“Was telling the enemy exactly what we were going to do really the best idea?” asked Isabella’s doppelganger as she leaned forward in her seat, placed her elbows on the table and rested her chin on her intertwined fingers.

The Wind Wolf’s doppelganger didn’t take his eyes off the book he was reading; flipping a page before answering succinctly, “Yes.”

Isabella rolled her eyes. “Explain."

The both of them were currently in the Nexus and would continue to remain there for the duration of the war. While their main bodies took charge of the two Armadas, they could maintain uninterrupted contact through their doppelgangers.

Morgan would be joining them later.

Unlike communication through mind crystals, which could be jammed by flooding the area with a great deal of mana, the link between a Demigod and their doppelganger was near impossible to obscure. After all, elevating the ambient mana density to levels comparable to those found in a Tier 2’s mindscape was impractical to say the least.

Sighing reluctantly, Fenrir Lupine shut his book with a snap and turned to face her. “War strategy, dear girl, is all about predicting your enemy’s actions and taking steps to counter them. A poor strategy would have you waiting passively, a good one would have you setting the pace, and the very best ones are those that have the enemy moving according to your will.”

“And letting them know our exact plan of action achieves that how?”

“It narrows their options. They know our schedule so the window of time within which they must attack is fixed. They know our route and so do we know where they will launch their offensive. By fixing the variables on our side, we can more easily step into the shoes of their commanders and predict how they will move.” He shook his head ruefully. “The Shogunate had closed itself off to the outside world for the past few centuries. We know precious little about their capabilities or the disposition of their commanders while skirmishes and wars with our neighbours have revealed a lot of our abilities. Instead of letting them blindside us with some new-fangled contraption of war in a battlefield of their choosing, by doing this we are forcibly drawing them out into an open confrontation.”

Leaning back in her chair, Isabella nodded thoughtfully. “All well and good,” she said after a pause, “but what if they choose to ignore the bait and proceed with their own plans? Won’t we be exposing ourselves in vain.”

Fenrir shrugged. “Then they will be giving up their advantage and attacking us from a suboptimal position. We gain something either way.”

Referring to the detailed map of the Bay of Kings spread out on the table, he said, “The best time to attack us would be before the Eastern and Western Armadas meet up and merge together into a single comprehensive fleet. We have managed to plot the Shogunate main fleet’s approximate position and forecasted their trajectories based on the weather and oceanic currents, but if their Demigods are willing to exert themselves, they can arrive much sooner to cut us off.”

He pointed at the current location of the Eastern Armada. “I expect them to either target you or,” his finger shifted to a point to the west on the map, “me. And I also expect the Kirin forces to show up at the same time to create a converging attack. They are sure to have mind crystals to communicate with each other. Coordinating such a simple manoeuvre won’t be a problem for them.”

Isabella’s eyes widened in realization. “Ah, so that’s why the composition of our fleets is so disbalanced. I got the Marine Palace, the submarines, the airships and all the bulky warships. You, on the other hand, have all the light, speedy skirmishers. If they attack me, I can hunker down and defend until you can rush to my aid with your speed. And if they go after you, you can just evade them with your speed and lead them to me.”

Fenrir nodded with a smile. “Right. I factored in our elemental affinities too when I decided who got to lead which fleet. Surrounded by the sea and in the Marine Palace, unless the opposite side’s Demigod decides to violate the Treaty and enter the war personally, you can easily stall them till I can arrive...”

“And your wind element can amplify your fleet’s speed,” Isabella finished his sentence for him.

Suddenly, she shot upright in her chair and pricked her ear up as though straining hard to hear the whispers of an invisible entity. When she turned back to the Wind Wolf’s doppelganger, her expression was grim.

“It seems you were right,” she said. “The Shogunate fleet is here and they seem to have chosen me.”

///

Standing at the prow of one of the airships, I watched horizon-spanning thunderclouds approach us from the direction of the mainland, drawing a blanket of shadow across the sea underneath.

Lightning flashed – intermittent streaks of jagged electricity. And the ever- approaching peals of thunder sounded like the ominous beat of battle drums. The sound seemed to tow the rhythm of my heartbeat, making it race in my chest and my blood pump in my ears.

At the same time, a roiling bank of fog approaching us from the other side. While much less dramatic than the blatant threat of the thunderclouds, it exerted no less pressure upon us as our minds couldn't help but conjure up horrors to populate its insidious depths. After all, the direction it came from was the Shogunate’s mainland. Concealed within was their main force.

It was amazing how swiftly the situation had transformed. One moment, clear skies and shimmering seas. The very next, war. It was like they had popped out of thin air.

Tightening my fists till my nails bit into my palm to still the nervous tremors running through them, I took a deep breath that drained the air out of my surroundings and set the wind howling to take its place.

“At arms!” I shouted, the very air rippling with the volume of my voice.

All over our fleet, I could hear my call being taken up and acknowledgements being yelled back. Like a well-oiled machine, the gears of our navy turned. Soldiers took their posts and our vessels moved to their spots in a defensive formation. In the air, the surface of the water, and even underneath, our defence was leakproof. For every foot they enemy penetrated, blood would dye the waters. Theirs and ours.

Then in a move that reminded us why Demigods could only be allowed to participate indirectly in a war, hundreds of swirling vortexes of varying size formed in the waters surrounding us. Even the smallest ones capable of swallowing the largest of our warships whole into their lightless depths.

My eyes were drawn inexorably to the figure of the woman standing proudly atop the highest tower of the Marine Palace with her hands clasped behind her back.

Her long, ultramarine blue hair whipped behind her in the rising winds and her eyes glowed with supernatural might as she commanded the sea to obey.

And it did.

For she was the Demigod of the Waves.