Ch.310311. Dark Elf (2)

Shortly after the fleets of the Dawn Empire and the Southern Dark Elves encountered each other in the western waters of the Southern Continent.

“Enemy ships spotted!! Enemy ships spotted!!”

“Captain, it’s those damn commie bastards!!!”

The two fleets, having almost simultaneously discovered each other’s positions through the human radar capabilities of the Rangers (Intermediate) aboard their respective vessels, immediately began repositioning their ships according to their tactical doctrines.

The Dawn Empire’s fleet arranged itself in a line formation, exposing its flanks while aiming its gun ports toward the Dark Elves.

This was the most effective tactic to leverage both the overwhelming defensive capabilities of their ironclad vessels and the devastating firepower of their Blood Cannons equipped with runic auto-loading mechanisms.

In coordination with this formation, certain ships—particularly those equipped with magical barriers—advanced to the front, while support vessels in the rear prepared their respective weapons.

As a result of someone’s divine preferences being actively reflected, the Dawn Empire’s navy could be said to specialize in bombardment based on overwhelming ship firepower.

In contrast, the Dark Elf pirate fleet began to slowly advance toward the battle line, positioning their massive vessels at the forefront—enormous black thunderwood ships that resembled floating fortress cities more than mere vessels.

“Fire, open fire!”

“All units fire!”

BOOM!! KWAAANG!!! BOOM!! KWAAAANG———!!!

“””””《Eldritch Ball》!!!”””””

“”””””””””《Grasp of Deep Sea》!!!””””””””””

In the next moment, both sides began unleashing their signature attacks from their respective formations.

While the Blood Cannons of the Dawn Empire’s fleet spewed fire, launching blood-infused mana shells toward the Dark Elf vessels, the Dark Elves used their sorcerers aboard to conjure black masses of magical energy and enormous water formations shaped like grasping hands pulled up from beneath the surface.

Of course, both sides’ attacks were blocked by the magical barriers installed on their respective ships, allowing experienced Dark Elf captains observing the exchange to realize one crucial fact.

They could never defeat the Dawn Empire in a long-range artillery duel.

Although the immediate firepower seemed evenly matched, the critical difference was that the Dark Elves relied on their mages’ spells, while the Empire simply fired away with cannons.

Since a mage’s mana wasn’t infinite, it was clear that the longer the battle continued, the more advantageous the Dawn Empire’s position would become.

Additionally, the fact that the Dark Elf fleet’s specialty wasn’t artillery combat was another significant factor.

Dark Elves, and elves in general, are a race that resembles humans in appearance but is fundamentally different in essence.

These differences range from mere physical appearance to magical aptitude, but what most strongly relates to the Dark Elf fleet’s specialty is perhaps their physical characteristics.

Elves generally have slender, elongated bodies, with most possessing lean physiques and relatively tall statures. Simultaneously, perhaps due to their fairy lineage, various magical properties manifest in both their bodies and souls.

Looking just at what’s directly evident in their bodies, there are two main traits: one is their unreasonably low weight relative to their body volume, and the other is their constant physical enhancement through mana.

Elves have certain organs and muscles composed of magical substances, resulting in an average weight of only 20-25kg for an adult standing 2 meters tall. However, thanks to these magical components, they can display incredible strength from their thin limbs, effortlessly drawing powerful bows.

Consequently, elves possess both physically impossible low weight and considerable physical abilities, making them an exceptionally agile race with elegant yet swift bodies.

Since Dark Elves share these characteristics, Dark Elf pirates primarily enjoy ship-to-ship close combat using small vessels to exploit these traits.

Well-trained Dark Elf pirates, carrying light armor and several thin blades, leap onto enemy ships and slaughter their opponents with dazzling yet cruel swordplay resembling a dancer’s sword performance.

More skilled pirates can even jump between ships to butcher enemies with the aid of magic. Thus, when the Dark Elves judged that the distance between vessels had sufficiently narrowed, they released small craft hidden behind their fortress ships.

