But which great Admiral would listen to a child? "All forces forward!! For glory!"

"What are we going to do?" George was half-tearing at his hair in frustration.

Tim sighed. "I'll take the west side."

"What? What do you mean? What's going on?" George blinked.

"See that?" Tim pointed to Darian's back. "That's East."

"So?" George still didn't get it.

"I'm going that way." Tim pointed in the other direction.

"Why?" George was still blur.

"To raise a ruckus and draw the Tier 8's out to fight us. Otherwise that Libertarian fleet is going to run right into a wall of Tier 8's and get themselves slaughtered." Tim explained. "We have to draw their attention away from that fleet."

Mindy jumped up. "Chirpy and I will join you. We'll let the Wind Emperor back Darian up."

"But the Admiral…"

"You want us to fight the Tier 8 Spectres in the middle of that expeditionary fleet?"

"Uh… no."

"Right. Just being too close to the fight will kill them all. Tim's right. We have to draw them away."

To their credit, the diversion succeeded. All four Tier 8 Spectres and half their lesser forces were drawn away from the center where the Libertarian fleet was charging in.

But even so, that fleet was slaughtered.

***

In man-made history, it was recorded as the first major conflict between mankind and the Spectre Incursion.

Bravely, the airs.h.i.+ps of mankind sallied forth into the dark unknown.

"Give me liberty or give me death!" Admiral Campbell shouted as the battle commenced.

Those were the words engraved on his tombstone ever after, one of the most famous last words ever heard from a military commander. Thus recorded Libertaria's historians.

The battle itself lasted roughly fifty minutes. In terms of a.s.set comparison, the situation was, according to history books, as follows;

The valiant humans had, on their side, the forces of Libertaria leading a loose coalition of allies; one military-grade mothers.h.i.+p, nine cruisers, twenty galleons, fifty-one frigates, and roughly three hundred corvettes. On the ground were roughly 400 heavy infantry and 600 light infantry supported by thirty artillery emplacements of varying sorts including catapults, ballistae, and a heavy magic cannon.

On the enemy side, in the air, two mothers.h.i.+p-level (Tier 8), forty cruiser-cla.s.s (Tier 7), roughly two hundred galleon-cla.s.s (Tier 6), almost a thousand frigates (Tier 5) and enough lesser flyers to form a veritable cloud. On the ground were two Tier 8 super-beasts, fifty Tier 7 monsters, at least four hundred Tier 6 beasts and at least three thousand Tier 5's, not to mention an uncounted amount of lesser Spectres.

In terms of weaponry, Libertaria used firearms; guns and cannons firing b.a.l.l.s using gunpowder. In terms of defense, they relied upon masterwork armor using composite alloys which were envied worldwide, but no mana barriers or energy s.h.i.+elds of any sort.

The Spectres, on the other hand, were semi-ethereal and higher Tier types employed pure energy attacks at long range; bolts, beams, claw- and fang-shaped energy discharges that were all semi-ethereal and apparently capable of phasing through solid matter, including Libertaria's composite alloy armor.

The fight would have ended in less than a minute if a bird, a tiger, two boys, a girl and two dragons hadn't engaged the Tier 8 Spectres directly. But there is little military wisdom to be gained from such a side note, and thus these local resistance efforts were basically ignored. Also ignored were how the enemy forces were distributed during the battle and how many of them the fleet were actually fighting.

Aside from the Tier 8 engagements, the rest of the battle was a very sad and dismal one for the human side. Since the history books are mainly intent on preserving lessons of military usefulness, some very pointed and painful lessons included; the necessity of acquiring information on enemy armament before sending out forces, the wisdom of evasive tactics over head-on attacks, and five different brilliant ways to hastily vacate the battlefield of a lost fight.

With the huge losses suffered in battle, Libertaria righteously took up the cause of asking everybody else to get off their b.u.t.ts and help, with lots of vocal support and many discount deals offered from the Deutero Company to back them up.

At this, the Midlands nations who had just been at each others throats during the recent world-war suddenly raised a unified voice saying all human nations should join forces against all non-human threats, like the Spectres and the Wilds that had attacked their unsuspecting human colonies unprovoked and even now kept expanding the neutral zone and bullied all their forces into withdrawing their borders farther and farther away from the world's last mana lode.

