Translated by: SaltyTank
Edited by: crimsonwolf8439
A few hours late, but meh. Here ya go ~
Chapter 44
The storm deities were basically a bunch of chaotic r.e.t.a.r.ds with divine powers; they often did pointless things where the costs outweighed the benefits. For example, the G.o.ddess Anbo was now punishing Claudius for destroying of a fleet under her protection, but the divine power she spent on the matter was way more than that the sailors had given to her through worshipping and praying. As a matter of fact, praying to Anbo did not guarantee safe travelling among the seas; at most 60 percent of the ships that gave their prayers would survive the trip. 20 percent of the ships would be destroyed by a random storm she brewed up for no apparent reason, while the remaining vessels would be attacked by pirates, who, ironically, also gave prayers to the G.o.ddess.
Destroying her fleet was not the main reason for inducing her wrath; the way Claudius threatened the crew members and captain was. If he had been a worshipper of Anbo, she would have ignored the incident and treat it as a test or challenge among her own worshippers, but clearly no sane dragons would worship such an insane G.o.ddess.
Claudius looked around and noticed the shape of the island had been changed. Luckily, the waves had reduced power at higher alt.i.tudes and did not cause much direct damage to the Udaeus" dwelling. The Udaeus were experienced soldiers as well, thus they rushed out of the lair the moment the first wave struck the island. Securing themselves by nailing chains into the platform Claudius made beforehand, they somehow managed to survive the rest of the a.s.saulting waves. They proceeded to form a formation within the waist-deep water level just as the Sahuagin and Sharkmen began their attack. The 20 sea tribe warriors had an average level of 14, but they were all half baked mages and second rate paladins. Even with the pirates who worshiped Anbo, their battle force only numbered around 200, not to mention that only several of the Level 16 or above Naga priests and paladins had the ability to damage Claudius. The rest were just a bunch of garbage trying to surround the Crimson Dragon with numbers.
The typhoon enhanced with divine power now had unparalleled destruction power, forming a non-fly zone; even a hundred-tonne dragon would tumble around in the intense winds. Given the circ.u.mstances, Claudius folded his wings to prevent himself from being blown off the peak. The rocks rumbled and rolled down the mountain, but her blessed crusaders moved as if the wind and rain was non-existent and gradually approached the dragon.
A lightning strike over 10 kilometres long struck the ma.s.sive conductor on the peak of the mountain. Claudius" scales and horns contained traces of metal, and the lightning naturally travelled through the shortest route with least resistance to the ground — his body. It did not hurt much though as Claudius only felt slightly limp. As if it was the signal for attack, the battle broke out after the lightning struck the Crimson Dragon. A myriad of divine spells like Harm was casted by the attackers, but they were all either blocked or dissipated by the dense white mist generated by their target. The Naga paladins threw themselves at Claudius, swinging magical weapons which could penetrate his scales and deal ma.s.sive damage due to their huge size.
Unfortunately for the Naga paladins, Claudius had a weapon called agility. The paladins would not have been able to scratch his scales, let alone landing a strike, if not for the limited size of the battlefield. Despite the undesirable landscape, Claudius still managed to dodge all the incoming attacks for now; having gaping wounds on his body was the last thing he wanted. The Naga paladins, on the other hand, were having trouble handling the dragon. They could not attack all at once as they would only go in the way of each other, allowing their target to demolish them in a single strike. Claudius had a wide range of "weapons", ranging from his claws and jaws to his tail and even his muscular legs, which could be used to squish the enemy. His bite was especially powerful, being able to puncture through layers of divine protection spells and barriers. One of the Sahuagin paladins proved it the brutal way; it was chopped into two chunks with just a single bite by Claudius. The 4-metre-tall Sahuagin paladin tried to fight against fate just before it was killed, using its magic spear to stop Claudius from closing his jaws — but that was the wrong decision; it should had stabbed his mouth with all its might. As a result, the divine protection spell and its weapon shone brightly for one last time before getting crushed by the overwhelming force, and the rest was obvious. A torrent of blood flooded out of the lower half of the Sahuagin paladin as it dropped to the ground, with its tail wiggling a few times before it came to a rest.
The current invaders posed much less of a threat than the previous dragons he fought against; the only reason Claudius had yet to completely demolish the invaders was that he had to divert part of his focus to the sky filled with divine power. He was aware of the possibility that Anbo would personally descend to the mortal realm due to her personality. Without caring about the downpour of rain, Claudius began spraying fire everywhere. The red hot flames evaporated the rain and seawater flooding the island, producing a white misty dome. Although the fire elements were rather inactive in the region, his flames were still as powerful as ever. The flammable fluids in the breath attack could still ignite and burn in the rain as the fluids had a hidden property; not only were they flammable, they were also strong oxidizing agents. It was extremely unscientific for a body to generate strong oxidizing agents, but this was nonetheless the fact.
While rain did not affect the intensity of his flames, the wind brought by the raging typhoon lowered the surrounding temperature. Combined with the rain, heat was being dissipated at an alarming rate, lowering the temperature of flames to a level which could be resisted by magic. But not everyone could use magic to shield themselves from the fire; only the priests and crusaders had the power to do so. The pirates who managed to resist his dragon aura thanks to Anbo"s blessing now shuddered in fear as they witnessed the scene of their comrades burning like candles. Only a few of them died, but it shook them up enough to scatter their formation.
Right after Claudius" breath attack, his Udaeus arrived at the scene. They pushed forward in a strict formation, ignoring the heavy raindrops slamming on their armour and shields. With helmets hiding their faces, shields and spears in hand, the Udaeus marched towards to lousy pirates. The pirates had never seen such a strict formation — it was exceedingly rare to see armies in a standard formation due to the abusive use of magic.
If Claudius could check the attribute screen of his army right now, he would notice that the Udaeus had received ma.s.sive buffs due to his presence. When near him, the Udaeus soldiers would receive a buff to their attack and defence stats, as well as having magic resistance comparable to that of a dragon. Like bubbles drifting in the air, the pirates disappeared one after another. They were turned into corpses by Claudius" subordinates, each being killed without resistance like a punctured sack of flour. Some ran, some pleaded for their lives, some sent their "comrades" to their death to keep their own lives, but none of them were spared at the end — they were up against a merciless army of killing machines. The pirates were all at least Level 10 and were considered the strongest among the pirates of the Velen Isles, but they were no stronger than a pig or a dog right now. Even dogs would bite their enemies in danger; all the escaping pirates did was chopping everything which blocked their escape route, killing their own comrades while fleeing. None of them survived the onslaught, with spears going through their bodies as they breathed their last breath in fear. The pirates were mercilessly slaughtered, but that was well-deserved considering the evil deeds they had done in the seas.
The outcome of the battle had been crystal clear from the beginning — it was only much more one-sided with the Udaeus arriving at the scene.