Demoralized

The HMS Nike raced for the Azores Island port. Getting King Roland to safety was of the utmost importance. King Roland was master rank body strengthen, but his skills were useless again lagiacruses. And he couldn't swim.

Grandmaster Wang protected the ship, with a water barrier and injured several lagiacruses with ice spikes.

Only Elder Thaddeus could outright kill these monsters in one swipe. He cast a spell that rained down fire swords from the sky. The swords sweep across the stern killing tens of sea wyverns.

The disorderly escape to the ports inadvertently caused congestion. Ships raced to any open pier they could find. There seemed no end to mass confusion, confession, and self-harm.

Lord Nergal enjoyed the show. Like a puppet master, with the ships and shivers as his marionettes, he sowed mischief as they danced in his hands.

He didn't come for confrontation. His master simply asked him to delay the armada. And so, he found the most entertaining method possible.

The HMS Nike was one of the first ships to dock, along with ships that carried other royal sovereigns.

Will, Elder Thaddeus, Grandmaster Wang, and Grandmaster Park began nimbly casting spell after spell towards the shivers while trying not to damage the ships still afloat in the chaos.

Soon they were joined by thousands of other mages firing spells into the Birmingham Sea.

Feeling the pressure mount, some shivers raced for the port to attack the defenseless mages.

Now that only made it easier for Elder Thaddeus. Giant burning meteors fell from the sky. The giant meteors' caused the water to sizzle and steam, turning the shivers into unadon.

"Oh? How exciting" squealed Lord Nergal an absolute delight. "It looks like we have sage joining the fight. Kill him my puppets."

The remaining sea wyverns, still more than a thousand, rushed towards Elder Thaddeus.

The ships still out to sea thanked the gods for their safety. The ships worked quickly to rescue all the capsized men, animals, and goods. Yet, even they could only rescue a fifth of the goods, animals, and people drifting out to sea.

On shore, mages looked nervously watching a stampede of shivers swing their way.

Mages began casting every offensive spell in their arsenal. They emptied their mana pools, some overspent and went into mana shock.

Yet, even with all their effort, less than 20 sea wyverns were killed. Master-ranked mages felt like novices fighting a near-immortal monster.

Compared to them, they marveled at Sage Thaddeus' power. He could nearly kill a group of 20 shivers by himself.

Even more impressive was how well master and disciple worked in tandem.

With Elder Thaddeus on offense, Will chose to play defense. He corralled the sea wyverns in a pen. Will cast [Rock Wall] that jettisoned from the seabed an immovable volcano.

If Will was the volcano, Elder Thaddeus was the lava. Like an eruption, hundreds of sea wyverns were killed.

Like wild horses bucking for freedom, the shivers fought every which way to escape the enclosure. But Will could easily fill in the cracks, thicken, and reinforce the walls.

"This is boring! I guess sending them to the board was a bad idea. The sage pyromancer and grandmaster terramancer make a good team. I'll be sure to report this to Lord Thanatos," Nergal said teleporting away.

After Lord Nergal's mana connection to the shivers was disconnected, the sea wyvern's cloudy eyes cleared. When the sea monster saw their dire situation, they fought fiercely to flee.

Seeing their desire to run away, Will lowered the rock wall leading out of the harbor.

With the battle over, harbored ships were ordered to help retrieve the goods and the dead.

This battle had demoralized the armada. Less than half of their 9,000 ships remained. Their rations were gone, their steeds were gone, and their countrymen were gone.

'If they lost this badly already before even fighting demons, how badly would they lose then?' wondered the troops.

The armada was crippled mentally and physically. Moving forward, there was much for the sovereigns and their top officials to discuss before shipping out to the Qhosnir Empire.

His imperial highness Lukas sat anxiously in the Azures Islands governor's oval ocean view office. Like his father, his fingers drummed on the chair.

"Bring me, my master! Marquis von Ballard!" he declared to his steward in anger mixed with panic.

