The Resistance

Sylaris Venomfang was floating in place underwater as he watched the cannon fodder of the first wave swimming forward. He was a commander of the second wave of attackers, but he felt disdain for the desperate fools that were heading towards the protection formation.

He turned towards Aquilos Swiftblade, his second in command, and said, "Look how easy it is to motivate these bottom feeders, the dragon emperor even promised anyone that could break open the formation a drop of dragon's blood."

"If it was that easy to attack the array, we would have taken over long ago", Aquilos chuckled, "They will be lucky if any of them survive."

The two stayed in front of the soldiers they were responsible for as hundreds of thousands of the various aquatic breastkins surged towards the island. Sylaris was calculating the distance before the first wave reached the protection formation, but this was difficult as the island was fully covered in fog.

"Damn cultivators, and their damned arrays", Aquilos spat, "If it was not for these blasted tricks of theirs, we would sacrifice less bodies."

Sylaris was whispering to himself, "Three hundred…two hundred…one hundred…"

Before the commander could say anything else, he saw many tiny objects spread out in an instant. As he observed, something happened, and the space where the current wave was located became hazy. He used a minuscule amount of blood essence to enhance his eyesight, and what he saw shocked him.

The waters where the attacking force were boiling, with steam billowing into the air, and expanding over the water until the cooler waters caused the steam to dissipate. This continued for several minutes before the agitated sea finally calmed, and once all the steam cooled down Sylaris and Aquilos saw the first wave was dead. They saw that the bodies littered the water covered in burns, and even worse, they never reached the barrier.

"Sending waves like this will be counterproductive", Sylaris declared, "Keep sending waves until we can overwhelm them."

Aquilos turned around, and pointed at the next wave while shouting, "Forward!"

As the next hundred thousand rushed ahead, Aquilos then pointed at the next group and gave them the same order. This group was confused because his orders deviated from the original plan, and it took a few moments for group to get moving. He kept repeating this until ten waves were all moving towards the island.

All that was left was the assault group led by Sylaris, but soon the commander and his second saw that reinforcements were arriving.

"Commander Morrigan Deepfang", Sylaris called out sarcastically, "I see you are late as always. Please stay here while I take the honor of breaking the formation."

Morrigan gave a look of loathing at Sylaris as the latter gave the command, and his assault group moved ahead.

Morrigan did not know the current situation, and decided to observe before making a choice. He knew it would not be long before the main army arrived, and felt it to be prudent to gather information first. He noticed that the first group would reach the formation in about ten seconds, and knew it was the perfect chance to understand the abilities of the enemy.

As Sylaris swam forward, he could see all the way to the barrier, and saw the first wave was about to reach it. He did not notice any more objects appearing, and guessed they could only deploy that talisman array once. Just as his confidence soared, he noticed a change at the array. Suddenly, the closest hundred kilometers to the formation instantly froze, trapping everything inside the ice. A few moments later, the next one hundred kilometers became ice, and then the next one hundred kilometers after that.

Sylaris immediately panicked, and turned around while shouting at his soldiers to do the same. It became a scene as every sea beastkin desperately swam away from the island with Sylaris and Aquilos in the lead. Another one hundred kilometers turned to ice, and the commander realized he might not make it if this happened one more time. He consumed his blood essence, transformed, and swam with all his strength becoming a blur in the water. Just as he believed that he had made it, his vision went white, and he could no long breathe. Soon, he could no longer see as his vision changed from white to black.

Morrigan was in awe at the scene in front of him, now surrounding the island was a five hundred kilometer ring of ice.

"What is the estimated number of soldiers killed in the last attack?", Minister Zel asked a guard watching screens in the control room.

"It was over ten million, minister", the woman replied.

"While that sounds like a lot, but the main army of the Draco empire numbers in the billions", Zel sighed.

"Minister, it should be possible to deactivate the artifacts and use them again", the guard suggested.

"That's an excellent suggestion, but not at this time", Minister Xia interjected into the conversation, "The enemy is aware of the ice, and the original plan was to force the soldiers out of the water. They will have to take time to dry themselves off, or they will have waste their energy keeping the water on their body from freezing. If they dry off, they will be weaker, if they do not, they will use their energy faster. But when the battle is in full screen, we can melt the ice, and freeze it again during the chaos."

Minister Zel nodded before speaking, "Now that the soldiers are at a disadvantage crossing the ice, it is time to deploy the ships and armor units."

"Advise the ships to use 'Chain Lightning' and 'Sunfire' talismans", Minister Xia commanded one guard before turning to another, "Adjust the 'Ice Age' artifacts to allow a thin level of sea water on top."

"What's your strategy?", Zel questioned Xia.

"We wait", Xia replied, "The flying observation artifacts have already showed the movement of part of the main army. Once they attack, they will have to march towards us over the shallow ice shelf. Our first move will be to drop 'Sunfire' talismans. When the talismans ignite, it will damage anything close to it, and also create a steam cloud. This blocks the view of the army, but it also throws more seawater into the air. Then, have the ships and armored units use the 'Chain Lightning' on the biggest gathering of soldiers. The shallow seawater and humid air will amplify the effect of the talismans. Let's do our best with this, we do not have many 'Gravitas' talismans, and we need to save those for the oldest and strongest generals."

"Let's go with this", Zel agreed, "Also, place the formation on standby."

Morrigan was kneeling in front a flood dragon general, giving the latter a report of what he witnessed.

The General, Torrun Tidalbane, finished listening to the briefing and said, "It's unfortunate to have lost this many without seeing results. Our sovereign will not let any of us live if we display cowardice."

Morrigan and the other commanders answered the general, bowed, and left to return to their units.

