Badge in Azure

Seeing that more than half of the troop-carrying vessels had sunk, the pan’s turtle alchemical boat then revealed a small piece of tortoiseshell on the water surface. It sent death magic in all directions and turned the Cloudflow soldiers who were floating on the water into spirits.

It was easy transforming one into a spirit, but these soldiers were very jumpy and active. As a grade-8 spirit, the winged skeleton could only target a dozen people in one go. The winged skeleton did not want to over consume his mental strength. These spirits were all undead soldiers who acted on their instincts. They were grade-1 spirits and it would be taxing for the winged skeleton to control all of them. He simply allowed these soldiers to continue floating, before retracting his control over the undead soldiers.

Even though Cloudflow’s army was slightly inferior, their sailors were first class soldiers. Since Metatrin City was located beside a coast, the winged skeleton was vigilant. He felt the urge to massacre his enemy.

Other than humans, there were many other intelligent creatures, but only humans possessed character and emotions. Many creatures only possessed intelligence, but they lacked other facets. Among the spirits, the winged skeleton was a rare presence, he already possessed emotions when he was at grade-6.

That was why the winged skeleton handled matters like a human and not like a spirit. In this aspect, the three kings were inferior to him.  ( NovelFull )

The moment the winged skeleton felt the urge to kill, the remaining three diving warships stopped attacking the troop-carrying vessels and dived into the water. Prostrating atop the diving warships, the Cloudflow soldiers, who were using heavy weapons to attack the warships, became flustered. Even though they could dive, the heavy weapons in their hands weighed at least fifty or sixty pounds. Holding onto the weapons weighed the soldiers down.

Tossing their weapons aside, the Cloudflow soldiers floated up to the surface. The winged skeleton noticed that every troop-carrying vessel had deployed lifeboats. Each lifeboat contained a group of warriors who were protecting one or two mages.

Onboard the lifeboats, these mages did not forget to attack the diving warships. The nine diving warships were basically destroyed by these mages.

The winged skeleton spared these mages, “They are all white-robed mages, it is not worthwhile to capture them. Even if these mages went to the Bone Castle, they won’t be able to effect much change.” The largest function of such low grade mages was to assist soldiers. Without any soldiers, these mages would not be sent to the frontline.

Without the bone spirits, the winged skeleton was helpless against the troop-carrying vessels which had not been sunk. He could use level-8 magic to destroy them, but it was unnecessary to expose himself as the skeletal warships were already ten miles away.

The jade skeletons’ warships drew closer slowly. The thirteen mini warships which were frightened by the winged skeleton had returned. They realized that the horrifying underwater attack had ended. In order to salvage the troop-carrying vessels, they had to take risks.

Three skeletal warships led the three squads, they launched an offensive from a distance of five miles. The magic stone cannons swiftly depleted magic nuclei, as the spirits onboard the warships gazed at the targets depicted on the magic compass coldly.

Even though the jade skeletons possessed intelligence and could think independently, they did not possess emotions like the winged skeleton. As for the other spirits, their gazes were even more unfeeling. These spirits only knew one thing, to follow orders.

As the skeletal warships came increasingly closer, the mini warships from Cloudflow were astounded. They had never heard of such a warship in the sea, “When did these ships appear?”

When warships attacked one another, they would use trebuchets or magic stone cannons, with the exception of the Cloudflow people who used flying magic beasts to drop bags of flaming oil. There were even alchemical installations which could spurt flames, they could attack all targets within a range of five-hundred yards.

These flame-spitting alchemical appliances were more dangerous, only warships over one-hundred and eighty yards in length could wield them.

At the moment, the water was not yet too rough. Magic stone cannons flew across the sky. Most of them fell into the water as though they were rain droplets. The Cloudflow people swimming in the water were doomed, they would be killed immediately if they were hit. Some of the lifeboats were unlucky, they were sunk when the magic stone cannons struck them.

The mages onboard the lifeboats were enveloped by the soldiers, so none of them died.

The skeletal warships did not contain any human warehouses and did not need to carry any water or food. They could accommodate many more magic stone cannons. Newly created magic stone cannons were many times more accurate than trebuchets. The remaining troop-carrying vessels were gradually sunken under the dense attack conducted by the skeletal warships. There were more and more Cloudflow soldiers who fell overboard as the trebuchets mindlessly flung the stone cannons at the water surface.

A region of water spanning a dozen miles was dyed red by blood. Thirteen mini warships from Cloudflow approached the small skeletal warships head-on. The equipment used by the Cloudflow people was inferior to that of the skeletal warships, but their quality of soldiers was sufficiently high. After a few rounds of crossfire, the accuracy of the trebuchets almost matched up to the magic cannons.

More than twenty small skeletal warships were entangled with the mini warships from Cloudflow. The remaining skeletal warships kept firing magic stone cannons at the troop-carrying vessels.

The inertia, coupled with the elemental lethality of the magic stone cannons, caused the metal-armored troop-carrying vessels to be mottled with cavities. The Cloudflow people were dumbfounded, they had never come across an enemy which could fire such a dense arrangement of stone during a naval battle. Fancy the amount of magic nuclei consumed!

