775 Determination (1/2)

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 airships 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 ships' lights blinked three times, giving the signal to begin.

20 battleships provided protection as 37 large-scale transport ships began forcing their way across the channel, followed by several hundred smaller ships.

Starting from the northern Floyt Mountains on the western battlefront, and going all the way south, the entire shoreline 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 ships as the reefs would only harm the ship hulls, but getting trapped in shallow waters would likely cause the ship 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 battleships approached this area, the devils and underwater undead automatically started attacking even though they didn't know the ships' goal here. The flying devils also unhesitatingly rushed towards Silvershark Bay in an effort to stop the ships from securing the shoreline.

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 spawned 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 astonishing 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 fireballs 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 ships.

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 ship captains and cannoneers wouldn't care about the acolytes' pain, as they were going crazy over their new toy.