Chapter 1313: Clash
A month later, Lin Yun led a fleet of magic battles.h.i.+ps towards the spatial coordinates that he had set on The Intrepid.
The Intrepid and the three magic battles.h.i.+ps had accelerated for 10 days. Observing from the wars.h.i.+ps, one could see nothing but streaks of light. It was because they were too fast. Their routes were already set, and they all carried energy s.h.i.+elds, so they weren’t afraid of asteroids on the way at all.
After a half month of voyage, they finally approached an area of s.p.a.ce that seemed very desolate. However, the moment they emerged from the darkness that couldn’t be illuminated by light, they saw five iron wars.h.i.+ps 1,000 meters long in their way.
The five iron wars.h.i.+ps floated in the void 1,000 kilometers away from Lin Yun. That distance was basically the wars.h.i.+p’s attack range.
Seeing the five iron wars.h.i.+ps and the marks on their surfaces, Lin Yun frowned.
The mark was a th.o.r.n.y crown, which was a simple pattern. However, Lin Yun didn’t look well after he saw that.
The Th.o.r.n.y Crown was a mysterious organization with a complicated list of members. It didn’t have a lot of official members, but all of them were excellent in one particular aspect. They were different from normal mage organizations, and were more like the Starry Sky College.
The Shadow Tower and the Ring of Roses both belonged to the Th.o.r.n.y Crown. After meeting Emmy, Lin Yun knew that the headquarters she mentioned were the Th.o.r.n.y Crown. Lin Yun was never worried, because the Th.o.r.n.y Crown was never interested in fighting. They pursued the truth of magic.
If the Th.o.r.n.y Crown learned that Emmy tried to summon a devil overlord, they would only punish the Ring of Roses for bringing trouble to the Th.o.r.n.y Crown. Anything that exposed the Th.o.r.n.y Crown to the public was a violation of the rules.
That was why Lin Yun wasn’t too bothered by the incident with the Ring of Roses. This was the age of the Th.o.r.n.y Crown’s early development. It had various sorts of members, such as the mages in the Ring of Roses who had transplanted other bloodlines, and the shadow mages of the Shadow Tower who performed a.s.sa.s.sinations with the power of shadows…
All in all, not many people liked them. They had been surrounded and attacked countless times. Everybody thought that they were annihilated, but a few years later, they would rise again.
They would certainly not retaliate against Lin Yun at the risk of exposing themselves. Lin Yun was quite positive of that.
He didn’t expect to see the Th.o.r.n.y Crown’s iron wars.h.i.+ps defending the safest entrance in here. Remembering the information that Lord Shawn collected last time, Lin Yun was greatly enlightened.
No wonder the Th.o.r.n.y Crown would stop hiding in 1,000 years. By then, they would be powerful, rich, and skilled enough for them to walk in the sunlight.
In history, this special plane was discovered exactly in this age. He simply didn’t know that it was the Th.o.r.n.y Crown which had discovered it.
The more important thing that they referred to was probably the exploration of this plane.
However, they would have to wait for 1,000 years before they dared to walk in the sunlight, so their development of this plane couldn’t be easy…
Lin Yun was considering these things. Without his order, the other people on the battles.h.i.+ps didn’t dare to attack. While Lin Yun waited, the Th.o.r.n.y Crown’s five wars.h.i.+ps changed their direction, and aimed their weapons at him.
Energy cannonb.a.l.l.s were thrown towards The Intrepid over a distance of 1,000 kilometers. Those b.a.l.l.s of light were so dense that they seemed to be drifting towards the targets.
Seeing the scene, Lord Shawn grinned and laughed crazily.
“Oh my G.o.d, what have I seen? Are they planning to destroy The Intrepid with such attacks? Are they trying to drown us with those energy b.a.l.l.s?”
“It will take at least 15 minutes before they hit us, right?”
Lord Shawn tilted its head and glanced at Pinocchio, who sneered in disdain and nodded.
“Considering the speed of their Mana Crystal Cannons, it will take 15 minutes before they hit our battles.h.i.+ps.”
“Sir Merlin, should we dodge?”
Lin Yun was almost amused. Did those people think that the battles in the boundless void were the same as those in Noscent? They were using the Mana Crystal Cannons, which were for city defenses in Noscent, in the void…
It was quite remarkable that the energy cannonb.a.l.l.s remained intact after crossing 1,000 kilometers. However, they didn’t have a lot of momentum left. Even the newly made magic battles.h.i.+ps couldn’t be damaged by them, not to mention The Intrepid.
Lin Yun’s group had been flying so fast on their way that any meteoroid they hit was much more powerful than those energy b.a.l.l.s. However, none of the meteoroids was able to penetrate the magic battles.h.i.+ps’ energy s.h.i.+elds.
