novelraw #212 - Section 212
#212 - Section 212
He was already convinced that Shark's arrival at the front lines was a factional struggle within the Sea Country.
"Magic crystal cannons, ready! Let us welcome His Highness the Crown Prince, and by the way, tell him... Your Highness, times have changed!"
Cromwell waved his hand excitedly, unleashing the first volley.
Chapter 189: The Naga Marshal Who Chose the Wrong Opponent
At this moment, the Naga's central army camp was actually quite empty.
The Lightning Punishment Legion, which had been victorious all the way, had already been dispatched, along with 30,000 Naga elites.
After seeing through Dale's arrangement and deciding to devour Dale's feinting force, the Swordfish submarine squadron took away almost all the war sea beasts.
In the seabed, those war sea beasts were not only weapons but also vehicles, representing the mobility of troops and supplies.
At the same time, Nicole's church corps was also moving towards the frontal battlefield. Like the storm tide warlocks, they were the Naga's most powerful spellcasters, providing remote fire support.
Adding the forces maintaining defense around the area, at this time, the Naga's central army camp only had 20,000 reserve troops.
These troops were reasonably well-trained and had been rotated in the previous battles, but they did not have the most elite "Terra equipment."
Moreover, the number of legendary powerhouses was seriously insufficient. The limited number of powerhouses had been divided in half to support the frontal battlefield.
The only advantage here was the magic crystal cannon, which was actually a "Water Dragon Roar" series torpedo launcher.
It was named because the launched torpedo resembled a water dragon streaking across the sea and produced a piercing鸣叫 to some fish.
This batch of torpedoes from the Chapter of Imbalance was not powered by magic crystals but by a composite fuel of semi-magical and semi-chemical reactions.
The instantaneous power output was extremely high. With the magic array in the front, it was actually a "supercavitation torpedo" with a propulsion speed of over 200 meters per second.
It was equipped with a rich variety of warheads, such as electric arc, flame, and venom for large-area fish killing, as well as depleted uranium warheads for armored units.
Because he didn't know which one was best underwater, Frankenstein took out a considerable variety.
Well, Roger also contributed a lot of ideas to this.
However, later he felt that the same firepower might be more economical with Lydia's base coral and self-detonating fish, so his focus began to shift.
Now, this batch of Water Dragon Roar launchers was regarded as Cromwell's trump card, a trans-era "heavy firepower."
After quietly testing its power, he treasured it and kept it hidden in the central army, controlling it without using it.
He liked this kind of heavy cannon that was comparable to the power of large-scale magic but could form dense firepower and fire continuously, which was more flexible than those warlocks.
Calling it a cannon was also out of some kind of man's romantic love.
He originally wanted to wait until the decisive battle to let Water Dragon Roar play a decisive role.
As a result, because Shark's troops appeared in the central army camp, Cromwell felt a crisis and had to let these big treasures debut early to give Prince Shark a warm welcome.
At the same time, Cromwell was also holding a magic communicator.
Several small camps around had already sent reinforcements. If his big treasures did not stop the enemy, then the frontal battlefield would need to return to defense to prevent him, the commander, and the headquarters from being taken by the enemy.
In fact, under normal circumstances, mermaids could not find the Naga's central army camp so easily.
With the protection of various magics and the disguised camps watching each other, teams of seahorse cavalry patrolling, such a large-scale force should have been discovered from a distance, and then a defensive line should have been established, or an encirclement ambush should have been set up.
No matter how arrogant and conceited Cromwell was, he was still a veteran of the battlefield. With countless life-and-death experiences, basic operations such as camping would not have such big loopholes, easily exposing himself to the enemy.
But Roger opened the full map.
He easily deduced the layout of the Naga barracks from the chat log, using the gaps in defense and patrol, the Sea Country powerhouse instantly killed the sporadic sentries and scouts they encountered, and thus silently touched the central army tent within sight.
Even if the opposite side shot out white lines, the Black Tortoise Shield Guards directly under the Sea Country Royal Forbidden Army quickly topped them, using the shields propped up by their innate spell-like abilities to directly eat this round of torpedo volleys without causing any casualties.
The Sea Country Emperor still felt sorry for his eldest son. Although the Royal Forbidden Army had not been on the battlefield, their equipment level and personal strength were definitely strong.
For example, these Black Tortoise Shield Guards, averaging level 10 and reaching Tier 3 warriors, also mastered the spell-like ability to increase defense power when aggregated together, making Margaret drool and wanting to abduct them back to the empire.
