--Somewhere around Arcadina's Coastlines--

On the calm open waters of the ocean, the waves were mild and very well mannered, as they gently swayed across the ocean's surface.

The sun had just risen not too long ago, and the stuffy summer breeze gently blew across several ships sailing toward one direction.

The weather was so hot that several men on board those ships soon began laying down on the deck floors, while vigorously fanning themselves as well.

The heat was just too much for them, and soon..... they all removed their shirts and pants, while wearing only their wrapped diaper-like underwears

What sort of weather was this?

Sweat trickled down their abs, making their bodies glisten and shine as if they were in a Calvin Klein advert.

The air was ridiculously stuffy, as even the breeze from the ocean's waves..... did nothing to lessen the scorching rays from the sun.

It was like the sun was having an intense battle with something way up in the sky.... as us intense rays had soon started making some of the men feel dizzy and see double.

Mr. Sun.... who the hell had pissed you off so badly?

At this point, the men had all drunk more than 3 massive jugs of water each... as no matter how much they drank, their mouths would always end up feeling extremely dry and salty instead.

And with how hot the weather was, it had immediately made their cabinets and rooms feel like a baked oven... as the heat got absorbed by the wood, instantly baking them to shreds.

Hence the entire open deck floor had almost everyone lying on its floor while fanning themselves with their clothes.

The whole floor area was so congested that one would find it hard to move across the ship without accident stepping on someone.

Again on the ships, while they were all laying around.... the scouts up on the sails soon felt dizzy, as well as sleepy, as the weather had finally gotten to them.

The men there all sat in barrel-like drums, that were all strategically positioned and placed high up on the sails.

In this era, all scouting was done with the naked eyes, as they didn't have any telescopes yet.

Typically, sometimes, the ocean floors got misty with fog.... and other times, the large waves and other factors made one not properly gauge what was coming from afar.

So the scouts above the dogs and above the madness..... usually saw things clearly from above.

Hence when they had confirmed their suspicions, they would shout out what they had seen... and the next person closest to them would shout it out again.

And just like that the information got circulated throughout the entire ship like so.

"Fwigi!.... get up lad!!

We're meant to be keeping a lookout, and not sleeping!" Bellowed one of the oldest scouts there.

"Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!.....I know that.

But who would be crazy enough to attack such a massive fleet of 46 ships? " Fwigi asked, while yawning tirelessly.

As the 2 bickered, the other scouts all shook their head helplessly.... as they were already used to such scenes.

For Fwigi, it was near impossible for one ship to attack them..... as they would surround the ship, hop on board the ship, raid and kill the people on board just like pirates do.

On these waters, one needed to always raid, as there were times that food began to run low, or water was thoroughly needed instead.

And if they chanced open a ship filled with both men and women, then they would kill all the men, raid the ships, have their way with the women..... and then leave them on those ships with barely enough food on board.

For them, this was already a generous offer altogether.

With fish swimming around them, could one really say that these women would die from starvation?

And if they were really thirsty... then let them drink sea water instead.

Beggars can't be picky!

That was the notion of these men.

But of course if they weren't on a mission, they would bring the women on board their ships for a 'good time' instead.

But sadly... since they had sailed out, they had only met ships filled with men and no women.

"Lad!.... if you fall asleep, then I'll shoot this apple onto your head instead.

Stay awake no excuses!"

"Old man.... why are u so stiff?

Like I said.... who will....."

'___'

The young scout was about to complete his sentence, when he immediately spotted a deep bluish dot slowly growing larger and larger by the second.

His first thought was that this was definitely not a ship... as no ship would have rowers that could row this fast.

Bloody hell!... at one point, he couldn't decide if whatever was approaching was flying or swimming toward them instead.

"Who's stiff?

I dare you to finish your sentence!!

What the hell are you looking at when I'm talking to you?" The other scout said while glaring at Fwigi.

"Hey old man!.... can you shut up and look ahead?" Fwigi said subconsciously while still being at a daze as well as confused by what he was seeing.

Yup!

The sun had finally fried his eyes out..

Old man?

How the heck was he an old man at 41?

