I Planned a Su*cide Mission and Got Kicked Out of the Party

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I hoped the sunken ships near the coast would buy us as much time as possible, but the Kraken’s tentacles ruthlessly smashed apart the useless vessels, lifting them and flinging them backwards, clearing space for the advancing fleet.

Even though there might still be Orcs trapped and unable to escape, this act was essentially viewing manpower as mere expendable resources. I was witnessing clear evidence that even within the Demon King’s Army, lives were not valued at all.

Regardless, from Jeongjae’s perspective, that cruelty was utterly frustrating. Although it was a degraded version of the abandoned ‘Ramey,’ ‘Top Gun’ still qualified as a significant magic spell. After using great magic repeatedly since today’s campaign began, it would have been nice if he could at least catch a breather, but the enemy gave him no time to regain his thoughts.

Jeongjae glanced back at the high-positioned cannon. It wasn’t time yet. It was obvious that using this cannon while the enemy was floating on the sea would yield no real efficiency.

“There’s really a staggering number of them. Just how many must we kill to bring about their annihilation?”

Jenis already wore a tired expression. Jeongjae shook his head indifferently.

“Jenis, do you know how many soldiers the Empire currently has in its standing army?”

“About 100,000, right?”

“From what I know, it’s actually 130,000. That’s even after scraping together what we could from the Hellhound family. So, even excluding other monsters, how many Orcs could the Demon King’s Army mobilize at will when they set their minds to it?”

“I wouldn’t know. Maybe around 200,000?”

“Add a million to that. It’s not an exact figure since the details are classified due to the potential unrest it could cause if publicized, but according to the intelligence gathered by the Magic Tower, the Demon King’s Army boasts the ability to mobilize a pure Orc army of 1.2 million.”

“What’s with you bringing this up right now?”

Jenis asked with a face as white as a sheet. Jeongjae chuckled, as if he found it amusing that he was expressing disbelief himself.

“You’ve already gotten your feet wet in this world, Jenis. You can’t remain naive any longer. The Demon King’s Army occupies 70 percent of the continent, positioned with an overwhelming numerical advantage over us by more than 20 times. For a wizard of your caliber, a moment will come when you truly have to face an enemy that is literally thousands of times your own size. It’s better to prepare for that.”

Jenis couldn’t muster a reply. Even a genius magic girl, who could hold her own in actual combat, couldn’t escape the shock of the reality concealed from ordinary people.

In the meantime, four sailing ships approached the coastline, preparing to land. Allowing one wave of landing would lead to the subsequent waves of attack, making them impossible to thwart.

Jeongjae’s gaze sharpened as he focused on the sea, confirming the thrashing of the Kraken’s tentacles, and raised both arms while fluttering his robe.

“We’re close enough.”

“Of course, we’re close! We’re just about to land!”

“Not the ships, the Kraken!”

Ten fireballs formed, one per finger on both of Jeongjae’s hands. The small fireballs, roughly the size of baseballs, floated away towards the sea as he swung his arms back and then thrust them forward.

For a moment, the fireballs appeared to be headed straight for the ships, but they took flight high above the ships and targeted the massive tentacles that swarmed from behind.

“Are we attacking the Kraken directly? But the barrier…”

“The water’s shallow. At this distance, we can directly suppress the Kraken’s tentacles!”

Jeongjae strained as he forcefully shoved the fireballs into the Kraken’s protective barrier. Two of the ten fireballs ultimately fizzled out before breaking through the Kraken’s magic, but the remaining eight entered the Kraken’s domain as if they were passing through a transparent curtain and latched onto the tentacles. The tentacles thrashed in what seemed to be painful agony after being burned by the fireballs.

“We just provoked it! What are we going to do now?”

“This is exactly what I planned! You better watch and learn!”

As if recalling the fireballs, Jeongjae stretched out his right hand forward. In that moment, slender fire lines jutted out from each burning tentacle and raced toward Jeongjae. Holding onto the eight fiery lines aimed at his right hand, Jeongjae yanked them fiercely towards his chest.

“Kuueekk! Kuueekk!”

