Water Magician-Chapter 671 : Joining the Battle
Chapter 0671 Joining the Battle
Translator: Jay_Forestieri
Editor: Tseirp
“So they can even command wyverns, after all.”
Prince Ryun muttered bitterly.
They had expected it.
But it was the worst-case expectation.
Understandably so.
Wyverns are entirely different from goblins, orcs, or even ogres.
You could say their rank as monsters was in a different class.
Prince Ryun glanced toward a corner of the main camp.
His aides were there, but the person he most wanted was already gone.
Apparently, they had moved immediately after the wyverns were sighted.
“Lu Yao, sorry for always causing trouble.”
The mutter passed unheard.
The moment the flying bodies launched from Shuntai Castle were confirmed to be wyverns, Captain Lu Yao sprang into action.
Of course, her magic artillery unit did as well.
They headed for a large alchemy device that had been placed in a corner of the main camp and covered with a tarpaulin.
Ryo noticed the movement at once.
“Abel, it’s time!”
“Hm?”
“You know—that alchemy device. The one Captain Lu Yao and her team was adjusting. It was covered so we couldn’t see it from outside.”
“Oh, that huge thing. It’s about the size of a wagon.”
“A wagon-sized battlefield alchemy device reminds me of the ‘Panacea Breath — Long-range Diffusion: Mercy of the Goddess’! It was effective in the final battle against the Djinn, right?”
“It was. Thanks to that, many soldiers’ lives were saved.”
“Whoa!”
The ‘Panacea Breath — Long-range Diffusion: Mercy of the Goddess’ had been an alchemy device Ryo and Viscount Kenneth Hayward built; it spread light-attribute healing magic across the battlefield.
Ryo hadn’t been present when it was used, but Abel later told him it had produced remarkable effects.
Since that long-range diffusion device was roughly the size of a wagon, their curiosity about this similarly sized device was natural.
The cover was removed and the device was pulled forward.
“A giant chair?”
“With a cannon attached?”
Abel and Ryo couldn’t make sense of it at first.
Then, an inspiration flashed in Ryo’s mind.
Probably because of his earthbound knowledge.
“Anti-aircraft gatling, right?”
A gunner sits in a chair and a multi-barrel cannon is mounted in front of them, pointing to the sky.
The chair and the cannon rotate together to intercept incoming flyers...
A weapon that existed in World War II.
This one wasn’t that sophisticated, and it had a single barrel-like protrusion rather than multiple.
Captain Lu Yao was already seated in the chair.
The cannon pulled forward and its base was fixed to the ground.
The seat and cannon could apparently move freely as Lu Yao aimed.
Around it...
“There are about fifty people?”
“Yes. They’re the magic artillery unit.”
Even to Abel and Ryo, the sight was strange.
Everyone was holding a cord that extended from the cannon.
“That mechanism...”
“The magic artillery bunch are holding cords. Come to think of it, the Mercy of the Goddess had priests holding cords, too.”
“Yeah. Mana is transmitted to the device along those cords. After many experiments with Kenneth, that proved to be the method with the least loss of magic power... I imagine this cannon uses cords for the same reason.”
“Amazing.”
“Great minds follow similar paths, perhaps.”
Ryo nodded deeply.
Viscount Kenneth Heyward was, in Ryo’s mind, a genius alchemist he half-considered a teacher.
Captain Lu Yao was also an alchemist of such caliber that Ryo would gladly hand over Friendship Token No.2-kun.
From his perspective, both were true ‘intellectuals’ of alchemy.
“Lu Yao, fire at the right moment!”
“Roger!”
Prince Ryun gave the order; Lu Yao nodded.
She moved the cannon a little... and fired.
BOOM!
An astonishingly loud blast, and a single white fireball launched.
The white fireball struck the leading wyvern’s head as intended, instantly engulfing the entire head in flame.
The wyvern’s head was obliterated.
Naturally, the directly hit wyvern plummeted.
“Whoa!”
“Incredible!”
Cheers erupted in the Darwei main camp.
But Prince Ryun did not join the applause.
“Talismans can’t protect such large wyverns. Still, what force.”
“Yeah, the power is overwhelming.”
Ryo praised it while Abel grimaced.
“Here comes the usual nitpicking swordsman routine? Sometimes you should just dish out praise.”
“No—that thing packs such a punch... how many shots can it fire?”
“Eh...”
Abel’s remark made Ryo realize the same thing.
The question was the cannon’s durability.
Looking at Captain Lu Yao and the others, they were already aiming the next wyvern and firing again.
Many in the main camp cheered, but Prince Ryun’s face remained tight.
“Does Prince Ryun know the cannon won’t hold up?”
“He must. That’s probably why he looks sour.”
“Maybe after that cannon breaks, there’s no next plan prepared?”
“Probably not; we’re talking about wyverns. In the kingdom, a single wyvern is said to take twenty or more C-rank adventurers to bring down...”
“Given that this device is downing them in one shot, it’s an incredible alchemy device.”
“Indeed, it is.”
From the two’s experience in the Central Countries, this device’s performance bordered on abnormal.
The logic, however, was simple.
Even in the Central Countries, you’d prepare twenty-plus C-rank adventurers, with many magicians.
