Ever since the Demon Fleet Leviathan teleported into the seas of Pandapolis, Stalingrad had been tracking the movements of the ships and getting information via the Deep Ones. It all served to provide Lord Wolte and the cultivators with the bigger picture of what was actually happening in the fog, helping them make decisions.
It was easy enough to predict that Focalor’s ship was going to retaliate, so Wolte had already started its engine and moved away straight after attacking.
Using the loud blast of his main cannons, Wolte had been able to mask the nuclear engine’s ignition as he moved away from the spot. So by the time Focalor actually fired his cannons, it was already too late.
Instead, those cannons ended up shredding one of their own ships that had been unlucky enough to be chasing after it. Gan Yang and the sailors were all chuckling upon seeing it on the radar. Though they were initially worried about the fog attack, they did not expect it to be this simple to overcome.
However, this was all thanks to Wolte already knowing about the ability’s uses and its flaws from the time he had previously travelled with Focalor on a raiding mission. The former Duke had shown his admiration for their tactics throughout the mission, so Focalor and his aides boasted about its effectiveness and explained how they proceed with their usual tactics.
Thus, it would be just a matter of time until the fog dissipated, and Stalingrad continued its bombardment. There was nothing much to worry about, especially with the Stalingrad’s firepower being directly linked to Derpy’s magical supply.
And speaking about the Shadow Dagen, Mr Derpy had fun controlling one of Wolte’s smaller cannons, and he took the opportunity to fire whenever he was given the permission by Wolte to do so. Most of his shots landed in the water, but Wolte just encouraged him to do better and tried giving him pointers.
Still, Focalor was not one to crumble under this adversity. To him, it was a challenge, one he had craved for a very long time. He couldn’t see the cannons hitting another ship, but he heard the attack connect, only that it sounded more like they were hitting wood rather than metal. Therefore, he immediately understood that the Stalingrad had already moved from its previous location.
“So, not only can the metal ship hit correctly, her crew can steer her away from danger in time. It seems like our fog is more of a boon rather than a burden to the metal ship.” Focalor believed that there was no need to put his crew in any more danger, so he instantly removed the fog with a snap of his finger.
When the fog was lifted, Focalor could not believe his eyes as the Stalingrad was sailing straight for a head on collision into the Leviathan’s hull from the portside. There was no time thinking how such a big ship could navigate so silently behind multiple vessels within the fog with such precision.
“Ready the portside guns and fire now! The rest brace for impact!” Focalor shouted, and everyone tried to hold onto something as the sailors sought to act as ordered to deliver a volley of attacks in order to damage and slow the Stalingrad from hitting straight on.
“Fire the Main Cannons!” Gan Yang shouted. He had already instructed the turrets to be aiming at the stern of the Leviathan where the quarters of the ship would be according to the designs of most medieval colossal ships. (And based on Wolte’s extremely vague recollection.)
At the same time, he did not divert his course and planned for a straight on collision. Unlike the pirates, the Royal Snakes were already prepared for a crash impact operation with hijacking the ship as their main objective. In Wolte’s opinion, it was simply too audacious of a plan, yet, he loved how confident the Royal Snake Sailors sounded and with how much enthusiasm they acted upon it.
“Brace for impact AI Wolte, you have your allies with you, and I have no doubt that you will call them for such a big party.” Gan Yang commented, and he could barely hear a slight chuckle in the AI’s voice.
“Now Dagen will think I am patronising his minions too much. Oh well, more favours from him would be a good thing too.”
The Stalingrad had no sympathy when her bow crashed into the Leviathan’s hull, causing a huge crack in its hull. Some of the cannons which shot late backfired or recoiled from the impact, creating several mini-explosions within their stations. With the gunpowder placed haphazardly for efficiency, it had become a hotbed of accidents for the Leviathan.
As for the Stalingrad? Heh, Wolte felt that they were like putting his head in a bubble wrap. It was fun and painless!
In the meantime, most of the smaller turrets and automated gun placements were given for the Shadow Dagen to control as he saw fit. The human crew had decided to carry on with their plan of hijacking the largest ship in the Demon Fleet.
“Let’s go and do some raiding. I always wondered how it would feel to be a pirate.” Gan Yang said, and the entire crew joined in with wide grins on their mouth.
———–
As for the Sky Bridge, the molten fire had finally cooled down through the combined work of the new mages arriving on cavalry from the safe zone by throwing whatever ice and water magic they could harness. Once there was confirmation that the temporary checkpoint was clear, King Baal sent orders to resume bringing in the reinforcements.
In no time, more mages attended to the Sky Bridge’s clearance, and King Baal began sending the first batch of soldiers to the defensive island platform.
Sadly, the Demon Horde was unable to make any progress in capturing any of the floating island platforms due to the limited number of troops the mages could teleport at a time. By the time they sent in a second group, the Royal Snake Soldiers had already eliminated the first.
However, King Baal, who was now the overall in charge of this particular side of the battlefield, continued to send soldiers because he knew that he had a sheer limitless quantity at his end. He was confident that there was a limit to Moloch’s annoying box of tricks.
There had been no news of him acquiring a massive organisation or being recruited by one. His top spies had been monitoring him, and the only information they ever found was that Moloch’s minotaurs had done some scouting to several old dungeons sites that were not worthy of mentioning.
Aside from such an ‘insignificant’ report, there were actually no other movements from Moloch or his minions. This led King Baal to deduce that Moloch couldn’t have acquired cooperation from large organisations after he betrayed them.
“Sir, we can push the reinforcement through the Sky Bridge at your command. Duke Crocell had assembled rather quickly for this regiment.” Archduke Kiva reported, and King Baal nodded his head.
“Get the Dragon Devils to ignore those annoying flies and assist the reinforcement. They should be doing proper work rather than play with insects.” King Baal demanded, and Archduke instantly understood what he meant.
“Yes, my Liege, I will get the Bat Bottleflies to deal with those insects.” Kiva acknowledged as he was finally able to have his own troops deployed.
