844 Windfall Gain Part 1 (2/2)
”We will only listen to the master's orders!”, the doubles said unanimously.
A Mechanical Soul double's chest blew up with a bang by streaks of blue electrical sparks. The golden soul flame housed within its body completely extinguished, as it slumped on the floor.
”My order for you lot is to follow Soldier's orders. Any one of you not liking that, can go straight to hell,” Saleen told them coldly.
Tam'enm told them too many secrets of Dragon Island. Knowing that there were so many professionals serving Grand Duke Iron Blood had him feeling envious, but at the same time, also feeling worried.
There was yet another Ancient warship on Dragon Island, but that ship had yet to undergo any modifications and repairs. That particular mage Saleen captured was able to deceive the sorcerers in Alchemy City and made it far into the northern seas, due to its stealth capabilities.
Grand Duke Iron Blood got wind of Metatrin City producing magic nuclei, which was hardly something Saleen himself considered a secret. The grand duke simply postulated that people of Metatrin City must have found a good hunting ground at sea, which enabled them to easily capture magic beasts capable of producing magic nuclei, in groups.
There were up to one-hundred and twenty-eight islands under Grand Duke Iron Blood's control, but hunting grounds among them were few and far between. A good number of the equipment found in the ruins of the first dynasty, required high level magic nuclei to serve as a power source. They were a resource that the grand duke lacked, preventing him from developing valuables found in the first dynasty ruins. He might have had more than one-thousand mages serving under him, but he was hardly able to use the Ancient as little more than a massive moving collection of turrets.
Grand Duke Iron Blood was adamant in taking Metatrin's hunting ground at sea for himself, and so deployed the Ancient to intercept Saleen's fleet. There were more than a dozen sorcerers, eight ancient warriors, and a good number of the ship's inherent large scale equipment, prepped and ready to work on the Ancient. The arsenal the Ancient carried was sufficient to destroy more than three Cloudflow fleets. Equipped with such impressive power, the grand duke thought himself to be unbeatable.
He had not expected the ancient warriors to be incredibly weak against incredibly low temperatures though, so much so that they returned went into sleep mode as soon as their environment got really cold. The control measures he developed were rendered completely useless. The grade-9 sorcerer in control of the Ancient was deceived by the water puppet. He was made short work of using the Crystal Finger.
Saleen was not in the mood for taming the Mechanical Soul. What he needed most at that moment was to have complete control of the Ancient, as only by having complete control of one such warship, would the routes leading to the oceanic ice block be truly secured.
The hundreds of mechanical doubles were overwhelmed and silenced. Saleen did not bother negotiating terms with them. Slaves remained slaves, and slaves had no rights, no matter how capable they were.
”Genga, make more doubles of yourself. Have the Ancient under control, and move northward,” Saleen gave the order, which the Mechanical Soul followed begrudgingly.
”Master, the warship lacks power. There was only one magic power furnace, and its fastest speed is sixty miles per hour, which is about half of our fleet's,” a double explained as soon as the order was given.
Saleen narrowed his eyes to a slit and looked at the double, thinking for a bit before asking, ”Can you make it go a little faster?”
”The limit will be eighty miles per hour if we have high level magic nuclei. Any faster would require auxiliary power to run at their fullest. With that, the warship will be able to make it to one-hundred and twenty miles per hour.”
”Alright, just stick with eighty. You won't be able to control it well going too fast,” Saleen said as he took out thirty-six standard-sized grade-9 magic nuclei and handed them to the double, and continued, ”Keep up with the fleet. I will need you to have complete control of the ship before reaching the oceanic ice block. Repair the defenses and weapons of the ship in accordance to the schematics!”
”Yes, master,” the Mechanical Soul dared not negotiate terms with Saleen anylonger.
”Soldier, have the bone warships follow,” Saleen said to the winged skeleton, as he noticed Nailisi and Nicholas made their way back to him.
”Let's move,” Saleen did not ask how the fight went. Nailisi's temperament would have prevented her from leaving any loose ends behind. They were not on land. The soldiers simply had nowhere to run in the middle of the ocean. There were more than five-thousand crew and soldiers of similar number on the ship. While it might have seemed to be massive, there would have easily been near one-thousand that ended up dead or injured when the Dragon Skeleton Combat Vessel rammed and boarded the Ancient's deck.
Nailisi became a role model for the spirits. Casting a death magic spell in the hold was enough to ensure that there would have been no survivors left in said hold. Battles fought at sea were several hundred times more cruel that those fought on land.
The Dragon Skeleton Combat Vessel stood up wobbly under the winged skeleton's control, making its way along the deck and toppling a few masts that the Mechanical Soul labored to erect, before jumping into the sea.
The vessel's jump created a hole several yard deep on the rear deck, angering the Mechanical Soul so much that it cursed over and over, but it did not dare say anything bad about Saleen.
”Master, why are you in such a hurry?”, Nailisi was baffled. Her understanding of Saleen's personality had her thinking that she should have checked his prize thoroughly before going anywhere.
”We best not stay here for long. If people from Alchemy City were here, they would have taken the Ancient and we would have suffered a great loss. Soldier, I will take over the Dragon Skeleton Combat Vessel. You get down there and keep an eye on the fleet behind!”