“Magic Battles.h.i.+p No. 1, listen to my order. Destroy those five pieces of garbage.”
It would’ve been a waste to use The Intrepid against those people…
On the left side of The Intrepid, a magic battles.h.i.+p had openings on its two sides and bottom. Barrels that were almost 10 meters long extended from the battles.h.i.+ps.
Immediately, a red streak of light crossed 1,000 kilometers almost in the blink of an eye, and hit one of the iron wars.h.i.+ps, followed by dozens more. They riddled the iron wars.h.i.+p with holes in no more than 10 seconds. It was burning, and its reaction furnace was penetrated. It exploded, turning into flames.
Then, the laser cannons were aimed at the second iron wars.h.i.+p, which was destroyed in no more than 10 seconds again.
Seeing that, the people of the Th.o.r.n.y Crown were dumbfounded. Their enemy had destroyed two of their iron wars.h.i.+ps in 20 seconds with the smallest s.h.i.+p…
The other three iron wars.h.i.+ps accelerated and fled crazily, but in only half a minute, another two of them were destroyed.
The last iron wars.h.i.+p was fleeing at full speed with the remains of the two iron wars.h.i.+ps as cover.
The laser cannons were very fast, but they could not attack any longer in such a situation. Their power would be weakened by the remains. Also, if the distance was too long, their precision wouldn’t be good enough.
“Adjust the laser cannons’ perspective, and try the electromagnetic energy cannon.”
Lin Yun was quite satisfied with the result.
It had only been a couple of months. The weapons were already powerful enough.
After Lin Yun gave the order, an opening appeared on the top of Magic Battles.h.i.+p No. 1. A thick barrel that was 300 meters long surfaced. As mana was injected, the barrel glittered, and electricity flowed on the cannon like snakes, and gathered in front of the barrel. In no more than three seconds, they formed an energy barrel that was 1,000 meters long.
A cannonball that was only seven meters long was accelerated in the barrels, and thrown forth from the end of the electricity barrel quickly. The cannonball was so astonis.h.i.+ngly fast that it appeared hundreds of kilometers away in only one second. At the end of the barrel, spatial ripples were spreading out. Tiny spatial cracks extended for dozens of kilometers.
A few seconds later, the remains of the two iron wars.h.i.+ps exploded, as if they had been torn into halves by a beast. The last iron wars.h.i.+p that escaped was deformed. It was suddenly shortened by more than 100 meters, and a huge hole appeared in its end, but it was the front half of the battles.h.i.+p that exploded like a blooming metal flower.
“S-so powerful. That attack could definitely compare to the full-strength strike of a level-5, no, level-6 Heaven Rank expert. Their attack range is not so long.
“No, it cannot compare to a level-6 Heaven Rank expert…”
Fantexi was quite terrified of the power of the electromagnetic energy cannon’s attack. He knew that the cannon was controlled by a few Archmages. None of them were in the Heaven Rank…
They didn’t know what the magic battles.h.i.+ps meant until they saw the real performance.
The iron wars.h.i.+ps were the best products that the big organizations could make. Also, it was believed that the bigger they were, the better. The iron wars.h.i.+ps were like moving continents where one’s every need could be satisfied. To sail in the boundless void and search for more planes and resources, the iron wars.h.i.+ps could sail for decades, if not hundreds of years at one time.
This age was the beginning of colonization. Besides the Planar Paths that were in Noscent, and those that could be found in the planes that they led to, one had to look for new Planar Paths in order to get to new planes, or the spatial barriers of the new planes.
Only if they found the barriers of a plane could they expect to break in. n.o.body could tell what kind of plane it was until they entered it. They could only make speculations based on the hardness of the barriers.
If the barriers were as powerful as Noscent’s, then they had to be protecting a world with complete laws, and likely ferocious creatures.
The Planar Paths were miracles of planes anyway. The natural Planar Paths were even rarer. They could all be developed regardless of their size.
Most planes had to be searched for like needles that were on the bottom of an ocean. A lot of time would have to be wasted…
Even the best wars.h.i.+ps in this age were quite slow. When they sailed in the void, they were like floating asteroids. Every adventure would take at least 10 years.
Because of the iron wars.h.i.+ps’ limitations, they could only exist for several decades. If they encountered any accident in the boundless void, they might turn into garbage in only 20 years.
That was an important reason behind the slow development at the beginning of the colonization age. How could they conquer and colonize without discovering planes?
The age of colonization didn’t really reach its heyday until the magic battles.h.i.+ps were invented and manufactured on a large scale.
Everybody was already shocked when they saw the magic battles.h.i.+ps’ horrifying speed at the beginning. They were even more shocked when they saw the magic battles.h.i.+p’s outburst, even though the three magic battles.h.i.+ps had all been created by them in person…
Fantexi’s face turned red, and he was completely excited.
