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The Alebor-class armored ship was a warship built for coastal navigation and blockade.

In order to possess a ship armed with even a slightly larger caliber naval gun, the kingdom’s engineers at the time mounted an enormous turret, mismatched to the class of the existing vessels, and reinforced the armor. Anyone with even a bit of knowledge about the history prior to the great war would call this absurd battleship evidence of the fierce arms race between the kingdoms and empires of the time.

According to the records in the prestigious Federal Navy Military Archive, this vessel went missing during marine monster extermination operations along the coast of Cascadia during the great war.

Of course, this was a matter that the Violets could neither know nor needed to know.

“Their ship is approaching!”

The bizarre warship advanced forward with its red and black hull fully exposed above the surface.

On the hull, barnacles and armor covered two elongated columns, which could barely be presumed to be smokestacks, from which red smoke poured incessantly.

The Violet on the fishing boat closest to it suddenly felt a gaze from the ship’s bridge and the small hatches watching them.

On the bridge of the warship, there was something wriggling and glimming in the shadows.

The turret, stained with seawater, began to slowly rotate.

-Crack!

The two short, hollow black ports, reminiscent of empty eye sockets, turned their heads as if they were alive. Towards where prey could be found. Towards where threatening magical power gathered.

The target was a ship boasting a tidy white exterior.

Perhaps it was envious of a form contrasting its fate, swallowed by the sea.

In the distance, silhouettes on the ship looked anxious, shouting and swaying.

-Bang!

“Ah! It’s a shell!”

Despite being soaked in salt and covered with scales and flesh, the warship moved smoothly, like a newly launched vessel from the shipyard.

As destruction was unleashed, two pillars of water surged up.

Flashes of light followed in succession, and the warship careened wildly toward the research vessel.

The research vessel, caught off guard by the surprise raid, attempted to retaliate. The close-range defense systems began to rotate.

“3, 2, 1. Fire!”

The crew of the research vessel didn’t think this would penetrate a rusted hunk of metal.

In place of there being a functioning radar, the machine gun, guided by magical tracking and visual guidance, attempted to intercept the shells, shooting out beams of light. The projectiles imbued with magic repelled the shells.

“That cannon is too strong!”

“It’s dangerous! At this rate, our clients’ ship will be hit!”

Figures resembling ghouls were seen firing guns.

Seeing the ominous glow of bullets raining around the hull, there was no time to waste.

The Violets quickly devised tactics amid the pressing circumstances.

The hit rate of the incoming shells was gradually improving.

It was clear that some means were being used to adjust the impact points.

Even now, the area around the research vessel carrying the students was becoming denser with impacts.

They had to change their focus.

The command center activated the strategic map. On the vast ocean, ships of unfavorable numbers began to manifest between the islands.

The largest, a red-hulled vessel, was rushing toward the map.

On the opposite side, a single white ship indicating friendly forces was visible. Surrounding it were blue-armed fishing vessels scattered for defense.

“Dammit…of all times…”

Scattered for defense, they hadn’t expected it would become a bane in the current situation.

The command center mobilized to gather forces to intercept the mutated warship.

“Form ranks! Create formation!”

Perhaps due to the effects of the magic, amidst the crackling noise, communication from the academy came through.

-Security team! Delay as long as possible… Air support…

“When? What’s on the way? Speak quickly!”

-…Attack squad accompanying… armed helicopters… nearby… requesting support… 5 minutes!…

The collective intelligence of the Violets began to whirl fiercely.

Right, if they could buy just 5 more minutes, help should arrive.

Unexpectedly, the warship was incredibly fast. As the scattered fishing vessels gathered, the warship rushed toward the research vessel, cutting through the white foam.

The escort fleet desperately tried to divert the enemy’s gaze.

“Don’t! It’s too fast!”

“Third! Fourth! Stop that thing now!”

The closest vessels, the third and fourth ships, fired first.

With a sound likened to ripping cloth, an anti-tank missile was launched trailing smoke. An explosion occurred and a part of the hull came loose.

“Prepare mortars!”

In just two shots, shells burst on the upper deck.

Tentacles and appendages around the warship thrashed more violently, and the ship heading toward the research vessel changed direction.

“We did it! It’s coming this way!”

