The idyllic image of the emerald island of Ireland was that of a green realm of grass and trees, flowers bursting in the sun, quaint little villages on the sea, and people speaking in a charming accent to welcome you to their fair land.

It was NOT a land overrun with countless Aquatics devouring everything they could see, piercing further and further inland as the native people failed to stop them, the reinforcements from England tied up by similar hordes of Aquatics.

Finmen, Fishmen, Squidfolk, Crabs, Lobsters, and Starfish roved where they wished over the landscape, ravaging and destroying everything that could not escape them, and precious little could. The Human inhabitants and what livestock they could drive before them had been driven to the center of the island, all of the larger cities fallen despite their Wards, and now only the rougher terrain of the islands was slowing them down, along with the uncomfortable distance from the ocean.

That was the situation we met as we came through the Portal onto a ripped and torn meadow, the slime and smell of the sea and fish-stink pervading the air. There was sealife scattered about here miles from the sea, the air heavy with Water Mana enabling the likes of starfish, small invertebrates, and urchins to survive here, and they were scattered all about, devouring all the vegetation down to the roots, while leaving trails of slime and their shit behind them.

It wasn’t the first time I’d seen something like this, as it had happened to basically every area that ended up overrun by Aquatics.

“Give me a Seven Star Pyroclasm!” I ordered crisply, and the Fire Mages among the Marines instantly linked up. Better yet, they made seven of the things for a Greater Pattern, and then lit them off in resonance for an Archmagic-level spell, from Tier-5 Stars.

Tightly controlled, the raging flames blew out laterally in every direction, flattened to a ten-foot wall of flame sweeping across the ground. Of the Invulnerable World made certain it would harm nothing that belonged here, but that did not include any of the leavings and minor creatures here, or their slime, or even the Water Mana in the air.

Their poisons and spikes were vaporized with them. The damage wasn’t much, but everyone was using Bane to Aquatics, so it was more than enough to deal with minor creatures. Even accidentally stepping on them could be lethal to the unwary, and the parasites and like would be driven to attack terrestrial creatures to implant eggs, feed, convert...

The three companies of Redshore Marines flowed through the dimensional opening as the ground was cleared, fully aware that the alarm would be going out and countless numbers of Aquatics might soon be heading this way. Floating Disks held resupply and munitions, and levitating fire platforms zipped into position.

I felt a hum in the air. “Burt! Glenn!” I ordered without turning around. Our best Psychic Archmage and the only Divination Archmage scanned the area, zeroed in on whoever was playing mental coms relay, and a second later three Thunderbolts came down out of the sky in the distance.

The humming stopped.

There was motion in the hills all around us, things creeping over the landscape, sometimes singly, sometimes in clusters. A lot of them were turning this way in great interest, and began to head in our direction.

Also, there were a lot of things in the air that shouldn’t be flying which were also turning around and heading this way!

Reynard came out of his Summoning, Mighty Turk stepped out of his Contract Space, and a lovely white and gold Flower blossomed on my Diadem as Roses of Fire and Ice extended out my sleeves and coiled up onto my shoulders, looking in all directions.

“Reynard, you’re hunting mindbenders!” I ordered him calmly. “Find and kill or call it down, on your cognizance!”

Reynard had beheld a lot of bloody combat in his life, but this orchestrated warfare of Aquatics vs Humans was far, far different from what amounted to massive skirmishes in the Beast Realm. There was precious little attack and retreat, stalk and ambush. It was mostly just massive amounts of bodies and magic crashing into one another for horrific slaughter that seemed to have no motivation behind it but the will of the Aquatic Emperors, and the opportunity to eat what was not normally eaten.

“Yes, Healer Fae!” he replied tersely, his thoughts already winging out to find his opposite numbers. He could and had gone up against other Ruler-class Psychics, his additional practice with Void Magic tempering his Will to a degree the Krakenoids, Squidfolk, and other Psychic Aquatics found very difficult to match.

The Mighty Turk was twice the height of a Human now, but still rode Reynard’s back easily, as the Fox was half-again taller than a mundane elephant now. The Mighty Turk came across as immensely compact, however, using the Monkey King technique of concentrating Earth Mana inside them to increase his defense and strength out of proportion to his size.

These things from the sea think they are strong? They are going to learn a lesson about Heavy Earth Mana!, I thought, watching Reynard and Mighty Turk fade from view and blip away a second later, off on their hunting.

“Stillflight Protocols in effect. We’ve got Turn the Sky into the Sea in effect, possibly across the whole island,” Sama reminded everyone coolly. It meant airborne Sharks, Bluefish, Marlins, and other predatory Fish whipping through the air as if it was water, nearly as fast as any Birds, and far bigger and more lethally. We could already see dozens of schools of them turning this way, given the show of magic we’d already put on.

It was fine. When Stillflight took hold and they all smashed to the ground, they were going to be dead meat. Or filets, as the case might be.

The earth rumbled beneath us as the Gabon Undead Hunters came pouring through the Portal behind me.

It was the first trip outside their native land for most of them, especially most of the Beasts, and the cavalcade of Contracted Beasts looked about with great interest at the land about them, noted the unnaturalness infesting it that was not that much different from areas overrun in their own homeland, and just how much had been consumed and eaten away.

But none roared out challenges or bellowed defiance at the incoming creatures of the sea. The silence was almost spooky as they and their riders and Contracted spread out in all directions under silent orders and long teamwork.

