CHAPTER 6

The next day, Kaitos' military began making rounds in the ocean in front of the kingdom as well as recruitment notices for anyone willing to volunteer. The border guards numbers were doubled and on high alert. Ruto spent her time helping people with the procedures to shelter in place. Between the refugees and anyone else non-military about half the population in Kaitos kingdom weren't going to be fighting. Although they weren't eligible for the draft, about thirty of Ruto's blue sea zoras volunteered for the fight.

All of the egg baths were recommended to be boarded regardless of whether or not they had eggs in them. This was to make them less obvious as to what they were and to make the eggs less likely to be targets should the river zora make their way up the beach.

Kaito and Ruto kept her eggs on the down low. The only people besides them that even knew Ruto had laid eggs were prince Noden, Muir, and Nehir. They came up with a plan that Muir and Nehir were to barricade themselves in the room with Prince Noden and guard the eggs while boarding the tub shut and making it look like they were just guarding Noden. They were hoping it wasn't going to come to that, but they also estimated they were dealing with a five to one ratio of warriors with Kaito having the lesser end of the deal. Ruto's plan was to hang back on the beach hoping to use her water magic to stop anyone who got past the military to stop them from entering the caves of the domain.

Joining her were the non-aquatic people of Labyrinna. The King of Labyrinna had responded to Kaitos message and agreed to help. He sent soldiers to remain on standby in the farmlands until the day they heard the sounds of the war horn. They were to then make their way to the beach to help with the fight. The border patrol sounded the horn two weeks after the initial alert from the guards. This helped even the numbers a bit with the river zora, although the Labyrinna non-aquatic citizens couldn't help with anything in the ocean, which is where the fight was coming from.

Kaito led from the front. The river zora originally had one tail on the end like mermaids; very few had that feature these days. Most had two legs with webbed feet like modern zora. The river zora were thought to be the earliest breed in their evolutionary line.

Mermaids and zoras were also natural enemies. Mermaids didn't just prey on unsuspecting humans, They played their songs to the zora as well, preying upon them when they fell under the spell of their songs. Zora were harder for mermaids to kill since they couldn't just drown them like humans, but getting a good bite in the neck or use of a weapon is easier when your prey is under a trance.

The presence of mermaids in the river zoras territory is why they were attacking. They needed new waters to settle in away from the mermaids and weren't in the mood to share space with other breeds.

The river zora king also led from the front. The two kings spotted each other and went straight for each other in the battle. With the force of their sheer numbers, the river zoras numbers allowed many of them to make their way past the sea lagoon zora army and on to the beach.

Emerging on the beach to invade the caves wasn't as easy as they anticipated. Ruto used her magic to encase them in a large ball of water and lifted them high in the air. Suddenly the water bubble disappeared causing them to free fall about 50 feet onto the sand. Those who weren't killed on impact were killed quickly by the non aquatic Labyrinnes soldiers. She continued to do this as river zora emerged. Often having five or six water spheres going at once, she had to get them encased quickly as they emerged because they had fire breath.

The river zoras ability to use fire magic in any capacity was something that puzzled magic academia for centuries.

This unfortunately meant that as one managed to break free swimming out of the spheres she broke concentration to dodge the fireball attack. Causing each sphere to break. This caused her to have to change strategies. She moved closer to the ocean waves to avoid hitting the non-aquatics with her attacks.

She was able to hold back incoming soldiers using wave attacks. And those who did get close got hit with high water pressure attacks. It took around an hour of fighting, for the numbers to finally calm down. Everyone was exhausted. King Kaito emerged from the water. Baldy injured and limping. He was struggling to stand as soon as got out of the water. Ruto immediately used her water magic to create a water bubble to lift him and brought him towards her and gently set him down next to her.

"Are you okay? Is anything broken?" she had concern in her eyes. She began a type of water bubble magic that had healing properties.

"Nothing broken except my pride. The river zora king proved to be stronger than I expected. King Seaton and Queen Mazu came to my rescue. The attack on our kingdom was a surprise for them they weren't expecting. Thankfully the river zoras have fallen back in retreat. King Seaton has some good defense magic that I lack.

As he started to feel better and sat up, he noticed the beach was littered with dead river zora bodies. "I see you were busy" He said looking around at the bodies, "I know there is no way the non-aquatics did all of this"

Ruto smiled, "No but they definitely helped. Once the river zora were injured they were able to finish them off if I hadn't killed them initially. I don't think any made it through to the caves."

"I'll confirm that with them. Also, thank you." Kaito said, then pulled Ruto in, embracing her against him tightly with both arms. "It's good having you on my team."