Transcendence?

***Norfolk, Northern Ocean***

***Ascathon***

“How about using our railguns from directly above them? If a single hit gets through, they will have a big problem.” An officer makes the first suggestion.

“Unfortunately I think that we wont penetrate their barriers if we attack just from one direction.” I tilt my head.

“Then we fan out as far as possible and pick off one ship at a time like in the fjord. The other possibilities are our mana-bombs, or good old magic by our few mages.” The captain states our options.

Unfortunately it's true that our possibilities to attack the enemy are limited. And I want to hold the mana bombs back. They are big pieces of glass, which are performing the same task as our ship's engine.

To be truthful, they are the failed products of our attempts to create a small mana based engine. The glass wasn't cooled properly from its molten state. So the crystalline structure is faulty. Something which could lead to a catastrophic explosion. Of course the properly working ones have failsafe mechanisms.

I intend to start those engines up and throw them onto the army of Mislow. They don't have to last longer than a few seconds until they break on the ground.

The big explosions would have the maximum effect on a tightly advancing army.

It would be a waste to throw them on this naval fleet, because of the barriers. “I am afraid that their barriers could withstand the explosions, unless we get a direct hit. We need the mana bombs against the army from Mislow. We will run out of ammunition if we try to stop all fifty thousand of them with our railguns alone.”

“We don't have to use our bombs like that. We could rely on our barriers and fly deep enough to be sure to hit. If we use our railguns to shoot not directly at them, but into the water close to them, we can create a curtain of water to give us cover. The impacts from the railguns produce really big splashes.” The captain makes another suggestion.

I scratch my cheek. “I like that plan. But we will improve the cover part by adding a little of my own magic. I will cast a spell which will create a small fog bank around the enemy fleet. We should be able to see the masts of their ships while their own vision will be seriously hindered.”

Yes, obstructing their vision is necessary, especially because they have globes too. Although they are the simple versions, they have the same effective range for spells as us. “I will start to weave the needed spell. I hope we can settle this fast, our people need us in Sarn.”

I turn to one of the engineers. “Bring one of the smaller cores to the deck. I guess I will need a little more power to cast this spell.”

The engineer nods and runs off. He returns a few seconds later with a big chunk of glass. A complicated web of magical circuitry is replacing the function of the big machines of the ships core. “That's a nice one. I was always a fan of miniaturisation.”

I grin at the engineer and grab the core with the size of a head out of his hands. Then I turn towards the captain. “I will be occupied with the spell, make sure to stop our attack if something unfortunate happens.”

The captain nods while I step outside again. Having a direct view on my target area is a big bonus if you have to cast wide area magic alone.

I orient myself towards the enemy fleet and the core in my hands comes to life with a blue light. Creating a fog bank on sea is easier than on land because of the huge amounts of water at my disposal.

The power of the core flows through my being and I throw a thin web of mana over the enemy fleet. A slight manipulation of the bonding energy between the water molecules does the trick.

A thick fogbank starts to appear around the enemy ships while I continue to channel mana into the spell.

While my fleet starts its attack, I see fireballs rising from the enemy ships and heading into our direction. I guess we were still seen in the end. But the fireball spells are slow and our railguns start to pick off the incoming attacks.

I pour more mana into the spell and the core between my hands starts to pulse unhappy. I am drawing more mana than it can collect from its surroundings.

The enemies continue to shoot their spells blindly and I watch as one of them gets a lucky hit on one of my ships. But our ships aren't defenceless either. The barrier of the ship's defence lights up and deflects the big explosion.

Our ships disperse to pick their own targets by orienting themselves on one of the many sails above the fogbank.

While passing through a curtain of fireballs, I feel my spell suddenly being affected by a foreign influence. I feel my control slip and force more power into my spell. But the opposing pressure is overwhelming.

I add my own power to the spell in order to avoid having it break at a critical moment. My fogbank is kept in place by a pure effort of will. If I would let go of my spell, the strong wind would clear the fog within seconds.

Probably it was foolish to think that people from a seafaring nation wouldn't know spells to control the weather on a small scale. Or am I fighting against someone else?

Our ships finally pass over the enemy fleet and flowers of red light start to bloom under us. They dropped their payload at the last possible moment.

Suddenly I feel a surge of power from the core in my hands. It's like something is channeling the power back into my device by force. If this goes on the core will overload!

Probably it was my own fault for having such a thought. My bad foreboding became true the very instant I thought about it. Cracks appear on the surface of the crystal.

I throw the crystal over board while using as much telekinetic power as possible to propel it down into the enemy fleet.

*BOOOM*

A red orb starts to bloom under us and I grab the railing to keep standing as a powerful shockwave shakes the entire ship.

Finally our attack run ends and we leave the enemy fleet behind us. I still see fireballs rising from the lifting fogbank. But there is no way to tell on the effectiveness of our attack until the fog is completely gone.

So I turn and walk back inside the command room. The officers are busy with getting information from our other ships while the captain is bent over his tactical map.

“How was it.” I walk closer and take a look at his notes.

“One of our ships reported that they flew directly into a group of those fireballs. Their barriers broke and they have a huge hole in their hull. Luckily it isn't something which is threatening their ability to fly. But their barrier was overloaded and fried all runes at the front of their ship. We can't take them on another run like this.” The captain grimaces as he ticks off one ship from his inventory of usable pieces.

I nod and smile. This guy has a high position and a smart head, but he still needs to get used to real war. This shows that my military consists of people who are new to the business. Welcome to reality. “This sounds good. We flew just a hundred metres over their heads and got just one of our ships damaged. If you take into account that they have twice our numbers, we got out of this unbelievably well.”

He thinks for a second and nods. “You are right. Mourning over a damaged ship isn't right if we don't know what we did to the enemy.”

I smile ferociously and wait together with the others for my fog spell to lift completely. A few minutes later we are sure of the situation.

One of our ships got heavily damaged, but in return eight enemy ships are completely gone. Three are drifting in the sea while lying on their side. They will probably sink in time.

It can be seen as a good result, but I had hoped for much more. We are seriously short on mana bombs. Each of our ships carries just about ten to fifteen of them. We left our harbour with a hundred and fifty six bombs and invested forty six bombs in this attack.

“If we do this two more times, we could defeat them at low risk.” I start talking to myself.

“But then we would have used up most of our bombs. There would be nothing left for the army from Mislow.” One of the officers voices the downside to this course of action.

“There is still another possibility of defeating them at low risk.” I look at the ceiling. “But it will take us some time. We could pound them with railguns from afar. Slowly and carefully. Just one shot every ten minutes. Day and night until their shields fail.”

“You want to utilize the weakness of fuelling their barriers with their own powers instead of a core. If we don't let them sleep, we should get through at some point. They can't stay awake forever.” One of the technicians muses over the possibility.

“Can't they rotate with staying awake to power their barrier?” The captain looks a little confused.

“If they are using barriers which are similar to the ones from the Phenex ships, then they can't. Their barrier spell provides automatic protection in a perfect sphere. That's extremely power consuming and they have no cores. Most of them will have to be awake to fuel the barrier. And we have just proven that their barriers are even stronger than the ones from Phenex. They have higher magical abilities, I guess they weren't economical in using their power.” I explain the situation further. “I expected more damage, so that means that their barriers are even stronger.”

“The question to me is … has Sarn enough time to wait for us?” I look around while everyone's eyes are focused on the tactical map.

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