NOVEL NEXT Chapter 45
The dots began to solidify into form. The momentum of the enemies approaching with the northern wind was fierce and swift. By the time I noticed the fluttering sails in the strong wind, the number of ships visible on the sea had already surpassed twenty at the forefront. That size was a number that couldn’t even be docked together in our harbor.
“It’s because the harbor is narrow that they can only fit that many.”
Jeongjae stated. Jenis nodded in agreement.
“The number of ships that can dock at once is merely around five. If each ship carries 30 Orcs, the total number of enemies that can swarm in at once is only between 100 and 200.”
“That’s not a small number, but it’s somewhat comforting. However, once the enemy’s attack commences in earnest, they’ll attach their ships behind the docked ones and come crashing in from the back. At that point, we can’t ignore a mass offensive.”
“We have to stop them before that. Is there a way?”
Having just confirmed that long-range attacks with the firebolt were almost ineffective, Jeongjae thought. If that Kraken weren’t there, he wouldn’t be worried like this. With the magic circle in the sky pouring down a fiery inferno, he could annihilate that fleet all at once.
The Kraken was a creature powerful enough to be called a water dragon. Right now, the Kraken must be exhausting all its energy providing a mana shield for a fleet of 300 ships, so it wouldn’t pose a threat offensively, but its defensive capabilities would be quite troublesome.
“There’s a way to inflict damage if we force it. For example, like this.”
Jeongjae twirled his hands in a round shape in the air. Five small magic circles in round shapes appeared around his hands and then clustered tightly into a pentagon.
“Swallowing all, O light of the star fallen from the sun.”
The connected magic circles became the vertices, forming the most complete star shape. The star-shaped magic circle began spinning rapidly in place, and the Grand Mage extended both hands forward, releasing a massive blue beam.
“Star’s Light!”
The beam shot straight ahead faster than the firebolt, hitting the flagship at the very front of the fleet. The Kraken’s magical barrier briefly held back the light magic, but Jeongjae pushed the magic circle forward, piercing through the barrier without being pushed back this time.
With a loud
Cheers erupted from afar as they confirmed the first hit.
“I’ve never seen Star’s Light in action before. I’ve heard it’s the essence of destructive magic… Professor? Are you okay?”
Seeing Jeongjae wipe the sweat dripping from his forehead, Jenis asked in surprise. Jeongjae, who had been calmly wiping his sweat, was instead startled by Jenis’s reaction and replied.
“Huh? Why? Do I look like I’m in bad shape?”
“No, your complexion seems fine, but you’re sweating a lot… You wouldn’t be able to cast that spell 300 times in a row, right?”
“If I did, I might really die. Yeah, it’s impossible. No matter how much I can do, I can’t cast such a powerful Star’s Light multiple times.”
Meanwhile, the enemy fleet continued to approach, now almost within 200 meters. Jeongjae felt his heart racing as he looked at the ships that were just about to close in.
The Kraken had lost a battle against him once, but it showed no signs of being demoralized, thrashing its tentacles fiercely as it advanced from behind the fleet.
To Jeongjae, it looked like it was commanding the ships to move forward with a whip.
Seeing this, Jenis raised both hands and began to chant, closing her eyes.
“The momentum of the northern wind is far too strong, the flow of the air, heed my plea.”
“You should stop that.”
Jeongjae advised. However, the moment five blue magic circles began to appear in Jenis’s hands, there was no way to simply stop the magic in mid-cast.
“Wind direction change… Aah!”
As expected, Jeongjae’s suspicion was correct. This northern wind was the Kraken’s doing. As Jenis tried to change the wind’s direction to hinder the ships, she unexpectedly found herself in a mana duel with the water dragon. Naturally, she couldn’t handle such a confrontation.
Jeongjae hurriedly deployed additional magic circles in his hands, catching Jenis’s arms as she was about to fall backward, supporting the magic circle she had cast.
The magic circle of the Countess, which was about to crack, began to overlap with Jeongjae’s magic circle, finally granting her enough power to hold on in the mana struggle.
Jeongjae didn’t intend to completely turn the direction of the wind into a southern one. He succeeded in stabilizing things a bit, but to overturn the situation from here, he would have to push in a burden of mana that would be strenuous for him.
As the Kraken retreated after compromising, the fierce winds sharply ceased.
Now, on the shore, there was an unnatural calm, with neither sea breeze nor land breeze blowing. Jenis plopped down on the beach, breathing heavily.
“Th-that was scary.”
“When encountering a non-human entity for the first time, anyone would feel that way. Are you back to your senses? Can you see how many fingers I’m holding up?”
Jeongjae waved two fingers in front of Jenis’s eyes. Jenis swatted Jeongjae’s hand away and chuckled.
“Two. I’m not that crazy.”
“Impressive. You really have talent. In any case, don’t go challenging that water dragon directly with your abilities. There might be times when you need to assist me with your magic.”
“I understand. I’m sorry for acting recklessly.”
The ships seemed to realize they could no longer harness the help of the northern wind, slowly lowering their sails and coming closer with their oars. Thanks to Jenis’s efforts, the enemies’ approach speed had noticeably decreased, but it was merely delaying the inevitable conclusion.
“So, the way to effectively strike that ship now is to get close enough to attack it?”
Jenis said. Jeongjae sighed and nodded.
