Sorry for the late chapter a lot of things that could go wrong, did go wrong.
But I'm here now.
As always tell me if there's a weird part or grammar error and I'll fix
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Strange..
That was all the ape could describe when it laid eyes on the strange creature from the top of its hill. Seeing how it was struggling to fend off falling rocks the ape didn't really think much of it diverting its gaze elsewhere.
But a lingering curiosity remained in its mind.
Ever since he became the guardian he faced off against many monsters but none were as strange as this one. Its mind wondered to an incident a few hours ago one that has never happened in the past.
It all happened so quickly but he could see the signs.
From afar seated on the ground, it could see waves of mana surging towards the hill, this was at this point a normal occurrence since monsters would always try to breach here and then but the barrier always stood firm.
A glowing rock caught its eye. Peeking out of the ground was a pure magic stone from the core, its blue energy glowed intensely till a point that it rarely saw. This piqued its curiosity but ultimately he looked away from the stone and looked down at a weapon that lay on its lap.
It was a weapon that had been passed down through generations and traces its origins to the original guardian. The craftsmanship that went to the weapon exceeded any creation that it has ever laid its eyes upon, one could even say that the axe was a divine weapon.
The sunlight glinted off of its blade but soon a brilliant blue light reflected off of the weapon shocking the ape as it turned its head only to watch the hill, which was the cradle of the core, split in 2 as a massive force ruptured through the hill clean and releasing a massive wave of energy that smacked into the ape sending it tumbling for a good few seconds.
Shock was written all over its face as it rushed to the now cleaved hill. Mana was spilling out uncontrollably but luckily the exposed ends were slowly being repaired. Whatever spells that were dormant in it kicking in for the first time ever since its construction.
The ape, Kong, looked at this process with a faint curiosity but a sense of unease filled its being as it surveyed the damage. If the beast that did this were to try and breakthrough could it hold them back?
Small beads of sweat formed on its palms but its facial expression betrayed his doubts, Kong was ecstatic since it now had something that could fight back. A smile formed on his face revealing large canine teeth.
Cut to the present and Kong was disappointed in the creature that arrived in a very sluggish speed. Even a infant could outrun the creature it was observing.
The more it looked at the strange being the more it couldn't comprehend its structure. Even its fighting style was strange, wherever the rods pointed and belched out smoke and fire destruction would follow and it could barely see the objects being launched from the barrels.
With a huff Kong was certain that the creature would succumb to the rocks like those before it and that's when he saw a bright flash of light erupt from the floating rocks before being disintegrated into small chunks of rock and dust.
The bright light caught its eyes as it watched these flashes of light envelope the floating islands and destroy them. Granted he noticed that the creature was slowly being overwhelmed and figured that it might be its end but somehow with one final flash it was able to escape into the hill.
Kong was intrigued by this creature thus he wanted to test it and see if it can handle small traps. Using its immense strength it brought over large boulders from the earlier rupture of the hill and tossed one down.
The boulder hit its mark and cracked against the creature's skin though it didn't seem to do anything. Curious it dropped the rest of the boulders it had in one swoop and watched how the creature would deal with this situation.
Oddly enough he noticed how the rods couldn't face straight up which was weird since Kong thought that the rods were the creatures arms thus it should have been able to face anywhere. However, that was soon to be the least of its problems as the creature let out another puff of smoke but this time only from 1 arm.
Kong didn't expect it to change things since it didn't use all of its arms but that was when the ground underneath him trembled as a tremor shook the side of the hill he was standing on. Looking down it couldn't help but be shocked as the boulders were almost all pulverised.
Slowly Kong was placing the creature in a higher tier but when its eyes looked down at the hill side it couldn't help but be shocked as the crater that formed in the mana core. Granted from Haruka's position she couldn't really get a good view of the crater but with Kong it could see the massive crater punched into the mana core.
Fresh mana was spilling out of the stones and their blue glow changed to a red colour as they reacted with something in the crater. Something that gave it chills as his instincts told him to move very far away from the crater.
Seeing its sacred core be desecrated by a beast Kong decided that it was time to act since it was his duty to rid the inner sanctum from those unworthy of entering lest they face a fate worser than death.
