Chapter Seventy

All Out Assault

MELODY

"Now!" King Triton raised his trident, jerking it towards the numerous ships that were looming at the surface and blotting out the sun.

A deafening war cry erupted out among a thousand Atlantican soldiers as they began their charge, surging towards the surface of the water as they brandished axes, spears, javelins, crossbows, and any other modern melee weapon that could be found under the sea.

"Is this what you imagined it to be?" Tracy shouted as she paced with Melody, swimming towards the surface together with the rest of the Atlantican soldiers.

"Better!" Melody swam for the surface, dodging out of the way as a yelling Atlantican charged straight past her with a spear in hand, narrowly avoiding getting impaled by an ally.

"Well I hope you're satisfied!" Tracy hollered. "It's a circus out here!"

"That's what I'm counting on!" Melody could already see Atlanticans break the surface, begininning their bombardment of the Southern Isles fleet with their weapons. If the army of Arendelle isn't enough to stop the Southern Isles, she permitted herself a smile, now there's the Atlanticans to join the fray too.

Her plan to appeal to her grandfather's morals had worked, though not without a few attempts at persuasion. But eventually, the king had agreed, as his conscience could not stand seeing his granddaughter's friends get mown down by an enemy navy. And so the king had declared that they would be deploying into battle, and a thousand Atlanticans had armed themselves to ambush an unsuspecting enemy from the waters below. And it was working.

"Now?" Tracy asked as they were nearing the surface.

"Now!" Arms by her side to be more streamlined, Melody glanced upwards and propelled herself further towards the surface where sunlight was breaking through the water, She finally broke through the surface, launching herself into the air like a rocket as huge sprays of water marked her ascension back into the human world, brightly illuminated by the morning sun. As she catapulted further into the air, Melody heard the screams of shock and yells from the Southern Isles crewmen as their ships were being attacked by imposing mermen who had appeared out of nowhere.

The mermen armed with crossbows and javelins had taken to launching their sidearms into the sailors and artillerists at the broadsides of their ships, and enemy soldiers pinwheeled away as they were hit by the ancient yet effective weapons of destruction. Some fell backwards onto the deck while others who were not so fortunate fell into the water screaming.

From the peripheral of Melody's eye, she could see Tracy launch through the surface, heading in a parallel upwards propulsion to herself. It was time. Melody reached and gripped the golden necklace around her neck as she felt her upward climb begin to slow, and a golden light gleamed from the necklace. The light grew outwards into a golden aura, enveloping her as she saw a purple mist of Tracy's magic do the same for her ally.

And then when the golden aura had vanished, Melody was once more in her human form, the salmon pink tail replaced by her legs again. At this point she was already being pulled downward by gravity, and she was falling right towards the open deck of one of the enemy battleships in the centre of the fleet, and to her relief so was Tracy, back in her human form as well.

"Look out! There's-" A sailor cried out as he saw the two figures silhouetted by the sun descending down towards the deck of the battleship, and his warning was cut off by Melody who landed right on top of him, causing him to sprawl to the ground in a heap.

"Enemy aboard ship!" Another cried out, and the crewmen who were not manning the guns turned to intercept Melody and Tracy, brandishing their own weapons, ranging from brooms to bayonets. Evidently they had not been prepared for an ambush like this, for they seemed both angry and rattled at the same time.

All the while, the Arendellian artillery was relentlessly bombarding their ships with well placed round shot from their howitzers and the rest of the cannons. Melody fervently hoped that a ball wouldn't find its way onto the ship she was on just yet.

Melody shot a quick glance at Tracy, who grinned like a cat at her. They had already gone over the plan, and were prepared for this. At least, Melody hoped so. Then without further notice, they both fanned out in opposite directions to deal with the sailors separately, splitting their attackers into two separate groups.

An ear piercing whistle came from above Melody's head and she looked up to see a large brown falcon hovering in the sky directly above her, dodging a couple of flying lead balls as another salvo of thunderous cannons let loose their ammunition.

"Think fast!" Maui bellowed as he dropped her new compound bow and a quiver full of arrows from the sky.

Good old Maui. She sprung and caught her possessions just as a first sailor swung a broom at her, and rolled out of the way, both hands full. She dropped her quiver and snatched an arrow from it.

Nocking the arrow, she crouched and let fly, and the arrow thocked into her first assailant's leg with the all too familiar sound of an arrow boring through flesh and muscle. He crumpled to the ground with a scream, and Melody slung the quiver over her back quickly, arming herself with another arrow nocked on the bowstring.