“Running on the water to board the ship and then using magic to smash it apart would work, but… I may use magic well, but I can’t fight as agilely as Bernard or Margaret. The risk is too high.”
“Trying that more than a hundred times would also be impossible, right? I’ll decline that as well.”
Jeongjae noted if the ship they had just sunk with Star’s Light had impeded the movement of the following fleet, gaps were beginning to emerge between the three ships at the forefront and the ones behind them.
From the lead ship, a volley of five or six arrows flew toward the two of them, embedding in the ground at their feet. Jenis used a light protective magic to distort the trajectory of the arrows, causing the enemies’ attacks to miss.
“Already here at a distance for arrows to reach? I’ve only sunk one ship!”
The enemy ships were roughly about 150 meters from the shoreline. Since the length of the shore itself was at least 100 meters, the enemies’ arrows had traveled about 250 meters to hit at their feet.
In terms of assault rifles, that distance was well within effective range to comfortably kill the enemies, and if a skilled shooter fired arrows, it wouldn’t be an impossible distance to hit.
“They’ve definitely closed in. It’s a threatening volley, but we can’t just sit back. It hasn’t even been an hour since the enemies appeared, so if we allow them to land, we’re just rolling out the red carpet.”
“A red carpet? Like a door that opens automatically?”
“There was such a thing in my world. But today, I don’t want to be that automatic door.”
“Then let’s deploy the fire ships.”
“Without a plan against the Kraken? No. First, we need to somehow drain the Kraken’s strength and lure in the southern winds before we can do that. There must be some way…”
Jeongjae desperately looked up at the sky for a solution.
Suddenly, three seagulls flying in the sky caught the Grand Mage’s eye. Clapping his hands, he took out a scroll from within his robe.
“A scroll? What’s that?”
“I’m sorry to the seagulls, but this is the only method we have. And as luck would have it, there are three of them, perfect timing. Birds that cut through the sky! Heed my command!”
The scroll, thrown into the air, was absorbed into the mana and vanished. Where the scroll disappeared, a sparkling magic circle appeared, seemingly luring the birds toward it.
The seagulls, gliding casually through the sky, began to soar toward the ground as if drawn to the magic circle. Jeongjae stood in the center of the magic circle, waiting for the gulls to arrive.
As Jenis watched the seagulls slowly descend, she was startled and nearly screamed. The birds that looked like ordinary-sized ones while in the sky transformed into monster seagulls three times the size of an eagle as they landed.
Jeongjae conjured three red fireballs in his hands and hurled them skyward. The seagulls, descending toward the ground, each grabbed a fireball with their talons and began to ascend again.
“High-speed bombing magic.”
Jeongjae muttered.
“Top Gun.”
This was the compromise between his early draft, “Remei,” its inefficiency, and the idea that was too precious to simply discard. It was a magic born from the frustration of wondering why they couldn’t deliver the same level of bombardment to the enemies as the red dragon that destroyed villages with its breath.
The name might elicit a few chuckles if someone recognized it, but in any case, the people here wouldn’t understand the meaning even if they heard the spell’s name. The seagulls brainwashed by the “Top Gun” spell soared across the sky, dropping fireballs on the deck of the ships within a distance close enough for the Kraken’s magical barrier to activate.
Explosions erupted simultaneously from the hit ships. The seagulls, having completed their mission, began to shrink back as they ascended vertically into the sky.
The Kraken, furious that its barrier had been breached by an unexpected attack, flailed its tentacles wildly, trying to catch the gulls. Two of the gulls soared high enough to avoid the tentacles, but one was hit by the Kraken and fell lifeless into the sea.
“Oops. Sorry about that.”
Jeongjae said sincerely with a look of regret. Jenis watched in awe as the ships slowly began to sink.
“What was that just now?”
“Originally, ships are managed from the sky. Until now, only the dragons from the Demon King’s Army could do this, but I’ve found my way.”
“But how many spells were applied there? Animal brainwash, enlargement, fire of the pyre, rapid magic, mana compression… There must be more spells used, right?”
“Indeed. The efficiency isn’t great. But it’s better than Star’s Light. Not only could I sink one ship, but three at once.”
The flames from the ships didn’t extinguish and continued to burn, incinerating all the Orcs on board. Jenis spotted a few Orcs trying to swim to the shore and fired mana arrows to kill them.
“Wonderful. Having sunk it so close to the shore, it’ll be difficult for the follow-up fleet to approach.”
“We’ll overcome it soon. But this has only bought a little time. For me, who has already used up quite a bit of mana, I’m thankful for even that time.”
The success or failure of the landing operations would be determined within 24 hours, but that only holds if the territory to be occupied post-landing is sufficiently large.
The victory or defeat of this battle would likely be determined within five hours at the latest. Right now, only 45 minutes had passed since the battle began. During this time, Jeongjae had sunk four enemy ships while preventing their landing.
From the numbers alone, it looked like a decent outcome, but having failed to change the wind direction and not effectively containing the Kraken meant that the enemy fleet had approached far too closely to the shore.
And he could hardly rely solely on “Top Gun” or “Star’s Light.”
Wiping the sweat running down his neck lightly with his robe, Jeongjae swallowed hard. The Demon King’s massive fleet was steadily pushing into the shore, pushing the sunken ships aside.