Chapter 355 The Western Diversion - Part 2
As the medium transport ships tried their best to charge to the shoreline, their captains suddenly realised they hit shore rather early. They had previously estimated that they would land at most a hundred metres away, yet the distance now spanned multiple hundreds of meters. There was no way the ship could proceed any further no matter how much the ship tried to push its engine. Turning back now was also no longer viable so the captains immediately opened the platforms, forcing the first wave of Ice Orcs to charge with their shields up.
That was when the carnage really started. The goblins slowly placed their guns closer to the edge of the fort walls, out of the bunkers and aimed at the various blobs of orcs. With a click, their safety switch were turned off. With a nock, their arrows were ready to take flight. And with just a word from Spear General Argent, the projectiles soared through the beach head and brought down the orcs so easily that it felt like a joke.
As the Ice Orc Admiral saw the medium transport ships being stuck, he was outright stunned. The Ice Orc Admiral took a telescope from his navigator to take a closer look at the shoreline. Indeed it was reclaimed further into the sea. "How is that possible?! It should still be high tide now! Why are the ships stuck so far away from the shoreline?? I do not remember the Western Coast having any high shores at all. What use is all our intel and our spies if they cannot even report how the goblin must have placed obstacles in the vicinity?!"
"Curses!!! First unknown monsters in the sea, then fort walls that seem impervious to our standard cannon attacks. Their seige defence weapons hitting so accurately on our boats and now an extension of the shorelines. Since when are those goblins so sly and resourceful!" The Ice Orc Admiral crushed the telescope in his hand with anger and went forward while taking a scroll out of his trench coat.
"I did not expect to use this so early in the battle. I hope Yellow Ice will not fault me for this but if I hesitate, any further our companions will die meaninglessly." The Ice Orc Admiral unrolled the expensive looking scroll and chanted loudly, causing wide magical circles to appear underneath three of the massive warships of the Ice Orc Fleet.
"Shiva, I beseech you, Bring these warships that are fully devoted to you back to the ground. Transport them as you see fit! Allow us to offer you those goblin lives as sacrifices! Tidal Ice Waves of Shiva! " The Ice Orc Admiral's booming voice echoed and the wide magical circles glowed an ethereal blue.
Suddenly, from the surface of the water, the first warship was slowly beginning to rise. Higher and higher, riding a giant tidal wave of ice and into the skies. The other two were quickly following suit. Yet instead of the wave moving straight towards the fort walls, two of the tidal waves curved sideways, one on each side allowing the orcs on those two warships to fire their cannons from their gun ports from the sky as the tidal wave steadily left a trail of frozen ice from the sea.
The remaining warship pushed through the center, making it the priority target for all the goblin's cannon fire. The tidal wave did helped to block the attacks but soon after, it was destroyed by the immense fire. The tidal ice wave broke and dropped the warship into the midst of the shoreline. Yet, this magical spell allowed the warship to be significantly nearer to the beach head, probably at least 50 metres away from the fort walls. It provided not just cover for the orcs from the transport ship, but a fighting chance against the goblin's seemingly impenetrable fortress defence.
The goblins did not expect this and most were already forced to take cover while the goblins manning the flak guns finally had some work to do since the Wind Orc Air Force had yet to make their moves. However since their ammunition was designed to take down the Orc's aircraft it proved to be not as ideal against the massive warships on a flying tidal ice wave.
At the same time the Orcs in those warships cheered at the sudden reversal. Morale had been at an all time low after all those setbacks they suffered. The commotion allowed the orcs dashing through the shoreline to have some breather since the bombardment had to stop in order for the goblins to brace themselves from the enemy's cannon fire.
But this did not faze Ren Wei… and surprisingly Jing Ru too. The two daughter and father unceasingly aimed their shots from their occupied vantage point and fired at the incoming orcs. In the grand scheme of things those they took down would not change the tide of battle, but every shot counted. Something which was emphasised by the raid points they accumulated so long as they did not miss.
"Ah, that last shot went through the shoulder, pace yourself. Do not rush the firing. Take an extra second to make sure one hit is all you need." Ren Wei decided to be the spotter cum sniper for Jing Ru who was not accustomed to using a sniper rifle which fired real live ammunition. If Jing Ru was not able to cleanly kill a target, he would fire the second shot to ensure his death. The feeling of the gun's recoil, the reloading and the smell of gunpowder was a fresh new experience to her. Ren Wei was happy for the opportunity to not only spend time with her but teach her more about his line of work.
In the meantime, the tidal ice waves finally crashed at the two ends of the Coastal Town of Gob Gob Si while the ships were still intact and had their gun ports facing the town. The Orcs had no mercy in releasing all of their cannons discriminately at the town.
