[Astral Realm]
Keeping an eye on the unknown vessel as its hull cut through the dark astral realm while being illuminated by the distant glow of a universe with a particularly bright outer shell, Darganth walked toward Vorthos as the deck below became bustling with activity.
Starting with three of the solar dragons from Vagha's group, their companions had quickly rushed onto the deck at the sound of Vorthos' shout. In doing so, the dragons casually moved into the cover of the various obstacles that were strategically placed in the first ten or so meters around the central teleportation platform, while the numerous draconians that were accompanying them stepped behind the stationary weapons that lined the sides of the ship and turned them inward. A third, much smaller group meanwhile did neither, with Allaire, Serania, and a few others that specialized in ranged combat instead gathering at the furthest edges of he deck.
Watching over this from next to the command console, Darganth watched the entire situation cautiously.
"What do you want me to do?" Vorthos asked a few moments after his arrival.
"For now, nothing. We'll see what they are going to do." Darganth decided, his draconic eyes not leaving the other Starweaver for even a moment.
Next to Vorthos, Enilla's expression twisted into a frown when the former just nodded in acceptance.
"Shouldn't we try to keep some distance until Neandra is back, just for safety's sake?" She asked.
"There's nothing to worry with them. While I can't tell how much of the mana is from the people on board and how much is from the Starweaver itself, even when added together, the energy on their vessel barely exceeds his reserves in quantity." Darganth said, motioning toward Vorthos.
Slightly taken aback by the information, the dragon-hydra quickly understood the intent behind those words. Cutting his connection to the Starweaver and letting the vessel slowly drift to a standstill, his expression shifted subtly as he got ready to intervene should it become necessary.
"Make sure that they can't use the teleporter to probe our strength. I want to see their initial actions and whether we can trust them."
As he gave this order, Darganth's lips curled up into a scheming grin. Unlike the more advanced sensing abilities like his dragon eyes, the standard mana sense most people relied on was heavily weakened in the astral, at least for non-ascendants.
While it worked completely normally inside a Starweaver or another shielded environment, its nature as a weak, almost invisible ripple of mana made it especially vulnerable to the astral realm's mana-destroying nature. Though even denser concentrations of a non-ascendant's mana wouldn't stand up to this for long, its increased vulnerability meant that to even scan just a hundred meters with it would require a truly tremendous amount of mana.
In fact, even Vorthos' entire reserves wouldn't be enough for such a task and could at most bring his mana sense to stretch for maybe two or three dozen meters through the astral. As such, the other vessel could identify nothing about them beyond the newly invented symbol that decorated the sides of the ship's bow.
Though not a good gauge for their strength, or any crew's for that matter, the lack of renown and known connection around this symbol would still make anyone with the intention to attack them less hesitant, as they wouldn't offend any powerful groups.
As such, when the other vessel drew within a kilometer of them a few minutes later, Darganth wasn't surprised to see a silvery bubble briefly flash to life around their ship. Becoming visible in a rippling pattern that spread outward across the bubble, the wave soon reached all the way back to the two tethers that stretched up and down from the teleportation platform, phasing through the hull of the ship in the process, and that were connecting it to the teleporation blocking shield that just activated.
"Was that already-" Vorthos asked.
"No, it's only disrespectful. But we'll use it as an opportunity to give them an opening. Lower the output to let them on board, then we'll see what they have to say." Darganth interrupted.
Following his words, Vorthos briefly reconnected to the Starweaver and lowered the teleportation shield's output just enough to allow the next teleportation attempt to arrive on board instead of being flung into the astral realm.
Mere moments after, the next flash of silver followed. Though instead of shimmering across the shield, it took the form of a spatial tear covered in a hue of silver mist that opened near the center of their ship's teleportation platform.
Emerging from this mass of spatial energy once it disappeared after but a moment, the man who was teleported onto their ship let his gaze wander over the assembled crowd. Not even hiding that he was gauging their strength, the edges of his lips slowly sank into a frown as he felt multiple powerful presences among Darganth's crew.
Though clad in unassuming clothes with only minimal leather armor covering his torso, Darganth didn't miss it when this was then followed by the man's stance shifting with trained precision once his gaze had swept over about two-thirds of the crowd.
"The ring." Vorthos said, noticing the change himself.
"I know." Darganth replied, well aware of not just the man's activation of the only magic item he carried with him but also the history behind this old pirate trick. By sending one member of the crew ahead with a piece of communication gear whose enchantments were specifically tailored to the task, they could calm their targets by appearing unassuming while simultaneously gaining insight into what kind of opposition they would have to expect when boarding.
Often, this individual would then be trusted to either launch or call off the attack based on what he was seeing. Sometimes, they would alternatively try to grab the enemy commander or another high-ranking member of the targeted crew.
Though what exactly the man before him intended was of little interest to Darganth, making him barely pay attention as the former spoke, "Who among you is the leader?"
Watching the man stalk across the deck with an arrogant look in his eyes when he didn't receive an answer within half a dozen seconds, Darganth only scoffed in contempt. Calmly waiting even as the man growled impatiently, or at least in part because of it, he let their soon-to-be enemy's frustration over the silence with which he was received grow.
"Fine then." The man ultimately shouted almost half a minute later and turned back toward the teleportation platform, "Get me back to my ship. If you didn't want to talk, you could've directly spared us this time."
Without him even having to so much as glance toward Vorthos, Darganth saw the teleportation platform light up in readiness. Still watching him vigilantly despite already starting to grow hopeful that they could avoid an incident with what were clearly pirates, even if seemingly inexperienced ones, judging by how easily the envoy's charismatic facade broke down, he was both relieved and confused to see the man disappear a moment later.
