The gray-robed woman could disregard anything. Even if Anliexi were hacked to death by the enemy, she wouldn’t so much as furrow her brow.

But there was one outcome she wouldn’t accept: defeat.

Even if she had to act personally, she would snuff out that possibility before it could take root.

So the Knight Commander’s decision to send out the mages seemed, at first glance, to favor his side. In truth, it had only hurt them.

Labula had more or less realized this as well.

With communication no longer able to solve the problem, Labula suddenly took a deep breath. Holy power surged through him, and the space around his body began to tremble.

The next moment, he vanished from where he stood.

The other senior mages all froze at the sight.

Their leader had suddenly disappeared!

The face hidden beneath the gray-robed woman’s mask remained as expressionless as ever.

The instant she channeled her magic, she raised a hand and pointed her left wrist toward a spot in the distance.

At once, countless black-blue points of light appeared in space and shot out.

They flew toward empty space and, moments later, exploded high in the sky.

The empty sky was suddenly rocked by a violent spatial tremor.

Every senior mage felt the magic in the bombarded space surging wildly. The entire area became dangerously unstable.

The next moment, Labula abruptly appeared from within that space. His face was full of shock, and he looked a little worse for wear.

The gray-robed woman glanced at him. Her voice was unchanged from before.

“You don’t understand spatial magic at all. You don’t know that once you’ve studied this field deeply enough, every place where space exists becomes connected to your own senses.”

Compared with elemental magic, spatial magic on its own was rather limited when it came to offense and defense.

It was also harder to learn, and even those who learned it found it difficult to master.

But a master of spatial magic could wield many techniques, including the following:

Sealing space, redirecting magical attacks, and teleporting over short or medium distances.

Of course, Labula couldn’t have known any of this. The gray-robed woman simply told him:

“Enough. Don’t waste time wondering why.”

As she spoke, the gray-robed woman shook her head, her gaze growing colder and colder.

The kingdom’s army was no match for the mage corps.

So the gray-robed woman’s task now wasn’t to command. It was to eliminate every enemy mage.

Once she was ready, these people could die...

Below the gray-robed woman, the naval battle was still raging across the sea.

On the battlefield known as the ocean, there were not only fire rockets, but also stones hurled by catapults.

And it wasn’t only the kingdom’s ballistae that were firing. The giant crossbows mounted on the Imperial Army’s warships—their ballistae—were shooting bolts too.

But because of their different launching mechanisms and projectiles, the giant crossbows were clearly less accurate than the ballistae. They also couldn’t use the previous shot’s impact point to correct their aim.

The Imperial Army’s bolts could also be used to start fires, much like firebombs.

These special bolts carried cloth bags packed with flammable materials such as sulfur, charcoal powder, and catkins.

But attaching all that to the head of a bolt made it even less accurate. Unless the target was very close, it was almost impossible to hit.

And the incendiary material in the bags was nowhere near as effective as naphtha.

The Imperial Army’s hundred-odd warships were stationed at the very rear of their fleet. The soldiers aboard worked frantically to operate the giant crossbows.

One ship had just fired a bolt when a muffled boom rang out.

Six-foot-high flames sprang up on the deck near the giant crossbow, and several Imperial soldiers who’d been winding it immediately became human torches.

They wailed and rolled across the deck. By the time the flames went out, they were barely alive.

Several Imperial soldiers nearby hurried over, took their places, and began winding the giant crossbow.

But they found the winch spinning freely, unable to catch or pull anything.

Looking more closely, the soldiers discovered that the crossbow’s string had been touched by the flames and burned through.

Then another loud bang rang in the Imperial soldiers’ ears. A stone projectile had smashed into the side of their ship.

The entire hull lurched violently to one side. Most of the Imperial soldiers lost their footing and tumbled over one another across the deck.

When the ship steadied again, seawater was pouring through a huge, gaping hole in its side...

As the two fleets drew closer, their exchanges of fire grew more and more rapid.

Fireballs streaked across the sky above the sea like shooting stars. Together with the flames leaping from the decks, they lit up the ocean.

The tremendous splash as stones struck the sea; the crack of wood splintering and flying apart as projectiles hit the hulls;

the dull thud of bolts burying themselves in wood, the explosive roar of firebombs bursting across the decks, and the cries and wails of wounded soldiers—all these sounds rang across the heavens.

As the two sides traded fire, the Imperial warships could do little but take the hits.

