Badge in Azure Chapter 732 - A Strong Army from Cloudflow (Part 2)

Chapter 732: A Strong Army from Cloudflow (Part 2)

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Each diving warship released six bone spirits simultaneously, but there was only one target. That meant that there were twelve troop-carrying vessels under attack at that moment.
Within the diving warships, the bone spirits were stored in obsidian rocks. Even though the winged skeleton had brought up many sunken ships, he could not possibly equip every warship with the Green Spirit. The Green Spirit was so precious because it was very rare on all planes, it was not only going extinct on Myers mainland.
Each diving warship could only transport twelve bone spirits. After release, it would require at least one day in order to summon or use the Spirit Pool to create a second batch of bone spirits.
Releasing six bone spirits a time, it meant that the diving warships had consumed half of their weapons. Such a weapon was different from an alchemical crossbow. If an alchemical crossbow had run out of magic nuclei, or there were no more suitable alchemical arrows, it could still fire normal arrows. Its lethality would be lowered by dozens of times by using normal arrows though. It could still function as a normal crossbow at the very least.
Once the bone spirits were depleted, the diving warships could only engage in melee battles. This was a technique invented by the Qin imperial family, but it was very dangerous because the diving warships could be easily destroyed by mages.
The winged skeleton gave such an order because he did not know how solid the enemy’s warships were, or the power of their retaliation. The first wave of the offensive had to sink the twelve troop-carrying vessels, it was worth it even if it meant having to waste offensive forces.
The winged skeleton’s prudence had paid off, as each troop-carrying vessel was attacked six times, the effect of the offensive was pronounced.
The twelve diving warships launched their attacks from both flanks, striking all their targets. As the gigantic bloodstones exploded, huge holes were blown in the sides of the troop-carrying vessels. Water from the lake gushed in quickly, no matter how large the troop-carrying vessels were, they would tilt and sink since they were assaulted from the side. These vessels tilted towards their damaged sides slowly.
The winged skeleton was astounded. Even though his calculation speed was lower than that of Saleen’s, it had surpassed most other mages. The impact created by the explosion of six bloodstones could even injure a sorcerer.
“The Cloudflow’s troop-carrying vessels had only lost their exterior metal armor. They are but troop-carrying ships, do they have to install an exterior metal shell while underwater?”
Clearly, the troop-carrying vessels contained separate capsules. If it were not for the extreme damage, the soldiers could even use the magic arrays to expel the water and preserve the vessels.
What was more horrifying was that the winged skeleton had discovered that if these vessels were carrying fewer materials and soldiers and he did not conduct the attack on the side, these vessels would not have sunk.
“The bloodstones from the diving warships do not make the cut, it seems like the pan’s turtle alchemical boat has to participate in this battle.”
Seeing that the twelve troop-carrying vessels could not be salvaged, the winged skeleton immediately gave the order to conduct a second wave of assault. This time around, he instructed the diving warships to release two bone spirits each time. One bone spirit would strike the rudder while the other would strike the side of the vessel. On the waterline, the bloodstones would explode at the location of the propeller.
This method could not sink the troop-carrying vessels, but it would obstruct their advance and cause them to anchor.
Of the eighty-four gigantic troop-carrying vessels, only seventy-two remained. Two of the leftover bone spirits would attack one ship, which meant that half of the remaining vessels would come under attack.
The winged skeleton knew that the going would get tough soon, “Unlike my expectations, the Cloudflow’s warships are extremely sturdy. Their retaliation will be very ferocious, the interception this time around won’t have a very good effect.”
Each of the twelve capsized troop-carrying vessels were transporting huge amounts of materials and six-thousand soldiers. Usually, such a troop-carrying vessel could only accommodate five-thousand people as per standard, but the Cloudflow people were too arrogant. They did not feel that they would meet with trouble at sea, so each ship was overloaded with an additional one-thousand people.
The extra one-thousand people accelerated the speed at which the vessels sank. Despite deploying lifeboats, less than one-thousand people were rescued. Most of the Cloudflow people knew how to swim, as long as they got rescued, they could still go onshore and form an offensive force for attacking Daliang City.
The Cloudflow people reacted very quickly. The last fourteen warships at the rear immediately accelerated and rushed forward. Of these fourteen warships, only one was longer than one-hundred yards and it had a powerful magic compass. The mages onboard this warship quickly scanned the surroundings and discovered the twelve targets underwater.
If the diving warships wanted to attack the enemy, they would have to float up before launching their attacks several yards underwater. If the diving warships released the bone spirits in deep water they would start leaking and might even be crushed by the water pressure.
After the few rounds of assault by the diving warships, seventy-two bone spirits had tackled thirty-six troop-carrying vessels. Water was flowing into one side of the troop-carrying vessels while their rudders had been ruined. They began making rounds around the lake.
The commander of the Cloudflow’s warship at the back could not observe the situation clearly despite using alchemical binoculars. He only saw that more than half of the troop-carrying vessels had stopped moving and he was astonished, “I have long heard that the Qin people were creating underwater warships, to think that it is really true.” The cost of producing these underwater warships was high and once they were discovered by mages, they would almost be powerless. The Cloudflow people could not be bothered to research them. A Weapon that was regarded as useless by the Cloudflow people had actually caused severe damage to Cloudflow’s fleet.
Seeing that all the bone spirits had been released, the winged skeletons no longer needed to guide them with precision. He immediately steered the pan’s turtle alchemical boat to stealthily approach the fourteen warships at the rear. The pan’s turtle alchemical boat was sufficiently sturdy, without a grade-9 sorcerer present, no one would be able to threaten his safety.
A grade-9 sorcerer? One could be on the main warship one-hundred miles away, but even if one rushed over they would take a half an hour to get there. The winged skeleton could already destroy the remaining troop-carrying vessels during this time.
