waters for miles around echoed her voice, singing with her power. I watched jaws drop on all the vessels painted with the colorful stripes and seals of Iotar sails as they beheld her, the woman who had revolutionized Iotar’s navy and given them their dominance of the waves that had kept their people safe from conquest for centuries.
Lady Hydrosa!
“No, it’s a trick! Attack! Destroy this trumped-up Elemental!” shrieked some portly and overconfident archmage, disbelieving what he was seeing. Her eyes turned upon the sleek frigate cutting towards her, the ram in its prow seething with lightning. “Die, creature!” he roared, and multiple balls of flame hurtled through the air at her.
Hydrosa lifted her hand, and Immortal Power thrummed.
The sea came up in a Wall, one at least a hundred meters tall. The splashes from the waves cut through the Meteor Swarm and blew them out of existence as explosions of hot steam, while the Wall continued on, right up to the incoming ship, through it, right through the screaming mage who saw it coming, the mast of his ship, and out the other side, continuing on for nigh a mile and more. Two Guild vessels crashed into it, and were nearly torn right out of the water from the currents, the side of their hulls ripped clear away with parts of their decks.
The Wall was less than an inch thick. The halves of the mage and the mast, and the ship itself, were torn up out of the sea by the currents forming the Wall, and went up over a hundred feet before peeling back and away to both sides, men screaming as they were hurled forth and fell into the sea out of control.
They didn’t just hit the sea, either. The sea came up to greet each screaming soul and drag them down, leaving barely a ripple behind to show they’d been there at all.
Really, daring to shoot at a Primal Elemental of her standing? Idiots...
My ships surged right past Hydrosa, hooting and sending out a rather nasty coordinated volley of flaming pitch and ballistae shots with astonishingly improved aim.
The Iotari vessels were scrambling to heave to, strike their sails, and run up flags of surrender. Their morale was somewhere below the floor at the moment for some strange reason, and the remaining Guild ships didn’t have enough numbers to continue the fighting, especially with Hydrosa there.
I actually wasn’t there, as I was totally sure my ex-Sim could handle things over on that side. No, I was bringing Thunderbolts down on the Thatallix ships, splitting masts, punching holes clean through to the bottom, and generally making life miserable for any vessel that thought about fleeing and trying not to get into range of the Omicran vessels.
Ah, the wind being with their enemy did make things difficult for them!
Black skulls trailing rose vines plunged down from the skies and planted themselves through desperate sea vessels, starting fires, frying sails, and frequently holing the ships and assuring they’d be sinking. In the meantime, the aim of the Omicrans miraculously improved. Raking fire, ramming attacks, and boarding actions were taking place all over as the enthusiastic Omicrans got to have their day, and the Thatallixi took it on the chin.
With me making sure those trying to run weren’t going to get very far, Thunderbolts crashing down every couple of minutes to strike terror into the Thats and spike the morale of the Oms, well, it was just a matter of time.
The great impromptu alliance of the major powers of the Remnant Kingdoms against the marauding invaders kind of ended up completely not the way anyone involved initially intended, except for me. Burning ships, surrendering crews, a Primal Elemental nigh-goddess showing up, and a whole lot of scheming and cold-warrish plans going up in smoke because the outlanders from the world where the ancient exiles had fled to had arrived here.
Yeah, we were about the only ones who got what we originally wanted. Not that Omicra didn’t benefit greatly from what happened… and I was pretty sure the Free Clans were going to fall upon the Guild islands and sack the shit out of them right about now…
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Admiral Gehundil of Omicra made sure to put on his best, and I entertained him and his chosen captains in my Sanctum with ease and grace.
If they were a little bit nervous seeing all those Gargantuan hydra heads heaped up in one of the side rooms, in the process of being carved up and Enruned with gold and whatnot, well, it further removed any doubts whatsoever of my killing ability.
It was the greatest naval victory for the Omicran fleet in decades. They were all jabbering about sailing off to Thatallix and seeing to a proper invasion and conquest with such an overwhelming victory, and of course the topic of conversation was whether I would be interested in helping them do so…