Water Magician

Vol 3. Chapter 667: The Alchemist’s Battle

Above them as well, there was the covering layer of Ryo’s .

Upon it poured down tens of thousands of ice projectiles.

And it was not just a single volley.

Again and again.

Each time, tens of thousands of ice projectiles rained down.

“Like stars... a hundred launch platforms? So you’re generating launch platforms with alchemy and making them rain ice. Truly the ultimate expression of brute force.”

Ryo said it with something like admiration.

“And yet this ice covering does not break even under such brute force... Moreover, this is not alchemy, is it? Why can pure water-attribute magic endure to this extent?”

Lord Rowon, still wrapped in ecstatic delight, coolly analyzed Ryo’s ice covering.

Directly overhead, the rain of ice crashing down and the ice covering that continued to knock it away collided without pause, yet the two water-attribute magicians standing at the bow spoke as though they were sharing tea and idle conversation.

“More load is required. Your Highness, have the fleet begin magical bombardment.”

“Understood. Fire.”

Prince Kouri’s command was relayed to the entire fleet.

At that instant, Abel alone was probably the only one who noticed the faintest change in Ryo’s expression.

“Fire!”

Magical bombardment was unleashed from the two-hundred-ship fleet.

Neither Lord Rowon, who had asked for the bombardment, nor Prince Kouri, who had ordered it, believed the bombardment itself would succeed.

But it remained true that both the wall of ice sealing the space between the fleets and the ice covering guarding the sky above were being generated and maintained by a single magician.

If that was the case, then thickening the attacks, increasing the burden, and ultimately driving him into magical exhaustion was a standard method of magical warfare.

That was the significance of the fleet’s magical bombardment.

But... a standard method.

Which also meant it was a method the opponent could predict.

And in this case, that opponent was Ryo.

“‘Dynamic Steam Mine II’ has already been laid.”

Not the usual made through water-attribute magic, but the alchemical Dynamic Steam Mine II he had prepared before for the fight with Fan.

He had improved it, just a little...

“A chain freeze? No, an induced freeze? The instant it hits, everything freezes right back to the launch platform.”

Ryo’s murmur was audible only to Abel beside him.

Of course, Abel had no idea what it meant even after hearing it...

But when he saw what happened, he understood.

Bombardment was fired from the alchemical tools mounted along the broadsides of the Kouri royal fleet.

After flying only a short distance, the shots froze solid.

And from the point where they froze...

like fire running along a fuse, like fire running across gasoline, the freezing shot all the way back to the alchemical launch device that had fired it.

Every ship that had fired.

Every gunport.

That sight could be seen even from the bows of the two flagship vessels locked bow-to-bow.

“Impossible...”

Perhaps that was Prince Kouri.

“What in the world...”

Perhaps that was Kabui Somal.

“Terrifying...”

Perhaps that was Captain La Wu.

“Khff.”

That burst of laughter, unable to be held back, belonged to Lord Rowon.

“That was alchemy just now! You predicted that if they fired, my ‘moons’ would move out of the firing lines... and therefore be unable to defend them. Dear me. When did you ever lay such a trap?”

“To be praised by Lord Rowon, renowned as the finest alchemist in the Imperial Capital, is an honor beyond words.”

To Lord Rowon’s admiration, Ryo answered with positively refreshing candor.

When a trap you had laid worked perfectly and produced perfect results, it would make anyone happy, not just Ryo.

“With this, we’ve sealed off ‘half’ of the Darwei fleet’s bombardment.”

Ryo said it with a smile.

“Half?”

Abel tilted his head.

Because it looked as though every magical bombardment alchemical tool on every Darwei ship other than the Feidoshin—the flagship locked bow-to-bow with them—had been destroyed.

“I destroyed the ones on the broadside facing this direction, but the ones on the far side are still intact.”

“Ah...”

That was right. Ships had magical bombardment alchemical tools mounted on both sides.

He had destroyed every one facing them, but the ones on the other side were still unharmed.

“Whether they can move them, I don’t know...”

Ryo did not know exactly how those alchemical tools were mounted.

But if they were similar to the ones Captain Lu Yao and the others had used on the Green Manor Plain... though these were clearly much larger in terms of firepower, moving them would not be impossible with enough time and manpower.

“But instead of relying on alchemical tools on ships like that, you’re coming straight at us, aren’t you, Lord Rowon?”

Ryo said it loudly, on purpose.

To the opponent facing him directly, a water-attribute magician who was also an alchemist.

“It cannot be helped. If that is what you desire, I shall oblige you, Duke Rondo.”

Lord Rowon answered with a smile still on his face.

“By the way, Lord Rowon—even with alchemy, wouldn’t magical exhaustion still exist?”

“No, Duke Rondo. Depending on the method, magical exhaustion hardly occurs at all.”

“That would be if you use that sequence of 1024 characters, correct?”

The moment Ryo said that, Lord Rowon’s expression visibly changed.

But he nodded almost at once.

Because he realized how Ryo knew of it.

“Lu Yao told you, I suppose.”

“Yes. And the Flight Rings sold in the Imperial Capital have a similar sequence of characters as well.”

“Ohh. So you opened a Flight Ring. If one opens it improperly, the magic formula is designed to erase itself... But no, for Duke Rondo, who wields alchemy to this extent and even creates golems, that would be no problem. My apologies, my apologies.”

