The Final Boss Has Returned
Episode 55
There was only one continent in the Ard World.
Because of this, most battles that determined hegemony over the continent took place on land. Nations with strong ground forces soon seized dominion over the continent, and so it was only natural for states to invest the majority of their military budgets into their armies.
"That's their weakness."
"You might be right. To be honest, they probably never imagined anyone would pour this much money into the navy."
Drakan smiled faintly at Sin Ha-yeon's words.
Of course, the sea was not without importance, but ultimately, it was the ground forces that decided the final outcome of wars.
Even the guilds created by players were no different. After all, Ard Saga Second was a game with no other continents and little reason to engage in naval warfare—unless additional continents appeared through an update.
"Anyway, since victory is ultimately decided on land, it's not a wrong investment."
Drakan agreed with Sin Ha-yeon's words.
After all, the condition for victory in war was for one's own army to plant their flag on enemy soil. Because of this, guilds established by players also tended to invest with a heavy focus on the army rather than the navy.
Naval fleet tactics in the Ard World were, at best, limited to battleship-centered artillery battles.
Redirecting funds from the navy to the army yielded greater efficiency, and since enemy forces were similar, maintaining the status quo was the best option for naval power.
"Besides, transforming the existing system takes considerable effort."
"That's right. Unless you have NPCs in the palm of your hand, that is."
The navy, adapted to the existing system, did not welcome change.
In such a situation, suggesting the construction of carrier-like ships that ferried wyverns was a perfect way to be called a madman.
Deploying those expensive wyverns on land would achieve far more efficient results. And spending astronomical sums on top of that to build aircraft carriers? It was madness.
Of course, having them would be nice, but aircraft carriers were precisely the kind of thing that wasn't desperately needed to the point of spending money so inefficiently.
However, with Sin Ha-yeon's massive financial backing, Drakan turned that seemingly supremely inefficient madness into reality.
And this was the result.
Cortez looked up with vacant eyes at the breath and magical bombardment raining down from the mixed wyvern and drake squadrons above.
"Shoot! Damn it! Magic! What are the mages doing!"
"The shaking is too severe to aim magic!"
"Damn it! Archers! Fire the cannons! Blow them away!"
Cortez's desperate shouts echoed loudly across the *Cheonhamujeok-ho*.
Naval battles in the Ard World were extremely simple. The fleets of both sides would keep each other within sight, honestly exchanging cannon fire and magic, and once the tide of battle turned to some degree, they would charge the enemy and finish things completely with melee combat.
Ships were occasionally destroyed through ship-to-ship melee or ramming tactics in the chaos, but the general trend was that artillery battles were the mainstream.
"Damn it! Using wyverns, you crazy bastard...!"
This was why Cortez had never even imagined that the enemy fleet would attack from beyond visual range.
The fleet led by Drakan had utterly collapsed the common sense of naval warfare in the Ard World, which was fundamentally based on fleet-to-fleet artillery battles within visual range.
"Electric Net!"
"Sharp Breath!"
"Tear their wings apart! Ready the ballistae!!"
The pirates following Cortez's orders poured magic and arrows into the air, but it was insufficient to catch the wyvern squadrons flying freely through the blue sky.
From the start, the pirates, who hadn't even properly prepared anti-air measures, shooting down wyverns flying freely over the open sea and the drake leading them was impossible unless a literal miracle occurred.
The wyvern squadrons circled above Cortez's fleet as if it were their own living room, pouring magical bombardment and breath attacks down upon the pirates.
And at their center was the player Flyingman, riding a red drake and leading the wyvern squadrons.
"Yeehaw!"
*Fweeeeeee!*
As if answering the high-pitched whistle Flyingman let out, whistles were heard continuously in short intervals.
The wyvern squadron split into three groups and flew at low altitude, pouring down breath attacks in short intervals above the pirates' heads.
*Boom! Kwa-kwang!*
The wyverns that had poured down breath like bombardment pulled away and circled back, while the red drake Flyingman rode spread its wings wide and flipped its body.
"Firewing! Fire!"
Along with Flyingman's shout, the red drake, Firewing, flipped its body and turned nimbly, spewing crimson flames from its mouth.
