Astral’s gills shuddered in anticipation. He could hear the rain hitting the surface of the ocean; but underneath? – pure stillness. He took one final glance behind him and confirmed that the ships were all anchored into place and his men in a tight, square formation. Dolphins circled above them, giving them instructions. However, right in front of him swam a school of enemy aquatic bestials all heading towards the ships.

‘Don’t let them get past us,’ his voice echoed through the waters like a sonar. ‘Priority on protecting the food supply.’

At that, he rushed back to SS-Tanya and placed his palm on the underside. The ship wrapped its vines around his hand and understood his instructions. In an instant, the germination of a wall formed right in front of his eyes. Then the adjacent vessels started doing the same. Then the next and the next until all ships began the process of expansion, creating an impassable wall underneath.

Now to buy time, Astral took one final glance as the drowned-out cries of pain reverbed through the ocean. He dove towards the action, unhooking his bone skewer and slashing the first enemy in sight. A direct hit. The clear water turned deep red.

Yet, they still kept coming. They used their allies as bait. Score upon score of the Africans overwhelmed them with their reckless assault, pushing squadron O back towards the boats they protected. For every three Astral and his men cut to pieces, another two breached past them. The enemy didn’t even attempt to attack the defences.

‘Warn the land-dwellers!’ he ordered as he clashed with another’s bone skewer. With elegance and grace, he manipulated all three dimensions of the ocean, dodging a slice before rising and diving upon his foe. A fatal puncture of the heart to one as he witnessed a couple more rush below him and under the half-finished wall while the dolphins above made drastic changes to their formation.

Exhaustion took hold. More and more slipped past the defence. Astral’s gill-less allies needed air and the enemy took full advantage as their formation condensed into a larger entity like a school of fish, bulldozing through a gap in the formation. Without hesitation, they leapt up and scaled up the vessel towards to top deck.

‘Into loose formation. Activate ship defences!’ Astral fell back to SS-Tanya once more. He, and a handful of his men, placed their webbed hands in a specific slot. All of a sudden, spikes shot from the boats, piercing through the scalers.

Still not enough. The enemy split between diving under the wall and climbing the first row of ships.

More.

We need to do more, Astral cut through another one.

Make the defence on deck as easy as possible.

Stop as many as we can.

The wall completed at last.

They can only go up now.

Astral switched his men to a compact formation.

Drown them out.

Multiple mage-eaters dived in to eat the floating bodies. The enemy’s numbers started to dwindle. Not even the ocean water could clean off all the blood. At last, the endless waves ended. Kill those that remained and no more could breach the defences. However, their role didn’t end there.

‘Clear the enemy here and help the deck-dwellers!’ Astral roared, kicking an enemy off his weaponry. He took one, quick scan of where most of the enemy concentrated and noticed most climbed on one ship in particular. His eyes widened. That’s squadron W’s boat!