Transcendence?

***Norfolk, Sarn-Valley***

“Warships! Five ships!” “They are almost here!”

My office is stormed by a group of panicked fishermen. They are all talking at the same time and I wince at the sudden fuss.

“Shut up!” Celestial screams. She is sitting in front of her writing table at the entrance. The group goes silent. “You! From the beginning! In chronological order!”

“What does chr... chrono... mean?” The fisherman I pointed out confirms my expectations of a fisherman's average IQ.

“From the beginning!”

“Ah. We were fishing at sea, when we saw five warships appearing on the horizon. They had a red phoenix on their sails! So we immediately set our sails and came back here. Fortunately the tide was on our side, so we may have a little time left before they are here.”

One of the younger fishermen finally manages an understandable report.

“Thanks.” I smile at them. “There is no need to panic. Our defence should be able to deal with them. You may go.”

I wave them out of my office. After thinking for a second, I stand up and walk outside. There I find Sarah, who is dealing with the fishermen. “Sarah, find Den and tell him to come to the main entrance with a carriage.”

“We need to avoid a panic.” Celestial is right behind me.

I turn around to face her. “You need to sit down. I will take care of this.” Celestial is in her ninth month and in no condition to run around in tight situations!

“Don't tell me what to do! I will not sit around while my home is in danger!” She walks past me with confident steps.

“~Sugar cat?~ Please be reasonable! Look at yourself! I promise that our defensive weaponry will shoot just ~once~ and everything will be dealt with!” A pregnant woman shouldn't run around outside! Especially in that cold weather.

But Celestial ignores me and walks outside. I hurriedly run after her while casting environmental protection on both of us.

I am one hundred percent sure that five ships won't pose a problem. The village of Sarn is located at the end of a long fjord. There are steep cliffs to each side of it. The fjord is approximately two kilometres in width at most.

If someone wanted to attack Sarn, he would have to sail up the fjord. Or he would have to anchor at one of the cliffs and climb up. That's something that not many people are able to accomplish.

The other choice is to attack from the land. But then you would have to get past the mountains.

So the first thing I did was to fortify the roads which lead through the mountains. My whole principality is as close to a fortress as it could get.

My second obvious goal was to ensure the safety of my port. So I built a series of defensive watchtowers along the fjord.

Anyone who sails into the fjord would be under threat of taking fire from both sides. Those five ships really pose no threat at all!

We arrive outside of my property where I find Den on top of a carriage waiting for us. The carriage is of course created in Norfolk-style with skis instead of wheels.

Den helps Celestial up the carriage. “I already heard about the ships. Should we sink them immediately when they get into range?”

I shake my head. “No. Wait until they entered the fjord. I want to be sure of their identity first. And if we wait, we could get all of them. I don't want them to report back to the Phenex Empire.”

Den nods and starts to whip the horses. After my first encounter with this pigheaded race of draught animals, I am certain that there is only one place where they belong.

And that's the soup pot! When I can introduce the first engines, it will be the end of these stupid animals!

Den navigates us through Sarn and up on a road which was carved out of the cliff to the left side of the fjord. I want to see the enemy ships before they are sunk.

Maybe something important can be deduced from them. Den is consulting his subordinates during the entire trip. I created some simple communication devices for all my personal guards.

Additionally we installed fixed ones into all watchtowers and custom offices. Everything that's important to defend my borders is connected. The most important thing in warfare is communication and information.

After a few minutes we arrive at one of my watchtowers. Hmm. Maybe I shouldn't call it a tower. It's just a well camouflaged position for observation. Others are hidden all along the fjord to both sides.

There are twenty people in white and gray military uniforms here. The uniforms are perfect for this environment. The soldiers here are our common troops and Den trained them with his men for two months. Everyone who was able to survive that has my respect.

All of them swore a magical oath to protect my family and my principality. It's a little cliché to do something like this, but the world works that way.

In addition all of these observation points are armed with a railgun. It's practically just a long steel tube with magical circuitry. A ten centimetre round is inserted into one end. Then it has to be aimed and an infusion of mana activates the spell, which sends the metal slug on its way.

Even commoners can do that. Every person in this world has a certain amount of magical power. It's just that the common population hasn't enough control over their power to cast proper spells.

And they don't have much of it. But if all twenty people who are stationed here work together, their power amounts to one real magician.

I get down from the carriage and walk over to the commander of the outpost, who is waiting for us. “How is the situation?”

The brown haired guy with a scarred face bows. “Four of them entered the fjord. The fifth is waiting at sea.”

“Close enough to sink the ship?” Damn. Those guys from Phenex seem to have a brain. They don't commit all of their forces and keep someone back to run home with information.

“I am not sure. From the reports... it could be that we manage to sink them. But they are very far away. Even if we use a globe for aiming, the most we can hope for are just a few lucky hits.” Den sums up his information.

One of the soldiers hands a spyglass to me and I walk over to the railgun. The gunning crew assembles around it to infuse their mana into the artefact.

I was just in time, because as I raise the spying glass, I see four ships entering the fjord. They are big vessels. A fast adjustment on the spyglass's scale enables me to measure their length.

Wow. The leading vessel has a length of about one hundred and fifty metres. That's really big for a sailing ship. I wonder how much crew such a thing needs?

There are high bulwarks, which are probably meant to protect the sailors. Five masts are distributed along the ship. Another switch for the zoom gives me a better view. The deck is filled with soldiers. They are probably readying themselves to storm my city as soon as they hit land.