They succeeded in drawing attention, but in the next moment, the Violets realized something was wrong.

“But guys. How are we going to destroy that? Something…”

“It’s too big, right?”

It was only natural; the battleship that had looked gigantic from afar appeared even more astonishing up close.

Besides, it seemed to be faster than they were. Nearly twice the speed of the fishing vessels, in terms of perception.

“I thought it would be large and cumbersome…”

It was certain that the power of that half-artifact battleship was anything but ordinary.

One clear fact was that they had no way to oppose that ship with their conventional weapons.

If the magical power of the monster and the steel armor were combined, its resistance to physical and magical attacks would undoubtedly be higher than that of the original warship.

“The answer is magic and close combat!”

“Let’s intercept with magic! If we launch fusion beams and electric sphere attacks…”

Sadly, the Violets, accustomed only to close-range combat and ground warfare, couldn’t properly gauge the vastness and range of maritime battles.

Though they thought they were close because the warship suddenly emerged from the sea, the actual distance in maritime warfare was fundamentally in kilometers.

To enter the range of magic, they would have to drive the ship madly while dodging the enemy’s bombardment.

“There are too many turrets! They’re packed together! Not just one or two!”

Furthermore, while the armored ship was lacking in heavy firepower, it had more than enough secondary guns.

Many of those were moving like parts of a living creature as they unleashed shells.

-Boom! Boom!

Although slightly less powerful than the main guns, the nonstop barrage from the secondary guns was creating water pillars, making it difficult to observe the surroundings.

“Don’t! Evade! Evade! Turn left! Right!”

The third and fourth vessels darted about, executing evasive maneuvers.

Eventually, tragedy struck.

The fourth ship, circling while firing mortars, was hit by the secondary gunfire and capsized.

In the next moment, the main gun, aiming to cut off its life, unleashed a sinister flash.

“Ahhhhh!”

With the flash, two massive water columns shot into the sky.

“The fourth ship has fallen! It’s infuriating!”

The first sinking in the history of the navy. The Violets swallowed their anger.

“I’m so angry! Our ship!”

Their salty comrades, who had roamed the sea with them, vanished into the depths.

“Everyone calm down! We must not waste the sacrifice of the fourth ship! We must press on!”

“That’s right! We must definitely win!”

Fortunately, the sacrifice of the ship was not in vain. The remaining armed fishing fleet had completely organized their formation.

“Fire! Open fire!”

The fishing vessels unleashed all their firepower. Magic, bullets, and bolts soared, bursting into sparks.

Now, the warship seemed to perceive the ragtag vessels before it as a more formidable enemy and pulled back its attack.

An uneven exchange of bombardments, the clap of guns rang out in succession.

If one were to compare it to terrestrial ecosystems, it was like a battle between elephants and packs of wolves.

The disparity in displacement was overwhelming. If the battleship possessed emotions, it would have laughed at the foolishness of the Violets.

However, they had bought time for reinforcements.

“Deploy air support!”

The ship’s senses suddenly turned to the sky. Though they were less than mosquitoes compared to its bulk, the monster’s animal instincts sensed a threat.

What are those buzzing things? Why do I feel uncomfortable?

Powered hang gliders approached the ship swiftly.

No matter how vast the sea might be, the sky was the domain of the Violets.

“Commence bombing!”

From the high-flying hang gliders, girls wearing wingsuits began to reveal themselves one by one.

The squadron of Violets began to drop down from the sky.

In their arms were bombs and a burning thirst for vengeance.

“Let’s take our revenge!”

The warship hastily attempted to raise its guns, but it was futile.

The naval guns from before the great war could not achieve a high angle.

Filled with anxiety, the monsters moved the subordinate monsters that coexisted with them.

The ghoul sailors aimed their guns at the squadron of wingsuits coming from the sky, but that was all.

Amidst the sporadic gunfire of old rifles, now imbued with ether, Violets swooped down like a gust of wind.

“Revenge!”

-Boom! Boom!

Soon, one by one, guided bombs rained down; the old armored ship that had not anticipated aerial defense faced the calamity of the future descendants’ drone self-destruction tactics and precise air strikes without resistance.

“Good! Destroy it all!”

Of course, the command center did not expect that a limited supply of bombs carried by wingsuit Violets would be enough to annihilate the huge metal mass.