Kong using his agility and speed was able to make it to his resting area and grab what he needed a bunch of spears in a quill and a trusty axe that was with his kind for generations.
He arrived at the mouth of the split hill before the creature could emerge and thus he decided to use his range to his advantage. His sharp eyes pierced through the dust and caught sight of the creature trying to make it through. Grabbing a spear from the quill he cocked back his dominant right hand.
Planting its feet firmly in the ground, Kong leaned back before thrusting the spear forward sending it through the air at supersonic speeds.
A Mach cone formed in front of the spear and the object broke through, its speed climbing upwards of Mach 2. A resounding boom trailing it as the spear sailed to its target.
The SPY radar on Harukas bridge could barely push through the magical jamming and thus alerted Haruka when it was too late to even react.
'Wait what's …!!'
The spear hit turret 1 firmly on its turret cheek, however, the blade tip shattered as it struck the sloped armour. Without the penetration power to dig into the modern armour composition the spear deflected off of the turret before striking the ground besides the ship, a crater formed just by the sheer amount of power behind it.
Kong huffed, its eyes glowing with anger. It brought out another spear but this time a blue aura covered it as the guardian was not pulling its punches this time.
'Oh come on! Work you expensive piece of tech!'
Haruka, after the first spear, was in a tough position since her radar was kaput making it virtually impossible to track anything and this all too reminded her of a wolf in the back of her mind.
'Guess it's back to basics then'
Her forward facing turrets were trained on the monster before her thus when she saw the monster pull out what looked to be another weapon, she didn't hesitate to fire 6 AP rounds from her main guns.
But these weren't her normal guns any more, oh no these were the new, modern and powerful 20.1 inch version that was extended into a 50 calibre gun. When people say its broken they were rightfully so because the shells on these bad boys for example AP rounds would weigh 50% more than Yamato's 18.1 inch. Pair that with a higher muzzle velocity of Mach 3 then you get a spitting rod of death.
Kong, upon noticing the flash of light tensed as his dominant hand switched in holding his axe. Granted with the larger guns in triple mounts her dispersion took a hit as most of the shells missed the target with only 3 having good aim.
Kong with precision, cleaved a shell in 2 while angling its body to avoid the rest. The AP shells grazing its fur before impacting the ground behind it exploding and leaving 2 big craters in the ground.
Kong eyed the craters noticing how deep they penetrated into the ground, but in the few seconds it looked away from its opponent multiple flashes of light could be seen from the edge of Kong's vision startling it.
Its leg muscles tensed as it pushed off the ground its speed coming to help him as a hail of destruction pelted where he was standing. Kong thought that it avoided danger but it was what Haruka wanted it to think.
Her body had turned slightly o give her other phoenix a line of sight. The turret motors hummed as they tracked the ape with her AEGIS supercomputer crunching the numbers from her optical sensors and predicting its path and once they all lined up a barrage of HE shells were sent flying.
Da-Da-Da-Da-Da-Da-Da-Da
Kong now found its path blocked as a new hail of shells landed infront of it bringing it to a halt as even behind it shells started to rain down.
Boom! Boom!
2 secondary turrets fired sending 6 155mm AP shells downrange.
Kong seeing this flooded its axe with mana, blue runes that were etched in the handle lit up as it slammed the axe into the ground releasing a huge shockwave forward. The kicked up dust visibly trembled as the shockwave past through it and through the AP shells robbing them of their momentum and making them fall short.
Haruka noticing the familiar shockwave angled her barrels down as it passed through her ripping off any antenna and rupturing her bridge windows.
Her radar then went haywire as something caused it to spasm out almost as if there was something nearby leaking mana. Her barrels of turret 1 angled up only for her sights to be filled with a blue glow.
'Huh?'
*Slice*
The barrels of turret 1 were cut clean off as Kong blitzed her, a roar escaping its mouth, blue glow enveloping its axe with its eyes leaking a blue energy.
Haruka was again too slow to react as Kong raised its axe with abnormal speed before dropping it on the turret face of turret 1. However, there is always a fact that is true in any fanatsy, no matter how OP magic powers are nothing beats cold hard science.