"All that for nothing?" Overhearing one of the solar dragons voice his own thoughts quite accurately into the silence that followed the man's departure, Darganth still didn't entirely understand what the other group's plan had been.
"Maybe they recognized the difference in power and realized we were aware of our advantage?" Enilla asked in an attempt to offer an explanation.
"Possibly." Darganth said, following the other ship as it turned its course away from them, "Alternatively, they could've planned to teleport in once he left in the hopes that we let our guard down, but something made them reconsider. Maybe a high-value realm fragment?"
Drawn to agree with his words, Vorthos was slowly nodding and already preparing to reconnect with their Starweaver when his eyes caught something surprising on the other vessel. Narrowing his eyes as he confirmed that it was speeding away from them far faster than they had approached, he spoke toward Darganth, "Or something that scare-"
Before Vorthos could finish his words, a crimson beam of energy tore into the other Starweaver from below. Scattering as it crashed against the shields that surround it, the beam split into a dozen smaller streaks that shot past the ship even as its shields started to flicker under the impact.
Pushing mana into his eyes, Darganth's vision became sharper, allowing him to see the details on the other ship. Thanks to this, he saw with perfect clarity how two dozen flashes of silver appeared in the center of the other ship and let just as many attackers spill forth onto the deck, causing the entire vessel to descend into chaos.
Though having surprise on their side, as the clash started, the attackers found themselves at a disadvantage due to the ship's spatial shield. Designed in a similar way to the one on Darganth's Starweaver, it created a funnel from the teleportation platform to the actual shield out of the mana that supplied the latter with energy. Due to this, the actual shield was close to twice as strong as one would expect for the energy expenditure, at the cost of a weak point that made it slightly easier to teleport to the funnel's origin even when compared to a normal spatial shield.
The purpose of this was to create a choke-point for any invaders that tried to board the ship, something its current attackers were experiencing painfully. With multiple of the ship's weapons having been turned inward and mages encircling the teleportation platform, the area around it had become a deathtrap as all manner of explosions erupted and various projectiles struck.
Forced to hunker down under the onslaught, the attackers became trapped for the first few seconds of the battle. But as more and more reinforcements teleported over to join their numbers, the defenders' advantageous position became overwhelmed by sheer numbers until a few of them found openings to try and break out.
Dashing out of the ring of shields his allies had established around the teleportation area, the first one of these quickly crossed the five meters that separated their lines and the closest foe. Already holding the dagger he wielded in his off-hand close to his chest, his reverse grip keeping the blade pointed forward and poised to strike, he swung the short-sword in his other hand against the incoming blade before thrusting forward with the dagger.
Striking the heavily armored aura user squarely on the chest-plate, this dagger screeched as it failed to pierce the plate-mail and slid off to the side. Dragged along by the momentum of this failed strike, the attacker was struck in the shoulder by his opponent's elbow as he stumbled past, sending him spinning and leaving him only barely enough time to react to the sword that was swung his way a moment later.
Bringing his forearms back to his torso, the invading aura user still managed to bring the metal reinforced leather armor he wore on his arms into the incoming weapon's path. Groaning when the sharp sword-edge nonetheless managed to sink a few millimeters into his flesh, he pushed through the pain and struck with his dagger.
Aiming for the weak points in the enemy armor, he sank the weapon tip first into the other man's elbow. Immediately, his actions drew a pained howl from his opponent and caused him to lose all strength in his hand, leaving his weapon to clatter to the ground.
But though this exchange left him unarmed and with one less functioning arm, the defender's resolve didn't waver. Staring at the dagger-wielding aura user with hate in his eyes, he feigned a retreat and prepared for his opponent to follow after him.
Acting as expected despite his own right arm being numb thanks to the sword that had cut all the way to the bone, the man became too focused on ending the fight to react when his heavily armored opponent suddenly lowered his shoulder into the strike's path. Catching the dagger on the shoulder-plate of his armor, he caused it to slip off to the side, which left the attacker's torso wide open.
Gladly taking the opportunity, the defender let his left fist strike out with a savage grin. With terrifying speed, the fist shot forth and accurately slammed into his opponent's chest. Under the brunt impact, the air was driven from the latter's lungs as his leather armor barely offered any protection to the hit, even causing him to slightly lift off the ground as he was thrown back.
Though before his body was catapulted for even a full meter, the defender had already reached for him again with surprising agility. Catching him by the hair and holding onto them despite their short length, he pulled his opponent's head into the knee he was simultaneously thrusting up. The two limbs then met with a terrifying crunch as blood and bone pieces splattered over the metallic knee protector, an impact that left the dagger-wielding aura user completely disoriented and would've resulted in him sinking to the ground while stumbling back if it hadn't been for the mages.
Having noticed the attack on their comrade practically the same instant as it had begun, they had been unable to get a clear enough firing line to intervene, forcing them to keep an eye open and wait for the opportunity. With the attacker barely still thinking, this moment thus arrived, leading to three rays of flames to strike him in the same instant as another mage shot a blast of highly corrosive acid into his back.
Under the onslaught of these two spells, the attacking aura user was dead before his body even hit the floor.
But while his attack was repulsed with this, the distraction it had created allowed two of his colleagues to rush through the resulting opening. Despite one being blocked by a different aura user, the other's arrival amid the mages created enough chaos for even more attackers to break through the now weakened hail of spells that came flying their way.
Just as this was happening, Darganth's view of the other ship became obscured when a third Starweaver cut through his line of sight, their weapons already aimed in his direction.
Quickly pivoting his thoughts, he rallied his crew, "Get ready, it looks like we're next."
At his shout, every gaze snapped back toward their own teleportation platform just in time for the first flash of silver to throw an attacker onto their deck.