Rune Troopers: Self-Defense Forces Adventure - Chapter 4: In the midst of War (Part 9)
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- Rune Troopers: Self-Defense Forces Adventure
- Chapter 4: In the midst of War (Part 9)
In the air, twenty-six elite riders from the Ice and Snow Dragon Knights Order and twenty-four riders of the Black Dragon Knights Order were assembled in formation.
The sight of fifty dragons soaring through the air was nothing short of spectacular. Normally, just looking at this majestic figure, some enemies would have raised the white flag.
Yes, normally.
Erivila, a dragon knight from the Ice and Snow Dragon Knights Order, once again observed an unidentified ship afloat in the bay of Seyrord.
She wondered if it could be described as a ship. Despite being a ship, it had no mast and no sails. But it was still moving faster than the wind.
“How huge!”
To her common sense, the object looked more like a rocky island than a ship. She had seen huge Imperial Warships before, but this one must have been several times that size.
“Erivila, are you sure that ship is made of iron?”
Arnolide, her friend in the war, made a light-hearted remark with a good-natured expression on his bear-like face.
He was presumed to belong to the nobility from the northern part of the Empire, but from the looks of him, he seemed just like a drunken bandit.
Even on the battlefield, he was always making light talk, and his superiors were always angry with him. He was such a man, but because he and Erivila were classmates, they had been friends for a long time.
“I’ve never heard of iron floating in water.”
“That’s true. But why did they paint it that color? How in the world did they make something like that float on water?”
The ship was the color of dried ash. There were ships within the navy of the Empire that painted their hulls black or red to scare the enemy, but she had never heard of gray. Even the hull looked as if a child had assembled an angular toy ship from blocks of wood.
There was no way they could have understood that it was intended to provide camouflage and stealth in the sea during warfare since there was essentially no battle in which a ship would need to hide.
“It’s just a gimmick. There isn’t any need to even go all out with such a ship.”
Erivila replied calmly to her comrade-in-arms.
It was indeed amazing that a ship of that size was able to float and move without sails. But if it really was an iron ship, it would be impossible for it to move that fast. Most of the hull was probably made of steel, and the appearance of the ship must have been a mere scarecrow.
They had confidence and pride. They were the strongest Dragon Knights in the world. Although the loss of the Black Dragon Knight was not small, it was not something that went unheard in history. A rider or two was always defeated in a bitter battle.
Besides, no one had ever lost a battle with such a large number of riders. Hence, their expressions showed a sense of composure.
“Ha! That’s true. But look, on land, our Imperial Army is stuck in a stalemate.”
Erivila looked back to confirm this. Indeed, on land, the battle was at a stalemate. And everyone was admiring the heroic figure of these Dragon Knights.
She didn’t feel bad. Although it was unsatisfactory that the opponent only had a single ship, General Richarda’s strategy of using the Dragon Knights Order was a brilliant one.
She must have thought that by reducing that gimmick to a scrap of sea debris, the resisting enemy forces would be disheartened.
Erivila brushed back her snow-colored hair, a characteristic of northern women.
“It’s unusual for anyone to see so many Dragon Knights assembled here. If I were on land, I would be watching too. The crowd would definitely go crazy. Oh, it looks like the Commander is going to take the lead.”
The Commander himself would cut in, which was a tradition of the Imperial Guard Dragon Knights and a virtue on the battlefield.
The leader of the Ice and Snow Dragon Knights Order was an old General who boasted of having destroyed more than ten countries. He had lost one eye in battle when he was young and now wore an eye patch, but this gave him the appearance of a strong man who had fought many battles. He was highly respected by his subordinates, and it was said that he had never lost a battle in which he participated.
“Follow me! The elites of the Empire!”
“Long live the Emperor of the Succession Empire!”
The four Commander Class cavalries of the Ice and Snow Dragon Knights Order all sped up at once and rushed toward the enemy.
The Commander of the Black Dragon Knights Order also swooped down to follow.
****
Within the CIC of Ibuki, alarms rang as they detected the enemy not with the naked eye, but with its phased array radar.
“Target group Bravo, closing on our ship! Bearing 320 degrees! Intercept priority!” The radio operator monitoring the radar screen raised his voice.
“They are finally here.” Kaburaki took a deep breath.
And then, with all his might, he gave the order.
“If we’ve come this far, we can’t back down now.”
“Roger, Commander! Intercept authorized!”
Those short words were forbidden words that had never been uttered in the more than half a century since the Self-Defense Forces were established.
The order to attack was something that might have never been issued. But once the order was given, the ship had no choice but to obey it.
The Aegis Class Destroyer Ibuki wass a ship that was designed to fight.
“Left, anti-air combat; CIC target, main guns.”
“Commence firing!”
The gunner, holding a pistol-type launcher installed next to the console, pulled the trigger.
The turret of the 127mm rapid-fire gun mounted on the bow of the ship quickly swiveled, and the automatically loaded shells were fired at the target…
****
Erivila also watched the gunfire from the ship.
“They’re carrying a cannon.”
There was no surprise. From the looks of it, there was only one single cannon.
She had been hit by more than a dozen pirate ships with cannons at the same time before. But not a single shot hit. Cannons were not meant to be aimed at an opponent in the sky.
Moreover, this time, the distance was not such that the cannon would hit the target. They were too far away. It would not even reach the Commander of the Dragon Knights Order who were charging at them.
“The enemy is desperate. They are afraid of us and are firing their cannons from a distance they don’t care to hit.”
That was what Erivila judged. But she was wrong.
The cannonballs reached the nose of the dragon ridden by the Commander of the Ice and Snow Dragon Knights Order. And before it made contact, it exploded.
The dragon’s head was blown off by the tremendous shockwave, and the flames of the explosion consumed the body of the Knight Commander.
“Eh!”
Erivila could not believe what had happened before her eyes.
The dragon, which had become a mass of flames, descended like a meteor. Then, with a plume of black smoke, it crashed into the surface of the sea, creating a huge splash.
“Commander!”
Erivila and the others were shocked to learn that their superior officer, whom they had looked up to like a father, had lost his life.
However, the officer who had taken over Command immediately leaped forward to raise the flag and inspire morale.
This quick recovery truly displayed their elite status.
“Oy! You will pay for the wounds you inflicted on us Dragon Knights with your life…”
As if interrupting his words, the officer’s dragon was engulfed in flames. The ship’s cannons were firing again.
‘How could the cannon fire the next round so quickly?’
To fire a cannon, it took several people to load gunpowder and shells into the cannon’s muzzle. Firing the next round in just a few seconds was out of the ordinary.
A few more seconds later, the enemy’s cannon again erupted with fire.
Unable to find an answer to her surprise, this time her immediate superior was on fire and falling into the sea.
“This ain’t no fluke hit!”
Arnolide’s blood was boiling.
It was clear that they were being targeted. While they were stunned, the ship’s cannons were firing one after another, each time blowing up one of their own men.
“Damn! That’s not human work!”
The dragon knights had fought all kinds of enemies. They have fought demons, rebels, the regular army of invading kingdoms, bandits, pirates, and even Holy knights who have acquired extra-human abilities.
But never before had they faced an enemy beyond their comprehension.
“They have only one cannon! If we spread out and attack, they wouldn’t be able to catch up with our aim!”
Erivila had not lost her calm judgment in this situation. It was not for nothing that she had fought on many battlefields as a dragon knight.
Arnold nodded.
“It seems so.”