Chapter 775: Determination
The Asolivis encirclement battle, or perhaps the Asolivis meat grinder battle. In my opinion, future history books would probably refer to this battle by such a name.
Since I had been far too outstanding as bait (was that my fault?), reaching the point of attracting many powerful devils and even Undead Emperor Shupnus to personally chase after me, the western battlefront’s high-level command of the enemy underwent a total breakdown. Not only were the supply airs.h.i.+ps able to successfully resupply us, the mages’ forced landing on the western battlefront also became significantly easier.
The mages’ large-scale landing began at 3:45 in the morning, when all the s.h.i.+ps’ lights blinked three times, giving the signal to begin.
20 battles.h.i.+ps provided protection as 37 large-scale transport s.h.i.+ps began forcing their way across the channel, followed by several hundred smaller s.h.i.+ps.
Starting from the northern Floyt Mountains on the western battlefront, and going all the way south, the entire sh.o.r.eline became a battlefield.
Unlike what I expected, the allied army didn’t choose the central part of the Forest of Dreams which was formerly Port Victoria. Instead, they chose the farther north Silvershark Bay, a place filled with dangerous reefs and whirlpools, making it completely unsuitable as a landing spot. Additionally, these dangerous waters also contained carnivorous magical sharks and flying fish. From the very start, this place wouldn’t normally be considered as a landing location.
No port had been constructed, as few people ever came here. There was dense coral underneath this area as well as lots of soft mud, meaning that constructing a port here would normally be quite difficult.
Worst of all, the water here was extremely shallow to the point where a person could stand in the water—the water would only reach their waist.
This was quite bad for s.h.i.+ps as the reefs would only harm the s.h.i.+p hulls, but getting trapped in shallow waters would likely cause the s.h.i.+p to be stranded.
Thus, this place was obviously somewhere that would be overlooked as a potential landing location.
Even on the outskirts of the Forest of Dreams, the devils had still prepared gigantic stone catapults and cyclops tank formations to show the humans how fearsome the Chaos Abyss could truly be.
Yet, the devils hadn’t arranged a single soldier here.
Even more critically, this place had always been uninhabited, but this place also led right to Asolivis!
The end result was that the human alliance chose the most dangerous area around to land rather than the safe Forest of Dreams; this location would allow the mages who landed to directly ignore the enemy defenses and make a direct attack on Asolivis.
This actually seemed like a normal decision?
When the battles.h.i.+ps approached this area, the devils and underwater undead automatically started attacking even though they didn’t know the s.h.i.+ps’ goal here. The flying devils also unhesitatingly rushed towards Silvershark Bay in an effort to stop the s.h.i.+ps from securing the sh.o.r.eline.
However, the devils and undead were greeted with even more cannon fire than previously.
Numerous cannon shots streaked through the sky like meteors. Every explosion also sp.a.w.ned lightning, instantly causing the entire battlefield to flash white.
Energy explosives. These were a type of newly invented ammunition. Every single energy explosive shot contained multiple Olivia’s Magic Boxes. The type of magic stored within would automatically be activated during the explosion.
This new ammunition had astonis.h.i.+ng power and instantaneous destructive force. The only weaknesses were that every single shot was incredibly expensive, and it required a mage to charge its power. Still, such problems were nothing in front of the rich and powerful alliance of Bardi and the Mage Country.
This new explosive ammunition had just arrived from the Mist Alliance’s and Auland’s production lines. The leaders of both factions had personally brought the ammunition to the frontlines. It was also thanks to Roland acting as bait that the ammunition had arrived in a timely manner.
When was the best time to use an ace card? That would be when your opponent felt that he had completely seen through everything you had. Then, you would bring out something new that would throw off all of your opponent’s calculations. That was what an ace was.
All of these energy explosives were charged with lightning and fireball magic, the two most common types of attack magic. While others had indeed considered ice, water, or earth magic, which would be more effective against the devils, practical combat experience told them that such things weren’t useful at all.
Fire magic was forever the most direct and explosive when it came to AOE attack power. Once fire heated the air to a certain temperature, it was possible to even start boiling the air. As for high-speed and chaining single-target strikes together, nothing was more effective than explosive lightning magic, which was super effective at striking flying units.
The end result was that all these energy explosives were injected with explosive fireb.a.l.l.s and chain lightning spells. This was simple, direct, and effective.
Thus, every attack from this new ammunition type was the equivalent of a high-level mage’s high-circle spell attack. The only price for this were the mage acolytes who’d collapsed listlessly on the s.h.i.+ps.
The stronger mages all needed to preserve their mana for the upcoming battle. Only the weaker acolytes who weren’t useful in battle could help charge the energy explosives. Since acolytes lacked mana to begin with, they could only make up the necessary mana required with numbers. The acolytes kept meditating to restore mana while also supplying the energy explosives with mana. The end result was that the acolytes were drained of all mana.