“What do they think they can accomplish with four ships?” This makes no sense.

“Maybe just a raiding party? They are probably trying to probe Norfolk's abilities? I heard about many attacks along the coastline.” Den offers me an explanation.

“It doesn't sound right. Why here? We are too high up in the north. And they had to know exactly where Sarn is. I don't think that they are sailing up our fjord out of a whim. There are hundreds of river mouths along the coast. Do we have a spy in our city?” I grab the spying glass tighter.

“It's possible that there are still some spies. Maybe they have navigational information from somewhere else?” Den shrugs his shoulders.

“Should we open fire sir?” The commander asks us with eagerness.

I bite into my lip. The fifth vessel which stayed out at sea is still bothering me. I would like to sink it too. But things are as they are. The ships should be too deep inside the fjord to turn by now. They are committed. “Give a thirty seconds countdown to all watchtowers. Then fire at will. The leading ship is the first target. Pick them off one at a time as they are coming.”

The commander nods and walks over to the communication device.

Again I take a look at the ships. The hulls are littered with protective runes. I hope that I didn't overestimate my guns. I could sink them with my bubble-spell. But that would defeat the point of this exercise!

This is the perfect opportunity to see if my troops of common soldiers with magical artefacts can stand their ground against magicians. For hundreds of years this world was dominated by mages. You either have magicians in your army, or you are doomed.

Maybe this will be a turning point in history? Those who can use their wits shall rule the world, not magicians.

The gunning crew is now kneeling around the weapon, while infusing their mana into the base plate on which the railgun is mounted.

“3”

“2”

“1”

“FIRE!”

*Thhing*

A gush of wind and a disappointing sound is everything. No big Boom. No smoke like in the good old times. At least it was loud, because of the compressed air.

Railguns from all over the cliffs open fire and the main vessel's barrier spells light up. The runes on the whole ship start to glow and transform it into a swimming disco.

Some railgun rounds are deflected into random directions and hit the cliff and the water. But others penetrate and punch holes into the ship. Our elevated position ensures that those holes are under the waterline.

In addition every hit creates a shower of splinters and the deck of the leading ship becomes a red gory slaughterhouse within seconds.

But the ship isn't sinking as fast as expected. I click my tongue. Wood has its benefits. “Next ship!”

The concentrated fire turns to the next vessel in line. The battle started just seconds ago and my gun crews shot just about three times each. With about thirty watchtowers in firing range that equates to ninety shots.

My railguns take four to five seconds to reload. So we are firing since ten seconds.

We had a few misfires and some shots got deflected by barriers, so I guess that we hit the leading vessel about forty times in those ten seconds.

Even if they are able to recover their morale after such a surprise, I doubt that they are interested in something else than to plug the holes in their ship.

Some fireballs start to rise from the three following ships, but they are few and without aim. The enemy is firing blind because our positions are well camouflaged. Our weapons also have the benefit of being hard to spot. We don't give away our position while firing.

I once took my time to ride up and down the fjord on a fisher boat. Every watchtower which was visible with my naked eye was greeted with a shower of icicles.

The fireballs impact the cliffs harmlessly and create smoking craters.

Once again I count down three salvoes of our cannons and order a switch to the third ship.

In the meantime the first ship toppled over and started to sink. Men are jumping into the icy water. They won't live long. The smarter ones, who are trying to stay on board as long as possible, may live a few minutes longer.

“INCOMING FIRE!”

One of the rising fireballs actually turned into our direction. Either a really lucky guess or we got seen. The gunner who is aiming our cannon reacts fast and turns the cranks to aim the cannon like a maniac.

*Thhing*

The fireball explodes prematurely.

Nice thinking. I wouldn't have thought that my railguns could be used like that. The gunning crews spent weeks while training with them on the other hand. They know best what they can accomplish with their weapons.

Then I turn my attention back to the ships. The third ship is burning and has a huge hole on it's deck. Probably they were unlucky and a mage who was casting a fireball was hit.

“Next!”

The last ship in the line is actually trying to turn, but the big and heavy vessel isn't able to change its direction so easily. It is torn apart by concentrated fire from all railguns.

Okay. Let's sum that up. The battle took a little more than one minute. One ship sunk. The second is still floating but it doesn't look like it will stay afloat much longer. The third ship is burning and the fourth is usable just as firewood by now.

The fjord is filled with floating bodies. I grumble at the sight. “How many troops did they cram into a single ship!?”

“If my estimation is right there are about four to five hundred soldiers on one ship.” Den gives me he his judgement.

So two thousand people? How do they feed them during the voyage? The toppled ship gives me the answer. There seem to be six decks under the waterline, which adds to the total tonnage of each ship. It must be still awfully tight on these ships.

And the flotation depth should make them slower than their counterparts from the Nation of Mist.

I turn to the commander of the watchtower. “Congratulations on writing history. You fought and won a battle without a single magician in your ranks.”

The commander starts to grin.

“Get some fisher boats to clean out my fjord. Otherwise the fishermen will bring us dead Phenex soldiers as a new species of fish tomorrow. And try to capture that floating vessel and some survivors if possible.” I smile and the members of the gunning crew start to grin.

Then I realize that Celestial was standing behind me the entire time. She is looking a little pale. “Are you alright?”

“~It took more than one shot!~”

Haaah!? That was just a figure of speech! Why is she nailing me down to it now? “~Sugar~. You look a little pale. What's wrong?”

Celestial's lips become a thin line.

“~I think my waters broke!~”

.