The ship navigated through Hin's heavily protected waters. As everyone, especially Erik, had anticipated, the area was teeming with patrols and defense systems.
Etrium's technology was spreading a lot at that point. It was making it possible for humanity to reclaim the land and was getting better and better now that more and more scientists worked on it. But even despite this massive technological and human presence, it wasn't that simple to fight on equal ground with the thaids.
To do that, many ships were needed. To guard the various small islands spread around and around their outposts, and to patrol the sea.
This part of the sea, since it was heavily guarded by the humans, had been subject to a cleaning. This left the area without many thaids around, and those who were still here tried to stay away from the ships.
However, powerful monsters still lived in the area. The ones that Hin and the Blackguards couldn't defeat were carefully tracked. These monsters were marked on all of Hin's maps and watched closely. This helped ships avoid dangerous areas while traveling through the waters.
This whole situation made everyone mad on the ship. So were jealous because the blackguards' presence made everything much easier for Hin.
The island on which the country was located was not that different from Frant in terms of size, but the human-controlled land was much bigger, and that was because of the criminal organization hiding behind the shield of justice. A false one, of course.
That beca even more clear since the blackguards funded the nation and gave them a ton of Etrium's technology.
Everything was testified by the many ships that were now roaming around the island. They weren't just hundreds, but thousands.
To cross the sea, a fleet was needed because a single ship couldn't face the horrors of the deep. But a fleet could. That ant that to understand the scope of Hin's new military might, one had to consider the fleets, not the ships.
On the open sea, it wasn't absurd to say that Hin was the undisputed winner.
Erik and his group had many close calls while trying to avoid being spotted. They almost got caught several tis, but thanks to so good luck, they remained unseen.
After many days of travel, they finally approached the shores. However, to maintain their secrecy, they couldn't bring the ship too close to land.
Based on what they knew, there shouldn't have been humans's presence in the area, but Erik wanted to be safe rather than sorry. For that reason, they had to cross the remaining distance from the ship to the beach by using the Chimaeric Demons.
The clones transford into various sea thaids. So took on forms resembling large, streamlined fish, while others mimicked the appearance of gentle, massive creatures like whales.
These not only had to carry Erik, Mira, Emily, and Amber, but also transport their provisions and equipnt, and later, bring the ship back to the sea, as far away from their position as they could.
Luckily or not, their long journey had depleted much of their food stores, lightening their load considerably.
There was sothing else the group had to bring on land: the Chimaeric Demons' eggs. During the journey, Erik worked hard every day. He spent his ti training and making Chimaeric Demons' eggs. By the ti they arrived, he had created almost 20,000. The eggs filled up all the empty spaces on the ship, and took the place of the crates that previously held the provisions they consud.
Erik looked at the crates full of eggs. He thought about what would happen when they hatched. They would give him a small army in the enemy's heart nation.
If used wisely, he could make it harder for them to send soldiers to Frant, even outright impossible. However, this wouldn't stop Etrium, but at least Hin and the blackguards would worsen their positions in Frant.
"Are we ready?" Erik asked.
June nodded. "Yes, Master. The first group of Chimaeric Demons has already started unloading crates on the beach. Another team has been dispatched to secure the landing area. However, it will take so ti before they can comb the entire area."
"Let's just hope there is no one around. I don't want to start a full scale war without the Chimaeric Demons, at this point. As soon as we set a foothold here, we will wait for the eggs to hatch before making our move."
"Can't we simply go to the blackguards' base?" June's question was reasonable.
"I'm not in a hurry, at this point, June... If I was alone, I would have simply gone to their capital, made a base there, and created the eggs. But since I'm not alone, I used the ti available to do sothing that would guarantee Amber's, Emily's, and Mira's safety, and increase our chances of success. Even if we do not bring our entire army inside their capital city, we will at least have a firr foothold on the island. Sabotage operations are great tools. Besides, If the blackguards protected Hin despite monsters like the Leviathan Serpent, I really think we should take things in a more careful manner."
There was a brief silence at that point, then Erik then turned to Mira, Amber, and Emily. "It's ti," he said.
The three won nodded. They went to the edge of the ship, where a Chimaeric Demon in the form of a large, flat-backed sea thaid waited for them to bring the group on the shores. They jumped down. After so ti, the Chimaeric Demon reached for the land.
As they got closer to the beach, Erik saw that the first group of Chimaeric Demons were busy unloading boxes and setting up a safe area. There was no sight of the other group, but Erik assud they were far inland to see how the situation was.
When their ride reached the shallow water near the sand, Mira, Amber, and Emily quickly jumped off. They were so happy to be on land again that they almost fell over.
"Oh... god. I missed the land so much..." Mira said.
"Happy to have been of service," Erik said.
"The situation is your fault, to begin with." Mira smirked.
"It was you who wanted to co!"
Erik, though, watched with amusent as the three won knelt and ran their hands through the sand, savoring the feel that having ground under their feet, after so long at sea, gave
them.
"Co on now," he said. "We need to help unload the crates."
The won stopped enjoying the sand and got back to work. They helped Erik and the Chimaeric Demons unload their supplies from the ship. While they worked, Erik looked around, not lowering his concentration on it for a second.
Since Erik had picked a quiet beach far from any cities or military bases, there was silence. It was exactly as it was in Frant. Outside the cities, the monsters reigned supre, while in cities they were absent. Here on Hin it wasn't any different, since most of the territory was controlled by the thaids and the area was clear of human traces.
But they couldn't stay on the open beach for long. Patrol ship might co around, and thaids could stumble upon them.
There was a forest in front of him. It was not close, but not even that far, and that was a lting pot of horrific creatures that could easily see them on the beach.
"We need to move into the forest," he said. "I'll use my Plant Master power to create so shelters once we're under cover. No one will be able to find us unless they stumble on our
camp."
The others nodded in agreent. Of course, they still had to wait for the other group of Chimaeric Demons before they could leave, since they could tell them where the best place to
go was based on their scouting.
After so ti of unloading, a Chimaeric Demon approached Erik.
"Master, should we proceed with moving the ship back out to sea?"
"Are you done with the crates?"
"Yes, sir. Everything has been brought to the shore." Erik looked around. Aside from the Chimaeric Demons' crates, there weren't many filled with food around. The journey had been
hard.
"There is nothing else on the ship."
"Then yes," Erik said.
"Take it as far away as possible from our position and then return here. We're going to establish a base of operations on the hills around, sowhere we can retreat to if things go wrong in the enemy capital. It might take more than a couple of days to set it up properly. So
you will find us here again when you return."
"Understood, Master."
"Have safe travel," Erik said.
The clone nodded, then turned and signaled to four others. They transford into small, sea
thaids and slipped into the water.
Now, Erik was left with Amber, Mira, Emily, June and two Chimaeric Demons, while three
others were scouting around.
Erik watched as they swam to the ship, becoming smaller and smaller until they disappeared beneath the waves. The ship, though, was still visible.
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