“No, Lord Rowon, that thing from earlier... your ‘moons,’ was it? The ones protecting the ships. Using alchemy to perform that much precise control is incredible. And the ones bombarding us now... I suppose you’d call them ‘stars.’ Plunging fire from countless stars—also incredible.”

“In another age, perhaps we could have talked alchemy day and night.”

“Yes, truly.”

Lord Rowon laughed loudly, but did not relax his attacks for even a moment.

Ryo received them too, smiling all the while.

Listening to that exchange beside Ryo, Abel had recently begun to understand.

In magical battles between inhuman beings of this class, brute force alone almost never decided the match.

And the ones who understood that most clearly were the very people fighting.

Which meant that this apparent deadlock—one side seeming to force matters through sheer power and the other seeming simply to endure it—was exactly the shape both sides desired.

Behind it, both were thinking of ways to end the fight at once, and devising the means to do so.

It was precisely when, to an outside observer, it seemed that nothing was happening, that those at the highest level were in fact thinking and preparing.

Abel thought.

Ryo’s goal, surely, was to secure Prince Ryun and the others.

Since they had been taken into Neil Andersen, nothing could be done to them immediately.

But Neil Andersen itself was still sitting on the enemy deck.

Surely Ryo wanted to move it back to their side.

But he could not understand Lord Rowon’s intentions at all.

He was said to be the finest alchemist in Darwei, and a water-attribute magician who had accumulated this much life experience.

There was no way he was acting without a plan...

After a while, Lord Rowon laughed.

It was different from his laughter until now, a laugh tinged with something ominous.

The laughter of a man certain he had achieved his aim ahead of a powerful enemy.

“Duke Rondo, it seems I have gained the initiative. .”

The instant Lord Rowon chanted—

Ryo felt control of the that had been protecting the front of them stolen away.

Just as it had once been stolen by Kraken and Fan.

At the same time, it vanished.

The way Ryo shoved Abel sideways, who had been standing next to him, was almost unconscious...

And then—

Ryo was frozen solid.

“Impossible...”

Abel, thrown aside, could not help muttering as he looked at Ryo encased in ice.

“Wahahahahaha! Ah, delightful, delightful. To think I could freeze a water-attribute magician of this caliber solid.”

It was madness in laughter.

Lord Rowon rolled in delight.

“If it’s Ryo, he’ll break out...”

Abel said it without thinking.

“No, I’m afraid that will be impossible, Your Majesty Abel.”

Still laughing, Lord Rowon spoke with a polite bow.

“This was done through alchemy. If it were magic, then perhaps—just perhaps—there might be some chance. But this was a freezing performed through my alchemy, so even a legendary magician would find it impossible.”

Lord Rowon explained.

Hearing that, Abel frowned.

Because he remembered Ryo’s earlier battle with Fan.

At the end of that fight, Ryo had used alchemy to freeze Fan solid.

Fan, who possessed a dragon’s true body.

A true apex water-attribute monster.

And yet even she had been unable to escape by her own power from the Ice Coffin generated by alchemy.

So he understood.

What Lord Rowon was saying was true.

And even so...

“The match is decided. Surrender.”

The surrender demand that came from Prince Kouri’s mouth a second time was perfect in its timing.

Perfect timing, when the greatest force supporting them had been lost.

If they surrendered, then the soldiers would likely not be harmed.

At the very least, neither Kabui Somal nor Captain La Wu could give the order to continue fighting by force under these circumstances.

Rather...

“Sir Abel, what do you think?”

Kabui Somal frankly consulted Abel.

He had known already, but Abel had just been revealed as Abel the First.

In this situation, consulting King Abel as commander of the allied fleet was not the wrong move.

Abel deliberately turned his back on Prince Kouri and the others and faced Kabui Somal and Captain La Wu instead.

“I want you to wait a little longer.”

“That means... you believe Duke Rondo will break out of that ice?”

“Is he even alive after being frozen like that?”

Abel asked it, Kabui Somal questioned it, and Captain La Wu openly suspected that Ryo might already be dead.

“No. Neil Andersen and the ice walls still continue to exist. Which means, at the very least, Ryo is not dead.”

Neil Andersen had indeed been generated through alchemy, but the magical power supplying it should still be ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) coming from Ryo himself.

Since it was not using magic stones.

That was how Abel reasoned.

However...

Rrip.

A sound rang out...

and it became clear that something transparent had vanished.

“He’s peeling away the ice walls one by one.”

Kabui Somal must have sensed it and understood.

The ice walls Ryo had generated to protect the allied fleet were being stripped away one by one by Lord Rowon, their control stolen and then erased.

The first wall he had seized and peeled away with that spell called ...

that had been the wall directly in front of Ryo and the others.

But there were other ice walls protecting the allied fleet as well.

And those were being peeled away too.

“This is bad...”

That would become the trigger for panic to spread among every crewman in the allied fleet.

For the fleet’s commanders, this was extremely bad.

“Ryo...”

Abel murmured that and looked at Ryo sealed inside the ice.

And then—

<>

Crack!

“Preparedness prevents sorrow.”

Saying that, Ryo shattered the ice and returned alive.