The Jarlack iceberg crushed a good chunk of Watatsumi's flyers and their manor base as a bonus.

The impact destroyed the roof and caused the upper floors to collapse on the rest, burying the elven riders too slow to bolt out of the way. Wepwawet couldn't estimate the number of victims with his view of the board, but from Watatsumi's aghast expression the action had cost him a large number of soldiers.

Only the return of Jarlack's soul to the palm of his hand soured his mood. He couldn't tell whether it was the impact or the Doom Ailment that did the giant warchief in, but the notification was unmistakable.

Jarlack, Chief Mercenary Officer, deceased.

"Kisama!" Watatsumi roared in anger.

"That's the thing about death countdowns," Wepwawet taunted him and Hel. "When mortals know they have nothing to lose, they're capable of anything."

"Big deal, that maneuver still cost you a Commander," Hel replied coldly. "And by my count, you only have six left."

"And soon you will be without a teammate," Ishtar countered with a sly smile.

Hel gritted her teeth at Ishtar's point. Jarlack's final attack had indeed decimated Watatsumi's air force. The few remaining griffin riders were outnumbered two to one by Victoire, Soumis, the other giant wyvern riders and the wereowls bombardiers. Moreover, Insupportable was steadily flying his way to the Altar and freezing the entire bridge separating it from Orestown with each passing second—Wepwawet would have hoped that he would turn the whole flooding canyon to ice to allow troops to walk across, but he was too enraged to listen and was acting effectively anyway. The unbearable, arrogant dragon had turned into a savage, roaring beast that decimated everything in its path with his breath like a bombardier on a bombing run.

It was almost frightening to see Insupportable like this. Nothing the elves had thrown at him even slowed him down. An enraged dragon was destruction incarnate.

Finally, whatever kraken Watatsumi hid in the water probably had no way of intercepting flying enemies or it would have done so already. Watatsumi's Altar was currently fatally vulnerable.

"Yare yare daze," Watatsumi grunted in frustration as he sent his griffin riders to intercept Victoire's crew as they approached the coral barrier. At this point, he was clearly trying to stall for time until his turn arrived.

Wepwawet considered his options. He had seventy mana left, and the Miracles currently in his hand wouldn't cost much to cast. Wepwawet decided it was wiser to press his advantage and knock Watatsumi out of the game as early as possible, then gang up on Hel with Ishtar. At worst, putting additional pressure on Watatsumi would probably force him to burn through his mana in an attempt to protect his Altar.

Time to bring in the reinforcements he had set aside.

"I use mana to summon–" Wepwawet froze as an error message appeared in front of him. "What?!"

"You cannot summon additional Commanders in a B&C battle where their death is a losing condition," Ishtar reminded him. "Only normal Champions will do."

Argh, she was right. Rickart was a Commander and thus couldn't be summoned into the battle. At least he had saved the werelion from an early grave because of Hel's curse.

The rest of the crew was fine, though, so Wepwawet spent eighteen mana to summon Renarde, Kale, Slimon, and Viviane onto the field. Due to his lack of Altar, the four of them materialized in the northwesternmost corner of the board close to the rest of his army's command center.

"What the–" Viviane looked over the battlefield with concern. "That's quite the mess."

"Is Princess Treasure safe and sound?!" Slimon asked in a worried tone before quickly correcting himself. "I-I mean, are all of our beloved allies without slimy distinctions safe from harm?"

"Princess Treasure is safe for now, but I can't say the same for everyone," Wepwawet informed his Champions through telepathy. "Slimon, can you craft some D.R.Y. on the fly?"

"Pfft, I could brew that sweet powder blindfolded in a cave with a box of scraps, Your Godliness!"

"Then create some and then move with the others to the canyon to the east. I'll brief you all on the way." Wepwawet checked his hand and decided to hold onto his remaining Miracles for now, as they wouldn't have an immediate impact. "I conclude my turn there."

This left him with fifty-two mana, though Fire & Ice's maintenance cost would reduce it to fifty once his turn began again—still plenty of mana on top of the Prophecies he had in store.

Victoire's group made contact with the remaining griffin flyers by the time the last minute of his turn came to an end, and cut through them like a steel sword through butter. The elves valiantly fired arrows at the incoming enemies and managed to nail one or two wereowls, but most of their projectiles simply bounced off Soumis' burning scales. The dragon's breath incinerated everything in a straight line and blew a hole through their paltry defenses. The griffins proved faster than the giants' wyverns and deftly stayed out of the latter's range, but they were simply too few to hold them back.

So when Watatsumi's turn finally came and he drew his next card, it was with a glare and a drop of sweat dripping down his scales.

"Ore-sama no turn! Dorō kādo!" Watatsumi immediately played the Miracle he had drawn. "Shinzou wo sasageyo! Rank 6 Mahō Kādo, Ryū-Shinka!"

A light enveloped one of the elven riders and transformed him. Dark blue scales grew over his skin and burst out from beneath his armor, wooden horns shattered his helmet, and his torso lengthened into an immense tail. He grew in size and weight to the point his poor griffin mount nearly fell down on the coral barrier below, but managed to catch itself at the last minute.