What was important was to incapacitate it.

As flames erupted, secondary guns that had been swinging about as if searching for prey fell silent one by one.

The reinforcements did not stop there.

-…Reinforcements… smoke or signal flares…

Once again, a faint voice echoed over the radio, accompanied by a welcome noise tickling their ears.

“It’s the attack aircraft! The attack planes are coming!”

Like the buzzing of bees, the sound of propellers filled the air.

Beyond the horizon, through the clouds, three attack aircraft emerged.

Quickly, the hang gliders dodged to clear the path. As the Violets shot off signal flares around the ship, the attack aircraft responded by shaking their wings left and right, then turning toward the target.

-Whoosh!

Rockets and bombs rained down. The successive shockwaves jolted the surface, engulfing it in flames. The firepower, incomparable to that of Violet guided bombs, set the warship ablaze.

Ghoul sailors burst into pieces, fallen to the sea, and the protruding tentacles were scorched in agony, releasing a dreadful stench.

-…Ammunition… returning…

The squadron of attack aircraft, having dumped all their payload, circled above before departing.

Watching the mutated warship engulfed in flames, the Violets roared.

“We did it!”

Intoxicated with victory, the Violets unknowingly began to chant a spell.

The sacred universal spell, said to have echoed from the hill of Golgotha.

“Wait, if we say that spell…”

Before the incantation could finish, the external structures of the warship collapsed, revealing what was hidden inside.

“What… is that?”

It was then that the Violets realized why they had felt unpleasant gazes from the ship’s hatches and bridge.

As if the wrapping had been stripped away, armor and hull structures fell off revealing another thick body and several bunches of tentacles that had been lurking inside.

Bulging eyeballs, densely packed, stared wide-eyed.

“Ahhh! It looked at me!”

“It’s scary! Let’s kill it quickly!”

The bizarre forms filled the interior of the ship.

The Violets realized that their earlier attacks had merely stripped away the outer armor. They had not inflicted any decisive damage.

“Where do we hit it?”

“Should we cut off all the tentacles?”

The over four thousand Violets held a democratic operation meeting for one minute while the mutated warship staggered. Although slightly late, they also began to gather intel through outside Violets.

“That is a type of monster called a fusion creature!”

The opponent was a colossal monster that often occurred from the merging of machinery and internal humans with a giant monster, referred to as a hybrid.

Its composition varied from tanks, trains, passenger ships, to buildings.

If one had to find a commonality.

“The power source! We have to destroy its heart!”

The heart was undoubtedly deep inside the hull.

After a minute of discussion, the collective intelligence rapidly drew a conclusion.

“First, let’s try shooting with magic, and if that doesn’t work, let’s get inside and blow it up!”

“Prepare for close combat on board!”

Already around the fishing vessels and whaling ships, the black boats drifted like fallen leaves in the churning waves.

The deployment was fifty rubber boats.

With five heavily armed Violets per boat, a total of 250 awakened forces were ready for action.

-Security team! …Where on earth did that many troops…

Communication from the research vessel, which had opened up distance, carried a note of bewilderment.

“Reserve force!”

As soon as the words were thrown, the eyes of the battleship began to shift toward the Violets. The emotion it harbored was clear. Rage.

“The whaling ship should maintain distance and stand by! Each group, assign high-firepower intermediate magic vision memory chips and bombs!”

Hiding their trump cards, they selected and allocated the optimal means.

“The engine room of the ship should be around here!”

The target was the enemy’s heart. According to urgently gathered intel, the heart of the fusion creature looked like a power conduit, so it shouldn’t be too difficult.

“All fleets, maximum power output!”

From the remaining structure of the fused battleship, a multitude of tentacles shot up.

Not only that, but the position of the bridge collapsed, revealing a grotesque head reminiscent of a gaping maw.

Dozens of eyeballs, densely packed, rolled around, focusing on the approaching enemy, and the monster roared in fury.

The roar echoed over the waves.

-Kuaaaah!

“It seems angry! Isn’t that a rampage pattern?”

The surviving main and secondary guns spewed fire as if taking revenge.

“Perfect! We’re angry too!”

Taking advantage of the chance while the hang gliders spread smoke bombs, all ships charged ahead through the bombardment.

 

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