"My master shall advise me what to do!" said Imperial Princes Lukas hopefully.

Thirty minutes later, Will walked into the office with Elder Thaddeus, Archimedes, and Nisha.

"Master tell me what should I do?" the frantic prince asked.

"Tsk, you serve the Supreme Allied Commander. Surely you already know what to do? Why ask me? Now show me the report," said Will annoyed. He had no desire to be someone's support blanket.

According to the report, there were enough rations to last until they arrived at Qhosnir. That means the army would mostly like be hungry when they disembarked. Regrettably, the same was true for the calvary horses.

Entire squads, companies, and battalions reported missing soldiers.

To say the army was in disarray was a compliment. The army was broken and needed mending.

And the army hardest hit was the great Eastern Empire because their ships were in front.

"The demon who created this plan was wise. To think we didn't even get a glimpse of their face" praises Elder Thaddeus.

If one demon was this cunning, then what about fighting an army of them? It was certainly a scary proposition.

"Steward, summon the kings and nobility here," Imperial Prince Lukas declared, less than confidently.

Within the hour kings and their high nobles gathered in the large oval office. the kings sat closest to the imperial prince, with lower-ranked nobles closest to the far wall.

Prince Lukas shared the damning report. Half the armada was dead or missing. The leaders expressed their outrage and solutions.

"We should return home, bury the dead, restock our provisions, and depart again in a month," argued the king of Kur.

"No, we need to reinforce the troops in Qhosnir! My kingdom is expecting your support!" the ambassador from Icer shot back.

"Return."

"Advance."

"Leave."

"Stay."

The three small kingdoms of Kur, Sabsta, and Bocaritanylan and the ambassadors from Dukedom of Kro, Kingdom of Zhekid, and the Kingdom of Icer at once began arguing and name calling.

"Enough!" I shall put this to a vote. The majority wins, and I shall be the tiebreakers," Prince Lukas suggested.

Will would have to advise him better. As a CEO, he knew to never call for a vote unless he knew the result.

"Vote yea or nay, on whether to continue onward.

The three kings voted nay. The ambassadors voted in favor, as did Emperor Jacques-Louis.

King Roland was the only undecided vote. Both sides lobbied him, promising lavish gifts.

The former King Remus Albus Fermion IX had long taught his youngest son against fictive praise and false gifts.

King Roland looked at Will, for help on which direction to take. King Roland knew his cousins' advice had not led him astray yet.

Before Will could answer, Elder Thaddeus, yelled out, "Let's avenge our countrymen."

Seeing Will nod in agreement, King Roland announced his support.

"That makes 5 yeas and 3 nays. It's settled then, we'll continue onto Qhosnir. By imperial law, I decree we'll depart in 10 days. Traitors and deserters shall be hunted down like boars and slaughtered," said Prince Lukas with a renewed sense of vigor.

The ambassadors and Emperor Jacques-Louis were quick to heap praise on King Lukas.

At the same time, the three kings began to despise King Roland and his party of vanquished kingdoms.

"Now we must discuss how to resupply our troops. Are there any suggestions?" Prince Lukas asked.

The room fell silent at those words.

"Disciple, why not leave this to me," Will said diplomatically.

"Your Imperial Highness, I'm willing to Marquis von Ballard," volunteered Earl von Mueller.

"So are we!" shouted the three kings. Secretly, they looked for an opportunity to draw closer to both wealthy men.

After all, their small kingdoms were sandwiched between Fermion and the Great East Empire. And what they coveted most was money, especially access to Will and Christoph's bottomless pools of gold coins.

"I'm sure we can all feel better knowing this issue's in Marquis von Ballard's hands," Prince Lukas smiled. "Let's regroup and prepare to leave for the front line in 10 days. Meeting adjourned."

"Wait—" shouted the nobles in attendance. "May the Marquis vont Ballard explain his plan?"

"Simple, I plan to create a new military branch called the Merchant Marines," Will explained.