Chapter 6: The Scheming Battle for Red Dragon City (part 2)

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Souma had brought the Albert out so that he could use its cannons.

"Since it's hard work attacking a mountain fortress like Red Dragon City," Souma

explained. "We don't have much time to spare, either, so I relied on weapons that

could attack from long-range."

"You're saying you remodeled the battleship for that?" Castor demanded.

What will this guy think of next, Castor thought, feeling as if he was watching a

stage magician at work.

If he'd had modern knowledge, he likely would have just thought, All you did was

use a battleship like a railway gun. (Which were weapons made by loading the

usually large and difficult to transport cannons on a train, making it possible to

move them long distances.) However, for the people of this world where there was

not yet any concept of a railway gun, Souma's idea was enough of a shock on its own.

Castor stood dumbfounded for a moment, but soon began to laugh out loud. "Ha

ha ha, not bad! I never thought I'd see a ship running across land!"

"You like showy tricks like this, don't you?" Souma asked, to which Castor

nodded.

"I think I'm in love. You may just become one hell of a king."

"It's not too late for you to surrender. It'd make this easier, you know?" Souma

said, but Castor shook his head in silence.

"Sadly... I can't do that. I can't do something as pathetic as folding this late in the

game. Now that it's come to this, let me be the wall that stands in your way. If you

have what it takes to be king, climb over me."

Seeing Castor brimming with the will to fight, Souma narrowed his eyes. "...That

is truly regrettable, Castor."

Booooooom! ...Bang!

Another shot was fired into Red Dragon City's walls.

Castor turned to Carla and ordered her, "Carla, lead the wyvern cavalry out and

raise some hell over on that battleship."

When she received that order, Carla's eyes went wide with surprise. "I'm going to

lead them? What are you going to do, Father?"

"I'll stay here and watch your battle. Since, no matter what, one of us has to stay

behind. Now go out there and shut those cannons up."

"...Understood!"

Carla rushed over to the wyvern stables. After watching Carla depart, Castor

turned to speak to Souma over the simple receiver.

"My daughter is coming for you. Prepare to meet your maker."

"I suggest you do the same," Souma replied.

The two men glared at one another.

Thus began the battle for Red Dragon City.

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The wyvern cavalry under Carla flew up into the sky with coordinated

movements.

Carla, being a dragonewt, could fly by herself, but she usually flew on the back of

a wyvern so that she could focus entirely on the battle. They would use wind magic

to rise up to an altitude cannons couldn't reach, and then, after getting into

formation, they would perform a diving attack. When they finished forming up, and

just as Carla was about to give the order to attack, one of the wyvern cavalry came

over to her.

"My Lady, please, wait a moment."

"What is it?" she asked.

"Something's strange here. We've risen to this high of an altitude, but I don't see

any sign of reinforcements behind them. It looks like the Albert really is the entire

enemy force."

As she responded to the wyvern knight, who had a dubious look on his face, Carla

tilted her head to the side in puzzlement. "Haven't we already received reports to

that effect?"

"Yes," he said. "However, I think they may be hiding somewhere, or they might

have troops standing by in a separate location. My Lady, do you think it's possible to

take a castle with only a siege weapons unit?"

Carla considered the question. "...No, it's not. Even if they're able to attack the

castle, they lack the power to occupy it and then maintain that occupation. If they

want to hold the castle, they'll need a unit of infantry in addition to the siege

weapons unit."

"Yes," he agreed. "However, I see no sign of the enemy having those forces."

"So, basically... what does that mean?"

"I don't know. However, do you think the enemy might still have something up

their sleeve?"

Carla thought deeply for a moment before shaking her head. "Even if they do, it

changes nothing. Right now, Red Dragon Castle is being exposed to cannon fire. In

order to ensure Father's safety, we must destroy that battleship."

"Well... Yes, I suppose that's true..." The wyvern knight could see that, too, so he

backed down quietly.

Carla raised her right hand up high. "The target of our attack is the battleship

Albert! King Souma is a target for capture! Let that king bear witness to the bravery

of House Vargas!"

"""Yeahhhhhhhhhh!""" Hearing Carla's orders, the muscular men of the Air Force

raised their voices in a cheer.

Compared to the other forces, the members of the Air Force tended to value

power for its own sake. In the Air Force, might made right. Might was an absolute.

They could leave the thinking and calculating to the other forces.

Those in the Air Force needed only to be strong, and to be ready at all times to

tear apart the enemies before them. That was why the soldiers of the Air Force had

such a deep respect for Castor and Carla, with their overwhelming power.

"Wyvern cavalry, here are your orders! Descend, charge, then trample the

enemy!" she called.

When Carla, who they deeply respected, brought down her hand, the soldiers of

the Air Force began their rapid descent towards the Albert.

The ultimate strategy for fighting with wyvern cavalry on an open field was to

descend rapidly while unleashing the wyvern's fire breath to scorch the ground, and

then to turn and ascend once more. By the time the soldiers on the ground had

readied their bows, the wyverns would already be long gone. With the equipment

used to fight land-based opponents, there was little that could be done to counteract

this high-power, high-mobility attack.

