Book 4-8.2
The Red Desert was set up to fight against monsters and transport people. It was not prepared to fight against human enemies both in equipment and more importantly, number of warriors.
They were caught off guard because they had never expected to fight against the enemy on the quicksand river. If they had known about the identity of those small boats in advance, they would have set up their shields to secure their defenses.
The brigade slowly started to move backwards as the enemy continued to chase after them and fling flaming arrows.
“Ugh!”
Thriger felt a burning pain in his shoulder as he fell backwards.
“Captain.”
The first mate quickly put out the fire in Thriger’s shoulder by patting it down with his own hands. That made Thriger feel more pain in his shoulder and groan in pain, but he clenched his teeth to bear the pain.
“Are you okay?”
“Send the signal. Full focus on retreat. Do not even look back.”
As Thriger frowned significantly and informed the first mate, the first mate nodded his head and delivered Thriger’s order.
The Desert Runner started to speed up. Although it was slow at first, the unique characteristic of these ships were that they quickly sped up as they received wind behind their sails.
Because they were able to achieve a speed that was impossible for the small boats to duplicate, the small boats caused small fires on multiple locations of the Desert Runner before quickly retreating backwards.
After they were safely away from the enemy, Thriger gave his command.
“Draw up some sand to put the fire out. Do not think about drinking any water for the next few days and just pour it all.”
The warriors started to use the sand to start putting out the fire. Unfortunately, one of the ships reached a point where they could not put out the fire and the crew had to escape to another unit.
Thriger maintained his consciousness and guided the crew every step of the way. He could finally relax and fainted backwards once he could see Pareia’s port with his own eyes.
“Just wait for me you bastards.”
Those were Captain Thriger’s last words as he fainted.
“Hahaha, a complete victory.”
Nakatin was extremely excited as the messenger warrior brought news of a victory.
“This is just the beginning. I’m sure that Pareia was caught off guard this time. In addition, we did not manage to completely sink even one of their ships.”
Kupepa felt like they were too excited for not having achieved much. Pareia was not an easy opponent. He even thought that they only reason they were able to get this victory was because Pareia was not prepared to fight against humans. If that was the case, it was obvious that they would definitely be prepared next time.
“Must you pour cold water on a happy moment like that? We need to enjoy this victory in order to raise the morale of the warriors so that they fight even more valiantly next time.”
“The reason we were successful in today’s battle was because the enemy was lacking information and we caught them by surprise. Most importantly, it is not sitting well with me that the battle is no longer fair because of our unification.”
“That is already in the past. What good will it do to regret it now?”
As Nakatin argued back, Kupepa responded as if he was trying to convince Nakatin.
“I just mean to say we should not get too drunk on one victory and get prepared for the next battle.”
“Gentlemen, it is not good for the two of you to fight on a happy day like this. Both of you are right. We will allow the warriors to enjoy the victory a bit while we prepare for the next battle.”
Both of them nodded at Kinick’s words.
“It is true that Pareia was not prepared for this attack. However, it does not change the fact that we can fight against Pareia’s ships with the magic boats that the Silence has prepared for us.”
The items that the Silence Empire had provided for them were these small boats with levitation magic imbued in them. Crown Prince Shione had gathered a lot of information about Pareia and realized that the reason they were able to grow so large was because of the quicksand river.
That was why he thought that giving this unified tribe a way to contend on the quicksand river would limit the amount of materials Pareia was getting from the continent, as well as restrict Pareia’s future movements in case their war against the Kingdom started.
There was no way they could build large ships like Pareia’s when they did not know where or when the war might break out.
That was the reason he thought of the small boats, as well as the fact that flaming arrows would be useful because this was not the ocean.
Even if they were not enough to destroy Pareia’s ships, Pareia still would not be able to move around as freely through the quicksand river. That was why the three Glows accepted the magic and materials the Silence provided for them.
That was how they came to today’s victory.
“We need to start now in training at least 30,000 warriors to reside on the quicksand river. This attack may have slowed down Pareia’s invasion by a bit, so we need to utilize this time to the best of our abilities.”
The other two Glows agreed with Kinicks’s suggestion. They had already planned on putting 50,000 of the 100,000 warriors by the quicksand river and the other 50,000 to the southern oasis. They were then going to observe Pareia’s movements before making any adjustments to the numbers.
But if there was now a balance of power on the quicksand river, they could keep 20,000 warriors in reserve to move them in either direction much faster than before. There was no way any of them would be opposed to this decision.
“That is a good idea. We need to first raise the accuracy of our archers. It will also not be a bad idea to think about the future and start building a ship the size of Pareia’s. We need a ship that size in order to continue our development.”
As Kupepa agreed and brought up another suggestion, the two Glows agreed with this as well.
“I am suddenly getting more confident. It might not be a bad idea to use this momentum for us to be the ones to invade Pareia.”
As Nakatin responded in an energetic voice, Kinicks and Kupepa shook their heads internally but smiled on the outside as they had no desire to destroy this good atmosphere.
***
Yulian rushed to the port before relaxing after seeing that the enemy was not chasing after the ships.
He had heard that one of the ships had burned down into the bottom of the quicksand river, but he was just thankful and relieved that the injuries to the warriors was very minimal.
Honestly speaking, this was only because Yulian and Runa did not know much about ships. It was the case in the ocean and the quicksand river as well; there was no way for a small boat to catch up to the speed of a large ship.
Maybe the small boats might be faster in the beginning as they first start to catch the wind, but as time goes by, there was no way for them to catch up to a large ship’s maximum speed with their multiple large sails.
Furthermore, Thriger was an individual who used to pretty much rule the ocean. He recognized that something was wrong and quickly ordered the retreat. Although they had been ambushed in a method they never saw coming, they were able to limit the damage to one lost ship.
“What about Greatest Captain Thriger?”
After listening to Thriger’s first mate, Yulian asked about Thriger’s condition.
“He received an injury from the enemy’s arrow, but it is not enough to endanger his life.
“The heavens have helped us.”
Yulian was extremely relieved. As Runa had mentioned, they were worried about losing Thriger and the warriors who were adept at ship-related information. That was why they had rushed here without rest. They were extremely worried about what may have happened.
Both Yulian and the Red Storm had extremely red eyes after rushing forward for two days without any rest, but Yulian could feel all his fatigue going away knowing that there was not much damage.
Yulian felt like he was flying as he moved to the paoe that was used as the control center. He then called out loudly as he entered the entrance of the paoe.
“Greatest Captain Thriger.”
When Yulian had arrived, Thriger had been laying on his bed thinking about the bastards that made him eat water and contemplating how to get his revenge.
“Glow! Ugh.”
Thriger turned his head to see Yulian calling out to him and tried to quickly get up before letting out a groan and frowning from the terrible pain in his shoulder.
“Do not get up. An injured warrior must relax.”
Yulian quickly approached Thriger to help him down.
“Glow, I have failed you.”
“What happened?”
Once the Glow asked what happened, Thriger started to grind his teeth as he answered.
“I thought that it was a monster at first, but it ended up being small boats.”
“Boats?”
Yulian was completely shocked. There was no way other boats existed on the quicksand river. There should be no other boats there.
“Yes. They were small but definitely boats. It was large enough to fit four or five people, and it had a small sail and key that anybody could easily maneuver it with a small amount of training. I hesitated for a moment as I could not determine whether they were friend or foe. That moment of hesitation led to the enemy’s flaming arrows.”
Thriger started to explain what happened to Yulian.