Meanwhile the goblins were doing their best to push their anti tank cannons and a few of the artillery guns so that they could reposition themselves to destroy the imminent threat. Ice Orc warriors took the opportunity to charge down towards the town itself.
Argent was not prepared for the orcs possessing such a terrifying spell in their disposal and commanded regiments of spear goblins and sword goblins to fight against the threat within the town.
However, the cultivators were already one step ahead of him, responding to the fight when they saw the direction the tidal waves were heading. Unlike the goblins who regarded this as a real war, the cultivators all thought that this was an instance and the spell was simply a flashy entrance for the Orcs designed to allow them to invade the beach, so that they could finally fight them off.
Gupta and Abdul were no exception as they ran towards the eastern side of the town to aid the cultivators and goblin warriors. However, because of the numerous vantage points being occupied, marksmen and machine gun teams were already deterring the Ice Orcs as the two pushed through to the centre of a town square.
As Abdul entered one of the mini town squares where he saw the Ice Orcs were beginning to split themselves up to cover various places, he stopped to ready his weapon. "I will focus center!!" Abdul shouted as he was already half pressing his minigun, allowing the barrels to rotate. The moment he had his footing, he released a hail of bullets towards the incoming Ice Orcs who had yet to split up.
Meanwhile, Gupta followed close to those who had entered the city, crushing into some of them by using a basic Exculpatory Elephant charging dash technique. As those Ice Orc warriors flew to the sky due to the knockback of the charging dash, Gupta took out his shotgun and fired at them in rapid succession. The pellets easily went through their metal armour and pieces of their faces were being blown off by the shotgun shots.
From his storage ring on his right hand, he took out three shotgun dragon breath shells with his left hand and did a quick defensive reload by using the buttstock of the shotgun to dislocate a jaw of an incoming Ice Orc. He managed to load a single dragon breath shell in after he fired the remaining normal shot in his gun chamber, instantly killing the orc with the dislocated jaw.
Gupta turned as he used his shotgun to parry an incoming sword attack and pushed the shotgun barrel towards the orc's stomach before pressing the trigger down. "BANG!" It caused a tremendous blast of fire to be emitted out of the shotgun with sparks of fire piercing the orc's body and burning the orcs behind him too.
"Oops, I guess I inserted too much chi into the dragon breath shell when I reloaded it… Thank god the inscriptions on the shotgun can handle the impact." Gupta grinned widely while covering his face with his hand in case the fire blast recoiled and hit him but he was glad to see it worked too well.
Meanwhile the remaining Ice Orcs tried to take cover when the quick barrage of fire from Abdul mowed down the escaping Ice Orcs. Even the Ice Orc Mages magical barrier could not withstand a second of it. Breaking almost in an instant. His firing rate was so impressive that few got the opportunity to use the building as cover. The only way for the Ice Orcs to survive had been to quickly leap themselves towards the ground so that they would not be in the line of fire. Abdul stopped his minigun and charged forward, using his brightly red glowing barrel as a club.
The Ice Orc warriors assumed that the humanoid emptied his projectiles so they stood up and ran towards him. Not to mention, those who ran away from the divergent path began to return when they heard the loud sounds from the mini square city and upon seeing the destruction the humanoids created, they bolted towards him to finish him off quickly.
Abdul laughed heartily as he smashed his minigun into the stomach of an orc like a rhino using his horns to pierce his target. Then he pressed on the trigger and bullets punctured the Orc's abdomen. Abdul did the same for his incoming targets. Smashing his minigun, using his backpack as a shield or a blunt weapon to knock the orcs down before pressing the trigger, releasing a small burst of bullets.
"Now this is a real workout!" Abdul was so happy about the realism that he did not even notice when he received a few cuts from the orcs because of his size. Compared to Gupta who was slightly more agile and whose Gun-fu felt way more polished, Abdul's rough fight was more feral in nature. Yet, both managed to do their job until the goblins arrived to reinforce them. That was when both started to restrain their shots a little more to prevent friendly fire. (Even though the System was supposed to prevent such cases but after having to look out for their allies all their career it was hard to break such a habit, especially for policemen.)
In the meantime, with the anti tank cannons at the side being occupied by the two warships, it allowed the Ice Orcs coming from the Beach head had slightly more breathing space. Still they did not know of a certain monster in the vicinity who was maintaining the fort walls.
Shu, The Sakura Tree Treant.
It had rooted itself at the centre of the fort walls with Ke Mi the Zither Mistress by his side. Unsurprisingly the Great White Snake was nearby, hanging around the Treant. The Ice Orcs warships from the sea tried to burn down the 'improvised' wooden fort walls but no matter how much they attacked them, they would neither budge nor would they burn.
