“Command: All allied units should concentrate fire on the designated target.”

Seero’s command reached the cyborg otterkin or communication drones aboard each ship of Uscfrea’s fleet. It only took a moment for the command to relay through the fleet, at which point Uscfrea’s ships began to fire missiles towards one of the damaged battle-airships.

Seero kept watch over the missiles, her robotic eye flickering rapidly, before she commanded the drones in the sky to unleash a salvo of bunker-busting missiles.

And, of course, Seero’s timing was perfectly precise.

The anti-air missiles had little effect on enchanted stone and steel…but mana barriers were not so fortunate. Seero had observed that mana barriers had roughly the same resilience to any sort of damage, as their strength was sourced from their pool of energy rather than physical characteristics. The benefit of this was that mana barriers were an effective countermeasure to any type of damage, they could block a stream of fire as easily as a bullet, an armor-piercing round as easily as a mass explosion. All that mattered was the amount of energy in the attack versus the density of mana in the affected area, and the overall quantity of mana available to the barrier.

But that meant that small, fragmentation blast warheads that would do very little to the airships' actual armor could deal heavy damage to the mana barriers. The relatively low power and high spread from the many small warheads was of no consequence. As long as the energy was transferred to the mana barrier, it would drain its energy reserves and so put strain on the defenses.

And then the bunker-busting missiles started to hit.

Seero and Melion had not been content to simply recreate Earth’s munitions, either. The combination of Mana Iron and enchantments significantly increased the explosive power of each warhead and the velocity of each projectile. And thanks to the CELIU network’s shared database, each of the cyborg metal slimes in Melion’s workshop was able to engrave enchantments with AI-assisted precision.

It was not long before the barrage overwhelmed the airship’s defenses, and the bunker busting bombs began to tear it apart.

Since targeting the Gravity mana source had failed, Seero simply saturated the entire ship with bombs, attempting to analyze the damage of each. The airship burst apart, explosions blasting men and material out into the air as the bombs blew massive holes in the hull. Seero noted Gravity mana spreading through the ship, attempting to hold the hull together even as parts of it broke apart entirely. Large chunks of metal and stone began to break off and fall from the ship as the enchantments failed to hold onto them and they were swept away by the wind magic moving the ship forward.

To the credit of the Empire’s engineers, the core of the ship remained levitating in the air, still moving forward as both the Gravity and Air enchantments continued their work. But most of the ship had broken apart and was now falling into the waves. By Seero’s sensors, only a handful of the crew remained on the part still in the air.

And then, finally, a bomb broke through the mana barrier around the core itself. The last remaining parts of the ship disintegrated, and the entire thing fell from the sky.

High-King Xavlaeron frowned as one of the very expensive battle-airships was torn to shreds. The Queen of the Dobhar had adapted quickly with a very simple solution. If her attacks weren’t damaging most of his ships, she would concentrate them all on one.

Still, that ship had been damaged in the first attack due to its slow reaction, and it represented an older, less advanced model as one of the ships he had acquired from the other Southern Realms. Its loss was acceptable, as far as battle-airship losses could be, and his fleet had covered a good distance in the meantime. The losses wouldn’t be too severe before they arrived.

But losing battle-airships was not part of High-King Xavlaeron’s plan in the first place.

“Defensive formations.”

The Sentinels of Liberty spread the order, and the fleet began to move. The remaining battle-airships gathered up into groups of four which flew so close they were nearly touching, while the smaller ships gathered up behind them.If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

Soon, the barrage began again, targeting the other damaged ship. But as its barrier began to fade, a nearby ship linked its barrier with the damaged one, keeping it intact. And when that ship’s barrier started to drain, it detached and the next ship connected. So on and so forth.

Mirima had taken centuries to assemble this fleet. So they had invested well into keeping it.

But still, that only enabled them to survive. Until they arrived within range of the enemy, they were merely buying time. And worse…they still were only detecting the ships in the water, which clearly weren’t the only forces in play.

“Have we located the flying enemies yet?”

“No, Your Majesty! The Caelum Aurem is reading some light distortions but nothing we can make out yet!”

He grit his teeth.