Along with the sharp, unique cry of a drake, Firewing's viscous, molten-metal-like breath burned the sails and masts.
The sailors of the unfortunate pirate ship engulfed in flames screamed, running across the deck with their whole bodies ablaze before throwing themselves into the sea.
Utter chaos!
Chaos of such a degree that no other expression was necessary was sweeping over the fleet.
"Hahahaha! This feels amazing!"
The chat window scrolled up in an instant, but Flyingman didn't pay it much mind.
Because this very moment, crossing the sky atop a drake's back, was when he felt alive in this world.
Flyingman signaled again with a short whistle, and the scattered wyvern squadrons gathered into a two-column formation, bombing the fleet from high altitude with breath and magic as they swept across the sky above.
"T-this is insane."
A nightmare. This was a nightmare.
Cortez had no choice but to say that. The great fleet boasted by the Pirate Alliance was collapsing. Though they may have been unmatched elsewhere, the fleet that had prided itself as invincible on the sea was being destroyed helplessly.
"This is insane!!"
Whether Cortez screamed or not, the pirates' ordeal was not over.
While the Pirate Alliance's fleet was being brutally ravaged by the wyvern squadrons, waiting for them on the seabed below where their ships passed were the merfolk riding sea turtles and whales, and the Merfolk King Nereus, who commanded the guardian beast Kraken of overwhelming size.
"We can't let those sky bastards hog all the merit! Attack!"
As soon as Merfolk King Nereus, wearing a red crown atop a massive sea serpent that dwarfed even whales and sea turtles, gave the attack order, the merfolk assaulted the fleet at terrifying speed.
"Send all those human bastards to the bottom of the sea!"
Narwhals with drill-like sharp horns rammed into the ships, punching holes in their hulls, and the merfolk entered through those holes, tearing apart the interiors and sinking the vessels.
Ships rammed by sea turtles and other whales shook violently before shattering and sinking.
"Mages!"
At Nereus's command, the merfolk mages who had finished their preparations poured the magic they had readied in an instant toward Cortez's fleet.
"Surging Glacier!"
"Wrath of the Sea!"
"Hammer of the Abyss!"
"White Thorn!"
"Lightning Slash!"
Mages existed in the Merfolk Kingdom as well.
Due to the special environment of the seabed, they could not handle earth, fire, and wind attributes among the four major attributes; only water, ice, and lightning attributes had developed grotesquely.
In the seabed filled with water on all sides, the power of water, ice, and lightning magic doubled, so there wasn't really any other choice.
Thanks to such a unique ecology, the level of water, ice, and lightning magic in the Merfolk Kingdom far surpassed that of humans.
As if the attacks from above weren't enough, the fleet was now struck by magic attacks surging up from below and was devastated in an instant.
Finally, the sea serpent Nereus rode took a breath.
*[Kra-kyaaaaaaaaaa!]*
Following the sea serpent's characteristic metallic, screeching cry that resounded through the depths, a blade-like water breath extended out, and accompanied by whirlpools, it instantly bisected three pirate ships. From the surface, it would have looked like a gigantic blade of water rising up, cleaving through the three vessels.
The Kraken's voice flowed into Nereus's mind.
*[Nereus.]*
"Guardian Beast, speak."
*[My body itches. Will you let me have a go?]*
"Of course."
Nereus shook the spear in his hand, signaling the merfolk to fall back, and the Kraken moved its massive body forward.
In an instant, massive tentacles broke through the water's surface and coiled around a pirate ship like legs, crushing it. Charred black fragments of the ship scattered across the sea, thanks to the lightning.
"What the hell...! What is that!"
With the enemy fleet not even in sight, they were being tormented from the air by magical bombardment and breath attacks, and now the merfolk's relentless attacks from the seabed targeting the bottoms of their ships drove them beyond confusion to the verge of losing their minds.
Of course, the pirates of the Pirate Alliance were veterans of naval warfare. They had experienced countless raids, pillaging, and battles with regular forces. Having gone through the majority of battles that could occur at sea—ramming battles, melee combat, artillery battles—they simply could not accept this situation.
