"Not really... We are mostly done. A large swarm was waiting in ambush, more or less in the middle of the road, so you would have encountered them tomorrow if you walked like losers." Edward Teach laughed. "They grossly underestimated the power of Arcadian warships."

  "What about the CBs?"

  "We loaded them all but only thanks to the different configuration of my frigate." Blackbeard slowly shook his head. "Three of them were moderately damaged while the rest have scratched paint. Thankfully, no wounded."

  "Good to hear that." Mark nodded.

  "We are sticking to the plan, Captain. All pilots are signalling they are ready to depart, even the damaged craft." Edward checked something on his display and it was evident that he wasn't accustomed to it yet. "I'm sending them now. We are going to swing wide and look for pursuers before we catch up with you. You will have to slow down to load people anyway."

  "All right." Mark looked at the status of the damaged crafts and scratched the back of his head.

  They were dangerously close to the point where they needed to stay for repairs but, without three crafts, the evacuation would take an additional half an hour. An eternity for anyone stuck down there with the Hornets on the horizon. He looked at the readings and swore profusely. "Sensors! Why didn't you inform me about Hornets in detection range?!"

  "I'm sorry, Sir, but they were following us from the city! I assumed you were aware of their presence." The officer shrunk under Mark's gaze.

  "Have you at least tracked them and their behaviour?"

  "Yes, Sir! They seemed to be observing us but didn't move toward our position."

  "Listen up, people! I know that all of you are tired but we can't allow ourselves to fail now!" Mark looked at the tired faces of his officers.

  The bridge smelled like a coffee shop when the second watch began relieving their tired colleagues. Mark wasn't going anywhere. He was still occupied by the mission and his doubts and whether they were correct. The minutes stretched into an eternity and, despite crafts making constant rounds loading and unloading people, the huge evacuation column didn't seem to shrink at all. It was five o'clock, an early afternoon, and Mark nervously checked the numbers of refugees once more, and his heart almost skipped a beat. They made a mistake. How in hell had they managed to make such a blunder was a mystery but, nonetheless, someone had missed a lot of people. In their haste, no one accounted for the surrendered soldiers and the fairly chaotic marching order of the evacuation column masked their mistake. There weren't five hundred people who fled the city on foot. There were nearly five thousand of them.

  "Gods..." He muttered.

  "Sir?" The second officer looked at him with a focused gaze.

  "We won't have enough space to take everyone..." He said and grabbed a can of energy drink. He opened it and downed it in one long gulp. "Our calculations were wrong! We have ten times more walking people than we thought, Tisha!"

  "Hmmm..." Lieutenant Commander Tisha Astra grabbed the tip of her braid and rubbed it with her thumb as she confirmed something on her station. "Shadow Realm, Sir."

  "What?" He blinked, slowly feeling the drink start to work.

  "We will take as many people as we can. The remaining group will be transported to the Shadow Realm where they continue their journey. In fact, they will be drastically faster because the Shadow Realm offers, arguably, better roads than the world above. We will drop everyone on board and, then, we will return for those remaining. We only have to calculate a rendezvous point."

  "You are brilliant, Tisha." Mark smiled at the black-haired Nekomi. "I’ll leave it to you."

  "No problem, Sir." She smiled brightly and lowered her voice. "You should rest, Mark."

  "I can't..." He raised the empty can and, with a stupid grin, made her roll her eyes with a silly toast. "Maybe I'm paranoid but I just can't walk away and pretend it's fine."

  "Well, being paranoid was one of the reasons you were chosen as a frigate Captain. The only people I know more paranoid than you are the Captains of destroyers." She shook her head but her smile died when Tisha looked at the two sleeping women behind Mark. "I pity them... Especially Miss Sonia. I just can't imagine what she went through."

  "I don't know what I can say." He released a slow sigh and rubbed his eyes. "Once the people of Arcadia learn about it..."

