The First Legendary Beast Master

[Hawk, what do you see offshore?] Karl asked once the roasting was tuned for a late lunch. It might not be as tender as an all-day roast, but by the time that the ships could get back, it should be good.

Besides, the butcher had brought sausages as well, and one of the bakers said he had plenty of buns. Those could be cooked quickly if the timing were off.

[The two fleets have engaged. The locals are outnumbered at three to one, but they're stronger, and the evil invaders can't break their barriers.]

[Evil invaders?] Karl asked.

[They use water cannons.] Hawk replied, as if that explained everything.

It made sense. It was a naval fleet, of course it would use water magic at sea, where the water element was strongest.

Hawk continued to circle far overhead, tracking the battle, where the two sides clashed with broadside magical attacks, instead of technological weapons.

With Overlord Rank barriers, technological weapons wouldn't do much anyhow.

[The first ship is down, one of theirs.] Hawk updated.

They were still so far over the horizon that even Hawk, thousands of metres above them, was out of sight.

The battle was taking them straight south, parallel to the coast, so the fleet was no longer approaching as a vicious naval battle took place out of sight of the waiting militia.

Karl felt Hawk's motivation as he decided to intervene and bombard the invading ships with meteors of Ghostfire. As an Overlord Rank skill, the flames battered the already strained shields over the ships even as they were engaged in a brutal battle with the Drodh defence fleet.

As the stacks of [Rampage] built up, the battle was rapidly swinging in Hawk's favour, with the flames of the Demons forcing the invaders into a defensive position until their fleet turned and began to flee back north.

They had only lost one vessel, but the others were in bad shape.

The only real advantage they had left was stronger wind and water magic, which let them flee while slowing the Drodh fleet.

But once they were a few dozen kilometres away, they stopped and began to regroup. With their faster vessels, they had a level of safety from the Drodh defensive fleet. That let them engage and flee repeatedly, with the hope of sinking some of the defenders' ships, with a proportionately larger impact on their combat capability.

[There are more ships on the horizon. I don't think that the ships from our dock see them, they're close to land.] Hawk updated.

[What do the sails and flags look like?] Karl asked.

[White sails, the flag is black with a diagonal white stripe with three red dots.]

Karl relayed the message to the Dock Master, who was standing nearby, waiting for updates, as Hawk was furthest out of the flying scouts they had active. Many demons could fly, but not nearly as fast as Hawk, so they stayed closer to shore in case there was an attack.

The demon ran up a set of stairs outside his office, then rang a bell in a staccato pattern, sending a message down the docks for whoever understood.

It would ring through much of the city, and the word would spread quickly, but Karl wasn't sure what the issue was yet. It might be reinforcements, a foreign envoy that might be in danger from the situation, or even enemy reinforcements.
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"That's the Bomgon flag, the Undead Fleet. I don't know what they're doing here, but they're pirates, not known to be friendly to anyone, and they're a scourge in the straits between the southeast island and the northeast."

Karl nodded in understanding.

[Those new ships are fast. Far too fast for ships.] Hawk updated.

Only minutes later, the ships came over the horizon, and Karl could see what Hawk was talking about. The ships appeared to be ethereal, gliding through the water with no resistance at the sort of speeds that a bus on a smooth road could only hope for downhill.

And the occupants really were undead. Karl could see the damaged souls on the ships.

The lead ship had an immensely powerful being on the deck, most likely a Mythic Rank Undead of some sort, but beside him was an Overlord or Totem Ranked Undead who looked like nothing more than a human mage, if you didn't have Soul Sight.

The mass of undead energy crowded into the vessels made it difficult to tell precise power levels from this distance.

The dock master ran back up to his elevated platform and took out a sight glass to get a better view of the incoming fleet.

"Guards, get the Lord. Lord Bomgon is here with the fleet. Tell him that he's riding with Captain Komolos the Lich Lord."

A team of three squires in Castle Guard livery ran off, and the demon shook his head.

"This is guaranteed to get messy. The wights don't die easily, and even if we eliminate them entirely, they'll just be born again in their home fortress. You're new here, but we have a process for this.

They're linked to the ships, they can't go this far from their home without them. Teams will aim to destroy the ships while we hold them on the shore. If they break through, they'll loot the city, and it will go back with them when they respawn. Bloody evil bastards."

Karl focused more closely on the incoming undead, and saw that the rank and file Royal Rank fighters on the deck all had the same placard over their names in the system interface.

{Wight} Royal Rank. Enslaved to the Bomgon Fleet.

Karl wasn't sure what the powers of a Wight were, but just the fact that they were undead and difficult to truly kill would give them a major advantage in most encounters.

Like raiding a city.

But the fleet was not small. Drodh City had 20 dock spurs, capable of accommodating nearly eighty ships for unloading. But the Undead Fleet would take up almost all of them.

Compared to that, the attacking fleet offshore was a joke. Not only was it weaker per ship, it was also significantly smaller.

The Dock Master came down from his perch with a grim look on his face.

"Regretting your choice to stay yet, traveller?" He asked Karl.

Karl shook his head, and Ophelia gave a toothy Werebear smile to the demon.

"Just wait until the fighting starts. The Undead don't feel pain, so there is no such thing as too violent of a way to kill them."

The nearby militiamen laughed. That was certainly one way of looking at it.