Maiden Of The Splitting Moon

Three days passed after the mining operation was complete, the harvest could only be described as good but not great. Still, it was satisfactory for Zi Jing, who had the various crates loaded into his spatial rings.*

"With this much, it should last us the month."

He spoke happily, rubbing the rings with his other hands. Yu Zhen was next to him as they stood on the docks where everything had been unloaded. 

"That's good to hear. The crew had been attacked but luckily no one was lost", she replied. 

"Good, good. Let me just inspect the ship and I'll get going."

He then walked towards the ship, asking for the engineers to pull it out of the water. It didn't take long for the ship to be fully exposed on land. His eyes widened immediately as he saw the hull. 

"What the hell? What happened here?!"

Zi Jing shouted out angrily as he stomped forward and touched the deeply embedded spiked balls. 

"Where is the crew? Tell me why the hull is like this?!"

His sudden outburst took everyone by surprise, even Yu Zhen came to check out what had happened. The miners and the captain came soon enough, surprised by his anger. 

"Why are there these balls stuck inside the ship?" 

Zi Jing turned around and looked at them all. 

"Is it not your doing?" said one of the miners. 

He looked at this person with incredulous eyes, shaking his head.

"Who in their right mind to ruin their own creation like this?" he said. 

Then Yu Zhen came forward. 

"It must have been the demons, they did this during the attack, didn't they? But why?" she said, trying to calm her fellow commander. 

"What? What could they be trying to accomplish here? A waste of materials and it ruined the ship, trying to fix this is going to be a pain in my ass", he said angrily. 

Just then, a bell rang out several times from the highest level of the Southern Tower. Voices shouted out from above as men stopped in confusion. 

"Demons! The demons are coming! It's an attack."

Just under an hour away, The giant warship along with its fleet made its entrance, surging towards them. Standing at the bow of the ship was Hai Zhu, the Tide King, gripping his nine- pronged trident tightly as he looked at the tower. 

"What?"

Yu Zhen took out a spyglass from her waist, opening it and putting it to her eye. All it took was a second for her to spot those very ships. 

"They really are coming for an attack, but why? Damn, there's no point in wondering. Prepare for battle! Push back these demons!"

She shouted out as everyone scrambled for their weapons and armor. 

"Commander Zi Jing, go get your men and get your siege engines ready! You can worry about the ship later!"

Zi Jing stared at the ship before leaving, doing as she had asked. 

"Board the other ships! We will meet them on the waters! Get the defenses ready! Hurry!"

"Yes, commander!"

From the other side, Hai Zhu saw the commotion in the Southern Tower and smiled. 

"Good, the plan has been set in motion."

He turned around and walked away, raising his trident to the other ships as a signal. The captains of each ship saw it and yelled to the others. 

"Prepare for battle! Kill the humans!"

And as they readied themselves, brandishing their weapons, the shackled members of the Varuna Clan and other demons all activated their bloodlines. The water around them began to ripple as they took control of it. 

As they came closer, large serpents began to form, swimming through the waters below. 

And the ships docked by the Southern Tower were quickly armed as everyone moved as quickly as they could. Crewmen and captains boarded their ships except for the Bull Shark Captain, whose ship had been beached. 

"Ah damn, what the hell happened to my ship? Now I have to stay back and fight on land? I shouldn't have gone for a drink when we came back."

He was both disappointed and angry, mostly at himself for not checking on his ship earlier. 

On the ground, several cannons and other grand machines made their appearance. Standing at the front of it all was Zi Jing, overlooking all of it while squads of men and women, engineers and craftsmen, manned these weapons. 

"Let's get going! Load up the Thunder Gauss Cannons! Get the shields up!"

He yelled out orders while summoning his five swords, all of which floated behind his back. Soon enough a massive barrier formed all throughout the Southern Tower, covering up the docks even. 

By the time all of this happened, the warship and the fleet were only a thousand meters away. But that distance shortened very quickly. 

Hai Zhu watched as the barrier formed but he was not worried in the slightest. He only held out his trident and cycled his energy into it, making his weapon shudder and ring out. 

Within that very ship, the dozens of spiked balls trembled, called out by the ringing of the trident. All of this caused the hull to creak and crack, splintering as the balls broke it apart.

"The ship, what's happening to it?"

Zi Jing noticed it immediately. 

But that was just a side effect, it was not its main purpose. As the trident trembled, Hai Zhu then slammed the butt of it onto the floorboards, silencing it. 

"Explode."

The spiked balls rattled even more fiercely as if they could no longer contain whatever was inside. And without missing a beat, they burst out in a chain of fiery explosions. But there were hundreds of them, all embedded into the ship's hull and the initial shockwaves launched them out, scattering them across the docks and the ground. 

Before anyone could even scream or shout, their bodies were ripped apart from the blasts. All of the ships that were docked with this very vessel were destroyed. The crew on them were all but dead.

Many more landed by the siege engines and near the Southern Tower, destroying everything. The barrier vanished as the very things that powered it was gone. Many of the defenses that had been taken out were destroyed in a blaze of fire.

The tower itself trembled from the shockwaves as its foundation was shaken to the very core. It tried to stay firm but in the end, it crumbled down to the grounds. 

When it was finally over, hundreds of lives were lost, and even more laid on the ground half dead or injured. 

"No, how did this happen?" 

Yu Zhen was knocked back by the explosions but she was unhurt, protecting herself in the last seconds with her large saber. She looked around, trying to assess the situation as best as she could but the only way she could describe it was complete destruction. 

It was their defeat.

"Escape to Guardian's Keep! Those that aren't injured should help recover those that are. Abandon everything else!"

She screamed out her orders while running across the carnage searching for Zi Jing. Looking around, she hurried towards where the ruined siege engines were. 

'Commander Zi Jing!"

She shouted, seeing her comrade pinned underneath some of the rubble. The five floating swords by him were cutting away at it while he struggled to get out. But he was feeling weak, there was blood flowing out from his body. 

"I'm here! Help get me out!" he shouted. 

She ran towards him and swung her saber, cutting through the wood and stone before pulling him out. 

"Your stomach, we need to get it treated!"

Looking down, Yu Zhen saw his hand pressing down on a fist-sized hole in his waist.

"We have to go back to Guardian's Keep. Prepare to defend, message the other commanders."

He spoke weakly, but he wouldn't die so easily. 

Together, they made their escape, leading any stragglers to escape. 

And that was when Hai Zhu, hopped down from his warship and looked around at his handiwork. 

"Kill any humans that are still alive! Then, we push even further" he ordered.