It felt good to have her signature weapons back. Just like a fish to water. Melody let fly a second arrow, which stumbled a sailor, causing the ones pushing and shoving behind him to collapse in a heap, and Melody took the chance to vault over the four or five fallen men to place a well aimed roundhouse kick to another crewman, launching him down the stairs on top of his companions who were trying to ascend the steps to provide backup.

That was her side taken care of. Melody rushed down the stairs, careful to avoid tripping on the fallen sailors. She went off in search of Tracy, who was just finishing up by sending a sailor overboard with an expertly placed shot of her magic.

She regrouped with Tracy, but before they could get a word out, the artillerists who were busy manning their guns had turned their attention to the two girls. They abandoned their cannons and charged, with one or two in the mob wielding officers' swords.

"Stand back!" Tracy shouted, and crouched quickly, placing her hands on the ground.

A wave of purple magic pulsed outwards in a semicircle, sweeping out across the deck and enveloping it. No one escaped the impact. The artillerists were thrown off balance, shouting and cursing to keep their balance as the purple wave of magic reverberated across the shaky wooden deck like a blast of their own cannons.

Melody took the golden opportunity to lurch forward, weaving through the off-balance crewmen who made fruitless attempts to stop her. She found the boxes of gunpowder a short distance away from the cannons where the sailors had established a supply line, and scooped up the boxes before any of the sailors could grab her.

Sprinting for the broadside, she dumped the gunpowder overboard into the water, thus eliminating their capabilities to fire any more round shot into Arendellian territory. The sailors cursed and swore as they surged towards her, attempting to corner her, but Tracy swept through them with two blinding blasts of her magic which divided them as she pushed through, and the sailors tumbled to the deck or into the water screeching as they found Atlanticans waiting in the depths below.

"That's one ship down." Tracy said, panting a little. "Only a hundred more to go, eh?"

Truthfully, in all the planning they had managed to do on the way over to Norwegian waters, Melody hadn't figured out a way to end the conflict quickly, but now in the clarity that war usually brought people in the midst of the battlefield, she was beginning to form an idea in the recesses of her mind.

"No," Melody frowned, holding out a hand for Tracy to stop before she launched herself off the deck. "Hold on."

"What, don't tell me you're getting tired already?" Tracy snickered. "We've barely begun."

"No, I think I have an idea." Melody glanced round.

The fleet, now very well aware that new players had joined the fray, had begun dividing their attention between the Arendellian guns as well as their amphibian-like attackers from the waters below. The element of surprise had already begun to fade, and the sheer number of battleships and frigates were enough to handle both opponents at once. It seemed that the Atlanticans' efforts were just enough to even the playing field, yet not give the Arendellians a definitive crushing edge to end the battle swiftly.

Melody watched as one of the commanders of the Atlanticans rallied thirty or so soldiers and gave the command for them to hurl their javelins at the eight pounders and twelve pounders on board the ships. Some of the projectiles found their mark in the sailors' and artillerists' chests, while others managed to stick themselves into the wide barrels of the cannons, effectively disarming and jamming them.

However, as inevitable as it was, the Atlanticans were taking heavy fire from the broadsides of the ships, who had turned their guns upon their seaward opponents. Thundering blasts of canister at such a close range blew many screaming Atlanticans out of the water, and the water itself was turning a slight shade of red.

Meanwhile, Maui continued to fly in the midst of the wrecking balls, thrown javelins and crossbow arrows, swooping down to smash the deck of a ship or a cannon every time he found a ripe opportunity. And again, every now and then, he got hit by one of those, which took him out of the fight for a minute or two.

"It's alright, we got all day." Tracy remarked nonchalantly, shrugging her shoulders in classic Tracy fashion.

"If we can find the command ship," Melody said slowly and glanced at Tracy. "We can force the commander, the admiral or whoever is in charge here to withdraw his forces."

A look of uncertainty crossed Tracy's face. She scratched her nose as another deafening crash signified another launch of round shot from the Arendellians on top of both hills, which sent criss-crossing balls in arcs towards the frigates and battleships. An enormous flaming lead ball came eerily close to smashing the ship they were standing on.

"I don't know," Tracy frowned and spun round to look at the numerous ships occupying the fjord. "There's a hundred ships or more out here."

"If my guess is right, it makes the most sense for the command ship to be safely out of danger." Melody glanced towards the rear, which was out of sight. "Which means probably at the very end of the column, where the commander can safely issue out orders to be passed all the way to the front."

"Melody-"

"We got to get to the rear." Melody cut her off, more excitedly this time. "Don't you see? We can stop this before it gets any worse."

"Even if we can find this commander, what makes you think he'll listen to us?"

