The men set sail with their fleet, many terrified as they had never engaged in battle on the seas before, you would see men throwing up off the side of the ships as well every so often as many of them had been new to sea travel. In the Rhomaioi fleet, Demetrios would command 30 of the ships while Constantine would command 10 of them on the flank. A signal would be given to the ship Constantine was commanding to bring him closer to Demetrios' ship, in which they would both redirect themselves closer to each other.
"Constantine!" yells out Demetrios
"I have sent a few ships forward to inform us of what lies ahead! I have sent some to Zakynthos, the Strafode Islands, and around Glarentza! I need you to send two from your command to go towards Patras and Cephalonia!"
Constantine nods his head and shouts back to the old commander
"Will do Demetrios!"
He then immediately moves to signal to 2 other ships to come closer
"Captain Georgios! I need you to scout towards Patras! If you find any large fleets, report back to me immediately!"
He then moves to the other ship to command their captain as well
"Captain Andronikos, I need you to scout towards Cephalonia! If you see any Epirus fleets there, report back immediately!"
He then proceeds to give them both set commands
"Don't engage them, if they attempt to attack you retreat back immediately! Don't risk your lives!"
The two ships would begin to row hard towards their set destination from their current position near Grand Magne at the southern tip of Morea. The navy would continue to sail, going up towards the Venetian held city of Modon. Here they would restock their supplies and many would enter the city to spend a bit of the money they had been given for the campaign, Demetrios and Constantine would enter the city as well, leaving a few men to guard the ships, however Demetrios would immediately move to buy a room to sleep in as he'd grown tired. Constantine spends his time moving around the fortified city. He would eventually come across an old man who would come up to him and begin speaking in Venetian to him
"Te ga na flotta granda, giovanotto, che la va in bataglia, presumo? No posso far altro che notare che ti e un altro omo par che i sia al comando de sta granda marina qua."
Constantine looks at the old man, confused as to what he is saying until he lets out a laugh and begins to ask again in Greek,
"Apologies, I would've expected you to know Venetian, it's a useful language in regards to affairs in the Eastern Mediterranean you know!" the old man laughs out
"Anyways, I was asking about your ships, you seem to be going off to war, I'm honestly surprised the Rhomaioi could even raise such a fleet! Or let me guess, you had borrowed ships from merchants?"
Constantine looks sternly at the man, untrusting of his words and intentions
"That's probably the case if I had to guess, none of these are galleys, all just ships a merchant would use...."
The old man would look at Constantine's gaze and then laugh some more
"Don't worry boy, I'm not here to interrogate you! I'm just a curious old man is all... My name is Fantino Michiel, and yours?..."
"My name is Constantine. Nice to meet you sir Michiel." Constantine would reply nervously
"Just Constantine?" the man would ask while chuckling a bit
"Hm, if I remember correctly there's a member of the Palaiologos family with that name... You wouldn't happen to be him would you? Must be a coincidence."
The old man smiles a bit and then continues to speak
"I must be confusing you with someone else! I mean no harm in my questions, simply curious, if you are going to battle, may God protect you young man, you may need it.... By the way, in the future, I'd like to ask for you to inform your emperor to potentially work with Venice. I'm sure you don't know me, as why would you, but I have been busy in this area fighting the Turks around Thessaloniki, they're a threat we can't possibly contend against alone. I hope to let you know that the longer we wait, the stronger they grow."
The old man then lets out his hand to shake Constantine's
"I wish you good luck in your travels young man! Thank you for listening to this old man talk..."
Constantine shakes his hand and thanks him for the conversation, and proceeds to watch as the old man is escorted by heavily armored knights onto a large ship that begins making his way North.
"I have no idea who that man is, but I don't trust him." Constantine says aloud
He then proceeds to make his through the city to find food to eat, wine to drink, and find a room for the night to sleep. By daybreak, him and the rest of the navy begins sailing northward once again, before long, they are on the open sea on the way towards Pontikokastro when ships from a few days earlier start arriving. Then, Constantine spots a ship of his coming towards him at full speed different from the others
"Something is wrong" he mutters to himself
While the ship would continue sailing forward, they would continue shouting,
"KEPHALE KEPHALE, WE HAVE IMPORTANT NEWS, AN ENEMY FLEET IS BEING RAISED NEAR CEPHALONIA!"
Eventually, some of the men on Constantine's ship would understand what was being said and yell out this information to Constantine, in which he himself would signal out to Demetrios to bring his ship closer so he may inform him of the news.
"Demetrios! The men have spotted an enemy fleet being raised near Cephalonia! We need to engage them before they grow too large!"
"We shall go forth then, let the men know once we make it to Pontikokastro, we will head for battle against them the next day!" responds Demetrios
The fleet would reach Pontikokastro to restock for more supplies before leaving out again the next day to sail north towards Cephalonia. By afternoon, the navy would reach Cephalonia and news would approach from more ships sent out to scout that the enemy navy was approaching. Demetrios and Constantine would decide to meet the navy of Epirus near the Echinades (a group of islands near Cephalonia).
"Constantine!" yells out Demetrios
"I'm going to let you command your part, and i'll command mine, I'm giving one of the captain's control over here as well to help me lead, I trust in your choices, it appears they have 30 ships for the battle, and reports have told me that it's lead by the son of Carlo Tocco! Good luck my friend!"
Constantine would begin looking back towards the enemy fleet ahead of him, and begin forming up a plan as both fleets approached each other. As he grew closer, he saw something that caused him much worrying, 2 ships full of armored soldiers was ahead of the area he was in control of.