“So terrifying. The magic battles.h.i.+ps will definitely change the paradigm of Noscent. They are just the most beginner-level magic battles.h.i.+ps that we’ve created in our first attempt. They’re not nearly as good as the magic battles.h.i.+ps that Sir Merlin imagines.”
“I always thought that I couldn’t see Sir Merlin’s designs come to reality by the end of my life. But they’re even more powerful than I thought…”
“They’re not magic tools, not alchemy puppets, just a congregation of alchemy devices without using the power of laws. Yet, they’re as powerful as a Heaven Rank expert…”
Pinocchio, at the same time, had started calculating crazily. He recorded the data of the weapon system, and ran deductions with bloodshot eyes.
They weren’t too excited about the speed, but the destructiveness meant a whole different thing.
Creating 1,000 such magic battles.h.i.+ps meant having hundreds of level-5 Heaven Rank experts, which was enough to conquer any plane. They didn’t have to approach any target. They only needed to send a fleet of magic battles.h.i.+ps, which could easily destroy anything in a radius of hundreds of kilometers.
Even the most powerful iron wars.h.i.+ps in this age didn’t receive too much attention, mainly because they were walking targets to any Heaven Rank expert, and would become enormous iron coffins. They could only serve as vehicles that made the explorations in the boundless void more comfortable.
If the iron wars.h.i.+ps could be better than regular level-1 Heaven Rank experts in terms of speed, defense, and offense, then everybody would invest into relevant research.
Unfortunately, n.o.body paid much attention to it at this moment. Or rather, they wouldn’t devote a lot of resources to it even if they did…
Everybody looked at the remains of the iron wars.h.i.+ps that were drifting away in the void. None of them showed any reaction. They were so shocked that their heads went blank.
Standing in the captain room, Lin Yun looked at the incoming energy b.a.l.l.s. Those were the attacks that the five iron wars.h.i.+ps had launched at first. They would hit The Intrepid and the three magic battles.h.i.+ps in more than 10 minutes.
Fantexi was the first to calm down. He looked at the dense spots of light in the distance, and casually asked, “Sir Merlin, should we dodge the attacks?”
It was like a huge number of fireflies had appeared in the void, flying towards the wars.h.i.+ps. Because they were very slow, the magic battles.h.i.+ps could easily dodge them. They could even destroy the iron wars.h.i.+ps first.
“That’s unnecessary. Unfold the energy s.h.i.+elds and move onward.”
On the surfaces of the three magic battles.h.i.+ps, a membrane of light surfaced, and enshrouded them. The Intrepid and the three magic battles.h.i.+ps continued sailing.
A few minutes later, The Intrepid and the magic battles.h.i.+ps collided with the hundreds of energy b.a.l.l.s. When the latter hit The Intrepid, they blossomed on the surface of the vessel like fireworks, but couldn’t leave any mark on it.
When the energy b.a.l.l.s. .h.i.t the magic battles.h.i.+ps, there were blooming fireworks too. Ripples spread out on the surfaces of the magic battles.h.i.+ps. All the attacks were like pebbles that were thrown into a lake. They caused nothing but some ripples, which soon disappeared.
Without changing their direction at all, the magic battles.h.i.+ps had pa.s.sed through all the attacks. n.o.body on the magic battles.h.i.+ps felt anything. The attacks that could’ve destroyed a city didn’t damage the magic battles.h.i.+ps’ energy protection at all. They increased the energy core’s consumption a little bit, but nothing more…
After pa.s.sing through the attacks that were launched a dozen minutes earlier, Pinocchio screamed a bunch of data as if he had gone mad.
“Magic Battles.h.i.+p No. 1’s energy protection was weakened by 0.3%, which was restored in three seconds. Its energy consumption was increased by 0.1%…”
“d.a.m.n it, in such a case, even 10,000 Archmages won’t be able to tear apart the magic battles.h.i.+p’s energy protection. At least a level-4 Heaven Rank expert is required to tear apart the protection with extraordinary power. But it won’t last long. The opening will be restored in only a few seconds.”
“Are those magic battles.h.i.+ps really our work?”
Pinocchio read the data before his eyes in a trance. According to his calculation, the magic battles.h.i.+ps he created had the energy level of a level-4 Heaven Rank mage, or a level-3 Heaven Rank mage in their peak state.
However, the battles.h.i.+ps contained 1,000 times as much mana as a level-3 Heaven Rank mage had, and provided a range of protection 1,000 times greater than that of a level-3 Heaven Rank mage did too.
The only people who posed a threat to the magic battles.h.i.+ps were level-5 Heaven Rank mages, who could make use of the extraordinary power of laws, and tear apart the magic battles.h.i.+ps’ protection so that they could shatter the magic battles.h.i.+ps.