The Kraken, who had wriggled in irritation until now but never made a sound, let out a terrifying shriek as it flailed its tentacles. However, Jeongjae infused even greater force into the fiery ropes binding the Kraken, effectively caging the massive tentacles’ movements.

“W-What are we supposed to learn from this mad stunt?”

“Right now, give the coastal guard the order to launch the first wave! At this moment, we can neutralize the barrier and approach!”

Jeongjae shouted, his face flushed with effort as sweat dripped from him. Jenis frantically nodded and cupped her hands to her mouth, using amplification magic to emit a voice that could shake the entire village.

“Fire ship, first wave, four ships, attack! Repeat, fire ship, first wave, four ships, attack!”

“Don’t just stand there, stir up the south wind!”

Although Jeongjae’s voice sounded annoyed, it was only because the struggle with the Kraken felt like he was suffering with weights on his shoulders. As Jeongjae began to flutter his arms, Jenis nodded hurriedly.

“Yes, yes, Baron! Wind, blow! South wind, come rushing in!”

Jenis quickly created a simple magic circle to summon a gentle south wind. Since the Kraken wasn’t in a state to contend with her, the wind was easily directed.

At the same time, four boats filled with gunpowder, covered in white cloth, began to float towards the enemy fleet. This time, Jenis knew what to do even without Jeongjae’s orders. Rushing to utilize wind magic, she manipulated the waves slightly so that the fire ships would head straight for the four leading sailing ships.

The Orcs in the enemy fleet, realizing something was amiss, began to shoot arrows at the approaching fire ships, but ordinary arrows, without cannons, could not take down the floating fire ships aided by the manipulated currents.

All of the fire ships drew close to their targets. Jeongjae added a bit more vigor to the flaming lines to allow embers to fall from the ropes toward the sea below.

As the embers fell, they were minimal, merely causing minor burns to the Orcs aboard the ships, but they ultimately completed the final puzzle of this assault. The four fire ships clung to the sailing ships and unleashed a massive explosion, creating gaping holes in the enemy vessels.

Bang, bang, kaboom, then another kaboom. Just as if four coastal cannons had perfectly hit their marks, the ships that had approached the shore began to smoke and tilt, causing the Orcs to panic and leap into the sea, scrambling to avoid drowning in their sinking ships.

With the south wind blowing, the flames clinging to the ships began to spread toward the enemy’s territory. The ships that had stayed closely behind the leading vessels for the sake of their landing mission found themselves engulfed in flames as they failed to extinguish the spreading fire.

It wasn’t until Jeongjae saw all six ships igniting in flames that he finally released the ropes binding the Kraken’s tentacles.

As soon as Jeongjae flicked his fingers to release the flaming threads, the Kraken began to wildly lash its tentacles, scattering Jeongjae’s magic. It seemed the Kraken, having been harmed by this attack, had taken significant damage, but it did not appear as though it was as weakened as Jeongjae had been.

“Ugh… huff… huff… huff…”

Jeongjae crumpled onto the beach, gasping for breath. His reddened face seemed to plead for oxygen, and the sweat trickling down was slowly soaking through his robe.

As Jenis hurried to Jeongjae to support him, he raised one trembling arm, pointing towards the shore.

“There might be survivors from the ships trying to swim ashore. It won’t be many, so use magic arrows to take them all out.”

“Y-Yes, understood!”

Upon hearing Jeongjae’s words, she spotted Orcs struggling to climb ashore from the sea, battered and in disarray. Without hesitation, Jenis conjured thin magic arrows in both hands and fired them at the Orcs.

Without their weapons or armor, the struggling monsters faced immediate death as Jenis’s magic pierced their heads or necks. Watching the Orcs burst forth blood as they died, Jenis frowned.

“As I felt earlier, it’s more gruesome than I expected.”

“I skipped dinner the day I killed my first goblin. I didn’t eat until breakfast the next day. But now, I’m completely fine.”

“Does time really make it easier?”

“Those things don’t even look like living beings to me anymore, so I’m okay with it.”

Jeongjae stated, his expression devoid of jokes. Jenis nodded, indicating she understood what he meant.