*CLANG*
The axe failed to cut through her turret face which shocked Kong, giving Haruka the moment she needed.
'You FOOL! That's my most armoured part, eat this!'
Her forward most Phoenix turret used its quick rotation speed to its advantage aiming quickly. The barrels rotated before sending a torrent of HE shells into the ape.
Kong had to let go of the axe and fall back as the rounds pelted him but due to his sheer mass, thick fur and small size of the HE shells it was like shooting a BB gun at wood, 0 damage but this was all to line up the perfect shot.
The shells stopped giving Kong room to breathe but as it lowered its guard was when it lost, a resounding boom reached its ears as it watched 3 objects slam into its skin. The 510mm AP shells easily penetrating the fat and digging into its flesh before detonating.
Pain flared through the apes nerves with the rounds impacting its abdomen due to the close distance. Luckily they didn't reach its vital organs but the internal bleeding was something it couldn't stop.
Another barrage of shells followed from the phoenix but these were AP shells that dug into its skin almost like it was being pricked many times over. The pain that stimulated its mind clouded its vision as its eyes locked with the spear quill it dropped behind it and rushed towards it.
'Since there's no Geneva convention might as well go all out'
Her turret 3 rotated clockwise until its sights locked with the retreating ape but with her sharp zooming she could see the spears it was running to thus decided to knock 2 birds with one stone, or 3 black ones.
Ka-Boom!
Even with the axe lodged in her first turret she didn't lose her primary functions and gazed at the shells streaking through the air before dipping onto the spear with Kong close to grabbing them but not close enough.
Its instincts screamed at it to evade but it was too late as 3 shells exploded a meter off the ground in an air burst. 3 blinding lights engulfed the ape as it unconsciously coated its skin with mana to try and block whatever was blocking it. The explosion kicked up a wall of dust with the main explosion rising up into a familiar shape.
Haruka watched the mushroom cloud rise over the target seemingly signalling her victory but she was still wary since the monsters she's faced never went down in one salvo. She once again tried to restart her radar but to no avail, the thing was dead and it pissed her off.
That was also when she noticed a flicker of red in the dust cloud. Her alertness was at its peak since she didn't want to underestimate it like the previous time. A faint echo of the wolfs roar sounded in her head as she pushed those memories aside.
Even with her full attention with her radar lost she couldn't react as a flash of red escaped the dust cloud, a faint boom trailing it as a spear head started heating up, the weapon pushing the limits of its speed as it came close to Hypersonic speeds.
A red glow enveloped the head as it struck into Haruka's hull armour but instead of being deflected the spear actually penetrated! The spear embedded itself in her hull with the shaft protruding out similar to an earlier experience with some goblins.
However, it wasn't the fact that the spear penetrated her armour it was where it had struck that was the problem.
'Now that's cheating, a critical at this time!?'
The spear had struck under her funnel straight into her boilers and the pain that erupted from that was a lot but not to the point of being cleaved in two. It felt as if something was pricking her heart and melting it as the damage dealt to her engine was slowly causing it to tear itself apart.
'how do I even put this off??'
Since her engine was basically her heart she was warry of shutting it down but the growing pain was something that worried her even more as an internal explosion would be the worst. Haruka, using her experience using past actions, commanded her engine to turn off and slowly the constant hum that had become natural to her turned into silence, her engine had gone silent and with it potentially avoiding an internal explosion.
'If it had one spear it probably has more'
Haruka imagined as her port anchor released from her hull. She was basically gambling since her speed was slowly reducing and being a sitting duck was the last thing she wanted but it wasn't like her speed mattered as most of the monsters she fought on land made her look like a snail, maybe at sea she could've had a small chance.
The anchor continued to dip into the liquid ground with her life on the line she thought she may have guessed wrongly but before the anchor snagged 4 streaks of red spears erupted out of the dust just as her anchor struck solid ground.
The chain went taught as her remaining speed was turned into angular momentum, however, she didn't have enough to do a complete turn as the chain snapped leaving her a sitting duck with only her front turrets facing the dust.
