Chapter 55
There is only one continent in Ard World.
Therefore, most of the battles that determine the hegemony of the continent take place on land. The nation with the stronger ground forces holds the hegemony of the continent, and thus, nations naturally invest most of their military budget into their army.
“That’s their downfall.”
“That might be true. To be honest, they wouldn’t have thought we’d pour this much money into the navy.”
Drakan smiled faintly at Shin Ha-yeon’s words.
Of course, the sea wasn’t unimportant, but in the end, it was the ground forces that ultimately decided the outcome of a war.
This wasn’t much different for guilds created by users. In the first place, Ard Saga Second is a game without other continents and with little room for naval battles. Unless a new continent is added through an update.
“Anyway, in the end, victory or defeat is decided on land, so it’s not a wrong investment.”
Drakan agreed with Shin Ha-yeon’s words.
In any case, the victory condition of war is to plant your flag on enemy soil. Therefore, guilds established by users also tend to focus their investments on the army rather than the navy.
Naval warfare tactics in Ard World were, at best, limited to battleship-centric bombardment.
If the money invested in the navy was diverted to the army, it could be used more efficiently, and since the enemy forces they had to face were similar, maintaining the current naval power was the best they could do.
“Besides, it takes quite a bit of effort to transform the existing system.”
“That’s right. Unless you’re controlling and manipulating the NPCs.”
The navy, accustomed to the existing system, did not welcome change.
In such a situation, suggesting the construction of an aircraft carrier-like ship to carry Wyverns was just asking to be called crazy.
Deploying those expensive Wyverns in ground combat would result in much more efficient results. And on top of that, spending an astronomical amount of money to build an aircraft carrier? It was madness.
Of course, it would be nice to have, but an aircraft carrier wasn’t something you desperately needed to build at a ridiculously high cost.
However, with Shin Ha-yeon’s enormous financial support, Drakan put this seemingly inefficient and crazy idea into action.
And this was the result.
Cortes looked up with despairing eyes at the Wyverns and Drake mixed squadron raining down breaths and magical bombardments from above.
“Fire! D*mn it! Magic! What are the mages doing!”
“The ship is shaking too much, making it difficult to aim magic!”
“D*mn it! Archers! Fire the cannons! Fire them!”
Cortes’s ear-splitting roar echoed throughout the Invincible.
The pattern of naval warfare in Ard World is extremely simple. The fleets of both sides engage in an honest exchange of cannon fire and magic within visual range, and once the tide of the battle turns, they charge at the opponent and finish them off in close combat.
Although ships are occasionally destroyed in the melee through ship-to-ship combat or ramming tactics, the general pattern is that bombardment is the main focus.
“D*mn it! Using Wyverns, that crazy b*stard……!”
This is why Cortes hadn’t even imagined that Drakan’s fleet would attack from a position where they couldn’t be seen.
The fleet led by Drakan had completely shattered Ard World’s common sense of naval warfare, which was based on ship-to-ship combat within visual range.
“Electric Net!”
“Sharp Breath!”
“Tear their wings! Prepare the ballistas!!”
Following Cortes’s orders, the pirates poured magic and arrows into the air, but it was insufficient to catch the Wyvern squadron flying freely in the sky.
In the first place, it was literally impossible for the pirates, who weren’t even properly prepared for anti-air defense, to s*oot down the Wyverns flying freely over the vast ocean, let alone the Drake leading them, unless a miracle occurred.
The Wyvern squadron flew around above Cortes’s fleet like it was their own backyard, bombarding the pirates with magic and breaths.
And at the center of it all was the user leading the Wyvern squadron on a red Drake, FlyingMan.
“Woohoo!”
휘이이이이익!
As if responding to the high-pitched whistle FlyingMan blew, a series of whistles followed in short intervals.
The Wyvern squadron split into three groups and bombarded the pirates’ heads with breaths in short bursts while flying low.
쾅! 콰쾅!
After bombarding them with breaths like bombs and retreating, the Wyverns turned, and the red Drake that FlyingMan was riding on flapped its wings widely and flipped its body.
“Firewing! Fire!”