At the moment, the winged skeleton no longer hoped to sink the enemy’s main warship. He wanted to destroy the enemy’s troop-carrying vessels and cause significant damage to the enemy’s army. As long as the pan’s turtle alchemical boat sank to the seabed, even a grade-9 sorcerer would not dare create trouble for him. He was a spirit while the enemy was human. In an underwater battle, humans would not have the upper hand.
Twelve diving warships, without the bone spirits, pounced at the remaining troop-carrying vessels. The offensive method used by these metal diving warships was pretty ferocious. The triangular bow of the warship spun furiously as it crashed at the rudder of the troop-carrying vessels. Had the diving warships struck the sides, they might have been the one who sunk.
At that moment, the diving warships did not conceal their positions anymore and they attacked the troop-carrying vessels frantically. The magic arrays within the diving warships operated at full speed, increasing the speed of the warship to maximum velocity. Such a method of travel would basically cause the magic installations to become crippled.
Due to an overload of passengers, the troop-carrying vessels were not agile enough and their rudders were destroyed. Paddles extended out from both sides of the troop-carrying vessels and the sailors and gigantic magic beasts in the vessels began rowing the paddles, trying to escape.
The twelve diving warships decided to float up to the surface to ram the paddles. As the huge wooden paddles were fractured, all of the troop-carrying vessels slowly came to a halt. The diving warships were still using their spinning bows to attack the weak areas of the troop-carrying vessels, trying to breach the sides.
The outcome was glorious, but the winged skeleton was not very surprised. The warships one-hundred miles ahead had begun turning around, while the fourteen warships at the rear were fast approaching.
“If the Cloudflow people arranged warships to protect these troop-carrying vessels, I would not have been so successful.”
The pan’s turtle alchemical boat resembled an alligator, concealing itself in the water as it waited for the warships from the rear to arrive. The winged skeleton’s target was that warship which measured over one-hundred yards in length. Only this warship could pose a direct threat to the diving warships.
The winged skeleton’s warring tactic was very effective, he had destroyed the rudders of the troop-carrying vessels, which would lead to the warships coming forth to reinforce their comrades. The three squads coming from the side were already less than thirty miles away. Both parties were going to engage in a head-on battle, there would be no room for backing out. The Cloudflow people could only activate their fastest warship, they could not assemble a proper formation.
The winged skeleton did not care about the depletion, “As long as these troop-carrying vessels can be sunken, it is worth it even if I lose these skeletal warships.”
On the surface of the lake, there were many Cloudflow soldiers who had fallen into the water. The soldiers did not wear armor, they were clad in cotton clothes. The winged skeleton was waiting for the skeletal warships to come close before shooting these Cloudflow people at a short distance.
Through clenched teeth, the winged skeleton thought to himself, “Once I return, I have to transform Metatrin’s fleet quickly, the Cloudflow’s fleet on the ocean is definitely stronger than the one used on this lake. If Cloudflow attacks Metatrin City, my fleets might not be able to withstand it.”
Other than the winged skeleton, there were no other intelligent spirits onboard the pan’s turtle alchemical boat. The winged skeleton commanded the skeletal soldiers to activate the death magic array, releasing all the bone spirits onboard the pan’s turtle alchemical boat. The Spirit Pool on the ship had been replaced, it could create twenty-four bone spirits every day. These spirits were already at grade-3 the moment they were borne, their lives were very short. All of them were stored in the Green Spirit rocks.
This was the winged skeleton’s personal ship and the bloodstones had been further refined by the winged skeleton. Their power was now equivalent to that of level-6 magic. If it was not for the volatility of this item, the winged skeleton would want to make more to use them in land battles. “A pity though, if I do it my city might be destroyed.”
Carrying the purple bloodstone, two bone spirits charged towards the approaching Cloudflow warships. The mage onboard the Cloudflow warship immediately discovered this underwater attack. He then ordered his subordinate mages to alter the direction of travel in an attempt to dodge the attack. Under the winged skeleton’s command, the bone spirits traveled faster than the warships, however.
Two bone spirits made a turn in water and ruthlessly rammed into the bow of the warship.
There were two raucous explosions as a cavity was forcefully created in the bow of this one-hundred-yard long warship. The bloodstones, which were personally refined by the winged skeleton, did not let him down. The colossal warship quivered a few times at the surface, before tilting forward. Just two attacks were needed to take out a powerful warship.
The winged skeleton was very glad that there were no grade-9 mages onboard this warship.
When the thirteen warships at the rear witnessed this scene they turned around to flee. The winged skeleton did not bother giving chase, he ignored the mage who had flown up from the warship he destroyed.
The winged skeleton swerved around, making a beeline for the troop-carrying vessels which were floating on the surface. The remaining twenty-four bone spirits were released by him at the same time. They swam swiftly towards the most undamaged troop-carrying vessels.
A string of explosions occurred and the twenty-two troop-carrying vessels began sinking into the water.
The winged skeleton then realized that only three of diving warships were still attacking the troop-carrying vessels, the other nine had been destroyed by the warriors and mages onboard the troop-carrying vessels. The winged skeleton daringly used the magic compass and realized that his three squads were less than twenty miles away, while the Cloudflow warships at the front were still sixty miles away.
The winged skeleton then smiled, “Those troop-carrying vessels are doomed. When the Cloudflow people get here, they can only salvage the soldiers who fell overboard. How many can they save?” Cloudflow soldiers were aplenty on the surface of the lake, as the winged skeleton floated up stealthily. Once he got close to the soldiers, he began using death magic to attack them.
Cloudflow’s sailors were of high quality, so the winged skeleton wanted to injure them as much as possible to render Cloudflow’s rescue mission meaningless.