Mike observed the explosion and originally wanted to fly toward the incoming ships to keep them away from the port but things got dicey after they opened fire during his arrival. Flying higher into the Sky, he could finally see the scope of the incoming Armada of Ships. It was a Maritime Procession, an escort of Ships filled to the brim with Soldiers.
A large Shadow came out from below and crest its head above the water. A leviathan sized Crab with a tail, was crushing boats apart and Soldiers that wore armor were sinking along with the boats, quickly.
Mike felt pity, and a bit worried. If the soldiers looked at his appearance only, he could be deemed the aggressor even now. A large monster like that could also destroy his new home in no time, he couldn't allow it to go on its rampage and decided to freeze the water around the boats.
They wouldn't sink and the cold temperature would freeze the water around them into platforms, giving them a chance to fight back.
Soldiers and Magicians piled out of the boats and onto the Icy slates that had been formed. Their confidence in its integrity wasn't short of impressive. They landed heavily and even if the Ice cracked, they went forward to battle. He considered it confidence, if it gave out, they would all die, sinking to the depths of the Harbor.
Mike had earned his rank in the military, he wasn't a coward, deserter or a conscientious objector. He felt that fighting for what was right, was better than running from problems. Mike's combat injury really changed the course of his life, if it hadn't, he certainly wouldn't be able to be in the position to do what he was about to do.
"Hold your positions!" Mike called out but they already had thoughts, they presumed he was part of the attacking force. The Ice had every potential to be an unexpected side effect to their advantage, they remained unconvinced.
Mike watched arrows and spells flung in his direction, from almost all directions. His only escape was up, rushing the Dragoon into the clouds was obviously the best course of action but it left the people on the boats in the same position they were in before he had started. He watched the tail of the giant prawn crush a ship in half, the Ice around it broke into pieces but kept the boat afloat.
Mike started calling out orders again, "Aim at the Joints!" Mike leapt off the Dragoon and directly toward the Prawns face. The Claw had a lot more mobility than Mike first thought, but that didn't change his direction or momentum.
"Cut off the Antennae!" Mike thrust out a cutting spell but it wasn't penetrating. He grabbed the machete and tried to stab at the prawns face. As the penetration spell from the blade passed over the shell of the Prawn's face, the spell seemed to warp around it and the Machete shattered, shearing off near the handle.
Mike took quick notice of it and spun toward the antennae on its head. With a flick he sent out some ice bolts to knock them down.
The shattering effect of the Ice Spell worked better than he expected but it infuriated the Prawn into thrashing in every direction. Soldiers on the boats saw what Mike was doing and decided to stop their attacks on him, they chose to focus on the Sea Monster. If Mike hadn't frozen the boats in place most of them would have already been scrambling through the water in search of debris to cling to. He could have easily aided in their deaths, instead he was facing the sea monster head on, braving the battle somewhat alone.
"Its too hard, heavy weapons!" Mike called out and a soldier with a spacial ring threw a heavy two handed hammer. Its golden exterior made it seem lavish but the weight was just right, Mike heaved it above his head and chanted for a second, a bright green light swallowed the lips of the hammer.
"That'll work," Mike wielded the hammer from the Soldier and swung it up to meet the mouth of the scurrying prawn. He wondered what it was after, there had to be a reason other than just seeing boats in its vicinity.
He raised the hammer behind his head and brought it down onto the back of the Prawn. Its shell had cracked but it was still in tact and scrambling toward the water. The Prawn tried shaking him off and after a few moments, Mike was thrown clear to the soldiers he was working alongside.
"Attack at the same time!" Mike was wondering what was going on with the soldiers, why they weren't attacking much. Then, the Prawn opened its mouth and began spewing a toxic substance. It smoldered in the air as it flew.
"WATCH OUT!" Several soldiers on the boats in the rear had raised their shields to block the incoming wave of foulness.
The sticky substance smelled like Oil, Mike had a feeling that it was combustible and started to re-think his approach. "Don't you dare!" Mike knew what a powder keg looked like, it was always in an unassuming package that shook whenever something came near.