These small boats, each capable of carrying about 12 elves, move by turning screws with magical power. When combined with the ocean current manipulation magic of Dark Elf sea druids—the theoretical speed of Dark Elf speedboats becomes unimaginable.

Therefore, this time too, they deployed speedboats carrying warrior-pirates—including numerous intermediate-level warriors—who would leap onto enemy vessels. To divert attention, they also summoned various monsters through their druids’ magic.

“”””《Summon Beast Swarm》!!!!””””

“””《Summon Magical Beast Swarm》!!!!”””

Two types of monsters were summoned: one was a flock of giant man-eating crows capable of injuring or hunting humans, and the other was a group of monstrous birds with shadows wrapped around their black feathers.

Thus, while aerial attacks distracted firepower from targeting the speedboats, the pirates rapidly boarded enemy vessels to slaughter their opponents—the traditional Dark Elf tactic was unfolding when—

———WHEEEEEEEE——————DUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDU!!!!!

———WHEEEEEEEE——————DUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDU!!!!!

———WHEEEEEEEE——————DUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDU!!!!!

What actually greeted these Dark Elf speedboats were the Avenger Legion’s heavy weapons teams, aiming Gatling machine guns from the deck toward the outside.

The 20×102mm “shells” pouring out at a rate of 1,000 rounds per minute from each soldier—these cruel killing machines, larger than mana-wrapped golf balls, tore apart everything within their field of fire.

Elves who had lived for hundreds of years were instantly shredded into masses of flesh and bone fragments, and their speedboats were immediately reduced to dozens of wooden splinters by aura-wrapped armor-piercing rounds.

If even the elite Dark Elf pirates were being one-sidedly shredded, mere birds would never dare approach the Dawn Empire’s vessels with their ugly beaks.

KWAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAANG————!!!!

———WHEEEEEEEE——————DUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDU!!!!!

High-explosive shells equipped with rune-based proximity fuses exploded in mid-air, instantly shredding the flocks of birds.

“Damn! Cursed! Y-y-you damned humans!! Slaves of the evil gods!!!”

Of course, intermediate warriors could move faster than the gun barrels could track, so they kicked away debris and tore through the ships’ protective barriers with aura-blades, landing on the Dawn Empire’s vessels—

———CHAENG!!! CHAENG!!! CHAENG—!!

“OOOOOH——!! ATONEMENT!! ATONEMENT——!!!!”

The Dark Elf intermediate warrior-pirates who succeeded in boarding the ships were met with the axes of the Holy Assault Troops wildly swinging toward them.

These powerful berserkers, burning with the obsession to fight and die for their blood-soaked god, were intermediate warriors who went berserk with the fear that their awakened aura had reduced their chances of dying.

Trapped in terrible madness from being unable to forgive their own sins, they possessed not even the slightest fear of death.

Even if they truly had immortal bodies, the fear arising from a living being’s instinct would normally be unavoidable, but these fanatics—already dragged into service for causing trouble due to their zealotry—had their madness amplified to the point where fear itself was completely absent.

“W-what kind of madman is this?!! Human?!! You call this human?!! This is… just a monster!!”

As one veteran Dark Elf pirate put it, these berserkers—whom one might genuinely question whether they were human—withstood the Dark Elves’ attacks and slaughtered them in return.

After this round of chaos ended with the Dark Elves’ offensive failing, the Dark Elf fleet, having lost their elite troops capable of ship-to-ship assault and numerous intermediate warriors, had almost no chance of victory.

Their sluggish sea fortresses were disabled one by one by bombardment and collapsed, as the long-range shelling left the Dark Elves with no way to effectively counter.

And so, after some time had passed.

True to their elven nature, the Dark Elf fleet fought to the end out of pride, but when their last fortress ship crumbled under concentrated fire, the war between the Dark Elves and the Dawn Empire for supremacy over the Southern Continent ended in the Empire’s overwhelming victory.