Four hundred Black Tortoise Shield Guards formed a defense line, directly confiscating the opponent's torpedo volleys. In the past, the first few rounds of magic and arrow rain would have been ineffective, covering our entire army to charge the tower. What a good defensive force!
But Cromwell was not surprised. He knew the Sea Country's trump cards very well and was not surprised to see the Black Tortoise Shield Guards.
But this kind of remote consumption used to compete for the mana bars of both sides, but now it depends on national strength!
With Water Dragon Roar, Cromwell believed that now was the time to use his ammunition reserves to exchange for the opponent's mana bars, and then send his own mage group.
Double the blow, double the joy, how can such a battle be lost?
So what if the Black Tortoise Shield Guards completely ate this wave?
We still have a very large number of torpedoes!
More abundant tactical choices, that's why he was so happy to get Water Dragon Roar even though he had magic strikes.
This gave him an extra spear on the original spear and shield.
"Change to shield-destroying warheads."
Cromwell ordered, revealing a confident smile.
Unlike armor-piercing warheads, shield-destroying warheads were unique magical warheads on Earth and in this world, specifically targeting various magic and spell-like shields, causing extra magic consumption.
The Black Tortoise Shield Guards also noticed that the enemy's consumption of magic and physical strength had doubled, and reported to Margaret, who was acting as the commander.
The little devil recalculated their rotation time without expression.
She, who occasionally collapsed during command, even had some handsomeness—
Just badly imitating a certain empress.
But under their cover, Shark's troops had rushed forward a long way, getting closer and closer to the Naga's central army camp.
Shark was inexplicably excited, looking at the flag gently waving with the sea in the distance, he couldn't help but excitedly shout: "It's really the enemy's central army camp, we caught the enemy marshal, we caught the local marshal!"
He didn't believe it when Roger told him, but now seeing that he was leading twice as many subordinates as the opponent, he believed that Cromwell could not escape.
Margaret was annoyed by his noise and said unhappily: "You're making a fuss. Maybe you're in the enemy's encirclement?"
Shark's expression changed instantly: "Ah, this... Really? Are we surrounded?"
"No, idiot."
"Then you're sick, why are you scaring me..."
"I thought you had eyes."
Margaret was convinced. I just casually complained and you got scared.
What kind of strange education did this guy receive? Does he have no judgment of his own?
Roger smiled faintly and smoothed things over: "Okay, don't quarrel. Your Highness the Crown Prince, you don't need to command today, just calmly observe the battlefield, think about the battles you've participated in, and then remind us of any omissions."
"Oh oh, check for omissions, right? Okay!" Shark calmed down a lot, and his goodwill towards Roger greatly increased.
Compared to Margaret's disdain and impatience towards him, Roger's attitude was much gentler, and those confident encouragements really calmed him down a lot.
The first batch of Black Tortoise Shield Guards outside had exhausted their magic power and changed to the second batch, finally arriving one kilometer away from the enemy's central army camp before their magic power was exhausted.
The Sea Country Forbidden Army and the Naga's second-line troops faced off head-on.
Both sides had high morale, comparable training, and similar equipment, all rotten products produced underwater.
The advantage of the Naga's second-line troops was that they had seen blood, were full of courage, and were brave and fierce.
But the Sea Country side had 20,000 more private soldiers.
Shark's mother, the current queen of the Sea Country, had a long-standing and powerful duke family, and naturally hoped to see Shark inherit the throne, so this time she spared no expense.
This private army had been training for a long time and had also recruited strong people from the folk with heavy money, and the proportion of magicians was very high.
Compared with the Sea Country Forbidden Army, their discipline was slightly insufficient, and it was unknown what would happen if they encountered headwinds, but the impact of fighting in this kind of more-against-less battle was fully displayed.
Not long after the battle, the Naga's second-line troops began to retreat steadily, relying entirely on the remote firepower advantage of magic + torpedoes to avoid defeat.
In the Naga's central army camp, Cromwell showed the calmness of a generation of famous generals, and a trace of cold light flowed from his eyes:
"Although you seized the opportunity, you were ultimately one step too slow... Now you have entered my encirclement!"
In front of and behind Shark's troops, a total of fifty Swordfish submarines were speeding up.
These new-style underwater magic crystal machines sold by the Terra Kingdom were actually manufactured by the Empire's First Shipyard. They were 45.3 meters long, had a surface displacement of 855 tons, used a double-layer hull made of magical alloy, had a maximum diving depth of 8,000 meters, and had a rated crew of 20 people.
