The Crimson Dragon - Chapter 45

Chapter 45

 The numerous corpses of the pirates covered the battlefield, and the blood oozing out of the dead bodies was flushed away by the downpour of rain. Only the raging roars of the Crimson Dragon and booms of thunder could be heard. Darkness devoured the island, and only the silent onslaught by the marching Udaeus could be seen during the quick flashes of lightning that temporarily lit up the battlefield.

 A series of contre-jour images were formed by flashes of lightning. All of them were scenes of tiny warriors fighting a massive dragon without exception. The warriors performed all sorts of attacks, trying their best to penetrate the dragon’s defences, but it was not going well. The high level divine spells provided buffs to the Naga Paladins and Priests, but they were still no more than annoying cockroaches who could not be killed. The Crimson Dragon had ridiculous magic resistance, rendering all but the divine lightning spell useless. Even the buffed warriors could not deal much damage on the massive dragon; it was a battle of attrition which both sides lacked the finishing move.

 Divine spells were not spells which could be used casually without costs, thus the priests did not prepare a lot of divine lightning bolts in advance. The Naga ‘Paladins’ also did not know the most symbolic move of all paladins, Smite Evil; technically, these warriors could not be called paladins. As followers of the storm deities, they should be called Blackguards or Divine Warriors as their gods were chaotic in nature, with some of them belonging to the evil alignment while others remaining neutral. As a result, the Blackguards were only capable of Smite Good and Smite Law, but unfortunately the two skills were ineffective against dragons. In the end, the desperate Blackguards resorted to tanking Claudius’ attacks with their buffs while sneaking in attacks from time to time.

 With this, the flow and pace of the battle was under Claudius’ control. He chose not to take off into the sky as it was still filled with divine powers which irritated him, not to mention the risk of dropping into the sea due to lightning paralyzing his wings. Falling onto the ground was no big deal, but ending up in the raging ocean, which was under the mad goddess’ control, was a nightmare. Thankfully, Claudius also knew that this would end soon enough. The bitch goddess might go on rampages from time to time, but most of the time she had to consciously channel her divine powers to defend herself against her boss Talos the destroyer.

 The divine power gathered in the sky dissipated along with the weakening storm. The goddess’ Blackguards and priests also began their retreat as their divine blessings began to wear off. Currently, Claudius lacked the power to stop the Naga invaders from retreating, but that did not matter much. He was slightly confused by the entire invasion as something seemed off.

 “The heck was that? Just two ships and you make such a big scene for revenge? That bitch is overreacting, for f**k’s sake. To be honest, was it really Anbo? It feels like the Golden Lady Waukeen was trying to kick my ass for messing up her trades.”

 The pirate transport ships were all stranded on the island due to the storm, and the remaining pirates could only curse their goddess as they make their last stand. Not only the Udaeus, but also the Blackguards were slaughtering the stranded pirates. The Blackguards were probably trying to punish the pirates for tainting the goddess’ name with failure.

 “我想海盜應該是波蘭人 (Extremely offensive ‘joke’)“ Claudius thought as he mocked the dying pirates while watching from above.

 The rain stopped and the clouds were gone not long after, revealing a bright full moon up in the sky. Waterfalls appeared everywhere as rainwater and seawater brought onto the island by rain and tsunamis rushed their way down the rocky mountain. The meagre layer of soil and bushes were flushed away along with the waterfalls, turning the mountain into nothing but bare black rocks. Without the layer of soil, water could not be retained on the island. Puddles and streams could be seen as the remaining water continued their way out of the cracks on the ground, but they would be gone as soon as the sun went up. The island would undoubtedly end up as a dead island which could not support any kinds of life forms. The caves which the Udaeus lived in were mostly undamaged, only being thoroughly cleaned once by the influx of seawater by the tsunamis, leaving behind a thin layer of salt crystals on the cave walls. The magic tool was still pumping fresh water as usual, becoming the only source of fresh water on the island. Unfortunately, all the food stored was gone. In order to keep his army alive, Claudius would have to run several major raids on the surrounding islands. He had always lived a free and leisurely life, without being bound by anything, but it seemed that the proud dragon was now bound by his personal army.