"I'm working on that." Melody gripped the railing, scanning the waters for her grandfather. Amidst the smoke from the guns and the swarm of Atlanticans fighting with quite a number of sailors who had been tossed overboard, it was near impossible to see anything clearly in the now slightly reddened water.

And then, as if by some miracle, she spotted her grandfather below her ship, in the midst of the fight alongside many of his own soldiers. And by the looks of it, he appeared to be in his element regardless of his advancement in years, fighting as though he was a twenty five year old merman. There was a fierce look on his face, compounded with the flowing white beard and hair, and Melody swore that she could almost see the look of enjoyment and fulfilment from being in a battle once again.

"Grandfather!" She yelled, cupping her hands over her mouth.

With a fearsome bellow, King Triton applied his trident with all the force he could muster, plunging it straight into the side of a ship. It glowed golden with all the luminance of the sun, and then he wrenched it free, which caused the ship to tilt off balance as water rushed into the gaps. Obviously, he couldn't hear her over the roaring of the guns and cries of the combatants.

"He can't hear you." Tracy said.

"I know, I know." Melody swore under her breath, and looked down again to see Maui, in human form, having risen from the depths of the water after having been sent plummeting by another deadly howitzer strike from the enemy. There's another way. She waved frantically, hoping to catch Maui's attention. "Hey!" She hollered. "Maui! Up here!"

Miraculously, the demigod saw and heard her, and leapt up to the ship's deck to join the two girls. Dripping wet, he dropped to a knee and let out a tired groan, using his fish hook as a crutch.

"I never thought I'd say this," He winced. "But I'm getting tired."

"Well I have good news." Melody said. "I think we have a way of ending this once and for all. Quickly too."

Maui raised a signature eyebrow.

"Wasn't my idea." Tracy shrugged.

"And what's this brilliant idea?"

"If we can find the command ship," Melody repeated. "We can force the captain, admiral or whoever is in command to turn this fleet around and cease the attack." She pointed to the rear. "We just need to get to the rear and find that ship."

"It's going to look like any other ship." Maui reasoned. "And if you can find the guy in charge, what makes you think he'll comply?"

"Call it a hunch." Melody said. "Look, do you trust me?"

"Of course."

"Then fly us to the rear."

Maui glanced at Tracy, who looked equally uncertain. "Alright," he finally said, and in a brilliant flash of light, shape-shifted into the form of a gigantic falcon again. "Climb on."

Since their very first adventure together, Melody swore that she wouldn't get on his wings due to his reckless flying, but she had to admit that this was the only way they were going to get across the fleet. It had to be done. She and Tracy climbed onto Maui's back, and once more, he lifted off into the air, great showers of water dripping from his rumpled feathers as he glided over the fleet towards the rear.

Soaring just above the ships, the Southern Isles' sailors and artillerists had no time to aim their guns upon the flying creature. Maui made a beeline straight for the rear, and Melody could feel the wind flipping her hair wildly and air hissed through her teeth, her eyes narrowing as she scanned hastily across the fleet for any signs that would mark any particular vessel as the command ship.

"There!" Tracy shouted, pointing a couple of ships down the line.

Melody hurried to see where Tracy was indicating, and sure enough, she could see a vessel that wasn't firing at all, and a man was dressed in full white with shiny badges on his uniform glimmering against the sunlight, a dark blue bicorne with gold trimmings resting on his head which marked him as a high ranking officer of the navy.

"Way to go." Melody grinned at Tracy.

"What can I say?" Tracy waved a hand dismissively.

Maui dive bombed in the direction of the ship, and the gravitational pull almost sent the two girls toppling off his back. Melody maintained her grip on him harder and gritted her teeth as they plummeted at breakneck speed towards the command ship. Just before Maui hit the deck, he pulled up, gliding over the command ship, signalling that it was time for the two girls to disembark.

"Go!" Melody leapt off the ship with bow tightly in hand, and Tracy followed suit after a defeated sigh. She hit the ground and immediately shot an arrow into the leg of the nearest sailor, who doubled over with a cry.

Nocking another arrow and pulling back the bowstring, she was joined by Tracy who landed beside her on the deck, hands outstretched and sparkling with purple mist. Maui then slammed down on the opposite end of the ship, causing the off balanced ship to rock from side to side, throwing a couple of sailors off their feet and into the water. The commander himself was backing away slowly, shock and dismay written all over his face.

A couple of sailors stumbled towards the two girls with muskets in hand with all the intention to rid themselves of the intruders. Melody aimed overhead at a beam, where a net had been tied securely, and released the arrow.