"This is, this is cheating! It's cheating!"
Cortez howled.
The enemy fleet was still not even showing the tip of its nose, yet they were under a combined assault from the air and seabed using wyverns and merfolk!
Naval warfare in this form did not exist in the world they knew.
It was quite literally nothing more than one-sided damage trading.
A cowardly tactic of sitting in a safe place and mobilizing wyverns and merfolk to one-sidedly pour down attacks.
The pirates had no way to respond to this new form of naval warfare that created a battlefield where not even 1% of advantage existed for their own side.
Even as the ships sank one after another, the flagship *Cheonhamujeok-ho* remained intact.
It was, after all, the Pirate King's ship. It was equipped with defensive magic and all manner of defensive measures, and had so far managed to remain safe from the onslaught of the merfolk and wyvern squadrons.
So far.
"Captain! The merfolk bastards are tearing off the forecastle!"
"What good are depth charges if you don't use them! Fire depth charges and harpoons! Turn all those merfolk bastards into fish food!"
In the chaos, Cortez, the only one holding onto his sanity, screamed frenziedly.
Depth charges were Cortez's hidden trump card prepared to deal with the merfolk. The seas of the Ard World were insane waters where sea monsters that were only left in oral legends in reality actually roamed.
Sailors traveling such seas naturally prepared weapons to counter those sea monsters, and among them, the most effective were harpoons, gunpowder, and enchanted underwater bombs—namely, depth charges.
Cortez planned to first use the means he had prepared to intercept the merfolk. He could do nothing about the wyvern units continuously pouring attacks from the sky, but if he could at least drive away the merfolk, the situation would improve somewhat.
"Prepare harpoons and depth charges!"
"Preparing harpoons and depth charges!"
The sailors answered Cortez's thunderous command with strained voices.
The moment the harpoon launchers, reminiscent of giant ballistae, and the heavy-looking depth charges were about to fall into the sea, crimson flames poured from the sky, touching off the depth charges and causing a chain explosion.
"Uaaaaack!"
"Kuaaack!"
"W-what!"
Flyingman's relaxed voice echoed above the bewildered Cortez.
"So that's your hidden trump card? But as long as this Flyingman is here, you've got no chance! Wyvern units, focus on suppressing their harpoons and depth charges! Firewing! Drake Fear!"
Flyingman's orders were relayed swiftly, and Firewing, receiving its master's command, spread its wings wide, soared up, and let out a sharp cry.
*[Kra-kyaaaaaaaaaa!]*
Though it was no dragon, it was still a cry imbued with the fear of a high-level monster. Hearing that cry, which stimulated the primal terror of humans, the pirates' bodies momentarily froze, and the wyvern units poured breath and magical bombardment upon them.
Though they couldn't completely stop all the harpoons and depth charges from being launched, the extremely few that did get launched couldn't deal significant damage to the merfolk.
Water columns erupted here and there as depth charges exploded, but to the merfolk on the seabed, it was not even a scratch.
"This is, this is insane! It's insane! My fleet...!"
Watching the pirate ships sink helplessly, Cortez screamed in despair.
The *Cheonhamujeok-ho* shook continuously. The defensive magic that had protected it until now soon lost its strength against the volley of lightning unleashed by the Kraken's tentacles that shot up through the water.
Seeing the barrier collapse and the wyvern units rushing in like starving wolves, with the drake at their head, Cortez let out a hollow laugh.
"Ha, haha. Hahahaha...."
The grand fleet of the once-majestic Pirate King no longer existed.
Veteran pirates hardened by long years of naval warfare had all become fish food or lost their minds. A truly horrifying defeat that was difficult to describe!
Cortez's hollow laughter echoed across the deck of the *Cheonhamujeok-ho*.
Everything was over.
There was nowhere to run on the open sea.
"Lord Drake...."
Breath spewed by Flyingman's drake, Firewing, engulfed Cortez as he muttered vacantly, and soon after, the magical bombardment of the wyvern squadron that followed sank even the *Cheonhamujeok-ho*, annihilating the Pirate Alliance's fleet.
An overwhelming victory!
It did not take long for the news of that victory to spread.