A new eastern dragon roared to the heavens.

Wepwawet and his soldiers could only stare in disbelief at the creature. Watatsumi's spell had transformed one of his followers into a small copy of himself; smaller than Soumis, yet able to glide across the air without the use of wings. It immediately attacked Soumis with a breath of lightning that illuminated the sky.

Wepwawet's dragon managed to dodge, only for the false long dragon to immediately give pursuit. What he lacked in size compared to Soumis, he more than made up for in speed and agility.

"Did… did that overweight dragon just turn his minion into another dragon?" Soumis asked, his voice torn between fear and admiration. "This is… this is revolutionary! So forward thinking! It's a minionception!"

"Now you're doomed," Hel gloated on her ally's behalf. "Watatsumi's Providence empowers all Aquatic creatures within his Influence, and his Ryū-Shinka turned his followers into a Dragon/Aquatic creature. Your attacks won't even scratch him!"

Stolen story; please report.

"Hime-sama!" the transformed dragon roared as it pursued poor Victoire and Soumis across the sky with crackling desire. "Hime-sama!"

"B-back off!" Soumis protested; but true to Hel's warning, his flames hardly scorched the newly made long's scales. "I am not into princessnapping!"

"I have had enough of this!" Victoire complained as she threw her spear across the sky and managed to nail the false dragon's left side.

Her weapon pierced through his scales like a snake's fang through warm flesh and cut deep enough to draw blood. The false dragon shrieked in pain and nearly fell onto the coral barrier below before catching himself, the counterattack having taken the wind out of its sails.

From Watatsumi's expression, he hadn't expected the weapon to inflict so much damage. "N-nani?"

Oh right, Victoire's spear ignores a dragon's defenses, Wepwawet thought. He had forgotten that detail, but for the sake of psychological warfare, he pretended he hadn't. "As your people say–"

"Don't you dare say it," Hel warned him with a glare.

"All according to keikaku," Wepwawet replied, rubbing salt on their wounds.

He could have sworn he sensed Victoire smiling on her end of the telepathic line when she recalled the spear to her hand. "On second thought, I think I am going to enjoy this."

"You have my sincere sympathy, Victoire, but please focus on the Altar," Wepwawet warned her. While an enemy dragon could not be underestimated, the Miracle probably only allowed the target to mimic the power of a Rank 6 dragon and would probably run out on its own in due time. "The enemy can summon reinforcements so long as it stands."

"Saddening," Victoire replied out loud as she reluctantly followed the order. "Soumis, ignore that creature and let us destroy the statue!"

An enraged Watatsumi cast a Miracle before they could approach anywhere close to his Altar. "Rank 4 Mahō Kādo, Dragon's Breath!"

The Altar's mouth suddenly opened on its own and unleashed a massive cone of pressurized water at its attackers, taking out two giant wyvern riders and a few wereowls. Victoire and Soumis proved quick enough to dodge, but that respite allowed the long dragon to get back into the fight and assault them with lightning. Soon, the dragons ended up dancing in the sky away from the Altar.

Nonetheless, the way Watatsumi frantically looked at the last card in his hand told Wepwawet he had probably drawn a Revelation or something useless. He had very few options left with Ishtar's turn coming up and Wepwawet's troops threatening his Altar.

So he took a page out of Wepwawet's book and summoned reinforcements.

"Tokushu Shōkan! 21 Mana! Delta D. Sisters!" Magic rippled from Watatsumi's Altar and expanded all the way to the fringe of his Influence. "Tokushu Shōkan! 7 mana! Monstro, Whale Lighthouse!"

Four pillars of light hit the artificial sea, filling the canyon and bringing forth a small armada.

Three wooden ships the size of galleys materialized in the water, their masts each a massive tree, their sails leaves, and their oars branches. They looked quite similar to each other, but each had small differences: the first was covered in mushrooms; the second grew apples and other fruits like a floating orchard; and the third was covered in more lettuce than Set's private garden. Green-skinned elven women commandeered each ship, attended by a crew of small wooden creatures akin to walking tree stumps with legs and arms manning trebuchets.

The fourth summoned creature was made of flesh and steel rather than wood. It took the shape of an enormous dark whale with an electrified unicorn horn in the middle of its nose, and a lighthouse tower sprouting out of its back. Wepwawet caught a glimpse of the monster until Watatsumi's doctrine camouflaged it from his sight.

Watatsumi hadn't used any Miracle card here, which meant that all these creatures were Champions; ships included.

"Are you sure of yourself, Watatsumi?" Hel asked her teammate with clear unease. "That stunt cost you twenty-eight mana, and the whale is one of a kind."

"Urusai, urusai!" Watatsumi replied angrily, but Wepwawet could tell the remark had hit a nerve. If he had calculated correctly, Watatsumi probably had less than forty mana left in the tank, assuming he started with the maximum amount. He was running on fumes now.