That was because the ancient Treant was constantly mending it while the Zither Mistress ensured a constant magic barrier was being maintained. For the same reason the fire was not burning the fort walls down at all.
Before the Ice Orc managed to come close to the fort walls, Shu would have already sensed their presence and attempted to stab them with his tree roots. With the fort walls being an extension of him, the orcs were killed within and instant and the magical tree roots would proceed to drag them to the wall… not just as nutrients but also meat shield to cover the holes of the fort wall.
It was a brutal sight for the Ice Orcs to see their dying comrades being merged with the living fort wall but they tried their best to overwhelm it as much as they could. True enough, Shu did not have the mental capacity to kill hundreds of orcs trying to climb the wall. Luckily there was no need for him to do so alone.
As part of the living fort wall, Shu was able to make crevices large enough for the Great White Snake to pass through before closing the crevice again. This allowed the snake to slide within the fort walls and swallow the orcs. Sometimes it would grab a bunch with its tail and bring it into the city for the spear goblins to do their job. Other times, it would use its tail and smack the orcs away and into the range of the marksmen.
Ke Mi continued to play her Zither the whole time. Only when certain Ice Orcs managed to cross over the Living Fort walls and appeared right in front of her, would she pluck a string, causing an off tune to occur. That would also be the last tone for the poor orcs, as she was creating a deadly sonic shockwave that sliced those orc in half. Other times, when too many Orcs came over, she'd just a swipe off many of her Zither strings to produce a gust of strong wind knocking the Ice Orcs away before she resumed her job.
Separately, the Wind Orc Air Force finally made their move. To counter them, Wyrstriker came into play. What could a single goblin with a wyvern do? Not much right? That was certainly the mentality of the Orc Captains in the colossal airships that once threatened the skies of the capital of Gob Gob Kingdom. Wyrstriker did not forget about them and he prepared accordingly. Together with Jin they had a surprise in store.
Jin had specially crafted a storage ring for Wyrstriker since it was one of the few monsters that had the ability to command the chi within them and was thus able to use it. The storage ring contained hundreds of rocket propelled grenades. RPGs. Wyrstriker had purposely handed out three sticks to each of the Wyvern Riders who were still at least a mile away from him as he had decided to initiate the attack and allow the Dashing Wyverns under Spear General's Argent command to follow up.
Since he was to only one able to resurrect, he had taken the initiative to start the battle against the airship carriers. Iwen, Wrystriker's Wyvern was laughing hysterically as he noticed the arrows, mages and even laser cannons facing towards him. "Do you really wish to court death that desperately?" Iwen asked as he flew steadily towards the first airship carrier.
"Death has visited me countless times. To me, she is already an old friend." Wyrstriker replied as he took out the first RPG.
"Bear with me. It's going to be my first time meeting her." Iwen eyes narrowed as Wyrstriker poured some chi into the wyvern, boosting its speed significantly and commencing their suicidal attack together. Arrows flew, lasers from lost tech cannons were being shot and wind blades were flung at Wyrstriker and sadly Iwen was not agile enough to avoid those aiming at vital places before Wyrstriker shot the rocket propelled grenade towards the carrier. A lost tech laser cannon burnt both the rider and wyvern alongside with the RPG he was holding. The Dashing Wyverns felt it was bound to happened and sigh…until they saw the emergence of Wyrstriker from high above.
The surprise came when Iwen opened his eyes and notice he was being thrown into the battefield again and he quickly readjusted himself to the orientation of the airship carrier. "Death did not feel as bad as I thought…still, it hurts though. Is this the power of Master Jin?" Iwen said as he felt his strength renewed and Wyrstiker smirked quietly. He had to thank the System for resurrecting them more or less in place to avoid suspicion.
The explosions were small from the RPGs but when Wyrstriker realised he could use it to potentially disable the engines they danced within the stormy skies against the projectiles aiming for them. Within minutes, the first airship engines were disabled through their intensive air acrobatic techniques, causing it to turn unstable by the continuous attack from Wyrstriker alone. Only then did the Dashing Wyverns came into the picture and proceed to bring the airship carrier down from the skies.
That was when Wyrstriker noticed there were some creatures flying towards them at rather fast speed too, seemingly coming from another airship. "Shit! Orc Gargoyles!" Wyrstriker read about them in books but they did not seen one until now.
"Cool yourself down! They are enemies that we fought at a constant basis! " Iwen calmed his rider as he transmitted memories of the Dashing Wyverns fighting against these monsters. Wyrstriker recollected himself and shot a RPG at the Orc Gargoyles which they evaded rather easily. (Although Wyrstiker was aiming at the airship carrier behind them instead.) He then took out his spear and lunged himself forward ready for a dogfight.