The sharp tip of the arrow cut through a rope holding the net, and the heavy net descended, being held still by the other end. The net swung, catching the sailors and tangling them all in it helplessly. The commander's right hand man, a junior officer with curly red hair, tore a longsword from his scabbard and advanced towards Melody with a determined look on his face.

Maui and Tracy stood back, letting her handle him while keeping an eye on the commander who had backed himself into a corner. Her eyes flicked around, and saw that she had enough space to navigate, which would play to her advantage.

The officer lunged, extending his sword fully. Nimbly, Melody spun out of the way, striking his back with the blunt limb of her compound bow. He swung round with a horizontal cut, almost nicking her clean on her midsection. Backpedaling, Melody faded as a downward cut meant to split her in two was thrown her way, and parried another ferocious thrust from the man.

As he fully extended his arm, Melody threw her weight behind a strike of her bow, knocking the longsword out of the man's hand. She grabbed his hand before he could retract it, and swiftly kicked the sword out of his reach. Spinning so that her back faced him, she drove the back of her elbow into his stomach, and felt him deflate with an emphatic oof. Then, like she had done many times before, she bent and used her momentum to hoist the officer over her shoulder, and landed a well placed kick across his jaw, sending him off into unconsciousness.

"So what now?" Tracy called out to her.

"Now," Melody turned to the commander of the fleet, who had drawn his own sword from his scabbard. "We end this."

"Stay back." The commander warned as the three Warriors approached.

Melody eyed the rank on the shoulders of his perfect white uniform. "Vice Admiral, isn't it?" she said, keeping well out of reach in case he decided to lunge. "We're here to make you a proposition."

The vice admiral's eyes bulged, breathing heavily.

"Order your fleet to withdraw, and we will let you leave without further harm." Melody continued, bow at the ready. "No one else has to die today."

"I have a commission from His Majesty, King Ulrich Westergaard of the Southern Isles," the vice admiral spat. "To serve him to my dying breath."

"You also have a duty to the men under your command." Melody pointed out.

"They knew the risks when they signed up."

"Can you in good conscience let them die needlessly when we can end it all right now?" Maui towered over the vice admiral.

The vice admiral eyed the demigod warily, and his eyes flicked between the three Warriors, sword raised with shaky hands.

"We haven't broken out the twenty four and thirty six pounders yet." Melody lied.

"And you haven't seen what else lies under the sea. Man, do you really want to find out what horrors lurk beneath your ships?" Tracy added, catching Melody's eye and giving her a very subtle wink. It was all a bluff, obviously. Melody had no idea what Anna's army had in reserve, if any at all, and there were obviously no monsters of any sort hiding in the waters below them.

"I gotta warn you, the octopus and sharks waiting down below are starving." Tracy grinned.

"You're lying." The vice admiral was sweating.

"Are you willing to risk it and find out?" Melody forced a smile.

There was a long drawn pause as the vice admiral appeared to think hard about his options. But of course, in the end, there was only one outcome really. No one liked the idea of having enormous sea monsters destroy their ships or being blown to smithereens by heavy thirty six pounder guns.

"We will withdraw." He said sullenly, scowling in defeat, and summoned one of the sailors who had managed to free himself from the entanglement of the collapsed nets.

"I knew you could be reasonable." Melody smiled pleasantly and stepped aside for the sailor to take his new orders from the vice admiral.

ANNA

"Something's happening, alright." Kristoff said, looking through the spyglass that he had brought to his eye again in haste.

"What's going on?" Anna glanced out at the fjord in bewilderment. The tide of the battle had turned dramatically upon the arrival of the sea people. She remembered that Melody and Tracy had allies down in the mystical sea kingdom of Atlantica, and it had suddenly dawned on her that the reason why the two Warriors weren't around was because they were rallying the help of the Atlantican army. What a genius move.

The Southern Isles now had two opponents to contend with, which evidently confused the commander's rectified orders. That resulted in the fleet slowing down considerably, allowing the Arendellians to launch more well-aimed round shots at the frigates and battleships. And then now from afar, it seemed that they had stopped.

"They've…stopped." General Matthias scratched his beard. "I don't understand."

"Yeah? Get in line." Anna mumbled as she too tried to make sense of what was going on.

A portal of purple mist answered their questions, as Melody, Maui and Tracy hastily jumped out of the Crossing Point.

"Tell them to stop firing." Melody said quickly.

"Well hello to you too." Anna said. "Sorry, what?"

"You gotta tell them to stop firing." Tracy repeated.

"What? Why?"

"We made a deal." Melody explained. "We found the command ship and arm twisted them into accepting."