 The Sahuagin and Nagas disappeared into the vast sea at the blink of an eye. Claudius did not bother chasing them either as he was having a headache on what to do with the Udaeus. He did not really care about the whole battle either, as he did not suffer any losses apart from the sacks of food and supplies; his level of insensitivity was nothing short of legendary…… His own lair was flooded with seawater during the storm as well, and smell of seawater being dried by his Ring of Blaze was so intense that he would rather sleep outdoors. The thousands of gold coins were gone as well, but Claudius was unconcerned as the soft metal could not be forged into sturdy equipment, making the coins useless to him.

 After ordering the Udaeus to remove the corpses on the island, Claudius began investigating the stranded pirate ships. The two stranded galleons were large ships with three masts, and they seemed to be in fairly well conditions.

 He thought, “Thank Tymora for the blessing!”

 In fact, Beshaba, also known as Lady Doom, was probably his goddess of ‘luck’ considering his tendency to encounter unlucky events. Nodding at the two galleons in satisfaction, Claudius began devising plans on how to get the ships back into the sea. The ships were stuck between two gigantic rocks and were 20 metres away from the sea. The hull and the deck would be distorted if they remained in this state for too long, and that would be it for the two ships.

 Claudius, unlike the goddess Anbo, was unfamiliar with curses and the like. His only spell Locate Object and the bunch of Level 0 magic tricks were useless in this case. With curses, it was possible to break a ship into a phantom ship then reconstruct the actual ship in the sea, but that was beyond Claudius. After thinking for a while, he settled with the plan to dig chutes. First, Claudius had to remove the rocks beneath the ships, tilting the ships back to sea level before holding them in place with rocks. Afterwards, he would have to dig a chute to slide the ships back into the sea.

 Reducing the weight of the ships was essential, thus Claudius ordered his soldiers to unload the cargo from the ships as they were done with the previous task. Much to his relief, the problem of food shortage was now solved thanks to the food stored on the ships. Numerous pieces of dried meat and sacks of flour were found in the cargo bay along with bottles of oil and dried vegetables, and the bottles of rum outnumbered everything else. The Udaeus also transported crate after crate of gold coins off the ships, and several magical weapons were found within the living quarters. What interested Claudius the most were the four mysterious crates which released a considerable magical glow.

 “Crates, open up!” Claudius hummed as he carefully opened up the crates which were only the size of the fingertips with his claws. A pair of boots was in the first crate, while a diving cap which covered the entire face was in the second crate. The third crate was clearly opened frequently, and inside it was a leather scroll. The last crate contained a large conch lying peaceful on top of a pile of goose feathers. Claudius’ appraisal ability allowed him to estimate the price of the items, but the actual abilities of them could not be immediately recognized or identified purely based on the appraisal. The issue was resolved by equipping the items on the Udaeus Centurions and making them test the items out. After searching through his knowledge from the Inheritance Ceremony and using his ability to detect magic, the effects of the items were finally made clear.

 Boots of Water Striding: Grants the ability to walk, run and jump on water when equipped. The duration of the effect is equivalent to the level of the equipped person multiplied by 30 minutes.

 Helm of Underwater Action: Grants the ability to breath and view normally underwater, as well as negating all water pressure. The duration of the effect is equivalent to the level of the equipped person multiplied by 15 minutes.

 Automatic Nautical Chart: Automatically charts all areas in range of the lookout of a ship. The scroll also comes allows sailors to determine the distance between objects and acts as a compass. It will expand on its own if the charted areas exceed the initial capacity of the scroll. This specific scroll had charted all areas in the region of the Velen Isles and Fire Dragon Bay.

 Horn of the Tritons: The most expensive item in the market among the four. Summons sharks as a guards when blown. Level and ability of the summoned guards is dependent on the summoner’s level. The Level 10 Udaeus Centurion summoned two Dire Sharks, which replaced the 10 normal sharks which were summoned by the pirates.