“Redouble your efforts. I don’t think you need me to explain what will happen if you can’t find them.”

“Yes, Your Majesty!”

Seero noted as another wave of Air mana surged from the hostile fleet, and passed over her drones. But she wasn’t worried.

The Grimoire of Arofinas Leonar had described in detail the method by which Mirima had hidden its ships from the Empire of the Sun. They had taken advantage of the fact that mana existed in every part of this universe, and determined an enchantment that would mimic the mana of its surroundings, which could deceive simple mana-based detection methods. It was not perfect, and had to be used in conjunction with other techniques and tactics to work, but it sufficed to ensure Mirima’s survival.

Such techniques had since become obsolete as ships grew in size and gained new capabilities, powered by stronger enchantments. Eventually, the mana flowing through even naval ships was too great to hide. The magical propulsion methods now used by Imperial ships sealed the deal, as the sheer amount of mana surrounding the vessels could not be hidden.

But such things were not the case with Melion’s drones.

Melion’s drones mainly utilized a mana core to generate electricity, and as golem brains for some independent actions. But that meant they had a relatively small mana signature compared to their size and capabilities, as they were relying on technological methods of propulsion. As a result, if they were not channeling mana through their hulls to activate engraved enchantments, then it was a simple manner to mask their mana signature like Mirima’s ships of old. Not to mention that Seero and Melion had also improved and optimized the masking technique.

And finally, since most of Melion’s current drones were based on Earth’s designs, they were far, far smaller than the Sky Legion’s floating fortresses.

The end result was that the mana detection method utilized by the High-King’s ship would not detect Seero’s drones until they were much closer, or else utilizing their mana for a task.

But the battle-airships were, in fact, getting closer. And concentrated fire had only proven effective once, and after a great deal of time. Seero had not yet identified a critical weakpoint on the battle-airships, as the lack of flammable fuel or explosive ammunition made them much less susceptible to spontaneous combustion compared to Earth’s vehicles. And the hostiles had immediately adjusted their formation to render concentrated fire ineffective. By her calculations, her forces would not down the enemy fleet before they reached visual range.

It appeared, as Seero had predicted, that basic modern munitions were insufficient in Aelea’s non-standard environment.

Which meant that this battle was about to turn magical.

“Command: All CELIU units, prepare to engage.”

“Enemy ships spotted!”

High-King Xavlaeron resisted the urge to let out a sigh of relief. They had managed their approach without any further losses among the battle-airships.

They still hadn’t identified the enemy’s air forces, but at the very least, they could begin the counterattack.

Magic circles began to hum to life all along the battle-airships as they charged up their main guns, most breaking their defensive formations and taking some distance from one another. The wind wrapping around the ships began to turn dark, and flashes of light began to appear within it.

And then, finally they came within range of the enemy fleet.

The battle-airships began their attack immediately. Magic circles engraved across their hulls absorbed lightning from the clouds surrounding them. Thunder cracked as massive bolts of lightning surged towards the ships in the water below.

High-King Xavlaeron smiled at the display. Lightning was a bit of a mana-intensive spell but one of the fastest moving ones, and so a strong choice for an airship’s long-range weapon. And the researchers of Mirima had learned how to turn air into thunderstorms, significantly reducing the mana cost by generating some ‘natural’ lightning to utilize.

The effect was quite impressive, in the High-King’s opinion. It was as if Anualë himself had been moved to anger, and worked to destroy Mirima’s enemies.

“What’s the damage?”

A mage with clairvoyance furrowed her brow as she cast her spell without assistance from the Aesdes. But she was one of the elites of Mirima, and so she managed to pull it off.

“No damage! Enemy ships have deployed barriers and blocked the attack.”

High-King Xavlaeron blinked.

“What?”

Yes, all Imperial warships had some form of barrier available, but Mirima's shipbuilders specifically took that into account when designing their armament, and the Northern Fleet stolen by the Queen of the Dobhar was anything but state of the art. They should not have been able to repel power of that magnitude.

But the High-King didn’t get a chance to think on it further. As he opened his mouth to question the report…the sky ahead lit up in a massive strategic magic circle.