  "I don't know..." She lowered her head and her ears flattened in distress. "I... I can't stop thinking that it could have been us. By our unimaginable luck, Lord Theon and Avalon appeared on our doorstep... Right now we are living a dream, Mark, but there is nothing like meeting people like these to remind me how fragile and scary life is. We are deep in no one's land, surrounded by horrible monsters, and, yet, we are probably the safest people within hundreds of kilometres. Just because we were lucky to have Lord Theon Avalon as our ruler."

  "I can't argue with that..."

  She tried to fake a smile, turned towards her station, and began to prepare orders for the ground teams. That was a problem that the Emperor probably never considered. Despite the rapid advancements in, basically, all fields, most people were still scared. They feared the many monsters that dwelled in darkness beyond the lights of Arcadia and most civilians were too weak to protect themselves.

  "Captain Ulman, what's your status?" Blackbeard’s voice interrupted his musings.

  "There was a fatal mistake in our initial calculations, Rear Admiral..." Mark admitted with a slight irritation in his voice. "Somehow, we reported that only five hundred people were fleeing on their feet while in reality, it's almost five thousand. There is no way we will make it in one go."

  "Fuck..." Edward facepalmed and rubbed his face. It was strange to look at the man who, not so long ago, was a fearsome pirate now wearing a perfectly fit and unblemished Arcadian Navy uniform. He sighed and looked at Mark. "Do you have any ideas or do we simply split?"

  "My Second Officer had the idea of using the Shadow Realm to hide people for the time needed for our ships to reach the Dungeon."

  "It's risky as hell... It will be almost nine hours, Captain. I almost went crazy after five hours there, and I'm not easily scared lad, if I may say."

  "I thought about it, Sir." Tisha approached Mark and perfectly saluted Edward who, in turn, perfectly reciprocated the gesture. "The Brave Heart buff is very effective in mitigation of the Shadow Realm pressure. A last resort is the Sleep spell, Sir!"

  "Hmmm... All right, Lieutenant Commander Tisha. You seem to know what you are talking about so let's proceed." He nodded after a while, shocked that they were not arguing but simply stated facts and waited for his decision. "Sorry... I'm still not used to the level of discipline in the Royal Navy... Anyway! Let's proceed before more bugs come our way."

  "Aye, aye, Sir!"

  It took them nearly a full hour to load as many people as possible. There was no such thing as empty space inside the ships once they finished. Despite their best efforts, a few people were injured and, unfortunately, one older Nekomi man died of a heart attack. They managed to load four thousand people in total and, after a brief discussion, they decided that the CBs would carry an additional four hundred people. The ships fired smoke screens, covering the area in thick smoke, and the remaining people on the ground entered the Shadow Realm. The evacuation fleet only paused for the portal to close before they darted towards the Dungeon. The sudden change in their behaviour must have confused the Hornets because they tried to give chase but couldn’t keep the pace because they didn't have enough stamina. The ships had open communication lines but all five bridges were silent.

  Each ship’s battle staff received reports from other ships currently engaged across the enormous war theatre and the sheer numbers of hostiles they encountered was staggering. Fights across the front line lasted for hours and, in some areas, for days. The older ships were at a disadvantage and, a few times, their crews were saved just by luck alone. The slow-firing tall ship's artillery was no match for the endless swarms of bugs and they couldn't outrun the flying bugs when the situation called for it. With more than half the fleet being grossly unprepared for the realities of war against Vestargo, the Emperor decided to call back the ships of the Second Fleet. The significantly reduced Expedition Forces had to limit their operations which gave Vestargo breathing room. Thankfully, the Second Fleet was heading to Tuvarin for refitting in Lord Terion's shipyards. Most of their cannons were going to be dismantled and replaced with Phalanx CIWS, turning them into what the Emperor called gunships. It was a very unexpected development and it only showed how dangerous Vestargo was.

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  "The Dungeon is, technically, under siege, Sir." The sensor officer reported.

  "I'm not surprised..." Captain Ulman yawned. "What's the status of the Dungeon anyway?"