"They gotta retreat," Tracy hitched a thumb over her shoulder, and Anna watched with wide eyes as the fleet began to slowly depart the way they had come. "Otherwise our sea monsters would attack them."

"Sea…monsters?" Kristoff slurred, his eyes wide.

"It's a bluff, of course." Melody said quickly. "But it got the job done. You have to tell your soldiers to stop firing, since they've agreed to retreat under the rules of civilised warfare."

"Do it." Anna nodded at Matthias, who made haste in relaying the latest orders to cease fire. Then, she turned to the three Warriors and shook her head. "I don't believe it." She laughed breathlessly in relief. "You guys got your sea people to help us?"

"Mer-people." Melody corrected her. "It took a little bit of convincing but yes," she spread her hands.

Cheers and whoops began to erupt along the coast road and up on the two hills, in place of the roar of the artillery guns. Smoke still shrouded the terrain, but the atmosphere was a lot lighter, as one would be when disaster had just been averted. Within the smoke, the Atlantican soldiers were similarly pumping their fists and weapons in the air, shouting in unison, while others embraced each other in relief as they watched the Southern Isles fleet turn tail and retreat in shame.

"Thanks. Whew." Anna breathed out a long breath and flopped to the ground. She ran a hand through her hair which smelled of smoke, and looked up gratefully at her friends. "I owe you guys."

"Nah, don't sweat it." Tracy grinned and leaned on Kristoff's arm. For once, he did not pull away in annoyance.

"Still," Melody scratched her nose and frowned. "I can't help but feel like it's not over."

"Yeah, Elsa and the rest are still fighting at the valley and on the hills." Anna said.

Melody shook her head, to Anna's puzzlement. "No, I mean…it feels like there's…something else."

"Way to go killing the mood, Princess." Tracy quipped.

Anna frowned. "How would you know?"

"Call it a hunch."

Anna levered herself to her feet and walked out towards the coast road which was still heavy with thick smoke from the artillery guns, and thought to herself. What else could possibly be happening? Melody was right, something felt strange, and Anna could feel it too in the pit of her stomach.

"Anna." Kristoff joined her and held her arm. "What's wrong?"

"Melody's right." Anna furrowed her brows further. "This isn't over."

"What do you mean?" Kristoff pointed out at the fjord, where the ships were barely visible behind the clouds of heavy smoke. "They've retreated. The attack is over. We won, Anna."

"No, there's…something else." Anna's eyebrows furrowed even more. She glanced back at her kingdom, which was now more visible from where she stood out at the coast road.

In evacuating the entire kingdom and deploying the army to protect the coastal front and the western border of Arendelle, they had left the city itself undefended due to the lack of manpower. She looked in the direction of the castle. Anna's heart lurched in her chest and she felt a horrible sensation wash over from her from the crown of her head to the soles of her feet. We left the kingdom unguarded. What Hans said last night about razing the kingdom to the ground…

"Tracy!" She spun on her heels.

"Yeah?"

"Use your powers!" Anna shouted. "Try to find Hans! I need to know where he is right now!"

"Why would-"

"Just do it!"

Tracy argued no further, closing her eyes and forming an "x" with her arms, palms facing up and head bowed. Purple mist swirled around her as she began chanting something foreign under her breath. Anna waited impatiently, shifting from foot to foot in anticipation of something that would prove her greatest fears right.

Finally, after what felt like hours to Anna, Tracy opened her eyes and looked up with disturbed eyes. "He's near the castle."

"Damn it!" Anna clutched her head in her hands. "We played right into his hand! He wanted us all to be kept busy while he slipped into the city undetected!"

"We'll come with you." Kristoff stepped forward.

"No, wait." Melody said, waving for their attention. "Maui, Tracy, you both get Anna to the castle to stop Hans." She looked at Kristoff. "You need to stay. The Arendellians need you here."

He nodded reluctantly, knowing that it was his duty to oversee things. "Be careful. Hans is cunning, more dangerous than you might think he is."

"Don't worry, we'll manage."

"What about you?" Anna turned to Melody, her patience already wearing thin and blood pounding in her ears, full of adrenaline and anxiety.

"I'll get to the hills to help Elsa and the others." Melody said. "Something tells me they're not having an easy time over there either."

Tracy nodded and hurriedly opened a Crossing Point for Melody, who gave a brief nod at the rest before leaping through the portal of purple mist, vanishing from the scene.

"Please be safe." Kristoff repeated as he squeezed Anna's hand worriedly.

"I will." Anna set her jaw. "Come on! We need to stop Hans before he burns down the city!"

And with that, they leapt through another Crossing Point conjured up by Tracy in haste, Anna hoping fervently that they would arrive before it was too late.