Over the course of the last month, they’d all been blooded repeatedly on littoral assaults against Gabon. Animosity to the Aquatics seemed to be built into them, and since Contracted Beasts were not held back by the Decree of the Emperors, they had lit into the despoiling invaders with a will and a way... and a level of coordination and cooperation that had taken the Undead by surprise, and did so for the Aquatics now, as well.

If the Maces of the Undead Hunters weren’t quite so effective here, vivus was as or more necessary. The carcasses of the slain would help replace what they had taken from the land, perhaps even surpass it if the slaughter was great enough.

“They are gathering up for a mass charge,” Briggs observed emotionlessly, watching the schools of various types of Fish joining together and starting to circle us, waiting for more numbers to gather before attempting an enveloping charge which would cause massive havoc in our ranks. In the meantime, they had enough distance to dodge most attacks sent their way. “They must not have met Stillflight Fields before. Probably not experienced with Sky to Sea effects that get to last this long and over this much area.”

I clenched my fist, and the Portal closed up, the brighter light of Africa beyond it cut off. It didn’t mean we couldn’t retreat, it meant we were committing to moving forward!

“Advance!” Briggs ordered calmly, Endure pointing precisely, his Voice clearly heard by everyone. The direction was given, and everyone headed that way.

Pyroclasms led the way, covering hundreds of acres of ground and wiping away the detritus of the Aquatics and the lethal seeds they’d left scattered behind them. The broad Fire Magic could kill only the very lowest level of Servants and less, but that was enough to wound stuff in hiding or buried, trigger them to reveal themselves, and there were cracks of bullets and the weakest Aquatics died.

Camouflaged poisonous creatures were true pains to dig out. Pyroclasm with Banefire did the work for us.

Quick Beasts were towing, Contracted allies were dropping in smoothly into place, Casters were standing on Disks for some altitude and not needing to concentrate on moving. Flying was about to be shut down completely, so nobody was bothering with that, to the point that some of the Avians had either shot for heights the Fish wouldn’t attempt to equal, or were riding on the haunches of great Elephants, Rhinos, Hippos, Bulls, and even Antelopes, ready to use magic while they couldn’t fly.

Other Birds, like the stately Horizon Strider Ostriches and zippy Lightning Runners, had no problems keeping the pace on the ground.

Minor spells started zipping out, tied to gunfire that crashed into their targets and delivered the spells to their insides after piercing scaled or rubbery hides. The shooters were experienced and on skimmers or Disks for a smooth ride, clearing the area further ahead as we got into motion.

Lord Quake was on the ground, putting his heavier ex-Earthdoom Drake build to good use as he sidled along for the moment, a little magic more than enough to let him keep an effortless pace. I was being towed alongside him, a fire-spewing guardian who would dominate anything below a Sea Serpent, and nothing that big was in view, save for some of the Sharks circling about us hungrily.

“Expect a charge from the Fish within thirty seconds!” Briggs called out softly, but everyone heard him, the ears of Beasts flicking with acknowledgement. The surrounding schools were getting thicker and faster, ripples of motion going through them that indicated a heightened bloodthirst and hunger, and they were inching closer and closer...

It was one ripple that flashed through the entire encircling Schools, and then they charged us.

They moved with lightning-speed, covering the distance between us in merely seconds, but there was a reason that Briggs was advancing by loping along on foot.

His foot came down, the pulse of his Sun swept past everyone, the laws of reality were enforced, King Gravity looked down from his almighty throne, and roared, “FISH DO NAWT FLY!” in a stentorian voice of much condemnation as his Scepter of Physics pointed down with imperial authoritah.

At least, that’s how I pictured it, as thousands of Fish slammed to the ground helplessly, now literally Fish out of the water.

The Beasts broke apart as one, surging in all directions, including behind us, to take the things out.

It was horns and hooves and claws and fangs, delivered with deadly precision. Beaks pecked down like picks, spearing little brains and spinal cords. Twenty and thirty-foot tall Elephants gored Sharks, tossing multi-ton bodies aside, while the great horns of Rhinos nearly as big plunged into Fish of the same size and did for them. Feet stamped, great jaws bit, and heads were crushed. Flopping Fish of all types stopped moving.

I scooted forward on my Disk, only a foot above the ground, the Mick atop Hopper’s sparking form zipping by to give me a tow, the Tempest Runner’s beak smeared with the brains of dozens of Fish. He’d developed a bit of a liking for seafood, too, especially Lobster and Shrimp, although exotic Scorpions, Spiders, and Snakes were still his first loves.

I wove a spell that had proliferated among the Typeless quite quickly in this day and age, when food was all-important, and the readiest source of it was often the Aquatics attacking us. It actually wouldn’t work on the living at all, because it was optimized to harvest the dead.

The Beasts had seen it and the carnivores profited from it, so they moved out of the way as the killing was completed, and I swept around the circle.

An absolute bloody whirlwind of Force and Air Magic shrieked and stripped every single piece of edible flesh and valuable hide and bone from the dead. Wasted organs sprayed away from us, burning to vivus, tons of meat peeling away down a hole into my Sanctum Sanctorum, which had all the storage room for this stuff that was needed.

I didn’t know what the food situation was for those we were coming to rescue, but a few hundred tons of filets were not going to be unwelcome, regardless.

It only took me a couple minutes to Flense and Butcher the entire attacking force of Fish, leaving the ground about us covered in vivus as the last diced remnants of them burned away and fed the land.

“Move out!” Briggs ordered instantly when I reached where he was standing, and our forward progress resumed.