None of their troops had stood out either. Wepwawet guessed his foe must have included Champions as part of the elven army, but they had been so ineffective he couldn't even tell them apart from normal soldiers. It made sense considering Watatsumi had never fought a B&C battle on Elphion before. His deck probably had yet to achieve much synergy, and his troops were green, and unbloodied.

Nonetheless, the new Champions' appearance helped turn the tide. A burst of lightning erupted from the sea out of nowhere and struck Insupportable as he approached the end of the frozen bridge, blowing him out of the sky in a single bolt. Wepwawet winced as the dragon crashed on the coral barrier in a cataclysmic boom.

That must be the whale's work, Wepwawet thought upon assessing the board state. The three ships formed a line along the canyon and began to bombard Orestown in an attempt to pin down the magmorian advance, while Victoire and Soumis remained busy fending off the fake long dragon. At least the navy didn't seem to benefit from their god's Providence or Ocean Stealth doctrine too, or Wepwawet's troops wouldn't even see the projectiles coming. I still have Tomb Raider's Punishment and Reflect Force to turn things around, but for now, it's a deadlock.

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but you can only summon a single Champion without a Miracle," Ishtar said upon frowning at the board. "Shouldn't the ships have shed weight?"

"Not if they're all part of a single organism," Wepwawet guessed. "The crews must just be an extension of the ships."

Hel snorted. "You don't know much about the elven lifecycle, do you?"

"No, but I know how to win," Ishtar replied upon drawing her card. "I'll open up my turn by unveiling whatever you hide in those holes of yours."

As if on cue, her demon emperor Champion stepped far ahead of his army with a halberd taller than he was. He faced Pitsfire, raised his weapon to the sky, and then struck the earth with all of his might right as Ishtar cast her card.

"I unleash the Rank 8 Whirlwind Miracle!"

A mighty cyclone of raging winds erupted from the tip of Emperor Malvolo's halberd. At over a hundred and fifty feet wide at the top and a third of that at the bottom, it burst forth with the strength to uproot trees and blow loose earth across the land. The Champion had walked far enough away that most of his army was unaffected, but a few of the smaller imps were nearly sucked in by the wind's sheer power; even Malvolo himself had to anchor himself onto the ground to not be carried off. Rocks and other objects caught in its path were picked up and flung across the landscape in short order.

The cyclone advanced towards the giant holes separating the besieging demon army from Pitsfire and quickly rocked them to their foundations. Rumbling chitterings erupted from their depths, and the creatures dwelling inside arose from the ruckus; three immense, gigantic maggots with pale flesh and giant, tooth-filled mouths wide enough to swallow horses whole. Even the cyclone wasn't powerful enough to throw them aside, but it did uproot them.

"Maggots?" Ishtar snorted in scorn. "Why am I not surprised?"

"It's the beauty inside that counts," Hel grumbled under her breath.

Each of these creatures looked formidable enough, but Ishtar simply welcomed the challenge with a chuckle. "In that case, I guess I'll eat them medium-rare."

Recognizing the signal they had agreed upon during their battle preparations, Wepwawet turned his attention to his Champions among Malvolo's army. Jasper was quietly recovering from his near-death—or rather, actual death—experience while his dear wife was all but shouting orders at the trebuchet crews.

"Exterminate them!" she shouted with fire rising from her head. "Wipe them all out!"

"My dear, calm down…" Jasper tried to interject, to no avail.

"They stole our land and worse, they killed you, Jasper!" she replied, clenching her fist in a way that sent sparks flying. "I will not rest until I see them reduced to cinders and buried under piles of rubble!"

Jasper observed his wife's outburst with a mix of dread and excitement. "My dear, I have never feared and desired you so much as I do now…"

"You have seen nothing yet," Wepwawet mused through telepathy, startling the couple. "Topaz, time to launch Operation Roasting."

"Yes, Your Godliness!" The princess enthusiastically raised her hands at the cyclone and the maggots in the distance. "I am ready!"

Satine quickly moved to put a hand on Topaz's back to put her within her goddess' Influence. As a magmorian princess, Topaz's Fire Shaping I Perk allowed her to mentally manipulate any flame within thirty meters and reposition them; an effect which applied to both techniques and spells.

That opened opportunities for combos; one which Wepwawet and Ishtar had carefully rehearsed on their way to Pitsfire.

"I cast the Rank 5 Hellfire Strike Miracle!" Ishtar said.

A pillar of heavenly fire descended upon Topaz from the sky with enough heat to melt stone and incinerate anything caught in its midst. The attack would have likely reduced everyone in the vicinity to cinders—whether friend or foe—but instead avoided harming anyone.

Even divine fire yielded to a princess' will.

"Take this!" she shouted with far more aggressiveness than Wepwawet ever heard from her.

Topaz focused the flames within her hands until they formed a sphere, then launched the resulting fireball straight into the cyclone's heart. The fire immediately ignited the winds and turned the tornado into a mighty firestorm of biblical proportions.

And Hel's giant maggots burned.

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