The s.h.i.+p captains and cannoneers wouldn’t care about the acolytes’ pain, as they were going crazy over their new toy.
This time, the s.h.i.+ps were amply supplied, and had a critical goal in front of them. The s.h.i.+p captains would never give an order to conserve ammo at such a time. All magic cannons were fully activated, and colorful explosions kept appearing on the battlefield.
I saw nothing but exploding fireb.a.l.l.s and lightning bolts in front of me. It was as if thousands of high-level mages were all going all out without a single bit of care for conserving mana.
“…Is this really the mortal plane that’s supposed to have weak magic? Even the Haletdam generation’s magic rune army wasn’t as ridiculous as this.”
An ancient devil who had witnessed past Holy Wars couldn’t help but exclaim in fright before secretly retreating.
The overwhelming amount of fire element gathered here caused even the clouds to begin burning. Even more ridiculous was that some sort of magical reaction occurred, causing the lightning to combine with the fiery clouds to suddenly create thunderous death districts for the devils.
The overwhelming amount of attacks even rendered the high fire resistance that the Chaos Abyss residents were so proud of useless.
Proud and powerful devils died in large numbers under the fierce cannon fire. Even strong Devil Thans were stunned by the sight of endless high-temperature fireb.a.l.l.s and lightning bolts. They had fought against high-level mages before, but they had never witnessed a scene resembling thousands of high-level mages tossing attack magic spells out together. All the elemental power gathered here even formed an elemental domain by itself.
The most pitiful of all were the low- and mid-level winged devils. They kept falling out of the sky in large numbers. The lucky ones were those who died before reaching the ground. The unlucky ones were paralyzed by lightning, and could only numbly wait for death as they fell to the ground.
Even for the powerful devils, flying troop types were also rare and precious. But at this moment, there wasn’t any possibility of retreat, as powerful Devil n.o.bles personally acted as the commanders on the frontline, meaning that any deserter wouldn’t possibly live to escape.
“…They absolutely can’t be allowed to land there! We still have hope! Keep holding on until our n.o.bles reinforce us,” a devil general shouted through the powerful gales, but what he saw next caused him to swallow his words.
The s.h.i.+ps didn’t intend on forcing their way through the dangerous waters of Silvershark Bay. Instead, the s.h.i.+ps raised their sails under the dark clouds and actually started floating above the sea!
The s.h.i.+ps shook as they started flying, but gradually and inexorably headed for the sh.o.r.eline.
*Boom!*
Evidently, the old heavy battles.h.i.+ps were completely different in design and material from the newest flying airs.h.i.+ps. The floating engines temporarily installed in these s.h.i.+ps soon overloaded and self-destructed. Many s.h.i.+ps fell back into the sea… or maybe a more accurate term would be crashed into the sea.
Still, there wasn’t much distance left. Any s.h.i.+p that didn’t fall apart upon cras.h.i.+ng into the shallow waters and reefs would unhesitatingly anchor itself and then start firing every cannon it had as a fixed artillery.
Alchemists on the s.h.i.+ps were tossing special potions into the water, causing the water to turn into ice at a visible speed.
In the last small s.h.i.+p in the rear, four blue-and-white robed Truth Symposium archmages were uttering an incantation. They were going to summon ice and snow!
If Roland had been here, he would have discovered to his astonishment that the incantation here was quite similar to the Ice Aeon spell research that he’d previously given to the Mage Country.
The seawater gradually froze over, starting from the mages’ small s.h.i.+p.
All battles.h.i.+ps and transport s.h.i.+ps were tossing freezing potions into the seawater, causing the ice to spread even faster.
People from the transport s.h.i.+ps even jumped down onto the ice to test the ice’s durability. By now, it was quite obvious that the humans weren’t actually intending to land on the sh.o.r.e itself. They were simply going to freeze the entire place over so that everyone on the s.h.i.+ps could reach land by walking on ice.
*Boom!*
*Boom!*
By now, the battles.h.i.+ps flying in the front had crash-landed as well. They all established themselves on the sh.o.r.eline, forming into a new fortress-like defense line.
The cannon fire didn’t rest for even one moment. When the Aurora Knights silently started flying out from the landed battles.h.i.+ps, even the devils started to feel fear.
The most important part on these older battles.h.i.+ps was the dragon bone under the s.h.i.+p. These crash landings would ruin the entire s.h.i.+p, even if the deck still remained intact.
The human alliance had sacrificed every single battles.h.i.+p here only for the sake of a successful landing.
The devils found that the human enemy was a lot more powerful than expected, but most fearsome of all was the humans’ determination to eliminate their enemy once and for all, no matter the cost.