These small submarines were slender in shape and really looked like a metal swordfish, with a ramming angle in the front, but without the exaggerated length of about five meters of a swordfish's species and body.
A huge dorsal fin was raised on its back, which was the latest type of magic power amplifier.
The magicians in the submarine could rely on the core magic crystal reaction array to amplify their magic power, extend the battery life, and exert more powerful power.
The design starting point of the Swordfish submarine was still artillery warfare. Four Water Dragon Roar launchers were equipped on each side, and the remote strike was very strong in cooperation with the shipborne magicians.
The ramming angle was only for the empire people's bravery, because their own power was sufficient and the speed was fast enough, so they retained a means of progress.
Developing submarines was the empire's attempt to conquer the ocean, after all, empire people could not freely breathe on the seabed.
And sealed, submersible ships... naturally submarines were born, right?
First let the Naga test the small submarines, anyway, if something happened, they could directly abandon the boat and escape, unlike the human race who would directly die on the seabed.
Previously, Cromwell divided the Swordfish submarines into two formations, one placed on the frontal battlefield and the other patrolling the periphery.
At this time, something happened, and these high-speed mobiles were the fastest to return to defense.
Relying on the advantage of remote firepower, the Naga's central army camp was not breached in the first time, and the submarine formation waited to encircle Shark's troops like dumplings.
After suddenly discovering the enemy behind them, Roger recognized his own equipment and was prepared for it, but the Sea Country people saw it for the first time.
However, they were not panicked.
Although this was a huge steel equipment that was even bigger than those pink bunnies, it was not as long as their giant whale, but they were only slightly apprehensive and would not cause a devastating blow to morale.
The natives of this world had seen all kinds of giant beasts and armored units, and there would not be a scene like when tanks first appeared on the battlefield, which would cause a devastating blow to morale.
But the sudden appearance of the enemy army behind them scared Shark half to death, but he desperately covered his mouth to prevent himself from making a sound.
Roger's task for him was to "check for omissions". He did not see any omissions in Margaret's command, so he did not dare to make a sound at the moment, affecting their command.
Cromwell saw that his mobile torpedo position was in place and clenched his fists: "Die, Your Highness the Crown Prince!"
The Naga troops, who had been suppressed and beaten all the time, suddenly erupted with more fierce firepower suppression, and the reserve of the second-level troops also rushed up, cooperating with the torpedoes coming from behind to launch an attack on Shark's troops.
Under normal circumstances, the command of even the most elite troops would be chaotic when attacked from both sides.
But Roger had already made arrangements for all of this.
From the beginning of the battle until now, the only force he had invested was the Sea Country's conventional troops.
This was a good opportunity to test and observe the combat power of both sides of the Sea Country, and also to confuse Cromwell, to see how many foreshadowings he still had.
Now the appearance of the submarine formation and the fierce counterattack of the central army camp both represented Cromwell...
Revealed his cards!
Don't look at the momentum, wanting to eat Prince Shark in one bite, but he can't completely eat Shark's troops with his current strength.
He was playing an empty city trick, he was bluffing, he wanted to scare Shark from continuing to attack and retreat to save his life!
Cromwell was a marshal who dared to take risks. He didn't want to disrupt his deployment on the frontal battlefield, so he was prepared to gamble that Shark would not dare to go all in with him!
If Shark was timid and had the intention to retreat, then he would rush up with his guards, to seek survival in death and eat a big one!
This was also a hand he was sure of Shark's character.
But the problem was...
Today, the one playing against him was not Shark, but Roger!
Roger calculated that Cromwell would gamble, and would not let the main force return to defense immediately, but would deliberately let himself to the nearest distance, deliberately exposing flaws...
Then I will make good use of your flaw!
"Interception self-detonation defense line activated, disable their submarines, and counter-control their war sea beasts."
Roger first ordered the magicians controlling the base coral, and then patted Shark on the shoulder, "Tell your men to hold on, the enemy reinforcements will not interfere with them, and take Cromwell as soon as possible!"
Roger showed him the real-time magic image of Cromwell taken by the reconnaissance fish, like the most experienced gambling dog, with a fanatical look on his face, as if he had eaten them, with a fierce light shining.
Shark shrank his neck subconsciously, but immediately he looked at the battlefield like a meat grinder.
Magic and torpedoes continued to explode, becoming countless suns on the seabed, reflecting his face extremely pale.
But he immediately nodded firmly, "I will do it well!"
He slapped himself hard twice, his swollen face looking spirited. Then, using the magical equipment of the whale-carriage, he launched a morale-boosting speech, guiding the soldiers to continue their charge.