"This is a problem... if we try to engage in hand to hand combat, we would surely lose, and if we were to try and engage using ranged soldiers, they can easily block our arrows and bolts." Constantine said aloud while looking at the situation
An idea would soon come to Constantine, and a large smile would form across his face. He begins looking around at his ships and eventually spotting a ship full of lightly armored archers and begins motioning for them to bring their ship closer.
"Captain Nikephoros, I have a task for you....."
Constantine would inform Nikephoros of his plan, which would result him in being shocked at such an idea, however was obligated to follow the commands of Constantine as he was leading them. Soon the fleet of Constantine would engage with the fleet of Epirus, numbering almost 8 ships against them.
"Nikephoros! Go forth with the plan!"
Constantine would then point towards a ship beside them and respond,
"Back up Nikephoros' ship, and remember the plan! I want the ships manned with infantry to move to board the enemies! Ships full of archers and crossbowmen, be sure to not engage directly! Steer clear of boarding! Destroy the enemy!"
The ships would then move forth at quick speeds towards the enemy fleet with them matching as well in similar fashion, the commander of the fleet of Epirus would look confused as a ship carrying lightly armored archers was approaching their ship full of heavily armored soldiers, the man would then order them to be boarded and massacred in battle. Across the battle 5 ship boardings would take place, while the others would commit to battle by use of arrows and bolts, with many projectiles flying into people, the sides of ships, and the water itself. Across the front, all but 2 boardings appeared to be visibly losing by Constantine due to the strength of the enemy infantry. Soon, something would shock many as a ship would go up in flame and steer directly into another ship while in the process of boarding, a smile forms across Constantine's face as not only Nikephoros' ship, but also the ship of the enemy heavy infantry would go up in flame. The lightly armored archers would jump into the water and onto the boat sent to back them up, some would drown, but such is the cost of war. The cost for the enemy was even greater as the men desperately attempted to put out the fire to no avail, many others would jump into the water to escape, however would find their heavy armor drag them down into the water where many would drown. For those who were smart enough to dump their armor, many would see themselves killed by archers shooting at them. Constantine would yell out,
"Nikephoros! Command the ship and circle around to help the others by providing ranged support! I will be coming in to aid in battle against the other force of heavily armored men!"
He would then proceed to have his ship move to support his infantry against the heavily armed soldiers, arrows would fly by his face as they got closer to the battle, he would dawn a helmet to protect his head incase of any stray arrows, and then order a boarding to take place.
"BOARD THE ENEMY! CUT THEM DOWN MEN!" roars out Constantine as he jumps off onto the base of the enemy ship
As he did so, many enemy infantry would turn around to confront the soldiers from Constantine's ships, still being more heavily armored, yet outnumbered by 2 to 1. Armed with sword and shield, he would aggressively push straight into combat with an enemy knight which would swing a long heavy greatsword against Constantine whom would bring his shield up to block it, it would come down with so much strength to the point of staggering the Kephale back a bit, the knight would again raise his sword high to swing upon Constantine, in which he would dodge to the side and bash the knight in the face with his shield causing him to fall backwards to the ground in which Constantine would end him using a dagger. Following the engagement, he would work alongside his men whom outnumbered the enemy to stab them in the weakspots of their armor to kill them or heavily injure them to the point of surrendering, after an hour of fighting, the rest of the surviving heavy infantry would surrender along with the commander of the men facing Constantine.
Of the 8 ships, the 3 ships of crossbowmen would soon break off from fighting to move to join the command of Carlo Tocco's son, while the other 5 ships would surrender after seeing them outnumbered and threatened on all sides.
"Be quick men! I want the enemy soldiers disarmed and stripped of their armor and put all onto one boat with a sufficient amount of men to hold onto them, a few of you take the enemy ships as well, we need to go aid Demetrios now!" yells out Constantine
Constantine would order this and then begin to set out with 7 ships of which weren't preoccupied with other tasks that had been ordered. As he looks across the naval battle, he would observe many engagements in hand to hand fighting, and soldiers engaged in ranged combat, he would then order his men to go and board the enemy crossbowmen and attack the enemy from behind. This resulting in the killing of many enemy crossbowmen and causing fear in many of the enemy. Soon after, Constantine would head towards Carlo Tocco's son himself, Torno. Torno would have 4 ships defending his, with Constantine bringing a total of 6 to aid him in the capture of the enemy commander. All of his ships would engage Torno's and a battle would ensue resulting in many being killed and drowning during the battle's course, Constantine himself would engage in the fighting and even capture the nephew of Carlo Tocco himself. Torno's ship however would defeat the Rhomaioi ship that had boarded his own ship. Soon after, Torno would look around at the battle, and see his ships all beginning to be overwhelmed, in front of him, from the left, from the right, he had realized he couldn't change the course of the battle and began to flee at full speed back to Vonitsa. As a result of this, his fleet's coordination collapsed and many began to flee.
By the end of the battle, many lay dead in the fight, however the Rhomaioi would be able to claim complete victory over them, even managing to capture 150 men from the navy of Epirus. Not only this, but managing to capture 14 ships from the navy of Epirus as well. Constantine would sail up to Demetrios' ship and yell out to him
"Demetrios! We have managed victory!"
"You did well Constantine! Even better than I could have expected! I heard you sunk a ship of heavily armored men using fire? I wouldn't have guessed to do so! Anyways, I will be redirecting the prisoners of war and captured ships back towards Monemvasia, we will continue on to Glarentza, we shall blockade the enemy!"