  "The outer walls are completed with the installation of the new weapon lineup. Also, the Dungeon itself is a star fort configuration with an inner citadel. However, the civilian facilities were not completed beforehand so it's hardly a Dungeon City. The transfer chamber is ready so we will evacuate them in no time." She replied immediately.

  "Gods..." A terrified whisper reminded the Captain that Sonia and Felicity were still nearby. "You plan to drop us in the Dungeon besieged by Vestargo?"

  "Under siege for the moment..." Mark shrugged. "The plan is to take you away from Navell."

  "How?" Sonia asked with a hollow voice. "If even a Dungeon is under siege..."

  "Well, technically..." Mark shrugged and looked at the sensor officer. "Can you give me the view of the fortress?"

  "In... Five minutes, Sir!" The woman stated after looking at her console.

  The next few minutes passed in complete silence until the woman sitting behind the sensor console reported they had a proper view of the battle. A large front window blackened and turned into a screen where the overview of the siege played before their eyes. While all gathered Arcadians cackled in amusement their guests were oblivious to what was happening. The fortress was indeed massive and strangely shaped, with tall, thick walls with many towers and moats.

  "Zoom in, on the Northern Gate, Lieutenant," Mark ordered.

  "Aye, aye!"

  The view rapidly changed and showed hundreds of various monsters as they dashed towards the gates only to be met with a furious barrage of Arcane Bullets that mercilessly tore through their ranks. The monsters pushed relentlessly and they ignored their crippling losses. When it seemed they were going to reach the moat, a spray of, seemingly, liquid fire reached them and quickly turned them into cinders. Arcadians laughed even harder seeing the other bugs break the line and retreat. The view returned to an overview showing similar events happening around the formidable fortress. The airborne bugs were shot down long before they could threaten the fortress but it was apparent that they already spotted the ships.

  "Yeah... I think they won't be able to breach those fortifications anytime soon." Mark grinned at the awestruck women. "Judging from the size of the fortress, the inner citadel is... Ok, the Dungeon is still building structures so Vestargo hasn't blocked construction."

  "Sir..." The navigation officer's voice was slightly worried. "I just received the docking coordinates and there must be a mistake... It's dead center on top of the wall of the citadel!"

  "You see that wide balcony?" Mark pointed to the large hexagonal citadel in the middle of the Dungeon. "That's a wharf. However, we won't be staying here for, Gods know, very long. Just a quick resupply or, in this case, dropping civilians."

  "If you say so, Sir..." The navigator slowly nodded, unconvinced. "Plotting a course to the designated docking area..."

  "Attention, everyone. We are approaching the Dungeon and we have to drop you off as quickly as possible and return for the rest of your people. Please, follow instructions as they are announced and do not panic." Mark's voice spread across his ship.

  "Hostiles inbound!" The weapon system officer reported as he marked the ten bugs that were flying towards them. "They... They turned away! The forces which surrounded the Dungeon are moving away from our path, Sir!"

  "Keep an eye on them."

  "Aye, aye, Sir!"

  "Lady Sonia, Lady Felicity, it's time for you to-"

  "No!" Both of them interrupted him in unison.

  "I have to return for others, Lord Ulman..." Felicity slowly shook her head. "I'm scared but I won't leave them."

  "I don't want to leave..." Sonia curled into the chair. "Please..."

  "I admire your resolve, Lady Felicity, but you should go."

  "Please... I promised my father." She begged him making him sigh.

  "Fine. You can stay." Mark nodded and looked at Sonia. "I promise you that you will be safe there, Lady Sonia."

  "The bugs..." She looked at the screen with a sickly expression.

  "They won't harm you."

  "Do you promise me?" She looked at him with fear in her eyes and nodded.

  "Arcadia will stand against Vestargo. We are going to win this war. But I don't want you to suffer more, Lady Sonia. You are going to be safe, I promise you." He said and the woman reluctantly stood up.

  "I believe you, Lord Mark Ulman of Arcadia."

  ???