Along with FlyingMan’s shout, the red Drake, Firewing, flipped its body, turned flexibly, and spewed crimson flames from its mouth.
With the sharp cry unique to Drakes, the red Drake’s breath, like sticky molten iron, burned the sails and set the masts ablaze.
The pirates who were unlucky enough to be caught in the flames screamed as their bodies caught fire, running around the deck before throwing themselves into the sea.
Utter chaos!
No other expression was needed to describe the chaos that engulfed the fleet.
“Hahahaha! This feels amazing!”
The chat window filled up instantly, but FlyingMan didn’t pay much attention.
This moment, soaring through the sky on the back of a Drake, was the time when he truly felt alive in this world.
FlyingMan blew a short whistle again as a signal, and the scattered Wyvern squadron gathered into a two-column formation, sweeping across the sky above the fleet, bombarding them with breaths and magic.
“Th-this is impossible.”
A nightmare, a nightmare.
Cortes could only say that. The Pirate Alliance’s proud Grand Fleet was collapsing. That fleet, which boasted invincibility on the sea, was being destroyed in vain.
“This is impossible!!”
Whether Cortes screamed or not, the pirates’ ordeal wasn’t over.
While the Pirate Alliance’s fleet was being ruthlessly ravaged by the Wyvern squadron, beneath the waves where their ships passed, the Merfolk King Nereus, leading an army of Merfolk riding sea turtles and whales and commanding the colossal guardian beast Kraken, was waiting for them.
“We can’t let those sky guys take all the credit! Attack!”
As the attack order from Nereus, the King of the Merfolk with a red crown, riding a gigantic Sea Serpent that dwarfed even whales and sea turtles, fell, the Merfolk launched a ferocious assault on the fleet.
“Throw all those humans into the sea!”
Narwhals with drill-like sharp horns rammed into the ships, piercing holes in their hulls, and the Merfolk entered through these holes, tearing apart the interiors and sinking the ships.
Ships rammed by sea turtles and other whales shook violently before being shattered and sinking.
“Mages!”
At Nereus’s command, the Merfolk mages who had finished their preparations unleashed their prepared magic towards Cortes’s fleet.
“Surging Glacier!”
“Ocean’s Wrath!”
“Abyss Hammer!”
“White Thorn!”
“Lightning Slash!”
The Merfolk Kingdom also has mages.
Due to the unique environment of the seabed, they couldn’t handle the four basic elements of Earth, Fire, and Wind, and only Water, Ice, and Lightning attributes were abnormally developed.
But in the seabed, filled with water, the power of Water, Ice, and Lightning magic was doubled, so there weren’t really any other options.
Thanks to this unique ecology, the level of Water, Ice, and Lightning magic in the Merfolk Kingdom far surpassed that of humans.
The fleet, hit by magical attacks from below, in addition to those from above, was quickly grounded.
Finally, the Sea Serpent that Nereus was riding took a deep breath.
“[Kkyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyaaaaaaaa!]”
Following the metallic screech unique to Sea Serpents that resonated through the sea, a blade-like Water Breath, accompanied by a whirlpool, instantly bisected three pirate ships. From the surface, it would have looked like a giant water blade rising and slicing through the three ships.
Kraken’s voice flowed into Nereus’s mind.
“[Nereus.]”
“Guardian Beast, speak.”
“[My body is itching. Will you let me have some fun?]”
“Of course.”
Nereus shook the spear in his hand, pushing the Merfolk back, and Kraken moved its massive body forward.
In an instant, gigantic tentacles erupted through the surface, wrapping around a pirate ship like legs and crushing it. Fragments of the ship, charred black by lightning, scattered across the sea.
“What the h*ll……! What is that!”
The pirates were not only bewildered but also terrified by the combined attacks from the air and the sea, with Wyverns and Merfolk relentlessly targeting the underside of their ships while the enemy fleet remained invisible.
Of course, the pirates of the Pirate Alliance were veterans of naval warfare. They had experienced countless instances of plundering, raiding, and battles with regular navies. Having experienced most types of battles that could occur at sea, including ramming, boarding, and bombardment, they found this situation even more unacceptable.