The Raging Prawn was no different.
Tiny little electrical sparks came from the tips of its feelers and started to ignite the bile. The rush of flames was slow but the heat wasn't mild at all. the flames lingered and the bile boiled.
"That all you got? Vomit?" Mike laughed but the damage was real, he had to watch his position and approach. He pulled out the Frost Cannon, it hadn't been used much since he was freed from the Titan's Source.
"Lets see how this works, PULL BACK!" Mike shouted mid-sentence and let it rip. A beam of white laced with an eerie blue pounded against the prawn like the hammer and kept pushing. The prawn knocked it away. The beam cut into the ocean around them and pushed the Ice out in a straight line for a few hundred meters.
"Well, that didn't work." Mike pulled out the Sap Crystal and pointed toward the Prawns face. It was a direct hit, blinding the sea monster and binding it in place. Mike stowed the crystal away and grabbed the golden hammer from beside him.
"ALL TOGETHER NOW!" Mike leapt into the air with the Hammer and came crashing down on its back, severing portions of its shell from the soft muscle underneath.
Mike had been to crayfish broils his whole life, but he never expected something like a Rodeo Bull with its balls cut off to be his next experience. Mike thrust his hand into the body of the Prawn and started to roast it from the inside, the screams of the Prawn were muffled for a while due to the Sap. It gasped, screamed and convulsed in throes.
As its body grew hotter, the once Ocean Blue Shell turned a deep maroon and an otherwise tasty smell started to come out and into Mike's nose. Mike didn't know how much of the meat was usable but it certainly smelled good after it was cooked.
He put its corpse into the storage ring and looked back at the soldier who had given him the hammer. Mike passed it back and helped get them all off the ships before he released the Ice Magic. "collect them for repairs.." Mike stared at the captain for a moment.
He turned and left, there were still other matters and the crisis had been managed. Repair crews and the Mercenary fleet could handle that themselves. Heading into port he wasn't sure if they would be attacking, but almost all of the boats that still operated needed repair and maintenance if they were going to continue on. Mike's only course that wasn't turning them away, was to allow them time to repair, at the very least.
Mike watched as the captains followed him to a meeting room, having them keep their passengers on board the remaining ships until he had a chance to review their intentions.
Vella was standing guard over the City ready to intervene, but the work Mike had put into the rescue had her at ease. She would have just erased both groups, drowning the would-be soldiers to feed to the prawn until it grew fat and slow. To her, the result was the same.
֍ꟷꟷꟷꟷ֍
Introducing the Mercenary Captains to the City took up the rest of mike's afternoon, Soldiers were piling in after coming to an arrangement. They couldn't let all of them off the boats at the same time and they had to travel in packs of two or more without causing problems. The rules were simple but it was inevitable that someone would be an outlier and dishonor themselves with cheap theatrics or lies.
"Why are there so many women.. I want one." One of the foreign soldiers spoke to another as they gazed on snacks and stared at the passing ladies doing cleanup or just spreading the word about a product that they were selling. Being polite was how tourism was developed, a teaching mike instilled in the girls early on.
"Want to try this? its nice and doesn't cost much." A shop owner came out, she was wearing an apron like most others around her but she was telling others what to do, in her hands were fresh rolls. She passed them to a man and told him where to put them and then had him stand there to sell the product.
'Women in charge? Why are we even bothering, lets just take this place.' The Kreson Soldiers were particularly curious how that had happened, many of them had greed written on their faces.
Mike circled the skies of the City to make sure nothing strange was happening, the Suns were radiating lots of heat for the time of day, no clouds loomed overhead and humidity was clinging to his body in the sky.
He packed up and went inside the Casino to watch the games and listen to the shows.
There was a lot of business being discussed over drinks and gambling. Sometimes triumph on the table would mean triumph in a deal for worldly goods in masse.
Money changed hands on a constant basis and Mike wondered what he was doing. He had no true objective, his original plan to go home had long since shattered under the pressures of survival. His harem had found other means of daily conduct, they still joined him at night but their days were completely filled. They felt more like distant girlfriends with lots of benefits but there was obviously a drive that was missing from Mike's scope of reality.