When he made it back, he called his second in command, and told her, "General Tidalbane has commanded that everyone that it's time to move."

Morrigan walked past her to where his soldiers were waiting, "Soldiers! The time has come, move out and strike the enemy!"

The restless troops shouted, and swam forward until the reached the ice shelf. At that point, they hopped out the water onto the ice and rushed forward. From the back, Morrigan swept the scene in front of him as millions of soldiers were advancing towards the island.

When there was one hundred kilometers left, several ships emerged from the fog. Immediately, talismans were launched towards the most heavily populated areas. Steam clouds blossomed every where creating a haze as armored units exited the flying ships en masse. Morrigan was doing his best to dodge everything to the best of his ability, when he started to get worried. The army was losing so many soldiers, if it continued on like this it would be impossible to protect the empire from the whales, turtles, or both. This lapse in thought caused him to miss a talisman that was headed his way, and he tried to move at the last second. Morrigan shuttered as the talisman hit him, and lightning ripped through him before spreading out to other attackers.

Bleeding out, Morrigan tried to run back towards General Tidalbane hoping he could warn the latter of the danger. But as he made his way back, a shadow appeared above before stopping to launch a talisman. Morrigan was tired from the loss of blood at this point, and couldn't dodge fast enough when the area he was in instantly became scalding. Even though there was not any fire, the air was hazy and steam blocked his vision, and his body grew hotter every second. It felt like bugs were burrowing through every part of his body, and soon closed his eyes, never to open them again.

As the battle raged, Wei Huoran was still in his workshop. With Quanliyuan as his eyes outside, he could monitor the status of the battle and respond quickly if needed.

After breaking through realms as quickly as he did, Huoran knew he had to acclimate himself. He went through the scrolls of the 'Senior' together with Quanliyuan to familiarize and optimize his cultivation. After the 'Zodiac' project and his cultivation, he worked on an upgraded version of his armored suit. He took materials that had been sitting close to the spiritual vein for years now, and started the refining process. Once he created the inner armor, he focused on the suit next using the most optimized array formations researched so far. It should have been only possible for Sage level inscription or array masters to create these array formations, but with the inscription workstation that had been upgraded over time, he was able to accomplish it himself. He added several new features, but the most notable was several artifacts that could detach from the suit, attack an enemy, and attach again.

Huoran trusted the Ministry to handle everything that was needed for now, but he knew one fact. Even the Draco Empire did not have infinite soldiers, and after a certain amount of loss, the generals or even the emperor would step in. That is because if the loss became too great, other major powers under the sea will be tempted to attack the empire, separately or as an alliance.

Another update added was the suits ability to use core batteries, further changing the suit's dependence on Qi in the environment or spirit stones.

Huoran's last actions to prepare were to draw talismans for his own use. He was able to quickly draw up many 'Chain Lightning' and 'Heavenly Lightning' talismans, a few 'Sunfire' and 'Ice Age' talismans, and a couple 'Gravitas' talismans.

Huoran stood up and stored all his supplies away in a new place, the grey space created during his breakthrough. It wasn't unusual for Void Refinement realm cultivators to no longer carry a storage run or bag. Since in the off chance they die or are killed, their 'core' would become a secret realm, and the cultivator could set the requirements for who could enter.

Huoran decided he could no longer do anything to prepare that could be quickly accomplished. He left his cave and made his way to the control room, which was being referred to as the command center at the moment.

"Greetings, Daoist Wei", everyone in the room said as he entered.

"Do not rise, we are at war", Huoran reminded them, "Courtesies can wait until after victory, focus on your responsibilities for now."

Huoran saw Ministers Zel and Xia leading the efforts, and decided to wait until the had a moment before speaking with them. His QFold received a notification, but after hearing the unique ringtone, understood why it went through. He replied to the message, and excused himself from the room.

Huoran went outside and looked up, on top of the cliff where his cave was located was the site that would one day be the home for Meirong and him. Since he had advanced to the Void Refinement realm, he decided to reach the top in the manner appropriate. Huoran imagined his destination, and then created a rift to travel through.

On top of the cliff, Huoran made his way to site where the mansion was being built. As per request, the construction team was asked to stop working on it during the conflict, and so the site was empty with the exception on one person.

"Rong'er", Huoran called out to her, "Is everything ok?"

"Huoran", she replied as she saw him, "I am fine, just taking a break from drawing talismans."

Huoran had a feeling that she was worried, so he hugged her, "You are worried that I will go face the enemy, and suffer the same as they did."

"I'm sorry", she whispered with glossy eyes, "The Draco empire has already taken almost everything from me. I don't think I can handle it if it happens again."

Huoran patted her back, "I assure you that we will make it through this. My master has been guiding me through my latest breakthrough, and has assured me that he will protect the island if it becomes necessary."

Meirong seem to take comfort in this, and she used her Qi to straighten up her appearance after Huoran let her go.

"I have to return to the workshop now", Meirong said as she jumped on a sword, and flew away in a hurry while blushing.

Huoran could only laugh seeing her escape while embarrassed before returning to the command center.

General Tidalbane was very nervous, nothing was going as planned no matter what strategy he tried. At this time hundreds of millions of soldiers were fighting, but too many had become casualties or fatalities. This angered him greatly, they had not even caused damage to the array formation yet.

Soon, Tidalbane felt a familiar oppressive feeling, and went to his knee with his head down.

"General, why is the barrier still there?", the Dragon Emperor growled.

"Sire, the island has many more tricks than our scouts reported", Tidalbane explained.

"This has gone on long enough, General", the emperor snorted, "I have brought our elite, our champions, and myself. It is time to end this, release the flood dragons!"