Few of their bolts struck the enemy, and even when they did, they caused little damage.

The officer commanding them saw what was happening. He knew that if things continued this way, all hundred-odd of their warships would be destroyed before they could get close enough for their bolts to hit.

Panic rising, he bellowed:

“Rowers, put your backs into it! Full speed ahead—close in on the enemy ships! Everyone, prepare to board!”

Unfortunately, he’d only thought of closing the distance as fast as possible and fighting hand to hand. He’d forgotten that the enemy’s ballistae grew more accurate the closer they got.

In the end, only two of the Imperial Army’s hundred-odd warships survived. The rest were burned or sunk by the kingdom’s forces before they could even get close.

The sea was now dotted with burning wreckage and ships slowly sinking beneath the waves.

One of the two surviving ships managed to fire a bolt from its giant crossbow when it was still seven or eight zhang from the enemy’s oared warship. The bolt pierced a porthole beneath the warship’s upper deck.

A kingdom rower was pinned to the deck inside on the spot.

But in the very next moment, dozens of flaming arrows fell onto the Imperial ship’s deck almost all at once.

The deck was engulfed in flames, and then the sails caught fire too.

The Imperial soldiers aboard wailed as they scrambled to leap into the sea.

The other Imperial warship, however, managed to pull alongside a kingdom ship.

Its deck was already packed with Imperial soldiers ready to board.

Every one of them carried swords, spears, bows, or crossbows. Some also had boarding hooks, ready to climb aboard the enemy vessel and slaughter its crew.

But the kingdom warship was tall, and they’d have to climb to reach its deck.

Before they could even start climbing, spears and arrows rained down on them.

The densely packed Imperial soldiers fell in swathes, like wheat being harvested.

“Ten degrees starboard! Main sail half, mizzen sail full. Watch the ship’s swing!”

“Catapult crews, prepare to fire in volleys!”

“Light the giant crossbows’ fire bolts!”

“Catapults, fire!”

“Giant crossbows, fire!”

“Main sail full! Hard to port! Watch the swing!”

Anliexi wasn’t content to let only the catapults at the stern do their work.

He used the wind to make sudden turns from time to time, swinging the entire fleet broadside to unleash a full barrage before turning away and continuing to run.

He was clearly using his fleet’s speed to bully the enemy.

At first, some of the Imperial Army’s mid-level commanders didn’t catch on. Still full of confidence, they directed their ships to intercept and surround the kingdom’s fleet in separate groups.

But no matter how long the battle went on, the kingdom’s fleet always managed to slip out of the encirclement at just the right moment, leaving a trail of burning ships behind.

At last, those mid-level commanders understood.

Even without a favorable wind, the kingdom’s ships were much faster than the Imperial Army’s large vessels—let alone its smaller ones.

At sea, larger ships were faster mainly because they could carry larger sails.

Smaller ships, by contrast, relied more on their oars for speed. They could keep up for a short time, but over longer stretches they would slow down.

Some of the smaller ships had seemed faster earlier only because their size let them maneuver more easily in tight spaces.

In other words, large ships were only slower than small ones when maneuvering was difficult.

Now Anliexi was using his speed to lead the enemy on a chase.

The Imperial fleet’s ships varied in design and the crews varied in training, creating an ever-widening gap in speed. Soon, the fleet could barely hold its formation.

The smaller ships were left far behind.

Anliexi seized the opportunity, briefly creating a local numerical advantage and launching a counterattack at once.

Thanks to excellent fire-control and the fleet’s remarkably high accuracy, the kingdom’s forces gained more and more of an advantage.

Their enemies’ formation, meanwhile, gradually fell apart.

By the time another Imperial fleet gradually caught up, the Knight Commander’s side had lost over four hundred more ships.

That showed just how efficient Anliexi had been.

The staggering losses had completely crushed the Knight Commander’s arrogance.

A moment ago, he’d been shouting for an attack. Now he was bellowing for the fleet to defend itself, gathering all the ships into a tight defensive formation.

And to protect his more valuable large ships, the fool had put the smaller ones on the outside. He’d practically locked himself in a cage.

Anliexi was overjoyed. You didn’t often get an enemy making things this easy for you.

If he didn’t press the attack and beat them while they were down, he’d be letting himself—and the sea god—down.

At once, the kingdom’s fleet circled the Imperial fleet like predators hunting their prey, darting from side to side as they fired oil jars and flaming arrows at their targets.