Most of the powers in the Eastlands, however, remained silent in the face of this political uproar, making no new moves, but before this period of time, the Song Clan had already begun to s.h.i.+p large amounts of men and materiel to the Bog Marshes of the Wildlands Eastern Edge Region. These plans had been laid long ago, as these Marshes supposedly belonged to a warrior of their very own Song Clan, and officially had nothing to do with threats from Spectres or Wilds whatsoever.

Likewise, the industrial zones of Fal'Herim taking over roughly one quarter of the city in a robust expansion was due to the demand and potential profits in selling machinery of a secret nature for overseas exports to Ashdale, for example. Again, nothing to do with a minor otherworldly threat coming from the south, according to the history books of mankind.

That both of these bases would end up becoming vital in the warfare to come was a matter of pure luck and circ.u.mstances, the history books agreed. Pure blind luck. Yep. That's it. Uhuh.

Anyway, with that first ill-fated battle, mankind finally decided that this Spectre threat was maybe just a bit serious. Even though they weren't grabbing guns and rus.h.i.+ng to the warfront immediately, the big powers of mankind began to make moves in preparation to investigate this alien threat.

***

While the big boys were still making preparations to investigate, Mindy and company were facing the real threat in a very real sense in the very real field. Nine Kings Mountain Range was in tatters, lines already broken, fortifications torn apart, breached and letting Spectres through like a bucket full of holes.

The Libertarian charge not only collapsed, it prompted a ma.s.sive counterattack on the Nine Kings Range. Mindy, Darian, and the Wilds tried to hold the fort, but after several hours of getting hammered, George figured it was time to pull back.

Darian and Kor'ag-dras held the rear guard as the retreating defenders stomped away. As for Mindy, she insisted on being among the last, if not the last to leave.

[Mindy, enough. Let's go.] Chirpy told Mindy.

"Where?"

[If you can't bring Mal'thor to the fight, bring the fight to Mal'thor.] Chirpy shrugged. [Let's gather at Dragon Lake. Maybe then he'll finish his breakfast faster.]

So, breakfast notwithstanding, the Tier 8 defenders of the Wildlands abruptly increased in number from four to five. Mal'thor-dras was amazed to find that he had almost all Five Emperors and even his younger brother around Dragon Lake suddenly joining him for breakfast. [H-hey, that's my fis.h.!.+]

[Eat faster.] Kor'ag-dras snorted back.

"Aeyrie, I need a favor from you." Mindy told the Eagle Princess at that point.

[Yes?] Aeyrie perked up.

"I need you to send word to the Moon Owl Lord at the Wood Speckled Highlands. Tell him we need a whole lot of s.p.a.ce to nest a great flock. A very great flock."

[How much s.p.a.ce? How big a flock? What kind of birds?] Aeyrie perked up.

"Oh, I'd say about… three hundred Tier 4 nests. As for the kind of birds… they'll be the mechanical kind."

[On it!] Aeyrie nodded and leapt into the sky.

"Wooo!" Eriane shrieked happily.

"She was still on Aeyrie's back?!" Mindy gaped, startled to realize it too late.

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"She never got down." Darian shrugged.

***

On the other side of spatial rifts, in a different world, a young man and a little girl walked into a Guild Hall of the Open Sky City Alchemists Guild. Similar to the Scorched Earth City Alchemist Guild, this Guild Hall was also at the entrance to their Guild's compound, and likewise had a reception area, except this one was roughly three times the size.

Arriving at the receipt and meeting the doubtful gaze of the receptionist, the young man didn't bother to say anything. He just whipped out a token.

"Tier 5 Affiliate!" the receptionist jumped. "H-how can I help you, good sir?"

"I want to learn arrays and formations." Remian said straight out.

"Uh… right! R-room 3, if you please, sir! I'll notify an Elder straight away!"

Ten minutes later, there was a meeting, and then the Elder called for a package. The package was delivered to the young man's hands, and the young man and the little girl left in a timely manner.

"What… what did you sell him?" the receptionist asked the Elder, who was perhaps a little bit (or a whole lot) closer to her than they revealed to the public.

"That was just our own Alchemist's Basic Guide to Formations. I sent him on to Headquarters with a recommendation letter for a proper training."

"Do you think he'll succeed?"

"No idea. But at the very least, I sold two Basic Guides for 1,000 Black each!"

"Wow! What a profit!"

"I know, right?"

***

As for Remian and Xiao Yan, they had actually reached the Grand Luo Continent after days of flying in the Pod. This Open Sky City was a beachside town; the Headquarters of the Alchemist Guild was in Mystic Herb City, deep in the heart of the Continent.

That journey took them another couple of days.