Her turrets aimed at the dust cloud expecting it to emerge from there but what she didn't expect was a roar from above her. Using her lookout view she could see the ape descend from the hill side its fur glowing a red colour almost reminding her of a certain prehistoric animal she faced in the woods.
Kong landed on her bow with its combined weight and speed causing her bow to sink as her stern lifted off of the ground exposing her propellers.
Kong grabbed the axe as its red mana surged into the weapon igniting it into a red flame. Kong roared and ripped it off the turret before swinging into the tallest thing in its view, her bridge. Similar to the wolf incident but cleaner her bridge was cleaved from its base sending it flying to the side as her AEGIS system was knocked out in one clean swope, not like it was useful anyway.
Her turret 2 opened fire as the AP shells dug into the apes thighs causing the monster to stumble and before it could swing down her phoenix turrets were lighting it up with her 155mm secondaries trying to suppress the monster and push it back.
Kong didn't take to kind at the shells pricking its skin. With a hefty swing the axe chopped off her nearest Phoenix turret on her left.
Not wanting to lose most of her firepower like last time she pushed past her worry and fired her damaged turret 1 at point blank.
The 3 AP shells escaped the sliced barrels and due to the build-up of gases and pressure cracks formed on the barrels walls before cracking open like a pipe bomb. The shorter barrels messed up her already lower accuracy causing one to strike a non-fatal area while the other 2 seemed to have been blessed by the wind.
1 shell struck close to its shoulder penetrating the soft skin and exploding internally while the other one penetrated near previous impact areas dealing double damage though the lower muzzle velocity made it such that they couldn't penetrate that deep but they did their job.
The monster at her bow faltered as pain swept across its systems and that was when her left 155mm secondary opened up but instead of AP shells 3 black shells closed the distance before exploding on the surface of the dazed monster.
A small flash of light erupted as the monster was sent toppling over her deck and onto the ground giving her a brief reprieve to reign in her thoughts.
Even though it was hit with a direct strike this time, Kong still had the enrgy to stand up as its mana output was going through the roof.
A red glow lit the surrounding area as Kong stood up, axe in its right hand, its left hand limp as the lucky shell likely severed a few tendons. Her surving Phoenix turrets on her left lit it up switching to nukes as multiple small explosions lit up Kongs skin burning it due to the sheer amount thermal radiation hitting its skin.
But for some reason it just seemed to make it more angrier. Haruka watched as the monster before her grew visibly larger as its functional muscles bulged outwards giving it a jacked look and this transformation did very little to calm her mind.
She needed more firepower and quickly. Her turret 2 was the only functional one thus she begun to remove the AP shells.
'Come on! Hurry, Hurry, Hurry!'
She shouted at her turret 2, the AP shells removed and her type-99 nukes being lifted up from the depths of her magazine. Right now turret 2 was only main gun that had a line of sight to the beast and she choose the worst moment to switch ammo when the monster was entering its second stage.
With a roar Kong slashed his axe across the air horizontally causing a deep crimson blade of mana to surge forth at her ship and she had no way to defend herself.
A deep crimson line formed from her phoenix turrets all the way to her turret 3. A resounding boom followed as a large pressure wave burst forth shaving off her secondaries to her right, launching them a short distance.
Turret 2 was saved by her barbettes thick armour tanking most of the damage but ultimately her loading mechanism was kaput making the shells that were loaded likely her last. Her turret 3 was nothing but a molten slag with its barrels melted and turret face caved in and the only problem is she still had shells in them, nuclear ones. That were still armed
KA-BOOM!
Like a T-74 her turret 3 was sent flying, the turret casing being sent into the air, the barrels shattering into countless fragments and being sent everywhere. The explosion that followed rattled her entire hull sending shivers through her keel. Her survivng turret 2 wasn't left unscathed as the thermal and pressure wave smacked into the turret, the outer most barrels suffered cracks as chunks of metals smacked into them.
She barely survived and that wasn't the end of it as a fire was still raging in the stumps of turret 3, right over her exposed magazine.
Her mind tunnelled as she could feel the flames painfully make their way down her barbette and she was powerless to stop it. A roar resonated through her hull as her turret 2 locked sight with the ape descending upon her with its axe spewing out red enrgy into the air.
