Translated by: SaltyTank
Edited by: crimsonwolf8439
Only one chapter today as crim is busy with l i f e. Enjoy!
Time to TL a few more chapters before I leave :o)
Chapter 47
To the Udaeus, the quality of the road was irrelevant to their marching speed. They could march at equal speeds on both big broad highways and rough mountainous paths. Despite their equipment were similar to that of ancient Roman heavy infantry, their physique far surpa.s.sed mankind, allowing them to travel a lot faster than their Roman counterparts. The soldiers marched as Claudius overlooked them from the skies. He planned to return to the rocky island after having a brief look of their first battle as the island gave him a sense of security.
Marching onwards, the Udaeus spotted the first village in the distance. Trees and bushes were replaced by farmland and wooden walls which guarded their target. The Udaeus changed into battle formation while marching, forming a horizontal formation to surround the entire village. They finished their deployment as soon as the alarm in the village rang loudly, causing panic from within the wooden walls.
"Truly an elite force. They could probably take over the village without stopping their march by the looks of it! This is gonna be good!" Claudius praised his soldiers while gliding down towards the village, "Might as well give them a little help."
Claudius spit his flames in a thin column with precision, burning nothing but the wooden walls. He then left the rest to his army and flew away after all the villagers soiled their pants while trembling. Without the village walls, it was impossible to defend from three Udaeus companies — to be honest, it did not matter much as only a handful of towns in the entire Floren had the military power to defend from such an invasion. The wooden walls were only slight obstacles which would not change the outcome; it was all pre-determined the moment the Udaeus reached their walls.
Claudius" faithful soldiers easily took over the village without ma.s.sacring everyone; only a handful of unlucky r.e.t.a.r.ds dared to fight back and were killed. Judging from the petty look of the wooden house which they used as a temple for worshipping the G.o.ddess of grain, the few apprentices and the lone priest lacked combat power and could not repel the invaders. The tidy formations of the Udaeus and the shadow of the Crimson Dragon flying across the village proved that resistance was futile. The priest decided that they would most likely be spared if they surrender and negotiate with the highly disciplined invaders.
The elders and the priest quickly calmed down the villagers and surrendered. The Udaeus did not loot the houses in the village, only occupying the storage silos while demanding the representatives of the village to provide water and food during their stay. The invaders also demanded logs and livestock from the villagers. The Udaeus plan to resupply and prepare siege weapons in the village before marching onwards to the core town of the island — Saint Cruz Port.
As the capital of the island, Saint Cruz Port had a population of 2000 people. The majority of the residents were either fishermen or farmers. From Claudius" point of view, the town was no more than a place with a few buildings, several roads, and a handful of people running around. The stinking smell of fish was all over the place, but thankfully, the town was still relatively clean. He also thought that occupying the town was a simple task, as the strongest warriors in the town were the twenty or so guards who were on patrol all the time. The fishermen and farmers, who often idled in the only three bars in the town, also had considerable strength, but they were not trained in combat. The scarce stone structures were the temples of Chauntea and Pelor, which accommodated the priests and apprentices of the grain G.o.ddess and sun G.o.d — they were the only spellcasters in the town, but they were only slightly troublesome as their levels were low. As for the professionals — the priests of Anbo, their stone temple was located outside of the town, with half of the structure submerged in the sea. They were good at divine spells, but their levels were low nonetheless. There were not even shops which dealt in scrolls and materials for spells, let alone mages; able to cast a few Level 0 magic tricks was already considered superb for the townsmen.
There was not much to do, so Claudius went ahead and headed back to his own island. Tonight, Santa Cruz Island was bound to fall into the hands of a certain "evil" organization led by a Crimson Dragon.
"Tchh, there"s probably less than 300 full-time soldiers in the entire Velen Isles. The Udaeus should be more than enough," Claudius thought.
How the Udaeus planned to rule the island was none of his concern. From what Claudius knew, the Udaeus were capable of producing offspring. Perhaps he might find over a thousand soldiers when he returned after roaming around for several decades. Their combat abilities would certainly be inferior to the first generation soldiers though.
Now that the problem of food shortage for his army was out of the way, Claudius could live freely back on the rocky island. However, the evil sea G.o.ddess Anbo was a mad and vengeful b.i.t.c.h. For some reason, Claudius" island was shrouded in storms and typhoons all year round, just that they were less powerful than the previous all-out a.s.sault and the island was not hit by gigantic tsunamis. The surrounding sea was filled with all sorts of sea monsters and magical beasts, which was most likely part of the G.o.ddess" revenge. Just for the sake of gathering her faithful servants, Anbo even tampered with the ocean currents — she created a branch from the warm flow from the south and cold flow from the north, and converged the two branched currents right at the barren island. The torrent of warm and cold seawater provided energy for the storms, as well as ma.s.sive schools of fish which were misdirected by the new currents.
Claudius" island was given the name "h.e.l.l Island", and the surrounding sea br.i.m.m.i.n.g with monsters was named "Sea of Death". Even with the large schools of fish living in the area, the nearby fishermen had no choice but to avoid the area due to the overwhelming number of monsters. As no one dared to explore the region, Claudius" existence was yet to be discovered. He disliked the moist environment, but the constant rain and storms provided cover, shielding him from invaders. It was clear that Anbo"s revenge failed spectacularly — not only did it not deal any damage to its target, it even gave him benefits. Rain and wind corroded the rocky mountain, creating countless rocky spikes. The rain also polished the rocks, creating a semi-shiny effect on the surface of the rocks. The reefs in the sea were also forged into razor-sharp rocks by the raging waves, tearing apart any approaching ships. Sunlight rarely reached the island thanks to the non-stop storms and pitch black rainclouds. Flashes of lightning could be seen all the time; it ended as the primary light source for the region as clouds blocked the rays of sunlight.
The environment might be harsh for humans, but it was more like the G.o.ds were farting from time to time for Claudius. He lay in the lair, ignoring the signs of the G.o.ddess" anger and rage outside.
Claudius thought, "These pathetic storms and rain is a bit annoying, but the benefits are the real deal! Just look at all those monsters and fish out there, thanks for the meal, my dear Anbo!"
Certainly, there were numerous monsters in the nearby seas, but none of them had to ability to strike enemies in the air. The smaller ones ended up as a steady food supply for Claudius as he could sneak up on them from above, or even better —baiting them like fishing back on his island. White mist shrouded a certain part of the mountain all the time, and that was the location of the Crimson Dragon"s lair. Rain brought into his cave would be evaporated into mist after coming into contact with the blazing hot dragon, forming such a spectacle.
Claudius" presence brought about change in the terrain — despite his young age, the rampaging magic elements surrounding him incited activity of lava beneath the island. h.e.l.l Island was originally not a volcano, but it was in the process of turning into one; he could feel the churning flames and molten rock deep beneath the ground.