He had to do something else, he could take over the world if he chose but it still wouldn't leave what the Titan's called a Legacy. Mike wasn't ready to pass on to another world, he just had to formulate a plan at some point in the future, Ideas were hard to make into a reality.
There were some injustices in the world but Mike wasn't righteous or interested in being the worlds 'justice bringer' that would cause problems with the otherwise pitiful existences that muck in the dark.
"Always expect someone to throw shit at you for expressing something they disbelieve in, show contempt for, or just because they are sad." Mike remembered his Teachers in grade school. They weren't the nicest of folks but they knew what they were talking about.
Mike had always been the kind of person to speak his mind, there was little filter to begin with. When he found several men stalking one of his citizens he pounced.
"Why are you following people. I'm going to ask you to return to your ship." Mike saw the knife but didn't react.
The Kreson Soldiers were considering Mike's evisceration for stopping their attempts to rape.. Mike had watched the whole thing from above but he didn't want it to be like this. They ran down the street knocking and kicking anything they saw like children and slashed at some of the City Banners.
Mike had just about enough, he was pulling out the Water Crystal to flush these two and their Captain out to sea when a shadow came over his position. Vella swooped down and grabbed the two fleeing men.
"Where do you think you're going? Who's your Captain?" Vella threatened to drop them as she went higher before they pointed to a ship on the far end of the dock.
Mike remounted the Dragoon and flew toward them to watch the spectacle. "I wish I had some popcorn." He really did wish he had some popcorn, watching people who overstepped getting reamed for their behavior was and will always be a treasured moment.
The Captains were forced to leave their Casino tables to deal with unruly soldiers who only wanted to cause mischief and misdeeds.
Mike didn't expect a beheading, and certainly didn't expect what he did see. Their skulls came into contact with the Hammers of the captain. Brain matter, along with the top part of the heads of each of them were projected as tiny bits that scattered into the water on impact. Watching it happen mike couldn't help but think about a large caliber bullet hole, the damage was remarkably close.
"The Next person to interrupt my meeting with something like this will pay a greater price." the Captain spit at the water and pass his weapon to be cleaned.
The Captain kicked the leaning corpses into the water and off his boat.
Mike was actually impressed, he couldn't agree with the method. Mike would have preferred something else other than their deaths. Them dying didn't serve as a lesson to anyone in the long run, much less about the reasons they were punished. When he couldn't hold it in any further, he started yelling out the rules.
It caught the attention of everyone around him.
"There will be no Rape, Thievery, Extortion, Robbery, or Murder." Mike pulled out a long spear from storage..
He had kept a spear with him for some time, It was better than the Frost Cannon for such occasions. Mike couldn't pull his sidearm just because of a speech. "Anyone else causing trouble will have to answer to their Captains, I can watch as you join these two fools for trying to commit a crime in this City." He spat at the water in the same spot that the Captain had.
His actions pleased the Captain somewhat and the pair followed the Dragoon back to the Casino to discuss more about policy. It wasn't every day that Mike got to talk shop with someone of that position.
Mike had a City, not an Army. As such, there was a lot more involved in coordinating something that wasn't stationary. Mike picked his brain a bit about some details and ordered some food while they hammered out a trade agreement.
Money was in war, but war without a cause was just slaughter. After getting the Kreson version of events, Mike could see why they could feel that way given the narrative.
He wasn't prepared to accept such a one sided story as concrete evidence but the way it was said left him to understand that more was going on. Mike felt like he was being the recipient of a rumor, manipulated even. He didn't change his expression but stood up to leave. "I think diplomacy is the best bet, Fighting because of a disagreement over words is like watching a child slap at the air. Grow a pair." Mike slapped a few more coins on the table.
"We'll continue friendly relationships with your people, its easier for the moment. However, and make this crystal clear. Don't bring your troubles to our City." Mike was prepared to sneer but he just turned to leave.
In his opinion, there were some toxic and arrogant people in every world.