At that point, it was kill or be killed. Whoever did it first would win and she wouldn't go down without taking it with her.
Ka-Boom!
3 black shells escaped their barrels heading straight towards the ape. Kong seeing the flash threw the axe with its super buffed might but the movement it needed was going to cost it.
The 3 shells smacked into the ape, the shells burying themselves into the skin before their warheads kicked in and an unstoppable reaction occuring inside them as explosives were detonated compressing a fissile core kicking off a nuclear reaction that releases an unfathomable amounts of energy in nanoseconds.
The explosion would rip apart the monster from the inside out, destroying the heart and mana core in the process dealing a death blow while for Haruka the axe struck her deck a second later hitting square in her centreline penetrating her thin armour like paper but luckily her citadel took the brunt of the punishment stopping the axe from penetrating her most vital area even though she was already compromised to begin with.
Her survivng barrels broke apart with the heavy metal shards falling to her deck as the ape also struck the ground behind her.
Smoke billowed up from her turret 3 and destroyed secondaries clouding the sun above her all while she could feel the fires almost licking her magazine. She knew that if they cooked her magazine she would likely lose her stern or even worse the explosion would detonate her engine as well but at least her nuclear shells might not blow up since they weren't armed unlike a previous time.
Haruka sighed as she looked through the 2 remaining sights, those of her turret 1 and 2, with turret 2 barrels stuck pointing up, turret 1 still had intact hydraulic systems thus could move about.
On paper she was supposed to be a good match against these kinds of physical battles but like always when magic is added to the equation suddenly she's powerless fighting with her back against the wall while being blind and with no shield.
One could say that her current form is that of a glass canon even though if she was in her world, her ship would be at the apex of ships ever built by any nation.
Magic
The one element that defies all known principles that she knew.
'Damn OP fantasy element!'
She mentally shouted as the temperatures in her stern were becoming a bit too hot for her liking but that was when she felt a slight tremor pass through the ground.
'You've got to be kidding me!? A Third STAGE!? What is this Elden Ring!??'
Her cry filled her mind as the image of an ape rising up from a nuclear explosion stand up behind her. But what she got instead was nothing of that or in better terms what she heard.
"Pfft, Hahaha!" A familiar laughter echoed through the chasm, "Third stage, did you really think a soft flesh monster will survive your deadly strikes and what's Elden ring seems spooky going by the fear leaking out of you."
A gush of winds blasted past her snuffing out the fire raging across her stern saving her from a catastrophic explosion.
Her turret 1 slowly rotated to the right, its hydraulic system groaning in ways she never heard and after an agonising minute her broken sight finally caught her knight in dark armour, Selene. However, this time she looked different.
The new Selene now had 2 curved horns on her forehead with one being larger than the other one. Her physique seemed to improve as she looked slightly larger than before. Most visible of all were the 2 pairs of wings behind her, before she only had 1 pair.
"Surprised?" Selene asked as she could feel the turrets gaze linger on her for a while.
'… Not really, nothing in this world really surprises me much.'
"Well you're not fun. Your saviour comes at your moment of need and you can't compliment them?"
Haruka was ticked off by this statement since in human terms they've only know each other for less than a day! But there was nothing she could do other than swallow her pride.
'You look …. Better than last time, stronger too'
"That's more like it anyway…" Selene said as she surveyed the damage done to the surroundings which was minimal for the first time. Usually she'd find scorch marks all over and craters
After seeing nothing out of the ordinary she descended upon the deceased monster its vibrant soul floating above the corpse ripe for the taking. With a quick tug the soul ended up in her hands, however, her mana started to react to something as a red tinge was coating her mana which was odd.
Selene conjured a small ball of fire. The flame burned with quietly with a dark blue hue but on closer inspection she could see a layer of unknown red colour take over her mana and this was something she has never seen in her entire life.
She carefully eyed the corpse of the monster, her eyes glowing red as she gazed into it even deeper noting the broken mana core and faint mana that was still in its body but there was something in its body that blocked her from seeing any further.
This greatly confused her as her instincts made her feel like she should keep her distance to the corpse. Her wings extended, flapping slightly and lifting her off the ground, her gaze turned to the being staring at her general area.