Not even the Albert's main cannon would be able to track them at the speed they

went, and its armor wouldn't last long in the face of an attack by a wyvern unit.

It seemed like only a matter of time before the Albert would fall, but...

Twang, twang, twang, twang, twang...

In the next moment, countless objects flew towards the descending knights from

the direction of the Albert. By the time they realized they were arrows as thick as

stakes, the wyvern cavalry were already caught in the rain of arrows.

"Wha?! Arrows?!"

"Gwah...!"

"Th-They got my wings! I'm going down!"

"Evade! Evaaaade!"

In this barrage of arrows that seemed to rain up from the ground, the wyvern

cavalry were forced to turn back and ascend. A number of wyvern cavalry had been

shot down in that barrage alone.

The attack had come from below, so most of the damage had been done to the

wyverns rather than the knights. Even among the wyverns that managed to

withdraw safely, many were staggering in pain with bolts having struck them

somewhere.

As she looked at this debacle, Carla punched her thigh in anger. "What was with

those bolts?! How were there so many?!"

"If they can reach a wyvern unit several hundred meters in the air, those arrows

weren't fired by any human," one of her knights responded. "If we consider the

number, too... most likely, it was an anti-air repeating bolt thrower enchanted with

wind magic."

Hearing that report from her wyvern cavalry, Carla's brow furrowed in concern.

"An anti-air repeating bolt thrower?! Why is one of those loaded on a boat?!"

"Most likely... they loaded one from a castle's wall onto the ship."

The anti-air repeating bolt thrower was enchanted with wind magic to drastically

increase its range and allow it to fire tens of bolts per second. It was a weapon

specially created to combat wyverns. Normally they were mounted on castle walls,

and it was unheard of for them to be loaded on ships.

This was because one of the differences between dragons and wyverns was that,

while dragons didn't fear the sea, wyverns did. When wyverns were out far enough

to sea that they could no longer see land, they grew frightened and would thrash

around to the point that they became completely uncontrollable. In other words,

wyverns almost never fought battleships, so ships had no need to carry anti-wyvern

equipment.

Because of that, Carla and her wyvern cavalry had forgotten their natural enemy,

the anti-air repeating bolt thrower, until this very moment.

Carla punched her thigh in anger once more. "Damn! He outwitted us by taking

advantage of our expectations..."

When she thought back, from the moment this battle had begun, their

understanding of how things worked had been falling to pieces. There was a ship

running across the land, loaded with weapons it wouldn't usually have. Because they

had tried to resort to their common sense, the enemy had been able to toy with

them.

I don't know if this was that king's scheme, or if the Prime Minister in Black came

up with it, but whichever of them it was, he's downright nasty, Carla thought to herself

bitterly.

In fact, this plan had been a collaborative work by Souma and Hakuya. Souma had

proposed ideas to Hakuya based on weapons and tactics from his world, while

Hakuya had formulated them into a plan that would catch the enemy by surprise. If

anyone was nasty, it was both of them.

However, that mattered little to Carla at the moment.

The wyvern knight told her, "If they've got an anti-air repeating bolt thrower on

board, that battleship is a little castle in its own right. This is dangerous."

Hearing one of the wyvern knights under her analyze the situation, Carla clicked

her tongue. "Damn...! What do we do?"

"Well... It may be like a little castle now, but it is still shaped like a battleship, so I

suspect it may still have the same blind spots."

"Where are a battleship's blind spots?" Carla asked.

"The area between the water's surface and the deck. A battleship has no means of

attacking enemies lower than its deck. For the Albert, the area from the ground to its

deck should be a blind spot for it. In short, if we're going to attack that ship..."

"...we just have to fly in really low on the approach!" Carla said with glee, pleased

to have found a good strategy.

Ordinarily, minimum altitude flight with wyverns was dangerous. It could result

in crashing into the ground at any moment. However, they were a seasoned unit

from the Air Force.

"You heard that!" Carla called. "All knights, fly at low altitude and approach the

Albert. Move quickly to neutralize all weapons, including the main cannon and antiair repeating bolt throwers!"

"Roger that, but only the weapons? Wouldn't it be faster to crush the bridge?" one

wyvern knight asked, but Carla shook her head silently in response.

"We believe Souma is on that battleship. If Souma is there, Liscia may be close at

hand. If we attack the bridge and Liscia gets hurt, that will be unacceptable.

Therefore, we just need to neutralize their weapons. Take Souma alive."

Even as she gave those orders to her subordinates, Carla herself felt differently.

Besides, if we kill Souma, I'm sure Liscia would be sad.

Carla had been watching from behind Castor while Souma had delivered his

ultimatum. Of course she had seen everything, including Liscia cutting her hair.

Castor might have been moved by Liscia's determination, but as her friend, and

as a woman herself, Carla had been moved even more powerfully. Liscia had been so

determined to live at Souma's side that she had been able to cut off her beautiful hair

without hesitation.

[MISTERLP]: what a badass woman