The winged skeleton had no time to consider the monetary loss now, “Cloudflow’s large warships are already within a twenty mile range, the troop-carrying vessels have to be extirpated within the next few minutes. Once Cloudflow’s large warships arrive, I will not be able to do much otherwise.”

The magic stone cannons were launched at full strength, their shooting frequency was horrifying. Their consumption was incredible too, at least half of the magic stone cannons were ruined as the magic arrays on top of them had crumbled. Another dozen magic stone cannons had exploded. The mini skeletal warships were covered in damage and a few hundred spirits were sent flying due to the explosions.

The emotionless spirits retrieved new magic stone cannons from the cabins. Placing them on the cannon rack, they continued firing.

It was okay to use these stone cannons because the winged skeleton had already deduced that these new magic stone cannons had no lethality towards the large warships from Cloudflow. After such a protracted barrage, there were still three troop-carrying vessels floating on the water. One could imagine the outcome if the target was the real warship.

The winged skeleton had once fought with the fleet from the eastern sea. Compared to the Cloudflow warships, the warships from the eastern sea allied army were like paper.

While designing these magic stone cannons, even if Saleen did not scrap them, they did not have much use anymore. In a battle against the Cloudflow people, these magic stone cannons would only tickle the enemy’s main warships.

Since the large warships from Cloudflow had not arrived, the winged skeleton took the chance to dive to the seabed to search for the sunken diving warships. The metals used to craft these warships were very expensive, they could be recycled.

It was too arrogant of Saleen to think of defeating Cloudflow’s fleet at sea, the battle with the eastern sea allied army had caused Saleen to underestimate the might of Cloudflow’s navy. If the Cloudflow people were not complacent, which resulted in the troop-carrying vessels to be detached from the warships, the winged skeleton might return fruitless this time around.

The mini skeletal warships were entangled with the mini Cloudflow warships. Despite being double in number, half of the mini skeletal warships were sunk. Only two of the mini Cloudflow warships were destroyed, but were not sunken.

The barrage of magic stone cannons from the skeletal warships was too dense, there were numerous Cloudflow sailors who were either killed or wounded on the deck.

A dozen Cloudflow warships exasperatedly lunged at the skeletal warships attacking from the side. The winged skeleton commanded the warships to receive the enemy. There was a four yard long magic stone cannon on every large skeletal warship, this weapon possessed the most might. Three skeletal warships, measuring over one-hundred yards in length, acted as the main force. They led over forty mini warships to swarm the Cloudflow warships with magic stone cannons.

The Cloudflow people were greatly startled by this dense assault, dozens of soldiers were directly killed by the magic stone cannons. After one round of assault, the Cloudflow fleet also began their retaliation.

Dull stone cannons were fired at one another, the Cloudflow people had regained the absolute advantage. Other than three slightly larger magic stone cannons, the rocks launched from the mini magic stone cannons could only create shallow scratches on the metal armor covering the Cloudflow warships. The armor on the Cloudflow warships was crafted by mages. Low level elemental attacks did not have much of an effect on the armor unless one could ensure that the few hundred stone cannons could strike the same spot. The landing zone of the magic stone cannons was spread over more than ten yards. Other than an alchemical crossbow, no other attack could be so precise.

The trebuchets, which the winged skeleton thought was outdated, had actually produced a greater effect than the magic stone cannons. On the Cloudflow warships, three trebuchets were set up in an offensive formation where they were controlled by mages. With over one-hundred soldiers loading weapons onto the trebuchets, the stone cannons weighed a few hundred pounds.

At the center of the stone cannons used by the Cloudflow people, there was a thick thorn and fire oil was stored in it. The moment a stone cannon struck a skeletal warship, the immense impact would create rifts in the skeletal warship and that thick thorn would help to stop the rolling motion of the stone cannon. The fire oil inside would then begin burning and create a sea of fire on the decks of the skeletal warships.

If the spirits were not the one controlling the skeletal warships, there would be no one available to retaliate.

At closer distance, the Cloudflow warships fired gigantic metal cannons. There was a magic array at the core of these metal cannons. The metal cannons exploded above the skeletal warships, causing metal pieces to produce raucous booms, as they permeated the deck.

The winged skeleton did not participate in the battle, he only observed from a corner and recorded the happenings. The power of such an attack from the Cloudflow people was massive, but it could only be used within a range of one mile. The price of the metal cannons was surely very expensive, their weight was much higher than that of a magic stone cannon. One warship would not be able to store too many of them unless there was a sorcerer present who could use spatial equipment to transport these things.

The lake was calm. Cloudflow’s attack frequency was very high. In the blink of an eye, the three large skeletal warships were damaged. The winged skeleton secretly ordered the jade skeletons to escape with the skeletal warships, while the mini warships would hold the fort and prevent the enemy from giving chase.

“There is no point fighting, we are not their match.”

If the winged skeleton was not controlling his personal armored vessel, he would not even be able to defeat the troop-carrying vessels from Cloudflow.

A dozen Cloudflow warships had quashed the offensive by the skeletal warships.

The winged skeleton suddenly felt that someone was observing him, without any hesitation, he dived with the alchemy ship. Only the center of the lake was very deep. The depth there was less than two-hundred yards, the winged skeleton was afraid that the alchemy ship would get damaged if an expert took aim at it.