Haruka was silent as she conserved whatever power was running in her backup systems. With a slight clang the demons boots stepped onto the battleships deck.
Haruka could barely see her from the edge of her vision but she soon saw her walk to her mid-section away from her sight.
Selene was looking at the weapon embedded into the battleships deck and couldn't help but fathom at its beauty. From her superficial gaze she knew that this weapon was important thus she didn't hesitate to fly up to the handle before flooding the axe with her energy in order to get rid of the weird red aura.
With a mental flex she manipulated the axe using her mana and reduced its size slowly, her concentration never waiving as the axe slowly became a size that she could comfortably use. She tested swinging it and couldn't help but marvel at the whistle the edge of the blade makes when swung. She was badly in need of a weapon when her other one got shattered and now she found one.
Satisfied with her find she made her way to the bow, hovering above the intact bow as turret 1 slowly swung to face her.
"So I guess I gave you enough time to think of your gift, you ready?" Silence answered her.
It's not like Haruka doesn't know what she wants but it's just that there were so many things she needed to improve to give her an edge in this world and she doesn't even know which path is the better choice since any route she takes would also need more kills to round them off and make her deadly.
"Hey," Selene's voice cut her thoughts short, "I don't have all day you know, plus I don't know why your so worried about which upgrade to pick. No matter which path you choose you'll always end up at the same end point, it doesn't matter how you start or continue as long as you can reach that goal you set for yourself you can make."
Selene laid back in the air as Haruka brainstormed and ultimately decided to come up with a simple plan that can be easily changed to meet her environment head on.
"Ready?" the demon asked placing her dagger on her palm.
'Yeah, I am'
Selene then proceeded to cut her palm letting a drop of blood trickle down and drip onto the hull igniting dark blue flames. The heat was turned up a notch or 2 as the battleship was reassembled and after a few moments the flame begun to die down to reveal … the same ship?
Selene tilted her head as she couldn't see any visible change on the ship which was weird as she always did something to her outside.
"What did you change this time?" Selene asked floating down and standing on her bow.
'Just wanted to lay the foundation for the future, and all good changes have to start right from the top'
Selene was still confused but didn't push for any further elaboration and allowed the world expel her but not before her eyes glowing a menacing colour as she observed the battleship or rather observed something withing it, a foreign energy similar to the gates in her return.
A lot of questions were filling her head and not too many answers so for now she decided to back off and observe, something fishy was going on with Haruka.
Speaking of Haruka, we could see her slowly move forward as her engine was slowly ramping up power and soon what she was waiting for powered on
Systems check .. Normal.
All Parameters met
Booting Up … AEGIS Q Core ONLINE
A loud mental laugh echoed in her mind. Turns out those random moments memorising weird things with her friends actually helped her once, she was a genius.
Prometheus Q Core Engine
Based on the IBM Condor and Helios Quantum computers. Prometheus Q is a what if Q Computer, based off of the amalgamation of several designs to come up with the best of those designs. Granted given humanities growth in tech it is highly likely for humanity to build and even exceed the one based on this ship.
As for its function. It works in tandem with the AEGIS supercomputer thus the AEGIS Q in the name. this is in an effort to disperse magical jamming that massively hinders Haruka from performing at peak performance and this problem would have affected later upgrades if not acted upon now.
As the sun peaked in the sky A battleship could be seen sailing out of the chasm, victorious once more but in front of it more trials awaited with some more powerful than she could ever imagine
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Thank you for reading this far, comments are appreciated.
Next week will be a break week as I have to focus on other things but I will working it on the side so hopefully I can get it out early. Who knows.
See you guys next time -Drago
Extra
"Avelon" a resounding voice sounded throughout the chamber.
"Yes, father," a dim flash of light erupted before a feminine voice could be heard.
"There's been an unusual disturbance in the continent of Fria. Your job is to search for the root of it, especially in the inner sanctum. Whatever we're dealing with might be the spawn of those titans or worse …" the being didn't need to finish his sentence as Avelon knew full well what he meant.
"I shall do my best to complete your mission," another flash and the figure disappeared leaving the being alone to his own thoughts.
"Gaia huh, this will be interesting."