“This, this is cheating! Cheating!”
Cortes roared.
The enemy fleet was still nowhere to be seen, and they were being attacked unilaterally from the air and the sea with Wyverns and Merfolk!
This kind of naval warfare did not exist in the world they knew.
It was literally a one-sided trade of damage.
A despicable tactic of launching attacks unilaterally using Wyverns and Merfolk while positioned in a safe location.
The pirates had no way to respond to this new form of naval warfare that created a battlefield with absolutely no advantage for them.
While the ships were sinking one after another, the flagship, the Invincible, remained intact.
It was the Pirate King’s ship, after all. It was equipped with defensive magic and all sorts of defensive measures, and it had managed to survive the onslaught of the Merfolk and the Wyvern squadron.
So far.
“Captain! The Merfolk are tearing apart the bilge!”
“What good are the depth charges! Fire the harpoons and depth charges! Turn those Merfolk into fish food!”
Cortes, the only one who remained sane in the midst of the chaos, shouted frantically.
Depth charges were Cortes’s t*ump card against the Merfolk. Unlike reality, the sea in Ard World was a crazy sea where sea monsters, only spoken of in legends, actually roamed.
Naturally, sailors who navigated such seas prepared weapons to counter these marine monsters, and the most effective among them were harpoons, gunpowder, and magically enchanted underwater bombs, the depth charges.
Cortes intended to first intercept the Merfolk using the means he had prepared. While he had no way to deal with the Wyvern squadron constantly attacking from the sky, if he could at least drive away the Merfolk, the situation would improve somewhat.
“Harpoons, depth charges ready!”
“Harpoons, depth charges ready!”
The crew responded to Cortes’s booming command, their voices strained.
Just as the harpoon launchers, reminiscent of giant ballista launchers, and the heavy-looking depth charges were about to be launched into the sea, crimson flames poured down from the sky, igniting the depth charges and causing a chain explosion.
“Uwaaagh!”
“Kwaagh!”
“Wh-what!”
FlyingMan’s leisurely voice echoed above the bewildered Cortes.
“Is that your t*ump card? But with FlyingMan here, no way! Wyvern squadron, focus on preventing them from firing harpoons and depth charges! Firewing! Drake Fear!”
FlyingMan’s instructions were quickly relayed, and Firewing, obeying its master’s command, flapped its wings widely, soared into the air, and unleashed a sharp cry.
“[Kyyyyyyyyyyyyyyaaaaaaaa!]”
Even though it wouldn’t reach the Drake, it was still the fear-inducing cry of a high-ranking monster. The pirates’ bodies momentarily froze upon hearing the cry that stimulated their primal fear, and the Wyvern squadron bombarded them with breaths and magic.
Of course, they couldn’t completely prevent the launch of harpoons and depth charges, but with only a small number of them, it was impossible to inflict significant damage on the Merfolk.
Water pillars erupted here and there as depth charges exploded, but they didn’t even scratch the Merfolk below.
“This, this is impossible! Impossible! My fleet……!”
Cortes screamed as he watched his pirate ships sink helplessly.
The Invincible shook incessantly. The defensive magic that was still holding on protected the ship, but it soon gave way under the barrage of lightning bolts unleashed by the Kraken’s tentacles that erupted through the water.
As the barrier collapsed, Cortes let out a hollow laugh at the sight of the Wyvern squadron and the Drake leading them closing in.
“Ha, haha. Hahahaha……!”
The once majestic Grand Fleet of the Pirate King no longer existed.
The veteran pirates, seasoned by countless naval battles, had all become fish food or lost their minds. A truly devastating defeat, difficult to describe in words!
Cortes’s hollow laughter echoed across the deck of the Invincible.
It was all over.
There was nowhere to run in the vast ocean.
“Drake-nim……”
As Cortes muttered in despair, the breath unleashed by FlyingMan’s Drake, Firewing, engulfed him, followed by the magical bombardment from the Wyvern squadron, sinking the Invincible and annihilating the Pirate Alliance’s fleet.
An overwhelming victory!
It didn’t take long for the news of this victory to spread.