The six ships that began to blaze were sinking in relatively shallow waters, correctly obstructing the path of the following vessels. In their attempts to avoid the spreading flames, some ships even deliberately unfurled their sails and retreated northward, leading to Jeongjae’s strategy of buying time with fiery ships being somewhat successful.

Although he hadn’t completely restored his mana, Jeongjae had managed to gather himself enough to stand. The only wizard capable of directly contesting the Kraken on the continent was him and him alone.

After securing a firm victory in that contest, no other wizard would be able to shake off the aftermath and rise as if nothing had happened throughout the continent’s history.

While the Kraken, leading the fleet forward, seemed to be splashing water on the ships in an attempt to suppress the fire, Jeongjae thought that began to feel rather futile as it then began directly smashing apart the ships with its tentacles. Jeongjae winced at the sight of the Orcs being slain by the Kraken’s tentacles.

“Could I have looked like that on that day?”

Jeongjae muttered bitterly. Jenis blinked in confusion for a moment, unable to grasp his words, but soon realized he was still tormented by his past actions as part of the Nomad, rushing to counter his sentiment.

“No! It’s completely different! Really! I have so much to say, but anyway, it’s not the same. Don’t let those barbaric scenes cross your mind!”

“Ah, right. It’s different. Yes. The actions of those monsters cannot be the same as Walter Hellhound’s decisions. That goes without saying. I know. That’s obvious…”

Yet still, Jeongjae couldn’t shake off that unsettling thought, observing as the Kraken smashed apart the ships, lifting the debris and tossing it overboard. While Jeongjae was still recovering his magic, Jenis dealt with the remaining enemy remnants in the sea.

“How many did we sink?”

“Ten ships. We destroyed 3 percent of the enemy force without sustaining any damage. That’s quite an achievement.”

“I’m barely hanging on, and I have to do this 30 more times to wipe them out?”

Jeongjae grumbled. Jenis clamped her mouth shut as if she had made a slip and offered an explanation.

“Well, when I say no damage, I don’t mean that your stamina isn’t important… Ugh, I’m sorry.”

“No, it’s alright. When we talk about damage, it’s perfectly normal to measure in terms of lives lost. Load the cannon. Let’s take down one more ship and then go.”

“Are we using the one from Van Freit?”

“That’s too early. Load a standard shot and prepare to fire directly. Just a warning shot to keep their cannons occupied should be enough.”

Jenis rushed to the cannon, stuffing powder and shells into the bore while aiming toward the shore. As the Kraken was busy smashing the allied vessels, the coastal defenses became lax, and Jeongjae once more spread his arms to form a magic circle of flame.

“Lightning, move straight ahead. Make that damn sea dragon know the pain of burning!”

Following Jeongjae’s command, the lightning unleashed from the magic circle struck perfectly on the Kraken’s octopus-like head. The monster, already considerably weakened from its fight against Jeongjae, failed to deploy its barrier in time, ultimately having to retreat its tentacles with a shriek.

Recognizing this was the moment, Jenis ignited the cannon and fired.

With a boom, a massive iron ball flew towards the sea. Given the enemy ships densely packed in the water, hitting them would be incredibly difficult.

As luck would have it, one cruise ship got hit directly, creating a colossal hole. The Orcs on the ship didn’t attempt to block the hole but hastily jumped from their sinking ship to nearby vessels. Among them, some even horrendously stabbed fellow comrades trying to board their own ship, fearing it would capsize from the weight.

“If only that Kraken wasn’t here, we would have already won.”

Jenis remarked in disbelief while witnessing the chaos among the Orcs from just one cannonball. Jeongjae smirked, despite his pale complexion.

“That’s how we’re managing to hold on through this war. The numbers were just overwhelming; even the Demon King would have to find it hard dealing with someone like Walter when facing such fighters.”

However, speculation was just speculation. In the end, the Kraken still existed on the battlefield, and the kill count was still only 11 out of the 300 ships.

Two hours into the battle, it was about time for the outlines of whether a small elite force could overcome the drastic material differences to emerge.