362 Chess Match (1/2)
The battle wasn't going well for the humans. Not a single person was optimistic.
The main strategic objective was once again the former docks of Kagersi, which was currently submerged under more than ten meters of water. The Sea Tribe called this place the ”Land of the Dragon's Death” as the SemiGod Hydra's blood had once flowed here and Hydras were considered a species of Dragon. The remnants of the Hydra's blood would be toxic to any ordinary lifeform, but sea beasts would find it incredibly alluring. This was why large numbers of huge sea beasts gathered here.
More than ten nearby former Kagersi street districts of Sea Tribe members would have to be killed off to reach this location. And the Sea Tribe's backup would arrive once the fighting reached a stalemate.
This was why Darsos and his advisers made plenty of preparations for this battle. In the previous sixty-seven waves of attacks, they had chosen to attack this area more than ten times. It was not just to gather information for their true full-force attack or to eliminate any high-priority threats—the main reason was to make the enemy numb to the sight.
”The Land of the Dragon's Death is under attack again? Who knows what those crazy humans are thinking, loving to attack this place so many times? Who cares? Just leave the defense up to those sea beasts.”
Actually, the current Sea Tribe's top-priority locations to defend were their royal palace and divine temples. Second priority landed on their entertainment facilities. As for this former dock district where all the sea beasts gathered… did the Sea Tribe need boats? They simply left this place to the sea beasts.
Auland had chosen this location twice out of their five most recent attacks. Although the Sea Tribe still sent their forces to defend this location each time, the warriors on the frontlines with their heightened senses honed through so much combat had long discovered that the Sea Tribe members' reactions were becoming dulled. In fact, backup would always arrive thirty minutes later than in other areas, and the number of reinforcements would also be less than half compared to other locations!
Since the Sea Tribe members were already numb to such attacks, it was now the perfect opportunity for Auland to launch their first real full-force attack, disguised as a regular guerilla strike. This sixty-eighth wave of attacks, code named ”Dawn,” was about to begin.
Slightly over an hour remained before the warm sun was to rise and illuminate the world. The great majority of the Sea Tribe were still in a deep sleep—they'd only wake up after nine o'clock.
Unlike in the darkest depths of the deep sea, here they could experience the warmth of the sun during the day. The Sea Tribe here hence started imitating the biological clocks of other species and resting at night. It was very possible they believed that victory was in their hands because of Rain City's forbidden spell—they had arrogantly given up on being proactive in battle. It was only a matter of time for them to meet their doom after making such a decision.
As the main instigators of this particular battle, the people of Auland resolutely stood at the very forefront. Their main aquatic fleet had been seriously damaged in the battle where they lost Kagersi—all three of their major fleets had been destroyed. But in this attack to recapture Kagersi, the surviving ships and newly constructed warships banded together. Auland still possessed more than thirty heavy-class warships and over a hundred medium-class warships.
This was the foundation of a mega empire. Once a mega empire like Auland entered war, a large amount of civilian and merchant enterprises would transform themselves to work on military products. Unless one was able to crush them in a single blow, Auland's incredibly developed business industry would drag any opponent into a long and hellish war of attrition.
Obviously, Auland's original warships weren't suitable for combat in this environment. The water here was far too shallow, and the depths were overly complex. Even in areas that appeared to have deep water, the sharp pointed roof of some house that was now submerged might act like hidden coral—fatal for any ship. Yet it would be impossible to fight the Sea Tribe without a ship in the deep waters.
The people of Auland had been stuck between a rock and a hard place. But they finally had a solution when they obtained the floating airship technology from the Northlands, which was now in the hands of every single ship building factory in Auland. None of the shipwrights and ship designers had seen a single day of rest. The people of Auland had put their all into modifying their original ships.
Complete flotation was still impossible. That would require dragon bones as the base material as well as a redesign from the base up. The right materials would have to be chosen, enchanted, and put all together. However, the people of Auland were capable of simply installing flotation engines capable of lowering the ship's overall weight to reduce the ship's draft.
Perhaps this seemed rather meaningless, but it opened up the possibility of making the entire hull the ship metallic.
Since the ship was lighter, there was more power of flotation. Didn't that mean it was possible to equip the ship with heavier armor? And so, countless blacksmiths worked to add thick layers of armor to the hull of their ships. In order to ensure that the hull wouldn't be damaged by coral or any other water obstacles, the people of Auland were crazy enough to utilize precious magical metals. Magical metals were precious enough that no ordinary adventurer would be willing to use them to craft weapons.
