I was showered with achievements and other bonuses, but there was no time to take a look. Olaf, Tailfeather, and Komtur were arguing on the voice channel — something must have gone wrong. I helped the half-choked Mara stand up, making a surprising discovery that in my combat form, the tall heavy-armored Mistress seemed light as a feather.
Mara bared her teeth, throwing me a greedy look. Her hit points rapidly regenerated as her succubi finished off the screaming monkeys around the crumbling icy needles. After losing their leader, the snow monsters had lost all will to fight and scurried away with pathetic wails.
“This form makes you devilishly handsome! By the Netherworld, I don’t know what I want more — kill everybody here or — ”
“We aren’t done!” I interrupted the demoness. “We need to — ”
A heavy explosion shook the ship, almost knocking us down again. It wasn’t the fire from the castle artillery but something much more powerful, which made the juggernaut’s entire frame shudder. Two more blows followed, turning the ship around. The deck under our feet tilted over. It felt as if the Shockdown collapsed on its side, getting a series of knockout punches right in the nose. What was going on?
* * *
Evil Mook: [Censored], Shockdown lit a portal! It’s getting away, [censored]! How are our guys?
Olaf: Cat’s not answering. Abel’s at resp. Tailfeather has a real slaughter on his hands. Half are down, and the rest can’t break through.
Evil Mook: [Censored]! Crow, what about you?
Crow: I have six skiffs left, enough for two waves. Half of my groups are out. The enemy’s pressing hard!
Komtur: Stormbringer’s turning around and opening a portal, too. It has a retinue: Falcon, London, Empress, twelve ships in total.
Evil Mook: They’re probably going to NAVY. Crow! Send the skiffs toward Shockdown from the portal’s direction! Gain speed, heat up, and hit it right on the bow; try throwing it off-course! Got it?
Crow: Got it. We’ll try. It’s hard; they’ve sent out lots of flying creatures. We might not make it through the curtain of fire.
Evil Mook: I don’t see any other way. The hull’s at fifty percent; we can’t lose it!
* * *
On fire from bow to stern, the Shockdown turned around, stubbornly crawling into the newly appeared vortex of an Astral Portal, ignoring the focused fire of the defending forces. Another funnel lit up next to it — the Stormbringer, the Steel Guard’s juggernaut, also started making a turn, gathering a squadron of smaller ships around it.
The rest of the juggernauts were in no hurry to start firing at the castle. Instead, they summoned thousands of dragon riders to protect them from all sides, hoping to prevent the invisible skiffs from reaching them. Even after losing many ships and people, the enemies surpassed the alliance in numbers and strength. Yes, the Northerners stubbornly persisted, giving them one surprise after another, but that wasn’t enough to turn the tide of battle. Hundreds of downed ships were only one-third of the armada that Pandorum had brought to Condor. The rulers of the Astral Plane had plenty more options in store.
The fleet regrouped, pulling toward the flagships. Protective auras flared up. One after another, Circles of Blades surrounded the vessels, and swarms of various flying pets filled the skies. The gunners spared no charges, raining fire in all possible attack directions. Close quarters presented an advantage to the Pandas, depriving the invisible skiffs of mobility. Lone Northern raiders kept accidentally revealing themselves by grazing something and immediately died under focused fire. The surprise effect had allowed the allies to destroy many of their opponents, but it was over, and the Pandas were coming around.
The attack of the last six kamikaze skiffs was a desperate suicidal strike. Three of them blew up in the air, shot down by dense curtain fire. As for the other three, only their captains knew the truth about the cost of that breakthrough, having to burn down their own engine elementals to gain the necessary altitude. They crashed into the bow of the Shockdown that had almost reached the exit portal. Powerful explosions turned the ship around and back, pushing it sideways. Not a shred remained of the grim beauty of the flagship — it was a blazing carcass covered with mangled armor full of dents and cracks and consumed by hungry tongues of fire. Yet the Shockdown still lived and even moved, trying to slip into the portal on the final twenty percent of its health.
* * *
Everything became much easier after neutralizing Nessu and the flight of his minions. The Succubate scattered across Shockdown’s interior, destroying every living being inside. Combat broke out on tilted decks, a savage free-for-all with shrieking half-naked demonesses fighting Pandorum warriors while explosions rumbled outside. The castle artillery continued tearing the juggernaut apart. I walked together with Mara in an elite group of Succubate, who hacked and slashed their path forward. The Pandas were fierce and unyielding, never surrendering even an inch of their ship without a sacrifice. The situation was complicated by our enemies skillfully barricading themselves in the narrow corridors between the decks, repelling our attacks again and again.
Tailfeather: That’s it, we’re down. Look at the plan and try by yourself if you’re still alive.
I opened the attached file. In the end, our “spec ops” team had managed to disable one of the engines, even if they couldn’t reach the inner sanctum — the reactor and the spelljumper. However, another important objective, the powder room used to store all ammunition, was a level below me, on the deck valiantly guarded by Pandas.
Well then. Our enemies were smart and cunning. They proved to be prepared for many of our tricks, but even a genius strategist couldn’t foresee everything.
I glanced at Aelmaris and thrust it in the deck planks with all my might. Empowered by Demonic Strength, the flaming sword cut through