For this device, fifty magicians were now pouring magic into it... 𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚
“About fifty wyverns took off, didn’t they?”
“There were about that many.”
“How many can that ‘cannon’ shoot down...”
“If we had more time, we might have managed somehow.”
“Right. The difficulty with weapons is their durability under continuous use. Even swords are like that, aren’t they?”
“When swords clash, they heat up. When they heat up, they weaken. That alchemy device must be the same...”
“It’s firing fire-attribute magic, and continuously at that, without sufficient time to cool.”
At Ryo’s words, Abel tilted his head and asked:
“Why not cool it with your water-attribute magic, Ryo?”
“Ah... I understand what you’re getting at, but if I cool it too rapidly, it’ll probably crack.”
“Is that so?”
“I think it needs to cool down naturally and slowly. But right now, we don’t have that kind of time.”
“So Captain Lu Yao and Prince Ryun understand it won’t last to the end.”
In the extreme circumstances of war, many things become a race against time.
Decisions that would never be made in peacetime, actions that would never be taken, must be taken.
Later historians analyze and criticize them...
Yes, that may be correct.
Yes, that may be rational.
But what ought to be pursued is the reason why that choice was not made.
Having stepped—no, half-stepped—into the field of historical studies, Ryo found himself thinking so.
“King Abel of the Knightley Kingdom, if I may ask.”
“Permission granted.”
“Eh? I haven’t even asked yet.”
“If it’s about whether you may intervene if something happens, right?”
“Yes...”
“Of course, I permit it. Even if the Choouchi Empire or the Phantomkins bear a grudge against the Kingdom afterwards. As the Premier Duke of the Kingdom of Knightley, I authorize your intervention.”
“Yes! ”
Instant judgment, instant decision.
Moments like this were why Ryo held Abel in such high regard.
As king, as the supreme authority overseeing the nation’s governance, he granted permission with the resolve to bear all responsibility.
It was not something an ordinary person could easily do.
But—no, precisely because of that—Ryo understood.
It is because one can do what ordinary people cannot that one is king.
After shooting down thirty wyverns, the cannon barrel split open.
“Damn... is this the end?”
Captain Lu Yao’s frustrated voice rang out, and the members of the magic artillery unit who had surrounded the ‘cannon’ to channel mana into it lowered their heads.
Prince Ryun frowned more deeply than ever, closed his eyes for a brief moment, then lifted his face as if having made a decision.
He addressed Emperor Tsuin:
“Your Majesty, we will have the Imperial Guard deal with the wyverns...”
At that moment, a voice cut in from the side.
“With due respect, Your Majesty, may I be permitted to offer a humble opinion?”
It was Duke Rondo, Ryo, bowing politely, using unusually formal language.
“Hmm? Duke Rondo? Wait a moment. Ryun, state your next measure against the wyverns.”
This was the command tent on the battlefield.
Moreover, in the midst of combat.
As supreme commander, Emperor Tsuin first sought the opinion of Prince Ryun, who was responsible for devising the strategy.
“Your Majesty, there are no other effective measures. If Duke Rondo has an effective method, I too would very much like to hear it.”
“Ryun speaks thus. Duke Rondo, do you have something?”
“Yes, I do. In fact, I happen to be quite skilled at hunting wyverns.”
With that, Ryo smiled brightly.
“Alright, Abel, let’s do this.”
“O-okay...”
“This time, you don’t have to go finish off the ones that fall after being shot down. Cutting through the Imperial Guard while they’re fighting would just get in their way.”
“Ah, right... I wasn’t thinking about that at all.”
“What do you mean?! Up until now, I’ve been the one to shoot them down, and you’ve been the one to deliver the finishing blow!”
“That was on the way back from the Devil’s Mountain to Rune. But your magic can finish them off too, can’t it?”
“Well, I’ve never tried, so I wouldn’t know.”
Ryo answered deliberately.
Though in truth, he was brimming with confidence.
“Here we go! <Icicle Lance Shower>”
The moment Ryo chanted, countless ice spears formed in the sky and assaulted the wyverns.
Wings were pierced, bodies nailed to the ground, ice spears stabbing through torsos and skulls alike.
In an instant, a graveyard of wyverns was created upon the ground.
Ryo nodded in satisfaction at the result.
Abel shook his head slightly, as if to say, ‘Same as ever’.
But the others in the Darwei main camp were too stunned to utter a word.
Even more stunned than the Darwei side was the Choouchi Empire’s main camp atop the castle walls.
Especially Emperor Wangshang Ku...
“What is that... What in the world is that...”
He could only repeat the words like a delirious mutter.
However, one man standing a little apart had an entirely different reaction.
“Ice spears? Ice spears, right? Ice spears that pierce wyverns so easily. And hundreds of them—in an instant! No doubt about it. No doubt that bastard Duke Rondo is on the battlefield!”
With astonishment and a crazed grin of delight, the Phantom King rejoiced.
Naturally so.
He had joined the war against Darwei precisely because he wanted to fight Duke Rondo.
If that weren’t the case, he would have personally gone to open the ‘wall’ toward the Central Countries...
The Phantom King was fully aware that he was a battle maniac.
“Good. I’m heading to the front lines. Taoran, proceed according to plan.”
“As you command.”
The Phantom King said with a smile, and Taoran received his orders.
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