After the war was over and Auland calculated the war expenses, the magical metals used for these ships' hull armor alone cost one-fifth of Auland's entire national treasury, which would have been more than enough to reconstruct an entire new Kagersi from scratch.
Although metallic armored ship technology was still in its infancy and engine technology was still under development, Auland's shipwrights had successfully managed to use flotation technology to lighten their ships' weight and create half-metallic armored ships with armor only on the hull. I found this truly amazing.
Unlike the wars fought in my original world of Earth, the metallic warships in this world weren't focused on defending against cannon fire. Instead, this armor was targeted specifically to defend against underwater attackers wanting to sink the ship along with coral and other underwater obstacles.
Once engine technology was improved even further, true, fully armored heavy warships were sure to arrive as well. But right now, these makeshift half-metallic armored warships would be sufficient.
Compared to Auland's original ships, these possessed far superior defenses. Due to the high number of anti-gravity engines installed on each ship, they possessed the ability to float in the air for short periods of time, making them capable of traversing even land. To quote Darsos: ”The flotation power is insufficient? Then add more anti-gravity engines and keep lots of backup engines on board to replace any that overload and explode. Outfit every single ship with plenty of workers to run things and mages to provide mana. We have plenty of humans. We also have plenty of money! I'll spend money however I want!”
The humans in this world were just as intelligent as the humans from my original world. Whenever an intelligent species was forced to the brink, all sorts of miracle inventions would start appearing as war was forever the foremost reason for innovation. Miracle inventions were capable of astonishing feats no conventional military of the time could accomplish.
Of course, if it weren't for the fact that the Auland Empire was already at the top in the field in metallurgy and metalworking, then they wouldn't have been able to actualize all this even if they wanted. Fine then, the most critical part was that they were sufficiently rich. War would always be a contest between two factions' overall power levels. Since Auland was really, really, rich, they could afford to invest so many resources in war.
In order to disguise the regular, weak wooden portions at the top half of their ships and to make better camouflage for night attacks, Auland painted their battleships a pitch black. Later in the future, this black battlefleet that always brought an end to their enemies would be known as the ”Fleet of Death.”
Without a doubt, this would become one of Auland's aces. No matter how dangerous the war became or how many Auland warriors died in Kagersi's waters to become food for the Sea Tribe, Auland continued to spend resources on constantly improving these battleships to be used in actual combat.
”These modified battleships need to obtain miraculous results on their very first surprise appearance… Otherwise, how can it be called an ace if it can't enter battle at a critical moment and play the most important role in securing our strategic objective?”
As an emperor, Darsos was quite competent in the area of viciousness. All the sacrifices he had to make elsewhere had paid off. This ace he had been hiding for so long achieved astonishing results.
When the pitch-black fleet appeared in the dark hours before dawn, not a single Sea Tribe member was able to stop them. These gigantic ships were surprisingly dexterous at maneuvering despite their size. Any time they ran aground on coral, buildings, or other obstacles, the fact that they would fly up into midair for a short period of time seemed inconceivable.
Every area of water that these heavy battleships passed over was flattened of all coral, other obstacles, or even any large Sea Tribe members or beasts. Those gigantic, solid metal bodies were capable of smashing everything in their path.
When the Sea Tribe sounded the alarm and entered the battlefield, they found that they were helpless against such battleships.
Swim over and sink the ships by drilling a hole in the hull? The armor consisted of an alloy between magical metal and a thick layer of iron, which would be more than sufficient to defend against even cannon fire. Although a Sea Giant managed to pierce the outer layer of armor using an anchor, the anchor actually got stuck into the inner layer and the Sea Giant was dragged to its death.
Send up huge waves to capsize the ships? These ships were far too steady and were capable of flying up to dodge the waves. No ordinary water mage found it possible to capsize these giant metallic hulks. Only a forbidden spell would be able to accomplish such a feat.
Use cannons to attack the weak wooden areas on the upper halves of the ships? The Sea Tribe didn't possess any cannons. Meanwhile, the Sea Tribe mages lost in battle due to the fact that Auland fielded three times the number of mages by stuffing the ships full of them.
Auland's advantages due to their outstanding metallurgy and metalsmithing skill were quite obvious. Their patented alloy armor, along with explosive metal alloys and other such technologies, provided the best examples. Their alloy armor on the ships was the product of top-quality Auland metalsmithing. Forget about the Sea Tribe's metal weapons and bare hands—even ordinary magic spells at five circle and below would be unable to damage this alloy armor.
The two sides had completely different attitudes regarding this war, so naturally the result would be influenced by their attitudes.