World Development System 151 81. What is your name?

One of the knights on the vanguard ship spoke, "This will be a piece of cake for us. The very huge fleet of ours is enough to create fear and intimidate them. I am sure those men are pissing in their pants after watching this big fleet of ours and are only following orders because they are afraid of their superiors."
Another Old knight spoke cautiously, "However we can't underestimate them, I heard those ballistae have a range of around 350 meters and can do a lot of damage to ships. Last time one of the patrols suffered the same because they underestimated those ballistas."
The young knight shrugged and spoke, "You are worrying for no reason, Old man. This time, we have the number superiority as well as the tactical superiority as we have ambushed them. They can't possibly have anticipated this attack as this was a top-secret mission. I will make sure those guys feel the wrath of provoking knights of house Laguna."
The Old knight sighed as he spoke, "This is your first war boy, you don't understand anything. War is not something anyone can predict. A cornered rabbit is something we must be most wary of and that is the reason you don't understand war. However, remain behind me kid or you will be consumed as cannon fodder. We have reached anyway, be ready and don't be distracted."
The vanguard soon reached the firing range of the Ballistas of Eric's Fleet.

Sean roared and soon the sounds of fire began roaring in the whole area. The sea animals were scared after hearing the fire of ballistas as they made a distance for themselves. Even the usually aggressive Hydras were not approaching the area of battle.

The ballistas were fired indiscriminately by Eric's men without a flinch. There was a lot of noise and passionate cheers coming from Fjord's naval fleet when they were charging. In between, there was a lull as soon as the ballistae connected with the vanguard from both sides. There was a surprise from both sides as soon as the ballistas connected with ships. Apart from Eric and Sean, no one knew about the real firepower and range of these runic projectiles. There was a lull from Shannon's fleet while Eric's men burst into cheers as they felt hope for the first time after watching them.

The first ships that were hit by the ballistas were immediately set on fire because of the fire and wind magic on the projectiles. This was added by the fact that the mini-ballistas were fired with oil flasks latched on to them whenever a ship came near them.
The men in the ships hit by ballistas were scrambling for their lives while some were helping their mates who were already on fire.
One of the knights, who was previously very enthusiastic hoarsely spoke after watching one of his mates on fire, "What is this, I never thought we would be facing these kinds of monstrous weapons. What are these weapons? We never got a report on these weapons."

This scene was taking place everywhere as they tried to save their men. Many died in the raging fires of these ruthless ballistas. Many private cabins of the officers were set on fire. It was chaos everywhere as one of the helmsman too caught fire when they were advancing.

The young knight looked with rageful eyes towards Eric who had a cold expression on his face as he gave orders to shoot the ships one by one without any stop.
The knight took his sword and was about to charge into the sea when the old man held him back. "So, do you understand, what is war? You will die if you charge mindlessly. Remember we were the ones who tried to raid them, not the other way around."
Eric didn't even saw the young knight. For the first time the young knight felt helpless.
Eric was very eagerly watching Grim and Darius's ship that was behind the vanguard.
Meanwhile Grim was quite surprised by the sheer raw power of these ballistas.
Grim asked one of his men, "Hey, was there any report which indicated this type of firepower from these ballistas?"
The subordinated answered with a bit of fear as he saw Grim, "No Sir. I think this is their new weapon which they had prepared for a long time and are using right now. What we are watching is a totally new weapon. The range, as well as the firepower of this weapon, exceeds what we knew previously from our reports."
Grim spoke gravely as he saw the other ships, "It seems, this was one of their trump cards. I guess we have grossly miscalculated in the raid this time. We will die if we follow the vanguard. From my guess, they are using runic projectiles without any hint of regret. Such a waste of precious runic projectiles. It looks like we have faced a cornered rabbit this time around and they are finally forced to use it."
Shannon was quite surprised by the firepower and range of the ballistas but he kept his calm and ordered his men, "No need to be afraid, keep up with the charge, our mission this time is to get those Ballistas. And if we run at this point then this operation will be doomed without any results. We will try to engage them in melee and try to focus on one of their ships."

Darius meanwhile was hoarsely screaming at the captain of his ship, "No, we can't follow this vanguard which is even less sturdy than a stack of papers. We will be doomed if we go any further. And that asshole Eric is keeping a watch on our ship as we come into his firing range. We will die a dogs death if we move further. Follow my orders, forget Shannon, turn the direction to the western side. We are moving back."
Captain looked at Grim and he too nodded which indicated that he agreed with Darius's opinion.
Grim thought, 'It's good that I bought Darius along with me or it would have been quite embarrassing for me to escape alone. Both that Eric and Sean are eyeing us like hungry wolves."

The young knight in one of those vanguard ships was very surprised and shocked after watching one of the ships that changed their directions without any orders.
The young knight roared as he saw, "These fucking traitors." but he was soon pulled back,
The Old man roared as he came in between an arrow and the young knight, "Get back kid. You get lead by your emotions very quickly."
One of the arrows from Eric's ship struck the Old man as he tried to save the kid.
The knight spoke hoarsely as he saw the Old man taking a hit for him, "Old Man! Why did you do this just to save me?"
Old man smiled as he spoke and remembered his past, "It's nostalgic, you reminded me of my old days when I joined the knight order. You know I regret joining it sometimes but I feel happy as well after watching young men like you join the knight order. Protect yourself well in the future. I will not be there."
The young knight was continuously healing the old men with light magic as he hoarsely spoke, "Don't speak Bullshit Old Man. I will bring you back alive from hell even if I need to. I will use all of my light magic to save you."
The Old man laughed a bit as he coughed and spoke, "I am already too old for this, young man. You shouldn't go chasing that ship in revenge if you can come out alive of this ordeal. That is the ship of Lord Grim and Darius. You will die a death worse than a dog if you chase them. You are a Magic Knight with light magic. You should use this ability well for your well being."
The young man kept his tears in check as he nodded and focused on the ship and his enemies who were firing arrows indiscriminately so that none of the arrows hit them.
The old man struggled a bit asked the young man, "I forgot to ask you your name, young man."
The knight was quite surprised because the old man saved him without knowing his name.
The young knight spoke with tears in his eyes, "My name is Juan. Don't speak anymore, Old Man. You are already bleeding a lot."
The old man smiled and closed his eyes as he heard him, "I am glad."
One of Juan's mate spoke as he saw that Juan was continuously healing the Old Man even after the old man died so he decided to break the ice and say it to him. "Boy, that old man is dead. Leave him."
Juan roared hoarsely and flicked his hand, "No...! He can't die before telling me his name. He saved me without knowing anything about me. Fuck. We here sacrifice our lives and those assholes enjoy glory when we win and ditch us in the pit to save their asses when everything goes south. Where does their honor die in such circumstances?"
All the men on board were surprised after hearing him, although everyone knew about this but no one dared to diss so loudly against their superiors. The captain of the ship smiled as he saw Juan and ignored it.
The mate closed Juan's mouth as he took him somewhere else. He spoke, "Gosh, it was good that I reacted fast or I too would have been implicated with you. Do you have a deathwish kid?"
Juan kept quiet as he remembered the first words of the old man and decided to remember them for a long time in the coming future. He followed the mate as the war was going on.

The vice admiral of Shannon's ship reported to Shannon, "Captain our orders are being broken by Lord Grim and Darius and this is causing a lot of chaos, Darius is causing disruption by changing the directions of the ships. Many of the ships have halted and collided with each other leading to multiple injuries on a lot of ships and men."

Chapter end