Whatever this punk was looking at.... it better be good, or he would

The elderly scout 'hmmped' and turned ahead immediately..... but what he saw also made him freeze as well.

Eh?

What exactly was he seeing?

He quickly wiped his eyes with his hands anxiously.

Was there something wrong with his vision?

"Hey old man.... .... what do you think it is?" Fwigi asked while still being in a trance.

As for the 'old man', he was truly made speechless by what he was seeing as well.... as he truly didn't know what it was.

More importantly, what would he shout out to the men below?

As someone who had spent a large portion of time sailing and aiding his leaders from the Temple of Adonis to sail across the empires within their continent and conquer them..... he had seen several types of creatures in the waters that were both large and small.

But this was the first time that he had seen one stay above sea level and travel so fast.

Wasn't this defying some sort of universe law or something?

How could something walk or even swim that fast when most of its body is above water?

Soon... a hint of fear slowly filled his heart with dread, as he looked at the unidentified object.

Moments later.... the bizarre message was passed on within the ship, and someone else also passed the message towards the other surrounding ships within their fleet.

And just like that the entire ship.... as well as the entire fleet of 46 ships, were all left in an uproar at what was previously yelled out from ship to ship

"Flying Boggle (whale) approaching!"

"Flying Boggle approaching!"

"_"

In short, even the men who passed the message along also thought that they had misheard what they had just said.

How could it be a flying boggle?

They just felt like it was too ridiculous to be true.

But even so, they soon got into battle stations and held out their swords towards the edge of their ships.

And while some held out their swords, other took out arrows and placed cans of black powder (gun powder) on them.

But how could all these be enough for a boggle?

They decided to add spears into the mix.

Basically, in the place of cannons.... they would sometimes mount several massive metal spears through several massive compartments that opened up at their bottom deck levels.

They did this as a means of defence when facing massive sea creatures.

In this way, once the creatures thought of coming closer..... the ridiculously long spears would hack them into several pieces.

Because if it was truly a boggle, then they would really need all ships to quickly attack the beast... as its sheer force from its tail alone could definitely destroy a single of their wooden ships at once if it got too close.

So as of this moment, they had 3 main defence lines up and running: archers that launched arrows with gunpowder tubes, swordsmen at the edge of the boats.... and long pointy iron spears at the bottom decks of the ship.

So when using the arrows, they had planned to shoot the beast's eyes with those black powder carrying arrows..... as well as also send off some of the arrows into the beats's mouth if possible.

And even though its skin was thick.... stabbing it several times could also give it serious injuries.

It was similar to a human stepping on a splinter of wood or tiny pins.

One could imagine a splinter of wood in this scenario.

Because although a splinter of wood was smaller, it could still do a massive number on any human of it pricked them.

So similarly, the whale would feel some sort of pain from having swords and arrows fly towards its direction.

Captain Kirkwood peered towards the image of this supposedly 'flying boggle'... and also found himself lost in thought as well.

What the hell was he looking at here?

The image moved closer and closer until it finally stopped about 5300 yards ( 3 miles) away from their ship.

But even though it had stopped far away from them, the men could still see the sheer size of it all.

At its current distance, it looked like it was twice the same size as one of their ships.

So one can imagine it's real size if it came face to face with them.

No wonder it was named a boggle!

Previous, his men had been trying to guess out what it was... as they even thought that it was but judging from what he was seeing, it definitely had to be a boggle.

Because if it stood indirectly in front of them.... it would be like how a massive whale was when facing them head on.

One could also imagine the story of Moby Dick, with a whale that could swallow up their ship if it wanted to.

Captain Kirkwood and the rest of his all shivered as they looked at the image before them.

His mind went completely numb for a while, as he tried to make heads or tails at the object.

From here, they could clearly see that the image resembled a ship.

And because with how massive the object was, they could also see that it was a bluish black 'Metal' ship?

No! No! No! No! No!

That can't be right at all!

How could metal float?

And more importantly, how could any ship travel at such speeds?

Yup!!.... it was definitely a deep blue towering boggle, that had a body that was similar to metal.

That was the only logical explanation he could come up with.

"Men!.... it's a metal Boggle!"

"_"