759 The Sigh of the Earth Part 1 (1/2)
The target that the winged skeleton was searching for was the enemy's new troop carriers. Other than transporting troops, the main purpose of these carriers was to transport large equipment as well. Combat vessels could be used to transport troops, but not large equipment as most of them could not be dismantled into smaller components, hence they could only be transported with large troop carriers.
Constructing such troop carriers was as difficult as constructing combat vessels. Besides, Cloudflow only had one shipyard on the Separation Sea. Even if they worked as quickly as they could, building one troop carrier would still take a month's time.
In actual fact, the last time the winged skeleton sprung a surprise attack on Cloudflow it had caused the enemy to suffer heavy losses. If it was on the open sea, Cloudflow would have been able to replenish their supply of troop carriers so quickly that even eight-hundred would not have been a problem. All their noble families along the sea each possessed shipyards that were far bigger than the one on the Separation Sea.
If the winged skeleton was able to succeed in sinking twenty troop carriers at one go, it would be a serious blow to Cloudflow's logistics.
The pan's turtle alchemical boat dove down and stuck closely to the bottom of the lake. The pier was nine miles away. The winged skeleton activated spirit gaze and slowly observed the combat vessels in the harbor.
This harbor had already been expanded to a point where it could contain more than forty huge ships and just as the winged skeleton thought, those troop carriers were being filled up with resources while small combat vessels were patrolling around the harbor.
This harbor was not as well-built as Metatrin City, but its security was equally tight. There were large catapults, stone artilleries, and tens of arrow towers on the shore. The winged skeleton could not see the surface clearly, but more or less could guess that those arrow towers must be filled with large alchemy crossbows.
The arrows of large alchemy crossbows all possessed magic attacks and could even be filled with magic powder so that there would be an explosion once the arrow hit its target. It was the same rationale as the winged skeleton's bloodstone.
Explosive magic powder was harder to stabilize than bloodstone so there were very few of them.
The winged skeleton was only able to see the outline of the target as he did not dare to use death magic to observe it in depth. Fortunately, his target was simple. His plan was to unleash bone spirits to destroy more than twenty troop carriers.
Twenty-four bone spirits swam out from the spirit pool. Their lifespan was shorter than a month and that was after the winged skeleton had obtained Three Kings' spirit pool. Ordinary bone spirits would not live past a week, or they would be equivalent to a one-thousand year-old freak in the human world.
The lives of these twenty-four bone spirits were coming to an end. They would not be able to evolve even if they were kept longer. The winged skeleton gave the bone spirits beginner-level intelligence first before giving them orders and forcefully sealing the images of the twenty-four targets into their souls.
The winged skeleton was alone on the pan's turtle alchemical boat, so it seemed very empty. He used a complicated spirit mantra on the twenty-four bone spirits and opened up the teleportation portal at the front of the pan's turtle alchemical boat.
The twenty-four bone spirits were sent out altogether at the same time with huge bloodstones. They swam towards the harbor.
The bone spirits would take about five minutes to cover a distance of close to ten miles. This speed was faster than most combat vessels, except a dragon skeleton vessel at full speed or the combat vessel from Alchemy City that could fly.
After the bone spirits had been unleashed, the winged skeleton turned back. Now that the bone spirits had locked onto their targets, any grade-8 mage at the harbor would be able to discover them within three minutes. If the mage was able to react quickly enough, the bone spirits might be intercepted even before they could reach their targets.
Intercepting the bone spirits would not require any powerful spells. The bloodstones themselves were not stable, a low-level spell was all it would need to explode.
The winged skeleton was taking a gamble. He was betting that the enemy would not detect something as weak as bone spirits within three minutes. Bone spirits were creatures below grade-3. Magic beasts of this grade in the Separation Sea posed no threat to combat vessels. This was not the open ocean so the magic beasts were generally milder.
The speed at which the pan's turtle alchemical boat was traveling underwater was much slower than the bone spirits. The winged skeleton could not turn on the magic engine yet for fear of attracting the enemy's attention. He could only use magic arrays to shoot out water currents to propel the alchemy ship forward.
The alchemy ship turned back and traveled towards the depth of the Separation Sea at a speed of forty miles an hour.
Cloudflow's main combat vessels could travel at a speed of more than seventy miles. At the speed that the winged skeleton was traveling in, would have to risk operating the alchemical boat at full speed in order to escape if he was detected by the enemy. By doing so, even grand mages would be able to hear the noise generated.
As time passed, the magical hourglass on the pan's turtle alchemical boat counted off the passing of every second.
Four minutes! The winged skeleton suddenly sensed danger. This ability was given to him by Saleen. The benefit of the soul bond was on full display there. Without any form of training, the winged skeleton could still obtain abilities aside from his original skillset.
At that point, he did not dare to turn back. The enemy had discovered the bone spirits. They would be able to reach their targets in less than a minute. The enemy would have to decide between chasing him or intercepting the bone spirits.
With less than a minute left, the enemy might have yet to discover the danger posed by the bone spirits. They must have detected the weak magic waves that were produced when he unleashed the bone spirits.
A white magic light shot into the sky from the Cloudflow camp behind the harbor. A black figure flew into the sky from the camp and his black magic robe ruffled in the air like a giant flag.
There were three conspicuous magic symbols on the black magic robe. The grade-9 sorcerer was on the move and was heading straight towards the harbor.