  The ships docked around the citadel allowing the refugees to disembark. The process was smooth but it took them nearly two hours to unload. Once they were done, they undocked and took advantage of the fact that without civilians onboard they could dart with far more complicated courses; confounding the bugs that tried to engage them. However, the five ships of the Royal Fleet of Arcadia were more than enough to dispatch any hostiles. Mostly, the bugs were unable to even come close to the five ships that travelled in formation and they soon abandoned the chase.

  "Hmmm... I'm not sure if they learned or obtained another order." Mark mused.

  "It's going to the report..." Tisha hummed.

  "Sensors, keep close track of the enemy."

  "Aye, aye, Sir!"

  Mark masked his yawn, however, the second officer noticed.

  "Mark, it's been almost twenty hours. You must rest." She whispered, concerned.

  "I..."

  "No. You are going to sleep right now or I will have to report you." She said seriously and quietly so only he could hear her but she begged him with her look. "Don't make me do it, Mark..."

  "Sorry, Tisha..." He briefly lowered his head and announced loudly. "I am going to take a rest. Wake me up when the bugs attack us."

  "Of course, Captain." She straightened with a relieved smile.

  "The ship is yours, Lieutenant Commander!" He saluted her and left the bridge.

  She sighed and took his place. The next hour passed without any problems, however, the sensor officer was focused on her console. "Contact, Ma'am. It's big and slow, three o'clock, same altitude."

  "How far?"

  "Five hundred metres but if it doesn't speed up it's never going to catch us."

  "Do we have visuals?"

  Instead of responding, the officer just put a blurred image on the main display. With each moment the picture focused until everyone saw an airship. Its sails were tattered and the hull was full of holes, but somehow, it was afloat. Despite its derelict appearance, it was once, undoubtedly, a magnificent and powerful vessel. The few remaining decorations were made of gold and, if the readings were correct, they channelled mana in a previously unknown way.

  "It's infested with bugs, Ma'am"

  "What the hell is that?" Tisha asked in shock.

  "I'll be damned..." Blackbeard’s voice sounded over the radio. "That's a fucking Balantican frigate..."

  "How the hell did the bugs get it?!" Tisha blurted out, making the Admiral laugh.

  "Don't ask me. But one thing is certain... It's going home with us. Those ships are priceless."

  "But the bugs..."

  "Well, some of my boys are bored so the bugs are going to provide them some fun." Blackbeard almost laughed. "It won't take long..."

  "Sir..." Tisha wanted to protest but he turned toward the screen with a serious expression.

  "Lieutenant, the magitech of Balantica is the stuff of legends. I won't leave that ship in bug's claws! I would rather destroy it, however, not before I and my men try to take it. I know this is a fucking trap but we have to risk it. The gains of potential knowledge are immeasurable. We have to try to take it back to Avalon." Blackbeard said calmly and looked, behind her, at Lady Felicity. "I know that you are worried about your people but this is something we can't pass. One hour. If we can't take that ship in one hour, we will retreat and destroy it."

  "Please be careful, Lord Admiral Teach..." She trembled slightly. "Your ships are the only hope for my people."

  "Don't worry." He assured her. "Lieutenant Commander Tisha, you are going to assume the command of the remaining vessels. This absolutely smells like a trap but I believe it's not hidden directly on the ship. Most probably, the bugs are trying to lure us to a specific location and, then, using the forces hidden in the forest or even in some underground tunnel, they will try to destroy or take over our ships. This is where things get sketchy. I will make my ship a huge target because I am going to use boarding hooks and I won't let it go. I suspect that my Assassin has far more power than that derelict so we are going to stop. You, on the other hand, have to manoeuvre your ships and provide us with cover."

  "Understood, Sir!" She nodded but wondered if she should wake up Mark.

  "I authorise you to use missiles if you decide that you need them for any reason."

  "But, Sir..."

  "Don't worry. If I'm right, this ship will be worth it and, if I'm wrong, I'm going to pay for the missiles you use from my own pocket."

  Thank you all for reading.

  I wish you all a great day and as always I wait for your comments.

  A big thanks to who edited the chapter!

  The map of Aderon is on the Discord :)

  https://discord.gg/G6SVrBeDdG