The War Begins

Xan stood at the front of his flagship, the Nautilus, and commanded his Admiral to have the Cibolian fleet ready itself for a naval battle with the Cretan and Aerugese fleets. The Admiral nodded, and began to give orders to all of the captains of the various ships in the fleet through a radio. The transports were ordered to stay back until the combined enemy fleet was destroyed.

Smiling, Xan thought to himself that Creta and Aerugo really should have made more war ships. As it was, this would probably be too easy.

In the distance, he could just see the ships preparing a blockade against Cibola. What foolish notion had made them think that they could outgun the most powerful navy in the world?

They would soon be learing their place, one way or the other....

The admiral returned, and awaited further orders.

L'ammiraglio, prepara le navi di guerra a licenziare sul mio marchio.
(Admiral, prepare the war ships to fire on my mark.)


Sì, il mio Signore!
(Yes, my Lord!)

Xan saw the enemy vessels complete their blockade, and aim their cannons at the Cibolian fleet. Sighing, Xan raised up his right hand to the heavens.

Pronto, lo scopo, licenzia!
(Ready, aim, fire!)

As he said licenzia, he lowered his right hand to point at the blockade. As one, all of his front ships fired a volley of cannon fire at the enemy fleet. The naval battle had begun...

Xan pulled out a communicator that linked directly to Takegami...

Take, the naval battle has begun. It's your move now.

The members of the Cibolian army and navy gazed in awe at the devatation that Takegami had created. Xan simply smiled and called his Admiral over.

Now do you see, my Admiral, why this war shall indeed be ours? Look! Our ally has cleared the way for our ships to move in unopposed! Wait until the enemy ships sink and the flames die out before you continue to the Aerugese coast.

The admiral asked what Xan intended to do.

Xan simply smiled and whistled. Quicksilver, his dragon, came roaring from the sky and landed on the ship in front of Xan's feet, waiting for his master.

Why, I am going to go ahead of you and speak to our ally, of course.

Without another word, Xan hopped onto Quicksilver and flew towards the ship that Take was standing on.

Revel.. running behind as usual, which was odd for a ninja, finally came up behind. She was not on a horse, her speed allowed her quicker movement on foot. She had to take a detour, an enemy ambush to be seen on heroriginal tour. She seemed to almost appear from flames themself, her cloak flowing behind her. Her crimson eyes flaring as she herself seemed to emit a dark glow.

"Ego sum rumex ego sum tardus. A detour had capi." (Sorry I'm late I had to take a detour) Looking around at the flames, she figured the burlap cloak would not be a good combination of flames and tossed the fabric aside, letting it be consumed into the chaotic and hungry flames.

Xan jumped off of Quicksilver and landed nimbly on the burning ship in front of Take and Revel. With a whistle, he dismissed Quicksilver back into the skies for a while.

Turning to face his allies, he noticed that they kind of looked like Nobunaga and Kunoichi. He could only wonder what he looked like right now...

Hello Take-san and Revel-chan. I take it that nothing serious has happened while I was taking my sweet time in getting this close to Aerugo?

Revel blinked and saluted Xan, a grin on her face. "Abyssus Xan , is has been a dum. Quam es vos?" (Hello Xan, it has been a while. How are you?) She wasn't actually asking, it was more rhetorical, a kind and friendly hello. She turned to Take. "Vestri ordo meus dominus?" (Your orders my lord?)

Xan thought that he couldn't just let Take have all of the fun. Drawing his sword, Xan began to slice and stab to death anyone whom Take had somehow missed on his first wave of destruction.

What's wrong Revel? Don't you want to have some fun too?

As Xan was speaking, a foolish soldier tried to stab him through the stomach. Xan jumped high into the air, and threw a dagger at the man. The dagger lodged itself into the man's skull and he fell over, dead.

Then Xan gave the other men a look that clearly asked for his next opponent.

Revel grinned at Xan and seemed to diasappear, she could be seen in short glimpses all over the field. Her movements almost dance liked and graceful as she jumped location to location. Her eyes red with amusement as the men tried to catch her. A few lunged at her, only to fall off the edge of the boat. She sat on the ledge looking around curiously, a few men staring in utter confusion before they ran in mass chaos and her tricks all started again.

"She's a sorceress!" they shoued in fear. Only to be silenced a second later.

Xan appeared in a flash of light on top of the burning ship. With a snap of his fingers, ten swords of red light appeared around him and sliced through more of the men on the ships. Then, he snapped his fingers again. Then, the men whom he had just killed stood back up and began fighting against their former comrads, with a zombified expression on their faces.

What trickery is this? The Ishvalan must be a nightmare creature just like the other two!

Xan roared with laughter while he heard the things that the ships crew was saying. Demon, sorceress, and nightmare. That actually fit pretty well right now.

Revel glanced at Xan and pouted, "Oh way to show off!" She shouted, slicing the throat of the man in front of her. She disappeared, reappearing on the otherside of the flight, disappearing as two men lunged, they ended up stabbing eachother instead. Revel sighed and crossed her legs, licking the blade of her dagger, "You make it almost too easy..."

Xan signaled his ships to fire another volley against the first row of ships, then braced himself as the cannonballs hit the ship that he was on. The enemy soldiers screamed again and more of them jumped into the water. Those who were lucky would make it to the second wave of ships to await their inevitable destruction. Those who were unlucky were either burned alive, drowned, or were eaten alive by sharks.

Come on, mortals! Is there no one who can face my might?!

Revel yawned, watching the people with a look of boredom. She had taken a good chunk out and there were barely any other's left, so she began walking along the ship, pacing and waiting...

Xan appeared in a flash of red light on his flagship, the Nautilus, just as the now sunken ship had exploded. It had been a slightly close call, but Xan enjoyed that sensation of almost being blown up in the morning.

Calling his shaking Admiral over, Xan issued new orders: Continue to the shores of Aerugo, and provide support from the sea, including a constant bombardment of the closest enemy camps.

After the Admiral left to issue the orders to the war ships, Xan turned to his allies.

Thanks for the help, that was fun. What do we do now?

Just as Xan was speaking, his war ships continued forward, and his supply ships and transports would follow once it was clear that Cibloa and Eikyuu Gaka controlled the coast.

There was a laugh. "Guess I'm late." the emporer of Xing grinned from his perch in the rigging of his head ship. Of course, it was expected for him to be late, Xing was pretty far away, especially by sea.

Yuan was clinging to the ropes with just his feet. His orange and red jacket was nowhere to be seen, so it was just his sleeveless, high necked shirt, tight pants and 'troll shoes'.

"So what I miss?" Yuan continued, knowing no one heard him as he jumped down from the rigging, white bandages showing on his left arm. There had been a minor accident. Some idiot servant had broken a lamp and somehow managed to catch Yuan's arm on fire. It ahd ehaled fast enough, but the skin was still red and held a charred smell, so he might as well hide it.

Revel nodded, standing there silently as she wiped the blood on her blade off on her skirt. There was nothing to do, at least until the plans were finished. She looked at Yuan and gave him a small smile of greeting, and turned back to Takegami and Xan. "What exactly are we fighting here?" She asked curiously. She hadn't been told anything, she was clueless.

"Holy crap, it's freezing here!" Ming exclaimed, pacing on her head ship. She was late, but at that moment, she didn't care about that. On top of her signature minidress she wore a knee length coat with fake fur rimming the hood, which was pulled up over her head. Only then did she realize that pretty much everyone was already there. "Sorry I'm late, Take. Certain...things were complicated."