<h4> Shit Shit Shit</h4>


    Leonel''s approach to war hadn''t changed much over the years, only because he never officially learned battle tactics. What he was good at was understanding people and guessing how they would react before even they were aware.


    In a situation like this one, where he had limited understanding of the parties involved and the environments the battle would take ce on, relying on cleverness was a hard pass.


    Rather than spending time wracking his brain to find clever schemes, the best path forward was absolute power.


    But that was a problem in and of itself.


    Not only was his power limited due to the Regtor, even if it wasn''t, he didn''t have the luxury of just suddenly going all out to defend the Sea Gods, because that would expose him much earlier than he wanted.


    To make matters worse, he couldn''t rely on the humans either because they were much too weak. If they had absolute power to rely on, they would have used it already and they wouldn''t be in this situation to begin with.


    This meant one thing: Leonel not only had to find a method of using strength to overwhelm his enemies, at least the very least until he had gathered enough information to use cleverness. He also had to somehow do so while keeping it within an eptable range.


    If he pushed it too far, it would be obvious that one of the participants in this race to im the Sea God Iplete World had taken the side of the humans.


    And if he didn''t go hard enough... well, that result was obvious. The humans would be finished.


    Threading this needle would probably be one of the hardest things that Leonel had ever done, but there was really only one path forward.


    He had to rely on the strengths the humans did have, maximize them, and ride the wave to victory.


    By the time his enemies realized he was here, it would be toote.


    What Leonel didn''t know was that his oddity had been sensed before he even had a chance to do anything.


    He hadn''t realized that the reason the Sea Gods were sox wasn''t because they were baiting the humans to return. Even if he was on his way back the security would have been just as easy to get through.


    The real reason they were so rxed was because they had an infallible confidence in Wise Sea Order.


    **


    "How many days are we going to spend like this? We should just storm this city already. What''s the point of all this?"


    A Sea God grumbled.


    He was young to begin with, as were pretty much all of them. Just sitting around like this instead of acting was really grating on his nerves.


    "Maybe Sashae is feeling just as bored. Who knows, she might actually ept your advances tonight."


    A round of jeering echoed as the young Sea God rolled his eyes. These guys weren''t being serious at all, but that didn''t stop him from standing up.


    "Ho, there he goes again."


    "Don''te back in a puddle of your tears this time. The ocean is salty enough."


    "We''ll clear out the camp for you. Out of respect, we''ll let you rub one out in silence tonight. The blue balls can''t be healthy."


    The young Sea God held up a pair of middle fingers, his tongue flicking out of his mouth in what looked like an even more obscene jester. Clearly, this was unique to the Sea Gods.


    He strode out of their small group with confident strides that grew less so the closer he got to a group of fairy-like voices. Unfortunately, he knew that his friends were watching him, so he couldn''t back out now. He''s never hear the end of it.


    When thedies noticed him approaching, their chatter died down into whispers and giggling.


    In the center of their little entourage, there was a young woman who looked indifferent to all things. Even when she smiled and nodded, it felt like she was fluttering off in a distance ce.


    The young Sea God coughed.


    "Fairy Sashae, might I speak to you in private for a moment?"


    "BOO!" One of the fiercer Sea Goddess interjected. "Say what you want to say right here. Don''t be a coward!"


    The young Sea God''s eye twitched.


    ''You fucking bitch. Why don''t you go confess to someone you like and see how confident you are then?''


    Even after he had this thought, he didn''t look toward the fierce Sea Goddess. Knowing her, rather than confessing, she''d probably drag him out of bed by the balls. So maybe that wasn''t the best example.


    The young Sea God cleared his throat again and looked toward Sashae for an answer.


    "Okay."


    To his surprise, the young Sea Goddess stood and walked toward him.


    Soon, they were walking away. Let alone thedies, even the young Sea God''s friends, were in shock. Their ruckus had died down, and they watched them disappear with open mouths.


    Even the young Sea God himself felt like he was watching all this happen from the sky. His soul had left his body, and he waspletely on autopilot.


    He almost didn''t realize that it was Sashae who was following him until they had long left the encampment.


    "Are you going to make me walk much further?"


    There seemed to be a hint of a smile in her voice that almost made him faint.


    The young Sea God froze and finally remembered that he was the man in this situation. No, he was the one who invited her, but he hadn''t thought he''d get this far. He knew nothing about this. Where the hell was he even going?


    He quickly looked around, and his heart leapt into his throat.


    There was nothing romantic about this ce at all, and the sun was still too high in the skies for the atmosphere to be ambiguous. It just felt...


    Awkward.


    ''Shit, shit, shit. What the hell do I say?''